Fish Egg (Molecule Manicure) and Caviar Nails comparison!

I'm genuinely bummed about the Ciate controversy regarding their request that bloggers stop using the term Caviar Nails or Caviar Manicure when referring to a microbeaded manicure. I prefer to stay out of any drama, so I will just present some findings... I've been so curious...that I HAD to go ahead and do this swatch, review and comparison. Hope it helps!!

On the index and ring fingers I used Sally Hansen White On and Michael's "Recollections" Clear Micro beads. AKA the cheap version. This costs less than $10.
On the middle and pinky fingers I used Ciate Caviar Manicure from Sephora AKA the not cheap version. You need to shell out $25 for this kit. Which includes the polish, microbeads plastic tray and funnel. You absolutely need the funnel to get the overflow of beads back into the container. They should actually call the Ciate beads nanobeads. They are smaller than the Michael's beads.

If packaging and presentation are important to you, and you have money burning a hole in your Coach wallet, then the Ciate is a must - available at Sephora in three different color kits!

The Sally Hansen White On (on Index and Ring fingers) went on thicker and slightly more opaque. You could probably get away with one thick coat of this. Ciate Snow Virgin (Middle and pinky fingers) will never be a one coater. Thinner and streakier with the first coat, in fact, it probably needs three coats to be perfect.

Can you see the difference? Index and ring are cheapo version. Middle and pinky the $$$ version.The sally Hansen polish is thicker and therefore covers up some of the beaded goodness more than the Ciate polish. In my opinion, it also means the Michael's beads will stay on longer.

The finished look at first glance is exactly the same..but then you look again and the Ciate beads are smaller, fill up the space better and have a bit more of a rainbow effect when the light hits them. Very subtle but noticeable difference. I for one, am always drawn to the more elegant look, so err I do love the Ciate Caviar Nails. Controversy or not. And yes, I will be rockin the cheapo version. Because I can :D

Will you shell out the money? Do you even like this beaded look?
Have a great day everyone!!
~Victoria

April Showers Bring May Flowers - Rainbow!

Hello!
I've wanted to try this technique since The Nail Buff first posted it. http://thenailbuff.blogspot.com/2011/11/opi-lincoln-park-after-dark-with.html. Apparently so do about 500 other people. This manicure, was like a phenomena on Pinterest getting about 500 re-pins in 24 hrs. My most re-pinned image for sure. So, I knew I wanted to use it for one of these challenges and I thought ahead to make my rainbows like this. I also put up a tutorial, click under the "tutorials" tab on my main page :)

This method works by actually letting your polish (already dispensed on a plastic plate) get sticky and stringy! It was a lot of work and needed a lot of clean up, but oh man! I adore the end result!!

 I started with base coat of one coat of Milani High Speed Fast Dry in White on the Spot. I don't think this is really so fast drying at all, but it is a nice one coat white. 

ZOYA rainbow!! Red - America, Orange - Lianne, Yellow - Creamy, Green - Midori, Blue - Yummy, Indigo - Ibiza, Violet - Zara

 Here are a few photos of the finished manicure BEFORE the top coat went on. I think it looks totally cool this way, but I knew it would get ruined if I didn't put Seche Vite, fast dry top coat on it! And even with the fast dry...this took a loooong time to dry.

The following photos are with top coat. Two coats actually.

I'm experimenting with back ground...do you prefer the dark back ground, or the lighter one?

 

Again, dark background or lighter one? 

 

I couldn't be happier with how this turned out!! It's exactly how I pictured it in my head :) I cut down on the pics soooo much. There were for sure a zillion, ok, well, 25 that I wanted to post!

Here's the challenge that I've been working on and this was clearly #5, A rainbow after the storm.

Here are the links to the other ladies who have finished their rainbow!

http://diypolish.blogspot.com/2012/04/spring-challenge-day-5-rainbow-after.html
-          http://charlottes-nails.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/april-showers-challenge-rainbow-after.html
-          http://mandyspolish.blogspot.com/2012/04/asbmf-5-rainbow-after-rain.html
-          http://onenailtoanother.blogspot.ca/2012/04/asbmf-rainbow-after-rain.html
-          http://creativenaildesignbysue.blogspot.com/2012/04/asbmf-challenge-5-rainbowfuzzy-that-is.html
-          http://polished-prisms.blogspot.com/2012/04/asbmf-5-rainbow-after-rain.html
-          http://footballandfingernails.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-showers-challenge-rainbow-after.html
- http://karinea0a.blogspot.com/2012/04/asbmf-5-rainbow-after-rain.html

Thanks for reading!! Have a good night :)
~Victoria

Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily swatch and review

The last of the Fan Collection. Phew! That's love :) With each swatch. I did not want to take it off to get to the next one. So...Aqua Lilly stays! YAY. And, yes, I planned it that way. Hehee. This was by far my most anticipated of the collection. The combination of aqua and pink shimmer is just a WIN in my book. The collection goes on sale to the general public this Monday, April 23 at noon! Follow this link to the Rescue Beauty Lounge  site to purchase. Be prepared if you want these brand new shades, they are $20 each. Expensive and worth it.

Application? Flawless. This one has some of that famous subtle shimmer, only it's not so subtle. Not in your face either. Just classy. A great happy polish. Love. I'm sad to report that much of that gorgeous shimmer I couldn't pick up with my camera. Hopefully I'll get swatches in the sunlight ( it's pouring out today) and update with those. Trust me the pink shimmer is there and it's just beautiful!

RBL basecoat, 2 coats Aqua Lilly, Seche Vite - It didn't need the extra shine, I just had to make dinner! ;)

What do you think? Will you be buying any? If you could only get one, which would it be? Hope these posts helped you figure out what you want.

Polish dreams, I'm off to bed now. xo
~Victoria

Rescue Beauty Lounge IKB: 2012 swatch and review

The third out of four posts showing you Rescue Beauty Lounge's brand new "Fan Collection". I purchased all four in the set during the pre-order. The collection goes on sale to the general public this Monday, April 23 at noon! Follow this link to the Rescue Beauty Lounge  site to purchase. You will find a price tag, that hurts ($20 each). But, never fear, if quality is what you desire, RBL delivers.

This is a different formula than Ji's other polishes. It's "pure pigment" she says and "the less you do the better".  A bit thick and sticky, not so easy to apply. But once you get the hang of it, you watch the second coat level out and then you have magic on your fingertips!  I decided to use Seche Vite for topcoat for it's famous smoothing qualities. That, and my son waking from his nap :P

Here is IKB: 2012!

 RBL basecoat, 2 coats IKB, Seche Vite

The color is a crazy beautiful deep and yet bright blue. THE perfect Ultramarine blue. It jumps out from your fingertips! "Look at me. I'm blue!"

I confess, I did NOT want to take this off in order to swatch the next one. It's mesmerizing.  Holy moly!! And I took so many pics, it was hard to narrow it down...I wanted to post.them.all!!

Hope you enjoy! I just *might* need to get a back up of this. :)

~Victoria

Rescue Beauty Lounge Halcyon swatch and review

The second of four posts showing you Rescue Beauty Lounge's Fan Collection. The dream colors of four very lucky "RBL" fans! The collection goes on sale to the general public this Monday, April 23 at noon! Follow this link to the Rescue Beauty Lounge  site to purchase. They are each $20. Ouch, I know. But ever so worth it. 

Here's Halcyon, inspired by the beauty of the succulent plant. It's a muted sage, with stunningly pretty pink flecks. In the sunlight? Woweee. It's these pink flecks that save this color for me, as I have to be honest..it's not my favorite shade of green.

Application and formula, again, is flawless. Two easy coats to perfection. These are all 4-free polishes as well.

 See the pink goodness?

 Outside/sunlight pic. It's hard to tell from the photos, but that pink is really quite pink! A bright light  golden fuschia, if that makes sense :)

We are stuck inside on this very rainy Sunday, but that's good news for me...trying to get the rest of the Fan Collection up today for you!!

~Victoria

Rescue Beauty Lounge Cuprum swatch and review

Well. What can I say? The marvelous Ji, the name behind the brand, has done it again. The "Fan Collection" in which she went to her fans to design their dream polish (HOW COOL IS THAT?) is in my hands! This is the first of four posts showing these glorious new polishes.

I purchased all four in the set during the pre-order. The collection goes on sale to the general public this Monday, April 23 at noon! Follow this link to the Rescue Beauty Lounge  site to purchase. They are each $20. Ouch, I know. But in my humble opinion, worth it.

So, I am starting with Cuprum, which I am embarrassed to say was the one I wasn't going to purchase. Right up to the last minute. And then, it somehow jumped into my cart :P I just knew I'd rather have it and not like it than not get it and regret it. I am thrilled to report...not only do I LOVE it, it may have leaped to the top of my list of favorites.

    RBL basecoat, 2 coats of polish, RBL topcoat

Now onto why this polish is worth your money. Color saturation - opaque in 2 easy coats. The formula? I don't know if this polish has a built in chip or something, how it just knows where to go and where not to go? It's perfect. Applies so easily, levels out, no streaks. good dry time. And always, what seals the deal for me? The hidden shimmers, flecks, and sparkles. Ji is a master at that and Cuprum delivers. It's very hard to catch it in photos, but I promise the golden copper sparkly bits are in there, perfectly dispersed.

Outside/sunlight pics:

 This polish just glows. It may even blind you in the sunlight. A beautiful bright shimmery deep ocean blue. It's just gorgeous!! And not the dreaded frosted blue I was afraid of.

I'm going to work hard to get all four of these posts up before the sale goes live on Mon, April 23!!
Hope your weekend is going great,
~Victoria 

April Showers Bring May Flowers - April Showers!

Hello everyone!

Moving right along with our Spring challenge, here's April showers for you!! My idea was to make rain clouds and of course, have the rain drops falling from them.  I definitely like how this turned out, but my favorite part about it is that the rain drops are a polish from one of my favorite indie brands GlitterDaze, called APRIL RAIN :) This is from her Simply Spring collection which I will review in a future post. You can purchase April Rain and all of Sana's other beautiful creations at her etsy shop, right here.

I used a base coat of gelous, and then dotted on my dark grey clouds with China Glaze Recycle. I then painted a coat of Revlon Blue Lagoon for the non cloud nails. Once dry, I dotted on the light grey clouds with China Glaze Pelican Gray and did one coat of GlitterDaze April Rain on other nails. Then a coat of Seche to speed along the whole process and give a smoothness to the glitter.

I almost left the manicure like this, because, uh, I LOVE this glitter.

But, I continued on, with my "plan". Using striping tape on the now dry nail, I created my raindrops. Two thin coats of Pelican Gray, carefully lift the striping tape, one at a time (before the polish dries!) and there you have it!

What do you think? Does it look enough like a rainy day? 

As always, thanks for reading and have a great day :)

~Victoria