Giveaway winners!!

Hi guys!

This post is wayyyy overdue. I had problems with my internet connection (and phone line) the past week, but it's fixed now, so all is well!

On to the good part....

The winner of the RBL gift card is: Saori!

and the winner of 360 is: Camelia Andrasescu!

Congrats to both! I've sent you guys an email, please check them!
Thank you to all who entered! :)  Better luck next time!

Happy Holidays!

Winter collection: "Merry Christmas!"

Hello everyone!

School is finally done for me!! Today, I spent some great time with a friend, right after my last exam, to do what? ................... NAILS of course =) The above pictures are my newest designs on my friend's hands.

My winter collection is getting a little bigger with this konadicure which I decided to name "Merry Christmas!" Red colour, bells, snowman, snowflakes are all elements related to Christmas. Therefore, I had to use many different images from my plates. I used OPI Red My Fortune Cookie, plates m12 (it's a Christmas plate!), m 59 and m45 to do this manucure. And of course I did not forget to top every nail off with a silver glitter top coat! I just want to say that I find the designs on the thumbs look like Christmas cards..heheheh what do you think?
.

It took a little longer than expected to accomplish this work but I believe it was worth it because I just love it! I hope you all like it as much as my friend and I do!

Good luck everyone for the giveaway!

Miss K

Giveaway Announcement!!!!!!

FINALLY found some time to squeeze in the giveaway announcement!! So sorry for the long wait! School papers and final exams have been my main focus for the past few weeks!

Since the holidays are coming up, I've decided to give TWO (2) prizes!! :)

The prizes:

One winner will receive a Rescue Beauty Lounge gift card (value of $30)

In addition, another lucky reader will receive one bottle of Rescue Beauty Lounge 360 which I blogged about here.

The rules:

1. You MUST be a follower.
2. Leave your name and a valid email address in a comment on this post.
3. For an extra entry, blog about this giveaway and post the link with your comment (separate or in the same as your name and email, doesn't matter!)
4. The giveaway is open to all readers!!

The contest ends December 18th, 11.59 p.m. EST!! Any comments posted after that date will not be eligible. Two winners will be chosen at random and I will contact them through the email given. If I don't get an answer after 48 hours, I will pick a new winner(s).

Enjoy and Good Luck!!


P.S. Just a quick word to say thank you to Miss K for keeping this blog alive while I was away! :) Love the nail art!

"It's time to party"

Hi readers!

Sorry for the lack of posts these two weeks.. The end of semesters always kills students.. Very happily, exams are finally ALMOST OVER for me!! After crazy back to back exams and papers, I feel soooo freeeeeeeeee!! Therefore, I decided to wear a more "wild" design since it is (almost) time to party!! =)

.

MAC Lola Divine, plate m57, and Princess Special Golden Black Nail Polish (for leopards design) were used for this konadicure.

.

This is it for now. See you all soon and to all students, study well and good luck for your exams!

Miss K

"Duo colours"

Another post by me! I guess my friend Xuan-An has been very busy with school lately since the end of semester is approaching. I took a break from my case assignment to show you this simple nail art.

French tip stickers are very useful if you want to get the very straight line between the colours. For "Duo Colours", 2 stickers were necessary for each nail. I started with Nubar Champs-Elysees Pink and proceeded with Nubar Lavender. In my recent manicure, I like to always add a silver glitter top coat on my design, probably because it adds a touch of winter feel~

The cold weather is no doubt one of the biggest enemies to our hands. This week, I bought a manicure/pedicure white tea mask from OPI. I l-o-v-e the fragrance!! A review of the product will come soon!

.

Have a nice week-end!

.

Love,

Miss K

Simplicity

Here is a simple konadicure I wore on my nails for a few days. It is a picture I tried to take with my new cellphone. Not a very successful picture.. Probably if it were taken outdoor, it would have been better!

.

Although the tip looks grey, I used Nubar Lavender. This design is a lot cuter in real life than in this picture. All konad fans should try it =)

.

See you all soon! I have to get back to my readings now!!

.

Miss K

"Flocons de neige"

Hello readers,

.

It's been a while! Today, I present the first konadicure of my winter collection to you :"flocons de neige". It is a simple french manucure with some coral blue, light grey and silver (although I realized it was not very visible on my nail) snow flakes. On the tip, I also added a coat of my PA pink shimmer nail polish and topped it off with a silver glitter top coat.

.

I hope you all are like me, prepared for winter =)

.

Plate used : m59

.

Miss K

Rescue Beauty Lounge 360

Oh how I wish it was summer again... I miss the sun and the beautiful weather.
The cold has already taken a toll on my cuticles, but I'm doing my best to keep them looking decent.
Hello hand cream, cuticle cream and any kind of moisturizer!

I'm currently wearing Rescue Beauty Lounge 360 on my nails and I just cannot stop looking at them! The color is so interesting. I can definitely say that I do not own anything similar.

The second picture is the closest color representation I could get from my camera, but I am posting the first one so that you can see the subtle shimmer of the polish.

360 is a muted, dusty blue. Ji describes 360 as "a move where the surfer and board spin around on the face of a wave. It also is a gorgeous deep-water aqua blue polish." There is a teal-ish element to this polish that reminds me of the sea. It is truly gorgeous and application is - as with most RBL - flawless.

All right, I'm off to work now. Giveaway announcement tonight!!! :)
Who is excited??


Edit: RBL's international shipping rate is now $18.50 (it used to be around $40). Enjoy!  :)

Mail day!!!!

Tuesday, I came home from school and work to a wonderful package from Rescue Beauty Lounge! I didn't expect to receive anything from them so soon, just because I figured that they would be inundated with orders!

I limited myself to only 3 bottles, but am already planning my next order! ;)

Under the Stars

 Diddy Mow

 360

I also got an extra bottle for a lucky reader!!!! 

Details for the giveaway will be posted soon! 

Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm

Hi!

Hope you had an amazing week, and that you were able to take advantage of Rescue Beauty Lounge's 5 hour sale! I sure did! :)

I am currently wearing Dead Calm on my nails, a beautiful dark blue creme. I haven't worn a RBL polish in a while, but was quickly reminded why I loved this brand so much. The formulas are excellent! So easy to apply and so smooth. Plus, they have superb customer service!

I'm looking forward to buying more RBL polishes, now that their international shipping rate decreased!

I'm off to celebrate my parent's 25th wedding anniversary! 

Have a great weekend!

-X

"Cool Summer Breeze"

Another manicure from me! At this point, to see konadicure from me again and again should not be a surprise anymore. Hahah i just love it!! it is such a great invention huh? =)

.

This picture was taken this summer when there was sunshine and a little wind.. ahh the wonderful weather!! For those who don't know, it snowed yesterday in Montreal!! Not that I hate snow, but in October, I judge it is a little early...

.

For this konadicure, I used China Glaze Second-Hand Silk and plate m36. I hope you like the design.

.

Besides, with the weather changing, my nails keep breaking these days!! It annoys me so much!! To all my friends who care about their nails, remember to put lots lots lots of CREAM!!

.

Miss K

Miss K's first post: "Once upon a time"

Hello everyone,

Here is my first post! I hope you all agree with me that the colour reminds of fairy tales and since "fairy nails" does not sound right... I thought "once upon a time" would be a cute name for this manicure!

Although the colours of my nails in the pictures do not seem to be the same..it is!! Sorry for the bad quality pictures. The next ones will be better, I promise!! Here, I used a pink shimmer nail polish to create this shading. To realize a gradient texture was not difficult since it is a sheer nail polish. I just had to put a lot of coats! hahahah Finally, I simply added a little yellow flower using Konad plate m3.

.

This is it for my first post! See you all soon =)

.

Miss K

LA Girl Deep Sea Mica

LA Girl Deep Sea Mica, pictured in sunlight and in the shade. It's a teal shimmer; smooth application. I have to say, I'm very much impressed with the wear of this one: I've had this color on my nails for more than a week now and I only have a little hint of tip wear. Nicely done, LA Girl! :)

Changes.....

Hi readers,

again, sorry for the lack of updates.
I've been doing a lot of thinking, about what I wanted to do with this blog. I just got a job (Yay!) and school has taken most of my time. I simply cannot find enough time to swatch nail polish as much as I used to. I've considered making another blog or tumblr just to share music, videos or things that have caught my attention. I've even considered closing this blog down... but that was the last thing I wanted to do, because it's like my little baby.

I am ecstatic to say that this blog is still alive! but a few changes has been made..
I've recently changed my bachelor program, which means that I am not able to see my friend Miss K as often as I would like. She is the only person I know that shares my enthusiasm for nail polish. We've decided that this blog will be our outlet to keep each other updated about our latest manicures! I'm very happy to welcome her as a fellow blog administrator!! From now on, she will be writing her own blog posts! :)

In addition, I've added another page called "Everything and Nothing". On this page, we will be posting a bit of everything - music we've been listening to, videos we've seen, articles we've read... and also, since we both like eating out, there will be FOOD posts!!!!!!

I hope you guys will keep reading this blog, despite the changes...
I'm looking forward to this new blogging journey!!!!

Have a great day!
Thanks for reading!

Miss K: Simply Sexy

Latest Miss K konadicure is here!

She used China Glaze Sexy Lady. 

Just wanted to say that I miss seeing my friend every day!!

LA Girl MAtte Blue Twilight

Hey readers!

I've had this picture in my camera for a while now, but never got round to uploading it here.. so here it is!
School has taken over my life now, so I'll try to update here whenever I can... even if it's just to post some pictures!

This was 3 coats of Matte Blue Twilight.

'Minnie on Hand' by Miss K

Good morning!

My dear friend Miss K took a break from her school work and recruitment to send me a picture of her latest manicure. She named it Minnie on Hand, because the design reminded her of Minnie Mouse!

She used Essie Innocent to make the tips!
The polka dots are super cute! Next manicure should be name after Mickey! ;)

Have fun today!

Butter London Old Blighty

Hi Readers!

I'm sorry for the lack of updates! I definitely did not expect to be this busy, this soon. Pop quizzes and assignments worth 20% on the second week of school? Not cool, teachers, not cool.

I finally got around to using Butter London Old Blighty!

Old Blighty is a brown-red color that easily reminds me of bricks. It is such a nice color for fall! I will definitely be pulling this one out of the box more than once this season. Application was fairly nice. I had great coverage with only two coats, but I added a third to achieve bottle color. I have to say, I especially love the bottle!

Have a great week everybody!
I'll do my best to update more than once ;)

Color Club Age of Aquarius

Hi guys!!

Hope you all had a good week!

I am going to make a quick update and not write much, since I have to live for school...

I'm currently wearing Color Club Age of Aquarius on my nails. It's such a cute color! Everytime I look at my nails, I'm reminded of turquoise beaches.... Oh how I miss summer already!

Application was much better then Ms Socialite, partly because I did not have a weird brush. 3 coats.

Have a great day!

Color Club Ms Socialite

Good Morning!

I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend!

I've been a reading-machine lately: a few months ago, I made a list of books that I want/need to read and I've been slowly working on scratching items off of the list. 6 down, 178 more to go!!
I am currently reading Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums and will be tackling Jane Austen's Emma next. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep this up with all the school reading I have to do... (fingers crossed!)

Anyways, we have another rainy day here in Montreal. It seems like it's going to be a wet week...

I am wearing Color Club Ms Socialite today, a berry purple creme. The formula was 'ok', but I had a wonky brush, which made application a bit tricky. This was 2 coats.

Alright, gotta go back to my school readings!
Much love

H&M Blue my Mind

Hi!

Hope you're all enjoying your labor day weekend! It's schoolwork, schoolwork, and more schoolwork for me! I guess that's what school is, huh? I kind of missed it towards the end of my summer vacations...

It rained a little bit yesterday, the sky was all gray and somber. I decided to pull Blue my Mind out, since it reminds me of nice weather. The color definitely added a little bit of 'punch' to the day.

Now, I'll be honest. The color is a magnificent blue creme. However, I am a little bit hesitant to use this polish again because of the formula. I don't know if most H&M polishes are like this, but Blue my Mind's formula was absolutely horrible (my bottle, at least). It was super thick and goopy and was hard to apply. I am hoping that a bit of thinner will resolve the issue, because I love the color!! Pictured is three coats, no top coat.

I'm going to go try and add thinner to Blue my Mind, so I'll keep you guys updated on the situation ;)

-X

Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance

It's back  to school today! :)  I'm really excited to see my friends and start my new program!

I'm wearing Bad Romance today!

Bad Romance is basically the same as the gorgeous Ruby Red Slippers. only with purple glitter. It is as beautiful and I love it just as much - I'm sure I'll be saying the same thing for Across the Universe. I had no problem with application, two coats were enough for me. It dried fairly fast too. The only thing I'm dreading: removal.

Alright I can't write much more, I have to go to school!!! 

Have a great day!

LA Girl Matte Baby Pink

We have another heat wave here in Montreal. It's awfully hot!!!

Today, I have on on of my new polishes, LA Girl Matte Baby Pink. I've been wanting KO Calamine for a while now, but the price tag always made me hesitant. I think MBP is a pretty good alternate!

The color can be described as... matte baby pink! I think that it's be the perfect matte pink for this season. It's very summery,cute and fresh!

The formula did not dry as fast as the other mattes that I own. It dries considerably less quickly than the OPI matte formula or the Nubar's; and the finish is not as flat as the OPIs. If I had to describe the finish, I would say that it looks and feels like I just put on a coat of Essie Matte About You on a baby pink polish. It's deifnitely not chalky nor flat like the OPI matte or suedes. In addition, the formula was a bit thin, so I needed 3 coats for opacity.

I'm off to confront the heat, now and get some last-minute preps for school done!
Enjoy the day, everybody!

Left home with 6...

You guys might remember that I left for vacations with 6 bottles of polish... Well, I went insane on the trip and bought 10 polishes.

I got my hands on my first-ever bottle of Butter London and H&M polishes! I am dying to try them on!!

Here are my purchases:

From L to R: Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe; Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance and Butter London Old Blighty

From L to R: L.A. Girl Live on Stage; Deep Sea Mica; Matte Baby Pink and Matte Blue Twilight

From L to R: Color Club Age of Aquarius; Ms Socialite and H&M Blue my Mind.

I'm so so happy with my purchases! I haven't been able to find Butter London here in Montreal, but got lucky went I went to Toronto. (I didn't know they have them at Holt Renfrew!?).

The bottles of nails polish from the last two picture I got for less then 20$! Needless to say, I am a happy gal!

Home sweet home

Ok, so I lied. This post was supposed to be live from Florida, but the wi-fi at the beach house wasn't working properly so I couldn't update anything. My apologies.

I changed my manicure only once and I just kept a clear coat on for the rest of the trip-my nails are still bare as I'm typing.

I'll be back with pictures as of tomorrow, for now, I have to unpack and sort through all the things that I purchased!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Strawberry Fields Forever

Another Miss K post! Yay!!

I named this manicure Strawberry Fields Forever, after the Beatles' song that I love so much.


A little story about this konadicure:
Miss K wanted a desert (or something) but her boyfriend didn't want to get it for her so she decided to satisfy her cravings by konading strawberries on her nails. The next day, the sweet boyfriend took her for a yummy breakfast and they had strawberry waffles!! Oh the coincidence ;) haha

Konad plate used: M55.

Have a great week! The next post will be live from Florida!

Packing for summer vacations...

Hey guys!!
Finally I get to go on vacations!! I've been waiting for this since the beginning of summer. The sun, the beach, the waves..... We're going to Miami for 2 weeks, so it's gonna be fun in the sun!

I've decided to bring along 5 nail polishes with me. Here they are:

From left to right: 
My base coat of choice: Nubar Nu Nail;
Zoya Pippa;
OPI OPI on Collins Ave;
Orly Mint Mojito;
OPI No Room for the Blues ;
and Orly Blushing Bud.

-- I've decided last minute to add Zoya Renee--

Hopefully, I can find some time (and remember) to take pictures for you guys!!

The return of Miss K!!!

Finally I get some news from my best-fellow-nail-polish-lover-friend Miss K!!
I haven't heard from her for a while so I was pleasantly pleased to hear about her nails :)

She tried something new this time, going for some more abstract-y nail art. She used Nubar Champs-Elysees Pink and Nubar Baby Blue.

Cute, isn't it?!

Zoya Posh

Finally catched up on all the new polish collections! I haven't been up-to-date with the nail polish world in a while, so it feels good to look at the new colors!! Some are absolutely gorgeous and have gone straight to my shopping cart!! Fall collections are my favorite to look at (and to buy!), since I love dark colors.
Gosh, I can't wait to put my order in!!!!!


In the meantime, here's Zoya Posh, a gorgeous matte red shimmer.

This was 2 coats!

Have a great week!

Orly Rio Nights

Morning dear readers!!

I'm off to work this morning, a top coat bottle in my hand. I haven't had time to put some on last night and woke up to some pillow marks on my nails.. Anyways, I can't believe how excited I am to go to work today. Yesterday, the other students and I had loads of fun messing around with an old trophy that has been lying around in the office. Let's just say I'm glad our bosses didn't see anything.... Also, it's one of the girls' last week, so we're all going out for lunch together today. Fun times!

My present nail color is Rio Nights by Orly, and nice purple creme. (Please excuse the marks on my nails)

Pictured: Three coats

The formula here was thin and watery, so coverage was not great. Although I applied three coats on most nails, I still had some uneven spots here and there. However, I really like the color, and since I'm a sucker for purple polish, I didn't mind the extra work!

Have a great day!

Illamasqua Rampage

Good morning!!

I finally decided to cut my nails a bit, to make the break of my right index' nail less obvious. I couldn't resist putting on a dark color, as I'm one of those who believes that darker hues look better on shorter nails.

Rampage definitely lives up to the hype. I love it!! The formula was a bit thinner and easier to apply than Muse, but the coverage was the same: only 2 coats to achieve bottle color. I really like how you can tell that it is green, despite how dark the color is. It's truly gorgeous; easily my favorite green (from my stash)!

Have a great day!

Illamasqua Muse

Illamasqua Muse = gorgeousness!!

Highly pigmented and smooth formula; glossy finish; only needed 2 coats. I love polishes like these.
And I love them even more when the color is as beautiful as Muse: a deep blue with a hint of green that makes it teal-ish. This one is gorgeous!!

Here's the thing about Illamasqua- we don't have it here in Canada, so when my cousins and I planned on going to NYC, I had to stop buy Sephora. I'm glad we were kind of in a hurry that evening, because I probably would've ended up buying more than just the 2 polishes that I got. Despite the price ($14), the lovely colors interested me very much, and had I stayed a bit longer, I would probably have bought more...
On my wishlist: Baptiste, Jan, Nudge, Wayward and Hectic.

In other news, I ordered a new camera (Canon G11)!! I can take pretty pictures of my nails now!
Have a great weekend!

Back from crazy NYC!

Hey guys,

I'm back from NYC! It was absolutely crazy! SO HOT!! We were sweating bullets!
I was able to make a quick stop in the Sephora in Times Square to buy 2 polishes that I've been wanting for a long while now: Illasmasqua's Rampage and Muse! I was stoked to get my hands on them, since we can't find them here in Canada! I would've bought more, but I limited myself to only those 2 ;)

Swatches coming soon!

Wedding!!!

Hey guys!!

The wedding was AMAZING! Everything went smoothly, the bride, groom, bridesmaids (and junior bridesmaids) and groomsmen all looked so good! I am so happy for my cousin!! :) I couldn't contain my joy... as soon as she walked down the aisle, I started to cry.

Anywho, everybody had such a great time! My cousin looked stunning!

All the bridesmaids wore  lavender dresses, so we chose very neutral colors. I totally forgot to take pictures that day, but I swatched the colors quickly last weekend. (I broke a nail at work, so please excuse my ugly-looking index nail).

I chose to wear OPI Have a Tempura Tantrum on my tips

This was 3 coats.

The maid of honor and my sister both chose OPI Miso Happy with this Color

Also 3 coats here.

And now for the bride!!!! We went to Wal-Mart together one day, and I was trying to explain to her to color I thought would be perfect when I saw this one. It was perfect! She loved it!!!

Rimmel French Rose

3 coats

Application was very good. I liked the milky consistency of the polish. The look is very clean,simple and fresh.

I'm glad the wedding is over now! No more stressing!
A few cousins and I are planning to go to NYC/Brooklyn for the weekend! It's gonna be fun!

Update!

Hi Readers!

Mini update today! The wedding is in TWO DAYS!!!! :D We've been so busy since the bridal shower: we organized a surprise bachelorette party for my cousin! It was insane! It was the first time I've seen my cousin drunk..... HA!!

Anyways, all week long it has been re-painting and cleaning the house, shoe-shopping for Saturday, working and sleeping. Oh yeah, and family reunions.. why is it necessary to meet every time a visitor arrives?! I have no clue.

I can't wait to post pictures from the wedding and show you our nails!!!

We're all so happy and excited!

Talk to you guys soon!
xxx


(April, did you make the cupcakes yet?)

Green Tea Cupcakes recipe

I've always been a tea lover, whether it as a drink, ice cream flavor, in chocolate or whatever. So when I found a recipe combining 2 of my loves (tea and cupcakes), I just had to try it!
The recipe is from Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit

Green Tea Cupcakes
(makes 36 mini cupcakes, or 12 regular cupcakes)24 cupcake papers or 1/2 sheet pan / 350 degree oven

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup of sugar
1 large egg (room temperature)
1 large egg yolk (room temperature)
1-1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of milk (room temperature)
1 tablespoon matcha tea

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tins with cupcake liners.
• In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the matcha in with the milk.
• With an electric mixer, beat the butter on high until soft.
• Add sugar and continue to beat on medium-high until light and fluffy.
• Add the egg and egg yolk one at a time. Beat well after each addition.
• Add the flour mix to batter. Mix to combine.
• Add the matcha/milk to the batter and mix until combined.
• Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners.
• Bake for 22-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. 
  ** For mini cupcakes, bake for about 15 minutes.
• Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing! 

Matcha Buttercream

1 stick butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons half and half or light cream
1 tablespoon matcha powder
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

•  Mix matcha in with the light cream to make a paste.
• Beat butter until soft, scrape bowl. 
• Add the sifted powdered sugar and matcha paste. Beat until smooth.

Some Notes
-For the buttercream, you can substitute the cream for milk, if you don't have any at home..
-For the cupcakes, I would advise to mix in the flour and the matcha/milk by hand: the cupcakes will be fluffier this way.
-The cupcake recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of matcha, but I always put a bit more: you can taste the green tea better ;)
-If you are not frosting your cupcakes right away, store your buttercream in an air tight container and refrigerate. Before frosting, leave it out for about an hour or two or until it is at room temperature, and beat it with the mixer for a few seconds. Then you're good to go!


Hope you'll like this recipe as much as I do!

Bridal Shower!!!

The bridal shower was a success!!!! I'm so glad it's over as I'm REALLY tired... hahaha

I wore China Glaze For Audrey on my nails, to keep it cute and summery:

My sister, cousin and I prepared food for the brunch for 2 days!!!! We were SO full by the end of the evening!!

Part of the dessert, green tea cupcakes (with matcha buttercream on left and vanilla buttercream on right). We also had vanilla cupcakes, lemon cookies, sweet sticky rice and fruit salad. The buttercream was melting because of the hot weather

We gave the all the attendees some party favors, homemade chocolate! Yummy! They were carefully placed in the cutest little boxes

All in all, we all had a blast! The bride-to-be was very happy :D