some ramblings....and a wet n wild polish

 Happy Tuesday! 

As I said in a previous post, my nails have been on a vacation for a while....I managed to snap a pic right before my middle nail broke and I had to clip it down :( For some reason my nails don't like to be long. They communicate by becoming weird and weak at the edges prompting me to cut them before they develop a hang nail. I don't think my nails have EVER been the exact same size....

During the nail vacation, I put on a new coat of Orly Nail Defense every day (I also use that as a basecoat)  

Look how pretty they look!!!
:)

ANYWAY, this afternoon, I finally had some time to myself  to paint my nails. I decided to try out one of my (semi) new Wet n Wild polishes. This was right after I had had to clip my middle nail down, so I was in a impatient/crappy mood. This polish didn't help...........(..foreshadow..)

here are the pictures first

Wet n Wild On a Trip

As you can see, On a Trip is a lightish purple creme. I was worried the color wouldn't transfer right on the picture, but it is pretty close. It's a bit more darker in real life. I was too lazy to clean up so I tried to be extra careful in my application but it was really hard. The formula was horrible! :( It was the bad kind of runny, combined with a giant brush, that doesn't work on my short nails. The formula was similar to the other wet n wild polishes I bought (by being runny) but this was the worse. It also took forever to dry. It is, in fact, already off my nails as I smudged it right after the pics.  

Pretty color but bad formula.

Hope everyone else had a good day!

   -Katy

*REswatch* cookie monster

Hey you guys! ;)

Long time no see...sorry about that. This has kinda been a "rest 'n' recover" week for my nails. Also, I ran out of batteries that work with my camera. That, combined with how busy each week is mad it kinda hard to swatch, and take pics.  

     Anyway, I  was looking through my pictures and I came across another swatch of cookie monster, one of my frankens. 

I hope that gives you a better idea of what it looks like ;)

thanks

-Katy

*Guest Post!*

 Happy Saturday! Today we have a very special guest post by my friend Lucy!
 Unfortunately, she does not yet have a blog, but we do share our love of nail polish! 
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Hi polish lovers! I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Today we have Essie Shine of the Times over Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint.

Very pretty flakie layering combo!! 

Thanks again Katy!

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 Beautiful! Since I have both those polishes, I will definitely try this combo.

thc Lucy! 

2 quick mani's ;)

Happy Friday!
I have realized more and more that all the posting I do is in short bursts on the weekend. I hope you guys don't mind, but I will try to be a bit better about that.
So here are some quick mani's from the week...

Cookie Monster is one of my only frankens that has a name. Its is a deep turquoise blue and has stray holographic sparkles. 2 coats. It had a bit of a gritty finish so I topped it off with a coat of SV, leaving it still kinda bumpy but a cool texture.

semi sunlight

Special Appearance! Here we have my shy right hand, wearing 2 coats of Revlon Peachy.

Formula was slightly thin, 2 coats for okay coverage, no topcoat.

Definitely not my best pics, but I was in a hurry. Darn I just hate those blurry pics. watevs! 

Two pretty colors, but nothing amazingly specially unique. I promise you I have some treats planned for this weekend! ;)

thanks for watching,

   -Katy

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!
I just want to thank all of my lovely followers of reading my little blog <3

You guys are all awesome!

 Some hugs and kisses for all of you!!

A nice BIG and CHOCOLATY
heart cake
Enjoy stuffing your face with it ;)

-Katy

wannabe elle's spell

Hi my lovelies!!! ;)
This is 2 coats of Essie Shine of the Times over 2 coats of Orly Haute Red

(O.O)

**edit* sorry bout the two oversized pics, my computer spazzed**

I totally lucked out on lighting!!!! Its raining sunnily outside (finally some spring weather) so I was worried the lighting wouldn't be right...(you know how you have to catch flakies at just the right angle)

I think the first pic is the only one in full focus..... but watevs 

The red turned out to be more jelly-ish IRL than I had expected but it works out.

   -Katy 

lemony layering combo

Hey!
here is another non vday mani lol...

I was going to swatch one of the L'Oreal polishes I had gotten, Tweet Me, but it turned out to be too sheer to wear on its own. So I layered!

Here I start with 2 coats of Orly Hook Up

direct sunlight

shade

Then I added 2 coats of L'Oreal Tweet Me

sunlight

sunlight

shade

A very cheerful combo!

Formula for Hook Up was great though the brush was smaller than usual

Hook up is a yellow/gold with a slightly frosty finish

I was hoping for more fun micro glitter in Tweet Me, though in the right light it is more evident

and you can see more than one color.

     -Katy

Subtle Valentines Day mani!!

Happy almost Valentines Day!! (3 more days to go)

Here is a nice Valentines day mani without being too dramatic. So basically just V-day colors ;)

I did some nail art on my pink franken...

Just really easy nail art...stripes and dots! Probably the extent of what I can comfortably do.

I guess that counts as Valentine-y ............ kinda

thanks for watching!

    -Katy

Franken Saturday!

Happy Saturday!!! YAY weekend!!!

As you probably know, I am not the best at naming my franken...

I think I have only named one, Cookie Monster, but I haven't even shown you guys (lol)

Anyway, today I have another nameless franken for you guys! 

It has a pink semi sheer (but easily buildable) base and has different colored glitters in it.

I even added a tiny bit of flakies!!

3 coats no topcoat!

Here we have some GIANT pictures so you can see the awesomeness!!! 

direct sunlight

semi shade

weird sunlight
(not sure what happened here)

direct sunlight

I think its a subtle pink with a bit of sparkle! 

A pretty shade for spring.

Any name ideas?

   -Katy

New Haul!!! *and preview!*

Last night I stopped by my local Walgreens in hope of finding some nice spring colors!

I got some nice ones....

I was soo excited that I found the new display for L'Oreal Polishes!!!!!They had a buy one get one half off so of course I jumped at the offer ;P

I also found the only remaining Essie's, Go Overboard and Armed and Ready from the new spring collection..

And lasty, I just had to get myself Revlon Royal.....

Revlon Royal, L'Oreal Tweet Me, L'Oreal L'Orange, Essie Go Overboard, Essie Armed and Ready

Look at that beautiful shimmer!!

More micro shimmer!!!

preview of what they look like
(I couldn't resist)
:D
also..plz don't ask why some of my nails are blue...
or why the cleanup is so bad...

What do you guys want to see first?!!!      

YAY! new polishes make me so excited!  :)

    -Katy

First Comparison! pale blue

Hey polish lovers! (and cookie lovers :)

Today we have my first comparison.....

Trumpets sound!!!! 

We are going to be comparing some of the different sky/pale blue creme polishes in my collection. I feel that this is one color that many polish companies have made dupes too and definitely a very common color. 

Pretty none the less. :) I am especially drawn to this color because I love blue!!! BLUE BLUE BLUE

*sorry in advance for messy clean up, I was too lazy to clean up in between coats*

On the nail, the polishes are in the opposite order that you see here:

pointer- Essie, middle- Wet n Wild, ring- Revlon, pinky-  Cosmetic Arts

Cosmetic Arts (no name), Revlon Minted, Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint, Essie Turquoise and Caicos

All swatches in this post are shown with Orly Nail Defense base coat and no top coat.

 As you can see, the formula for the first coat for all was a bit streaky...

direct sunlight
1 coat

shade
1 coat

After 2 coats, you start to see more apparent color differences and levels of opacity...

sunlight
2 coats 

shade
2 coats

 And with three, almost all are opaque with their semi different colors...

sunlight
3 coats

shade
3 coats

Conclusion: My favorite color was Essie T&C (I just loved the semi squishy jelly like feel)... a close second both color and formula wise would be Wet n Wild INRM. Revlon M turned out to be more of a pale green color. Cosmetic Arts had similar color to Wet n Wild INRM, but came in last formula wise. I think its worth it to buy both the Wet n Wild (only $1.99) and the Essie ($7.99).

Soooooo... what did you guys think?!! 

I <3 comments! suggestions?!

thanks for watching!

-Katy

year of the dragon/ vday mani!

Happy Friday!!
The other day I was trying to do a V-day mani, but it turned out to be more of a year of the dragon mani...

      I used this "funky clouds" idea that I saw on Nailside. She has a great tutorial  right here. 

For my base I used Orly Haute Red. Then I did the clouds design with Milani Gold Rush. The I matted it.

This combo is very BOLD...definitely not one of my usual combos. These colors look great together though. I might try this with a blue instead of the red.. 

Thoughts/Suggestions?

thanks!

*Be sure to check out my poll on the right of the page*

   -Katy

quick NOTD: OPI Bling Dynasty

Happy Tuesday!!!!
quick NOTD

here we have 3 coats of OPI Bling Dynasty (part of the OPI Hong Kong collection Spring 2011)
It was almost almost almost opaque in 2 but I had accidentally smudged it (oops) so I did three

unfortunately today was a very overcast/rainy day and I wasn't able to do good close ups
(you can see a rain droplet in the second picture)

A very pretty gold, no doubt

I will have to swatch this again once the sun comes out

-Katy

OPI DS Classic

HI guys!!!

I am just going to let you stare at these pictures and be amazed ;)

then I will talk about it 

my favorite thought that came to mind when I was putting it on was

"OMG this is what magic feels like"

needless to say it applied like butter (omnomnom)

and this is two coats!

Enjoy!

shade/indoors

direct sun

direct sun/outdoors

 I love how in the shade it looks like sand

shade/outdoors

direct sun out doors

and I even have a video!!!

~i had problems and couldn't figure out how to edit it so the best part is in the first 10 seconds~ 

;)

OPI DS Classic

totally brilliance!

magical

sparkly

awesomesauce

One of the things I definitely notice is that the display in the shade reminds me of the look in OPI's new Holland Collection, of the I don't give a rotterdam, I have a herring problem, and Pedal faster suzi

It makes the polish very interesting

Classic is also one of my only nude colors (which I'm totally into!!)

thanks for watching!!!!

-Katy

Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint

Its been a long time since I have done some konad, so I decided to spice up this mani...

Here is 2 coats with one coat of SV of Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint

     Formula was relatively good, first coat kinda streaky second coat evens it out. The brush was nice, though wide, so beware, wide brush haters lol.

Nevertheless, we have seen this color millions of times. If you don't have anything like it though, its a great buy for only $1.99!

I do have some complaints about the name...

It is definitely not a green color, although there are just the TINIEST bit of green undertones.

This pic is pretty color accurate .

This isn't my favoritist picture, but the light was running out... Here I stamped with Milani Gold Rush using plate m64.

 

With flash, here is the matted version.

a more flattering picture ;)

The matte (as usual) adds a more subtle and soft feel. In this case, I think it makes the color scheme seem more Greek...or reminds me of pool tiles.

-Katy