NOTD: China Glaze Cling On

Real quick NOTD for you all. Have I been titling all my posts with "NOTD" lately..? I don't think I have. Blah. Deduct points for inconsistency.

I picked up all the China Glaze Magnetix polishes from my awesome local beauty supply last week (they had the Prismatix glitters in too! But no Hunger Games yet...) except for the brownish-beige one. May have to go back and get it :p. Anyway I found these polishes to be a bit trickier to apply than my Layla Magneffects. The magnet (which the SA gave me for free - I didn't know you had to purchase them. I thought they came with the polish, and apparently so did the SA!) isn't as strong as the Layla magnet, and I had trouble with the pattern on a couple of my fingies. I still love the effect, though.

Overall, I highly recommend these. Pick one up if you see them. I mean, come on. Magnetic polish. So cool. It's like this year's crack polish :)

China Glaze Some Like It Haute

This was from the Marilyn Monroe-themed Eye Candy collection that came out in Winter 2011. Scrangie listed this on her Favorites of 2011 post, which might as well be an extra sticker on the bottle saying OMGLEXBUYMENAO!!!

It's pure gorgeousness. Fine silver glitter in a charcoal base with larger holographic hex glitter. Kind of similar to Orly Rock Solid but the charcoal base is deeper.

This polish actually sort of has a story. I got this before Christmas, knocked it off my tv tray that I sometimes use to do my nails, and it broke. Sad face. And mind you I've knocked a billion bottles of polish, both China Glaze and otherwise, off my tv tray before (and much higher things for that matter, like my kitchen counter) and NEVER had one break on me before D: So I searched and searched, and just before I was about to buy on on EBay, I saw it in the local Chatters Salon at my mall. The last bottle left. So this is it :). Cool story bro.

So yeah, Some Like It Haute. Huh... Is "haute" really pronounced like "hot"? I usually pronounce it like "hote", as in rhymes with "oat". Whatever. This is why I blog and not vlog :p just get the polish. If you like dark polishes, greys or sparkly things, you'll like this.

Spams, Spams, Everywhere the Spams

This isn't really a full-on spam, just a little bitsy mini spam.  I just wanted to prove to you that even though I've been working a ton and not really allowed to wear anything interesting on my nails (and when I am, I'm not allowed to change it), I am still diligently photographing what I do have on, and obsessively changing it in my spare time every chance I get :p  Yup.  This is me.

I'll start with what I have on tonight - my Freehanded Cloud Mani That Didn't Turn Out As Nearly As Cute As I Pictured It In My Head:

It looks a lot less messy IRL :-/ I swear it acutally looks half-decent - here in macro it just looks smudgy and sloppy. I wanted to do a cloud design but my cloud Konad plate walked away on me :( So I freehanded them by just doing a bunch of dots close together, but I didn't think they looked like clouds (my bf said they just looked like smudgy white blobs) so I outlined them in WnW Black Creme using a toothpick. Like I said, it looks better IRL. The base is SpaRitual Sky's The Limit.

This is the Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers mani I had on for three days straight due to work.  I used two coats of China Glaze Lubu Heels as a base, then followed it with three coats of RRS.  One coat of Gelous, one thick coat of SV, and a coat of Barielle Mani Extender applied 24 hours later, and there you have it - it stayed on for three days on set :)  There was some tipwear, as you can see, but no chips whatsoever!  I couldn't capture on camera how sparkly this was.   I know I've worn and reviewed this before, but I just want to say again how pretty this looked under the bright studio lights... The glittery red was was very noticeable and just popped against the black.  I got compliments on it from girls and guys alike!  .

China Glaze Ahoy!  I had this on for exactly 20 minutes before I got bored of it and had to change :S  It's pretty - like Strawberry Field's darker cousin - but I just wasn't feeling it today for some reason.  Which I don't know why, because as I said, pretty.

My attempt to dupe SH Frock Star.  You know those nail stickers that they charge $9 a box for?  Yes, well, I refuse to pay that for something that similar-looking to polishes I already own.  And yes, I know, this isn't really a dupe, but it was close enough for me.  Glittery and loud.  I used CC Magic Attraction, Milani Gems and Wet N Wild Party Of Five Glitters.  There may also be some Zoya Gaia underneath all that as a base - I really don't remember after all that glitter :p  And yes, I do own the SH Girl Flower nail stickers, but those are a different story - you try duping those.

This is a new Revlon, called Blue Lagoon - a delicate baby blue creme with really noticeable glass-fleck shimmer.  It's part of their Summer collection, which also includes a peach and a yellow with the same glass-fleck shimmer.  I really liked this polish, for a Revlon - application was great, smooth and even in two coats, and the pretty glass-fleck shimmer is just as noticeable on the nail as it is in the bottle.  Very ethereal and icy-looking.

China Glaze Electric Pineapple.  Neither pineapple-coloured, nor electric-looking.  Maybe like a greenish, chartreuse pineapple?  Yeah, sure.  I swatched this on one finger when I reviewed the Island Escape collection, and I said it looked odd - as you can see, I was correct.  It changes from greenish to yellowish depending on whether I'm indoors or out, too.

Another glitterbomb mani.  Sometimes I'm just in the mood for glittah.  And I know I'm not alone *looks around at all of you*  This was H&M Lavender Sky, topped with one coat each of Paris Couture iridescent blue-green glitter (a dollar store glitter, similar to Inglot XL4), Fasino purple hex glitter (another dollar store polish that smells like absolute death) and WnW Party Of Five Glitters.

And this was the mani I did to match my blue-grey dress they put me in at work. This was Orly Pixie Dust, OPI DS Sapphire, some no-name Goldie holo and ChG Fairy Dust. It was a gorgeous match for the dress... and then they ended up putting long white opera gloves on me :p Go figure.  I did take my gloves off quite often, though (as would anyone - gloves are a pain), and every time I did I was like, "Oooh!" :)  Polishes always look so good under the bright, hot studio lights - especially glitters and holos! :)

Alright, that's all for right now! :)  Will be back later!

Oh, and PS:  Would you guys be interested in seeing more stash pics?  Maybe my China Glaze drawer, or my HE drawer?  LMK!

China Glaze Island Escape Skittle Swatches

Hello and good evening.  Hoping Blogger is going to be nicer to me this time >:(

Anyway, I have some quick skittle swatches of one of my newest aquisitions from my favorite and most-owned brand - China Glaze's Island Escape collection.  This is China Glaze's collection for Summer 2011, but it's out already.  I initially was only interested in three or four of these shades, but in then end it was cheaper for me to buy the boxed set than the polishes I wanted seperately.  So I ended up with all of them :s

This collection consists of a rainbow of summery shades - four shimmers and two cremes.  Left to right: 108 Degrees, Papaya Punch, Electric Pineapple, Cha Cha Cha, Blue Iguana and Senorita Bonita.  The shimmers are, for the most part, that same glass fleck-type that the China Glaze Summer Days collection from a few years back consisted of - y'know, Strawberry Fields, Grape Crush, Watermelon Rind, etc.?  Yeah, that one. 

Thumb to pinky: Electric Pineapple, 108 Degrees, Cha Cha Cha, Blue Iguana, Senorita Bonita.  I chose to leave out Papaya Punch because it's my least favorite.  I initially wanted the four glass-fleck shimmers from this collection.  China Glaze does this finish well - also see the Martini Pedicure collection and the Tequila Toes collection, which is one of my favorite collections and I would kill for...  Actually a couple of the polishes in this collection kind of reminded me of a couple of those, which is what made me finally decide to buy them.  I wasn't at all wowed by swatches, but the polishes totally won me over once I saw them in person.

108 Degrees.  This is a bright glass-fleck fuschia pink shade.  Extremely pretty and reminded me of the old China Glaze It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere, but more pigmented.  Application was pretty good on this one, as with all the shimmers.

Cha Cha Cha.  This is rumoured to be a dupe to the infamous Moonpool, and I wish I had it to compare to tell you for sure :p  But in the meantime, this is good enough for me.  It's pretty, but I need to compare it to Icing Sour Apple, Sally Hansen Spark (I think that's the one) and a couple other supposed Moonpool dupes I own.  Also, I don't really know if it's all that unique - seems there's a billion light greens with gold shimmer out there (Zoya Midori comes to mind).

Blue Iguana.  This was my favorite out of the bunch, and not just because I'm a sucker for blue.  It was just so glowy - the glass-fleck finish really sparkles on this one.  Also, it kind of reminds me of a brighter Drinking My Blues Away :)

Senorita Bonita.  My least favorite of the shimmers.  It was much more sheer than the others- this is three coats, and could've used a fourth, whereas the others are all two.  It's okay - as well as the glass fleck, there's some interesting blue and red sparkle going on in there as well, but the sheerness turned me off :-/

Electric Pineapple.  I liked this a lot more than I thought I would.  The formula was not as horrible as I anticipated a yellow creme would be - a tad steaky, but nice and pigmented and not too thick.  As far as the colour goes, it's a bit of an odd duck...

It's kind of a cross between OPI Who The Shrek Are You? and Fiercely Fiona, leaning much more toward FF but with a touch more Shrek green in it.  It's like they had a baby.  A little greenish, jaundiced alien baby. 

Aaaanyway.... last one.

This is Papaya Punch.  I'm guessing that you can tell by now that I wasn't horribly enamoured by it.  I dunno, it's a nice tangerine creme, but I just don't really think it's horribly unique.  Also, I like orange polish most of the time, but I've always hated the colour orange.  I have this unfair prejudice towards orange - I don't like things that are orange (except kitties!), and orange-flavoured.  Oranges, as in the actual fruit, are good and well, as well as OJ - just not orange skittles, orange candies, orange froot loops, orange popsicles, etc...  And no orange clothes, either.  I know, I'm the weirdest freak in the world and you probably feel sorry for my parents  :p  But yeah, I've tried to keep this prejudice from extending to my polish tastes, and I've succeeded I think (I can name at least ten orange polishes that I love), but for me to love it an orange polish has to be more than just... an orange polish  :p  And this is just an orange creme.  I could take it or leave it. 

Overall, this collection was a lot nicer than I thought it would be, but it wasn't the most awesome or unique thing I've ever seen.  I'm glad I picked it up though - it's worth it for the glass-fleck finish of the shimmers and the Moonpool-similarity-factor of Cha Cha Cha alone, and I do think Electric Pineapple will look great on my toes come sandal season :)

Alright, that's all for today.  Thanks for looking, and I'll be back in the next day or two with more swatches!

Some China Glazes, Essies, Nicoles and More ~or~ Ten Posts Crammed Into One Because I Don't Post Frequently Enough

*EDIT*: WHYYY the EFF is Blogger not posting my photos?!???  I just uploaded the photos three times - I promise they're there, if you click on them it will take you to the pic, but blogger is not showing them in the post for some reason.  It's making me want to pull my hair out,.  I've just spent fifteen minutes trying to fix this, but blogger just won't show them, and I have to go to bed now, so I'm hoping this will just fix itself :( :(  stuff like this makes me want to quit blogging :(

*EDIT #2*: Okay, I think I got it to work.... I just have to paste the photos in HTML form... which I don't know crap about, so if it's all wonky, blame blogger :p

*EDIT #3*: Okay, that didn't work AT ALL.  I so fail at HTML.

*EDIT #4*: Now blogger is going to delete this post altogether?? I had it published, now it's back in my drafts?  WTH?

*EDIT #5*: Yeah.... it is now Sunday evening.  Blogger seems to mysteriously be working again, although it decided to take random photos I was trying to publish earlier and make them tiny little pixels that you can click on to go to a full-size pic.  Which is what it was doing before with all my pics.  Sigh.  I could delete all these edits, but they're entertaining.  At least they will be for me to read later  :p


Good Saturday Evening, all!

Yes, I know this should really be broken up into seperate posts about each colour to maintain everyone's constantly waning interest, but I would actually have to post on a semi-regular basis to do that  :p  Alright, no excuses today - let's just delve right into it, shall we?  Let's!

Forgive my brutal cuticles in all of these, please, by the way.  Winter no likey me hands :(

First off, some crack - China Glaze Medallion topped with Lightning Bolt and Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure.  Not too sure about how this came out...

China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out.  Okay, "love" is not a strong enough word for how I feel about this polish.  It's my second favorite blue holo behind DS Glamour.  I lemmed this for soooo long, and finally caved and bought it on ebay - remember I told you I got a good deal on it because no one bid on it due to the fact the seller couldn't spell "kaleidoscope"?  It was listed as "China Glaze hom Out"  XD

Boring old Essie Ballet Slippers.  This is my go to Boring Office-Appropriate Neutral, and has been for some years now.  I can't stand wearing it sheer, though - this is four coats here.

SpaRitual Face Of Destiny.  From the Truth collection.  I don't like this on me at all.  Ugly gramma-ish apricot barf.  Making matters worse: ew, oily skin!  Sorry.  Darn that China Glaze Peppermint cuticle oil!

SpaRitual Eye Of The Beholder.  Again, pardon shiny cutes.  I only have one of the SR Truth collection left to swatch - when I finally get around to it, I'll post them all together.  This colour is okay, a chartreuse-y lime creme, but it doesn't seem horribly unique or exciting to me, although I can't think of a dupe I own...

China Glaze First Mate.  Another one I loved.  Applied great, I loved the shade on me, again I don't know about the uniqeness, but it's a blue so I don't care :)  I'll happily own every blue out there regardless of similarity :)  Okay, that's an exaggeration.  Either way, I loved this on me....

So whyyy did I have to ruin it with this childlike attempt at a gradient?  Seriously.  I love White Cap and everything, it's very gorgeous, but this looks like a smudgy mess.  Like a four-year-old did it.  I should have just left it alone or did a full top coat of White Cap.  I love WC, by the way, and plan on trying it over a lot more things.

My St. Patty's Day mani!  This was China Glaze Emerald Sparkle topped with one coat each of China Glaze Sour Apple and Sinful Green Ocean.  It's a hot green mess, but all I was going for was sparkly and green, so it sufficed :)  God was it horrible to get off, though.  I don't know what it is about the foil method and green polishes, but it all just goes directly underneath my nails when I try to remove it and makes me look like I have dirty green gunk under my nails for days.  Hawt.

Essie Borrowed and Blue, from their Spring 2011 Wedding collection.  Forgive the chips.  Very, very pale blue, paler than CC Take Me To Your Chateau, maybe a touch less pale than Hard Candy Sky?  I'll have to compare.  Application was a tad more annoying than usual, as it the norm with these super-pale cremes - a bit streaky.

Nicole Iceburg Lotus.  Very pretty foil-y teal shimmer with very noticeable pink flash that I could not capture no matter what I did! :(  Trust me when I say it's there, though!  It's totally visible on the nail.  Scrangie was right, though - this is everything I wanted OPI Austin-tacious Turquoise to be :)  Too bad it's in that... bottle...

Aaargh - Nicole, why do you have to be so frigging awesome lately?!  I can't take another one of your horrible, storage-disrupting, Helmer-drawer-fuglifying bottles!  But look what they're packing inside these horrible hideous bottles!  This is I'm A Pool For Love.  I don't get the name (pool?  It's a blackened glitter :p) but yes, it's gorgeous.  A blackened duochrome glitter that's deep blue and purple most of the time, but goes from purple to gold at extreme angles.  Nicole rocks blackened glitters.  Actually Nicole's been rocking everything lately.  I got a couple more the other day besides these two - Nicole's Nickel (another black glitter!  Not blackened, but acutally black, like the one they had at Christmas! Squee!) and Brilliant Idea (a lime green glitter), and there was a holo glitter and a blue with pink flash I was eyeballing as well... but I'll have to wait until Nicoles go on sale for $6 again at Shopper's Drug Mart, which is when I got these - $11 is just waaaay to much for me to justify spending on such an ugly bottle.

I just decided to go count my Nicoles, on a whim....I own FOURTY-SEVEN freakin Nicoles, people.  47!!!  47 of those heinous freaking things, in my house, in my possession...*shudder*... Yeah... Maybe I won't go buy those other ones when they go on sale  :p  ("But," the voice in my head protests, "you love every single one of those Nicole colours...")

Blah.  I'm still not even remotely caught up on posting pics.  Also, I just got the China Glaze Island Escape collection the other day - swatches of those coming up soon!  Plus, ten more random spam posts like this, probably  :p

See you soon!  I should probably go to bed   :p  For some reason I am really craving a pepperoni stick.  Wish I had some of those.

Oh, oh, PS:  I gave my niece (the BF's best friend's daughter - got that? so not really my niece but you get it)a bottle of ChG Black Mesh, and she posted a pic of her crack mani on Facebook saying how much she loves it :D  And all her friends posted comments saying, "Omg, I love it, where did you find it, I can't find it anywhere" etc. etc., since Black Shatter's been sold out around here since the day it came out.  And my niece is all, "Oh, my aunt got it for me, I'll have to ask her.."  HAHA! :D  Who's the best aunt in the world?!??  :D  I love being the nail polish fairy to a fourteen-year old! :D

Massively Hugely Enormously Massive Haul Post

Okay, so this started out as just a post of what I've hauled this past week, but then I thought, what the hell - I'm going to do a post of every single thing I've bought this year so far.  Wanna stop reading?  I don't blame you :p

I don't know if I should do most recent to oldest, or....?  I guess I'll do it from oldest to most recent.  Keep in mind, those of you thinking I'm some spendaholic freak, that this is for this entire year so far.  Some of these are swaps, as well.  Oh, I'm just going to stop making excuses for myself - you know you're all just as bad as I am ;p

Ready?  Grab some chips and turn the TV to something boring :)

Sephora by OPI Read My Palm and Just A Little Dangerous.  Two I'd been lemming for a while - I only had a mini of RMP.

From Forever 21, Love & Beauty scented polishes in Peppermint and Kiwi, and a regular polish in Lime.  These do smell, although not very good - the scent reminds me of those scented fat felt pens we had when we were kids.

Boring stuff - Barielle Camo and Mani Extender, found at Winner's for $5 each.  After I bought these, I walked into Eterna Skin Care on Robson and saw Camo for $18!  D:

But oooh, this is exciting - the Dare To Wear Disco Tech collection!  Hee.  I like glitter.  I just noticed that my older polishes from this brand are spelled "Dare 2 Wear".  Huh.

See?  See?  I told you!  This is Hunter Green x2, Billie Purple Haze (awesome neon purple with subtle shimmer, and only a buck!) and some little butterfly decals I found - which are sitting on top of a Hello Kitty fauxnad plate :)

Aren't these adorable?  I got these so I could copy this mani that I saw on Chloe's Nails.  It's so simple, but so adorable - one of my favorite manis of all time :)

Anna Sui 101, 103 and 011.  011 has flakies!

Some old discontinued China Glazes.  L-R: Stone Age, Sunset Glow, Channelesque, FYI and Drama Queen.

More old discontinued China Glazes.  L-R: Subtle, Beatnik, another Channelesque ;p

Now, we move on to our OPI part of the presentation:

OPI Texas collection. L-R: Y'all Come Back Now Ya Hear?, Big Hair..Big Nails, Guy Meets Gal-veston, That's Hot! Pink, Do You Think I'm Tex-y?, Houston We Have A Purple, Austin-tacious Turquoise and You Don't Mess With OPI!  These names get worse with every collection :p

More (yes, more) random OPIs - Skinny Dip'N In Lake Michg'n, Tickle My France-y, Barefoot In Barcelona, Over the Taupe (I needed neutrals, lol), Just Groovy and Simply Smashing.

And dusty finds!  Awesome dusty finds!  L-R:  Mad As A Hatter, Sapphire In The Snow, Smitten With Mittens, Merry Midnight.  I already own all these, but backups, swaps, you know how it goes... :)

And that concludes our OPI portion of the evening, now how about some Daiso finds?

OMGHOLOsqueeeeeeeee!  <--- iz what I did when I found these in the store.  These are the "Rainbow" line of polishes, they are pretty holo, and they are fantastic!  The three in the middle look like they're the same, but they're actually three seperate colours.  But aren't these just the FUGliest bottles you've ever seen?  Daiso has some seriously ugly bottles, man.

Like check THIS out.  These are all very pretty - a chunky silver and holo hex glitter, iridescent hex glitter, a blue that looks really frosty and horrible here but it's actually very silvery and pretty, and the one on the end is called Aurora Lights and it's basically an exact dupe of CND Crimson Sparkle.  But those first two bottles are seriously some of the most ridiculous-looking things I've ever seen in my life...

SEE?!?  Like, seriously?  What the hell is that thing?  A nail polish bottle or the frickin Empire State Building?  I think the folks at the Winmax must've just done this for a laugh  :p

And look at this!

Aren't these cool?  Anyone know how to read Japanese?  :D  The pictures are SO awesome though.  I'm going to pick a couple of pages and try to scan them like Wan does with Nail Up! magazine over at I Love Nail Polish - a fellow Vancouver blogger, btw :)  And that concludes my Daiso finds!  Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

American Apparel polishes in (L-R): African Violet, Cameo Blue, Army Jacket and MacArthur Park.  Now I just need Passport Blue, Dynasty, Echo and a couple more  :p

Some randoms. L-R:  Nox Twilight Disco Darling and Citrus, unnamed LA Colors yellow gold, Claire's Poison Apple and Zoya Jade.

Wet N Wild Teal Of Fortune and Blue Wants To Be A Millionaire?  TOF looks like another Charla dupe, and BWTBAM looks similar to the Justin Beiber Nicole polish Me + Blue, although they're not dupes.

China Glaze mood polishes that - blast it all - have no labels!! :(  Anyone have any idea what these might be?  The one on the left is baby blue with a pinky-gold flash, and the one on the right is slightly darker with blue glitter.

CND Effects - all for a swap :)  Aren't they pretty?  I love these, they're so fun to play with.

And some Essies - Coat Azure, Beach Bum Blu (frosty and horrible - I dunno why I bought it :-/) and French Affair.

And last, I know no one cares, but some non-nail-polish stuff that I got for cheap:

I got my makeup done by a Smashbox artist at SDM, and since I had a gift card I bought two products - the Halo powder and Peony cream cheek colour duo, and the MU artist ended up throwing in all this stuff for free!  She threw in a full-size lipgloss, lip pencil and concealer for free, as well as a travel-size mascara and a billion other little samples.  I was blown away!  Usually they're just trying to get you to spend money and even when you do, make you feel like you're not spending enough, but she was extremely generous!  Thanks Smashbox!  Oh, and the In Bloom eyeshadow palette I bought at Sephora a few weeks back - happened to grab the last one :)

I started composing this post about a week and a half ago, so I've bought a couple of things since then.  I'll take some photos and get an updated haul post up as soon as I can :)  I've been working lots lately, which I really need.

Crappy Monday :)