Sunday, January 30, 2011

Valentine's Day Nail Art - Lovebug

Hey guys.

So I actually had no plans to do a Valentine's Day series but the only idea I could come up with tonight was a Valentine's inspired one so I guess this will be the start of a series!

Unfortunately, this isn't a great start to this series because I really don't like this mani at all. In fact, it probably won't last a whole day.

To start, I filed my nails before doing this mani and I wasn't paying enough attention because I didn't do a very good job. So now i just want to remove the polish just so that I can re-file my nails.

Next, when I had the whole mani done, I started to put top coat on and the colour from the little heart spangles started to drag and run all over the rest of my nail. I seriously could have cried because I had spent so much time on the design and then to have it ruin before my eyes was painful. I ended up fixing it by putting new spangles on top of the old ones that had no colour anymore and I placed a dollop of top coat on each of the hearts before putting top coat over the entire nail which prevented the colour from dragging.

Nevertheless, I was still very frustrated at the end of everything.

Anyways, enough whining, here's the mani:



Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
China Glaze - Naked (base)
OPI - And This Little Piggy... (over base)
L.A. Colors Art Deco - Black (body)
China Glaze - Lubu Heels (over black of body)
OPI - Alpine Snow (white of eyes)
OPI - Black Onyx (pupils)
Heart spangles from eBay
Seche Vite Top Coat
Posted by at 10 comments
Labels: China Glaze, Freehand, L.A. Colors, Nail art, OPI, Valentine's Day Nail Art

Friday, January 28, 2011

Giveaway - Win 4 Wet 'n' Wild Palettes! - CLOSED

Hey guys!

I'm so excited to announce this giveaway that I have for you! So many of you let me know that the Wet 'n' Wild Holiday palettes which I reviewed/swatched are not available in your area. So, I headed to the drugstore hoping that I could find all 4 of them for a giveaway and I was lucky because I found them all!

I was so freaking impressed with these palettes and I'm really excited to be able to offer one of you the chance to own these for yourself.

So here's what the winner will get:



Just for your reference, I reviewed and swatched each of the palettes individually and I've posted links below so that you can see for yourselves how great these are!

Review/swatches of the palettes:
Night Elf
Snow Sprite
Golden Goddess
Sugar Plum Fairy

Now, onto the rules and all that good stuff.

Rules / Eligibility:

Winner must be a follower of my blog. This giveaway is open to all followers, including my international followers. Participants must be 18 years of age or older or have express permission from a parent or guardian to enter. The giveaway will end at 11:59PM NST (Newfoundland Standard Time) on the evening of March 1st. I will use random.org to generate the winner. Once I have notified the winner, they will have 48 hours to claim their prize. If the winner fails to respond to my email within 48 hours, I will choose another winner at random. Participants are allowed to enter up to three times (see below). Entering using all 3 ways will give participants a better chance to win but participants are not required to enter all 3 ways.

How to enter:

1.) Leave a comment on this post with your GFC name and your email address.
2.) Write a blog post about my giveaway that links back to my blog/giveaway (a sidebar post will also count).
3.) Follow on Twitter and tweet the following message: Follow and RT to win 4 Wet 'n' Wild Palettes! Check it out here: http://bit.ly/dY3Uez

Good luck!
Posted by at 144 comments
Labels: Giveaway, Wet 'n' Wild

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Review & Swatches - OPI Katy Perry Collection

Hey guys!

I'm SO excited to finally show off my new Katy Perry by OPI polishes! My local Chatter's still doesn't have these in but I was lucky enough to be told that another salon in the area had them and because I was busy writing a paper, the bf was lovely enough to go and pick these up for me. :)



Keep reading to see swatches and read the review!
Read more »
Posted by at 6 comments
Labels: OPI, OPI Collection, Review, Swatch

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Review & Swatches - China Glaze Anchors Away Collection

Hey!

My local Chatter's Salon just got this collection in today and of course, I got there as fast as I could to pick these up! Hopefully they'll be getting the Katy Perry for OPI collection in soon because I'm just as (actually, maybe more) excited for that one as I was for this one!

Anyway, I just spent a ridiculous amount of time swatching these because my camera didn't like this collection for some reason. I even had to change my background from white to black because my camera was just spazzing out when I was snapping bottle pictures! Nonetheless, the swatch pictures turned out pretty true to life so that's all that really matters!







Keep reading to see swatches and read the review!
Read more »
Posted by at 5 comments
Labels: China Glaze, China Glaze collection, Nail polish collection, Review, Spring 2011, Swatch

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Nails of the Day - Neon Rainbow Cheetah

Hey guys!

The mani I'm about to show you was a long time in the making. I really badly wanted to do a neon water marble because I think it would look awesome but I officially suck at water marbling so that didn't work out too well. I really don't know how some of you do it because I just can't get it right! Anyways, after epically failing at water marbling, I still wanted to do something with the neon colours that I had picked out. So, this is what I ended up with:



This is my vert first attempt at a colour gradient mani and I'm actually VERY happy with it! It's so blindingly bright and in your face!

Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
OPI - Alpine Snow (base)
China Glaze - Pool Party (pink)
China Glaze - Sun Worshipper (orange)
China Glaze - Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (yellow)
China Glaze - Kiwi Cool-Ada (green)
China Glaze - Towel Boy Toy (blue)
China Glaze - Flying Dragon (purple)
OPI - Black Onyx (cheetah spots)
Seche Vite Top Coat
Posted by at 16 comments
Labels: China Glaze, Freehand, Gradient, Nail art, Notd, OPI, Rainbow, Seche Vite

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Swatch Comparison - China Glaze For Audrey vs. Nicole by OPI My Lifesaver

Hey guys.

As per request, I have a comparison swatch of China Glaze For Audrey and the new Nicole by OPI polish that just came out with the Justin Bieber collection called My Lifesaver.



Comparison photos after the jump!
Read more »
Posted by at 1 comments
Labels: China Glaze, Comparison, Nicole by OPI

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Review & Swatches - Nerds Candy Scented Nail Polish

Hey!

Like I said in my previous post, I picked up 2 of the candy scented nail polish sets - Nerds and Runts. This post is my review and swatches of the Nerds set. You can check out my review and swatches of the Runts set here.



Keep reading to see swatches and read the review!
Read more »
Posted by at 5 comments
Labels: Review, Scented Nail Polish, Swatch

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Review & Swatches - Runts Candy Scented Nail Polish

Hey guys!

I was out shopping today hoping to find the new OPI Katy Perry and China Glaze Anchors Away Collections but neither is available here yet. So, I decided to stop into Winners and see what they had to offer.
I actually ended up finding something a little unexpected - a bin full of assorted candy scented nail polish sets. There was Nerds, Runts, Laffy Taffy, Sweet Tarts and another one that escapes my mind right now. They were pretty inexpensive so I picked up the Nerds and Runts sets.



Keep reading to see swatches and read the review!
Read more »
Posted by at 12 comments
Labels: Review, Scented Nail Polish, Swatch

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The Foil Method - Removing Glitter Nail Polish with Ease

Hey guys!

So I know that a while ago I promised to show you how to remove glitter nail polish without the hassle and I'm finally getting around to it now. I'm actually glad I waited until now because this time I had on a VERY glittery polish that turned out to be very difficult to remove using regular methods (Across the Universe by Deborah Lippmann).

I started removing the polish regularly because I read that this polish isn't too difficult to remove but my only guess is that anyone who said that must not have had it on for as long as I did (almost a week) because it caused a HUGE hassle for me. I was using pure acetone and all it did was remove the jelly base and the colour of the hexagonal glitter which left behind a mess of silver hexagonal glitter. That's when I turned to the tried and true foil method.

In this post I'll show you step-by-step how to remove glitter polish without the mess.

To start, these are the supplies you'll need:


Pure acetone, cotton swabs, and aluminum foil


Keep reading for step-by-step instructions!
Read more »
Posted by at 4 comments
Labels: Foil Method, How-to

Monday, January 17, 2011

Nails of the Day - Wonder Woman Inspired

Hey!

So after I saw the press release photos for the new MAC Wonder Woman Collection, I was totally inspired to do a nail design.
At first I was going to wait until the collection actually came out but then I thought that more people might be doing this kind of mani then so I wanted to do it now and it be original. So here it is:





Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
OPI - Dating a Royal (base)
OPI - The "It" Color (logo)
Star shaped spangles from eBay (stars)
China Glaze - Salsa (I had to paint the spangles red because I only had pink ones)
OPI - Black Onyx (outline of logo)
Seche Vite Top Coat
Posted by at 5 comments
Labels: China Glaze, Freehand, Nail art, Notd, OPI, Seche Vite

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Review & Swatches - MAC Fluidlines in Siahi & Ivy

Hey guys!

So MAC recently released a slew of collections, most of which I had little interest in. However, there were a few new Fluidlines released which really excited me because I adore MAC Fluidlines. The ones I picked up are Siahi and Ivy.



Keep reading for a full review & swatches!
Read more »
Posted by at 0 comments
Labels: Eye makeup, MAC, MAC Collections, Review, Swatch

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Review & Swatches - Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Collection: Part 1

Surprisingly, my local Wal-Mart recently released the Justin Bieber collection by Nicole by OPI. It's surprising because for some reason, the Wal-Marts in my area don't usually get new collections in so I typically have to go to Shopper's for Nicole by OPI new collections.
I shouldn't complain though because they are slightly cheaper at Wal-Mart so it was better for me in the end!

I still don't understand any connection between Justin Bieber and nail polish but the shades actually turned out to be a lot nicer than I thought when I first saw the press release.

I should note that I'm missing one colour here: Prized Possession Purple. It was available but I was in a rush and just grabbed 6 polishes thinking that the collection only released 6 (since that's how many were in the press release photo). Nonetheless, I'll probably pick this one up today and add it to this post later.

Edit (on March 1): There were 7 more colours released with this collection and you can see my review/swatches of 4 of those (plus the one I discussed above that's missing in this post) here.



Keep reading for a full review and swatches!
Read more »
Posted by at 4 comments
Labels: Nail Wheels, Nicole by OPI, Review, Swatch

Friday, January 14, 2011

Nail Art Requests

Hey all.

I've found myself in a bit of a creative slump recently so I'm turning to you guys to help me out by sending me some requests for nail art designs.

You can email me at or you can use the contact form in the contact page above. You could also just leave me a comment on this post with any ideas you have.

And of course, I will credit you for the idea if I choose to try your design. :)

Thanks for the help guys!
Posted by at 1 comments
Labels: Nail art, Requests

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Review & Swatches - Wet 'n' Wild Sugar Plum Fairy Holiday Palette

Hey all!

Today I have swatches of the last of the Wet 'n' Wild holiday palettes for you. This one is called Sugar Plum Fairy and features 6 shades: a milky pink with subtle shimmer, a light lavender with gold shimmer, a medium frosty violet, a fleshy nude with silver glitter, a mauve with gold shimmer (VERY similar to MAC Trax) and a deep chocolate brown with bright copper glitter (this is a gorgeous shade).

Like the previous two palettes, I won't be doing a complete review on this one since I felt the same way about this one as I did the Night Elf palette which I reviewed not too long ago. So you can check out that post here if you want a detailed review. I have added a few additional comments at the end of this post to clue up the reviews on all of these palettes.






(Close-up to show the magnificent shimmer of the brown shade)


Basically, here's the rundown/a quick review:

- These palettes are inexpensive ($6.99 at the drugstore)
- The quality is rather impressive
- Pigmentation is excellent
- Last all day (with a base underneath)
- Come in a variety of shades
- My only problem is the cheap-feeling packaging but thanks to above points, I'm able to get over that

All in all, these palettes are extremely good value! The pigmentation of every single shade is quite impressive and I'm so surprised to see that Wet 'n' Wild has really stepped up their game! I would always pass by the Wet 'n' Wild display but now I'll definitely be stopping and taking a look much more often.

I've tried but I just cannot pick a favourite palette out of the four holiday ones! They're all great and offer different versatilities for different looks. However, I think that the dark brown shade in this Sugar Plum Fairy palette is probably my top shade of the bunch.

I also read somewhere that Wet 'n' Wild is releasing some new palettes for Spring so hopefully I'll also be able to get my hands on those!

P.S. Many of you mentioned that this brand isn't available in your area so I went out searching for more of these palettes for a giveaway and I was lucky enough to find one of each. So, keep on the lookout for a giveaway where you'll get a chance to win these palettes!
Posted by at 2 comments
Labels: Review, Swatch, Wet 'n' Wild

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

200 Follower Mega Holiday Giveaway - Winners Announced!

Hey guys!

I just want to start off by saying thank you to everyone who participated in my giveaway! It's been a lot of fun and I've got more planned for the future!

Second, I do have a little something to get off my chest:

Giveaways can be a lot of work and I also pay for all of the prizes out of my own pocket. So when I offer giveaways, I expect people to follow the rules that I've posted.

A lot of people added my giveaway to their blog sidebar and although I appreciate that, I did say in the rules that a blog post would get you 2 extra entries. There is a difference between a blog post and a sidebar post. However, I did let it slide for this giveaway but I will not be as generous next time.

As well, some people claimed that they posted a blog post about my giveaway but then did not provide a link to the post. It was stated in the rules to provide a link and I really did not want to have to go through a bunch of pages of blog posts to find your post. So again, for this giveaway only, I let it slide.

Hopefully that has cleared some things up. I will be more specific in the rules of my next giveaway, though.

Anyway, onto the winners! Dun dun dun .....


Third place - Nico





Second place - SayAnythingBrooke





First place - Isabel





Congrats guys! I'll be contacting you soon to get your shipping information. :)
The winners will have 72 hours to respond to my email and if someone doesn't respond, I'll choose another winner.
Posted by at 3 comments
Labels: Giveaway, Giveaway Winner

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Review & Swatches - Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

So as promised, here is my current mani where I'm sporting Across the Universe by Deborah Lippmann. This colour was released in Fall 2010 along with Bad Romance which I'll also try to get swatches up of.

This is a glitter party of small blue glitter and blue/teal hexagonal glitter all suspended in a deep blue jelly base. I can't help but think of mermaids when I look at this polish (which is a lot because I haven't been able to stop staring at it since I put it on).



The swatch above is 3 coats (the last one of which was thicker than the others to ensure full opacity). Application was good but a few pointers might be helpful:

- While I usually prefer to apply coats wet-on-wet, with this type of polish I recommend waiting a few minutes in between coats. This is because the glitter moves around with every brush stroke and therefore if you apply wet-on-wet, most of the glitter will end up on the tip of the nail instead of an even coverage of glitter all over the nail.

- Try to do as few brush strokes as possible. This may lead to what looks like uneven coverage to begin with but trust me, after the third coat, everything will even out.

- Because the jelly base is so sheer, it's difficult to "wrap the nail" with polish. For anyone who doesn't know, wrapping the nail with polish just means that you cover the free edges with polish as well so as to make your mani last longer. Usually I wrap my nails with polish on the first coat and then I don't have to bother during the next two coats. However, wrapping the nail only once with this polish isn't going to be much help so I had to do it after every coat to ensure that the free edges of my nails were also fully covered.

This is an absolute must have polish in my opinion. It's stunning and I have nothing even close to this in my collection so it's a true unique colour. For my friends in Canada, check out this site which offers Deborah Lippmann polishes, reasonable shipping rates and exceptional customer service.
Posted by at 2 comments
Labels: Deborah Lippmann, Notd, Review, Swatch

Monday, January 10, 2011

Haul - Deborah Lippmann

Hey guys!

Today I have a haul post for you which is something I haven't done in a while! I realized that haul posts are more special and fun when they're done occasionally and with products that you're really excited about.

Well, if anyone has been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that back in the Summer I wrote a post about how I was unable to get the Deborah Lippmann polishes Across the Universe and Bad Romance because all of the online sites didn't ship to Canada. Well, I finally came across a site that does ship Deborah Lippmann to Canada and I was so excited! (Here's a link for any of your girls in Canada who are in the same predicament as me). Unfortunately, after paying for tuition and books, I was a little short on cash. So, when I came home from work tonight, the boyfriend had this waiting for me:


Boom Boom Pow, Across the Universe, All That Jazz Trio (Razzle Dazzle, Some Enchanted Evening, Lady Sings the Blues), Bad Romance, Today Was a Fairytale


I am SO excited! I finally have Deborah Lippmanns!! And even though I only did my nails last night, I'm about to apply Across the Universe now. I'm not even adding any nail art to it because it's so freaking beautiful on it's own! I'll post swatches/a NOTD post when I finish. I'll also work on getting swatches of the rest of them up asap. :D
Posted by at 3 comments
Labels: Deborah Lippmann, haul

Nails of the Day - Cookie Monster

Hey guys!

So, my inspiration for my current mani came from a winter hat I bought recently of Oscar the Grouch. I'm going to do an Oscar mani as well but I decided to do a few Sesame Street characters and the first one I chose is Cookie Monster:



Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
American Apparel - California Trooper (base colour for cookie)
OPI - Orge-the-Top Blue (Cookie Monster)
Revlon - Chocolate Truffle (outline for cookies)
OPI - Black Onyx (mouth, eyes)
OPI - Alpine Snow (eyes)
Bullion beads from Michael's (chocolate chips)
Seche Vite Top Coat
Posted by at 6 comments
Labels: American Apparel, China Glaze, Freehand, Nail art, Notd, OPI, Revlon, Seche Vite

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Update - Giveaway Closed, Ramblings, Etc

Hey guys!

How is everyone? I hope your holidays were all safe and happy!

I started a new semester at University yesterday and I can't quite seem to get into the groove of things yet. Usually I'm excited to start a new semester but I'm not feeling it this time. Maybe it's the looming cost of books that's setting me back. My province has one of the lowest tuitions in Canada yet the cost of my textbooks are definitely helping to bridge that gap. I actually had to drop one course because the books were $250 plus tax! And to top it all off, they couldn't be bought second hand (which I always try to do) because they come with some online code that can only be used once. What a sham!

Something exciting that's going on right now though is that my local Shopper's Drug Mart is getting an Urban Decay display (actually, they already have the display, they're just waiting on the products to be delivered)!
This might not seem exciting to a lot of you since you all have Sephora and MAC stores in your areas but I unfortunately don't have access to those types of stores in Newfoundland. In fact, we only got a Sally Beauty Supply this past summer! I usually have to order everything online which can be frustrating since I don't get to play with/test the products before buying them. But maybe Newfoundland is starting to get more in touch with the beauty world because Urban Decay is going to be here within a week! Maybe this is the start of something bigger! A girl can hope. :)

Anyway, enough rambling, onto the reason I made this post in the first place:

My giveaway is now officially closed. I will be announcing the winners within a few days and the prizes will be sent out soon after.
Good luck everyone!
Posted by at 1 comments
Labels: Giveaway, Urban Decay

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Nails of the Day - Argyle

Hey guys!

I don't have much to say about this mani: it's argyle and it's green/white. That's all I've got! Hope you like it.



Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
OPI - Alpine Snow (base)
China Glaze - Four Leaf Clover (large stripes)
China Glaze - Atlantic (thin stripes)
Seche Vite Top Coat
Posted by at 7 comments
Labels: China Glaze, Freehand, Nail art, Notd, OPI, Seche Vite

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Review & Swatches - Wet 'n' Wild Golden Goddess Holiday Palette

Hey!

This is the number three of four of the Wet 'n' Wild holiday palettes. This one is called Golden Goddess and features 6 shades: a light gold-beige, a peachy copper with gold glitter, a true gold shimmer, a very metallic gold, a true copper with gold glitter and a dark brown with gold glitter.

Like the last one, I won't be doing a complete review on this one since I felt the same way about this one as I did the Night Elf palette which I reviewed not too long ago. So you can check out that post here if you want a detailed review.





Basically, here's the rundown/a quick review:

- These palettes are inexpensive ($6.99 at the drugstore)
- The quality is rather impressive
- Pigmentation is excellent
- Last all day (with a base underneath)
- Come in a variety of shades
- My only problem is the cheap-feeling packaging but thanks to above points, I'm able to get over that

I'll have the last of these palettes - Sugar Plum Fairy - up soon!
Posted by at 6 comments
Labels: Review, Swatch, Wet 'n' Wild

Monday, January 03, 2011

Swatches - My China Glaze Collection: Part 2 (Blue)

Hey!

So I know it's been a while since my last of these posts but I promise I haven't forgotten about this project! Today I have swatches of all of my blue China Glaze polishes. I should start by saying that the lighting on some of these isn't the greatest but I must have taken over 100 photos to get what I have here so it'll have to do for now.



Keep reading the see up-close pictures and the names of each of the colours!
Read more »
Posted by at 2 comments
Labels: China Glaze, Nail polish collection
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