Confetti Snow!

I was inspired by the snow this past week for my current mani, I was thinking something soft and white. Sitting right there on my desk, in front of me at the time, was Funky Fingers Jawbreaker. Jawbreaker is a multi-glitter base up of various sizes suspended in a sheer milky base.

I layered Jawbreaker over a white base so I could get away with minimal coats for full coverage. My white base of choice is Sally Hansen Ghost, a basic white creme. It was not fully opaque in one coat but it gave me the base I needed. I then applied two coats of Jawbreaker over Ghost to add depth between the layers. The milky white base also made the shiny glitter appear softer, almost pastel in some cases. 

I cleaned up the cuticle area and added a topcoat to seal the glitter and add some shine. I am loving this look right now, white nails, anything but plain or boring!

Son of a Nutcracker!

Merry Christmas Eve! This is easily my favorite new glitter topper for Christmas, Funky Fingers, Son of a Nutcracker! Not only is the name awesome, but the glitter, like the other Funky Fingers I own, is awesome!

Son of a Nutcracker is a glitter topper made up of various sized hex glitter in matte red, pink, green white and silver. I decided I wanted a clean look with this glitter so I layered it over one coat of OPI I Theadora You. Such a great sheer crelly with the perfect hint of pink to tint the nails. IT leveled out great.

I thin applied one coat of Son of a Nutcracker over I Theadora You. The formula on Son of a Nutcracker was good. I had the bottle standing on it's top to maximize the amount of glitter on the brush. I applied swiping the nail as usual and also some blotting and manipulated some glitter to space it out to my liking.

I applied a top coat of Seche Vite to seal in the glitter and add high shine and I was done!

U.S Haulin' - Holiday Edition

I crossed the boarder in early November and have been so busy that I am only finding the time now, a month alter, to post about it! Let me just say that with the changing dollar that U.S shopping is starting to cost more than it would be to just buy certain things in Canada,which is a bummer. I enjoy my little cross-boarder trips. However, when you are spending 30% more plus the boarder guard decides to stop you to pay double taxes on the converted USD to CAD, it's a bit painful. Anyways, on to the better side of things, I picked up some cool polish!

At Marshall's I picked up China Glaze, I Love Your Guts - A pink/red foil with small black glitter scattered throughout.

Next Stop, Five Below. I was lucky, I only realized after leaving the store that the cashier charged me 3 for $5 instead of 2 (glow-in-the dark) for $5 and whatever the cost of the regular price would be, win!

Funky Fingers, Gourdgeous - Another glow in the dark shade, this time with a sheer, light pumpkin orange base and yellow and orange hex glitters of various sizes.

Funky Fingers, R U Afraid of the Dark? - A sheer blue leaning grey base with matte black and lime green hex glitter of various sizes. This is a glow in the dark shade and produces a decent glow considering how dark the base is.

Funky Finger, Son of a Nutcracker - my first Christmas themed polish purchase of the year! It is made up of light red, pink, green, white and silver glitter of various shapes and sizes in a clear base.

Swatches for the China Glaze and Funky Fingers are below:

Last Stop, CosmoProf, I picked up both these shades on sale, under $3 each.

 

OPI, DS Titanium - This is the first Designer Series polish I have purchased in a while. The ones I own are old and discontinued, I'm sure. The sparkle of this one intrigued me in store and it helped that it was on sale! It looks to have a jelly grey base with various shapes and sizes of iridescent glitter jam packed in there.

OPI I Sing in Color - A deep maroon creme. Although the handle of the brush boasts, "Creme Gloss" it was not a super high gloss polish. If anything it dried a little flat! That being said, a high gloss topcoat adds the perfect amount of shine.

The swatch for Titanium is below, you can see the full post  and swatching on I Sing in Color, here.

That's all folks!

Oogie Boogie!

I have been waiting for October to wear this glow-in-the dark Nightmare Before Christmas* inspired shade. I found Funky Fingers Oogie Boogie at Five Below in July and just could not leave it! I found recently that Hot Topic also carries similar (they look IDENTICAL) polish shades in their skull bottles. I also found Dia De Muertos. I would say you are better off with Five Below since two or three only cost you $5, where Hot Topic Charges that per bottle!

Anyways, Oogie Boogie is a glow-in-the dark glitter topper. The sheer slimy green base houses various shapes and sizes of light green glitter. The base is fairly sheer so I decided to layer over a similar base colour, China Glaze Be More Pacific.

I applied one coat of Be More Pacific, and two to three coats of Oogie Boogie. I applied what I thought was topcoat and took these pics. I was having some trouble wth keeping this mani on my nails! It just wanted to rub right off, I was so confused, I never have issues like this worth Seche Vite, it must be the glitter, I thought. I waited a bit longer for it I dry but it was a lost cause! It literally wiped right off the nail.

I blamed it I the polish until I double checked my top coat, I had noticed during application it was a bit thicker, could this be why...? Turns out I used Seche Clear instead of Seche Vite! Not only did I use a base coat as a topcoat but it was thick and sticky. Unfortunately I only realized this after taking everything off and applying a whole new mani (with the base coat as a top coat...).

I will have to try this again, maybe wit a more Oogie Boogie theme or nail art. I took a blurry pic of the glow-in-the dark effect. It was glowy, bit I feel like Dia De Muertos was brighter with little effort.

Moral of the story... ALWAYS check you are using the proper base and top coats!

*The Nightmare Before Christmas is NOT a Halloween movie, it is a Christmas movie! However characters such as Oogie Boogie, Jack, Sally etc. live in Halloween town and makes it perfectly appropriate to wear during the month of October :)

Dia De (Los) Muertos

Happy October!

You know in this post when I mentioned that I had worn Sinful Colors, Blue La La for over two weeks? Well this is how I dressed it up in to the second week.

Enter Funky Fingers, Dia De Muertos (although I feel like it should be Dia De Los Muertos?).

Funky Fingers polishes have me soooo hooked, especially their glitters. I can't help but purchase some of them based off of the name alone. I can just picture what they are going for with the name and colour/glitter of the polish. In this case, in my head I see a black light lit sugar skull!

Sinful Color's Blue La La matching the translucent base of Dia De (Los) Meurtos was the perfect combo. DDM has a sheer cornflower base with various sizes of shiny blue glitter and matte, hot pink hex and bar glitter. Did I also mention that it glows in the dark?!

DDM applied so well to the nail, glitters were evenly distributed, what you see is one coat! I blobbed a bit on the nail to move the glitters around with surprisingly little effort. The glow of this polish in the dark is AWE-SOME! Considering I only applied one thin (blobby) layer, the glow factor is  bright, especially over a darker colour! I am super impressed with this polish, I can't wait to try the other I purchased with this, Oggie Boogie.

Under The Sea

Happy Friday! I was totally inspired by a polish name for this mani. When I found a cool glitter polish at Five Below while I was cross boarder shopping last month, it looked interesting. I turned it over to see the name, Sea Glass, that's totally what it was! The different shapes and colours were the perfect representation of sea glass and I knew I needed to add this polish to my collection. I could already envision the polish combos I could create with this glitter topper

I decided to layer Sea Glass within Zoya, Freda, the lone polish I had not used yet which is apart of the 2012 Gloss collection. I found it was the sheerest of the bunch, but it is buildable and easy to work with. I applied one coat of Freda and followed it with a coat of Sea Glass. The glitter applied easily with a good ratio of glitter to base polish. I let that dry a bit before applying another two coats over top the glitter.

 

I could have added another coat to help build up Freda further, however I liked the overall look and didn't want to add too many layers of polish. Including topcoat (I applied another base of Bio Seaweed UV gel previously) I used a total of 5 layers of polish! The photos show visibility of my nail line more so than in real life.

The photo below most accurately depicts how the polish looks on my nails in reality. Freda is a great jelly polish, it applies smoothly, is self leveling and did not bubble with multiple layers.

Overall I love the glossy, squishy look of this glitter sandwich. My only regret is not getting more of the purple and green glitters on the nail. I love how they reflect throughout the murky teal jelly like bubbles of water floating up to the oceans surface.

March Haulin'

I have been pretty good lately and limiting my polish purchases. I did order a set of the China Glaze spring polishes, but that hasn't arrived yet...

Other than that collection (I just purchased the Road Trip Ready set), I have picked up some randoms during the month of March. I will start with a few I picked up while shopping across the boarder.

Revlon, Confident - a red jelly polish with red glitter in various shapes and sizes.

Funky Fingers, Sea Glass - A glitter topper with pastel blue, pink, white green and purple glitter in various shapes and sizes.

Next was an impulsive "sale" purchase... although most usually are...

I don't regret this one though, that's always good!
Nicole By OPI, On What Grounds - A bright pastel blue textured polish with darker blue and brown textured flecks.

It is really interesting. The texture is like stucco, which I hate in real life, but love in this polish. It is very similar to the texture used in China Glaze, Bump in the Night. What I love about Nicole by OPI's take on it us the addition of coloured "flecks" or pieces of whatever they have put in it to give it some extra depth. Very unique in my collection. It's as if a turquoise stone was ground in to tiny pieces.

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 ;)

Mint Blizzard!

I saw Funky Fingers Elsa online late last year and knew I wanted it! Not for the movie reference, I have got to be the only person who has NOT seen Frozen at this point lol. Elsa is a pretty and delicate glitter made up of various shapes and sizes of matte white glitter and baby blue glitter with some white snowflake glitter scattered throughout. My mani was not lucky enough to get some of those snowflake glitters :(

I applied one generous coat to each nail trying my best to get the most glitter on each nail. I love the look but think I would get the specific effect I was going for had I layered it over a pale blue shade. Either way, the white glitter pieces are very blizzard like on nail.

Due to recent snowfalls last week I have been inspired for snowy and frosty nails. I am a little behind (again). I am hoping to have my Valentines themed mani up soon!

Glitter Matters!

Happy Friday! I have a quick mani refresh today that I absolutely love. I layered an awesome matte glitter over my previous mani of Fresh Paint Guava.

Funky Fingers, Glitter Matters, is a densely paked glitter made up of various sized pink, yellow and white glitters. I find the yellow pieces of glitter have a slight opalescence to them in the sunlight that makes them appear golden against the coral base. It is pretty awesome.

I love the contrast between the bright coral base and the matte glitter pieces. I only needed one coat for the distribution of glitter I was happy with. I used a dabbing motion to help apply the glitter evenly to the nail, and swiped upwards to distribute it evenly.

Summer Haulin'

As per usual, about every month or two I head across the boarder for a brief shopping trip. When I say brief, I mean BRIEF, like hours! But I always manage to hit up the best polish supplier while I am in town :) This month I scored at Sally's and Five Below.

I was hoping to find Orly's Baked collection at Sally's, unfortunately they only had the mini set for purchase. I took a look through their sale section and picked out some Finger Paints which were an additional 50% off, lucky me! I chose Metallic Moondust and Stargazing Lilac.

Metallic Moondust is a dense glitter made up of gold  and silver micro and medium sized glitters and sprinkled with a teal hex glitter. This was more awesome than I was expecting, very dense and super sparkly. One coat is shown in my swatches below.

Stargazing Lilac is basically a lilac version of Metallic Moondust with the prettiest shade of purple hex glitter in place of the teal. One coat is shown in my swatches below.

An unexpected stop on my trip this month was at a newly opened Five Below. I just had to check it out, three polishes for $5? Fan-tastic! I picked up some lovely neon shades from Fresh Paint, Honeydew and Guava.

Honeydew is a light green pastel neon, I don't think it has enough blue in it to be considered a mint. It is totally a honeydew shade in neon form. It dries to a slightly satin finish, my swatches below show two coats.

Guava is this fantastic neon coral. I don;t know if I would compare the shade of this polish to the actual guava fruit. Although i have never tried it before, the photos I have seen are a deeper coral in comparison. This polish wears a lot better than other neons, making it one of my number one picks for summer 2014. I will post more about this polish soon. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

sunlight

shade

The last polish I picked up at Five Below is a glitter topper. As soon as I saw this one I knew I HAD to have it, now! Funky Fingers Glitter Matters - has an unimaginative name... - but is so unique to anything I have seen or owned. Very indy inspired.

It is a glitter topper composed of tiny pink and yellow matte glitter with a mix or larger pink, yellow and white matte glitter. I can't wait to try this out over different shades of polish to see what works best. It would be awesome for a glitter sandwich as well. My swatch below shoes one coat.

sunlight

shade

That is all for now ...until next month ;)