DIY Leather Effect Polish

Hey guys! I’m super excited to be sharing this with you today, because, if you can’t tell from the title, I recently found a way to imitate the Nails Inc. Leather Effect polish finish! Yes, that’s my version of it above! I’ve been lusting after Leather Effect polishes ever since I first saw them, but at $11 a bottle, I never felt like I could justify purchasing any. I actually found out how to recreate this look completely by accident too, but it’s so simple and you can make it in any color you want.

Just for comparison, here’s what the Nails Inc. Leather Effect polishes look like. These photos are not mine– they’re from Nails Inc promos. Like I said, I don’t actually own any of their Leather Effect polishes, but check out some more close-up swatches of them over at Short & Sweet In Texas and Brijit’s Dijits!

Okay, so in order to get this look, all you need is any regular textured polish and acrylic paint. The textured polish base I had for this was my Halloween mani, and I discovered the trick when I finished early in my painting class and decided to paint over my nails with leftover paint from my palette. Yay for happy accidents! I used Utrecht brand Dioxazine Purple heavy body acrylic paint for this, but I think any acrylic paint would work. As you can see, some of the sparkle does still show through the layer of acrylic paint.

But Kitsu, I don’t have any acrylic paint! What can I do?

 

Well, I wanted to see if I could recreate the look with nail polish too, so here I’m starting with two coats of Sally Hansen Sugar Fix, which is a matte white.

From thumb to pinkie, I topped each nail with two thin coats of: Sally Hansen Golden-I, Sinful Colors Whipped, Urban Outfitters Dunks, Revlon Emerald City, Sinful Shine Dark Room. The key is to keep the layers thin enough that you don’t completely smooth out the texture. Since Dunks and Dark Room are glossy, I topped each of those with a matte topcoat as well, but that ended up being too thick and taking away almost all of the texture. I think Whipped and Emerald City gave the most authentic look, as they are both matte polishes. Golden-I definitely shows the leathery texture, and I love the metallic look too. So if you want to go with more of the original matte leather look, you will probably have to stick with acrylic paints or polishes that have a matte finish on their own, but other finishes can definitely work as well, as long as they go on in thin coats.

So do you think these work as a DIY imitation? I can’t compare them for myself, so I’d love to know what you guys think!

Blind Mani – Military Crackle

Hey guys! Just a quick and simple blind mani for you here today:

I found this Revlon matte suede polish while wandering around CVS one day. I’m not usually much of a green polish person, but I was intrigued by the “matte suede” texture, and it was the only one of them on the shelves, so I decided to give it a try.

Emerald City is a military green that leans very slightly toward blue. It looks more blue in the bottle than it does on the nails.

And here it is on the nails! This is two thin coats. And the mysterious matte suede finish? I love it! The surface is smooth and the polish is both shimmery and matte.

So to not take away from the lovely matte suede too much, I just used some gold crackle for accent nails.

Blasted Gold is a light shimmery gold crackle, and it crackled evenly and effortlessly.

So here’s the final look! I was surprised by how much I liked the matte suede texture, especially since it was green, but I ended up wearing this for almost a whole week. And the best part was that unlike normal matte polishes, Emerald City didn’t become glossy over time!

Do you guys have any matte suede polishes? Or know of any other polishes with similar finishes?

Travel Makeup Favorites

Hey guys! So if you’ve ever noticed how I’ve rarely been here in the blog world over the weekends, that’s because I’ve been going out every week. So now that the summer’s almost over, I’ve got my travel makeup bag down to a science. Obviously I have a lot of favorite products that I don’t carry around with me as well. However, my number one rule for my travel bag is to not take anything with me that I would be super upset at breaking or losing– so that means that almost all of the products here are under $10 too!

1. Maybelline Baby Lips in Strike a Rose – SPF is a must for me during the summer. Plus, I love the moisturizing formula, as well as the added bit of color.

2. Wet n’ Wild Nude Awakening – Wet n’ Wild makes the best drugstore eyeshadows in my opinion. This one has a combination of matte and shimmery finishes in neutral colors, as well as a black and dark grey for those nights when you want a little more drama.

3. Lush Vanillary – If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know that I love vanilla scents. Plus, the sturdy plastic container makes this super travel friendly.

4. eos Lemon Drop – Again, I love moisturizing lip products with SPF! This one is perfect for layering under a lip color when I need some extra moisturizing. And the lemon scent and flavor are divine!

5. Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream – If you’re like me and change your nail polish often, you know how dry your cuticles can get. Plus, if I don’t have any lotion with me, I’ll just rub a bit of this on my hands and elbows too. I don’t love this as much as the creamy texture of Lemony Flutter, but it is much smaller and easier to travel with.

6. Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple and Juicy Papaya – These round out my lippies that I travel with! The formula is so creamy and smooth that I don’t even need a mirror to apply these– perfect for touching up in the car on the go.

7. NYX Stick Blush in Orchid – This is actually my favorite blush ever. The stick formula makes it super easy to apply– just swipe and blend, no brushes needed. Every once in a while I’ll double up and use this on my lips as well because it has such a pretty coral-pink-gold-shimmery color.

8. NYX Tango with Bronzing Stix in Tango and Highlight – This gives the perfect golden highlight for the summer months, and again, a super easy stick application!

9. Physician’s Formula Shimmer Strips Eyeliners – I keep a ton of these in my travel bag because they take up almost no room and eyeliner is a great way to change up your whole look. I love these Physician’s Formula pencils just as much as my Urban Decay ones, but they’re much cheaper so I feel better toting them around with me. Plus, the screw-up packaging and built-in sharpener make them so convenient to use.

10. Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream – BB cream is so much easier to apply than foundation, and this one has the light coverage and SPF that I look for in a face product.

11. e.l.f. Studio Mascara Primer – Have you ever tried to fit an eyelash curler into a small makeup bag? You get the top part to fit in, but then the handle is left jutting out. And then you have to rearrange everything else in there or else deal with a gigantic bulge on one side. So when I’m travelling, I prefer to forgo curling my lashes and use a mascara primer instead!

12. Maybelline The Falsies Flared – Last but not least, my current favorite mascara. There are other mascaras that I like just fine for when I’m at home, but my eyelashes are thin and straight, so I need a mascara that will deliver tons of drama. This one is super lengthening and volumizing, and it’s the only mascara that I’ve used that will actually curl my eyelashes too!

And that’s it! Do you travel with any of these products too? What do you need to have when you’re away from home?

Monthly Favorites – August 2013

Hey guys! If you can’t tell by the title, this is going to be a post about my favorite beauty products of the past month!

On a side note before I dive in, Influenster just renewed everyone’s referrals! If you haven’t heard of it, it’s the service that I got my Sunkissed Voxbox and the Sinful Shine collection through– they periodically send out boxes full of products for free in exchange for reviews. And if I can refer three friends, I’ll automatically qualify for the next box. So obviously I’d be super grateful to anyone who uses my referral link! If you’re interested, just give me your email address and I’ll send you a referral! /end shameless self-promotion

Anyway, back to the real post! I’m going to try to keep to just one product per category, including nail polish, to keep things short and interesting. Because, let’s face it, we could all write entire posts on just all of our favorite nail polishes each month.

Nails

Sephora by OPI in the color I’m So Sari. It has a teal base and is loaded with shimmer and a sprinkling of holographic glitter. Sorry about the slight blurriness of the photo, but that’s the only way I could get my camera to show all the sparkliness in it. I’ve been wearing it on my toes for the past two weeks!

Hair

Global Keratin Hair Serum (thanks Elise!) has made its way into my after-shower routine. It really does make my hair softer without weighting it down, and it doesn’t have an overpowering floral or herbal scent like many hair products have.

Lips

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Rendezvous. I love red lip colors, and this one is buildable and blendable and easy to apply on the go.

Face

Benefit Sun Beam. I got this in the Benefit Gettin’ Cheeky set from Sephora, and it’s my favorite of the set. Highligher is a staple in my daily makeup routine, and this one is awesome because it’s not too sparkly and stays put all day for me!

Eyes

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in El Dorado. I was lucky enough to get this one on sale earlier this month, and I’m addicted! I’ve been inspired (again, thanks Elise!) to try bolder eye looks, so I’ve been rocking it with a purple eyeliner on the weekends.

Skin Care

Lush Ocean Salt scrub. I don’t have a photo of this one because I’ve actually just been mooching this off my boyfriend whenever I sleep over at his place 😀 The girl working at the store said the smell reminded her of margaritas, and that’s so true. It’s the perfect facial exfoliator in my opinion– packed with salt so you’re not wasting time fishing around for those little exfoliating beads.

Perfume

LaVanilla Pure Vanilla! I’ve wanted this perfume ever since I first heard of it, and after smelling it in person, I had to buy it. To me, it smells like warm vanilla extract about to be added to a batch of cookies. It’s probably more of a fall/winter scent, but I love it so much that I’ve been wearing it all month anyway.

Any of these products make it to your favorites lists too? I’d love to hear what everyone else has been using this last month!

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Juicy Papaya and Candy Apple Review and Swatches

Hey guys! I’m super excited to be writing this post because yesterday I got my hands on one of the new Lip Butter shades!

I wanted Wild Watermelon as well, but alas, my Wal-mart was sold out. Argh.

 

I got this in Candy Apple a couple of weeks ago when the new shades were all sold out, and I’ve been wearing it nearly every day since then.

Both of these shades go on sheer, as with the rest of this line. Juicy Papaya gives just a hint of color to the lips without making them appear made-up. Candy Apple makes for an easy red lip look without all the priming, lining, and worrying about feathering.

The formula is rich and smooth– like butter! I love the slight buttercream scent that these have as well. Both of these feel moisturizing when on, and the creamy formula blends into any lines on the lips. I’ve gotten about 4 hours of wear time out of these at work before eating a meal. However, these are so easy to apply without a mirror since the color is sheer and forgiving that I usually don’t even leave my desk to do so.