Nail Polish Haul! ...and stuff.

Hello, sorry I didn't post yesterday as planned but I got called into work unexpectedly.

Today as the title suggests I have a nail polish haul to share with you.  All of these polishes, and polish paraphernalia were purchased by myself at two different Winners in my area over a two day period and I have broken them into 2 groups; Day 1 and Day 2.  For those of you not familiar with Winners it is a Canadian store that is part of the TJ Maxx and Marshalls family.

Day 1, Essie mini For the Twill of it 4 pack, China Glaze On the Horizons Party Fowl, Ciate Caviar Manicure with Ferris Wheel and Cotton Candy, and Sephora by OPI Cab Fare.

Essie For the Twill of It, Autumn 2013 mini collection

First off, the Essie's, this mini 4 pack consists of For the Twill of it, Cashmere Bathrobe, The Lace is On and Vested Interest.  This was a great find as I was not expecting to be able to find the newest collection until later on in the year.  I am fine with not getting After school Boy Blazer and Twin Sweater Set since these were basic colours that I already have in my collection.  I have to say that Cashmere Bathrobe and Vested Interest are already my favourite picks and that is just from swatching them on my colour wheel, more in depth look on Sunday.

Sephora by OPI, Cab Fare

 SOPI's Cab Fare is a sun shiny yellow with microscopic glitter that catches the light beautifully.  The first coat is rather sheer but it builds up well, no problems formula wise.

China Glaze On the Horizons Party Fowl.

 I know the Horizons are based on Nails Inc. Feather Effects but I don't have any of that brand to compare, I only have one lonely Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat in All Yarned Up.  I will say that CG builds up better on the nail than SH and I like that the CG base is matte versus the SH shine.

Ciate Caviar Manicure, this is the one with Ferris Wheel in the Paint Pot and Cotton Candy in the beads.  

I have seen the reviews for these products on YouTube and I understand the the beads do not adhere well and come off in your sleep.  I mainly bought this for the nail polish because I love the Ciate formulas of the other two colours that I have, Pepperminty and Cream Soda, and this brand is not readily available in my area.  Ferris Wheel looks to be close in colour to OPI's Gargantuan Green Grape(new formula, which is not green at all) but has a better formula, requiring two coats instead of three. I can post a comparison if anyone is interested.

Day 2, Cake Lemon Chiffon Velveteen hand creme, OPI's Cuckoo about this Color, China Glaze Flock Together, Konad French Nail Art Stamping Kit, OPI's San Francisco mini collection.

Cake Lemon Chiffon Velveteen Hand Creme

Cake Lemon Chiffon Velveteen Hand Creme, all you need to know is fast absorbing, non greasy...and smells like lemon cake mix, yum!

OPI Cuckoo for this Color

 Unfortunately my camera finds itself unable to capture the beauty of this deep green polish.  This is from the Swiss collection from the fall of 2010 and I consider myself lucky to have found it anywhere since it is not part of OPI's permanent collection.  The deep forest green with slight blue shimmer is lovely and a two coat-er.

China Glaze On the Horizons Flock together

 After I got and swatched Party Fowl, I knew I needed Flock Together. I don't think I am interested in any of the other combinations.  I wore this on my index finger today and I could not stop looking at it!

Konad French Nail Art.

I have the Konad stamper and scraper already but these are my first official Konad plates, as all of my plates before this have been Cheeky, Bundle Monster, Nailz Craze and Messy Mansion.  I am looking forward to seeing if it lives up to the hype.

OPI's San Francisco mini collection

Last I have the OPI San Francisco mini collection containing First Date at the Golden Gate, Muir Muir on the Wall, In the Cable Car-pool Lane, and Peace & Love & OPI.  I have not had a chance to swatch these yet but I am loving the deep plum of In the Cable Car-pool Lane.  I have heard from other nail bloggers that Peace & Love & OPI is a dupe of Essie's For the Twill of it, and from looking at the bottles I think they are right.  I can do a comparison to see about formulas later.

This post would not be complete without showing you what is currently on my nails.

This is my first ever Waterfall mani! I am quite pleased, however, I will not show you the disaster that is my dominant hand, I need way more practice before I am willing to do that.  Base is OPI's Alpine Snow with various Orly and Color Club Art Club strippers.

I think that is definitely enough info for now, as it stands I am planning to post on Sunday again.

I wish everyone a happy Labour Day long weekend! and until next time, polish happy!

China Pattern Mani

Hello fellow polish addicts!

I felt it was definitely time for another blog post.

For today's post I felt like something feminine yet clean and here is what I came up with.

I absolutely fell in love with this design and I can tell it is one that I will be using again.  I started with the usual suspects of Duri Rejuvecote and Nail Tek Foundation II before applying my undies.  My choice for the white was my favourite white polish ever, My Boyfriend Scales Walls by OPI from the Amazing Spiderman collection.  Since this is not part of OPI's permanent collection I made sure I bought a back-up bottle(I am beginning to think I need to back-up my back-up!). I love the slight grey tone to the white that is evident in the bottle but disappears on the nail.  I find it just that bit different that is necessary to not look like you are in high school and have covered your nails with white out(Yes, I totally did that on more than one occasion).  I applied 2 coats of MBSW which made it completely opaque and then added one coat of SV to aide in drying time before stamping.
As for the blue I choose, it is Maybelline Color Show in Navy Narcissist from the Metallics section of their polishes (picked up at Walmart for only a few dollars).  I have to say for a mainstream polish this worked way better for stamping than even I was expecting.

The blue was deep and pure and bright and caught all the details in the stamp that I used which was Pueen 33 from the Sumptuous collection( I know, I know, two in a row but they are my newest plates and I absolutely adore them).  If anyone is interested in a review of both the Pueen sets let me know in the comments, I recently purchased both of them from nailpolishcanada.com.

Once I stamped each nail I immediately added another coat of SV, no problems with smearing, which is why I haven't switched to another topcoat.  I then added another coat of Rejuvecote to seal everything

(I am actually following the directions for the Rejuvecote, if for no other reason than it makes my nails feel very hard when it is applied, a huge change from when I first started my manicures) and applied a cuticle oil to combat the dryness I am dealing with.

I hope you enjoyed.  Until next time, polish happy!

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Polish happy!

Inaugural post, mint skittle mani

Hello readers,
This is my first ever blog post.  I will start with the mani and from there give you a little info about me and my nail polish addiction.

I started by applying 2 coats NOPI A-nise Treat to my pinkie finger.  This is my first and so far only textured polish.  I don't really like the idea of having a rough texture to my nails but the texture to this polish is finer than many that I have seen and I like that the glitter is small, and Oh My Glob! (sorry, I love Adventure Time, LSP for the win!) I love the sparkle this polish has.

On my middle finger I used 1 coat of Essie's No Place Like Chrome, an awesome metallic polish that is also great for stamping, as you can see on my ring finger.  While that was drying(which took no time at all since this polish is very fast drying) I added 2 coats of Ciate's Pepperminty to the other three nails.  It is almost a one coater but I am prone to do at least 2 coats of most polish.  I then added a layer of silver glitter from Color Club's Art Club Primary striper set using the dabbing method.

I top coated each finger except for the A-nise Treat with SV and waited a few minutes before applying the dots on my index nail with a dotting tool in A-nise Treat and No Place Like Chrome to create a gradient.

On my ring finger I then stamped using Pueen plate 15 from the Sumptuous collection and on my thumb(not shown because my fingers are super short and getting my thumb into the shot requires a crab-like contortion and is awkward to shoot) I added vertical lines with a silver striper.

I coated everything but my pinkie in another coat of SV and added Revlon's Matte Top Coat over the stamped image.

Overall I really enjoyed this mani, sorry about the lack of sun in the picture but it is a rainy thundery day in Ontario, where I live.

Now for a little background about me and polish:

I have always loved painting my nails and thought I had a decent collection, but it was just something I did occasionally and would paint my toes more often because my nails were prone to splitting and peeling and polish would only last about one day before most of it would chip away.  

Everything changed for me when my father passed away this past March of a lung disease called Dermatomyositis, which ate away at his muscles for a year and caused him to have to use oxygen 24 hours a day just to keep going.  My Dad was an amazing man, incredibly gifted with his hands and could fix anything and build anything out of wood, from the addition on our house to jewelry boxes for his little girls. I was always his helper when he was building something, and it was he that taught me that more thin coats is better than fewer thick coats, if it works on wood with varnish it must work on nail polish, right?

His favourite colour was yellow so for the funeral I painted my nails CG Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini with small white dots that the yellow made look like a lighter yellow.

From there it seemed the flood gates opened, my nails, both the colour and length, were one of the few things I could control.  I bought many new polishes, and my collection, which was at about 100 drug store brand polishes began to increase to include more salon brands and a few indie's, I want more but many of the indie makers are based in the states, paying for shipping to Canada can get a bit expensive.  I discovered online retailers like nailpolishcanada.com and harlowandco.org which are great since I live in a rural area about a half hour drive from a city of any size.

I will end the post there for now, my fellow polishers but there will be more to come in the near future.  It is my intention to post at lease twice a week, depending on my schedule at work.  Until then, polish happy!