Top 10 Polishes of 2011

Hi everyone! Here is a quick post of my 10 most favorite polishes of 2011. Some of these didn't necessarily come out in 2011, but these are just polishes that I have been really loving this year. I have included just the bottle shot but if you want to see swatches just click the photo! It will redirect you to it's corresponding post! :)

In no particular order, here are my favorites that came out this year...

And here are polishes that didn't come out this year, but I loved and wore constantly :)

So there you have it! My top 10 polishes of the year!

Thanks so much for reading and Happy New Year!! I actually am not going to have NYE nails just because my nails are nubbins right now (they broke when I went camping) and because NYE isn't that big where I live and I am probably just going to stay home haha. Anyway, thanks so much for reading and let me know what your favorite polishes of 2011 were!

See you next year!

xoxo,
Kelly

Camp NOTD: Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe

Hi everyone! So this is a scheduled post because I am at Winter camp right now with some friends! :) Here is what I'm wearing on my tips at the moment :)

*sigh* Isn't it gorgeous?? I love this color so much.... Meet Me Under The Mistletoe is seriously one of the most beautiful colors I own.

Anyway, like I said above I am at a winter camp for 4 days and I left Tuesday morning, so I'll be MIA for a couple days. I am going up to the mountains with some friends, it's going to be a blast. And it will be uber cold so I'll get to wear boots and long sleeves and sweaters(: It will actually feel like winter! lol!

Anyway, thanks so much for reading and let me know if you like the color as much as I do!! :)

xoxo,
Kelly

Christmas Nail Art Series 2011 Recap

Hi everyone! Here is a recap of my 2011 Christmas series:

So there you have it! My 2011 Christmas series. I hoped you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed working on it for you(: I wanted to do a lot more but I was crazy busy this month. Oh well, I can save the ideas for next year! I also did two holiday looks which weren't "officially" a part of my Christmas series, but were still linked to the holidays/Christmas. One of them was a Readers Request (HERE) and the other one was a NOTD for a Christmas pool party (HERE). If you want I can add their photos into this post as well.

If you would like to know what products I used on what manicure, just click the photo! It will redirect you to the corresponding post :)


Thanks so much for reading and be sure to let me know what you think!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas
xoxo

Christmas Nail Art Series: Christmas NOTD

Hi everyone! Here is my Christmas mani! :)

I started off with two thin coats of OPI Designer de Better. A gorgeous silver foil with copper particles mixed in. It made it look sort of a rose gold color... very pretty. Formula was spot on and dry time was fast. 

Anyway, thank you so much for reading and let me know what your wearing on your tips this Christmas day!

Merry Christmas everyone!
xoxo

• Base Color: OPI Designer de Better
• Stamp Color: OPI Wocka Wocka
• Plate: BM205
• Ribbon: OPI Warm and Fozzie

Readers Request: Silver and Gold

Hi everyone! Time for another Reader's Request! Holiday edition! Ok, so Doxieil requested something for the holiday's using the colors silver and gold. She requested this a while ago but I couldn't make anything work until I got this idea.

This is my second attempt at a moon manicure. I think it turned out ok :) I freehanded the moons so they are a bit funky, but the overall look is ok :)

Well Doxieil, I hope you like it! If any of you have requests be sure to let me know! :)

• Base Color: OPI Bling Dynasty
• Silver: Sally Hansen Celeb City

Christmas Nail Art Series: Christmas Ornaments

Hi everyone! Only a couple days till Christmas! Todays nails were inspired by the ornaments on a Christmas tree :)

I started off with two coats of Bettina Mojito. A gorgeous green! Formula was spot on, dry time was average, and Mojito dried shiny!! I love it!

I then stamped an ornament image using a red polish, and the filled in the ornament with the same red polish to make it "pop" more. Afterwards I grabbed a bunch of colors that resembled my actual ornaments on my Christmas tree, and then dotted them on using a small dotting tool to represent lights and other ornaments.

So ya, super simple but I hope you like it nonetheless!

Anyway, that's it for today! Thanks so much for reading and be sure to let me know what you think! :)

• Base Color: Bettina Mojito
• Stamp Color: OPI Wocka Wocka
• Plate: BM225
• Dots/Ornaments: Gold-OPI Bling Dynasty, Blue-OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Red, OPI Wocka Wocka, Green-China Glaze Tree Hugger

(**Bettina product sent for review**)

NOTD: OPI Wocka Wocka+Excuse Moi!

Hi everyone! Quick NOTD, I am going to a Christmas party later and wanted something festive and glittery on my tips :)

Wocka Wocka is officially my new favorite red. The formula is so buttery smooth, it's seriously opaque, and dry time is fast! WW is your perfect "glowy" red. It has very fine micro shimmer. This is two thin coats. 

Afterwards I layered two coats of Excuse Moi! on top. A gorgeous pink glitter 

Just for fun I added a Santa belly on my thumb. It is kind of sloppy but I still like it! Thinking about doing a full manicure...

Anyway, I hope you like it and be sure to let me know what you think! 

• Base Color: OPI Wocka Wocka
• Glitter: OPI Excuse Moi!
• Santa Belly: OPI Wocka Wocka, Wet N Wild White, Wet N Wild Black, Sally Hansen Silver Sweep

Review: Bettina Base/Top Coat

Hi! Today I will be reviewing Bettina's Base/Top coat(:

Note from me: I wanted to mention that this topcoat does not smear stamping! How awesome is that!? I also wanted to mention that one odd thing happened to me once, I was going to paint my nails and I used this as a base coat, but instead of drying shiny is dried cloudy/matte! I think it was because I just washed the dishes and maybe my nails were still a "damp" but it was weird! That was the only time that's ever happened to me....

Bottle/Price: For about $3-$4 you get a 1/2 FL. OZ (15 ml) bottle of product. You can buy Bettina at two locations in Florida (go to Bettina FB page more more info) or you can purchase then online by emailing Janet (rosamadistributers@gmail.com).

Bubbling: There is a little bit of bubbling. Not as bad as Pro-FX, but there is bubbling. Have to be careful not to move it around too much. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and the bubbles should go away :)

Brush/Wand: I love Bettina brushes, they are super soft but not too soft, and they fan out nicely. The wand is a pretty nice size as well. Not to short, not too long.

Formula/Smell/Dry Time: The formula is a really nice consintancy. It's thin, but not too thin. It's a tad bit thinner than my Pro-FX products.... It's similar to the NYC Quick Dry. Smell is just like any other Bettina polish meaning it isn't bad. It has that polish smell but not as strong. Dry time was surprisingly fast! Not as fast as Seche of course but really fast! Definitely a major win for this product! Since this product dries fast I wonder how fast their Fast Dry Top Coat is O.o

Gripping: I think this works pretty well as a base coat. It really does grip the polish nicely so it doesn't "move around" is that makes sense. Makes wear time pretty long. Another win.

Anti-Staining: The main reason I use a base coat is to prevent staining, this product passes!


Top Coat: This is an amazing top coat. I didn't expect it to dry that fast and to harden that fast! It's dry to the touch in about 5 min, hardened in 10 min, and fully hardened by tomorrow morning. It's really shiny and smooth. Just to give you an idea about the hardening, it's a little less hard than Seche but it hardens way faster than Pro-FX, which I love! What I also like about it is that it doesn't peel on me like Seche does :) As for wear time, it lasted a good three days before it started to get some tip wear.

Overall: Overall I really love this product. I literally have no complaints other than the bubbling but I can fix that no problem! :) The dry time is amazing and it dries hard, and wear time is pretty good! On top of that it doesn't smear stamping, which is very important to me. This top coat and base coat is an all around win in my book and I recommend it to everyone.

If you have any questions let me know(:

(**Product sent for review**)

Color Club Blue-topia+Essie Shine of the Times

Hi everyone! Happy Saturday! Today I get to show you a match made in heaven!

*DROOL* Pretty right? Ever since I got Shine of the Times in a swap with the wonderful D'Anna, I knew exactly how I wanted to use it! I wanted to layer it under a dark blue! I started off with two coats of Color Club Blue-topia, then after I applied one coat of SotT. Gorgeous! I took so many photos and there were too many pretty ones so... yea, pic heavy post, haha.

Blue-topia is an extremely dark navy color. On the first coat it was a perfect navy (if you were careful you could get away with one coat!), but the second coat turned it almost black. Still pretty, but a bit too dark for my taste. Formula was amazing and dry time was fast.

Shine of the Times is a gorgeous flakie that flashes, green, lavender, orange, red, and maybe even aqua! Gorgeous! Formula was nice and dry time was fast.

And yes, I did trim my nails again. They have been so weak and yucky lately, better to keep them short so they don't break. Hopefully they will be stronger once they start growing out again.

In other news, I am finally on Christmas break! I am so exhausted from exams. My friends and I are going to dress up and go out for sushi later to celebrate. Should be fun! :)

Do you have any fun plans for the weekend??

• Base Color: Color Club Blue-topia
• Flakie: Essie Shine of the Times