Simple Swatch: My First Barielle

As I mentioned in my IMATS LA post, I not only got a lot of polish from the show, but I stopped by a place that Jen The PolishAholic calls "nail polish heaven" while I was down there. It was only 5 minutes from our hotel so it worked out great! I got like 10 polishes there, and to my surprise they had Barielle! I have no idea where to buy them besides online, so I took advantage of the buy 2 get 1 free deal they had. And I died a little when I found this beauty:

 

 

 

This is Barielle- Falling Star, made back in 2009! It was in a collaboration collection between blogger, All Lacquered Up and Barielle's celebrity manicurist, Elle! I love how so many bloggers have collaborated with nail polish companies, their hard work really pays off. I hope to either do a collaboration or make my own polish line one day! Those are HIGH HOPES. I have been looking into how to go about making polishes though, and I already have a great idea of what my first collection would be!

Okay, enough rambling, and more about this amazing polish. It is a nice thick creme with tiny copper micro glitters evenly dispersed throughout the creme base. I was worried it wouldn't apply evenly through out my nail since the glitters were cluttered in certain spots of the bottle. But I didn't have that problem at all! I applied 2 coats, and they were the perfect consistency, not too thin or too thick. I love that it almost as an indie polish feel to it too!

Hope you love this as much as I do! I hope to wear the other shade I got next. I gave away the third shade to my mom's coworkers daughter. She is being bullied at school so my mom asked if I could get her some fun polishes, and I hooked her up! She even wrote me a cute little thank you card. That was a good deed of the day for me :)

LA Splash Goodies

My last set of nails using my new IMATS nail polish!

 

 

Remember when I thought China Glaze- Surreal Appeal was the perfect coral? Well, I found an even MORE perfect coral!

This is LA Splash- Peachy. And I spiced it up a little by using on of the three glitter pots I got from them in Coral Mania. Here's how the glitter looks:

I originally applied the glitter on individually using a toothpick to make a simple outline of a halfmoon, but the glitter sizes varied too much. So, I applied a top coat all over my nail, dipped one of my new nail art brushes I got from Crown Brush in top coat, dipped it in the glitter, and applied it too the nail. I wish the glitter was more uniform, but I am pleased with the outcome!

As for the actual polish, the formula was so thick and goopy! I have dealt with thick formulas in the past, but this is the first where I actually considered using paint thinner to thin it out. But man the color is so awesome! It could have been a one coater too, but the goopyness ruined that. I used two coats here.

The display at IMATS said this is from their spring collection, but I can't find anything online about it, not even the name of the collection. Their polishes retail for $3.99 and I got mine for $3.00. My ULTA used to carry their polish, but decided to discontinue them, then decided to just stop carrying the entire line and replaced it with the Kardashian makeup -___- Their nail art glitters are $4.99 on their website, and I got mine for $3.00! I am very happy with these glitters and can't wait to use the others I got!

Lime Crime!

My second set of nails using my new polishes from IMATS! Let me just start out by saying this manicure was hands down the hardest to capture in photos. I thought holos were hard...I think it is because these are just so bright, so just keep in mind these look 1000x better in real life!

 

Half shade half sunlight

This is the best picture I could get :(. But hopefully you can tell what I did. It is a half moon + gradient! Here are two more photos in weird half sun/shade lighting

 

I guess my camera just couldn't handle the awesome brightness of these polishes. Here are two in the shade:

 

Man now I really regret not having a light box because I am sure these pictures would have been so much better! On to how I did this manicure. First I used two coats of Lime Crime: Crema De Limon for the base color. Hands down, the best yellow I have ever used! Not streaky at all, and applied so smoothly! I let that dry by applying some Seche Vite, then put circle stickers on my fingers to make the half moons. Then using a makeup sponge, I painted the colors Lime Crime- Peaches n Cream (orange) and Lime Crime- Pastelchio (Jennifer Green) directly onto the makeup sponge and simply sponged on a gradient!

I really love how these came out, but of course don't love the photos. I should also mention the bottles are the cutest in the world! Who doesn't like unicorns? You can buy these polishes HERE for $5.99. I got these three at the show for $5. They only had these three and Milky Way at the show which made me sad. I planned on buying them all, but for some reason the white didn't appeal to me very much. But of course I am slapping myself in the face now because I looked at swatches and pretty much everyone says its the best white! Oh well, I will get the rest soon, and can't wait till they release more polish! Stay tuned for more IMATS polishes from me :)

INGLOT!

So, I promised yesterday that my next set of manicures would be using my new polishes I got from IMATS. Today I decided to use my favorite so far, and those are the two Inglot ones I got. Here these beauties are:

 

 

Sorry for such awful lighting. It is raining over here :( I need to just make a light box already!

Can you tell why one of these is my favorite? Jennifer Green, duuuh. I actually passed up on the green and got the blue one the first day, but couldn't resist the second day of the show.

They were only selling their O2M line, which I had never seen before. I just figured they changed the bottle. I am assuming these are better polishes since these retail on their website for $14 for .37 fluid ounces. And their regular Inglot polishes in the shorter bottle are $10 for .51 fluid ounces, so pricey! I got mine for $11, $3 off, not bad I guess.

Onto the colors: These two shades are from their Summer Collection. The awesome Jennifer Green shade is Number 664, I hate when companies number their colors! And the awesome blue is Number 669. The formulas were pretty nice. A little thick, but I prefer thick formulas over thin runny ones. I didn't even realize how special these shades were until I actually took them out of the box after I got home. They have the most beautiful sheen to them! Especially the blue, here is the best picture I could get:

 

Look at Number 669! I about died when I saw it. It has quickly became one of my favorite polishes. I have no blue polish in this shade, let alone with an awesome purple duochrome/sheen to it! It actually shows up on the nail too, if the sun were out it would have showed up in my photos :( What do you think? Have you heard anything about these or tried them?

IMATS LA: My Experience (Very Picture Heavy)

I am back from LA! I love living in Nor Cal because it is just so convenient to drive down to LA for a few days. It is so close, yet so far. So, I have been wanting to go to IMATS seriously for like 3 years, but didn't have anyone to go with. One of my friends has recently gotten into makeup, so this was the perfect opportunity for her to stock up on good makeup for discounted prices, and of course perfect for me to go balls crazy! I have never spent so much money in my life. I know this is a nail polish blog, but I won't be showing many pictures of nail polish. I plan on taking pictures of all the polish I got individually, but haven't had time to do that yet. That is soon to come! On to some of my favorite parts of the show:

Note: All these pictures were taken on the second day (Sunday) Click the page break for all the pictures!

IMATS LA!!!

So, I am sure all of you that are into makeup and all that fun stuff know that IMATS LA is this weekend. I am finally going! I am so excited you have no idea. Usually when I am out of town I try to paint my nails something I know I won't get bored of. But when I am gone 3+ days, I like to use Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail stickers. Here are the ones I decided to wear:

 

The name of this design is Checker Out. This is from their limited edition Spring 2012 collection. I have never bought these for the $10 price tag. Instead I wait till they are on clearance at ULTA for half the price! I have a lot hoarded in my stash right now, it is kind of sad. I have seen the ones for spring this year, they are super cute!

I think I should have wore them sooner though because the edges would not stay down! you can see it lifting on my ring finger. I even redid my index finger because it wasn't sticking at all! I have never had that problem with these. I was gonna do some nail art on these, but I decided it wouldn't look as good as I thought. So, I decided to just throw some glitter on top since I haven't had glitter on my fingers in way too long.

 

Sunlight

 

Shade

This is Cirque- XX, from their Object d'Art collection. I am quickly falling in love with this brand. They have the finest quality polishes, which is why i coughed up the $13 for this polish. This one is JAM PACKED with all sorts of glitter. They describe it as "A rainbow glitter polish made with over 20 different types of holographic particles", so I am not even going to try to describe all the different types of glitters in there. My favorite are the diamonds and squares! It also helped the edges stay down, hopefully they hold up all weekend.

You can find Cirque polishes HERE, and a special exclusive shade on Mei Mei's Signatures site HERE. You can also follow them on facebook so you can get more updates. I can't wait to see what Annie has planned next. But all I know is I WANT MORE CIRQUE COLORS!!!