OPI Tease-y Does It

Hello ladies,

Hope you had a great weekend :) I actually took ANOTHER trip to the U.S, this time it wasn't really planned. I did get to hit up some of the places I had missed before and get some great deals at Sally's (again! loving the U.S Sally's!). More on that haul in another post.

Today I have an OPI polish from the holiday Burlesque collection, this is Tease-y Does it.

Doesn't the bottle look awesome?! Although it is not a completely accurate representation of what you get on your nails, it does look awesome. This colour was hard to capture on camera so I took a bunch of pictures in different lighting to give you a good representation.

The first 2 photos below are with my camera flash.

As you can see, Tease-y Does has a deep and dusty purple base (almost brown in some lights) and a hint of shimmer red/gold shimmer. It's not really a duochrome, but those were the only colours I saw on the nail. In the bottle the shimmer shifts between green, orange, gold and red.

The last picture I took in indirect sunlight.

All images, as always, are clickable to view every little detail of the polish. I chose to wear this polish because of my short nails, I like dark colours on short nails. They are actually growing in pretty well, which is great :) My secret?...

I have been using Biotin since January, and you know what, I haven't had a break in my thumb nails since! Those nails have been breaking since fall! The recent break I had was my own fault, I had just removed my polish and slammed my finger in to a railing lol I'm such a clutz.

I should do a comparison shot of right after I cut my nails and a month later to see how long they grew. Would you be interested in my progress with Biotin in the future?

My U.S Haul :)

Hello ladies,

Time for some haulin'! As you all know I headed to Buffalo NY last Friday for some cross-boarder shopping. Me and my boyfriend (... mostly me) made a list of the places we wanted to check out, some of which included:

Niagara Falls Fashion Outlet Mall
Walden Galleria Mall
Dollar Tree
Ulta
Sally's
Rite Aid
Big Lots

I hope to help those visiting Buffalo in the near future find some good stuff :)

The first polishes I have are from Rue 21 which was located in the outlet mall.

I picked up these 2 L.A Girl Rock Stars, left to right, Rockstar and Supernova. They had a bunch of other polishes, I remember seeing some neons and black light shades. There was also another brand of scented polish also. I picked these up for $3.99 each I believe. Supernova is a sheer black base packed with prismatic bar glitter. I thought this polish would have an opaque black base, but after trying it out I think this would be best layered.

Here's a close up of Rockstar, it is a black polish with duochrome shimmer. Reminds me of OPI, Tease-y Does It, but with a black base or Sinful Colour, What's Your Name.

Next I have some purchases from Walden Galleria. First, let me start off my saying that this mall has many beauty shops and is a good place to stop off at if you are looking for polish! Although, I didn't go nuts here, just got what I "needed" lol.

Below are my purchases from Sephora. I got some gift cards from Christmas and love spending them in the States because everything is a lot cheaper. i.e, in Canada Sephora by OPI polishes go for $12! The dollar is at par too so it sucks of us! One thing I did notice is that Sephora seems to be raising their OPI polish prices from $9.00 to $9.50, not a huge jump, but the polish is already pricey.

I picked up IM Beauty, Traffic Stopper Copper and Havana Nights. IM Beauty was on sale for $5, while the other 2 were full price at $9.50.

IM Beauty is a light, soft yellow cream. I didn't intend on picking this polish up, but it was on sale and will be a perfect colour for spring and summer. I love how it looks with Havana Nights, may have to come up with a mani where I can use them together.

I knew I had to have this when I first saw it, I mean, I already have Flurry Up and Only Gold For Me! This is basically the same as those but copper, hex and small glitter in a clear base. I was glad to see that they had many in stock at this location, ad the one at Yorkdale mall hardly has a sample!

I had thought about Havana Nights for a while, but was indecisive it I really wanted it or not. Going to Buffalo I knew I wanted to pick this one up, It's a light baby blue cream and I LOVE my blues :)

Next stop in the mall, a Beauty Supply/Hair Salon? I didn't remember the name so I checked out their online directory, no real help unfortunately. I would definitely go back to this mall for this one place alone! They carried almost every brand of salon nail polish and had all the new collection displays out. I'm talking about crackle, Katy Perry and Texas. I saw two full displays of OPI Shatter and a full display of the new China Glaze Crackle... I'm kinda bummed out I didn't at least get 1 black to try out. But I figured I cold get it cheaper at Sallys.

Annnnnnyyways, I didn't go nuts and only got what I really wanted, OPI, Big Hair, Big Nails from the Texas collection. It's such a bright corally pink jelly :) with taxes this cost me under $8.00.

I went to several Dollar Trees but did not find exactly what I was looking for. I found the packs of 2 Cover Girl polishes, but nothing worth purchasing :( but I did find this cool nail tool, buffer, filler thing lol. It actually works alright for being a $1.

The next one I hit up had the Divas polish with the nail file in the handle I had seen recently on some blogs. I knew I wanted this colour specifically, so I picked it up and went on my way. Star is a light blue cream with slight teal undertones, not as blue as Havana Nights and a bit brighter. I would love to wear this layerd wih Traffic Stopper Copper, love the colour combo :)

The next stop was Ulta, I was amazed my first time but I knew what I wanted this time! Obviously Ulta has everything, unfortunately it was nothing I wanted :( I really wanted an essence stampy plate but they didn't have any left :( After not buying anything and being bummed out there I headed to Sally's which brightened my day.

I got Seche Vite and Seche Clear, BOGO free! Plus I got 20% off with a coupon, PLUS I got a free ION product since I renewed my card in the same month as last year AND got my $5 off coupon for my next purchase :) It was less than $5.00 for both polishes.

Seche Vite Top Coat

Seche Vite Base Coat

I decided to go with the ion Silk Drops which offers shine and frizz reduction. I actually used it the other day, it smalls like pink bubble gum :)

At Sally's I intended on picking up some China Glaze Crackle, unfortunately for me, the sales associate let me know that she wasn't sure if they were even getting them in! First the Anchors Away collection, now the crackle? wtf is up with Sallys!? Is is because of the Tronica collection, because that is kind of a disappointment also lol.

Although I intended on checking out a Rite Aid, by the time I passed by one I didn't feel like going in anymore, it had been a long day. I did really want to go to Big Lots but forgot! It's right beside the outlet mall too, but I was tired and forgot. Next time for sure!

Not sure if you ladies are interested, but I also checked out 2 Coach factory outlets, one on the U.S side and one on the Canada side and picked up an AMAZING full leather purse, it was originally $500! so I got an amazing deal. Let me know if you are interested in seeing it, and I will include a photo in my next post.

Hopefully you are still with me here, a long post indeed, but I hope you enjoyed it :)

My Starry Night - Pic Heavy!

Hello ladies,

Today I have one of the polishes I talked about the other day, an old school Wet n' Wild, Cosmopolitan. From the photos I have seen online, I consider this polish very close to Essie's Starry, Starry, Night. In order to showcase this colour the best I can, I have taken many pictures in different lighting... lots of picture ahead!

The first two below are taken with my camera flash right after I applied the polish. As you can see, this polish is a deep blue jelly with tiny silver sparkles.

I applied 3 coats total, but you could definitely get away with 2. The first coat was kind of streaky but the second coat evened everything out.

The next two photos were taken with the camera flash also, but with a different camera, this was also a few days in to wearing it.

Below are the most accurate photos I could get, and really capture the jelly in the polish.

lol, I took this picture in the car on the way to the U.S, notice my boyfriend driving in the background :) These were all taken with natural light.

I recommend enlarging these pictures to see how much depth this polish has, it literally looks like a sky full of stars. Although the glitter is silver, some appear slightly blue because of the jelly formula. Super pretty, glossy and awesome to look at :)

Still on the way to the U.S, got my passport in hand. Direct sunlight.

And the final picture, the best one for sure :) I'm sure you have noticed my nails are A LOT shorter than they were in my last post. I broke a nail really, really bad so I decided to chop them all down. Although it was a shock at first, I am starting to like the length and they will eventually grow back :)

So, how do you think this compares to Essie's Starry, Starry Night? Haul pictures from the States to come soon :)

Starry, Starry Night?... New Polish Stuffs :)

Hello ladies,

Today I have some polish stuff I purchased a couple of weeks ago, before my U.S trip last Friday. I don't have much but I still wanted to share.

First I have some discontinued Wet n' Wild polishes I picked up at a local flea market. A blue one instantly caught my eye when I was walking by the stand, but it was 2 for a $1.00 so I went digging to find another. I ended up going with the blue polish, Cosmopolitan, which is a deep blue jelly with tiny irregular shaped silver sparkles *cough* Essie Starry, Starry Night Dupe?

Not 100% convinced that it is an exact dupe, but I think it comes pretty close. The shine in this polish, so pretty, super glossy and the glitter is not gritty at all. I'm really happy I found this one :) Below is a close up of the bottle.

The next polish is called Nymph, and is an off white looking, light gray. The formula is actually pretty good on this one. It's a cream and only needs 2 coats to reach full opacity. The first coat applies super smooth. I defiantly need to head to the flea market more often, even if there are only 2 decent polishes out of the whole mess of crap that they have lol.

Moving on, a couple of weeks back I did a review on the Born Pretty Store with some products they sent to me. Since then I had purchased a set of 5 dotting tools which I am happy to inform you arrived pretty speedy now that the holidays are over.

As you can see, the size ranges and they are double sided, so basically it's like having 10 different dotting tools.

I played around with these a little bit, but I need to come up with some ideas for nail art before I use them on a full mani. Anyone have any suggestions or online tutorials they would like to share on creating designs with dotting tools? Please let me know :)

A Glossy Konadicure

Hello ladies,

Wow, it's been a week since my last blog post! My cold is partly to blame, but I have really been feeling lazy lately... I hate it, I don't really want to do anything. Maybe it's the weather or something, I'm really hoping that spring comes soon :)

Although I haven't posted since last Thursday, my current mani was applied on Friday, so yea, you didn't miss much lol. I wanted to do some sort of Valentines themed mani so I looked at my collection of polishes and picked out some pinks and reds and did some skittle swatches to see what I liked best.

with flash indoors

no flash before appetizers arrived for Valentines :) I love how jelly this polish looks!

A shot my boyfriend took

I ended up going with NYC Glossies Raspberry due to its smooth application, jelly like appearance (although it is not) and shiny glossy finish. I applied 2 coats with it's wider than normal polishes brush. It was perfect! The only bad thing I can say about this polish is that I applied this mid afternoon and still got sheet marks the next day! Weird, maybe it's the formula, I mean, this polish is kind of old. A coat of Seche Vite made it perfect :)

I kept this polish on it's own for Friday and took photos... I had forgotten to insert my memory card in to my camera though so I don't have pictures :( I was very upset about this because I had some sunlight that day too!! Anyways, I still wanted something Valentines-y, but then decided to go will a full nail design from a Konad plate. I never used or really liked this one that much, but I feel like the upward lines really elongate the nails. It also was not to over the top so I applied it to every nail.

What do you ladies think, Valentines day appropriate?

On another note, wish me luck for tomorrow :) I am heading to the States to do some Presidents day sale shopping lol. Me and the boyfriend went last year too, this year we mapped out a bunch of stops along the way to major malls including Ulta (CANNOT WAIT!), Sally's and Big Lots. I hope to come back with a bunch of goodies to show you on Monday!

Valentine Kisses - A Fauxnad Mani

Hello Ladies,

Today I have a Valentines Day inspired mani since it is coming up soon. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Sonic Bloom as my base added some kiss/lip BM stamping.

At first I didn't know 100% on how I was going to incorporate the lips/kiss stamping image. The initial idea I had was to to a white french mani and put a single kiss on select fingers below the French tip. But that had ben done before, I wanted something new. I thought of using Lubu Heels as a French mani with a red kiss, but red over black didn't work.

Right hand

In the end I decided to layer some pink and white kisses on my ring and thumb fingers so it looked like a full nail pattern. I really love the end result!

Right hand

It's a full nail pattern, but when used with similar colours and on a couple of nails is subtle and adds more interest than if i were to add it to each nail. The colours I used were perfect for this, a light pink and white, the two colours played well with each other and gave the design some depth.

I prefered the way that my right hand came out to my left hand. I did my left hand first, so it may have been the practice from that hand that made the right a little nicer.

What do you ladies think :)

Trying to Franken a Dupe for Nars Zulu - work in progress

Hello Ladies,

I have never owned a Nars polish, technically they are a newer brand for me and the ones I have seen at Sephora are a little out of my price rang for polish. That being said, I have heard great reviews on this brands polish and formula and that may justify the price for some.

One polish from Nars that I'm sure everyone's heard of is Zulu, this was re-released recently. I have seen swatches of Zulu for a while now and I have really come to love it. I made the decision to franken something close after seeing a recipe on another blog for a Zulu dupe. I didn't have the same polishes, but I made due with what I had.

Zulu, for those who don't know, is a deep forest green jelly and is super glossy when dry. For my version I used a Maybelline clear base/top coat, a no name deep blue jelly, a bright yellow no name jelly and Caboodles Black.

natural day light

I couldn't tell you exactly how much I used of each polish because I was constantly adding to the bottle to get the right colour. Pictured is what I have so far, I am pretty happy with the outcome. I only needed two coats to reach opacity. I still want to add some more yellow to the polish as I think it leans slightly too blue. The yellow polish was giving me the most issues of the bunch, it was so hard to get it out of the bottle!

Camera Flash

The pictures actually make the colour appeal lighter than it really is and the polish is still a work in progress. I am playing around with it a bit more and will post up the end result once it is completed.

Sonic Bloom - Valentines Pink

Hello Ladies,

Today I have one of the first Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes I have ever purchased, and ever worn! So far I only own 2, but I'm pretty sure I will be purchasing some more. I decided I wanted to go with something pink for Valentines since it is less than a week away.

Right before I started my polish obsession I loved wearing different shades of pink, it was my go to mani colour especially in the summer. Ever since I discovered all these new brands, colours and finishes, I haven't worn pink at all! I love the pink shades, and i'll buy them on occasion, but I never wear them. I would prefer an edgy color like Jade is the New Black to one of my old Sally Hansen pinks any day... I think that may change in the summer after wearing this polish!

Natural daylight

Sonic bloom is a super hard to capture bright, pink leaning coral colour. In the photos it appears to be more red-pink then coral-pink, which is a shame because it's just to pretty, it definitely has some yellow/orange undertones in it that my camera was not picking up.
The brushes on these polishes are large and similar, if not the same as the Salon line Sally has. The stem of the brush is also thick and wide which I really do not like. I found that I almost knocked over the bottle because it is thinner and taller than what I'm used to using during application.

Natural daylight

That being said, these Insta-Dri polishes are pretty well pigmented and apply pretty well if you are careful with the brush. I would suggest working fast though, I find the polish tends to get thicker/dry the longer you take to apply. I used 2 coats and was happy with opacity, and true to it's name it did dry fast. This colour really glows and shines, it is super glossy!

camera flash

By the end of the day I did some Valentines nail art which I will show in a couple of days. So far I have been wearing this mani for 3 full days and I am very happy with it, no chips or tip wear yet.

Another great thing about this polish that I have read on other blogs is that the formula works great for Konad. If that is true, that's awesome, way cheaper than the special polish and it comes in a great variety of colours.

Do you own any Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes? If so, which is your favorite?

Guest Nails - An Unexpected Tiffany Blue

Hello ladies,

Today I have a mani I did for my sister the other day. She said that she wanted a Tiffany blue, first thing that comes to mind is China Glaze, For Audrey. But I wanted to try something different. I ended up using an old Sally Hansen New Lengths polish I had picked up a couple years ago but never wore, it's called Sheer Aqua, it's actually not sheer at all, 2 coats are all you need for full opacity.

I'm not sure If you can tell from the bottle, but it looks worn and discolored, luckily the actual polish inside the bottle is fine. I'm pretty sure I picked this up at some sort of liquidation, thats why it looks so rough.

I added a couple of drops of thinner and applied 2 coats to each nail and it looked great! The first coat was a little streaky, but once the second coat set, the finish looked perfect. Not too bad for a polish that I picked up for under $1.

I finished it off with a topcoat and a BM flowers stamp on her ring fingers in white and that was it.

How do you like this colour, how do you think it compares to For Audrey?

China Glaze Hauls... from December to now!

Hey Ladies,

Today I have post that is a long time coming! Some of these polishes were purchased in late December but I just forgot to post them. I guess I should start with the most recent and go back from there.

Within the last 2 weeks and I stopped in to Sally's 3 times to see if they had any more polishes reduced. To my surprise the Sally's closest to me had China Glaze, Ick-a-body which I had wanted for a while reduced to $2.50 :) I also picked up a base coat of Gelous for my weak thumb nails on another visit. Upon checking out the next closest Sallys I also found China Glaze, Jitterbug, another one I had on my wish list for $2:50 as well :) I was supper happy about both of these!

I just received these lovelies in the mail last week from Amazon.com apart of China Glazes Anchors Away collection. Although there was a great variety of beautiful colours, I decided more on the dusty neutrals; Sea Spray, Pelican Grey and Below Deck.

In December Sallys had a promo when you purchase any 2 China Glazes you get 1 additional China Glaze free! I picked up Dorothy Who?, Lubu Heels and Emerald Fitzgerald. Emerald Fitzgerald being from the fall collection was reduced to $2.50, but I got one of the full priced polishes for free also apart of the 3 polish promo!! Such a great deal! Durning this visit I also purchased Orly's Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, if you missed the post, this is what I wore for Christmas, you can see that polish here. In total, the 4 polishes with tax only cost me around $16!

Speaking of Sally's, they have a promo at their Canadian and U.S stores, when you buy Seche Vite Top Coat you get Seche Vite Clear Base Coat for Free! Pretty good deal, I might have to check it out ;) The U.S stores also have their whole stock of Orly's for $4.99 which is great! Canadian stores are more unfortunately :( I will be heading to the States this month so I just may have to search for a Sally's :)

Heppy Friday everyone, hope you enjoy the weekend ahead :)