The Girls Are Out!

Today have another Essie I picked up recently, I must have been inspired by the warming of temperatures a few weeks back. Unfortunately the weather has been inconsistent lately. I do, however really do enjoy the odd sunny, breezy day. Essie, The Girls are Out is a great seasonal transition colour from the longer than expected winter and sporadic coming of spring.

The Girls are Out appears to be a bright red leaning purple creme in the bottle with a generous sprinkling of silver shimmer. On the nail and with my skintone I feel that is comes off as more of a magenta pink, luckily the shimmer is still visible, not too obvious and not to subtle.

I applied two coats for full opacity and don't recall having any issues with the formula or application. It is a nice bright shade that is perfect for spring or summer. Now if only it would get a wee bit warmer and less rainy, I'd be happy!

Shorts Weather

Good Morning! I hope the weather was as good where you live as it was for me over the weekend. Sure, it was a bit rainy and overcast, but for the most part it was pleasant and spring-like :) I was certainly in the mood for another spring bright on my nails, today I choose a bottle I picked up recently, Essie Boxer Shorts.

Boxer Shorts is a muted yet bright periwinkle creme, in different lighting it can appear more, blue or purple. sometimes even a bit grey! In the bottle it looks a bit lighter but on the nail it is quite a saturated shade. I only needed two coats for opacity, the first coat applied pretty well, but the second coat evened everything out. I did notice the longer I had the bottle open the more it thickened up, I'm not sureif it was because I had my window open and fan on or just due to the natural formulation of the polish. This wasn't a big deal, thinner is my best friend when I get any thickening issue :)

I think I may use this as a base for some Easter inspired nail art later in the week!

Nail Mail!

I love receiving packages in the mail, they are like little gifts! ...even though most of them I have purchased for myself. I received two packages recently, one from a blog sale and the other was an awesome product sample.

I purchased two polishes from Jennifer of Spaz and Squee's, blog sale, and if you're lucky she may have some polishes left for sale. I picked up some short term lemmings of mine, Zoya Blaze and Color Club Over the Moon. I am so happy with both of them, Blaze is a nice deep jelly and the holo on Over the Moon is incredible. Both bottles are practically brand new as well which is a plus :)

I swatched two coats for each below.

Another package I received in the mail was from Jamberry Nails. They provided me with some fun patterned vinyl nail strips to try out along with a full set of space vinyl nail strips! I cannot wait to try these out. One thing I already like about these without even trying them is that the strips have enough length to easily be used for two full manis. Plus, since they are vinyl they won't dry out once opened if you want to save some strips for a later mani or future accent nail!

Stay tuned for a review of these strips coming soon!

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.

Candy!!!

I am so happy that the cold winter temperature is finally fading away and making way for some mild, early spring weather. It's not perfect and a little bit rainy, but at this point in the year anything is better than snow! I am also finally in the mood for some more spring inspired polish choices, todays being China Glaze Kinetic Candy.

This soft pastel blue creme has a dusty quality to it, making it appear more muted. My photos show it being a bit brighter than it is in real life. I used two coats for full opacity and the polish dried quickly. I want to say that this could be a one coater, but the formula in my bottle may be a bit thicker than most since it leaked a wee bit in transportation to me.

I have since added thinner and cleaned up as much as I possibly can along the rim of the bottle and inside of the handle to ensure that once the bottle is closed there is a good seal. I would say, generally speaking, two coats of this polish is your best bet. If you own this polish I'd like to know what you think, was it thick for you as well?

As you my or may not be able to tell, I chopped down my nails yet again! I swear, this has got to be the third time now within a few months. My nails are just to weak and brittle, not good. I need to start taking my Biotin again to help them along. I actually stopped wearing polish for a good 3-4 days before painting them again with Kinetic Candy and they only got worse unfortunately. No polish to hide behind. I am still blaming the longer than normal cold weather for this,but I know they will grow back longer and stronger than before, I just have to be patient.

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.

Did You Create Your Own for Bundle Monster?

I have really been lacking lately on the nail stamping posts. I have had intentions, but lately I have been loving the shades I am wedding so much I have been touching up the chips and not having enough time for stamping. Today I have a nice neutral patten and I love it!

I used China Glaze Don't Honk Your Thorn as the base and stamped a full nail pattern from BM-410 in black. This design is from last years Bundle Monster Create Your Own collection, this is probably one of my favourites from the collection.

Bundle Monster ran another Create Your Own contest for this year and the submission deadline was at the beginning of the week. I defiantly put a little bit more thought and effort into this years submissions and am excited for the new collection! I was lucky enough to have four of my designs featured in the current collection so I hope I make it again! Below are some of my doodles/brainstorming for this years submissions.

Don't Honk Your Thorn is a perfect base for this sketchy pattern. It's simple and clean, but eye catching and interesting at the same time. I have already received many compliments, including one I count from a two-year-old who was mesmerized by my nails and kept pulling my hands in for a closer look!

Have you submitted any nail designs for this years Create Your Own contest for Bundle Monster?

L'Oreal Sale - Spring 2014

I was lucky enough again this spring to get an exclusive pass to the (bi-yearly?) L'Oreal warehouse sale. Products vary by day, however you have the typical fragrances, beauty products, cleansers, hair products, and my favorite, nail polish! The brands preset this season were L'Oreal Paris, Mayelline and Essie.

Super crowded, as always. Surprisingly it was actually more busy than previous years, especially considering this was a Wednesday atfernoon!

L'Oreal and Maybelline polishes were selling for between $2.00 and $2.50 each, while the Essie's were $4.75 each. They had an extra special promo with Essie, buy 5 get 1 free and buy 9 get 3 free. The selection was picked over, this being the second week of the sale, so I went for the buy 5 get 1 free deal.

I picked up Bouncer It's Me, Boxer Shorts, The Girls Are Out, Saturday Disco Fever, It's Genius and Naughty Nautical.

Bouncer It's Me and Boxer Shorts.

Bouncer It's Me is a cobalt blue jelly which dries to a satin finish. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Boxer Shorts is a dark cornflower creme, two coats are shown in the swatch below.

The Girls Are Out and Saturday Disco Fever.

The Girls Are Out is a deep purple leaning magenta creme with a subtle silver shimmer. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Saturday Disco Fever is a bright orange neon, it dries to a satin finish. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Naughty Nautical and It's Genius.

It's Genius is a maroon shimmer with a gold shimmer running throughout.Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Naughty Nautical is my FAVE pick! It is a teal creme with a subtle silver shimmer, unfortunately even more subtle than The Girls Are Out. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Did you attend this seasons L'Oreal sale? What did you pick up?

Spring!

I totally thought I scheduled this post for 9:30 am, stayed up late last night to make sure it would be posted this morning... I actually set it for 9:30 pm.... I do this a little bit too much!

Ugh! Just caught it now too! Anyways, today I have a lovely neutral for the first day of April, China Glaze, Don't Honk Your Thorn. This is apart of the latest spring offering from China Glaze.

Don't Honk Your Thorn is a very light beige neural crème with a slight white micro shimmer running throughout. I used two coats for full opacity, although maybe three may have provided the best coverage and levelling.

It applied pretty well, but I wasn't super happy with the final outcome. I had just removed Sinful Colors, Treasure Chest and it left a bit of a mess around my cuticles and fingers. No hardcore staining, after a few hand wages and natural oils any trade of the previously worn polish were gone. However it really made my hands and nails look dirty. Luckily it doesn't show in the photos, but my bands looked kind of dead. Not sure if it was the polishes fault, it was just the contrast between slightly stained fingers and a clean, light neutral.