Exo - History Outfits Inspired Mani;

hey :)

For today, I wanna share a kpop mani I did a few weeks ago.



-- which was inspired by ...


(click on the picture, it will enlarge)

... and ....



My mani was inspired by Exo's History outfits and the Exo logos. My mani is pretty sloppy & my nails look random ... but if you look at Exo’s group picture closely, you can see the details in their outfits which are what I put onto each design. I almost gave up on my left hand, pointer finger (Kris’ jacket), and my right hand, pointer finger (Tao's ripped sweater) -- but thankfully, I pulled through & finished it cause those are my favorite designs :D Anyway, you can pretty much guess what design goes with who (besides for my design of Lay’s jacket (which is on my left hand pinky), you can't really notice the design cause of the glare ;__; Ooh yea, the designs kind of go in order of where they’re standing in the picture — except I didn't have enough nails to do a design off each member. but yea .. I guess I'm happy about the way it turned out .. :)

Exo is split into two groups -- Exo M, who promotes in China, and Exo K, who promotes in South Korea. History is a catchy song & I love it; both Exo M & Exo K have a version of the song ... so here are the music videos to enjoy~


Exo K


Exo M

Alright, thats it for now~

have a good one!,
<3KATRINA

Mmmm! Nail Polish Review;

hi :) I hope you had a great (holiday) weekend~

A few weeks ago, Monique of Mmmm! Nail Polish asked me to review a few of her polishes; of course I couldn't resist. Although Monique isn't working at the moment, she is using some of the profit from selling her nail polishes to send care packages to a soldier in Afghanistan whom she adopted.

Here are the beauties that Monique sent to me:

8)

Before I show swatches, I do want to mention that my skin-tone is different in each picture -__- I wanted to show more color-accurate photos of the polish rather than color-accurate photos of my skin .. hahaha. Alright ...

2 coats of Tickle Me by itself, no top coat. From what I can tell, its a clear base with tiny iridescent glitter, tiny white glitters, matte (?) square glitters, and bigger matte mint / lemongrass glitters. The iridescent glitters look like they're glowing in this pictures 8D I did have a to do a bit of fishing for the bigger glitters but this polish applied very well.

1 coat of Tickle Me over 1 coat of Essie's Mesmerize, no top coat. The bigger mint glitters look ... white(?) in this picture .. I'm not sure why. But anyway -- this was my favorite combo. It was absolutely beautiful (!!!!!) in person! :)

2 coats of Tickle Me over 2 coats of Finger Paints' Blissfully Blue + top coat. Absolutely adorable ~!

2 coats of Say Hi To Bob, no top coat -- clear base with lots & lots of tinyyyy burnt orange glitters with bigger yellow hex & square glitters. It does dry kind of matte but it applies well.

1 coat of Say Hi To Bob over 1 coat of OPI's Bullish on OPI, no top coat. Ugh. this was my favorite combo; its a perfect mani for fall. Seriously, pictures do not do justice.

1 coat of Say Hi To Bob over Finger Paints' Calligraphic Calico, no top coat. Pretty but not my favorite combo. See how matte / flat the polish dries? Top coat would've made it shinier but I skipped out on the top coat.

2 coats of I'm Taken + top coat. HOLY CHIZ. ISNT THAT BEAUTIFUL!? Mauve-ish base with a bright green & pink duochrome effect... idk .. I just prefer to call it a shimmer because I usually don't like duochromes ... guess I might be in denial? hahaha :P The duo / shimmer is wayyyyy more noticeable irl, btw. The polish is a bit thick so I suggest applying in thin coats; the color doesn't flatter my skin-tone but I love this polish~

2 coats of Sunny Days + top coat. This was the closest I could get to a color accurate photo -- the polish leans more mustard yellow with bright orange-y / pink duo / shimmer. The shimmer is much more visible irl. Formula on this one is a bit thick too but its definitely easy to work with.

1 coat of Sugarlicious + top coat. OMG. RIGHT!? Olive-y green base with bright  green duo / shimmer. Kinda thick formula as well but thin coats cover very well.

Aren't those beautiful!? I don't know if my swatches did any justice. hahaha Be sure to check out Mmmm! Nail Polish~ and a big thanks to Monique for kindly sending me these polishes to review :)

have a good one!,
<3KATRINA

Glitter Gradient Mani From Over A Month Ago;

hi :D



Yes, I did this mani wayyyy over a month ago and I am now just getting around to posting it up. With reviews that need to be posted and other manis I was doing, I completely forgot about this one... :P



It's pretty simple. I think the base is China Glaze's Kinetic Candy ... but honestly, I'm not too sure anymore. The gold glitter is Milani's Gold -- that I know for sure.

I hope your week has started off well; I'll have swatches up some time later this week.

Have a good one!,
<3KATRINA

Birds / Swallows / Mui Mui Print Mani;

hey :)

Hope all is well :D A while ago, my friend asked me to do a bird / swallow / Mui Mui print mani for her. I told her to let me practice the design first ... and this was my first attempt:


I posted this picture on instagram (@kahtreenahh). It didn't turn out too bad but I wasn't satisfied yet. I kept practicing the design for a while and decided to try out the design for myself.


The pink is Essie's Beach Party & the gray is China Glaze's Sea Spray. The birds are painted with acrylic paint.


The rhinestones I used are from Born Pretty Store. Nicole sent me the rhinestones a few weeks ago, I finally got to put them to use and I love them! They're about 1.8-1.9 mm ... they're pretty small .. yet they're the perfect size~ They just complete the mani :)


Here is another picture I posted on instagram ... I really like this photo :D

I'm still not satisfied with the mani ... there's something about the design that I don't like; I can't seem to pinpoint it though. Oh well ..

Anyway, a big thanks to Nicole of Born Pretty Store for the rhinestones. Don't forget, you are always more than welcomed to use my coupon code & save 10% off your order when you order from BPS!~ Here's the code is 'KL5X31' :)

Have a great day!,
<3KATRINA

1-2-3 Healthy Nails Starter Kit Review;

hey :)

So, a few weeks ago, Shannon of 1-2-3 Healthy Nails kindly offered me to review the Starter Kit.

Here is what the kit comes with:

1 oz jar of the Healthy Nail Fortifier, a buffing file, a French manicure pencil, and a pencil sharpener.

According to the instructions, you're supposed to use this product for about 2 weeks. You buff your nails once a week, apply the nail fortifier twice a day (once in the morning, once in the evening), and use the french manicure pencil once a day. There is a very informational video here.

Here's a picture of my bare nails before I began using the product:

Gross right? haha. X__X

Here's a picture after I buffed my nails:

Pictures don't do justice on how shiny the buffer made my nails. Obviously buffers are supposed to do that ... but seriously -- my nails were S H I N Y ! 8D It looked like I had top coat on or something, it was ridiculously - amazingly shiny. I loooove that buffer :)

Here's a picture after I applied the fortifier on my nails:

Less shiny but it still looks alright :P The fortifier has a ... different smell. The smell isn't bad and it's definitely bearable. I don't eat oatmeal but the fortifier kind of looks a tiny bit like oatmeal.

I'm very doubtful of products that 'help nails grow stronger' because they don't always work ... but this product -honestly- worked for me. I'm sad that I didn't photograph my right hand because my right hand pointer finger was ripped; after two days of using the fortifier, the rip had completely disappeared. Don't ask me how, because I don't know how it happened, but I was so excited. I didn't really find the pencil necessary, that didn't really do a difference for me .. but besides that ... my nails really did get stronger.


Another case of the product working for me ... I have a really bad case of the 'peel-ys' ... I always peel the nail polish off my nails. Now, we all know that's not a smart thing to do (unless you're using the peel off base coats .. but in this case, I wasn't). My nail was all disgusting -- I peeled off a few layers of my nails :( So, I decided to try the Healthy Nails Set again ... I buffed my nail, applied the fortifier, and then two days later ... BAM! My nail looked so much better!

Don't mind the horrible quality of the pictures, they were taken with my iphone:

Picture 1 - yes, very gross. Proof that you should not peel the nail polish off your nails cause it will damage your nails.
Picture 2 - same night as picture 1. After I buffed my nail & applied the fortifier. You can kind of see a rip at the tip of my pinky nail.
Picture 3 - two nights later; almost all better ! :) I did do a tiny bit of filing on the nail but it still looks much better~ The rip in the nail was less noticeable as well.

There goes two examples of the 1-2-3 Healthy Nails Starter Kit working for me :) I can't guarantee the same results but I do definitely recommend people with weak, brittle, and chipped nails to try it out.

A big thanks to Shannon for the kit; I am definitely going to keep using it. Don't forget to check out the 1-2-3 Healthy Nails site :)

Have a great day!,
<3KATRINA

Giveaway Winners;

hello~

I've received responses from all of the winners, so now I can post up the results;

1] MyMakeupMania / Anastacia Park
2] rock-or-not
3] derpyoppar
4] inflightradi0
5] Lacquer Ninja
6] ayellepea

Congrats to the winners; a big thanks to everyone who participated~

Have a great weekend!,
<3KATRINA