KO Cosmetics - Matte Polish - Liberty

I'm posting this really late! It's after midnight! Well when I came home today I had two packages waiting for me! One was my polishes from Knockout and one was polishes from Rescue Beauty Lounge! YES!

KO- Liberty, KO- Karen, RBL-Bikini Bottom, RBL-Square Pants, RBL-Locavore, RBL-Frugalista, RBL-No More War! Oh man, check out my messy desk! geez!

I swatched Liberty for your viewing pleasure. I know there are swatches of the others out there.

I've been itching for a minty green and some mattes so this one fixed both my needs! I was a bit nervous at first looking at the bottle. I was worried it was pushing close to blue, but it's okay. It's definately minty green. It's a cool tone and looks a little blue in some lights. But it's green. Gorgeous green! The application was not the easiest. Some nails were streaky with two coats and needed a third to even out. But the overall effect is wonderful! I love the matte finish!

Pretty Revlon "Press-Ons"

Today I am bringing you some blingy nails! I tried out a set artificial nails by Revlon.

They are a french manicure set from the Runway Collection with this great silver sparkle design on the tips. I am a big fan of this design!

Now I pretty much never wear fake nails so this is not really my territory. I am not a hater. I just like my real nails. I haven't put on a set in years. What I can remenber from those early days of press-ons is that they didn't really hold up very well. I expected this to snap off in an hour. I put them on Friday night before I went out and they made it the whole weekend! Every single one of them. I didn't attmept to start taking them off until Monday night, and that is only because my violin lessons are on Tuesdays. I don't think my instructor would be pleased! He always has to keep my nail length in check! I try to go as long as I can. Anyway, if I didn't have to take them off, I wouldn't have. I loved them. They made it through showers, dish washing, scrubbing the tub, and all. Very impressive. You know how when you glue a nail on you are very aware of the fact that they are there? You feel that tug on your real nail from the glue? Well I didn't notice it after a day. I forgot entirely that I had on fake nails. Which is impressive because they are long! And they don't have that thick acrylic problem. They are thin and can be used for scratching! And I love this design! Did I mention that yet?! It took my focus frequently. My only gripe is that the middle sizes needed a few extra. There are 2 nails in each size from 0 to 9, with a 5.5 and a 6.5. I used a 3 on the thumb, 9 on the pinky's and the middle fingers had to fight for the rest! I could have used more 6 and 6.5s. The 5.5 got by since it had to, but I used a 5 on the middle and I felt it was too big. I'm going to try again and try to alter the arrangement. Even if I think it was too big it still looks okay, huh? And they held up fine. Check out how real that looks!:
If you try these out don't use as much glue as they say. The directions say to put glue on the fake nail and the real nail, and cover them completely. That is overkill. Choose one or the other, and cover it, but with a thin, thin, layer. THIN! It spreads out when you push it down. Don't use too much. It squeezes out and gets everywhere. I made a mess on the first few, and glued myself together and glued myself to a nail or two. I'm really clumsy, by the way.

With that said, also don't use too little. after my messes I then overcompensated on reducing my glue and didn't use enough and you can tell:See how the glue is in the middle and not around the outside? If these were opaque I would have been able to hide my flub, but they are transparent so it showed.

Now for the removal. I don't know if it's me or what, but this did not go well. The directions say to soak in acetone nail polish remover and they will dissolve. Scrangie also said the same on her post about these nails, and she has put up swatches since that post and her nails look great. Mine however, don't look too good. I soaked and soaked, but they did not dissolve. So I used the manicure stick that came with the nails to nudge around the outsides and soaked some more, and repeated until I was finally just pulling them off. I don't know if I am not patient enough, but I started this morning around 615 and didn't finish until 715. That seems like plently soaking to me. But like I said, this is not my territory so I could be wrong. I know what you're thinking: "are you sure it was acetone remover?" Yup. It was. I don't get it. The remover was a generic store brand that I bought because it was 2 for 1, so maybe that was the problem. I would like to try again with different glue and maybe also different remover. I will let you know how that turns out. I hope I don't discourage you guys with my removal tale, just be aware. If you are a regular with fake nails then I'm sure you'll be fine. They are gorgeous and I want them back! Maybe it would have been better if I kept them on longer too. I was forced to take them off after only a few days for my violin. If you can keep them on for a week or so they may let go easier.

Give them a try and let me know how they work out for you!

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Milani Swatches Part 2

Happy Monday! Today I'm posting the other half of my Milani swatches! Yeah!

Foxy Lady - Reddish brown with a fine shimmer. Definately foxy!
Cloud - Cloud changed my mind on light colored polish. I always thought I like bold, brights colors and nothing soft. Until I met Cloud. It is a super-light lavender with a gold shimmer. This is one of my fave polishes!

Purple Passion - Bright, stunning purple. I think it looks prettier in real life than this pic shows.

Winter Wine - I love this color. I wasn't pleased with this pic. It's deeper in real life. This pic makes it look very close to Hottest Pink, but it's not. They are similar, but not as close as this swatch would have you believe!
Glitzy Stars - Shown alone, and over black. I'm madly in love with this microglitter/shimmer. It's iridescent and awesome!

Disco Lights - Shown over China Glaze - Admire and alone. Pink glitter topcoat. I just got this one because I've been wanting an all over glitter polish, and I thought this one could give me that effect over a foil-finish pink like Admire. With another coat or two I think I can nail it.

Milani Swatches - Part 1

Hello! Today I am finally posting my Milani swatches, Part 1 of 2. I decided to do them because while thinking about my polishes I realized these were way up there on the faves list. This brand is great because it is virtually everywhere, and has beautiful colors and an incredible formula. They usually retail around $4+, but I always almost see them on sale. I also saw someone online write they didn't like the color selection, but I think they have a wide wide range of colors, including cremes, glitters, neons, shimmers, metallics... In blues, purples, orange, yellow, pink, whites, browns, red, berry... plenty to choose from. So here's my swatches:

Blackberry Baby - Ugh. Not for the color but for my sloppy fingers! Sorry. I just got this one and am in love! It's a dark cherry color that is not too dark. It's shimmery too. It goes on super smooth and is a gorgeous color. LOVE IT
Totally Cool - sun pic and shade pic. Other bloggers have been raving about this one and with good reason. Are you looking!? It's a blue/purple jelly with purple microglitter. HOT! I did 3 coats because it's a bit sheer being a jelly, but it's worth it. If you go to a drugstore it check this out, also look and see if they have Sinful Colors-Daddy's Girl. It is also a blue/purple jelly with purple microglitter, but the base is brighter and bluer and you may like it more. I wish I had it to compare. I tried to control my buying. (Which is usually a failure anyway!)
Mr. Sandman - Indoor with flash, and outdoor in sun. A tan metallic. Not too much to say about this one. It's neutral and pretty.
The Hottest Pink- Sun and shade - I just rebought this one because I killed the old one because I wore it so much! Yup. That awesome. Doesn't the name sell you too? 'The Hottest'. Okay. You win. It's a hot pink/fuschia with blue flash. Goes on smooth and gorgeous in 2 coats. One of my faves definately.
Red To Tango - The first pic is in one coat. It's amazing. This one is a goof proof red. It is so thin and smooth and easy to apply. It's amazing. I am a habitual 2 coater so I did two, and that is in the 2nd and 3rd pics, sun and shade. The shade is the best representation of the color. It is not as bright as the first 2 suggest. It is much deeper.
Tropical Fiesta - Bright pink creme that is kind of on the coral side but I wouldn't call it coral. It's super bright without being neon. Very fun, punchy color. The pic is indoor with flash. I thought is was the best pic to show the true color. It didn't show as true to life in the sun for some reason.

I have more to come so stay tuned for part 2!!

Olive Green Franken

So I have mentioned before that my favorite color is green. What I haven't told you is that one of my favorite greens is olive green. So a couple of months ago when my nail polish fetish was kicking in stronger I thought "I need an olive green". A good dirty olive green. I couldn't find one so I turned to frankening and tried a new formula every couple days. I then discovered Rescue Beauty Lounge- No More War which was perfect. BUT... it cost $18 which seemed a bit much. Then I saw Steph's Closet swatch of Comrad Green by Hot Topic and RAN to Hot Topic to find they didn't have it and it wasn't on their website. Well, I then found a suitable mix to franken my own:
It consisted of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Lightening, Tropez - Black Satin, Rimmel- Camouflage, Misa - Hot Couture and topcoat to be glossy.
It looks weirdly light in the bottle but it isn't really.

I dubbed it G.I. Franken.

This is what it looks like on the nail. It is a very cool olive green, but not really dirty enough. I didn't need it to be exactly like No More War, but I did think it would come out more yellow. This is leaning closer to forest green. Even though I used half as much green and black as yellow and tan.

I wrote it Amanda at Dr. Frankenpolish yesterday to pass the challenge to her for this green. I am quite sure she will pass the test!

I intend on geting my No More War today anyway thanks to The Polish Addict's sweet RBL coupon code but I still want to see a good franken of it. I think my next mission will be to franken an olive green that looks like my winter puffy coat:

What do you think?! I think it would be awesome!

And one more pic for fun: I added a Konad stamp to the design with China Glaze-Passion and plate M57.

It's like a wild safari on the nails!

So how does everyone feel about olive green? Love it or hate it?

Tracy Reese for Sally Hansen PLUS FREE POLISH!

WHOA!!! I couldn't wait to do this post. So yesterday I leave work at 5, like anyone else, and like anyone else with a polish problem, went to go browse the closest Walgreen's for awesome buys. I came out with 8 new polishes. AND 5 of them were the Sally Hansen-Tracy Reese Spring collection I have been drooling over. On other blogs I read that they would be released late March/early April, and I just discovered these a week or so ago. I also read they would go fast and are hard to find so I assumed I missed my window, pouted and tried to move on. I even went and looked at the same Walgreen's for them exactly a week prior to yesterday's mission with no luck. So when I saw them yesterday I thought I was dreaming. I stood there shocked for a moment and was ready to pounce and fight for them like a hungry coyote. There were just... sitting there!!! I couldn't believe it. And now I know why they are hard to get. This display only had 2 of each color. So after I got my paws on them they were almost half gone!! Silly.

I was so excited I swatched them indoors with no sun, as I got home late due to my violin lesson. Well, there would be no sun regardless of the time because it was a cloudy day. So I present my 5 of the 7 colors:

Forsythia. I was most excited about this color because it is so unique. It's like what I wanted Misa-Hot Couture to look like but didn't. It's so ugly, isn't it!? I love it. So drabby and mustardy.... awesome
Tassel. Is a shiny metallic gold. Not too flashy though. I felt like I could wear this one to work. It's very pretty, and especially to me because I am a big time gold lover.

Honeydew. I was craving Honeydew from the moment I saw it. Other ladies have had it swatched and I wanted it soooo bad!!! It looked gorgeous and I was not dissapointed. A teal, that is on the greener side, with a bit of shimmer. Lovely.

Night Hydrangea. Another I wanted sooo bad. I have been loving purples and this is a good one. It was hard to get this one accurate. It is a smidge brighter in real life. It looks a little dusty in my pic.

And lastely, Azalea. Awesome coralish, though I say more pink than orange. It appears as though I duped myself. I compared Azalea to Zoya-Eva in the pic below. Thumb and pinky have Eva, and the others Azalea. Can you see a difference? Me either. I think that Eva's application was nicer. Not as thick. So if you want Azalea and can't find it, go for Eva instead.

I didn't get two colors in this collection. I didn't get Beet Stain because it looks just like Zoya-Moxie (which I had in my purse at the time. Sick in the head, I know). And I didn't get Nasturtium because I just didn't think it would look good with my skin tone. But you can view them on the Nailphile.

So the moral of this story is if you thought of giving up hope on this collection, don't!!! It's out there.

AND in unrelated news, I found out from Steph that Butter London is giving away a free polish. If you tried to go on on Earth Day as I did and got blocked out cuz the site crashed, you get a second chance!! I just did it. You can pick from Billy No Mates, Crumpet, Mariner, Prince's Plums, and Eastender. Choose the color, add to cart and go to checkout. Put in you shipping and billing info and the code EARTH2009. You do have to give the credit card info or paypal, but after that page it deducts the cost of the polish and you just have to pay shipping! Mine came to $7.33. But that's still a $14 savings! HOW COOL!?

From the Vault: For Audrey

So, I have been wanting to do a 'Drugstore Series' consisting of Milani and Sinful Colors because they are wonderful and should get more blog love! I did half of the Miliani's and didn't want to post them until I got to do the other half. However, it's been rainy and cloudy so I have been waiting for a sunny day. You can see Milani-Totally Cool, however, on All Lacquered Up which is in my batch. It's gorgeous.

I wanted to put up something today so I have one I did a few weeks ago. It's China Glaze-For Audrey; a gorgeous blue/green/turquoise cream. When you wear it you will not stop looking at your nails! It's amazing. And it looks different all the time. It's sooooo pretty.

And then I added some Konad love with plate M64 and Konad SNP in white:

I was really proud of this thumb! It was a redo from the first round of stamping so when it came out so nicely I was really excited!

OPI Brights

Has anyone seen this new collection from OPI?
I found it on Transdesign.com but it's not on OPI's website, and I haven't seen it on any other nail blogs. It looks like a collection of 6. A bright blue, purple, pink, orange, orangey-red and a mushroomy taupe. Should I just order it... hmmm... I am intrigued...