Kilox Lacquers - World Opulence Collection!

Hi my lovelies!! 

I know I've been pretty MIA as of late. I just recently started a new job, and my hours have been a little all over the place, so I haven't had much time for blogging. Plus, one of the downsides to the job is that we are not allowed to wear any nail polish! (I work with food and drinks a lot, so apparently it's a health-code violation.) 

No polish = sad Kate lol. I've just been keeping them painted on my off-time, and as far as swatches I pretty much have to just swatch and take it right off. No fun, no bueno. Lol!

(Oh also, please forgive my short little nubbins nails and awful, dry cuticles. Those are also courtesy of the new job. Waaah! :p)

But I have a super-duper fun and exciting post for you guys today!! :D 

Today I am swatching/reviewing my very first full indie polish collection! :) 

This is the World Opulence Collection by Kilox Lacquers! 

 

The World Opulence Collection consists of 7 gorgeous sparkly beauties! I really love the bright colors, and obviously I love all that glitter. This is me we're talking about, hello. So shiny, so pretty, and glitter for days! Just my style! ;) 

First up, we have Burmese Ruby: 

Burmese Ruby is a red shimmer, with red and silver micro-glitter. There's actually quite a bit more glitter in it than you can see here, this one was a little hard to capture on camera. The glitter is much more obvious in person. :) 

I was really impressed with the formula, it was completely opaque in 2 coats, (which is rare sometimes for indie polishes, especially glitters), and dried pretty quickly. No staining at all on the nails or cuticles, and removal was easy. I think this will definitely be a staple in my Christmas manis come Holiday time! :) 

Next up, Norwegian Topaz: 

You guys. YOU GUYS. I. love. this. so. much!  Just look at that bottle shot. Look at it. It's so gorgeous I can't even. It's also one of the most unique indies I've seen. :)

Norwegian Topaz is a gooorgeous deep orange shimmer, absolutely packed with holographic pink, orange, and silver micro-glitters, and small pink hex glitters. 

I did not ever want to take this off, it's so sparkly and pretty! Again, the formula was really great, opaque in two coats, great drying time, no staining, no need to "fish" for the glitters at all, and removal was surprisingly easy for such a packed glitter! (Especially since it was completely dry by the time I got myself to stop staring and taking pictures of it lol!) 

Next up, Columbian Emerald:

Columbian Emerald is dark emerald shimmer, with silver micro-glitter and small green and silver round glitters. 

I really like this one too, it's perfect for this season too, since emerald is is the color of the year for 2013! :) 

This formula was slightly thinner, so it took 3 coats to complete opaqueness. You could probably get away with two, but we all know how I am with my coverage, I go overboard sometimes lol! 

Still has a very good drying time, no staining, no "fishing," and easy removal. The glitters in this one, like Burmese Ruby, are much more obvious in person. For some reason my camera didn't want to pick them up lol! This one is great for Fall, and I think it'll be great for pairing with Burmese Ruby in a Christmas mani! ;) 

Next up, Sri Lankan Sapphire:

Sri Lankan Sapphire is deep sapphire blue shimmer, with silver micro-glitter and light and dark blue round glitters. Like the Ruby and Emerald, it's tough to see those round glitters on my camera. If you look at the bottle in that last photo though, that's much closer to what it looks like in person. The formula is similar to Columbian Emerald, opaque in 3 coats, no fishing, good drying time, easy removal, and no staining, which I was pleasantly surprised about! I always expect such pigmented blues like this to stain, but there was none at all! Can't beat that. :) 

Next up, Egyptian Amethyst:

Egyptian Amethyst is a light purple, almost lavender with purple micro-glitter and silver hex glitters. I would say the base is close to a jelly, whereas the rest of this collection is mostly shimmer base, but not quite thin enough to be classified as a jelly. But also not thick enough to be classified as a "crelly" either. This had the thinnest formula out of them all, this is 3 coats in these photos, but if I were wearing it I would probably do one more coat. That could also just be my obsessive need for coverage though lol! 

Despite its thinness, I really really like this one. The shade is gorgeous, and there's something really unique and fun about the dark micro-glitter/light square glitter combo. This one took a tad-bit longer to dry than the others, but really only an extra minute or two. No staining, easy removal, and I only had to "fish" for the hex glitters on the first coat, after that they started coming out on the brush much more easily.  

Next up, Australian Silver:

Though it's hard to choose, I think this one might actually be my favorite of the collection. 

Australian Silver is a super super pretty silver chrome shimmer. The chrome/foil finish of this polish is amazing, it has almost a mirror-shine to it, and the extra sparkle that the shimmer adds makes it even prettier. Another thing I love about it is that it looks different in different lighting; in low/indoor lighting it looks like a dark chrome silver, but in brighter light and sunlight it looks much lighter. The formula was pretty good too. It was a little bit thin, so I did end up doing 4 coats, but each coat dried thin and quickly. No staining (although for a silver that kinda goes without saying lol :p) Removal was a little bit tougher for this one as opposed to the others, but other than that I have not a single complaint. I will definitely be getting lots of use outta this beauty! :) 

And last, but most certainly not least, is the Opulent Top Coat: 

This is sooo gorgeous! The Opulent Top Coat is a packed holographic micro-glitter top-coat. I topped off Australian Silver with it here. 

The formula is great, quick-drying, easy removal, and no fishing at all, it comes right out on the brush easy-peasy. The first photo is 1 coat, and the second photo is 2 coats. I really love this one, I love all the rainbow you can see in the holo! 

So that is the beautiful World Opulence Collection from Kilox Lacquers! If you like these, make sure to check out her website Kilox Lacquers, she also has a another super pretty collection! :) 

(Disclaimer: These products were sent to me for my honest review, all opinions are strictly my own.) 

Outline/Zebra-Print Nail Art!

Hey my lovelies!

I know I haven't posted in awhile, sorry about that! :( 

But I have some pretty nail art that I did over the weekend to show you! :) 

My nail-spiration for these actually came from Pinterest, I saw a lot of people mixing bright colored outlines and animal print, so I decided to give it a try! And of course, that leads to pink and zebra stripes obviously! ;p  

 

This was my first real try at outline nails, (other than my playstation nails) and I like how it turned out!  

I used the un-named pink for the Kiss - Nail Artist Paint & Stencil Kit, and the White and Black Konad Stamping Polishes. I've found that stamping polishes have a really good formula/consistency for nail art! (I still need to practice my actual stamping, so far my attempts haven't been very picture-worthy. :p) 

That's all for today! What do you think about the Animal Print + Bright Colors trend that's going around? Let me know in the comments! I like it, I think you'll probably be seeing more manis along those lines from me! :) 

imPRESS Press-on Manicure! :)

Hey lovelies! :)

Today I'll be showing you one of the imPRESS Press-On Manicures! :) 

I actually got these for my birthday from my sister, I'd seen the ads for them in magazines and everything but hadn't tried them yet. I looove the design she got me, the colors and detail are so pretty! It's almost like a tie-dyed floral! :)

I also love that they come in this cute little case, my sister and I both thought it was just the packaging at first, but when you open it up its actually a little plastic case shaped like a nail polish bottle! So I can even re-use it for storage or travel with any of my other falsies once I've used these. So fun! :) 

The imPRESS Press-On Manicures are basically like most other press-on manis, but they're actually really good quality. 

The way it works is that they're basically falsies, except you don't need to use nail glue! They have a little plastic strip on the back, and you peel it off and stick it on your nail, and viola! No dry time, just stick 'em on and you're good to go! I've tried plenty of other press-on nails, but most only last a few days before they start falling off or getting loose, but these lasted me a good 5 days, and even then they didn't fall off, I just took them off since they were loosening up. 

Removal is super easy, they peel right off, and unlike falsies with nail glue there was no damage to natural nail at all! The only thing I noticed was that my cuticles were a bit dry, but that's probably because I wore them for almost a week. 

Close-up look at the pretty design my sister picked! :)

These are definitely really good quality press-ons, and I would recommend them! The only other press-ons that I've loved this much are the Kiss Nails press-ons. So overall I was really imPRESSed! LOL! (Please excuse that terrible pun, I just couldn't resist! :p) 

Have a great day/night/whatever-time-you're-reading-this, loves! :)

Swatch Time + NOTD with Zoya - Phoebe!

Hey my lovelies!

So today I'm going to show you swatches of the third polish I got in Zoya's 4th of July sale, Phoebe! 

I've actually wanted Phoebe for a long time now, but every time I bought from Zoya, it was sold out. But this time around, I finally got lucky and they had it in stock! :)   

Phoebe is a gooorgeous blue matte shimmer, from Zoya's Mod Matte Summer 2011 Collection. 

I have one of the others from that collection, Mitzi, but they discontinued the third shade, Lolly, so unless someone has it and is wiling to sell it or trade for it, I won't get to own it. It's so pretty too! Matte hot pink! Sad Kate! :(  LOL

They also stopped making Electra from the Ornate Winter 2012 Collection, which I wanted sooo badly, but when I went to buy it in February I was too late. You snooze you lose with Zoya sometimes I guess. LOL :p

But anyways, more about Phoebe!

 3 coats, no top-coat!

Swatch Time!: Zoya PixieDusts!

Hey lovelies!

It's SwatchTime! I have some super pretty swatches for you today, Zoya PixieDusts!  

This past 4th of July (Independence Day here in America!) Zoya had another one of their awesome specials; if you bought the PixieDust shade Liberty, you got any other two shades FREE! :) 

So I did it, and I got Liberty, Stevie, and Phoebe. 

Zoya PixieDust - Liberty 

Zoya PixieDust - Stevie 

Zoya Matte Velvet - Phoebe 

So today I'll show you swatches of the first two, the Liberty and Stevie PixieDusts! 

Pixie Dust is Zoya's line of textured glitter polishes! These are the second textured polishes I've tried, I also tried one of the OPI Liquid Sand polishes. 

I have to say, I like Zoyas formula a lot better! I usually like OPI's formula the best, but Zoya's textured formula is really good! They dry super quick, and I love the way they look and feel. Both of the ones I tried were opaque in 2 coats! :)

What I liked better about the Zoya formula was that you can do more than two coats, and it still dries quickly, but with the OPI ones you can really only do 2 coats, or else it doesn't dry properly. That was really my only problem with the OPI formula though, was the drying time.

This is Liberty, the only one of the three that I paid for! Hehe :p  

Liberty is from the Summer PixieDust Collection.

Liberty is a super pretty dark blue matte textured glitter. It's a deep blue base, with dark and light blue, almost silver micro glitter. 

The only thing I didn't like about this polish, was that it does stain blue a little, especially during removal. I won't lie, I definitely got Smurf fingers when I took it off! LOL!

Other than that though, I have no complaints about this one! :)

This is Stevie! As soon as I saw this one advertised I knew I had to have it, it's soo pretty! :) 

Stevie is also from the Summer PixieDust Collection. 

Stevie is a gooorgeous lavender/pink matte textured glitter. It has a pinkish/lavender base, with silver micro glitter.  

I love these, I'm definitely going to be buying some more PixieDusts in the future, the Fall Collection especially looks really really pretty! :) 

Check back tomorrow for a swatch of Phoebe, the third polish I picked! :) 

Did you guys take advantage of this Zoya deal? Let me know in the comments what colors you picked if you did! :)

Super Mario Bros Nail Art!

Hey lovelies!

So over the weekend, I did my little sisters nails for her. She loves all the Mario games, she's always on her DS playing "Mario Kart," so she asked me if I could do some Super Mario Brothers nail art for her! :) 

So here's the result! 

(Note: it's a little bit messy. Art and cleanup are very difficult on small little child nails LOL! So sorry about that. :p) 

(Late!) Comic-Con Geek Week Day 5, The Last Day!

Hey my lovelies!

So this post, wrapping up Geek Week, was supposed to up on Friday, but as you may know I participated in Mint Manis for Talia Joy on Friday, and I decided that out of respect for Talia I was going to feature that as my only post for the day. 

And then yesterday, I pretty much just had a lazy Saturday and completely forgot to put up this post until it was like, 2am and I was laying in bed falling asleep. Whoops! LOL. We all know I have terrible issues being timely sometimes. xD

But here it is, Day 5 of Geek Week, the final day! 

So the last theme was SPAAAAACE!! Free for all, so it just had to be space themed. 

Mint Manis for Talia Joy <3

Hi lovelies.

Today, I have a very special post, dedicated to a very special little girl. 

This past week, the beauty community lost one its most amazing and precious members, Talia Joy Castellano. If you don't know who she was, she was an immensely talented aspiring make-up artist, you may have seen her on YouTube or 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show,' who was battling cancer at just 13 years old. Sadly, she lost that battle and passed away this week. 

I was so heartbroken to hear about her passing. I will never understand why these beautiful innocent children have to go through something as difficult as cancer. No child should ever have to suffer that way. At least now she's in a better place, and her suffering is over,  even though everyone down here on Earth will miss her dearly. 

To honor her life, the wonderful Nicole from Nail Polish Wars has set up a tribute, as a way for all of us in the beauty community to say goodbye and pay our condolences to her family. The last picture she posted on her InstaGram account was a photo of her and her mother's nails, painted with a Mint colored manicure. So to pay tribute, we are posting Mint colored manicures today, with the hashtags #MintManisForTaliaJoy and #TaliasLegacy.  

Comic-Con Geek Week, Day 4!

Hello my lovelies!

Geek Week is almost over, and it's time for Day 4! 

Today's theme is Inspired by a Comic Book! 

I was pretty excited about this one, I got a pretty cool idea for it. 

I was never a huge comic book reader, but I did read some as a kid. I mostly read the Disney Adventures comics, with the Gargoyles comics and all, but I have read a few others. 

If you can't tell, I'm a Marvel girl. And my all-time favorite Marvel comic/character is... Spider-Man! Go figure, since I'm a huge arachnophobe! LOL 

But my favorite Spider-Man comics were always the ones with Venom in them! I love Venom, he's so creepy and kickass and awesome, he's basically the anti-Spider-Man.

So that was my inspiration for today, Spider-Man and Venom comics!  

Comic-Con Geek Week Day 3!

Hey my lovelies! 

It's time for Day 3 of Geek Week! 

Today's theme is Inspired by a Movie! 

So I decided to go with the most awesomely epic movie of last year, (and by far the best Marvel movie yet, in my opinion! ;) ) The Avengers! 

This movie was epic and amazing, unsurprisingly. I think my favorite part is the part during the big fight where Hulk and Thor beat a bunch of the Asgardian villains, and are standing side by side all triumphant for half a second, and then Hulk just side-smashes Thor across the train station. I crack up for about ten minutes straight after that, no matter how many times I watch it LOL. :p 

Now onto the nails! 

I'm not entirely happy with how these came out, but they could be worse i guess. :p 

Left to right starting at the index fingernail, it's Captain America's shield, my sad attempt at Iron man's heart reactor, the Hulk (which, my purple I used for his ripped pants must've been to dark, because my camera decided to pik it up as just black. Oh well) and Nick Fury's eyepatch and battle scars. 

I'm sorry Thor, but I just couldn't figure out how to depict you without it looking like a Lego face. 

Then on the thumb, I made an attempt at the Avengers A logo. (Which, how fun was that little nod at the end of the movie, where the only letter not destroyed on Stark Tower was the A? Fantastic. I see you Marvel, I see you. :p) 

So there's my Day 3! See you tommorow for Comic Day! And as always, make sure to check out all the other movie manis! 

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