Another Super Quick NOTD OTG: Sally Hansen Opulent Cloud

 Oh God - how much do I love Opulent Cloud? This was received in a swap from the lovely amberski from A Day In The Life...  I'm kind of glad she hated it, because I have been unable to find it anywhere and now its mine and I luuuuurve it! :)

It's a duochrome metallic. Not quite gunmetal, not quite lilac, but a silvery hybrid of the two that flashes pink and gold and sometimes green. It's so awesome. The gold duochrome effect is the most noticeable, and is visible even under dull indoor lighting. This colour is so unique. I've never seen another duochrome like it. I have nothing even remotely similar.

Application was a tiny bit watery, but everything was all good and smooth after two coats. I didn't get the brushstroke problems I was anticipating, either. Wear was a tiny bit chippy, but that's probably just my rushed application. This was after two days of wear (!) Yes, I know - I didn't have time to change my polish that day. I wore this immediately after my Easter mani.... which I still need to show you. I will, I promise.

So, yes. If you are luckier than I, can find this in a local store and don't already own it, pick it up. It's beautiful.

Super-Quick NOTD OTG (On-The-Go): Orly Ruby Passion

This is Orly Ruby Passion. Just wanted to throw this up there real quick. And please pardon the chips, wear and tear - this is after a day-and-a-half of wear. A gorgeous glass-flecked shimmery red. I'd call it a light cherry-red. Super shimmery and shiny-looking. It looks juicy, and reminds me of a frothy strawberry daquari.

Oh, and I tried the Orly Bonder Base Coat under this, and so far, I have nothing really to report. It's working okay, I guess, but as you can see it's not miraculously chip-proof. I don't even know if a base ocat is supposed to prevent chips. Whatever. I don't really see what everyone is raving over.

I'm loving these new Orly colours I got! I wantz moar! However, I did just go to the States and haul a bunch of polishes that I was going to order off Cherry Culture - saved myself the shipping and wait time, yay! (okay fine, the shipping is free for over $75, but still!) Plus I finally pulled the trigger on that TD order o_O Good god.

Details on all that to follow later. Right now, admire the juicy cherry goodness :)

Till later.

Went To Sadly's: Their Sale + Me Getting Paid = Bad

Yeah.  I'm so horrible.  All that stuff I posted the other day, making it look like I do nothing 24/7 except buy polish - and now, I go and go to Sally's, where they're having a sale, and forget it.  Gone.  My sense of reason, that is  :p

Oh, I got China Glaze.  I got Orly.  I got Nina Ultra Pro, Finger Paints and Sally Girl minis.  And the sad thing is, what I went in there for in the first place (Orly Sweet and China Glaze Up & Away - I still need Grape Pop) wasn't even in stock.  I could very well have turned around and walked out of the store - what I went for wasn't there.  But did I?  Oh no - Sally's is so far away from me, and I haven't been there in so long, so since I drove all this way and I'm already here, I might as well have a bit of a look, and hello what's this ohmygod they're having a sale?!  

So after I drop I'mnotevengoingtotellyouhowmuch, instead of walking to my car and going immediately home, then what does my stupid arse do?  I notice they have a Dollar Giant across the parking lot!  So I duck in, and find all these weird-brand-but-interesting-looking polishes for THREE for a buck!  So of course I stock up there and get every colour I find even remotely interesting, and then a couple more for swap extras, and THEN what do I do??!?  I walk across the parking lot again and go into freaking Walmart!  Again!!  For like the second time in a week!  Why, you ask?  On the off-chance they might have that Nicole I wanted, because my local Walmart doesn't!  :p  So when I do find it, what do I do?  I proceed to buy not just that one, but four different Nicoles.  Four.

So yeah.  Now I have about fifty billion new polishes.  And you wanna hear the part that's really funny?  I'm just about to pull the trigger on a massive Transdesign order, which includes the new ChG Poolside collection, the Orly Sweet collection, the ones from the CC Wild At Heart collection that I want, a couple d/c'ed OPIs, and a bunch of Misas... and possibly the ChG Bahama Blues collection - I haven't decided yet.  I'm trying to find the willpower to wait until tomorrow after I get back from the States.

Yeah.  I have a problem :p.  Seriously.  Literally almost all of my disposable income is going towards feeding my voracious polish appetite.  How many of you out there are like me, when it comes to this stuff?  What's your vice?  Alcohol?  Drugs?  Gourmet grocery items?  Shoes?  Critereon DVDs?  Action figures?  Video games?  Comic books?  Necklaces?  All beauty products?  Lipglosses?  Soap?    <---- these are all real-life addictions and collections of various friends of mine.  I know a people who have hundreds of each one of these things (okay, well, not drugs :p), and a lot of these things are a lot more expensive to collect than nail polish.  Sure, there are a few polishes out there, various shades of unicorn piss that command hundreds of dollars on evilbay, but I'm not going to be shelling out for them anytime soon.  I don't even want to pay $30 for Creme De Menthe (I think... :p)  I think my vice is relatively harmless compared to a lot of others out there.

Okay, I think I'm done justifying my stupefying spending habits to myself  :p  Let's see some haulage!

First, the boring stuff:

Orly Bonder base coat and some kind anti-yellowing top coat.  Not sure what brand it is.  I've been wanting to try Bonder - I've heard good things about it on the NB, and I'm forever searching for an HG base coat.

Second most boring: the Nicoles I got.  They are pretty, though.  L-R: Sky's The Limit, Di-Vine Is Divine, Diva Into The Pool, and Let's Get Star-ted.  LGS is the one I was looking for.  Still haven't found Fresh-Squeezed yet, though.  STL and DITP have glass-flecked shimmer, and D-VID is a purpleish magenta with gold shimmer.  I hate Nicoles - how many times do I have to say that - but they keep coming up with such awesome colours... and I've never had a complaint about the formula.  What stupid names, though.

Onto the good stuff from Sally's.

Orlys!  A lot of them!  L-R: Charged Up (blue-purple creme), Passion Fruit (bright neon fuchsia creme), Goth (black with silver glitter), Red Carpet (red with red and silver glitter, wonder how it compares to the SH Xtreme Wear of the same name), Star Of Bombay (dark blackened navy with purple shimmer), Fifty-Four (pink, gold and red iridescent shimmer), Love Each Other (blue, pink and purple iridescent shimmer), Flagstone Rush (bronze shimmer), Glitz (gold shimmer) and Ruby Passion (red glass-flecked shimmer).  Yay!  Growin' mah Orlyyyy collection.....!

The always-popular (with me), always-irresistable China Glaze.  L-R: Solar Power (yellow shimmer), Up All Night (dark blue shimmer), Grape Juice (glass-flecked light purple) and Black Diamond (black shimmer).  With Solar Power, I own almost all of the Ecollection except Hybrid, and Grape Juice adds to my Summer Days collection (still need Raspberry Festival, Cherry Pie and Orange Marmalade... Hmm, might order them from TD).

Savvys in the bottle that's being discontinued.  I like this old bottle, though - so nice and square.  This is Deep Amethyst (which I wanted after seeing it in this post, like so many other polishes :p) and Red Caviar (burgundy with gold shimmer).  I now own four Savvys.  Every time I read this name I hear Captain Jack Sparrow's voice in my head.  "Savvy?"

Finger Paints!  L-R: It's An Original, Aritstic Azure, Magenta Mood and Be A Pal-ette.  I saw they had a new Finger Paints blue collection in stock, unlike every other new collection, but I read on the NB that they're painfully, disappointingly sheer.  So I passed on all but Artistic Azure, which is just a re-release anyway.

Nina Ultra Pro polishes.  I initially got a couple of this brand just to give to my sister (her name is Nina), but I ended up really liking them.  L-R: Molten Gold (beigey-gold shimmer), Molten Ruby (kind of a coppery red-gold duochrome - so cool), Last Call (mauvey purple with gold shimmer), Purple Pizzazz (blue-purple with pink shimmer), and Purple X-ing (purple jelly with holo glitter).

Then I noticed a new summer Nina collection that they had put out in place of the U&A collection:

They all have fruity names!  And they look juicy and fruity and shimmery and delicious.  A lot of them are glass-flecked.  L-R: Pomegranate, Star Fruit, Soursop (uh, what? this is blue...), Tutti Fruitti (okay, that's not a fruit), Dragon Berry (I don't think this actually exists, either), and Guava.  Okay, so the names aren't that great, but the polishes are.  Shimmery glass-flecked goodness!

And a billion little Sally Girl minis!  These are so cute!

 These don't all have names.  L-R: Genie, unnamed dark shimmery purple, unnamed pin with gold shimmer, unnamed lavender creme, Satsuma, unnamed blue-green holo glitter, U Glow Girl (glow-in-the-dark?!), unnamed red with gold shimmer, and unnamed blue with pink and purple shimmer.  Lame.  But for such tiny bottles, there are some pretty nice colours.

Okay, and the rest of these are my Dollar Giant haul.  Anyone ever heard of Billie cosmetics anyway?

 L-R: Sweetness, Elated, Solar and Anxiety.  What's with these names?

L-R: Steel Blue, Alloy, Gold and Iron Red.  Metallic shimmers.

L-R: Fuschia, Purple Haze and Majestic.

And these two Paris collection polishes.  Never heard of this brand either.  Gold glitter with gold hearts!  And a shimmery green colour!  I got two of the green - it's so pretty, someone will apppreciate it.

Aaaaand, last but not least, some swap haul I got in the mail this morning:

OPI At Your Quebec & Call!  And Wet N Wild Blue Moon, which I just got the other day, but that's okay!  Thanks pacificnorthwestocean!

Alright, that's all.  I've spent entirely too long typing this.  I really need to familiarize myself with the concept of a No-Buy. 

Massive Buildup of Hauls Post

I have so much to show you guys - I've been letting this stuff build up, and I haven't told you about any of it!  I'm going to try to keep this as brief as possible and spare you from my rambling.

I've been swapping a lot lately, so I have swap hauls to show you.  Usually I have to mail my end out first, and as a result I have about 5 billion things I'm waiting for in the mail... but I have gotten a few so far.  Also, I ordered some Zoya stuff from spaboutique.ca - a 32 oz. Remove+, the Reverie collection 6-pack, and Indigo - but when my package arrived today, no Reverie!  And that's what I was most looking forward to - it's why I made the order in the first place!  Well, initially I wanted the Sparkle collection, but of course they never have the lastest stuff in Canada, so I got Reverie to tide myself over....  They stated on my invoice that they will ship it as soon as it becomes available, and that I should have received an email informing me that it was backordered.  Which I didn't.  Ugh.  I'm obviously going to have to call them.  I want my Reverie collection, and I wanna know when I'm getting it.  Not impressed, spaboutique.

Okay, enough bitching.  Here's my stuff!  I'll try to do it in the order I got it.... try.

This is Milani Cyberspace, which I mentioned in my last post, along with the extra I received - Love My Nails.... I forget the shade name.  It's a gold-shimmery corally peach colour - it's very pretty.  Thanks again, akk23!  :)  I'm doing another swap with her for another Milani holo - this time I'm getting the purple and green ones.

Zoya polishes I got from sparklingnails on ebay.  L-R: Nina, Bijou, Lexi, Zara, Ki and Midori.  I got Nina for my sister, and Lexi cuz, duh.  Smart markerting Zoya, those names.  My Zoya collection is steadily growing - I looove their polishes.  So far I've only worn Bijou and Zara - I'll show you pics.  I'm swapping for as many of them as I can, not to mention I was supposed to get Reverie.... grrr...  I'm getting mad thinking about Zoya.  Moving on...

Nfu-Oh flakies!  L-R: 44, 51, 52, 56 and 60.  I got these from ManateeMama, before all the drama with her on MUA happened.  It's kind of weird, because I got these from her with no problems whatsoever, and she was actually very nice and helpful and shared her MUA discount with me and basically sold me her konad kit for $20....  But what happened with her is horrible.  Whatever - it's been discussed to death and I'm not gonna get into it here.  If you wanna know more email me or leave a comment or something.  Ahem.  Anyway... yeah, Nfu-Oh's!  They rule, as you already know.  These are kind of old news, but I think I need the rest of them now.  Next!

Some drugstore goodies:

This is Nicole Midnight Madness, Revlon Minted, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Mint Sprint, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, and NYX Silver Blue.  This what I have to say about these:  1.) MM looks like a less-sparkly, not-as-nice version of another Nicole I own, Blues In The Night.  2.) I have purchased Minted several times now, but keep opting to swap it to MUA memebers in the States who don't have access to it yet.  That's right, a collection was released in Canada before the US for once.  Also, hell froze over  :p  So this is seriously about the seventh bottle I've bought of this.  3.) I hate the Insta-Dri brush, with a fiery flaming passion, but I'll deal with it for this colour.  And I do like how fast they dry and how opaque they are.  I now own two - Grape Going and this.  And I intend to get Brisk Blue, Uptempo Plum (looks similar to ChG Stroll), the dark blue shimmer (Blazes of Blue?) and the dark forest green shimmer (can't remember the name).  4.) This is pretty, but sheer.  My nail wheel swatch needed like 8 coats.  5.) This is silver glitter with blue bar glitter.  tweet! :)

L-R: Milani Key Lime Shine, Milani Totally Cool, and Sally Hansen Project Runway - another Canadian exclusive that I've swapped away in the past.  The Milanis I found at Superstore!  w00t!  I've worn Totally Cool, and it's totally cool - purple with gold and red shimmer, similar to Claire's Magic.  I forgot to take a pic of it though before I took it off, which is like the first time I've ever done that.  Boo stupid me.

I actually forced myself to go into Walmart, and I found some goodness I've been lemming for awhile!  L-R: Wet N Wild Night Prowl (yay!), Blue Moon, Carribean Frost, Kaleidoscope and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue (yay!). 

These are the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicures I own.  All acquired within the past month.  I'm so bad.  L-R: Commander In Chic, Lavender Cloud, Kook-A-Mango, Calypso Blue, Shrimply Devine, Thinking Of Blue, Fairy Teal, Midnight in NY and Gray By Gray.  The brush is annoying but not as bad as the Insta-Dri one.  So far I've only worn TOB, and I LOVED it.  I'll show you a pic, I promise - too much haul to get through now.

Now for the Claire's and Icing stuff:

Icing Roger That and Laura's Fave.  I've worn Laura's Fave - it's a very nice aqua with blue shimmer.

L-R: Claire's supposedly scented polishes in Key Lime, Cotton Candy and Bubble Gum, and nonscented Kelly Green.  I don't know if they smell, but the SA at Claire's told me they do.  I own a lot of Claire's now:

The Claire's I own, not counting minis. L-R: Magic, Dreamcatcher, Mean Green, Fire, Green Confetti, Chunky Blue and Chunky Purple.  I want Chunky Green, and a couple others.

The unnamed mini shimmer set I got.  Sorry for the flash reflection.  Claire's mini sets are great, and this one is no exception.  I've worn the pink one (fourth from the left) so far, and it's gorgeous - dense glittery silvery shimmer, very glowy.

Another scented set!  This is Jolly Ranchers-scented.  L-R: Cherry, Grape, Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, Green Apple and another Cherry (I smell a swap extra for someone!)  I swatched Blue Raspberry on my nail wheel and yes!  It actually smells like a Jolly Rancher!  SWEET!  It was a pretty colour too, opaque in two coats.  I don't know what a top coat would do to these, but I hope they all smell as good as the one I swatched - Watermelon Jolly Ranchers is one of my favorite tastes/smells EVER!  I'm gonna be tempted to chew all my nails off when I wear these.  They also had a Hubba Bubba set that I think I'm gonna have to go back for...

Now the stuff I got at the mall that one day...

L-R: OPI Shim-merry Chic, DS Glow, DS Mystery, Lemonade Stand By Your Man, Parlez-Vous OPI?, Vodka and Caviar.  I got Vodka and Caviar because it reminds me of my boyfriend :)

L-R: OPI Do You Lilac It?, VaC again, DS Mystery again and Mad As A Hatter.  Finally got my hands on the full-size :)

I have no idea why blogger is deciding to rotate my pics.  But I don't know how to change it, so just deal with it.  This is GOSH Gypsy Blue and Nicole Mango Maven.  I guess this is more drugstore stuff, but whatever.  Mango Maven is begging to be on my toes.

Stroll and Street Racing.  With mini Seche Vites!  I found these at a small little random nail kiosk in the mall.  They had the whole Retro Diva collection!  I can't believe I paid retail ($9! ouch!) but I was so excited.  I may even go back and get more.

An army of Essies.  L-R: It's Genius, Tart Deco, The Cove Copper, Jackie Oh My! and After Sex. 

An old mini OPI set I found at the drugstore too.  L-R: Witch Arm, Glow-ink In The Dark, Tattoo You Want Candy?, and I Love Mummy.  Yes, I bought this set for the glow-in-the-dark one alone.  Glow-in-the-dark nail polish?  Hell yes please!  I'll probably never find the full-size one (although I've seen it on ebay for... way more than I'll ever pay), so I had to get the mini.  It works, too! (I tested).

Okay, and then one day last week when I was bored I wandered over to a little crappy nail salon down the street from my house to see if maybe they sold polish.  Not only did they sell it, they had a large selection of black-label OPIs!  I was overjoyed!  Even though they were selling the OPIs for ten bucks each (!) and the China Glaze for nine, I was so excited at stumbling across a whole cabinet of potential HTFs that I bought a few, including a strange No Room For The Blues that I thought was maybe something else that'd been mislabeled.

L-R: OPI Skinny Dip'n In Lake Michg'n, "No Room For The Blues", and My Fave Wave.

China Glaze Blk-Bila-Bong and "Oxygen" (ha!)

I was so excited about my find, I went home and took pics and posted them on the NB.  Only to have a couple NB'ers politely point out that NRFTB and Oxygen had clearly been frankened - apparently its common for salons to do that.  :( :( I was so disappointed!  Stupid salon!  I don't want their failed experiments!  I know Blk-Bila-Bong, Skinny Dip'n and My Fave Wave are the unmolested real things, but I seriously just want to get rid of the two frankens.  Except I don't know what to do with them.  Maybe give them to the women's shelter?  Maybe my sister?  I don't want to give them to anyone who actually knows anything about polish, like as a swap extra or anything, because they'll be like, "Wth?  This is NOT Oxygen," or whatever.  Ugh.  So that was a half-fail.

Then these are some more things I've received in swaps: 

L-R: Zoya Verushka, Zoya Kotori, OPI She's Golden, China Glaze White-Kwik-Silvr (almost have all of the Surf collection!  Just need Pink-Rox-E), Nubar Angelic Glitter (my first Nubar! Now I need the rest of their glitters, the Prisms, and Peacock Feathers), and a mystery OPI mini extra.  Thanks sirducksus! :)  I loooove Kotori - shimmery complex aqua blue.  I haven't worn it yet but I'm gonna soon.

Zoya Irene, Zoya Envy and a L'Oreal Bijou Gems extra in B. Strong.  I have a couple of these old Bijou Gems already - a fuchsia pink, a neon coral and an orange.  Thanks SnapHappy!  :)

And I got these just this morning :)  L-R: Orly Glam, China Glaze 5 Golden Rings, Tinsel and Medallion.  Also included was some LifeSavers.  Thanks HelloKinky! :)  I plan to use 5GR and Tinsel to make my very first franken.  I saw it here.  I love that blog, btw.

Also received in a swap is OPI DS Glamour!  Which I can't find a pic of at the moment, sorry  :(  But I love it so much and I can't wait to wear it!  Thanks special12!

Also recieved this morning:

The half-complete Zoya order from spaboutique. Grrr.  32 oz. Remove+, Indigo, and the free OPI Mango stuff that I got.  Indigo is gorgeous, a deep sapphire blue with multicoloured glitter (reminds me of a certain HTF HG Essie...), but I want my Reverie set dammit!  I gotta finish up this post so I can email them.

And then, last but not least, look what I bought off a lady on Craigslist for $40!  I scored!

A bunch of old OPIs!  Almost all black-label too!  What is my obsession with black-label OPIs, you ask?  The formula, man!  The formula!  I wish they still made them like that - toxic, nasty-chemical goodness!  The lady used to be an esthetician, and was getting rid of her supplies.  I bought all of her good np's  :)

Blue Moon Lagoon (yay!), Merryberry Mauve Glitter Top Coat (yay!), and Jewel Of India.  Are there two Merryberry Mauves - a glitter top coat and a shimmer, like the Sugarplum Yum set?  Cuz they have one available on TD, and I may get it if it's different from this....  The SY set sells on evilbay for $35!

Can't-A-Berry Have Some Fun?, You Ottaware Purple, Amazing Lazing Lilac.

Sweet Heart, an unknown sheer pinky-beige whose label fell off - could even be another Sweet Heart, but looks a bit different (this is driving me crazy, btw), Alpine Snow, and an Acrylic Nail Base Coat that I said I didn't want because I have no use for it, but she included in the bag anyway. 

And guess what else was included in the deal?

Misa Decadent Drifter and Chanel Perle Rose!  DD is a blue-pink duochrome that I've been wanting ever since I saw it on Scrangie's blog.  And a Chanel?  Sure!  I'll take it!  I don't care what colour it is, I'll take it!  Yay, my first Chanel polish!  :)  And it's a shimmery tan colour with pink iridescence - very pretty.  I think this was a sweet score for forty bucks.  Compared to what I paid for those horrible nail salon frankens, I got a helluva deal here.  It pays to seach Craiglist for nail polish occasionally, as you can see  :)

Well, that's all the haul I have to show you for now.  I'm still waiting for my Reverie set, plus I plan on ordering the China Glaze Poolside collection as soon as stupid Transdesign decides to finally put it up >:(  and I have a lot of swaps I'm still expecting.  Orly Enchanted Forest, OPI At Your Quebec& Call, a bunch more Zoyas, some more Misas, some Pure Ice.... lotsa good stuff!  I gotta make a checklist, actually....  Also I want to go to Sally's tomorrow, and I'm planning on going to the States Thursday - here I come Sinful and Hot Topic!  :)  I wish I could go to an Ulta.

Anyway, I have another backup of NOTD's that I promise I'll show you, as well as the stuff I'm gonna get and the swap hauls as they come in.  So, that's all for now!