ABC Challenge: "G" is for Galahad

Hello again lovelies! It's time for another ABC Challenge post!

Today's challenge is the letter "G". I've really been looking forward to this one since I've been dying to use this particular polish. My only problem was deciding what to do with it! Glitter? Tape mani? stamping? So many options, but in the end stamping won out.

For "G" I chose my all time favorite teal, A-England Galahad. If you haven't seen this gorgeous polish, you may be living under a rock! It is a stunning bright teal creme, and one of the most popular A-England polishes. I drooled over this baby for a good long time, and Adina was sweet enough to send this to me as a gift awhile back. (Adina is quite possibly the sweetest person on earth. I adore her!)

I decided to pair Galahad with some one of my Sally Hansen Lustre Shines and Mash stamping plates. I have a thing for tone on tone stamping, and who can resist bubbles? I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. It's always a good day when I get to wear my A-England's, and stamping always perks me up.

Al photos are 2 coats of A-England Galahad over The Knight Base Coat and topped with The Shield Top Coat. Stamping done with Sally Hansen Lustre Shine in Scarab and Mash-43. (I'll apologize now for the washed out skin tone. Charlie decided that playing knock over mom's lighting would be an excellent game, so I'm down a lamp until tomorrow night. Boo!)

 *Sigh*. I just looooove Galahad. This particular shade of teal always reminds me of tropical ocean. IMO it's the perfect teal and a must have. Galahad has the typical A-England formula that I love so dearly - smooth and creamy, thick yet easy to work with and never any thickening or gooping. Polishing is my Zen, but applying an A-England is truly a joy.

If you haven't tried Adina's masterpieces yet, I would suggest hitting Llarowe, Ninja Polish, or Nail Polish Canada ASAP. Due to the Royal Mail fiasco, Adina is unable to ship outside of England at the moment, which means that A-England's are going fast everywhere. We're all hoping that RM has a change of heart soon, since this move would destroy everything that Adina has worked so hard to build, and break the hearts of all of us A-England fanatics. 

What do *you* think of Galahad? What's your favorite A-England?

Be sure to check out my fave ladies and their awesome letter "G" nails!




Stay tuned for some brand new Daring Digits (you do not wanna miss these!), Frankenstain Nail Polish, BG Cosmetics and more from White Owl and Laquerlicious (I have ALOT planned for you guys!)!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Born Pretty Store Double Sided Stamper Review!

Hello Lovelies! Happy New year!

I thought I would start the New year off by posting some stamping. As you all know, I love stamping. I love all forms of nail art but stamping still remains my favorite. My stamper is getting old though, so I decided to try out Born Pretty Store's Double Sided Stamper.

The stamper resembles the Konad Dual Sided Stamper, and comes with a metal edged scraper as well. Here's a peek at what it looks like (Picture from Born Pretty Web Site):

In order to give you all a comprehensive review, I used this stamper several times.  Here is the most recent stamping mani that I used this Stamper for:

(Base color is Tip Top Nails South Africa Blue Meets Green, stamping polish is Sally Hansen Lustre Shine in Scarab. Image is from Mash 2012 series plates.)

You may also remember this Manicure, which was also done with this Stamper:

This Stamper has two stamping ends: A large pink side and a smaller green side. Both picked up the images very well and stamped evenly. The only issue I encountered was that the pink end was slightly loose in the base, which meant that I did have to re-fit it occasionally. I didn't really find this all that bothersome though. A little nail glue around the edges fixed the issue pretty quickly and I haven't had any problems since. For me, the big thing is the quality of the image, and this stamper delivered that.

The scraper is a metal-edged scraper, which I'm not that partial to since I don't want to scratch my plates. I did try it out  though and it scraped decently - although I did have to scrap over the plate twice to remove enough polish for a clear image. I've used the Konad scraper as well and although I could remove the polish in one swipe with that one on occasion, I usually had to scrape twice with that one as well.

Overall I'm happy with this Stamper. I've been using it exclusively since I received it and outside of the initial loose end (nail glue fixes so much!), I have had zero problems. As you can see the images are clear and crisp and transfer well, even the more complex images. And for the price? You really can't beat it!

You can check out this Stamper/Scraper combo here, or by visiting BornPrettyStore.com and looking up item number 1514. This combo retails for $3.03, with free worldwide shipping. Born Pretty Store ships quickly as well - I've never waited more than 10 days for a product. Don't forget you can save 10% by using the code below! (If enough of you use this, Born Pretty will sponsor a giveaway, so go forth and use my code!!)

 Have you tried any products from Born Pretty Store? What are your favorites?

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine: Scarab

Happy Friday Ladies!

Today I have the 3rd, and my favorite, of the Sally Hansen Lustre Shine polishes. This baby is Scarab, a gorgeous shimmery teal to sapphire to blurple duochrome. I'll be honest with you, this girl was hard to photograph because when the light hits it, the duochrome comes right out and the usual teal is pretty much left in the dust. In natural lighting, this polish is a beautiful Ocean water teal blue, with very subtle flashes of the duochrome. In fact, the duochrome doesn't really shine exept at extreme angles or under direct lighting (and I doubt many of you are going to spend much time with your hand under a light source!). Still, even with this being the least duochrome of the bunch so far, it's still my very fave as far as color. Take a look and see what I mean...

If you look closely you can see the blurple around the edges and on my index nail. This girl was very hard to capture, but I tried!

Check out how vibrant this beauty is! I am definitely in love! I do wish the teal would've shown itself more, but isn't she gorgous anyway? The teal is almost exactly the color of the bottle, and the duochrome is what you see in these pics. Funny, usually I can only capture the base color and struggle to capture the duochrome colors, but this time it was just the opposite!

Formula:Very smooth and silky formula, although it did thicken up a bit during use. Nothing a little roll between the palms or slight shake couldn't handle.

Application: So far this has the smoothest application out of this line, however I do recommend allowing this to dry between coats since it does have a tiny amount of drag otherwise. I had no other issue with application, save for my uncanny ability to whack a nail against the table as soon as I top coat! ;)

What do you think of Scarab and the Lustre Shine Collection? What is your fave so far?

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!