Jack the Lad

My first ever Butter London and it was found in the most unexpected place, Winners! I spotted a few different polishes but ultimately I chose Jack the Lad. First of all, lets talk about the bottle for those of you who have never tried a Butter London before.

I love this shape, a square, bold bottle with a batching handle topper. What I love about this bottle is you get design and functionality, as the top topper pops off the top of the brush to reveal a more ergonomic handle. I do wish the handle was a tiny bit longer and the brush was a bit wider. But there is a cute little birdy on the top, so that makes up for it right?!

I love little accents like this that really make the bottle special. Then again you are probably paying double the price of another brand.... so what about the actual polish?!

Jack the Lad is a forest green shade with a foily shimmer made up of green, gold and blue. Such a pretty combination. It applies thin and evenly in the first coat and builds up quickly to full opacity on just two coats. The formula was a dream to work with and wore very well. I experienced no chips for a good duration of wearing this polish, but I did get tip wear fairly easily. This was due to the fact that I was up to a lot of cleaning and cooking for the first few days of wear. Since the formula is thin and jelly like in constancy, I'm sure this added to the overall wear.

All in all I am impressed with Butter London, I know they have a bunch of unique shades available and have now tested their amazing formula and I hope that my Winners starts to carry more!

Shoppers Drug Mart - BOGO Free Polish!

Heads up! A Shoppers Drug Mart deal for my fellow Canadians. On Wednesday November 27th between 5:00 and 8:00 pm they are having a promo for regularly priced polish, buy one get one free! They have had these spur the moment types of deals in the past, but I have never tried it out. We will see how I am feeling tomorrow, usually Shoppers prices their polishes a few dollars more than the other guys. Be sure to print out this coupon to get the promo in store.

Have you participated in this promo in the past?

Howl You Doing?

I am super late on wearing China Glaze Howl You Doing? apart of their Monsters Ball collection from this past Halloween. I got the full collection only a few days before the 31st of October and was only able to sport Bump in the Night from the set. I really love this polish, it is super interesting, which I did not originally expect since I had heard it may be a dupe for other polishes in my collection. Lets break this polish down!

This is a deep vampy purple, almost pulling maroon, jelly base packed with purple glitter and copper orange flakie pieces. The combo of glitter plus flakies makes this polish special. I will be doing a comparison post soon versus OPI, Merry Midnight and Orly, Fowl Play, but I can safely say already this is not a dupe for either, but I will explain further in that post.

Although I love the colour and the complexity of this polish, I did have a few issues. Application wise the formula was thick and streaky on the first coat. I added some thinner after the first few nails to aid in smoother application and it helped. The second coat covered up any imperfections from the first and smoothed everything out perfectly! This is a very deep shade, at two coats, I don't think there is any need for a third. Problem solved formula wise!

A blurry phone shot I took while waiting for the bus, but it shows off the glitter beautifully.

Next issue is finish. I would consider the base a jelly, and jelly's usually really shine with a high gloss finish but Howl You doing remained quite dull. Even after one coat of Seche Vite it will was not as glossy as I had hoped it to be. I didn't realize how jam packed with glitter is was until I remove it! This may have been another reason why it was dull and gritty. Add to that, that it started chipping on me within 24 hours, I was feeling disappointed. Love this as a polish, however the finish and wear time for me were not the greatest.

Cult Nails Black Friday Preview Sale!!

Happy Friday :)

I received an email at 12:00am this morning for a pretty awesome promo from Cult Nails!

BLACK FRIDAY PREVIEW SALE - 40% OFF!

Today, for our email subscribers only, SAVE 40% on all items in the lacquers, imited edition colours and treatments categories with a minimum purchase of $24.00 or more.

Simply enter coupon code THANKYOU13 during the checkout process and save 40% on all qualifying products. Nail Files, Package offers, and Last Chance Deals are not eligible for this savings.

This sale will not be announced on our blog, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram feeds. Coupon valid from now (Midnight Nov 22nd) until 11:59 PM eastern time! One day only, don't miss it!

I love Cult Nails for their quality, unique collection of polishes and sales, so if you have been putting off purchasing some Culties or would like to start your Christmas shopping early for the polish hoarder on your list, now is your chance to get 40% off!

De-texturing A Liquid Sand

Although I love the finish of OPI, Get Your Number apart of the Mariah Carry Liquid Sands collection (released last year), I just had to see what it looked like with a nice glossy top coat! I first added a thin layer of topcoat over Get Your Number and stamped with a Born Pretty Store dupe plate for Konad M-77. I was actually inspired by a summer look I did with the same design a few years back, you can view that here.

I applied the necklace designs to my ring fingers and thumbs and accented with a tiny pearl on each nail. I added a final layer of top coat to seal the design and was done! My photos were taken right after application, so they looks nice and glossy. I would probably need one last layer if topcoat to make this mani smooth and super glossy. The sandy texture really absorbs the top coat!

After trying this polish with and without topcoat I would have to say I prefer it on its own without a topcoat, I lot less effort plus it is so tough and long wearing! I thought that applying a top coat would make removal a bit easier, but I think it actually made it worse! That is the only thing I dislike about glitter polish, it takes more work than usual to remove, lots of scrubbing!

So Sugary! My First Ever Textured Nails!

My first Liquid Sands polish! As I have stated previously, the whole textured trend really wasn't doing anything me when it was first introduced late last year. Somewhere along the way I got curious and decided I should try it for myself. I almost purcahsed Get Your Number, apart of the original Mariah Carry Collection, last winter. I loved the colour but not the texture so I ended up leaving it behind. Fast-forward to last month, I must have purchased five textured polishes then! The one thing I do like about this trend is that it seems each brand has their own interpretation of "textured" polish. Makes it more interesting when shopping around. Today I have Get Your Number in all it's textured glory!

Get Your Number is blue jelly base jam packed with various sized holo glitter, even though it is matte it is so glittery! It applied perfectly with no issues. During application I only applied two coats, however I ended up adding a third in the photos posted. The two coats I originally had gave the perfect blue raspberry sour candy texture! I really loved it, and kind of regret adding the extra coat! Don't get me wrong, it's still super pretty, but I feel like it had more of a sugar texture with two coats.

I decided to add the third coat to add some opacity, two coats was good, but I had slightly visible nail line showing though. So far wear on this polish has been fantastic, showering, cleaning, washing dishes and no chips!  Below shows the polish after about five full days of wear. These best thing about this polish is that if you do get some chips, they are really easy to fill in with polish to fix up your mani!

Great formula, texture and longevity, I think I have to try a few more of these Liquid Sands ;) I am hoping to pick up Alcatraz Rocks, but I can't seem to find it.

Philosphy Sweet Holiday Wish Promo + Free Gift!

Philosophy contacted me with some information on an early holiday promo, I have already entered myself and thought you may want to enter too! Have a look below for more information and a special gift.

Overview: Just in time for the holiday season, philosophy is inviting Canadians to send sweet wishes to their loved ones. From November 11th through to December 8th fans can enter by simply going to the “sweet holiday wishes” microsite here and send sweet wishes to family and friends. As more wishes are sent, the number of lights on the holiday tree hosting on the microsite will increase to show love spreading all over the world. 

On December 9th, those who sent sweet wishes will receive an email with a personal voucher to pick up their free gift at select philosophy Hudson’s Bay counters across Canada from December 9th to 19th.

The free gift is a 30 ml sample size Purity 3-in-1 facial cleanser. The best part about this promo is once Philosphy hits 5000 shares of this promo they will upgrade your 30ml sample to 90ml! As of right now the count is at 4571.

This promo is currently available to Canadian residents only, excluding Quebec. Free samples are limited so if you haven't  checked the site out I would head over there soon, it's super cute!

Mani Refresh - Peace, Love and OPI

To extend the life of OPI's Peace, Love and OPI I did some nail art with my new Bundle monster plates. The abstract geometric pattern I chose to stamp with is Bundle Monster plate BM-414, This is a full nail pattern.  I used black for stamping to give a subtle pattern against the darker polish base. I'm pretty happy with it :)

The duochrome makes it look as though there are multiple colours beneath the design.

Polish Picks for Late Fall!

Finally, a short list of my fave polishes for fall! I meant to get this up earlier, however in September I was extending the wear of my summer polishes, and October was all about Halloween! November is the perfect month to rock some vampy fall shades before December when everything is snow and Christmas! Wow, where did this year go, it's almost December again!

I have so many fall polishes I love but I have narrowed it down to six different finishes with corresponding polishes for what I am loving this year. In no particular order here are my fall picks for 2013. You can click the link in the polish name to see the full posts I have on these polishes.

Creme - OPI, Skull and Glossbones

I love this light grey neural for fall. It has a great formula and looks simple and chic. A great base for glitter or nail art.

Shimmer - Revlon, Perplex

The taupe base in Perplex is another neutral, but the purple shimmer flash adds that something special. Another simply chic shade.

Texture - OPI, Get Your Number

A nice bright blue for fall, this Liquid Sands polish really reflects the cold weather we have been having lately! Full post to come soon on this shade.

Duochrome OPI, Peace Love and OPI

The duochrome flash from teal to purple is so sparkly in the bright sunlight and super cool looking in overcast skies.

Glitter - China Glaze, Emerald Sparkled

Usually used more as a festive shade for Winter, this glitter is so deep and sparkly, perfect for late fall.

Matte - Zoya, Dovima

The perfect matte black with a hint of shimmer. This goes great with the leather clothing trend this fall.

Peace, Love and OPI

So October and Halloween have come and gone, I can't believe how quickly we are approaching winter! Today I have the perfect fall shade from OPI, Peace, Love and OPI. In the bottle in normal writing it is very unsuspecting, looks to me a charcoal shimmer. It actually is a deep teal/grey duochrome!

The application was a little weird, I'm finding it hard to describe the formula. It feels like a nice thick polish and it is pigmented, but when on the nail it acts as a thin duochrome. Very unforgiving showing every bump and ridge on your nail, I even used a ridge base coat! I only needed two coats for full opacity but feel like I should have added a third to even everything out!

The actual duochrome is fantastic, nothing like I have seen before. For the most part it flashes bright teal and magenta toned purple, however it varies from light source to light source. I wish my camera could capture the amazingness, my photos do not do it justice. During application I noticed some brush marks from the frostiness of the polish, but these were greatly lessened once I added my topcoat.

I haven't been buying a lot of OPI lately because nothing has been catching my eye as something I must have, this polish is defiantly very unique in my collection. 

MEGA Haul from Cherry Culture

This just may be my biggest haul to date! Cherry Culture had a huge promo last month with a coupon code for 40% off your full purchase! Not only do they already carry China Glaze for a great price, but an additional 40% off, that is just nuts! To make things even better (...or worse depending on how you look at it) they offer free shipping in the U.S with a purchase of $40 or more. Calculating the total I spent divided by the number of polishes I purchased I ended up spending under $2.50 a polish! I purchased only China Glaze polishes with the exception of one LA Colors duo which I have left to the end of this post, i needed one more item in my cart to equal $40 lol.

I was very impressed with Cherry Culture's customer service and shipment time. The bottles were also safely packed, very well I may add, and delivered without any polish fatalities. I think there was one bottle that had a tiny leak, but it was just around the inside of the bottle, no polish was lost, not a big deal to me. One out of 17 bottle is not bad ;)

I will start off with what I was anticipating the most, the Monster Ball collection! I picked up the full collection for this year, excluding Goulish Glow since I own enough glow-in-the dark polishes already. Pictured below is Fang-Tastic and Boo-gie Down, these are the two glitter toppers in the collection.

Fang-Tastic is a multi glitter in magenta, green and blue. Not your typical Halloween shade, however I think this will work well for jelly sandwiches. Two coats are shown on the nail wheel below.

Boo-gie Down is an awesome Halloween topper with shades of gold, copper orange, black and white glitter in various shapes and sizes. I'd love to try this over a nude creme! Two coats are shown on the nail wheel below.

These next three shades from this collection can be built to opacity, the first two are Howl You Doin? and Bat My Eyes.

Howl You Doin'? Is such a complex shade. I have noticed a lot of other bloggers refer to this one as a Merry Midnight(OPI)/Fowl Play (Orly) dupe, however I don't think this is a dupe for either. It may be close in theory, but it is unique in my collection. I will do a comparison of all three polishes soon. This shade is made up of a deep grape jelly and scattered purpley-blue glitter and irregularly shaped shards of glitter. To me these appear golden, however the base of the polish alters them to red. Two coats are pictured in the swatch below.

Bat My Eyes was the shade I was most looking forward to. It is made up of a murky grey/olive base with varying sizes of green based gold hex glitter and orange holo bar glitter. Two coats are pictured in the swatch below.

Last but not least from the Monsters Ball collection, Bump in the Night.

When I first heard about this polish I was so not interested! I wasn't a huge fan of the textured polish trend started late last year, however, as I type this post I am sporting an OPI liquid sand lol. These trends usually seem to grow on me after a while. I've already written about this polish in a previous post, click here for more info. One coat gives full coverage, however I added a second for more texture in my swatch below. I LOVE this! The name rocks too :)

Swatches:

Next up is the rest of my order seen in my rainbow nail wheel at the top of this post. Lets start with my favourite colour ever, blue! Left to right, Midnight Mission, Ride the Waves and Splish Splash.

Ride the Waves and Splish Splash are apart of the Summer Neons collection from 2012. although they may look similar in the bottle they are quite different in formula and appearance on the nail.  Ride the Waves is a deep blue jelly while Splish Splash has a medium blue base with a faint microshimmer. Since they are considered neons they dry to a matte finish, below is two coats with no top coat.

Midnight Mission is a deep denim blue with silver shimmer, this is apart of the Vintage Vixen collection. Below (on the right) is one coat. Great formula on this one!

Next up are some purples and a grey! Immortal (swatch pictured above), No Plain Jane and Harmony.

Imortal is a medium grey with glass flecks and blue microshimmer. This is apart of the Wicked collection, Halloween 2012. Two coats were used in my swatch (above, with the blues).

No Plain Jane is a purple based duochrome which shifts to a gold/beige. The effect is not super strong, but it does add some nice depth. The formula was a bit sheer in my swatch below, I needed three coats. On a side note, the Bohemian collection, was one that included silver caps which are usually coated in silver paint. This particular cap is a silver coloured plastic, I actually prefer this!

Harmony is apart of the Romatique collection, it is he perfect purple foil. It appears more pink in the photos, but it is actually a medium purple. I originally purchased this for stamping, but I think it would be the perfect base for No Plain Jane. What a happy coincidence! One coat is shown in the swatch below. An easy one coater, perfect formula.

Argo apart of the Hunger Games collection is swatched in the photo above on the far left. I must have lost the bottle photo, too much polish! Argo is a green olive polish with a goldish shimmer. I love these kinds of shades! This one reminds me of OPI, At Your Quebec and Call, however it is not a dupe. Two coats were used for the swatch above.

More Shades ahead! From left to right Kinetic Candy, Gaga Green and Entourage. Kinetic Candy and Gaga Green are from the Electropop collection.

Kinetic Candy is a soft blue pastel creme, a little bit brighter than the photo suggests. My swatch shows one coat. 

Gaga Green is a light green creme, sligtly deeper than the photo suggests. My swatch shows one coat. 

Entourage is from the Kicks collection, it is slightly brighter than Gaga Green and has a yellow gold shimmer. My swatch shows two coats. 

Last up are L.A. Colors Flash Pop duo in Mad Duo and China Glaze Riveting.

Mad Duo is a combo of two mini polishes, one is a pink holo based glitter comprised of various sized glitters and the other is a bright orange based coral. My swatches below are show one coat of each polish. I have also included a photo of how the polish is packaged, similar to the Revlon duos. I like that you can remove them from the middle division piece for easier application

Riviting is an orange based red shimmer, not a typical colour for me, but I just love the orange glow in this polish! Two coats are shown in my swatch below.

So there you have it, possible my largest haul to date, but for the price I paid I simply could not leave them! It took me forever to post this due to all the photos and information I wanted to include, I'm glad it's finally up and over with :)

Any comparisons you'd like to see? Let me know in the comments section below.