Quick Tag/First Day of Senior Year

Hello everyone! I've been so busy lately, and probably will be for a week longer. I started my senior year of high school today and I'm currently on break at my Graphic Arts class. I'll have an actual nail post up later today but I wanted to do this tag that I was tagged in awhile ago.  Feel free to use this tag on your own blog if you want to.

4 things in my bag/purse:

- Cell phone

- iPod

- keys

- Stride Gum (Spearmint)

4 favorite things in my room

- Bookshelf

- Bed

-  Nail Polish

- My kitty! (At least she was when I left this morning...)

4 things I’ve always wanted to do

- Go to Japan

- Learn multiple languages

- Try a water marble manicure

- learn to make sushi

4 things I’m currently into

- Nail polish!

- Vintage clothing

- Japanese music

- Drawing

4 things I bet you didn't know about me
- My hair is dyed black with a purple "sheen"
- I have a boyfriend named Chase who hates to hear me ramble about nail polish.
- I'm 17 years old
- I play the violin

4 songs I can't get out of my head

- Hohemi no Bakuden (japanese song)

-  I Got You Babe by Sonny and Cher

- Paparazzi by Lady GaGa (even though I don't care for her music, her songs get stuck in my head!)

- THE MOON by 12012 (12012 is a great Japanese rock band!)

Rules:

once tagged you must link the person who tagged you

tag 4 others

let the bloggers know they have been tagged

give 4 answers to each question asked

I tag...everyone! If you're reading this right now and want to post this feel free to do so and mention you got it from me if you want to. (I know I broke the rules by not tagging specific people..)


I'll post my back to school manicure later today!


Peace and Love,
Serena

It's a Mermaid? It's a Butterfly?? It's a Comet???

Hello! The base colour for today's manicure is OPI Catch Me In Your Net. As most of you probably know there are two known dupes for this colour: Zoya Charla and Orly Halley's Comet. When I first saw Zoya Charla I thought it was a really beautiful, unique polish so it surprises me that two dupes have shown up for it. All You Desire has a great comparison of all three of these polishes so check that out  here. Before I show the manicure I want to explain the title. Zoya Charla instantly reminded me of a mermaid when I first saw swatches of it. Then when the OPI Summer Flutter collection came out, OPI compared it to a butterfly. Now with the Orly Comic FX Collection it's a comet! Since these colours are really close dupes the Orly seems to be the cheapest option if you purchase it on Transdesign. Catch Me In Your Net took 3 coats to become opaque and it is really beautiful, in shade and in sunlight. Of course I can't leave any polish untouched, so I applied a konad design to it. I was afraid the konad might overshadow the pretty base but I really like this design.

I used Konad plate S06 and Konad White Special Polish. I'm getting better at centering the designs but I need to get better at stamping my pinkie nail. I'm going to Kansas City this weekend so I won't be back until Monday. Also, school is starting for me soon (I'll be a senior in high school) so bare with me because for the next week or so I will be busier than usual. Soon I will get adjusted in to my school schedule and I hope to start posting more often. I really enjoy blogging and hearing all of your comments. Thanks to all of you who are following me, I appreciate it!

What do you all think of all the Zoya Charla dupes out there? Which one do you have/want?
Peace and Love,
Serena

Fun with CND Effects Amethyst Sparkle

Konnichiwa! (That's Japanese for Good Afternoon.) I wanted to play around with layering combinations so I decided to try out CND Effects Amethyst Sparkle. I chose to layer it over Misa That's My Little Secret. I've only worn this colour once and it sort of bored me. It is a medium raspberry creme, applied perfectly in almost one coat. Applying Amethyst Sparkle over this made it much more interesting for me. It transforms it from a plain berry creme to a sparkling red toned purple. It looks very 'fall' to me, which is fitting since its getting closer and closer to that time of year. I don't really coordinate my polish with the seasons all that much. Last winter I was wearing neons! Taking these pictures was painful, it is 105 degrees here with 14 mph winds. The wind isn't cooling either, its hot!

I really love the way this looks, I'm anxious to try Amethyst Sparkle over other colours...I wonder how it would look over yellow? Here is an extra picture I took when I realized the base Misa colour almost matches my car:

Thanks for reading!
Peace and Love,
Serena

Polish that changes in the sun?

I decided to try out the Del Sol nail polish I purchased a while back. (I got this one at the Del Sol store in Virginia Beach.) I'm not new to Del Sol's nail polishes, a few years ago my mom brought some back for me from San Diego. The one I purchased is a warm hot pink with a bit of gold shimmer in it. In the sun, it turns to a warm purple with gold shimmer. The name of this particular one is Girl's Night Out. I have been thinking of various layering combinations lately and I decided I wanted to try OPI Stars in My Eyes over this one. I didn't even think about if it would change the way the colour looked in the sun, but for the most part it didn't. Here is what the polish looks like indoors: (Excuse the bad indoor picture, I'm not so good at taking pictures indoors..)

And outdoors, it looks like this:

You can get Del Sol nail polishes on there website here: http://www.delsol.com/store/Accessories___Nail_Polish?Args=&page_number=1  If you live close to a Del Sol store I recommend buying it there so you can see the colours in person. (And its cheaper to buy them in store.) They are 8 dollars in store and 10 dollars plus shipping online. These polishes are really fun but the formula is thick and they take longer to dry than most polishes. I have two more of these so if you're interested in seeing more let me know.
Layering the OPI over the konad was probably a bad idea because it smeared the design, but I still like it. I really want to do more layering so I will have another layering experiment up soon.

Peace and Love,
Serena

Awesome European Giveaway!

Hello everyone! I don't have nails to show you today but I do have an awesome giveaway to tell you about. (I will have something nail related to show you either tomorrow or the day after.) Anyways, Mon coin a moua is having a giveaway featuring European beauty products! Here is a look at some of the things you could win:

This giveaway is open to everyone, all you have to do is become a follower and post a comment with your name and email address. More info here: http://moncoinamoua.blogspot.com/2010/07/euro-mazing-giveaway.html

Peace and Love,
Serena

Polka Dot Nail Art using Nubar Nail Art Pen

Hello! I meant to post this Saturday but I actually had a somewhat busy weekend. I wanted to do something simple so I used the Nubar Nail Art pen to do a polka dot manicure. I really like these nail art pens, they have a pen tip for dotting and fine details, and a thin brush for lines. I have two of these nail art pens, one is navy blue and the other is blue-green. Here are pictures of one of my nail art pens: (I took a picture of the blue green one because it's easier to see the label on it.)

 You can get these on Nubar's website here: http://www.bynubar.com/store/index.php?p=home . They are $7 each. On the bottom under the label there is a small needle you can use if your pen tip gets clogged up. I have seen similar nail art pens at Claire's for five dollars but I don't have any to compare.

Anyway, now onto the manicure! The base colour I used is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue. It was very opaque and almost perfect in one coat, I did two. Then I used my Nubar Nail Art pen to paint the dots. The pen tip is perfect for dotting but make sure your base colour is completely dry. Also, wait a good 20 or so minutes before putting on topcoat because you could smear your design.

I have been wearing this for 3 days when I took this so excuse the bit of wear. Have you tried Nubar's Nail Art Pens, or Claire's?
Peace and Love,
Serena

Konad with China Glaze Millenium

The concept was cute, but the execution needs work.

That's how I feel about the Konad design I did today. I still have on the Claire's mood nail polish, even though I don't really care for it all that much. Today I got a good idea for a Konad design. Since I already had the base colour on it took less than ten minutes to stamp all my nails. I stamped my nails with China Glaze Millenium using plate m60. The design looks smeared on my nails even though I still haven't applied any topcoat. The design also didn't stick as well as normal.

I really like the idea of the design and the colours I used. I've heard that these mood polishes chip easily but I've kept my left hand without topcoat and I've only experienced minimal tip wear. I'll probably be removing this design tomorrow so have something new soon!

Peace and Love,
Serena

Claire's Mood Nail Polish: Peaceful/Confident

Yesterday I went to the mall with my sister and I decided to check out Claire's to see if I could find their mood polishes. They were 5 dollars each but they were having a buy one get on half off deal. The two I got both dry matte. I don't know about the other one I got but this one applied horribly. It was really thick and streaky. If you went over the same spot twice it would remove all the polish on that side. In the end it all dried smoothly but due to the uneven application I needed 3 coats. I wasn't sure if top coat would interfere with the colour changing so I didn't apply topcoat to my left hand, only my right. The topcoat didn't effect it at all so if you're not a fan of neon mattes it will still change with top coat. The weather here is so hot I ended up having to take a cup full of ice water outside with me to get pictures of the colour change. I tried taking pictures indoors but they all turned out bad and didn't show much colour change. I took these pictures with Orly Ridgefiller because I found the Claires bottle awkward to hold and get good pictures. The first picture is what it looks like hot (confident), the second is with cold tips and the third is what it looks like cold (peaceful).

The change isn't as drastic as I thought it would be, but its still noticeable. For some reason the change shows up more on my right hand, the one I don't take a picture of! I think I might do some Konad/Nail Art to this one tomorrow....

Have you tried any of these Claire's Mood Polishes?
Peace and Love,
Serena

OPI What's With The Cattitude? + Konad M73

Konad take two! This is my second attempt at doing some Konad designs on my nails and I am really pleased with how I did. This is only my second attempt at Konad and I decided to try a full nail design. First I painted my nails with OPI What's With The Cattitude?, a pastel-ish sky blue. In my photos it appears much brighter for some reason. I find that odd because these pictures were taken outdoors in stormy weather. The indoor picture is more colour accurate but still slightly off. Anyway, then I used Konad White Special nail polish and stamped a flowery design with plate M73.

Like I said earlier I am really happy with how this turned out. I didn't expect my second attempt to turn out this well. Its not perfect by any means but I still like it! The Konad design effectively masked the horrible application of this polish. I don't think its OPI's formula that is at fault, I think it is the brushes on the OPI minis. I've never had good luck applying with them. When my nails dry they do look slightly better though.

 Do any of you have any nail polish storage tips? I have about 70 or so nail polishes and my current storage is not working. A few bottles of nail polish are just lying around because I don't have a place for them. Right now the majority of my polishes are in an old Sephora box that was lying around the house. Back when I had about 20 or so polishes I thought it would work great. Currently I think it is holding 65 nail polishes, which is way more than I thought I could squeeze in there! If you have any storage suggestions I would really appreciate them.

Peace and Love,
Serena

Konad Stamping Nail Art: First Use

Hello! Today I received my Konad order in the mail. Here is what I purchased:

1 Double Sided Stamper and Scraper
2 Konad Special nail polishes (black and white)
3 Image plates (m60, m73 and s6)

M60 has four full nail designs (dots, argyle, plaid, and paisley) and one flower design.
M73 has four full nail designs (flowers with vines, wavy lines, music notes and squares) and a heart french tip design.
S06 has 7 asian style designs. 2 of them are full nail designs.

When I first opened the package I started testing it out a little bit on my bare nails. I had trouble with the full nail designs more than the small ones. After I had done a few practice stamps I painted my nails with Sinful Colors Courtney Orange. Courtney Orange is the only Sinful polish I own and it takes 3 coats for opacity. Next, I used S06 and stamped a circular asian design on my nails. Here is how I did:

 
I think I did alright with this one. The only problem I have is centering the design. Also, when I was practicing I had a lot of trouble getting the full nail designs all over my nails. Before I bought Konad I did quite a bit of research on it and the big debate is this: Do you really need the Konad special nail polishes? My answer to that is yes if you want a decent, hassle free, vibrant design.  While I was messing around I found it much easier to use the special nail polish. China Glaze Millennium and China Glaze Thunderbird were two out of the four I tried that worked. (I also tried Misa Shop til U Drop and Finger Paints Sketch n Etch) It makes sense those two would work because I have heard metallic/chrome colours work best.

If you have any Konad tips for me please share them!

Peace and Love,
Serena