neon skittles!

Hey guys! Short post from me tonight with a cute skittle mani.

As I've said before, I cannot stop wearing my Sunsational Collection from China Glaze! If you missed the swatches, check them out here.
These three shades were calling to me one day, and they look great together!

The pinky and index finger are China Glaze - Sun of a Peach.
The thumb and ring finger are China Glaze - Neon & On & On.
The middle finger is China Glaze - Bottoms Up.
I mixed the colors differently on my other hand.

I was planning to stamp something on top of these, but ended up just leaving it alone because I liked the colors so much!

I almost feel like I need backups of all the cremes from this collection... But I'll resist. Maybe.

China Glaze Fairy Dust vs. OPI Yule Love This Silver

A reader (Miss Intensity Nails, to be exact) commented on my last post, asking if I could shed some light on the difference between China Glaze - Fairy Dust and OPI - Yule Love This Silver.
The two bottles were nearby so instead of just telling her, I thought I would show her!

(Posted this nice bottle shot on my Instagram.)

These are both clear holographic topcoats with very fine silver holo glitter. What's the difference?

One is much more dense than the other. That's the OPI on the left and CG on the right.
Yule Love This Silver is more glitter-packed than Fairy Dust.

Shown is just one coat of each over the color I was already sportin', China Glaze - Shell-O from the new Sunsational collection for summer. I bought all 12 of those babies and I can't wait to show them all off to you guys!

Probably a neon wasn't the best color to do this comparison on, but hey, work with what ya got.
Both these topcoats are very sparkly and add that extra oomph to any mani, but I prefer the OPI just because it has more glitter and is more sparkly!
But the CG is nice for when you're looking for a more subtle touch of glitter.

I hope this comparison did the trick :)

NCLA - Don't Call Me Peachy! & As If!

Hey guys! Happy Saturday.

Nail Polish Canada has just started carrying NCLA nail polish!
There are so many nice colors, as well as lots of cool nail wraps. And what's even better, NCLA is 5-free and never tests on animals.
NPC sent me two of their new Life's A Beach pastel shades to try, and I'll be showing them off today!

NCLA - Don't Call Me Peachy!
Pastel peach is always a gorgeous color for spring. The formula is great and covers in just two coats!
I'm a big fan of the brush, too, it allows you to paint very neatly. Not too big or too small.

NCLA - As If!
Purple! You know me and purple. This is a great lilac shade, especially because the formula is not too thin like some pastels, and covers in just 2 coats.  This will definitely be a go-to polish for me.

I had to combine these beauties into one springy manicure!

Tada! A gradient with some delicate stamping.

I wasn't sure if peach-purple would make for a nice gradient, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I used a cosmetic sponge to create the gradient, starting with a full peach nail and slowly adding/building the purple with the sponge.

I added the stamping with Konad Special White polish and Konad m73, both of which are also available in the Konad section of NPC.

These pretty pastels retail for $16, and as always, NPC ships for free within Canada if you spend $25! It's so hard to not spend all my money there... Haha! (I've got my eye on the new Color Clubs.)

You can also check out the NCLA website, and don't forget to like Nail Polish Canada on Facebook!

Some products provided for honest review. 

connect the... diagonal neons?

Afternoon everyone!
Here's the mani I mentioned in yesterday's post about Lynnderella's Connect The Dots - a fun neon mani with CtD on top!

Tada!
I think CtD is best over a neon color... And even better over two of them!

This mani started out with two coats of Julep - Hayden, one of the few Julep colors I love.
I then painted half my nail with Color Club - Poptastic, which I had to do 2 coats of to make it even.
I added 2 coats of Lynnderella - Connect The Dots on top.
And this fun neon mani was born!

I got a ton of compliments on this mani just because it is so eye catching!
Several people were really confused as to how I "did" the black and white - they don't believe it's just glitter.

What do you guys think of neons + black and white glitter? I basically can't get enough.

the sun isn't shining but my gradient is!

Here in Newfoundland, we don't get a whole bunch of sunny days. Maybe in July and August... A week or two... But it's not too hot usually.
I've gotta keep my nails sunny, even if the sky isn't!

Woohoo! Summery gradient!
Me and some friends all decided to do gradients on this lovely Friday, and here's what I came up with.

My color combo was inspired by one of my "nail crushes" - Ivana Thinks Pink. There's nothing she does that I don't like! Seriously. Ivana, quit being so awesome!
She did this mani using China Glaze Peachy Keen and Orly Fancy Fuchsia. Hot damn, I need Fancy Fuchsia. Why don't I have it?! Jeez. I NEED IT! Her nails were glowing. Amazing.

I used the same peach - China Glaze Peachy Keen.
I tried to substitute Zoya Lo for the pink but it just doesn't look quite so hot.
It's still pretty though!
But one day I will redo the mani... Whenever I find myself Fancy Freakin' Fuchsia.

To do this gradient, I tried the new gradient tutorial that is sweeping the blog world, from The Nailasaurus.
But, I couldn't get that to work... At all. It just was not showing up with these colors.
So I went in and did it the way I'm used to, which you can see in my older tutorial here.
But I still wanted the flawless blended look you can get from the newer way, so I ended up doing that on TOP of the gradient that I did my way. And that turned out magical! It blended the colors seamlessly.

After that, I stamped the floral pattern from Konad plate m65. It's almost like a Hawaiian shirt! Haha, I love it.

I'm was going to submit this in Kayla Shevonne's Nail Art Contest but then I realized you can't stamp for her contest. Damn!
If you haven't checked out her contest already, hurry! There's just less than 12 hours left to enter.

I hope you guys enjoy this mani! I'm going to be doing lots of gradients again because I just love them and it's been too long since I've done them! I think I might even do another one later today. Woohoo!

Julep review and swatch spam!

By now, you've probably heard of the polish company Julep.
They've got this pretty cool thing called Maven where you subscribe and pay $20 a month to receive a box that has polish and other stuff in it like hand creams or cuticle oil. I really like the idea. But the execution... not so good.

There have been several long blog posts about people's issues with Julep before and my experience was no different. Their customer service leaves so much to be desired, and makes it difficult to want to ever support them.

I joined Julep Maven a few months ago during one of their sales where you can get your first box for just one cent. After that I paid for one box (because I wanted the cuticle oil in it and the colors seemed nice) and then I got a free box for referring two people. Since then the boxes have just been boring and I'll probably never pay for another one.

I don't like Julep but I sure like that photo I took of them! Hahaha.

Okay, here goes the review on the actual polish. I'm going to make some general complaints before showing the swatches.
1) The bottle is just horrible. I have no idea who thought it was a good idea to put nail polish into such a tall, skinny bottle. It has no stability and is so easy to knock over.
2) Because of the long and skinny bottle, the brush suffers. It has to be longer to reach the bottom of the awkward bottle. Because of this, it is way harder to paint your nails because the brush is further from the handle. Imagine trying to write your name with a pen, but holding it way further away than you're used to. It's just messy.
3) You know how sometimes, you're painting your nails, and suddenly a big drop of polish drips down the brush and onto your nail? That happens pretty much every time with these. Again, it's due to the bottle. More of the brush handle is dunked into polish in the long bottle. So more polish stays on the brush handle waiting to drip down and flood your cuticles. It annoyed me so much as I was swatching that if I had to put the brush down for some reason, I laid it on the table instead of putting it into the bottle so it wouldn't get coated in polish again.
4) The brush itself... Ugh. It's too thick and hard and won't conform to the nail. I've got a photo illustrating that after the first swatch.
5) The price. These retail for $14. Good lord, I hope no one actually buys these for $14 a piece. So so so so so so not worth it.

Okay. Do you even want to see the polishes after that? Haha!

Julep - Chloe
A black jelly with lots of magenta glitter. This polish has probably one of the worst formulas I've ever used. It was like glue. Black, glittery glue. Just awful. 2 thick coats.

Here's the photo showing how the brush does not conform to the nail:

See that empty spot along the sidewall? Good luck getting the brush to fan enough to get down there. Especially when you're working with glue.
So annoying. So bad.

Julep - Hayden
This polish I like. The formula is good, and the color is really different. It's like a neon peach. No complaints about this one, besides all the general bottle/brush complaints.

Julep - Oscar
Oscar is a gold glitter that was inspired by The Oscars.  This is just one coat over Hayden. You could probably get full coverage with this glitter. As far as glitter goes, this is nice, but not original.

Julep - Kim
Kim is a streaky, awful mess. This is three frosty coats, and each one dragged the other. It was a nightmare to apply. No bueno. Yuck.

Julep - Megan
This one is an alright color, not unique, but again the formula just sucks. Frosty and streaky and draggy. 3 coats.

Julep - Helena
Nice color, alright formula... But you can get the same color from Sinful Colors for $2. Sometimes $1. (The color is Dream On.)

Julep - Marisa
Nice color, decent formula, nothing special.

Julep - Leah
I love this color. Great formula, too. 2 coats. Really nice shimmer. Thank the lord I actually got two polishes I like.

Between my three boxes I also ended up with a bottle of their topcoat which is really sucky.
I also got a bottle of Nail Therapy which I haven't tried but I'm sure it's nothing to write home about.

Now I'll show you the one thing that made my $20 spent on Julep worth it:

The cuticle oil.
I just love it. Not necessarily the oil itself but the delivery method.

It's a roll on! How smart. Man, I love it. Just roll it onto your cuticles. No mess, no fuss.
The oil smells really good, it smells like fruity cereal! Seriously! It doesn't absorb as good as OPI's AvoPlex oil (which is my favorite) but it is better than some other brands I've tried.
So the oil is decent but the bottle is awesome.
When I use it up I'll be refilling it with AvoPlex! Good job on this one, Julep.

One last little complaint before I go:

Why are the labels all in different places?!

Ooooooooh, Julep.
I hope this post has been informative... heh.

I wish there was China Glaze Maven. OPI Maven. Color Club Maven. Essence Maven. Those things I'd pay for!