Nail crush #2: Kellie Gonzo of Also Known As... :)

Hello lacquered lovelies! Yay another Saturday, another nail crush post! I'm loving doing these. I know this is only the second one I've posted but I have a lot saved as drafts as I work on them - going through the blogs, picking pictures, making sure to keep links to the posts, etc. It's so fun!

So today's nail crush is Kellie. Kellie's blog was one of the first nail blogs that I became full-on obsessed with (I'm such a fangirl). I love her nails, I love her shorties, whenever my nails are long just looking at her nails makes me want to chop mine off and never grow them long again ever. She's also a very beautiful person, very kind, funny and generous. She's another blogger that I feel very lucky to consider a friend. :) So let's get into it! I noticed that I chose TWO reds as favourites - I know that she used to have the same issue with red that I did but my god, it looks amazeballs on her.

So, first, as before, my most favourite of her recent posts. This one is really recent! I love the name of this polish and I adore how it looks on Kellie. Looooove. This is a franken Kae of the Hungry Asian made. It's called Sneeze Breeze!

See where Kellie shared this here.

Here's one of the reds Kellie really made me want... Illamasqua Scarab. Drool.

Aaaand you can view that post here.

I really love blues and teals on Kellie haha, I'm noticing a theme with my pictures. Now, I wanted to die a little bit of jealousy when I saw her post on this baby (gah want so much) but I'm content with staring at her gorgeous pictures of it... for now... Rimmel Mania.

You can drool over it here.

Here's another lemming of mine. Once again, I just look at her post on it whenever I feel depressed about not owning it... China Glaze Drinkin' My Blues Away.

You're welcome.

I know China Glaze Ruby Pumps is considered the quintessential red glitter polish, but Essie Ruby Pumps is something else entirely. Kellie's swatch of this baby was what made me decide I needed it - it was my biggest red lemming (unless La Boheme counts) for a while. Then I got my paws on it and it's onto BK 20!

View the gorgeousness here.

And last but not least... I know lacquerheads are divided on this polish, but personally, I adore it. And I adore it on Kellie. And if nothing else, you should click through to the post on this, read it, then watch the video she links at the end. It's just full of loveliness. Lippmann Glitter in the Air.

There's a lot of awesomeness here. Can you handle it?

Ahh! I love her shorties so much. I just want to hug them. Adorable nails to go with an adorable person. :)

Fangirling. It's a habit. I'm sure you guys all know Kellie and her blog but she deserves a lovefest, no? I'm pretty much throwing hearts like confetti here. I love her nails like crazy and I love her too, I really hope I can meet her someday... maybe next year? <3

You can and should stalk Kellie on her blog, twitter and Facebook! <3

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Comparison: NYX Carnival vs Essence Circus Confetti (PIC HEAVY)

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Friday! I'm feeling kinda gross today but I wanted to thank you all for sending your good vibes by email, comment and on twitter - it helped a lot!  I hope to be on to the next phase soon!

Today I have a comparison that was requested by Allison in an email. I'm unsure of whether she has a blog, as I couldn't find one with the email address she used, but if you're reading, Allison, this is for you! She asked if I would compare Essence Circus Confetti and NYX Carnival. I think she's in Europe so this might be helpful to all of you European girls wondering if it's worth pulling the trigger on ordering the NYX or not!

I got NYX Carnival in my BeautyJoint order and Circus Confetti came from my swap with the lovely Deborah! I decided to compare them on the nail and on a nail wheel. I used a sheer French manicure polish on my pointer and middle fingers (sorry for the staining but it takes a million coats to reach opacity!), and a nice white base (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White Out) on my ring and pinky fingers. And I used a white nail wheel instead of a clear one, so hopefully you can see the differences!

First, one coat of each:

And two coats:

OKAY PICTURE SPAM OVER. I don't do comparison posts that often, so I apologize. Anyway, the main difference between Circus Confetti and Carnival is that Circus Confetti has gold micro glitter. Both have hex glitter, but Carnival has smaller, multi-coloured hex glitter and is much more dense. I think the Essence would require four or five coats for opacity but I think the NYX could potentially be opaque in three, depending on your application.

So, all in all: I love both. If I HAD to pick, I'd say that I actually like Circus Confetti more, I like the micro glitter. As to which is more similar to the actual Happy Birthday, I would say Carnival - it's just missing the square glitter. And from what I can tell from pictures, Carnival and Ulta Pinata-yada-yada are veryyyy similar. Same smaller hex glitter and everything.

OKAY. So that's it! What do you guys think? Which do you prefer? Do you have any of the many Happy Birthday dupes? I really want Milani Gems too haha... just to tide me over. I'm sure I'll get the original some day!

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

ANOTHER ONE? Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Thursday! Almost the weekend whoooo! I need your well wishes for 2 PM today - I don't want to say anything to jinx it (though some of you know), but I would really appreciate them! <3

Today I have another chunky holo. I KNOW. But this one is my favourite one yet. I layered two coats of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple over two coats of a gorgeous purple that I will be showing you soon. Goodness all around. The multichrome bits in these polishes are all the same, so all of them aren't necessary. It's just the bases that are different, and the black one has some big bits in it too. Anyway, two coats of each, no topcoat.

Aaand a sunlight picture because I have one. Still, though. Dinosaur eggs.

AHH I loved this one the most. So far. Maybe I just did a good layering combination but it was so pretty. I definitely felt like the multichrome was a lot more obvious in this one than in the other ones I've shown so far - but again, that could've been due to my layering choice. Either way, so far, if I had to suggest only a few to get, I'd say to get Fuchsia, Purple and Black. I still have a few left to try, though, so don't quote me on that LOL.

What do you guys think? What are you wearing today? I have a comparison for tomorrow's post so I PROMISE it won't be another chunky holo. And then Saturday's nail crush post.... I really enjoyed writing it and it's about one of my very favourite bloggers. I can't wait to share it! :)

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Color Club In the Teal press release!

*COLOR CLUB DEBUTS LIMITED EDITION NAIL POLISH COLLECTION FOR OCRF*

OCRF and Super Saturday Teal to Benefit the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund

New York, NY – July 2011 Color Club, a New York based cosmetic brand specializing in nail and lip products announced today a limited edition nail polish collection developed exclusively for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF).  The new shades – OCRF and Super Saturday Teal – are sophisticated yet playful teal blue shades created exclusively for OCRF and Super Saturday 14. The polishes will be available beginning in July 2011 as part of the OCRF Super Saturday 14 event and sold though September 2011, which is Ovarian Cancer Research month. The polishes are available on www.shopcolorclub.com and 10% of all proceeds will benefit OCRF. Color Club is also the official nail sponsor of Super Saturday 14 and will be offering manicures and nail art at the event on July 30, 2011 in the Hamptons.

Color Club is renowned for its high performance rich shades and exceptionally safe products. All nail colors are vegan, Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP and paraben-free - and made in New York, NY with the best raw materials. Color Club products are made in the USA and are not tested on animals. Products are available at shopcolorclub.com.

Super Saturday Teal (right)

OCRF Teal (left)

ABOUT COLOR CLUB

Color Club is a nail polish brand developed by Forsythe Cosmetic Group.  Founded in 1979, the Forsythe Cosmetic Group is a New York-based cosmetic company widely regarded worldwide as a pioneer within the professional beauty industry. A global brand with products represented in more than 95 countries, Forsythe was one of the first companies to recognize and address the needs of the professional nail salon, a new phenomenon at the time. Rather quickly, the Forsythe name became synonymous with excellent, performance-proven products available in a diverse range of eye-catching shades. Today, more than three decades later, the Forsythe Cosmetic Group remains a vanguard in the beauty business by constantly introducing new concepts and elevating industry standards. Forsythe manufactures every product it offers, a practice that ensures superior color-matching quality control and the ability to respond quickly to consumer demands for the latest and most exciting trends in nail color, nail treatments and lip color.

Purchase Super Saturday colors to benefit OCRF here

For additional information on OCRF please visit OCRF.org

Like us on Facebook * Follow us on Twitter

What do you guys think? This is a cause very near and dear to my heart. I will definitely be buying these. They're gorgeous and it's for a great cause!

Pink Wednesday: Kleancolor Chunky Holo Fuchsia

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Wednesday! :) Hump day, is that what people call it? I've never called it that because I've never had a "normal" week - even in high school I worked during the week and on weekends. Do you ever just miss being a kid? I think we should get more time in the "less responsibility" part of our lives, don't you?

Today I have another chunky holo to share... I know, I'm obsessed. I knew I wanted to use Chunky Holo Fuchsia (I think I'm pretty good at spelling but fuchsia has always been one of my "problem" words - English is so strange sometimes) for pink Wednesday but I knew I'd have to layer it over a pink to get it to "count". I want to be able to sit with you guys!

Also it's almost 1:30 AM as I write this and it sounds like they're power cleaning the streets. SERIOUSLY. With the beeping trucks and everything. Mind blown.

Anyway, I layered two coats of Chunky Holo Fuchsia (bahhh I still don't get the "holo" bit) over two coats of China Glaze Ahoy!. I know. You're not surprised that I used Ahoy! at all are you? I can't help it. It's pretty much perfect. I might have to create an Ahoy! label just to track how much I use it LOL. I didn't take any sunlight pictures because the dinosaur egg thing kinda creeps me out... and anyway, they don't look that interesting in the sunlight! ;)

Blurry and in the break room at work... I could not get my camera to focus so I chose to use my lamp when I got home. I tried turning the ISO settings up more but everything looked jacked and really grainy. I need steadier hands. Less coffee.

Anyway, that's it! I love these. You need them. In the bottle, these look mental. On the nail, I don't really see any of the blue that flashes in this one (by the way, these are all numbered - this one is 230! Cool, eh?) but maybe if I picked a different base colour I'd see it? I'll have to experiment with the next one I have to wear!

What do you guys think? Are you rocking pink today? What's your favourite duochrome or multichrome polish? Are you weird like me and enjoy when polishes smell strong and chemically? I like this infamous Kleancolor smell haha!

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Yum! Kleancolor Chunky Holo Bluebell

Hello lacquered lovelies! Ugh it's Tuesday... my work week begins. Really hoping I find something somewhere else soon, my real life has been too dramatic for the past five or six months. Don't you hate that? Sometimes I just want to move home LOL.

Today I have one of the Kleancolor Chunky Holos to show you! First though, can I just say that I have NO idea why these have "holo" in the name. They aren't holo at all. They are chunky (and smell fabulously chemically - yum), but not holo. All of the polishes in this little collection have the same type of multichrome glitter bits. So yeah. They're multichrome. Not holo. I'll show you a bottle shot in a sec.

Like most chromatic (is that the term? I think that's right) polishes, these aren't that impressive in the sunlight. They look like weird dinosaur speckles!

This is two coats of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Bluebell over China Glaze Secret Periwink-le (I still don't get the hyphen there... anyway).

But in the shade, they really come alive. First, though, a bottle shot!

NOM.

I'm a huge fan of these. I'm wearing another as I write this that I might show tomorrow and I keep stopping and staring at my nails LOL. Looking at Jeanette and Ivana's nails (along with Jen's, of course) made me regret chopping mine, so I wanted something to cheer me up. These are all freaking amazing. Seriously.

What do you lovelies think? Are you going to pick any up? They smell amazing too (really strong - LOL I don't know why I like that smell but I do). And if you aren't sold on getting these, let me help you... BeautyJoint has these for sale for $1.75. And to ship polishes to me in Canada, it wasn't even $10 and I got ten polishes (chunky holos and two NYX polishes). MENTAL. You should go and shop now. And if you do, let me know which ones you pick up! :)

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

A Fawkes franken

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Monday! I apologize for my erratic posting last week - I didn't want to force myself to post when I wasn't feeling that great or peppy, so I just decided to hide out LOL. I'm sorry! I'll be back to normal this week though, promise. Send me good vibes - by the time this gets posted, I'll be out pounding pavement trying to find another job before my current horrible job kills me.

Today I have a really simple franken. I made it with a Harry Potter theme in mind, of course. I wanted a red jelly with orange-y flakies, so I made a red jelly (using a clear polish and Revlon Red). Once I got it to the transparency I wanted, I added Nubar 2010. Really easy and I like the results!

And yes, I did chop my nails. These are pretty much nubbins for me! I've been wanting to do it for a while and when I broke a nail at work (not nearly this short but you know) I decided to just go for it. A lot of my favourite bloggers have shorter nails - my Elizabeth, Cris, Piff (ugh her nails make me so jealous LOL), Abby,  Deborah, Stef, Féline and, of course, miss Kellie - link spamming galore but yeah, basically, I was inspired by their gorgeous little nails. I just want to hug them all.

So I used two coats of my franken over a coat of Essie Jelly Apple. Benefit to shorter nails - less work to get rid of VNL. I like this. This was SO glossy - this is without topcoat and I could see all kinds of things in my nails while looking through pictures LOL.

Downside to short nails? It is REALLY hard to get used to polishing them. I swatched a lot yesterday to try and get used to it but I keep making a mess because I'm used to having a fair amount more to polish! I do love a good red (gasp) on shorter nails! Clean up has been a lot more labour intensive and I've obviously not perfected it yet - my apologies!

I'm excited about some of the posts this week, I've gotten some REALLY gorgeous polishes lately in the mail and I was enjoying swatching them. And I have a comparison! I never do comparisons because I never think "oh, this polish is similar to this polish". My brain doesn't work like that. My brain sees pretty polishes and says OM NOM THIS WILL BE MINE and it doesn't matter if I already own a million polishes like it. :P

What do you guys think? Have you seen the last Harry Potter movie yet? I cried like a pansy through the whole thing LOL.

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Dustydustydusty

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Friday yay! Two more days and my weekend starts too haha. Do you have any plans? Any Canadians going to IMATS Vancouver? :)

Today I have a polish that I needed in my life without even knowing it. Does that ever happen to you? In my swap with Deborah, I found this gem in there, Catrice Dirty Berry. I was happy about how many purples Deborah sent me, I love purple but I rarely wear it! I think part of it is that photographing purples is difficult... ah well, anyway! I was so excited the second I saw Dirty Berry in there. It's the purple I've been craving lately. I'm loving dusty colours lately and this is no exception. Thank you so much, sweetie! A lovely dusty blue-based lavender? I'm all up on that. This was two coats, no topcoat.

Pretty! In other news, if my roomie and I hit Ikea in August, I'll probably be getting some new lighting. I won't stop using sunlight whenever possible, but I hate feeling like my pictures are utter crap without it. From asking around about lighting (Jeanette and Cris especially, I adore their lighting), I think I have a rough-ish idea of what I'm looking for. Some halogen light bulbs seem to be in order, and nobody seems to have a lightbox or photo area set up that has less than three lamps! So my lighting might be changing for a bit while I try to figure that out, but no worries, not for a couple of weeks. Just a heads up!

What do you guys think? I wish North American drugstores would make polishes like this beauty. I went to look at the new scented Revlon display and nothing caught my eye. I love glass flecks but the swatches I've seen show that most of them are soooo sheer. And if I'm using a glass fleck, I don't like to layer, I want all the depth from one polish! BLEH! Anyway, do you guys like Dirty Berry? Is anyone else confused about the name? LOL

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

200th post: Drool everywhere.

Hello lacquered lovelies! I'm excited right now - I was looking idly at my dashboard and it informed me that I was almost at 200 posts! I had a few ideas on what I wanted to post. I wanted to do something special, I was going to Konad or something... and then I got my swap package from Deborah. She emailed me... oh man, months ago, it took us a while to get everything together and then the strike kinda ruined my life and... yeah. Anyway, she sent me an AWESOME swap package full of goodies (and Dutch candy, yum!) out of a swap that originally started for one polish. This polish. GOSH Holographic.

She emailed me saying she could still get it here and offering to swap and I was so excited and overwhelmed by her generosity and the fact that she even offered. :) She's awesome and her blog is too, I love the angle she takes pictures at and I love her nails. <33333333

I was expecting application on GOSH Holographic to be more problematic, since I'd heard from a lot of people that it's a nightmare to apply, but I didn't find it bad at all. Nfu-Oh 61 was way worse, much more patchy. I used my Nfu-Oh aqua base and two careful coats of Holographic. It was insanely holo inside... and then I went outside and stood there for a good few minutes, basking in the glory of it in the sunlight. And then the sun disappeared without me taking a single photograph, so I wore this for about an hour while the sun and I played hide and seek LOL. No topcoat either... just glorious. I pretty much died. I just can't even.

This last one is with no sunlight at all - still pretty holo!

AHH. I love this so hard. No better way to celebrate 200 posts, I think! Thank you so much, Deborah! You're the best! I'm slowly working my way through all of my swap goodies and there hasn't been a dud yet!

What do you lovelies think? What's your favourite holographic polish? Do you have GOSH Holographic? Are you lemming it? This was over a year of lemming and it's finally mine! AHH THANK YOU DEBORAH <33333

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Pink Wednesday: I'm forgetful

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy pink Wednesday! I have a quick post because I was annoyed at myself - I forgot my camera when I was going to work yesterday, so I couldn't take pictures. And it was a gorgeoussssssss sunny day. Normally I take pictures before I have to go in and start and then on breaks. No such luck. I can't even remember the last time I forgot my camera... I guess my mind was elsewhere. So, only one picture today because I had to use artificial lighting and I feel annoyed about it LOL. Tomorrow's post will make up for it, promise!

I used three coats of China Glaze Ahoy! and added a coat of Essence Hello Holo on my ring finger. It was amazingly blingy in the sun... trust me?

I didn't use topcoat for this mani either... I've been forgetting it a lot lately!

That's it from me today. What do you guys think? I really need to show Ahoy! properly in the sunlight. It's seriously one of my favourite pinks ever. It's stunning. Are you wearing pink today?

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

FingerPaints Fall Fashionista press release!

I'm sure this is popping up everywhere at the moment, so I'm sorry to join in, but these are too gorgeous to pass up!

Catwalk Queen

Stunning Stilettos

Cordur-Orange

Vintage Velvet

Military Green

Haute Taupe

To-Teally Chic

Purple Pinstripe

Raspberry Tafetta

What do you guys think? I love To-teally Chic, Purple Pinstripe, Cordur-Orange and Catwalk Queen most, I think! Though we all know how much I love grey and green... I'm sure I'll end up owning them too! Which are you most excited for? :)

This is yummy.

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Monday! I'm afraid I may be shamelessly cheery on Mondays from now on - my days off at work might be changing. Fingers crossed! Did you all have a good weekend?

Today I have another Color Club polish to share, from the Starry Temptress collection, of course. This is Wink, Wink, Twinkle. Do I get the name? Not at all. Is it pretty? Ooooh  yes. And very hard to capture on camera. I was surprised at how much I loved this - purple and I seem to have fallen out a bit lately (unless it's a dusty purple or a lilac haha) but this is delicious. I used three coats and topcoat. The first picture is how my camera captured it normally, the second is in the shade and the third is with the "vivid" colour setting on my camera, which is closest to being accurate, even though it makes my hands look very strange.

Like I said, yummy. I really want to wear this again! This whole collection is awesome, seriously.

That's it from me today! What do you lovelies think? This makes me want a real summer badly - what's the weather like where you are? It keeps raining here, it's driving me nuts! Are you guys excited to keep seeing more of my nail crushes? I've been thinking about this for AGES and I'm glad I finally got the ball rolling. Who are your favourite bloggers? Are there any you have nail crushes on that you think I should definitely be reading?

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!