Cross boarder haul

What a little road trip I had last month. It was short and super sweet, I purchased ALL the Halloween/Fall themed items lol. Okay, maybe not everything, but enough! Is it crazy to anyone else that Christmas stuff is in stores before October!? I'm not taking about one thing here and there, like full on, set up displayed Christmas trees, lights and whatever else have yous, nuts! I picked up some fantastic scores polish-wise, however no Halloween themed polish really caught my eye.

I found this gem, OPI, Muir Muir on the Wall at Ulta, only $2.49, I could not believe it! That has got to be the cheapest I have ever purchased an OPI for! Muir Muir on the Wall is a vampy duochrome from OPI's 2013 fall collection. It shines mostly pink/red, however, the base appears to be a deep, dusty purple. two coats shown in the swatch below.

Moving along to Big Lots. The last time I was there I stocked up on a bunh of Seohora by OPI polishes that had been marked down to $1.80! To my surprise when I returned this time I found full sized Sephora Formula X polishes! I had been wanting to try these, I have heard so many good things (my sister even got a few mini samples and kept them for herself), but the price tag deterred me. But for $2.50 a bottle I coulnt leave them, the ones that caught my eye anyways! This includes from left to right, In Love, Whimsical.

In Love is a baby pink glitter with an unexpected scattered holo shimmer. Whimsical is a frosty silver glitter with silver shimmer throughout. Two coats are shown for each polish in the swatch below. 

Left to right, Chaotic and Explosive.

Chaotic is your standard black and white matte glitter, one coat is shown in the swatch below. Explosive is a black jelly with holo gold hex glitters of various sizes, two coats are shown in the swatch below. This was a weird one, and I am still note sure how I feel about it. The base is not a true, squishy jelly. If it dried to a high gloss finish I would like it more, but it looks almost matte and gritty. I must say, the gold holo glitter is beautiful.

I also picked up a few Sephora by OPI shades because, ya know, they were under $2. I got Caught With My Khakis Down And Shiny Dancer.

Caught With My Khakis Down is a khaki green neutral creme, two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Shiny Dancer is a gunmetal grey micro glitter with a hint of blue sparkle, two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Bonus - My sister is a makeup consultant at Sephora, did the whole beauty school thing on the side for fun, so it's cool she gets to do that part time. What's even cooler? She gets samples galore from the brands sold at Sephora. She scored this awesome mini glitter from Ciate called Fancy Pants and passed it along to me. Woohoo!

This awesome glitter is made up of pink, periwinkle and white hex glitter of various sizes and black hex glitter. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Until the next haul..

Friday I will return to regular scheduled, Halloween programming :)

Oh, It's Real Alright!

Today I have a quick and easy mani refresh with one of my newly acquired (and discontinued) Sephora by OPI top coats. Surprisingly I almost left this polish behind, and it's the first once I choose to wear! Of course, right? My base is China Glaze Kinetic Candy, a lovely, dusty blue pastel. And the topper of choice is Sephora by OPI It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat.

In my photos below I used two coats of the fold flakie top coat, which is made up of real gold fragments. You may also notice that it is very subtle, the gold pieces are very tiny for the most part. I really like the contrast between the soft, diluted blue and bright shiny gold. I''m not really a huge fan of yellow gold, but in small amounts, it works!

I do wish the gold flakies were a bit more dense so that I could achieve the look of two coats in one. Other than that, I am really a fan of this polish. That means a lot considering I had intentions of gifting or selling this polish. Super happy I purchased it an tried it out :) That being said, I would probably not pick it up if it was sold at original price due to the low density of gold pieces per coat of polish.

Cross Boarder Hauling

Happy Friday! Cannot wait for the weekend and hopefully some Spring-like weather finally!

I was very busy this past weekend, lots of cooking, I had a sweet 16 birthday party to attend and I even managed to cross the border on Sunday for a few hours to do some shopping! Although the main polish goal I had in mind was to find my remaining must haves from China Glaze's Spring collection, City Flourish, I did end up finding some other hidden gems. Lets start off with Wal Mart, not my usual go to spot when I cross the boarder, but my mom loves it. Lucky for me they had polish on clearance! I picked up the following L'Oreal Paris polishes.... plus a regular priced Pure Ice :)

Bananarama Love and Mango Mania.

Bananarama Love is a sheer, yet creamy yellow jelly, one - two coats are shown in my swatches below.

Mango Mania is a pure orange jelly. I can see myself using this for some squishy syrup nails! This was the most true to being a jelly out of the three I picked up. One - two coats are shown in my swatches below.

one coat

two coats

Creme de Mint and Be My Clover.

Creme de Mint is a sheer, yet creamy medium green jelly, one - two coats are shown in my swatches below.

By My Clover is a deep blue jelly-ish base with golden teal shimmer. This kind of reminds me of OPI's Catch Me In Your Net (and the rest of the dupes) now that I look at it again. I may do a comparison to se how similar they actually are, but if my memory serves me correct, By My Clover is more opaque. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Next Stop, Sally's! Unfortunately I did not find The Grass is Lime Greener and At Vase Value, there were actually only two spring shades in the display and I already owned them (I was actually wearing one as well). I luckily I was still able take advantage of the last few days of the BOGO China Glaze promo with the purchase of their latest Surprise! collection.

Don't Be a Flake and Glimmer More.

Glimmer More is another glitter topper which consists of small metallic magenta hex glitter and pink, yellow and peach matte hex glitter. I used one coat in the swatch below, however It was more of a dabbing motion than a stroke when applying.

Don't Be a Flake is a glitter topper which consists of a clear base and holo baby pink, matte black and mate blue hex glitter. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Last stop on my shopping trip was Big Lots. I had heard that Sephora by OPI's were popping up in several locations, but the store I frequent never really carries the fun polish stuff. To my surprise I found some great polishes... all for $1.80 each! I must say I was kind of disappointed to find some polishes I already owned (and purchased at FULL PRICE originally).

Indi-go With the Flow and Spark-tacular! Top Coat.

Indigo With the Flow is another glitter topper made up of light cornflower blue hex glitter in various sizes. It reminds me a lot of Essie, Stroke of Brilliance now that I see it on the nail wheel. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Spark-tacular! Top Coat is a glitter mix of small, medium and larger hex glitter in a variety of colours; green, yellow, orange, blue magenta and silver. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

I Found a Pot of Gold and It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat.

I Found a Pot of Gold is  a gold glitter made up of micro and small gold and holo glitter, scattered with larger diamond shaped gold holo glitters. I had to fish around a bit to get the diamond glitters on the nail. If I were to use this for a full mani I would leave the bottle upside down over night in an attempt to get more of the diamond glitters on each nail.

And last but not least, It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat. It's exactly what the name details, shards of actual gold pieces in a clear base. This polish sold for more at Sephora than the other Sephora by OPI's, however I still got this one for $1.80!

I was never a huge fan of the gold/silver top coats, although I must say I does look nicer in person, and I figured for less than $2.00 it was worth trying out. Two coats are shown in my swatch below.

Glitter and Goodies

Today I have a polish I had coveted for so long, Sephora by OPI, If You've Got It, Haunt It! I finally found it last year on clearance for $6 at Sephora and am super glad I did since all of the $OPI polishes have now been discontinued. A tip for finding some polishes you may have missed out on is to check your local Marshalls. I took a trip across the boarder over the weekend and came across single polishes and a three pack, that was at a quick glance! I also found some singles and minis at a Marshalls in Canada too, so keep a look out.

If You've Got It, Haunt It is a silver grey based glitter with a sheer jelly grey base. The glitter is very dense in this one, mostly silver micro glitter sprinkled with matte black glitter and micro holo glitter/prismatic glitter that shifts between green blue and purple. So unique! The jelly built up well and only two coats were needed for full opacity.

On my ring finger I used Wet n' Wild Fantasy Makers, Creapy Pumpkin. This is a sheer jelly orange with orange/yellow shimmer. This polish is fairly sheer, but I only needed three coats for full opacity.

Loving this combo of glitter and shimmer, nail art to follow ;)

Zig-zag

Today I have a fun and bright mani refresh to share! The base is Sephora by OPI Havana Dreams. I wanted to do something fun with this colour, I really loved the colour on it's own but wanted to change it up a bit. I originally was thinking of a nautical design! I soon realized that none of my nail art plates have a full nail nautical pattern :(

So I did what I usually do, flip through all my plates until I see something I like, I found a few stripy patterns and thought either would look good stamped with white... Then I remembered I have the perfect complementary blue for stamping, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue. I did a test with each design and the zig zag pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM-201 won me over!

This polish and this design stamped effortlessly. I had issues when I used this plate a few years ago and Bundle Monster was kid enough to send me a new plate, this one works fantastic! I love the final look, almost like abstract waves or water.

Havana Dreams

My boyfriend picked this shade for my latest mani, he is a sucker for blues! Sephora by OPI Havana Dreams was a long sought after polish for me when it was first released, such a pretty, soft, pale blue. I have worn this before, you can see the post here and here. I remember originally having some trouble with application and making a huge mess of it. This time I took my time applying thin coats and allowing time In between coats to speed up the final dry time and avoid any bubbling. Considering I applied this in my dimly lit living room (changing between The Apprentice AND hockey) I am pretty happy overall, my application could have been better but it turned out nicer than my first attempt.

I used a total of three coats for each nail, however, there were a few nails i went back to after the third coat with some touch ups. Although the formula is thin and streaky it does even out pretty well. I used Seche Vite to dry the polish quickly and as always it added the perfect shine!

I really love this shade of blue, and I probably wouldn't have picked it myself to wear on its own since the trouble I had with it the last time, so I am glad that it was picked for me :) I guess some polishes deserve a second chance sometimes. All this particular polish needed was some time and care to apply. That being said, considering how much Sephora by OPI polishes go for, you would think the formula would be spot on. I haven't bought much from them lately, has anyone noticed an improvement in formula lately?

Back in Action + My Top 5!

Hello! I can't believe how 2012 flew by. I originally ment to post this on December 31st, but my internet went down a few days prior and I was away from my computer until today!  I had my top 5 picks for New Years Eve 2012 which is obviously late, but better late than never, right? Below is my list!

China Glaze Champaign Kisses
I love this gold foil and even wore it on New Years Eve back in 2010! This is a nice warm gold that is not too yellow and only needs two coats. This is my favorite gold polish.

Sephora by OPI Looks Like Rain Dear
This is another gave of mine, I wore this for New Years Eve last year. The polish shade is more yellow than the previous polish and from what I can tel has no base colour. This consists of fine and flecked pieces of gold glitter/shimmer and medium hex prismatic glitter. This one is a real sparkler!

Orly Sweet Peacock
Generally I love my silver and gold polishes for New Years Eve, however I wanted to showcase other shades and I thought this would work as well. Sweet Peacock is my favourite blue foil. It is so rich and deeply pigmented, it really glows and shines. My photos show only two coats.

Sephora by OPI Flurry Up
Although this polish is a polish topper it can be used over most other polishes to add a little something special. Flurry up is composed of large silver hexagonal and small glitter in a clear base. I find that once the polish is dry it does not leave a super glossy finish, I like to apply a shiny top coat over it. Other options if you don't like silver including:
-Only Gold for Me - gold version
-Traffic Stopper Copper - copper/bronze version

Essie also has similar glitters in their Luxe Effects line which include silver, pink and blue!

China Glaze Glistening Snow
This is my 2012 New Years Eve polish! I originally thought I going wear the gold version, Angel Wings, but I really fell for this beauty and knew I had to wear it right away!

Stay tuned for the next post for more info on this polish :)

Holiday Haulin', Part 2

Part two of my haul and swatches!

I will start off with a random clearance polish that has nothing whatsoever to do with the holidays, My first China Glaze Magnetix Pull Me Close. In the store I kind of just grabbed this to equal a certain amount so I could use a coupon lol I am kind of feeling indifferent to it now. Don't get me wrong it is a cool colour and works amazingly with the magnet I also picked up.

Pull Me Close is a dusty metallic blue with pink/magenta shimmer. Once on the nail with the magnetic effect the shimmer is pretty hard to be seen. The real star of this purchase is definitely the magnet lol. I love this magnet, I have three other magnetic polishes from various brands I have yet to wear due to the fact that I couldn't get them to work. It turns out it was the friggin' magnet I was using! This magnet works quick and gets a nice clean image on the nail. I may not be wearing this polish anytime soon, but my next mani is looking to be a magnetic one. The magnet I picked up include stripes, bulls eye and grid patterns. I believe this is the second magnet China Glaze released.

Swatches are 1 coat with and without magnetic effect.

Next another Halloween polish from China Glaze, Cast a Spell. I cannot seem to get enough of these dark olive shimmers. I wasn't going to pick this one up, but if I didn't now I probably was not ever going to find it again. Plus the swatches I have seen are awesome! In the swatches below I used used one coat! Very pigmented, great formula.

On to the Christmas beauties, first up China Glaze Pure Joy. I was undecided about whether I wanted Pure Joy or Orly Devil May Care since they are so similar, but China Glaze did look to have larger red glitter which is likely to be more opaque than the smaller glitter in Devil May Care. The fact that China Glaze is cheaper was a bonus. My swatches below are two thick coats! I was originally looking forward to wearing this one on its own, but think of the layering possibilities :)

The last Sally's Haul polish I have is probably one of my faves, Glistening Snow. And that is exactly what it reminds me of, cold snow on a sunny winters day. I just love it! It is basically the white/silver version of Angel's Wings. Out of the two I originally wanted Angel's Wings more, but in person Glistening Snow wins. I love when polish companies put out a nice white polish for holiday collections, this is definitely a twist with the holo glitter.

Swatches for the full haul including the ones listed in my last post are below. There are many, I gave up on the sun for the day but then it peeked out for litterally a minute, so some of the sun photos aren't as sunny as I'd like them to be.

Pure Joy, Angel's Wings, Cast a Spell

Angel's Wings, Cast a Spell, Make a Spectacle, Glistening Snow, Angel Eyes

Cast a Spell, Make a Spectacle (close up, new angle), Glistening Snow

Make a Spectacle, Glistening Snow, Angel Eyes, R.I.P

Pure Joy, Angel's Wings, Cast a Spell (sun)

Pure Joy, Angel's Wings, Cast a Spell, Glistening Snow (sun)

Angel's Wings, Cast a Spell, Glistening Snow, Angels Eyes, R.I.P (sun)

So I took all my photos for this post on the weekend expecting it to be just a second Sally's haul when I hit up Sephora on Sunday afternoon and what do I spot.... a long lemming of mine, and on sale?! You know I had to pick it up. It does fit in with the theme though, Halloween!

This is Sephora by OPI If You've Got It Haunt It.

 I like it so much better than I had originally thought I would too! It has a grey jelly like base, black and charcoal glitter, tiny prismatic and/or random coloured glitter. It rocks and I want to wear it. Maybe some day soon. My swatches show two coats over Pull Me Close. This is great for layering or for wear on it's own.

This concludes my holiday haulin'... for now. Until next time ;)