Thursday, January 31, 2013

Maisie Shine "Nice"

I'm here today with my first indie polish post!  YAY!

I'm super excited to share this one with you.

Now, I don't know how many of you all are familiar with handmade, indie polish brands, but if you're not...get that way cause they're all pretty much amazing!

Today, for example, I have a beautiful polish to show you!

This polish was a lovely surprise from my friend, and fellow lover of all things polish, Lindsey, over at Maisie Shine.

It's a polish from her recent Holiday collection, called "Nice" (a counterpart to another lovely of hers, "Naughty").


This polish as a GORGEOUS emerald green kind of satiny frost that actually looks more metallic in person.  Beyond the great color, it's also packed with teal holo hex glitter both medium and small, which gives it a fun sparkle. 

The picture show three coats, with two coats of top coat, and it's so dimensional.  However, this polish goes on fairly sheer in the first coat, so it could also work as a fun topper over complimentary undies. 

Now, as most polish people will tell you, almost any polish that has a lot of glitter in it can get pretty thick as you're using it.  It's a side-effect most tolerate.  However, what's nice about Nice is that in the very few moments that the formula started to thicken up, all i had to do was give it a really good, quick shake and it went right back to a consistency that was much easier to work with, which is a HUGE plus with glitter polishes!

Overall, I'm so happy with this polish, the color saturation and pigmentation are outstanding, the coverage is great, the formula is easy to work with even with so much glitter, and it's just fun and unique!

"Nice" is definitely the perfect name for this polish on multiple levels.

I hope you'll go and try out Maisie Shine, I know I'll be getting more!

Let me know what you think!

Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

~ Cat

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Mission Nailtrition: COMPLETE!

I can finally show you all the before and after for my Nailtrition treatment!

I'm excited!

Now, to the naked eye of non-nail fanatics, this might not look like much, but I know my people, and I know they'll notice.

Here is the before and after for the whole nails:

Before

After

As you can see, the nails are significantly longer, and just look generally healthier (though still stained, sorry guys).  Even from this angle, you can tell my nails are quite a bit thicker, they're much less translucent than before.

Now for the tips:

Before

After
This is where there's even more of a difference.  My nails are thicker and more arched, which makes them much stronger. 

I'm really happy with how this treatment went (even after dealing with TWO nail rips!)

But what's more, I'm REALLY REALLY happy to start painting my nails again, and cover up my jankie thumbs until they grow out again lol.

Thanks for putting up with my absence over the last two weeks, and I'm back hopefully for a while without any major needs to disappear again.

Let me know what you think and what you look forward to me posting now that I'm back to regular polish again!

Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

~ Cat

The Versatile Blogger Award

Hello everyone!

I'm honored and excited to write this post!  Why you ask?  Because this post is to acknowledge my nomination for The Versatile Blogger Award!

The lovely Shea, a good friend I've obtained in joining the polish community, was kind enough to nominate me for this award, humbling me beyond belief.  It's always such a pleasant surprise to be recognized for simply doing something you enjoy!

I enjoy sharing my love of nail polish with all of you, and never expect to receive praise, so it's always a humbling experience.

So, what does The Versatile Blogger Award entail?  I'm glad you asked!

Here are the rules to this award: 

1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers who are relatively new to blogging
2. Let them know that you have nominated them.
3. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
4. Thank the bloggers who have nominated you.
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post





7 Random Facts About Me

1.                   I'm also obsessed with perfume, but polish is a slightly cheaper habit, so it's more in the forefront.
2.                   I love reading, particularly teen and young adult fiction (don't judge me haha).
3.                   I'm a huge 90s Nicktoons fan!
4.                   I have a slew of imaginary relationships with celebrities...and fictional characters (again, don't judge me haha)
5.                   I like to fall asleep with the TV on, as much as my parents wish I didn't.
6.                   I'm a Texas Aggie, which means a die hard football fan...Texas A&M and specific pro teams only.
7.                   I am a fount of useless trivia, and my friends laugh at the fact that I can connect any actor to a member of the cast of Twilight.
My Nominee's are 
 
  1. Swatch Out!
  2. Nail Polish In My Eyes!
  3. ehmkay nails 
  4. Just Talk Nails 
  5. Kinzie's Nail Hut 
  6. Nails 4 Dummies 
  7. Peer Pressure Polish 
  8. Plump and Polished 
  9. Polished 
  10. The Life, Times, and Lacquers of Lilmoon  
((Right now, I could only come up with 10 bloggers off the top of my head))

Now that I've compelted that, I want to thank Shea again, and thank all of you for reading my blog!!

Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

~ Cat  

    Tuesday, January 29, 2013

    KBShimmer Spring 2013 Polish Press Release!!

    Hi all!

    My Nailtrition treatment is almost over, and I'm almost back from my blogging hiatus!

    But until then, I wanted to take a chance to post something really quickly that I hope will interest you all.

    I received notification via a press release from KB Shimmer of their new spring line of polishes and I wanted to share it with you!  (I had to slightly change the size of the images to fit the page, but you can click them to see them full size!)


     

    Contact: Christy Rose                                               FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    Email: Sales@KBShimmer.com

    KBSHIMMER ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF NINE NEW POLISHES

    KBShimmer Spring Polish Line Set For Release February 15th, 2013
    KBShimmer is excited to announce the addition of 9 new colors to their 3-Free glitter polish line.  Owner Christy Rose says "With Easter, warmer weather, and Spring Break fast approaching February is the ideal time to introduce softer pastels to our lineup, but also to add a splash of bold color.
    The spring lineup includes three glitter top coats, two bold jellies, and four creamy pastels, one of which is scented.  "Our new line was created to play off the softer palette of spring, but also to accent unique glitters like small black dots and spring 2013 Pantone colors like the color of the year, Emerald Green.  We are also excited to debut this collection in our new printed bottles.  With the printed bottles, and our glitter grabbing flat brush, we feel our polish is a solid addition to any collection" says Rose. 
    KBSHimmer - spRING 2013 COLLECTION
    A Dot Mess - Fuchsia and black dots, hexes, and micro slices in a clear base - Top Coat
    Pastel Me More - Pastel colored glitters in a rainbow of colors and range of sizes - Top Coat
    Squared Away - Square glitters in a variety of sizes, colors and finishes including metallic and holographic in a clear base - Top Coat


    Spring Training - Soft green crelly full of pink, purple, blue and green floral toned glitters, scented with a floral freesia note - Full coverage in 2-3 coats
    Where My Peeps At - Soft yellow crelly with circle and tiny hex glitter in fun jelly bean like shades - Full coverage in 2-3 coats
    Lottie Dottie - Turquoise and fuchsia dots and coordinating glitters micro slices in a soft white base - Full coverage in 2-3 coats

    Iris My Case - Violet pastel crelly with glitters in purple, pink, silver and blue - Full coverage in 2-3 coats
    Get Clover It - Emerald green jelly with micro shimmer and circle glitter in shades of green, gold and turquoise- Best in 3 coats or layered over coordinating polish to cover nail line
    I Got A Crush On Blue - Royal blue jelly with holographic silver glitters ranging from micro to extra large- Best in 3 coats or layered over coordinating polish to cover nail line

    Shipping February 15, 2013
    KBShimmer products can be found at http://www.KBShimmer.com.  For sales outside of the US visit http://www.HarlowandCo.org.
    KBShimmer was founded in 2008 by the husband and wife team of Jason and Christy Rose.  KBShimmer offers unique and colorful nail glitter nail polishes that are Big 3 Free, with all glitter formulas being completely free of chemicals such as toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP).  KBShimmer glitter polishes feature a flat glitter grabbing brush for easy application.  KBShimmer also offers a 2-free quick dry polish top coat, olive oil lotion, sugar scrubs, lip balms, cold process soaps and other skin care products.
    ###
    If you would like more information about KBShimmer, contact Christy Rose by emailing sales@kbshimmer.com or visiting http://www.KBShimmer.com.
    - 2013 KBShimmer. All rights reserved

    Wednesday, January 23, 2013

    Orly Nailtrition Week 1

    Hi all!

    Sorry it's been so long, but there's not a lot going on with my nails while I'm doing this treatment (other than the fact that I tore my other thumb nail and had to patch it, and I'm sure you didn't need to see that again haha).

    So I've had to be reluctantly absent, but I'm back to make a post about the progress of my first week of Nailtrition (which means I still have one more week :/ but it's something!)

    So I wanted to give a before and after for this first week out of two.

    Here is what my nails looked like before I did the week of treatment:


    As you can see they were pretty thin, and though not exactly short, very slow growing and brittle.

    I put on two coats of Nailtrition the first day and one coat every day after that and here we are one week later.


    It may not look like a huge difference, but already my nails are longer and quite a bit thicker than before even after just one week.

    Before this pic, I removed the first week of Nailtrition (don't worry that's what you're supposed to do).  And I'm now going to repeat the process (two coats today and one coat every day after) for another week.

    I'll be back to show you the final result next week and then back to real polish!!

    So what do you guys think?  What do you use to make or keep your nails healthy?

    Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

    ~ Cat

    Sunday, January 20, 2013

    BLOG SALE/SWAP!

    Hey all!

    Wanted to let you know that I've posted a Blog Sale/Swap!

    You can find it on the tabs at the top of the page!

    Enjoy!

    Thursday, January 17, 2013

    Nail patching... (pic spam)

    Ok, so apparently my worry about not having things to post while I'm using Nailtrition was all in vain.  I'm getting all kinds of things to post about...and not anything I'm particularly fond of, though it is nice to share some tips.

    What do I mean?

    Well last night I got to experience the epitome of nail blogger nightmares...a tear in my nail!

    I was opening a box, and my hand slipped and I felt a pull and I looked down and it was all I could do not to cry.

    This is what I found:

    You can see the torn corner on the upper right of my thumb nail, a perfect little square rip and it hurt like no one's business.

    Now, it's taken we quite some time to get my nails where they'll grow nicely and I knew I wasn't going to be able to bring myself to cutting this nail and starting over.

    So instead, I remembered an awesome tutorial I watched on Collette's (SimpleLittlePleasure's) YouTube channel for silk wraps for rips and breaks.  Seen here:


    So I carefully wrapped my thumb in a bandaid to sleep so I wouldn't snag the nail, and first thing this morning I ran to Sally to pick up some supplies.  Now, I know you can use a teabag, but I didn't have any, or nail glue or any of the other things I'd need so this was just as easy of an option, and its nice to have a lot of extra silk wraps for the future.

    Here's what I used (pretty much exactly what Colette used):

    All except for the manicure scissors (I already had those) I bought at Sally's.  In the silk wraps, you get 40 nail shaped wraps, but for small tears you can cut smaller pieces and get much more use out of them.  I also got a bottle of gel resin and a four-sided buffer.

    So following the steps in the video I proceeded to repair my nail.

    Here is the application of the piece of silk patch.

    After trimming the excess, applying the 1st layer of resin, and filing off the excess patch.


    After second layer of resin and buffing the seams to make the nail more even.

    After applying two coats of Nailtrition.
    As you can see, you can barely see the patch on the nail at all.  In person there's a little bit of a visible seam, but you can't feel it when you touch it.

    Hopefully the patch will stay on long enough for my nail to grow out, allowing me to file off the break over time without having the chop off the length of my nail.

    Have you ever had to repair a break?  How'd it go, and what did you use?

    Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

    ~ Cat

    Wednesday, January 16, 2013

    Nail Whitening!

    Hi everyone!

    I have a little bit different of a post for you today.

    Since I'm starting my round of Orly Nailtrition this week, I thought this would also be the perfect opportunity to get a bit of the staining off of my nails.

    I've heard a few tips before but the one I've heard the most is the whitening toothpaste method, so I thought I'd try it!

    Here's a pic of my naked nails before the toothpaste:

    I know...it's pretty gross, but with the fact that I'm always wearing nail polish, its kind of inevitable, plus it gets covered up a lot so I don't pay much attention to the stains.  But on the occasion that my nails are polish-less for any period of time, it's a distracting mess!

    So I wanted to try one of the more common ways to whiten my nails.

    I had some Arm & Hammer Extra Whitening toothpaste (though I've been told any whitening toothpaste should work) that had some baking soda and peroxide in it, so I thought it would give good results.  I took a little dab for each nail, rubbing it in a bit. Then I let the toothpaste sit on my nails for about 30 minutes (just because of how bad the staining was).  Then I used a nail brush to scrub the toothpaste on my nails and rinsed.

    Here are the results!

    There's still a little staining, I'll probably have to do a few more treatments once i'm through my Nailtrition rounds, but you can tell that there's a BIG difference!

    What do you guys think?  Have you ever done the toothpaste method, or found something that works even better?

    Let me know below!

    Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!!

    ~ Cat

    Monday, January 14, 2013

    The Twisted Grapevine - CoverGirl Outlast Stay Brilliant Review

    Hi all!

    I'm bringing out another untried (from the marathon of untrieds that is still in it's beginning stages haha).  It's a new polish, from CoverGirl's Outlast line.  Now I'm sure some if not all of you have seen or used some form of CoverGirl Outlast product, their mascara or foundation or anything else of the sort.  But the Outlast Stay Brilliant polishes are their newest addition to the collection.

    The CoverGirl Outlast Stay Brilliant polishes come in a fairly large selection of colors for being such a newly released collection.  Most of the shades are fairly basic (though not unattractive), coming in creme shades ranging from pale pink to true black.  A few additions have been some more complex shades in shimmers and frosts.  All of the colors are gorgeous, but me being me, I'm drawn to the unique shades of course!

    So when I was coming to the decision of what polishes to wear next, I thought I'd take the opportunity to try one of the new CoverGirl polishes and give a bit of a review!

    The polish I have today is Grapevine, and it's one of three I've gotten from their line.

    CoverGirl Grapevine is a very saturated red-toned purple shimmer/frost (it's showing more violet in the picture of course...purples being so hard to photograph).  The polish goes on smoothly, and is opaque in 2-3 coats depending on your technique.  The pigmentation and color payoff are fantastic and the dry time is good too.  Clean up around my nail beds was easy, leaving little to no staining on my skin.  In all honesty the only fault I can find with the polish is how small the bottle is.  It's a .37 fl oz bottle (a little over half of most polish bottles) and it is about $4-$5 at most drugstores, Walmarts, etc.  The price may seem a little steep for a little less product than most other brands, but the colors are definitely worth it in my opinion!

    And in case your wondering, no Grapevine doesn't come with the flakie look, I wanted to add a little something extra and added a coat of Finger Paints Twisted.

    So what do you guys think?  Are you going to or have you tried the CoverGirl polishes?

    Oh, also, I was noticing my nails are feeling a bit thin, and I was thinking of doing a treatment of Orly Nailtrition.  It's a two week process, which means no new polish for two weeks, but I was thinking if you all wanted to see a before and after of how my nails look after a treatment, I'd be happy to do that! 

    Just let me know below!

    Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

    ~ Cat

    Friday, January 11, 2013

    Ninja Polish-Nail Venturous Floam!

    Hi everyone!

    I hope you have your 90s Nostalgia pants on cause I'm bringing you a polish likely to bring on some flashbacks for some of you!

    First, you must get in the correct mindset...

    Take yourself back to a time of Nicktoons, neon t-shirts, hush puppies, and grunge...you in the 90s yet?

    Can you hear the dry drawl of Daria Morgendorfer?  The click-clack of Pogs?  The explosion of gel pens in your backpack?

    Oh yea...you're there with me now.

    Now...think back...to when toys were cool and based on imagination...can you picture Floam?


    Amazing time right!  Well Ninja Polish, by way of Nail Venturous, has captured the wonder and excitement of this fun toy in a nail polish!

    That's right, they are the producers of the one and only Floam polish!  And I have pics to share with you!


    Amazing isn't it?!  Floam is a mixture of turquoise and lime green matte glitter particles that, when done in three coats like in the picture, give the illusion of the squish moldable toy from way back when.  Like many glitters, the natural dry texture of this polish is a bit gritty (but some people like that), but for me, the Floam look is amplified when smoothed with a top coat, it gives it more a squishy look in my opinion.

    What do you guys think?  Did they capture the essence of Floam for your fingers?

    Besides the trip down memory lane, I wanted to share the polishes I received from Zoya's Color the World 2013 promotion, which is going on until Sunday I believe.  For this promotion, you can get 3, yes THREE, Zoya polishes for free, with only the shipping to pay!  So that's $10 for three polishes!  And if your total adds up to $25 you're shipping is free and you still get three polishes free.

    Anyways, here are the colors I received.

    For the promotion I decided to get Manhattan Mixer, a sheer shimmer top coat with gold/green/iridescent sparkles in it, Indigo, a dark indigo blue with a touch of holo glitter, and Mimi, a royal purple sparkle!

    Did you already order your three polishes?  Are you going to get any before the promotion ends?

    Don't forget to leave your comments, questions, suggestions, and requests below!

    Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

    ~ Cat

    Wednesday, January 9, 2013

    Sally Hansen Lustre Shine - Firefly ((Pic Heavy))

    It's me again!

    Of course, by now you must know what this means!  Yup...another manicure!

    Today I decided I wanted to try out one of my Sally Hansen Lustre Shines (on I haven't worn yet).

    When this collection came out, I ended up buying three of the, I think, five colors that were released, Lava (which I love), Firefly, and Copperhead.

    As I mentioned, I've worn Lava before and I just love that one.  It's a pink-orange-gold multi-chrome.  Unfortunately the formula can get kind of goopy, so I may have to add a bit of thinner to that bottle.  But for my nails today I wanted to use one of the other two colors I have, and I chose Firefly.





    For once I was able to somewhat capture the beauty of a polish in pictures!  Firefly is a copperr-gold-green mutli-chrome and it's just lovely!  I managed to capture a bit of the shift in each picture, though it should go without saying that this color looks even better in person.  In certain light at one angle, you get a bright new copper color, then you move a bit and it tinges gold, and then another angle gives you this bright flash of green.  I love it mostly because it's a polish that I can see being able to wear in a professional setting, something you can have that isn't boring but doesn't look inappropriate. 

    The formula for this color was great, really easy to work with.  It's a bit sheer at first, but builds well, though you still get a little VNL in some light and angles.  Surprisingly, for a chrome, this polish also isn't very streaky which is a HUGE plus!  In all honesty, I've been staring at my nails all day, just moving them to different angles to get all the colors.

    So what do you guys think?  Do you have any of the Lustre Shine polishes, or any other duo/multi-chromes?

    Leave your comments, questions, requests, and suggestions below, I love reading them!

    Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

    ~ Cat

    Monday, January 7, 2013

    Butter London The Black Knight

    Hi everyone!

    I have another polish to show you today!!

    This is one of my countless untrieds (that I'm desperately trying to get through haha) and it's also one of my higher end polishes...one of the few I have so far.

    I'm a big fan of Butter London polishes and I desperately wish I had the money to get more like all of the time haha, but I'm very happy with the ones I have, especially the ones I got from my best friend :-D.

    But I decided it was time for me to share one with you guys!

    Now, this particular polish had been a lemming of mine for quite some time, and my local Ulta never seemed to have it in stock.  So of course, the day I managed to find it, I jumped on it and I'm SOOOOO glad I did!  I'm in love with this polish!

    What polish am I talking about?

    Butter London's The Black Knight of course!


    Once again, this is a case of photos not doing a polish justice, but The Black Knight is a lovely black jelly with lots of colorful glitter in pink, red, blue, gold, and green!  You can see the colors much better in the bottle in this picture than on my nails, but it person its just a jumble of rainbow sparkles.  Now, as a glitter, it can get a bit gloppy, and my bottle can do with a drop or two of thinner.  But even with a bit of gloppiness, application was even and perfect in 2-3 coats (2 for most people, 3 for my OCD-ness haha).  The finish of this polish can get a tad bit gritty, but a couple coats of good top coat smooths that out, and makes the glitter really pop too!

    What do you guys think?  Do you have any Butter London, or other high end brands that you just adore?

    Leave your comments, questions, requests, and suggestions below!  I read them all!

    Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

    ~ Cat

    Saturday, January 5, 2013

    NOTD: Last Minute Kiss

    Hey all!

    I'm back!  (Thank you Captain Obvious...)

    And I have another manicure to share!  (Ok...now I'm just being annoying haha).

    I'm apparently in a a post-holiday, holiday polish mood these days and I have another anytime manicure using at least one Holiday polish.

    I also wanted to wear a red polish, since I have quite a few and for whatever reason pass them up so often when I'm trying to choose a color.

    So this is the result:


    For this one, I used a base of OPI Last Minute Shopper, one of the Ulta Holiday Exclusives this year.  It's a gorgeous pink/red shimmer polish.  In the bottle it seems to shift to a gold/orange, but that doesn't show up on the nail really, but that doesn't make the color less pretty.

    On top of that, I sponged on a gradient of Zoya Kissy.  Now this one is what I call "me as a nail polish" because is pink an sparkly and has rainbows in it, it's a glitter made up of magenta and red micro bits and then holographic bar glitter, and it blends nicely with the OPI, giving a subtle gradient.

    How do you guys feel about this one?  Have you ever found a polish that you felt like someone had managed to bottle your personality?

    Leave your comments, questions, suggestions, or requests below!

    Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

    ~ Cat

    Thursday, January 3, 2013

    All That Glitters is Fun!

    Hello again!

    Yup, I've changed my nails again!! Haha.

    As is my custom, I'm here to show you my current manicure!

    I wanted to play around with some of the holiday colors I got, since so many of them translate beyond the holidays after all.

    I got my hands on a lot of gorgeous shades this year and I'm exited to get to wear them all.

    But, for now I'll just show you this one!


    The main color I used for this manicure is OPI Gift Cards For Everyone! from the Ulta Holiday Exclusives this year.  Its a bright jewel toned royal purple with a flash of blue flakes in it (that you can sort of see in the picture, yay for getting it to show up!).

    For the accent nail, I used China Glaze Glitter All The Way from their Holiday Joy collection.  This polish is the definition of glitter bomb!  It contains gold, red, green, and purple tiny hex glitter that just dances with sparkle.  It's opaque in three coats and is relatively smooth for a glitter like this.

    Here's a pic to show just haw many colors and how much sparkle this polish has (yes I know it's blurry, I think it shows the shine better):


    Though both of these colors are "holiday" colors I think they work well pretty much any time.  For the glitter, I think pairing it with a purple polish made the purple glitter in the polish pop, making it look less Christmas-y.

    What are some of you favorite "holiday" colors to wear all year round?

    Leave your comments, questions, requests, and suggestions below!!

    Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

    ~ Cat

    Wednesday, January 2, 2013

    Julep Maven January It Girl Box!

    Hello all!

    I have another Julep Maven box to show you!  (Be prepared for pic spam!)




    For January's subscription box, the themes were neons and nudes, and I personally got the It Girl box which included three colors (plus an add on I tacked onto my order).


    The colors included in my box this month (from left to right) are:

          Madison - an "Electric neon hot pink crème" (this was my add on from the Classic With A Twist
                            box)
          Nina - an "Electric orangesicle neon crème"
          Nikki - an "Electric highlighter neon yellow crème"
          Amelia - a "Light champagne frost"

    Also in the box this month as the fun little surprised and extras Julep includes was a trio of neon elastic knot hair ties, and a sheet of their newest inovation...Swatch Me stickers!

    The bottles of polish I received this month already had their own Swatch Me stickers affixed to their tops, but there was also another sheet of 20 stickers included for their older bottles.  Another new element was the new bottle style Julep is using to make swatching that much easier.  Now the bottles have an extra cover cap to remove to swatch but locks on really well to use the brush just like the old bottles if you'd like.

    Here's a look at the stickers and the new cap style, and also a look at the polishes swatched in their stickers.



    I love this new idea!  I mean I also have my swatchsicles (which you'll see in a bit) but these stickers help if you store your Juleps in a drawer since unlike some other bottles, you can't see the colors looking straight down at them.  Plus the new caps make it easy to swatch, with the sheets  (when/if you order more) the new cap isn't really necessary since you can paint the stickers while still on the sheet, then stick them to the bottles once dry, but the fact that the cover caps lock on really well, it doesn't seem to add any inconvenience with application either.

    As for the colors this month.  Three of the ones I received are obviously the neon shades, and as such they dry with the typical almost matter look that most neons do.  They're very pigmented and go on fairly smoothly (Nina got a bit gloppy but not anything too hard to work with).  The color payoff is great and the dry time is fantastic if you keep your coats thin.  Amelia, my nude shade, is gorgeous, nice and subtle.  However, like most frosts there is a bit of streaking, but if you keep a steady hand to keep the sroke marks straight, a good top coat can cover a lot of evils.

    Here are my nail swatches of the colors:


    If you're interested in subscribing to your own Julep Maven box you can go HERE and take your style quiz and sign up for your intro box!

    There is no obligation, you can cancel anytime, or skip a box any month.  You can also switch styles each month if you see something you like better in another style!

    And if you enter the code COLOR2012 you can get your very first box for $0.01!  That's right, A PENNY!  Imagine getting up to three polishes, worth about $14 each, for only a penny!  What have you got to loose, especially when you can opt out if you decide you don't like the service!

    Are you already a Maven?  What did you get in your box this month?  Did you get any add ons?

    Let me know below!  Also, leave your comments, questions, suggestions, and requests below!

    Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

    ~ Cat

    Tuesday, January 1, 2013

    China Glaze Bend Over Backwards

    Hey guys!

    I'm back again, and today I wanted to bring you a review of a polish from a newer collection.

    Also, I get to unveil my new nail shape for the new year!  Forgive the fact that my nails look pretty stubby, I had to file them down quite a bit to get the right shape.

    Today's polish is from the China Glaze Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away Collection, and is one of the four from the collection I own so far.

    I do have to say that the colors I own from this collection (which are It's A Trap-eze, Def Defying, Whirled Away, and Bend Over Backwards) are all wonderful colors!  They all go on smoothly, dry well and have great payoff!

    For this post I'm showing you Bend Over Backwards, but I can certainly give in depth reviews of any of the others if you guys would like that.

    So, here we go with Bend Over Backwards:


    Bend Over Backwards is one of the non-glitter shades in the Cirque du Soleil collection.  It's a metallic, shimmery red-orange color and I have to say I LOVE IT!

    I was really afraid I wouldn't like how it looked against my skin tone, a feeling a get a lot with oranges, even though most of the time they look great.  But I was pleasantly surprised and am actually really fond of this color.

    The application was nice, highly pigmented and great color pay-off.  I applied three thin coats, but depending on how you apply your nail polish, you could probably get away with two.

    I especially love how good it looked with my new shorter nails haha.

    As far as being a part of the rest of the collection, I can see how it would coordinate well with some of the other colors, but as a whole it's hard to see a general cohesion in the colors in the Cirque collection.  They're all gorgeous, but not colors I expected together.  While a lot of the collection is in neon shades, this color, and the glitters are the standouts as different finishes.

    Nevertheless, I'm in love with this color and would certainly recommend it to others, a great all season color with lovely shimmer.  It's not overly streaky, though there were a few brush strokes, camouflaged well by top coat.

    In general, this polish had what you look for in a good polish, great coverage, great finish, ease of application, and awesome color.

    What do you guys think?  Do you have the Cirque du Soleil collection, if so what do you think of the colors and the collection overall?

    Don't forget to leave comments, questions, suggestions, and requests below!

    Hugs & Kisses & Great Polishes!

    ~ Cat