I feel like Illamasqua was one of my first higher end polish brand obsessions, so I am completely bummed that they are no longer easy to get a hold of since Sephora no longer carries them. At one point I could get them at Nordstrom but then they were gone from there too. I’ve caught them a few times on Hautelook, but I’ve kinda given up on searching for them when I can get other things without such a hassle. I have a pretty sizeable Illamasqua collection, and I told myself that I should start going through my untrieds. I pulled out Illamasqua Dedicate to try out today and jazzed it up with UP and some stamping. Let me show you what I came up with. Continue reading “Illamasqua Dedicate”
Tag: Konad
KBShimmer You Dew You – Stamping Saturdays
Hey there. I know it’s been 5 billion years since I have done a Stamping Saturdays mani, but I just felt inspired today. Yesterday I got my KBShimmer Unicorn Pee Polishes and I just couldn’t wait to play with them. I did watch the 3 polishes i the collection and also used the topper for today’s Mani. KBShimmer You Dew You is the Unicorn Pee topper of the collection which can beautifully transform any polish. Let me start by showing you the polish that I used as my base color.
KBShimmer Low and Be Bold is one of those delicious cobalt blues that work so well under the Unicorn Pee pigment. This polish has a jelly type consistency but it builds up nicely with two coats which is what I used for my swatches above.
I then applied one coat of KBShimmer You Dew You over KBShimmer Low and Be Bold. This looks much more beautiful in real life since artificial lighting doesn’t truly show all the beautiful color shifts from orange to green. It’s very difficult to capture the shift in all its glory!
Lastly, I used a Born Pretty plate BP-L016 for the stamping image. I used some of my trusty Konad white stamping polish as well, but I’m really looking for an alternative. If you have any suggesting for a great white and black stamping polish, please let me know!
So there you have it. I was happy to try my hand at stamping again after neglecting any kind of nail art for so long. Since I did finish my swatches of the KBShimmer Unicorn Pee Collection, I’ll be posting those on Monday. Let me know what you think of this mani; I’m pretty happy with it and love how it turned out overall.
If you’re interested in purchasing this polish, unfortunately it is not currently available. Only one polish from the collection is still in stock at kbshimmer.com but I’m hoping that they will be able to find more pigment and bring back the whole collection.
Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!
Stamping Saturdays #56
Heeeeeeeeey! Can you tell how excited I am? The reason why I’m so happy is because I have a 4 day weekend and I’m going to be the laziest person in the history of the world. In fact, I’m still in my pj’s right now and I don’t care what anyone thinks. Last night my friend and I decided to go watch 50 Shades of Grey. I know, I know. The theater was packed which didn’t really surprise me, but I was surprised at how bad the movie was. The books were so poorly written that they made me want to barf, but they were somewhat entertaining so I thought maybe the movie wouldn’t be too horrible but it was. I think Jamie Dornan is hot lava, but I don’t think he was what I was expecting for the Christian Grey character. On the other hand, Dakota Johnson was good in he role. Overall, the movie was choppy and just strange. When I got home, I saw that I had gotten some free passes in the mail (thanks, OPI!!), so I’m going to give them away so they don’t have to be mad like me about paying full price to see this film. Anyway, let’s move on from putrid films to awesome nail polish! For today’s Stamping Saturdays I have another holo beauty to show you.
I had such a hard time finding Orly Mirrorball, so when I finally found a bottle, I freaked out. It’s a really gorgeous and delicate linear holo with small holographic glitter. The formula felt a little thin, so be prepared to apply 3 coats
I used a delicate stamp from Konad plate M73 and Mentality Black Opaque stamping polish. I really like how this turned out.
What do you think about this mani? I hope your weekend is going well and that you enjoy your long weekend if you get Monday off. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.
Loading InLinkz ...
The Lacquer Ring – Splatter
I need to tone it down a little today because I’m almost roid raging over a freaking nail. So here I am all happy with being able to use my swatching hand again, and I was all showing off my new nail shape and all…and BAM! My pink nail split lengthwise. How does that even happen? I’ve never had that happen before so I was like…WTF nail? I managed to file it down enough to where the split ended, but now I’m just waiting for the next nail catastrophe. Oh, and I also have a nail starting to peel/break on my non-swatching hand. Of course this happens when I have about 30 polishes to swatch because the universe hates me. Let me get off this rant for now so I can actually show you what I’m supposed to be talking about today: The Lacquer Ring! Yep, we are at it again with a new prompt which was chosen by Amanda. She chose splatter nails, and of course I had to take the easiest way out because, at Sweet Brown says, Ain’t nobody got time fo dat!
I started off with a simple black base using Jessica Velvets & Pearls (press sample) which is a pretty standard black creme. It has a great formula so no complaints here.
I then used Jessica Standing Ovation (press sample) to stamp this splatter image from Konad Plate M70. I thought the contrast would be better, but I kind of like how this looks. I should have left well enough alone but nooooooooooooo…
I then used my Nicole by OPI Matte Top Coat (press sample) to mattify the whole mani and basically ruined it. I do not like how this looks matte. I should have used a different stamping color to make it stand out more when I mattified it.
Welp, I’m sorry I brought you this craptacular mani today. I just gave up. I had a long day and just didn’t have it in me to do anything different after this fail. Hopefully I’ll do better next month. Womp womp. Check out the links below to see what the other ladies from The Lacquer Ring came up with–it sure can’t get worse than this. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!
Loading InLinkz ...
Stamping Saturdays #34
Hey, how is your Saturday going? I’m enjoying my day so far even though I woke up early and did some cleaning around the house. I ended up going out to dinner with my bro, sil and baby peanut. He is such a cutie pie and is growing so fast! He was a very good boy as usual and played with his crayon the entire time.
Isn’t he just a delicious little cutie pie? So besides cute babies, I do have a mani to show you today for Stamping Saturdays. Are you ready?
I started off with two deliciously creamy coats of Kiara Sky Ms Behaved which is a smoky greyed out purple. The formula was fantastic which has been my experience with Kiara Sky as a whole.
In order to make this polish really shine, I applied one coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire. Gorgeous, right?
I then stamped this image from Konad M79 which reminds me of wrapping paper, but I just really like how it looks. I went pretty simple this week, and I really ended up liking this. What do you think?
So, I have tons of swatching to do this weekend and I hope I get through it all before my nails fall off or something. I’ve already swatched the China Glaze Fall Collection so now I am trying to decide between The Giver Collection or the Holiday Collection. It’s so hard to decide because they are all so pretty!! Anyway, thanks for stopping by today–I’ll be picking a winner soon so expect that announcement in the next hour or so. So excited! Talk to you soon.
Loading InLinkz ...
Stamping Saturdays #33
This week I lost my last living grandparent. Part of me is angry–angry at myself for not being able to see her before she passed, but I know that she was surrounded by all of her children (all 9 of them!) on her last days including countless great great great grandchildren. You see, my grandmother was 100 years old and she was lucid up until her last day when she fell asleep and didn’t wake up. As sad as our whole family is to have lost her, we know that she lived a long and full life and we are consoled by the idea that she is no longer trapped in a body that just wasn’t able to keep up with her sharp mind.You might think that it’s silly that I am here showing you a manicure after such a sad loss, but nail polish has always been an escape for me: it helps me stay focused, it calms me. When I saw a picture of my grandmother that I took many years ago, I was inspired by the pattern I saw on her dress for my Stamping Saturdays mani.
I started with two coats of OPI Umpires Come Out At Night (press sample) from the MLB Collection. This is a gorgeous and opaque blue that dries to a shiny finish.
I then used a pattern from Konad M61 and Konad’s special white polish for the flowery design.
That was my grandma. I was able to sneak in this picture since she always hated being photographed. She was never without her rebozo (a type of shawl/scarf hybrid) because she did not like to show her hair. She had the most amazing completely white hair that was so plentiful that she had a hard time managing it. I always loved seeing her brush her hair out before she covered it up. Thank you for all the stories you would tell me, the candies you would sneak into my hands and for being the woman who raised my mother to be a loving and compassionate mother in turn. I’ll miss you, abuelita.
Loading InLinkz ...
Stamping Saturdays #31
I am super late today with my Stamping Saturdays post but better late than never, right? This morning I was supposed to go watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I totally overslept and ended up going to my nail places. It was a total waste of time because two of my favorite stores were closed. The only good thing was the coffee macaron I had at this awesome Vietnamese-French bakery I like to go to. Anyway, once I got home I started planning my mani. I decided to use Deborah Lippmann Let’s Hear It For The Boy.
Deborah Lippmann Let’s Hear It For The Boy is a streaky nightmare, but it sure is pretty. If I had paid full price for this, I would be pissed but I got it on clearance on HSN so it’s ok. This is three coats and it’s still kind of streaky.
Have you heard of the brand Kiara Sky? I had not until I saw a huge shiny new display today. I picked up one glitter and two cremes to try the brand out. This is Kiara Sky Serene Sky.
This is two coats of Kiara Sky Serene Sky over Deborah Lippmann Let’s Hear It For The Boys. The polish is full of glitter and is very easy to apply. Isn’t it pretty?
I then used an image from Konad M51 to stamp with Mentality Black Opaque. I just recently purchased this polish for my stamping needs and it’s a decent stamping black. I noticed that this polish dries a lot quicker than the Konad black so you have to work fast before the image dries on the stamper. The image on my pointer finger did not transfer nicely because I waited too long to stamp it. Once thing I like is that the polish isn’t a huge pain to clean up. If you get the konad black on your skin, it is a PITA to clean up because it’s so incredibly pigmented. I will have a more in depth review of the two Mentality stamping polishes that I purchased in a later post.
So what do you do think of this mani? I’m not in love with it, but it’s ok. I can’t wait to try the other two cremes I bought from the new Kiara Sky line so I’ll let you know how they work out next week. Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.
Stamping Saturdays #30
I should have gotten this post done last night, but of course I didn’t. I ended up catching up with a friend and didn’t get home until late. After that I was watching the Robocop remake which wasn’t that good but you know me and action movies. This morning I thought I was going to sleep in but I ended up waking up at 7:30 even though I went to bed around 3 am. Ugh! I went to my nail place early, and they only had ONE new collection I wanted which I’ll be swatching today. Whoever thought i was a good idea to close 3 out of 4 lanes on the main street to get there is a freaking genius considering there is always tons of traffic there no matter what day of the week it is. Can you sense how annoyed I was? haha! I need to chill out and just relax. Let’s move on from my complaining to my Stamping Saturdays mani since that is the main purpose of this post.
I started with 2 coats of Cult Nails Let Me Fly. Don’t let my crazy camera fool you: this polish is a lot more teal than what my pictures show. Still, it’s a gorgeous polish and that shimmer is just perfect.
I have used this image from Konad M64 many times, but I never get tired of it. I used my new Mentality Opaque White stamping polish for the design. I’ll be reviewing the two stamping polishes I recently purchased soon so watch out for that.
So how is your Saturday going? I hope it’s relaxing and fun. Let me know what you think of this mani cause I always love to read what you think. Thank you for stopping by today!
P.S. A little update on my blog sale grab bags: For this weekend only, they are $22 instead of $26!
Loading InLinkz ...
Stamping Saturdays #19
Yep, I’m totally late for Stamping Saturdays mainly because I decided to try the decal method and it was a total bust. I figured that it would be a great idea because I have one Konad image that is barely wide enough to cover my nails so it is super important to line it up perfectly. Well, it did not work out at all because I applied too much top coat on the image and the decal was way too thick. Once I tried to apply it, it was not pliable at all so it just made a big old mess. Have you tried the decal method before? I know there are a few ways to do it, but Thea from Madness Nails has a great tutorial which is the one I followed. Maybe I will give it a try again some other time, but to be honest, it’s too much of a hassle if you’re going to stamp all 10 nails.
Today I felt like wearing Kiko 337 Periwinkle Violet which is freaking awesome. It’s super pigmented and only needed two coats. Even though the polish is super bright, it did not stain my nails at all.
I then used an image from Konad M63 to stamp over my base color. I like how this turned out, but I think I need to invest in new stamping polish because it’s getting harder and harder to get a clean and crisp image. I know there are a lot of choices out there, so please let me know if you have any recommendations.
I am happy to report that it’s nice and cool again in SoCal. I was dying all week so this is a welcome relief. This morning I woke up early because I want to go watch Godzilla early and avoid the crowds. Well, the movie kind of rocked. It was awesome even though it took forever for us to get to see Godzilla. If you like monster/action movies, you will probably enjoy it. I’ve been listening to Smooth McGroove’s YouTube Channel non-stop because he has the most amazing acapella renditions of classic video game themes. If you are an old-school video game nerd like me, you’ll probably piss your pants after hearing this:
How awesome is that? It brought me back to crying because I couldn’t beat Mike Tyson at the end of the game. He also has 2 videos on Chrono Trigger tunes–hello! Chrono Trigger is just about my favorite game EVER. Anyway, check him out!
I hope you’re enjoying your weekend so far. Thanks so much for visiting today, and I will talk to you soon!
Loading InLinkz ...
Stamping Saturdays #16
Since purple is one of my favorite colors, I remember being obsessed with getting every purple and lilac polish known to mankind when I first started hoarding collecting nail polish. One of the very first polishes that made me swoon is OPI Do You Lilac It? and it is still a favorite. I decided to use it as the base color for my mani today so let’s take a look…
This is two buttery coats of OPI Do You Lilac It?, and it is still as gorgeous as I remember it.
I then used KBShimmer Pansy-monioum (press sample) to sponge on my gradient.
And lastly, I used an image from Konad plate M73 for this girlie and flowery design.
While I’m not in love with this final design, I think it is pretty. It’s a little more “girlie” than I tend to do, but sometimes change is good, right? Don’t forget t check out the other Stamping Saturdays looks below. Also, if you’re interested in joining us in Stamping Saturdays, feel free to link your stamped manis below as well. We’d love to see what you come up with. As always, thanks for stopping by!
Loading InLinkz ...