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!

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 :)

Some More Recent Wearings (Wearings?)

Okay, worst title ever, but I have to fire this off pretty quick...

I've been away lately because I've been super-busy, not because I've been sick this time.  Yay!  So that's good, right? 

Okay, yeah, quickly.  Quickly.  I can do things quick.  I think.

Oh yeah, warning in advance: THIS POST CONTAINS FEET!!!!  Just don't bother reading this if a picture of toes is going to make you toss yer cookies or something.  You've been warned.

I'll start off with a mani I can't believe I didn't include before.... my First Snow Of the Year mani:

This is an attempted glitter gradient using Revlon Powder Puff topped with Icing Glamorous, which is a medium-sized holo glitter.  I wanted to do something wintery-looking, because my yard at the time looked like this:

Yes.  Oh yes.  It sucked.  I hate freaking snow.  But I loved the mani :)

Next is a fail:

I don't even know why I'm including this, since it's a horrible picture, but it was a horrible mani, so... This is LA Girls Rock Star Crowd Surfing.  Crowd Surfing is pretty, a light green with gold  and orange flakies, but it's super, super sheer, and I have no idea why I thought it'd be a good idea to try it over white...  Try this over a darker colour, if you have it.  Which you probably already know, if you have it.  I have no business giving people advice with this once, because, as you see, I thought THIS ^^ was a good idea.  Um, yeah, no!

Next, I was gettin experimental:

Do you like this polish?  Do you honestly?

It kind of ate topcoat.... I put on two coats, I swear.  It's like, where did they go...?

The colour is most true-to-life here.  This is actually a nail art pen that I dumped into a regular polish bottle!  It's Jordana Artsy Purple.  It is very pretty, a purple with strong red shimmer, but I have no idea how it manages to make two thick coats of Seche Vite completely disappear.... hmmph....

Next, a crowd favorite:

OPI The Show Must Go On.  This was the last of the Burlesques I acquired.  I freehanded two tips with  OPI Man Of La Mancha on the ring and middle finger, just to see what it looked like - ignore them please :)  This has been shown a million times, so I'm just going to shut up and show the pretty:

In case you didn't know (but you probably do), TSMGO is a really pretty reddish-pink-gold duochrome.  It's similar to MAC Bad Fairy, but a touch lighter pink. 

Okay, foot warning.  FOOT WARNING!!  Didn't you hear me??!?  FOOT WARNINGGGGG!!!!

I hate posting pictures of my feet, and I really, REALLY hate to say this, but you should probably click on the picture to blow it up so you can see the AWESOMENESS that is Inglot 207!!  Seriously.  Just ignore my toes. This is a medium-sized gold holo glitter, and I have two coats of it on here over Orly Luxe.  It.  Is.  Gorgeous!!!  I wore this for days, around lots of people, and I got tons of compliments :)

 

Next, this is an unnamed Love & Beauty polish from Forever 21.  It's a medium forest green shimmer with fine gold foil-y glitter.  It's pretty.  Application was kind of annoying, though. Very thick.

And last, the first in a series of Christmas manis!!!  Yaaaaaaaaaeeeeeey! (Oh come on, they're fun!)

You like?  Ees preety?  I think so :)

This is another Love & Beauty polish, a dark jelly green, topped with Wet N Wild Prancer.  I kinda stole this idea off a Nail Boarder named beclee :)  Prancer is a clear with small and larger hexagonal red glitter.  It's awesome for layering to create a Christmas mani :)  I wish it came in every colour!  As far as the Love & Beauty polish goes, it's application was a lot better than the other one - I had no real problems, aside from a lot of buildup (like, a lot more than the usual amount) on the lip of the bottle from me wiping the excess off the brush.

Okay, that's all. Expect a lot more Christmas manis coming up soon.  Plus I got a bunch of new RBLs, some Inglots (inlcuding the above 207) and Illamasqua Jo'mina, and a huge Cherryculture order that I haven't even dug into yet!  So many untrieds!  Talk to you all later :)

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!