Haul + Random Mani

Feeling lazy when it comes to blogging, but I intend to blog regularly from now on.

First up some polishes I bought from American Apparel.

I had a Teambuy coupon that I needed to use up before it expired so I went shopping with my friend a couple of Fridays ago and got two of the new metallic polishes and three creme polishes.  Skipped the glitter polishes even though I thought of buying them, but I already have similar glitters so I passed on them.

The two new metallic polishes are quite different from the others that were first released.  These ones are thinner and need about 3/4 coats for full opacity.  Not great for stamping like the others.  But these ones seem like duo chromes so I guess that makes up for the inability to use 'em for stamping.

My camera captures Violet Panache really really blue, it's actually purple most of the time.  At some angles and lighting it flashes blue.  But my Canon cameras only pick up the blue and I can't be bother to colour correct in a photo editor.  Smoke Dazzle has some pink in it which you can sort of see from the bottle picture.

Next, here's a mani I did with Violet Panache.

I think I did 4 coats of polish and then used a bunch of rhinestones, hexagons, bullion beads, and the circular mirrors.  Three different cameras used for the right hand side and all show the same blue colouring.  The blurry picture on the bottom left hand corner shows what the polish colour usually looks like.  I took it with a Sony camera that's really meant for videos and doesn't have a macro setting for photos.  Really quite nice and I like this better in real life than in pictures.

Sponsored: ASK Base&Top Coat + Revival Nail Polish Remover

Sorry for the lack of posts for recently.  I've been testing the ASK base coat trying to find a good top coat to go with it, but have been unsuccessful.  Every time I did my nails by morning parts of my nails would be chipped or after showering the entire nail would peel off.

Here's what the base and top coats look like again.

I've been using the base coat for almost a month now and I haven't found any top coat to go with it to prevent chipping or peeling.  I've tried Seche Vite, China Glaze Fast Forward, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, Etude House Jelly Pop, Duri Brush&Go, Duri Miracote and of course the ASK top coat.  The ask top coat seems to work best with the base coat.  Still chips, but you can almost get a full day or wear out of them if you don't mind small chips here and there through out the day.  After using the base coat it kind of reminds water based polishes like Sula Paint and Peel polishes because chunks of polish would just come off after showering or doing dishes.  I didn't like the Sula polishes when I tried them and I don't like the ASK base coat either.  It didn't really do much to help keep polish on my nails.

As for the ASK top coat, it's slightly better than the base coat.  Dries fairly quickly which I like, shiny with two coats, but doesn't prevent chipping as well as other top coats.  Still chips the next day though not in huge pieces, just little bits here and there.  I probably wouldn't use this as a final top coat.  Maybe as a layer between polish and stamped polish.

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As for the ASK Revival Nail Polish Remover, here's a picture of the product once again.

I really like this polish remover.  I loved even more after reading a comment from jaded_imp to add more acetone so that it doesn't feel as greasy. 

When I first used the polish remover it removed polish very quickly and I didn't have use much product to get rid of polish on all 10 fingers.  It was very conditioning and didn't make my nails look dry with a whitish cast to them, but I found it to be slightly greasy for me.  I felt like I couldn't touch anything without leaving a greasy stain/mark on it.  However after following jaded_imp's suggestion I added more acetone and it works great without the greasy feeling.  And even though I added more acetone to the mix the remover was still very conditioning.  My nails and cuticles never looked dry after using the polishing remover.

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Quick conclusions about the three products - I would pass on the base coat, maybe give a try for the top coat and definitely give the polish remover a try.

Valentine's Day Nails

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  And happy belated Gal-entine's Day (Feb. 13), completely forgot about it until I watched the Parks and Rec Valentine's episode again.

I did three coats of Borghese Rapido in Capriccio Blue then proceeded to use acrylic paint for the polka dots and hearts.  Then I stamped using the Charming Nails Q1 plate and Kleancolor Black.  Filled in the bird with the same red and and white acrylic paint and then tried to restamp over top.  Thankfully the best restamp happened on my left ring finger.  The others were full of fail.  But I still left them instead of redoing them. 

New Stuff

Bought some new polishes recently from Winners and I won a stamping plate from solongkitty.ca.

 

The Borghese Rapido polishes were in a pack of five and were on clearance so I picked it up since I had a gift card from Winners to use up.  Colours from left to right are Romanzo Pink, Felice Tangerine, Capriccio Blue, Incantato Purple and Fantastico Lime.  The polishes are alright, they don't dry much faster than others.  Plus three coats are needed for them to be opaque.

Here's a closer look at the stamping plate.

It is the Charming Nails Q1 plate.  Super awesome plate and first time I won a giveaway.

I did a Valentine's mani using the birds on the plate, didn't turn out so great, but I'll post it up tomorrow after I take some pics.

ASK Rich Sapphire + RA-106

Here is the is the mani I did on Sunday to test out the longevity of the ASK polishes on the nails.  Pictures are from two different cameras so that's why the colouring is different.  I painted on one coat of the ASK base coat, then three coats of Rich Sapphire and topped it with two coats of ASK top coat.  For the ring finger accent nail I stamped on an image from Red Angel plate RA-106 using Konad white special polish before the two layers of top coat.

I don't think the base and top coats helped to keep the mani from lasting a long time.  When I home Tuesday night I noticed that there were a few chips on my nails with one peeling away.

These are pictures of my left hand, I couldn't get focused pictures of my right hand.  My index finger had the peel while my ring finger had the corner chip.

Not very long lasting.  Two days, maybe 2.5 days of chip-free-ness.  I didn't even do anything like crafting or sewing, I just went out to have some wings and gelato.

I'm not sure if it's the polish itself or the base and top coats being crappy.  I think it might possibly just be the top and base coats not being that great.  I did my nails earlier after cutting down my nails and I've already got small chips on three nails.  And I didn't even take pictures yet.

I'll test the longevity of the polish again, but with my regular Seche Base and Seche Vite.  If it's no good again then the polishes are probably not gonna provide long lasting wear.

One last thing to add, my bottle of ASK Romantic Sunset has already started to separate.

No biggie, just shake to mix it back up, but odd as I've only had the polish for a week.  This hasn't occurred in any of the other ASK polishes.  So just weirdness with this one.

KimsKie's Nails: 160 followers Giveaway!

 

KimsKie's Nails is having a giveaway and you can win your choice of 4 essence polishes.

Giveaway is open internationally and closes February 28th, 2012.

Sponsored: Ask NailWear

Recently I was contacted by Lisa from Ask Cosmetics to review their new polishes and their polish remover.  I've never done anything like this, but thought why not.

Ask Cosmetics is a Canadian company and I've seen their products shown on The Shopping Channel since I was in my teens*, mostly their T.I.P.S. nail conditioner and also their Contour file.  I've only known about their nail care products, but they also have skin and hair care products.

Here are the products that I was sent for review:

A bottle of their Revival nail polish remover, base and top coat, four of their new polish colours in Rich Sapphire, Classic Peacock, Oh So Aubergine and Romantic Sunset.

First time doing a jump cut to read more 'cause this is gonna be a long post.

Disco Ball

This was two coats of American Apparel Imperial Purple, forgot to take a picture of it.  You can click here if you want to see a bottle shot, it was a gift from my friend Judy.  My camera makes purples look bluer than they actually are, so colour is inaccurate.  It's a really deep rich purple, kind of like those dark chubby oval-ish eggplants.

I place these mirrored circles on my ring finger in a random pattern.  These didn't photograph well either.  They're so shiny in real life, but in pictures they look kind of dull. But you can see the reflections of the mirrors on the sides of my middle and pinky fingers.  The circles laid pretty flat on the nail and two coats of Seche Vite made a pretty smooth and even surface.

Pink Tips + Lace Stickers

When I bought the gold metal stickers/decals I also bought some lace stickers.  The stickers are alright, but they all have some greenish glitter on them.  It's most noticeable on the black parts of the lace.  I would rather have them be a flat black and white, no glitter.  Oh well.

Two coats of Quo by Orly in True Love on the tips, stickers and then non fast drying top coat.  The stickers weren't too fond of Seche Vite.  It made them scrunch up and lift from the nail.

Golden Skyline

Another nail look with the gold metal bits, but this time it's gold metal strip. These pictures show the shininess of the metal bits, better than the last one.  I did one coat of Dabo RD440 and then two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme-Wear Black Out to the side. Gold strips placed so that it'll hide any imperfections, but sometimes the strips made dents, but that's OK.

The strips are bit harder to work with because as your pulling it off the sheet it could break at weak points.  Just gotta be extra careful.  Also because this was more solid with less cut outs it was harder to get it to lay flat.  Had to use the flat handle end of a pair of tweezers to get it to lay as flat as possible.

Gold On Gold On Gold

I recently purchased what I thought were gold stickers from ebay, but they're more like really thin metal pieces.  They are attached to an adhesive sheet instead of being loose in a jar.  You kind of have to smoosh them down so that they'll adhere to your nail better, but some edges still don't lie flat.  Can be a bit annoying, but it's OK.

Started off with two coats of Etude House LUCIDarling Fantastic Nails 01 Sparkling Royal Gold.  Then I placed the metal bits and smoothed them down with a nail buffer which sort of made the residual glue on the metal bits turn dark and hard to remove sometimes.  Lastly a coat of Ardene Disco Ball which isn't really noticeable in the pictures, but does make the nails more sparkly.

Gold Glitter Gradient

Something quick and easy to do and it looks really nice.  So sparkly in real life. 

I applied one coat Color Club Gingerbread on just the tips and then let it dry.  Gingerbread is pretty dense with the glitter so it nicely covers the white part of nail tips preventing VNL.  Then starting from mid-nail I applied one coat of H&M Gold.  There's quite a bit of glitter in Gold, but not as dense as Gingerbread and the glitter is smaller than Gingerbread.  Lastly I did one coat over the entire nail of  Ardene Disco Ball.  Light gold-ish glitter with larger sliver holographic glitter.

Super love this, but I love glittery gradients.

Scales + A Couple of Giveaways

Fish scales?  Dragon scales?  Either one would be OK for the upcoming Lunar New Year.  It'll be the year of the dragon and fish is a symbol for something.  At the Asian malls there are various sweets shaped like fish and one of the dishes for new year's eve dinner is suppose to be a whole fish.  I think every Chinese holiday or special occasion tends to have fish present. 

Anyway, for this I used two coats of Quo by Orly in Turquoise Moonlight.  There were some bald-ish spots, but since I was stamping over it I didn't really care, they weren't that noticeable.  I then stamped with American Apparel Gold Flash and Red Angel plate RA-111.

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A couple of really awesome giveaways that I thought people may be interested in.

First up - Giveaway by The Polished Perfectionist

You can win the Hits No Olimpo collection, that includes 12 colours and one top coat.  Click on the above picture to take you to the giveaway.

Giveaway ends January 28, 2012.

Next up - Giveaway by Bunny Nails

Bunny Nails has tons of prizes so the next part is taken directly from her blog.

There are going to be 13 winners!

The prizes are:

1 winner: XL nail stamp plates A, B, C & D (same as magnonails)

1 winner: QA series nail stamp set of 19 plates (QA 1- QA 19)

1 winner: A series nail stamp set of 20 plates (A 01- A 20)

2 winners: 7 QA nail stamp plates 1, 2, 3 , 4, 12, 14 & 17 (Cartoon characters)

2 winners: 6 QA nail stamp plates + 2 A series stamp plates (random selection)

6 winners: 1 Kleancolor nail polish in Chunky Holo Black + 6 nail art sticker sheets

Click on the picture to take you to the giveaway.

Giveaway ends February 17, 2012.

Diagonal Stripes and Flowers

Just a quick post before heading out.  I did two or possibly three, don't quite remember, coats of Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau.  I used Konad special polish in white and SHANY plate SH23 for the stripes.  These stripes are much thinner than the one available on the first set of BundleMonster plates.  The length of the SHANY stripes image is also longer than the BundleMonster one, but the width  is approximately the same.  The flowers are puffy nail stickers that I forgot I even had.  Found them while cleaning some junk off my desk.

Polish Gifts #2 + Layered Reds

Here are the other polishes I received during the holidays.  The American Apparel polishes were Christmas gifts from my friend Judy.  The Color Club polishes which I believe to be from a Pardon My French set were gifted to me via my friend Dawn from her brother's girlfriend.   It's all the colours minus Si Vous Please. 

And that's it for polish gifts this year.

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I used two colours from the Quo by Orly mini set,  Garnet (left) and Red Hot (right).  Pictured top right is both colours swatched on their own with two coats each.  Red Hot is pretty pigmented and one coat would have sufficed.  As for Garnet, it's pretty sheer, on the nail by itself you'd probably need three coats for opacity.  For the mani I did one coat of Red Hot and one coat of Garnet.  Then I used some water decals that look like they could have been hand painted.

Polish Gifts #1 + Grey Glitter Snowflakes

Long time no write.  Not because I was super busy or anything just that I haven't been photographing my nails much.  I didn't really paint my nails much during the holidays. When I did do my nails they usually didn't last all that long.

Hope everyone had a happy holiday and a good start to the new year.  To start off this post I have a pic of a set of mini polishes of Quo by Orly polishes that my friend Amy got me for Christmas. (Hi Amy, that was your shout out, though you had to wait a while for it, thanks for the polishes.)

Quo by Orly polishes are available at Shoppers Drug Mart stores and I had never tried them before so this set was a great introduction to them.  No pictures of any of them yet, but I will get on it.  Ah I just realized that the bottom of the pic is missing the names for the bottom row.  D'oh.  I'll list out all polishes.

From left to right, top row:
Very Vixen, Mystic Night, Garnet, Precious, Sapphire Sparkle, Cold Stone, Rock Show, Rock Star and Night Sky.

Bottom row:
Turquoise Moonlight, Celestial Star, First Class, Filthy Rich, Red Hot, Wine and Dine, Old Hollywood, Love Game and True Love.

Most of the polishes are glittery or shimmery and seems like they may work best as layering polishes.  However 3 thin coats will get you full coverage with minimal or no bald spots.  The tiny brush is not to my liking, but that's OK.

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Next up nails.  I did this some time last week.

Base colour was two coats of American Apparel Echo Park.  I forgot to include Konad special polish in white in the photo, but that's OK.  Used Konad white to stamp with and plates SH17 for the snowflake on the index finger, RA 119 for the thumb and ring finger and HB23 for the smaller not so well stamped snowflakes on the middle and pinky fingers.  I also did some glitter snowflakes with Color Club Sugarplum, but they didn't turn out as nice as I thought they would.  They kind of just looked like blobs of glitter on the nail.  Topped everything with CoverGirl Boundless Color in Disco Dazzle.

That's it for today.