Nails by Kayla Shevonne: 2013

Friday, December 27, 2013

My Christmas Mani (+ Giveaway Reminder!)

Hey everyone!

Just a quick post today to say that I hope you're all having a fantastic holiday season and to show you what I wore on my nails for Christmas Day! But first off I have a couple of housekeeping announcements:

Today is the last day to submit responses to my Best of 2013 Survey
Which means that today is also the last day to be entered the win the entire KBShimmer Blogger Collaboration Collection

Now onto the mani! I really wanted to wear KBShimmer All Elf'd Up as a full mani so I knew that was going to be the base for my Christmas Day nail art. I also didn't want to cover up too much of it though, so I decided to just add some simple snowflakes in coordinating colours.

As I said, the base here is KBShimmer All Elf'd Up from the Winter 2013 Collection (see the whole collection here). I then freehanded the snowflakes using both China Glaze Just Be-Claws and China Glaze Four Leaf Clover. I let those dry for a bit and then topped everything off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, December 23, 2013

Review & Swatches - KBShimmer WInter 2013 Collection

The KBShimmer Winter Collection is another 11 piece collection released for Winter 2013, the other of course being the KBShimmer Blogger Collaboration Collection. Speaking of which, I'm giving away a full set of the Blogger Collaboration polishes! See how you can win them here.

Anyways, back to today's agenda. The KBShimmer Winter 2013 Collection includes some glitters, some multichromes and even some holographic multichromes! There's something for everyone with this one. You can view swatches and my thoughts on this collection by hitting the read more button. Enjoy!

Review & Swatches - butter LONDON Double Take Fire Duo

Included in their Holiday 2013 lineup, butter LONDON has released two duos - the Fire Duo and the Ice Duo. Each duo features two polishes - one that acts as the opaque base colour and one flake glitter topper that can be added to create a whole new manicure. Today I'll be showing you the Fire Duo and the Ice Duo won't be too far behind!

Rebel Fox is described by butter LONDON as an "oxblood shimmer" and that's too awesome of a description not to use it here. The formula was great, though it did seem thin at first. When you apply your first coat, the colour looks to be a slightly pinkish berry shade, but the second coat makes all the difference and you're left with this gorgeous deep vampy red with gold shimmer.

Brass Monkey is a flakie topper that features copper/opal flakes that flash from fiery shades of red, orange and gold to opalescent blue and green. The flakes are slightly sparse so I recommend applying one coat as normal but then using the brush to just dab on a few extra flakes in any bare areas.

butter LONDON polishes are available direct from them (US site/Canadian site/UK site), or you can also get bL from Nail Polish Canada, who is currently offering free shipping on ALL Canadian orders so it's a great chance to stock up on some bL shades if you're in Canada!

Thanks for looking!

Press Sample

Monday, December 16, 2013

Christmas Galaxy Nail Art (+ Please Vote For Me!)

Hey!

For my first Christmas nail art design of the year, I really wanted to do something that hasn't been done before. So after racking my brain, I came up with the idea to try out my Galaxy/Nebula design using Christmas colours! I tried it out on a nail wheel first because I actually didn't have high hopes for the design, but I'm happy to say that I absolutely love the result!

I loved it so much in fact that I decided to enter it into the China Glaze Holiday Nail Art Contest! I rarely enter nail art contests, but I couldn't resist this time. And now I could really use your help! The voting period has begun today and I'd really appreciate if you could take just a few minutes to vote for my entry! Pretty please! Here is the link to vote.
And remember that once you vote, you'll have to go check your email and "activate" your vote, otherwise it won't count!

In regards to the actual design, I followed my almost exactly, except I of course used different colours.

I started with a base of China Glaze Just Be-Claws and then did the white sponging with China Glaze White On White. Next I sponged on China Glaze Running in Circles only at the edges of the white sponging. Then I added a small amount of China Glaze Party Hearty (one of my favourite Christmas polishes ever) to the middle of the nebula. Finally, I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks in advance for your votes!

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Giveaway - KBShimmer Blogger Collaboration Collection

As mentioned yesterday, there is a corresponding giveaway for my Best of 2013 Nominations Post!

As an added incentive, everyone who answers ALL of the questions will be entered for a chance to win the entire KBShimmer Blogger Collaboration Collection! You can check out my swatches and review on that collection here. So head over to the nominations post and submit what you think were the best brands, polishes and trends of the year 2013!

Rules & Regulations:

Winner must be a public follower of mine (via any of my social media platforms)
Giveaway is open to anyone (international included) who answers ALL of the questions in the Best of 2013 Survey. Link here.
Winner must be 18 years of age or older or have express permission from a parent or guardian to enter.
The giveaway will end at 12:00AM EST on the evening of December 27th, 2013.
I will choose the winner at random using random.org. Once I have notified the winner, they will have 48 hours to claim their prize. If the winner fails to respond to my email within 48 hours, I will choose another winner at random.

Good luck and thanks for participating!

Friday, December 13, 2013

Kayla Shevonne's Best of 2013 List - Submit Your Nominations Now!

Hey everyone!

For the past two years I've done Best of Lists, both for my favourite polishes and my favourite manicures of that year. However this year I want to do it a little different and include you guys in figuring out what was the best 2013 had to offer! I'm not going all out with this list and including every little category possible such as best red polish, best purple polish, etc. Instead I'm just doing a general 2013 roundup, which is the kind of year end list I personally like to see.

BONUS: Some of you more perceptive folks may notice that there's mention of a corresponding giveaway on the form below. That will be posted tomorrow and all you have to do is fill out ALL of the answers in order to be entered. I won't tell you what the prize is just yet, but trust me, it's a good one!

So with that said, go ahead and submit your nominations below!

Review & Swatches - KBShimmer Blogger Collaboration Collection

Hey!

Getting back into the swing of things, today I'm super excited to be sharing with you the KBShimmer Blogger Collaboration Collection for Winter 2013! I was lucky enough to be a part of this collection alongside 10 other wonderful bloggers and I've got to say, I think we came up with a pretty amazing collection of polishes.

Keep on reading for swatches and my thoughts on each shade!

I'm a married woman!

Hey everyone!

Yup, I'm married! As most of you know, my wedding was last week on November 15th. It was a beautiful day (even though it flew by so quickly!) and I feel like the luckiest woman ever to be married to my best friend and love of my life. I won't bore you with the sappy details, but I'm sure I'll be posting some photos on when I get them from the photographer. Here's a teaser one that I already posted:

This is the awesome view from our hotel suite the morning after the wedding. It was a beautiful corner suite so on one side we had this city view and then on the other side was the harbour. It was stunning!

Things are just starting to settle down for us now and regular posting should be resuming very soon. I want to take a quick moment to thank all of my loyal readers who have stuck by me and supported me during this whole wedding process. Posting pretty much died off because I was so busy all the time, but I'm very lucky to have readers like you all who were willing to wait patiently until everything got back to normal for me.

I should mention that we had a little misfortune the day after the wedding when my poor little old MacBook gave out. There had been a chip in the side where the charger goes for quite a while and I had been gluing it back on for months, but it must have gotten worse because now the poor guy won't charge anymore. Everything still works, but without being able to charge it, it's not useable. So we decided to upgrade and get a iMac. Take a look:

Isn't she a beauty? In love.

Unfortunately, a lot of my files are still stuck on my laptop so until I can get that fixed enough to transfer all of my files, I'm forced to re-swatch a lot of things that I had swatched before the wedding but hadn't had time to post. For that I apologize to companies who are waiting on review posts from me, but I promise I will get them up asap.

Anyways, I could ramble on for hours here but I'll stop and make this short and sweet. Thank you so much to all of you and I can't wait to get back to nail polish, blogging and interacting with you all!

Sunday, October 27, 2013

A Special Press Release - KBShimmer Winter 2013 Collections

Hey out there!

I don't typically post press releases, but this one is a special one!

Some of you might remember my collaboration polish with KBShimmer from a couple of months ago. It's called Green Hex & Glam and you can see swatches of it here. Well, with this new 22 piece Winter release, 11 of them are blogger collaborations and mine is one of them! So for everyone that wished they could get their hands on a bottle of Green Hex & Glam, you'll be able to come November 1st!

Check out the full press release below including photos and descriptions of all 22 new polishes!

KBSHIMMER ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF TWENTY-TWO NEW POLISHES
KBShimmer Winter Polish Line Set For Release November 1st, 2013
KBShimmer is excited to announce the addition of 22 new colors to their 3-Free glitter polish line. Owner Christy Rose says “This winter, we are set to release the largest amount of new polishes to date. We were honored to work with a great group of bloggers to create a stunning set of winter and holiday inspired polishes. These eleven polishes will release alongside additional polishes designed by KBShimmer to capture the joy, color and wonder that surrounds us all.”

The blogger collection includes three glitter top coats, four sparkling jellies, two glitter creally polishes, one matte, and one shimmering cream. “We are launching eleven unique polishes that capture the feelings of winter and the winter holidays. Each blogger had a different idea, and it was so fun working with them to create a polish that told their story.” says Rose.

Returning this year a charity polish. “Kringle All The Way is this year’s charity polish. $4 from each bottle will be used to purchase toys for Toys For Tots. Last year we raised over $800 and we hope to top that this year!” says Rose. “In addition to several holiday and winter themed polishes, we are also excited to release our first set of multi-chrome and linear holographic polishes. We think that this release is our most exciting to date!” All 22 polishes are set for release Friday, November 1st at KBShimmer.com and will retail for $8.75 for a 15 ml bottle. KBShimmer will also be offering free priority shipping through 12/31 for all orders over $50.

KBSHIMMER – BLOGGER 2013 COLLECTION
Christmas Now - Crystal from Crystal’s Crazy Combos – A green jelly with multi-colored squares, circles, and stars. 3 Coats Recommended

Green Hex And Glam – Kayla from Kayla Shavonne - A forest green jelly with holographic hex glitters. Best in 3 coats.

I’d Rather Be With Blue – Lisa from Cosmetic Sanctuary - A light blue is a matte polish with subtle iridescent shimmer sparkles like the snow. 2 Coats Recommended

Snow Much Fun - Victoria from The Manicurator - A light blue jelly with light blue holo glitter, white glitters in several sizes and finishes, a sprinkling of micro holographic glitter, and white snowflake glitter. 3 Coats Recommended

Merry Pinkmas – Cris from Let Them Have Polish - A light cotton candy pink polish featuring red, green and neon glitters in a variety of shapes. 2-3 Coats Recommended

Plum Tuckered Out – Sheila from Pointless Café - A rich plum color with blue shimmer. 2-3 Coats Recommended

Toast-ess With The Mostest - Valesha from Peachy Polish - A clear glitter topper loaded with glitters in shades of gold, silver and pink in circles and hex shapes to mimic champagne. 1 Coat Recommended

I Only Have Ice For You – Sarah from Chalkboard Nails - Clear top coat with shimmering white flakes and holographic glitters. 1 Coat Recommended

Strung Out- Jackie from Candy Coated Tips - A black jelly polish with circle “light” glitters in gold, silver, green, blue, red. 1-2 Coats Over Black Recommended

Sand In My Stocking – Jen The PolishAholic - A golden toned sand inspired polish with pops of orange, aqua, and holographic stars. 1 Coat Recommended

Will Yule Marry Me? – Chelsea from The Nail Network - A navy blue creally with sparkling silver holo circle and hex holo glitter. 2 Coats Recommended

KBSHIMMER – Winter 2013 COLLECTION
Kringle All The Way- 2013 Toys For Tots Charity Polish - A glitter top with circle glitters in red, green, and silver. 1 Coat Recommended

All Elf’d Up - A white creally with hex glitters and micro slices in red, green and sliver. 3 Coats Recommended

Snow Flaking Way - A deep indigo jelly base with violet and sky blue holographic glitters and sliver holographic snowflakes. 3 Coats Recommended

When The Doves Sigh - A warm gray creally filled with fuchsia circles, square and hex glitters. Turquoise, sapphire, and chrome hexes, micro slices and circles swim among micro holographic sparkles. 2 Coats Recommended

Pigment of Imagination - This multi-chrome polish shifts depending on the angle and the light, from blue, to purple, to red, and more. 1 Coat over Black or 3 Coats Alone Recommended

Myth You Lots (Holographic) - Similar in shift to Pigment of Imagination, this multi-chrome also has a linear holo! 1 Coat over Black or 3 Coats Alone Recommended

Shade Shifter - A multi-chrome polish that changes depending on light and angle from cyan, to blue, to red orange, to purple, and more. 1 Coat over Black or 3 Coats Alone Recommended

Rollin’ With The Chromies (Holographic) - Similar in shift to Shade Shifter, this multi-chrome also has a linear holo! 1 Coat over Black or 3 Coats Alone Recommended

Urban Camo - A multi-chrome polish that shifts from a pretty pistachio green, to a bright green, to silver, to a soft pink almost lavender color depending on the light and viewing angle. 1 Coat over Black or 3 Coats Alone Recommended

Pretty in Punk (Holographic) - Similar in shift to Urban Camo, this multi-chrome also has a linear holo! 1 Coat over Black or 3 Coats Alone Recommended

Maybe Navy - A deep blue polish is filled with shimmering flakes. 2-3 Coats Recommended

On Sale And Shipping November 1, 2013

KBShimmer products can be found at http://www.KBShimmer.com
For sales outside of the US visit http://www.HarlowandCo.org

KBShimmer was founded in 2008 by the husband and wife team of Jason and Christy Rose. KBShimmer offers unique and colorful nail glitter nail polishes that are Big 3 Free, with all glitter formulas being completely free of chemicals such as toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). KBShimmer glitter polishes feature a flat glitter grabbing brush for easy application. KBShimmer also offers a 2-free quick dry polish top coat, olive oil lotion, sugar scrubs, lip balms, cold process soaps and other skin care products.

If you would like more information about KBShimmer, contact Christy Rose by emailing or visiting Http://www.KBShimmer.com.
© 2013 KBShimmer. All rights reserved

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Pick My Wedding Nails! Choice #3 - Subtle Floral

Good morning!

Today I have another possible wedding mani to share with you! If anyone missed the info in the first post, I'll give you a quick recap: I'm getting married on November 15th (omg it's so soon!) and I want you guys to help me choose my bridal manicure. I'll be posting a few designs during the month (the first and second choices have already been posted here and here respectively) and then when I've posted them all, I'll ask you all to pick your favourite.

Today's design again features stamping. I don't do a lot of stamping, but I think that there's a lot of really nice, delicate and feminine options available for bridal nails with stamping. Plus, stamping offers a consistency that let's face it, even the best nail artists can't always emulate.

Lots more photos after the jump!

Bright & Colourful Halloween Mani - Bundle Monster Nail Art Contest Inspired

Before I get to today's post, I must point out that tomorrow is my 26th birthday! I might not get a chance to post, but birthday wishes will be well received, hehe. :D

Anyways, I've been really inspired to play around with stamping lately, mostly because this year I'm one of the judges for ! I've participated in one of Bundle Monster's Nail Art Contests before (and won!), so it was really cool to be offered the opportunity to participate this year in a whole different way.

So, to (hopefully) help inspire some of you to enter this awesome contest, I've created a fun Halloween manicure below using some of the Bundle Monster products I own.

See more photos and get a rundown of all the products used after the jump.

piCture pOlish - Siren Song by Rebecca Likes Nails

Hey guys!

I have a super special post today! I'm showing you one of the newest piCture pOlish Collaboration Shades and this one is especially special because it was created in collaboration with my good friend Rebecca from Rebecca Likes Nails!

Some of you might not know this, but Rebecca and I live in the same city so we actually get to hang out and she's even coming to my wedding! So she dropped over last night with a bottle of her collaboration polish so that I could post about it today. I was actually going to purchase a bottle myself, but this works out better because I don't have to impatiently wait to it to arrive in the mail, haha.

Check out all 12 shades from this collection below!

Picking My Wedding Nails! Choice #1 - Classic French with Glitter Accent

Hey everyone!

As a lot of you already know, I'm getting married in November. Now, I'm a pretty organized and detail-oriented kind of person, so the whole business of planning the wedding has actually been pretty easy going for me. However, one area where I'm struggling is how I'm going to do my nails for the big day! So I figured, why not use this as an opportunity to get a little interactive with you all and have you help me choose my wedding mani!

How it'll work is that over the next 5-6 weeks, I'll post all of the possible designs I've come up with. At the end of that period I'll post them all at once and ask you guys to vote on which is your favourite. Once your favourite is chosen, I'll take that into serious consideration when finally choosing my wedding mani. So, here's choice number one!

To get this look, I started with a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff, which is still one of my top favourite polishes released this year. It's the absolute perfect creamy neutral base for nail art when you don't want to use a stark white.

To create the flowers, I used a torn off piece of makeup sponge and just roughly sponged on the shape of the flowers using OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and OPI Eurso Euro. Then I used a striper brush and black polish to create the outlines of the flowers. I also added a few sparse dots in the centre of each flower. I topped it all off with a coat of my beloved Seche Vite.

Even though I've done a floral design using the Euro Centrale blue shades over MVIB already (which can be seen here and a tutorial ), I simply had to use the blues again because the dress I'm wearing to my shower features a lot of blues. Plus, the heels I'm wearing are a beautiful nude so this manicure couldn't be more perfect!

Note: As with all of my holographic review posts, I have two photos for you - one in natural lighting (using my lightbox and a natural daylight bulb) and one using flash to give you a better look at the holo effect.

Amethyst is a deep purple. Super rich colour with a very strong holo effect. The formula was great and I've shown two coats below.

Review - OPI Matte Top Coat

Manicuring 101 - The Different Nail Shapes and How to Achieve Them

I Don't Think You're Ready for this Jelly Floral Mani

Nails of the Day - Neon Zebra Print

A Very Special Valentine's Day Post - Nails by ... David?