Target Closing Polish Picks

Target has just started to liquidate (if you can call it that) merchandise since their stores will be closing their doors in Canada this year. Kind of sad, I think they didn't give it enough time and the locations of their stores were not the greatest. They only just opened up a location close by late summer 2014! After renovating and setting up shop for less than a year the are shutting it down.
I was able to score some polishes for a reduced price, I won't argue with that! My first trip I purchased Sally Hansen, Mint Sorbet and L'Oreal, Too Dimensional?, both of which I have already worn

I'm pretty sure that they were only about 10-20% off, but the Xtreme Wear polishes were originally priced a lot lower than I have seen them before, just under $2 before the discount. I got Mint Sorbet for just over $1 and Too Dimensional? for just over $3. Not too bad.

As for sales, in the first week I went, nothing I was really reduced all that much... yet! But I'm sure anything that was discounted well was already scooped up before I got there. I waited until they dropped the prices any further before heading back a week ago and picked up a few more polishes which includes some Cover Girls and a Sally Hansen

From left to right I have Cover Girl Outlast Stay Brilliant Vio-last and Goldilocks and Sally Hansen  Triple Shine, Statemint.

Vio-last is a saturated blurple creme and Goldilocks is a deep orange based yellow, it reminds me of the shade of a school bus. Typically I would have not purchased the Cover Girl brand of polishes since I don;t usually consider them when shopping. However, I was impressed with a polish  was  gifted recently (Bon Bon)  and decided to try some others. They have some great brights. I got these both for 50% off the original price which made them under $3 each.

Sally Hansen Triple Shine, Statemint is a yellow based lime green creme. I also got this at 50% off, which came to under a dollar because the last ticketed price was clearance.

Swatches for all three polishes are shown below at one coat each!

I don't think I will be heading back to a Target before they close their doors in Canada. I still think it's a shame they are closing so prematurely, it may have worked had they given it more time. At least I still have the the U.S locations when I am cross boarder shopping.

Color Club Bell Bottom Babe

Happy Friday, Good Friday that is! Let the long weekend Easter feasting begin...

Also time for my first summer polish of 2015! Well, it's not in your face summer neon, but it was apart of the Color 2014 Poptastic Summer collection. The 2014 collection, not to be confused with the originals from a few years back, is a compilation of neons with shimmer running throughout. I chose to wear Bell Bottom Babe.

 

Bell Bottom Babe is an almost periwinkle blurple base with a pink/purple shimmer. The first layer was quite thin, but the second coat built up pretty well. In hindsight a third thin coat would have been perfect, although it is not 100% apparent in the photos.

 

As an accent nail I layered a thin coat of L'Oreal, Too Dimensional? over my ring fingers and thumbs. Too Dimensional? is a glitter based polish with gold and purple glitter of various sizes in a deep purple base. I LOVE it! It is so smooth on the nail unlike most other glitters that can dry gritty.

I've included a few other right hand shots above to show you even nail shape. They will all be a little shorter and closer in relation to each other in my next post! Happy Easter to those who celebrate, hope you all have a great long weekend!

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.

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?

Spotted - Sally Hansen, OPI & L'oreal at Dollarama

A quick post for some polish finds at Dollarama (Rexdale location if you love in the area). I found some Sally Hansen's for $2 each from the following lines:

- HD

- Diamond Strength

- Total Salon Manicure

- Smooth and Perfect
- Nail Art Pen

As well as an assortment of L'Oreal Paris colours, I believe these were $3 each:

And some Nicole by OPI  polish and OPI nail polish strips (not in photo shown, I found these after taking the photos), I haven't seen these before! Lots of different designs for $2 each, not bad!

My picks are definitely the Sally Hansen HD polishes and possibly the OPI nail strips if you are in to that sort of thing. I already own the HD's from a while back and almost picked up a set of the OPI strips, but decided against it last minute, I have enough of Sally Hansen ones at home I dot use, lol. 

I didn't pick up anything this time, yay willpower :)

L'Oreal Warehouse Sale Toronto

Happy short week Thursday! Just a short post for today to end the work week. I usually head over to the L'Oreal sale a few times a year and the one I attended on Wednesday was the first of 2013. It also happened to be opening day, which I have never gone on. All the Shelves seem stacked pretty well, with unpacking and stacking being done while I was there, close to closing that day.

If you are unfamiliar with these sales, they are invitation only and basically offer L'Oreal branded (umbrell, garnier, lancome, Essie, Redkin and Maybelline just to name a few) cosmetics, perfume, haircare, skincare, etc which are overstock or discontinued at a discounted price. The prices usually very product to product and year by year. My sister found some great deals on lipsticks ($2.00), lip stain ($3.00), Maybelline discontinued eye tattoo pots ($3.00) and a various face and eye cream set.

I am all about the nail polish, of course. They had a better selection this year than they have had in the past, brands included L'Oreal Paris ($2.50), Maybelline Colour Show ($3.00), Lancome, and what I was hoping to pick up, Essie ($6.00)! They had a promo on Essie polishes and treatments, buy 5 get 1 free, not bad. They had some nice liking base treatments and cuticle moisturizers, however none of the polishes really wowed me. I either had them already, ones similar or just plain didn't like them. Such a shame!

So what did I end up getting... Unfortunately, this year I got nothing! The good news is that I can still visit the sale should I want to return before it ends at the end of the month.

Were you invited to the L'Oreal sale this year? What did you pick up?

Sale Haulin'

I was lucky enough to get an exclusive invite to the seasonal L'oreal sale this fall. I think I have mentioned it before but it is basically a warehouse sale that has a bunch of brand name cosmetics, haircare and fragrances. I was excited this year because L'Oreal recently bought out Essie and I hoped that I would find some reasonably priced polishes. I definitely did! Not only were there Essie polishes but L'Oreal and Maybelline as well.
The Essie's seemed to be the best deal at 5 for $24, so I picked some up. Here is what I got, first photo left to right is Camera and Marshmellow:

Camera is a bright neon pink/coral. It is super duper bright! On the nail it dries to a matte finish. Marshmallow is a squishy white jelly, it seems to even out really well for a white AND a jelly! Think of all the layering possibilities!

Next I have Mojito Madness and Navigate Her. Mojito Madness is a soft type of Kelly green that has a dusty quality to it. Navigate Her is more of a light, yellow based green. Both are cremes.

And last but not least As Gold As It Gets, this polish is apart of the Luxe Effects collection. It is is a clear base packed with shiny gold flakies.

One more polish I want to sneak in with this haul that I got the same weekend, but not at the sale is Sally Hanson Salon, Glided Lilly. Glided Lilly is a yellow-gold foil shimmer with a slight bronze/brown duotone shift. I just had to pick this one up when I saw it in store for the first time :)

Below are some swatches of all the polishes (minus Marshmallow which got cut off) in the sun...

And in the shade.

Flakies

Happy Friday! To celebrate I have an abundance of flakies!

Flakie polishes, they have been around for a while but are starting to get big again. I got in the flakie mood the other day so I layered Maybelline Coloramas Pink Piñata over Zoya's Neeka for a quick refresh. I decided to also take this opportunity to show you my flakie collection!

First off let's start with my mani, this is one coat of Pink Piñata over Neeka, this flakie is very similar to Sally Hansen's Hidden Treasure, the only differences are the base colour and overall density of the flakes. The colour shift is pretty much dead on.

I love how the shimmer in Neeka plays with the flakies, it actually turned out much better that I thought it would.

Now on to the flakies I own. I have some older Coloramas, left to right Ruby Rays and Pink Piñata. They are basically the same with different sheer bases, I prefer Pink Piñata for layering since the base is pretty transparent. Ruby Rays would be better suited for layering over a similar colour such as pink, red or orange. I kind of want to try this one on it's own to see how many coats are needed to build it up.

I also have these older L'Oreal's that are referred to on the bottle as "Crystal" shades. Two of them are pretty much the same as the Coloramas with different bases. The bases are pretty sheer for the most part so they all have the same colour shift.

Left to right, L'Oreal Jet-Set Shine in Rock On and Raise the Roof.

The other 2 I thought were pretty interesting when I first found them. Crushed Opal which is a multi coloured flakie very similar to Twisted by Finger Paints, and I deep blue flakie with a purple shift, Life of the Party.

I also have some NYX ones which were a bit of a disappointment because the flakes are not dense enough in the base and do not show very well in one coat. I actually forgot to take pictures of them, just a couple of the "Ave." colours (Blue, and 2 versions of purple).

Lastly I have my Finger paints, but I know you have seen enough of those by now! The only dupe I found in my collection out of all my flakies was  Crushed Opal  and Twisted. Asylum can be recreated with any of the "Hidden Treasure" flakie polishes and Life of the Party blue flakies layered.

Are you in to the revival of flakies lately? Did you own any in the past? What's your favorite?