Thursday, February 28, 2013

It's like Christmas! **GIVEAWAY!**

My Orly Hope and Freedom Fest 6 pack came today!! I couldn't believe how quick the shipping was; I ordered them Tuesday!


I really only wanted four of the colors: Elation Generation, Peaceful Opposition, High on Hope and most of all, Coachella Dweller.

However, the 6 pack was too good of a deal to pass up!  And here's the exciting part.  To celebrate 1100 page views, I'm going to be giving away BOTH Boho Bonnet and Melodious Utopia to one lucky reader! (Starting March 1st)

 Melodious Utopia is the yellow, and it has a really pretty orangey/copper shimmer hidden inside, that I wished the camera picked up!  Boho Bonnet is the blue and it's a creamy pale blue, perfect for spring.

Good luck!! And thanks for reading.



Right now I can only open this giveaway to US followers. Someday I hope to open to international readers.  Thanks!

*DISCLAIMER: I am in no way affiliated with Orly, this is NOT a sponsored giveaway.  I purchased these items for the giveaway.  They are brand new and never used.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Is it summer yet?

Holy snow Batman! We got hammered here today and last night with a TON of snow.  Hubs and I snowblowed (snowblew?) last night before bed, and I had to again before work this morning.  What a way to wake up.  And when I talked to him after lunch, he was snowblowing AGAIN!!  I'm over it.  I' running away with my polish somewhere warm!!

SIL (sister in law) came over today for a Kat Custom (as she calls it).  BeBe decided she would have a pink, and blue, maybe black, some green, and some sparkley.  But Jules decided she liked the holo stamped with black.  I love this look!  It's so pretty and makes the holo look even neater!!



 I think the star fits perfectly with the holo too, don't you?

I stopped at Target on the way home from work today, and I found a pack of craft scissors.  You know, the ones that cut different patterns?  So I was able to attempt a chevron tonight!  Whoopie!!  I used Orly Gumdrop (which I just realized has the slightest bit of gorgeous shimmer hidden inside of it!!), Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, and Orly Sea Gurl.  It turned out decently.  I need to play with the tape cutting a little more before it's perfect.









 The tape wasn't lying 100% flat on that ring finger there, so some polish seeped underneath.  But practice makes perfect, right?

Sorry for the quick, in your face post.  SIL and I stayed around talking too late and I really wanted to be in bed by 10:30.  I have 9 minutes!!  Good night!

~Kat

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

How I ruined my mani

On top of everything else I did today, I wanted to have an awesome mani to showcase my new photos thanks to my light box.  I've been wanting to do a chevron mani forever!  However, my search for pinking sheers turned up dry today.  I meant to go back out, but it started snowing and the roads were terrible.  So I did a fishtail instead.  Only I wanted this fishtail to pop! To be awesomely awesome.  I racked my brain for ideas, and decided if three colors on a fishtail was neat, FOUR would be better!! Right?!  So wrong. 

When you do three colors on a fishtail, the colors alternate down (up?) the nail.  When you do four, two colors stay on one side, while the other two stay on the opposite side.  Not what I was picturing.  However, for the sake of the blog, I did take pictures of each step as I was working.

I started with two coats of Orly Blue Collar on all my nails and topped with Seche Vite.  I fishtailed the ring finger of my left hand.  I used Orly Fancy Fuchsia, Blue Collar, Liquid Vinyl, and Sally Hansen Xtreme White On.
 It's a little difficult to explain exactly how I do this in words, so I am just going to post the pictures.  I didn't take pictures all the way through.  Just the first few steps, and then repeat until the end of the nail.








 See what I mean about two colors stay on one side?  It's not terrible, but it's not what I was pcituring in my head. Forgive the lack of cleanup on the ring finger, I wasn't planning on keeping the mani, so I never cleaned.

What do you think of the new pics? I loooove my light box!

On another note, I couldn't take it anymore today and ordered the Hope and Freedom Fest 6 pack today.  And, I think I sense a giveaway about to happen!  Once I receive the set (they say by the weekend) , I will give you all more details!!

~Kat

Busy busy day!

Holy day off!!  First things first, this post may be a bit photo heavy.  I found all the pieces (charger, USB cord, etc) for my digital camera!  No more phone pics.  And that led me to making a light box.  I didn't feel like shell out between $50 and $150 for a premade one. It was really simple and took maybe 45, when I factor in the time it took to explain to BeBe that it was not, in fact a home for her night light bug.

So I took an empty cardboard box and cut out the sides and the top:

I reenforced the edges with duct tape to make it more sturdy.  Then I covered the windows with white tissue paper.  The tutorial I read also said you could use vellum paper if you have that too. It's more durable then the tissue paper.

Finally, I taped a piece of posterboard to the top inside corners and let it slope down to the bottom and stick out.  Don't fold it into the bottom of the box. You want it to drape down, like a photo background.

 I need to get a desk lamp to shine light down into the box from the top window to make it perfect, but for now I use a lamp without the lampshade on.  It works well!  The quality of my photos has just gone through the roof!!

On top of that, I also created a new Twitter account and Instagram account specifically for this blog.  You can find those links on the right hand side of the blog.  Or you can search for @diaryaholic on Twitter or @diarypolishaholic on Instagram.  Add me <3

~Kat

Monday, February 25, 2013

Two NOTD Last night and tonight


I decided last minute last night to do a NOTD (nail of the day) and originally I was just going to do a boring one color mani.  I had been wanting to try China Glaze's Blue Bells Ring since I bought it.  Honestly, it got shoved to the back of my collection and I had forgotten about it.  And something made me thing about it last night, and I had to use it.

How did this amazing, bright, fabulous color come out of this bottle!?  It definitely had my fooled.  I thought this would be more subdued.  More of a steel blue than a bright, almost cerulean blue.  It's gorgeous!  And this is one coat!  And I topped it with NYC's matte top coat.

And then I got antsy.  I have such a hard time leaving colors nail art free on my nails!!  I just can't do it.  So I busted out my scotch tape and stripping tape.  I did an angled tip with Orly Sea Gurl, and stripped underneath with a light metallic pink stripping tape.


I left this one matte too.  I love matte polish and top coats, but I'm sooo used to Seche and how it dries in a minute.  It's made me so spoiled.  Some might say even more spoiled, thanks Hubs :)

Tonight I stayed pretty basic.  I did three coats of Orly Green with Envy, a beautiful and shiny teal jelly polish.  I did three coats (since it is a jelly-and they are notoriously thin) and a coat of Seche.  Even though I have been having issues with seche lately, you CAN NOT beat the shine it gives. It's hard to beat.

And to finish off my quick NOTD today, I added 2 coats of Shine on Crazy Diamond by Orly, which is a perfect silver holo glitter.



I think this is my new favorite color (of the day).

Tomorrow look for a guest post from one of my best friends, where she swatches some of the polishes she's purchased lately.  And can I just say I am incredibly jealous of her right now.  She found Orly's Hope and Freedom Fest at her Sallys already, and she's currently in possession of Coachella Dweller. Wah!

~Kat

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Sugar Rush Review (Mostly)

This weekend, as I mentioned early, Walgreens had Sinful nail colors for $0.99.  So I stocked up, again.  Yes, I went BACK to Walgreens and bought even MORE polish.  However to make up for it, I didn't buy anything at the Sally's sale.  I have all the permanent colors from Orly and China Glaze, so I passed.  But back to Sinful.  Their spring line is called Sugar Rush, and it's full of gorgeous springtime pastels.  I bought 2 more colors the second time.  Bringing my total to 5 of the colors.  I passed on the dark pink and the dark teal, as I have similar colors already.  And on to the swatches.


 All the colors are slightly thin, and require three coats. Let's start with the pink:

Cotton Candy.  Such a pretty pink creme with a slight hidden shimmer. It's photographing slightly darker than it is in real life.
Sugar Rush: Is the pastel blue that the collection gets it's name from.  I really like this color.  It's not something I would have normally worn, but I'm really glad I bought it.
Candy Coated: My favorite from this whole collection!  It's a beautiful lilac cream and another one with hidden shimmer.  It's really hard to see the shimmer unless you really look for it.  It would have been even more fantastic had they upped the shimmer.
Orange Cream:  The orange is pretty, but on my skin tone it kind of washes out my skin a bit.  I really like it, but I think for me personally it will be a summer color.  Once theres a little color in my skin.

In the previous post I swatched and did nail art with Unicorn which was the pale yellow.  It turned out okay, however its really thin and even after three coats it still shows brush strokes.  Even with a top coat.  It's the one color I actually regret buying.

All in all I really like this collection, and pastels aren't really my favorites.  If you've tried any of these let me know how you like them in the comments.

P.S.  There won't be a NOTD post today.  I spent my Bebe free day (she went to the circus with Auntie) reclaiming my living room from renegade princess Barbie dolls who seemed to think it belonged to them.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

~Kat

Friday, February 22, 2013

Speckly Spots...and Sales!

This is going to be quite a weekend of hauls!  Today my bestie in Florida told me that Sinful polish was on sale for $0.99.  And the Sugar Rush collection was out! I went to check out and on top of the Sugar Rush collection, they had a St Patricks Day collection out.  And they were, in fact, $0.99!  So I picked up 3 from Sugar Rush and 2 from St. Patricks Day.


They also had Maybelline BOGO half off, so I bought 2 Baby Lips. Total:$11.50!  Of course, tomorrow is the double discount day at Sallys with your Beauty Card and the mailout coupon. I can't wait!

I'm going to swatch all the colors I got later in the weekend, since I got a late start on polishing today. So I used the yellow on all my nails, and another DIY dotting tool and came up with a fun spring mani!

First I did three coats of Sinful Unicorn.  It's pretty thin, so three coats are necessary for it be opaque. 


 It looks brighter here than it does in real life. It's much more pastel than highlighter.  It's a really pretty yellow.
Then I used my new self made dotting tool.  Again my bestie told me how to make it!  She used a pin put into a pencil eraser!  How genius is that!?



I added two different colored dots, Orly Hawaiian Punch and Charged Up.  Just dipped the pin top into the polish. Depending on how much pressure you use, you can create different sized dots.  I just went down the outsides of each nail on each hand.


Fun right!? I love the dot trend. It's easy and theres millions of ways to do it and make it look different. 

Tomorrow should bring a large haul post.  I wish the new Orly Hope and Freedom Fest line was out, along with the new China Glaze holos.  Of course they won't be out until March, sadface.  Stay tuned!!

~Kat

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Playing a Little Catch Up

First of all, sorry for the lack of mani/post last night.  I had a bad allergic reaction and was in bed early recovering.  I actually wound up coming home early from work today.  I DID do a manicure last night prior to getting sick.  So I'll show you that and then the manicure I did tonight :)

Last night I decided to try my Liquid Sand again. The first time I tried it I didn't like it so much. But  I think it was because I put the coats on too quickly before the previous ones dried. And because of that, I didn't get the full effect of the polish. But I couldn't give up on it.  I lusted after the liquid sand as soon as I set eyes on it!  I bought Stay the Night from the Mariah Carey collection shortly after Christmas from Ulta. 
Is my Ulta the only one who's nail polish collection always seems to be completely sold out?!  It seems every time I go in there, their stock is sold out.  Doesn't matter the brand or the color, they are gone. It's very odd.  But it's the only place in the area that has a large OPI selection, so I've got no other choice if I want OPI.

Anywho.  All of the Liquid Sand colors are gorg, but I had to pick one.  And I went with the black polish with red glitter.  This polish is so unique. I love that it's glitter but matte. And has a great texture, but it's not scratchy like a top coat-less glitter polish would be.


 I used 3 coats of the Liquid Sand and one coat of seche to make it dry quickly.  I had a slight accident on my thumb.  I put too much on at a time and the seche didn't dry it quickly enough.  So the polish came off that nail completely.  At work today I fixed it, and I didn't have seche with me.  So I wanted to post some pictures showing the difference between the Liquid Sand with and without a top coat.

Please forgive the messy application, being at work and all :)  But you can see even with the top coat you can still tell there is a significant texture.  I really like the liquid sand this time. And I can't wait for the Oz Great and Powerful collection for the newest Liquid Sand colors!

And for tonight's mani, I realized it had been some time since my favorite, classic french manicure. Of course I added a little color.  Emerald has been named color of the year by Pantone, and it just so happens that I have some emerald colored stripping tape.  This is will be perfect as a repeat mani come St Patricks Day next month!!

I started with a clean nail (just Orly Bonder) and used my Sally Hansen French Manicure Pen on the tips.  I covered it with seche (since last time I used Nina Ultra Pro it pulled my tape away from the nail).  Next I placed the tape across the bottom of the white tips.  I love these manicures. They are so classic, but have such a fun twist that can be customized to match anything.  Who doesn't love matching?!


There you go lucky ducks!  Two manicures in one night!! See you tomorrow <3

~Kat

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Kris Kross

Earlier today I told you about how I joined BzzAgent.  And once I got home from work I had an invite to Influenster!! What is Influenster you ask?  Here is there definition from their website:

Influenster [in-floo-uhn-ster]

noun
An exclusive online community where tastemakers and trendsetters (such as yourself) come to share the latest and greatest news, places, products, and reviews with each other. 2. The hotspot you just bookmarked on your web browser that turns your social influence into sweet reward


Occasional, depending on how active you are and your score, the may send you a VoxBox that has los of goodies for you to test and review.  I love being in the know and on the cutting edge of what's going on.  So these websites are perfect!!


So I loved my stripped mani today so much that I wanted to do something similar tonight.  And so tonights mani was born.  I used Orly Androgynie (a gooooorgeous black jelly with duochrome hex and regular glitter on all my nails, except my ring finger.  I used Sea Gurl on my ring finger. Sea Gurl is probably one of my favorite colors.  It's from their Bird of a Feather collection and is a dark green-ish, brown/bronze creme.  And it's shimmery.

You can kind of see the large hex glitter in Androgynie in this pic.


 Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the tape on my finger.  But I did it the same way as my mani last night.  Only this time I criss-crossed the tape into diamonds.

You can see the mess that these manis make in the background of the picture above :)




  I'm not as thrilled with this manicure as the one from last night.  Jelly's are difficult for multi-stepped and multi colored manicures because they require more coats to make them opaque. If I had more time in the day I would probably change it.  But it's almost bedtime for me!!  I've had too many late nights lately!  Have a good night!

~Kat

BzzAgent

*Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with nails.  But it is beauty related!

I'm super excited!  I saw a link for BzzAgent on The Helpful Housewife and clicked on it.  It's a review program.  Basically you sign up and answer a bunch of surveys about yourself and they use those surveys to pin point products that would be of use to you.  Then they invite you to test out the product for them and the company and generate buzz about the products.  I love trying new things, so I signed up this afternoon. 

Usually with these things it could be a while before you get your first campaign, but I got mine right away today!  I'm going to be testing the new Garnier Fructis Hydra Recharge Shampoo, conditioner, and 1-minute moisture plenish treatment!  My hair is gets suuuuper dry, especially in the cold winter months. 

I can't wait to receive my products and try them out!!  I'll be sure to let you know how well they work also!!

And if you're interested in signing up, go here!
~Kat

Monday, February 18, 2013

Punky Pinks

Today I was super thrown off!! I usually work Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.  But today, Bebe'e school was closed for Teacher Enrichment Day (aka Presidents Day, lets be honest).  So I moved days around and I was off today and I'm working tomorrow.  Even Hubs was thrown off. 

Anyways, it was quite an exciting day off.  Bebe and I stayed in our PJs until close to lunch, until we had to go buy a new vacuum.  Because as she said "The old vacuum is stupid mama."  Oh great language, three year old!  But she was right. It was too loud, and it seemed to not pick anything up.  So we bought a super heavy duty vacuum today.  Every womans dream, right?  This one better work!

And a quick update on last nights manicure.  Since I was having Seche issues, I decided to use Nina Ultra Pro quick dry top coat.  And I will not be doing that again.  Before I even went to bed last night, all the tape peeled at the corners and was coming off.  Also, it must be a quick dry top coat thing, but my Nina is half way gone and suuuper thick!! 

So for tonight's manicure, I used stripping tape again, but I didn't leave it on like last night. I just used it to make the design.  I started with 3 coats of Orly's Beach Cruiser.  It dried pretty matte, which I was not expecting!  Which is why I needed 3 coats, it was drying too quick and showing a lot of brush lines. I evened it with a coat of seche, both to even it and dry it quickly.  Then I put stripping tape across the nail,going up (or down) the nail.


 I recently bought Orly's Liquid Vinyl to replace my Finger Paints black.  It's gotten thick and I reserve it for stamping only now. Slightly too thick polish is perfect for stamping, FYI :)

But I digress.  I put about a coat and a half of the black over the tape.  Just enough to make it even and opaque.  When I use tape that I will be pulling off the nail, I take it off almost as soon as I'm done painting. Otherwise it pulls too much and lifts the polish and makes a huge mess.
 And here is the finished product!!
 
 I did the pointer finger on each hand opposite from the rest of all the other fingers.  And please ignore the slight imperfection on my pinky. That's what happens when you wait too long to pull up the tape.   I'm really loving this manicure tonight! It's fun and edgy and reminds me of my punk hase from when I was younger, haha!

Enjoy your nights!!  I should get my laundry in the dryer so I have something to wear for work tomorrow!!!  Something to match my nails, hello.

~Kat



Sunday, February 17, 2013

Sunday Funday

What a day today!  Our local movie theater chain is have $2 kids movies on Sundays through March.  So my sister and I took BeBe to see Ice Age 4.  She's never seen a movie in the theater before today.  I was a little nervous that I would have to chase her all over to get her to sit in her seat; but she did a great job!  The movie was funny and she loved it!!

Then of course I stopped at Sallys later this afternoon, just to see.  I've been having Seche issues lately.  It peels at the corners of my nails, the whole nail comes off.  It's like if a stick on nail breaks off.  So I did some reading and people said to try a base coat.  I've only been using a treatment under my polish, not an actual base coat.  So I bought Orly Bonder today; we will see if that helps.



For my manicure I busted out the stripping tape today.  I started with one of my newer Orly's.  I bought it Friday night, it's called Green with Envy. It's a teal jelly, so it took about 3.5 coats to make it as opaque as I was looking for.  I love this color!  It's beautiful even by itself. 


It's photographing a little lighter than it is in person, and even lighter when I use my actual digital camera.  Next I took my magenta stripping tape and place that on each nail in a cross pattern.  I started with a horizontal line across the top of my nail.  Almost like I was going to do a french manicure. And then added a vertical stripe down the center of the nail.


I'm really happy with this manicure tonight!  And hopefully I don't have any peeling issues now that I am using the Bonder.  Has anyone else had Seche problems like mine? And if so, do you have any fixes for me?  

I've gotta run and catch this weeks episode of Revenge, and find out who's dying!!  Enjoy your last weekend night (unless you're off for President's Day tomorrow)!!

Kisses
Kat

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Organizing Part 2!

OMG! I did it!  I didn't make (or buy) the rack I wanted, but I did figure out a way to organize everything so it's not all in a basket or all over the living room.  It's currently a work in progress, so I don't have any pictures of it yet.  But once I do I will post them.

So I took a Sterilite three drawer plastic storage unit that has been laying around the house unused.  And in the bottom drawer I am putting all my glitters and holos and such.  In the second drawer all my solid colors.  And in the top drawer I am putting all my topcoats, treatments, and files; along with any nail art tools and such.  I might put the removers in there, but I'm not sure.  I was going to put them on the top, but I'm not sure that's wise with a three year old running around.  I only use 100% acetone and we have wood floors in the living room. Those three things do NOT mix well.  We've already lost a nice portion of the finish on a gorgeous coffee table the in laws handed down to us.  She spilled an entire bottle of acetone on it pretty much as soon as we got the table.

But I'm really excited about having all my polish, all 90 of them so far, put away.  And I'm sure Hubs will be happy its not laying all over the place anymore!

And I have an awesome mani planned tonight, as soon as I get BeBe in bed tonight.  I have a plan for a mani and hard root beer.  Happy Saturday ;)

~Kat

Friday, February 15, 2013

Connect the dots

It's the weekend!  About time.  Hubs and I had a wonderful dinner last night just the two of us.  Yummy food, good wine, good company; who could ask for more?

And today, I bought lots of new polish from Sallys!  I really only went in because I needed more Seche.  My current bottle got really thick and sticky, which is typical of Seche once it's about half way gone.  And Orly is 2/$11, plus they still have free Orlys old bottles with a $3 purchase. So I got 5 bottles of polish along with Seche. 

And three of them go together quite nicely. They inspired my manicure tonight, it's really fun!

I started with two coats of Orly Gumdrop, which is a gorgeous bluish green, kind of Tiffany Blue.

 I needed a dotting tool for the next steps and I lost my toothpick!  I highly believe a certain 3 year old has it somewhere in her collection of lost stuff.  Anywho, I had to think of something else quickly. And this is what I came up with:
I used cuticle nippers to remove the top end (or was it the bottom?) of a cotton swab.  I made sure there weren't any loose cotton pieces and just dipped directly in the polish.  It worked great!!

So I used two other colors I got today, Orly's Beach Cruiser and Green with Envy, along with Charged Up, which I already owned. I made dots along the one side of my ring finger and pointer finger. 
I love all these colors together!!  And they look really fun.  I'm pretty proud of my genius dotting tool idea as well!  And as I'm typing this, I just got the BeBe stamp of approval.  She said "Look at your polky dots! Awww so cute!"  I love 3 year olds!

 P.S.  How kick ass is my new ring?  I love it.

Gotta run, dinner at the in laws in 45 minutes and I still need to get dressed! Blogging always comes first. And my valentines gifts continue.  Hubs is taking BeBe home and I get to go out with my sister in law! I can't wait!  Happy Friday everyone!

~Kat