Cross Boarder and Holo-Haul

Today I have a collection of polish and polish related purchases from last month. Let's start off with my favorite find at Winners, the Color Club Holo Hue 2.0 polishes! Since I already have a few similar shades I decided to go for some I thought were unique to my collection, I picked up Kizmet and Cosmic Fate.

Kizmet is a light lime green holo. I was searching everywhere online to see how close it was to L8R G8R, but could not find any comparisons. I thought it would be more pigmented but it surprisingly was not! Although the shades are similar, the holographic effect is different. China Glaze's OMG's had a super fine spectraflair pigment which makes for a smoother holo, where the Color Club's are more glittery, with larger glitter pieces. I did a swatch in my nail wheel and only needed one coat for full coverage.

Cosmic Fate is a peachy pink holo. This is probably the only colour of holographic polish I don't have, and that is why I picked it up, because I wanted all of them, it was a hard decision to just pick two! Same application as Kizmet, one coat on my swatch wheel.

Swatches of each below:

Next up are some cross boarder shopping purchases, I picked these up at CosmoProf, first is China Glaze Fancy Pants. This just looks so interesting to me! A deep purple leaning blue base with pink shimmer. Definitely unlike anything I own. When I searched this on my nail wheel I noticed the formula was quite thick so I will most-likely apply thinner before applying on my nails. Due to the thickness it was opaque in one coat.

While at CosmoProf I also spotted a China Glaze and Seche Vite duo in support of breast cancer. It was on sale for $4.95, so I couldn't leave it! The China Glaze colour is Naked, a light pink polish with glass fleck shimmer.

I had found a coupon for $5 off a Kiss brand led light for gel polish and figured if I found it at Wal Mart I would pick it up. There was only one left so I thought what the hell, if it doesn't work with my gels I can always return it lol. I am looking forward to trying it out, I need a pedicure bad!

One last item from across the boarder, if you live in the States and are close to a Christmas Tree Store check it out, I found these Revlon flakies for only $1.99! I spotted four different versions. I'm not too crazy about these myself, but I know some of you were interested in purchasing them but didn't like the higher price point. This is the lowest I have seen them for. The Dollarama in Canada has these for $3 each, only the neon collection was spotted by me.

I've saved the best for last, 6/8 out of 12 of the new China Glaze Hologlams :) I was so giddy when I got these online, but in person the bottles just look so... Not all that exciting lol. They almost look like the magnetic or chrome polishes. I first ordered online my top four; OMG A UFO, Strap On Your Moonboots, Take a Trek and When Worlds Collide.

The next batch I picked up in-store was Sci-Fly By, Cosmic Dust, Galactic Grey and Not in this Galaxy. You will not believe how much I scored these babies for! I must have the best Sally's EVAR! First of all when I called in and asked about them a week before their release I was allowed the option to hold the ones I wanted, that was the first awesome score! Once I got in, there was a promo for 2 for $7 on all China Glaze (Proclub promo), On top of that I was honoured April's promo as well which is buy two of any polish get one free!! I walked out of Sally's Spending just over $11 with tax for 4 polishes, plus for the additional 4 I ordered by mail were purchased with Swagbucks, so I got them for FREE!! So the total spent for 8 Hologlam polishes equals just over $11, deal of the year for sure! If you are interested in FREE nail polish and other rewards, send me a private email (enthuseme@hotmail.com) and I will invite you to join to start earning as well!

Now I'm sure you want bottle shots and swatches, but that it just too big for this post so I will showcase them on their own soon. I have left you a sneak peek in the photo below...

Doesn't even do any of them justice by the way. I am truly happy with them despite what I have read on other blogs, I love the holo effect and colours, I am just super excited about them, they do not disappoint!

Holiday Hauling

Today's haulng was spread out from before Christmas up until January 2nd. I'll just get right in to it, the first polish I picked up was before Christmas and was glad to find it half off :) I finally found Pumpkin Spice, super glad to have it!

The next couple of polishes I picked up for an amazing price through a group buying site, at the moment I can't remember the exact one I used. The promo was basically 5 polishes for $15, best deal for American Apparel I have found. I love their formula, so I was super excited to find this deal.

From left to right I have Army Jacket, Mount Royal, Coney Island, Mannequin and one of the new glitters, Meteor Shower.

Just after Christmas I went to the mall and found Zoya's Neeka on sale at Trade Secrets for about half off which I was really excited about. It's this gorgeous greyed out purple with these tiny gold flecks, sooo my kind of colour :)

Later that day I passed by Sephora and picked up some polishes with some gift cards I got for Christmas. You've already seen Looks Like Rain, Dear, but I also picked up Sugar Plum Faries Gone Wild. That was an impulse buy while I was in line to pay. It looks cool, but I didn't get a chance to swatch it in store so I'm still on the fence about keeping it, that's why it's still sealed.

I got a good amount of money in giftcards for Sally's so this is what I picked up just after new years. I got some good deals there too! I picked up some holiday colours and one I had been lusting over for a while. Plus they had  a buy 3 Orly get $5 off. Left to right I picked up Au Champaign, Bailamos and Le Chateau.

Sally's also had another promo going on, buy Seche Vite, get a China Glaze Free, so I picked up White Cap. Pretty good deal, they came out to around $4.50 each with the discount!

Lastly at Sally's I picked up some of the new flakies from Finger Paints, from left for right I have Twisted, Flecked and Asylum.

The last polish related purchase I made was at Wal Mart, all of their holiday gifts/gift sets were half off, so I picked up these two mini polishes. They both came with rings, I just happened to be wearing one at the time ;) It's weird that in Canada the polish is the only beauty product we don't get in the Hard Candy display. This polish reminded me of Lava, I picked up 2 since they were minis and 50 cents each. I couldn't find the actual names for these ones.

That's all for now, I'll have another haul post coming up tomorrow. I've had that post ready for a while, can't wait to share it with you, it includes my OPI holos!

More summer Neons!

Sigh, Monday again, can't wait for the long weekend ahead :)

Today I have a bright neon for summer, I've really been trying to wear all my untried bright colours this summer. Today I have China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise, A lovely green based turquoise neon with a blue-ish shimmer. I noticed a lot of other bloggers wearing it around the same time I decided to try it out.

The formula was okay, a little thick, but manageable. I actually liked the thickness. I may add a bit of thinner the next time I wear it just to make it a little more even on the nail. I applied 2 coats which made it opaque, but a thin third coat wouldn't have hurt. This polish dries to a satin finish so a top coat is a must.

Although the base colour is beautiful and the shimmer really makes it pop, I found that it chipped very easily on me. First I thought it was because I went swimming a day after applying it and it started to chip in the pool. But even after fixing it up, adding Konad and another coat of top coat, it still chipped within less than 24 hours! I even wrapped the tips both times, that always makes my polish last forever!

I also used a different base coat, Seche Clear. It was my first time using it so not sure if that could have had an effect on the chipping, I hope not! I also used Seche Vite for my top coat and it has never done me wrong! I think the next time I wear this I will use my OPI ridge filling base coat, I find it really binds the polish to my nail. I have not been having luck with long lasting manis lately!

Have you had issues with this polish chipping? Have you had issues with Seche Clear before?

Houston... We Have a Purple... or do we?

Hello ladies,

Today I have one of the polishes I picked up from my last trip to the U.S. I am around an hour and a half drive to Buffalo, so within the last year I have been going there to shop pretty frequently. With the dollar pretty much being the same, it's a good time to take advantage of the U.S's cheaper prices. *cough* SALLYS!... I picked up this OPI from Ulta which is apart of the new Texas collection.

Houston... We Have a Purple looks like a deep reddened plum in the bottle, but when applied to the nails it is slightly lighter. In most lights this polish doesn't look too purple at all, it definitely has strong red undertones in it.

Enlarge to see the reflection of my desk lamp clearly in the glossiness!

Although the colour wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, it is still very pretty :) I would have preferred a deeper purple with a bit more blue, as this leans way more red in most lighting. To reach opacity I used 3 coats and didn't get any streaking. There is no visible nail line that I am aware of in person, which is awesome, I was expecting to do way more than 3 coats!

The polish was super shiny on it's own, I had heard that the jellies from the Texas collection took a littler longer to dry, to I applied a thin coat of Seche Vite. The jelly formula was great and the finish is amazing, I literally want to drink it, it looks so juicy!

I personally would have preferred the Texas collection to have a greater variety of jelly colours. the ones they released look great, but for the most part they all look pretty similar. I would have loved a green or turquoise jelly! Or a deep purple plum. Hopefully OPI comes out with some more jellies this year in some new colours

My U.S Haul :)

Hello ladies,

Time for some haulin'! As you all know I headed to Buffalo NY last Friday for some cross-boarder shopping. Me and my boyfriend (... mostly me) made a list of the places we wanted to check out, some of which included:

Niagara Falls Fashion Outlet Mall
Walden Galleria Mall
Dollar Tree
Ulta
Sally's
Rite Aid
Big Lots

I hope to help those visiting Buffalo in the near future find some good stuff :)

The first polishes I have are from Rue 21 which was located in the outlet mall.

I picked up these 2 L.A Girl Rock Stars, left to right, Rockstar and Supernova. They had a bunch of other polishes, I remember seeing some neons and black light shades. There was also another brand of scented polish also. I picked these up for $3.99 each I believe. Supernova is a sheer black base packed with prismatic bar glitter. I thought this polish would have an opaque black base, but after trying it out I think this would be best layered.

Here's a close up of Rockstar, it is a black polish with duochrome shimmer. Reminds me of OPI, Tease-y Does It, but with a black base or Sinful Colour, What's Your Name.

Next I have some purchases from Walden Galleria. First, let me start off my saying that this mall has many beauty shops and is a good place to stop off at if you are looking for polish! Although, I didn't go nuts here, just got what I "needed" lol.

Below are my purchases from Sephora. I got some gift cards from Christmas and love spending them in the States because everything is a lot cheaper. i.e, in Canada Sephora by OPI polishes go for $12! The dollar is at par too so it sucks of us! One thing I did notice is that Sephora seems to be raising their OPI polish prices from $9.00 to $9.50, not a huge jump, but the polish is already pricey.

I picked up IM Beauty, Traffic Stopper Copper and Havana Nights. IM Beauty was on sale for $5, while the other 2 were full price at $9.50.

IM Beauty is a light, soft yellow cream. I didn't intend on picking this polish up, but it was on sale and will be a perfect colour for spring and summer. I love how it looks with Havana Nights, may have to come up with a mani where I can use them together.

I knew I had to have this when I first saw it, I mean, I already have Flurry Up and Only Gold For Me! This is basically the same as those but copper, hex and small glitter in a clear base. I was glad to see that they had many in stock at this location, ad the one at Yorkdale mall hardly has a sample!

I had thought about Havana Nights for a while, but was indecisive it I really wanted it or not. Going to Buffalo I knew I wanted to pick this one up, It's a light baby blue cream and I LOVE my blues :)

Next stop in the mall, a Beauty Supply/Hair Salon? I didn't remember the name so I checked out their online directory, no real help unfortunately. I would definitely go back to this mall for this one place alone! They carried almost every brand of salon nail polish and had all the new collection displays out. I'm talking about crackle, Katy Perry and Texas. I saw two full displays of OPI Shatter and a full display of the new China Glaze Crackle... I'm kinda bummed out I didn't at least get 1 black to try out. But I figured I cold get it cheaper at Sallys.

Annnnnnyyways, I didn't go nuts and only got what I really wanted, OPI, Big Hair, Big Nails from the Texas collection. It's such a bright corally pink jelly :) with taxes this cost me under $8.00.

I went to several Dollar Trees but did not find exactly what I was looking for. I found the packs of 2 Cover Girl polishes, but nothing worth purchasing :( but I did find this cool nail tool, buffer, filler thing lol. It actually works alright for being a $1.

The next one I hit up had the Divas polish with the nail file in the handle I had seen recently on some blogs. I knew I wanted this colour specifically, so I picked it up and went on my way. Star is a light blue cream with slight teal undertones, not as blue as Havana Nights and a bit brighter. I would love to wear this layerd wih Traffic Stopper Copper, love the colour combo :)

The next stop was Ulta, I was amazed my first time but I knew what I wanted this time! Obviously Ulta has everything, unfortunately it was nothing I wanted :( I really wanted an essence stampy plate but they didn't have any left :( After not buying anything and being bummed out there I headed to Sally's which brightened my day.

I got Seche Vite and Seche Clear, BOGO free! Plus I got 20% off with a coupon, PLUS I got a free ION product since I renewed my card in the same month as last year AND got my $5 off coupon for my next purchase :) It was less than $5.00 for both polishes.

Seche Vite Top Coat

Seche Vite Base Coat

I decided to go with the ion Silk Drops which offers shine and frizz reduction. I actually used it the other day, it smalls like pink bubble gum :)

At Sally's I intended on picking up some China Glaze Crackle, unfortunately for me, the sales associate let me know that she wasn't sure if they were even getting them in! First the Anchors Away collection, now the crackle? wtf is up with Sallys!? Is is because of the Tronica collection, because that is kind of a disappointment also lol.

Although I intended on checking out a Rite Aid, by the time I passed by one I didn't feel like going in anymore, it had been a long day. I did really want to go to Big Lots but forgot! It's right beside the outlet mall too, but I was tired and forgot. Next time for sure!

Not sure if you ladies are interested, but I also checked out 2 Coach factory outlets, one on the U.S side and one on the Canada side and picked up an AMAZING full leather purse, it was originally $500! so I got an amazing deal. Let me know if you are interested in seeing it, and I will include a photo in my next post.

Hopefully you are still with me here, a long post indeed, but I hope you enjoyed it :)

A Glossy Konadicure

Hello ladies,

Wow, it's been a week since my last blog post! My cold is partly to blame, but I have really been feeling lazy lately... I hate it, I don't really want to do anything. Maybe it's the weather or something, I'm really hoping that spring comes soon :)

Although I haven't posted since last Thursday, my current mani was applied on Friday, so yea, you didn't miss much lol. I wanted to do some sort of Valentines themed mani so I looked at my collection of polishes and picked out some pinks and reds and did some skittle swatches to see what I liked best.

with flash indoors

no flash before appetizers arrived for Valentines :) I love how jelly this polish looks!

A shot my boyfriend took

I ended up going with NYC Glossies Raspberry due to its smooth application, jelly like appearance (although it is not) and shiny glossy finish. I applied 2 coats with it's wider than normal polishes brush. It was perfect! The only bad thing I can say about this polish is that I applied this mid afternoon and still got sheet marks the next day! Weird, maybe it's the formula, I mean, this polish is kind of old. A coat of Seche Vite made it perfect :)

I kept this polish on it's own for Friday and took photos... I had forgotten to insert my memory card in to my camera though so I don't have pictures :( I was very upset about this because I had some sunlight that day too!! Anyways, I still wanted something Valentines-y, but then decided to go will a full nail design from a Konad plate. I never used or really liked this one that much, but I feel like the upward lines really elongate the nails. It also was not to over the top so I applied it to every nail.

What do you ladies think, Valentines day appropriate?

On another note, wish me luck for tomorrow :) I am heading to the States to do some Presidents day sale shopping lol. Me and the boyfriend went last year too, this year we mapped out a bunch of stops along the way to major malls including Ulta (CANNOT WAIT!), Sally's and Big Lots. I hope to come back with a bunch of goodies to show you on Monday!

Christmas Nails ...4 more days till Christmas!

Hello ladies!

Today I have a funky french Christmas mani to share :)

For this look I used:

- Nailene guide stickers

- OPI, Bubble Bath

- China Glaze, Emerald Sparkle

- China Glaze, Ruby Red Pumps

- Seche Vite top coat

I applied 1 coat of OPI, Bubble bath as a base (...and to cover up some slight discoloration in my nails), waited a bit for that to dry and once I was 100% sure they were, I applied the french tip guides.

This was my first time using the nailene french tip guides and they worked out very well! the only issue I had with them was the line wasn't as crisp because of the glitter in the polishes. I did go over some nails again to try and get a cleaner line, but it was nothing that bothered me too much :)

Left Hand

I finished everything off with a a coat of Seche Vite, which was also my first time using it and wow, everything dried so fast and the final look of my nails was super glossy and shiny! They almost looked like acrylics! I can't believe I never used this before, definitely need to stock up, I really love the look, especially for French manis.

My rarely seen right hand lol

So that is it, I used Emerald Sparkle for my thumb and ring finger and ruby pumps for the rest, but you can see that in the pics lol. What do you think? I really like this one, simple but festive :)

A Very Christmas Haul

Hey Ladies,

I am so getting in the Christmas mood lately, I love the holidays :) over the weekend I went to one of my usual beauty supply shops looking through their shelves and writing down a list of the polishes I would like for Christmas :) Between my parents, brother and sister we always make Christmas lists so everyone knows what to buy for each other.

Anyways, on the right side of the store they usually have no name brands and a discounted polish bin (usually no name brands.) To my surprise I saw some of the China Glaze Holiday collection in there!

I picked up Mrs. Clause, Frosty and peppermint cuticle oil :) As you can tell by the pictures one of these polishes does not belong ... actually both Mrs. Clause and Frosty had the silver paint scraped of of the bottle lid, this is why they were discounted. From what I could understand from the owner (broken English) she said that something spilled on them during transportation (I would assume the cuticle oil) so they were selling them at a discounted price. Although, there was nothing wrong with the cuticle oil!

They also had Phat Santa but I have enough reds already. I do want to go back soon though and see if they have any of the foils discounted also :)

I got all 3 polishes for $2.99 each! I can't wait to wear frosty and I will be doing a review of the cuticle oil soon, I find that is has been over looked in other blogs full collection reviews.

So going from cheap polish to overly expensive ... the next christmas polish I have for you is from Sephora by OPI's holiday line. This was a whopping $12.00! I really had to think this one through... Hmm... I had $3+ on a giftcard and I had found a $5 bill in my winter jacket the day before, so it was like the polish was REALLY $4 ... right ...? lol

Click to enlarge :)

I am DYING to get flurry up but it was out of stock when I was there last, but I did find 212. I actually didn't know it was apart of the holiday collection initially, I did know however that it is limited edition.

This polish is sooooo coool! All the photos I have seen online do not to this polish justice! I would describe it as an almost black, grey, brown, olive with subtle holographic glitter, gold shimmer (that changed with the light, green, gold red) and has flakies! I hope that makes sense lol basically this polish is nuts, I included another photo below to show up the shimmer this gives.

Click to enlarge :)

Isn't that awesome!

Next I have another China Glaze Holiday polish, Party Hearty (my sister got a kick out of this one, the name reminded her of Andrew W.K - Party hard. Weirdly enough she disliked the polish!) I got this along with my first ever bottle of Seche Vite Topcoat!

I got these polishes for free though Swagbbucks! I have mentioned this site before, basically you sign up and earn points for searching. Once you get enough points you trade them in for items of your choice. I always choose Amazon.com giftcards :)

If you'd like me to send you an invite, please email me at enthuseme@hotmail.com with the subject line SWAGBUCKS. I can also give you the links to some great sites/blogs that provide you with swag codes which earn you even more points!

Anyways, hoped you liked my holiday haul! Have you ladies done any holiday hauling yet? Which holiday collection are you liking the best?