Glam glam?

It's All About the Glam is part of the Kardashian for Nicole by OPI collection. Looking at the swatches online, this was the only polish that really inspired me. Which is weird because white + Annick's cuticles = mangled hands.

This polish is honestly beautiful. It has really small shimmer particles it it that make me think of a brand new blanket of snow. It's so wintry and cheerful. I very much recommend this polish for those of you who are bored with the green/red/gold holiday nail pattern. The formula was running a bit thin so it did take 3 coats to get a decent finish.

I can't comment too much on the wear of this polish because I took it off after a day - I had gotten my UV lamp in the mail and NEEDED to try my Gelish stuff RIGHT AWAY. It was a success that will be documented in a future post.

Work/life has kept me quite busy lately which explain the sporadic post schedule. Hopefully, after the new year, I'll be able to post more and have diversified subjects on this blog. 

I've been trying Avene's Diacneal as a treatment for my bumpy skin. A review will be up for this in a couple months for anyone interested.

I must go back to work! I have a different job now that is much most stimulating than the last. Unfortunately/fortunately, that also means a jam-packed schedule and no slacking off! 

Christmas Nails - if you really think about it...

These aren't OBVIOUS Christmas nails, but they're Christmassy enough for me. This is one coat of Essie's Size Matters with CND Effects in Emerald Shimmer on top.

 

Not the *prettiest* thing I've ever worn. But hey, it's in the spirit of Christmas, which, to completely go against the blogging current, I'm totally not into it this year.  I don't even own decorations at the moment. I just don't see the point - I move every few years and lugging them around, in apartment with ZERO storage space, is just not fun. I'm not a Grinch though - just a cynical young woman who needs some time to build herself a Christmas base. Maybe next year I'll decorate or something. 

Androgynie by Orly

Let me just start off by saying that the difficulty in taking these pictures was EXTREME. For some reason, the camera was going all wonky. And it was the *good* camera too. So, I've done my very best to try to show you the awesomeness of this polish.

It looks like deep space to me. I loved wearing this polish. It's black but with a twist. Amazing! This polish wore really well through a weekend of partying. It required two thick coats for an even finish but the formula could handle thick coats and dry fast at the same time. I highly recommend this polish if you're looking for something unique to add to your collection.

Just a little shout out to my handsome boy's 27th birthday today. I love your little face more and more every day! 

I have some Gelish stuff coming in the mail! I cannot wait to review this UV polish system! Hopefully it's as awesome as it sounds!

Cocktail for me?

Just want to share a little experience with water marble nails. I've tried twice now to come up with something decent. Guys, it is the hardest thing ever. I give up. No water marble on here. Nail polish everywhere, colors not spreading, tape all over the place.

Therefore, I just have plain, good ol' regular nail polish love for ya in this post. That is, for Essie, of course.

Essie's Cocktail Bling is a color I've been excited about. Looking at the swatches online, it seemed like a very unique color - it is also that in real life. The very greyed-out lilac/periwinkle color is surprisingly flattering on my skintone. 

It wore quite well during the week. Definitely a recommendation - especially if you're looking for a non-traditional fall color!

A few pictures of my week:

I still haven't built up the guts to cook from this beautiful cookbook.

 

Jewelery! 

Billie hasn't sat still for a picture in ages. I gots to get some good ones soon!  

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Ruby Woo = The Joker?!

Yes, it is true, I have been called "The Joker" whilst wearing MAC's Ruby Woo lipstick.

From a WOMEN'S point of vue (a makeup-artist at that) Ruby Woo is an excellent red. Not too orange and not too "cherry". It's a matte finish and stays on very well. What I like about the matte finish is that it doesn't feel like it's going to rub or slip off. If you have very dry lips, you might want to wear a chap stick. Otherwise, it's an excellent lipstick - I'll be wearing it to recreate 60's looks for sure, but perhaps not an everyday thing for me.

Oh, in case you haven't picked up on it, my boyfriend told me I looked like The Joker. He's been playing too much Batman.

My look consists of:
- Clinique Fluidline as eyeliner. Holy shit this was a struggle to put on. I suck at liquid liner.
- MAC Feline Powerkohl in the waterline.
- MAC Shroom on the lid and Omega in the crease.
- Cover Girl Lash Blast Waterproof mascara
- NARS Laguna bronzer and MAC Warm Soul on apple of the cheek
- And of course Ruby Woo lipstick, no balm.

Here is the lipstick on its own. Yes, my philtrum is super pronounced. I kind of like it though weirdly enough. 

Of course, now, when I smile with this lipstick on, I do feel a bit like The Joker. Damn you boyfriend of mine.

I thought it might be nice to get a break from the nail posts. I'll try to keep posting about makeup once in a while - I'm a bit camera shy is the problem.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Misa splurge!

So, I had to drive into another town the other day, to stand as a witness on trial. Long story short, I just witnessed a drunk driver hit a few other cars. The man pleaded guilty and I was done in no more than 30 minutes.

With the day in front of me, shopping suddenly announced itself. I went to my favorite nail polish supply store and noticed that they now stocked Misa! Super excited about the promo they had going on (buy 1 get one 1/2 off) I bought lots. Well, lots is relative here, my fellow polish fiends.

Tada! Left to right: Misa Push Upon it, Our Song, High Waist Hue and Blush Hour.

This is my poor application of Blush Hour. It is a soft pink which is almost white. And for that reason, it was completely unflattering on me. The formula was kind of streaky (think of all those pale Essie polishes with the streak plague) and thick. I guess I pushed my quest for a light pink a bit too far.

Shudders. But at least my cuticles look decent right? Probably pretty close to Ballet Slippers by Essie. Or Fiji. But I'm pretty sure Ballet Slippers is milkier.

In the next picture, however, please be warned, they look horrible. The state of my cuticles is directly proportional to the amount of stress in my life. More stress, more cuticle picking. Sometimes though, a sad or scary movie will do it too. STRESS!

Either way, here's Push Upon It. Does this sound dirty to anyone else? Yuck right? Other than the name, this polish was quite amazing. It dried quickly, wasn't gloopy and looked amazing on. Unfortunately, you don't really get that from the pictures. But trust me on this, it's a beautiful berry polish.  And just like Scrangie, I don't usually like berry. DAMN, this reminds me I have to eat the raspberries in my fridge before they go bad.

 

The only complaint with this polish is that it chips easily. It was meant to be my birthday polish but chipped in a couple days so I had to wear something else. 

Just wanted to tell you peeps that I've updated my blog sale HERE. I'm always up for a good haggle so feel free to message me if you're interested!

Cheers for now!

Halloween nails for my hundreth post

The girls at work and I had a bit of fun on Friday and gave ourselves some Halloween manicures.

Here's mine!

The candy corn nail was made with Sinful Colors nail polish in neon colors I can't recall the name of. The white is OPI Alpine Snow, the blood is OPI Malaga Wine and the black/navy is CND Inkwell (which I LOVE). Oh and the crackle is OPI's Black crackle polish which my friend from work bought for this occasion.

I'm lucky to have a workplace that allows activities like this once in a while. It was a blast to order take out and chill out with the girls at work. This will definitely be a remake next year!

Just taking a Stroll here...

I have been so excited to tell you about this polish. So excited in fact, that I had other polish to show you in my lineup before this one but I skipped them. It is called Stroll, by China Glaze, and is my new polish soul mate.

In many ways, Stroll is similar to Ahoy! by China Glaze. They both have a sheerish base with different size of glitter in it. Also, they both give the nail the effect of dimension (by that I mean sort of like a soak-off gel polish) because of multi-size glitter. I must say, I prefer Stroll only because I like a red more than a pink on my nails. You NEED this polish, it is gorgeous. I got may compliments wearing it last week. The formula was excellent at two coats and it wore very very well during the week.

My camera is taking the front seat again since my boyfriend's camera is moving on to bigger projects (film). I miss it so much. Color is so hard to capture with my piece of shit Canon. Oh well. Boyfriend says I should buy one of my own which is tempting. Maybe when I win the lottery. And I plan to.

My weekend has been super uneventful so far and I've been loving it. Painting, cooking, eating, drinking coffee and reading has done me a world of good. Now, off to watching X-Files with the boyfriend!

Oh, my birthday is it now?

Actually, with the Blogger timestamp, it is no longer my birthday. But here, in Atlantic Canada, it sure is!

I wanted to make an effort and get a birthday post in. Just because. Fer the fun of it!

Today's nails are China Glaze's Fiji Fling. Nothing too exciting. Besides, my birthday nails are something much more exciting! But here are the swatch pictures, nevertheless.

This is two coats, and definitely could've used three. This polish just made me wish it was summer again. So it's going in the very back of my nail polish drawer. It'll be one for next year. 

Lucky me, I had an excellent birthday. Lots of cards, food, kisses from the boyfriend, laughter and friends. Can't ask for much better.

Edit: MY BAD, it's still my birthday on the timestamp. Thanks Blogger! HAHAH! 

On a nude streak...

I'm loving the nude look on my nails right now. My hands are so freaking dry that nude nails is the only thing that looks decent on me.

OPI's Canberra't Without You is the perfect combination of nude and sparkle. It has tiny little flecks of glitter, just enough to be seen but conservative enough to call the polish a nude color. Also, the nude color is very flattering on. I quite like this polish and didn't really expect it to be anything exciting.

I believe this is two coats and it could have used a third one. But I'm lazy. I like this color against my skintone. It's got some pink tones which I like - it's not quite the mannequin hand look. The sparkle is silver and subtle, and frankly, the polish would've been just as nice without it.

Now you're probably just going to think I'm a crazy cat lady because of the abundance of Billie pictures in this blog... But loooook how cute she is!

She was at her least cute tonight when she pooed a really stinky one. Light some candles stinky. And as usual, when there was company over. Oh Billie, it's alright to be socially awkward, but you don't have to poop about it every time!

I'll try to post a few non-nudes soon. I'm getting tired of them. Maybe.

Brushes, drying.

Freshcover - for the last time

These are now unfortunately discontinued. Therefore, this is probably my last post about a Freshcover nail polish. It's a shame because Pegasus (link here) was quite stunning.

This polish is also pretty stunning. It's multidimensional without being a "holo" or "sparkly" and vampy without being a cliché shade.

Anyways, this is called Black Gold.

Goodbye Freshcover. May you happily populate other drugstores than our Canadian Lawtons and may you produce many excellent shades in the future. You've got your formula almost perfect. Cheers.

I'm Fondue of You

My apologies (dear 10 or so readers) for my lack of posts.

I haven't been painting my nails much lately because of lack or time and renovations/construction at work. The dust is leaving my nails/hands so dry that it would be completely unacceptable to post pictures of them.  Work has been a pain in the ass - who loves sitting in dust and pink insulation shit? Not this girl. I'm pretty sure I have a phobia of that pink stuff anyway. It has freaked me out ever since I learned it's made of fiberglass. Ew!

Anyway, today's post is featuring OPI's I'm Fondue of You, which, in my humble opinion, would make a fabulous fall polish. I'd describe it as a brownish red with copper/red shimmer. This was two coats and had an excellent formula. The index finger in the pictures shows the color most accurately.

I MAY be purchasing a Malm bed from Ikea. All my life adult life, I've slept on shit mattresses and flimsy metal bed frames. I only recently purchased a new mattress (Queen baby!) and have been waiting patiently for a nice bed to go with it! Should I go with the Malm?

Or the Hopen? I'm not sure. And when I'm not sure, it takes me a looooong time to decide. It's a big purchase!

 

So yeah. Complicated stuff. I may go with the Hopen since it's a tad cheaper. But even then, this is a hardcore big decision. Not unlike picking out a sandwich for me. I'm bad at decisions.

Sheer Mani? Let us evaluate.

This is totally not me but I was lusting after Essie's Ballet Slippers at the drug store the other day and though that rather than spending, I'll shop my stash!

I ended up with Essie's Vanity Fairest on my nails.

It did NOT help my Ballet Slippers craving. The sheer polish was three coats, and bubbled in some places. It didn't dry fast at all(I smudged it and took it off promptly) and it looked bad on. Plus, some brush pieces (you'll notice on my pinky nail) embedded itself in my polish. What?!

Anyway, so this mani sucked. I don't mind the sheer nail thing but three NON-DRYING coats isn't worth it. Catch you another time sheer mani!

Oh the other hand (PUN!), I did sport a french manicure all week. I was pretty different for me.

The tips were freestyled (!!) China Glaze's White on White and the top coat was China Glaze's Diva Bride. I quite enjoyed wearing this since it didn't wear out (or didn't appear to) as fast as a regular mani. I'd probably do this again if I know my week is too busy to take care of my nails.

Hmm, what else?

A painting taking shape?

A smug Billie watching over me?

Billie says: have a great week meoow!

Effects?! Yes sir!

I bet you can't tell what color of nail polish I have under CND's Effects in Copper Pearl. That's how good the CND's Effects polishes are. The glittery topcoat is so densely packed (but clear!) that you only need one coat for a full on "effects" look.

See below for evidence:

Above with no flash, below with flash.

I'm kind of surprised they called it Copper Pearl. Even in the bottle, you can kind of tell that it's a bit more leaning towards a red. Nevertheless, it's pretty stunning. The pink polish is Snog by Butter London. Any excuse to wear that polish, I use.