Japanese Nail Cocktail Champagne gradient gel manicure

Japanese Nail Cocktail Champagne gradient manicure, a photo by KitaRei on Flickr.

I love the name of this product!

I snagged the last of this set at Claire's in Osaka over the weekend. It is a really cute gel-look gradient manicure kit, made by a company called Beauty world. It's fairly easy to do (just have to remember to apply all colors when the polish is wet or it won't blend) but the only thing the outside dries fast but the under coats take a long time to dry.

This set is called Champagne. It comes with three colors, a pinky-beige, a sparkly bronze, and a gold glitter with big and small glitter pieces. You can't really tell in the picture, but the base color is more pink than it looks. There are other color sets as well, which if I see get restocked I may consider getting, as they are really cute.

Another plus to this is the company puts money towards each purchase for breast cancer research, which can be seen on the bottom of the box in the picture.

I have a good idea for Wednesday manis. I'll have it started next week, since I had already done this mani when I thought of it.

I see we're at 99 followers! This is awesome. Only one more to go till we hit the big 1-0-0 and celebrate! Thanks everyone, we wouldn't be what we are without all of you :)

Indigo nails and viva la nails :)

As you can see from previous posts, i changed it up! I love love love this Barry M. The color just seems to glow! I mean, from one side it looks blue and then from another it's a purple!

Ive also discovered this freebie from Viva la nails, it's a blogger pack. I am impressed with this website so much! The selection is amazing! I also picked up a few other things from them, that I will blog about soon. Using the white butterfly and flower rhinestone sticker decals I placed three on each ring finger.

I wanted to use something that went well with the that gorgous buttery(is that a good word to use? )blue, and the white decals reminded me of the blue and white danish patterns that you see on a lot of china patterns. I was tempted to do all my nails but stopped at just the ring fingers. I also finally ordered my first Konad! I hopefully will get the gist of it, because my first attempt was so pathetic that I can not even talk about it, forget posting pics!

Speaking of new things, what do you guys think of the new April blog design, a special thanks to Julie for her skills:)

Also Emily's Nail Files is having a giveaway! Her very 1st! Here is what she is giving away(clink picture to enter):

Look..Models Own! Barry M!.. me wants!

Ok, well that's it for now!

Nail Polish Spill Equals Beautiful Disaster

Now that I'm high as a kite from the fumes, I can show you why dropping a box of nail polish can become art. ;) My clumsy mistake as usual, I was placing my nail polish case on the shelf and it came crashing down. The casualty of this fall was a Zoya swatch. I snapped a few photos, and used acetone to clean it from the floor. Pee-you. It was stinky, and now I have a headache. But so worth it for these shots! Does anybody else see some art in these or is it just me? lol

OPI Merry Midnight! I Love My Flakies!

Hola! Happy sunny afternoon. I have to say that I am in a pretty damn good mood today. I went to the health food store and got this nasty-ass "green" concoction which consisted of spinach, parsley, broccoli, and other greens in a smoothie form. While it tasted disgusting, it definitely gave me a super boost of energy! That aside, I thought I'd share my swatching OPI's Merry Midnight. I managed to snag this for $18 on eBay which was well worth the buy! Do you own this? What do you think of flake polishes?

For those of you who think spending $18 on nail polish is a joke (I feel ya) Cult Nails also has a wonderful pink flakie polish called Iconic that you can order from their site for $10 (along with their other amazing swatches- have you seen Living Water? WOW!) - and I feel it's more versatile than Merry Midnight, because it can be worn in the spring, summer, fall, winter etc....whereas I feel Merry Midnight is more of a Fall/Winter only polish. Here is Iconic from a prior post.

Oh, and before I forget - this is an older swatch I had done of Finger Paints brand black polish. I meant to rave about how it's probably the best black nail polish out there. I highly recommend it! Just 1 layer on top of a base coat and it's opaque. Great quality for $3.99. I also tested out my photoshop skills here - is it blatantly obvious that i photoshopped out my jagged cuticles?

Lastly, I noticed that Walgreens is now stock FULL of the gorgeous glittery Sinful Color swatches that had been becoming difficult to find. So hurry up and go grab them! This glitter is seriously the most amazing glitter polish I've yet to find. This one swatched below is called Nail Junkie.

Just a swatch this time~

Good evening everyone!

Finally, we are finished moving to Osaka! Everything was kinda crazy for a week or so, running back and forth between Osaka and Tokyo, packing, dealing with movers, the electric, cable, and gas companies, and much much more, but finally I have a minute to myself :) My friend Jaclyn came with us to Osaka to hang out for a few days, and I must say, though in NO way a girly girl, she is inspired by this blog (because of the ladies here) and was wearing OPI's Shatter over red polish! I was very impressed:) She is also the proud owner of Sephora by OPI's Teal We Meet Again after seeing me wear it. I am telling you, this is a huge step for her. Anyway, I wasn't able to do one of my famous manicures, so at night while we were hanging out I decided to do a swatch of China Glaze Party Hearty that Julie got me for Christmas. I realized I hadn't worn it yet, that I'd been wanting to, and I had it with me so why not? I applied two coats. It is such a cool glitter! It has big red glitter, medium green glitter, and small silver (I read somewhere that it's supposed to be gold, but it looks silver to me) glitter pieces. I wore it alone, but it would also be great over red, white, silver, or green nail polish. A must for any glitter fan, looks great even though it isn't Christmas!

Sorry about the quality of this pic, I took it outside.

China Glaze Party Hearty, a photo by KitaRei on Flickr.

Image courtesy of mbeauty.com

Stay tuned, I already have an idea for my next mani! ^_~

The Long Road to Nail Recovery - New Colors Waiting To be Swatched!

I can't take this anymore! Going....batty....as each day...passes....!!!

I did promise myself I would not subject anybody to my swatching until my nails are healed and a decent length again, but damn it, I couldn't resist. I have all these gorgeous colors that keep coming in the mail, and it's some form of torture waiting to use them! Here are my newbies-

L to R- OPI Brand New Skates, OPI DS Magic, OPI DS Original, OPI DS Sapphire, Essie Sew Psyched, Sally Hanson Nail Prisms (found in thrift shop!) Garnet Lapis, and last, Orly Rockin' Rocket-

THIS is DS Magic. I am in love. It's my first designer series (the holos followed) - I wasn't able to capture it well, and I noticed other bloggers haven't been able too either, but it has this brilliant purple tint to it 

Keeping it simple...for now;)

I've been in a color rut as of late, I did the bright green glittery extravganza for Patty's day, but since then.. yeah the whole 7 days.. I've been keeping it pretty tame, for example:

I also forgot to add that I used micro glitter in clear as well as the Nubar 2010. Seriously, guys, if you find yourself in a Micheal's craft store..Seek it out! It is so much better then the glitter then sell on ebay. Plus you get 16 colors! I paid about 5$ for it. And you get a decent amount of glitter in each packet so this is going to last you ages. Here is another manicure:

I lovvve this color, it has hints of purple, and brown.. and of course gray. I was going to leave it all by its lonesome but after about 10 minutes of drying I covered it in 2010.

I am still conflicted with Rimmel and their stance of animal testing because they say they do not.. but are owned by Coty. Ahh.. Nothing in life is ever simple. ever.

But just wanted to make it a short one, as I am very deprived of sleep! But then again when you work 10 days in a row that tends to happen, ah the glamourous life of a nanny.. diamonds, bling and the like (yeah...right)

P.S. Don't forget to enter our giveaway!

150 Followers Giveaway - Deborah Lippmann's "Glitter In The Air" + 5 Mystery Polishes -PRE Enter NOW!

I have to once again apologize for being so quiet lately. I'm impatiently waiting for my brittle ruined nails to grow strong again. It's going to be a few weeks at least, but I promise to ramble about other things. And I'm definitely going to show off my new polishes this week, less the swatches...

That said, I was thinking it's time for a new giveaway....with a goal though! 150 followers. With the success of our last giveaway, I thought, why not another? It's so fun! The prize? Glitter in the Air. AND 5 mystery polishes. (i.e. haven't quite decided yet lol) The good news? It's opened to any country, so if you have a difficult time getting DL where you're from, you will want to enter this giveaway. The catch? None. We just want you to help us get more followers! The sooner we reach 150, the faster we can open up this giveaway and spread the Lippmann love. We will continue to do giveaways at certain milestones. 300, 500, etc. So stick around a while. You could be a winner :)

PRE-ENTER NOW!! 


RULES:


To PRE-Enter, you can sign up here. You must be a follower. Just reply here in a post with your e-mail address. Once we reach 150 followers, we will keep the giveaway open for 2 weeks following the 150 mark, to allow for everyone to sign up fairly. A winner will be announced 1 week after the 150 mark.

For EXTRA ENTRIES:  If you blog about our upcoming giveaway, we will give you 5 extra entries. Just post a link to the blog here, and we will take note of that prior to the giveaway.

Lets make this happen fast! What do you say? Are you in?

Here's another one!

Hey everyone,

Hope everyone had (or possibly is still having) a great St. Patrick's day! Sadly I didnt get to go to a pub(Tarah), but I did have a celebritory shot, so at least their is that! Here is my St.Patty's day manicure. (or is it St. Paddy's?) 

I used Zoya in Ivanka, from their Sparkle collection and this amazing micro glitter that I got from Micheal's a craft store. Seriously, the most amazing glitter you will ever find for doing a gradiant look. and to finish, I painted a pastel green shamrock on my ring fingers. The finishing touch was a little green rhinestone on each one. Overall, a very cute and easy manicure!

That's it for now! Have a great Friday everyone:D

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Good morning, and happy St. Patty's Day everyone!

It's been a little crazy where I am, but to escape the stress for a little I was able to do a special manicure for today :)

Sorry the picture is a little big.. I tried to shrink it and failed.. miserably.. but yeah, that is the least of my problems at the moment. Maybe one of my lovely co-bloggers could help me out this time around xoxo (Fixed Renee, xoxo back)

To achieve this look, of course I started with a good base coat. Always use one ladies, as some nail polishes stain nails, and it helps the polish to stay put. As the main color, I used Orly Salon Nails #196, Femme Fatale. It is a pretty, light, pearly green. For the dark green, I used China Glaze #886 Jolly Holly that Julie gave me for Christmas, and the light green is Sally Hansen Color Fast #10 Lucky Creme. I coated the tips with a green glitter, Wet 'n' Wild #455A.

Sorry for being so short of words this time around, but I am under a lot of stress, and the creative juices just aren't flowing today.

Later everyone :)

My Mistake: Orly's Nail Rescue Kit

You're probably (or probably not!) wondering why I haven't posted any manicures lately - well let's start by saying that one little mistake lead me to total nail FAIL.

Orly's Nail Rescue Kit , while it is a novel idea, is a complete disaster! I had a split nail (a low split) on my middle finger a few weeks ago, which happens to me SO often  I can't even tell you. I was tired of always having to cut down my nails when I get a split -  so I went to the store in search of something that could temporarily repair my nail. And there I found the rescue kit by Orly.

Got home and gave it a shot, and loved how well it fixed the split, like it was never there! But in two days, the acrylic layer on the nail cracked... so I applied another layer. Then another nail split, applied it on there, until ALL my fingers had this rescue kit on them. Eventually, from adding on layers of this acrylic powder, the tips started to chip in layers, and were uneven with the rest of the acrylic layers, and I made the decision to buff them down. It didn't work so well. Some of my nails are free of the acrylic, but most have little patches of acrylic on them, and I'm afraid to buff any further because my nail beds are very tender now. And I've also managed to dry up and fray my cuticles from using acetone to remove the acrylic, and a buffer to smooth it.

My nails are SO WEAK and damaged from the buffing, I had to cut off all of my nails so short, and now I have to start building them all over again. I'm so bummed because I have received about 10 new polishes in the mail, and have more to come, and I can't paint them until they're grown out and strong(ish) again.

Would I recommend it personally? No. Not at all. I honestly don't see the point of it! If your nail breaks, just suck it up, and cut it down even. This kit is only a very temporary fix (a few days best) and once the acrylic cracks, you're back at square one with the broke nail, AND a layer of acrylic that is glued onto your nail and is impossible to remove, even with acetone. It's not worth the hassle IMO. It didn't rescue anything. It did the exact opposite.

This is what that kit did to my fingers-

E.L.F nail polishes and manicure

If you ever find your self in Target aka the best store ever ( to anyone who is not familiar with Target©, it is basically a chain store in the states, almost like a Tesco?) If you find yourself in the beauty aisle there, you know that they sell ELF products. But for the spring, they have released new products which included a 5 piece nail polish, for five bucks!

I grabbed it, the last one! (Isn't that always the case?) Two of the colors, a melon color and a light pink I gave to my grandma, because I knew that she would like them.

But the three that remained was a minty blueish green, a lilac pastel, and a dusty rose. All creams.                 

  Very gorgeous for the spring!

                                                          I also wanted to show a swatch of Sally Hansen's HD nail polishes in BYTE. It's a duochrome, from one side pink and from the other, purple. And from angles, a blue pops out! Overall, a gorgeous color and another great color for the spring.

Next blog, St. Patrick's day manicure!

That's all for now guys, 

Wet n Wild..Say what??!

You saw from my last Wet n Wild post that the nail polishes and from what you saw, the colors are amazing! But have you seen the new palettes that they have been releasing?

I managed to find two of the three six pan palettes that were released in Feb, and can I say..WOWSVILLE? And I'm not talking about the diner from Ghost World. The colors are so pigmented and gorgeous!

                              736 Petal Pusher

Don't mind the two colors that were pressed back into their pan, I'm a nanny. Make-up and toddlers, bad equation.

 737 Blue had me at hello.

Look at those blues! 

Now their is one more palette, called 738 Comfort Zone, which is based on browns and greens. It will be mine, oh yes it will be mine!!!...if I can find it...

By the way these palettes retail for...4.99$ 

335 Silent Treatment

These colors can compare to Mac shadows. Just a beautiful trio of colors. The website pic of this palette is appalling! It does not even come remotely close to how these palette looks. This trio costs if you can find it, 2.99$

Three new colors, 232C FuchsiaRama, 223C The Gold & The Beautiful, and 228C Teal of Fortune. Teal of Fortune was a gift from an ebay seller from whom I bought the silent treatment palette. It was such a sweet thing, and seriously the nicest thing any ebay seller has ever done. And folks, I have bought quite a few things from ebay (I am not proud of this) The fast dry polishes are 1.99$ each. Amazing.

Look at those flakes!

Seriously, this is an almost 100% dupe for Zoya Charla or OPI catch me in the net. But for a fraction of the cost!

Okay, well considering that I've been up since 3am, (can not sleep..) I am going to try and probably fail at giving this sleep thing another go. Ill be back with some new nail polishes!

Ta-Ta for now,

Japan

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that one of our bloggers, Renee, who is currently living in Japan right now, is safe and okay, as well as her husband and kitty Aqua. It would be great if you could give her a nice shout out! Thanks guys you're the best:)

Who remembers Street Wear?

Good morning everyone!

Sorry to be late in posting my latest mani, everything has been a bit hectic here. In addition to Thursday being one month since surgery and me having stress that I still can't bend my toe whatsoever, I just got news the other day that we have to move to Osaka. Yes, we have to move YET again, despite that I can't walk. Awesome huh?

Well, here's the belated manicure in question!

I LOVE Street Wear. Remember how it was promoted in Josie's hotel room in Josie and the Pussycats? Can't get enough of it! Erika gave me this one, the color's name is Slip and it's such a pretty color. To give this mani a rustic, antique-y, burgundy look, I applied base coat, then a coat of red nail polish, three coats of Slip, then clear coat on top to finish it off. It looks great, and would actually be an awesome autumn manicure.

Clarins 230 - Unicorn Pee Swatched!

I finally got to swatching this in good lighting, and this post will need little words - here is the gorgeous RAOK present Clarins 230. :) (i have oil on my cuticles so they look a little funky) It's also pretty apparent that I smooshed my ringfinger a little - whoops! But I don't think it averts the attention away from the beauty!

This is layered over 2 coats of Zoya Zara.

In direct sunlight:

I Was RAOK'd With Clarins 230 - THANK YOU!!!!!

I have no clue what I ever did to deserve such an awesome and generous gift, and from somebody who wishes to remain anonymous! I knew I was being RAOK'd through a wonderful group of people over at a nail forum I frequent. I was thinking "hmm...maybe Barielle Elle's Spell?" Because I often said I wanted it. Then I thought maybe it could be a Nfu Oh of some sort. I never in my life expected it to be what it was though.....I will let the photos do the talking here.....and also give a huge gigantic and probably not nearly as thankful as I'd like to portray - I am elated and thrilled and SO grateful because I thought I'd never in my life own this polish. - THANK-YOU to the wonderful person who shared this with me. You are an angel! Whoever you are, you have managed to turn my awful week around completely.

I am definitely going to be paying it forward in a major way. I haven't thought about what I'm going to do yet, but expect a fantastic giveaway very soon. Just give me some time to prepare it :)

If anybody is dying for Clarins 230, I did find a seller has a ton on eBay now and they only want $60 a bottle and free shipping. I know it's still an insane amount to pay for nail polish, but it might be the cheapest price I've ever seen on eBay. So check it out.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Clarins-230-Glitter-Nail-Color-4-oz-RARE-HTF-New-/250783962078?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a63e393de


Here goes...(I promise to do a good swatch when my cuticles get better! Every picture I took just looked awful because of my flaky cuticles so I only used 1)

 

Umm no

Could that be? .....

 

OMG IT IS!!!

Clarins 230!!!!!!!!

I had to try a swipe when I got home so I swiped it right over my prior mani and it looked great!