China Glaze Dash of Dazzle Christmas 2013 Set - Swatches and Review

Disclaimer: The products featured in this post were sent to me from the lovely people from Nail Polish Canada for review. Any opinions presented in this post are my own, and are not affected by any outside party.

Holy guacamole! A new post!

Sorry I've been away, I've gotten a new hobby it seems... work! It has been positively hectic at work since my last post. I'm not going to go into details since it'd be a long and confusing ramble (moreso than usual), so we'll skip that little bit and get straight into the good stuff, shall we?

I also apologize in advance if this post seems a bit disjointed at times... I have the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who playing in the background (for the second time) and it may distract me at some point...

Today's featured polishes were sent to me from the lovely people at Nail Polish Canada! I'm not paid to say this or anything like that, but I'd like to mention that Nail Polish Canada is one of my primary resources for purchasing polish. I think they have different shipping centres in Canada, but my parcels primarily get sent to me from within Vancouver, so they usually the day after they're processed. They're really lovely people - the boxes are stuffed to the brim with packing peanuts and the occasional sweet treat. I can only imagine how magical it would be with all of that beautiful nail polish in one place.. *wipes up drool*. Okay, okay, I'll stop gushing now and get on to the polish!

I now present to you the three piece Dash of Dazzle set from the China Glaze Holiday 2013 collection! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the polishes together in the boxed set as it got a bit smashed up when I accidentally dropped the parcel after finding it on my doorstep! D'oh!

The Dash of Dazzle set consists of three polishes: So Blue without You, Mingle with Kringle, and Bells will be Blinging.

First up: Mingle with Kringle

Mingle with Kringle is a gold foil. It is so much better in person than my photo can show. the foil particles are actually two toned (that is, not all the same colour), and that really gives this polish depth. It also shines like mad - almost reflective! I've been loving the gold foils that have been released this past year - they give a metallic look without the streakiness that the "mirror" metallics give (that seems like such a long time ago now!). Formula wise, this polish was a tad on the thick side, but the application was still good and I didn't have any major issues with it. I used 2 medium coats for complete coverage.

Bells with be Blinging is a pretty glitter mix that includes small blue glitters, silver hex glitter, and silver bar glitter. You know that I'd not really fond of bar glitter (and actually most glitter polishes), but I find that it actually works pretty well in this polish. The glitter isn't too dense, and isn't hard to apply at all. I have one coat of Bells will be Blinging in the photo above over Color Club Evolution (from the Kaleidoscope collection). It's a nice subtle bling, which suits my style.

And finally, last but not least: Blue without You.

*Swoon* Be still my heart! Blue without You is a GORGEOUS blue foil-y metallic polish. It's so.. glowy and bright and beautiful. It's a sky blue with a tiny hint of teal in it, and did I mention that it's gorgeous? It looks a bit streaky in my photos, but you can't really see that in person at all. It glows! It's beautiful! I love it! Formula was great too! It's not as thick as Mingle with Kringle, so I used 2 thin coats (I prefer thin over medium coats - I have better control that way). My ONLY complaint is that it stained my nails after I swatched this with no base coat. The next time I wear this (the very near future), I'm going to make sure to use a liberal amount of base coat to try to prevent the staining from happening again. This polish is too pretty to not wear again! This is definitely in my "Best of 2013" list!

And there you have it! What do you think? I must confess, when I first saw this in store, I passed by all of the colours thinking that they weren't anything special, but I sure am glad to have the opportunity to change my mind! I can't believe I passed on Blue without You!

That's all for today, but I'm hoping to be able to post more frequently from now on (I can't make any promises since I'm still working full time before I go back to school in January). I have a MASSIVE Rescue Beauty Lounge order that'll be making its way to me sometime in the near future... I know I usually avoid buying RBLs because I feel that they're a tad expensive, but I just HAD to take advantage of their 50% sale and ended up getting a bunch of the polishes I've wanted for a while now. Hopefully that'll be my last order until next time they have this sale (I can't justify buying their polishes at normal price!).

Annnnnnnyway! As always, thank you for reading! and I hope you all have a FANTASTIC (fantastic in all caps!) week!

The polishes in this post can be purchased online at Nail Polish Canada, along with several other polishes and brands. At the moment NPC is offering free shipping to Canadians with no minimum purchase, which is, I'd like to remark, perfect for the holidays!

Marisa

Picture Polish Sea Jewel and Whimsy

Hi everyone! Long time no see!

Today I have some amazing polishes to show y'all! As you may have noticed, my posts have become a bit less frequent since I'm working full time and usually end up staying a few hours extra each day too.

Anyway, onto the polish!

Picture Polish Whimsy (with Neverland Nail Blog) and Sea Jewel (with Wacky Laki)

These two polishes are from a group of three that were released Monday as the newest additions to the Picture Polish Blogger collaboration line. I was lucky enough that Nail Polish Canada actually had these in stock Monday night, and my parcel was delivered Wednesday afternoon (with lollipops!). The only collaboration polish from this release that I didn't purchase was Frosting. It is a cute glitter combination, but I wasn't sure I'd wear it very often (I don't actually find myself reaching for chunky glitter very often. Isn't this strange? At least it lets me save money that would otherwise be spent on indies!).

Out of the two polishes I ordered, I was the most excited about Whimsy, a bright light blue with gold shimmer. I got Sea Jewel (a teal-y green loaded with silver glitter) on a whim - I liked the base colour but was unsure about the glitter in the polish itself. After seeing (and wearing!) these polishes in person, I'm super glad I got both!

Now, enough rambling and the pictures!

Sea Jewel

Created with Wacky Laki

*Swoon* My pictures don't do this polish justice. The formula on this polish is good - I used 3 coats to achieve opacity. I was skeptical about the glitter at first - in the bottle the polish can look a bit 'flat' (kind of like a lot of non-shiny glitter in a base) - but after I put it on it was stunning! Light really just bounces off the glitter in the polish, and the size of the silver glitter in the polish itself allows for each glitter particle to reflect the light back to your eye, creating an effect reminiscent of the glimmer of sunlight on waves in the ocean. I'll stop rambling now, but my final word on this polish is that it is so gosh darn pretty. Love it!

Whimsy

Created with Neverland Nail Blog

Isn't she a beauty? The formula on this polish is good too. I used 3 coats for opacity. I'd definitely give this polish a minute or two between coats to avoid any streaking (which is possible if you're a bit heavy handed on the application like me). Just to warn you again, my photos don't do this polish justice. I was a bit worried at first that the gold shimmer would be either really subtle or elusive (by elusive I'm thinking about a polish like Meep-Meep-Meep from the OPI Muppet collection a while back that had the prettiest glitters in it that all happened to sink down and disappear into the polish when it was dry). I'm happy to report that the glitter in this polish are neither elusive or subtle. This polish is gorgeous. Easily makes my top 10 list of most amazing polishes ever. Another bonus: the gold fleck/shimmer/glitter in this polish is also duochrome. If you look at your nails from different angles, gold will be the primary colour, but at increasingly extreme angles the shimmer/glitter will turn a subtle teal-y green.

So, what do y'all think? I'm very happy with these polishes. I'm sure Sea Jewel and Whimsy will make it to my top 10-20 list of polishes from 2013 at the end of the year, and I'm certain they've both found their way onto my top 10-20 list of all time favourite polishes. This polishes can be purchased directly from Picture Polish, or from their distributors such as Harlow & Co and Nail Polish Canada in Canada, and Llarowe in the United States.

Thanks for reading! I hope you all have a great weekend! :D

Marisa

Cult Nails Afterglow

Hi Everyone! I'm alive! Sorry for being away for so long, I've been really swamped these past few weeks with midterms, interviews, presentations... you know, school stuff. I lot of unexpected things happened too that really had me planning every day down to the minute.

I don't have any more interviews scheduled (kind-of thank goodness!), so I'm going to take this time to schedule some posts. I actually have a lot of really cool polishes that I've been dying to wear but haven't been able to because I haven't had time to change nail polish plus with all of the job interviews I've been just wearing OPI's Steady as She Rose pretty much non-stop. It's a great colour, don't get me wrong... but I've really been missing those brights!

Anyhow, I'll quit yammering about how crazy my life has been and get on to today's polish. I don't know why, but I left this polish in my untried for so long that it's now out of stock on the Cult Nails website. If I remember correctly, this collection was limited edition, so I don't know if this polish will come back into stock again. I certainly hope so, for the sake of everyone who hasn't gotten a bottle (and me, maybe for a back up!). It's fabulous. Crazy fabulous. I love it.

Just look at those pink sparkles. I dare you to click on the image and look at it full size. Amaaazing. I don't normally gravitate towards this colour (bronze isn't really my thing) but those pink sparkles make this polish unlike any other bronze-y polish I've seen before. I love this pink and bronze combination a lot. If I recall correctly, this polish was a bit on the sheer side - I think I used 3-4 thin coats. Worth every single one. This is right up there with Feeling Froggy as one of my all time favourite Cult Nails polishes ever.

What do y'all think?

Thank you so much for reading!

Marisa

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!

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

Essie: Leading Lady

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend!

I kind of feel like this weekend went by wayyy too fast... I'm not ready to go back to work! Most my time this weekend was spent on fiddling around with lightbulbs and lighting for blog pictures. I really dislike the blue tinge that daylight bulbs give off, so I've been trying to find something more suitable. I'm still in the process of tweaking things around, but hopefully I'll be able to find a good set up eventually.

Anyhow, today's polish is a very pretty polish from Essie's winter collection. I usually don't buy many Essie polishes (mostly because I find them a tad boring and expensive), but I gave in and bought this polish when I saw it at my local drugstore.

 
I really like this polish. This is actually my first polish of this kind since I've put off buying China Glaze's Ruby Slippers. The only thing I do't like about this polish is the fact that it dries a bit gritty... but that's typical of most glitters.

What do y'all think? I'm off to change my polish and fiddle around with my lamp a little bit more!
Thanks for reading!

Marisa

HARE polish Atolla

Hi everyone! Sorry for being away for so long! *waves*

I've been using a lap at work lately to take pictures of my polish... the only problem with this though is that I keep forgetting my camera at work! Thank goodness I remembered to bring it home for once... I can't wait to share these polishes with y'all! I'm pretty much at work for all daylight hours now, so I'm only able to take pictures at home using my lamp. It uses a daylight bulb, but for some reason I always feel like the pictures always turn out too blue. I'm going to try to get something set up where it isn't too blue (I'm thinking of trying another kind of bulb).

Anyhow, onto the polish! Atolla is absolutely, stunningly gorgeous. The blue iridescent-y glitter is so bright it freaks my camera out and so I've only managed to take some semi-decent shots. Sorry for the blur on the second one!

Gah. It's so amazing. The glitter is so bright that even if I stare at it, I can't make out the individual glitter particles. Love this polish. Formula wise, it is a magenta jelly - so it is a tad sheer. If you have nubbins with not very much visible nail line or if you look the semisheer-ish look, this polish definitely won't be a problem. For me, I have some very dark stains (ew) on my nails that stand out a bit more than normal VNL. I used 4 thin coats for the above, but still could kinda see my nail line.

So, what do you guys think? I absolutely love this polish and I'm in love with the Fall HARE polishes! :D

Thanks for reading!

Marisa

Innisfree 82

Hi everyone!

Sorry that I've been MIA lately, I've been pretty much an uninspired polish wreck. Hopefully that will be over soon though, because I got some EPIC nail mail today! I got my first HAREs and two of my most lemming'ed Cult Nails polishes! WOOHOO!

Hopefully those polishes will be swatched soon for y'all too, but today I have another great polish I wore a while back. I really love this one.

Innisfree 82 is a gorgeous combination of cantaloupe and light green hex glitters and tiny light green glitters suspended in a light yellow based green base. Above I have it laytered over Orly's Jealous Much?

That's all for now! Thank you for reading! I can't wait to share my first HARE polishes with y'all!

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

OPI Goldeneye from the Skyfall Collection

Hi everyone! Happy Tuesday!

Today I have a GORGEOUS polish from the new holiday collection from OPI that is based off of the upcoming James Bond movie of the same name! I don't know about you, but I've seen pretty much all of the Bond flicks out there! Or a short side note, I wonder why none of the gold polishes are named Goldfinger... that seems like a pretty apt name for a Bond inspired polish, no? :P

But back onto the polish... I really love Goldeneye. Take a peek!

Goldeneye is a gorgeous pure gold foil polish. It is amazing. The best way I can describe the colour of this polish... it's like a gold bar on my nails. Pictured above is 4 thin coats of Goldeneye. This polish is pretty sheer, so I can see this as a great gold top coat as well.

The onyl thing I wish I could have now is a polish like this but with a completely smooth surface. In low light/indoor this polish looks pretty close to being an unbroken smooth surface, but it isn't really 100% smooth. If someone came out with a metallic like this and was this reflective... I'd own it for sure!

Hmm, that's all for now! Couldn't wait to share this one with y'all!

Thanks for reading!

Marisa

China Glaze Glitter All the Way

Hi everyone! TGIF!

Today I have another awesome glitter for you from the China Glaze Winter/Holiday collection! This is the only polish I picked up since I'm on a low-buy, but it is pretty awesome! I definitely don't think my swatches do this any justice!

Glitter All the Way is a mix of jewel toned glitter in green, magenta, violet, and gold. Most of the glitter is the same size, but the green glitters are larger than the rest. Below is 2 coats of Glitter All the Way over Cult Nails' Nevermore (a black creme).

This glitter is pretty dense, so It probably can be built up to opacity in a few coats. I love the stunning jewel tones in this glitter mix - it's so sparkly and eye catching! Colour wise it isn't really a Christmas-y or winter-y theme... to me I'd say this is like a Mardi Gras mix, but then again this could be my kind of New Years confetti!

Of course, with most glitters this does feel pretty rough when dry, so I'd definitely recommend a thick top coat (or two).

That's all for now! Thank y'all for reading! <3

Marisa

Candeo Colors Zef

Hi everyone, I hope y'all had a good weekend!

Today I have an awesome polish for you from my latest indie polish buy from Llarowe! I'm not really on the indie polish wagon, but I can't help getting some of them! My next buy will probably be some of the HARE polish fall collection... from the preview bottle shots I want 4 of them for sure, but that might change once I see actual swatches. In this last order I got Candeo Jellybean, Zef, Pretty and Polished Rat-a-tat, and Pahlish Chemical Swirl.

This polish is definitely my hands down favourite from the 4 polishes that I purchased. I was a bit unsure about buying Zef since I wasn't all too sure that the mix of matte pink, light blue and black glitters would really be my style. I layered this over Sparitual Lucid (a pretty light lilac-lavender purple) and I absolutely LOVED this combination.

What do y'all think? I've found that most of the indie polishes that I've purchased so far are either hit or miss, but this one is definitely a hit for me!

Thanks for reading! I hope you all have a great week!

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

Vacation Parcels!

Hi everyone!

First of all.. TGIF! Today marks the end of my first full week (last week was a 4 days week since labour day was a holiday) at my new job. I'm writing this in advance since I won't be able to type up posts the day of on weekdays since I get home pretty late. It kind of sucks how there isn't enough light (and I feel too pooped) to swatch for the blog after work, so all of my swatching has to be done on weekends. I'm sure a lot of polish bloggers have to do the same, but it's just a bit unusual for me since I'm used to being in school and getting back relatively early.

ANYWAY, onto the meat of today's post! I'm not going to do much talking for the rest of this post since I'll most likely be revisiting all of these products in their own posts sooner or later. These items all arrived while I was away on the East Coast, so I had the pleasure of opening all of these up when I got back home!


I got two sample sets (each set includes 6 soaps of your choice, so I have 12 in total) of soaps from KBShimmer. I normally don't like handmade soap, but I thought these were too cute to pass up on, and so I'm "testing" them for gift quality *cough cough* and also taking the opportunity to figure out what smell I'd like for a tub of KBShimmer body scrub. I'm a sucker for body scrubs.

Top to bottom, left to right: Pink Sugar, Raspberry Vanilla, Rosemary Mint, Oatmeal Milk and Honey, Bamboo Sugarcane, Paradise, Kaleidosoap, Gardeners, Lilac, Chai Tea, Blue Hawaii and Southern Belle.

My Cult Nails Birthday Sale Order (only the new polishes!) I also got 2 bottles of Wicked Fast and a back up of Feelin' Froggy. I really wish I got a bottle of Deal with it, but I guess I'm just going to have to wait till the next sale!

 
 Innisfree nail polish. This is a Korean brand that I saw late one night while I was browsing nail polish blogs. Obviously I shouldn't read polish blogs late at night because I ordered these babies a few minutes after I saw them. No regrets though, since these are gorgeous.

I also received my Llarowe order of 2 Girly Bits polishes... I didn't manage to take pictures of them though, before I used them up for frankening. You'll be hearing about this in a later post! 

Before I go, I wanted to mention that I really appreciate all of the FANTABULOUS comments left on my scheduled posts while I was away! Thank you so, so much! <3

That's all for today! 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