ultra random swatch spam

I thought this vacation series might be a good time to look back through swatches that I've never posted and see what is decent enough to post.

I've found twelve (yes, twelve!) totally random swatches that I feel are post-worthy! Some of them are even quite lovely.

I think part of the reason I like doing swatch spam and posting swatches it because it gives me a chance to write down anything special about the polish - like if it was a gift, or if it came from somewhere cool, etc! It's fun for me to be able to read back and see why each polish is special to me.
Let's get to it!

China Glaze - Drawn to You
This is one of those polishes that looks better in pictures than it does in person. The magnetic effect works well, but I'm just not a big fan of the actual color. 2 coats.

Icing - No Name Blue Magnetic
2 coats. This was the first magnetic polish I bought and still the only one I really like! The colors are awesome, the magnet effect really pulls out this purpley shimmer and the squiggle magnet it comes with is my favorite.

H&M - Bella's Choice
My dear pal Line in Denmark sent this beauty to me. A perfect turquoise creme! 2 coater. Definitely could be called "Rebecca's Choice" because I love it!

Cosmetic Arts - All The Trimmings 
This is one weird polish. I picked this up at Winners, just because of how different looking it is. The blue shimmer you see in the photo is not very prominent in person, and it actually has a pink flash. It's thin, 3 coats, and still kinda sheer. Not really attractive... But it was just so weird, I had to have it. 

Pure Ice - Ruffled Sheets
Ew, sorry for this yucky-colored photo. This is one of the newer matte/suede/velvet/whatever polishes from Pure Ice. The wonderful Lori picked this up for me! I've got 6 of 'em. They're nice. You almost can't tell this one is matte because it is so reflective!

Color Club - Feelin' Groovy
Super neon green! Three coats. Dries semi-matte. I think I bought this one in Toronto last year!

Essence - Hello Holo!
This is a Nail Art Special Effects Topper from Essence. Essentially just super blingy silver holo glitter in a clear base. Shown here over Sephora by OPI - Son of a Gun from the Betsey Johnson collection. 
This found its way to me from Caroline at Good Lack Nail!

Essie - Play Date
Hello, right hand! This is a lovely purple creme with a great formula. 2 coater.  

Nabi Magnetic - 05 Purple
A nice purple magnetic! 2 coats. Very vibrant. I got this polish from the wonderful Laurie @ Dressed Up Digits!

China Glaze - Riveting 
This was probably the most well-liked polish from the Hunger Games collection from China Glaze, but me, I hate it. Ha! I just do not like orange. Yuck. But if you do like orange then this is a must have, apparently. 

BB Couture - Junk In The Trunk
I have no idea why I have never posted about this polish or the one to follow. I believe they are the first polishes that I bought online, after seeing such beautiful swatches on blogs. I remember I felt a little crazy for spending $10 plus shipping on polishes but I knew I had to have these.
And then I swatched them, didn't even wear them, and didn't love the photos, and never even posted them! Shame on me, seriously. I'm going to actually wear these polishes ASAP because they deserve it.
Junk In The Trunk is a beautiful shimmery blue, and as far as I can remember, the formula is great! Isn't it purdy? The next one is even better...

BB Couture - Man Bug
So pretty. Probably one of the prettiest polishes I own, actually. It's so me! Turquoise with glittery shimmer. I have no idea why I don't wear this all the time.
It's a bit sheer, needs three coats. And as you can see I applied it a little thick back in the day when I did this swatch... Haha. I will wear this again and take even more beautiful photos!

I'll be home tomorrow! :)

Icing - Lemme See Your Peacock

Morning everyone! Today I have another glitter topper to show you, which is another polish inspired by peacocks! Peacocks are pretty trendy lately, eh?

This one is just awesome so I'll quit talking and show it to you!

Icing - Lemme See Your Peacock
OMG. I pretty much have no words for this one. Fuchsia, green, and teal blue glitter all in a clear base.
It's very "me" because of the colors and of course because of the Katy Perry reference in the name.
(I named two peacock nail posts after the song too! Here and here.)

The glitter is all the same size and it disperses really well on the nail. This is two coats, over Depend 255.

Definitely head to your local Icing if you've got one to pick this baby up! It's a winner in my books. It's such a fun glitter topper.
I've also seen the same glitter as a part of a mini set at Claire's.

I've been feeling all kinds of nail-inspiration lately... Check out my Facebook page for a little sneak preview of something I whipped up last night! ;)

glitter bomb!

Good morning!
I know I said yesterday that I would be posting my Teeez holographics today, but I forgot that this is Monday. And Monday means Monday Nail Art Challenge on Polish-Aholics Anonymous!

Before I get to that, however, I want to share a link with you.
Recently I came across this blog - Loodie Loodie Loodie.
This lovely lady shares all her knowledge about nails, and I have learned SO much from reading all her posts. I read them all in 2 hours because I was so interested. I know so much more about my nails now!
Go read her posts. Your nails will thank you! She also has some YouTube videos!
(Have you noticed this happening to you? I have, and this post saved me some worrying! I thought there was something wrong with my nails!)

Okay, back to my own nails!
This week's theme was glitter bomb.
I have a lot of glitter. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do.

I decided I wanted to try a glitter gradient, using the colors from my peacock mani as inspiration!
It turned out pretty nice! But it had to come off right after taking the pictures. You'll see why.

Glitterrrrrr! The gradient effect was much smoother in person.

For these blinged-out nails I used:
Color Club - Object of Envy (green)
Milani One Coat Glitter - Blue Flash
Milani One Coat Glitter - Purple Gleam
Icing - Runaway (pinky purple)
I also used several glitters from the 2 way nail art pen set. (Shades of green and blue to help smooth out the gradient.

This was so pretty and glittery and I would have liked to keep it on... But...

Look how thick it was! It would never dry.
I took the easy way out and wiped it all off with a tissue.

icing duo - force of love/magnetic attraction - swatches and review (deborah lippmann dupe!!)

Good afternoon! Today I have a more fun post for you, haha.
I'm going to show you swatches of this cool duo I got from Icing:

Yes, you are looking at a really close dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Across The Universe!
I first saw this polish on The PolishAholic, she compared them both and I was totally sold. I pretty much ran to Icing.

These sell for $8.50 in Canada or $7.50 in the states, and cosmetics are basically always buy one get one 50% off. They are only available at Icing stores.

Force of Love is a deep blue sheer base with big hexagonal blue and green glitter, with smaller blue and silver glitter mixed in.
I swatched it over 3 different blues to see which combo I liked best:

Top-bottom: China Glaze First Mate, no-name blue lollipop polish, and Finger Paints Carnation Creation.
I liked First Mate the best, so I put it on my nails!

Loooooove it. 3 fingers are 2 coats of First Mate with one coat of Force of Love. The pinky is 4 coats of Force of Love alone.

My pinky is on the right. Doing more coats gives it more depth, but these bottles are pretty small so I would rather layer it.

It's just so pretty. I'm so happy I discovered it.

And now for the next color, Magnetic Attraction. This reminds me a little of Lippmann's Today Was A Fairytale, but it is not really that close.

This one is a clear base with large hexagonal glitter that is a bit holo, and smaller black and iridescent glitter.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to swatch this one over, but then I got nail mail from Traci! And I decided to wear it over the polish she sent me.

This is 2 coats of Essie's Going Incognito. It's really pretty! A nice dark green creme. I meant to take a bottle comparison of this next to OPI Jade Is The New Black but I forgot and now I'm at work with no access to my stash :P
I guess I'll have to compare them whenever I swatch JITNB. They aren't too close.
Thank you Traci! I love it :)

And then I added Magnetic Attraction.

The glitter disperses pretty well. Almost all the iridescent glitter looks dark blue over the deep green base.

I really like this combo and I kept it on instead of just swatching it!

Verdict: If there is an Icing store near you, go there. Go there now.

In other news, my kiosk is right next to a Mrs Fields cookies store, and they are baking cookies right now, and the smell is KILLING ME.
Need. Cookies.
But cannot have cookies as I only have 16 days left for my Katy Perry diet! Hahaha.

one of the best layering combos ever!

Hey guys, when my floral mani started chipping yesterday I decided to try and remake a stunning combo that my lovely blogging friend Jane did. Her blog is Nailside and everyone should check her out because her designs are great and so perfect!

She posted this mani one day and mattifed it the next day, and the combo was so great that I had to try and recreate it!
But out of the 3 polishes she used, I only had one. So I hunted through my stash for similar polishes and I think it did the trick!
This post will be pic-heavy because it was too beautiful!

I started out with 2 coats of OPI - Yoga-ta Get This Blue.

This is a dark blue with turquoise shimmer, but the shimmer is less noticeable on the nail than it is in the bottle.

I wasn't too happy with the formula on this one, it was a bit streaky and hard to make even.
I got this for 60% off though so I don't care! This next picture is more color-accurate but a but blurry.

And then I added 2 coats of Gosh - Gasoline.
My mom heard me complaining about how much I hated the last Gosh polish I had bought and decided to exchange it for me, lollllll. I feel a little bad where I had used it on 4 nails but whatever!
Gasoline is gorgeous but a bit sheer.

Like Jane, I loved it at this step too. Gasoline was just so pretty.

(click to enlarge and see the beauty!)

I was tempted to stop here.
But I had to keep going and add OPI - Last Friday Night.

I love Last Friday Night. It is sheer, but lately I've been down with sheer polishes. And as you can see it is great on top of stuff too.

(click to enlarge and see more beauty!)

The above picture is the most color accurate, because the purple was really that visible in person!

Last Friday Night also happens to be one of my favorite Katy Perry songs. (Behind Peacock, of course. Have you heard that song? If not, go listen to it. Unless you're easily offended... heh)

And then, matte!

My matte top coat is Icing - Matte About You. 
I'm never sure about matte looks.

I like this one though! Glittery matte manis pretty much always look nice.

Just look at that purple shimmer! And all the glitter! I'm in love.

I think I managed to recreate this really well!
But the problem was, after 5 coats of color and then matte top coat, it just wouldn't dry fast enough and I took a big chunk out while doing some tidying. So I took it off. :(
But it was nice while it lasted!
I will be using Gasoline again sometime soon, I love it!

Here's a picture of the bottles.

Thanks for the inspiration, Jane! :)

I get my grades for this semester today, wish me luck!

I WON!! :D / icing - runaway - swatch and review

You guys! I am one of the winners in the Bundle Monster contest!
Big thank you to everyone who voted! I'm positive I couldn't have won without you guys!
I can't wait to get the plates and start playing! :D

I'm delighted.

Now I'll show you the nail polish I am currently sporting!
It is pretty rare that I end up posting something on the day I am wearing it, hahaha.
I got this polish on Monday and put it on that night because it was too pretty not to.

Runaway is a magenta glitter polish that can't really decide if it wants to be purple or pink.
I found it hard to photograph the same way Senorita Bonita was - always too pink or too purple.
But I think I got a good one!

More details and pictures after the jump.

easter egg nails!

Finally I had some time to do the easter nails I had planned!
I like the way they turned out but my mom thought there was too much black.
Let's see what you think!
(Also you'll notice that I chopped off all my nice long nails)

As you can see I kinda messed up one of the lines on my ring finger, but please excuse that.
I still think they're adorable!
I like the thumb and middle finger especially.They turned out really good.

The easter bunny and her eggs! Haha!
I found this adorable Easter Hello Kitty at Old Navy!
And it had to make an appearance. I also have a Christmas HK. Maybe that one will make an appearance at Christmas!
I think the nails especially look cute in this picture too, they're kinda better from further away.

For these nails I used a base coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White.
Using a small brush I painted on the other colors, which are:
Joe Fresh - Powder Blue, Butter, Faded Violet
Wet N Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink
Icing - Mint 2 Be
And using a small striper brush I painted on the black details with WnW Wild Shine Black Creme.

I'm all ready for Easter! And I have Friday off! Yay!
I already know what I'm getting for Easter too.
Remember my amazing sheets that my extremely popular hearts hearts hearts mani was based off of?
More of those. But cotton ones for the summer. I'm still obsessed with them.
Actually I am so obsessed with those sheets that I've started making a crochet afghan like them.
So far I only have 2 squares done, but I'll show you anyway!

The green wool photographed strange, but it is actually identical to the sheets. I managed to find all the perfect wool colors!
This blanket is my summer project.
I know you guys liked my posts from a few months ago with my baking adventures, would you like to see more of my crochet adventures?

Okay, I'm going to go pass the time at work by doing a crossword and also working on my blanket! (Yes, I brought balls of wool to work.)
I hope you enjoyed my nails and my blanket-in-progress!

300 followers! / springy dotty skittles

Last night I clicked over 300 followers! Thanks everyone. I've now gotten 104 new followers since starting my giveaway. That's a lot!
I'm happy to have all of you here at my little piece of the internet!

Today I'm going to show you some nails that are perfect for spring.
I wore these a few weeks ago which was a bit too early, but now is the right time!

(click to enlarge)

Pastel polka dot skittles!

I really like the subtle look of the white stamping on these colors, but I wish I had a better white stamping polish. I might have to spring for the Konad one eventually.

Here's what I used:

Joe Fresh - Faded Violet
Essie - Turquoise and Caicos
Wet N Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink,
China Glaze - For Audrey
Icing - Mint 2 Be
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On
I stamped with Bundle Monster BM19.

I've decided that a good goal for polish-buying this month is to buy less polishes than there are days in the month.
And so far it isn't working. Today is the 4th, and I already have 4. (Actually, I had these 4 on the 2nd.)

This is my first Sally's B2G1 haul. China Glaze White On White and Liquid Leather, and Nina Ultra Pro in Purple X-ing.
I needed a better quality black and white really badly, but I was waiting for a deal like this to come along to get them.
And I haven't swatched the Nina yet, but from what I an see in the bottle, it seems like a dark purple version of OPI Teenage Dream. Exciting!
I'm sure I'll be back to Sally before long...

And the fourth I bought was a bottle of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Invisible.
I needed this because if you use Seche Vite when you're trying to place multiple stones, it dries before you can get them all on! So I'll be using this to place the stones and then Seche Vite to seal them.

I noticed that this bottle of Xtreme Wear has a sticker with the name on top. I wish they all did! I have so many of these damn bottles and it would be convenient to have names on top!

I broke a nail really badly this morning getting into my dad's truck to go to work :(
Always the same nail too!
I guess I'll have to cut them all down now. Boooooooo.