Chevron Nails

Hey lovelies,

Just did my nails and thought I would share! I really like them and can't stop looking at them :) It took a really long time to do, but I think its worth it. Hope you guys enjoy!

 How to:

1. Paint your base color, let completely dry.

2. Use 2 pieces of tape to make a V shape, paint black. Let completetely dry.
3. make the v-shape again, but this time leave it a little above the black so that there will be a black line. Paint the exposed portion gold.
4. Use a black nail art polish that has a thin striper brush to draw the last and smallest triangle. Tada- done!

1. Paint your base color, let completely dry. For this, I used zoya- cho and then painted essie- ballet slippers over it for a blush pink look.





2. Use 2 pieces of tape to make a V shape, paint black. Let completetely dry. For this, I used Milani dry fast polish in Black Swift.
You could also use a nail art striper brush / polish to draw this triangle too. I think I may try that next time.



3. make the v-shape again, but this time leave it a little above the black so that there will be a black line. Paint the exposed portion gold. For the "gold" I mixed color club - worth the risque & OPI- curry up don't be late to create a holographic/silvery gold (since the OPI one was kind of sheer and not as foil-looking as I'd like it to look) super pretty!




4. Use a black nail art polish that has a thin striper brush to draw the last and smallest triangle. Also, this brush would be perfect for fixing up mistakes on your design too. Tada- done!




Nail Polishes used: From L-R:
Zoya - Cho, Essie - Ballet Slippers, Color Club- Worth the Risque, OPI- Curry Up Don't Be Late, L.A. Colors- Black Art Deco Nail art lacquer, Milani High Speed Dry Fast - Black Swift


Would you guys like to see a video tutorial of this? Let me know what you think! :)

This nail design was inspired by Nailside

Until next time...

xoxo,
Kathleen

Spring Fashion: Florals and A-line Dresses

Hey loves,

I finally uploaded my spring fashion video! Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II5-YG80Wd4

I named this "Part 1" because I have so many more outfits in store for you guys, which will appear in future videos :) I wanted to do something different this time, so instead of talking, I just did all music, and did some different editing effects. What do you guys think? I'd love to know.

I wanted to post some pictures that I took while making this video, and I had so much fun using the self-timer function on my camera.. (partly sarcastic because it's so difficult taking pictures of myself! but I did have fun nonetheless..)


The Chuti Cream Floral Cardi, makes any outfit look spring! Love pairing my red belt with neutrals/pastels, it really gives it a pop of color.



The lovely Gemma Dress from loveclothing.com (Got this in a size small and it fits wonderfully! The bust is a tad big, but I don't mind it too much)
Vila Tanko Red dress (also got a size Small), I like how it's a thick cotton material, that gives it some structure.


xoxo,
Kathleen

Zoya 2012 True & Fleck Effect Collection Swatches

Hi lovelies,

Today I have swatches of Zoya's 2012 spring collections: True and Fleck Effect.
I am so excited to share these swatches with you guys and I hope you find it helpful! :)

Zoya True Collection: described as "A fresh bloom of dewy color. Inspired by the runway looks of top designersthis collection features slightly muted and unexpected spring shades in six easy to wear, full-coverage creams and metallics."
- Definitely a twist to the classic bright colors you'd see for spring, I am really loving the muted tones in this collection.

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Bevin: a pale sage green creme (has a muted look to it, one of my favorites!)

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Cho: a beige color with very fine silver shimmers, I thought I wouldn't like this, but once it was on my nails, I liked it! The shimmer is very subtle but it's a nice touch.

hopefully you can see the fine shimmers in this close up.

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Farah: beige creme, looks really similar to Cho, but without the shimmers.

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Lotus: greyish purple with fine magenta shimmers, love this one! The magenta shimmers give dimension to the pretty purple polish. Another one of my favorites in this collection.

hopefully you can see the shimmers better here.

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Tru: purple, has more of a magenta tone in it with reddish golden shimmers. This one is super pretty- love! The shimmers are more noticeable in Tru than in Lotus.

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Bevin: Greyish Blue with tons of silver shimmers, really pretty!

Overall, I really enjoyed the True collection, the formula was really easy to work with, one or two coats will be opaque enough.

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Next... we have the Fleck Effect Collection! What can I say.. I LOVE my flakies! Flakie polishes are just so pretty and glittery and everything good.. well except for the removal...
I am so glad Zoya came out with these flakie polishes because they are different from the usual flakies such as Sally hansen hidden treasure or essie's shine of the times. (comparisons below)

With these polishes, you could wear it alone, but I think it looks so much better and vibrant when worn layered over another polish.

Chloe: pink jelly polish with green and gold mylar flakes

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Maisie: blue jelly polish with green mylar flakes

-I didn't swatch Opal, which is a green jelly with green flakes because it looks basically the same on as Maisie (the green tint isn't too noticeable, but may change the tone of some polishes if you're layering it)

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From Left to right: Opal, Maisie, Chloe, Essie- Shine of the Times
layered over a deep black plum polish.

-Opal and Maisie both have the same colored flecks, and the flakes change from green/blue, I really like it!
- Chloe looks similar to Essie shine of the times, but has some small green flakes too, which is unique, I like how the green gives it even more dimension and color(shine of the times only has golden flakes). The golden flakes change from magenta/orange/gold/green.

Overall, I really enjoyed the fleck effect collection as well, I would say you don't need both opal and maisie, just choose one depending on if you like green or blue polishes more.
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Hope the swatches were helpful, and I tried to photograph them as accurate to the color as possible. Thanks for reading!

Until next time..

xoxo,

Kathleen ♥

New Hair Color! Loreal Feria Chocolate Cherry

Hey loves,
First of all, I would like to say Happy new years! Thank you guys so much for your support and love in 2011. I look forward to more videos and more blog posts in 2012 :)

Since it was going to be a new year, I decided it was time for new hair! My roots were growing out, and I was eager to dye my hair. I wanted to go darker this time, my hair has been light brown for a couple years now and I wanted to go back to a darker color, so I won't have to keep dying my hair over and over.
Red is such a hot color for hair lately, and I just love the way it looks, so I decided to go for a deep red color. I also wanted a hint of purple in it, because I like how it looks reddish purplish.
I wasn't sure what color to get from the drugstore, knowing the colors don't always come out like the box.
Finally, I chose Loreal Feria Hair color in Chocolate Cherry 36 / Deep Burgundy Brown.
The color on the box looked gorgeous- just the color I wanted.

After coloring my hair.. here are the results:

Before:

My hair was a light brown, and my roots..eek. I like the color, but it was just time for a change :)

After:

A deep red. I love it! It is almost exactly what I wanted. It looks quite dark, almost black with a tint of red in indoor lighting, but when you go outside BAM! Its an intense red color. Pretty crazy.. but I really like it! If you're wanting a subtle red.. you might not want this color, because in the sun, its pretty red. But I love how it looks subtle indoors, and in the sun it looks super vibrant.
I really hope this color does not fade a lot, because I don't want my hair to fade to a light red/ brown, since my purpose of going dark was so that I wont have to re-dye my hair once my roots grow out.
* A tiny review on the hair dye, when dying my hair at home, the ammonia smell is REALLY strong. So make sure your windows are open. Also, I feel like a lot of my hair came out when washing my hair after I dyed it (more hairs than usual), so the chemicals are pretty strong.
I love the color a lot, but I really wish there wasn't as many harmful chemicals in there. Not sure if I would buy it again, but with a color so pretty, I just might.

Hope you guys enjoyed my mini review and what do you think of the new hair?
Thanks for reading, and until next time...

xoxo,
Kathleen

Review: Maybelline Baby Lips and Lots of Lashes

Hey loves,

Today I have a couple of new products and swatches to share with you! I got to try out the Maybelline Babylips lip balm and their lots of lashes mascara through bzzagent.com. It's a website where people have the chance to review new products and give their honest opinion about it. Everyone can join :)

Anyways, back to the review. Lets start with the Babylips lipbalm.
It has SPF 20, which to me is a major plus because I am always concerned about protecting my lips from sun damage. But I love that it also has a tint to it so that I can protect my lips while giving my lips some fun color! When applied to the lips, you can apply one layer for a really sheer tint, or apply multiple layers (its quite buildable) so that the tint is more obvious. What I like about applying multiple layers is that it makes your lips look shiny, almost like you're wearing a lip gloss (you'll see that it's shiny in my swatches). I love how pigmented these lip balms can be. Of course they won't be as pigmented as lipsticks, but it can give your lips a pretty red or hot pink tint, depending on the color of the lip balm. These lipbalms last about 1-2hours on my lips which I think is pretty average. However, I feel that when it wears off, my lips don't feel super moisturized, I actually like wearing my Jack Black lip balm first, and then applying these babylip lipbalms over it (to give my lips extra moisture-because they need it! and also sometimes the corners of my lips get dry and I can't really put tinted lip balm there or else I'd look a bit crazy.)
Overall, I liked these lip balms and I think they're really fun!

Here are the swatches (when I swatched it on my hand, I swiped it back and forth a couple of times, so its more pigmented):



Cherry me smells just like cherry popsicles. On the lips, its not a true red, but more of a reddish pink. These lip balms are sheer, but do give you color.


Kind of smells like strawberry candy. Gives a great hot pink lips look.


Smells like peach candy ish. This one actually has some shimmers in it, which I'm not too big of a fan of. It does give a good nude lip look though. Perfect for pairing with your favorite smokey eye look!

Next up, we have the Maybelline Lots of lashes mascara. What's unique about this mascara is the brush. Its a smaller, kind of triangular shaped brush that is supposed to be able to reach every lash. I do find this brush a little easier to use because it is smaller than usual, but not extremely more easy than other mascaras I've used. Applying mascara to me is still difficult..and I can never apply mascara without getting it on my eyelid...grrr. The formula is pretty wet, but not too wet, which is nice. However, after a couple of coats, it can start looking clumpy. Overall, I think this mascara is average. My lashes are short, stubby, and sparse unfortunately, so it takes a LOT for me to LOVE a mascara. In order for me to love a mascara, it must be extremely volumizing, somewhat lengthening, and somewhat defining, with not too much clumping. So maybe I just have very high standards. For someone who already has long lush lashes, you might really like this mascara. It does volumize and define my lashes, but it is not anything spectacular or to rave about. It doesn't flake or smudge on me. Overall, I like this mascara, but it is just average.





Before and After Pics:

Before: Short, stubby, lashes. After:Lashes aren't amazing, but darker, more defined, and at least more visible.



Alright lovelies, hope you enjoyed this review and hope it helped you out! Until next tme...

xoxo,
Kathleen

Dupe for the Naked Palette? N.Y.X. Nude on Nude

Hey loves,

So I am pretty obsessed with the naked palette, initially I was like eh w/e neutral palette eh. but then I saw it in stores... and uh I kinda fell in LOVE!!! I finally placed my order on Sephora and got it because dammit- life is short! LOL ...and I'm a shopaholic :( Okay, no more makeup for a while for me...... cause I broke and that aint no joke. Ok ok ok getting on with my post here, I got the NYX nude on nude palette because it totally is a dupe/ reminds me of the Naked palette, and my lovely friend Alyssa has the naked palette so I used hers t compare to my N.Y.X. one. I got this palette from www.porkdaisy.com and thats a site that sells discounted NYX stuff.
-- In comparison, I do think the nude on nude looks kind of similar to the naked, there are some colors that look the same, but the nude on nude is lacking a couple key colors that I love from the naked palette- thus I had to get the naked palette ~ LOL. The colors I feel like were missing that I loved from the Naked palette is :
- Sin (Pretty light pink silvery shimmer color, though the nude on nude has a pink peachy color, its not the same!)
- Half Baked (gold) & Smog (coppery gold brown), though there is a coppery brown in there and a gold in the nude on nude, the copper is a bit too light, and the gold is too yellow.
- Toasted (brown with a hint of magenta tone in it) no color like this in the nude on nude
- Buck (matte warm dark/medium brown) no color like this in the nude on nude
* In terms of pigmentation, the nude on nude has good pigmentation, though not as soft as urban decay, but still very nice.
Overall, if you can't afford the naked, this would be a good replacement. It also has a bottom compartment that has lipglosses!! :) and its half the price of the Naked palette, but for me, I'd still want the naked... lol
Hope this is helpful lovelies! (Click on the pics if you wanna see them bigger)
♥ I also have a video on this so look below for the vid! :)

Naked (top) vs. Nude on Nude (bottom)



Swatches of the first row of the Nude on Nude

Swatches of the 2nd row of Nude on Nude



xoxo,
Kathleen

Summer Trend: Orange Lipstick

Hey loves,

Just wanted to post a quick little post about a summer trend I'm loving right now: orange lipstick! I love it- well it looks more like a bright coral, but its a fun twist on the classic red :)
Bold, but not too bold, and can be mixed with pink to be a more soft coral color. ( i love coral!!!)
I'm wearing N.Y.X Round lipstick in Femme with E.L.F. 's studio minty glosses in San Diego.
Whats summer trend are you rockin?







xoxo,
Kathleen ♥