Fra-gee-lay!

Today I have my Christmas eve/day mani to share with you. The last few days have flown by in a blur! I have been wanting to pull out I new Christmas glitter from last year, Funky Fingers Fra-gee-lay all of December but wanted to get the most out of a gel mani I was wearing. Once I decided what I wanted to layer beneath it I rushed to get it on my nails!

Fra-gee-lay is a glitter topper made in a clear base with shiny red and gold hexes of a few sizes and white matte hex glitter. I wanted to get all the glitter pieces to be visible on whatever base I used. I originally thought a plain would be a nice base but then the matte while glitter pieces would blend in. I then remembered a favorite holiday polish of mine, China Glaze, Frosty!

I layered one coat of Frosty over a thin layer of a standard white creme polish (Sally Hansen, Ghost) and then layered one coat of Fra-gee-lay overtop. It worked out perfectly! Frosty has a glassflecky shimmer and a slight ivory base which gave the subtle contrast to the matte white glitter I was looking for.

This was a super festive mani that I will now be removing today in favor of something a little more sparkly for New Years Eve!

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!

December Polish Haul + High End Polish for under $7!

I may have gone crossborder shopping right before the holidays and found some awesome polish... It wasn't just a polish trip, I swear! They usually aren't anyways, but I did score some great polish for some great deals!

I'll start off with the holiday collections, first up OPI 'a latest Gwen Stefani colab. From left to right, First Class Desires and Christmas Gone Plaid.

First Class Desires is a deep plum creme with golden shimmer running throughout. Two coats are shown in my swatches below.

Christmas Gone Plaid is a deep forest creme that stops right on the boarder before black, I love it! Two coats are shown in the swatches below.

I scored both of these polishes for $2.75 each at Cosmoprof along with two bottles of Nail Tek Foundation II (my favourite ridge filling base coat, not shown) for $3.75! Sweet deal! I would have picked up more of the Nail Tek's, but that was all they had left.

Moving on now to some polishes I was hunting down! I just HAD to own Mirrorball! Below left to right I have Orly Mirrorball, Bling and Halo.

Mirrorball is a silver holographic polish made up of fine glitter and speckled with some hex glitter as well. Two coats are shown in the swatches below.

Bling is similar to Mirrorball, only it's a yellow toned gold with larger pieces of glitter and it does not produce a linear holo effect. Two coats are shown in my swatches below, however three are required for full coverage.

Last, but not least, I have a polish from last years collection, Halo. This glitter is made up of various sized silver and light gold glitter. Two coats are shown below. 

I purchased all three at Ulta to take advantage of their buy two get one free promotion. I also used my 20% off coupon, I only shop at Ulta when there is at least one coupon or promotion going on!

Next I hit up Big Lots hoping to score some Sephora by OPI and Sephora X shades. Unfortunately nothing really caught my eye untill I saw a huge Sinful Colors display. I picked up a new to me shade and a long time lemming, from left to right Mint Tropics and Mint Apple.

Although these may look very similar in the photo, they are actually quite different. Mint Tropics is a bright, soft creme. It's a beautiful spearmint shade, you can see more of it in this post. Two coats are shown in the swatch below

Mint Apple has been one of those polishes I have picked up and put back down multiple times. Why exactly, I'm not too sure, but I finally decided it was time to try it out. Its a blue toned green with silver shimmer throughout. In the bottle the shimmer looks silver but in my swatch of two coats below it looks more golden.

Next up, some randoms. Orly, Smoked Out, OPI, Where's My Blanket??? and OPI, There's a Frog in My Throat.

Orly Smoked Out was an impulse sale purchase at Sally's, in hindsight the "sale" price wasn't really a sale lol. It is made up of an inky blue base with blue and green glitter which appears to be jelly in application but dries to a weird matte-ish finish. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Where's My Blanket??? it apart of OPI's 2014 Halloween offering. I was glad to see an full sized halloween collection from them this year, however this is the only polish that captured my interest. It is a matte black based glitter with pastel yellow, orange and white matte glitter in a clear base. Very candy corn!

Frog in My Throat is very familiar. I picked up both these OPI's from Marshalls, and I am 99% confident this is a rebottling of Sephora by OPI 212 which was a hard to find polish that was brought back in to stores which now again is discontinued and probably harder to find again. I own it, but I had to be sure! I may consider selling it or soemthing, no need for two in my stash. for more information on this polish check out my post on 212 here. Check out those long ass square nails!

I totally Saved the best plus a random for last.... check out Deborah Lippmann Lets go Crazy! 

...oh yeah, and Essie Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low.

So, Lets Go Crazy is the star of this haul because I found it accidentally at Marshalls and because it was $6.99.... SIX NINETY-NINE! That is bananas! I originally grabbed 4 or five different ones before calming down and narrowing it down to the one I really wanted. Lets Go Crazy is a deep plum jelly packed with multiple shades of giller in various sizes. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low is a silver based foil with flakes of gold sprinkled in there. Very pretty and shiny! Two coats are shown in my swatch below.

I finally go through this post, it was a long one! If you are still with me I appreciate it :)

Did you find any gems in your shopping before the holidays? Any other awesome Deborah Lippmann sightings at Marshalls?

Rolling In Cashmere

Today I have more information on the base polish I used for my New Year's Eve nails, OPI, Rolling in Cashmere. This lovely shade of gold is light and lacks the brassiness of other shades of gold, which I like. 

Application was great, the formula was good. My only comment on these types of frost finish polishes is that brushstrokes may show through. They were not too apparent with my application, and I wasn't very careful. To get even coverage without brushstrokes for these finishes, sponge on a thin layer of polish with a cosmetic sponge as your final coat before adding topcoat.

I heard that this polish dries to a satin/matte finish, but I don't see it. The finish wasn't super glossy either, mind you. Due to the this formula I found that it chipped quicker than normal on me. 

What do you think about this polish? Normally wouldn't purchase a polish like this, however I received it in a gift set from Christmas (Christmas polish gift haul to some after I have caught up on my other posts!). I actually like it more than I thought I would, it is great for layering and nail art. I will need to check how well it is for stamping.

Carols By Candlelight

Catch, catch up, catch up!

Today I have my festively green and red Christmas nails! I already posted about the base polish of this mani, Sinful Colour, Mint Tropics, and have used two glitters as toppers... can you guess which ones?

The bottle you see in the photos is Oopsie Daisy, Carols By Candlelight. I used one light coat of this as my first layer over Mint Tropics. Next I used my new favourite Christmasy glitter, Sinful Color, Holiday Rebel (bottle not pictured). The difference between the two glitters are shiny verses matte glitter. Carols by Candelight has a mix of matte red, green and white glitters (with a few sneaky holo green glitters) while Holiday Rebel has a mix of shiny red and green glitter with some silver holo glitter as well.

I absolutely love this combination, its so bright and festive and glittery! And I have been all about glitter the last few months! This mani wore fantastically and I did not want to remove it.

Next year I will have to try this same glitter combo over white or as a white jelly sandwich :)

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

I am feeling my green polishes lately! Glitters and greens! Today I have a holiday polish from a few years back, Orly, Meet Me Under The Mistletoe. This Gorgeous shimmer has been featured on my blog before, so I will keep this post short. It is a deep evergreen shade with duochromatic shimmer flakes. So great or the holidays!

lamp light

I only needed two coats for opacity, the first coat was thin, but the second evened everything out. Such a beautiful shade on it's own, but I have bigger plans for this as a base...

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natural light

More to follow soon on a mani refresh!

If you like it then you should a Put a Bow On It....

lol, I just could not resist with the title of this post. Today I have a glitter bomb of a polish from China Glaze's Happy Holiglaze collection. Put a Bow On It is a densely packed bright magenta glitter. Depending on the lighting it can appear more pink or purple. In the bottle it appeared to be more pink to me and I wasn't sure I needed it in my collection. After seeing additional swatches throughout December and passing on it the first time, I happened to find it at Sally's and decided to try it out.

Of course I ended up loving it! Although made up of mainly magenta glitters, I think I see a tiny mix of purple. It could be my eyes or the lighting, but whatever it is I like it! Application was pretty easy, I only needed two coats for full coverage. I topped it of with a thick coat of Seche Vite and was happy with the final texture once dried. Since it is a full glitter polish a little texture is to be expected, but it didn't bother me.

In terms of wear these glitters just do not seem to wear well at all on me. I usually start to see chips within the first or second day after application which sucks! I think it may be the base coat I am using, I have got to try some other brands and see if wear is better.

The only good thing about the wear is removal was quick and easy, it basically peeled off in sheets with no damage to the nail lol. Not ideal, but a lot less time consuming than removing by hand.

Twinkling Lights

I am FINALLY back! I have been MIA for waaaaay too long now,  I can't believe it is already the second week of January! I have been constantly busy since the week of Christmas and took the last two weeks of December off. I am not looking forward to going back to work, but we all have to go back at some point, right?

This week will be my blog catch up week, I'll start off with my awesome Christmas mani! I had a hard time deciding what polish I wanted to wear, I knew I wanted it to be sparkly but also festive. China Glaze Twinkle Lights, was the perfect mix of both! Released apart of China Glaze's Let it Snow 2011 holiday collection, Twinkle Lights is a mix of  predominately gold glitter sprinkled with red and green. I even spy some stray holo glitters in there as well, if the light catches it just right! 

When I first purchased it in 2011 I probably figured I would use it as a topper, but I decided to try it on it's own to see if it could be built up to opacity.. I love that t is sparkly and gold without being over the top, in your face Christmas. 

A little backstory on my Christmas manis incase you are new to the blog or forgotten, I have been wearing China Glaze Party Hearty on my nails for 4 years straight in some way or form on my nails. This year  decided I wanted to try something new that would still be as festive as the Christmas in a bottle shade that is Party Hearty. I initially looked to some of the other red and green glitters I owned but they just weren't working for me. When I came accross Twinkling Lights I knew it would be perfect, it would match the gold dress  had in mind for Christmas as well.

I only needed two coats for full opacity which was an unexpected surprise. This is probably due to the fact that the glitter is slightly larger (ie. compared to the glitters from the 2013 holiday collection) It applied pretty well considering it was a dense glitter. It had good coverage due to the larger sizes of glitter. Unfortunately it did not last as long as I'd hoped, glitters always tend to wear horribly on me. I am thinking of testing out a few base coats with glitter polishes to see if it helps with adhesion and longevity on the nails. If you have any recommendations for any good base coats to use with glitter polished please let me know!

This is Tree-Mendous!!

Wow, down to a few days left until Christmas, today is Christmas Eve, Eve! The weather here the last few days has been crazy, power outages, frozen rainstorms and icy roads. I really hope everything gets back to normal soon and in time for Christmas.

Today I have a great Christmas/holiday themed polish from China Glaze, Tree-Mendous, loving the cheasy name! This is a total Christmas tree glitter bomb, It is made up of medium and light green glitter with a sparkle or yellow/gold in a clear base. I wish the other glitters in this collection with the same formula had a slight tint of base colour to give it that little bit of depth. That being said it built up nicely to opacity with three thin coats.

It is super duper sparkly and glittery, but it has a naturally dull/matte finish without a topcoat. You may have to apply a second layer of topcoat for super glossy nails, I used one and was happy with the look.

My only complaint with these types of glitters are staying power, they always chip on me too early. Tree-Mendous was no exception unfortunately :( Me being me and not wanting to remove it after only one day, I just full in the missing pieces with some more glitter :) so far it has helped, it blends in well with the polish already on the nail, but it is still chippy.

China Glaze Dash Of Dazzle Set - Part Two

Today I have part two of my Nail Polish Canada review of the China Glaze holiday set, Dash of Dazzle. The polish I am wearing from this set today is So Blue Without You.

natural lamp light

The shade of this polish is a bright medium blue with a foil finish. At first glance it reminded me of Orly's Sweet Peacock from their Birds of a Feather holiday collection released a few years back. When I did a quick comparison of the two in the bottle, Sweet Peacock appeared to be slightly deeper in colour and darkness. I also feel as if So Blue Without You has a teeny tiny bit of green in it. On the nail is just glows as you can see from the many photos in this post, I took several photos in different lighting.

led lighting

Application wise I had no issues with the formula, it was sooth and not too thick or thin. Two coats built up to opacity perfectly. The foil finish adds a lot of  shine to the colour and gives the appearance of slightly blackened edges at the sides of the nail. I love this!

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In terms of wear time it lasted pretty well with regular daily tasks such as washing dishes, preparing food and showering. The only issue I had was on my thumb where I encountered a huge chip on the second day of wear, however, this is likely due to the polish I used as a base. You see i get crazy breaking on my thumb nails in the colder months and use a polish that helps to repair the nail, it is the worst as a basecoat though, this is the second time this has happened this month, only on the thumbs!

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Overall I really enjoyed wearing this shade, It's not only perfect for holiday gatherings and parties but the cold winter months ahead of us.