Stamping plates

After seeing a bunch of blogs that had pictures of nail designs that had been made using stamping plates, I decided to grab some for myself.
I have done designs on my own nails using a tiny makeup brush, but I couldn't get much detail and my designs were limited.

With plates, though... WOW! The detail possible with plates just blows my mind. (and now, I know how they do it!) And the variety of designs! OMG! My creativity was kindof limited to ideas I got from blogs that I could replicate using my makeup brush. NOW, my creativity feels unlimited.

I ordered a starter kit by KONAD, a set of 25 plates by MASH, and another set of 25 plates by SHANY. I also ordered an organizer for the plates, some tweezers, and some little tiny flowers in many colors. My KONAD kit had the stamp, a scraper, three "Special Polishes" and two plates. It arrived on monday and I excitedly stamped up all of my nails little tiny flowers. The rest of it arrived today, and I am thrilled! I had this afternoon off, so when I was home, I tore into all my packages, pulled everything out and examined it all while putting the plates in the organizer.

First impressions, no use:
They're all so shiny!!! There are a lot of designs that I'll get to choose from, I might not need to order more plates anytime soon, if ever. The MASH plates seem slightly less detailed than the two KONADs I got earlier in the week, and the SHANYs seem to be a lower quality than both of them.

The KONADs that I used, however, didn't show all the detail once I stamped them onto my nails. The design I chose had four little flowers, and then some tiny dots around them. The flowers generally showed up fine, but the dots rarely transferred over, so while the detail was on the plate, it didn't show in the end result.

The MASHs still have nice detail, but it seems a little less than the KONADs. They still seem nice though and I'm excited to try them out. Of the 25 plates I got, over half of them seem dedicated to full nail designs.

The SHANYs... I'm a little disappointed. The plates feel... flimsy. Like when you unscrew the metal lid on a jar, put it back on, and you can "pop" the freshness seal? The plates bend and pop like that. The designs are definitely lacking in the fine details, although a few designs are more detailed than the MASH plates. For example: a MASH butterfly is just a straight on shot of a butterfly shape with the entire inside cut out. The SHANY butterflies are different angles, and have several designs within the wings.

I haven't using anything except the KONAD plates, but I am sooooo excited to have added these to my collection!


- Posted from my IPad.

Soooo craving an organizer

I'm desperately wanting an organizer for my nail polish. Right now, I don't have an organizer, and so they're all lined up on my vanity in front of my mirror. By color, so there's a little bit of organization. But nearly every night, I jerk awake to my cat skidding across the vanity and smashing into them. Nail polish flying everywhere.

So I want an organizer. First, I googled nail organizers, and they're kindof expensive. Not to mention- they're very.... boring. They're not fun or nice looking. There's no personality.
I was thinking about it more, and it suddenly hit me! I should make my own! All I'll need is some wood, screws, a wood cutter, and maybe some paint. I'm thinking along the idea of a spice rack type thing.

Here's an idea:


I don't know exactly how many polishes I have, but for sure I'll need more than what's on there. I have an idea to put like... a picture wall hanger type thing on the back and hook it to a wall so the cat can't knock it over.
I'm also thinking to put some artistic cutouts on the back piece and possibly side pieces and then paint the edges of the cutouts to make it pretty.


- Posted from my IPad.

Hunger Games Katniss (inspired) nails

This might be my first guide post, so yay!

"The team works on me until late afternoon, turning my skin to glowing satin, stenciling patterns on my arms, painting flame designs on my twenty perfect nails."
Her nails aren't really described in too much detail, but I wanted to give em a shot anyways. My initial idea for these, once I saw Chinaglazes collection, was to make a design using only colors from the collection. I also didn't want to do too formal of a design, didn't want anything too "hotrod-ish".
Here's what I came up with:

And here are the colors I used:

Left-to-right: Clear bottom coat, Stone cold, riveting, electrify, luxe and lush

1- Start off with your clear base coat.

Step 2- Stone Cold

2- Add a coat of stone cold. It's a matte, so it's going to dry really quickly. I really like that color, reminds me of a ashy sky with a lot of smoke rising into it.

Step 3- Riveting.

3- Pick a corner and add a dot of riveting. Wipe excess from brush and drag lines out from the dot in a "starburst" type pattern. (I didn't wipe enough of the excess and as you can see, it got a little gloopy. Remember to wipe excess. Better too little than too much.)
4- Go over the starburst with electrify. Wipe your brush off first- you want to use this polish just to let the gold glitter add some color to your fire. It's fine to go outside the lines that you established with riveting.
5- Add a coat of luxe and lush over everything. I really liked that, and using it over everything made me think of how a campfire will occasionally throw up giant chunks of ash. It also takes the place of a top coat.

The end result is a flickery red-orange, with specks of gold, and larger glimmery chunks on a grey background. My example on my thumb didn't turn out as good as my toes, but I'm sure you get the idea. Practice will make perfect :)

Step 4- Electrify

Step 5- Luxe and Lush

I would love to get feedback, and to see what everyone else comes up with for Katniss Nails!

Hunger Games nail polish

I'm back! It has been literally.... months and months since my last post. Got busy, got broke, etc. Hopefully, this time around, I'll be able to keep up with my posting.

To start off: My latest purchase- The Hunger Games nail polish collection from ChinaGlaze. I saw the movie preview, then read the books, and then stumbled across the collection online and was blown away. All Lacquered Up has an excellent post with amazing photographs and swatches, and after looking through that I was convinced.

I googled. Most places were fairly expensive, with the entire collection running 60-80. That was pre-release. Post-release might be less now. Anyways, I found a place that sold me two sets for a total of 84- bigdaddybeauty.com. I'm thinking I might give away the second set, contests or giveaways. They had an awesome coupon that let me get another collection of polish, and brought the grand total down to only 80. Talk about awesome!

Hunger Games collection

And here's the other collection I got: A bunch of neon, slightly sparkly colors that smell yummy.

Lots of news! Birchbox, haul, and an awesome stilla sale!

Oh my gosh, It has been absolutely Forever since I last wrote- I'm so sorry!
But to make up for it, I have a superlong post today, covering my most recent birchbox, and a recent sephora haul.

Before I get into all that, I have some great news. I wanted to share a couple sales that I took advantage of, and that are still going on at sephora.
Stilla Lipglazes! I love them, absolutely love them. They just feel so creamy on the lips and the applicator is awesome. Normally, they run $22.00 for 0.08 fl oz. That's just one. But right now, sephora.com has a couple awesome sales going on! There are two sets of stilla lipglazes that are selling for a fraction of what they're worth. The glazes in the sets are only 0.05 fl oz, but the difference is barely noticeable. It's still a good amount of product, with awesome prices!
1- Stilla Lip Glaze Trio This one has three colors: Grapefruit, seashell, and raisin. All three for only $12.00.
2- Stilla Lip Glaze Set This one has eight colors: kitten, kaleidoscope, apricot, grapefruit, fantasy, starfruit, dreamy, believe. All eight shades are only $25.00.
(Swatches below!)

If you want to make your gloss collection bigger, or want to start getting gifts for the holidays, those sets are a great way to go! (I am still just so excited about those sales, you don't even know.)

Moving on.

September Birchbox

Last month's box was. Well, I don't even remember. No, wait, that's wrong. There was one thing I loved. I'll be reviewing that later, though.
This months box, I've really enjoyed. I might even be making my first purchase from birchbox once one of my samples runs out. Anyhow, here is what I got this month:

Incoco Nail Polish strips "We all have a wild side. Eye-catching nail strips are the latest trend-try them on your fingers of toes."
I've seen these in blogs, videos, and the store, but just haven't actually gone out and gotten any. No disrespect, but I love the self pampering involved in sitting down and painting my nails with a bottle and brush. I haven't tried the ones they gave me yet (they're bright sparkly blue!) but I'll be sure to leave a review when I do.

Polished Jouer lip enhancer "Why settle for plain 'ol lip balm when you can hydrate, plump, and condition all in one go? Right, we thought so."
Oh, mi, gosh. I love this stuff. It's amazing. It comes out of the little tube a bit thick, almost like a cream, but when you smooth it on your lips, it's like pure water. It spreads so well, and leaves my lips feeling soft and hydrated. It's not sticky, I meant what I said about pure water- there is no stickiness at all. When the just applied feeling fades, your lips still feel hydrated, not parched. There's not much color from it, barely a "bitten" look. It's more of a flushed color. For a balm, it's fine. I'm not really looking for color from a balm anyways.
The only downside, for me, is the smell. This has a very rose smell. I'm more of a sweet fruity person, but this balm is so amazing, I still plan on purchasing it, smell and all. Oh, it doesn't taste good when you lick your lips either, but I guess that's a good way to break that habit.

Eco-Minded LIV GRN perfume "Made from sustainable infredients, this sultry scent is laced with jasmine and sandalwood. Plus, ten percent of sales go directly to Global Green, an enviromental non-profit"
This is just so yummy smelling. Sweet, without smelling too young. I like it, but I'm not so good at describing scents beyond "mmmmmmmmm"

Balanced Pangea Organics Facial Cream "An all-natural moisturizer, with antioxidant-rich grape extracts and essential oils, keeps skin both hydrated and shine-free."
I haven't tried this yet. I opened it and smelled it and, quite frankly, got scared. It has an incredibly sharp smell. it's a natural smell, but very sharp. I'm concerned about my face smelling like that all day.

Treat Birchbox Friendship Bracelet
A string bracelet with the birchbox square for a charm.

Sephora haul

I haven't gone to, or ordered from sephora in awhile. Like, a month. So I was feeling a little tinge of withdrawal and had to take care of that. I went online, a grabbed a few things.

First up- Stilla Lipglazes. I talked about them earlier, so I'm not going to go too much into them again, other than to tout the sales some more and to link swatches. Seriously, go get these sets. Eleven glazes for less than the price of two. How amazing is that?! And here are the swatches. You're gonna notice that there are only ten colors swatched, that's cause if you get both sets, you get grapefruit twice. but that's ok, cause it's an awesome color.

My arm smells AMAZING right now.

Second- This has been on my wishlist for awhile, but I just haven't gotten around to it till now. Nars Nail Polish in Orgasm All their other Orgasm products are amazing, so I've wanted to get the polish. Now I've got it and I can't wait to use it. It's such a beautiful color- a light pinky peach with gold shimmer... I can't wait to wear it. It's my first NARS nail polish, I'm hoping their formula is are great as the color.

I grabbed a couple more glosses as well. These two are from Philosophy.

Kiss Me SPF 20 This one I grabbed for the SPF. The color in the tube looks pretty crazy- a bright red/pink with a hint of purple.

Melon Daiquiri This one.... it just sounded so yummy. In the tube it's a light pinky peach with some shimmer... I actually just held it up next to the orgasm polish, it's almost a match. On the skin... Not so much. You can see the shimmer, but there's no color. Upside, it smells amazing. Just like a melon.

Last up- I saw a ton of reviews, and videos and blogs about this, so I wanted to grab it and try it out for myself. Hourglass Film Noir Lash Laquer I have no idea is this stuff will be awesome or not. I'll post up a review once I try it.

...Such a long post. I'll try not to let it be so long next time. Also, when/if I get enough followers(50!) I'm going to put together a giveaway. Super excited!