Random

I have an accumulation of small things that I haven't gotten around to posting, so here goes...

Before I hacked my nails down and after removal of my last soak off I painted 3 coats of Sinful Colors Cinderella.  Not a fan.

The Princess of Poo was the first to try one of my new soak off gels and she chose Ez Flow TruGel in Racy Red (3 coats) with a coat of Gelish Vegas Nights on top.  No her fingers aren't really dry and cracked.  That's what happens when you rub 99% alcohol all over your fingers (we forgot to clean it off before taking the pics lol).

This was part of my US haul that I forgot to post.  A nail brush for $1, an extra dappen pot from Sallys, Broadway Nail Wraps from the clearance section at Rite Aid (I must have hit at least 50 drug stores while I was there lol) and the silicone finger tips which were less than $5 at Walmart.  So why did I buy these?  To use instead of tinfoil for soaking off gels and glitters!  And they work great!  No more fussing with tinfoil and a whole lot less waste!  I can't take credit for the idea though since I got it from the fantastic girls at the Nail Care board in the Purse Forum.  These girls are a wealth of information and you should check them out if you haven't already!

Also a bonus photo because I thought it was hilarious:

My sister and I walked into a Walmart and we noticed something strange was going on.  We asked a clerk and she told us that they were relocating to a newer store so they were liquidating what was left.  Unfortunately we were about a week too late since this is how we found the makeup aisle lmao.  Never seen anything like it!

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A fail and a win

I really like looking at all the photos of Glitter in the Air and all it's dupes and frankens.  I have no idea why I like them so much because I hate multi-coloured glitter and vnl.  So I decided to try and franken my own.  Of course I had to do it my own way - in green and without 5 different coloured glitters.  And well it was quite the fail:

I used silver hex glitter, dark blue glitter and light purple glitter.  I know I didn't use enough hex glitter and I should have added another colour but I still don't think it would have made much of a difference.  I also added way too much of the fine glitter.  Ugh I can't stand looking at it.

But this made me feel better after I took it off:

This is 2 coats of Joe in Orchid.  Perfect plum creme.  I looked through my stash for something similar since my photos are always off and I found one that's pretty close.

On the left is Orchid and on the right is Color Club's Ms. Socialite.  Funny thing, as I'm looking at my nails while typing this, the one on the right actually looks more colour accurate.  Yes I loved this so much I'm still wearing it (until tonight anyways).

I added a coat of Sinful Colors in Pearl Harbor.  This is seriously my new favorite layering polish.  It reminds me of a flakie but more subtle.

Finally I added a coat of Kleancolor in Starry Blue.  Funny that none of the silver holo glitter made it onto my nails.  I love this combo so much!  And I am currently obsessed with these Kleancolor hex glitters...I need more!

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Amazing green

This is Sinful Colors San Francisco in 3 coats.  This was the one polish I wanted so badly when I first discovered Sinful Colors and I couldn't find it until recently.  And when I did finally find it, it was a lonely bottle with spillage but I bought it anyways.  The colour is awesome, the sheerness is not.  I hate doing more than 2 coats of polish.

So I stamped it with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and plate BM03 and oddly enough the stamping came out slightly golden.  So I added a gold gem to each.  I think it's a little bit too much but I did get a lot of compliments on this.

And a bonus shot of my Zoya Ivanka ring I wore with it.  Which also shows how bad my stamping alignment is...oh well.  I haven't made any new rings in awhile but I did pick up a new box of casting resin and I've got a ton of new polishes which will make fabulous rings so you may see some new ones here shortly.

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Franken fun

There is a surplus store near me that has a giant bin of Essie ridge-filling basecoat for $.25 each!  I bought 10 of them just so I could use the bottles for frankening and I'm down to about 3 bottles left.  So here is my fave so far:

I don't name my frankens nor do I write down what I'm adding as I go.  I basically have an idea what I want and try to execute it.  Sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes it does, like this one.  I was going for a lavender with blue shimmer and this is 3 coats.  It was a bit thinner than I'd like but it's worth it.

I first sponged a bit of Sinful Colors Verbena and then Pure Ice Busted over it.

Then I stamped it with Kleancolor Metallic Purple and BM208.  I should have just left it alone :p

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Stamping with Carbonite

This is 2 coats of OPI's Stranger Tides.  I found this one in a clearance basket a few weeks ago.  This is one reason why I usually refuse to buy new OPI collections when they first come out.  The shades I want always end up in the clearance bin eventually.  It's awesome that I love the unpopular colours!

Sorry this is a really shitty photo but it's a small US haul I had a few weeks ago.  I found Revlon Carbonite at Meijer but I didn't realize at the time that it's a dupe for Chanel Graphite.  It was $4 in a display on its own and I thought it looked pretty unique.  Also I'm probably the last blogger on the planet to buy Revlon's Royal.  I eye it up every time I'm out shopping but I've never seen it cheaper than $6 here in Canada.  Next up is Studio M's Sweet Dreams - I was on a hunt for purple cremes and picked up Sinful's Verbena on the far right as well.  The LA Colors polish is Aqua Crystals (glitter) found at the Dollar Tree.  Lastly, I finally found Sinful's San Francisco at Walgreens.  I've been looking for that colour forever.  Pretty small haul overall.

So as soon as I got home I broke out Revlon Carbonite because I knew the colour would look awesome with Stranger Tides.  I used plate BM207 and aligned the stripes straight across instead of diagonally as the image was intended.  I thought it was decent.  I don't mind the loud patterns when the colours are subtle.

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It's a blue day

This is 2 coats of Zoya Breezi.  It's the first Zoya creme I've tried and I'm not a fan of that tiny brush in a creme polish.  I do like the colour though.

I added one coat of Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor on top.  This was really hard to photograph but I liked the look.

I stamped this with an image from BM207 and China Glaze's Little Drummer Boy.  It seems like the design is too big for my nails.  It turned out great on the thumb though.  Canada Day nails coming up tomorrow!

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Sinful Colors Stella

This is only one coat.  I was surprised find it dried matte, sort of similar to the OPI Suedes but not quite as matte.  Very much unlike anything in my collection.

And of course the obligatory stamping fail.  Color Club's Take Me To Your Chateau and plate BM11.  I was in a hurry when I did this so I didn't take enough care to get it straight.  It's topped with Seche Vite but it came off right away anyways.

Then I did some frankening:

The first one is Sinful Colors Let's Talk mixed with a bit of Sally Hansen Celeb City and it looks amazing but wasn't quite properly captured here.  The middle is a black glitter mixed with some iridescent glitter...I added too much black glitter though.  The right one is Studio M's Ego Trip mixed with a dash of creme white, a dash of Sinful Colors Nail Junkie and a healthy dose of  Sally Hansen HD in Lite.  I like this one a lot.

Next up is an old frosty peach polish I had.  Mixed in some Studio M Get The Blues and some Sally Hansen HD in DVD.  The last polish I was going for a  more yellowish mint green with a golden shimmer.  I used some creme white polish, a dash of Billie Lime and a really good dose of Sally Hansen HD in Lite.  It seems to me that they turn out better when I have exactly what I want in mind.

Oh and Wienerfest was a bust, it rained :(

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An unexpected haul

One night last week after work my mother called to ask if I wanted to go shopping in Michigan.  I said sure and she said 'okay meet me in 15'.  Um, I didn't mean right this moment but who am I to pass up a shopping trip?

From L-R:
Love My Nails - All That (purple and silver square glitter with tiny teal glitter)
Pure Ice - Celestial
Sinful Colors - Pearl Harbor, Stella and Nicole
Confetti - My Favorite Martian

When I was in Florida I was excited to find the Confetti display but they didn't have My Favorite Martian which is the one I really wanted.  I wanted to buy more from this brand too but the display was pretty picked over.

From L-R:
Essie - Coat Azure and Sand Tropez (CVS clearance @ $4 each!)
Wet and Wild Fast Dry - Magic Trident, Ocean Grotto and Sea of Dreams
Studio M - Ms. Haute and De-luxe-cious (hmm, sound familiar?)
Sally Hansen HD - Lite (CVS clearance @ 75% off!)

These are the new Wet and Wilds from the Mermaid collection which has yet to show up in Canada.  The orange is totally not my style but it was so pretty in the bottle that I couldn't resist - in fact it ended up being the first one I used.  I was super excited to visit Meijers because I'd heard that they now carry CND...and they did!  But I was really hoping for Jade or Amethyst Sparkle and they only carried the red and gold ones :(  They did have the Sinfuls on sale 3/$5 which was pretty awesome though.

So as a parting shot, here is Magic Trident, 3 coats, pre-nail art:

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My First Sinful

On my first polish hunting trip in the US late last fall I went straight for the Sinful Colors display at Meijer.  This polish stood out immediately...Let's Talk.  There is not a single photo I've found on the web that captures this colour accurately but every single one who's taken a photo has agreed that this colour absolutely glows.  It glows like a freakin neon sign...that's how amazing it is!  I can't believe it took me this long to slap it on my nails.  It's two coats.

I took dozens of photos but none were really accurate...this polish tends to photograph blue, but it's the most amazing purple that I own.  Anyways, I stamped it in Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and for some reason I can't figure out what friggen plate I used.  I thought it was the Konad demo plate but I can't see the image on there anywhere!  Hmm, I will have to figure it out and edit later, sorry.  The stamping sucks anyways, I just wanted to show you what an amazing polish this is!

I found it - m35.

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Hauliday Pt.2

Ah screw it, I'm just gonna post all the rest now.  Get ready for a long post.

From my Florida haul:

Del Sol 3/$10 at CVS I think.  L-R: Superhero, Rock Star and Heartbreaker.  I haven't had a single day with enough sun to see these babies in action yet...grrr.

Pure Ice $2 at Walmart.  L-R: Calypso, Spit Fire, Silver Mercedes and Mint Dream.  I thought Calypso would be a good chrome type polish to stamp with.  I was wrong, it's sheer.  Silver Mercedes on the other hand is fan-friggen-tastic!

Essence found at Ulta, I think the larger ones were $2? and $1 for the little ones.  L-R: Fairy Berry, Humpty Dumpty, Underwater, Sundancer and Just In Case.  The first two are great for konad.  Underwater was disappointing.  It has a pretty blue shimmer in the bottle that doesn't show on the nail.

Sinful Colors $2 at Walgreens.  L-R: Mint Apple (holy awesome!), Purple Diamond and Nail Junkie.  I'm sure you guys have seen those plenty already.  The Avons were from the Avon Store for $3 on sale - Golden Wine and Deluxe Chocolate, both have an awesome gold shimmer.

Hard Candy $5 at Walmart - Date Night was in the bargain bin for $3 and the other of course is Beetle.  Beetle surprised me when I swatched it because the base is green.  The new Wet and Wilds were $1.79 at Target - Gray's Anatomy and Hannah Pinktana.  These are almost $3 at Walmart here in Canada, and man those brushes suck ass!

Kleancolors $3 at some random jewelry store. I wanted to buy a ton of the hex glitters but at day 7 and $3 a pop, I decided I'd spent too much already.  These are Red-Hot and Peaceful Heart.  Red-Hot was the first colour I slapped on when I got home.

Revlons $1 each at Big Lots.  L-R: Beach, Cotton Candy, PERPLEX (ya baby!), Chocolate Truffle, Grape Icy, Midnight Affair, Perplex again lol, Not So Blueberry and Ocean Breeze.  Most of them are scented.  Midnight Affair is a really nice dark blue but I got a mangled bottle dammit.

And finally...

Orly Matte Vinyl - I think it was $6.99 but I really wanted it and I found it on day one.
Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe - $4 at Sallys in the bargain bin.
Orly Galaxy Girl - $10 at Ulta (!) but I used a coupon and paid $6.50.
OPI Russian Navy Matte - $4.50 at a random salon in the bargain bin.
OPI Don't Mess With OPI - $7 at a random salon.
OPI What's With the Cattitude - $3!!! (steal of the trip) at a random salon in the bargain bin.

So there ya have it.  Yes I went crazy and honestly I could have done way more damage.  I had to stop myself several times from buying more.  My luggage ended up being 15 pounds overweight and I'm sure it was due to all the polish I bought.  And I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat! :)

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