aEngland Lady of the Lake

Good Morning Babes! This week I'm going to post all international brands for my weekly brand posting. Today I'm sharing my first aEngland polish with you. Lady of the Lake is a dark purple scattered holo polish that is absolutely stunning! This beauty has been floating around the blogosphere like crazy so I wont bore you to tears. I used 2 thin coats for the swatches below, and it dried very quickly with a nice shine.

What do you think of LOTL? I absolutely love it and it definitely wont be my last aEngland purchase! Thanks for stopping by to let me share this beauty with you :o)


Thanks
Marketta

Bettina Flip Flops

Hello Babes! I'm sharing Bettina Flip Flops with you today. Flip Flops is from the Resort Collection, and is the prettiest shade of light purple like ever! The only polish that I have that's close is Planks A Lot by OPI only there is absolutely no dustiness to FF, and that's what sets them world apart!  This lovely creme was opaque in 2 thin coats and dried super fast. I stamped with Konad ip M57, special white polish, and a coat of SV.

Here's a swatch of the lovely Flip Flops on its own with no tc.





What do you think of Flip Flops, isn't it just gorgeous?! Thanks for stopping by :o)

Kisses

Marketta

Bettina Week: Mini Spam

Good Morning Babes and Happy Friday! Today I have a little bit of Bettina Spam to share with you. In the swatches below I used 2 coats and no tc.

Bettina 187 is a very deep dark pink with purple undertones that almost overwhelm the pink. Application was flawless and dry time was very good. IRL this is much darker and there is absolutely no red to it, but this a one of those days where the sun being out wasn't in my favor.

Metallic Copper is a deep golden brown metallic polish with gold and bronze glitter. For a metallic it has a really good formula, that you don't have to worry about brush strokes with. Dry time is a little slower than the average Bettina dry time and I had a bump so on this one I used INM OTD becasue I had to touch up my middle finger. This shade is from the Metallic Collection.

Glamour Midnite is a gorgous black polish loaded with silver glitter. This is from the Glamour Collection and I absolutely love this shade. The formula was amazing and very easy to work with. In true Bettina form it dried at lightning speed. The pictures do it absolutely no justice, its to die IRL.

What do you think of these 3 lovlies? Copper really isn't my cup of tea against my skin tone but it is very pretty. Thanks for stopping by :o)


Kisses
Marketta

Bettina Week: Animal Print Re-creation

Good Morning Babes! Today I have my version on Cristina from LTHP animal print nails from the 31 Day Challenge that she did with Rie and Sam. I was so mad at myself that I had to use pictures that have serious tip wear on them. I actually wore these nails for a few days, and I took pictures right after I finished the mani but somehow accidentally deleted them before uploading them. So these pictures are after 2 days of cooking, cleaning, washing dishes (I don't use gloves), washing mine and my daughter hair (we have A LOT of thick curly hair), and so much else. I don't keep mani's for longer than 2 days so thank God I actually looked on my computer for the pictures before removing the polish because it was already getting late and I didn't swatch at all today. I used Resort Pink Bikini on my index and thumb, Nature Ocean on my middle, and Art Deco Yellow on my ring finger. I sponged with Art Deco Purple, Nature Trees, and Resort Starfish. I used Konad ip M78 (which I didn't even know I had), and special black polish.

I shouldn't have such bad tip wear after 2 days so I'm going to try this Chi top coat that I bought a looooong time ago that's supposed to stretch your mani for a week. So I will start trying that under INM or SV to see how that works and do a review on it later. Below is a picture of the base colors which I managed to save, I would have preferred it the other way around but lesson learned :)

What do you think of my spin on the mani minus the tip wear? I got alot of compliments on it and it was really fun to do. I like Cristina's colors better (How I Met Your Magenta and Kung Fu Blue are to die) but this is Bettina week so the colors a slightly different :o)  Thanks for stopping by to let me share this re-creation with you.


Kisses
Marketta

Pink Wednesday

Good Morning Babes and Happy Pink Wednesday. Today I have Bettina #9 which is a dusty deep muavey rose toned pink creme polish. #9 has an amazing formula just like all my other Bettina's, and was opaque in 2 thin coats. I used Konad ip M78, special white polish, and SV as my tc. Well this color looks like barf on a stick on my skin tone - FUGLY! It reminds me of the colors little old ladies get their hands and toes painted when they go to the nail shop. Don't get me wrong, the color is pretty just not on my skin tone. Of course I had a stamping fail grrrr not my Konading week.

Do you like #9 and the stamp I chose to use over it? I love pink but this isn't normally a pink I would go for which is why I chose it. Not my favorite but I promised to be completely open minded when I started blogging and to try all colors :o)  Thanks for stopping by!


Kisses
Marketta

Bettina Week: #12

Good Morning Babes! Today I have Bettina #12 to share with you today. #12 is an amazing nude creme polish with peach undertones, and very subtle silver micro shimmer that adds just the right touch. I bought this nude because I believe that even if you don't care for nudes (raises hand) you should have a nice little variety of at least 3 perfect nudes (my all time fave is Cruisin Nude). I used 2 coats for the swatches below, BPS ip m60, special black polish, and SV as my tc.

There was a little smudging on my ring finger when I applied SV and a little of the design didn't want to stamp on but we all know how temperamental the stampers can be lol! I pressed down super hard to lol. The 2nd picture has flash. Can you tell that it was getting dark outside by the time I finished my stamping? Ahahaha. Here's a swatch of #12 on its own.

What do you think of #12 and the stamp I chose to go with it? The 2nd picture has flash so that you can see the subtle shimmer becasue it doesn't capture well. I actually really really like this, which I didn't think I would because nudes are touch and go with my skin tone. So I'm adding this to my nudes that I love, its not as flattering as Cruisin Nude by Cult Nails is on me (which I wear alone) but it great in a totally different way. Thanks for stopping by :o)


Kisses
Marketta

Bettina Week: Bliss Collection Swatches and Review

Good Morning Babes! Today starts my weekly brand posts that I will be doing in an attempt to swatch through my polish collection that is becoming massive, and to just show some of the brands that I have quite a few of but have yet to swatch many if any at all. What I will be doing is swatching one brand only for 1 week throughout the whole month of December. Up first is the Bliss Collection by Bettina, which is their Holiday 2011 collection that consists of 3 metallics and 3 cremes. I've had this collection since the week it came out but haven't had the time to swatch them until now. This collection was personally purchased by myself. Since I'm posting the whole collection at once, I decided to post it as a review. I chose Bettina first because I have more of her polishes than any other brand. All swatches are done with 2 coats and no tc.

Champagne - a light chocolaty golden bronze with gold micro shimmer. I wouldn't consider this "champagne" because its a bit to dark. Antiquated from Color Club Foiled collection fits that description more accurately. This is one of those metallics that you will have brush strokes even when being very careful. Dry time was good like most Bettina's but this color just isn't right for my skin tone.

Myth - a perfect purple metallic with gold and blue micro glitter. The formula was much better on this one than Champagne. Dry time was very good on this one also. This one is my favorite out of the metallics, but I couldn't capture a picture to do it justice. IRL this color is very beautiful.

Festive - is a green that has gold and green micro shimmer. Dry time was very fast, and the formula was easy to work with. Not really felling this color either.

Truffle - is the prettiest warm chocolate brown that I have ever seen. Just looking at it makes me want to eat a chocolate bar or go to Starbucks and get a Mocha. The first coat was a little on the patchy side but evens out perfectly on coat 2.

Cheers - I can't describe this beauty in other way than the perfect hunter green. The formula is amazing just like all Bettina cremes. This is my favorite out of the whole collection which is shocking because green has never been a favorite of mine.

Bordeaux - when I looked at this burgundy with a hint of maroon creme, I immediately knew that I would have to use my Nubar Foundation Base Coat so that I wouldn't get any stains. Good call because it stained around my cuticles and was a nightmare to clean up. The formula was very runny/watery, and the brush holds a ton of polish. Its not unmanageable but you do want to be very careful around the cuticles.

What are your thoughts on the Bliss Collection? Being completely honest it definitely isn't what I thought it would be and I'm a little disappointed. The cremes are definitely the winners in this collection, but none of the polishes are unique in any way. Bettina is probably one of my favorite brands so I gave this collection a chance (just like the disco, jeans, art deco, resort, candy, and etc), and I will continue to do so in the future, because this has been my only Bettina I haven't been head over heels about and I still like 3 out of the 6. Even though the metallics didn't win me over they will still be great for stamping :o) . Thanks for stopping by to let me share with you.


Kisses
Marketta