Twinsie Tuesday: Franken

Good Morning! Today we have another Twinsie Tuesday for you. This week's theme is a franken. I haven't frankened recently, but I had an untried franken sitting in my stash so I decided to go with that one. 

I present to you my franken....Metallic Moment. Metallic Moment is made up of different shades of silver, copper, and brown glitter. The glitter is both hex and bar glitter.  There was a little bit of bleeding with the glitter, so the base of this is brown. I layered two coats of Metallic Moment over Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris and topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Thanks for stopping by today. Don't forget to check out the other fantastic ladies taking part in Twinsie Tuesdays. We also have 2 new additions so check them out:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

A England Bridal Veil and my new kitten!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good weekend. I picked up my new kitten on Saturday morning, so I spent a good portion of the weekend with him (photos at the bottom, after the polish lol). It's super cold again in NY. The beginning of last week was fantastic with days at almost 60 degrees, and now it's super chilly in the 30s and 40s again. Boo!

Today I have another A England from The Legends collection for you. This one is Bridal Veil. Bridal Veil is a black holographic polish. The holo in this is scattered and very subtle. The holographic effect is present mainly in direct sunlight, otherwise this looks like a shimmer polish. The shimmer at times has a color shift between an olive green and gold, but I was unable to capture that on camera. Formula was very easy to work with, just like every other A England I've ever tried. I'm not going to lie....I was a little disappointed in the holographic effect of this. I was hoping for a black *stong* holo to fill my void, but nonetheless it's still pretty. 

The photos below show 2 coats of A England Bridal Veil and a coat of Seche Vite.

What do you think of Bridal Veil??

Now, on to my new addition <3

Here's my new kitten the first time I met him, around 4 weeks old:

Second from the bottom  (my bestie is wearing A England Tristam....good taste! lol)

At that time and up until Saturday morning, we thought *he* was a *she*. I had spent the last 2 weeks coming up with amazing girl names and now I'm at a loss. I wasn't sure which kitten I would come home with on Saturday, but from the get-go my boyfriend thought this little guy was the cutest.

My new addition this weekend, at 8 weeks old:

He hates the flash  (can't blame him). We also had to take the legs off my boyfriend's couch (orange Ikea couch lol) because my little guy somehow got into the bottom of it and wouldn't come out. It took us about an hour, and we had to remove the lining from the bottom of the couch.

So gorgeous!!!

 

I've never had a cat before and in approximately 30 minutes I was head over heels in love. He's funny and more affectionate than I would have ever imagined. He's SO good too (with the exception of his love for electrical wires, which we spent hours kitty proofing). We left him to go to shopping for about 4 hours, and when we came home he was in the same exact spot we left him. My boyfriend told me 'no' to a kitten for months, and he's even really into this little guy. He won't even give him tap water, he's a Poland Spring kitty lol. I've been with my boyfriend for 8.5 years and I kept saying how the only thing I've ever asked for was pets. I've had some insane requests as far as pets go (a raccoon, beaver, fennec fox, etc) but at 26 years old I don't have the engagement, wedding or baby "itch". I just want some furry friends, so he kindly obliged. He will be living with my boyfriend, since my pomeranian has Addison's disease and I don't want to stress him out and make him sick. I got my new love through my best friend's little sister. Her boyfriend's cat had a litter of 4 and the timing was perfect.

We haven't named him yet, because we aren't 100% sure it's a boy since we originally thought he was a girl. *He* has a vet visit on Tuesday night so we'll find out for sure and pick a name. Naming him has been really hard lol. So far we've come up with Rex, Reggie, Toby, Gus, Tito (which we decided against) and Austin. I'll let everyone know what we decide. I'm completely open to suggestions!!

Also, over the weekend I hit *400* GFC followers. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read my blog and comment. I haven't been on as much lately, and I haven't been able to comment on everyone's blog posts as much as I want (I still read posts, but the captcha things make the internet on my phone reset every single time). I'm happy to be here and to have made the friends I have along the way.

I've been battling the idea of a 400 follower giveaway. I have mixed feelings about giveaways. While I think they are great for the people who read my blog, I hate the idea of people joining just to get a chance to get free stuff and never even taking a moment to look at my blog. I hate to sound like an ungrateful bitch, and I hope people understand. I will have a giveaway once I reach 500 followers, as I feel that will be an appropriate milestone for a celebration.

Thank you again, to my 400 polish obsessed readers!  :0)

~Katherine @ HaulofFame

* * * Kitty update as of 2/29 - turns out my little boy is now a little girl again, so she is still without a name lol * * *

OPI Tease-y Does It

Hi all! Happy Friday! Super quick post today - just some random backlogged swatches I need to post. Does anyone have any plans for this weekend? I'm getting my very first kitten!! I'm SO excited. I've always had dogs but I've wanted a cat for a while. They have 4 of them and I have no idea how I'm going to choose.

Anyway, back to nail polish. Today I have Tease-y Does It from OPI's Burlesque Collection. I own the entire collection and each polish is worth having. Tease-y Does It has a smoky burgundy base (if that makes sense?) with red shimmer. The shimmer in the bottle looks like it has a golden flash as well, but on the nail the duo-chrome doesn't show up. Formula is easy to work with. The photos below show 2 photos of Tease-y Does It and a coat of Seche Vite.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!! :0)

Twinsie Tuesday: Matte Polish. Presenting Zoya Phoebe

 Hey ladies! Today we have another Twinsie Tuesday post. The girls and I were doing a quick trial run with this and a decision was made to extend it, which I'm excited about. We have themes lined up for the next couple of weeks and they are really creative. This is definitely going to push me outside of my 'safe zone' and make me get creative.

Today's theme was a matte polish. Unfortunately, I sold and swapped all of my mattes except for one due to the fact that I'm just not a fan of matte polishes. The closest thing I had besides Zoya Phoebe were my OPI Suedes, but I figured I would stick to the theme especially since I have a matte polish left.

Today's polish is Zoya Phoebe. Before you even scroll to the photos - I'm sorry!!! This was the worst experience I've ever had with Zoya and I couldn't get this polish to work for me. The color is a gorgeous bright robin's egg blue, but the formula was.....worse than any other matte I've worked with. The first coat was runny and almost had a water like texture leaving it extremely sheer. The second coat wasn't much better and by the third coat it was uneven and streaky. I did 4 coats and hated it, so I removed it and started from scratch. I did three coats for the photos shown and they still look horrible. Due to the fact I couldn't use a base or top coat, you can see the terrible split in my pointer finger :::sigh::: On top of that it left terrible staining from the initial removal and I couldn't use cuticle oil or lotion without changing the matte finish so I look d-r-y! (FYI, this was a record 6 days without cutting my cuticles - I'm trying to break the cycle which is leaving my hands super dry looking). After removal, I had horrible staining on my hands and cuticles. I soaked in acetone, used cuticle remover and a nail brush and had to trim my cuticles in order to remove the blue staining. I thought maybe my bottle was a fluke, but a quick Google search and a few MUA reviews later I learned that my bottle seems the same as the others. I had Zoya Mitzi on my wish list, but I'm crossing that one off!!

So, let's cut to the chase....(sorry!)

 

Ugh. Does anyone else own Zoya Phoebe?

Thanks for stopping by for Twinsie Tuesday. Don't forget to check out the other ladies here:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Icing Tigers Blood

Good morning everyone, happy President's Day! I hope those of you that are off today enjoy your day. To those of you that are working, I feel your pain LOL. Super quick post for today, because I'm writing this up on Sunday night and I'm having the worst nail day. I broke another nail on my good swatching hand (my other is beat up, haha), I swatched a blue polish that caused major staining, and I'm now on my third mani since 10pm and it's only midnight. I hated the blue polish I swatched, tried to use my new magnetic polish but my brush was completely wonky and connected at the bottom bristles, and I just smudged my thumb on my third mani. Does anyone else hate days like this??  :::throws in the towel:::  Sorry for the rant.

Anyways, super quick post tonight on Icing's Tiger's Blood. I picked this one up due to the fact that it's a dupe for Cult Nails Captivated. I missed out on Captivated and was beyond thrilled when I found out this was a dupe. It's super pretty in person, but leans a little more orange than I expected. The formula was decent, but as you can tell I could have used another coat. I used 2 coats and it looked good IRL, but once under my lighting and in the photos you can see bald spots.  :0(

 

I hope everyone enjoys their day and I'll be back tomorrow for another Twinsie Tuesday post!

A England Princess Tears and Comparison Swatch

Happy Friday!! Today I have A England's Princess Tears up for review. I was a little unsure about whether or not I would like this, but I ended up wearing it for 4 days so that speaks for itself. 

Princess Tears is a holographic silver-lilac polish with a very strong lilac purple flash. Unfortunately, I was unable to capture the lilac flash with my camera. The holographic finish in this is pretty strong as far as the rest of the collection goes. Formula was easy to work with and it was completely opaque in two coats.

 

 2 coats of A England Princess Tears

1 coat of Seche Vite

For a comparison I picked Color Club's Fashion Addict. I have two versions of Fashion Addict, and I chose to swatch it against the less holographic of my bottles.

 

Middle & pinky fingers = 2 coats of Color Club Fashion Addict

Pointed & ring fingers = 2 coats of A England 

The two are close, but not dupes. Fashion Addict doesn't have the silver undertones and lilac purple flash that Princess Tears has. They are both very nice in their own way.

That's it for today. I hope everyone has a f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c weekend! What are you wearing as your mani? I have had Ozotic 513 on for three days, and I plan on wearing it until Saturday if it keeps up. :)

 

 

A England Dragon and Comparison Swatch

Hey everyone! I'm back today with another polish from the new A England The Legends collection. I've got A England Dragon up for review, along with a side by side comparison with another medium green holo. Dragon is one of the polishes that were among my top choices for this collection.

A England Dragon is a medium green with a subtle holographic effect. The holographic effect in this seemed to be somewhere in between Princess Sabra and St George, it's not in your face but it's there. The green is very soft and has a yellow/golden undertone. Formula was amazingly smooth and easy to work with, just like the rest of this collection. It was completely opaque in two coats. A England really sets the bar high when it comes to formula.

Now on to the photos....

If you like green and holographic polishes, you definitely need Dragon. A year or two ago I told myself I wouldn't wear a green (or blue) polish, and if you looked at my stash now I have a ton. Greens are some of my favorites. (I also said I wouldn't wear a glitter polish because I was "too old"....hahaha! I can only laugh at that now)

Now onto the comparison. I have a few green holos but Nubar Reclaim is the closest in color and holographic finish....

 

 Pointer & ring finger = 2 coats of Nubar Reclaim

Middle & pinky finger = 2 coats of A England Dragon

all topped with a coat of Seche Vite.

As you can tell, they are not even close to being dupes. If you have one and still want the other, I say go for it. As I'm doing these comparisons I've noticed that the colors in this collection have a more 'dusty' feel when compared to other holos in its range.

That's it for today's post. As always, thank you for stopping by and commenting. Your comments make my day :0)  A little off topic, but if anyone is at loss for what to do this weekend check out the new Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds movie 'Safe House'. I saw it tonight and it was good! (Just like all of Denzel's movies though lol)

Twinsie Tuesday: Famous Dupe Polish (China Glaze Love Marilyn)

Hi ladies! Happy Valentine's Day! Does anyone have any plans for this evening? My boyfriend and I go to the movies every Tuesday night, so we plan on just sticking to that and going out to dinner tomorrow. Hopefully that will help us beat the crowds. After all these years together, Valentine's Day is just another day. I'm not an over the top romantic either, so I'm not really into V-Day to begin with. I rather he save his money (and I can save mine while we're at it lol)

Today we have another Twinsie Tuesday post. This week, our theme was a famous dupe polish. I had Revlon Whimsical on my mind all day but when I came home last night I couldn't find it anywhere (I have polish laying everrrrywhere lol). I wanted something I could also wear as a Valentine's Day mani, so I picked up one of my untrieds, China Glaze Love Marilyn.

Love Marilyn has quite a few near dupes. OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It and Sally Hansen Cha-Ching are the first to come to mind. While they aren't 100% exact, I feel they are close enough where if you own one you don't need the other. I layered 3 coats of China Glaze Love Marilyn and topped it with a coat of Seche Vite.

Sadly, my photos are horrendous. If it wasn't after midnight I would start from scratch, but it's far too late to start over. These are color inaccurate, as my camera never photographs reds correctly. For the most part, they always pull a shade of tomato red. These photos also show was appears to be major chipping on the edges of my nails which isn't visible IRL. I'm not wild about these photos whatsoever....  :(

 Blah....yuckies! lol.In person the polish is truly pretty, it just doesn't translate in my photos.

Don't forget to check out all of the other ladies participating in Twinsie Tuesday:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

As always, thanks for stopping by! :)

Lynnderella Thank Blue! vs Jordana Cosmic - Comparison Swatches

Hey ladies! Late post tonight because I came across something that just might scratch that itch for you ladies who are stalking Llarowe's page for Lynnderella's Thank Blue! (or for those of you not willing to spend $15 on a bottle of polish). I've been on my comparison kick this week and I've been trying to compare everything I've been wearing. I picked up two of the new glitters by Jordana this week at KMart for $1.99 (still unsure how I left so many behind!). I picked Cosmic  out of my stack of untrieds and decided to wear it for the weekend and it instantly reminded me of Lynnderella's Thank Blue!

Obviously, they aren't exact duplicates - but (depending on how picky you are) they might be  close enough where you might be able to get by with Jordana Cosmic while you wait to get your hands on Thank Blue!  The colors of the glitter are basically the same, while Thank Blue! is made up of square glitter and Cosmic is made up of hexagonal glitter. The small glitter in Thank Blue! is light blue, where it is a medium blue in Cosmic. The tiny light blue glitter in Thank Blue! gives it a more 'filled in' feeling as it stands out against the base I chose more than the glitter in Cosmic. Cosmic also has silver glitter, where Thank Blue! does not. The density of the green glitter in Cosmic is really what makes this look different, especially on the nail.

On to the photos....

The nail swatches show 2 coats each over Orly Sapphire Silk. I plan on swatching and comparing these over a black creme polish as well. Like I said, they aren't exact dupes but they are similar. They're close enough to the point that I don't even plan on changing them for work tomorrow (that and it's after midnight lol).

What are your thoughts? Do you own Lynnderella Thank Blue! or Jordana Cosmic? Do you think they are similar enough, where if you own one you don't need the other?

Super quick swatches though, and shown on my right hand since the nails on my left are in such bad shape. Please also excuse the excess cuticle oil - I'm trying to stop the cuticle cutting and it's been HARD! (I usually remove 3-4 days a week, and it's been 4 days since I've last done it. I have such an urge to get out my gigantic bottle of remover and tools and get rid of anything that even looks dry lol).

Goodnight ladies! Happy Friday!!! :0)

Twinsie Tuesday: OPI DS Coronation & Lynnderella The Glittering Crowd

Happy Tuesday!  Today is our second round with Twinsie Tuesdays. The theme of this week's challenge is a layered polish. I'm actually cheating a little and using a mani that I did on Friday and wore throughout the weekend. I needed an awesome mani for the concert I went to on Friday night (Skrillex anyone?) so I figured what could be more amazing than a holo topped off with a Lynnderella?

I started off with OPI DS Coronation.....

And then I topped it with two coats of Lynnderella's The Glittering Crowd....

I don't think I will ever get tired of Lynnderella's The Glittering Crowd. Every single nail looks different. If you look closely, you can see how the colors are different. My ring finger is predominantly red glitter pieces, where my middle finger only has one or two small pieces of red. In person, it looked like the 4th of July on my pointer finger and Mardi Gras on my middle finger lol.

Don't forget to check out the other ladies participating in this week's Twinsie Tuesday:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

A England St George and Comparison Swatches

Hey all! Sorry for falling off the radar for a few days. I had a 50+ hour work week and then went to a concert in Manhattan straight from work on Friday night that went until after 4am. By the time we got to the car, got dinner/breakfast and I got home it was around 6am-7am and I can't handle that much fun in one night lol. I've been in a funk and my nails are in the worst shape they've been in months, so I'm lacking any serious motivation lately (these swatches are from last week, I don't even want to show my nails this week!)

I'm back (late) tonight with another polish from the A England The Legends collection. St George is one of the polishes I couldn't wait to get my hands on. I was going to try and save this polish for much later in my A England posts, but I couldn't wait. St George is an amazing teal holo. The color is a deep saturated dark teal but the holographic effect is pretty subtle (much, much less than the effect in Princess Sabra). Even in direct sunlight the holo is still subtle. Formula on this is amazing, and it could easily be a one coater. If you love teal, holos and A England pick this one up. It definitely doesn't disappoint.

A England St George....
Two coats and a coat of Seche Vite

Holy gorgeous!

Now for the first of two comparisons. I know that these are NO match, but these are my teal holos. I picked China Glaze DV8 and China Glaze Techno Teal, since in my mind these were a "similar teal". I honestly thought they would be much closer than they are. St George makes these two look light blue....

China Glaze DV8 vs A England St George vs China Glaze Techno Teal vs A England St George

Pointer - 2 coats of China Glaze DV8

Middle & Pinky - 2 coats of A England St George

Ring - China Glaze Techno Teal

All topped with a coat of Seche Vite

Yeah, so...no match here, whatsoever. Putting these swatches up made me cringe a little, but at least it will answer any questions in regards to whether or not these are even close in color.

The final comparison is A England St George vs OPI Cuckoo for This Color. I know OPI CFTC has no holo, but the color is what I'm trying to show. This is the closest teal in my collection.

A England St George vs OPI Cuckoo for This Color

Pointer & Ring - 2 coats of OPI Cuckoo for This Color

Middle & Pinky - 2 coats of A England St George

All topped with a coat of Seche Vite

As you can tell, St George and Cuckoo for This Color are pretty close as far as base color goes. If I had to pick only one, hands down it would be St. George. (China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald is also a dupe for OPI Cuckoo for This Color)

If you are planning on purchasing any from the new A England The Legends collection, I would push this one to the top of your list. I am half way through the collection, so I can't say it's the absolute best just yet but it's amazing. A England can be purchased from Llarowe for $12.00.

Goodnight ladies! See you in the am with another Twinsie Tuesdays post :)