Who Else Wants Spring to Come Early?

The frigid winter weather has been in full force this last month, lots of snow and freezing temperatures, I am ready to move on to spring lol I am soooo over winter right now. I was feeling in a bright polish wearing mood so I decided to pull out Zoya Rica. Rica is apart of Zoya's summer collection, Sunshine, from 2011. Although it is a bright shade from a summer collection, it does not overly scream summer, it is actually a great transition polish.

Rica is a shimmery foil polish, the base shade is a coral/pink and there is a gold sparkle of shimmer that runs throughout. The base colour of the shifts depending on your lighting source, the gold shimmer also adds a warmth to the polish which in some lighting makes the overall polish appear more copper or orange.

My favourite lighting for this polish has got to be overcast skies and indirect lighting, you really see the flecks of gold that make up the shimmer (the first two photos in this post). Application as always for Zoya polishes was awesome. the consistency was good, not too thin, not too thick. I only needed two coats to reach full opacity, and the wear has been great! I am going on four days so far and am feeling inspired to do a refresh with some nail art, I just haven't decided what I should do just yet. I am feeling Valentines day even though it is not quite February yet, maybe something with hearts :)

You're As Cold As Ice!

Happy Friday!
The weather has been crazy cold this week so I am super glad that Friday is finally here. The good thing is that the cold freeze inspired me to wear a fabulous polish, Oopsie Daisy Glacier. I was most excited about this polish in the Oopsie Dasiy holiday collection I won late last year. This polish is made up of a bright aqua blue jelly base and packed with micro/mini white glitter and various sizes of iridescent sheer white glitter. I almost forgot, there is also a sprinkling of micro and bar holo glitter, it is subtle but gorgeous.

In my swatches I used two coats. I wish I had applied three thinner coats as opposed to two thicker ones, I should have taken my own advice for application of such dense glitters found in my China Glaze It's A Trap-eze post. I wanted to apply thicker coats to achieve opacity quicker, but I really should have taken my time with it.

Although still stunning, the final texture is kind of lumpy. I am still considering whether I'd like to apply one last coat or not, I don't want to ruin it all-together! As you can tell the cold weather is totally drying out my skin, I have been trying to moisturise as much as I can.

The depth of glitter through the jelly and hints of holo bar glitter remind me of the texture and cracks that are formed in ice. It is an awesome polish overall, and with a little more time spent on application it would have been perfect. HotPinkAura also just posted yesterday that this has been added to the core line if you are interested in it for yourself.

Collective Hauling

Today I have a bunch of polishes I picked up over the last month, not a huge haul but some goodies!

First I will start off with some polishes I ordered in late December but received in January, these are from China Glaze's Cirque du Soleil collection. I picked up Surreal Appeal and Get Carried Away. I had a previous opportunity to pick these up when the collection was first released but they didn't appeal to me at the time.

Surreal Appeal is a coral pink creme. From the swatches I had seen both online and in-store it pulled way more coral/orange, I had even heard it was the non-neon sister to Flip Flop Fantasy which is my all-time favorite! To me it just looks pink though :( it's not all that accurate in my photos either unfortunately.

Get Carried Away is a black, silver and red glitter set in a dark jelly base. The glitter in this one ranges from hex, bar and mircro! Very interesting and complex combo. I'd love to layer this over a black jelly, anyone know of any that is readily available?

Next are some polishes I picked up at Sally's, Ho-Ho-Holly and The Gift Of Sparkle. These polishes are both scented and apart of Color Club's holiday collection. I was so confused when I tried to look up swatches of these, long story short Colour Club released some different shades in their regular release (which are not scented) which have the same names as the collection they released at Sally's. I wish Sally's carried Color Club all year round!

Ho-Ho-Holly is a pretty green foily duochrome which I almost picked up previously but I'm glad I waited, both of these cost me $1 each! The scent of this polish is pine.

The Gift of Sparkle is a blue foil, I figured it would work well for stamping although I haven't tested it out yet. The scent of this one I can't really nail down, probably because I swatched both polishes right beside each other. However, from what I can smell I didn't really like it, kind of sweet and weird.

My final polish purchase is something I was excited to find but did let me down, Gosh Holographic Hero. It is not as holographic as the original, and apparently it is only good for one night? It has a label on the bottle that mentions this, weird. I heard others mention that Gosh used the same formula for Holographic Hero as they I'd for the original Holographic polish. I'm hoping that it will get better with age or something lol I didn't even really need this polish, I have Layla's Murcury Twilight, I guess it's the thrill of owning it, and it was the last bottle in the display!!

 

Did anyone out there get a good bottle or hear any info on Holographic Hero? I think Gosh should do a recall and bring the original formula back :) Swatches to follow in an upcoming post

Black and White

I wanted to do a fun mani refresh with Orly's Au Champaign, which was wearing fantastically by the way, so I turned to my newest Bundle Monster plates for inspiration. Looking through each plate I finally decided on a bold houndstooth print. You may remember the original set of BM plates having a houndstooth pattern, and I actually used it too! You can check it out here.

If you don't remember is was a much smaller pattern with much smaller overall dimensions. So far I cannot say enough good things about the latest BM plates, the designs stamp crisp without any issues and provide full coverage for each nail including my thumb! That is really saying something. I think I may actually prefer them to Konad.

Back to the nail design, I chose a black stamping polish for the design and am really happy with the result and overall look. I find that since Au Champaign is not a stark white and has a shimmer it really softens the whole look. I absolutely love it!

EXTREME CLOSEUP!!

New Polish Finish

I have noticed a new trend in polish lately, that being the introduction of a new textured polish dubbed as "liquid sand" and "pixie dust". The first time I had ever heard of this finish was actually apart of a collection I haven't even seen yet. During last years CosmoProf is when I first heard of the "sand textured" polish from China Glaze, this will be for their upcoming summer collection simple titled Texture.

 

From what I have seen online, this line looks to be a matte finish polish with a speckled texture. I do like the selection of colours, check them out below:

More recently I have seen the Mariah Carry inspired "liquid sand" collection from OPI, this consists of four polishes that have a "sand-like" texture. Essentially from what I have seen, these are glitter based polishes in a colored jelly base which dry matte. I wasn't too crazy about any in this collection, but lately I have been liking the swatches I'm seeing for Can't Let Go, a purple glitter with purple hexagon glitter sprinkled throughout. The Stage Shades below are the Liquid Sand shades. Some swatches I have seen of Get Your Number are starting to grow on me.

Update: I just saw swatches of this collection in store today and I must say that the finish appeals to me more in person than the photos I have seen online. I think it looks more like a sugar texture, it probably would have been more appealing had they gone that route.

The latest brand to release this type of polish is Zoya, with their upcoming Pixie Dust collection which consists of six polishes. I actually prefer the shades from this collection when compared to OPI, I also like the overall texture better. This being said, the OPI and Zoya polishes appear to be similar in style/texture to each other when compared to the China Glaze collection.

That being said, I personally would prefer if it wasn't so chunky looking on the nail. If the glitter lay more flat it would look more appealing. I also this these polishes look better with a top coat! But I just love a shiny, glittery polish :)

What is your opinion of this new polish finish?

Au Champaign!

Happy Friday! Today I have an Orly polish to share from the 2011 holiday collection, Holiday Soiree. Au Champaign is a soft white polish with a little something special. At first I thought it was a white shimmer, but during application I noticed a bit of a frost due to the brush strokes. Also in between coats it dried to an unexpected satin finish! Not what I expected at all! Once I added a top coat I remembered why I tracked this down early last year. A glossy finish made the brushstrokes disappear!

 

It's super hard to explain the finish of the polish, it has sparkle, but I would consider it a shimmer. It is also a very bright white which I didn't expect, I thought it would have been softer like a frost. In my photos I only used two coats but I would probably use a third next time.

Application was a little weird since the polish was a bit goopy, but few drops of thinner helped with that and the second coat. Plus the final layer of top coat evened out any little imperfections.

Overall this is a very wearable white meaning it does not look too stark like white out on your nails! The shimmer makes it so pretty and delicate, similar to the texture/appearance of snow. Such a great holiday and winter polish :)

FeiFei Is My New Bestie!

Did any of you participate in the promo Zoya had earlier this week? Basically they were offering up a code for three free polishes, all you have to pay is shipping, or spend $25 and get three free polishes and shipping! I love when Zoya has these kinds of promos, to be honest it is the only time I make any purchases through them. I was looking up swatches of Zoya polishes to make up my mind on what I would like to purchase for their latest promo when I spotted a polish I already owned, I knew I had to wear it next.

 

 

I am pretty sure I picked up FeiFei through a buy three get three free promo mid year 2012 and I am super glad I did! I had seen swatches of this polish and knew it was like nothing I had seen before, but it is really just so much better in person. The base appears to be an inky indigo with slight purple undertones in some lighting and green in others. The most visible shimmer is a gold that appears green in some lighting that runs throughout. If I look really close I can also make out a faint pinkish/magenta sparkle, I've read if you shake the bottle up really good before application this may be more prominent. There is just so much going in in this polish, the foil-like texture seems to be made up of so many different colours.

 

I had originally heard this polish was very thin and three coats were needed for full opacity. In my own opinion I do find the formula thin for a Zoya polish since usually one coat gives full coverage.However, I only used two coats and was happy with the overall coverage. As always the polish dried smooth and quickly. I think that this has to be one of Zoya's most uniquely beautiful polishes. The only thing that comes close in my collection is OPI Brand New Skates, which has a similar gold shimmer with a grey base, however they are not close to being dupes, FeiFie has a tottaly different finish.

Smartie McFlurry Mani

Smartie McFurry, Clown Puke, confetti in snow, take your pick! China Glaze It's a Trap-eze is totally awesome! I have been wearing it for the past four days and do not want to take it off, it is such a fun polish. The glitter ranges from green, blue, magenta, orange/red yellow and silver medium and small hex glitter. All this glitter is in a milky off-white jelly-ish base.

The key to getting this polish to look great is application. First you should make sure that the polish is all shook up and the glitter is mixed up well, then apply thin coats with some short dry time in-between. This  helps the glitter to lay flat on the nail bed and avoid clumping of glitter in some places and balding in others. Since the glitter is so dense, thin coats are a must. I only needed two thin coats for full coverage.

I suggest applying a thick topcoat over the polish to smooth out the surface and add some shine. I wish I had added a slightly thicker layer of top coat in my left hand, some of the glitter were not covered properly and started to lift up and pick off my the third day. This lead to me picking at it lol. I wish I could keep this on for longer! I thunk it is a great base for nail art or stamping. I will have to try it out next time before it starts to chip.

This is such a cheery polish :) Do you own any of the Cirque du Soleil collection polishes? Which is your favorite? UPDATE - FYI Removal was a lot tougher than I had originally thought, I had used the foil method but the glitter was so dense i still had to pick it off after I removed the remover soaked felt! Scrubbing a bit more with the felt helped but there was glitter EVERYWHERE!! A good scrub with my nail brush and sop cleaned evrything up nicely though :)

Electrifying!

I didn't receive any polish gifts this year for Christmas, but am glad I didn't. I did way too much hauling between November and December to gather what I already wanted! The only polish related item I did receive was the latest collection of Bundle Monster plates from my brother and I could not be happier! This is their best set yet in my opinion, the designs are just awesome and I could not wait to try them out!

I ended up using plate BM-305 to stamp some lightening bolts in black over Ulta Concrete Evidence  I decided not to add a topcoat over the design, I like the matte look, reminds me of a chalkboard drawing.

I didn't photograph the latest Bundle Monster set because it has already been done so many time before! I am very late to getting this set, they will most likely be coming out with a new one shortly. If you'd like to see what each individual plate looks like, click here.

Concrete Evidence

Today I have a polish I actually received last year for Christmas, and it is the first ever Utla brand of polish I have ever tried. Concrete Evidence appears to be from Ulta's Salon Formula line and is a light grey crème.

The formula was actually pretty good, I only needed two coats for full opacity. I did find it to be a tad in the thick side but I evened it out by adding some thinner to the bottle before applying my second coat.

The colour is nice as well, another nice neutral. I find that the grey does tend to lean a little to the blue side, my boyfriend actually pointed that out!

Haulin' - Cross Border Shoping

As a Christmas gift this year my mother treated me and my siblings to a U.S shopping trip! Not only was it a long day if shopping but also some nice time spent with my mother :) although it was a long day everyone had a good time. In Canada after Christmas we have boxing day/week sales, basically retailers want to get rid of their old winter stock for newer spring stock. I've noticed this doesn't really happen in the States, however they do have similar sales going in the weeks following Christmas after the new year, thus is what I picked up beauty wise.

First off my polish! I had been hearing about the dupes and holos Urban Outfitters had been putting out and was lucky enough to find what I was looking for! The only unfortunate part was that there were no deals to be had :( I picked up Sea Dust and Green Holo.

Sea Dust is a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream, or so I have heard. I do not own both to compare, but from what I have seen in the bottles, they are pretty close if not identical. I don't even know where to start on describing this polish! It has a seafoam green shimmer base with teal hex glitter and holo glitter sprinkled throughout, very mermaid indeed!

Green Holo is exactly what the name suggests, and boy is it ever holographic! I have heard others comment that it is more blue than green, bur after I compared it to my other blue holos I still consider it a green shade. I find it may pull a little more blue due to the prismatic effect. Most awkward bottle to showcase a holo by the way lol I tried my bes to capture it.

The bottle shots do not do this polish justice, check out the swatches of both of these Urban Outfitters polishes are below. My camera usually has a hard time photographing holos and these were not a problem, I took these with my lamp light!

Below are swatches for both polishes, two coats each.

Another polish I picked up was from OPI's collaboration with Mariah Carry, which I was not to impressed with colour and name wise. I don't get the whole "liquid sand" texture thing. I picked up the only polish I found interesting, Pink Yet Lavender  I dislike the name lol. The polish however is an awesome pink hex glitter with holo glitter in a clear base.

Next I picked up a lip balm and polish duo from Lip Smackers! I got this at Wall Mart where all Christmas gift sets were reduced to 50% off the original price, I picked this up for $2.50. The polish is a mini and does not have a name but it is awesome! Red hex glitter plus regular and mirco glitter. Which a great combo. The lip balms are Candy Cane Cake and Buttercream Frosting. I love the little tin they come in :) it's zippered and perfect as a on the go makeup bag!

Swatches for the OPI and Lip Smackers Glitter are below

At Sephora I got an Urban Decay 24 hour eyeliner set, I originally just wanted one, but the kit cost only $4 more and you get 6 different colours! I also spotted this today at Shoppers for $47!!

I tested them out on my hand, I found the colored pencils to be more pigmented and last longer when wiped off. I can see myself having fun with these! I am not one to wear a lot of makeup, but eyeliner has always been a must for me.

I scrubbed at the swatches pretty hard before the next photo:

Next makeup item I could not resist picking up, Blinged Palet, which is a Sephora branded eyeshadow, lip gloss and blush pallet. This is perfect for me, like I said I don't wear much makeup but when I do I prefer neutrals, the gloss and blush were a plus! This was on sale for $15.

The last beauty item I picked up is from the Body Shop, a Chocomania gift set consisting of Chocomainia scented body butter, body scrub, body wash and lip butter. If you haven't smelled this scent before it is the perfect chocolate scent. I have smelled other chocolate scented, perfume, lotion, etc and this is the only one I can stand. It smells like cocoa and almonds, not too sweet and fake like others :) I snagged this kit for only $10!

That is it for now other then a few bottles of Seche Vite I got on sale at CosmoProf, but you know what that looks like lol. Until next time :)