Nail Polish Canada's Great Polish Giveaway of 2014!

Hello everyone!

This is HUGE! I know many of you would love to win nail polish, and here is a great opportunity to win some! Nail Polish Canada is my one of my hands down favourite places to shop for nail polish, and not only do I find their shipping fast and the people are amazingly nice - I always look forward to my order arriving because I always find a lollipop in my order, and it feels just like Christmas!

Anyway, keeping the rambling to a minimum... ;)

Here is the official blurb from NPC on the giveaway!

We’ve partnered with Cirque Colors, NCLA & Picture Polish to host the biggest giveaway ever.
One winner will take home up to 200 nail polish from over 10 different brands! The prize starts at zero, then bloggers can each pick a favourite shade to be added to the prize.

You can enter on their giveaway page and see all of the polish shades up for grabs here, and you can also additionally enter on all of the participating blogs (including here! on the Rafflecopter widget below!).



I chose to add Zoya Dillon to the giveaway prize!

I thought I had swatches of this polish, but it turns out on all of the occasions that I have worn it I neglected to take pictures. I was trying to dig out the bottle to swatch it for this post but I've also managed to misplace it! My polish collecting hasn't been as organized lately (my melmer is overflowing and I'm in desperate need of another one) and all of my newer polishes have been spread out throughout my house. So while I feel like I haven't made many purchases lately, I have a feeling I probably have enough polish lying around to fill another entire melmer (yikes!).

Of course, I ended up (just now actually) ordering a replacement bottle of Dillion from NPC. Of course I did. It's easier to order another bottle (I really like the color too!) than to tear my house apart looking for the old one, no? ;)

So, when the new bottle arrives, I'll be updating this post with swatches of this gorgeous polish!

Edit: My new bottle of Dillon has arrived and I've posted some quick swatches below! I didn't realize it before, but this polish matches my favourite pair of Toms!

Here is the Rafflecopter widget for the giveaway! Feel free to enter if you would like to, and good luck! I can already tell you that I'll be supremely envious of the person who wins all of that polish!

This giveaway is open to residents of the United States and Canada only, and ends on August 15th, 2014.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A NOTD: Rainbow Gradient-y Stamp-icure!

Hi everyone, Happy Thursday!

Today I have a NOTD that I did a little while ago to show y'all. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this one, but here are some more pictures!

Sorry from the backwards stamping on the middle finger - I must have turned the stamper around accidentally before stamping it onto my nail.

For my gradient I used:

Red: Cult Nails Evil Queen
Orange: Zoya Arizona
Yellow: Cult Nails Feel me up
Green: Essie Mojito Madness (I feel like a mojito now, yum)
Blue: Nails Inc Baker Street
Purple: Cult Nails Vicious

I used 2 coats of OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls as the base, and then sponged the gradient on. I didn't have any cosmetic sponges (it's on my shopping list), so I used a different kind of sponge that had perforations that were a bit larger (don't worry, not one of those yellow dish washing sponges with the scotch brite sides lolol).

I stamped overtop the gradient with BM plate bm-322 and Cult Nails Nevermore.

I had actually originally wanted to stamp the gradient over the white, but it didn't work out so well (will try again in the future!)

Anyhow, that's all for today! Thank you so much for reading, and I hope y'all have a great (polish-filled) weekend!

Marisa

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 Apple

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 another polish from Zoya's Sunshine collection from 2011. I was pretty excited for this polish since I LOVE green, and I'm not at all disappointed. I actually think I love this shade more than Ivanka!

Thanks for reading!

Marisa

Zoya Zuza

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 a polish that instantly made it's way up onto my top 10 list for 2012. Can you guess? Yep, it's Zoya Zuza! When the first swatches of the Summer Zoya collections came out, this polish really made the buzz. I loved Scrangie's swatches, but I managed to convince myself that I didn't need it... until I made my Nail Polish Canada order for the Fall Zoyas. I'm SO glad I got this polish though. It's gorgeous. The shimmer reminds me a lot of Cult Nails' Let Me Fly and Butter London's Victoriana, but the shade of blue is much more turquoise and fab. It's amazing. My pictures do this polish no justice.

Thanks for reading!

Marisa

Zoya Rica

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 a polish from last year's summer collection from Zoya. I managed to grab the entire Sunshine collection (which is super gorgeous), but I haven't really swatched it yet - or really worn any of the colours for an extended time. Not really sure why. Today I have Rica, which is like an awesome strawberry-blonde colour with the golden shimmer. I like how it looks in the bottle and in pictures, but when I actually had the colour on my nails I wasn't really floored by it... strange how some things work. I don't think the colour really suits my skintone, but I'm willing to try it again one day.

Thank you for reading!

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

Zoya FeiFei over Hits Cutie Pie

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 a polish from the Zoya Diva collection for Fall 2012. FeiFei reminds me of Zoya Crystal with duochrome flecks that make it really pretty. In the bottle, it's really obvious - but it's much more subtle on the nail. In an attempt to highlight the pink duochrome, I've put one coat of FeiFei over Hits Mari moon Cutie Pie (which is a gorgeous teal - pink - gold rainbow-y multichrome).

Thanks for reading! :D

Marisa

Top 20 of 2011 - Part 1

Hi everyone! So here is the first half of my Top 20 picks!
I know some of these were released before 2011, but I'm going to choose from polishes that I've acquired over the past year. I think next year I'll stick to the top 10 polishes released in 2012. :D

So these aren't in any particular order at all. Some of these polishes haven't been posted on the blog before, but they may be featured in their own post sometime in the new year!

Chanel Peridot

China Glaze Ahoy! - This is the most awesome raspberry pink glass fleck EVER.

Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

 A England Tristam - Smooth, beautiful scattered holo goodness.

Zoya Neeka - I love the finish. It's like a bird egg!

Zoya Yara - I love the gold shimmer-glitter in this! it reminds me of a speckled bird egg.

 China Glaze White Cap - One of my favourite layering polishes.

OPI Warm and Fozzie

Glitter Gal Lizard Belly - Eye-catching dark green linear holo!

Cult Nails Let Me Fly - Gorgeous, gorgeous shimmer. UGH. <3

Thanks for reading! I'll be posting part 2 soon! :D

Marisa

Something festive!

Hi everyone!

Today's post is a festive mani I did for my sweater party a few days ago!

I actually just realized that I haven't actually worn many of the Zoya polishes I got in the summer (bad me!), so hopefully the next time I don't know what to wear, those will be in my mind somewhere!

Today's post features Zoya's Ivanka and Kimmy!

Unfortunately, the colour of this picture is a bit more blue tinged. Ivanka (the green) is a super shiny, awesome money green colour )so less blue than it appears in this photo) and Kimmy is a firey golden-red which actually is really stunning in person. The only downside to this mani was that Kimmy managed to stain the crap out of my ring finger even though I used basecoat. Still very pretty though.

On my other hand I had the reverse, so I had Ivanka as an accent finger. None of my pictures really turned out though.. so sorry about that!

Happy holidays everyone!

Marisa

Mid Vacation Update

Hi everyone!

I just realized I completely missed a day while I was scheduling posts.. so I'm writing this now to make up for it!

I'm picking up a huge haul of nail polish here, so I'm going to share some pictures of it with you!

And a few more close up shots of all of the Zoyas..

When I get back I'll put the names down. There are also more OPI polishes, but I didn't manage to get any pictures of them.

Okay, well I'm going to go off now.. I need to pack since we're going to NYC tomorrow. I'll be gone for 2 days, but you'll probably hear from me if I can manage to get some free wifi somewhere.

Hope you're all enjoying the last few days of Summer!

-Marisa

Mini Haul!

Howdy all,

Today I'd like to share with you my 'mini haul' over the past two days!
First up.. the polish!

Essie Going Incognito, OPI Steady as she rose, China Glaze Little Drummer Boy

Billie Cosmetics Jovile (maroon) and Anxiety (turquoise-blue)

Color Club Age of Aquarius, Zoya Gloria and Crystal

I found the Zoya polishes at a small place called Spa Boutique on W4th avenue near Alma. It's fairly small shop, but I thought the service was great, and it seems like they're fairly up to date with their collections. they currently have a few bottles left of the Zoya Fire and Ice collection (no Valerie, which made me sad) and I was told that they're expecting the Intimate collection sometime soon (no news on the Summertime/Sunshine collection yet).

I picked up the Color Club and the OPI while I was scoping out Secret Beauty Supply, which is on Kingsway and Knight street. They have a large collection of nail polish, including an up to date selection of OPI, an assortment of Color Club sets (including Starry Temptress, Wicked Sweet, Alter Ego which are $22.99/set), and a fair number of China Glaze polishes (including the newest Island Escape collection).

The Billie cosmetics nail polish were from a dollar store I stopped by on my way home from the Beauty Supply store.. at $1.25 each, how can you resist? Anxiety reminds me somewhat of China Glaze Atlantis, and Jovile's base colour kind of reminds me of OPI's DS Extravagance.

I also picked up a bunch of Avojuice lotion at the Beauty Supply store. The small sample sized lotions came in a pack of 6 and were $6.95 for the pack, and the full sized lotion was $5.50. The small sample sized bottles were also sold individually for $1.50 each. I haven't tried all of them yet, but I think the Winter Huckleberry smells delicious!

Now for the polish!
Today I have Zoya Gloria on my left hand, and Crystal on my right hand.

Zoya - Gloria (3 coats)

Zoya - Crystal (3 coats)

Sorry about the mark on the middle finger, it's from a chipped nail.
These are my first ever Zoya nail polishes, and I'm impressed! I can't wait for the Summertime/Sunshine collections.. I need to find some store that actually sell Zoya in Vancouver.. I wish I lived in the States.. I have so many empty/messed up bottles of nail polish I could have exchanged.. but oh well. I've already gone through the collection swatches that have been posted online and picked out some of the ones I want to get.. I'm tempted to get Mira, which is a purple creme, just because it's the name of my cousin's baby girl. :)

The Zoya polishes retail for $9 at Spa Boutique.

Secret Beauty Supply requires a membership to purchase items, which can be purchased for $10 and is valid for 10 months. If you do not wish to buy a membership, you can still buy products, but for a 30% price increase.

Note: the China Glaze crackle line (white, black, teal, pink, grey and purple) are sold out at Secret Beauty Supply and will not be available until June)

Well, that's all for today. Do you know of any stores in Vancouver that sell Zoya nail polish? What colours would you recommend?

Ciao for now,

-Marisa