200th Post: Celebrate With Some Polish Pics!

Thought I would take a break from feeling bad about myself to post some polish photos.  Seems like to took me a while to get up to 200 posts but somehow I got there!

Run don't walk to your local Sephora and buy the Chaotic top coat from their Sephora X polish line.  It's now my favourite top coat of all time.  Chaotic is a glitter polish except for the particles are not super shiny and that makes the top coat look like Jackson Pollock rose from the grave just to splatter paint all over your nails.  It's layered over Hampstead Gardens by Nails Inc. and I love it!!!

Jamaica Me Crazy is your typical summertime pink polish but I am always found of a pink that's heavy on the blue.  I remember the formula as being a little bit more durable than Essie usually is.

It's been a while since I've set foot in a Joe Fresh and I still have a few photos from their polish line that I hadn't posted yet, so here they are:

Mallard is a dark green creme that is actually as glossy as it appears in this photo.  I'm not sure if they still make it but if they do, it's a classic fall colour and not a waste at $4.

I'm not as enthusiastic about Mist.  It's a light frosty green tone and it's nice enough but it's nothing to shout about either.  It dries quickly though, so if you are looking for something to quickly do your nails with, this one's a safe bet.

This one has me stumped.  When I found it in the store, none of the bottles had a label that indicated its name.  It's a nice Blurple but it has a few issues with streaking, which you can see in the photo.

Rusty from Gosh is definitely going to be going back on my nails this summer as it's a great bronze shimmer with good wear time.

I think I might have had Essie's Sag Harbour before I started writing this blog, so I guess it was time to post it.  Again, this is a colour that says summer and is exactly the type of colour I like to sport while swimming in the ocean!  God, I want to go back and see my family in Barbados...:(

She's Picture Perfect from Essie is a lilac colour I liked much, much more in the bottle than I like on my nails.  It didn't quite go with my skin tone and you can notice some patchy bald spots that made the application less than stellar.

Anyone one who has checked out this blog knows about my goofy/sad/manic/self-deprecating obsession with actor Tom Hiddleston.  Well, this Wednesday, it got even worse!  I guess I'm going through a mid-life crisis and so while some people buy expensive sports cars or cheat on their spouses, I decided to do something else.  After waiting almost a entire year, and paying for it on installments (because it is that expensive) my Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece 1/6th LOKI finally arrived at my doorstep and man!  Is it something to be seen:

No, I Did Not Happen to Bump Into Tom Hiddleston on the Street While He Happened to be Wearing Full Loki Regalia!  This is s DOLL!!!

If you're not familiar with deluxe figure manufacturers Hot Toys, then you should know that they are arguably the very best at facial reproduction of the a film's original character.  He has wrinkles on his forehead and tiny freckles on his face and neck with what I assume is a brush made with one single hair plucked from the eyelash of an angel.  I have not even begun to take pictures of my 1/6th sized imaginary boyfriend  but would like to do a full length review because this thing is so damn awesome!!!

Birthday Blog Dump!!!

Hey Y’all!!  What’s up my B!tches???  Hey it’s my birthday, it’s my birthday, gonna party like it’s my birthday!  Drink Bacardi like it’s my birthday!  Yeah, about that, I’m not gonna party but I am not working today and will be eating steak tartar and drinking X.O. beer (cognac infused!!!) at Le Select today instead of not telling anyone one that I work with that it’s my birthday and choking back crybaby tears at my desk all day!  That’s just how I roll!!!

So me and my twin sis will be turning 45 years old today and even though I can pretty much say that my life completely blows, I can at least say “At least I look good for 45!”

Really, Really Good!

So today, I’m just going to bleat about nail polish and nonsense because what is life about if not nail polish and nonsense, which is totally going to be my new band’s name... 

Gareth Pugh for Mac

I know, I know.  This post is long overdue to the point that it’s not even worth mentioning now but I’m going to anyways.  I like this guy’s work because the stuff he makes and what he wears is almost exactly like what me and my friends wore back in high school. I dig the the goth/expressionist/Klaus Nomi vibe he has going on.  I picked up Hyper, a really nice dark blue shimmer which I liked a lot...

But not as much as I liked Ascension because it looked almost completely different every time you looked at in a different light.  For example, when using a flash, it looked like a light purple shimmer.

Photographed in the shade, you can see it’s a light purple, green gold duo chrome...

But in direct sunlight, it looks like a mid-toned silver shimmer.   

They should have named it Enigma as far as I’m concerned.  It may not be the flashiest of polishes but I don’t have another quite like it.

Hidden Treasure 2 from Sally Hansen

I bought this polish strictly to compare it with the first Sally Hanson Complete Salon Manicure named Hidden Treasure.  HD1 certainly lived up to its name by being a great flaky polish with a strong orange and green reflective tone.  HD2 could stay buried.  It’s not a bad polish.  Its blue based pearl finish is nice enough and I had no problems with the formula.  It just doesn’t look super special.

Petra Haden Goes to the Movies

I’m a huge fan of Petra Haden’s unique covers using overdubs of her own voice to take the place of musical instruments.  I loved the sh!t out of Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out and I’m just as excited with her latest release Petra Haden Goes to the Movies.  Her version of the main theme from Psycho is awesome.  Seriously, listen...

Also great on this album is her version of It Might Be You from the film Tootsie.  I had never liked this song until now.  When she sings it, I cry every time.  When I hear the original by Stephen Bishop, I feel nothing!

Essie’s All Tied Up

It’s been so long since I bought this polish that I can’t even remember which collection this polish came from but I can tell you that it is a nice and dependable, mid-toned pink with a subtle gold shimmer in it.  My favourite kind of pink!

 

Hey Look!  Some Nail Art!

I would try nail art more often if I had the time to wait for all the different layers to dry.  I was trying to get the feel of a match burning in the dark...

I used Maybelline’s Black Onyx as the base, and then dotted China Glaze’s Cruisin’ at the end of my nail and multiple coats of Essie’s As Gold as it Gets for some sparkle.  I know I’m no Leonardo of nail art but I like it.

Ski Day

I went on my employers’ annual ski day trip this February and bizarrely, I had a lousy time!  Nobody would talk to me at the house party the night before so I bailed and went back to my hotel room and drew for the rest of the night.  This was the result:

The Bride of Frankenstein

 At least I didn’t waste my time completely!

OPI’s SkyFall

This is just my opinion but Skyfall is the best Bond movie with the second worst theme song ever!  Yes, I said it!  I hate Adele’s Skyfall theme. It’s just so boring. I don’t care it won an Oscar, so did Crash.  If you’re wondering which Bond theme is the worst, the dishonor goes to Jack White & Alicia Keyes’s Another Way to Die from Quantum of Solace.  I imagine that the sound they make is identical to the sound of a bag of cats being tossed into a river and is the only time peanut butter and chocolate did not taste good together.

OPI’s Skyfall polish just might be one of my favorite polishes ever.   

Yes, yes it is a burgundy crème polish that leans towards a brownish tone but I just love it as much as the film’s highrise punch up and that scene is so amazing, it makes me cry too!

The Tears Are Coming!!!

Tom Hiddleston All the Goddamn Time

Yes I’m still bonkers over Captain Jazz Hands.

And last but not least, Thanks to my latest follower Lizelle for giving me a chance!

Deep Red Pink & Bright Yellow by GOSH

Deep Red Pink

Bright Yellow

If you live in the GTA & spend any time in the Shoppers Drugmart, you'll have noticed that GOSH's Oh My Gosh line is on sale at $1.99 CDN.  Damn straight that I never say "No" to a $2 nail polish but one would also hope if you name your polish "Oh My Gosh", one would hope that it's something really worth exclaiming about but these polishes are just OK.  Mind you, there's nothing wrong with them: they are perfectly acceptable colours and quality and are worth your money, I just can't get worked up about them...

If you don't hear from me in a while, that means I'm spending way, way, way too much time with my copy of The Avengers.  Or as we like to call it in my house: PORN!!!

I'll Be In My Room...Aaaawwww Yeeeeaahhhh!!!

Banana Republic Has Nail Polish...Who Knew?

And of course, I found it in the States on my trip to NYC last May and since it was 30% percent off the last sticker price when I found them, they cost me $2 US each.  Above is City Sidewalks, a name that made me think that this was possibly from a Christmas collection because the phrase mad me think of my favourite Holiday song, Silver Bells:

City sidewalks busy sidewalks . Dressed in holiday style In the air There's a feeling of Christmas...

I always start my Christmas shopping in August.  If I didn't, I wouldn't be able to afford to buy anyone anything if I waited until December!  Back to the polish:  This is lovely cool medium toned grey that even though I had some issues with streaking, I ended up really liking this colour very much and it looked great with the pink shirt I wore that day. 

 

This one is called Cranberry Sauce, so you can see where I'm getting the impression that this one was supposed to also be a holiday themed colour.  It's lovely but I literally have dozens of polishes that look like this.  That doesn' mean I don't like it and the formula for this was actually quite sturdy.  The polish was a bit thick but I wore it for three days and as you can see, there's barely any wear to it.  A good by for $2.

This last one is called Vixen.  This one is my favourite of the bunch because this is the type of colour that goes with everything.  Red, blue, yellow, green, purple, you name it and it will be complimentary to whatever you are wearing. One thing to note it the colour in the polish is so dense that bottle colour is achievable in one coat, which is what you see in the photo above.  Just one coat!

I don't know if Banana Republic will continue to offer nail polish but if there was a way I could keep buying it, I would!

Cosmetic Art's April Showers

While browsing one of my favourite stores to buy nail polish, I came across a display for a brand I'd never heard of before: Cosmetic Arts.  A quick Google search gave me very little information about the line but what little I did find (and from the tiny fine print on the back of the bottle), CA is onwed by The Forsythe Cosmetic Group who owns the well know Color Club brand.  I have a few CC polishes (7 bottles) and I like them well enough but in my opinion, this one bottle of April Showers was a better polish than all of them combined.  The photo above doesn't completely capture just how lovely the colour is.  It does have that beautiful blue & green flash to it and I'm a sucker for anything that invokes the image of the ocean. But what the photo doesn't show that is the polish also reflects with a light pink shimmer.  The brush was very wide and gave very good coverage with 2 strokes on the nail.  Granted it is a sheer colour, that's 3 coats pictured, but it was also an extremely quick drying polish and I didn't need to use any additional drying methods to get it to set.

Chanel Suit Nail Art

When I decided to give more nail art a try, I didn't expect that I'd be accidentely making a homage to Jackie Kennedy's imfamous pink chanel suit she was wearing the day her husband was killed:

Seriously, that was the first thing I thought of once I had finished my manicure and all I was trying to do was frame a colour with black polish.  It was easy to do.  I just applied a coat of black polish, put a couple of coats of Lincoln Square Lavender by New York Colours (and despite the polish name, it's pink) and followed up with a sweep of black polish on the tip of the nail, French manicure style.  I liked and so did my co-workers.  I'd definatley give it another try with a different colour.  Practice would make perfect!

Raw Rose by Gosh

I must be losing my mind lately but I seem to be really liking pink these days.  I don't know, maybe it's the hot weather and bright sunshine or maybe this is just a really great pink polish!  Raw Rose from Gosh is a super muted dusty pink creme that very nearly borders on being a nuetral, it's so muted.  I like this very much and there was no complaints about the formula either.  It went on smoothly and evenly and had a good dry time as well.  I have noticed that the Gosh counter in Shoppers Drug Mart has gotten a little bit smaller in the last few weeks and I'm really hoping that it's not a signal that the line is leaving the store.  I've become quite fond of the brand: not just the nail polish but the lipstick and blushes are really great too.  I always carry one of their lipglosses with me because there's little flashlights built into the caps.  If the power goes out, I've got a super shiney light to see with and reapply with!

Polish Spamarama!!!

I've got almost enough nail polish right now I can almost wear a different colour everyday for 2 years.  And with that being said, here's some polish spam action...

The magnetic nail polish trend is still hanging in their and yet I still don't have the hang of it.  This one is Gold Nugget from Layla.  It's nice but I'm not seeing the colour gold in here. I still have to practice tons more to master this trend before it's all over!

I so badly wanted Essie's Sexy Divide to be totally awesome but instead it ended up being totally awful. Three coats couldn't stop the the bald spots and the thin formula lead to chips within less than 12 of wear.  beautiful in the bottle, disastrous on my nails.

I don't wear a lot of pink polish but when I do, Maybelline's Timely Rose is my go to polish.  It's not childish or bubble gummy in any way.  It's positively lady like!

It's pretty obvious by now that grey nail polish is never going to go away.  Good!  The more funky neutral colours the better and Essie's School of Hard Rocks is a pretty good one with a thick and even formula that went on with ease and had staying power and a strong shine.

I haven't even worn To Buy or Not to Buy from Essie yet so I had to rely on my sister to model this lavender shimmer for me.  It looks so much nicer on the nail than in the bottle doesn't it?

Someday, I'll pick up a bottle of gun metal nail polish and say that I've really bought enough of these types of colours and place it back on the display.  Since I didn't have that voice in my head telling me to "just put the polish down and back away" I bought L'oreal's VIP Status.  You can see a bit of balding at the top of my index finger but that's mainly the fault of an unbuffed nail base and not the polish.

Hey!  Did I hear someone say they wanted to see a picture of Tom Hiddleston, Michael Sheen and Queen Elizabeth?  No? Well too bad...here it is anyways:

Her Royal Highness Must Have Thought He Was Tony Blair!

Dress Me Up from China Glaze

 When I look at Dress Me Up from China Glaze's Hunger Games collection in it's bottle it looks like a warm & dusty pink but once I get it on my fingers it takes on a much browner tone.  I suppose that it's because of my olive skin tone but this is still one of my favourite types of polish colour.  The formula was thick but not as thick as Mahogany Magic which made the application a lot easier to apply and it dried quicker than MM as well.  You can see a bit of wear in the polish but that after three days.

I have been roaming the streets of New York for the last few days.  Not to shop but to visit my family and get a much needed change of scenery...

And that scenery beats the CN Tower, hands down!

I'm glad that I bought my polishes from the Hunger Games before I got here because for one, I haven't seen them anywhere I've been shopping and two, I don't have the inclination too look too hard for them when confronted by Pershing Square's Truffle Potato Chips...

Yes, I ate the whole plate!

OPI to Release Minnie Mouse Collection

Set to be released in July of 2012, the Minnie Mouse Collection by OPI will include four new pink polishes, including a pink "confetti" polish and blah, blah, blah, blah...blah...

blah, blah, pink, blah blah...This not a very exciting release to say the very least.  The only interesting this about this line is that kick-ass display.  Now, that I'd pay good money for!  The way the stand spiral out like film that's spooling off of its reel.  It's beautiful.

Gouda Gouda Two Shoes by OPI

I am head over heels in love with the colour of Gouda Gouda Two Shoes from OPI's Holland Collection but I have to say that I loathe the formula. Although I like the satin like finish it has, there was almost no durability to it and I had chips and tip wear by the end of the first day of wearing it.

And it's such a lovely rose tone with a very subtle gold shimmer throughout looks more like a creme on the nail.  It's pink without being bubblegum but it's a real shame the formula was lousy!  But this polish isn't the only disappointment in the collection:  There's more to come!

Gel Color By OPI in Passion

Every year, the accounting firm that I work for holds an overnight staff trip to Blue Mountain Ski Resort in Collingwood, Ontario.  Since I haven't been working there for a year yet, it was my first time going and I was told that since this particular outing was a "last chance to cut loose before tax season starts" there was a metric ton of drinking. If there was one situation in life that I never thought I'd been in, I would say "Watching extreme fighting at a Ski resort in a hotel room with 25 very intoxicated Orthodox Jews" would be one of them.  And it wasn't even Purim yet! I also learned that if you don't smoke, do not smoke the Cuban cigars that a partner offers you, no matter how ungratefully or stodgy this might make you look.  Because of that, I ended up hanging out with the toilet more than any person that night...

I've never skied and have never been interested in it but luckily, my employers offered a spa option for those who didn't want to ski, so I figured that now was a good a time as any to get my very first manicure.  Yeah, I've been doing my own nails for over 30 years but not once had I ever been in a salon and had someone else do the work.  The additional bonus was that the spa of choice, Kalola Boutique & Spa, offers gel polish manicures so it was a great opportunity to try it out and it didn't cost me a dime.

My manicurist was a lovely young lady named Kina who had a very calm and friendly way about her and she seemed to understand really well when a person felt like talking or didn't feel like it.  Plus, she had a light touch and explained every step of each treatment, described the ingredients of each product (so you could choose if you wanted to use it or not) and gave a great hand massage.

Since I had all the intention of testing gel polishes claims of lasting for weeks, I wanted to choose a colour that would go with every piece of clothing in my closet so I choose OPi's GelColour in Passion.  It's a light ballet pink creme that look perfectly fine with black, white or any other colour who might be wearing.  Gel polishes claims to fame consist of a quick drying time but the polish must be "cured" under a low wattage UV light drier for a minute or so.  Despite the fact that that dry time is extremely fast, i still sort of felt like the process took a while since it included prepping the nails, base coat, two coats of colour and a top coat or maybe it was the first time I tried the product and wasn't really sure what to expect. I also usually skip base and top coats when I do my own nails. Here's the result on Day One:

Day One

If we had an any sunny days in the Southern Ontario area at all during this winter, I'd have a nicer photo to show you but you can still see that the polish is very glossy and almost looks wet even though it's totally dry to the touch.  I also like seeing perfectly round cuticles as I don't always push them back myself.

Day Two

Day Two and it looks exactly the same and still looks like it's freshly painted.

Day Three

Day Three and it still looks good.

Day Four

Day Four and it's still got a high gloss finish.

Day Five

Day Five and it still looks good but now I'm just getting bored...

Day Six

We finally got a sunny day and the gel polish still looks great!

Day Seven

Aha!  Finally a flaw!  The gel polish actually had began to peel in the corners of my thumbnail and it was lifting off of it in one piece.  If there was a time to remove the polish, it was now but I didn't want to go back to a salon a pay money to get it done.  I went to the drug store and bought some Sally Hansen Artificial Nail & Glue Remover and after soaking each hand for over 10 minutes, the polish began to lift and I was able to pull the polish off my nails.  However it did really stick to the middle of my fingernails and it required a little bit of buffing to get it off.  I also had a small amount of nail damage but a little bit more buffer help to fix it.  Here's how my nails looked with no polish at all...

I Took a Picture Just In Case I Forget What My Actual Nails Look Like!

To sum it up, if the polish didn't peel from my nail it would have likely lasted 2 weeks or more but I was actually glad it happened because by that time, I was totally bored of wearing the same colour day in and day out.  But if you're the type of person who wants a long lasting manicure then gel polish is definitely the product for you.  I would defiantly use this technique again but the next time, it's going to be a summer time pedicure because I hate doing my toes!