MAC Near Beth Experience w/ OPI Servin' Up Sparkle

My mani today! 2 coats of MAC Near Beth Experience with 1 coat of OPI Servin' Up Sparkle, and 1 coat of Seche Vite.

NBE is only my 2nd MAC polish...I was really impressed with my first, Ocean Dip. I like NBE, but yeah, it could've been better...formula and brush wise. The 1st coat was super streaky, and the 2nd evened it out, but there was still a lot of dragging near the cuticle. I do actually like the brush though, even with all the dragging...I like the shape and length of the bristles. I love the shade of yellow...pastel yellow is my jam, haha. It looks really close to China Glaze Lemon Fizz, I haven't compared them yet but off the top of my head they look really similar. That one was a little easier to work with. Lol. Maybe similar to OPI Banana Bandana, too? Hmm. Maybe not. Formula on that one's not very good anyways, ha.

So yeah, application wasn't the greatest, but it wasn't that bad. And obviously 3 coats would've been ideal, but I was in a bit of a hurry and 2 looked fine. Plus I did some layering so that helped, lol. SUS is great as always...it's definitely my favorite glitter to layer with. Works with any color and it's GORGEOUS, plus application is good...you don't need to work to place the glitter or anything.

So yeah...liking this combo! I really do like NBE, I'll for sure use it again sometime. And SUS, of course...one of my ultimate favorites. And my nail shape right now...I'm not quite sure. I think I like it. I kinda miss my square tips, but they were IMPOSSIBLE. ALL of my nails were breaking and they were so so weak. It was terrible. And then I went to rounded tips and they stopped cracking...they're still not very strong but at least I'm not breaking multiple nails every day. Ugh. I just don't know. But anyways.

Sincerely, Cat



Franken -- Sweet Love, Tasty Blood

Another of my new summer frankens! This is Sweet Love, Tasty Blood (yeah, it's a weird name if you don't understand where it came from, lol...it's from a lyric in the song And Then You Kissed Me by the Cardigans, which is a GREAT song by the way!).
So, 2 coats here, and one coat of Seche Vite. All I can say is...the shimmer is stunning. That's really the main reason I make frankens, just to get all these weird colors of shimmer together to see how they look. Yeah, this one's good.
The base is a vibrant red, but almost like a bright brick red. It's got an orange tint to it. And the base is somewhat sheer, because the polish is packed with shimmer. A lot of fleck-type shimmer, especially gold. One of the reasons the shimmer is so crazy though is that I added a little bit of some different holos that I have, so the shimmer in this doesn't really resemble any other polishes.
I love this. It's a red, it has crazy shimmer, I think it's gorgeous. I have to say, I've never really seen another polish like this before. Wonderful. And I still have a few of my other summer frankens sitting untried...will have to test those out soon! :)

Sincerely, Cat

Franken -- OMW

Just mixed up a new batch of frankens for summer, and I have to say...I made some good ones this time around! Here's the first one I've worn, OMW.

2 coats, plus one of Seche Vite. Seriously, I liked this in the bottle, but on the nail it's soo stunning. Base color is a medium blue, slightly purple. It's pretty...not quite royal blue, not sky blue, not purple. Hard to describe, but I like it. And then there's the shimmer in it. It's like foil-y silver, blue, and purple shimmer. So pretty. It took a while to perfect this while I was mixing it but I'm really happy with how it turned out. I love making frankens. So relaxing. Seriously, the others I mixed up are really pretty too...I tried to make a good range of colors, and I think I succeeded. They're nice and bright. And shimmery. Yesss.

Loving the shape and length of my nails lately, too. I just want them to keep growing and stop breaking!!! Every time I try to grow out the squares they chip. So frustrating. I don't want round tips, I want square, and I want them long! Aughhh. I've been using Sally Hansen Hard as Nails...hopefully it's working. My nails are just so weak, and it's weird because I don't know why. They never used to be this way...and I used to take bad care of them too, so it doesn't even make sense. Probably just cuz I went square, but still. Whatever.

Sincerely, Cat

Deborah Lippmann Sugar Daddy

Hard to photograph this one! This is Deborah Lippmann Sugar Daddy, one of the new-ish Mirrored Chrome finish polishes. Only one I picked up from that collection.

Just like it's hard to photo, it's also hard to describe. It starts off a champagne, beige-pink metallic. Then in different lightings you start to catch the wicked gold, green, and pink flashes. Damn. That green flash is especially stunning. I wish I could've picked up the pink flash more in pictures, but it was like impossible, ha.

2 coats here, and one of Seche Vite. Watch out for brushstrokes...darn metallics. It's not super bad, but yeah, they're noticeable if you don't keep an eye on them. Application wasn't bad though. It's a light shade, so I thought I might need 3 coats...nah, 2 was good.

It's a pretty shade, but I'm not madly in love with it. I'm glad I have it, it's just...it's soo light. and my skin is so light. I think this'd look good on someone with skin a little darker than mine (which is pretty much everyone I've ever met...HA). Not that it looks bad on me. But, you know.

Anyways.

Sincerely, Cat

OPI Wing It! (with glitter gradient)

Here's OPI Wing It! 2 coats and 1 coat of Seche Vite. Thought about using 3 coats but I kind of like how it looks with just a tiny bit of VNL. Such a pretty color...I use this a lot. Makes a nice pedi. Beautiful pink/red/almost orange at certain angles, with blue-ish glass fleck shimmer. Hard to describe, but just gorgeous. Wish this was still available, my bottle's running pretty low. Hard to believe this was released 2 years ago...seems like it was just the other day. 2010 was a good year for OPI. What was it, Hong Kong and Swiss collections? Alice in Wonderland? Shrek...yeah, that was a good year. Maybe not Burlesque. I wasn't a huge fan of that collection. It wasn't terrible, though. Speaking of which...

Right before I took this off, I decided to mess with it a little. I've always wanted to try a gradient but all the ones I've done have turned out really bad...this time I tried a glitter that totally contrasted with the base color and it turned out kinda cool I think. I didn't actually wear my nails like this (I took it off right after I took these pics), but I would consider doing this type of mani for real. For this, I used OPI Bring on the Bling, from the Burlesque collection (see, I think the Burlesque glitters are actually better for layering, not for wearing by themselves). I like the contrast between the pink and gold...I think it'd look cool using like silver with green glitter, or blue with pink...I think I'll play around with combos sometime. Then maybe I can actually get good at this kinda stuff...I suck at nail art. Haha.

Sincerely, Cat

Mall haul!!

Went shopping this past weekend for my birthday! Finally got up to Sephora and Nordstrom...and I found some happy surprises!

Butter London Macbeth. My very first BL! Saw this at Nordstrom and because of the name, I HAD to have it...I love Macbeth. The color's good too, haha...it's a nice coral. The flash really distorts the color. It's a lot less pink in real life. Ah well. Very excited to try this out.

Nordstrom also had a shitload of new Lippmanns. I guess I can't complain about that, lol. One of the new collections I found was the metallic/prism/whatever they're called polishes...I really like Private Dancer, but that one was all sold out. Swagga Like Us looks pretty much exactly like Chanel Peridot, so skip. That leaves Sugar Daddy, which I was kinda unsure about, but since I read Scrangie's rave about it, I figured it must be pretty good. So of course, I picked this one up! And it is really pretty. Again, can't wait to try this one!

Mermaid's Dream. Oh lord. I put this on my nails a few days ago and I still haven't stopped drooling over it. Freaking perfect. I swear, even though I usually get bored with a polish after 2 or 3 days...I think I could wear this for the rest of the summer and be perfectly content. I don't think I've ever seen a polish this unique and gorgeous.

Another new collection I spotted was the dance-themed glitters...well, I found Flash Dance and Just Dance, but my Nordstrom didn't have Dancing in the Dark, which is one I was looking forward to. Ah well, this is Flash Dance, and it's stunning. Gorgeous mix of pink and purple glitter. Super excited to put this on my nails. I love glitter.

And an awesome surprise...my Sephora has COMPLETELY revamped their nail section, and started carrying tons of new brands. Julep, SpaRitual, Dior...Illamasqua. YES. This is Illamasqua Phallic. This is my second Illamasqua, Baptiste being my first, and I was sooo impressed with that one. So happy that I can now find this brand in store instead of only being able to get it online.

And of course, I can't leave Sephora without a little bit of Urban Decay. The Stash liner that I got in my 15th Anniversary set a long, long time ago (like, a year and half!) was defective, so I only got a few uses out of it before giving it to my sister (haha). I had a mini sample size of it which had run out, so I figured I needed a full size of it. I've never tried Graffiti before, though, so I figured I needed that one too, lol...I didn't have a bright green like it. I wanted to get Deviant also, but I have soo many UD liners already. I'm totally getting that one someday though, ha.

And of course, no trip to Sephora is complete without some Philosophy. Usually I'm good with one set, but I totally needed both of these sets this time. Top pic is the Cabana Girl set, bottom pic is the Italian Soda Shop set. One word: YUM. Not a weak link in either set. Every summer, I ALWAYS have to snag Philosophy's newest coconut set...last year it was Aloha Girl, which was vanilla coconut and was pretty good, but this year Cabana Girl is guava coconut and it's AMAZING. Smells sooo delish. Philsophy's 3-in-1s are good as always, lotion is top-notch like usual, and lip gloss is delicious and perfect amount of color. Pretty sheer, which I like, and nice formula. Not too sticky or anything.

The Italian Soda Shop set...damn, these smell good. I can't pick a favorite. The limoncello is the perfect mix of tart and sweet. To me, it smells exactly like a lemon Pez candy tastes. The strawberry is also really good. And black cherry...I know I had some other Philosophy black cherry scent back a couple years ago and this smells pretty much like that. I love the scent of black cherry. Yum.

Anyways, I guess I'd say my shopping was pretty successful! Now I'll have a couple new polishes to tide me over for a few weeks at least...lol. I'm going on vacation to Cali again this summer (soo excited!) and we're leaving in just a couple weeks, so I'll most likely be picking up some more polishes then. Woo!

Sincerely, Cat

OPI Into the Night w/ Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening

My second Spiderman polish...I thought this one needed a little something extra, so of course glitter was the answer ;)

2 coats of OPI Into the Night, 1 coat (I think...maybe 2? No, I think 1) of Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening, and 1 coat of Seche Vite. I'm so glad I thought to use this glitter over Into the Night, because I think it looks amaaazing.

Into the Night is an interesting polish...personally when I was wearing it, I thought it looked purple most of the time, except for in certain lighting. In pictures though, it looks really blue...I like that though. Keeps you guessing! It's a pretty color though...I guess I'd consider it a metallic blurple. I like that it's not too dark, though. It's so bright and...shiny. I like it a lot. It reminds me a little of China Glaze Tempest (one of my absolute favorite polishes!). I think Tempest is more purple though, with a brighter blue flash. I wonder if I've posted that before? I don't think so...I'll have to. I wore it as a pedi for a month and half once. It's just wonderful. Anyways.

Formula was really good. I got a teensy bit of drag towards the cuticles, but that's probably my bad...I have a pretty heavy hand in application. And Some Enchanted Evening is good as ever. I love that glitter. Oh, Deborah. You can never do wrong.

Sincerely, Cat