18th May, 2013
Today I’m back with another awesome set by The New Black. As you know by now, they have great nail art kits and ombre kits, but they also have duos! These polishes are from the Subculture line where you can find really nice 2-piece sets. The one I was able to get my hands on is called Electric Daisy and features an orange and purple shade.
This is my swatch of the orange shade from The New Black Electric Daisy set. Sadly the shades don’t have names. It’s a lovely warm coral orange with subtle shimmer. You can’t really see the shimmer on my nails but if you look closely at the bottle you can see some hidden shimmer. On the nails I found the shimmer pretty hard to notice though sadly, but the colour is gorgeous! This was two coats.
And this is the amazing deep purple shimmer. Isn’t this colour stunning? I could stare at this swatch forever! 
It’s a little warmer and less blueish in person. It also covered very well in just two coats and application was a dream.
Here’s a nail art manicure I created using the two The New Black polishes! I went for a negative space manicure which is one of my new favourite looks. It’s a little tricky to do but if you don’t use a base coat you can easily sharpen up your lines with a brush. I hope you like it!
Make sure to check out the other duo sets by The New Black on their website. You can find the Electric Daisy 2-piece for €13.95 at The New Black’s website. The quality of the nail lacquers is absolutely amazing! They’re a dream to apply and I’ve found them to be incredibly long lasting so I can truly recommend them. 
Have you tried The New Black yet?
12th May, 2013
A few days ago I shared a picture on Facebook of the BK Hello Kitty nail polishes that are available at Born Pretty Store. I also hinted that I might be holding a giveaway for these polishes! At the bottom of this post you’ll find a Rafflecopter widget where you can pick three shades of your choice and get a chance to win them! First let’s take a look at the colours.
From left to right: #01, #02, #03, #04, #39, #16, #17, #18, #19, #21
There are 41 shades of the BK Hello Kitty Nail polishes in total, first up are these 10 colours. As you can see they are the pink shades! Since it’s Hello Kitty after all I decided to post these up first. Over the next few weekends I’ll post up the other shades along with more giveaways.
BK Hello Kitty #01 - As you can see this is a lovely white nail polish. It’s great to use underneath sheer colours or neons, or for french manicures or nail art. It covered extremely well in only two coats. It’s my new favourite white polish! There’s something so pristine and lovely about solid white nails I think.
BK Hello Kitty #02 – This shade is a very sheer pink. You can use it for french manicures as I did above (I used #01 for the free edge) or simply use it for layering over other polishes. As it’s the brightest glowing nail polish this works great as a simple glow in the dark top coat as it’s pretty sheer and doesn’t give too much colour. Pictured above is three coats.
BK Hello Kitty #03 – This is a super cute pale pink. I really love this! It reminds me of OPI Soft Shades collections. I think it looks really beautiful and dreamy. It’s a little sheer but it wasn’t streaky and it applied very nicely. This was three coats.
BK Hello Kitty #04 – Another lovely cute pale pink. This is slightly darker than the previous one but application was very similar. These really glide on like butter! This was three coats.
BK Hello Kitty #39 – This is a slightly different one as it has really beautiful shimmer. You could use this as a top coat to add some shimmer to your manicure. Isn’t it pretty?! On its own it’s a little sheer as I used four thin coats.
BK Hello Kitty #16 – This is a stunning hot neon pink! It’s funny because I didn’t expect it to be so bright as it looks much darker in the bottle. I used only two coats and that gave me completely opaque coverage. Love this one! It’s awesome.
BK Hello Kitty #17 – This is a pretty blueish pink jelly. This shade is great if you have a reddish undertone in your skin. I used three coats but there’s still some VNL as it’s a jelly.
BK Hello Kitty #18 – This is another awesome neon pink. Quite similar to shade #16 but this one is slightly darker. It also needed an extra coat for complete coverage, 3 coats.
BK Hello Kitty #19 – This is another bright neon pink with jelly finish. It’s more of a true neon so the sheer finish is normal. I’d personally layer this over #01 for extra brightness! I used three coats.
BK Hello Kitty #21 – Finally this lovely dark red with blue shimmer. The shimmer is absolutely stunning! It’s a really gorgeous shade and application was a dream. I used two coats. Sadly this doesn’t glow as strongly as the others (as you can see in the picture below) but maybe that’s because I didn’t shake up my bottle properly. It’s still a gorgeous polish regardless!
I have to say these BK Hello Kitty polishes are my absolute favourite nail polishes from Born Pretty Store! They glide on like butter, they cover nicely, they don’t have a strong smell (in fact they smell surprisingly good!) and they are glow in the dark! What more could you want? The cute bottles are just a bonus!
These are all shades on swatchicles, the image below is what they look like glowing in the dark! From left to right: #01, #02, #03, #04, #39, #16, #17, #18, #19, #21
As promised I have a giveaway for you! You can win three BK Hello Kitty nail polishes from this post. Feel free to enter if you have daughters, sisters or cousins you want to gift these to, or if you just want to keep them for yourself. To enter simply like my Facebook page, leave your e-mail address so I can contact you and pick your three favourite shades from this post. Make sure to do all three mandatory options to unlock more chances of winning.
My top picks? I’d go for #01, #16 and #03 or #21.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
10th May, 2013
Today I’m back with another one of the signature ombre sets by The New Black. This time one of their Advanced Ombre sets, last time I featured one of the Original Ombre set in the shade waves. The Advanced Ombre sets are a little different and less obvious gradients. They are still gorgeous nonetheless! Let’s take a look.
This is the Cloudy Ballet Advanced Ombre set by The New Black. It comes with five shades that go from light to dark and features different finishes. You’ll find a creme, shimmers, pearls and even a glitter! The other set that is part of the Advanced Ombre range features greyish blue shades and is called Stormy Vapor.
These are the five shades that come in the Cloudy Ballet set. As always they hold 4ml and are 3-free and cruelty free. I say this again and again, but I do wish they held more product. The main reason being that the formula is so amazing! The New Black promises longwearing and chip-resistant polishes and it’s no lie. I’ve personally had some of the best experiences with the formula. Chip-free nails for over 5 days. That is pretty damn amazing, right?!
Here are all five shades on the nails. As you can see, not an obvious ombre but it’s still a gorgeous effect. I especially love the glitter shade in the middle. Here’s my thoughts on each shade:
- Thumb: This is the darkest shade from the set. It’s a lovely pearly mauve/burgundy with silver shimmer. It’s hard to describe. It’s not a shade I would typically wear but it looks really lovely on the nails! I used two coats.
- Index: This shade is a soft coral toned pink with silver specks and shimmer. I used three coats.
- Middle: As you can see this is an awesome pink glitter! It’s absolutely wonderful! I love this glitter. You can use it for gradients, layering, or on its own. I used three coats to get an opaque coverage.
- Ring: This is a stunning nude creme. I am a sucker for cremes so this is without a doubt my favourite shade from the set. It’s the perfect pale coral-y nude. This had flawless coverage, I could have gotten away with one coat but I used two. Just in case.
- Pink: This is a pale pink with pearly finish. I won’t lie, “pink with pearl finish” makes me not even want to look, but this shade is really well done. It has soft brush strokes but isn’t streaky at all, and I actually think it looks kind of cute. Or am I just losing it? This was three coats.
That concludes my review on another lovely set by The New Black. You can find the Cloudy Ballet Advanced Ombre set for €29.95 online at the-new-black.com. The price may be a little steep for some but you are getting a very high-quality formula and multiple shades, so I think they are definitely worth it! Make sure to check out the site because they have some absolutely awesome sets.
5th May, 2013
Today I’m back with another awesome The New Black set. This time one of their duos of the Super Swagger line. The Super Swagger duos are two polishes, one has a matte finish, and the other has a shiny finish. This obviously leans itself towards awesome nail art!
The New Black Super Swagger set I got is the red set called Claret Cream Shine. The other two sets are a black set called Ink Cream Shine and a blue set called Indigo Cream Shine. All three sets feature a lighter colour and a darker colour. The Claret Cream Shine set features a brilliant bright red (shiny) and a stunning deep burgundy red (matte).
It took me a while before I knew what type of nail art I wanted to create with this set. In the end I settled for a chevron manicure using nail art brushes. I sadly didn’t use tape so my lines aren’t perfect. I’m much too impatient for tape manis and I find cutting stationary tape such a hassle.
I still really enjoyed how this manicure turned out! The two shades work beautifully together and create a nice contrast in both colour and finish. The matte nail polish is absolutely flawless. Make sure to check out the bonus swatch of the matte shade after the jump!
You can find the Super Swagger Claret Cream Shine set for €13.95 on The New Blacks website. Once again I can’t praise the formula of The New Black enough! The polishes glide on like butter and have flawless coverage. It’s such a shame they’re only 4ml a bottle. The New Black currently only sells nail art sets (which are awesome!) but I personally would be very excited if they brought out a range of full-size polishes. What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
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28th April, 2013
Today I’m back with another amazing set by The New Black. This time I’m featuring their Rock N’ Roll Royalty set which is an awesome set that comes with lots of nail art decorations. Time to glam it up!
This set comes with a black nail polish, gold glitter nail polish, red creme nail polish and a jar of studs and rhinestones. It usually comes with a top coat as well, but mine came with a spare red for some reason. It’s one of the best red polishes I’ve tried so I can’t say I’m unhappy about the anomaly!
- The New Black – Gold glitter: This is a great glitter for gradients or layering. I needed about 3-4 coats to get it opaque on its own which isn’t too bad.
- The New Black – Black: This is a stunning black polish with very fine silver glitter. It’s somewhat sheer on the first coat but it completely evens out after the second coat. I absolutely love black polishes with glitter!
- The New Black – Red: Seriously one of the best red nail polishes I’ve tried. It’s opaque after one coat. That’s right, one coat! It’s simply the perfect red. Glides on like butter too!
- The New Black – Accessories: What I love most about the Rock N’ Roll Royalty set is the bottle of studs/rhinestones that it comes with. Even though the polishes only hold 4ml, you will be absolutely amazed at how many studs fit inside that small bottle. There’s a huge amount of gold square studs, round silver rhinestones and black round rhinestones that come with this set.
Here’s the nail art manicure I created using this set! I went for a fun mix ‘n match manicure to show some different looks you can create with The New Black Rock N’ Roll Royalty set. On my index finger I went for a gradient using the black and gold. I’ve honestly never been able to create such a flawless glitter gradient before! The gold polish makes it so easy. On my middle finger I added a row of black rhinestones on top of the gold glitter base. Then on my ring finger I went for a simple leopard print. Since you can never go wrong with leopard, right?! And finally on my pink I added one of the square studs on top of the black polish.
On my thumbnail I added six square studs to create a triangle. Looks pretty cool right?! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a stud manicure I didn’t like, haha!
You can find this awesome The New Black Rock N’ Roll Royalty set on their website for €29.95. The nail art possibilities are endless with this set. Make sure to check out the other amazing sets on The New Black website too. They’ll be releasing some ah-mazing new sets soon so make sure to keep an eye on their Twitter and Facebook page. What did you think of this nail art set? Let me know in the comments!
20th April, 2013
Today I’m back with another review featuring The New Black! This time I am sharing one of their lovely Typography sets featuring the newspaper nails technique. This was my first time trying out newspaper nails and I have to say it was a lot of fun! And surprisingly a lot easier than I thought, especially with this handy kit! Let’s take a look.
The New Black Typography kit comes with transfer solution, a base colour, top coat and tons of sheets of transfer paper, ten in total! Ten sheets are more than enough to last you around 10-15 manicures. This particular kit is the Weekly Journal kit and comes with a nude base colour. The other two Typography kits, Times Late Edition and Daily News feature a grey and white base colour respectively.
The transfer paper has some nice encouraging words on it, such as Happy, Dream, Live, Faith, Love, Passion,… Definitely more fun than having some random newspaper article on your nails.
This is the lovely base colour that comes in The New Black Weekly Journal kit. I am absolutely in love with this shade. It’s the perfect nude colour! This was just two coats, the coverage was absolutely flawless. It glided on like butter. I desperately want a full-size of this, and a back-up bottle or three.
Here’s how the application process works:
- Apply your base colour and wait for it to thoroughly dry.
- Grab the transfer solution and apply a generous coat on one nail at a time.
- Take a piece of transfer paper, cut to size so it fits your nail and place on top of your wet nail.
- Apply more transfer solution over the top and press the paper down on your nail with your fingers.
- Carefully add top coat, done!
Like I said, this was my first time trying newspaper nails. I think I had great results for a first try! The words transferred nicely on my nails, though I did mistakenly turn over the last two so the words are upside down. And also slightly smudged the top coat on my middle finger. Oops!
I wanted to spice it up a little so I added two large square studs on my ring finger as an accent nail. You can find the studs in The New Black Rebel Edge set (review coming soon!). I wore this manicure for over a week with barely any chips! I couldn’t bring myself to removing it since I thought it looked so pretty, so I waited until the very last minute. After eight days, some tip wear and a few minor chips it was time to grab my polish remover.
You can find this lovely The New Black Weekly Journal set on their website for €24.95. The quality of The New Black nail polish is absolutely impressive, I’ve had amazing results in terms of wear and application. I highly recommend you to check them out! If you’re in the US you’ll find these awesome sets in stores like Urban Outfitters, but recently the European ladies can get their hands on The New Black too. Make sure to check out their site for all the details.
19th April, 2013
Only last week I shared my swatches of the China Glaze Texture polishes, and today I am back with another texture finish polish. This time one of the Barry M Textured polishes, available at online store Licila.si. I was eager to see how they compare with the China Glaze texture polishes as they are similar in terms of finish. Let’s take a look!
Above is three thin coats of Barry M Atlantic Road. As you can see it’s a lovely baby blue creme shade with a matte finish. This picture was taken about 15-20 minutes after application and it’s still slightly glossy. The next day after applying you can really appreciate the full effect of this polish. It definitely takes a while for the texture particles to settle in. Once they do, the effect is really stunning!
Here’s a close-up! I wish I waited a bit longer to photograph this polish so you could see the final soft matte effect. I have to say application was a lot more even compared to the China Glaze texture nail polishes. I felt like the narrower Barry M brush works better for the textured finish. I also had a suspicion the particles that make up the textured finish were slightly finer with Barry M?! I’m not 100% sure, though. The overall effect of Barry M Textured is very similar to the China Glaze Texture and they are definitely comparable.
Isn’t the colour stunning? I really loved wearing this polish! It lasted a good three days before it started chipping so that’s pretty great. You can find this Barry M Atlantic Road polish for €6.55 at Licila.si, as well as the other three lovely shades of this collection. If you’re not from Slovenia (like me!) you can easily navigate the site if you use Google Translate. Make sure to take a look!
What’s your take on the texture finish? Do you prefer this soft matte effect or the glossy and glittery textures? Or are you skipping texture altogether? Let me know in the comments!
17th April, 2013
Lioele (lee-oh-el-lee) is a Korean cosmetics brand I discovered through Keautystore. I first tried their coconut hand cream a few months ago and I was hooked! I simply had to try more Lioele products. Today I’ll be reviewing one of their nail polishes and a super cute lip balm. Let’s take a look!
The products I was able to try are the Lioele Bubi Bubi Tint Balm in the shade Innocent and the Lioele Nail Color in shade #38 Mint Green.
First up, the Lioele Nail Color! Surprise, surprise, I picked a mint green… I am so in love with the cute print on the bottle. Isn’t it stunning? The bottle is really beautiful and elegant. Above is three layers of the Lioele Mint Green nail polish. Application was pretty good though I did notice a slight smell. I am guessing it’s not a 3-free formula. The brush was the perfect size, not too wide and not too narrow. Dry time was a little longer than usual since I used slightly thicker coats. Isn’t the shade wonderful?
Next up the Lioele Bubi Bubi Tint Balm. How cute is that name? Again, I fell in love with the packaging! Korean cosmetics really know how to tempt us with their adorable packaging. The cold weather didn’t seem to go away this year which had a huge impact on my skin, hair and lips. I never left my house without hand cream and lip balm. This lip balm found its way into my bag many times!
The yellow colour of the lip balm changes into a lovely subtle coral shade. Above is one layer of Lioele Bubi Bubi lip balm but you can build it up for a brighter colour. It’s a very moisturizing lip balm and definitely not too sticky. The scent is absolutely amazing too! It smells delicious and fruity as it’s mango-scented.
Overall I really enjoyed trying these Lioele products and highly recommend you to take a look at Keautystore! You can purchase the Lioele Nail Color for $6.60 and the Lioele Tint Balm for $13.30. Apart from Lioele, Keautystore also carries Skin Food, Etude House, Missha and more. If you order, make sure to use my 5% off code: “veryemily“. Are you a fan of Korean cosmetics? Let me know in the comments which brands and products you recommend!
15th April, 2013
Today I’m introducing a fairly recent brand. I’m sure we’ve all seen their gorgeous ombre sets appear on Tumblr. The New Black is the creator of these stunning sets. I was so excited to hear they branched out and are now available for purchase in Europe! You can find all their sets in their online store (or simply click on my sidebar banner for easy access!).
I’ll be reviewing one of the Original Ombre sets. This is in the colour “Waves” that features five stunning minty blue shades. I don’t think I could love this set more if I tried. (Surprise, surprise!)
These are all five shades that come in the set. The bottles hold 4ml of polish so you could classify them as minis even though they feel fairly large. The individual shades don’t have names or numbers. They’re a mix of finishes as the set includes creme, shimmer, glitter, and glossy/suede finishes.
Here’s the ombre mani I created with The New Black Waves set. The darkest shade in my thumb and the lightest on my pinkie.
- Thumb: A lovely peacock blue creme. This was just two coats.
- Index: This is a stunning sea foam green glitter/shimmer with a soft suede finish. It’s not quite a glitter but it’s more textured than a shimmer so I found this hard to describe. It is absolutely beautiful though! I used two coats.
- Middle: This is a lovely neon teal green with subtle shimmer. This also dried to a soft suede finish, not quite matte. My swatch doesn’t show it true to colour, it’s a lot brighter in person! This was two coats.
- Ring: This is a squishy shimmery aqua shade with bright green shimmer. It’s a jelly but I still needed only three coats for a nice coverage.
- Pink: Finally a stunning minty green creme. This was nice and opaque and even in just two coats. Glided on like butter!
I have to say I was incredibly impressed with the flawless formula of The New Black. Each of these, even though they are completely different finishes, glided on like butter. You can instantly tell you’re working with a high quality formula. They dried amazingly well and I found them very long lasting. Only after 4 days I started getting tip wear and minor chips. Colour me impressed!
You can find The New Black Waves Original Ombre set on the site for €29.95. The sets are a little more expensive but you get five different colours and a very high-quality formula that is incredibly easy to work with. They’re perfect gifts for lacquerheads! Make sure to check out their website to find out more about the other sets. I’ll be trying out a few more over the next couple of weeks so stay tuned!
Have you tried The New Black? What do you think of these ombre sets? Let me know in the comments!
13th April, 2013
By now, I think we’ve all seen or tried textured nail polish. Where most of us found ourselves opposed to the idea of having gritty nails, I think we welcomed textured polishes and found ourselves falling in love with the trend of textured finishes. China Glaze is the latest to jump on this bandwagon, or so it seems. For Summer 2013 they released their very own Texture collection featuring six creme shades with a soft sandy finish. Let’s take a look!
China Glaze In The Rough – This is a lovely pastel lime green texture polish. All of these shades are creamy and don’t contain any shimmer or glitter particles.This one covered nicely in two coats. This texture finish is slightly different than the OPI Liquid Sand shades. Application is also a little trickier.
China Glaze Toe-Tally Textured – This is a bright orange creme texture polish. All shades are really bright and bold and dry to a matte finish, though it does take a while to dry properly. You want to take things slow with these polishes and not apply the second coat until they are “settled in” and have turned matte.
China Glaze Itty, Bitty & Gritty – This is a cute coral pink shade. I wish China Glaze made a non-texture dupe for this because it’s a really lovely colour! Application was nice and even with this one. You do need to make sure to shake your bottles thoroughly though.
China Glaze Bump & Grind – This is a bright magenta creamy texture finish. It’s not quite a red, but not quite pink either. I really love this colour. As you can see it’s still slightly shiny in some parts. The true matte finish takes a few hours to show up. Once all the texture particles have settled in they feel quite soft to the touch and not gritty at all.
China Glaze Unrefined – This is a lovely pastel pink creamy texture polish. Application was a little trickier with this one as it was slightly thicker. I found that the density of the texture particles varied per polish but this can also be down to how well they are shaken.
China Glaze Of Coarse! – And finally a bright pastel blue creme texture polish. This is a really pretty blue shade. This did have some bare patches but once again, could be down to not shaking up the bottles enough.
I’ve actually been dying to share my swatches with you! I’ve been playing around with these for months (since last year!) but couldn’t share my pictures until the official press release was sent out (yesterday, finally!). My first response to the texture finish was definitely apprehensive, but after trying these I really fell in love with them! The names are super cute too! They don’t feel as gritty as they look, they feel quite soft and pleasant. They also don’t catch on things and are fairly long-lasting too. They are unique and definitely worth trying!
What do you think of these Texture polishes? Do you prefer the matte creamy finish or the shimmery and glittery finish for texture finishes? Let me know in the comments!
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