Rosey

Yesterday I mentioned that I was inspired to purchase Orly Rage from a friend who happened to be wearing it. She actually layered a glitter over top for her mani, Essie A Cut Above. A Cut Above has got to be the perfect complement for Rage, it is a slightly deeper pink and I would describe it as more gold toned than
Rage for sure.

I layered/dabbed one coats of glitter over Rage and seriously was in love! What a perfect quick and easy mani for Valentines! I would have never thought of layering a glitter over a chrome but I honestly did not want to remove this polish combo!

Once it started chipping I even tried to fill in the chips with glitter and polish lol. Ultimately I did have to remove it once the chipping started again. I feel like I have been bored lately with my polish choices and this one really got me excite again! Definitely my favourite mani of the year so far!

Rage!

Good, rage! No bad rage! In Decembera friend of mine wore this awesome combo of polish and I just knew I needed to add both polishes to my collection, one of them being Orly Rage. I would recreate her look, but I will talk about that more I an upcoming post ;)

Rage has been described by many as a rose gold foil. Although I do agree with the description of the finish being a foil, I'm not sure if I consider it to be a true rose gold, I find it more of a pink toned silver, super pretty and flattering with my skintone. I actually ment to recreate my friends mani but decided to wear it on its own for a few days because of how pretty it was!

For whatever reason, I forgot to apply base coat before applying Rage, which is very unlike me! That being said, the polish wore fantastically, even without a top coat! I only needed two coats to reach opacity and it dried super fast. I'm really glad I tried this polish out, so classy and feminine.

It's Frosty Out

I think the weather is starting to have an impact on my polish selection these days. The conditions vary from day to day, but they all have one thing in common, crazy low temperatures! For today's mani I decided on wearing a China Glaze I purchased a while back but never got around to wearing, Jitterbug from the Vintage Vixen Collection.

Jitterbug is a lovely charcol foil made up of what looks like silvery flecks. Application was great, I only needed two coats for full opacity and did not create any brush strokes in the process. The finish is icy cold!

I had a great idea of layering Nabi Black Flake, a matte black and white bar/hex glitter combo on the tips with Sally Hansen Open Mica Night, a square holo glitter. I tryed this out over a light silver foil on my nail wheel in early winter and loved the frosted look.

I don't think I got the same look with Jitterbug as the base, too dark. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo with the combo of square holo glitter in Sally Hansen's Open Mica Night, but you get the idea. I will be recreating the original look soon, I will also be sure to take proper photos!

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!

camera flash

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!

camera flash

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.

China Glaze Dash Of Dazzle Set - Part One

I received a wonderful holiday set of China Glaze polishes for review from NailPolishCanada.com just in time for December! China Glaze usually puts out some a good array of gift sets for the holidays and this year was no exception. I received the Dash of Dazzle set for review, it contains three polishes which compliment each other quite well, Mingle With Kringle, So Blue Without You and Bells Will Be Blinging.

Mingle With Kringle is a bold gold foil polish. The formula on this one is great, no issues to report on application and it was not streaky at all. My swatch below is two coats. I have read this is a close dupe for Zoya, Ziv, apat of their 2012 holiday/winter Ornate collection which I hope is true because I love that shade and was not able to get my hands on it! Check out The PolishAholic swatches for  Ziv here, its all the way at the end of the post.

Next up is So Blue Without You, another foil, this time in a medium blue shade. I really love this colour, so much prettier on the nail than in the bottle. It has that blackened look at the edges of the nail that gives it more dimension than your average foil. My swatch below shows two coats.

Last but not least is Bells Will Be Blinging, a must have from this collection in my opinion! I love glitter around the holidays and this one is nothing like I have seen before from China Glaze. Various sized blue and silver holo glitter make up this fun topper. This would looks great layered over either of the fist two polishes.

The set as a whole is love for me, I got to choose between this and the Touch of Twinkle set (mostly red/pink shades) and this one is totally me. Not only is is great around the holidays on its own or in nail art, but also in the months after December. This is definitely a winner for me :)

indirect lighting

natural lighting

Stay tuned tomorrow for part two of my review which includes wear of the polish and more swatches.

*This product was sent to me for an honest review, all views expressed are my own honest option.

Hot Lava!

Happy, Happy Friday! Such a perfectly fall polish today, for a sunny breezy fall day.

Sally Hansen Lava is apart of the Lustre Shine collection and is the only foily finish polish. In the bottle the duochrome looks super cool, at first glance I notice a pink copper and yellow gold. On the nail it is so much more than I expected it to be! Since It appeared more of a red/pink base, I wasn't sue how wearable it would be for me, I hardly wear any reds and a pink shimmer/foil is usually not my thing. But it was too pretty not to buy!

I used three coats on my nails, two coats were fine to build up for opacity but I added a third to smooth everything out. On my nails I see a flash from pink, copper, orange, gold and yellow, unlike anything in my collection and I love it! the perfect shade for fall, reminds me of the changing leaves.

After 3 full days of wear in indirect natural lighting

I am super duper fall and halloween inspired lately, I don't even care that it's not October yet! Already started watching horror movies and baking fall treats last weekend and intend on doing the same this weekend. I even picked up a baby pie pumpkin this week :) Cant wait to make him in to something yummy!

Blurple

Woo, it's Friday!

This is what happens when I have a few minutes to kill... Funky gradient nails! I used the foilly duochrome from my last mani, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in All A Glow as a base and lightly dabbed the tips with another Polish from the same collection, Tender Teal.

I used a cosmetic sponge to apply Tender Teal to the tips of my nails. for the first layer I applied only Tender Teal to the sponge and sponged lightly on the nail. For the second and third round over coverage, I added All a Glow to the sponge as well to blend the two polishes together and make for a smoother gradient from one shade to the other.

I love quick and easy ways to add new life to an old mani :)

THE Perfect Winter Shade

Today I have one of the very first additions in to my Zoya polish collection, why it has taken me so long to wear it I will never know! Zoya's Crystal was one of the most sought after Zoya's for me, it jus just so unique, and pretty, and blue! That being said I am pretty sure OPI released a close to identical polish a little while before Zoya, however it was a Europe exclusive if I am not mistaken, making it a limited edition hard to find. I'm so glad I have a bottle of Crystal!

 

Crystal is a bright medium blue foil with flecks of gold scattered throughout, other than the fact that OPI had a similar polish this is a very unique polish in both colour and texture/finish.

I found this polish to be thinner than most of the other Zoya's I own so I used three coats total for full opacity.

Scent of a Foil

Today I have one of my latest polish purchases on my nails, if you recall from this post I picked up a few Color Club polishes from their holiday 2012 collection at Sally's last month. I decided to wear the blue foil Gift of Sparkle.

Gift of sparkle is a medium blue foil that applied perfectly in one coat. Yup, that's right, these photos only show one coat only! In the bottle the polish appears to have some silver running throughout, however, in the nail it appears to look more similar to a blue shimmer. The formula was a bit thick but nothing unmanageable, the actual colour it's self is also deeply saturated.

Gift of Sparkle is scented, the name of the polish doesn't give a hint to the scent, and after sniffing and sniffing I can't come up with what it is either. During my initial swatches I remember it being quite sweet and overbearing, but worn as a mani it is not that bad. I just wish I knew what the scent is supposed to be! I even searched online, other bloggers were stumped as well. Do you own this polish, what do you think it smells like?

Who Else Wants Spring to Come Early?

The frigid winter weather has been in full force this last month, lots of snow and freezing temperatures, I am ready to move on to spring lol I am soooo over winter right now. I was feeling in a bright polish wearing mood so I decided to pull out Zoya Rica. Rica is apart of Zoya's summer collection, Sunshine, from 2011. Although it is a bright shade from a summer collection, it does not overly scream summer, it is actually a great transition polish.

Rica is a shimmery foil polish, the base shade is a coral/pink and there is a gold sparkle of shimmer that runs throughout. The base colour of the shifts depending on your lighting source, the gold shimmer also adds a warmth to the polish which in some lighting makes the overall polish appear more copper or orange.

My favourite lighting for this polish has got to be overcast skies and indirect lighting, you really see the flecks of gold that make up the shimmer (the first two photos in this post). Application as always for Zoya polishes was awesome. the consistency was good, not too thin, not too thick. I only needed two coats to reach full opacity, and the wear has been great! I am going on four days so far and am feeling inspired to do a refresh with some nail art, I just haven't decided what I should do just yet. I am feeling Valentines day even though it is not quite February yet, maybe something with hearts :)

Collective Hauling

Today I have a bunch of polishes I picked up over the last month, not a huge haul but some goodies!

First I will start off with some polishes I ordered in late December but received in January, these are from China Glaze's Cirque du Soleil collection. I picked up Surreal Appeal and Get Carried Away. I had a previous opportunity to pick these up when the collection was first released but they didn't appeal to me at the time.

Surreal Appeal is a coral pink creme. From the swatches I had seen both online and in-store it pulled way more coral/orange, I had even heard it was the non-neon sister to Flip Flop Fantasy which is my all-time favorite! To me it just looks pink though :( it's not all that accurate in my photos either unfortunately.

Get Carried Away is a black, silver and red glitter set in a dark jelly base. The glitter in this one ranges from hex, bar and mircro! Very interesting and complex combo. I'd love to layer this over a black jelly, anyone know of any that is readily available?

Next are some polishes I picked up at Sally's, Ho-Ho-Holly and The Gift Of Sparkle. These polishes are both scented and apart of Color Club's holiday collection. I was so confused when I tried to look up swatches of these, long story short Colour Club released some different shades in their regular release (which are not scented) which have the same names as the collection they released at Sally's. I wish Sally's carried Color Club all year round!

Ho-Ho-Holly is a pretty green foily duochrome which I almost picked up previously but I'm glad I waited, both of these cost me $1 each! The scent of this polish is pine.

The Gift of Sparkle is a blue foil, I figured it would work well for stamping although I haven't tested it out yet. The scent of this one I can't really nail down, probably because I swatched both polishes right beside each other. However, from what I can smell I didn't really like it, kind of sweet and weird.

My final polish purchase is something I was excited to find but did let me down, Gosh Holographic Hero. It is not as holographic as the original, and apparently it is only good for one night? It has a label on the bottle that mentions this, weird. I heard others mention that Gosh used the same formula for Holographic Hero as they I'd for the original Holographic polish. I'm hoping that it will get better with age or something lol I didn't even really need this polish, I have Layla's Murcury Twilight, I guess it's the thrill of owning it, and it was the last bottle in the display!!

 

Did anyone out there get a good bottle or hear any info on Holographic Hero? I think Gosh should do a recall and bring the original formula back :) Swatches to follow in an upcoming post