piCture pOlish Sunset

Oh wow! This is exciting! It's the first time I got sent nail polish for review!! What a milestone for Karen Lives High!! Thank you Polish Please!!! Woohoo!! :D

I had the pleasure of picking this one out from the piCture pOlish shades available. I had a difficult time choosing mind you; I've never tried this brand before and I wanted to make sure I made the right choice. I really like my neons, so I decided to go with Sunset and it exceeded my expectations!

The color is a radiant, neon coral. It's a shocker! It reminded me of those beautiful late afternoons when the sun shines bright, ultra orange red as it sets and paints the rest of the sky in the same shade. :)

The formula is divine. The application was perfectly smooth and flawless! You can put on just 2 coats for full coverage. I like how you don't need a lot of coats to get the color that matches the bottle. There's also no need for a white base for the neon to pop out, unlike other neons that I've tried.

For the sake of comparison, the photo below shows the difference. For my index finger (left below), I put on 1 Dazzle Dry base coat, 2 coats of Dazzle Dry White Lightning, 2 coats of piCture pOlish Sunset, and 1 Dazzle Dry top coat. For my middle finger (right below), I skipped the white base. That is, I put on 1 Dazzle Dry base coat, 2 coats of piCture pOlish Sunset, and 1 Dazzle Dry top coat. And that is how I did the rest of my nails for the other pictures! Without the white base, it looks more jelly and squishy and it blends better to my complexion. With the white base, it really pops out and looks like a solid highlighter neon. The photo almost looks like it was photoshopped! :)

Sunset dries to a semi matte finish, as a true neon should. You can choose to leave it as is, or you can put a topcoat on for some shine. Either way, the color remains vibrant as ever! 

About the brush... can I just say, how I love the brush! In my opinion, it's the best brush I've tried so far. There's something special about it. Comparing to the OPI pro-wide brush, it is not as big and full. The handle is shorter so that it's closer to the nail and easier to maneuver. The grip is thinner and smaller, which rests in my small hands comfortably. All in all, it felt like it was made just for me! :D

I guess the only caveat of this polish is how "cute" it is. Haha! I expected the bottle to be much bigger just by looking at the pictures. Turns out, it's just 11ml which has the same volume as Butter London, but Butter London deceives us by making its bottle look bigger with the big black cap on top. I've never finished a bottle of polish aside from my topcoat, so this doesn't really bother me. I just didn't expect it, so heads up!!

As for the price range, it's not as affordable as the more popular polish brands out there (e.g. OPI, Orly, Essie, China Glaze). But I'd argue that if you find a color from this brand that you love, go for it! You pay for the quality of the polish, the application, and the uniqueness of the color. So in the end, you get what your money is worth! This retails for about P600 in the Philippines and you can get it online from our local distributor Polish Please! :D

piCture pOlish Sunset with Zara tribal print mini skirt

Sunset actually leans more orange than pink, but the camera picks up more pink under yellow lighting.

I think Sunset looks great with a black and white outfit, whether in stripes or tribal print. It's a glowing pop of color that instantly cheers you up and brightens your day! Personally, I've been needing some of that lately, so this is a very welcome treat!

Have you tried this polish brand before? Which colors are your favorites? I have updated my wishlist with a few--Honey Dew, Blogger (obligatory blogger polish haha), and Majesty! Hehe :)

piCture pOlish is an Australian brand which produces high quality, 3 Free nail polish in unique shades. You can find piCture pOlish on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (@piCturepOlish), and Pinterest.

‘Til next time!
  

Zoya PixieDust Collection: With Top Coat

Hello! I probably sound like a broken record already, but I just need to get this out of my system. After 5 days of wearing the Zoya PixieDust Skittles mani, it was time to move on to my next adventure! :) 5 days is usually my maximum wear because by then, I start getting annoyed by my long nails and I end up breaking them if I don't cut or file them sooner! But before I took them off, I thought you'd like to see what they look like with a top coat on, and with shorter nails this time.


Zoya PixieDust with Top Coat

With a top coat on, I think the polish looks pretty normal. It kind of loses its character. Well, it's meant to be matte, right? But I still quite like it. It has a different look and finish, but the color still comes through. And you don't get the same depth and matte sparkle, but you can still see the glitters there! This would definitely cater to those who don't like the feel of textured polish. What do you think?

Zoya PixieDust in London, Fog Gray sparkle

Zoya PixieDust in Nyx, Perfect Periwinkle sparkle

Zoya PixieDust in Vespa, Mint Kiss sparkle

Zoya PixieDust in Godiva, Soft Nude sparkle

Zoya PixieDust in Dahlia, Black Beauty sparkle

These are 3 coats of the Zoya PixieDust nail polish featured here and here. After 5 days, I topped it off with 1 coat of Dazzle Dry top coat. The top coat didn't sink to the bottom as I expected. What a pleasant surprise! :) I'm not sure if it's because of the brand that I used. But it's my favorite quick drying top coat (more than Seche Vite :-O Don't hate me!! Lol! I'd love it if it doesn't have Toulene and doesn't cause shrinkage anymore! That's it. :) But I digress.)

To help you visualize this better, this is me last Monday morning. It was too early for me to be awake. :) I'm so not a morning person! :D 

I think the only one that I preferred with a top coat on is Zoya Chyna. But it didn't really fit well with my Skittles mani, so I left it out. I didn't really give it a chance. I'm sorry! :( When there's a special occasion that calls for red nails, I'll definitely reach out for this and come up with a full matte sparkle manicure and I'll report back to you! (You might notice that the top coat is thicker on this one because I used the Sally Hansen Anti-chip Top Coat and it was already old and thick.)

Zoya PixieDust in Chyna, Red Dazzle sparkle

Last but not the least, I wanted to leave you with a photo in their original, ever divine, matte sparkle! *

Sigh! Just lovely! <3

...

In other news, I just received my package from Polish Please! for my two picks from the OPI Oz The Great And Powerful collection. I got What Wizardry is This? (another Liquid Sand) and Which is Witch? :D The collection will officially come out in March 2013. After I get to try What Wizardry is This?, I'll come up with an OPI Liquid Sand vs. Zoya PixieDust comparison, so stay tuned! :)

Those who are not fond of these OPI Liquid Sand and Zoya PixieDust formulas, don't fret! I'll be taking a break from these and switch it up a bit. I have a special feature that I'd like to do next! :D

Good day to you all!
 

Zoya PixieDust Collection: Custom Blend Anyone?

In my last post, I showed you the 6 colors that were released as part of the Zoya PixieDust Special Textured Edition. And judging by how they are received so far, I think Zoya should make more of these!!

Hmm.. what colors do you think should they come up with next?? While I was editing photos for the blog, I stumbled upon this app that had filters which changed the color of the polish and it was a revelation! Just look at their potential!!!

The upper left is the original photo. The upper right looks like a chrome version. The lower right are fun hot summer shades. I'm liking the bright orange on the middle finger, the dandelion yellow on the right finger, and the creamy white on the pinky. And in the lower left, we haves shades of pink and purple. I love the rosy light pink on the pinky finger and the girly orchid on the ring finger. Who am I kidding?!? I love them all!

Here's another photo, with the nail polish bottle this time. I wish there's an option to modify the filters so that I can come up with more shades! Haha!

What do you think?? :) It's getting me reeeaaally excited that Zoya is talking about making some more! Here's a repost from a thread in Instragram (also in Facebook).

Are you with me?! We should start a riot! Haha!

Here's another Zoya Instragram post (also in Facebook) about making some custom shades of your own!

I have half a mind to get another bottle of Godiva to play around with!! I'm liking the rose gold on her ring fingers. :) Or I can just buy some empty bottles for polish and mix the colors that I have! It should be basic color theory right?

So, Godiva (gold) + Chyna (red) = shades of pink
Nyx (blue) + Chyna (red) = shades of purple
and well, Dahlia (black) + London (gray) could just make 50 shades of ... :D hehehe ;)

You know, I'll be honest. I wasn't a big fan of Zoya until this came along. And now, I'm looonging for more.

What colors would you like to see? I'm thinking Spring Pastels, Summer Brights, Summer Neons, Romantic Neutrals... :D I can go on and on. But to be specific (and in case I get my wish :D), I would love to see this in Tiffany blue (a blue counterpart of periwinkle Nyx, something like China Glaze For Audrey), mint green (a green counterpart of sage Vespa), sugar white (a neutral counterpart of gold Godiva), rose gold (like the ring finger where they mixed Godiva and Chyna), and a coral! :D Then for a neon collection, I'd love it in electric blue, neon yellow, neon orange, and neon pink! Haha!

I do hope that the Zoya fairies are listening!! :D Can we please have some more?? :D


** UPDATE 2/28/2013: NEWSFLASH! More Zoya PixieDust colors coming in this Summer 2013!!!

   

Zoya PixieDust Collection: Infused with Magic and Wonder!

I'm soooo excited to share the Zoya PixieDust collection with you!!! As much as I loved my color block nail art, I had to remove them to give way for this. I couldn't resist! Look at that sugar-coated goodness! Boy, was I in PixieDust heaven! <3

It's my first time to buy an entire collection of nail polish. Usually, I just pick out my favorites and buy those. But this time around, I caved in. Every color just made sense. To me at least. This collection just has everything that I like! But then again, I probably like everything! Hehe! But seriously, I like my neutrals and Godiva covers that. I like my desaturated colors and I got those from Vespa, Nyx, and London. I like my edgy black (if you didn't know, I started wearing black nails in high school :) hehe) and I like my classic red! And everything looked good on my skin tone!! What more can a girl ask for??

  
I'm just so glad that I got hold of this whole collection!! This collection was released on the 1st of February. It's just the 3rd week of the month and I got it already! Woohoo! I ordered this from Monica over at Polish Please! and I think it's the last Godiva available in the Multiply site. I got them the day after I ordered. It was a long wait, but it made it to my doorstep! :D

Zoya recommends to use the polish on its own, without a base coat and a top coat. Just put on three thin coats and you're done! It's convenient to get a manicure just by bringing one bottle with you, especially when you're traveling. With that said, this is going to be my new travel companion! :) Here's a repost from the Zoya website:

Zoya PixieDust Nail Polish Collection
Infused with magic and wonder! The latest "must-have" nail polish finish - textured, matte and sparkling! This newly developed formula is sure to captivate with a magical sparkle and sugary finish like no other. The color experts at Zoya have created six, long-wearing stunners for the introduction of this enchanting look.

IMPORTANT PixieDust Application Information -  Do not use a base coat or top coat. Apply 1-3 (for full coverage) thin coats of polish. Allow product to dry down completely matte in between layers for full textured effect. The PixieDust textured formula may take up to 10 minutes to dry completely matte. Once dry, the textured finish is long lasting, matte and ultra-glittery!

So I followed the instructions above. The pictures below show the difference from coat to coat.

As expected, the dark shades Dahlia and Chyna (red) are the most pigmented. The least pigmented, in my opinion, is Nyx (periwinkle).

  

I might have done thicker coats on my left hand (upper half of the photo), which is why it came out darker than my right hand (lower half of the photo). Chyna hasn't dried up yet, so it looks semi-matte.

Everything looked perfect by the third coat! I couldn't help but use all of the colors at once and I ended up with a Skittle mani! :D I think the 5 colors (excluding the red Chyna) look good together! Is this something you would dare to wear? :)

I got a little conscious that they might chip off because they feel vulnerable without the protection of a top coat. Like, I worry that the polish might just melt off my fingernails after I wash my hands or take a shower. Haha! But I'm pleased to share that the wear is very good! My worries were put aside after seeing everything still intact after a few games of badminton and a good long shower.



Let's take a look at the colors one by one...

Photo Gallery by QuickGallery.com

 

• Godiva (ZP658) - Soft Nude sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.
• Vespa (ZP659) - Mint Kiss sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.
• Nyx (ZP660) - Perfect Periwinkle sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.
• London (ZP661) - Fog Gray sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.
• Dahlia (ZP656) - Black Beauty sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.
• Chyna (ZP657) - Red Dazzle sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.

 

This could possibly be my favorite collection of all time. It has the right mix of dainty, neutral, matte, glitter, glamour, edge, spunk, modern, you name it! The colors were all so easy to wear and so easy to apply!
 The polish didn't pool around the cuticles and I didn't have to do ANY cleanup after putting this on. Easy peasy!

If you're still reading, and you made it to this point (Thank you!), you'll realize that I can't stop writing about this! Hehe! And so, I have a couple more posts lined up. I'll be talking about custom shades (!!!), I'll be comparing this with OPI Liquid Sand, and maybe do some nail art with it! What else do you want to talk about? Are you as excited as I am?? :D

Stay tuned for more on this new trend! :) Hope you all have a good weekend!

** UPDATE 2/23/2013: Up on the blog. Anyone interested in some more PixieDust colors? :)

You'll have to forgive me. I'm obsessed. And I just had to add... I got a chance to take pictures in the daytime today, in direct sunlight, and the colors are even more brilliant!! You can really see the texture. Nothing beats natural lighting. :) I think some mobile devices are not able to view the photo gallery above, so I'll just post the pictures below. I'm happy to report that it's day 4 and I'm still wearing this Skittles mani. :)

Godiva, Soft Nude sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Sparkle formula

Vespa, Mint Kiss sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula

Nyx, Perfect Periwinkle sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula

London, Fog Gray sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula

Dahlia, Black Beauty sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula

Chyna, Red Dazzle sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula

Have a magical and wonderful weekend! :D

OPI Liquid Sand The Impossible

It's been a while since I posted my last entry. I've been busy... But I'm so surprised and amazed how the blog is still alive and getting new visitors! Thank YOU!! There's no better motivation than having more readers to share my passion with. :) It helps to just have something published out here so people can search for it and check it out, even if it's not regularly updated. I need to do a better job at that.

I got an iPhone5 for Christmas and since then, I've been building up my Instagram content. But like my blog, I'm guilty to say that it, too, has a lot a backlog. I guess it's never too late to start to catch up! Little by little, I aim to get up-to-date. I downloaded this Blogger app and I hope that it can help me do a better job at keeping up with my nail posts. This is my first entry using this app, so I hope it comes out well. :)

On to my NOTD! This is The Impossible by OPI from the Mariah Carey collection. It's the first collection that came out with OPI's Liquid Sand formula. It has a very interesting texture. Can you tell from the photo? It has tons of glitter in it including stars(!!!), which is primarily the reason why I had to have it! It dries matte and you're not supposed to put topcoat on it, to keep the texture as intended. You can search for other swatches online if you're curious to see what it would look like with a topcoat on. But I like it as it is, and it's actually convenient that I can skip a step. :) It dries pretty fast too! This is two coats.

The picture above is the most color accurate. But in different lighting, you'll notice that it can look kind of wet and you can see how the mix of glitter works its magic!

 
Even if I had to fish out those stars for all of eternity, it's a solid buy! I bought this from Czarina, over at the The Nail Shoppe. This is the only one that I really liked after seeing multiple swatches of the whole Mariah Carey collection. But I'm sooo excited for the Disney Oz collection which features the OPI Liquid Sand - What Wizardry is This? And also for the Zoya Pixie Dust collection, which I'm tempted to buy a whole set of. Hehe! If ever, it'll be my first time to purchase an entire collection of polish! Anyway, I think this could be all the rage in 2013. Can't wait to get my hands on more of them!!

Have you tried anything from OPI Liquid Sand or Zoya Pixie Dust? How do you like it? I'd love to know! :)
 

Ruby Red Glitter Nails for My Birthday

I have grown accustomed to wearing red on the day of my birthday. Red is such a happy color and it makes my birthday feel all the more special and exciting! Also, for the Chinese, it symbolizes good luck and fortune.

Erica, my friend and classmate from kindergarten all the way to college, and I, would dress up in red on each other's birthdays which are just 2 days apart! I was born on the 7th of September, and she followed on the 9th. So when we were in college and we didn't have to wear uniforms anymore, we wore red on our birthdays! In retrospect, we were probably like flashing signs of "greet us, it's our birthdays" and people got confused over whose birthday came first! Haha!

At first, I thought about doing cupcake nails. They're so popular and everybody seems to be doing it for their birthdays. But after some reflection and after listening to my inner calling, I decided. On birthdays, we wear red! I saved the cupcake nails for our birthday party to happen the following week.

And so, I ended up with amped up super shiny and shimmery ruby red glitter nails! 

This is not your ordinary red glitter polish! This is actually made of real loose glitter, the one you can get from your local supplies store.

I started off with Orly Star Spangled, a very nice glitter red polish, as my base color. It's one of the first few bottles that I bought from Polished Inthecity. :)

I then layered a coat of clear polish, before sprinkling on the red glitter powder. I suggest you use something that you're not afraid of ruining. The red glitter could easily transfer to the polish. Here, I used Face Shop's top coat because I was ready to dispose of it. Good thing I still found a use for it!

I did 2 rounds of clear polish and then glitter sprinkles to make sure that the whole nail is covered. When cleaning up, you can use some sticky tape to remove the excess glitter on your fingers and around your nails.

Orly Star Spangled, Leeho Red Glitter Powder, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

 You can really see how nice and sparkly the glitter is from the close up shot below.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat was the perfect top coat to even everything out. I know that I have commonly used Seche Vite in my past entries. However, for this purpose, Sally Hansen was thicker and had a glossier sheen which made it the best finish to go with this design.

I found this tutorial on youtube with instructions on how to do it yourself. I didn't exactly do it this way, but it's more or less similar if you want to try it out!

What's your birthday nail art of choice? :)

* UPDATE: I forgot to mention that this manicure dried rock solid. After a few days, I filed my nails short and it didn't chip, not even one bit! I ended up keeping it for a full week. I bet you can keep it for longer, which makes this a good manicure for traveling and for low maintenance and upkeep. Just a warning though, taking this off was a nightmare. Hehe! So, enjoy it for as long as you can! :)