Double whammy

2 things I never wear:  Pink and multi-glitter.  What the hell, I'm bored.

This is one quick coat of L'Oreal Fanatic Fuschia.  So it's not girly pink but still not something I would ever wear.  I have a small collection of pinks that came in sets so this is one of them.  I have to say out of all the drugstore brands available in Canada, L'Oreal is right near the top of the list for me.  The formula is always great and coverage is good.

For some crazy reason I felt like I needed to try a glitter sandwich.  The pinky is already done because I tried it out first and decided to go with it.

This is one coat of OPI Rainbow Connection.  I thought this actually looked pretty interesting over the fuschia.

And the finished mani with another coat of Fanatic Fuschia on top.  It also has a coat of Seche Vite because it works nicely on glitter. I found it kind of weird and fun to look at it so I actually kept it on for 2 full days!  Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age.

Later
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Magnetic comparison

Ok you caught me, I schedule my posts days and sometimes weeks in advance.  I had to interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to post this because the new magnetic polishes are starting to make the rounds.  So yesterday I hit Claire's and purchased the only 2 they had...a pink one with a wavy magnet and a silver with a striped magnet.

The price is $9.75 CAD and they almost always have buy one get one at 50% off.  So 2 of these ran me about $17.  They are 9.8ml each which is slightly larger than the LCN Magnetics at 8ml.  I love the removable cap and the little 'ledge' to rest your finger so it doesn't touch the magnet.  I can't give them credit for it though since they copied someone else's design but I do like it so much better than the LCN Magnet.

The brushes are absolutely terrible.  I had heard that both the Claire's and Icing brushes were really messed up so I checked several bottles and they were ALL fucked.  Shame on them for releasing these with messed up brushes.  The magnetic caps also don't fit snugly on my silver bottle, they are very loose.

So first up is the pink one with the wavy magnet.  The polish is much thinner than the LCN brand.  The instructions said to use a thick coat but I had to basically glob it on to get full coverage.  These polishes have a sparkle in them that the LCN polishes don't have.

Next up is the silver polish with the striped magnet.  I found this one to be very subtle as compared to the LCN polishes.  I was worried this would be similar to LCN's Iron Magic but it's not even close.

So I decided a side by side comparison was in order.  From L-R:

Claire's Silver with LCN Magnet
LCN Iron Magic with LCN Magnet
Claire's Silver with Claire's Magnet
LCN Iron Magic with Claire's Magnet

For me the winner here is clearly LCN.  The polish and design is much more defined, cleaner and noticeable.  The magnet has more lines as well.  The only advantages that Claire's has is the design of the magnetic lid and the price.  The LCN magnet has to be purchased separately and it set me back $20.

I do however, really love the wavy magnet design, which LCN doesn't offer.  So this is the final manicure I settled on.  With the wavy magnet design it kind of has an optical illusion effect when you move your nails back and forth.  It also reminds me of a catseye, which is pretty damn cool.

Although these magnetic polishes are more expensive I think they're worth it.  Bring em on!

Later
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Couple of quickies

On my Red Carpet Manicure in Violetta Darling base:  Showcase plate B86 using Kleancolor Metallic Green and Sally Hansen Chrome Royal Purple.  I wish I'd used a darker green.

Them on the same base I tried this one out with not much success.  First I stamped with plate BM205 (the butterfly design) and used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Showtime (a silvery scattered holo).  I honestly thought this would have been a little more obvious, but it was barely visible.  Anyways, I freehanded the tips with Essence Fairy Berry and then took it off right away.

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Multi coloured stamping

Time for a new Soak Off Mani.

3 coats of Red Carpet Manicure in Violetta Darling.  Word on the street is that all the lavender soak offs, no matter which brand, fade and turn to grey...we shall see.  I did not like this colour as much as I thought I would.  It's a little too pink toned for me and very dusty looking.

I stamped it using plate BM212.  I took Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Night Hydrangea and swiped it diagonally across the image and then filled in the outer corners with Revlon Emerald City.  I scraped straight across to blend them a bit and was pretty happy with the result.  I added a coat of China Glaze's Fairy Dust for an extra kick.

I'm going to be experimenting a lot more with stamping with multiple colours.  I find with the gel manicures it's sooooo much easier to experiment with stuff like this because you can just wipe it away and start again if you don't like it.

Later
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Chromes for stamping

Today I want to share some of my favourite stamping polishes with you...Sally Hansen Chromes.  I own 2 of the original chromes from when they were first released and the others I've found in discount stores over the last year.  Some of the polishes are from the Xtreme Wear line and not the old Chrome line but they are almost identical polishes.

From L-R:
Pure Ice Silver Mercedes (for comparisons sake)
Sally Hansen Chrome in White Gold
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mauve Nickel
Sally Hansen Chrome in Moonstone (also the bottle I'm holding, strange that the polish colour doesn't match)

The last 2 are almost identical.  I was surprised that none of them really matched the Pure Ice though.

From L-R:
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Titanium Rose
Sally Hansen Chrome in Rhodolite Chrome
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pink Aluminum
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Antique Gold

The two in the middle are identical and the first one isn't far off.  I also missed one in my stash - Chrome Royal Purple in the rare square bottle but the colour isn't similar to any of these anyways.  These are the best bang for your buck stamping polishes if you can still find them.  I usually find them in liquidation stores or asian perfume stores.  I've seen them range from $.50-$3 which is a steal.

And here's the last polish I wore before removing my Drop Dead Gorgeous gel mani (at day 12 here):

Pleasantly surprised with this!  Although I messed up with the magnet a bit.  It's LCN Magnetic Amazing Mauve.  Which looks like just plain boring greyish lavender in the bottle.  And like the name of the name of the polish says...the magnet pulls out this Amazing Mauve.  I can't wait to see all the new magnetic polishes due to be released this year and hopefully new magnet designs along with them!

Later
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Metal camo?

When I bought the LA Girl Metal set from Winners on Boxing Day I knew I had a polish from that collection sitting in my drawer at home.  Turns out that it was Brass and this is one coat above.  I really like how the silver pops out here, it really does look like tarnished metal even if it looks absolutely nothing like brass.  So that gave me a good idea...

I sponged the other 3 Metal polishes randomly on my nails - Antique Gold, Graphite and Sterling Silver.  This was almost impossible to photograph.  I couldn't decide if it looked more liked rusted metal or army camo.  Either way I found it interesting to stare at.  I will probably try this method again to do a real camo mani.

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She's my cherry pie

I couldn't resist that title since we've been watching back to back episodes of Metal Evolution lately and the last one we watched was on the Glam Era which, as cheesy as it was, got me into metal initially.

This is another polish from my Gosh mini set called Ashy Grey, one coat.

I stamped with Showcase plate B89 yet again using Kleancolors in Metallic Red and Metallic Green.

I wish this had photographed better because I loved it!  I need to wear this one again.

So my blog is now officially one year old.  I have to say I'm pretty happy that I'm still here and although my direction has changed slightly, I'm glad that it's still managed to hold my interest.

In honor of my one year anniversary I will explain the name of my blog.  You will notice sometimes that I refer to my younger sisters as the Princess and the Duchess.  These are nicknames that my Dad gave to the 3 of us as kids.  One of our duties was to clean up the dog poop from the backyard.  So my Dad dubbed us as the Queen of Crap, Duchess of Doo and Princess of Poo.

It's good to be Queen ;)

Later
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Sick of blue yet?

This is one coat of Gosh Deep Sea Blue.  This polish came from the mini set I bought on Boxing Day.

In comparison to a regular Gosh polish at 8ml, the mini is 5ml.  So not a bad deal since it's more than half the size.

I stamped it with my new Showcase plate B89 again and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes.  I love this shade of blue, very dark but still clearly blue.  Easily my favourite of all the blues I've worn recently.  This may even be a great replacement for my beloved Revlon Street Wear in Midnight.

Okay now seriously, I need to lay off the blue for a bit.

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One last holiday mani

I was a bad girl and didn't update my blog during the holidays.  In fact I barely had any internet access at all and I didn't even mind it.

So here's the last holiday mani I did:

This is one coat of Wet and Wild's Blue Wants To Be A Millionaire over RCM Drop Dead Gorgeous.  Subtly sparkly but very gritty...ugh.

I stamped it with one of my new Showcase plates B89 with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and tried out my new Migi Nail Art Pens in White. 

My opinion after using 2 of these pens?  The white literally runs right out of the pen tip.  The black barely comes out no matter how hard I squeeze.  I would never have purchased them for myself and I can't believe these sell for $30/set at Zellers.  Not worth it.

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Zero Effort

I just plain ran out of time to do some nail art for New Years.  I threw a New Years party at my place so I was too busy with other things.  I did do a little something though...

1 coat of Zoya Faye over RCM Drop Dead Gorgeous.  Hard to photograph.

Gold tips freehanded using Orly Luxe.

Black and Silver random striping brushes. Meh.  But it sure was blingy enough for New Years.

Later
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New plates

Along with my new gel polishes, my boyfriend also got me a new set of plates for xmas.  These plates were purchased from the Showcase (As seen on TV) store and they came in an unlabelled package.  There were 20 plates for $19.99 and are numbered in no particular order.  I gave 6 of them to the Duchess of Doo since they were obvious dupes of my konad and bundle monster plates.

Plates B28, B87 and B89.  B28 is a konad dupe except for one image on it.  I like the fact that some of these plates have reverse images on them.

B65, B69 and B74.  Pretty sure some of these are also konad dupes but I don't own the originals anyways.

B75, B77, B79 and B86.  More flowers are always good.

B41, B42, B61 and B94.  Definitely some unique images blended with some old konad standards in here.  All in all it's worth it for only $20.  I remember my first konad purchase was $7 per plate so I don't even mind that I gave a third of this set away.

No nail art today but here's one coat of China Glaze's VIII:

Dark Plum, right up my alley.  So why not try something unusual over it?

One coat of China Glaze's Lighthouse.  I wasn't expecting it to look green but I liked it.  My nails are getting too long...time for a trim soon.

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Happy 2012!

Alright, holiday is over.  I'm going to start off with my Boxing Day Haul.

The LA Girl Metallic Set was $5 at Winners.
The Gosh mini set was $7 (half price) at Shoppers.
The LCN Magnetic was not on sale but I found it at Trade Secrets for $11.
The Migi pens were my xmas gift from my boyfriends sister.

It wasn't that there weren't good deals on, I'm just reaching my limit with the nail polish hoarding.

And here's my nail art for the holidays:

The base is my blue Red Carpet Manicure in Drop Dead Gorgeous.  I added a coat of China Glaze's Snowglobe and a stamp in Billie French White and konad plate m20 again.

And here's a shot of my little munchkin wearing his xmas present:

Later
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