China Glaze All Aboard Collection for Fall 2014 - My Picks

Hi everyone!

For the majority of this year (and part of last year) I haven't been too impressed by the collections being put out by the mainstream brands. I hardly bought any new polishes from these brands (OPI, China Glaze, etc), and I was starting to wonder if my love of nail polish was diminishing. I'm also not really a Fall person - I really like bright colors, so Summer brights are usually what I gravitate towards.

With that little bit of background, I walked into my nail supply store to see if they had any of the new Fall collections. While most of the promo pictures I've seen online haven't really interested me, I decided to check them out in person before deciding against them. Lucky that I did! I ended up buying 6 shades from the China Glaze All Aboard collection, and 4 from OPI's Nordic collection (These will be up on the blog soon!).

The shades I purchased from the All Aboard collection are as follows (in the same order as shown in the photo below left to right): Lug Your Designer Baggage, Mind the Gap, Conduct Yourself, Nice Caboose!, Choo-Choo Choose You, and All Aboard.

NOTD: Sparitual Imagination over Peace, Love, and OPI

Hi everyone!

I hope you're all having a great January so far! Today I have a recent NOTD to share with y'all. When I first saw Sparitual Imagination I thought it was duochrome goodness in a bottle. I was hoping it would be opaque, but it was more like duochrome glitter suspended in a clear base. I decided to laŷer it over OPI's Peace, Love, and OPI for a sparkly, duochromey manicure.

My pictures definitely don't do this one justice! It's much more sparkly and duochromey in person.
That's all for today!Thank y'all for reading, and I hope you have a great week!


- Marisa

Color Club: Eternal Beauty

Hi everyone, I'm back!

Sorry for not posting in a while, I've been really busy and stressed out about all of the final projects and exams I've had over the past few weeks! My last exam was Sunday, so now I'm freeeeee.

I can't wait to show you all of the new polish I've purchased, starting with today!

Talk about starting off with a bang! Today I'm featuring a spectacular holographic polish by Color Club. This is Eternal Beauty, and it most definitely is a beauty!

Isn't it fabulous? Eternal Beauty is a blue-violet linear holographic polish. The holo in this polish is amazing! I really hope Color Club makes more holographic polishes like the Halo Hues. I'm particularly lemming more vibrant holographic shades like this one.

I can't really explain how much I love this polish. I didn't have any problems with application at all, and the holographic effect and colour is to die for.

I'll stop going on like a whiny record about this polish now. I can't wait to show you all of the other polishes that I've accumulated during my hiatus!

As always, 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 Glitz Bitz 'n Pieces Collection for Spring 2013

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone is having a great start to the new year! I certainly am! Of course I'm dreading going back to school (and job hunting), but I've been having a blast polish wise! I was stalking my local beauty supply for the OPI Mariah Carey collection and I had the best luck yesterday. Not only did they just get the Mariah Carey collection, but they also got this new China Glaze collection! Needless to say, the hoarder in me jumped out and I had to get all 6 polishes in this collection. In my defense it's glitter, which makes it much more reasonable, right?

Anyhow, there are a LOT of photos in this post, so I'll be putting it under a cut... here's some eye candy to hopefully tempt you into taking the plunge!

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

Cult Nails Flushed

Hi everyone!

Sorry for not posting more recently, but I've been pretty busy doing holiday related stuff! I'm also a bit sick now, so I never really feel like doing much unless it has to do with sleeping.

Anyhow, today's post will be short on words, since I think this polish can speak for itself! I love it! :D

You can't really see it in these photos, but in person the shimmer in this shifts from red-gold-green.

Sorry for the short post (word-wise), but thank you for reading!

Marisa

HARE Polish King of Carat Flowers

Hi everyone, hope y'all had a great weekend! Personally, I wouldn't mind having a few more days off... who wouldn't? :D

Today I have another quick-ish post... I've decided not to ramble too  much. I've also just had a look at my credit card statement so far for this month and it's not good. It wouldn't be too bad I guess if I hadn't taken my kitteh to the vet ($234 right there), but it's okay because I love my furbaby.

ANYHOW. Today's polish is the second HARE polish I snagged from the Fall 2012 collection! King of Carat Flowers is a gorgeous light grey creme-jelly with lots of really pretty gold glitter in different sizes and shapes, light purple square glitters and a spattering of bright blue iridescent glitters. In the pictures below I layered 2 coats of King of Carat Flowers over China Glaze's Elephant Walk. 

 

 

So, what do y'all think? Personally, I am loving this polish! I've been sucked pretty deep into glitters lately ever since I figured out the DIY peel off basecoat - I absolutely detested removing glitter in the traditional way before and it was one of the main reasons I didn't buy more indie polishes earlier.


That's all for now! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a great Monday!

Marisa

Pahlish Chemical Swirl

Hi everyone! I hope you're all having a great Sunday!

Today I have another indie polish that I purchased from llarowe! I'm eagerly awaiting another package (with my first HARE polishes!) that I'm expecting in about 2 weeks. Ever since I discovered the DIY peel off base coat (pretty much just nontoxic white school glue), I've definitely fallen hard over glitters. Before that base coat, I would always avoid glitters for fear of removal. I mean, I know the foil method is pretty easy, but I really hated how it made my fingers dry... and I didn't really have the patience for it. Nevermore!

Today I have Pahlish's Chemical Swirl. I have one coat layered over Cult Nails' Charming in the photos below. Since the weather sucks over here (overcast/rainy), the colour isn't quite accurate... it's a bit more red purple than blue (as it appears here). Check it out!

Chemical Swirl is a light purple jelly that is absolutely jam PACKED with all sorts of glitter and some awesome flecks. I won't even try to describe all of the glitters in here since I know I'll never get them all. Squares, hexagons, a few bars... it's amazing.

What do y'all think?

Thank you for reading, and I hope you all have a great week!

Marisa

Sephora + Pantone Parachute Purple

Hi everyone! Hope ya'll are having a good Sunday!

The weather here definitely took a turn towards miserable here... the forecast is for rain all week! I've been fairly busy at work, so I haven't been able to do my nails as often as I would like. I also haven't been as inspired lately, so I've taken to wearing some of my favourite colours that have come out over the past year without anything special.

That being said, today's polish is from the vault!

When I first saw Parachute Purple in store, I immediately thought that it was the closest dupe (maybe even dead on dupe) for Rescue Beauty Lounge's Scrangie. Even though I own Scrangie, I couldn't resist buying a bottle of Parachute Purple (for half the price of Scrangie, who can?). I initially intended on using PP as a way to save my precious bottle of Scrangie from being used up, but I actually think I like PP more than Scrangie.

Parachute Purple only requires two coats of polish to reach opacity (compared to Scrangie's many). However, there is a drawback... since it is so opaque, the shimmer in PP is more subtle. Also, the base colour in PP is more blue toned (as opposed to red leaning a la Scrangie).

I like Parachute Purple more than Scrangie... I don't mind the more subtle shimmer PP has, and the bluer base looks better on my skin tone. I also like the fact that I only have to use 2 coats that dry relatively fast... but then again, I usually layer Scrangie over another polish so I don't necessarily need to use many coats there either.

Which do you prefer more, Parachute Purple or Scrangie? I think if you missed out on Scrangie, Parachute Purple is probably the best alternative that is currently out there. I generally avoid RBL polishes because I find the hidden shimmer always a bit too hidden for my taste, and the price point ($20/bottle) including international shipping (another $20) is wayyy too expensive for me. I also make it a rule never to blow over $200 on nail polish in one go, so unless I'm buying with other people, I probably won't ever reach the free shipping requirements. :P

Thank you so much for reading! xoxo

Marisa

Innisfree #85

Hi everyone, TGIF!

Today I have an awesome polish from a Korean brand to show you! I didn't even know this polish existed until this one night where I stayed up reading nail blogs... when I saw swatches of this polish I instantly went and bought a set on EBay. I had pictures of the polishes in my haul post a while back, but today I have one of them to show y'all!

For this look, I decided to layer #85 over OPI's Steady as She Rose. I used a DIY peel off base coat (it's just liquid white, non toxic glue like those they use in schools). I love these polishes as they remind me of Deborah Lippmann's Glitter in the Air, but with different colours of glitters and bases. I usually don't like wearing glitters since I despise removing them, but with this base coat, I don't have to suffer through that anymore!

Anyhow, here's the polish!

Sorry about the odd shape of my pinky finger! I took this picture a while back when my nail was a really strange shape!

Thanks for reading!

Marisa

Cult Nails Charming

Hi everyone!

I'm back! Actually, I got back last week, but I started at my new job (which is full time) and I've been pretty exhausted. I'm still adjusting to the hours, so my posting will be somewhat erratic for a while until I can figure out my schedule. I'm still feeling too pooped to actually edit some newer photos (I have a bunch of cool things to show y'all in the future!), so today's post is from the vault!

These photos of Cult Nails Charming have been stuck in my archives mostly because I feel like the colour isn't really accurate. The colour is a tad more red based than it appears in my photos (on my computer). Nonetheless, it is a really nice shade to have in my collection. It's a bit sheer, but I'm looking forward to trying to use it in a glitter sandwich... maybe with some of those indies I just bought off Llarowe. ;P

Hmm, I think that's all for today! I'm planning on enjoying a pretty laid back Sunday... I think that'll be easy considering it looks like it's going to rain outside!

Thanks 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

Ebalay #011: Medium Purple Iridescent

Hi everyone! Happy Thursday!

I've been fairly busy lately, I'm currently waiting for some supplies so I can start opening a nail polish jewellery shop on Etsy. I'm no intending on making my Etsy store the top priority on my list, but I'd like to have it open casually so I can make pretty things for people that are interested!

Anyhow, today I have a polish I received from Kkcenterhk. This polish is a little bit sheer - I'm thinking it is meant to be a top coat instead of worn completely opaque. Or maybe it's meant to be sheer. I have no idea, but it's gorgeous none-the-less.

I don't think there are names for Ebalay polishes (they just have numbers at the bottom), but this is labelled as "Medium Purple Iridescent Shiny Styling Nail (product number EBALAY-A11)" on the Kkcenterhk website. #011 is a light blue-purple duochrome polish that also has a lovely red-gold flash at extreme angles. Unfortunately, the red-gold flash didn't really come out at all in my photos, but it's there!

The photos below show #011 over black.

The Ebalay bottles remind me of the OPI Designer Series bottles. The brush is wide and flat, also reminiscent of OPI brushes. The formula of this polish was good, it dried relatively fast and it was a good consistency. I'm not sure if this product is 3 Free or not, but judging by the smell that was present when I was applying this, it does not contain toluene.

Lately I've been obsessed with matte glitter and duochrome topcoats, so this polish is a definite win for me. What do y'all think?

This polish (and many other items) can be purchased online at the Kkcenterhk website. From now until January 31st, 2013, you can get 10% off your purchase using the coupon code: livelylacquer.

Thank you for reading! I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!

-Marisa

**The product(s) featured in this post were provided to me for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this post are purely my own. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

NOTD: Gradients

Hi everyone! Happy Wednesday!

Today I'm going to show you what's currently on my nails... I've been pretty uninspired lately so up until yesterday my nails were naked. I guess it's because I'm expecting a lot of nail mail. I'm really excited for anything I purchase online to come, especially nail polish. I don't want to do a really awesome mani now and have the mail come later and end up having to take it all off so I can try the new goodies. Does that even make sense? lol. Right now I'm waiting for some jewellery supplies I ordered from Etsy, my Cult Nails $5 sale order (I bought Nevermore, Feel Me Up, Scandalous, Seductive, Enticing and Manipulative), I also gave in and ordered Picture Polish's Mask-a-rade and Monroe from Llarowe during her birthday sale, and I preordered the Fairy Tales collection from Cult Nails as soon as the preorder was live. Yeah,  I'm excited. :D

Anyhow, onto the nails. I was feeling pretty uninspired until I saw this post by Ivana at Ivana Thinks Pink. I was instantly smitten with the look and I wanted to do something like it right away. I used this awesome awesome awesome tutorial for gradients by Sam at the Nailasaurus, so if you like the look... make sure you go have a look through it, and have a gander through her other posts as well! Her manicures are amazing!

So I actually have 2 NOTDs to show y'all since I did 2 different gradients for each hand. I was initially thinking about putting a coat of Milani Gems on each nail (to get a look like Ivana's mani), but the glitter on my trial run (on my thumb) came up more clumpy and dense than what I wanted. Instead I used a thin coat of Essie's As Gold as it Gets on each nail.

 

Yes, my nails are a different shape on my left hand. I have them more rounded since I usually don't use them for swatching (I'm left handed so it's easier to swatch on the right), and I usually like to cut them into nubs. I'm not really a fan of square shaped nubs, so they're rounded. I wasn't planning on posting any pictures of my left hand, but I liked how it turned out, so here they are! Also, my left hand doesn't have the reversed gradients like on my right hand... I didn't reverse the colours on my ring finger because I thought that the light green would really clash with my skintone.

Also, the pictures of my right hand don't quite accurately portray the colour... it's much more red-y magenta.

For my left hand, I used:
Dark Green: Essie - Going Incognito
Light Green: China Glaze - Gaga for Green
Gold Flakies: Essie - As Gold as it Gets

Right hand:
Magenta: China Glaze - Under the Boardwalk
Purple: China Glaze - Grape Pop
Gold Flakies: Essie - As Gold as it Gets

I'm really happy with how this turned out. I think I'm getting a hang of the gradient technique, so I can't wait to try it again with other colours.

Thanks for reading! I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!

Marisa