Kennedy by Zoya

This one's my second purchase from Zoya's Touch line and now that I think about it,  sort of wish that I'd sprung the cash for the entire line.  There's just something about a simple neutral creme polish that I just love.  sure, it's not edgy or hip bit it's being a long time since I cared about that sort of thing!  the formula and the application were very good.  The coverage was even in two coats, applied smoothly and evenly, and dried fairly quickly as well.  If you don't already own a light beige creme polish then Kennedy would be a good choice.  

Kennedy, I wonder what was the inspiration for the name choice?  When I hear that name I usually think about this...

Beauty & Talent!

Which usually makes me think of this...

Bom Chicka Wow Wow!

Which then makes me think of this...

Which One Are You?  Jackie or Marilyn?

Which makes me think why would you want to be either one if you could be a Joannie?

Notice That All of This Dudes Erections Are Carefully Hidden!

Can't Wait for March 25th!!!

Natural Beauty by Maybelline

It may be called Natural Beauty but if you're got a paler skin tone, I'm not sure if this shade from Maybelline's Fall 2011 collection will be the one for you but I love it!  I was really glad to see this warm toffee-like colour on the Pharmaplus shelves and I snapped it up despite it not being on sale at the time.  I wasn't disappointed either as the formula was fast drying and lasted three days without a major nick or chip.  Since I've been working in an office environment, I've really grown to like neutral colours even more than I used to.  It makes the question "what am I going to wear to work a lot easier to answer" but nice neutrals will never make me wish I could sport a green or blue polish on the job.

Cheers By Revlon

If there's a type of polish colour that I love as much as a funky colour, it's a really good nude/neutral tone that you can just slap on and it goes with everything.  Revlon's Cheers from the Top Speed line is one of those colours.  As far as describing it, I would call it "band aid" and I mean that in a good way.  Actually, it's very similar to Sephora by OPI's Leotard Optional but Cheers has a slightly more satin finish to it with a lot less gloss. That's direct sunlight in the photo so you can see that it's not highly reflective. True to its claim, it dried fast and was opaque in two coats.  Bonus for the colour, a chip or nick will go somewhat unnoticed.

Jessica's Stark Naked Plus Additional "Nudity"

I'm really into "nude" coloured nail polishes right now!  Sure, I still love the bright and dark colours, don't get me wrong, but lately I've been wanting to see my hands look clean, sleek and neat and I find that nude polishes help to achieve that look.  Here's some of the polishes that I've been sporting recently:

Sally Hansen's Diamond Strength Signature Taupe is one of the polishes that I recently picked up for super cheap at Cha Ching in Eglinton subway station.  At first glance, it looks like a creme polish but closer inspection reveals a fine pinkish gold shimmer finish that is lovely to my eye:

Fleshy!

I was really looking forward to trying out my very first bottle of Jessica Custom Nail Color in Stark Naked  and although it applied extremely smoothly and had a super shiny finish, the big disappointment came when it took 3 coats to achieve that hue and then I noticed a large amount of long, black lint that some how found its way into the polish and got prominently stuck on my pinkie.  I know that the average person isn't going to notice such a thing when they look at my nails but I see it and I now I can't unsee it!

Grrrr!  Look at It!  It's Like a Zit on the Tip of My Nose!

However, this helps me cope with my feelings of disappointment:

Hey Look!  It's a Stark...Naked!

Ha!  I know, it's a terrible pun, a terrible, terrible pun! But I really like Games of Thrones and it's a good excuse for some male nudity.  Speaking of GOT and nudity, how annoying is it when no male character can make deliver a monologue without some naked prostitutes lolling about in the background?  Do the showrunners think we won't pay attention to what the dude is saying  without the addition of boobs and one extremely flat behind or does said flat behind have a larger role to play?...and I digress!  Although Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails polish in Chocolate is not a nude colour, it is extremely neutral...

Very Neutral...

Like Switzerland Before Germany Invaded Poland in September 1939!

Seriously, this colour literally goes well with every colour I have in my wardrobe and my wardrobe is ample.  Although I don't see this polish as looking like chocolate creme, it's really more of a dusty pink. It was in fact, hard as nails!  Look closely and you'll notice that there is some small chips on my index finger but that small imperfection occurred after three days of wear and my spending the day assembling an over the toilet storage unit in my recently renovated bathroom.  I hammered, screwed and glued that unit together and that's how well the polish held up.  Added bonus is that it was on sale and I paid about $2 CDN for it!

I just want to let my readers know that there will be some changes coming soon to this blog but I don't have a set reveal date.  All I can say right now is this blog will be looking different but also a lot spiffier in the near future!

Wham Bam Thank You Spam! Here's a Bunch of Polish

Hey out there!  I`ve been so swamped with school and stuff that I haven`t had time to craft together a long, convoluted post as I so like to do but my birthday (and my twin sister`s too!) is this weekend so I`m not planning to do any posting  for a few days.  But that doesn`t mean I can`t fill the gap a little with a few polishes that I`ve being sporting lately!

Here`s OPI`s Just a Little Rosti from the Swiss Collection.  I have dozens of polishes that are similar to this one and I always tell myself I`m not going to buy anymore.  But then I`ll be in the store and I`ll see them and that notion flys out the window.  I`m just kidding myself.  I will always buy polishes like this because I love them and this one is no exception!

I found Borghese`s Stellare Notte a few months back at Winners for $4.99 CDN which is much more fair than the $17.00 CDN that Shoppers Drug Mart shills them for.  This is an awesome colour with a nice douchrome effect which you can see in the bottle but I couldn't capture it on  my nails in the photo.

I wore Purple Gala from the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear line on Christmas Day and I got lots of compliments on it.  It applied well, wore well and was easy to remove to.  It was a definite winner at $2 CDN.

Another win from the Joe Fresh makeup line is Orchid.  A really pretty purple that I was glad to add to my collection, especially when I was going through my Purple Pandemonium a few months back.  It`s hard to say no to a polish line that sells at 3 for $10 CDN, the cost of one bottle of OPI up in the Great White!  I`ve read online recently that Joe Fresh will be opening their first US store in Manhattan soon, so if things go well for them, any American readers will have access to the brand.  Happy Future Shopping USA!

After a few months of darks, greens, purples, glitters, shimmers and crackles, I was pretty eager to sport some more calm and sedating colours and Zoya`s Nikki is one of my favourites.  I actually find it a little difficult to describe the colour, it`s not really pink, or beige but it has a great blue shimmer in it that keeps it from being too bland.

 As much as I love grey polish, this one drives me nuts!  OPI`s Moon Over Mumbai should be one of my all time favourites but it isn`t because, look at that photo.  That`s 3 coats of polish and still it`s nowhere near the coverage it needs.  What a nail fail!

Now I love this colour.  Leotard Optional from Sephora by OPI`s Urban Ballerina collection is for me the perfect neutral.  It goes with any outfit I put on which is great BUT...!

Everyone I Know Has a Big But!  This Big, In Fact!

Legwarmers Optional has a dupe!  A low cost dupe at that too!  I was in a big ass Loblaws last weekend and when I checked out their Joe Fresh nail polish display to see if they had anything new, I found that the LO that I was wearing was exactly the same as their polish called NUDE and it would have cost me only $4 CDN or 3 for $10 instead of $13 for one bottle!  I could have saved $9...

Nine Bucks!!! AAAAAHHHH!!!!

Sigh...that brings me to my last polish for today.  Zoya`s Gemma from their Spring 2011 Collection.  This another one of their greens that just knocks it out of the park for me:

Yes, it`s a hospital green but if hospitals had that awesome blue shimmer in them, I`d be less reluctant to go to them.  Zoya is starting to be my favourite salon brand as I haven`t bought anything from them that disappointed me yet but it`s still not the easiest brand to find in T.O. and when I do, the store`s stock is not always up to date.

Well that`s it for now...I hope that everyone has a great weekend and the next time you hear from me, I`ll be a year older!

Midas by Joe Fresh & Layering with Old Revlon

 If there is anyone from the US or around the world that have stumbled on my humble blog, Joe Fresh is a Canadian clothing line that retails in select stores in the Loblaws chain of supermarkets here in Canada.  Joe Fresh clothing is reasonably priced and actually looks pretty good, considering the prices.  They recently branched out into cosmetics and bath products.  Although I sort of dragged my feet to go and try their stuff out, I finally picked up a holiday nail polish set, mainly after I saw Midas in one of the packages:

I've got quite a few gold polishes but I find that it is darker than most gold polishes and has a more antique gold look to it that I haven't often seen.  I think it's gorgeous and I wasn't let down by the quality either.  Although the bottles are smaller than most (6 ml) I wouldn't complain about it since I rarely finish a bottle of nail polish.  The brush was surprisingly wide when you consider the size of the bottle but the big white cap is a little difficult to hold.  It dried very quickly and looked good in two coats and there is no sign of chips 2 days into its wearing.  The other colours in the set are a deep purple shimmer and a white shimmer which I expect to be using soon.

I wanted to take break from dark polish again but I also didn't have much time to change my polish if it got chipped.  I also wanted to try something that would make nicks and chips less noticeable.  My sister suggested that I try one of  two of her polishes from her collection and I ended up layering them to make something I never wore before:

Crystalline Pure Nude & Goldeneye

These Revlon Polishes are somewhat old.  Goldeneye was actually part of a movie tie - in for the 1995 James Bond film Goldeneye so that polish is 15 years old and is a sheer light yellow with gold glitter. (Update: My sister says that Goldeneye was part of a James Bond Tie In but it was for Die Another Day .  That film came out in 2002, so it's an eight year old polish.)  Crystalline Pure Nude is probably even older than that but my sister doesn't remember when she bought it, but I wouldn't remember that either! It's a very sheer, pale nude shade and despite the look of the bottle, it's not a matte finish.  Here's how it turned out:

It's like a light honey colour with a little bit of glitter to it.  As you can see, both of these polishes are very, very sheer.  That's two coats of the sheer nude with one coat of sheer glitter.  If I wanted opacity, I'd probably have to apply five coats of polish combined.  It's not the flashiest polishes I've even wore, but the nicks and chips I got during the week I wore it were not easily noticed.  I'd try this combination again if I knew I wouldn't have time to tend to my nails.