I know I'm saying this a lot nowadays, but sorry for lack of posts. There's a lot of 'stuff' going on, good stuff, but it's keeping me very busy nonetheless :P But I can't keep ignoring the blog, so today I have a review which wouldn't take that much time to post, since everyone is so familiar with-------Konad!!! WowSoCool, the popular Konad retailer sent me the basic Konad items for review. Here they are:

The image plate is M57. This is my 1st KOTD, see it was so easy to do, even for a first timer! I had read that Konad special polish bleeds when you apply top coat. Well, as you can see in the pics, it doesn't! I used a different top coat for each finger, but I did not have a problem with any. However, I did wait for ten minutes before applying top coat.

Another KOTD, but I did not like this color combination a lot :L

Overall, I think Konad is a GREAT alternative for those of you who are not very comfortable with free hand nail art.

You can buy Konad products at WowSoCool, and they do ship internationally. They offer free shipping in U.S. and Canada with orders above $20. Free international shipping for orders above $200.

*These products were sent to me for review by the company/ PR firm for the company.*

Babbling Brooke is celebrating 2 years of blogging. I'm joining in the celebration and I hope you do too! Hers is one of the blogs I check regularly and never miss a post, & blabber to my friends about, cuz it's so awesome! I love her style of writing and how she connects with her readers. Instead of just drooling seeing the pics of the prizes, why don't you Enter Here?

Another amazing blog that I recently found. The giveaway was to celebrate 61 followers, but now she is well beyond 250 followers. Congratulations Enamel Girl! Enter here giveaway Here.

Another really sweet blogger, Kelliegonzo is having a birthday giveaway. Wishing her a very happy birthday and a great year ahead. Hers is another blog that I regularly read & try never to miss a single post :-) Join in her celebrations Here.

I'm am so sorry for the lack of posts, but my school started this week & saying that life is hectic would be an understatement *sigh* & speaking of my new school, ummmm, they don't allow nail polish..... :-(

I still have a couple of reviews to do. But those will have to wait for a while, cuz I don't want  do a hurried review. I prefer to test the products for a bit before declaring my opinions on them. I don't really have the time to post much, but I'm leaving you with some pics of a NOTD from last week.

As I told you in my earlier post, prior to receiving products from Viva la Nails for review, I already had some of their products. But I had never tried their water decals, so I was the most excited about these. 

Here they are, pretty, aren't they? :-)

They were really easy to apply. & they look very natural, by that I mean they look skillfully painted, & not just stuck on.

& here are the same decals, but on a different polish. The first polish contrasted the colors of the decals. This polish is similar colored to the decals, only a bit lighter than them.

(Plz excuse the tip pull in this one, guess my new top coat isn't that great after all :L )

Close up of thumb(click to enlarge):

The best thing about these water decals from Viva la Nails is that they have 5 different sizes of decals in each packet(& 4 of each size in this particular one = 2 full manicures). So the decal on your thumb won't be the same size as the one on your pinky, thus looking more professional. Yay!

This design which I used is DF01 & you can buy it HERE. & yes, Viva la Nails does ship internationally :-)

*These products were sent to me for review by the company/ PR firm for the company.*

The awesome Samantha from Viva la Nails  has sent me loads of goodies to review and share with all of you :-)  Before I start using all the nail art products that she sent, I would like to tell you that this is not the first time I'm trying products from Viva la Nails. 

 I am a huge fan of their nail stickers, today I'm showing you a NOTD using some of the stickers that I already had. & yeah, I cut my nails really short. I was going to cut them just a little, but I went overboard. Lesson of the day: Don't cut, just file. But the damage is done. Oh well... they will grow back. I was pretty depressed at first, looking at how short they now are. But as I said to my friend, Renuka(*waves at Renuka*),  looking at the bright side of this, maybe I can come up with some nail art designs for those of you with short nails :-) But that's for later.  Right now, it's Viva la Nails!!!

I tried to find this particular design on their website, but I couldn't see it anywhere right now, so I'm guessing it's discontinued. But if you would like a similar design, you can find it HERE. The first design on that page is pretty similar to the one I'm showing you today. 

I'm not going to talk about them much today, as this post is not my review. This was just an introduction of Viva la Nails for you =) But for now, you can enjoy the pics :P

Yeah, I like dotting nail art. It's not at all time consuming, and if done right, it looks great :P

Base for this manicure is another franken. I'm frankening a lot nowadays. Firstly because I'm on a no-buy, ok... it was my mom who put me on a no-buy. But I have a constant need for new nail lacquers, so if I can't buy them, I'll make them. Secondly, even if I wasn't on a no-buy, it's kinda difficult to find polish here apart from pinks and nudes.

Anyways, as I said, the base is a franken. For the tips, I used BB Couture - Fuel Injector. The rest you see is made with the Nailstar nail art pens,  I dunno what I would do without those,lol!

When I started this mani, I didn't intend to give an Indian feel to it. But when I was done, the manicure reminded me of traditional Indian wear, maybe because of the colors I chose :-P I really love this manicure.

The base is Cheeky Monkey-Pour Me One. I wasn't super thrilled about the color when I had first tried it, but it has grown on me :) A very rich looking red. The yellow-orange stripe is a cheap unnamed polish, & the white dots are, as usual, my nail art pen.

Earlier today, I showed the the simple French manicure I had done(HERE). But I got tired of it in about twenty minutes, so I spiced it up a bit. I used the Nail Star nail art pens. Have a look: 

Much better now, right? :P

You know I'm moved to New Delhi a couple of months ago. & I'm going to go to a new school from next week. I was wondering how the teachers there feel about nail polish. Are they the ones who are cool with nail art on their students' nails, or are they the ones who want nails cut as short as possible and detest bright nail polish?

So todays manicure is a tribute to those color hating teachers who like their students' nails to look boooorrrring! Presenting! The Plain Simple ol' French Manicure!

Is there anything like 'too much purple', lol! I've found I'm wearing a lot of purple nowadays, & I'm frankening a lot of purples too :-)

Here is my NOTD. The base is a franken, and so is the pastel purple that I used for the tips. I had tried to make the pastel purple look like Orly Lollipop(since I have finished my bottle), but the franken lacked the pinkishness(?) that made Lollipop so special. For the stripes I used some cheap polishes and my new nail art brushes. The dots were made using a nail art pen. I topped everything off with Cheeky Monkey- I Like it on Top. But I took the pic before I applied the top coat.

The lovely Rachel from Ciaté sent me a couple of their polishes for review. I'm glad I got the chance to try this brand; their  little bottles with that cute black bow are so irresistible!

I LOVED the brushes, they are flat, but not too flat, but they make application a dream! These swatches are without clean-up!!!

First up is Ladylike Luxe. A beautifully elegant gold foil. The polish was wonderful to apply, but took 3 coats to get opaque, which isn't too bad. It applies very smoothly, in thin even coats.  There was no sun today, it rained all night, so the getting swatches to be color accurate was a pain. However, Ladylike Luxe did not have too much trouble with the camera.The first pic is the most color accurate. I can see myself wearing this polish a lot.

The other polish I received is Sherbet Fizz. Unlike the first polish, this one was very difficult to capture. Sherbet Fizz was very sheer, it took 5 thin coats to get fully opaque. It's a very pretty and feminine polish though, but I don't think it suits my skin tone. It would look much better on someone who is fairer. But a pretty color nonetheless, my photos are not very color accurate.

The polish is a very soft cherry red base(not hot red as the pix show) loaded with pink shimmer. The 3rd photo is the closest to the actual color of the polish. I'm gonna swatch this again when the sun decides to come out .

Ciaté polishes are available HERE & retail for £9 each.

*These products were sent to me for review by the company/ PR firm for the company. The opinions expressed are honest and my own*

I've found that when I do nail art, I usually wear my manicure for almost two days or so. Without it, I change my polish at least twice a day; yeah, I get bored very easily =) 

If I do nail art, I always use the Cheeky Monkey Cosmetics top coat called 'I Like it on Top'. Let me warn you, it dries very slowly, but it's super glossy & highly prevents chips.In fact, I don't even get tip wear for a couple of days if I use that topcoat. I know some of us don't have the patience for slow drying top coats. So what you can do is, apply one coat of 'I Like it on Top', & then another layer of whatever quick dry topcoat you like to use.

The base for this manicure is, once again, Orly Lollipop. I used that lacquer so often, I finished the whole bottle. YES! I finished a whole 18mL bottle of nail polish! But now I miss it :( I'll try and franken another color similar to it. The tips and the dots are frankens. & nope, I don't name my frankens :P

Nail Art with Nicole by OPI- Black to the Future & ManGlaze Matte Astrophe. 

I was fooling around going through my files and found this manicure. I had intended to post this long ago, but I must have forgotten. 

This one is a matte + glossy combination. Matte nails & glossy tips. I love ManGlaze manicures! I freehanded the tips with Cheeky Monkey's topcoat- I Like it on Top. It's the glossiest I have, but not quick-drying.

Oh, & Matte Astrophe did not crackle on this polish. 

Giveaways going on right now: 

Polished love affair's giveaway HERE.

Candy Coated Tip's giveaaway HERE.

My Dad says I can place a small online order for nail polish once every year(during the summer). So here is here is what I bought this year. Transdesign's shipping is too expensive, & 8ty8beauty doesn't ship to India, so I ordered from Head2toeBeauty. I received the package in perfect condition, within 8 days of placing the order. Customer service was also very good! Sweet! What is not sweet is that they don't ship China glaze internationally :( I wanted to try some :((((

Anyways, here is my mini haul:

Top row(from L to R): Color Club-Fashion Addict, Color Club-Revvvolution, Essie-Mint Candy Apple, Orly Top 2 Bottom.

Middle Row(From L to R): Orly-Snowcone, Orly La Playa, Orly-Solid Gold, Orly-Lemonade, Orly Enchanted Forest.

Apart from the polishes, I ordered Seche French guides, a mini file & nail art brushes.

I'm really happy with this haul, but I would have been happier if I had been able to get some China Glaze too, & Seche Vite topcoat. But nope, they won't ship that internationally *grumble grumble*

First of all, have you seen the FANTASTIC promo pix of the new Orly collections over at Temptalia? I think I just fainted seeing them. Cosmix will probably be the best collection that Orly ever came out with!!!

Anyways, just a simple nail art manicure for today. The base is Orly Gumdrop from the Sweet collection, & is a little more green in IRL than the pictures show. The purple tips are Orly Lollipop. The dark blue lines are with Orly Calypso Breeze; & for the white dots I used a Nail Star nail art pen.

& I have some more giveaways for you to check out:

Ayuu's giveaway HERE.

Polish Fiend's giveaway HERE.

Lacquer cocktail's giveaway HERE.

Sakura's giveaway HERE.

Susie's giveaway HERE.

I thought it would be nice to do this post. Here are my 3 favorite beauty related products(apart from nail polish), in no particular order:

1.)Lip Balm: I've been on a lip balm kick lately =) & The best I've ever come across is the Camellia lip balm by Julie Hewett. But because of it's price, I sparingly use it, only when my lips get too dry for the cheapie balms to fix. I hope my stick(yup, it comes in lipstick kinda packaging) never ever gets over.... =) I love it and I recommend it!

2.) Andrea FaceQ's Fresh Ups: I not only like this product, but LOVE it. My skin type is (very) oily. & these worked miracles for me! These are linen facial blotters which absorb oil without spoiling makeup. Yes, they fulfill that promise, but I use them even when I'm not wearing any makeup(I hardly wear makeup). I can't rave enough about this product. They leave my face looking matte and fresh.L.O.V.E. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

3.) Kajal pencil: I use any brand, not very particular about this. This is the only 'makeup' I usually wear along with lip balm/gloss.lol. 

Oh, & don't forget to check out The Student's Guide to Nail Polish's giveaway HERE.

Today, I have for you a review on the lip balms by My Lip Stuff. They claim to be environmentally friendly and natural, which is always nice! They known for their 500+ flavors of lip balm! There HAS to be something for everyone!

The lip balms I tired were smooth to apply, and wore more like a gloss. It was really glossy due to the presence of oils. I like it when balms give a shine to my lips.

The wear was above average. Although I have the habit of licking my lips, there was still balm on my lips after 2 hours.

They are affordable!!! =)

The thing I was a little disappointed about: the scent was very strong! This might be a pro for most people, but I feel uncomfortable with strong fragrances. This is a personal choice * shrug* I prefer my lip balms slightly scented.EDIT: My Lip Stuff also offers softly scented & even unflavored balms. Omg, I told you they have all kinds of balms you can think of! :) & they also offer custom made ones!

Packaging is ok, not very creative. But for the price, I'm fine with it :)

Overall, I really liked this product. It's worth a try. I would give it a 7/10.

Buy them HERE.

& some more giveaways for you to check out :)
Ainni's giveaway HERE.
Karend's giveaway HERE.

*These products were sent to me for review by the company/ PR firm for the company. The opinions expressed are honest and my own*