Versatile Blogger Award

Stephanie nominated me for my first blogger award, which was super mega awesome of her.  THANK YOU MA'AM! :-)

The Rules: 

1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers.
2. Let them know that you have nominated them.
3. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
4. Thank the blogger who nominated you.
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Image to your blog post.

Sooo...Here are 7 random facts about me.

1.  I could eat tacos 3 meals a day 365 days a year and be totally ok with that.

2.  I love terrible sci-fy channel movies.  Sharks in Venice and Swamp Shark?  Yes please.

3.  Baking is my other hobby and I've been thinking about starting another blog to post my cake pictures.  Called Kat Hearts Cake, naturally, because coming up with a blog name is the hardest thing ever.

4.  My tendency towards being a squeeing fangirl drives my husband just a wee bit batty.

5.  My son is the cutest, funniest, smartest 2 year old ever.

6.  I love traveling and am going to Australia in October.  Sooooo excited.

7.  Trashy romance novels are my crack, but I also love the YA genre.  

And the bloggers I'm tagging!  

1. Chandi at Happiness is a Dry Nail

2.  Amanda at Nox Nails

3.  Kelly at Peace Love Lacquer

4.  Paulina at Paulina Loves

5. Girlie and Glamorous

Aaaaaand I'm only tagging 5 because the aforementioned 2 year old wants up from his nap.

Side note, I bought something this week to use in my first giveaway!  I love all the blogger giveaways, they're so much fun!  About 1/2 way to a giveaway, follower-wise.  :-)

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Good Manicure/Bad Manicure

I'm really conflicted about my nails right now.  I painted them with Let's Talk by Sinful Colors, and I think it's probably the prettiest purple I own.  It's such a deep, rich, gorgeous purple.  Slightly shimmery, and just super pretty.  I didn't really want to do anything with it because it's so nice on it's own...but I was also bored and watching TV, so I put a layer of Electrify over it anyway.  The result was really cool.  At first I thought Electrify went on too think and you wouldn't be able to see any purple under it, but as it dried it kind of melted into it to where at certain angles all you can see is purple like you're looking through the glitter.  Then up close you can see all the gold and red glitter.  I really like it.

AND YET!

I painted my nails at night and lately have been waiting to take pictures until the following day after work so that I have some sunlight.  Usually I manage to keep it chip free and fresh looking at least that long.  Not so with this.  Even with 2 coats of Anti-Chip top coat this started chipping and showing tip wear within hours of me painting them.  Seriously, before I went to bed I had an inexplicable chip in my index finger.  I debated even taking pictures of it because by the time I got home it looked 4 days old instead of less than 24 hours.  But I still really liked the combination, and also wanted to show the level of wear after one day as part of the review.

None of these pictures accurately capture the purple BTW.  I have a feeling my brand spanking new camera needs to go back...I also went to take these pictures and suddenly the colors aren't reflecting right, the preview thing on the LCD isn't working, and it's having trouble focusing (not in Macro mode though, yay!)  So yeah.  But here it is!!

Look at that chip!  What the hell, Batman?

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Colors Used: Sinful Colors Let's Talk, China Glaze Electrify
Technique: Layered
Purchased: Sally & Target
Verdict on the colors: Let's Talk is SO PRETTY, but holy chipping!!

April Julep Box

My April Julep box got here yesterday!  I got the Boho Glam box instead of It Girl this month because it's flip flop season and I wanted the pedi creme!  I also got one add on because I did really like the Nicey one from the It Girl box.

This month's Boho Glam box came with Alyson, Molly, and the aforementioned pedi creme.  I've yet to try them, so as soon as I do I'll post polish pictures and whatnot.  It was packaged beautifully, as always, and came with little chocolate eggs for Easter.  It looked really nice opening it with the pink paper wrapping, green bow & grass crinkles, and chocolate eggs!

Alyson is the almond creme, Molly is the cherry red creme.

I really love the Julep program!  If you don't have it yet and want to try it click HERE to take the style quiz and try it.  You can try it for only $.01 (A PENNY) by using code COLOR2012.  After that it's $19.99 a month and you get at least $40 of nail polish and other beauty products a month, with a chance to preview the upcoming month and skip it if you don't like it.  It's also cancel-able at any time, so you could just get your penny box and then cancel.

Do you subscribe to the Julep Maven program?  If so which box did you get this month?

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Pink Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!  Today I have OPI Strawberry Margarita with Spoiled Trust Fund Baby layered over it.  Trust Fund Baby is a fun glitter, it has hot pink square glitter, and gold, blue, and black hex glitter.  It spread really unevenly though, so that was kind of a pain.  I've found some Spoiled brushes are GREAT, but some look like they've been beaten with a tiny tiny weed wacker.

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Colors Used: OPI Strawberry Margarita, Spoiled Trust Fund Baby
Technique: Layering
Purchased: VyVy's and CVS
Verdict on the colors: Strawberry Margarita is one of my favorite pinks.  Trust Fund Baby is pretty, but the brush makes it hard to get an even distribution.

Hunger Games Week: Day 6 (a little late)

Better late than never!  Since I wasn't happy with the water marble I redid my nails for going to see The Hunger Games on Saturday.  This time painted a base coat in Smoke and Ashes then taped off the tops and did the "flames" in Riveting.  Then I painted Luxe and Lush over all of it to make it look like embers.  That idea came from Passion for Polish HERE.  I really liked how this one came out!

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Colors Used: China Glaze Smoke and Ashes, Riveting, Luxe and Lush
Technique: Taping
Purchased: Sally
Verdict on the colors: All excellent

Hunger Games Week: Day 5

I'm so mad at how this turned out, but I'm posting it anyway.  The entire week, this had been my plan for Friday...I wanted to do a water marble with Smoke and Ashes & Riveting, hoping it would look kind of abstractly like fire.  These were not ideal water marble polishes though.  They dried SO. FAST. in the water, when I dragged my toothpick through the water the color layers separated and let water in the middle which diluted the pigment (really evident in my ring finger).  So there weren't many good places to put my finger in the water.  Anyway, I'm pretty disappointed in this, but here it is.  The upside is I taped my fingers correctly this time so clean up was much better than my last water marble.  :-)

See the tip of the ring finger?  That's where the layers separated.  I also got flecks of black in the orange for some reason.  Smoke and Ashes just went POOF in the water and went all over.

Again, my right hand turned out better than my left.  Again.  The hell?

I suppose the upside of not seeing The Hunger Games until tomorrow night is that I have another chance to do a fire-y manicure!


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Colors Used: China Glaze Riveting & Smoke and Ashes
Technique: water marble
Purchased: Sally
Verdict on the colors: NOT FOR WATER MARBLE >.<

Hunger Games Week: Day 4

Today I actually have a Hunger Games THEME instead of just using the colors :-)  I have a fishing manicure using District 4, the fishing district's polish: Hook and Line.  I stamped fish scales on all but my ring finger, using Smoke and Ashes.  I stamped a fish skeleton on my ring fingers.  Then I used Northern Lights Holographic top coat to make the scales look shiny and approximate real scales.  I really like the end result, but I have to say I am NOT a fan of Hook and Line.  Did anyone else have a problem with this polish?? It was so streaky and thick!  I feel like if I hadn't used my fast dry top coat it would have taken forever to dry and even then been one of those polishes that will dent even after it's dry.  So yeah...not a fan.  But I do like the end result here.

I pressed too hard and kind of messed up my middle finger...

I like my fishy.  I was outside trying to get the last of the sun but it started to drizzle.  The water drops fit though.

The fish on my right hand went kind of more diagonal.  Lately my right hand has been looking better than my left, which is so weird!

Today I bought Electrify and Agro, so the only Capitol Color I'm missing is Mahogany Magic.  I wasn't going to buy either Agro or Mahogany Magic, but at this point I feel compelled to finish the collection. I'm going to do a fire-y water marble to go see the movie with my Dad and sister on Saturday using Electrify, Smoke and Ashes, and Riveting; so I should have that tomorrow.




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Colors Used: China Glaze Hook and Line & Smoke and Ashes
Technique: Stamping, Red Angel plates RA111 & RA 107
Purchased: Polishes at Sally, plates on Amazon
Verdict on the colors: Surprisingly the first China Glaze I'm not happy with!  Hook and Line was streaky and thick.  I do love Smoke and Ashes and it stamped well!

Hunger Games Week: Day 3. Also, Pink Wednesday 3

There's only one polish in the Capitol Colors collection that worked for Pink Wednesday so today I am wearing Dress Me Up!  I used Smoke and Ashes for the tips and heart, and used a dotting tool to make the hearts.  I really like this one, and these polishes together.

Happy Wednesday!






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Colors Used: China Glaze Smoke and Ashes and Dress Me Up
Technique: French tip strips and dotting tool
Purchased: Sally
Verdict on the colors: <3

Hunger Games Week Day 2

Day 2 of my Week of Hunger Games colors!  Today I used Fast Track and Harvest Moon.  My original plan was to use Harvest Moon to stamp over Fast Track, but it wasn't quite opaque enough for that (you can see where I tested it on my index finger in one of the pictures though.  EVERYTHING shows up in Macro mode!) so I decided to sponge the Harvest Moon onto the tips to make a gold gradient.

These first two are in natural, late afternoon sunlight.

I turned on the overhead light and adjusted the white balance for indoors for this one, and you can see the gold glints in Fast Track better.  And the test stamp. Fast Track is my new favorite neutral, it's so pretty.  Nude but with tiny tiny flecks of gold glitter.

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Colors Used:  China Glaze Fast Track and Harvest Moon
Technique: Sponging
Purchased: Sally
Verdict on the colors: Have I met a China Glaze I don't love yet?  They're all freaking fantastic.

Hunger Games Week!!

The Hunger Games comes out at the end of the week so I thought I'd celebrate by using my China Glaze Capitol Colors collection every day this week!  Today I have Foie Gras with Luxe and Lush layered on top of it.

Foie Gras is a mauve-y taupe creme.  Perhaps a puce?  Mauve-y taupe is more pleasant sounding, so we'll go with that.  Like all the China Glaze polishes I've tried, it has a super smooth formula and is opaque and smooth with 2 coats.  It's a much more sedate color than I usually go for, but I like it.

And then I put Luxe and Lush over it!  I really like how this turned out.  It reminds me of fall foliage in the woods, which is super apropos for The Hunger Games...it makes me think of Katniss and Gale hunting.  :-)

I'd only put on one layer of top coat at this point, and you can see the flakies were not at all flat!  While that went with the leafy look I didn't want bits of flake poking up so I added another layer of top coat and it took care of that problem.

Micro of the flakes.  You can see some of the blue/green it reflects in the light.  Most of the pictures only really got coppery gold glints, but there is definitely some blue green in there.

This is still before I added the 2nd layer of top coat.

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Colors Used: China Glaze Foie Gras & Luxe and Lush
Technique: Layering
Purchased: Sally
Verdict on the colors: Love both.  I think this is my favorite base I've tried Luxe and Lush over so far.  Pretty sure China Glaze is my favorite brand right now.

Happy St Patrick's Day (what's left of it)

Sorry this first picture is all kinds of out of focus, I thought I was transferring the in focus one from my SD card and didn't realize I'd grabbed the wrong one until I deleted the other.  :-/  This is actually the 2nd St Patty's manicure I did.  The first was a white, green, and gold argyle one but it was so uneven I just took it off and started over.  I really liked how this one turned out for the most part.  The dark green underneath made the white tips turn pale green, so it's very festive for today.

Also, I got a new camera today!  The super macro mode is excellent.

Happy St Patrick's Day!! Who's drinking a green beer?  :-)

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Colors Used: Sinful Colors San Francisco, Sally Hansen White On and Golden-1
Technique: Stamping, tip strips
Purchased: Walgreens (SC), Kroger (SH)
Verdict on the colors: Love San Francisco.  Not fond of White On...need to find a new basic white.

Diagonal Taped Manicure

I was so excited to find China Glaze Atlantis at VyVy's.  They had a lot of stuff my local Sally's doesn't have.  I wanted to layer it over one of the other blues I picked up and thought it would look good over OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue.  They are both really pretty, and I wish I'd taken a few pictures before I used the matte top coat on it.  My new matte top coat is seriously awesome.  It dries fast, it works great, and I'm pretty much obsessed with it.

I really liked how this turned out, I love mattified glitter.

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Colors Used: OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue, China Glaze Atlantis, with Orly Satin Seal Matte top coat
Technique: Taping
Purchased: All at VyVy's!
Verdict on the colors: How much do I love my new matte top coat??  The others are good too. :-)

Pink Wednesday

Back from San Diego and finally had a chance to sit down and upload pictures!  Here is this Wednesday's pink manicure.

The One That Got Away is a deep magenta with a fine glitter shimmer.  It went on SUPER streaky in the first coat but evens out with more coats.  It's really pretty but something about it makes me feel kind of "meh."

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Colors Used: OPI The One That Got Away
Technique: Regular manicure
Purchased: VyVy's Nail Supply, San Diego
Verdict on the colors: Applies streaky for the first coat or two, but evens out well at 3 coats.  Is very pretty and yet somehow a little boring.

Epic VyVy's nail supply haul

I'm visiting my sister in law in San Diego this weekend and read about a nail supply shop on Yelp that has $4.25 OPI!  So we went to go check out VyVy's Nail Supply on 54th Ave.  OPI is $4.25 there, China Glaze $3, Color Club $3.  That's not really a discount on CC, but I didn't think about that until after I got done buying 2.  Oh well. Still an excellent haul!  I spent like...$61 and I don't even know how much it would have been at a normal store.  Anyway, here is my haul!!  If you are ever in the San Diego area I'd definitely check VyVy's out.  :-)

OPI Half Moon

Today I used two of the colors from my OPI Best of the Best set: Russian Navy and Strawberry Margarita.  I've never tried either of these colors, but Russian Navy has been on my wishlist for awhile so I was excited about trying it.  Once I put down Strawberry Margarita as the first coat I almost didn't want to proceed with my half moon idea!  I love it, it's a prefect hot pink.  Russian Navy is beautiful, as expected.  It has tiny tiny tiny purple flecks in it that you can only see at a certain angle.  While I wish my half moons were a little more even, I still REALLY like this manicure and will probably be using both these colors a lot!

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Colors Used: OPI Strawberry Margarita and Russian Navy
Technique: Half Moon using paper reinforcers
Purchased: Birthday present!
Verdict on the colors: Looooooooooooooooove them

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink

My first Pink Wednesday!  Mean Girls memes make me about as happy as anything.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!


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Colors Used: Base Color: China Glaze Make an Entrance. Middle coat: Northern Lights Silver top coat.  Stamping: Sally Hansen White On
Technique: Stamping BM 11
Purchased: Northern Lights and China Glaze at Sally, Sally Hansen at Kroger
Verdict on the colors: The white isn't as opaque as I'd like for a stamping polish, but I really liked the other two.  Make an Entrance is really pretty by itself, but I thought the Northern Lights added a little je ne sais quoi.