OPI Mod About You

Hello! Happy Friday! I hope you all have some fun plans for the night, personally I'm just working.
Today I have a classic OPI shade that I think is great for springtime! I love pinks and this soft baby pink is no exception. Pictures show three coats and topcoat, I found it to be a little streaky until I added that last one and then it levelled out nicely.

I think this will be the perfect base for some springy nail art (ie dotting or tape) next time I wear it! Do you like soft pastels like this?

Double Accent Nail Mani

Hi all! I meant to have this post up for yesterday as part of the Rainbow Untrieds. Fail! You guys get it today instead. I'm tryyyyying to steer away from Essie because they aren't cruelty-free, but I did pick up Butler Please recently. And then my OPI Sparkle-icious came in the mail so I paired them up together.

Two coats of each. I saw that Glitta Gloves did a mani like this on Instagram but with the nails reversed, I must have copied her subconsciously. Past my bedtime so that's all from me tonight!

OPI Jade is the New Black Swatch- February Untried

Hey! So today is the very last February Untried! I have to say though, I did NOT get through all my untrieds! Ooops! I think I'll have to keep the challenge going next month, maybe one day all my polishes will have been shown some love.

Today I have a classic OPI shade, Jade is the New Black. This green creme is beautiful, I find that it's slightly softer and more blue-toned than the Joe Fresh green I showed last week. Formula was good and I used three coats. My bottle came to me used, however, and it did seem fairly thin compared to my other OPI cremes.

Did I use my commas right in that last sentence? Seriously, let me know if I didn't. For real.

ANYWAY picture time!

Ring finger bump is once again from old glitter, not the polish.

And my skin is so dark because I used self tanner haha gotta get my bronze on!

All in all I really love this green, you'll definitely be seeing more of it! *hint hint, nudge nudge*

As always, go see what Amanda Squared have for today!

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!

China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le- February Untrieds

Hey everyone! I'm writing this up on Monday and I am super bagged from the long weekend, I went to a music festival in Edmonton and danced my brains out, it was fun! I don't party very often so it's nice to cut loose every once in a while. I'm ready to sleep for about a day now though haha.

I showed this colour last week as the base for Revlon Heavenly. It's a great light dusty blue with purple undertones. I can't remember how many coats I used, I want to say two. 

Mmmm pretty! I love soft blues like this, probably why I have lots of them! Be sure to check out Amanda and Amanda with their untrieds today!

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!

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!

China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint

Hi there! How's everything going today? Watching the Superbowl? I don't really follow sports and I don't have cable, so I spent the day housecleaning and swatching. Yay for lazy Sundays! 

This is a colour I wanted for a long time, I totally have a thing for pastels and ESPECIALLY pastel aqua/mint shades. Mmmmm. I seriously have so many colours in this family and I always catch myself picking up more. 

Re-Fresh Mint was part of the 2011Spring collection Up & Away. I have most of the shades from this collection, they're so great! This is a very pale shade of mint green, with heavy blue undertones. I was afraid it would be close to For Audrey, but it's much, much paler and a little more blue (to my eyes anyway). Formula was a little bit difficult, there was some streakiness on the first coat but I used a thicker second coat and it self levelled pretty well with topcoat.

 
Colours like this make me so excited for spring! Are you ready for spring manis or still rocking the winter shades?

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.

Butterscotch Glitter Clouds

Hey everyone! For this mani I decided to try out the cloud design. I've seen it lots before and think it's super cute. Unfortunately I don't think the colours I chose were the best because it's hard to tell them apart, but I still think it was an interesting look. For this one I started with China Glaze Desert Sun, an interesting burnt orange/caramel colour. I'm not 100% convinced about this colour on my skintone, I think it's a little into lobster hands territory on me. BUT it also looks like I have Werther's caramels on my nails. Mmmmmmm *Homer Simpson drool*. So then I did the clouds first with I Herd That, a glitter that closely corresponds with Desert Sun. I added another cloud over the first with I'm Not Lion, a lighter glitter from the same collection. Overall it's really hard to see the distinction in the two glitters, but you can tell there's a difference so that's good for me!

Overall I think it was a cool variation on glitter tip manicures and next time I want to try out the design with some pastels or brights! Anywway that's all for me today, hope you enjoyed!

Joe Fresh Bumbleberry

Hi!!
Okay so I realize I'm on a super intense Joe Fresh kick right now but I seriously can't help it! They're my go-to for creme shades that round out a collection. They do great basic colours that I love, but don't necessarily want to spend a ton of money on. (I'm looking at you, $10/bottle OPI!) The formula is almost always great, and the price point is so right! Three for ten dollars, don't mind if I do. This particular colour is a great berry shade, a bit more on the pink side. It has a great creme formula and went on easily in two coats. The little short brush handles do take some time to get used to, but the brushes themselves are fantastic. Anyway this is all something you've heard from me before, so let's get on to the picture!

I really loved this shade and will be reaching for it to pair with some glitters soon! The little bit of blackness at my nail line isn't the polish's fault btw, I didn't clean up properly after the galaxy mani.

China Glaze For Audrey

Hello!!

This is a polish I wanted for a long time until the lovely Arlyn gifted it to me in the Secret Goblin swap a bunch of us did a while back. This is a great colour and I'm super happy to have it, a classic Tiffany blue creme.

Formula wise, this one was a little challenging. It wanted to run off the brush in big blobs and I was tired and let it get away onto my nails! Noooooo! I needed three coats to even it out, but I think next time if I polish more carefully I'll be able to get away with two. 

Then since I've been seeing lots of posts about RBL's Bring it Back event happening soon, and am trying to convince myself that I don't need to buy any more polishes at this point, I tried to imitate Aqua Lily by adding Amethyst Sparkle on top of For Audrey. It's certainly no dupe but it's good enough for me! I really love the CND effects, they're so versatile.

What do you think of this colour? You probably have it by now, it's a great shade! Hopefully soon my nails will be back in good condition, they haven't broken in a while so I hope they keep improving!

A Few L'Oreals!

Hey everyone! How's it going today? It's my day off and I've spent the day doing errands and then working on the blog, I'm loving the new setup! Swatching is way more fun now :)
These polishes I picked up at WalMart a few weeks back, L'Oreal's newish nail polish line seems to have pretty basic colours but I've heard good things about the quality so I wanted to try them out! And I didn't have anything like these two in my stash so I figured I was filling a niche, right? ;)

First up is Walk on the Beach, which is a sandy nude creme shade just like the name describes. I found it to be a very cool neutral, leaning more to the grey side of things than to a warm orangey/peachy neutral. In the pictures it was giving me some lobster hands but in real life it was much better, and I was playing with my camera's white balance. About the formula, it did not live up to the hype. It might be my brush, but the polish kept having these "scratches" in it from the bristles and it didn't want to level out. I ended up doing three coats to try and smooth it but you can still see the lumpiness in photos. That said, it is a great colour and from a distance, you couldn't tell. It's definitely a great palette cleanser!

Next we have Safari Chic, an awesome army green. In the store and honestly right up until I was swatching this, I thought it was a straight creme as well but there's actually some fine silver shimmer in there! It's very very subtle but I thought it was kinda cool! Formula was a bit better on this one, I really only needed two coats but felt compelled to do three (better safe than sorry right?!) This green seems to have a bit more blue in it than some other khaki greens, I wouldn't say it has brown in it at all. I love that's it's faded, muted, but not "dirty" looking. I'm still undecided about the famous ugly/pretty colours and to me, this is just a pretty colour! My skin is a different colour here because I custom set my white balance, so this is perfect!

There you have it, my picks so far from the L'Oreal line! I bet these colours would look great in a nail art look together, maybe one day I'll get super adventurous and do a tape mani, but don't hold your breath haha! Thanks for looking :)

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!

Unusual Combo!

But I think it works! I have these two polishes and I didn't know what to do with either of them. One is Lickety Split Lime, from the Sally Hansen Instra Dri line. This colour I got a couple years ago, probably on a whim. I tried it then but didn't really like it, and I remember it staining badly so I hadn't reached for it since. The other is Revlon Sparkling, which is a warm-toned pink glitter. I think it is a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening. I couldn't decide what to layer Sparkling over, my pinks are mostly cool-toned so they clashed. Then I decided to try a more out-there colour combo, using my neglected Lickety Split Lime!

The formula on the Lime was good and it did indeed dry quickly. The brush in the Insta Dri line takes some getting used to though. I also liked the formula on Sparkling, it's not super thick and gooey like some glitters can be and I didn't have to work too hard to distribute the glitter. I did two coats of each polish, and doubled up on base coat to make sure I wouldn't have staining. Plus a topcoat and voila! What do you think of the combination?? One photo in sun and one in shade! 

China Glaze Dance Baby

Hello! So I don't think I've mentioned this here yet, but I am doing a no-buy July! Luckily my blog is new enough that almost all of my polishes are unswatched so I have lots to tide me over. I'm still finding it difficult not to buy any more though. And to make it extra challenging, I'm trying not to buy ANYTHING this month except for bare essentials like gas and food. Yikes. But it's for a good reason, and hopefully I will be able to share that with you all soon!
Today's nail polish is Dance Baby from the spring China Glaze collection. I got quite a few from the collection, and like the others I've tried, the formula on this was a little thick for my taste. It seems to work best in two thickish coats. Normally I prefer to do thinner coats but it's just not happening with these ones! No worries though, the polish was still easy to control. I would describe the colour as very girlie, almost Barbie-like. It makes me think of candy and princesses and all that jazz. It's a blue-based bubblegum pink and dries slightly darker than bottle colour.

 As you can see, I flipped this picture. My bottle isn't actually backwards! But that would be pretty cool if it was, right?

Joe Fresh Cement

Hi hi hi! I had a terrible tragedy yesterday. Ok not really, but one of my nails broke, not just a little bit, oh no. All the way down to the nail bed almost, and at the corner too. I had to trim all my nails right down and round them. I never used to understand the big fuss over breaking a nail, I definitely find it annoying now! At least these shorter nails are less hassle and stress. My nails are weak and brittle so when they're longer I find myself consciously trying to baby them so I don't break one, and if I see a break starting it drives me crazy. Clearly I have issues!!
So today I have another Joe Fresh to show you! This is a pale creamy gray. It's more of a blue gray than a brown gray so it looks clean and sophisticated to my eyes. And I think it looks nice on my nubbins haha. Formula wise it was easy to control and not too thick or thin, however it is very sheer! The first coat it didn't even look like I had anything on my nails. This is four coats and it's still not completely opaque, but I don't mind because when I lost the length I also lost the gross staining I had on my nails! Blessing in disguise!
I think I mentioned this in my first post, Joe Fresh is available in Superstores here in Canada and is dirt cheap at 3 for $10.  Bottles do hold only 6 ml though.

So pictures are outside in natural light. It is yet another gloomy, overcast day here in Central Alberta!

Okay and this is completely unrelated to nail polish, but I think my computer is possessed. The typing line thingy, I don't know what it's called. The vertical line that flashes and shows where you're typing, mouse pointer maybe? Anyway it keeps moving around or just disappearing entirely, without me doing anything! And sometimes the window minimizes itself. Super weird and SUPER annoying. Cursor! That's word I was looking for! Hahaha.

OPI Gargantuan Green Grape

This colour I loved in the bottle, sadly the application process was a big fat mess. It took four coats to reach opacity, and the formula was streaky and hard to control. It also took foreverrrrr to dry, even with SV. A few nails smeared badly when I tried to do clean up so I had to repaint them. I tried using a few coats of white polish as underwear to beef up the colour payoff, but nope. Still took three coats on top of white, so that's pointless. 

That all said, the colour itself I really do love. It's a springy and fresh light green. It's too yellow to be minty, but not murky enough to be pistachio. It looks like fake pistachio, like ice cream or pudding! It's definitely a unique colour in my collection. If only the formula was better! But, I like the colour so much, I'll probably still wear it from time to time, like a sucker! Haha. 

Ick. I am so sorry about my cuticles in the pictures too. I had put on cuticle oil like 10 minutes before taking the pictures but I guess they were still thirsty :( And I have no clue what that random speck on my ring finger is. 

First two in sun, third one the sun hid behind a cloud.

Sweet Hook

Hi! This polish is from the Electropop collection China Glaze put out for spring. Personally I prefer soft and muted colors most of the time, so the lights from this collection were right up my alley! Sweet Hook is a very soft and muted lilac color. It looks very clean and sophisticated on the nail, and feels very mod. I love it. Formula-wise I remember it being a little thick and streaky on the first coat. I ended up using three coats on most of my nails, but it was definitely worth it. I know I'll be reaching for this shade again, probably as a palette cleanser after wearing bright or holo shades!
It was overcast this day so pictures are inside with natural light. I love how shiny it is with a coat of SV! I want to go put it on all over again!

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! ;)