Daring Digits Popped!

Hey polish people!

Today I am wearing Daring Digits Popped over Color Club Poptastic! The weather is starting to warm up here in NB (even though it just snowed two days ago....) but this manicure is perfect for this sunny day!

This has got little circular glitters in rainbow colors and bigger rainbow coloured shard glitters! When I say rainbow I literally mean rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue & purple :)

This is two coats of Popped and the glitter distributed nicely, I pushed some of the big ones around on the second coat to get the look I wanted. I like how this turned out, a different take on rainbow glitter. I like the randomness of the shards and I like the ratio of shard to little glitters!

Look how bright and happy this polish is? I am a huge fan. I am so happy to have this polish in my collection. It is a great colour for summer.

Something I love about Daring Digits is the size of the bottles and also the price. This is "mini bottle" and is 9ml! That means this will actually last me a long time. For reference a full size aEngland is 11ml, and a full size HITS is 8ml. This mini bottles are such a nice size. Her full size bottles are 16.5ml! That is a BIG bottle! Standard bottle size (OPI, CG, etc) is 15ml. Full size bottles retail for $8, and mini's for $4. The quality is great too. It is a great bang for your buck! Also her CS is great. When I had a question about my order, I had a response the very next day! She also runs some great sales, with reasonable shipping costs, even to Canada!

What do you think of this mani?
Thanks for reading!

NOTD & Swatchey SPAM

WOOOO HOOO It is a spam day! Swatch and NOTD spam for your Saturday morning viewing pleasure.

Joe Fresh Cobalt & OPI Big Apple Red

China Glaze Electrify over China Glaze Kahlari Kiss!

Color Club Poptastic and Color Club Almost Famous

Zoya Ciara

Joe Fresh Iris

Color Club Almost Famous & Color Club Chelsea Girl

Zoya Marley

OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam

Julep Pippa & Essie Theres No Place Like Chrome

Hope you enjoyed the spam!

Zoya Ali Swatch :)

Hi! 

Today I am showing you Zoya Ali.. it came out a long time ago but it is a great summer colour! A bright neon pink! It dries slightly darker than bottle colour but not as much as my photo shows! The formula was a little but sheer but built up nicely at three coats and was easy to apply. It dries to a satin finish and this picture is without top coat! I really like this polish :)

Have a nice day :)

I'M BACKKKKKK! ..with some summertime neon flower nail art :)

I'M BACKKKKK! 

I am back from my almost five week time away at work! I realize when I am away that I really do take some things for granted when I am at home. When I landed in Montreal it was the most amazing feeling to take off my toque and feel sunshine on my skin. Also it is awesome to not be followed around by massive clouds of mosquitos. Taking a shower longer than 1 minute (without stopping the water to soap up) with no fear of running out of water was amazing! I finally feel CLEAN :) I spent a night in Montreal with some people I met at work and we had a really amazing time! What an unbelievably awesome city!

On to the polish! I got lots of nail mail while I was away but I will save that for a different post coming up as soon as the rest of it arrives! Today I'll just show you a simple nail art design I wore. I did almost this exact same design earlier in spring with some more muted colours by OPI (Think Nicki Minaj colors). This time it is all about the neon and China Glaze! 

The base is China Glaze Im With The Lifeguard, the petals are China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy and the middles are China Glaze Sunkissed. I used a medium sized dotting tool to do the petals and again for the middle of the flowers!

I quite like how it turned out :) and I am very happy to be able to make some more regular posts again, it was hard being away from all my polishes for so long *embarrassed*

Badass but Girly Nails.. FT Orly, OPI & Rhinestones

Today I am showing off some nail art that I wore a couple of weeks ago when I still had the luxury of wearing nail polish.

My thumb, ring, and pinkie finger are OPI Metallic for Life. An awesome black jellyish polish stuffed with different sizes of silver hex glitters. It has a great formula (I did just one over a black black polish) and its incredibly sparkly. Then I got all trendy on myself. First trend that I was rockin' that day was the two accent nails.. I painted them with Orly Beach Cruiser, a great neon pink that covered pretty good in two coats, better in three. The second trend is the framed nails.. but I couldn't for the life of me paint it on very well so I gave up and used black rhinestones that I got from BornPretty! (I love Born Pretty). I used a coat of Gelous and then one by one stuck them on with a dotting tool dipped in top coat to make it tacky. It seemed like it might be tedious.. but I was watching modern family, and I was in a rhythm.. so it didnt take very long at all! After a coat of Gelous, and a coat of SV, they were stuck REALLY well on there. I was rough with my hands and I didn't lose any of them before I wanted to talk off the manicure (about three days total). The regular polish was chipping before those rhinestones had any wear & tear at all.

I think the rhinestones and the neon pink give the manicure a girly look, while the rhinestones being black and the black nails make it look kind of badass. I think the silver hex glitter tie it all together being both girly AND badass. Good on you silver hexes. I like that you can be flexible.

Anyway, it makes me a little sad to look at these pretty nails when mine are in such a horrid state. I miss them Hahaha. But work is going well! Woohoo!

Summertime Nails Of the Day! Orly Beachcruiser & Joe Fresh Fluo Blue!

Hello :) I'm so sleepy! I work insane hours when I am away for work. I want to take a nap :P

ANYWAY lets talk about polish! I did this mani a couple of weeks ago and for me, it was one of those manicures that was simple.. but that I was in love with. Nothing fancy, just bright, fun, and summery. Plus at the time my nails were long and healthy which now they are not :P Haha. Stupid work. Ruining my hands and blogging time haha

Anyway, this is Joe Fresh Fluo Blue & Orly Beach Cruiser done in that new trend where the accent nails are your pointer and middle finger. I like this trend, I like it a lot! Super fun.

Let me just say that I am getting A LOT of wear out of Orly Beach Cruiser this summer thus far. I've worn it.. more times than I can count. Good thing Orly bottles are big :D I also love Fluo Blue. It is not a neon but its very vibrant :D It has an ALMOST one coat smooth and easy to work with formula. If you do thick coats, you can get away with one for sure. It goes on smooth and very even. Its bright and fresh too. 

I also thought they looked perfect together. Really complimented each other well :] They both also wore quite well. I took it off with minimal tip wear on day three, and I was volunteering at the SPCA everyday playing in the dirt with dogs. Held up really well :)

*waves longingly to old long healthy nails*
*snarls at oddly shaped weak peeling excuses-for-nubbins*

Neon Yellow Comparison Post!

This summer is all about neons.. and I love it. I can't wear them at work but I was rockin' em back home, and when I get out of the woods... trust me I will be rocking them some more. I can't get enough. Since neon yellows are all the rage right now, I combed through my neon yellow collection and picked four to compare!

From left to right we have:

American Apparel Neon Yellow

Orly Glowstick

China Glaze Sunkissed

Color Club Almost Famous.

From left to right on the nail:

Color Club Almost Famous (pinky)

China Glaze Sunkissed (ring)

Orly Glowstick (middle)

American Apparel Neon Yellow (index)

Sorry for this horrid picture. I was rushing :(

Colours: No dupes here. Even in the bottles, Almost Famous is the odd duckling here. It came out a couple of years ago so its not as "with the season" as the other neon yellows we are seeing this summer. Its more of a "banana" shade but don't underestimate it. It is still very bright. And it is still awesome. China Glaze Sunkissed is more of a neon lemon yellow. What sets it apart is the amazing golden yellow shimmer running through it. Stunner. Orly Glowstick.. a fantastic neon yellow that leans green. Looks exactly like the colour of a neon glowstick. Epic colour. American Apparel Neon Yellow is the standard neon yellow. It is the exact colour of a neon yellow highlighter. No muss, no fuss, no coconuts. So colour wise, they are all similar, but a little different in the details.. with Almost Famous sort of sticking out there like a sore thumb.

Formula and Application: Almost Famous has a standard Color Club two coat formula. My bottle is very old and has lost some of its self levelling ability but with some thinner I think it should be back in tip top shape soon. No need for white undies. China Glaze Sunkissed pops a LITTLE bit more with white undies but is definitely not needed. Its a thick formula. Need to watch for dragging. But two coats is enough. Orly glowstick needed three coats on its own, or two over white. Not too thin, not too goopy. Pretty good actually. And now for the problem child of the group... AA neon yellow. What a frustrating polish. Its thick & goopy AND sheer???? It needs about five coats on its own to get it smooth and opaque. Two to three over white is OKAY but probably not even. It also takes forever to dry. I practically poured half of my bottle of thinner into it. My bottles pretty old but from what I can remember it has always been a unique kind of hell to apply. I hold a special place in my heart for it though because it was my first neon yellow nail polish from quite a few summers ago and it is straight up original neon highlighter yellow.  Does anyone know if I just got a bad bottle? I'll gladly pick up a different one if thats the case because I do love the colour.

Anyway, back to work! Hope someone found this somewhat helpful :]

China Glaze Sunworshiper VS Essie Action - Comparison Post!

Greetings!

Today I might rant a little and I apologize for that. Today is also a comparison post day! 

I was at Lawtons Drugs and saw a bunch of Essies on display so I picked up Action. I hadn't seen swatches of it yet but I was really curious because it looked like a bright coloured cantaloupe that I have been looking for! You know when you imagine a shade in your head and decide you need to own it? Well that is me and the colour of cantaloupe. Well I got action home and tried it out. Originally I was excited because it seemed to be drying to a satin finish on the first coat and I realized this shade was from their summer neon collection. I was like "A JUICY NEON CANTALOUPE! COOL!" But I soon came to be VERY disappointed.

It was drying MUCH darker than bottle colour. Like, beyond what you'd expect. No, this shade is not actually cantaloupe on the nail at all. Its much darker. Not so dark as to be a traffic cone neon orange, it is more of an awkward orange. Also, for me the formula was no bueno. It was sort of goopy.. but managed to be thin enough to fall off the upper end of the brush while I was painting. It was sort of streaky. I needed four coats to get rid of visible nail line. I needed THREE over white to make everything even. I was unhappy. I liked how it was neon though. I thought it might compare to China Glaze Sun Worshiper, another yellow toned neon orange.

Bottle Shot of Action. I would have suffered through the formula if it ACTUALLY looked like this colour on the nail.

China Glaze Sun Worshiper has an equally frustrating formula, but is much easier to handle over white. These colours are actually really different. Action reminds me of the colour of Kraft Dinner Macaroni and Cheese powder.. Hahaha.. Sun Worshiper has much more yellow and is much more neon than Action.

These pictures are:

Index and Ring: four coats Essie Action

Middle and Pinky: three coats China Glaze Sun Worshiper

All have topcoat.

Okay, so Action is nice in its own way. It does have a nice "Squishy" look to it. I will probably wear it again because of that. If you are willing to put up with the formula, and want a neon orange that isn't traffic cone or too yellow.. go for it. I am the type of girl who usually puts up with a bad formula if the colour is a good trade off (Hi, Sun Worshiper). I think most of my disappointment stems from the fact that it is NOT bottle colour. ITS WAY DARKER. I was expecting my dream cantaloupe colour to have finally found me but I guess I have to keep looking.

Anyone know of any nail colours that are the colour of a ripe cantaloupe? Anyone else have problems with the formula/colour of Action? Did I get a bad bottle?

China Glaze Summer Neon Sunkissed - Swatch!

Okay. I broke the rules. I bought one more polish before I go to work. I was worried that if I left for a month and came home this baby would be gone and I would have missed the boat!!! I needed to grab it and find it a safe place on my shelves.

China Glaze Sunkissed. Neon. Shimmery. Yellow. Goodness. A neon lemon yellow, perfect for summer.. as soon as I get a tan. I couldn't manage to capture the beautiful golden-yellow shimmer with my camera :( It is there though and obvious in real life! It is what really makes this different and special.. sets it apart from my other neon yellows. The formula was pretty thick. Not goopy.. but thicker than I am used to. For application I suggest waiting a couple of minutes in between coats to make sure you don't get bald spots or patchy drag marks. This polish was surprisingly opaque though. Two coats is enough! For a neon! And a yellow! This is unheard of in my collection. No need for white undies either. Dry time was average for me, and it dries to a semi-matte or satin finish. I added topcoat for these pictures.

I think I will be reaching for Sunkissed frequently this summer! :)

China Glaze Im With The Lifeguard - Swatch

Big day today! Not in my life (my life is boring), but in my polish land. I found a green that might bump Twiggie out of the #1 spot on the list of my favourite greens: China Glaze I'm with the Lifeguard!! It came out with the Summer Neons collection for Summer 2012. I wanted every single one of those polishes but I'm on a strict no-buy right now until I go back to work and I broke the rules and allowed myself to at least buy one polish.. for now. Rules are for breaking and I'm soooooo glad I got this bad boy. Now I can't imagine my life polish collection without it. I really do love the colour green. Also how cute is the name of this polish? I WISH I was with the lifeguard.. hahahaha

Im with the lifeguard is an insanely bright neon lime green. Like, it burned my retinas it is so bright! And to top it off it has an amazing yellow toned lime green green shimmer that in real life is absolutely stunning!! It applied great and had an awesome formula for a neon! Not gluggy or thick at all, if anything it was on the thinner side, but not so thin as to pool in my cuticles or anything. But I was careful just in case. It dried to a satin finish. These photos are two coats over a white base with topcoat. My camera struggled to capture the shimmer because the finish is so bright but in real life the shimmer is very obvious, not subtle like my pictures make it seem, you'll just have to trust me on it.

I absolutely adore this colour, it is right down my alley and I can see myself wearing it all summer long! It even makes my hands look sort of tan. I can't imagine how amazing it would look with a real tan or on a darker skin tone. I was thinking it might be a dupe for my American Apparel Neon Green but Im With The Lifeguard is SLIGHTLY darker, has that added shimmer, and has a WAY better formula.

If the rest of the colours in the collection are anything at all like Im With The Lifeguard then I can't wait to pick up some of them up!

Nails Inc Portobello - Swatch

Yoooooo everyone! Sunny day out today! I'm going to spend it at the SPCA walking some of my furboyfriends and girlfriends. I am still waiting for the call (my work call, I'm not a superhero unfortunately) so I spend a lot of my time volunteering out there. It is a lot of fun to give and get some love from the dogs and cats, plus there are some spots to hike and go for long walks so it can be good exercise too! On a side note though, I need to get a call for work, I'm starting to be really broke and I have some big bills to pay!!! Also some nail polish to buy!

Anyway, on to a happier topic... today I have a Nails Inc Neon to show off! I got it at Sephora for $10 the last time I was in the city. It was just sitting by the cash staring at me.. being all neon... begging to be bought. It even has a huge orange sticker on it that screamed NEON SHADE. I wasn't so sure I needed it, and then I picked it up and saw that it was named Portobello and I was like HOT DAMN and threw it into my basket. Portobello? Come on, I had to. Those are like.. the most delicious mushrooms ever. Not that this colour looks ANYTHING like a mushroom. Where did nails inc even think up this name? Probably picked it out of a hat or something.

In the bottle it definitely looks coral, but it dried darker on my nails to more of a tangerine orange colour with SLIGHT pinkish undertones. It definitely feels like a jelly in application, which I love. Its got a great formula, but since it is so jelly-ish it is a little sheer. It dries to a satin or semi matte finish.

The first picture is two coats over a white base. 

This second picture is four coats on its own. Yes, I needed four coats to get absolutely no visable nail line. I was okay with that though because it dried really quickly and it has such a squishy look to it that I really REALLY like. If your nails are shorter or a slight VNL doesn't bother you than two or three coats would be fine!

Squishy.. neon.. coral/orange.. jelly = awesome. I love the fact that it packs a double batch of win for me because of the neon\jelly. Those are my two favourite things. I think it is a great summer colour and would look great on most skin tones, it even makes me look sort of tan! (sort of). Also neon corals are apparently super trendy this summer, so it would be a good colour to pick up :)

Side note again!!! Here is my buddy Wilber who lives at the SPCA. He is such a good dog! I'm headed out to play with him now :D

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy - Swatch

What a beautiful sunny day out today, I already got a sunburn while walking dogs and wearing SPF 50. Darn me and my pale translucent skin. Anyway, I am in the mood for pink (maybe to match my sunburn?).

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy came out with the Poolside collection in 2010 but is now part of the core line that you can buy at Sally's. It is an incredibly unique neon pink, because instead of being blue toned it is orange/coral toned. It was kind of hard to capture in pictures but I think I managed okay! Its totally awesome for summer. Bright, fun, girly, and eye catching for sure.

This is three coats plus topcoat but I think it could have been fine with two if I had put it on over white. It was a little thick but still manageable. It self-levelled with topcoat just fine too.

Oh I love it. I really do. I'm going to wear this a lot this summer. There really is something about neons and summer, and I love it. Any excuse to wear a neon for me :)

Orly Neons For Summer 2012! Swatches & Review

Haiii

I was in my local Sally Beauty and I was blinded by some awesome neons from Orly! I only picked up two, but the two colours are SOO down my alley.

Orly Beach Cruiser- A very neon blue toned pink! This is two coats over one coat of OPI Alpine Snow, and it dries to a semi-matte or satin finish. I have on topcoat in these photos. I have a lot of neon pinks and it isn't necessarily unique, but its very pretty and I go through neon pinks so quickly, that I needed another. The formula was good, not too goopy and not too thin. My camera couldn't actually capture the neon, this shade really is bright!

Up next is Glowstick, Literally it is the perfect name. At first I thought it might be a dupe for my American Apparel Neon Yellow, but its actually got a little bit more green taking it out of "yellow highlighter" territory and into the exact colour of one of those glow sticks I used to bust open with my teeth when I was a kid. Formula was really good for a neon, and a yellow. This is three coats over one coat of OPI Alpine Snow. Probably could have gotten away with two but I was rushing and had some user error. It was not goopy, or runny. I was actually really impressed. This colour is straight down my alley too, I love it and have already worn it a few times. Very happy summer colour:)

This one is in the sun!

This one is in the shade! Cool right?

Hope you like them as much as I do! Perfect for summer I can see me wearing them a lot!

Nail-Venterous Floam - Swatch

It's mine....... my own... my precious.....

This is how I feel about owning Nail-Venterous' Floam finally! Hahaha I've just been lemming it for so long that it is hard to believe its finally mine!! :D I stalked the hell out of Ninja Polish to get this bad boy!

Floam the nail polish really does look exactly like Nickelodeon Floam, the modelling-mold-toy-stuff that I played with as a kid in the 90's. In my opinion it was way cooler than play dough but equally as frustrating when it got stuck in the living room carpet.

Its got small non-reflective (matte) turquoise and neon greenish yellow glitter! Its pretty thick and dense but spread nicely around on my nail. All I needed was two coats to get it opaque enough for me! It does dry matte (which I love), but also quite gritty. But I wore it without topcoat anyway to keep the look like actual floam!

Anyway, here are a ton of pictures of Floam! I really love it!!!!

I got my precious floam from Ninja Polish for 9 dollars! I was signed up for email updates and I get my emails to my phone so I was able to get on quick enough to snag a bottle! I would suggest signing up for email updates because it sells out quickly!! 

Here is what Floam was if it wasn't from your time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwiAbiGP0xA&feature=related 

May the 4th be with you! - My first try at stamping!

May the 4th be with you!!

Doesn't that just roll off your tongue? Now that I have established that I am a huge nerd, here is my very first try at stamping. I see all these BEAUTIFUL nail designs all over the interwebs and I just get insanely jealous of their stamping abilities but I could NEVER find the courage to give it a try!

Well, I was at the mall at the "As Seen On TV" store where I usually gawk over the magic bullets and snuggies, and suddenly I see THREE different stamping kits up for grabs! I bought a pack of about 20 Salon Express plates for 20 dollars, the stamper/scraper/holder, as well as a few different Konad plates because I wanted to make sure I had some that would fit my WHOLE nail for the full nail designs.

Now, I know this isn't the best stamping job in the world, but it is my first try, and I am pretty proud of it!

Clearly I messed up my index finger with a little bit of smudging hehe but that's okay!

I can't wait to try more of this :)