New brand for me

Winners has recently had some Duri polishes.  I'll admit I haven't heard much about this brand and didn't want to spend the $7 they were asking for them.  And neither did anyone else apparently which is why I found them in the clearance section for $3 :)

This is Duri's Blueberry Daiquiri and I think it's only one coat.  Yes it's one of those 'so dark it looks black but really isn't' polishes.  The formula on this was really nice I recall too.

I added one coat of Nicole by OPI's Honeydew You Love Me?  Simple, but I wore it for a couple of days anyways.

Later
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2 Fluo Joe's

So Joe has a new collection out and I've already shown you Starry, the holo.  The collection also includes some new fluorescent colours and I picked up 2 of them.

This is 2 coats of Fluo Blue.  Doesn't seem very fluorescent to me, in fact, I think I have another similar colour...

On the thumb only is Sally Hansen Insta-dri in Brisk Blue.  Not an exact dupe, but pretty damn close.

And then we've got 3 coats of Lime Juice which looks more fluorescent than the blue one, but still not really.  This polish was a bit sheer so the 3 coats are very thick.  Which is why this happened:

I was too impatient to let it dry and stamped it while it was still wet.  I used China Glaze Lemon Fizz and plate BM04.

So since I ruined it why not swatch a comp of the closest colour I have.  The middle and pinky have 2 coats of NOPI's One Time Lime from the Justin Bieber collection.  The Joe polish is definitely lighter and yellower.

One thing Joe does really well is creme polishes.  I wish that the green had been more of a creme, but it's still a nice colour.  I probably would have worn that mani for a few days if I hadn't ruined it.  Hmm, need to work on patience...

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OPI's and Christmas Stamps

My friends and family are all slowly finding out about my secret obsession with nail polish.  Okay maybe it's not such a secret since I openly invite them to come over for manicures but they don't all take me up on the offer.  This is Shelley's second manicure since she found out last week haha.  The first manicure was a basic sheer pink Shellac with a black skull stamped on each thumb.  I didn't take a photo because her nails were in terrible shape.  But after the Shellac was removed she actually had a bit of good growth so she came back for her Christmas Party manicure.

She opted for regular nail polish this time so we did 2 coats of OPI DS Signature to match her outfit, stamped it with Billie French White and plate BM14 with a top coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust for some extra sparkle.

I also did my own nails in between hers with a new OPI I picked up at Winners last week.  I have been looking for the OPI Suedes for quite awhile and finally managed to snag 2 of them - Lincoln Park After Dark and Ink.

This is one coat of Lincoln Park After Dark Suede.  I love how you can 'touch up' the suede polishes and not even see any lines or marks.

And this is one coat of OPI Ink Suede.  I like them both but prefer the purple shade so I removed Ink and went with Lincoln Park After Dark.  If you run a light swipe of remover over either of these polishes, you're left with silver on your nails :)

So anyways, since Shelley and I were busting out the Christmas stamps I decided to go for a silver ornament in Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and plate BM225 topped with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust.

I think Shelley will be back next week too lol.  She actually insisted I take a photo of her nails.

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Playing with new goodies

So after I noticed everyone buying cheap nail art supplies from a certain seller in China, I did a bit of research to see what else I could find online.  I've ordered stuff from China before and although the stuff I'd seen on other nail blogs was pretty cheap, I knew I could find cheaper.  So here's what I got for $15USD:

3 corrector pens: $2.86
12 pc glitter: $3.23
15 pc nail art brushes: $3.27
5 pc dotting tools: $2.07
3 1800pc gem wheels: $3.51
Total = $14.94 no tax and free shipping!

Same order from other online nail store = $25.84

Now the store that I ordered from is not a 'nail specific' store and they don't have polish or image plates but they do carry other supplies as well.  Shipping takes about a month from China regardless.  Only one of those items was cheaper from the 'other' store - the corrector pens were cheaper by 6 cents, but you have to buy them in a package of 5 so you're only saving a penny each.  The gems were $3 compared to the $1.17 I paid!  They are the exact same products!  As are the dotting tools (which were double the price) and the brushes (at $1 more).  The main reason I was put off by the other store initially is because I looked at their stock every couple of days and their prices were constantly changing.  It seemed like the more publicity they got, the higher their prices went.  If anyone wants the name of the store I made my purchase from I can add it in the comments later.

So I had to play with my new toys right away.

2 coats of NOPI's My Lifesaver.  I know I said before that I liked these new brushes in this polish and I do love the shape of them, however the bristles on this one were hard and it was a total pain to apply.

So this is my first time trying out a nail art brush and I obviously need a lot of practice.  I used China Glaze's Bogie here.

These are some great quality brushes and a nice variety too.  The bristles are nice and soft and they are solidly built.  I'm impressed for $3.

I pulled out my new dotting tools and dotted in China Glaze's Below Deck.  Definitely need some practice with the dotting tools too.  I find I'm pretty shaky with these nail art tools.  I added gems in the bottom corner to finish it off.  I don't hate it, but I don't love it either.  I'm finding that My Lifesaver is coming off kind of neon...it's very bright. 

So even though I suck at it, I am loving the dotting tools.  I will definitely try and use them as often as possible.

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Laser Lime Love

Oh yeah Tronica again :)  This is 2 coats of China Glaze's Laser Lime.  I know I said I was going to use all my stamp images plate by plate but I have occasionally been switching it up and I used plate BM12 with Wet and Wild's Black Creme.

I did use a topcoat here and it did sort of dull the holographic effect but I still liked it well enough.  I will probably use this image often.

And here are my latest acquisitions over the last couple of weeks.  I think I'm seeing a trend here...what's up with all the blue polishes lately? From L-R:

Finger Paints Carnation Creation
Nicole By OPI Honeydew You Love Me?
Nicole By OPI Rich In Spirit
Wet and Wild Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire
Wet and Wild Night Prowl

The Nicoles were on sale at Shoppers last week for $5.99 :)

And speaking of hauls...lucky me again, I got to take part in the Zoya BOGO offer and I ordered 6 of the new polishes - 2 of the mattes, 2 of the cremes and 2 of the sparkles...Faye, Breezi, Mitzi, Apple, Mira and Phoebe for the bargain price of $26US.  Unfortunately I won't have them in my possession until my other sister, the Duchess of Doo, comes up here to visit us in late May.  If I didn't have a sister in the US I'd be pretty ticked off that Zoya doesn't ship to Canada...we need to fix that!  Zoyas are already pretty hard to find up here as it is!

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Hauliday

So I spent 10 days on vacation in Florida and had a blast.  Found tons of awesome polishes and spent way too much money.  In fact I bought several before I even got on the plane.  We flew out of Flint so I made a pit stop at Meijer's to pick up some Studio M polishes:

L-R: Gel-ous, Sexy Siren, Tru Passion and Ego Trip.  Pics are too dark for some reason.  The first 3 are glitters...Tru Passion looks like a dupe for One Less Lonely Glitter, which is why I grabbed that one first.  Ego Trip was on clearance and it's a dark kinda frosty teal I guess.

These are the randoms I bought. 
Confetti Happy Birthday - dark purple glass flecked (just wanted to try out this brand and nothing else appealed to me) $2 or 3 can't remember
NYC Starry Silver Glitter - silver glitter with larger blue and pink glitter $2 at Target
Nicole by OPI Grant My Wish - kind of coral leaning pink $1.75(!!!) at Target
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Uptempo Plum - black based purple glitter $1.13 at Target
Paint and Peel Crush - Purple creme $2 at Big Lots (just wanted to try this brand as well)

I gotta say I absolutely love Ross!  Not only did I buy a shitload of awesome cheap clothes but they had tons of Color Club sets.  I had 5 in my hand but put 2 of them back LOL.  I picked up the whole Alter Ego collection and one set of Rebel Debutante.  Best part...the price was $7.99 each!  Holy crap!  The CDN dollar is roughly at par right now so these were a freakin steal.  We pay $12.99 at Winners here and I think even that's a bargain.  One of the polishes in the Alter Ego collection looks like a dupe for China Glaze Below Deck so I will have to swatch a comparison on that one.

Much more to come.  If anyone is interested in a specific swatch let me know.

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Meh

How did we ever manage to survive before internet?  Damn that was a rough 4 days with my internet down!  Anyways, here's my friday haul from Rexall:

Yeah they're all blue and I didn't even realize it until I got to the cash register.  Grand total: $12!  The 2 Nicole's are Party in the Penthouse and Nicole...Spotted!, both from the Gossip Girl collection.  The NYC's are East Village and Pier 17.  They were sold out of top coat when I got there :(

So on to my second last m32 mani.  This is one coat of Studio M in Decidedly Devious which is a blue based black.  This brand I believe is only available in the US at Meijer grocery stores, which is only in about 4 states I think.  I make several trips to Michigan every year and Meijer is definitely one of my fave places to stop.  This polish gave me a bit of trouble and I had some bubbling but I love that it was only one coat.

Then I taped 'er up diagonally and did a coat of OPI Significant Other Color which is a fantastic layering polish.  It's a sheer pink in the bottle that flashes green.

Then I used konad plate m32 and (again) cut out part of the image, using only the larger flower on the top of the plate. 

This was hard to photograph but I chose this photo because you can see the colour difference on my pinky from the OPI polish...it goes from green to bronzish.  I just have to add that I hated this mani and it came off in less than 24 hours.

So one more image to go before we throw m32 back into the drawer of neglected polish.

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M32 take two

So this is design #2 from plate m32.  I used a basecoat and 2 coats of Nicole by OPI Virtuous Violet Matte ($9 at Shoppers Drug Mart).  I have two of these polishes and they are awesome shimmery mattes.

I used the design shown on the bottom of my plate.  This design is an 'L' shape but I only stamped the longer part of the 'L' diagonally across the middle of my nail.  On my stamper you'll notice that I marked it with magic marker along the seam.  It really helps to align the stamp on the image plate and then on the nail.

The initial idea was to use my clear top coat on the tips diagonally but because I used such a light colour it was barely visible as you can see (or not see) below:

I used Sally Hansen 10 Day No Chip polish (discontinued) in Black Berry to stamp.  I also decided to use it on the tips since I wasn't satisfied with the results of the clear coat.  I sooo wish I could get my hands on another bottle of this polish because no other black I've owned has ever compared and this baby is half empty now!  I did the tips freehand again and curved them along with the stamped image.

And as a bonus there's a shot of my NYC Top Coat that I couldn't find a picture of previously.

Yeah that's all I got for now.  Lots of things going on but I'm sick of bitching and I don't want this blog to become a daily rant.  So I'm venturing out into the snow on my lunch hour today and we'll see if I can score some little bottles of temporary happiness :)

Later
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