Spacy

I had been lusting over this glitter topper for November and December, in December more in anticipation since I knew my boyfriend had picked it up as a part of a Christmas gift for me ^_^

OPI Comet in the Sky is a complex glitter. In the bottle it resembles galaxy nails, however, this densely packed glitter is in a clear base and contains various sized matte black glitter pieces with iridescent hex glitter and small iridescent glitter. I chose OPI Russian Navy as my base polish and brushed on a layer of Comet in the Sky over top.

 

Unfortunately I could not capture the many faces of this polish combo. In different light settings the glitter shifts. My favorite lighting is always natural sunlight, overcast.

Glaciar Bay Blues

An oldie but a goodie, today I have a hard to find polish back from OPI's Canadian collection, released back in 2004, way before I started my blog and became an avid collector of polish. I have had a look at the collection in it's entirety online since I very rarely have seen these shades in stores and am happy with the two polishes I own. A part of me wants Paint Your Toron-toes Rose just for the name. The colour is meh, most of the collection was neutral red/pink shades. 

I was lucky enough to come by this shade,  Glaciar Bay Blues on eBay a few years back. 

Glaciar Bay Blues is a lovely deep sea blue with a subtle duochrome that shifts between deep indigo to a green based turquoise. My photos below show two coats over a layer of OPI Russian Navy (which you can see through Glaciar Bay Blues in the light (of the flash) in the photo below).

 The formula of this polish is on the thin side which is understandable since this is an older OPI polish (before OPI changed their formula to remove some of the more toxic chemicals). That being said, the smell was not as bad as I expected. Obviously a bit stronger of a scent but not as potent to my nose. 

 I'll let the rest of the photos speak for themselves.

December Favorites

Favourite Balm: EOS
I literally cleaned out the whole balm in the month of December! Of course I didn't use up the whole thing in one month, this balm lasts surprisingly long. Not only does it smell good, moisturize my lips and come in a cool container, but it is also certified organic, which is awesome! It is not 100% vegan as it does use beeswax, but as a vegan I do use bee products such as wax and honey from time to time.

Favourite Colour: Blue
Throughout the month of December it seemed apparent that I was feeling the cold and showed it on my nails week after week with blue shades of polish. Some colours I wore throughout the month included Essie - Blue Rhapsody, Essie - Stroke of Brilliance, Finger Paints - In the Monet, and Essie Lots of Lux. Lots of Essie's in there as well! Out of all the blues I wore, I would have to say that my favorite was....

Lots of Lux, I just did not want to take it off! It is still on display on my night table because I kept touching up chips to make it last longer! Such a lovely textured shade for more information you can see the full post here.

Favourite Christmas Gift: Essie Polish Duo Gift Set
Another Essie Favorite this month was a cute polish duo set I got as a gift this Christmas. It included A-list, a bright red and Sparkle On Top, an iridescent glitter topper as well as a mini glass file. This favorite polish related gift because I was craving a red polish on Christmas eve, and this is just so perfect! I usually don't wear to many reds, but I can't wait to try this one out with and without the iridescent topper. I also can never have enough files to store in my purse or bag ;)

Misted Glitter

Today I have a mani refresh with the last OPI polish I shared, Did Your Ear About Van Gogh? I decided to layer a glitter polish over top to see how well it blended the shade with my skintone. The gold glitter is Orly Lavish Bash.

I have been craving some soft nude polishes with glitter, but due to ongoing breaks in my middle finger nails (both right and left hands) I needed a nude polish with full coverage to hide the false nails I have been wearing over top the broken ones. Did Your Ear about Van Gogh? did the trick for now and Lavish Bash was a great sparkly topper. I applied one coat of the glitter over the base polish.

 

It is not as apparent in the photos, however, the glitter did help to distract from the mismatched tone of the base from my natural skintone. What do you think? Do you have ant suggestions for some good opaque nudes I can try out while I wait for my nails to grow in?

Did You Ear About Van Gogh?

Have you gotten back in to your work/school schedule yet? I'm not gong to lie, last week was tough for me, but waking up today was not as bad... I am sooo looking forward to the next excuse for any time off!!

Today I have a neutral shade from OPI's Holland collection, Did You Ear About Van Gogh?. This is a taupey nude which I found is at least a shade darker the n My Vampire is buff, for comparison. Originally I thought they were pretty close, but once on the nail the comparison was easy to see against my skintone.

The formula was great and went on smoothly in two coats. Although a nice shade, I kind of prefer My Vampire is Buff, I like the lighter tone with my skin colour. On the other hand, Did You Ear About Van Gogh? is great for layering and using as a base for nail art.

December Polish Haul + High End Polish for under $7!

I may have gone crossborder shopping right before the holidays and found some awesome polish... It wasn't just a polish trip, I swear! They usually aren't anyways, but I did score some great polish for some great deals!

I'll start off with the holiday collections, first up OPI 'a latest Gwen Stefani colab. From left to right, First Class Desires and Christmas Gone Plaid.

First Class Desires is a deep plum creme with golden shimmer running throughout. Two coats are shown in my swatches below.

Christmas Gone Plaid is a deep forest creme that stops right on the boarder before black, I love it! Two coats are shown in the swatches below.

I scored both of these polishes for $2.75 each at Cosmoprof along with two bottles of Nail Tek Foundation II (my favourite ridge filling base coat, not shown) for $3.75! Sweet deal! I would have picked up more of the Nail Tek's, but that was all they had left.

Moving on now to some polishes I was hunting down! I just HAD to own Mirrorball! Below left to right I have Orly Mirrorball, Bling and Halo.

Mirrorball is a silver holographic polish made up of fine glitter and speckled with some hex glitter as well. Two coats are shown in the swatches below.

Bling is similar to Mirrorball, only it's a yellow toned gold with larger pieces of glitter and it does not produce a linear holo effect. Two coats are shown in my swatches below, however three are required for full coverage.

Last, but not least, I have a polish from last years collection, Halo. This glitter is made up of various sized silver and light gold glitter. Two coats are shown below. 

I purchased all three at Ulta to take advantage of their buy two get one free promotion. I also used my 20% off coupon, I only shop at Ulta when there is at least one coupon or promotion going on!

Next I hit up Big Lots hoping to score some Sephora by OPI and Sephora X shades. Unfortunately nothing really caught my eye untill I saw a huge Sinful Colors display. I picked up a new to me shade and a long time lemming, from left to right Mint Tropics and Mint Apple.

Although these may look very similar in the photo, they are actually quite different. Mint Tropics is a bright, soft creme. It's a beautiful spearmint shade, you can see more of it in this post. Two coats are shown in the swatch below

Mint Apple has been one of those polishes I have picked up and put back down multiple times. Why exactly, I'm not too sure, but I finally decided it was time to try it out. Its a blue toned green with silver shimmer throughout. In the bottle the shimmer looks silver but in my swatch of two coats below it looks more golden.

Next up, some randoms. Orly, Smoked Out, OPI, Where's My Blanket??? and OPI, There's a Frog in My Throat.

Orly Smoked Out was an impulse sale purchase at Sally's, in hindsight the "sale" price wasn't really a sale lol. It is made up of an inky blue base with blue and green glitter which appears to be jelly in application but dries to a weird matte-ish finish. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Where's My Blanket??? it apart of OPI's 2014 Halloween offering. I was glad to see an full sized halloween collection from them this year, however this is the only polish that captured my interest. It is a matte black based glitter with pastel yellow, orange and white matte glitter in a clear base. Very candy corn!

Frog in My Throat is very familiar. I picked up both these OPI's from Marshalls, and I am 99% confident this is a rebottling of Sephora by OPI 212 which was a hard to find polish that was brought back in to stores which now again is discontinued and probably harder to find again. I own it, but I had to be sure! I may consider selling it or soemthing, no need for two in my stash. for more information on this polish check out my post on 212 here. Check out those long ass square nails!

I totally Saved the best plus a random for last.... check out Deborah Lippmann Lets go Crazy! 

...oh yeah, and Essie Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low.

So, Lets Go Crazy is the star of this haul because I found it accidentally at Marshalls and because it was $6.99.... SIX NINETY-NINE! That is bananas! I originally grabbed 4 or five different ones before calming down and narrowing it down to the one I really wanted. Lets Go Crazy is a deep plum jelly packed with multiple shades of giller in various sizes. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low is a silver based foil with flakes of gold sprinkled in there. Very pretty and shiny! Two coats are shown in my swatch below.

I finally go through this post, it was a long one! If you are still with me I appreciate it :)

Did you find any gems in your shopping before the holidays? Any other awesome Deborah Lippmann sightings at Marshalls?

Rolling In Cashmere

Today I have more information on the base polish I used for my New Year's Eve nails, OPI, Rolling in Cashmere. This lovely shade of gold is light and lacks the brassiness of other shades of gold, which I like. 

Application was great, the formula was good. My only comment on these types of frost finish polishes is that brushstrokes may show through. They were not too apparent with my application, and I wasn't very careful. To get even coverage without brushstrokes for these finishes, sponge on a thin layer of polish with a cosmetic sponge as your final coat before adding topcoat.

I heard that this polish dries to a satin/matte finish, but I don't see it. The finish wasn't super glossy either, mind you. Due to the this formula I found that it chipped quicker than normal on me. 

What do you think about this polish? Normally wouldn't purchase a polish like this, however I received it in a gift set from Christmas (Christmas polish gift haul to some after I have caught up on my other posts!). I actually like it more than I thought I would, it is great for layering and nail art. I will need to check how well it is for stamping.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2015! 2014 really flew by for me. So many great things happend last year and I am excited to see what this new year has in store!

To celebrate I have some glittery gold nails to share with a mani refresh of OPI Rolling in Cashmere.

Overtop of Rolling in Cashmere I layed down a coat of China Glaze De-Light. This shiny gold glitter is made up of various sizes of medium gold glitter and thick holo bar glitter. I love the contrast between the lighter gold base and darker gold glitter. 

The photos don't capture how georgous this combo is unfortunately. I feel like I have C3PO on my nails, so glittery and shiny, like melted gold!

What did you have on your nails to ring in 2015?