GO CATS!

OPI Nice Stems! Swatches

OPI has released a set of 4 limited edition pinks for summer 2011 and although pink usually gets me least excited I am super pleased with all of these!

Play The Peonies - This is a soft white with a hint of pink and a pearly, shimmer finish. I love all the components that make this shade what it is. Sooo prettty

Come To Poppy - This is a very interesting color. It's hard to describe. It's a pink, red, coral that's warm or cool... neutral? And it has a faint, pearly shimmer to finish off it's uniqueness and gorgeousness.

Be A Dahlia, Won't You? - Smokin' hot, fuchsia glass-fleck. Not terribly, unique, but still nice.

I Lily Love You (alone, over Poppy, close-up) - This is a pink-tint clear with loads of iridescent glitter in varying sizes and shapes. It's like a pink party!

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.

Glam Slam France

In conjunction with the French Open (currently happening) OPI has released some new shatter shades inspired by Serena Williams. The first set I am showing you is the white shatter/delicious glitter combo>>>

Spark de Triomphe - I was really excited to see this one because I had a feeling from pictures it was more special than a regular silver glitter and I was right! It's actually a mix of silver and gold glitter in varying sizes! SOOOO PRETTY! My pic really doesn't do it justice.

White Shatter (Shown over Spark de Triomphe) - This is a standard crackle in white creme. Cracks quick and is easy to apply. I was concerned that I wouldn't like this combo because I didn't want to cover up the pretty glitter and I actually love it! To vary the cracks, as I applied I moved the brush back and forth while moving closer to the tip. Love it.

The Glam Slam sets are out now. What do you think?!
-Elaine
:c)

Nubar Spring Garden

For Spring this year Nubar has created a collection of pastels. Now, usually that is everyone's Spring collection, and usually that is disappointing because there isn't too many ways to change up pastels, but these are actually different. They all have a softness to them, mostly due to the silver, pearly shimmer in them.

Pink Lily - This is a soft pink creme that leans on the peach side. The shimmer is pretty hidden in this one, but it's contribution makes a difference.

Earthen - This is a "greige" creme, that is more on the gray side than beige side. The pearly shimmer really stands out in this one and makes it look less like mud than most greige cremes.

Baby Sprout - Super cool, soft green pastel green. It's not so much a mint... it's like a ... baby sprout, I guess. It reminds me of mint gum. This one is a bit more white and stark that some of the softer colors in this set.

Blue Hydrangea - This is a bright, baby blue with strong, pearly, silver shimmer.

White Peony - This is a super soft white creme that is soft in texture: it's sort of squishy, and it is also soft in color as it is slightly off white, or maybe a smidge yellow or ivory. It's a bit difficult to explain but it's beautiful. It also had an amazing formula for being white. Very easy to apply.

Yellow Primrose - This is a very, very soft yellow with pearl finish. It is so soft of a yellow it is almost wrong to call it yellow. It' s more like a cream shade.

Purple Aster - I love this one. This is a gorgeous shade of lavender. This is one of the ones in this set that has more shimmer than others. I looooved wearing this. It's very pretty and delicate, but interesting and not boring, but not flashy and too noticeable. Good work shade.

Honeysuckle - If you have been searching for a polish in Honeysuckle to satisfy your need of the Pantone color of the year in a polish form, here it is! It is a creme with a slight jelly finish. Very pretty and flattering.

Dewdrop (over Purple Aster) - To complement all the shades in this collection, Nubar released this iridescent glitter in a clear base.

These are available now for $49.95.

What do you think?
:c)

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.

Flower Mani

HI! This is a quickie post. I wanted to show you a mani I did a couple weeks ago.

This is a white creme base (I think I used OPI - Alpine Snow) then I stamped the flowers with a Bundle Monster plate and Nicole - My Lifesaver. And to finish it off I dotted black polish to the middle of the flowers.

Have a great weekend!

Snowflakes

I got festive! I did nice winter mani for myself (and for all you!)

This is China Glaze - Frosty layered over a base of white creme. Then I stamped snowflakes with Konad plates M59 and M70 and China Glaze chrome shades in Harmony, Millennium, Devotion and Awaken.

What do you think?!
Elaine
:c)

Striping Tape Review

Hi! I recently had a chance to review some products from bornprettystore.com and the product I am showing you today is the striping tapes.

Striping tapes are thin, colored/metallic/glittery tapes that are used for nail art. These supposedly come as a set of 12, but I only have 10: black, coppery-brown, purple, blue, green, silver, white, pink, yellow and red. From their picture online it looks like there may also be a sky blue and magenta? It's hard to tell.

This is the first time I have ever used striping tapes but I think they were very easy to use and I like the mani that I did with them:

I started by painted my nails as usual. For this design I did half white creme and half China Glaze - Jolly Holly. Once that was all dry I started with the roll of red, taped it onto my nail from the diagonal corner near the cuticle, pressed it along the nail and cut the end. Simple! I did that to all 10, trimmed and excess and topped it with top coat.

There really weren't any issues with using these except that a couple nails did have some lifting at the free edge but to remedy that I just added more top coat.

The set of 12 tapes is sold for $8.99 and decreases in price the more sets you buy. Bornprettystore.com is located in China but ships internationally.

The store also sells plenty of other nail art products including rhinestones, filmo and stickers. They also sell polish (I have some to show you) tools, acrylic equipment, false eyelashes and other things. I have some nail stamping kits to review for you but so far I haven't had success with them. More to come...

Nubar Finest Silks

Nubar Finest Silks is a collection of eight feminine, "work appropriate" shades. Mostly creme finishes with the exception of one shimmer.

Taffata - Brownish pink creme. When I was wearing this it made me think that this would be what it would look like if you mixed chocolate milk and strawberry milk.

Marabout - This is a dark gray-brown creme. Really interesting and stylish. It reminds me of mud which I know doesn't sound stylish but that is the kind of colors I like.

Chiffon - This is just like Marabout but lighter. Lighter mud. Nice, but I wore this right after Marabout and really didn't feel like I changed my polish.

Organza - This is a shimmery, sheer white. Not bad alone, but if you don't like sheers I'd say to layer this. This is three coats.

Moire - Light, soft tan creme with a hint of pink. Delicate and pretty.

Charmeuse - Mauve creme. Not a boring mauve; it's bright and bold. I like this. And the formula! All of these have a nice formula but this one was especially nice.

Pekin - Bright red creme. Nice, bold, smooth and sexy.

Sateen - Dark red, blood creme.

These are beautiful shades and I greatly appreciate colors like this being a working professional for when I can't wear my usual blues, greens and glitters. I really enjoy adding shades like this to my collection because I am so used to unusual shades being my norm, that these feel outrageous! But my gripe with this collection is that I feel like there are too many repeats! I like these shades for their sophistication but I don't want the same ones over and over. For example, Marabout and Chiffon really seemed like the same color to me. But anyway, they are nice and beautiful and have a fantastic formula.

Nubar Finest Silks is available now on bynubar.com and retail for $7.49 per bottle or $49.95 for the entire collection.

What do you think?
-Elaine
:c)

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.

Powder Puff Dupe

Have you all seen the new matte Revlon polishes? Well I haven't! But I have seen some pics, and I really loved the look of Powder Puff, a soft, squishy white matte with blue flash. But I didn't know where to find it, or if I would find it and instead of trying to hunt it down, as fun as a NP hunt can be, I decided to dupe the look. This is what I came up with.

I started with two coats of Essie - Marshmallow, a squishy, white jelly. Then I layered over it, a
coat of Wet n Wild - Ice Blue Pearl. I set that with Seche Vite and then the next day I added a coat of Essie - Matte About You. I really like the end result and from what I have seen of Power Puff swatches, it looks pretty darn close!

What do you think?
Elaine
:c)

Lohan Nails

So Lindsay Lohan is going to jail. I am not here to talk about that in any way, shape or form. What I am here to talk about, however, is her nails in court the other day. They were brought to our attention because apparently they had profanity written on them. Observe:

Photo courtesy of Perez Hilton

I am not here to talk about the profanity though, either. What I am here to talk about is the colorful, airbrushed design she had on! I decided I wanted to take a stab at a recreation and this is what I came up with:

Interested in how I did it? It was mostly a matter of sponging, which I have never done, and it turns out, it's not that hard! Here is what I did:

1) I painted all my nails with a white cream to start.

2) Next, I took one of the three colors I was going to sponge with and started sponging! Which color you start with isn't really important. I just started with pink by chance.

3) Continue sponging with the other two colors. I intentionally did all nails different. Some have more orange, more pink or more blue, and all have the colored spots arranged differently.

4) Next, I stamped white flowers with Konad plate M65 on all nails.

5) Lastly, I applied topcoat and cleaned up my messy fingers with remover and an orange stick wrapped in cotton.

There are several different sponges that you could use but I used a cosmetic wedge to accomplish my sponging.

The shades I used: Diamond Cosmetics - Tranquility, China Glaze - Sugar High, KleanColor - Mango

Side by side, how do you think I did?

Have a fantastic Friday!
-Elaine
:c)