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!

Later
P

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.

Later
P

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.

Later
P

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?

Later
P

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:

Later
P