Disney Beautifully Off to the Ball w/ Sephora Formula X Demolition

Hey! Long time no post! I've been doing my nails a lot but never posting. I had to share this mani though, because I think these polishes are just super gorgeous!

So this is 2 coats of Disney Beautifully Off to the Ball, with 1 coat of Sephora Formula X Demolition, and 1 coat of Nails Inc Kensington Caviar top coat. These two polishes go really well together! I bought Off to the Ball a few months ago when I was in Disney World, but I hadn't used it until now. It's really, really pretty. It's a fairly sheer light, light blue. After 2 coats, I had no VNL. Good formula, and the bottles are just adorable. I'm a sucker for Disney!
Demolition is awesome...it's from the Xplosives part of Sephora's new Formula X line. Formula X has a great range of colors and effects. I'm so glad to see Sephora introducing these fun polishes! Demolition is a mix of different sizes of glitter, in white, light orange, lime green, and light blue. I LOVE the matte glitters!! So different. I'm in love with this, and you can pair it with so many different base shades. I had pretty good coverage in 1 coat, but you could definitely go with 2 if you wanted. I'm really interested in getting some more of these Formula X polishes...I've tried a couple of different finishes, and the ones I've tried have all been really nice!

Sincerely, Cat

Rescue Beauty Lounge NailsandNoms!!!

Omg! I just got my first ever RBL polishes in the mail this weekend...I'm in love! My order included NailsandNoms, Fashion Polish, Piu Mosso, and Turn it Around...seriously, they're all GORGEOUS but I'm absolutely in love with NailsandNoms right now!

Today I'm wearing two coats of NailsandNoms, and my accent nail is two coats of Ciate Pepperminty. Besides being stunning, NaN also had a perfect formula that practically applied itself...no problems whatsoever. And like I said, it is truly beautiful...the shimmer is so striking yet subtle and wearable. 

Pepperminty is also an awesome polish too. Way pigmented and a beautiful shade of turquoise. This is my first Ciate polish (I got it in the Colourfoil set) and I'm really liking it! I also love the Ciate bottles, the little ribbon around the cap is such an adorable touch.

So, I'm really liking this combo...will hopefully have more RBL swatches up soon!

xx Cat

Jindie Nails Rave

I. Love. This!

Here's Rave by Jindie Nails! I can't stop looking at my nails. I just adore this.

I used 2 coats here and one of Seche Vite. I think 2 coats is the perfect amount, at 3 you just cover up a little too much of the glitter, unless you do really really thin coats. Application on this was awesome. I didn't have to do any fishing and I got a great variety of glitter on my nails. I did set my bottle upside down for 5-10 minutes before applying, not sure if that makes much difference but it usually helps with glitters.

In real life, the glitter's a little bit brighter, but it was hard to capture in the pictures. The neon just looks perfect with the milky white base. Ugh. Gorgeous. And my nails are actually at a pretty good length right now. I've been growing them for a few weeks, and they're getting longer, slowly but surely. I keep debating if I wanna go back to square tips or stay rounded! The eternal question. I think I'll stay rounded for a little while longer.

Oh and speaking of Jindie, my backordered Honey Blue Blue shipped the other day! Exciting! It's supposed to be here by Friday, I just can't wait! And of course since I have absolutely no self-control, I'm already planning my next Llarowe order...Candy Land, you will be mine.

Sincerely, Cat

Pastel cheetah nail art...

My mediocre attempt at nail art. Cheetah print is about as advanced as I go, lol.

Yeah...personally I think it looks better from far away than it does close up, but I actually don't think it turned out too bad! I used 2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow as the base. For the spots I used 4 of my frankens (obviously, a random blue, pink, purple, and green), and for the outline on the spots, I used Deborah Lippmann Stormy Weather. I thought the grey would be a little less harsh with the pastels than black, which is what I usually use for cheetah nail art.
So, yeah, I'm obviously not much of a nail artist, but I thought this looked fun and really didn't turn out too bad. I had a lot of people asking me if I did these myself, if they were polish strips, etc. And I got a lot of compliments on them, so I can't complain!
I've been getting into nail art recently, which sucks because I'm just sooo bad at it!! Maybe if I keep working I'll get somewhat decent at it, though. Who knows.

Sincerely, Cat

Emily de Molly The Fifth Element

Uber-excited to post this. This is one of the prettiest polishes I've worn in a long time!

This is Emily de Molly the Fifth Element, one of the new polishes I bought from Llarowe a few weeks ago. How gorgeous is it?!
I used two coats here, and one of Seche Vite. Turquoise creme-jelly base, larger orange hex glitter, smaller blue and orange hexes, and some smaller blue glitter. I swear, the orange and blue are the perfect combination. The crelly base lets the glitter peek out perfectly.
Application was perfect. No troubles at all. I did put my bottle upside down an hour or two before doing my nails so the larger glitter would go on my nails easier. I also tried to do thinner coats so the glitter would be more visible...not sure how good of a job I did on that but I tried my best, haha. Also, this being my first EdM, I noticed that the brush and the formula were really great.
Seriously, I'm loving this. I really don't want to take this off my nails, except for the fact that I want to try my other new Llarowe polishes! Lol.

Sincerely, Cat

Llarowe Haul

I'm back! It has seriously been FOREVER since I've posted, and I've missed blogging so much. I absolutely needed to post this though, because I'm just so excited about it! Check it out.

My first order ever from Llarowe! Eeep!!
I actually ordered 5 polishes but one is backordered (which is Jindie Nails Honey Blue Blue), but the 4 I have are (from l-r) Jindie Nails I'm a Star Dot Com, Jindie Nails Rave, Emily de Molly The Fifth Element, and Emily de Molly Flutterby Garden. How gorgeous are they?!
So far I've tried I'm a Star and Fifth Element (I'm actually wearing Fifth right now) and they are just stunning as can be. I didn't photo I'm a Star but I for sure will soon, and I'll be posting Fifth shortly. I am sooo excited to try the others as well!
Never having ordered from Llarowe before, I have to say, they are AWESOME! I had no issues with shipping or anything like that, and my polishes all arrived safely and timely (besides the backordered one of course, but I actually don't think it's a bad thing...now I have something else to look forward to!) And of course, I'm now already deciding which polishes to order next. Ha.

Sincerely, Cat

Deborah Lippmann Lara's Theme with Sephora by OPI Naughty is the New Nice and OPI Simmer and Shimmer (accent)

A mani I did recently...2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Lara's Theme, and on my accent nail, 1 coat of Sephora by OPI Naughty is the New Nice and 2 coats of OPI Simmer and Shimmer. I really liked this combo! The orange and blue really go pretty nicely together.

Lara's Theme is great as ever, still one of my all time favorite polishes. Definitely the best orange I've ever used. Last time I used Simmer and Shimmer, I didn't use a base color, and that helped sooo much this time. Naughty is the New Nice looked great under it.

So, pretty sure I'd say this mani was a success!

Sincerely, Cat

Franken -- Heavy Metal

Eeeee!! Look at one of my newest frankens! I'm in love with it :)

I named this baby after Lady Gaga's song Heavy Metal Lover, one of my favorite songs at the moment. It just seemed so fitting, cuz I mean...look at it! The glitter, the shimmer, the base color...it's crazy! I adore this.

I don't even know how to describe the color of this. I used two coats, and it's like a dark charcoal, multi colored foil, filled with every shade of shimmer, some random glitter, a couple flakies and some larger silver holo glitter. In the right lighting you can see the almost-duochrome-ness of it, and in certain lighting, it even looks a little holo-y.

This is so ridiculously random with the shimmer and everything...I'm in love with it. I can't even stand how much I love it. Ah!!

Sincerely, Cat

Essie Pretty Edgy w/ OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air accent

This is an oldie from this summer that I found in my drafts! Here's Essie Pretty Edgy with an accent nail of OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air.

Obviously since these pics were taken a couple months ago, I'm not positive on number of coats, but I do remember that Pretty Edgy had a great formula, so I'd assume I used 2 coats, and Fresh Frog was not so much a great formula. I used at least 3 or 4 coats of the glitter, if not more. It wasn't actually the formula that wasn't good, it's just that it's one of those glitters where full coverage is nearly impossible. That's fine with me, though.

I really like this combo. Pretty Edgy is so gorgeous. I can't believe it was still in my untried pile! Crazy!

Sincerely, Cat

OPI Unfor-Greta-Bly Blue w/ OPI Servin Up Sparkle w/ Sephora by OPI Beam Me Up Hottie!

Another of the Germany collection...I felt the need to spice this one up with some glitter, lol! Also, as you can see, my long nails are long gone...time to break out the short tips again! Nothing wrong with that of course, but it does feel weird to adjust to short nails again. Ah well.

This is 2 coats of OPI Unfor-Greta-Bly Blue, 1 coat of OPI Servin' Up Sparkle, 1 coat of Sephora by OPI Beam Me Up Hottie!, and 1 coat of Seche Vite. Excuse the tipwear...it looks a LOT worse in pictures. I didn't realize how bad it was till I started looking through these pictures, ha.

Unfor-Greta-Bly was a good polish, if a little boring. The formula was great, the finish is nice, it's just that the color's not all that unique. Pretty much your basic blue shimmer. I mean, it's obviously a great polish if you don't have anything like it in your collection, but looking through my few hundred polishes...yeah, I see some very similar ones just at first glance. SUS is great as always, but I thought my nails could use a little something more...so I added Beam Me Up Hottie (hahaha I absolutely love that name...that's basically what I bought it for, but it is actually great), my recent glitter obsession. BMUH is all glitter of the same size--large holo silver hex in a clear base. It's seriously awesome and looks good over anything, but it goes especially nicely as an addition to SUS. So nice.

So, I guess that's basically all for now!

Sincerely, Cat

OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest

Here's a polish from OPI's gorgeous Germany collection this fall! Seriously, I've fallen head over heels for this collection. It's pure fall perfection. This is actually, I think, the 3rd or 4th of the Germany polishes that I've used, but I didn't photograph all of them. Hopefully soon, lol!

Look at this! This is so vampy and pretty. Hard to describe, which makes it all the better. It looks like a red/brown/purple vampy shimmer. Really, though, it's more of an indigo-purple with bright red shimmer at first, but it builds up to a vampy wine shade.

Two coats here, and one of Seche Vite. It's super shiny, smooth...great formula, brush, everything. Seriously, this fall collection is phenomenal. Of all the polishes in this collection I've used so far, everything's been pretty much flawless. I'm in love.

And I'm so happy that this year's fall collec is awesome, because for the most part, I didn't like last year's collection at all. (Except for Roadhouse Blues, but that's a different story.) This collection sorta reminds me of the Swiss collection a few years back, which I also adored. Not really totally similar, but they're alike in some ways. I don't know. Anyways.

Sincerely, Cat

Incoco purple glitter gradient polish strips!

More polish strips! Yay! This is my first time trying out Incoco because I won these strips free in a giveaway from Seventeen magazine! Haha. I think they're called "Perfect Prom Purple" but I'm not really sure so I just refer to them as purple glitter gradient strips lol. It's funny though because I wore purple to prom this year so when I saw the name of these I was like "perfect prom...hmm." So I compared them to my dress still hanging in my closet and they truly are the perfect purple to match my dress...what a coincidence. Anyways.

Application on these was like all other polish strips I've used: pick your strip, peel off the clear layer, peel off the backing, smooth onto your nail, file off the excess. I found these to be the complete opposite of the Sephora by OPI Trend Tips I tried a couple weeks ago in my last post--the excess was really difficult to file off and my tips ended up really rough because of that. I'm guessing that's because these are glitter strips, which I've never tried before. I've only ever used shimmer polish strips, I'm pretty sure.

That was one downside...the rough edges cause A LOT of tipwear, like HUGE tipwear by the next day. There was no way I could keep wearing them without touching up my tips, so luckily I found that OPI Grape Set Match was a PERFECT match on the tips of these. Sigh of relief! I ended up doing a touchup every day that I wore these (5 days total...I can't handle keeping the same manicure on for much longer than that!) and it really needed it every single day.

Besides that issue, I think these are extremely gorgeous, especially on longer nails. I wanted to use these while my nails were long (I've since cut them down completely :( ) and I'm serious, it looked stunning in person. I got a lot of people asking if I did these myself...ha, I wish! The one thing about the design is that I can't decide if I love it or not that it's not a very gradual gradient..it goes from super light, pretty much clear at the bottom, to dark purple right in the middle, with not too much in between. On the one hand, I wish there was more mid-toned purple in the middle, to make it look like more of a true "fade" look. But on the other hand, I looove that they basically look like glitter-fied purple French tips. I never wear French manicures, but when they're done right, I think they can be one of the prettiest things in the universe. These strips? Totally gorgeous. Love them.

It was nice to get to try out a new brand...I did really like these, but if I use Incoco strips again, I'd probably go for more of the shimmer finish ones. But, I can put up with the hassle of glitter strips if they're as beautiful as these ones!

Sincerely, Cat