Hauls: the good and the bad and the ugly

So I did a bit of hauling this week.  From L-R:
Maybelline Express Finish in Plum Intense, Snow Bunny and Demin Dash ($2 clearance at Zehrs)
Rimmel in Rags to Riches
I was so excited when I saw those Hard Candy polishes at Walmart for $1.  DO NOT BUY THEM!!!  They are Hard Candy polish bottles, but what's inside them is terrifying.  They smell like a Kleancolor polish that crawled up my dog's asshole and died, seriously.  The brushes are like straw and the polishes just plain suck.  These can't possibly be real Hard Candy polishes, they are nothing like my full size bottles!

And here's the good haul, from Winners of course.  From L-R:
Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe mini's
Cosmetic Arts All The Trimmings
Seche Vite for $3!

The Cosmetics Arts polish was $5 and I normally wouldn't buy an unknown polish for that much BUT....

Whoa.  How awesome is that?  It's slightly sheer so I decided to wear the Rimmel first.  Something seemed fishy about this polish brand so I went googling and found that it's made by the manufacturer of Color Club, which explains the Studio M bottle as well.  They are also only available at Fred Meyer which I gather is a 'western' version of Meijers (where Studio M is available).

So this is 2 coats of Rimmel's Rags to Riches.  This polish has a brush like the Sally Hansen Salon Manicures - love it!

I stamped it with Wet and Wild Black Creme and Konad plate M71, then freehanded the black tips and added a top coat.  Unfortunately I ended up picking at this...along with my holo glitter gel manicure underneath, wahhhh!

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Friggen Sweet!

So Sally's sells some pretty awesome but expensive glitters in their acrylics section.  And someone on a nail board mentioned that there was a nice sparkly holographic one so of course I had to go check it out.

Doesn't look very holo at first glance and I think this ran me around $5.  Now something I may not have mentioned about soak off gels is that they have a sticky layer on them after curing which is fantastic for adding glitter.

So all I did here was Shellac Base Coat, 1 coat of a random colour ( I used Shellac Negligee) and then smooshed the glitter on with a dry brush, added Gelish Top It Off and cured.  I added a second top coat just to be safe.  I love when I finally do an awesome mani after so many fails :)  The sparkle is insane on this!

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Hell has frozen over

I never thought I'd ever wear a crackle polish but then again I also said early on that I would never spend $10 on a nail polish either.  This blog is making a liar out of me lol.

This is a coat of Color Club The Great Divide over top of my holo gel mani (haha yeah you gotta wait til Monday for that awesomeness!)  Yeah I hate it, lesson learned.  Problem is that it looked so pretty in the bottle:

So Color Club, can I please have this shade in regular polish?

Anyways I was browsing the polish section at the grocery store yesterday and there was a display that caught my eye.  It was a new Revlon display and the bottles were shaped differently so I ran over to check it out but unfortunately didn't have my camera with me.  Here's the only pic I could find off the internet:

It's Revlon Colorstay nail polish - the display had at least 12 shades and a base and top coat, it also said 'lasts up to 11 days'.  The display seemed to insinuate that it was like a gel manicure without the uv light.  It also indicated that the base and top coat were necessary and sorry, but at $8 a pop I'm not willing to be a guinea pig on this one so we'll have to wait until the reviews start coming.  $24 might not be a big deal to someone who hasn't already invested in a Shellac system.  I'm totally dying to find out if this stuff is any good because the colours were pretty awesome so somebody hurry up and try it please!

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Good idea, bad execution

This is 2 coats of Revlon Top Speed in Lily.  This is my 2nd Top Speed polish and I have to say I absolutely hate it.  There is nothing speedy about it and it's streaky as hell.  I could have used a third coat but I figured screw it.

I wanted to try another marbling idea I've had rolling around for awhile using clear polish again.  So I wanted to create a sort of interesting base by sponging on 2 colours.  I used 2 Studio M's: Magic Attraction and Sexy Siren.

And then I marbled it using clear and black polish.  I still can't get the marbling technique down and I ended up removing it right away...sigh.

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In a slump

I'm taking another short break from the soak off gels and I'm feeling uninspired.  The awful Gelish glitter did a real number on my nails but mostly because I peeled it since I couldn't stand to look at it.  My nails are almost back to their natural white now and I'm taking it easy with some lighter colours for awhile.

This is 2 coats of OPI Designer...De Better.  The pink flecks aren't visible in my photo but it's a pretty nice colour.  I've purchased a lot of foils lately but they aren't really thrilling me.

I stamped it with Kleancolor Metallic Red and plate BM224.  It's kind of loud and odd and reminds me of old curtains but I like it.

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Ick

As if that pink Gelish manicure could get any worse...2 days later the colour started turning brown:

I'm seriously considering sending in a complaint.  As the week wore on it started turning green!

So anyways, I decided to cover it rather than soak my nails in acetone twice in one week.

Besides, I'd been meaning to try a regular nail polish sandwich anyways.  So this is Nfu Oh 61 on top.  I put a coat of China Glaze Hologram underneath so I could save my Nfu Oh 61 by only painting one coat.  By the way, this is the new formula that everyone has been complaining about for some reason.  Yes it's kind of chunky to work with and yes there's no visible holo in the bottle but it still comes out amazing on the nails!

After it dried thoroughly I painted Gelish Top Coat on it and cured it.  Then I stamped it with China Glaze's Bogie and plates BM224 and konad m53.  Unfortunately this did not stay on my nails.  When I wiped the designs off with non-acetone remover, it also took off some of Nfu Oh 61.

Bummer

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Disappointing Gelish

A word of warning to anyone wanting to invest in Gelish polishes - they misrepresent their shades!  From seeing swatches online I pretty much knew the colours were off sometimes but then it happened to me and I'm really not happy about it.

I purchased Gelish Ali Baba's Sim Sala Bim last week at Sally's which clearly showed on the bottle as an amazing plum purple.  Yes I also realized it was a layering polish because I already own one of the Aurora's - Oocha Coocha (which is awesome).  However, this is what it's supposed to look like:

And this is what 3 coats of it over white REALLY looks like:

Fucking pink.  Boooooo!  And it's so sheer that even after 3 coats it's still patchy as hell.  The only thing this colour is good for is layering over really dark polishes, and even then the shimmer is still mostly pink.

So why not pink it up some more right?

I scrubbed in some Martha Stewart glitter which only made it more obvious how pink my nails were.  Somehow I doubt this mani will be staying on the full two weeks.

I think Gelish needs to get their shit together because I honestly feel like I was ripped off here.  That manicure looks NOTHING like the colour on the bottle!

ps. My previous gel mani made it with no problems until day 13!  The only thing wrong with it at day 13 was the regrowth.  Awesome :)

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Awesome US haul

Last weekend Mom, the Princess and I took a shopping trip to Michigan again.  We left a bit earlier than normal and the only thing open at that time other than grocery stores was JC Penny.  Funny how I always luck out at the JC Penny salon....

I got all this for $25!!!!  They had B2G1F at the salon plus they were handing out coupons for $10 off a $25 purchase.  2 OPI polishes at regular price in Canada is $25 with tax so this was a steal! From L-R:

Suzi Loves Cowboys
Uh Oh Roll Down the Window
I Brake For Manicures
A Taupe the Space Needle
Designer...De Better
Rainbow Connection

Yes I bought the multi-glitter even though I don't like them.  If you think that's bad...it gets even worse below...

But first here's my awesome Sally's haul:

I was thrilled to find Gelish colours in the clearance section.  I had planned on picking some up anyways since they are cheaper in the US so an extra $4 off was a fantastic surprise.  From L-R:

Gelish Top It Off - $10 (this is $22 in Canada)
Gelish Ooba Ooba Blue - $9 (these are $18 in Canada)
Gelish Ali Baba's Sim Sala Bim - $9
China Glaze Brownstone - $2
China Glaze Concrete Catwalk - $2

And lastly my Meijers haul:

Pumpkin polish light blue glitter with large silver glitter - $.62
Snowman polish green and gold glitter - $2.29 (this polish reeks!)
Studio M Purple Medallion - $2.25 on sale
Studio M Magic Attraction - $2.25
Color Club The Great Divide - $3.99  Say what?  A crackle polish?  Oh yes she did!

Honestly the colour of the polish is what caught my eye - a very dark, almost black blue with green/gold sparkle.  I thought maybe this shade would help me learn to love crackle lol.

The first coat of the crackle I put on the nail wheel and it did not crack.  You can see it just to the left of #1.  I wasn't really happy that the crackle came out so blue instead of the deep dark colour in the bottle.  When I layered it over Designer...De Better it cracked properly (#1).
2. Rainbow Connection
3. Designer...De Better
4. I Brake For Manicures
5. Uh Oh Roll Down the Window
6. Suzi Loves Cowboys
7. A Taupe The Space Needle

And here's what happened when I layered the crackle over my 12 day old gel mani:

Nada.  I tried another swatch over a semi-dry polish and it cracked differently than the one above.  I 'think' this polish only cracks over 'fresh' polish, if that makes any sense.  I could be wrong but I don't understand why it doesn't crack sometimes.

And here's the rest of my swatches:

1. Pumpkin polish
2. Snowman polish
3. Studio M Purple Medallion
4. Studio M Magic Attraction
5. China Glaze Concrete Catwalk
6. China Glaze Brownstone

Every time I do nail wheel swatches I'm always amazed at the China Glaze formula.  Everything was 2 coats except for the China Glaze's which were only one.

Anyways, it would have been nice if I'd found more clearance pumpkin polishes but I'm not going to complain after that haul :)

Oh and one last note to anyone in the US who is looking for Revlon Carbonite - I saw them at Big Lots for $1!

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Another new brand

There are a lot of brands that are much easier to find in the US but almost non-existent in Canada.  Barielle was one of those brands I was happy to find last week and now I've found another - Nubar.

I think it was Scrangie's blog I was reading last week when she mentioned a Canadian etailer - Pretty Indulgent.  So I went to check it out and was thrilled to find Nubar (although she's sold out of Reclaim).  I was even more thrilled to find the clearance section and wait, what?  A red matte polish?  I have been lusting over Zoya's Posh forever and last time I ordered from Zoya it was out of stock.  So I figured this clearance red matte Nubar would satisfy me and boy did it ever!  From L-R: Nubar Contempo, Avant-Garde, Twilight Matte and OPI Glow Up Already.  All for $4.50 each and shipping took exactly one week.  She also threw this soap sample in the box and although I appreciate freebies, and on an order comprised entirely of clearance items no less, boy did it stink and not in a good way.  It said it's a mix of dark chocolate, raspberry and sandalwood.  Sounds nice, but it's not really.  It was a very sickly sweet scent to me.  I think I'll throw it in the Princess's stocking :)

Here they are swatched L-R: Glow Up Already, Avant-Garde, Contempo and Twilight Matte.  See how Contempo glows?  Love it!

This is 2 coats of Contempo over my gel mani.  On bare nails I think it probably only needs one coat.  The more my gel mani grows out, the harder it gets to polish over it and it's almost impossible to get nice clean lines.

So I figured what the hell, the Christmas shit is already out at the stores so why not do Christmas nails?  After all, Contempo is the perfect base for a Christmas manicure and I was also dying to use my new China Glaze.  So the accent nail is a coat of China Glaze Twinkle Lights with a matte coat over it.  The stamping is Orly Luxe and Konad m14.  I know I've said in the past I'm not a fan of the multi-glitter and it's true, but I do like the ones that only contain about 3 different colours and also - I love Christmas :)

Anyways, Zoya Posh is now officially crossed off my wishlist.  Nubar Contempo is definitely in my top 10.

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Knowing when to stop

I think I've finally hit my breaking point with polish hoarding.  I took my usual first-of-the-month trip to Sally and got some pretty sweet deals:

All of this for $21!  Yes that's $3 per polish!  The Orly set was $8.99 and came with a free purse plus I love all 3 colours.  Um yeah I paid $8.99 several weeks ago for just ONE of the Orly mineral effects polishes!  The China Glaze set was $6.99.  I really wanted Twinkle Lights and there were none left on the shelf display.  In fact the shelf display was pretty much bare at noon on the first of the month - wtf?  Anyways China Glaze polishes are $6 at Sally's so why would I buy just one if you can get two more for an extra $1?  And that last little lonely polish?  Color Club!  That was a welcome surprise at Sally's.  It was $6.29 but I had a coupon and I don't own any Color Clubs with the cute little flower on the lid.  Plus it's scented like mint :)

So why, according to my post title, do I have a problem with such an amazing haul?

Green polishes are my weakness.  I love green and they really don't make enough varieties of green.  I would have picked both of those greens in those sets I bought anyways, but when I swatched them I kinda said 'oh shit, I really need to stop buying polish'.

1. China Glaze Holly-day
2. Joe Mallard
3. OPI Don't Mess With OPI
4. Orly Lucky Duck
5. OPI Jade Is The New Black

None of them are exact dupes however the China Glaze and Joe are pretty damn close and so are Lucky Duck and JITNB.  But to the average person they probably all look the same.  I really don't need all 5 of these.

But enough of that, I made some frankens!

I took my ugly coral coloured prism and tinted them fuchsia and dark dusty rose.  They did not translate well when swatched but look perfect in the bottle...sigh.  The one on the far right I'm most excited about.  I really wanted a dark brown creme with blue shimmer and I got it almost spot-on.  I used Revlon Chocolate Truffle and Sally Hansen Marine Scene with a bit of Revlon Beach.  The shimmer turned more teal than blue but that's okay because I love it.

See how the holo's didn't turn out the same?  Weird.  I think they're reversed there as well.  The brown is the first franken I've made that I've actually considered giving a name.  I don't know why I don't name my frankens but this is the first one that I'm totally in love with.

This was 2 coats over my current gel mani which has now reached Day 9.

Then I stamped with Kleancolor Metallic Jungle and plate BM209.  It didn't show up enough so I grabbed the Color Club Foiled Collection and my dotting tool and went to town on it.  It would have turned out better if my stamping was straight but I was too lazy to fix it this time.

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Hauls and a new brand for me

I haven't posted my hauls lately but I've picked up a few new polishes.  One thing I was particularly excited about was that I found Barielle polishes in Canada!  Mind you they were at Winners and a very limited selection but they were only $5!  There was actually only one polish that I absolutely had to have:

This is 2 coats of Barielle Slate of Affairs.  Nice formula and I love the shimmer in it but the colour doesn't look great on me for some reason.  It's funny because these murky dusty colours are usually my favourite, and especially the cremes with subtle shimmer, so I don't know why I don't like this one.

So something I'd been meaning to try for awhile was multi-coloured stamping.  Here I used BM210 with Color Club's Cold Metal (dark blue), Foil Me Once (pink) and Perfect Mol-ten (green).  Unfortunately sucky photo once again and you can't really see the different colours but it's really not all that noticeable on the nail anyways.

So here's the rest of the haul from the last few weeks:

Color Club Foiled and Bohemian Collections - Winners $12.99

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - Brooding Blue and Temperamental Purple (3/$5 at Len's Mill)
Nina Ultra Pro - Ink-Ling and Mossy Britches ($3 on sale at Sally's)
Icing Chrome - Light Pink ($2 bargain bin)
Icing Mood - Sultry/Moody ($2 bargain bin)
Orly - Androgynie ($6.99 at Winners)
Barielle - Slate of Affairs ($5 at Winners)
NailWOW Polish Strips ($2.50 at Liquidation World/Big Lots)

I was pretty happy to see the new Orly collection at Winners as well.  They also had them in little gift sets with 3 polishes for $15 and a free gift.  The thing that sucks most about Winners is that every one has different stock.  I got the Orly and the Barielle at 2 different stores and neither had both.  I really do need to cool it with the spending though.  I couldn't possibly get through all the polish I currently own even if I changed my polish every day for the rest of my life.  Scary huh?

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My boyfriend kicks ass - part 2

I would have preferred to test this out on bare nails but I've been doing the gel thing lately and I didn't have much choice.  So this is over top of my previous Charla-dupe gel mani.

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze Hologram (which, by the way, has become sort of chunky similar to Nfu Oh 61?!).  Then I added 3 coats of my Holo Auto Paint Top Coat.

Although I don't yet own any of the Kaleidoscopes, I think this is probably similar.  It definitely shows more holo than the Tronicas but it's not really linear.  I guess the closest thing I own to this would be the Milani 3D's, but it even more holographic than those as well.

I didn't wear this for very long since it was a lot of layers of nail polish and it drove me nuts.  I had to add 2 top coats to this as well because it was a bit gritty.  I do like it a lot though.  So I stripped it back down to my gel mani and did a quick stamp:

I really liked the fishnet pattern so I decided to try it out again.  This time with Billie French White and BM209.

And here's a parting shot of my bottle of rainbow-y awesomeness:

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