Smartie McFlurry Mani

Smartie McFurry, Clown Puke, confetti in snow, take your pick! China Glaze It's a Trap-eze is totally awesome! I have been wearing it for the past four days and do not want to take it off, it is such a fun polish. The glitter ranges from green, blue, magenta, orange/red yellow and silver medium and small hex glitter. All this glitter is in a milky off-white jelly-ish base.

The key to getting this polish to look great is application. First you should make sure that the polish is all shook up and the glitter is mixed up well, then apply thin coats with some short dry time in-between. This  helps the glitter to lay flat on the nail bed and avoid clumping of glitter in some places and balding in others. Since the glitter is so dense, thin coats are a must. I only needed two thin coats for full coverage.

I suggest applying a thick topcoat over the polish to smooth out the surface and add some shine. I wish I had added a slightly thicker layer of top coat in my left hand, some of the glitter were not covered properly and started to lift up and pick off my the third day. This lead to me picking at it lol. I wish I could keep this on for longer! I thunk it is a great base for nail art or stamping. I will have to try it out next time before it starts to chip.

This is such a cheery polish :) Do you own any of the Cirque du Soleil collection polishes? Which is your favorite? UPDATE - FYI Removal was a lot tougher than I had originally thought, I had used the foil method but the glitter was so dense i still had to pick it off after I removed the remover soaked felt! Scrubbing a bit more with the felt helped but there was glitter EVERYWHERE!! A good scrub with my nail brush and sop cleaned evrything up nicely though :)

Electrifying!

I didn't receive any polish gifts this year for Christmas, but am glad I didn't. I did way too much hauling between November and December to gather what I already wanted! The only polish related item I did receive was the latest collection of Bundle Monster plates from my brother and I could not be happier! This is their best set yet in my opinion, the designs are just awesome and I could not wait to try them out!

I ended up using plate BM-305 to stamp some lightening bolts in black over Ulta Concrete Evidence  I decided not to add a topcoat over the design, I like the matte look, reminds me of a chalkboard drawing.

I didn't photograph the latest Bundle Monster set because it has already been done so many time before! I am very late to getting this set, they will most likely be coming out with a new one shortly. If you'd like to see what each individual plate looks like, click here.

Concrete Evidence

Today I have a polish I actually received last year for Christmas, and it is the first ever Utla brand of polish I have ever tried. Concrete Evidence appears to be from Ulta's Salon Formula line and is a light grey crème.

The formula was actually pretty good, I only needed two coats for full opacity. I did find it to be a tad in the thick side but I evened it out by adding some thinner to the bottle before applying my second coat.

The colour is nice as well, another nice neutral. I find that the grey does tend to lean a little to the blue side, my boyfriend actually pointed that out!

Haulin' - Cross Border Shoping

As a Christmas gift this year my mother treated me and my siblings to a U.S shopping trip! Not only was it a long day if shopping but also some nice time spent with my mother :) although it was a long day everyone had a good time. In Canada after Christmas we have boxing day/week sales, basically retailers want to get rid of their old winter stock for newer spring stock. I've noticed this doesn't really happen in the States, however they do have similar sales going in the weeks following Christmas after the new year, thus is what I picked up beauty wise.

First off my polish! I had been hearing about the dupes and holos Urban Outfitters had been putting out and was lucky enough to find what I was looking for! The only unfortunate part was that there were no deals to be had :( I picked up Sea Dust and Green Holo.

Sea Dust is a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream, or so I have heard. I do not own both to compare, but from what I have seen in the bottles, they are pretty close if not identical. I don't even know where to start on describing this polish! It has a seafoam green shimmer base with teal hex glitter and holo glitter sprinkled throughout, very mermaid indeed!

Green Holo is exactly what the name suggests, and boy is it ever holographic! I have heard others comment that it is more blue than green, bur after I compared it to my other blue holos I still consider it a green shade. I find it may pull a little more blue due to the prismatic effect. Most awkward bottle to showcase a holo by the way lol I tried my bes to capture it.

The bottle shots do not do this polish justice, check out the swatches of both of these Urban Outfitters polishes are below. My camera usually has a hard time photographing holos and these were not a problem, I took these with my lamp light!

Below are swatches for both polishes, two coats each.

Another polish I picked up was from OPI's collaboration with Mariah Carry, which I was not to impressed with colour and name wise. I don't get the whole "liquid sand" texture thing. I picked up the only polish I found interesting, Pink Yet Lavender  I dislike the name lol. The polish however is an awesome pink hex glitter with holo glitter in a clear base.

Next I picked up a lip balm and polish duo from Lip Smackers! I got this at Wall Mart where all Christmas gift sets were reduced to 50% off the original price, I picked this up for $2.50. The polish is a mini and does not have a name but it is awesome! Red hex glitter plus regular and mirco glitter. Which a great combo. The lip balms are Candy Cane Cake and Buttercream Frosting. I love the little tin they come in :) it's zippered and perfect as a on the go makeup bag!

Swatches for the OPI and Lip Smackers Glitter are below

At Sephora I got an Urban Decay 24 hour eyeliner set, I originally just wanted one, but the kit cost only $4 more and you get 6 different colours! I also spotted this today at Shoppers for $47!!

I tested them out on my hand, I found the colored pencils to be more pigmented and last longer when wiped off. I can see myself having fun with these! I am not one to wear a lot of makeup, but eyeliner has always been a must for me.

I scrubbed at the swatches pretty hard before the next photo:

Next makeup item I could not resist picking up, Blinged Palet, which is a Sephora branded eyeshadow, lip gloss and blush pallet. This is perfect for me, like I said I don't wear much makeup but when I do I prefer neutrals, the gloss and blush were a plus! This was on sale for $15.

The last beauty item I picked up is from the Body Shop, a Chocomania gift set consisting of Chocomainia scented body butter, body scrub, body wash and lip butter. If you haven't smelled this scent before it is the perfect chocolate scent. I have smelled other chocolate scented, perfume, lotion, etc and this is the only one I can stand. It smells like cocoa and almonds, not too sweet and fake like others :) I snagged this kit for only $10!

That is it for now other then a few bottles of Seche Vite I got on sale at CosmoProf, but you know what that looks like lol. Until next time :)

Glittery Mani Refresh

Today I have a mani refresh with my New Years Eve manicure, China Glaze Glistening Snow. I wanted to do some stamping with an image that didn't cover too much of the nail and settled on Bundle Monster plate BM-319. This image is a series of lines varying in lengths, I thought this was perfect to add to the tips of my nails for a gradient like look. My sister said it reminded her of the matrix lol.

I used my regular black polish for stamping, Sally Hansen 10 Day No Chip in Blackberry. I finished everything off with one final thin layer of top coat to seal in the design and I was done! I love the contrast between the sliver glitter and the black.

A Belated Happy New Year!

Today I have my New Years Eve mani, China Glaze Glistening Snow. This polish really surprised me, at first I wasn't too crazy about it, then I just had to have it! This polish is composed of silver holo/prismatic glitter in a clear base. This is a scattered holo/prismatic glitter effect. I had originally thought is would take multiple coats to be opaque, but all I needed was two. That being said, the formula was great! Very easy to manage and apply, not too thick or too thin, just perfect.

Depending on your lighting source you may see more or less of the prismatic shimmer, but I do believe it is visible in almost every lighting setting. I love golds and glitters for New Years and originally was going to apply China Glaze Angel Wings, but changed my mind last minute ad I am glad I did!

This polish does dry to a matte-ish finish due to all the glitter. I added one coat of Ask Cosmetics top coat and then one layer of Seche Vite to add some more gloss and speed up the dry time.

I ended up adding one final coat a few days later for a refresh before New Years Eve ( I used an OPI top coat) and the gloss was just outstanding! I would definitely recommend multiple layers of topcoat for an awesome shine.

I find in the above photos the polish appears to be more grey than silver, I think this has to do with the fact that the polish wasn't as glossy in this photo and it was not reflecting well. I will have some more photos Monday with the extra layers of top coat and Bundle Monster nail art!

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 :)