OPI San Francisco Mini Set Swatches

Disclaimer: The products featured in this post were given to me as a gift from Sisi of Color4Nails. I am under no obligation to promote her polish store and do not gain anything from doing so. Any opinions presented in this post are my own.

Hi Everyone!

*Gasp* - another post! So soon... it's a miracle! Well, I found some time to sit down and write a post (who am I kidding? I'm supposed to be wading my way through academic papers right now). I figure you've all seen polishes from this collection about a million times by now, but I'll just swing some of my own quick swatches for you. I recently received the OPI San Francisco Mini set in the mail as a gift from Sisi at Color4Nails (I gave her permission to use some of my swatch pictures on her Facebook page and she wanted to send me a gift, which was very sweet of her). Thanks to her, I was able to try some polishes that I probably wouldn't have purchased on my own (I wasn't too impressed by the promo images of the collection).

Anyhow, I won't bore you too much with my rambling! Onto the polish!

In the Cable Car-pool Lane: A fairly standard dark plum/burgundy. Not an extremely exciting colour for me - I probably wouldn't be able to convince myself to buy this polish if I had seen it on a shelf somewhere since I'd probably have something very close to this in the 600+ bottles of polish that I own. It does have a very nice jelly-esque squishiness to it though. I used 3 coats.

First Date at the Golden Gate: A kind of reddy-burnt orange shade. Like In the Cable Car-pool Lane, it has the squishy look of a jelly with the more opaque formula of a creme. I used 3 coats for this swatch.

Peace, Love, and OPI: Silvery sage-blue-purple duochrome that reminds me of the northern lights. Undoubtedly one of the most buzzed about polishes from the San Fran collection. Initially I had only planned to pick up this polish from the collection, and I'm not too disappointed. I knew from prior swatches that it was going to be frosty, but the duochrome is actually really strong in this polish and kind of makes up for it. Streaks aside, I was pleasantly surprised that the formula isn't too thin - I used 3 thin coats for my swatch here.

Muir, Muir on the Wall: The dark horse in the collection for me. I would have completely passed this one over if it weren't for this mini set. When I swatched this polish I pretty much fell in love with it then and there, and ran out to buy a full size bottle. I can't even describe this one, but the important thing is that it has this beautiful red-coppery slightly duochrome shimmer that is absolutely gorgeous. I love it.

So, what do y'all think? I'm glad I got to try Muir, Muir on the Wall, since I probably wouldn't have known about how awesome it is if I didn't! It's seriously one of those colors I pass by on the shelf/counter and don't look at more closely. Thank you Sisi for your generosity!

As always, thank you for reading! I hope you all have a great week!

Marisa

My picks from the China Glaze Autumn Nights Collections

Hi everyone, long time no see!

Sorry I've been away so long - the usual combination of work and family drama have been added stress lately. I didn't realize how long I've been on the periphery of the nail polish world until I went to my supply store the other day... I didn't realize until then that I hadn't checked out the store since the end of April!

I managed to hold off the polish hoarder in me enough to spend a reasonable amount of polish. I avoided buying the whole collection and limited myself to only a few shades, which I managed to swatch (instead of leaving them on my swatching desk for later). Anyhow, enough of my chittering! Onto the polish! Please click read more after the cut to see my swatches of these polishes!

Left to right: Tongue & Chic, Queen B, Red-y & Willing, Rendezvous with You, Strike up a Cosmo, Goldie but Goodie, and Gossip over Gimlets.

Pure Ice - French Kiss

Hi everyone!

Sorry I haven't posted as much as I said I was going to in the previous post. I started working on my own last week and it has been really crazy. Pretty much every weekday since last Monday I've been working 9am to 6-7pm. I'm hoping that eventually I'll get adjusted to working and be able to get things done faster.

Besides all of the havoc work has done on my social life (I pretty much only have time to eat, shower and sleep when I get home), my nails have definitely suffered. I haven't had much time or energy to take care of them, and constantly wearing gloves (I work in a research laboratory) is pretty harsh on my hands. I did my nails one day and after a day of work I had huge chips pretty much everywhere. I'm definitely gulty of not doing my nails as frequently as I wish I could.

Anyhow, away from the rambling... today's polish is a pretty shade of cobalt blue that is pretty close to a huge lemming of mine (RBL's IKB:2012; according to online comparisons).

Pictured above is 2 coats of Pure Ice's French Kiss polish, with Cult Nails' Wicked Fast top coat.

This is a really pretty polish. I love cobalt blues, so does this really surprise you? The formula was good, I used two medium coats (although I would say that this was almost a one coater). I've heard on the grapevine that the RBL has a really crappy formula, so while it is said that French Kiss isn't exactly a dupe for the RBL, I think it's definitely good enough for me. Price wise, the Pure Ice is definitely better (at $1.98 a bottle, compared to $20/bottle RBL) and the RBL is discontinued anyway.

Definitely satisfies my lemming, although I don't know if this will stop me from buying other cobalt blue shades (I'm currently eying one from Barielle).

That's all for today! Thank you so much for reading!

Marisa

China Glaze Avant Garden Collection Part II - Pastel Petals Swatches

Hi everyone!

Yesterday I showed you the Blooming Brights, but today I'm happy to bring you the Pastel Petals set from the China Glaze Avant Garden collection for Spring 2013!

I'm actually a really big sucker for pastel shades, even though I don't wear them as often as I should. The only thing I don't like about pastels is that most of the time the formula will kind of suck or be streaky and annoying... I probably don't use them that often because when I don't have time to do my nails but need a polish change, I tend to just pull out my easy to apply favourites. There's nothing I hate more than trying to quickly do my nails with a polish that's crazy amounts of thick and goopy (and requires more than 3 coats!).

Anyway, I digress. Onto the polish, shall we? This collection is made up to 3 shimmers and 3 cremes. :D

China Glaze Avant Garden Collection Part I - Blooming Brights Swatches

Hi everyone!

Today I have my first Spring collection purchase to show y'all. My beauty supply store had these in early, so of course the hoarder in me bought them all. Spring is one of my favourite seasons, the only thing I could do without is the rain!

Anyhow, today I'm going to feature the first half of the collection - the Blooming Brights!

My Picks: Top 10 of 2012

Hi everyone! Happy New Year's Eve!

I hope you're all having a great day with lots of plans later! I'm working today, so I won't be able to relax as much, but it is my last day before I head back to school for the next semester!

Today's post will be a bit of a picture spam of my top 10 polishes from this past year. I'm already excited to start making a list for next year... I have my eye on some of the polishes from the spring Zoya collection!

Anyhow, let us begin! Here are my favourite polishes that were released this year, in no particular order! I also think that there were a few greens that are honorable mentions since I didn't want my list to be too overwhelmingly green. ;)

China Glaze - Riveting

I absolutely loved this polish when it came out, and I still do. I never thought an orange polish could steal my heart like this one did, but maybe it's the fact that it's gorgeous shiny and also great matte. I find the gold shimmer in this polish addicting.

Zoya - Zuza

I thought this polish was okay in the bottle, but when I put it on... it was just amazing! I love the finish on this and the colour... now only if they made this finish in different colours... It's like a silver-y but not quite foil-y metallic. Love.

Cult Nails - Coveted

You guys have heard me yapping on about this one before. It's a green version of Iconic and since I love both, of course this is going to be on my list. I'm that predictable haha. :P

A England - Dragon

Dragon! It's so aptly named... it's really the colour I can see dragons as being! and holographic! Oh man, I can't believe I don't even have St. George yet... obviously I feel behind in my polish buying! :P  To sum it up, green + holo = win.

Cult Nails - Evil Queen

I don't know what to say about this one. I love the look of red polish but it was really hard for me to find a red that would match my skintone. Of course then I got this polish and it was amazing, the colour is great and the formula is fantastic. This is now my go-to red!

Cult Nails - Feeling Froggy

This one is on my list being it's green and amazing. I was at IKEA one day and saw a sofa in this really pretty dusty sage green and I knew I HAD to have a polish in that colour. Fast forward a week later when I get my Cult Nails Fairy Tale collection pre-order and this polish is there staring up at me! It's almost perfect I think. The only test left is to wear it on my nails and go to IKEA again to compare. 

Cult Nails - Flushed

This is amaaaaaaaaaaaaazing. I love the shade, I love the shimmer... no more words necessary. I fell in love with Flushed as soon as I unwrapped the bottle.

Sephora + Pantone Universe - Purple Parachute

I originally purchased this one thinking that it'd be my go-to bottle so I could conserve my precious Scrangie. In the bottle it looks almost exactly the same as that famous Rescue Beauty Lounge polish... and it doesn't break the bank. I almost danced in the store. Of course then I went home and did the comparison and found that it's just a bit different... the shimmer isn't as blatantly obvious on the nail as it is in Scrangie. I was a bit disappointed at first, but after I put it on for the first time I fell in love. Now I think I love it even more than Scrangie. Scrangie has a little problem with being a bit sheer, but this baby has all the opacity, and I think I might even prefer the more subtle shimmer. 

Cult Nails - Charlatan

I love how versatile this polish is. It's a topcoat, so you can wear it over whatever base colour you fancy and it'll give this stunning pink-blue duochrome. It's amazing. I've worn it over so many polishes and I'm constantly in awe of how amazing it is. I haven't done a formal post about this polish yet since whenever I wear it I have the misfortune of not having enough time to take proper pictures, but here are some pictures from my phone that I've posted on twitter at one time or another.  Pictured below are Charlatan over Devious Nature (pink) and Vicious (purple).

OPI - Goldeneye (or Sally Hansen Gilded Lily)

I think I've gushed about this polish in the post I did, but here's a summary of how gorgeous it is: it's like having solid gold on your nails. It's fantastic. I did a comparison a few posts ago to SH's Gilded Lily and they're dupes (hence the or... part in the polish title). I still love it though. My only complaint would be that it takes a few layers of polish to get it to opacity, but that allows you to also wear it layered over another polish. 

 

Whew. That was a lot of typing lol. That's all from me on this last day of the year! See y'all in 2013 and I hope you have a great New Year! 

Lots of love, and thank y'all so much for supporting my wee blog! I really really appreciate it even though my posting is so sporadic! 

Marisa

Zoya Arizona

Hi everyone!

I'm currently on vacation in Washington DC area, so today's post is a scheduled one. This means I won't be able to reply to any comments until I return on the 2nd of September! In the meantime, enjoy the ramble-free posting! :D

Today I have one of my top lemmings from the Beach collection for Summer 2012 from Zoya. I was oogling all of the swatches of Arizona and Zuza online, but I finally took the plunge when Nail Polish Canada put up the Fall Zoya collections. In the bottle, Arizona looked really bright - I was hoping it'd be a bit more subtle - but on the nail it isn't too bad. The colour itself reminds me of Kraft's Mac and Cheese or Cheesewhiz. 

Sorry about the weird bit on my middle finger nail - it has been like that for ages and only really shows up in pictures every once in a while!

Thank you for reading!

Marisa

Spring Orly Spam!

Hi everyone!

How are we all today? I'm relaxing a bit but still kinda stressed since I have training for my new job coming up next week. I reallllly need to go find my notes so I can review some of the more important protocol bits (I'll be working in a lab). I made a TON of orders in the past few days. Cult Nails is having a sale where all of their polishes are $7 ($3 off each) and Maria has announced that some of the polishes (including my beloved Feelin' Froggy) are going to be discontinued. I know I said I'd be really sad if she dc'ed Feelin' Froggy, but I think I feel better since it was on sale and I was able to grab a back up bottle! I also finally caved in and bought a bunch of soaps from KBShimmer. I'm planning on purchasing a sugar scrub from them too, but I figure I'll wait until I get all of my mini soaps and smell them all instead of purchasing such a big tub blind. :P I'm also super excited that Nail Polish Canada is going to get the Zoya Fall collection in tomorrow. Right now they're having a free shipping for Canadian Orders over $25, so you bet I'm going to grab some. I'm most excited for Evvie (since I love the name), but I'm going to pick up a bunch of other colours too. I love Nail Polish Canada as they're based really close to me, so I get my orders within a day or 2 of shipping. :D

Oops, that was a lot of ramble. Sorry guys. Lol!

Annyhow, today I have some Orly polishes from the Spring for you! These have been sitting in my swatch folder for a while, but I have no idea why I haven't posted them yet since they're great Spring colours! Let the spam commence!

 Faint of Heart: Grey-Taupe creme.

Jealous Much?: Pretty mint creme. I used this in my Mint Oreo chip NOTD a while ago. If I remember correctly, I thought the dry time on this polish was fairly long.

Prelude to a Kiss: Pretty soft peach for Spring. I love this colour.

You're Blushing: Pretty mauve-y grey-y polish.


That's all for today! Thanks for reading!

Marisa

Cult Nails Evil Queen

Hi everyone! Happy long weekend for all of my fellow Canadians out there!

Today I have a short-ish post featuring another polish from the Cult Nails Fairy Tale collection! Today I have Evil Queen, a gorgeous tomato red creme.

I was thinking this might be my least favourite out of the entire collection, mostly because it seemed like it was going to be one of those reds that really clash with my skin. Surprisingly, this doesn't really clash with my skin as much as I thought I would, and this creme is so glossy and amazing to apply that it has quickly jumped to the top of my list of favourite red polishes.

In  other news, I'm on a temporary ban on nail polish buying, unless Lac Attack decides to restock some of her polishes (I NEED Hell on Heels). I'm waiting for my jewellery supplies shipment to come in, and as soon as it does I'll make sure to finalize & open shop on Etsy (I'll have an announcement and link when I'm ready for that to happen!).

Thanks for reading everyone! Hope y'all have a good week. :)

Marisa

Cult Nails Feel Me Up

Hi Everyone! Happy Wednesday!

I managed to snag a bottle of Sand Art from Pretty and Polished earlier today, so I'm pretty darn excited! I'm also a little bit stressed because I have another interview on Friday.

Anyhow, right now I'm wearing Scandalous from the Cult Nails Divas and Drama collection... but secretly I really want to put this polish on! I love Scandalous but whenever I see Feel Me Up I just have this urge to wear it! I'm going to have to wait till after Friday though... as soon as I get home I'm going to put it on! :D

 Feel Me Up is such a gorgeous colour. It's super bright and happy looking - pretty much exactly the colour of a buttercup. I feel like this polish pretty much reflects my mood most of the time - bright, cheery, energetic etc. Even when I'm feeling down this colour makes me perk up.

Formula wise, it's pretty fantastic (as usual from Cult Nails). I had no difficulty applying this polish. It's a dream. 

That's all for now... I feel like if I keep talking and staring at this photo for much longer I'll give in. Must wait till Friday! Thank you are reading!

Do you have any polishes that you think reflects your mood? Please share if you do!

Marisa

China Glaze On Safari Collection (11/12)

Hi everyone!

Today I have another new collection to show y'all... I've been stalking my local beauty supply store for the China Glaze On Safari collection. I'm fairly certain this is the fall collection, but I remember someone mentioned it as the second summer collection... It is supposed to be released this month (June) so I guess that is early for a fall collection. Oh well. Who cares? :P I got 11 out of the 12 polishes available (I skipped on Call of the Wild - see the section of Prey Tell for details... basically I thought they were too similar to both deserve a home in my stash so I decided not to get Call of the Wild).

This is another long (picture heavy) post, so to see the swatches please click read more!

Cult Nails Divas and Drama Collection

Hi everyone! Happy Monday!

Today I'm feeling a bit.. meh about the swatches I'm going to show you. I trimmed back my nails last night and now I just feel like they're super short. My right index finger is definitely too short, so I left it out of the swatchfest today. In other news, I got most of my anticipated mail today, so of course I had to swatch them asap! I also got my jewellery supplies from etsy... I'm happy with most of the order, but one of the rings I got seems a bit low quality. Oh well.

Anyhow, onto the colours! I ended up getting the Cult Nails Divas and Drama collection with my $5 sale order. My sister put the order through, so together we got 2 bottles of Seduction, Scandalous, Enticing, Manipulative, Feel Me Up and Nevermore. The Divas and Drama Collection consists of Seduction, Enticing, Manipulative and Scandalous.

First up...

 Enticing: This is a sheer, creamy pink with subtle shimmer. I love how clean this one looks on the nails... this is the most perfect neutral pink ever. It can be worn sheer, but it can be worn opaque. I used 4 coats to get a nice opaque look, and the best thing is that it doesn't really feel like 4 coats. I've tried some sheer polishes before and 4 coats just piles on and gets goopy-feeling. I definitely don't have that problem here.

 Manipulative: This is a pretty blue with a slight tinge of green that kind of greys out the colour. I love it. It also has this shimmer in it that's super gorgeous. Formula-wise, it was a dream in 2 coats. I have lots of love for this.

Scandalous: This is a fantastic creamsicle orangey-pink jelly. I love it. I've had my eyes on this since forever, so I'm super happy it's finally in my hands. It's fabulous. This is three coats, with slight visible nail line.

Seduction: And now, the crown jewel. If you've missed out on Unicorn Puke/Clairvoyant... run to pick this baby up. It's pretty much UP/Clairvoyant without the green flakes, which makes it different enough to warrant a bottle of both, I gander. Pictured is 2 coats of Seduction over 1 coat of Nevermore (which will be featured in another post later).

Overall: I love this collection. It's fabulous. I've very happy I picked it up, and I can't wait for the preorders of the Fairy Tales collection to be shipped, so I can get my hands on those babies as well. I've never really been disappointed by any polishes I've ordered from Cult Nails and I can't wait to see what Maria comes up with in the future!

Cult Nails nail polish can be purchased HERE, and you should seriously consider liking them on Facebook and/or Twitter(@cultnails) for some great sale opportunities!

Hope you guys have a fabulous Monday!

Marisa

NOTD: Mint Oreo Chip

Hi everyone!

I'm still in the process of hunting down the China Glaze Poolside collection polishes to compare with some of the Summer 2012 Neons. I think for now I'd probably describe the poolside collection as being bright as &^%# neons, whereas the summer neons are a little bit more toned down (aka not crazy, radioactive neon). I'm still hunting them down, although I think finding them is going to take a while. I've already exhausted all of the local stores that sell CG, so I'm going to have to broaden my horizons.

I'm going to try to keep this post short - I walked 17km today for the heck of it and I'm super exhausted!

Today's mani is in honor of my favourite DQ Blizzard flavor EVER. I recently re-discovered mint icecream (I love this stuff!), so obviously mint oreo blizzards are my favourite now.

I used Orly's Jealous, Much? for the base, then topped it with a coat of Nubar's Black Polka Dot and White Polka Dot and topcoat.

I find that Layering Black Polka Dot and White Polka Dot kind of reduces my lemming for the infamous Connect The Dots. It doesn't have the bar glitter, but it still works for me. ;)

Thanks for reading! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Marisa

China Glaze Summer Neon Collection Part 2 (and some comparisions)

Hi everyone!

I was feeling pretty stressed out today (still am actually), this amazing course is being offered at another local-ish university and I reallllllllllly wanted to take it. Unfortunately, I only found out about it yesterday, and the registration deadline is tomorrow. I was told that the paperwork that needed to be done in order for me to take the course would take a few weeks (time I wouldn't have), so I'm most likely not going to be able to take it. Phooey.

Anyhow, aside from all of the somewhat depressing news (especially since I was super excited about it), I went out and managed to get my hands on the last 3 polishes from the Summer Neon collection! My set is complete! Yay! I also looked for the neons from the Poolside collection that was released a while ago, but my beauty supply store didn't have any of them in stock. Drat.

I have a bunch of pictures so a cut will be employed once again...

Recap: In the first post of neons, these were the 9 that were included: Left to Right: Splish Splash, Orange You Hot?, Beach Cruise-r, Love's a Beach, Ride the Waves, Pink Plumeria, I'm with the Lifeguard, Sun Kissed, and Surfin' for Boys

Butter London Knackered & Bossy Boots Swatches and Review

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Illamasqua MILF

Hi everyone!

I'm glad you all enjoyed my Peacock Feathers mani, I tried to do some more nail art yesterday, but I don't think it turned out as well this time around. I may get around to posting it sometime next week! :D

Just a super short post today, I recently added this post to my stash after hunting for Load (which was another huge lemming of me). I'm super glad I bought this polish, since this has become my favourite polish ever! Formula wise it can be a bit tricky to apply, but it's still manageable, and I really love the colour!

Maybe I just like this colour because it looks a lot better on my skin (it's yellow based) compared to the usual minty blue based greens.

Either way, it's gorgeous. I love it. :D

Thanks for reading!

Marisa

My picks from the OPI Holland collection!

Hi everyone!

OMG. I have been dying to get my paws on this collection ever since I saw the first swatches online! I've been stalking my local polish store for the last month waiting, and I'm pretty sure the girl working there is happy that I can stop calling! :D

I got a total of 7 of the 12 polishes that were released (which is probably a new record for me since I usually get a few that really catch my eye and then go back to buy more!), and I loved all of them except one (but we'll get to that later).

There are a lot of pictures in this post, so I'll put it under a cut! Click the link below to read more!

Left to Right: Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?, Wooden Shoe Like to Know, Gouda Gouda Two Shoes, Red Lights Ahead... Where?, Pedal Faster Suzi, I don't give a Rotterdam, I have a Herring Problem

My pick from the China Glaze Electropop collection

Hi everyone! Happy Saturday!

The weather here has been incredibly miserable.. it has been pretty much non-stop raining for the past few days and so the lighting hasn't been good enough for taking pictures of my nails! I'm actually toying with the idea of going out and buying some daylight bulbs to play with, but if I go out then I'd have to go pick up the bajillion other things I need too. Can you tell that I'm enjoying my lazy Saturday? :P

Alrighty, so today I have my picks from the Spring Electropop collection! I only picked up the blues and green (for a total of 4 polishes) from this collection, but I may go back and pick up some of the other colours at a later date. I'm ridiculously excited about OPI's Holland collection, so I'm trying to limit myself now so my wallet doesn't cry as much later! :D

 Aquadelic: This is a very pretty bright aqua blue. Looks similar to For Audrey in the bottle, but I think this is a bit brighter and vibrant. Comparison to come later!

 Electric Beat: A very pretty cornflower blue. My favourite in this set I think.

Gaga for Green: This picture gives the polish a bit of a blue tinge on my monitor, but I would describe it as a somewhat subdued yellow based green (almost lime green).

Kinetic Candy: Very light pastel blue. Very pretty, although probably not the most unique of a colour.


Sorry for the crappy pictures/lighting, these were all taken in overcast/rainy Vancouver weather. The formula on these were all good, Kinetic Candy and Aquadelic were a bit thick but still easy to control, and Electric Beat and Gaga for Green were a bit thinner but still equally easy to apply.


That's all for today, I hope y'all enjoy your weekend! :D


Marisa