A gel to cross off the list

I really loved wearing that ruffian soak off gel mani but I did paint over it once which ended up being a huge mistake in more ways than one.

I picked up Essie's Eternal Optimist and Chinchilly for $3 each at Rexall!  So I decided to use them both.  What an ugly colour Eternal Optimist is.  I thought it looked like a nice dusty rose in the bottle, but on my nails it's just a hideous greyed peach.

And just to make it even uglier I added a coat of Nubar's Black Polka Dots.  I actually like the black glitter, just not over that peachy colour.

And here's what happened when I took that mani off with my non-acetone remover as usual.  It took some of the Quo By Orly Gel with it!!!  I won't be buying another Quo By Orly Gel.  I have never had gel polish come off with non-acetone remover.

So since I've been doing things out of my comfort zone lately here's what I did last weekend...

1 coat of a random pink chrome and 3 coats of Essie's A Cut Above.  It's blingy as hell!

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I lied

I know I said my next post would be the Layla holo but I decided I'm going to try it as a soak off sandwich instead.  So for the quick break in between:

This is one coat of Essie's No More Film.  Great dark purple colour that tends to look blue in most photos.  I love that this was only one coat.  I also had to shorten my nails a bit again because they're a bit thin and peeling at the moment.

I've had this thing lately for pink on dark colours and so I added a layer of Essie's A Cut Above.  The colours look much better together in real life.  I'm hoping this is a non-staining colour but I've smartened up and started using base coat on my nails anyways.

When I take a short break from soak offs I'm always amazed at how thin and easily breakable my natural nails are.  Before using soak off gels I would get breaks monthly but I think I've had maybe 3 breaks since October and they're so much easier to deal with because instead of trimming them you can apply gel polish right on top of the break to seal it.  However, I'm thinking it may be a problem for me if I ever stop using the gels...

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Score!

Last weekend I struck nail polish gold...well as far as I'm concerned anyways.

To start with I finally found a Shoppers Drug Mart with the new Essence display.  They also had some GOSH polishes on clearance.  This little haul was only $20.

From L-R: Gosh: Fossil Grey and Rusty,  Essence: Luxury Secret, High Spirits, Where is the Party?, Gleam in Blue, Glamorous Life, Lovely Secret, You Belong to Me and Break Through.

But the real score of the day came from Winners:

They had a small selection at this particular Winners and I was about to walk away with only Essie's Dive Bar in my hand when I spotted a Barielle 5-pack and was totally expecting the contents to be the same neutral colours I've seen at other stores.  I had another 'holy shit' moment when I spotted Elle's Spell in the pack!  This was on my list of most wanted polishes and honestly never thought I'd find it.  And here in Canada is the last place I thought I'd find a brand new bottle of it.

So I ran home and slapped on China Glaze Poinsettia as a base (bad choice as you'll see).

Then I added 2 coats of Elle's Spell and topped it with Seche Vite.  I really wanted this to be darker, but I think I just made a poor choice of base colour.

And so the next day I added a coat of Essie's Matte About You.  I love the polish but the China Glaze base gives off too much of an orange glow.  Also...ugh, gotta love that Seche Vite shrinkage.

Anyways, as a last addition to my score post:  My sister found a girl in her local 'mommy swap' who was selling OPI's.  When she told me the names of the polishes I started freaking out because they are all old school black label polishes.  She's selling them so cheap that I told her to take them all so I can't wait to get my hands on them now.

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Superpost

I took a few days off last week to spend with my sister from Delaware who was here for a visit.  While she was here I took her shopping in Toronto and visited some places I've never been to before.

I was actually on a quest for Shellac and I did find some but no way in hell was I paying $30 for a .3oz bottle!  I did end up finding some pretty awesome polishes though at Pacific Mall.

From L-R: NYX Girls Enchanted Forest and Under The Moon, Essie Shine of the Times, Ruby Kisses HD Midnight Stars, Kleancolor Midnight Seduction and Afternoon Picnic. 

The NYX's and Essies were 15% off already cheap prices at Pacific Mall - It came to $12 for all 3.  The Ruby Kisses was from a random beauty supply outlet for $2.50.  The Kleancolors were 2/$5 at Dixie Mall.

I have to share a quick photo of our dinner in Toronto because it was amazing and a first experience for my boyfriend and my sister - Korean BBQ.

This was the aftermath.  The table has a hot grill situated in the middle and they bring you plates of raw marinated meats, rice, soup, kimchi and various pickled veggies.  And then you cook it all on the grill in the middle, similar to a fondue.  It's also all you can eat but you just ask them for refills of your favourite meats and veggies.  Toronto is one of the only places around that has these restaurants so if you ever get there, I highly recommend trying this out.  This is meat lovers heaven.

When I got home from Toronto I added a coat of NYX Girls Under The Moon over my blue Gelish manicure.  This photo is day 14(!) of my manicure.  Yes the growth looks terrible but still not a chip in sight!  This is the longest I have worn a soak off gel so far.  Honestly, I bet I could have gotten away with another week!

So on Monday I had to take my sister back to the Buffalo airport and of course I just had to stop at Ulta ;)

So the China Glaze haul consisted of: The Let It Snow set including Blue Years Eve and Snowglobe ($7 at Sallys), Fireside Glow, Lighthouse, Ingrid and VIII.  I also hauled some soak off gels at Ulta but they will be in my Christmas post since they were technically my gift from my boyfriend.

A new brand for me Petites, I found at Rite Aid and I bought 2 - Craze and Daze.  Then there's China Glaze Blonde Bombshell and Nubar Meadow Sparkle.  Funny thing I noticed about my collection after I bought these - over 500 polishes and not a single gold glitter!  The last item is a glitter set I found at JoAnns for $7 that I thought would be amazing for scrubbing into soak off gels because....

They're all holographic!  Can't wait to try the light blue one.

And here's one last shot of something I did for my 2 year old niece last week:

I painted this in her new room directly over her crib.  It's probably 3 feet high, just used plain old acrylic paints and took around 3 hours total.  Hope she likes Tinkerbell until she's 18 :)

Hope you all enjoy your holidays!

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O Canadupe?

I don't usually do comparison posts because my camera really sucks but when I saw this polish in the store I just knew I had to do one.

As far as I know, this is the second dupe from Joe.  The first one, Peacock, was a dupe for China Glaze's Rodeo Fanatic.  And now we have our second one, Khaki, a dupe for Essie's Sew Psyched.

The Essie is on my ring finger (third from left) and the others are all Joe.  2 coats on each finger.

Joe Khaki even has the same subtle shimmer as Sew Psyched.  If there is any difference at all I would say that Joe Khaki is just a hint more yellow.

So of course I can't just wear a plain old polish on it's own not matter how awesome it is.  I stamped this with Color Club's Love Em Leave Em and Konad plate m71.

So there you have it, clearly a dupe.  I hope to see more of these from Joe in the future.

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Simple mani and an awesome find

This is 2 coats of Essie's Sand Tropez which I picked up for half price during my last trip to the US.  Not my usual type of colour but I don't mind it.  I like Essie's formula but I don't know how they justify the $9 price tag. 

I stamped it with Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Bittersweet and konad plate m31.  Finished off with an orange gem on the ring finger.  Simple and classy, just the way I like it.

So a couple weeks ago when I was polish hunting in a nearby city I went to 3 different Winners and came up empty handed!  Ugh I hate how Winners is like that.  But I stopped at my local Winners last week and found these awesome Kleancolor sets:

Top set is a metallic set containing: Metallic Pink, Metallic Yellow, Metallic Purple, Metallic Jungle, Metallic Navy, Metallic Brown. 

I swatched them as soon as I got home over my existing mani:

This was one coat of each over an almost black polish so you can see how amazing these are for stamping.

The second kit contained glitters: Black Out, VIP, Kiss Goodbye, Grand Finale, Karat and Peaceful Heart.

I didn't swatch Peaceful Heart since I already have the full size bottle but the thumb is Black Out and the rest (L-R) are: VIP, Kiss Goodbye, Carat and Grand Finale.  I don't like the strip glitter at all but I love that Carat has large diamond glitter in it.

These sets were $5 at Winners and I think I'm going back to grab another metallic set.  Also I need to find somewhere that sells Kleancolor here in Canada because I really need a full size bottle of Black Out!

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Sew Psyched

This was the very first Essie I bought and the only one I own.  Well if you don't count the matte top coat.  This is two coats and I love the colour, it's right up my alley.  Ha, I just noticed it matches my blog colour LOL!  As soon as I put it on I knew exactly what to do with it:

I stamped with plate BM21 in Pure Ice's First Time, a pale green chrome polish.  I liked it a lot...if only it hadn't chipped the next day :(

I liked the Essie formula well enough, but I don't think it's necessarily worth the $10 here in Canada.  Essie's colours don't thrill me either.  The ones with the hidden shimmer are awesome, but you really need to look closely to see it.  So I think Essie will be bargain bin buys only for me.

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Plate m32 round one...

So in my effort to do a mani with every single design I own I'm starting with m32.  I'm sorry I don't know where to buy konad plates in Canada.  I bought mine online.  I used Essie's ridge filling basecoat ($9 at Shoppers) and then applied 3 coats of OPI Yes I Can Can ($9.50 at Trade Secrets).  I mistakenly said it was purple in another post, but it's definitely more burgundy than purple.  I also added one coat of Seche Vite ($9 at Sally Beauty) because this mani just wasn't drying at all.

I then added a coat of Essie's Matte About You ($10 at Trade Secrets).  I friggen love matte finishes on dark colours!

The shrinkage you can clearly see on my index finger is from the Seche Vite...grrrrr.  Then I stamped with the dandelion design from m32, but I left out the stems and positioned the design along the bottom right of my nails.  I used Orly Luxe ($7 at Sally Beauty) to stamp the design.

I was going to leave it at that but I was annoyed with the tip shrinkage so I freehanded a thin french and figured I'd show you anyways.  But I definitely prefer it without.

It's not terrible, I just prefer more elegant and less busy designs.  Also, matte polish tends to chip faster so I do often add a french tip to matte manicures, but I usually use clear polish for that.  So there's one down and 6 more to go!

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I will never pay $10 for a friggen nail polish!

Back in the fall, yeah I said that more than once. And then I did. It was Essie's Matte About You top coat and it was $11 from Trade Secrets. It was the only matte top coat I could find and I HAD to have one.

And while I was at Trade Secrets they also had a sale on OPI and I'd never owned any OPI polish so I bought two - My Private Jet and Midnight in Moscow. I still cringe when I think that those 3 polishes cost me almost 30 bucks with taxes. I've since found a couple of salons to stalk for discount OPI.

So I rushed home and cracked open My Private Jet - shown below with Essie Matte About You and stamped with image plate m53. Sometimes it's true when they say you get what you pay for. OPI is a great polish but I don't own many since it's so friggen expensive here ($9.50-12.99 at most salons)! This colour wasn't meant to be matted obviously because it took away all the sparkle. I will have to re-do this colour with a shiny coat.

Anyways...I can now say that I will never again pay $10 for a nail polish!

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