Wild and Willing - mani refresh

Hello Ladies,

Today I have a mani refresh to my layering experiment I did with Sally Hansen, Sequin Scandal and Color Club, Wild and Willing. When I added wild and willing I didn't expect for it to show too much and be as dramatic as it looked. Sure it looked pretty cool, almost like Orly, Space Cadet, but if that's what I was going for I would have just put that on instead.

At the time it was a little too much for me, so I looked through my Konad and BM plates to see if I could find a full nail stamp to give my mani a little something special.

please enlarge all images!!

I chose BM plate 19 and double stamped sideways so I could cover the full width of some of my larger nails. There is a bit of overlap in the stamping, but I like it :)

I love the look overall, stamping black over an already dark colour gives a more subtle, softer look I think.

Here it is in the sun so you can see the pattern a little better, very hard to capture under regular lamp light!

And here it is with the standard flash.

What do you ladies think? I was very happy with this one and removed it after a full week of wear! It wore amazing by the way!

Color Club Wild and Willing - Layering Experiment

Hey Ladies,

Today I have a quick layering experiment with Sally Hanson, Sequin Scandal and Color Club, Wild and Willing.

In the bottle Wild and Willing is this great copper multichrome that flashes green, yellow and gold. The formula is quite thin, this is why I chose it for layering.

Once I added just one coat over Sequin Scandal, the colour took on a whole new look!

This almost reminds me of space cadet! The dark base brings out other shades in Wild and Willing, primarily purple .

This look was great, so many colours at once and I love the flakie/foil texture :)

... but it was still missing something ...

I'll show you what I added to this mani tomorrow. I loved it so much I kept it for a full week!

Sally Hansen - Sequin Scandal

Hey Ladies,

Today I have a quick mani post, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, Sequin Scandal.

Click to zoom in on the shimmer!

I keep wanting to call this one sequin sandal lol, I think I read it wrong the first time I saw it on a blog and now it's stuck in my head!

This is a part of the latest limited edition line (by Tracy Reese). When I saw the full display I knew I had to have this and Problem Child, they were the stand outs for me. One thing both polishes have in common are these little flakie bits. I didn't even know Sequin Scandal had them, but once you give the bottle a good shake they appear. Keep this in mind when purchasing, to me it looked like some bottles had more flakies than others.

My photos show 2 coats with no topcoat. Unfortunately it was grey the day I took this picture so you don't see a lit of the shimmer, I forgot to take a flash shot. This polish is very pigmented and you could get away with one thick coat if you wanted to, I opted for 2 thinner ones.

The colour is a deep olive green with golden/green shimmer. I really love it :) I am super in to the darker shades lately. Fun Fact: when I was in high school all I wore was black nail polish lol

The formula on these "salon" polishes are awesome, I really like them. I always have to get use to the brush at first, but it really helps to get a nice clean curve at the cuticle.

This polish definitely needs a topcoat to truly sparkle, but I had planned on layering another colour on top, so I decided not to add more coats of nail polish on top than I needed to.

What do you think about the newest Sally Hansen Fall collection? Which polishes are your favorite?

Sally Hansen - Foil Polish Haul and Comparison

Hello Ladies,

Today I have some Sally Hanson Foils I just picked up. I was in a foil mood from seeing so much of the China Glaze Holiday collection foils and just happened to find these :)

From left to right: Applause, Rave Review, Brushed Gold, Antique Frost and Pure Metal.

I had picked up another one, but it was close to Pure Metal so I didn't swatch it.

Applause - a purple foil with what looks like some silver bits

Rave Review - a deep silver foil, looks like there is a hint of deeper shades in there also

Brushed Gold - a yellow gold foil

Antique Frost - a bronze foil

Pure Metal - a white/platinum silver

Below I have them swatched on my fingers:

click to enlarge :)

Thumb - Pure Metal

Index - Antique Fost

Middle - Bushed Gold

Ring - Rave Review

Pinky - Applause

natural light

Overall I would have to say that my favorites are Applause and Rave Review, they are definitely the most foily polishes of the bunch. Brushed Gold is alright too, but the gold is a little too yellow for me, same goes for Antique Frost, too bronzy. These 2 were also a little bit more frosty than I thought they would be.

Pure Metal was an interesting colour, it was a mix between a foil and a chrome, I think this one would work good for konading.

Click to enlarge :)

I'm glad that these ones were so cheap because I get to try them out and if I don't like them, I don't feel so bad :) I actually really do like them, it is very different for me, but I like it.

Over all these are decent, easy to apply, easy to remove. I'm pretty sure that there are a couple of collections in here, one sounds theater themed and the other is more metal/metallics. Does anyone know for sure? I wish each brand had a timeline of their polish collections, that would be so awesome!

Click to enlarge :)

Anyways, what do you ladies think? Do you like foils? If these were still around would you pick them up?

China Glaze - Pepermint Cuticle oil

Hey Ladies,

Today I have a quick review on my new bottle of peppermint cuticle oil from China Glaze's Holiday collection. I have found that other bloggers who have showcased this full collection have left out the cuticle oil, so I am here to share with you my thoughts on it today. I will also be comparing it to a cuticle oil I already own by Essie.

First Up, China Glaze.

First of all, love the frosted bottle :) My bottle of China Glaze base coat is frosted also and I love it! You must have seen this before, so yo know it's red and upon opening the bottle you can smell the amazing scent of peppermint, which is awesome. It makes my cuticles smell so fresh and so clean!

When I first applied the oil to my skin I noticed that the red pigment was visible, see below:

But once rubbed in slightly, the red disappears and gives my skin a nice glow.

On to Essie.

Although the 2 oils appear to have a similar colour to them, when I applied the Essie it did not show any pigment.

Brushed on

Rubbed in.

Even though the peppermint oil is visible, since it goes away once rubbed in it was not an issue for me.

I tested China Glaze on one thumb and Essie on the other. I found the Essie to be slightly thicker and stickier, when compared to China Glaze. And I'm not sure if it's just me, but I feel a light coolness with the China Glaze (could be the peppermint?). Let me know if you felt this too.

My main reason for purchasing it was because of the scent, so I am happy with that! Overall it does it's job. I haven't used it consistently so I can't comment right now on effects of long term usage. I will definitely be using it throughout the Christmas season though :) so I may be doing a follow up.

I personally use cuticle oils and moisturizers at night so it can just absorb in to the skin and do its job while I am sleeping, otherwise using it during the day can be messy!

Do you use cuticle oil? If so, which one do you prefer?

A Very Christmas Haul

Hey Ladies,

I am so getting in the Christmas mood lately, I love the holidays :) over the weekend I went to one of my usual beauty supply shops looking through their shelves and writing down a list of the polishes I would like for Christmas :) Between my parents, brother and sister we always make Christmas lists so everyone knows what to buy for each other.

Anyways, on the right side of the store they usually have no name brands and a discounted polish bin (usually no name brands.) To my surprise I saw some of the China Glaze Holiday collection in there!

I picked up Mrs. Clause, Frosty and peppermint cuticle oil :) As you can tell by the pictures one of these polishes does not belong ... actually both Mrs. Clause and Frosty had the silver paint scraped of of the bottle lid, this is why they were discounted. From what I could understand from the owner (broken English) she said that something spilled on them during transportation (I would assume the cuticle oil) so they were selling them at a discounted price. Although, there was nothing wrong with the cuticle oil!

They also had Phat Santa but I have enough reds already. I do want to go back soon though and see if they have any of the foils discounted also :)

I got all 3 polishes for $2.99 each! I can't wait to wear frosty and I will be doing a review of the cuticle oil soon, I find that is has been over looked in other blogs full collection reviews.

So going from cheap polish to overly expensive ... the next christmas polish I have for you is from Sephora by OPI's holiday line. This was a whopping $12.00! I really had to think this one through... Hmm... I had $3+ on a giftcard and I had found a $5 bill in my winter jacket the day before, so it was like the polish was REALLY $4 ... right ...? lol

Click to enlarge :)

I am DYING to get flurry up but it was out of stock when I was there last, but I did find 212. I actually didn't know it was apart of the holiday collection initially, I did know however that it is limited edition.

This polish is sooooo coool! All the photos I have seen online do not to this polish justice! I would describe it as an almost black, grey, brown, olive with subtle holographic glitter, gold shimmer (that changed with the light, green, gold red) and has flakies! I hope that makes sense lol basically this polish is nuts, I included another photo below to show up the shimmer this gives.

Click to enlarge :)

Isn't that awesome!

Next I have another China Glaze Holiday polish, Party Hearty (my sister got a kick out of this one, the name reminded her of Andrew W.K - Party hard. Weirdly enough she disliked the polish!) I got this along with my first ever bottle of Seche Vite Topcoat!

I got these polishes for free though Swagbbucks! I have mentioned this site before, basically you sign up and earn points for searching. Once you get enough points you trade them in for items of your choice. I always choose Amazon.com giftcards :)

If you'd like me to send you an invite, please email me at enthuseme@hotmail.com with the subject line SWAGBUCKS. I can also give you the links to some great sites/blogs that provide you with swag codes which earn you even more points!

Anyways, hoped you liked my holiday haul! Have you ladies done any holiday hauling yet? Which holiday collection are you liking the best?

Nicole by OPI No Limits Matte

Hay ladies,

Today I have 2 firsts for you, my first Nicole by OPI polish, and my first time wearing a matte nail polish. I have used my Essie - Matte About You top coat once in the past, but never an actual matte polish.

The colour I chose is No Limits, a deep, dark, shimmery blue. I picked this colour out mostly because it reminded me of OPI, Russian Navy Matte. This polish happened to be cheaper at the time, so it was sold!

What I loved about Russian Navy Matte was the denim look it had, but once you put a topcoat on it it was super sparkly, 2 polishes in one. This is all going off of what I have seen on other blogs, I still don't own Russian Navy Matte (I have the regular version) and I probably wont, but I think this polish will hold me over.

This was surprisingly a one coater, you have to work fast as it dries quick! Not knowing this, I had to go back on a few nails to even out the strokes. Pigmentation was awesome but the formula was kind of thick. I would like to thin it but I'm not sure if my thinner would work properly with this polish formula. Has any one thinned out a matte polish before? Please enlighten me :)

The one issue I have with matte polishes is that I can't wear lotion... but I need to moisturize! So basically I had matte nails for less than a day then they were more of a suede kind of weird finish. That bugged me so I added a top coat.

Now I don't know if this is just me, but the finish I got once my top coat was dry didn't really look like a normal gloss. It looked almost as if the nail polish absorbed the gloss .... if that makes any sense!

Anyways, I added another glossy top coat (this time my trust Nailene Acrylic Strong) and I got the glossy look I was going for :)

I also added a BM/fauxnad pattern on my ring fingers (plate BM 20). I think it looks like velvety curtains or something lol.

Removal sucked! I think this is one of the hardest to remove and messiest polishes I have ever owned! Because there is so much glitter it takes a while to remove, and also because the blue is so dark and pigmented it made a mess of my fingers and cuticles!

This polish is okay overall, but I don't know if I would purchase more mattes in the future, I prefer to use my Matte About You top coat with the colours I already own instead. What is your preference?

Magic Toes!

Hry Ladies,

Today I have a colour that a lot of people love, Claire's Magic. I heard a lot about this colour when I started really collecting polish but I didn't get it at the time. I saw it at Claire's and thought this is what everyone is talking about? didn't really pop out at me, but still bought it as apart of their 10 for $10. I put it with my other polishes and never really looked at it again, until now. Now I got it!

click to enlarge

The shimmery purple with the awesome duochrome, its so great :) The colour is so hard to capture, and as I've said before the camera flash is all I have to work with during the winter weeks, but I can assure you this polish has an awesome duochrome hiding in the deep shimmery purple base.

click to enlarge

I kind wish I had gotten a backup, its so pretty and such a great fall pedi colour. I took a pic of the bottle to try and get a better representation of the colour, but it's much better in person.

On a side note for a sec, I suck at pedicures by the way lol, I try my best but my toenails suck! And I hate getting in to weird positions to get up as close to the nails as possible lol.

click to enlarge

back to the bottle shot, I like how the green and purple look together, I was not trying to match them by any means though! lol no one really sees my toes during the fall to winter period anyways.

Do you own Magic? If so, when do you prefer to wear it?

Water Lilies Edge

Hey ladies,

Today I have a mani refresh with L'oreal - Waters Edge, a Sally Hansen Chrome and plate BM08. Originally I wanted a floral pattern and was going to freehand a colourful one, but more on that in a bit.

Anyways, for this nail look I chose to stamp a pattern of multiple flowers on each nail, But once I applied the first stamp I liked the subtle yet elegant look of one stamp placed randomly. I applied the same look to the rest of my nails.

click to enlarge and for higher res photo

My sister said it reminded her of lily pads on water, and I think that is exactly what it looks like, an aerial shot of flowers scattered on a body of water.

Back to my first idea I had, the freehand flowers. I decided to try out this idea before applying it to my nails (on a fake nail). It came out alright and I planned on applying it to my ring fingers only, but it didn't come out so great. Below was my first attempt, I was inspired by Emerald Sparkled.

I will have to try the free hand flowers another time when I have some more patience lol


What do you think?

Waters Edge

Hello Ladies,

I have been wearing so many darker colours lately so I decided I wanted something a little more brighter and cheerful, so here we have L'oreal - Water's Edge.

I picked up this colour close to the end of summer along with another one from the same collection, this is also the First L'oreal I have tried out of the two.

The formula actually surprised me, the first coat applied kind of thin and I had thought I would have to build it up a lot, but only one more coat and I was good to go. I'm pretty sure this is a cream, but it is one of those creams that has certain qualities of a jelly; super glossy and squishy. I love jellies so this is awesome :)

It also dried fairly quickly considering I used thicker coats. One minor set back was that I got some tiny bubbles on my left hand, this may have been due to the thicker coats. I hate bubbles! They were not that noticeable, thankfully. I also notices the longer I wore this mani, they seemed to go away/become less noticeable.

I wore this polish for a full week with no chips and very, very minor tip wear :) I also did some konading, so stay tuned for that.

Overall I really like this teal, greenish blue. I think it's perfect for summer or spring, but it has a dusty quality to it that I think can work in fall also. What do you ladies think ;)

The Perfect Formula French Manicure Kit

Hey Ladies,

Today I have another product from the Perfect Formula; the Perfect French Manicure kit.

As always the packaging is great, a cute pink box with the contents and ingredients of all polishes included on the back.

This kit comes with a cute pink and white case to hold your polishes, this is great if you want to bring them around with you for a quick touch up.

The polishes included in the kit are:

Step 1 -Bright Base Coat
Step 2 -French Tip Wand
Step3 -High Gloss Sealer

Lets talk about the French tip wand, this is what interested me the most as it is unique from what I have seen in other French manicure kits.

Below is a picture of the French tip wand

It reminds me of a lip gloss applicator. The polish that is applied with the French tip wand can be touched up/cleaned up with water if needed. This is also true for the Sally Hanson French tip pen I reviewed earlier on. Although you can remove and touch up the"polish" with water, it still stays put once you apply the top coat.

So lets go though the steps:

Step 1
Please forgive my yellowish nails, they are not that bad in person I swear!
I really like this base coat, it has a nice little hint of pink that makes my nails look a little healthier :) ... again it may not show as much in this picture, but I can assure you it is true.

Step 2
Here is where it got interesting. The formula on the white French tip was really thick. I'm not sure if I was sent an older batch or something, but it was hard to work with. I was so excited about the wand when I first saw the kit because it was something new, so I was kind of disappointed that it didn't work the way I thought.

As you can see below, the French tip came out a little rough.

Note: I did each step without any clean up to show how the products actually applied.

Step 3
This top coat was also thick but not unmanageable, nothing a little thinner can't fix.

You can see that the topcoat helped to smooth out the French tip a bit. I think If I had applyed a scond coat of the white tip it may have come out a bit more even.

So there you have it, a complete French tip nail. It doesn't look too bad considering I didn't clean it up, but still not perfect.

Overall I was expecting a bit more from this kit considering how much I love their polish and it's formula. I love the case and the size of the bottles for easy transportation, but the French tip wand does not work for me. I was thinking of thinning it out and trying again, but I'm not sure if my thinner will work with this formula since it is water based.

What are your thoughts on the kit?

*this product was sent to me for review, all views expressed are my own.

The Perfect Formula - On The Go Fabulous Nail Kit

Hello ladies,

Today have a kit from The Perfect Formula; On The Go Fabulous Nails Kit.

This kit contains

A cute brown and green carrying case (reminds me of mint chocoloate ice cream!)
Mini crystal file
Quick shine wand ( 2 way buffer)
Strong nail system, nail moisture

The case is awesome, it has little sectionals inside to hold each piece and also leaves room for you to store other polishes or other supplies.

Crystal file
Loooooove this! its so cute and works soooo well. I don't even need to apply much pressure when filing. I get no breaks or splits either, it leaves my nail tips so smooth.

Quick Shine Wand
Does what it's supposed to do, buffs and shines :) Perfect size for your purse.

Strong Nail System, Nail Moisturizer
This daily moisturizer oil claims that it conditions cuticles and maintains moisture balance in nails to prevent brittleness and breaks. Apparently you can even use it over your polish.

I have been using it on my cuticles at night and it has helped to moisturize my dry skin, the fall weather is not being kind to my skin... kinda dreading winter now :(

It has no odor and is very light, not too thick or overly oily.

Over all this little kit is awesome! The mini buffer and file are great, and the nail moisturizer works awesome on my cuticles (haven't tested on my nails yet, haven't stayed naked for more than 10 min in a loooong time!) I would definitely recommend this for traveling or just to carry around in your purse. Add in a polish and some supplies to the carrying case for a customized on the go mani kit :)

For more information on The Perfect Formula and their products, check out their website.

What do you think of this kit? Would you purchase it?

*this product was sent to me for review, all views expressed are my own.

Sally Hanson, Nail Prisms

Hey ladies,

Today I have a Nail Prism for you. I have been hearing a lot about them lately, it seems they are making a come back in dollar stores in the States. I had originally purchased mine this year at the discontinued cosmetics warehouse I always talk about. I kept going back every so often to build up my collection, I have a pretty large collection of prisms now thanks to that place, all for 50 cents each :)

Anyways, moving on, this polish is almost impossible to photograph properly! there is so much going on in this colour it is nuts! This nail prims, by the way, is called Turquoise Opal. you have to click on all the photos to see the colours up close.

The above photos were taken with my camera flash and you can see the green turquoise shimmer. For the most part I saw purple/blue/green. Because of daylight savings time it is hard for me to capture polishes like this in natural sunlight, and unfortunately I was not wearing this polish on the weekend so I do not have natural sunlight photos :(

lamp light

I did, however get some decent pictures without the flash, in these picture you can definitely see the many colours little bottle of polish has.

washroom light

washroom light

washroom light

The pictures above remind me of space cadet a bit, but those 2 polishes are totally different, same idea with the mutichrome though.

lamp light

lamp light

These last 2 photos remind me of galaxy girl, this polish literally has a rainbow of colours in the bottle ;)

So I'm sure the photos speak for themselves for the pros of this polish .... now on to the cons:

- polish is super thin, I layered it over a medium blue and I'm pretty sure I used 3 or 4 coats to reach full opacity
- the polish bubbled, this is probably due to all the coats and my impatience in between coats lol
- takes a while to dry, but again this may be due to all the coats of polish.

What I will do next time I wear a nail prism is layer it over black or a really dark base colour so I hopefully will not have to use so many coats to reach opacity.

On the bubbles note, I find that a lot of my older Sally Hansen's bubble on me. I think I have to be a little more careful with them in the future, applying thinner coats and allowing time to dry in between. Does this happen to you too?

What do you think of this polish? If you own it, how do you deal with the bubbling and opacity?