Mish Mash Challenge, Week 3 - Metallic!

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Hello Lovelies! Check it out! I managed to post before midnight!! Wahoo!!!!! I know, I know..you're all falling over in shock! ;)

Today brings us to Week 3 of the Mish Mash Challenge! Today's theme is Metallic, and boy! I had a hard time deciding what to do for this one. Normally I use metallic polish for stamping, so I decided to go in a different direction since this is a challenge after all! I think I'm supposed to step outside of my comfort zone, right?

I eventually decided on a simple ruffian manicure, using A-England Camelot as my base color and Essie No Place Like Chrome as my metallic polish. No Place Like Chrome is the silver polish from Essie's Mirror Metallics, and let me tell ya - it's a complete PITA! Beautiful though. I used french tip guides to tape off the bottom of my nail and used No Place Like Chrome over Camelot. If NPLC is finicky on her own, she's ten times more so over a highly pigmented black. I had to use 2 coats, which meant that my lines were going to be rough from the start, and you know how my OCD flares over wonky lines!  But I'll get into that  application stuff later...

Although this mani is cute, and for the most part I'm satisfied,  do wish those curved tip guides had a more pronounced curve. My ruffian falls kind of flat since they were much straighter than they appear. I think next time I'll just freehand it and call it a day!

See? The ruffian could be more pronounced, but it still looks cool, so I'll take it.

I do love No Place Like Chrome since it's shiny and very much chrome-like, however.....OMG what a PITA! The formula isn't bad at all, but application is very finicky. Lots of dragging and balding, and streaks galore. I've heard that if you use a matte topcoat over 2 coats, then another coat over that the streaks go away, but I'm way too lazy to try that with a ruffian. I've also heard sponging on the final coat works as well, but again....too lazy with this one. I'm sure I'll try those in the future, when I feel like dealing with another Chrome polish. This polish also did not like my top coat. I had to go over the silver once more after my initial coat of TC since it indented out of nowhere in several places. Even though the shiny chrome look is fabulous, it's just too much of a pest for me. Thankfully they stamp perfectly, so I do have a use for the 3 I bought.

What do you think of The Mirror Metallics? Have you had the same issues?


Don't forget to check out all my awesome polish sistah's and their Metallic manis!

An InLinkz Link-up

I'll return tomorrow with some goodness from Luscious Potion. I also have more Love, Angeling Polish, Polish TBH and Fandom Cosmetics coming your way!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber



*Product(s) Featured purchased by KLK. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information**

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Love, Angeline Polish - Let's Take A Dip

 Press Sample

*Product(s) Featured discounted for review purposes. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information** 


Hello again lovelies! Look! I did it! I managed to actually post again today! Just barely, but it still counts, right?

Tonight I have another beauty from Love, Angeline Polish for you. Let's Take A Dip is a truly eye-popping, jaw-dropping bright blue shimmer from the Summer Rainbows Collection. This is my very fave from this collection, and I think you'll see why!

This is 2 coats of Let's Take A Dip, with top coat:

Check out that color! O.o!!!! I am huge sucker for blues (my signature color) and this one is just gorg! It's incredibly eye-catching..I was at Walgreens today for about 3 minutes before the cosmetics girl was asking what color I had on. Awesome!

Let's Take A Dip has an Indie Thick formula, yet I had no issues with this one. It did not thicken up while I was using it, and applied like a dream with no dragging or balding. Dry time was lightning fast, although this girl does dry more on the satin side. Just add top coat for ultra-shine and blinding color. Wear is excellent as well - these pictures were taken after wearing this polish for a good 24 hours and pretty much beating my hands half to death.

I'm still very much in love with Love, Angeline polishes. I have a bunch more to share with you and I'm very excited to try them out! In fact, I have more on the way so expect to see alot from this up and coming Indie Brand!

Unfortunately the Summer Rainbows Collection was just discontinued as of today, so this color is no longer available (you may be able to ask Natosha if she can make one for you, but I make no guarantees). However, Love, Angeline has a ton of awesome glitters and jellies to choose from and I urge to head on over to Love, Angeline's shop and take a peek! All polishes are currently on sale for just $4, so act fast before they're all gone! You can also find Love, Angeline on Instagram - follow for sales info, new releases and swatches.

What do you think of Let's Take A Dip? Are you a fan of blues?

I'll be back tomorrow with the first polish from the Fandom Cosmetics Daft Punk Collection (a huge thank you to Fandom for creating these after I begged and pleaded!), and I have brand new Polish TBH and some more awesomeness from Wingdust and Luscious Potion on the way!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber


*Product(s) Featured discounted for review purposes. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information** 

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Try It Out Tuesday: Maybelline Color Show "Holographics" - Mystic Green"

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*Product(s) Featured purchased by KLK. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information** 


Hello lovelies! Welcome to (the late night edition of) Try It Out Tuesday! I'm very excited to be joining my girl Gini from Sassy Paints for TIOT. What a great way to get through some of my gigantic stash of untrieds!

Today's polish is from the "Holographics" Collection that Maybelline's Color Show line recently released. Note that the word Holographics is in quotes up there....Yeah, someone needs to look that word up because these polishes are nowhere near Holographic. If anything, they are very mild duochromes with a very metallic finish. I picked up 2 of these when they first came out, solely because I like the colors - I was well aware that these had zero holo to them. Still, it kind of irks me that these are being marketed as Holos. Very misleading.

For today's TIOT I chose Mystic Green to try out. This color is a gorgeous green with strong yellow undertones. It does have a slight color shift to a darker, more emerald green, but otherwise it's just a pretty metallic polish.

This is 3 coats with topcoat:

I have to admit - I do love the color. But I just can't get past the "holographic" claim being so far from true, as well as some other things....

Mystic Green's formula was a pain in my hind end. Very thin and watery at first, only to thicken up into a glop fest. Application was just as rough with a lot of streaking, some serious balding and dragging, and since the polish thickened up a ton - bubbles. The kind of bubbles that even the best top coat can't get rid of. If Mystic Green was an actual Holographic polish, it might be worth the hassle. But......it's not. I am disappoint, Son.

I do have another color from this collection to try out, and I'm really hoping that the formula isn't as bad as Mystic Green. These colors are truly beautiful, so it's a shame that they don't hold up (at least in my eyes...who know? I may have a bad bottle.).

Have you tried any colors from this collection?

I'll be back tomorrow with more Indie awesomeness so come back soon!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber




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Cobalt and Chrome

My eyes have been irritated as hell these past four or so days so I haven't been able to do the requested Tarja Turunen-look that I had planned to post this weekend. :( I'm sorry for that but I promise that this look will be top priority when my eyes decides that they want to wear makeup again!

Here comes a look that I did last weekend, using the Eyephoria Chrome eyeshadow by Isadora. I hope you'll like it!

I realize this look is far from unique, but I do like the combination of a metallic eyeshadow on the upper lid and cobalt blue on the lower. Besides, Velocity by Sugarpill is an eyeshadow I use far too seldom!

These pictures are taken in direct sunlight so Chrome looks a little bit more golden than it really is.

Warm-toned blush and nude lips matches this eye look perfectly!

Face

*Matte foundation Fair (Bare minerals)

*Blush Glow (e.l.f.)

Eyebrows

*Velvet revolver (Too Faced)

*Sexpresso (Too Faced)

Eyes

*Shadow Insurance (original) (Too Faced)

*Eyephoria Chrome (Isadora) applied wet

*Velocity (Sugarpill)

*Tako (Sugarpill)

*Gel liner Electric (Makeup Geek)

*Cupcake (Makeup Geek)

*Corrupt (Makeup Geek)

*Heaven (Too Faced)

*True natural Mascara (Lumene)

*False lashes #43 (Red Cherry)

Lips

*Lipgloss Edelweiss (Face Stockholm)

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I hope you're all having a fabulous Easter Holidays! :) Thank you for reading!

Twenty Seven Polish: Pinky Promise

Hello lovelies! Happy Weekend!

Today I have something very special to share with you all. Recently I discovered the wonder that is Indie Nail Polish. I've been spending hours browsing Etsy, both buying and lemming so many amazing Indie polishes. While browsing, I came across Twenty Seven Polish, an Indie brand created by Lisa. I immediately fell in love with her creations, and ordered a few minis to try out. Lisa had them shipped out the same day, and threw in a couple minis for me to share with you all!

It was incredibly hard to pick which polish to try out first, but being a lover of pinks, I just had to try out Pinky Promise. Pinky Promise is a beautiful combination of bright pink glitter in a softer pink metallic base. It's not a true metallic, more like a soft metallic (yet not really a frost). This is the kind of pink that I love - soft and feminine yet still eye catching and infused with a subtle sparkle.

This girl was very hard to capture in photos. The glitter just did not want to show itself, but this actually lends true to this polish in brighter light. The glitter seems to come out and play more in low light, which makes this polish seem to glow. It's really a wonderfully simple, yet still complex mix.

I am very much in love with this polish. So much that I really don't want to take it off yet, even though I have more of Twenty Seven's beauties to swatch!

Formula:
I'm finding that Indie Polish have the best formula! Pinky Promise is a bit thicker than other polish, but I'm finding that I really prefer a thicker polish. Despite being semi-thick, this polish never thickened up on me. The glitter was mixed in with the pigment beautifully, no insane shaking here.

Application:
Pinky Promise applied like butter. This baby flowed smoothly onto the nail and stayed right where I put it. No streaking or dragging, balding or glopping up. In fact, any flaws that you see here are a result of my seche vite not playing well with 3 free polish. (I cannot wait for my A England Top and Base coats to arrive so that I don't have this issue anymore!) Dry time was fast, and Pinky Promise dried smooth with just top coat despite being packed with microglitters. It is very sheer and requires at least 2 coats for opacity. I'm wearing 3 thin coats here.

I am very impressed with Twenty Seven Polish so far. This was by far one of the smoothest polishes I have ever used, and the color is just beautiful. Unfortunately Lisa is no longer listing this polish in her store, but you may be able to contact her via Etsy to see if it's possible to grab this little gem!

Twenty Seven polish can be found on Etsy here.  All Twenty Seven Polishes are 3-Free and a full size bottle sells for $7.00 (Worldwide shipping not included). Lisa does offer mini bottles as well, but is in the middle of restocking those.  Lisa has also graciously allowed me to share her 20% off code with you! Just use code "27WIN" at checkout.

I'll be showing you some of her glitters starting tomorrow as well. You have to see these!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy (Indie) Polishing!
-Kimber

**Items in this post have been provided for review purposes. Please see Disclaimer/Legal page for more information. Twenty Seven Polish is owned and operated by Lisa G. **

31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 8: Metallic Nails!

Morning Ladies! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Today we are back with Day 8 of the Challenge: Metallic Nails! Yay!

At the last minute (because I'm indecisive)I decided to take a different approach to these than I normally would. I wanted to a stained glass kind of look, but I didn't want the metallic finish of the polishes to overshadow the design. Especially since I've been overloading on metallic duochromes lately. (Still have one to post) I decided to use my Kleancolor Metallics in Metallic Pink, Metallic Purple, and Metallic Jungle for my stamping since they tend to stamp semi-sheer but still retain a light metallic sheen. I used my go to blak, Finger Paints Black Expressionism for my base, and for my design, I took inspiration from a design I had seen the amazing Enamel Girl use last year. I grabbed my Red Angel Plates and chose plate RA 107's big flowery design for my image.

Strangely enough, this mani came out almost exactly like I wanted it to. I knew I wanted some metallic sparkle but I didn't want the mirror-like quality of the Essie Metallics. What I wasn't counting on was just how difficult it was to photograph! The subtlety of the stamping was a serious PITA to capture, and I literally had to have my hand almost inside the light to capture the colors. It still didn't manage to capture the metallic sheen, but hey. Can't win em all! (Yup, I'm strangely insecure about the less than glaringly obvious metallic here, but I still love it, so I guess that makes it a win, right?

I suggest making with the clicky to enlarge these. And, ya know, imagine some metallic sparkle. IRL these have alot of metallic flash, but aren't mirror-like.

Wait....is it cheating since they're not glaringly metallic? I'm not sure, but I do know that I love how this turned out and I'm going to cry when I have to take it off. I think this may be the only time that I've been happy that my stamping came out semi-sheer!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Varnished Vixen's and their (probably much more Metallic than mine!) Metallic Nails! We will be posting our next challenge, Rainbow Nails, on Thursday! I can't wait!

-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
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-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

Wet N Wild Fergie Collection: Going Platinum

Hi ladies! I know, I know. I'm still updating weekly. Lemme tell ya, I didn't expect to get this busy. I'm currently trying to get my daughter ready for camp, which means lots of paperwork, shopping, and doctor's appointments, as well as work, my whirlwind of a toddler, and a new car. Well, a new to us car, anyway! It's actually pretty cool, and was a gift from my in-laws. We've been a 1 vehicle family for a long time, and hubs really needed to be able to get to and from work without having me drive him so I would have a way to get around during the day, hence the new vehicle. That took a good chunk of our time, so my blogging plans had to be put on hold. Now add going back down to super nubbins due to yet another broken nail (door handle this time! ugh!), and you have a bad recipe for nail blogging anyway! I can't promise that I'll post as often over the next week or so while I'm getting Kalli ready for camp, but I do try to post at least once a week so you guys know I'm still alive. Hopefully I'll be back to my usual every other day schedule in about a week.

Today I have a very cool polish to share with you guys! I came across the new Wet N Wild Fergie display at Walgreens awhile back, and over the past few weeks have managed to pick up 5 of them. The first one I picked up was Going Platinum, a very cool silver metallic/foil with gold flakes. Let me tell you, wearing this was like having platinum on my nails! Sometimes it was blinding! The gold flakes made it even more awesome (I swear the silver reflects the gold in some lights which made the base color look almost like a champagne color!), and I spent a good amount of time staring at my nails. This girl was hard to photograph, mostly because it really reflects light, so the finish tends to wash out. I'll apologize in advance for the really odd shaped index fingernail. I think I must've been filing in the dark or something. ;)

Details:
1 coat Seche Recondition
2 coats Going Platinum
1 coat Seche Vite

 
Isn't that just a really cool polish? Love it! Wet N Wild's Fergie Collection has a ton of awesome polish.  There are a few more that I really want to pick up. If you haven't seen the glitters in this line, you really should check them out. Very cool. I have a few to show you guys soon!

Formula:
I was very impressed with the formula on this baby. I have only met a couple of Wet N Wild polishes that I wasn't happy with formula wise, and this is not included. Perfect consistency, No issues with streaking or dragging (despite the metallic finish!). This polish could be opaque at 1 coat, but I can't seem to ever use a single coat of polish.

Application:
Very smooth application. Like I mentioned before, no streaking or dragging, no bubbling. This girl went on like butter! The brush is a much improved version of the spoiled brush - it's flat and wide. Unlike the Spoiled brush though, this one is actually usable. It fanned out nicely and wasn't like painting my nails with a mop. 

I foresee this baby getting some heavy rotation in the future. I wore this for a solid 5 days with ZERO CHIPS and barely any tip wear! Can you believe that? Color me impressed! I was very hard on my nails while I had this on as well. Lots of cleaning, poking around in car engines, tons of water exposure, etc. By all rights it should have looked like it had gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson (insert ear joke here, right?) when I took it off, but it was still perfect. I can't wait to try out the rest of my polish from this line just to see if the wear is consistent!

I hope you all are having a great week so far. I haven't forgotten you! I'm still reading your blogs when I have time, and I promise my lack of posts won't last much longer. I really miss having time to sit down and do my nails, as well as blog! I'm also still in the middle of updating my blogroll, so if you don't see yourself there, chances are I'm adding you again, I just haven't had time to actually do it. If you want to be added to my blogroll, leave me a comment and I'll make sure to add you!

Thanks for stopping by, and as always, Happy Polishing!

-Kimber

31 Day Challenge, Day 15: Delicate Print

Holy smokes it has been a busy day! I promise to get back to my normal posting schedule tomorrow!

So those of you that follow me on twitter know that I gave in and cut down my nails today. :( I had broken 4 nails in as many days, so it was time. At least this way I effectively got rid of the thin, weak spots from having acrylics before I decided to grow my own nails out, and now they can grow back stronger and hopefully prettier!

Here is what they look like now (I took off my delicate print mani after breaking 2 nails on my right hand and just slapped on some glitter before heading to lunch with my family):

I miss my length already! Actually they're not too bad this length. At least I'm not catching them on everything! My nails also grow fairly fast, and I'll be using Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator.

The glitter I'm wearing is Nicole by OPI Snowman of My Dreams.  I love this glitter! The colors are fabulous and application isn't too bad considering it's a fairly dense glitter. It is a thirsty glitter though, so it needs at least 2 coats of SV or a coat of Gelous to smooth out.

Onto the delicate print mani! For this mani I used OPI I vant to be A-lonestar as my base and stamped using BM 201 and Pure Ice Pussycat.  I had one hell of a time trying to capture this mani for you guys! The shine from my SV blocks out some of the stamping! I suppose that just means that it really is delicate after all! :)

Here it is in sunlight:

Indoors in natural lighting:

Light Box:

With flash:

And super bad macro:

I took tons of pics to try and show the stamping, but this was as good as it gets with my crappy camera.  I really liked this mani, and I was bummed when my busted nail ruined it. I'll have to re-do this one at some point.

Off to work on my Tribal Nails! This oughta be interesting!

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber