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

31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 17: Glitter!!

Morning Ladies! Welcome to Day 17 of (our version) of the 31 Day Challenge!

Today's Challenge is glittah!!! I have to tell ya, this mani took FOREVER! Not because it was hard, but because my day yesterday was rotten to the core, and everything that could go wrong, did. In fact, about 3/4 through this mani, I was crawling around on a dirty Walgreens floor hunting for the expensive Android phone that my daughter had randomly placed in our cart, and had either slipped out onto the floor (and was taken) or just plain stolen out of the cart. Fun right? *grumbles*

I did actually manage to finish this mani......at 10:30 pm. Considering I started at 10:00 am, well, that may give you an idea of how freakishly bad my day was. However, glitter makes everything better, right?

I had a really hard time deciding what to use for this mani, but in the end my need for something fun won out. I chose Hard Candy The End, a straight, glossy black, as my base, and Spoiled By Wet N Wild's Pirate's Booty for the glitter. Pirate's Booty is a gorgeous combination of gold and orange microglitter in a clear base. I don't wear a lot of gold for some strange reason, but this glitter called to me when the Spoiled line came out. It's very sparse, and I needed 3 (count 'em, 3!) coats for this mani. Not a great full coverage glitter, but I'll bet it would look rockin' over a deep Burgundy.

I used scotch tape for the design, and sealed everything off with Seche Vite. I have to admit that this is one of my fave designs and I was itching to wear it in Black and Gold. This Challenge was the perfect excuse! I will confess that I skimped on the tip wrap on some of the coats of SV between the base color and final coat, but hey....if it's only seen in macro mode, it's still alright. ;)

I am loving this. It's been a while since I've been this happy with how a mani turned out.  My lines aren't perfectly aligned, but it's close enough for my nail OCD to be okay with it. ;)

What do you think of this design? (Erica from Chloe's Nails does it the best!)

Be sure to check out all the Varnished Vixens and their glittery manis today!


 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  

We'll see you all back Wednesday with Half Moons! Hopefully I'll have some posts between now and then, if my streak of bad luck has ended. :/

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

31 Day Challenge (v.2)! Day 1: Red Nails

Good morning, ladies! Despite it being a Monday, I'm feeling happy and excited! It's Day 1 of the 31 Day Challenge, and I can't wait to check out everyone's red nails!

For my Red Nails, I decided to do a tape mani. I used Wet N Wild Megalast in I Red A Good Book, an awesome red Jelly, as my base color, then added chevrons using scotch tape and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and Orly Liquid Vinyl.  This was the first time I've done actual tape Chevrons, and they came out much better than I expected.

I did have a hard time getting decent pics of this mani, though. Could have something to do with trying to take photos with my eyes half closed at 2 am!

I'm really happy with how this turned out! Not bad for my first Chevrons right? Although that little ding in my ring finger is driving me nuts! I have a bad habit of whacking the table as soon as I finish applying top coat. It never fails!

Be sure to check out all the fabulous Red Nails everyone is posting today! Just clicky the links below:

-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 

Our Next Challenge day will be Thursday. Orange Nails! Woohoo!


Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing! 
-Kimber

Julep Sandra and a tape mani!

Hello ladies! I know, I've been slacking on posts. I was feeling pretty under the weather the past few days, but I'm trudging on today.

Today I'm sharing a mani that I wore last week (see how far behind I am? Sheesh!). It just happens to coincide with Pink Wednesday this week! Yay!! I actually made my Pink Wednesday post! ;)

This lovely is Julep Sandra, a gorgeous, bright, vibrant, almost neon pink with some very subtle purple-y shimmer. My camera positively flipped out over this color. It hates neons, which stinks since I adore them!

Details:
1 coat Julep Nail Therapy
1 coat Instant Artificials Base Coat
2 coats Julep Sandra
1 coat Seche Vite

See the very faint purple shimmer in there? I love this color! Julep scores again! But alas! I don't know how to leave any color alone for more than about 20 minutes, so I added some scotch tape chevrons using my trusty craft scissors and Sinful's Black on Black! Voila! Instant nail art!

I loved this mani so much that I wore it for almost 4 days! Amazing, I know! I really wish that I had more time to play with nail art these days, but my son has launched headfirst into his terrible 2's, so I'm ready to fall down once he is in bed.

Sandra was a dream to apply and gave me zero troubles, so no need to write it all out, right? Julep did not disappoint on this girl. I only wish my camera wasn't on crack and could actually handle bright colors!

Hope you all have an awesome and safe 4th (to my ladies in the states) and a happy Pink Wednesday! Thanks for dropping by, and as always, Happy Polishing!

-Kimber

Xmas Mani Numero Dos!

Look at that! 2 posts in a matter of minutes!?!?! Well that isn't like me! ;)

Hi guys! I had to post this right away, since I love this mani and couldn't wait to share. So let's just get right to it!

For this mani I started with a base of 10's Pinky Promise (thanks to Erika at Chloe's Nails for sharing this polish! It is a great base for a french mani!). After that dried, I taped off my tips and added Sally Hansen's Red Carpet and a coat of SV. Then I freehanded the holly and berries using Confetti Green With Envy (is it just me or does every polish line have a Green With Envy?) and Red Carpet again. Topped it all with another coat of SV and voila! Quick and simple Holiday Mani!

I adore this mani! I very rarely do any kind of french tips, but I wanted something that stood out but was also a bit simple.  So far this is a win (according to friends and family anyway!).

Sally Hansen Red Carpet reminds me of Milani Ruby Jewels in so many ways. Ruby Jewels is actually a bit darker and almost looks as if it has some black glitter in low light, whereas Red Carpet is red red red in any light. I do love how bright and happy this one is, and I am a sucker for any color that contains glitter. Application was, however, a pain in my hiney. This polish became gloppy as hell on the very first couple of nails, and no amount of shaking, rolling, or whacking it with a ball peen hammer changed that. It even glopped right back up after adding some thinner. I don't know if I ended up with the reject bottle or it every bottle is like this, but I detest glop in a big way. If I use this polish again I will be thinning the ever loving hell out of it! My base color, 10's Pinky Promise was a dream to work with. It flowed perfectly, and I love the sheer pink. If my nails weren't stained right now, and I didn't have a fiberglass wrap on one of them, I would be tempted to wear this on its own. I don't usually use a sheer base for french mani's since they always look either too pink or too ivory for my taste, but this color is perfection. I haven't had a chance to try out Confetti's Green With Envy other than the holly leaves on this mani and a quick swatch on a nail wheel, but it such a beautiful green. And it's glittery! Green is one of those colors that I never really loved until recently, and this is such a funky bright green that I had to have it! The green microglitter adds some oomph, and I can't wait to use this for a full mani.  It looks a bit darker here just because I piled it on to make the leaves stand out, otherwise it's a little lighter. If you have a CVS near you, you should pick this baby up! (Not to mention if your CVS is like mine, they're doing a huge reset and a mega ton of their polishes are 75% off! Woot! Score!! I picked up 10 polishes for a few bucks yesterday, including some Revlon matte suedes, scented polishes, and top speed.)

I have a bunch of Holiday Manis that I want to do, but there aren't enough days left until Xmas to squeeze them all in. Not to mention the fabulous Cristina over at Let Them Have Polish beat me to the gold and glitter mani! (I'm ok with that...I'm not complaining! I love her manis and her blog and trust me, she did it way better than I ever could. That woman is one of my nail idols. Seriously. Go give her some love.) I know I'll have at least 2 more coming up this week, since I am bound and determined to play with white and red - especially since 2 of the Revlon Matte Suedes I picked up are red and white.

Hope you all are finding some fab polish deals and enjoying this holiday season! And BTW? A big hello and thanks to all my new followers and people that are dropping in to check out my blog. You guys rock and I read and appreciate every single comment. I may not always respond (the best way to get me is via twitter), but I love hearing from you all!!

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Pink Wednesday! (Better Late Than Never Version!)

I almost missed posting today due to inadvertently forgetting what day of the week it was. The city was basically shut down on Monday so my daughter didn't have school, and that always leaves me a day off. Thankfully I realized it wasn't actually Tuesday at the very last minute, and threw together a quick mani.

This is Sally Hansen HD in Byte layered over Wet N Wild Black Creme. I loved it on it's own, but had to see what it would look like taped off with some more black. This is what I ended up with:

This was definitely a fun mani, despite having some OCD issues with it. My OCD is raging lately and when "Pro Manicure" woman basically destroyed my cuticles, the cuticle area on my middle finger became swollen and is still rather puffy and red. That makes my nail bed somewhat shorter than the rest, which in turn drives me insane (Good thing I always place my watermark over my middle finger, right? haha!). I can handle losing my length due to carelessly whacking my hands on things, but having one nail bed shorter than the rest is making me a bit crazy! I'm working on it, though. Wish me luck. OCD can be a bear.  At least I'm not letting it take over everything and I'm working hard to get it back under wraps.

Enough about that though! I am loving Byte layered over Black! This is actually 3 coats over the black, since I wanted it to really pop. It looks amazing with just 1 coat as well, but has a bit more purple to it. If you want the pink to really shine over that black, I would use at least 2 coats. However, don't go past that if you can't handle your polish looking a bit heavy and thick.

I'm still editing pics for tomorrow's post! It's taken awhile since I took hundreds of pics of all 3 polishes that I'm planning on sharing with you, and I've had such a hard time narrowing it down! Until then....

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Sally Hansen Gem Crush gets taped!

I have been dying to do this mani for awhile now and finally found the time. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am just loving scotch tape manis at the moment.  Between those and water marbling, my nails have been looking pretty fab! In fact, when I wear a plain color I feel like I have slacked off, ha ha! I will say that I have a swatch post for tomorrow that is full of colors that are so awesome, they just have to be worn by themselves! But being me, I have plans for 2 of the 3 colors already.

I actually did this mani yesterday morning, so forgive the pushed back cuticles please! It has been snowy and dark here, and this morning was the first glimmer of decent sunlight so I took the opportunity to take pics of this mani. My lightbox pics just didn't show as much of the color as I wanted, and this combo deserves to be seen!

For this mani I used Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Showgirl Chic as my base. I love this glitter! It's already well known that this is a dupe for China Glaze's Lorelei's Tiara from the Eye Candy Collection, and IMHO it's a great alternative if you can't get your hands on the China Glaze. Showgirl Chic is a serious glitterbomb, absolutely loaded with glitter on even the thinnest coat. This polish is jam packed with small silver glitter (and in very low light it flashes a tiny bit of holo!) and larger blue hex glitters. The blue/silver combo is one of my favorites, and alone (damn! I wish I had taken pics of this one on its own!) it looks like a winter wonderland on your fingertips. However, it's rare that I'm able to leave a polish alone and I just had to see what it would look like with some Cobalt Blue! Since Showgirl Chic is a bit of a thirsty glitter, I topped it off with a coat of Gelous and 2 coats of SV, then I taped off my nails and added Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue It. I'm very happy with how this mani turned out, even if my lines aren't perfect!

This is indoors in natural light:

And a night-time shot with flash:

Isn't Showgirl Chic awesome? I love dense glitter, and this did not disappoint. This was 2 glitter packed coats. Application was fairly easy for such a dense glitter, the only problem area being the very tips of my nails - lots of drag there.  I need to pick up Lorelei's Tiara to compare formula! Gem Crush is available at CVS for just under $7.00.

I really like how this turned out, and can't wait to try out some more checkered manis. The combination of the bright Cobalt Blue and the sparkly glitter is so eye catching that it has caught me off guard a few times!


Happy Polishing!
-Kimber