OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest

I'm back again! This time I have a shade from the OPI Germany collection from last fall. At first I passed on it at first, but then as time went by I became convinced I had to get the shimmers or I'd regret it later! Anyone else do that to themselves? When my bottle of this colour arrived I was worried it was the same as my Ger-manicure because they looked so alike in the bottles, and I knew that there was a labelling mishap with the press pack samples bloggers received. BUT it was all good, my shades are right!

Every Month Is Oktoberfest is the most amazing dark purple, almost blue base but with gorgeous warm plum shimmer. It glows on the nail like jewels!  I think this was two coats. I didn't write it down, oops! Topcoat on all nails except my middle, not that it makes much of a difference with the shine!

Look at how that baby lights up in direct lighting! So pretty, I'm so happy I ended up ordering this one! And just wait until you see what else I did with it ;)

Butter London Brummie- February Untrieds

Hi! So I have my first Butter London today. I haven't purchased any Butter Londons because I find the price point pretty high, but I saw this on clearance at Winners for $5 so I figured I pretty much HAD to get it!

Brummie is a cool, weird neon purple. On the first coat it looked quite warm but then the next few coats made it look more of a cool purple. I did find it pretty sheer and it needed three coats to build up fully, it also dried very matte so definitely be sure to use topcoat.

Those bumps on my ring finger are some kind of remnant of the glitter I was wearing before, not bubbles in the polish. Overall I think this is a really unique colour of purple, I have a lot of purple but nothing quite like this!

Essie No More Film- February Untried

Hi! Today's untried is an Essie creme that I just love. It came out last year in spring or summer with a bunch of bright, colourful shades and this was definitely the odd one out. No More Film is a dusky, dark blurple that is so rich and creamy. I love how it looks purple sometimes and blue others, but always has that slightly muted quality. Essie is kind of expensive here, so I hesitated on buying it, but I ended up finding it on sale at London Drugs. Score!

Formula was great, two easy coats. It shows a little more on the blue side of blurple (I love that this is an actual colour now btw) but that's just my camera.

I used this as the base for some pretty bomb layering I'll be showing you tomorrow! Be sure to hit up Amanda and Amanda to check out their untrieds!

Cult Nails Seduction

Hi there! Happy Friday :) Today I have some shots of a gorgeous Cult Nails polish. It's a flakie glitter with blue to red colour shifts in a tinted purple jelly base. At extreme angles you can also see a green flash! I layered it over Zoya Monica so I only needed two coats to get awesome coverage.

Disregard the unpolished thumbnail LOL

Seduction is limited edition so if you like it, head over to Cult Nails and grab it while you can!! MMM I want to maybe layer it over black and add a teal-coloured flakie on top, I think that might be awesome!

Anyway that's all today, so enjoy your weekend!

Zoya Monica- February Untrieds

Hey! So I can never find any Zoyas locally. All the ones I have were either ordered online (most of them) or bought secondhand (two of them). This one I bought online when I couldn't find a perfect smoky purple like this one!

Monica is a darker, dusty, murky purple with reddish tints. It's from one of the recent fall collections, and I really love it for the fall/winter seasons! It's also a great colour for layering, as you will be finding out shortly! Hint hint, nudge nudge. Great formula, two easy coats here without topcoat.

Very nice! I can definitely see myself wearing this lots on its own and underneath lots of effects toppers!

Be sure to check out Amanda and Amanda with their untrieds as well!

Dollish Polish Girls Rule Boys Drool

Hey all! I hope you had a fun Christmas if you celebrate, and a successful Boxing Day if you were brave enough to face the malls! I thought about going shopping today, but then decided I would rather read A Storm of Swords. I've been completely sucked into the Song of Fire and Ice books this past bit, so if anyone was wondering where I was... yeah, stuck between the pages of a book haha. BUT I remembered myself, and here I am.
Today I have a very pretty indie for you, and a rare one at that. I don't have many indies at all, but when I heard about this one I thought it sounded pretty cool. It's one of only 300 bottles, and to be given the opportunity to get it you had to fill out a form and have your name drawn. Kind of like a giveaway, but you still had to pay. haha!! Anyway I never expected to get to buy it because I never win anything, but I did! Yay!
Girls Rule Boys Drool is a very girly mix of tiny pink and purple matte glitters. This is also the first matte glitter I own, and I really like it. Here I wore one coat over two (or three? can't remember) coats of China Glaze Something Sweet to really amp up the girlieness. I also think it would look great over periwinkle, or white/cream, and obviously black.

There you have it! What do you think of this girly glitter? Would you wear it, or is it too much?

Sation Miss Emo Shun All

Hey there!
So I'm sure you may have seen this colour on other blogs, it is FANTASTIC! I saw this on I think Kellie Gonzo a long time ago and I was in LOVE. Sation is unfortunately hard to find irl, I know it's at some TJMaxx/Marshall's/Winners stores, but sadly not my local Winners. I ended up ordering this online, hopefully Sation eventually makes it into my Winners.

The colour itself is this amazing bright, almost neon blue-toned purple. Now my camera's idea of this colour is not really what the colour actually is, but this is the best I could do. Imagine it a lot more blinding and bright! The formula on this was actually crazy thick, I did a few fingers and then added some thinner because it was like painting with glue. But after I thinned it, the problem was taken care of and I only needed one coat on most fingers. Bonus! It did dry kind of matte so be sure to add topcoat for shine!

Love it. So purple!! Do you have any of this up and coming brand? The bottle is also a little bigger than normal, 15 ml instead of the usual 14 or so. Nice. I wish I had easier access to Sation because I would totally get a bunch more, their glitters are amazing.

Lazy 15- Dots

Hey everyone!
Just a quick post for today, I have to get headed to work shortly. I am TERRIBLE at dots. Partly because I don't have dotting tools, and mostly because I am terrible at nail art! Haha. So I painted a base of OPI Ink Suede and then slapped a row of dots across each nail with my cleanup brush using Sally Hansen Green Tea. And they're uneven, I am the worst at this!

I do like the colour combo. I want to get some dotting tools and maybe with some practice I can get better!
Be sure to check the other girls' manis for today!

Zoya Neeka

So this polish I had seen on another blog and I fell in loooooooooooove. The smoky purple base, the teeny tiny gold glitter that almost looks like micro flakies... Just gorgeous. The only problem is that Zoya is very htf in my area, unless you order online. Which for some reason, I kept dragging my feet on doing. But then one lucky day, I saw it up for sale on a blogsale over at Polish Art Addiction and I snapped this pretty up! You're looking at three coats and a coat of SV to really bring out that shimmer!

Isn't she beeeeeeeeeeautiful? Also, this is the first post using my totally ghetto awesome lightbox! It's actually just a hacked up cardboard box that I modded using Chalkboard Nails' tutorial which you can find here. This is going to be a super useful tool to help my swatches look way better and I'm super excited. I also got a copy of Photoshop Elements, I had used Photoshop before but I am no expert at all and could basically only crop and rotate. I like the dummy version way better already! Anyway, I hope you enjoy and see you again real soon :)

Metro Chic...In the City

Hi all!
So this polish is one that I remember being popular when it came out, it is one of those purple/gray colours that is awesome for fall! Every brand seems to have at least one shade like this, and today I have the Sephora by OPI version, Metro Chic.
It's a creme formula, and mine needed about 4 coats to even out and look good! I'm not sure if that's typical for the polish though because mine was bought from someone else and I'm not sure how old it was/if she thinned it, etc. I have an accent of China Glaze CG in the City on my ring finger, it was my first time doing an accent nail and I liked it! The sparkle brightened up the subdued colour of Metro Chic nicely. Now I did about 4 coats of CG in the City its own, it would have taken less I think if I'd layered it over a darker base.

I really like the combo and think I'll probably do it again, maybe as a gradient? CG in the City is a great fall glitter with its purple, silver, and copper and looks awesome with these murky shades. That's all for now, I also built a lightbox tonight so my future pictures will probably be in there, it's too cold for outdoor swatches now that it's been snowing!

I'm Back! With Some OPI Swatches

Hey everyone, so it's been just over a month since I last posted... Wow. Definitely didn't mean for it to be that long, things definitely haven't been going as planned. The reasons for my disappearance are long and boring (to anyone who isn't me, haha!) If you're curious, feel free to ask, otherwise, on with the polish!
So you may know that my No-Buy July was definitely not a success, and not something I will EVER do again. It was painful. It was torturous. It backfired terribly and I hauled like MAD in August. And the next few posts will bear witness to that! My stash of OPI multiplied like crrrraazy because I found this awesome lot sale on kijiji (Canadian Craiglist) of like, 15 polishes for $50. Mad As a Hatter was in there so I definitely had to get it! Then a week or two later, OPI was on sale at Beyond the Rack and I had a credit so I picked up maybe 7 more. Yuuuup, I have a problem. Most of the colours you've more than likely seen before, but I had never worn them so I felt the need to swatch. Bear with me ;)

Side note- I wasn't sure if it was "bear" or "bare" with me, a quick Google search informed me that if I used "Bare" with me, I'd be inviting you to undress.... SO yeah. Bear it is! Pictures after the jump!

Ozotic Pro 513

So a while back when it was announced that Ozotic was discontinuing it's 500 series of polishes, I went on a spree trying to snap up the ones I wanted. This one wasn't originally on the list, but I love purple and holo so I figured better safe than sorry! Into the cart it went, and I am VERY glad it did! This is a bright medium purple that in shade looks like it has silver shimmer, but in the sun transforms into these awesome bright rainbows!! I seriously don't think I will ever grow tired of linear holos, they're like magic to me. Simple pleasures, right?
This was three coats over basecoat, no top coat. I think I probably could have gotten away with two coats except there was a little extra polish at the free edge because I suck at wrapping my tips still, so the third coat leveled everything out.

Now feast your eyes on the glory!!!!

HITS Mari Moon Daring

Before I get into the polish stuff ( I know, I know, the point of my blog in the first place) I have some other stuff to talk about! I haven't been able to blog for the last few days because my boyfriend discovered his laptop had some issues so it had to go to the Geek Squad to get fixed, and I was left with just my iPad. My iPad is great for looking at OTHER people's blogs, but to actually work on mine? Thumbs down. I hate tapping out long messages on the screen, and I actually couldn't get pictures on it from my camera. No USB port. And when I tried to email the pictures to myself, that didn't work either. But now that Lappy is back, I have some catching up to do!

This post (actually two manicures ago now) is HITS Mari Moon Daring. This color I got because it seemed similar to Ozotic Pro 505, which seemed similar to the first ever polish I ever loved, the legendary Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal. My bottle of Turquoise Opal turned a lame, murky, multichrome-less grey with age, and my heart wept. Amazon and evilbay searches yielded nothing. Then I found Llarowe, and Ozotic 505. Which was sold out at the time, so I decided to try the much cheaper HITS. Side note- since Ozotic discontinued all its awesome polishes last week, I went on a frantic spree and bought about 5, including 505. Yay!! 

HITS Daring, while nice, isn't the TO dupe I was hoping for. The multichrome just isn't as strong. It looks grey most of the time, but at different angles it shows teal and purple. But subtly, not the in-your-face gorgeousness I  wanted. It was also sheer, 3 coats for decent opacity but I also tried it layered over a coat of black creme and that was a little better. Anyway I doubt anyone is actually reading this anymore, so on to the pictures!

The first three are on its own and in sun. You can kind of see the different tones in the polish but I had a hard time getting them to show. The fourth and fifth pictures are with black underwear, the color looks a little deeper and you can see the shift a little bit better. 

China Glaze Gothic Lolita

Purple has been a favorite color of mine as long as I can remember, especially medium purples like this one! Gothic Lolita is from the Electropop collection put out this spring. Most of the shades are creme finish, but Gothic Lolita has a subtle shimmer that really gives it something special. It's also a warm purple, it doesn't lean to the blue side.

I topped my accent fingers with a cool Color Club flakie I picked up in my recent Winners haul. Once again the bottle isn't marked, but when I did some digging I found that it is most likely Diamond Drops from the Blossoming collection. Diamond Drops is like a cross between a flakie and a glitter, it seems like it's made out of shredded plastic and it reflects a bunch of different colors! Yellow, orange, green, blue, teal! Pretty but the base is thick so you do need to place the flakes somewhat, and it dries with texture. I slopped a thick coat of Seche Vite on those fingers and it seemed to help!

This mani was a few days old by the time I photographed it, so you can kind of see where I had to cover up chips with more paint, ignore that! ;)

China Glaze C-C-Courage

So today I have a polish from The Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection China Glaze put out in 2009. When I did some digging, I found out that this was actually a re-release of a collection originally from waaaaay back in 2001. It was re-released due to popular demand, so that's pretty cool!

C-C-Courage is a blueish purple with silver microglitter. The base color is shimmer as well, so it has a nice multidimensional look. It does dry with some texture, so be sure to use a topcoat for a nice glossy finish. I used three coats to be safe, if you use thicker coats you might be able to get away with two. 

I just bought this on TransDesign a month or so ago, so at least part of this collection is still around!

 Sun

Shade

Sun again!

My First Post!

I started this blog mainly to share my love of nail polish, but I will also post about other things like music and fitness on occasion. But mostly nail polish :) Right now I'm waiting on my camera to charge, then I'll post some pictures of my NOTD!

Alright so this is actually a few days after I wrote that first part. Here in Alberta the weather can change pretty quickly and we ended up getting a few gross snowy days! So now it's sunny again and I could finally take pictures. Of course, in the meantime I changed my nails.

Today I am wearing Iris, a blue-toned purple by Joe Fresh. At least I promise in real life it's purple, my camera only makes it look blue no matter how much I try to get it to show purple! Formula wise, it's alright. I had problems with a few other Joe Fresh polishes so I wasn't expecting much from this one, but it was okay! Some chipping and tip wear happened at work but I work with my hands and I didn't wear topcoat, my fault on that one. Joe Fresh polishes are available at Superstores in Canada and retail for 3/$10 (dirt cheap, so no wonder the formula is hit or miss!) This was 3 coats.

 Sun

 Shade

Inside

Actually now that I'm looking at the pictures, they are true to color! Silly camera!