Huge Swap Haul! Things I Couldn't Get In Canada

Okay, I told you about that EPIC swap I did awhile back... I don't want to bore you to tears, but I did want to show you what I got in the swap really quickly.

One of these days I'd like to start doing Youtube videos about stuff like this.  And then I could just link to the video.  I'm probably completely kidding myself thinking anyone would be even remotely interested in watching anything like that, but really, I think I would have so much fun doing it that I wouldn't really care :p  But then I get to thinking about why I'd have so much fun doing something like that, and I start to feel kind of narcissistic and insipid and decide against it again.  But then I watch videos like this and this and especially this and want to do it again.....  ugh.  Anyway, I'll try not to drag this on....

Okay, so this swap was courtesy of the awesome jn_woods.  I don't know if you're a follower, Jen, but if anyone is on MUA and thinking of swapping with her, I highly recommend it - the woman is a CP wizard, people! :)

Okay, so these are in no particular order, since Blogger is not letting me rearrange my photos right now:

This is Love My Nails Glory, Essie Pink Parka and Sinful Innocent, which I think is a dupe for OPI Who The Shrek Are You?  Oops.

Pure Ices in Beware and Strapless.  Both intended for frankening.  I think this is like my fifth bottle of Strapless :p

 This is Zoya Luna, Nova and Collette - obtained for me during Zoya's "LIPPY" sale earlier this year, which of course wasn't available to Canadians >:p

 Hard Candy Mr. Wrong and Lava.  My sister stole the ring from Mr. Wrong.  We have Hard Candy at Walmart here now, but of course, NO NAIL POLISH!  AWESOME!  THANKS WALMART CANADA!  >:p >:p

New York Summer Amaranth and Hot Baby Blue, and Sally Hansen HD Byte and Wavelength.  We eventually got these HDs in Canada, but not at the time I requested them.  I didn't want to wait 2 months till we got them here :p

 This is the Milani.... Hot Metal collection?  Liquid Metal?  Arrrgh.  I fail.  I know Milani had two collections of chromes (and then put out another with metallic reds and oranges....it's like, oooookay), and I got both of them, but I don't recall which was which.... to be fair, I never actually saw the display myself in person  :p  Anyway, I think this one is the Hot Metal collection.  I think.  These all have names with "melt" in them.... and they have been reviewed to death so I'mma move on...

 And here's the other collection.  These have computer-y names... and they look more like Liquid Metal, so I'm gonna guess these are those.  I don't remember all the names of them right now, and I don't want to go look, so.... oh man, this post sucks soooo bad, doesn't it?  :(  Sorry.

 These are Massinis, as you can see :)  They are super-pretty and blingy.  I'm so happy I finally got these, but ........ whyyyyy don't they sell these in Canada?!?  Sad face.

*EDIT - As I was reading this, when I read "as you can see", I looked up at the picture and saw.... that the bottles say "Studio M" on them now.  I IZ SMRT.....  Yeah.  Massini renamed itself Studio M a long time ago... and come to think of it, I may have seen the makeup in a store around here... so maybe we'll see Studio M polishes soon?

These are Essence Color & Go's.  Once again, not in Canada :(  I already had two of these from swaps - Pool Party and Underwater, and now I am the proud owner of Check Me Out, No More Drama, What Do U Think and VIP Appeal.  Stupid names, but whatever.  I read on the board that What Do U Think is a dupe for Chanel Orange Fizz.... really?  I dunno about that, but it's a cute colour.

LA Splash polishes!  The coveted Golden Seahorse, Sparkling Oceanspray and Sparkling Stratosphere.  Once again, never seen in Canada.  I feel like if I search dollar stores hard enough I'd find these one day, but I know it's a lie....

The entire collection of the summer LE Wet N Wilds!  Now, we have WnW in Canada, but we'd never, ever see new collections like this, let alone LE ones.  And I never thought I'd be able to obtain all of them, but I did!  :D 

Okay, I had a couple of more things to show you, like the names of the WnW polishes, not to mention the crown jewels of my swap!  :(  But blogger is NOT letting me upload photos right now.  At all.  I click on them to upload them, and nothing happens.  I realize this post really, really sucks, and I apologize.  Hopefully blogger will stop effing with me soon and I can go back and edit this.  If you're reading this before I have a chance, once again I'm sorry  :(  My next post will be better, i promise!

Konad Attempts: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Mainly the Latter Two.

I warned you this was coming.  If you don't want to see ugliness and horror, look away. 

Don't say I didn't warn you.

So let me say again, I really love konad.  It's really fun - it gives you a lot more freedom to be creative than just nail polish on its own, and is easier to get neat-looking results with than nail art pens.

That being said, while its not the most impossible thing on earth to use, it comes close.  It's a bit dificult to get the full-nail designs on properly and without smudging.  It is for me, anyway.  I even consider myself somewhat artistic, and I originally got this set from someone who became frustrated with it and decided not to bother with it at all anymore, thinking that surely I'd have better luck than she did.  Well.... let's just say that I am still getting used to it.

I refuse to give up.  I refuse.  Gorgeous breathtaking detailed konadicures will be MINE.  I swear.  So from now on, anytime I can get a decent pic of a half-decent konad I did, expect to see it with much fanfare :p  After this post, that is.

Oh, and did I mention my BundleMonster plates came in today?  :D :D  How fast was that?!  I didn't get a pic of them, because I know you've all seen them by now, but between my ocnailart order and these, I think I'm set for plates for a while :).  And yes, I heard about the BM plates after I had already placed my ocnailart order.  I'm slow  :p

So here are some of my past FKAs (Failed Konad Attempts):

I think this is one of the first ones I ever attempted.  This is a base of Orly Glitz, with China Glaze Unplugged for the spots, using plate m57.  It was messy-looking, it would have looked MUCH better with a darker, creme brown, and I had to double-stamp some nails, which was clearly a bad idea.  It looked cute enough for my boyfriend to notice, though, so I would classfiy this as simply BAD.  One I must retry.

This one I actually liked.  This is a base of Sally Hansen CSM Thinking Of Blue, stamped with China Glaze Cherish and Emotion.  I used a Fauxnad plate - don't recall which one.  I said before this reminded me of cloisonne.  I thought it came out pretty, epsecially since I was just playing around.  This is the sole GOOD for me.

Alright, here's one of the reasons I felt the need to warn you.  This is just fugly beyond belief.  All of these are perfectly nice polishes on their own, but I piled them all together into this hideous combination.  Plus there's a massive chip on my thumb.  Man, I suck.  This is Essence Pool Party, topped with Pure Ice Heartbreaker on the middle nail and CND Raspberry Sparkle on the ring.  I then stamped on Fauxnad flowers with China Glaze Metallic Muse, and got through two vines stamped with Orly Glitz before I discovered that a.) Glitz is not the best stamping polish, and b.) it looked horrible.  This mani is just a giant mess.  It gets a big heaping UGLY from me, with a hefty side of FAIL.

Remember I told you I effed up Orly Cotton Candy with a tacky konad?  Feast your eyes  :p  Sorry for these pics, too - I was never going to post these, but I figure I've put enough warnings on this post that I don'thave to feel bad.  And I'm also aware the polish looks two different colours in these pics.  Thank my crappy camera and try to ignore it  :p  I used another Fauxnad plate (I get these at the beauty supply place, btw) and an old L'Oreal Steel Colour in French Tip White for the flowers.  This is the best white polish for stamping, I find - whites that are intended for french mani tips.  But I just got Konad's White polish, so I'll have to compare.  And I used an Art Club pen in yellow for the dots, which I clearly suck at.  I wanted this to look cute, but it just looked oh so tacky.  Verdict: UGLY!

And last, and perhaps least, this is what I have on my nails at this very moment.  Why I've left it on so long, I do not know.  Probably because I've been busy and I've been able to get away with it.  This is OPI What's With The Cattitude, with Sally Hansen CSM Thinking Of Blue (yes, again) stamped overtop with the argyle pattern from plate m60. The sad thing is, I would have liked this if I didn't SUCK at konad so bad and could actually do it neatly.  I could not, for the life of me, get the argyle pattern to go on straight, especially on my thumbs, and I smudged the polish while transferring it on almost all my nails.  It was so bloody frustrating.  I'll have to try again, with different polishes, because I really like this pattern.  Verdict: BAD!  But how cute would this look with a baby pink or pale yellow base, and the pattern stamped in ChG Recycle?  I just love pastels and greys together...

Okay, that's it.  You've suffered enough.  I promise I'll do my best to only bring you nice konads from now on  :p  If I collect enough material for another konad FAIL post, I'll consider swapping it away  :p

In other news, like I mentioned, I got my BM plates  :)  Man, they have some cute patterns.  I can't wait to start playing with mine  :D  Also, I saw some new Nicoles the other day at SDM.  I passed at the time because Nicoles are a ripoff, and none of the shades seemeds that unique, but there were three (Nail Ya Azalea, A New Kind Of Blue and Traffic Cone) that sort of caught my eye.  I saw bottle pics on some blog, but I've yet to see swatches...

Also, in depressing news:

1. I have a feeling Canadians might never see Hidden Treasure.
2. I'm scared we might not even see the new Sally Hansen HDs (DVD, Byte, etc.)
3. Sinfuls seem to have the same CRAP selection at all London Drugs' stores.  I've been to three now and they have the same ones at all of them.  And I visibly cringe whenever I see the $5.99 - Low Price Everyday! sticker displayed beneath them  :(  I want Bali Mist (the only one I don't already own that looks even half-interesting) but paying that much for them makes me feel like such a fool when there are things like Cherryculture in the universe...

On the other, not-as-depressing hand, I found some polishes that are "Twilight" brand...?  That's what they said on the bottle, and they had some weird metal disc on the side of the bottle.  It looked really cool.  Still, I've never seen Twilight, and although the first book was given to me when they very first came out and came highy recommended, I was only able to get through about a chapter and a half of it before gagging and gifting it to my boyfriend's 12-year-old niece.  So I have no idea if these have anything to do with the movie, nor do I particularly care.  There were a couple that looked interesting, a pink with gold shimmer, a shimmery beige, an opaque-looking baby pink creme, and a blackened-blue shimmer... but my boyfriend was doing the huffy slouch dance, and I didn't have time to look at the price before I was ushered out of London Drugs  :p  I'm already planning when I can sneak back to the mall by myself and pick them up, muahahaha....

I find myself getting bored with the existing polish supply in this city.  I SO wish drugstores in Canada got collections in at the same rate as the US, and I SO wish we had Dollar Tree here  :( 

Anyway, I sound so mopey.  Time to go play with my BM plates and cheer myself up!

I'll try to swatch some of the new Icing polishes for you next... I haven't seen those on any blogs yet.  Also, I want to swatch my Princessas!  :)  In the meantime, what new polishes has everyone got lately that they're really excited about?  I need inspiration!