Barielle Brilliant Colors Summer Collection!

*Product sent for review*

 Today I have for you the Barielle Brilliant Colors Collection! These are a set of 5 creams with opaque coverage.  Many of these polishes cover in one coat, some covered in 2.  Overall i am pleased with this collection!

First up is Straight A Coral .  This polish is a beautiful bright coral polish. it covered in 1 coat.  One coat perfection. The bightness of this color went very well with my skintone, and was very flattering on my nails.  This one was my absolute favorite from the collection! It almost glows on my nails.

High Marks Purple was a great 1 coater as well.  This purple goes well with the collection, and has great opaque coverage. It is a very pretty deep violet.

Head of the Class Green is a really nice green.  It has a bit of a teal undertone, but is still mainly green.  I liked this one alot, and the formula was good. 

Smarty Pants Pink is what i would definitely define as a baby pink. This type of pink is not my favorite, but it looks nice on my nails. The formula is a nice creme. a bit thick, but covered in 2 coats.

Magna Cum Laude Turquoise  this one was my least favorite color in the  collection. It stained my nails blue after 1 coat of basecoat and only 5 minutes on my nails.  This is the second barielle that has stained my nails blue.  There are also other brands of polish this color that stain nails as well, it is something to do with the pigment in this polish.  Just beware of the fact that it stains. The formula was not bad, it covered in 2 coats.

These polishes retail for $8 each, or you can purchase the set for $25 on the Barielle website!

XOX Caitlin

*Product sent for review*

Illamasqua Gradient Stamped Houndstooth Mani

In this mani I used Illamasqua Muse as the base, stamped with a gradient houndstooth.  I love how this looks on the nail, and will definitely be experimenting with it more in the future!  The black and white used are Wet N Wild Black Creme and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. Plate used was Cheeky CH13 with the variation of a houndstooth.

To get a gradient to use as the stamped image instead of the base image, you add 2 colors to the stamping plate on opposite ends letting the two colors touch in the middle.  From there you take you old gift card and scrape directly across where the two colors meet, in order to mix the two colors in the middle without moving one color to the opposite side and to spread the color evenly across the image plate. where the two colors meet is where the color has mixed, and in this case, Black and white create grey in the middle. I hope that makes sense!

What do you think? I love it!

XOX Caitlin  
* All products in this post purchased by me*

For Audrey Chevron

One of the first polishes I ever remember purchasing is China Glaze For Audrey. I remember looking up swatches and knowing instantly that I had to have it.  For Audrey was my very first polish purchase as a polishaholic that I remember. It was my gateway polish! lol

For Audrey is such a fantastic color, and is a staple in my collection.  No matter how many polishes I have that are a similar color, For Audrey is still the one that comes to mind.

Today's nail art is very simple using striping tape over For Audrey to create a chevron design on the accent nail.  I used Wet N Wild Black Creme as the black polish in the design.

Every time I wear For Audrey I get compliments! This is a classic design for a classic color. I love it!

XOX Caitlin

Almay Liquid Lip Balm in Cantaloupe

So, I know that my blog is primarily nail polish, but I received this Almay Liquid Lip Balm from Klout, and I really wanted to share! I have been searching for swatches everywhere, and couldn't find any, so I wanted to put a swatch out there for the people who are searching for them!

So here are some photos, swatches, and my opinion of Almay Color + Care Liquid Lip Balm in Cantaloupe!

It comes with a doefoot applicator, and is quite easy to apply.  It is somewhat like a lip gloss in application but is a little thicker than a gloss, and on the lips has more of a lip balm feel.  Its a great hybrid between the two with a subtle hint of color! They are a tiny bit sticky, but in a lip balm sort of way, and if my hair were down it would stick to my lips, so I will have to remember to wear my hair up with this one. I am not sure about the moisturizing effects, as I have only had this since this morning, but I am quite happy with this, and I would probably purchase the pink shade(Pink Pout) next.  

The doefoot applictor:

The swatch on the back of my hand. it has translucent hint of color, but it doesn't translate to bright orange on my lips.  It gives my lips a subtle coral tint, and if I were to build up for the bottle color my lips would have a very thick layer of product.  It can be buildable, but I probably wouldn't, if I wanted a more opaque shade similar to this I would go with a Lip Tar.  This color is beautiful sheer.

Here is the video that Almay has posted about them, which seems to be the only information on the internet available beyond this blog post with a swatch of Pink Pout!




What do you think about this lip balm in lipgloss form? I am getting into this hype!

XOX Caitlin

*this product was sent to me for review through Klout*

Deborah Lippmann - Lets Hear it for the Boy

Today's swatch is Deborah Lippmann's Lets Hear it for the Boy, which is a gorgeous baby blue cream. This was two coats of perfection, no topcoat. This came as part of a Footloose Duo I purchased a while back from HSN.  I really like the application, although in the bottle it feels a bit runny. It is a highly pigmented cream and two thin coats covers well.

XOX Caitlin

Kiko 380

In this post I am showing you the base for my last mani I posted - Kiko 380.  This grey polish is amazing, like many of the other kiko polishes I own.  Shown here is ONE COAT! no topcoat. just base and one coat of polish. It evens out quite nicely and is self leveling. And is so shiny! how amazing is this? I love it!

XOX Caitlin

Simple Dots

If you follow me on instagram you may have seen the color palette that is the inspiration for this mani! (I included the photo below just in case you are not!) 

These colors used in this mani are one coat of Kiko 380 for the base, and OPI Dating a Royal and Fiercely Fiona for the dots(applied with a dotting tool). I also applied Butter London's Matte Topcoat on top of this mani to make it matte.

Here is my color inspiration for this mani, I was mixing colors with my waterbrush and cleaning them in the palette, and these colors were what was left when I was finished at the end of the night! This color palette inspired this mani, and i am quite happy with it!

XOX Caitlin

Barielle Summer Brights collection!

Today I have for you the Barielle Summer Brights collection!

 First up is Barielle Lemondrops.   This bright yellow was pretty easy to work with, shown here is two coats with a layer of G&Gs HK Girl Topcoat on top.

 Barielle Pink Flip Flops is the softest shade of this collection.  I would say this is a baby pink or cotton candy pink, and in the box with the others goes perfectly.

 Barielle Cosmic Kiss is a polish that I already owned prior to receiving this collection to review, so it is most likely a re-promote.  It is a gorgeous pink, and in this photo is showing a little more neon than in real life.   Two coats and one coat of topcoat are shown here.

Barielle Sweet Addiction is a green with a slight hint of teal in it.  The formula on this one is tied for my favorite, I could have done only one coat and been happy, but I applied two just out of habit.  Here is two coats with Topcoat. 

Finally the last polish in this collection is Barielle Blue Capri.  This and Sweet Addiction are tied for my favorite from this collection.  This is a gorgeous dusty blue that only really needed one coat, but I applied two out of habit.  Shown here is two coats with no topcoat because as you will see in the photo below topcoat somehow changes this polish! 

So here in this photo I started to add G&Gs HK Girl topcoat to the top of the nail, and I noticed that the polish began to lose its dusty tint to it, and became more of a vibrant blue! How strange! I still love it though, and with topcoat it is still a gorgeous color.  It just makes it more versatile!

Overall these polishes are all great colors for summer. My favorite polishes from this collection are Sweet Addiction and Blue Capri. The formula on most of these are pretty thick, but not to the point of being unusuable, I will suggest to not sit near a fan when polishing your nails, because that will dry out the polishes faster and they will become goopy, but if you polish your nails normally with 2 coats you should be fine. You can also add thinner if they are too thick for your liking.

These Barielle polishes can be purchased individually from their website for $8 (here) or in the 5 pack soon for $25 (here)

 XOX Caitlin

*These polishes were sent to me for my honest review*

Born Pretty Store Discount Code!

I have a discount code for you all today! Born Pretty Store has offered my readers a 10% off code!  Born Pretty store has all different kinds of Nail Art accessories, from stamping plates to brushes to rhinestones to nail foil! They also have lots of other things for sale and there is always free shipping!

The code is DHL91 for www.bornprettystore.com  All you do is enter the code at checkout to get 10% off!

Hope you all are having a fantastic day! I hope to have some new swatches and nail art up soon!

XOX Caitlin

IMATS NYC 2013 photos and Haul! (pic heavy!)

 This past weekend was so amazing.  I had the opportunity to visit NYC with some of my polish besties, and we had a blast! In this post will be my nails from IMATS and also my haul from IMATS.  If you follow me on instagram, you have already seen some of these photos, but I included more of the entire event in this post. :)

First up are the nails I wore to IMATS.  This polish is Jesse's Girl Julie G frosted gumdrop in Rock Candy. One of my friends had this before we went, and when I got to IMATS I picked this beauty up! There will be swatches later on of the part of collection I now own.

The next photo is of my haul! I know that everyone loves to see haul photos, I know I do!

I got 4 OCC lip tars at the IMATS and one at Sephora the day before: Pretty Boy, Strumpet, Stalker, Harlot, and Clear   (The price for the Lip Tars at the IMATS was $12 each(they are $18 regular price!))

I got from Jesse's Girl Cosmetics a set of 4 of the Frosted Gumdrops collection[they were out of two of them] and they were on sale for 3 for $10, so I walked away with 6 polishes. The four gumdrop polishes I got were Rock Candy, Crushed Candy, Hot Cinnamon, and Tangerine Dream, and for the other two I got Butterflies and Rosebuds a shimmery red-violet, and Gelato in Venice a pretty mint color. Also from Jesse's Girl I got an eyeshadow Palette($5), a lip gloss and a nail polish for free because Jesse walked around the line and handed me a bag of freebies! How sweet!

I also got some brushes at Imats: seen in the left of the photo, below I have a closer look at the brushes and the prices listed.

In total I spend less than $100. I totally could have spent more, its so easy and cheap to get things!

These are the brushes I got all layed out.  I got two of mostly every one, a set for me and a set for my mom.  Most of the black handle brushes were $1 excluding an eyeshadow shader brush which was $2.50.  The pink handle brushes were $3, and the large stipple brush on the end was $.7.50

 Now for more good stuff! The photos from IMATS! It was crazy packed around certain counters, and I didn't want to fight my way to the Inglot counter, so I just let it be. lol.

OCC and the Lip Tars!

Inglot makeup!

 The crowds

A makeup artist putting makeup on the model.

Some other photos from my trip!

My friend Marisa over at You Had me at Makeup!

My friend Jessica over at Polished10!

And my friend Pubali over at Color Sutraa!   Pubali brought me some gorgeous polishes from her trip to Turkey before IMATS! I can't wait to swatch them for you all!

Overall I had a great time! I had a fun time in New York and a great time at the IMATS!

XOX Caitlin

Kiko with GOSH Gasoline

These are some nails from the vault! I am using 2 polishes I got while I was in London this past summer!

 Used in this mani is Kiko 331. It is a gorgeous purple creme polish.  I applied 2 coats of this polish, no topcoat.  On par with every other Kiko polish I own, the formula is fantastic. Smooth and creamy and two coats covered all VNL. 

I added an accent nail of Gosh Gasoline.  Gasoline is a pretty purple glass fleck/shimmer.

XOX Caitlin

In other news.....

I am going to IMATS New York this weekend! I am so excited! I am meeting up with some of my blogger buddies to go to the show, and will definitely have some pics when I return!

I also only have 2 more weeks of classes, and hopefully I can fulfill my promise of blogging more frequently when classes end!

Barielle Nail Art!

*this product was sent for my unbiased review*

Last week I showed you the Barielle Sweet Treats Collection, and today I have some nail art that I did using one of the polishes! I used Green Apple Chew for the base of this mani.

After I applied the polish, I began to do a process similar to water marble to get the effect you see on the nail.  I dripped black polish into a cup of water, and spritzed it with a bottle of hand sanitizer to make dots similar to the OPI Black Spotted that was released in Europe. What actually happened was very cool, and I am quite pleased with the results.It reminds me of lightening! My favorite nail is my ring finger.

What do you think about this?
XOX Caitlin

*this product was sent for my unbiased review*

Barielle Sweet Treats Spring 2013 Review

*these products were sent to me for consideration for an honest review*

I have a nice pastel spring collection to review for you all.  The Barielle Sweet Treats collection consists of a shimmery blue, a pastel yellow, pastel purple, a bright chartreuse, and a vibrant coral.

First up is Barielle Blue Cotton Candy.  I was in love with this color in the bottle. It is a gorgeous blue with a silver shimmer.  This is the only shimmer in the collection.  The application was great on this one, two coats covered completely. After I applied it though, I think it washed out my skin tone.

Up next is Barielle Green Apple Chew.  This is probably my second favorite from this collection.  this bright chartreuse green is one of my favorite colors, and the application on this polish was not bad at all.  It was a little on the thick side, and two coats covered with no VNL.

Barielle Orange Parfait is my absolute favorite from this collection.  It is a gorgeous coral that applied well with two coats.I've worn this twice already since receiving the collection to review, and it lasted three days before I removed it to apply another polish.

Barielle Banana Drop is a light yellow.  the formula on this one is a little thick, but like Green Apple Chew applied in two coats with no VNL.

The final polish in this collection is Barielle Lilac Jelly Bean.  This pale lilac purple applied well in two coats, but similarly to Green Apple Chew and Banana Drop was on the thick side. It was not unmanageable though. 

Overall I think this is a great spring collection. My favorite color from this collection would definitely be Orange Parfait, followed by Green Apple Chew. My least favorite would have to be Blue Cotton Candy, because I think that it washes out my skin tone, and that it is the only shimmer in this collection.

XOX Caitlin

*These polishes were sent to me for consideration for an honest review*