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

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

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

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

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

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

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