The Hungry Asian - Itsy Bitsy (and a giveaway?!)

Hi Guys! I'm so excited to share this  polish with you today. If you haven't already heard of The Hungry Asian you really need to go check her polishes out! Today I am wearing Itsy Bitsy - A sheer yellow with red and reddish orange hex glitters. I have to be honest, when I first saw this polish the pokemon Pikachu totally came to mind.

I really wish someone would create a Pokemon themed nail polish collection. ARE YOU LISTENING, INDIE MAKERS?! Hehehehe. But in all seriousness, Itsy Bitsy is a beautiful polish. On to the pictures!

The first and second coats of this polish are sheer, which results in VNL. After the third coat, it's pretty opaque. Application was awesome, I didn't have any trouble at all. My pictures are actually showing Itsy Bitsy as a bit brighter  yellow than it is IRL. Only just by a bit though.

If you are a fan of yellows, you seriously need this in your collection! I personally love yellows and I will snatch up any I can find. This one didn't disappoint, either! Plus, I can't help but love it since it reminds me of Pikachu ;)
You can purchase The Hungry Asian nail polishes from their Etsy shop. Kae offers both mini and full sized polishes, so if you're not quite ready to commit to a full sized polish you can try out a mini! This is my fourth Hungry Asian polish and it definitely won't be my last!

*ATTENTION!! FUTURE GIVEAWAY IS IN THE WORKS!!*

That's right! You read that correctly. I am a mere 10 followers away from hitting the big 5-0. I am so excited! Once I make it to 50 followers I plan to make my giveaway live. I don't want to spoil it but..... BUTTER LONDON! What? I said nothing. :)
With that said, if you aren't a follower yet, please feel free to join me in my polish adventures! Until next time friends!

xo,

Karly

SmittenPolish Hydrangea...WOW!

Holy. Crap. You guys. 

I think this polish just made it to my top 10 favorites. 

I found out about SmittenPolish a while ago through various other bloggers. The first polish I ever laid eyes on by Noelie (Creator of SmittenPolish) was Hydrangea. It wasn't long after that I placed an order.

1. Let me just say that Noelie is AWESOME! Her customer service is top notch, if you have any problems or questions I am positive she will do what she can for you. 

2. HER POLISHES ARE TO DIE FOR?!

3. Her polishes are of good quality. I've yet to come across any problems at all with the ones I've worn, and they translate beautifully to nails. They are also unique in my opinion. I feel like Noelie knows my taste in polish because everything she creates, I lust for.

ON TO THE PICTURES!

Perfection in a bottle.

 I am wearing 3 coats of Hydrangea in these pictures. Honestly, the polish was kind of sheer so I would use underwear to preserve the polish. Application was normal and dry time was quick. (for reference I used Hong Kong girl top coat which can be purchased from Glisten & Glow) Hong Kong girl is an amazing fast dry top coat similar to Seche Vite.

 Look at how amazing! The glitters look like they're floating on my nails. I love this polish sooooooo much.

Are you in love? YOU SHOULD BE! I can't wait to swatch more of  her polishes for my blog. SmittenPolish has easily become one of my favorite new indie brands. You can purchase SmittenPolish polishes from their Etsy shop. Llarowe is also currently working on adding them to their inventory, so be sure to look there as well if you're an international friend. 

Also, TGIF and I hope you all have an awesome weekend. I'll be spending tomorrow at some baseball game with my boyfriend and his work. FUN! (not) :P

xo,

Karly

I got a liebster award!....wait, what?

What is a Liebster award?!

So, quite some time ago Dulcie at OhThreeOhFour tagged me for an award. This is my first ever award, and I didn't even know there were blog awards. WEIRD? Anyways. After some research I found that the Liebster award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers. I also noticed that Liebster is german for beloved/dearest/sweetheart. Cute! Here is the award patch below.

So there are a TON of questions that I get to answer, and in turn I come up with questions of my own to ask other bloggers that I  nominate! This should be fun considering it's almost 12 AM and I am not the least bit tired. :s

Official Rules!

1. Each person tagged must post 11 things about themselves.

2. They must also answer the 11 questions the 'tagger' has set for them.

3. They must create 11 more questions to ask bloggers they have decided to tag.

4. They must then choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers and tag them in their post.

5. These lucky bloggers must then be told.

6. There's no tag backs.

11 Things About Me

1. I hate cake frosting. It makes my tummy hurt and I think it tastes obnoxious.

2. I don't know how to do a cartwheel.

3. Pastel colors are my absolute favorite!

4. I have more online friends then I do in real life. I am not ashamed of that!

5. Pickles are my #1 favorite food. Not joking!

6. Any time I'm on the computer I absolutely must have pandora running. I love music and I feel weird when it's not playing in the background.

7. I am awful with money. As soon as I have any, I spend it. Mostly on polish. I guess I'm an impulsive buyer. :D

8. I own over 400 nail polishes to this date. I still want more. LOTS MORE!

9. I know how to make all kinds of sushi and I live on it. 

10. I am fascinated by anything "kawaii". I also love lots of anime and manga. To most people I guess I would be considered a nerd or a geek. I'm okay with that. ;)

11. I cannot live without video games.

11 Questions asked by OhThreeOhFour:

1. What is your favorite polish brand?

OPI is my favorite polish across the board, for sure. I am rarely disappointed by their colors and they are just an overall A+ brand.

2. What is your favorite number and why?

24 is my favorite/lucky number. Why? Well, my birthday is on April 24th and MTV was/is channel 24 back at home where I grew up. MTV USED to be one of my favorite tv stations before they quit actually playing music and started airing crap like My sweet sixteen and Jersey shore. *barf*

3. What is your biggest pet peeve?

I hate it when people interrupt me while I am talking. I think it is very inconsiderate. I also hate people that purposely revolve around drama.

4.Why did you create your blog?

Well, I used to have a youtube channel where I made nail art tutorials. I found that it was getting too stressful for me to keep up with, and decided blogging might be a bit more laid back, with less work to do. Video editing is no joke. :/

5. What color do you have the most of in your polish collection?

Most likely purple. With either blue or pink being runner ups.


6. What is a favorite memory from one of your birthdays?

I remember getting my first car when I was 16. It was a black 1996 cavalier. I thought it was the best car in the world.

7. Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now?

Hopefully moved to a place that I enjoy more. I currently dislike the area that i'm living in. :(

8. What or who were you named after?

I actually have no idea! I did recently just find out that if I were a boy I would of been named Sean/Shawn. Weird...

9. What is a bad habit you have?

I think I should just let me boyfriend answer this question! Gosh... probably leaving dirty dishes in the sink and not putting them away in the dishwasher. Or forgetting to clean out the bathtub drain after I take a shower. LOL.

10. What was your favorite childhood toy?

I grew up on video games. So probably either my sony playstation, SNES, Sega, or gameboy advance.

11. Out of all your polishes, what is your favorite one?

Right now my favorite polish is probably OPI la pazitively hot - matte.

My 11 Questions for you:

1. What made you decide to start blogging?

2. What polish are you wearing right now?

3. If you had to pick one food to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?

4. What nail polish color do you dislike?

5. What polish brand(s) do you dislike and why?

6. What is your favorite candy?

7. What are your hobbies other than blogging?

8. What is something you love, but everyone else hates?

9. What trends do you hate?

10. Where do you want to travel to someday?

11. What are your pet peeves?


My Nominations:
1. Ashley from Plump and Polished 
2. Jenney from Ruby Red Nails 
3. Julie from Wishes of a Blue Eyed Girl 
4. Jen from The Polished Zombie 
5. Pryanka from Nail Sparks 
6. Leah from Glitter Puke! 
7. Elis from The Black Widow's Place 
8. Demi from Polish Love 
9. Jenn from All the Jenn 
10. Adrienne from Addison Wonderland 
11. Rachel from Rachel Knows Stuff


HOLY. Well, that took forever. I hope you guys enjoyed this, and that everyone I tag participates as well!

Thank you for reading!

xo,
Karly

HARE - The Monster

Hey Everyone! I have a big lemming of mine to show you today. I finally got my hands on the monster by HARE. Just in time for Halloween, too! I don't have much to say other than that. I have this killer headache. I hope you enjoy my pictures though!

 Can I just say I love the bunny labels? They're awesome.

 The formula for the monster was kind of thick. I wasn't in the mood to deal with it being tricky so I just put some thinner in it. While I think it's kind of lame to have to put thinner in a brand new polish, the color makes up for it in my opinion. I may of just had a wonky bottle, or maybe that's just how the polish is supposed to be. I prefer my polish to be on the thin side anyways.

 I did 3 thin coats to achieve full opacity. The first coat was pretty patchy and sheer but it built up nicely after the second and third coats. My lighting is showing the monster to be a bit lighter than what it actually is in real life.

Anywhooooooo, I really like this polish on my nails. The formula could of been better for sure but some thinner fixed that issue. If you want to purchase HARE polishes you can do so from HARE's Etsy shop. They are also available at Llarowe.

Happy Hump Day!

xo,
Karly

I got a lightbox!

Hooray! I finally invested into a light box as well as some studio lighting. From now on my pictures won't be taken outside (and having to rely on the sun!) Here is a few quick test shots I did. Take a look!

I'm wearing models own purple blue over a coat of China Glaze Man hunt. I think now with finally getting my picture taking area all set up, I will be motivated to post more often. :)

NOTD!

Hey everyone! I have a really fun mani for you today. I love this combo so much! It looks like there is a party on my nails. :) 

I started off with OPI La Paz-itively hot matte. This polish is amazing. The formula is GREAT! What makes it even better is the fact that it is a one coater. YES YOU HEARD ME! ONE COAT! Silly me forgot to take a bottle shot, but here it is on my nails, with no topcoat. 

 

I was browsing through my polish stash, looking for something that would look awesome to layer on top. I came across an untried of mine, Lynnderella - Pentimento. *Hides* I know a lot of people are turned off by Lynnderella polishes in turn of some recent events, but I still love them. 

 There has to be a bazillion different shape and sized glitters in here. I love it!

  Here is one coat of Pentimento layered over La Paz-itively hot matte.

 Application was easy and I even coaxed a HUGE hex glitter out of the bottle. It looks so lonely by itself haha! Since the OPI is a matte, wear time will be shorter. I've already had some tipwear and chips on my other hand. That is to be expected though, with matte polishes.

 

 That's it for today my lovelies! I hope you all had a great weekend. What are you wearing on your nails today? I'd love to know! Leave a comment or visit me on my facebook page! <3 

xo,

Karly

A-England Iseult + Cagedbird Nail Lacquer

I'm alive!! It's been a while since I've posted here, huh? I recently just came back from vacation and have finally had time to hunker down and commit to by blog again. Hooray! Not only am I back, but I'm back to show you a lovely indie polish brand by the name of Cagedbird Nail Lacquer by Sarah. Her polishes are just lovely in every way possible. 

She just recently opened up her Etsy shop and has a handful of polishes for sale right now! I have a feeling her polishes are going to be a huge hit, so get them while you can! I have two that I purchased to show you today. 

I started off with 3 coats of A-England Iseult. The formula was sort of sheer, but builds up wonderfully with 3 coats. It has a very slight white shimmer to it as well which I feel makes it very unique and beautiful. 

In the Sunlight

In the Shade

Macro Shot

From there I added 2 coats of Cagedbird - Faerie Carnival. Faerie Carnival is a beautiful mix of pastel matte glitters with a very fine holo dust sparkle. Sarah currently is only offering 5mL mini bottles for sale, but I think she plans to offer full sized bottles in the future!! The bottle decoration is just adorable. She adds a personalized ribbon bow to each bottle, as well as a beautifully hand written label and the bottle sticker which is silhouetted with a caged bird.

Applying Faerie Carnival was a little tricky, I found it worked best when I dabbed the glitter onto my nails, rather then applying like normal polish with strokes. Other than that, the formula was great and didn't cause any problems. I absolutely LOVE this polish. I am a huge fan of pastel and this is just so perfect for me. I will definitely be getting myself a back up bottle in the future. 

The second polish I ordered from Cagedbird is called Midnight in Paris. It is such a fitting name for the polish. It is a deep black with a mix of tiny blue, red, pink and silver glitters. Application was normal, I only needed 2 coats to achieve full opacity. 

Overall I am really impressed with Cagedbird Nail Lacquer polishes. I am looking forward to what else Sarah will come up with in the future. Once again you can find her Facebook fan page here. If you want to purchase any of Cagedbird Nail Lacquers you can visit their etsy shop here.

Her polishes retail for $5.00 dollars and are worth every penny.

A-Englands can be purchased from their direct website here or you can also purchase them from Llarowe or OverallBeauty. They retail for around $12.00 dollars per polish.

I hope you enjoyed today's post! Please do go visit Cagedbird Nail Lacquer's shop and fan page. Sarah will be updating her page frequently with any new information.

Thanks for reading, lovelies.
xo