A England Gothic Beauties Collection : Ophelia (swatches, review, and some Subtle Stamping)

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword,
Th' expectation and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th' observ'd of all observers, quite, quite down!
-Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1

Ophelia is a character in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare.  She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius and potential wife of Hamlet. As one of the few female characters in the play, she is used as a contrasting plot device to Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. She is deeply in love with Hamlet, and as he spirals into madness, goes mad herself, killing herself by drowning.

A England's Ophelia is just as dark and beautiful as the character herself. A shimmering purple in a blackened base, Ophelia captures the dark beauty of her namesake perfectly. In most light, Ophelia looks like the deepest, almost black, purple. But when the light hits this girl just right, the purple comes to life, morphing the polish into a sparkling Gothic Beauty.

Pictures do not do this polish justice, this is most definitely a must see for yourself stunner.  My camera just couldn't capture Ophelia's complexity, so I've included a Macro shot at the bottom.

Just beautiful. This polish really makes me wish I had a DSLR! Soon...very soon.

Ophelia is one of my favorites from the Gothic Beauties Collection. In the bottle, Ophelia glows with purple shimmer. On the nail this shimmer is more subdued, leaning toward a blackened purple (certainly she is the darkest color in this collection). As a lover of black polish in all its forms, this is perfection for me. Black with a hint of color? Yes please! It seems that much more mysterious and beautiful to me.  I wore Ophelia on her own for a day, and then added some subtle stamping with Illamasqua Baptiste.

I love the combination of Baptiste with Ophelia. It's very subtle, but IRL you can see a purple glow on the nail that has attracted the attention of most people I've encountered while wearing this. I love the Gothic Beauties alone, but they also make really awesome base colors for stamping. I used Red Angle plate RA-112, the flowery image, since I wanted to stamp but didn't want to cover too much of Ophelia.

Formula:
Ophelia has A England's thick but dreamy formula - buttery, silky, smooth. Thicker than other polishes, yet not gloppy or goopy.

Application:
Due to her thick formula, Ophelia glides onto the nail like liquid silk. No dragging, streaking, balding or glopping here. This polish stays where you put it, requiring little to no clean-up, and no staining left behind. Every swipe of my brush was perfection, and even wrapping my tips was a joy.  Ophelia is a true one coater, however I'm wearing 2 coats for depth.

My only issue was with my top coat, the infamous Seche Vite. As much as I love SV, I've been having issues with bubbling with most of my Indie polish lately, most likely due to their 3 free formula and SV's inability to play nice with those. I simply cannot wait until my bottles of The Knight and The Shield arrive!

The bottom line here is: there is NOTHING like an A England polish. Adina has created the best polish out there, hand down. I am so spoiled by them that I compare every other polish I use to them, and am starting to notice that what I used to think was an excellent formula pales in comparison. I simply cannot wait to see what Adina comes up with next!

You can purchase A England polish at A England's website. They retail for 9GBP (approx $14.00) and ship for free Worldwide.

Do you have a fave A England polish?

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 19: Galaxy Nails!

Good Morning Ladies! Welcome to Day 19 of the 31 Day Challenge!

Today's challenge is.....dun dun dun! Galaxy Nails! I was kind of ambivalent about this challenge since I've done Galaxy Nails several times now (not just for the blog!) and I end up using the same colors and pattern every time. This time I decided to use more blue and pink to brighten things up, and throw in a little something extra.

I started with a base of Ulta Rhinestone Rocker, a sparkly black that I picked up at Ulta a good year ago.  Then I sponged on some swirls and random patterns with Sally Hansen White On. I added some highlights with Sally Hansen Brisk Blue and Twisted Pink, added a coat of Pure Ice Heartbreaker, then stamped using Mash-34 and Essie Nothing Else Metals. I finished off with some random white dots and a good coat of SV. I like the end result better than my usual dark galaxies.

At first I wasn't sure if I like this mani, but it grew on me fast. I wasn't pleased with the smearing of my sponging when I top coated, but I think that may have something to do wit my SV needing a good dose of restore. I do like the brighter colors as opposed to my usual dark blues and purples for galaxies, and the happy little planet makes me giggle!

What do you think of galaxy nails? Still love them or just about over them?

Be sure to check out all the Galaxy Nails from 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 




On a random note, I'm going to warn you guys that the shape of my nails may get odd in the coming weeks. I've decided I want more length now, which means alot less shaping. My nails grow pretty much diagonally, which means some less than straight edges for a bit. Sorry! :)

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Subtle Stamping and Image Plate Review

Morning Ladies! Happy Tuesday!

Today I have another subtle stamping combo to share with you. I'm really liking subtle stamping at the moment. Sometimes I want something more than plain polish, but I don't want an really in your face mani. Some subtle tone-on-tone stamping usually does the trick!

I was in the mood to try some Green stamping, so I grabbed Finger Paints Go Van Gogh!, Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Jumpin' Jade, and KandNail plate CK-03 from Born Pretty Store and set to work.

This image plate is my first larger image plate, and I was really excited to try it. I had a really hard time deciding which image to use, but in the end I went with the one that jumped out at me first when I opened the package.

 

KandNail Image Plate CK-03

 

 

This plate is not one of the XL plates, but instead is around 8 inches tall with 42 images. A few images do appear twice, but there are some slight differences.  A couple of them are the reverse images for the opposite hand, which I've always thought was a fab idea. There is a way to do that with multiple stampers, but having the reverse image is so much easier. At first glance, I was worried that the images wouldn't transfer well since they are not as deeply engraved as some of my other plates, but I had no issues with transfers. I tested every image on paper first, and they all stamped perfectly. I will note that the images are small, so if you have longer nails (or wide nails like mine), you may have to double stamp some nails. However, if you have shorter nails, these images are perfect. When I do have nubbins, I'm always annoyed that I can't get an entire image on my nails, but these would be perfect!

I did have some trouble lining up the images, but that's definitely me and not the plate. With everything that has been going on lately I am very sleep deprived and at this point I think I was seeing pink elephants. ;) The image did not fit my nail entirely at the free edge, but I chose a smaller image and was aware that would be the case. I'm still very happy with how this plate stamps, and can't wait to wear some of the other images. I have to say, the lace images on this plate are AWESOME! When I test stamped them, you could see the details of the lace, as well as the overlaid image. Very cool!

Onto the pics!

I do love subtle stamping! And IRL, you can't really tell that the image doesn't go all the way to the edge of the nail. Even though I didn't align them perfectly, it's still a win in my book! I also cannot wait to try this image stamped over a linear holo!

This image plate can be found at Born Pretty Store, item ID: 2571, or by clicking the picture of the plate above.  There are 5 of these larger plates, all with tons of great images, and each retail at $8.53.  Born Pretty Store also has TONS of nail art supplies, from polishes to image plates, to glitter, flocking powder for velvet manicures, to studs, and a ton more. If you haven't checked them out, I highly recommend you do! You can also save 10% off your order by using the code KWL91 at checkout (click the link below!).

Thanks for stopping by and Happy (Stamping!) Polishing!

-Kimber

**Stamping Plate provided by Born Pretty Store for review purposes. For more information please see Disclosure/Legal tab**

 

31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 16: Tribal Print

Hello Ladies! Welcome to day 16 of the 31 Day Challenge!

Today's challene is Tribal Print, and I have to be honest...I love tribal manis on other people. I love looking at them. But they just look weird on me. They just don't fit my personality at all. It probably doesn't help that I live in the Southwest, so everything out here is covered in tribal prints. Thankfully I managed to come up with a variation of tribal print that I think fits me  little better.

I started with a base of Spoiled by Wet N Wild Kickin' The Habit, an awesome fuchsia crelly. Then I taped off my nails and added a stripe down the center with Spoiled Distant Memory. Using Bundle Monster plate BM221, I stamped a tribal design over the top using Konad Black. I have to tell you, once I had the stripe done I really wanted to leave it at that. It looked really cool! But since it's a challenge mani, I kept going. My stamps aren't placed perfectly, but it's really hard to stamp when you're loaded up on albuterol. I have a cold, which means my delicate little lungs needed some extra meds to help stay open and clear, and they make me really shaky. Despite that, I do like how this turned out!

I have to say that I like this much more than last year's tribal mani....I actually took my inspiration from tribal designs hanging on the wall of Outback Steakhouse. I had Outback Nails. Funny, but yeah......

Anyway...enough of my babbling! Dayquil is making me all loopy. Here is my take on Tribal Nails:

Not perfect, but highly passable IRL. Although I really want to wear Kickin The Habit with just the stripe of Distant Memory sometime. This is definitely a more "me" Tribal mani, though. In fact, I haven't bothered to take it off yet! Mostly because I have another darned cold and am slightly miserable. ;)

What do you think of Tribal Manicures?

Be sure to check out all of the Varnished Vixens' Tribal Manis!

 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  

Hopefully I'm feeling up to playing with some Project Runway Polishes over the next day or so. Either way, I'll be back on Sunday with Glitter Nails!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Spoiled by Wet N Wild Don't Be Cheesy Halloween Mani (plus Nail Stencil Review!)

Morning Ladies! Happy Wednesday!

Since it's officially Halloween season, I have my first Halloween mani to share with you today! Recently Maggie from KKCenterHK sent me some products to review. One of the products that I chose was a really cute cat stencil. I dig black cat manis (obviously, this is only the 3rd I've posted on this blog!), and this cat stencil was purr-fect for a Halloween manicure.

These stencils are very different from your run-of-the-mill sticker style stencil. They are a red silicon type material that really molds nicely to the shape of the nail, creating a crisp, clean image. They actually molded almost perfectly to my nails, which is a feat since I have a very pronounced C-Curve. I wasn't expecting to like these, since I've used other Nail Stencils with horrible results, but these babies really work well.

I decided to pair them with Wet N Wild Don't Be Cheesy, a really awesome yellow/Orange, as my base color, and used Finger Paints Black Expressionism for the stencils on my Thumb and index fingers. Then I added some bats on my middle finger and pinky using Bundle Monster plate BM213 and Konad Black. I LOVE how this came out!

Here's a macro shot of the stencil on my index finger:

I am loving these like woah! Cats and bats - my Halloween faves! I have to admit, I really do not want to take these off tonight.

Don't Be Cheesy is a surprise fave as well. This color kind of reminds me of the cheese you get on Movie Theater Nachos. Not a color I would normally have chosen, but I am really digging it! It also had a perfect formula and easy peasy application. Bonus!

These are the stencils I used for the cats:

Aren't these just adorable? At first I thought they would be stickers, but nope. Silicon type stencils. They have a half moon shaped curve at the bottom, which leads me to believe they are designed to placed facing you, but I am a rebel (haha) and used them facing away so other people don't have to try to flip their heads upside down to see them. They were easily placed, conformed to the nail nicely, and peeled off easily. Quick and easy to use - that makes Kimber a Happy Panda! These retail for $2.67 and can be found at KKCenterHK Online Store, Product Number NPM-M041, or click the picture above! For 10% off, use my link on my sidebar and enter code KimbersKorner at checkout.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

**Nail Stencils provided by KKCenterHk for review purposes. For more information, please see Disclaimer/Legal tab**

31 Day challenge (v.2!) Day 15: Delicate Print

Hello ladies! I am so sorry I'm posting so late today. Like my hubby posted earlier, I was having some technical difficulties.  Camera battery was dead when I went to take pics, and I had some stamping difficulties.

First, somehow I managed to pick up the wrong makeup pads. I use these to clean my stamper and scraper, as well as my stamping plates. So, as I was stamping, my happy little makeup pads started shredding and leaving all sorts of fluff on my plate and my stamper. This led to picking fluff out of my design with tweezers, which in turn led to some of the design lifting/smearing. Lemme tell ya, this was one of those "I really wanna throw this stamper against the wall" manis. This on the heels of completing my mani last night, only to somehow manage to fail to realize it was not drying and destroy my left hand almost immediately left me one grumpy girl.

So, I just left well enough alone sine I had a busy day scheduled and no time to re-do anything. I'm not pleased with the less than stellar stamping and all the fuzzies stuck in my nails, but hey...we ll have fails, right?

So today's prompt was Delicate Print. This prompt always befuddles me since it can be taken so many ways. But I went with something that is delicate, and printed it on my nails. ;)

The idea behind this mani was lace stamping. Since my plate with actual lace patterns hasn't arrived yet, I decided to do some layered stamping. I used my fishnet image from my BM plates, as well as a flower image from my Red Angel plates to create the lace effect. It actually came out really great the first time, then I ruined those and ran out of my usual make up pads and ended up with this. It's actually pretty cool IRL, but you know how macro mode is!

I used Spoiled by Wet N Wild in Show Me Some Skin as my base color, and stamped using Konad Black. Show me some skin is actually the only nude that I own since I was convinced I do not like Nude polish. Funny thing is that once I had it on, I really liked it! Go figure! Only downside was that this polish did not want to dry. It dried to the touch but was still squishy underneath, as evidenced by my kinda mushed middle fingernail!

Anywway, here is my take on delicate print:

I really like the concept here, but I think next time I'll use a different floral stamp (and ya know, avoid the fuzzies) since this one just didn't seem to cover enough to me. Fun experiment though!

Be sure to check out all of the Varnished Vixens' Delicate Print Nails!



 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  

 I'll be back tomorrow with something less irritating. :)

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Super Nubbins! Stamping with Spoiled Black Mamba and Pure Ice Outrageous

****Important Note*** I have deleted my blogroll for the moment due to the nastiness that has been hitting some blogs via a bug in the blogroll. I still love and read you all, but since my blog seems to have been effected, I had to say bye bye to the actual blogroll widget until the problem is fixed. :(



Hi Ladies! Hope you all enjoyed your weekend! This post is very late due to Saturday being my daughter's birthday and she had a sleepover, rendering me pretty much useless outside of providing snacks and transportation for a couple of tween girls.

Anyway, these are the super nubbins I've been crying about lately. Thankfully they have already grown enough that I'm no longer totally miserable over them. Although in all honesty, I still have yet to forgive the toaster oven for tearing my nail down to the quick and forcing me to super duper nubbinize.

I wore this mani about a week ago, and loved it, despite the super nubbins. I chose Spoiled by Wet N Wild Black Mamba as my color and stamped using one of my Mash plates and Pure Ice Outrageous. I love Pure Ice polish anyway (so many great colors, low low price, and you can find them anywhere), but their metallics are amazing for stamping. Right up there with the CG Romantique Collection IMO. I love this particular pink, and really wanted to pair it with a Charcoal Grey. Black Mamba is a lovely Charcoal shade with an abundance of Silver fleck. It's a fabulous polish, but again....the brush. Thankfully I now have 2 brand new brushes (thanks Julep!) that I plan on using with my Spoiled polishes, so you won't have to deal with my complaining about the brushes anymore! ;) The polishes themselves are pretty awesome, and Black Mamba was no exception. The only issues I had were application problems due to super short nubbins. I cannot tell how how frustrating it is to try and wrap your tips when you have negative free edge (yes, I wrap them when they're short. I had to go back to wrapping my tips at least partially since I couldn't handle how fast they chip otherwise)! Thank god my nails grow fast and they're already looking like normal nubbins instead of super duper nubs! They're almost at the point where I can work on the shape again, since my nails grow kind of sideways so when I nubbinize they're totally uneven for a bit until I get some free edge back.  My poor traumatized cuticles are healing up nicely as well. Still a bit dry and scraggly, but after being attacked by evil, unwanted shrubbery what did I expect? Note to self: Buy welding gloves for the pointy, stabby weeds! The worst part of the nubbins has been the dry skin that was under my nails. Unsightly!! Ick! So embarrassing. It's hard to post pics with my hands like this! But here we go.....

Details:
1 coat OPI Nail Envy Matte
1 coat Orly Bonder
2 coats Spoiled Black Mamba
Stamping with Pure Ice Outrageous
1 coat Seche Vite

I do really love this combo! I loved this enough that I wore it for 3 days, which is a record when I have nubbins. I think I had maybe one chip when I removed this, which was pretty impressive! I really do dig Spoiled polishes. Great colors, great price. Now if they could just fix that brush!! ;)

Hope you're all break-free and thanks for stopping by!

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber