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

China Glaze Sea Goddess Collection for Spring 2014

Hellllloo everyone! I'm back!

Sorry about the unplanned hiatus! I'll have much more time to blog now (and do my nails for that matter). For the last few months my nails were an absolute mess. It'll take me a while to get them back into shape, so please excuse my gross cuticles and dry hands in the next few posts. Actually, I'm looking for a new lotion that's heavy duty but also good for everyday use that doesn't have an overwhelming smell and absorbs fast... so if you have any recommendations feel free to leave them in the comments! My hands thank you in advance!

Anyway, on to the polish! I went to my polish supply store for the first time in a few months last weekend to see if they had any new, interesting collections. Although I've been on a break from the nail polish world (I think I purchased a record low number of polishes in the past 8 months), I've been keeping tabs on the upcoming releases just in case there were any that I absolutely HAD to have. I came across the China Glaze Sea Goddess collection which I haven't actually heard of yet... I had to google the collection name to figure out if it was actually a recent collection. Of course, my hoarder instinct kicked in and I purchased all 6 polishes even though they didn't have a swatch wheel and I had the idea that they were textured polishes (which I'm not completely sold over). 

This'll be a fairly long post so I'll put it under a cut. Unfortunately I forgot to make a collage thingy so there isn't any pretty picture before the cut (I tried to make it just now, but it's hard on a tablet without a stylus...)

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

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 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

Sephora by OPI - Mermaid to Order

Good evening (night?) all!

I figured I'll do a short post tonight, and hopefully another post later tomorrow. I'm stressing myself out by doing course planning.. and adding even more stress by trying to figure out when I want to graduate.

I won't bother you with details, but all of this stress seems to be taking a toll on my cuticles.. *sigh*

Anyhow, on a cheerier note, I have Sephora by OPI's Mermaid to Order to show y'all today. I got this polish as a gift before I was really into nail polish, and I don't really wear it too often since I have a crapload of untrieds in my stash.

This is an awesome frosty-metallic teal polish. It's really bright in the way that it glows, something about the way it shines makes it very eye-catching (at a loss of words, trying really hard to describe this one). The only downside is that its great finish also makes this one show lots of brushstrokes, and it doesn't dry particularly fast either.

Hmm, that's all for now, hopefully I'll be feeling a bit less stressed and more inspired later.. I have a bunch of photos I need to edit for later posts. :D

-Marisa

Nfu Oh #52 over China Glaze First Mate

Hi everyone, super short post today since I'm just taking a break from studying!

Today I have Nfu Oh's #52 (blue green base w/ flakies) layer over China Glaze's First Mate (navy blue creme). I really like this combination!

#52 is so gorgeous.. I think it's at/or the top of my favourites! Of course, I don't actually have an actual list yet.. but I may make one in the future. I think there are a lot of polishes that would be included on that list that I just can't think about right now!

I'd also like to take advantage of this last week of studying to invite you to leave me links to your blogs and/or blogs you'd like to see on my blogroll! I need more reading material!

That's all for today, hope you are all having a fantastic Saturday.. I'm going back to studying protein transport and modifications now.. @__@

Ciao!

-Marisa

Cult Nails Week - Let Me Fly

Whew, that was a lot of Cult Nails! I hope you guys have enjoyed that as much as I have!

To conclude Cult Nails week, I bring to you one of my favourites from the A Day at the Races collection.. Let Me Fly!

Let Me Fly is a dusty teal-blue chock full of silver shimmer. I. Love. This. Love at first brushstroke anyone? I got so excited after I put this one on that I ran around and started showing everyone.

See what I mean? I love this. Looove.
That's why I saved it for last!

So I guess my favourites out of this whole stash would be (in no particular order): Let Me Fly, Living Water, Devious Nature, Iconic, Captivated, My Kind of Cool Aid, Always Winning and Cruisin' Nude.

Oh, what's that? Those are all of the Cult Nails polishes I've shown you?
..Oopsies. ;D

So, now it's your turn! What is your favourite out of the lot of them?
And if you don't have any of these yet.. what are you waiting for?! If you love blue, I think Let Me Fly is calling your name!

Let Me Fly and other Cult Nails polishes can be purchased online for $10 each at the Cult Nails website.

Have a nice day!

-Marisa

L.A. Colors color craze green and China Glaze Four Leaf Clover comparison

Oh snap, it's me again!

I completely forgot that I compared the LA Colors Color Craze green (mentioned in this post) to China Glaze's Four Leaf Clover (from the Up and Away collection).

I only used 2 fingers for this comparison.. I think the polish and acetone fumes were starting to get to me even though I had the window open!

LA Colors on the left, Four Leaf Clover on the right

This picture is not quite color accurate, but I think it shows the difference in colour quite nicely.. the LA Colors green is more yellow based than Four Leaf Clover, but I'm thinking that the two polishes can be close colour-wise depending on what kind of light you're in.. I'll try to take a picture in the sun the next time it comes out to try to do another (better, more thorough) comparison.

-Marisa

It's late, but I'm not asleep.. yet.

Good morning everyone (it's 1:30AM right now, so it's early early morning!)

Just another quick post (unless I start rambling on about things) before I hit the soft, kind of comfortable thing that is my bed for the night. Why "kind of comfortable"? Well, have you ever had a cat step all over you at night and try to sleep on your chest? Yeah. It's not that bad, considering she mostly sleeps on the bed.. but flat out on the middle of the bed seems like the prime spot. Tell me about it.

Anyhow, after I got the huge package I described (in pictures) in the previous post, I decided to do my nails (hmm, deja-vu.. I probably mentioned this briefly in the last post too). Since I'm so indecisive, I used 4 colours with two colors alternating on each hand. I'm weird, I know, but having mismatched hands doesn't bother me. I had China Glaze Spontaneous and Grape Pop on one hand, and Something Sweet and Heli-Yum on the other. I did this late at night after my last post, and it turned out horribly.. for some reason I had issues applying the polish (mainly Something Sweet.. it seemed a bit on the gooey side) but the problems could have been because of inexperience or maybe because I was just so darn tired.

No pictures of this paint-job, it looked horrible and I ended up taking it off the next day as soon as I had time.

After I took off that massive fail, I put on something I think turned out much better.

I used China Glaze's Lemon Fizz (a light pastel yellow from the Up&Away collection), Mermaid's Tears (a murky pastel-y green from the new OPI Pirates collection) and topped them with China Glaze's White Cap.

In full sun

In part sun/shade to show the shimmer

I had no problems with applying any of the polish (aside from having to redo a nail.. but that was because I smacked it on something and it made a nasty smudge). I keep finding myself more and more drawn towards the Pirates of the Caribbean collection every time I go into a salon and see the polishes there.. and I must admit I rather like Mermaid's Tears. I also saw the Silver Shatter in massive quantities at a beauty supply shop I visited, and I'm kind of tempted to buy it.. and MAYBE On Stranger Tides. *sigh* I think this obsession is getting out of hand.

I really love the shimmer of White Cap on top of the polishes though, I'm even thinking about getting a back up bottle, even though my bottle is pretty much brand new.

Urgh. I'm tired now.. I've already spent way more time than I expected rambling. Time to tune out and turn off!

Ta-ta all,

-Marisa