...This is the Most Craziest Shit Ever!

I can't help but hum a Gwen Stefani tune while applying this polish! Although this polish has nothing to do with the song Don't Get It Twisted, OPI's Push and Shove is so crazy cool!

I had originally tried this polish shortly after it's release last year. It is now infamous for wonky application and short wear time and requires you to follow some steps usually not taken with regular polishes such as using a special base and no topcoat. Since my nails already had a base of Bio Seaweed Gel that I applied to avoid staining from this polish, I wanted to test how well the Push and Shove would apply over the gel alone when compared to the mini Lay Down That Base, base coat the polish comes with. That bottle is hilarious by the way! That is another reason I decided to try out a gel as my base, what happens when that tiny base polish runs out?

Compared side by side the Push and Shove over the gel base appears the same if not better then the Lay Down That Base, base. I used Lay Down that Base on my pinky nail and no base, other than the gel previously applied, to my other nails. Not only did it apply well, but the gel smoothed out my nail bed giving a beautifully even, streak-free mirror finish that is so awesome! My photos hardly do this polish justice!

You guys, my nails are literally tiny little mirrors, so shiny! Two coats were applied since I did not plan on applying a topcoat. I find you can easily get away with one thicker coat, but noticed during application that two thinner coats product better results. The gel base helps to smooth out any imperfections in my nail making the chrome appear strong and flawless... well as flawless as I think I can get! The best part is application was five about minutes, probably including dry time as well.

Unfortunately wear time is about the same as over Lay Down That Base. I for it for a few days, then when I couldn't stand  the tip wear and slight chipping I just changed my mani up.

Four Leaf Clover + How to Comabt Nail Staining Polish

Trying to be festive for St. Patrick's Day, I pulled out one of my all time favorite green polishes to wear for the better part of the week. China Glaze, Four Leaf Clover is such a vibrant and saturated green which is why I love it. However, it stains probably the worst out of all the polishes in my collection. I'm glad I remembered how bad it stained before applying it because when I removed it my nails were sooooo yellow...

Luckily, I decided to layer a gel base under the polish to avoid discolouring my nails. I chose Bio Seaweed Gel soak-off LED no-sanding base which was quick and easy to apply and cure with my UV light. I applied one even coat, cured for two minutes and wiped with 99% alcohol for a smooth and shiny base!

 

Four Leaf Clover is a breeze to apply, and was no different when applied over a gel base. Two thin coats were needed for full opacity and I applied Seche Vite over top to add a high gloss shine.

I wore this polish for almost a full week with little to no wear! I started to get a few chips on the last day of wear and I attribute this to the gel base. It really stuck to the polish and would not let go! I was not going easy on my hands at all this week either, lots of washing of dishes, food prep and of course daily hand washing and showers. I am so impressed with the extension of wear provided by a gel base.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post Four Leaf Clover will stain, have a look:

I also managed to rip off most of my middle nail on day three :( The nail was
super weak so I will have to wait for it to grow in completely... yet again

So happy the gel got stained instead of my natural nails! I will be able to tell for sure that the staining did not penetrate down to my natural nail once the gel is removed, but I plan on keeping the gel as my base for now, I have a few other polish tests I'd like to try with it!

Dahlia

Although the texture trend seems to be so passe, I feel myself gravitating towards them for a quick and easy mani. I also just purchased a few, as you can see here, from Zoya. Surprisingly I am actually wearing them! I don;t know about you, but I usually tend to forget about some of my newly purchased polishes, especially when they take over a month to be delivered... Today I pulled out Dahlia to wear.

 Zoya Dahlia is a dark charcoal textured "Pixie Dust" polish that reminds me of the most awesome coal ever. As always I love the Zoya Pixie Dust texture, rough, shiny and sparkly. I applied two thin coats for full opacity. I like that it was not a stark black polish, it is on the softer side of black which really compliments the sparkle and finish.

The Pixies always wear well and Dahlia was no exception. I love textured polish for an easy and quick option when I may not have a lot of time to spend on my nails but NEED to change a chippy mani.

Which is your favorite textured polish brand? OPI definitely comes in second for me!

Zoya Mystery Minis + 3 Free Promo - My Picks

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I FINALLY received my Zoya mystery box promo (along with the three polishes I picked out). Was everyone else as disappointed as I was with the minis?

I was originally excited to find out that Zoya now ships internationally and I could finally participate in their promos without shipping to relatives in the States. Accompanying this news, they announced a "Mystery Mini Trio" promo which included three polishes of your choice, plus three "free" mystery polishes all for $15. Great deal right? For Canadians it turned out that International shipping includes an additional fee, so that sucks. On top of that I waited over a month to receive my polishes! I am usually very happy with Zoya, I love their formula, polish selection and formulation (3+free) but this was a disappointment... Here are the "mystery" minis:

From left to right, Severine, Anais and Charlott.

Severine is a mid-gold frost/shimmer which appears to be on the sheer side, although I have not swatched these yet.

Anais appears to be an off black with some murky undertones (green and brown) with a slight shimmer running throughout. However, I think this one will appear black or close to black once one the nail.

Charlott is the one I think I like the most, it is a light neutral khaki creme with yellow undertones. It reminds me of a yellow based version of OPI My Vampire is Buff..

Now to the ones I picked out, left to right is Dahlia, NYX and Vespa. All three are textures Pixies Dusts.

I guess this was the best deal since the Pixie's are a tad more expensive than the regular shades. I have also been hearing rumors that they will be discontinuing the Pixie Dusts soon, so I figured I should purchase the ones I like now before I don't get the chance again. From Left to right I picked up Dahlia, NYX and Vespa.

Dahlia is a dark black textured polish with silver shimmer running throughout.

NYX is a cornflower blue textured polish with silver/gold shimmer running throughout.

Vespa is a pastel green textured polish with silver shimmer running throughout.

So far Zoya has produced my favorite "texture" polishes. It looks like sand and is just so pretty! I hope they have their usual eco/earth day promo coming soon. I want to check out some of the newer spring shades.

Mint Sorbet

Has anyone ever heard of or tried a real life mint sorbet... I can picture it in my head, but the flavour that comes to mind it lime or lemon. Either that or mint chocolate chip ice cream, which I guess would make more sense because the flavour would be more minty. I actually did a Pinterest search and found recipes for mint sorbets that were mostly lime or lemon based, funny! Random thoughts.

Sally Hansen, Mint Sorbet was a polish I picked up during my first trip to Target's closing extravaganza... hardly! Not yet anyways. I had been considering this polish for a while, but know I own probably a handful of mint polishes already. I purchased it anyways lol. This rich mint creme pastel glided on the nail effortlessly.

Two to three quick swipes of each nail was blended together perfectly. I could have gotten away with one thick coat, but I find cremes tend to show wear faster with only one, so I added a thin second coat to top it off. Clean up (what little there was of it) was a breeze and Seche Vite added a high gloss shine and aided in quick drying. I must be getting in the mood for spring with this bright and airy colour. Too bad the weather is still in the negatives and snowy :(

A Few Months in Hauls

Happy Friday the 13th!

This post is LONG overdue. It includes some polishes I received around Christmas and others I picked up in store since then. I'll start with the oldest first, lots of holiday polishes. All sets below were gifts.

OPI, Rollin' In Cashmere Set

Rollin' In Cashmere -  soft gold frost
Snow Globe Trotter - glitter topper comprised of white and pastel iridescent glitter. Very snow globe!
Comet In The Sky - another glitter topper, practically the same as Snow Globe Trotter with black glitter.

Next is an Essie gift set that came with a creme polish, a glitter topper and a mini glass file. The polishes I received included:

A-List - classic red creme
Sparkle On Top - iridescent flakie topper

Bundle Monster CYO # 2 (600 series) plates

OPI Lights of Emerald City - a glitter topper made up of white and iridescent glitter pieces suspended in a clear base

Next up is a big Nails Inc gift set called Be Gelous. I have already worn some of these shades and mentioned them on the blog. Not my favorite for wear time, but formula if good.The set included:

The Boltons - red shimmer
Grosvenor Crescent - deep eggplant creme
Old Bond Street - royal blue creme

 

 

New Oxford Street - muted purple based taupe
Piccadilly Place - densely packed glitter topper consisting of multicoloured hex glitter, holo, silver and white mini glitter.
Uptown - a light dusty rose

 

Lastly I have some cross boarder shopping purchases from Five Below and Wegmans.

The Funky Fingers I picked up at Five Below include:

 

Elsa - a mix of matte white and baby blue glitter pieces sprinkled with snowflake shaped glitter in a clear base.
Fra-Gee-Lay - a mix of red green and white glitter of various sizes in a clear base.
Jarbreaker - multicoloured glitter pieces of various sizes in a milky white base.

The last lonely polish, which I have already wore here, is Sinful Colors, Love Sprinkles. It is a delicate glitter topper made up of pink and white glitter pieces of various shapes and sizes and even a few little heart glitters as well!

So that is it! Until the next haul ;)

Pink Cat Eyes

Today have a mani refresh with Nails Inc. Porchester Square. I have seen some beautiful nail art done with striping tape and wanted to attempt the same. My attempt... not to great.

It doesn't look horrible but it just wasn't exactly what I was going for. My triangles were a little thinner than I had anticipated. To get the crisp and clean lines I used thin striping take to mark off the triangular areas. The placement of the tape on the nails gave the illusion of the triangles being thicker than they appeared in the end.

The polish I used for the triangular shapes also was not the best option. Although a great shade, Cover Girl Outlast, Bon Bon was a little on the thinner side. I should have tested it out before using it since I had to use two thicker coats for opacity. Not so good when working with any kind of tape, as it needs to be removed right after application of the polish so the tape does not pull up the polish!

This was a great learning process, definitely something I will try again with new knowledge in mind to improve the process and final look of the mani.

February Favorites

This is an ongoing monthly post which highlights some of my very favorites from the month past. 

Today I have my most favorite things from February. Check it out below.

Getting my polish groove back
I felt like I was in a polish slump for the last few months, but somehow February brought it back! I may have not posted as much as usual but I did have a decent array of polish shades which has been an improvement! Getting excited for spring shades is also a bonus.


Favorite Book: Cooked by Micheal Pollan
Another Michael Pollan book. Such a great read if you are interested in the history of "food transformation". The main topics include the transformation properties of fire, water, air and earth on food. Very informative and well written.

Favorite polish of the month: Essie Bahama Mama
LOVE this polish. Probably wouldn't have picked this up myself so glad it was gifted to me. the colour, the formula, the wear and finish are just perfect!

Favorite Beauty Product: Annabelle Mineral Powder Foundation
I have been using this off and on for a while now. I have Barely Beige which is a light translucent powder that I find helps to blend and imperfections of my face and dull shine. A plus about this product is the ingredient list is short, including a total of 5 ingredients; Mica, bismuth, oxychloride, titanium dioxide, iron oxides. A little bit also goes a long way. My least favorite feature about this product, the brush! Stray hairs EVERYWHERE!

I'm glad to be out of my polish funk and excited for spring to come! I can't wait for the snow to melt away and the warmer, happier weather :)

Naurally Neutral

Happy Friday!

I was lucky enough to be treated to a bunch of polishes from a family friend who works at a drug store. I was introduced to brands and shades I probably would have not otherwise purchased, about half of them I have already worn and talked about on my blog and this Nails Inc polish is another!

Porchester Square is a neutral, taupey grey creme. The formula was great and it applied easily in two coats. I have a thing for neutrals during the winter and I am really digging this shade.

As with the Nails Inc "gel" polishes I wore recently, I found that this polish did not hold up well at all after a few days. So disappointing! Does anyone else have wear issues with Nails Inc. polishes? They have some lovely shades and formulas but the polish just does not want to adhere to my nails!

Bon Bon Dazzler

I have a such a a girly mani today. Winter doesn't normally inspire me to wear pink polishes, you know, unless its Valentines or something. The other day I saw a lovely mani, similar to what I created, and decided I wanted to try it myself. I can't recall where I found it and don't even have the photo for reference, but it was simply a pink mani with a glitter accent nail

I used Cover Girl Outlast in Bon Bon as my base pink. It is a bright and squishy medium pink creme. It was a tad on the streaky side but application was good. I didn't mind applying three coats for full opacity. This shade is girly and bright, something I have not worn in a while. I'm happy I tryed something different!

For my accent nails I used  Sally Hansen Gem Crush Razzle Dazzler which is a full coverage glitter made up of baby pink glitter and small silver hex glitters. The formula was esy to work with and I only required two coats to reach full opacity with no base polish.