Butter London Teddy Girl: Swatch + Review

My dad heard from the weatherman that my local area is setting a record because current temperatures are about 10 - 20 degrees higher than average. I already live in a desert climate, so adding 10 degrees to the already-warm temperatures makes it pretty much spring. LOL there was never a winter anyways. 

But what better way to start off "spring" than with a nice, pastel pink? Butter London Teddy Girl is the type of pink I associate with sweetness and girliness. It is such a gentle, feminine color and PERFECT for the transition from winter to spring. Though it makes for a great transitional color, it's also perfect to wear during the winter because it's one of those "icy" pastels.

Full review after the jump!

OPI Push & Shove (Gwen Stefani) Review

Out of the entire Gwen Stefani collection, Push & Shove was the polish I was most excited for. OPI created high expectations for it, ever since they first uttered the 3 magic words "reflective mirror finish." In addition, there was so much secrecy surrounding the polish that the public didn't get to see any promo pics until a few weeks before the actual release. When the swatches start popping up online, I literally ran out of my house to buy it (the night before finals too! I thought I didn't have a hard exam the next day, but then the English exam kicked my ass -__- Karma in the form of nail polish, I guess).

I was surprised by how dull Push & Shove looked in the bottle. I was expecting a mirror finish on the bottle itself, like the gold karat top coat bottles (ex. OPI The Man with the Golden Gun), but nope!

Full review after the jump!

Essie The Lace Is On (Fall 2013) Swatch + Review!

Essie The Lace Is On was one of the polishes I'd always pick up and put down at the store. I had been eyeing it since August when it first came out, but I finally bought it 5 months later.

Full review after the jump!

Nail Art History

I used to be big on nail art. No joke, HUGE. I remember spending hours trying to draw stubborn little details on my nails. I didn't see it as a waste of time then, and I still don't see it as a waste of time now, because it was my own personal treat.
I shared a nail instagram (@cathirenenails) with my friend, Catherine, and we managed to gain around 1500 followers over the summer. It's nowhere near as many followers as other nail instagrams, but we were just really proud that 1500 people wanted to see what we were painting on our nails. Though we're not as active as we used to be (school -__-), we still post occasionally.
Anyways, I chose 4 of my favorite manis that I ever did. This was also back when I had long, almond shaped nails. You can see more of our manis (including Catherine's) on our instagram! (Look at how cute our name is though. Cathirenenails - seriously the perfect hybrid of our first names. It's meant to be! )

The black & white "Gucci" design was inspired by Kylie Jenner's manicure at the time. It's also my favorite nail art mani to date. The hardest ones to do, by far, were the exotic animalistic nails in the bottom right corner. The flowers were extremely difficult because I had no idea what I was doing! Good times, good times. 

-Irene

Nail Polish Collection (Jan. 2014)

What better way to start off an obsession blog than with my biggest obsession of all - nail polish. I have about 250+ nail polishes, spread out between my mom's house and my dad's house. I started painting my nails at the end of my freshman year of high school, but I started avidly collecting sophomore year. I'm in my junior year of high school now, and seriously lol, this obsession isn't going to stop anytime soon. I hope it doesn't because then all the polishes I already have would go to waste!

Taken with flash, to bring out the colors more

This actually isn't my entire collection. Like I said, I have to switch between two houses (the joys of having divorced parents......), and my American Apparel polishes are on a different shelf because I love them so much that they need to be segregated. I also have about 20 polishes in a plastic bag (oh look! you can see part of the bag in the corner of the pics!) that I don't like very much, so maybe I'll sell them someday.
The two brands I have the most of are Essie and OPI. Currently, I don't have any super high-end brands. I have 5 Butter Londons (behind the OPIs, if you can tell) that were bought when they went on sale, but I really want a nice Deborah Lippman or a nice Chanel. I don't think those two brands ever go on sale, so I'm out of luck unless I decide to splurge someday :'(
Swatches, reviews, & other misc. things to come! I have them saved up in my drafts right now, holla.