OPI - "Love is a Racket"

Tonight's post includes a review and pictures of one of OPI's newest shades, "Love is a Racket". LIAR (Oh my! I didn't realize that was the acronym that would appear! Maybe I'll keep referring to it by it's full name!) is from the recent and final Serena Williams Glam Slam duo called Glam Slam USA. The other color in this duo is "Pros and Bronze". I bought this duo at my favorite local beauty supply store, but I've seen it at Ulta and Beauty Brands as well. They retail for around $14.25.


"Love is a Racket" is a bright reddish-pink glass fleck polish. If "Ali's Big Break" and "Let Me Entertain You" (both from OPI's 2010 Burlesque Collection) were mixed together, I *think* this is what you'd get. 


I have to be honest, this is just too "flashy" for me. I love a good glitter or a good glass fleck polish, but I just don't think bright reds/fuchsias look that great on me; kinda the same way I felt about another recent glass fleck polish by OPI, "Be A Dahlia Won't You?". I don't know, they just aren't "me". So, yet another bottle that will probably end up in the swap/blog sale pile! Man, this pile is really starting to grow! I've kinda been striking out these past few times, but I'm bound to find a new favorite one of these days!


After only wearing this a few hours and trying to take it off (with Remove +), I noticed some pretty bad staining. So, I'd recommend wearing at least a base coat (maybe 2 coats, just to be safe) before applying this.


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
OPI Nail Envy, Soft & Thin Formula
2 coats of OPI's "Love is a Racket"
China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat

Which Serena Williams duo has been your favorite so far? I'd have to say mine's been the one that included "Grape...Set...Match" and "Servin' Up Sparkle" (although, I have yet to do a full mani with either of these, but it's comin', I promise!

Enjoy the rest of your week, everyone! I doubt I'll be back any more this week, and the earliest I'll probably do another post is Sunday or Monday. So, enjoy the weekend! 

Katie

OPI "Be A Dahlia Won't You?" and "I Lily Love You"

Hey, kids! I'm back! It's been almost a MONTH since my last post! But I hope to be "back to normal" now! I've got a lot of catching up to do! 


Over the past weekend, I saw that my local beauty supply store had BOTH of the new Serena Williams' duos AND the Nice Stems! collection! So naturally, I HAD to  splurge! I ended up with both the SW sets and "I Lily Love You" and "Be A Dahlia Won't You?" The other 2 colors from the NS collection didn't do much for me.


My 1 day, 1 store haul over the weekend:

I know I over-did it, but I had SO much fun! :-)

So tonight, I wanted to share pictures of BADWY with you. After I was done with this mani, I decided to add 1 coat of ILLY just to see how the two looked together. To be honest, I wish I had left well enough alone! I LOVED the look of BADWY. I really think BADWY will be the PERFECT summer pedi color (next to Cajum Shrimp, of course!). I never owned "Kinky in Helsinki", but I've heard that if you loved it, you'll really love BADWY (apparently they're almost perfect dupes!). But then I had to go and add ILLY to it, and it just didn't work for me. I really think ILLY will look great over a dark polish, but it's just too "busy" over a hot pink. What do you think?


I'd describe "Be A Dahlia Won't You?" as a hot pink/fuchsia semi-foil polish. It was super-duper easy to apply. I was pleased with the results after 2 coats. What I also appreciated about this polish, was that it was easy to clean up. When I do my clean up, I use a small concealer brush and dip it in acetone to clean around my cuticles. Some polishes are a nightmare to clean up, but this one wasn't! 


"I Lily Love You" is kind of like "Teenage Dream's" big sister. A brighter pink clear jelly with TONS of glitter and glass flecks. Besides it not looking so great over BADWY (my opinion), it is a little chunky. It might be best to use a top coat over it (which I didn't in this mani).


Application:
Deborah Lippmann 2 Second Nail Primer
1 coat OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
2 coats of OPI "Be A Dahlia Won't You?"
1 coat of CND Speedey
1 spritz CND Solar Speed Spray

Here are pictures of 1 coat of "I Lily Love You" added:

(The glitter and glass flecks in ILLY were very difficult to capture in pictures!)

Thanks for taking the time to read tonight's post! Hope you're all doing well and enjoying your summer so far!

-Katie

OPI's "Steady As She Rose" and my GingerKitty Birthday Giveaway prize!

WARNING: VERY Picture Heavy!

(with 2 very special guest stars at the very end!)

So I told you all in my last post that I was going to *attempt* to blog 2-3 times per week in June. So, I wanted to start off the month on the right track! 1 down, 1 or 2 more to go this week! *Fingers Crossed*!

Today's post is another polish from OPI's Pirates of the Caribbean Collection, "Steady As She Rose". When I purchased the polish, I was thinking it would be sort of a muted pink. Instead, I'd describe it as a muted pinkish-lavender. As you can see in the pictures below, it looks pink in some, and purple-ish in others. No complaints, though - I really like the color. I like the application even more! Just like with "Stranger Tides", this little beauty was a breeze to apply. I did use 3 coats, but probably could've gotten away with just two.

I'm also including pics of my new GingerKitty Designs Clarins 230 ring I WON in her Birthday Blog Giveaway! How cool, huh? I got my ring in the mail today and have been admiring it ever since I opened the package. The best way I can describe this ring is by saying it's "like a juiced-up mood ring"! Tracey, the designer and creator of all of the GingerKitty jewelry, used Clarins 230 nail polish for this ring. So now, I can honestly say that I "got my hands" on Clarins 230 - finally! (Did you catch the pun there?)  Here's a link to her Etsy shop (this link goes directly to the Clarins 230 ring I won!). Have you ever checked out the GingerKitty blog? If not, here's the link. 


Thank you, Tracey, for such an incredible and generous giveaway! I'm honored to own one of your pieces of artwork! 


Now, the fun part - the pictures!


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
1 coat OPI Nail Envy, Original Formula
3 coats of OPI "Steady As She Rose"
1 coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat
OPI Drip Dry Drops
1 spritz CND Solar Speed Spray (I reeeeeeally wanted my nails to dry quick!)

Without Flash:

With Flash:

Now, the beautiful GingerKitty Clarins 230 ring! Look at all the different colors that come out, depending on the light and the angle!

You can't say I didn't warn you about the abundance of pictures! Now, just 2 more (to me, they're my favorite pictures in the whole post!):

My baby girl, Cleo (aka Cleopatra, Kee-Kee, Cleeps, Cleepy-Weepy, the list goes on and on!)

My other baby girl (and Cleo's mom), Gracie (aka Gracie McGee, Gracie Face)

If you've made it to this point, THANK YOU! I hope I didn't bore you with all of my pictures! Thanks for reading!

xoxo, Katie (and Cleo and Gracie, too!)

CND - "Frosting Cream"

I lied... I AM going to post on Easter Sunday!!! Yay!!!


Tonight's post is for a line of polishes I had never tried before - Creative Nail Design (CND for short). I am very familiar with this company because I have purchased quite a few of their lotions (um, their Almond Hydrating lotion is YUUUUUUM!), scrubs (I love their Almond Moisture Scrub and their Sea Scrub), creams (I'm a huge fan of the Cucumber Heel Therapy and Almond Soothing Creme) and one of my favorite cuticle oils ever - Solar Oil (and their Solar Speed Spray rocks, too!). Note: That was probably THE longest sentence I've ever written. Ever. I wanted to make it known that I LOVE their products, but for some reason just never purchased their polishes.


I'm wearing "Frosting Cream" tonight. It's very soft and feminine, but classy and sophisticated at the same time. In the pictures below, I used 3 coats. Because it's so sheer, I doubt I could've gotten away with just 2. As with most sheer and semi-sheer polishes, you have to be careful of lines, VNL and streaky-ness (which is another reason I needed to use 3 coats). 


I LOVE the end result!


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey (This was my first time using it! Looking forward to writing a review on it soon!)
3 coats CND "Frosting Cream"
1 coat China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat
1 spritz CND Solar Speed Spray

 With Flash:

Both CND's Colour and Effect polishes are available at www.cnd.com. To find CND polishes at a retailer near you, click here.  The suggested retail prices are $9 USD (Colour) and $11 USD (Effect) and the polishes come in .33 fl. oz. bottles. 

*The product in this post was sent to me by the company or their PR firm for my unbiased review. 

Katy Perry has arrived in the STL!

While I was on my lunch hour yesterday, I decided to stop by my local JCPenny, just to see if they had gotten in the Katy Perry collection by OPI. To my surprise, they had the display right up front on the counter! I purchased the "Black Shatter" and "Teenage Dream".
I was so anxious to try out my new polishes, that when I got back to my office, I threw on a coat of "TD" and "BS" right there at my desk. The "TD" was much thicker and "goopier" than I was used to, but apparently that's normal, since it's a jelly polish. 
When I got home that night, before I went out later, I painted my whole hand with this same duo and boy did it look hot! (See pictures below).
I liked the "Teenage Dream" so much that I went back out today and bought the blue version of the polish, "Last Friday Night". I'm so anxious to try this one out too. When I do, I'll be sure to post pictures!


Here's a picture of my nails painted with 1 coat of "Teenage Dream"
Application:
OPI Chip Skip
2 coats of OPI Nail Envy, Original Formula
1 coat of OPI "Teenage Dream"

Now, here's a picture of my nails painted with 2 coats of "Teenage Dream"

My nails with 1 very thin coat of "Black Shatter" (over 2 coats of "TD")

These last 2 pictures show 2 coats of Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat added on top of the "Black Shatter". I definitely recommend using at least 1 top coat after "BS".


With "Black Shatter", the combinations are endless! I'm already excited to try it on top of some of the Burlesque glitters, "Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous", "Alpine Snow" and some of the holo polishes (like my newly acquired "Standing Room Only")!


Happy "Shattering"!