Last Week's Untrieds!

Gotta make up for lost time today, folks! Here's a few untried cremes to make up for my absence last week (sorry about that!). Don't forget - my comment giveaway ends this week so get your comments in on these last few posts to up your chances. I think I'll continue this tradition next month! What would you guys like to see for prizes?

Anywho... gonna give you three manis today because I way overshot my goal of creme untrieds one swatching day and I'm making up for lost time.

Sation Drama Doll is the pink below. It was brighter in person but not quite neon since you can see below it dries shiny. This is three coats and it was streaky and took forrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr to dry. I'll still use it again because I love pink.

Then you know me... step one: paint on a creme, step two: add glitter. This is OPI Lights of Emerald City from the new Oz collection. This was two coats as the glitter is fairly sparse on its own.

Next I tried Sally Hansen Wet Cement which my BFF Amanda sent me. This covered easily in two coats though it could have used a third and was a little thin for a normal creme. I fixed that...

 ...with glitter! Below is Black Cat Lacquer The Dream of the 90s Is Alive, which is a gray based crelly with a whole bunch of colors and black shapes. I like the sizes of glitter in this one because they're pretty consistent. Sometimes when a glitter has varying/huge shapes it makes it hard to manage all of the glitters on the brush. This was a dream to apply, one coat applied like normal polish and then I dabbed some glitter on some places/added a second coat if needed.

Finally, Julep Michelle. This is two coats of absolute blue perfection. Sorry the flash is incredibly bright on my skin and I look vampiric. I guess my camera can't handle the dark colors on me... but it's pretty color accurate, a little more navy IRL.

Then I added Cirque XX which Amanda sent me in a secret Cupid exchange and OMG AMANDA I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. This is absolute glitter perfection. Love at first sight applies here. This was one coat, it was absolutely packed with glitter which is good because I never ever want to run out of this. Ever. *snuggles bottle*

So there you go, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

xoxo,
Amanda

Black Cat Halloween Collection

Hey everyone. No, my post isn't a typo - I am really this late posting the Black Cat Lacquer mini collection I bought for Halloween. The swatches have been in my folders but I was so busy between the Lazy 15 and my November Untrieds, I never got to posting them. However, they're beautiful and I didn't want to blow them off... so here we are. Happy Halloween in December! ;)

First up is Trick or Treat which I loved for being really un-Halloweeny. I layered this over Hits Plum from the Hello Kitty collection which is absolute perfection. I own all 9 of these polishes now and you'll see them randomly throughout this month. First picture is Plum alone then with 1-2 dabby coats of Trick or Treat. It was really easy to use, I just had to do the typical pushing around to get placement as I wanted.

Next up I layered Six Feet Under (pointer and pinky) and Death Becomes Her (middle and ring) over Zoya Dove.

Everyday is Halloween was the last one and this was the most Halloween of the bunch. I kept mixing up this one with Trick or Treat because I felt like the names should be flipped (Halloween = Trick or Treat, one that would work for everyday use, not just Halloween = Everyday is Halloween...) but it's gorgeous nonetheless. I even managed to get a silver moon on one of my nails and you can see it's a really fun Halloween one that applied really easily.

I added matte top coat because I'm just addicted to doing this. Don't ask me any questions.

There's actually one more but for some reason I didn't swatch it on this particular day (I wore it as an NOTD prior to these swatches, so that's probably why) but here's a quick nail wheel swatch of all 5 plus a picture of them in the dark to show how much Paranormal glows!

Left to right: Everyday is Halloween, Six Feet Under, Paranormal, Trick or Treat, Death Becomes Her

There you have it, a lovely collection! These are actually still available in full size at Black Cat Lacquer's etsy shop!

xoxo,
Amanda

Sally Hansen Coral Reef + Black Cat LTEC

Hello again loves! I hope your week is off to a good start! Today I'm showing you a recent NOTD of mine. You may know I've become obsessed with coral this year so this was one of my opportunities to wear a lovely coral.

I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Coral Reef, which was so shiny and beautiful even on its own (no top coat here).

But since I love glitter, and I wanted to try wearing Black Cat's Let Them Eat Cake as a "work appropriate glitter", I added two coats on top. I had to use a little bit of dabbing to get the glitter evenly dispersed, but the effect was really beautiful. You can see that it didn't level too well on my ring finger, as there's a bit of a bumpy part to my nail. Nothing top coat couldn't fix!

I adored this look. LTEC is the perfect work-appropriate glitter. Most people didn't even notice or just thought I had some sort of design on my nails. Since it's matte pastel glitter, it was muted and subtle but really pretty once you noticed it on the nail. One of my favorite NOTDs in recent history! What do you think?

xoxo,
Amanda

Black Cat Lacquers

Hi everyone! What are you guys doing for the long weekend? I'm busy busy busy! Yesterday I went to the beach (finally!), today I'm hiking and having lunch with my girlfriends, then off to the drive in with some co-workers and my boyfriend, and then Monday I'm hanging with my boyfriend. A great weekend plan, if you ask me!

Today I have for you some Black Cat Lacquers, which I ordered after seeing them on The Polishaholic's blog. Up first is Tetris, a multi-colored square glitter topcoat. SQUARE. GLITTER. I'm in love already. I layered this over OPI Atomic Orange because it seemed to complement the colors of glitter in Tetris. This is one coat with no top coat, using some dabbing but nothing difficult. It easily self-leveled so I didn't have to worry about bumps from tons of the base as I globbed glitter on.

Flash

Natural light

Next up is Let Them Eat Cake, which is PASTEL GLITTER. Does this brand get me or what?! This is actually my second bottle because the first had really sparse glitter. I emailed Sabrina and she replaced it, no questions asked! I was really pleased with the customer service!

This is two coats over OPI Fly, Nox Twilight (some pink, the bottles aren't labeled - I'm sorry!), Revlon Taxi, and OPI Alpine Snow. This was really easy, no dabbing or pushing glitter around. No top coat here but you can see it's a little globby in some places.

Low light

Flash

Natural lighting

So there you have it! I love both of these and they made me want to buy more from Sabrina, who is available on Etsy and is currently having a Labor Day sale: 10% off if you enter LABORDAY10 until September 4th.

xoxo,
Amanda