OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest

Hello friends!  Today I have a color from the OPI's Germany collection.  Behold the glory that is Every Month Is Oktoberfest.

This, ladies, is an amaaaazing color.  In the sun and bright light, she has a heavy deep eggplant shimmer.  In lower and natural light, she's kind of a black cherry.  At first I couldn't figure out what to call her color, and my friend Yeny and I wracked our brains until she finally came up with black cherry (also my fave Baskin Robbins flavor!).  I love her against my skin tone!  She is just fantastic!!!!

See how she gives off a completely different vibe in different light?  Total dual personality.  She is super easy to work with and apply, which is exactly what I've come to expect from OPI shimmers.  She could be a one-coater if you're careful, but I always apply at least two coats for depth in every mani.  This is two coats plus a topcoat.

This is the first of the Germany collection I've gotten.  I love it so much, I'm thinking a need to make a trip to Cosmoprof for a few more!  You can find OPI at ULTA, Sephora, Cosmoprof, and Saloncentric.

Happy Saturday!!!! xoxo Kris

Pretty and Polished: Jawbreaker

Hello ladies!!!  Today I have super fun polish from indie brand Pretty and Polished.  This one is called Jawbreaker.

Do you remember that movie?  They're trying to scare their friend on her birthday and they shove a jawbreaker in her mouth to gag her and throw her in the trunk, but by the time they get to where they're going she's choked on the jawbreaker so they try to cover it up?  My sister and I used to watch it allll the time!

See?  She really looks like a jawbreaker!  She's tiny purple glitter, small blue, red, spring green, and yellow hexagon glitter, medium blue hexagon glitter, tiny green bar glitter, and small red square glitter in a milky white base.  The bar glitter is super sparse, I only got one bar on my non-photographed hand.  This is three thin coats, no undies.  Next time I will prob do two coats for depth over white underwear to conserve polish.

She is really easy to work with!  Not watery or thick, great brush flow, and even application.  I don't think I shook her up enough, though, because I only got one red square and one green bar in my whole mani.  Looking at the bottle, I don't think I see any more bar glitter.  Maybe it snuck in while the bottle was being mixed?  She was fully opaque in three thin coats and dried really smooth for a glitter polish!

She's so fun!  I've worn her for two days with zero chips or tip wear, and have gotten lots of compliments!  She's a perfect polish for glitter newbs: easy to work with and not very blingy, but still really interesting.  I think I'll be reaching for her a lot come springtime!

I got my Pretty and Polished from www.shop.llarowe.com.

Happy Wednesday!!! xoxo Kris

CrowsToes Cheshire

Hi ladies!  Today I have another miraculous CrowsToes polish: Cheshire, inspired by the slightly creepy, mostly cute Cheshire cat in Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland.  Hello gorgeous!!!!

Cheshire is purple and magenta glitter, small and medium chartreuse hexagon glitter, and giant matte purple hexagons in a clear base.  Whatttt.  This is one coat over China Glaze Spontaneous, a medium smoky purple creme.

Application on this one was tricky.  I had to dab her on because she's soooo thick and move her around a little to get her even.  I also had to do some fishing for the giant purple hexagons.  But look at it.  The payoff is sooooo worth it.

She's pretty top coat thirsty.  I used two coats of sealer to get her reasonably smooth so she wouldn't catch on anything.

Look at these bottle shots.  LOOK.  Are you kidding me right now?

See the humongous hexagons hanging out here?  So cool!

To continue with the Alice In Wonderland theme, I drank my morning coffee from my Mad Hatter mug I picked up from Downtown Disney when I visited my sister this summer.  I am almost as obsessed with coffee mugs as I am with nail polish, and this one is currently my favorite!

See the little white blob under the mug?   That's my little man.  He was watching his Saturday morning cartoons, and prefers the floor to the couch lol!

CrowsToes is easily one of my favorite indie brands!  You can find CrowsToes on www.shop.llarowe.com and www.overallbeauty.com.

Happy Sunday!! xoxo Kris

Elixir Lacquers With a "K"

So I had to get this polish.  I HAD to.  My name is Kristen, and apparently no one in the entire world except other Kristens know how to say or spell it.  I'm constantly having to say, "It's Kristen with a K."  Common misspellings of my name include Kristin, Kristine, Christian, Christin, etc.  When the doctor's office or telemarketers call, it's always, "May I speak to Christina Walker?"  Omg, you have my name written down right in front of you.  Do you see an A anywhere in it?  My own grandmothers, forever and ever, spelled my name Kristin.  But I forgive them because they're awesome in all other respects.  Anyway.  This is Elixir Lacquers' "With a K"!

Sorry for the blurry photos.  It seems my camera only wants to shoot well in the daytime hours.  :)  With a K is silver and pink pinpoint glitter and small iridescent baby pink and medium pink hexagon glitter in a medium lavender pink base.  I added her to my cart at the last minute, and I'm glad I did!  She surprised me when I put her on, because I thought she would be more pale since she looks kind of watery in the bottle.  She went on super even and easy, and was actually a breeze to remove!  This is one thick coat of With a K over three coats of China Glaze Diva Bride, a sheer baby pink creme, which I LOVE.

These pics do her no justice.  She is super girly, but refined and actually kind of subtle.  When I first put her on, I didn't love her, but I was craving something really bright and colorful on my nails last night, so that's probably why.  I wore her for a couple of hours, and she totally grew on me during that time.  She is just beautiful!!!



Yummy bottle shot!  (Sorry for the flash lol)

 She's soooo pretty!  I love her application and coverage.  I will definitely be buying more from Elixir Lacquers!  You can find Elixir Lacquers at www.overallbeauty.com.

Happy Saturday!!! xoxo Kris (with a K)

CrowsToes Absolum - Your Potions Master

Oh man.  Would you look at this.  Funky glitter with a Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland Harry Potter crossover theme?  Stop it right now.





I've heard nothing but great things about CrowsToes.  She seems like a super awesome chick and the colors and combinations of her lacquers are insanely cool.  This is one of two of her polishes I ordered from Kim at Overall Beauty and I am sah-mitten.  I love the inspiration behind this polish, which I can only assume is my little English muffin Alan Rickman, since he played Absolum the caterpillar in Alice In  Wonderland and Professor Snape, the Hogwarts potions professor, in the Harry Potters.

Absolum - Your Potions Master is tiny silver glitter, small orange and green glitters, medium blue glitter, and matte black bar glitter in a clear base.  You can't see the bar glitter in these shots because I layered AYPM over a shiny black creme (China Glaze Liquid Leather), but it would definitely show on lighter colors.  I like her over black, though, since I really am not a bar glitter fan.  It's too hairy.  The next few photos are in direct sunlight.

All the photos show one coat of AYPM over two coats of LL.  From what I've read about CrowsToes, she makes all her polishes with uncut suspension base, which means they are super duper thick.  Even if you wanted to thin her (which I don't), there's no extra room in the bottle to add your thinner.  It's literally full up to the neck with solid glitter.  This means no glitter fishing, a full brush every time, and super even coverage.  Like most glitters, she dried almost instantly, so she did catch on herself a little, but a tiny bit of dabbing spread her back out.  Plus, with a color this amazing, I can forgive a little glitter bunching!  I LOVE the pops of orange, it's so unexpected and fun!  I did have to add a lot of top coat to get her smooth; I did four coats trying to slick down the hairy bar glitter because that's how much it bugs me, but two probably would have been fine.  The next photos are in the shade.

I can't even think about taking off this mani yet.  It is crazy awesome on so many levels.  Do you love it?  I would even leave Mermaid Mani for this one.  But that's between you and me.

You can find CrowsToes on www.shop.llarowe.com and www.overallbeauty.com.  Hurry though, because CrowsToes sell out like hotcakes... you might have to do a little stalking. :)

Happy Thursday! xoxo Kris

Mermaid Mani!!!!

So I want to marry this mani.  Like love and cherish and have its children.  This is my perfect mani:  bluish green, greenish blue, super shiny, sparkly glittery holo.  GORGEOUS.  It super makes me think of the it's a small world Ariel scene at Disneyland.



Who doesn't love The Little Mermaid?!



 First I laid down two coats of China Glaze's Shower Together.  I love this medium bright blue creme.  She's slightly thick but levels well and is nice and opaque in two coats.  Then I applied two coats (for added depth) of Mermaid Tale from Orly's Shine FX collection.   I love this polish.  I LOVE IT.  It's like King Triton's kingdom in a bottle.  She's green microglitter and small ocean blue and sea green holo glitter in a clear base.  She's not too thick, loaded with glitter, spreads easily, and requires no fishing in the bottle or pushing around on the nail to get beautiful, even coverage.  I've only put her on over underwear, but I'm thinking she would take three good coats to become fully opaque.  The surface texture after one coat of topcoat is just slightly pebbly.  PERFECTION.



WHATTT.



My camera could not even handle her gorgeousness in the sunlight; it made her look kind of gritty, but I promise that's not the case in real life.

These photos were taken in the shade and are a much better representation of how she really looks.  Delicious.





I die.



Totally Ariel.

You can grab both China Glaze and Orly at Sally's, ULTA, and etailers like Transdesign.   Here's hoping Mermaid Tale is still in stock.  Seriously, I need a few backup bottles.

Happy Monday! xoxo Kris

China Glaze New Bohemian Collection: Rare and Radiant and Unpredictable

Rare and Radiant and Unpredictable came home to join their sisters Deviantly Daring, Swanky Silk, and No Plain Jane today.  They looked so lonely at Sallys it broke my heart!  I loooove this collection... I'm thinking I need to try them all in a marble mani.  I apologize for the photos; I swatched these at night and my camera was not cooperating.  It went all blurry without the flash.  The crappy thing is I swatched like ten polishes last night and all the photos are pretty much useless.  These Bohemian ones I am using anyway :)

Rare and Radiant is a gold and green duochrome.  Not unique, but still very pretty.  I like the warmth in her, and the duochrome is pretty noticeable.  The formula is very easy to work with.  I used two coats for these photos.

with flash

no flash

Unpredictable is also a gold and green duochrome, but the green is much more bluish.  This one didn't wow me in the bottle, but I love her on!  Again, the formula is really good.  Very smooth.  This is two coats.

no flash

with flash

 

with flash

So the only sister I'm missing from this collection is Want My Bawdy, which is a purplish blue.  I will probably end up bringing her home soon, since I am so in love with the rest of them!

You can pick up China Glaze at Sally's and ULTA, and various etailers.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's mani... it's so gorgeous I can't even handle it right now.

Happy Sunday! xoxo Kris

Girls Night Gradient

Happy Melissa's Birthday Girls Night In!  Yes, it's for sure tonight.  I double checked after last week's confusion.  I am getting ready to girly it up with Girls Night Mani #2!

So this is my first gradient.  I haven't tried one before because first, it seemed like a lot of work, and second, I'm kind of lazy.  Turns out gradients aren't hard at all!  I do, however, have freakishly small tyrannosaurus rex hands and covered up most of the base color, so next time I'll adjust accordingly :)

I used ULTA's Encore Pink for the base (which I HATED... after four coats it was STILL streaky and patchy!), China Glaze Pink Plumeria, China Glaze Love's a Beach, and OPI's Teenage Dream from the Katy Perry collection.

I used the sponge method with Pink Plumeria and Love's a Beach for the gradient and dabbed Teenage Dream over the top half of my nails.

 sunlight

 sunlight

 shade

 shade

 with flash

 with flash

with flash

Now that I know how easy this technique is, I'll be playing around with lots of different combinations!

Happy Birthday, Melissa!  We bouts to get our girly on!

Happy Friday!!!!!!  xoxo Kris