Milani Texture Nail Polish - Purple Streak

Hello Lovelies! It's already been on heckuva morning here at KLK. First of all I'm having a down kind of day. Sometimes the little things get to me, and today is one of those "sometimes". I think that we all forget how much work goes into blogging, and that there are actual people behind those pretty pictures. Then I opened up my comments, and the reason why I blog slapped me in the face again.  I blog because I love to share my love of all things nail polish, and my readers are pretty damned awesome. So thank you for being here, I appreciate each and every one of you. You guys rock!

Then I managed to kill my Flakie Friday Mani and had to start all over again. Needless to say Flakie Friday has been delayed until this evening.  But enough of the down stuff...let's see some awesome polish!

Today I have one of the new Milani Texture Polishes to share with you (Texture Creams? Texture Nail Lacquer? Texture Collection? I've seen all of these...I'm just gonna stick with Nail Polish for now!). I found these babies at Walgreens last week and have been dying to play with them. The other night I decided to take a break from just swatching and gave in to my need to play!

Purple Streak is a beautiful deep purple textured polish. The textured finish is so cool! It's different from the liquid sand polishes, yet has a similar texture. Check it out!

This is 2 coats of Milani Texture Nail Polish in Purple Streak, no top coat (please note that there are no irregularities in the texture IRL. The side that the light is strongest on tends to look less textured in these shots):

I am really loving these polishes. One thing that makes them stand out from the liquid sands (to me anyway) is that these are a solid color. I think these are also a bit m ore textured as well, although they weren't annoying at all. I played with the texture a bit, but I didn't have the urge to scrape this off my nails. I don't have any of the Zoya Pixie Dust polishes yet, but I think I need to grab some so I can compare.

Purple Srtreak's formula was excellent. Thin, yet not watery, it applied effortlessly with just the right amount of texture. I did find this to be streaky on the first coat, but the second coat evened things out beautifully. Dry time was very fast, and since this applied so well I barely had to worry about clean-up (and you know how OCD I am about my polish lines being perfect!).

I really need to mention the wear-time with this polish. The pictures you see here were taken a full 24 hours after application. At that point I had no tip wear and no chips, and the finish hadn't worn or dulled at all. I was worried that since I wasn't wearing top coat that this mani wouldn't hold up, but it held up incredibly well. I had even showered, bathed the baby, done some laundry, and household chores before taking photos. Impressive, right?

Milani Texture Creams can be found at select drugstores and online at Milanicosmetics.com. I grabbed mine for $3.99 each at Walgreens.

What do you think of the textured trend? Do you have any of the Milani Textured Polishes?

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for Flakie Friday!
-Kimber

31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 23: Inspired by a Movie!

Morning all! Today is Day 23 of the 31 Day Challenge, and the debut of my new nubbies! A few forces of the universe combined this week, leading to my nubbinization. Not only did I have wonky curling on a few nails, but I also chipped off a corner yesterday morning, leading to shorter nubbins than I had anticipated. However, I dig them! I love long nails, and I do plan to grow mine out again, but sometimes I really enjoy being able to do things with my hands and not have to worry about tearing off a nail or scratching my son inadvertently. Plus I am a firm believer that short nails can be sexy and refuse to stop blogging just because I had to take my length down. After all, aren't we here for the polish? Having said that, onto the mani!

Today's challenge is 'Inspired By A Movie". When I first did this challenge last year, this was the first movie that popped into my mind, and it returned this time around as well. This is one of my fave movies (my husband's too!), and hubby and I can recite the entire movie. It's silly, never fails to make me laugh, and just perks up any foul mood in my house.

I give you......Talladega Nights, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby!

Look at those pudgy lil nubbins!


For this mani I started with a base of Milani White On The Spot, then dotted with different sized dotting tools in Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, Hard Candy Fishnet, and Orly Shockwave. The colors and dots are for Ricky Bobby's Wonder Bread Car. The accent nail has some randomly stamped flames using Shockwave and Fishnet with Ricky's number "26" freehanded over them in red and yellow. Not perfect, but I love how it came out and it makes me smile, which is good with 2 sick kids and a raging headache.

Here's a quick TN clip if for some reason you're unfamliar:

What's one of your fave movies? Would you wear it on your nails?

Be sure to check out the Movie Manis from all the Varnished Vixens!

Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles 


Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

L'oreal Project Runway LE Polish in The Mystic's Future and glittery chevrons

Hi Ladies! Happy Thursday!

Today I have a fun glittery chevron mani to share with you all. I received some loose glitter from KKCenterHK Online store a few weeks ago, and I was dying to play with it. I managed to find the perfect polish to pair it with in my stash, and decided to create a glitter/tape manicure.

I started with a base of L'Oreal The Mystic's Future, a stunning fuchsia leaning purple from their Project Runway Collection. This color is just gorgeous! Such a bright, saturated polish and the application was perfection. After my base color dried, I taped off my nails and added chevrons using Milani Deep Thoughts, a deep, shimmery purple. Then I added the loose glitter along the lines of the chevrons. I love the final product!

The glitter comes in a round container jam packed with 10 grams of shiny, hex goodness... more glitter than I can use in a lifetime (which is good since now that I have tried it I really want to incorporate it into more manis). This glitter is bright purple 1.5mm hex glitter, so it's not too large to use in most nail art. It's lovely and shimmery and surprisingly, stayed put even before I topcoated over it. There are so many ways to use this kind of glitter: full nail glitter, chevrons, diagonal lines, frames..the possibilities are endless. I found this easy to work with, requiring nothing more than the tip of my smallest dotting tool and a little gelous to help grab the glitter.

 






































I am really happy with how this mani came out! I do not want to remove it, ever! I love the subtle contrast of the colors, and the bit of flair from the glitter. Not too subtle, not too in your face.  Not bad for my first time using loose glitter!

KKCenterHK Item # N.Nail-B0813-1.5mm

This glitter comes in a 10 gram tub, and sells for $5.86. If you're a fan of loose glitter, this a great deal for enough glitter to last for at lest a few years! You can find this particular glitter here, (or click the picture above) and KKCenterHK has loose glitter in many more colors and sizes. For 10% off, be sure to use code KimbersKorner at checkout (there's also a link in my sidebar).

What do you think of this look?

I don't know about you guys, but I am definitely going to be using more loose glitter in my manis. So very cool!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Untrieds! Milani One Coat Glitter: Silver Dazzle

Good Morning Ladies! Happy Saturday! I'm working on updating the challenge list to include some new people! Yay!

I am raring to go on the 31 Day Challenge, but until Monday, it's still random polish spam here! Today I am sharing Milani One Coat Glitter in Silver Dazzle.  I know, I'm sure you guys have seen this thousands of times before, but I've been dying to wear this baby since I bought it (around a year ago!), and honestly I don't really know why I haven't actually done so until now. The other night it just jumped out and demanded to be worn.

One Coat Glitter may be a slight stretch, and even though I am showing 2 coats here, one coat did look pretty decent. However, 2 coats is absolute perfection. This baby went on incredibly smooth for such a dense glitter, and stayed where I put it. Love it! This color is my fave out of this collection. She's such a gorgeous mix of Charcoal and Silver. And in low light ( I even have a pic!), she's a glowy Silvery/Blue/Grey. Stunning! But enough talk, let's get to the pics!

Details:
1 coat OPI Nail Envy Matte
2 coats Silver Dazzle
1 coat Gelous
1 coat Seche Vite

And in Natural (low) Light (Swoon!)

I am so very glad that I finally wore this polish! Rawr!! Check out the color in natural lighting. Isn't that just gorgeous??

Formula: This was one amazing glitter. Although the one coat claim isn't exact if you're looking for full coverage, it's close. Even though the glitter is VERY dense, it's not thick and goopy at all. Overall excellent formula for this kind of glitter.

Application: This baby plays well with others! I had no problems with application; she glides on the nail smoothly. No dragging or balding, no clumping either. Cleanup was barely needed since it stays where you put it. An utter dream to apply! It is, however, a VERY THIRSTY glitter, so if you like your glitters smooth (I can go either way, I really dig how this looks without top coat - very sparkly but very textured and matte), I suggest a coat of Gelous before your top coat. Otherwise you'll have a very textured surface.

You can bet I'll be wearing this one again. I have every color in this line, and they're all going to come out to play soon! Can anyone tell me why I waited so long to wear these?

Another Gradient feat. China Glaze Reggae to Riches and Milani Deep Thoughts

Happy Wednesday guys! Halfway to the weekend already! WooHoo!

Today I am sharing the gradient I added to my Reggae to Riches Mani. I love wearing a really striking color on it's own, but I tend to get bored easily and want to play with my nails. Usually on the second day or so I end up adding something to my existing mani. This time I decided I wanted to add a vibrant pop of color, and settled on a gradient effect.

I chose Milani Deep Thoughts to add to RTR since I love pink and purple together and Deep Thoughts is such a gorgeous deep yet still vibrant purple. I went old school with this one, since the latest gradient technique that Sammi shared with us doesn't work well with these 2 colors. RTR is just too sheer to make it work well. I used a makeup sponge cut into small pieces and sponged from the tip of my nail toward the cuticle with Deep Thoughts, and then sponged a little Reggae to Riches over the center of Deep Thoughts. I love how it turned out, and I can't believe how may compliments I received!

Keep in mind that macro shots are unforgiving, so this mani didn't look as bumpy and rough IRL.  It did however flash all sorts of colors! The blue in RTR was very obvious, especially where I sponged a bit over the purple. This was another mani where I just could not stop staring at my nails! My husband really loved this one as well. He wanted me to stamp over it, but I never managed to find the time to add any more to this one.

Without further adieu, here is Reggae to Riches with Milani Deep Thoughts!

I am loving gradients (who isn't, right?), and I really love them with vivid colors! It's such a great way to update an existing mani, and they can look so chic with subtle colors. Yup, gradients are pure awesomesauce.

Next up: The Mani I created for X Out, a new product from the makers of ProActiv.  I cannot wait to share this one, folks! I'm rather proud of it!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Final 30 Days of Blue Mani: Water Marble Stripe (or Does this mani make my nails look fat?)

Few words today since I'm still feeling quite tired, even though I'm slowly improving. I did this mani a good 4 days ago when I was feeling inspired to try out some water marble stripes, and although it doesn't look as bad in person, I wasn't all that happy. I used a Milani White, and it kept blending with the blue (China Glaze First Mate), and my hands just weren't steady enough to really get clean lines. Damned albuterol! I also added the stars on the second day, which made my top coat bubble and pool around them. I think they're a bit too tall to really cover with top coat and keep them clean looking.

I think this mani made my nails look a bit wide, don't you? Sorry for the crappy pics, I didn't have much patience for photography that day. I also didn't bother shaping my nails before working on this mani. Man, sick people are damned lazy, right? ;)

Fun, but I really wish I had attempted this when I wasn't so sick. Next time I'll know to stick with my usual white, and to go slow. I like my lines a bit strighter, and when they aren't they tend to throw me off visually and I can't tell if my nail is shaped weird, or if the lines make them look that way. Not fun for someone with OCD, lemme tell ya!

Thus ends the 30 days of nothing but blue, which was fun and a cause so dear to me. Thnks to everyone that read our story, shared it, and spread some awareness. I am so touched that so many people commented, emailed and posted. You guys rock. And of course a special thanks to Megan for creating this 30 day campaign. 

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dying to wear a different color though! ;) Let's hope my body cooperates and lets me stay awake to change my polish tonight. I don't get much rest, which is one of the reasons I'm not kicking this virus very fast, so my body has been just shutting down at night lately. And since I really want to feel better, I haven't been fighting it.

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Still stuck on pink! Milani One Coat Glitter in Pink Flare

Hi Guys! Hope your week was awesome and you're gearing up for a fabulous weekend!

I apologize for the lack of posts this week. We had an emergency with my daughter and I wasn't able to change my mani until this morning.

Today I have one of Milani's new One Coat Glitters to share with you. Since I am still showing my pink polishes some lovin', I just had to pick up Pink Flare. Pink Flare is a sheer pink jelly with a ton of small round Holo glitter and silver microglitter. I really wish that I could capture the depth and amazing holo in this glitter, but I'm not that good with a camera. Instead, I'll just spam you guys with a ton of pics! Some pics are intentionally blurry to show sparkle.

This is 2 coats of Pink Flare over NYC Wall Street, all over Instant Artificials base coat.

First, in the lightbox:

And since this polish is chock full of holo glitter goodness, here's some shots in sunlight!

Despite this shade of pink not being all that compatible with my skin tone, I LOVE this polish! It is a bit sheer, hence the "underwear", and although it could be worn with one coat, it really needs 2 for full opacity.  I only have 2 of the newer One Coat Glitters, but both of them need at least 2 coats, which was a bit of a let down since the older OCGs are much closer to being a true one coat polish.  It's also a very thirsty glitter! I used a coat of gelous as well as a generous coat of Seche Vite with this, and it's still a bit gritty. I don't mind a bit of texture when I wear glitters, but if you like yours to be smooth as glass I would be very generous with the Gelous, or use some Glitter Tamer.  Having said that, the holo in this is amazing! My husband is sitting next to me and was apparently being blinded by the flashes from my nails! In person, this polish just shines. It's almost blinding! I wish they made this mix of holo glitter in different colors, but the pink seems to be the only holo glitter in the lineup.

Milani One Coat Glitter Nail Lacquer retails for around $4.99 and can be found at most CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and many other Drug Stores.

Spoiled Jelly Sammitch!

Hi guys! Hope you're all having a greet weekend! I've been busy lately, hence the lack of posts this week. Hubby is getting ready to travel for business and getting things ready is time consuming. Posting fell behind, and now I have 4 days worth of manis to sort through and post.

I have a bunch of polish from Wet N Wild's new Spoiled collection, but this is the first time I have used one. What a slacker, huh? I've used the one glitter I have from this collection, but the polishes have just been sitting in my polish cabinet, eyeing me, begging to be worn. This one kept jumping out at me, so I finally gave in. But, I just had to give it a little something something, and since I have been seeing jelly sandwich manis all over (especially orange, I dunno why Orange jellies are so popular for jelly sandwiches, but I can't talk. I'm guilty too!), and since I have never shown one, I decided I would try one in this color.

I chose Spoiled by Wet N Wild in Jailbait, a lovely bright orange jelly, and paired it with Milani Jewel FX in Gems. Not a combination I would normally use, but I wanted something that would stand out under Jailbait. I plan on using this agan for a more subtle jelly sandwich, but this time around I wanted something loud! And this is loud! I had forgotten how Gems isn't one of those glitters that only leaves a couple flecks on your nails - oh no, this baby is loaded down with tons of multi-colored hex and round glitter. I hadn't intended to load up the glitter so much, but hey, it just made it that much more interesting in person.  I really dig how the green in the glitter stands out against the orange of Jailbait. This mani just screams "Hello World! I don't want to match today!". ;)

All photos taken in my lightbox. This was a tough color to capture. It is much more vibrant in person.

I don't know why I loved this mani so much, technically it's kind of a hot mess! But alas! I loved how much the glitter stood out, and it got alot of compliments despite not really matching. My first choice for glitter would've been Milani's Gold Jewel FX, but another blogger recently posted an Orange jelly sandwich using that glitter and I didn't want to dupe her mani (hers *is* much better though!), so I opted for colorful and out there instead.

About Jailbait: Man, I love the colors in the Spoiled Collection. I really do. They're not all original or amazing, but they are pretty and the polish itself is nice. But....and I'm sure you know what's coming here...the brush!! OMG, the brush on these is a &^%##*&@ nightmare! It looks as if they were going for a wide, pro brush. Instead they gave us a fluffy, semi-rounded, jagged mess. I had no control over where the polish went, and it was hell trying to get less than a pound of polish per nail on that thing. I would've had more control using my dog's tail to polish with. I really want to use my other Spoiled colors, but I may have to use a different brush. Otherwise they may just sit there on their shelf, lonely and unloved.  Wear on this polish wasn't as bad as I had expected for a cheaper polish; I wore this for a few days and didn't have a single chip and only minimal tip wear on one nail. Formula was smooth and squishy, but since this jelly is neon, the finish was plastic-like. Dry time was pretty slow as well, so I definitely recommend a good top coat with this one.

Hope you guys are enjoying your weekend!! I'm doing 2 manis for one of the local high schools winter ball dances today. Hopefully I'll be able to show those to you guys soon!

Happy polishing!
-Kimber

31 Day Challenge, Day 12: Stripes!

Hi guys! Wow, this challenge was a TON easier than I had anticipated (I'm finding that's a theme here!). I have very little experience free-handing even something as simple as stripes, so I was dreading this one. I had planned on doing a tape mani, but even though I love how tape manis turn out, I don't like the work that goes into them. With stripes, I would have to tape off the nail to make the first stripe, then tape off to make stripe number 2 as well as tape off stripe number 1, and so on and so forth. That just seemed like a lot of work to me for a mani that I wasn't sure I would actually like! I decided to bite the bullet and freehand my stripes, and if ya'll laugh at me (I can hear some of you laughing just because I said "ya"ll"!), then so  be it, right? I'm learning, and the only way to get better at this stuff is to practice!

Having made my freehanding decision, I had to pick polishes. I knew I wanted to use 3 colors, and that I wanted them all to have the same finish, but had no idea which actual colors I wanted for my stripes. I considered using some of my recently acquired China Glaze or my unused Orly's, but in the end I settled on 2 unworns and a tried and failed (remember the bad faux-nad I posted with the blue holo, white stamping and silver bullion?).  I'm actually pleased with how it came out! My lines aren't too bad at all this time around, and I love love love the polishes I used! Another challenge mani I don't want to remove so quickly :(

For this mani I used: Milani 3d Holographics in HD, Digital, and Cyberspace. These are the only holo polishes I own, and they've been hanging out with my untrieds for a good while. I love holos, but I prefer a strong holo effect and I wasn't convinced these had it. I was wrong! For holo polishes that cost me less than $5.00, they have a decent holo effect! They are a scattered holo (I really really really want a linear holo polish, but I can't find one in my budget so that probably won't happen for a good long time *cries*) with a fairly strong effect, especially in sunlight. I had a very hard time capturing the holo in my pics since I'm still using the less than stellar camera until I can replace my good camera, and these were taken in early morning sunlight as opposed to full, direct sun, but I assure you it's there. You also get to see the result of my stabbing myself in the side of my cuticle with a pair of rally sharp and pointy tweezers (was trying desperately to remove a stray piece of fluff from my polish)!

The formula on these babies was wonderful - nice and smooth and opaque in 2 coats. I used these over my newest base coat loves, Nailtek formula II and Orly Bonder. I did use a coat of SV to top it all off, since the edges of my lines were a little thick and needed to be smoothed out. It did diminish the holo effect, but not half as much as I had expected. But again, enough babbling! On to the pics!

In the light box:

And in early morning sunlight:

And my usual bad macro shot (but at least it shows some of the shimmery holo!)

I had a lot of fun working on this one, and I think I'll be trying out some more striped manis in the future. I love that this challenge is taking me outside of my comfort zone and I'm learning a ton! I do get sad when I have to remove a mani that I really like, and I've had to change some ideas on the fly since I'll see where a fellow blogger has used the idea before I could get to it (I wrote down all my mani ideas for this challenge when I started, and I've had to change rainbow, polka dots, and a few things from the upcoming inspiration week), but overall I'm having fun with it!

Tonight is Animal Print night, and I'm really excited about it! I'm going to be using 2 colors that I have been dying to use since I picked them up and just hadn't found the right mani for them.  Now I'm going to finish my coffee while reading some awesome blogs (see blogroll!). I'm anxiously awaiting Manicure Addict's rainbow nails!!

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber