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'm really getting to like Nail Inc. nail polish quite a bit! Although I've only got 4 bottles from the line (all of them picked up at a GTA Sephora), I'm quite found of them...even the glitter polish. I found Hampstead Gardens in a clearout bin for $5 CDN and I completely love it! Sure, it almost looks like I've smeared mustard all over my fingers but what's not to like about that? Mustard equals hot dogs and hot dogs equal tasty BBQ! Definitely what some would consider a fall colour. This had a good formula and application and there was full coverage in 2 coats.
Although I'm still into matte finishes, I can understand why trend that keeps coming back goes away just as quickly: The Formula! The vast majority of matte polishes chip away within a few hours of application. Gatwick (also $5 CDN in the Sephora clearout bin) was no exception here. It's a beauty rose red but as you can see, I had major issues with its chipping off in no time at all. Matte polishes dry extremely quickly but they are also much thicker than regular polishes. Retouches take only a few minutes but the texture will make every flaw on your nail show up, as evidenced by my index finger.
Glitter In My Stocking from Nicole by OPI was the nail polish that I so badly wanted to wear on Christmas Day this year but as you can observe from the photo, you can see why it didn't turn out that way. Glitter polishes are not really my thing. The look is not my favourite (I find it looks childish but that's just me) and I hate the gritty texture, so I was excited that I found a glitter polish that I loved the look of. It made me think of the decorations on my tree so what was there not to like about that? The yellow gold with the sprinkling of red and silver drew me in but I forgot what a pain in the butt wearing glitter polish without a durable topcoat actually is. After a few hours and a couple of chores, I had a huge amount of chips in the polish and no amount of reapplication would solve the problem. Bummer!...It's so sparkly!
Kismet: the Turkish word for destiny. I still don't know what goes through people's minds when they name a polish. Maybe they thought Fate had conspired to create this super bright yellow shimmer from Nars. I wouldn't call this polish a gold colour by any means, despite the shimmer. Kismet is an all and out yellow. This hue is intense, certainly eye-catching and looks great when you wear it with a black and/or white outfit. It's a fairy sheer colour and you can see my nails tips through two coats but it was a smooth application with adequate drying time. I can't speak to it's durability this time around, since I only wore it for one day (we had a long weekend in Ontario and I wanted to cram in as many fun colours as I could before painting on some back to work shades.) I find that this a fun colour but it is pricey. I ended up buying this from Holt Renfrew since Sephora was out of stock and unfortunately, that drives the price up by a buck or two. On the plus side: I got very pleasant and attentive service at Holt's, for me that's got to count for something. It doesn't take two consultants to help me buy a product but that's how much help I did get when I picked this up.
According to IMDB, there are 23 films that have been called Kismet but the only one that springs to my mind would be the one made in 1944 that starred Marlene Dietrich. I haven't seen this film but once one sees Dietrich in this get up...
...you don't soon forget it. Dietrich was 42 years old when she appeared in this film and was only six years away from becoming a grandmother! I know makeup and lighting can hide a lot of flaws but you couldn't make someone looker thinner back then with computer trickery. I'm roughly the same age as she was in this photo, I may have lost almost 40 pounds and am a few pounds away from a size 8 but I could never get away with wearing what she's got on!
After a good long spell of unemployment, I'm finally starting a new job on Monday and since it's an office environment, I'm going to be limited to a lot more traditional colours during the weekdays. But weekends are going to be an all crazy colour spectacular and that brings me to my latest purchase. I treated myself to two of the more higher priced polishes around, one of them being Deborah Lippman's Yellow Brick Road.
I always stalled on buying DB polish despite a lot of devotion to the brand from so many polish bloggers. The main reason was that I wasn't really blown away by the colour range. I feel that for a higher price, I want to see something a little more unique by way of colour choices. I know that the line has a lot of beloved glitters, but glitter isn't really my big thing.
Rah, Rah, Rah Mama, Ramalama Ding Dong, Dream Mah Mah Mah Mah!
The only polish I was interested in was Yellow Brick Road, the polish worn by Lady Gaga during her performance at the 2011 Grammy Awards. Normally, I'm not really interested in what celebrities are wearing but I really liked the look of this polish so I figured now was the time to try the brand. If YBR is any indication of the quality of Lippman polishes, I think that I will make the splurge more often. The best word I could use describe the quality of this polish is smooth. It applied so easily, dried quicker than other polishes I own and is exceptionally durable. I'm on my third day of wear and there isn't one nick or chip anywhere on my nails. I really like the jelly finish and what surprised me even more is that yellow polishes are notorious for streaky, uneven application, a problem that this polish doesn't have. I definitely didn't waste my money on this one!
Sally Hansen's Chartreuse Chase is not the type of colour polish I usually choose. I mean, sure, I 've got hundreds of colours in my collection but I could safely say, I didn't have one that looked like day-glo vomit. I bought it mainly because it was different and it was 1/2 price. In fact, CC is so jarring that when I painted my nails with it, I thought that I would end up gouging my eyes out like Ray Milland at the end of the B-Movie classic: The Man With the X-ray Eyes...
I Can Still See!!!
As badly has this hue is burning my retinas, I sort of actually like it even though it took 3 coats to make it opaque and even then it was all clumpy and blobby. I find it suits my skin tone! I'll leave you with the trailer for the Man With the X-Ray Eyes. If you think that Ray Milland, who won the best actor Oscar in 1946 for Lost Weekend, had sunk low with this film, then you haven't seen anything until you've seen the sadness that is The Thing with Two Heads.
I've got a few photos of polish kicking around that are just waiting to get posted. So without further ado, here's a bunch of polish.
I picked up Personal Shopper from Sephora by OPI in a boxed set with 2 other polishes for free with beauty points, Yay! Lord knows I love good red and this one is a pretty good one. This red creme had a smooth application, was glossy & opaque in two coats and had minimal staining when I removed it. No complaints here!
This one's from my sister's stash. Rockstar Candy from the Complete Salon Manicure by Sally Hansen is a lovely pinkish/mauve shimmer with a terrible name. I dislike marketers slapping the word "Rockstar" on anything and everything in a lame-ass effort to make it sound like it's cool or edgy: e.g Rockstar Chef...ugh! Regardless, this is a good polish that has a durability that is standard with this line. It's a good choice if it's still available.
Canadian clothing retailer Joe Fresh continues to expand, both in locations and with their cosmetics line. They have added 24 new polish colours for spring: More than any other company that I can think off of the top of my head. One of the new polishes that I picked up is Pineapple. It's a yellow so bright it verges on orange. I would have named it Mango. You'd think this polish would glow in the dark and I like it a lot. The round brush handle is still difficult to hold but the brush itself is wide and I got good coverage in 2 coats It's funny how sometimes the simplest image can bring out a memory that you don't expect. When I took this picture, I immediately thought of this image:
I love Duran Duran and John Taylor & Nick Rhodes are awesome guys, but that colour combination wouldn't look good outside of a country kitchen!
Rose Blush by Estee Lauder is a polish that I bought by accident. The salesperson at the store that I bought it from put the wrong polish in my bag and I didn't realise it until I got home. At first I was pissed but then when I looked the polish, I knew that I actually really liked it and now it's one of my favourites! Go figure. it's a calm and warm, shimmery neutral that's slightly on the pink side. It's light enough that a few little nicks or chips can go unnoticed so bonus points for that.
This golden oldie comes courtesy of my sister's collection. As you've probably noticed from the bottle, Cuckoo a light green shimmer, is an old polish from L'oreal's Wear Extraordinaire line from God know when. It's like OPI's Simply Smashing without all of the glass flakes and if you're looking for complete coverage, you'd need 4 coats! If you like this one, you'll probably have a hard time finding it. I think she bought this in Montreal and that would have been, I don't know, 10 years ago?
I'm still feeling just as nostalgic as I was feeling last week. I guess sometimes when you're down, you want to think about happier times. Because of this I've compiling a itunes playlist called My Favourite Songs of All Time. It's a pretty wacky mix that would most likely reflect the tastes of someone with multiple personalities. I've got no specific taste in music, I just love what I love but the choices are odd enough for it to include songs from:
Electric Light Orchestra
David Sylvian
Enrique Igelisas
Danielle Dax
Bauhaus
Gladys Knight & the Pips
John Hiatt
Nick Cave
Roger Miller
Janelle Monae
Actually David Sylvian's song Red Guitar is the song that kicks of my list and it keeps on worming through my ear, so I'll leave you with a little bit from the guy who was once named "The Most Beautiful Man In the World"
I thought I'd get festive with some Easter themed skittles for the long weekend,especially since it's still constantly raining in the Toronto area :( Can you guess what colours I've used?
On my thumb, we have China Glaze's Lemon Fizz. If you were ever wondering if LF is a dupe for Essie's Barbuda Banana, I can tell you it's not. I'm planning to post a comparison sometime soon so let's hope my camera cooperates! I like this colour but it's a tough one to pull off. I have the feeling that this colour would look best paired with a extremely dark denim wash. If I had a lighter skin tone, it might look a little washed out. Plus, application was an issue as well. I've got 3 coats on there and, as you can see, it's still a bit streaky. It would definitely take 4 coats to make it smooth but that's a lot of drying time, even with drying drops.
On my index finger, I have Peppermint Patti from MAC. I sure do like a minty green and I'm glad that the trend has been sticking around. But just like yellow polishes, I find that they need at least three coats if you want even coverage. That's just 2 coats in the photo and you can see the bald spots quite clearly.
Next up and on my middle finger is China Glaze's For Audrey. This is one of my favourite polishes of all time. If I had to throw out all but 10 of my polishes FA would definitely be a keeper! This Tiffany (or if you live in Canada, Birks) blue always pops when I'm wearing black or white and I never fail to get compliments when I wear it. There's not as much as an application issue with this colour as I experienced with LF & PP. You can see that there's a little bit of streaking but it's not that noticeable and with 2 coats, that's pretty good. I did find lint in the bottle (as per my usual China Glaze complaint) but I've had this polish for a while so they're probably not at fault.
Purple! I love purple and Done Out in Deco is a pretty good one. Full coverage in 2 coats so, way to go OPI! It's not quite a pastel but I found it goes well with the other polishes I selected. And speaking of pastels:
I don't actually own a pretty pastel pink polish. Try saying that 10 times fast! So I chose Essie's Guilty Pleasures and found it went well with the other polishes. The coverage is good in 2 coats but I had an issue that affected the appearance of GP that had nothing to do with that polish but with one I wore recently. I reviewed Revlon's Scented Polish in Ocean recently and although it's a lovely polish, it stained my nails badly. I had a difficult time removing it and couldn't completely get rid of the staining on my pinkie. It's so stained, that it alters the colour of whatever polish I put on top of it. What a hassle!
I think I might get up early tomorrow morning and head out to see if I can get any marked down chocolate! Hollow bunnies are not my thing but I do love these 2 two candies in particular:
Mmmm...Sticky!
And I love these even more:
Buttercream Center, Bitches!
But you know which Easter treat I'll never eat? Marshmallow Peeps!
They look just like my canary, Patches! I couldn't shove my little personal peep into my mouth, ewwww!
I have got a serious case of the blahs...I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the gloomy weather we've been having in T.O. or maybe I'm stressed out about school with a group project and final exam looming on the horizen plus being sick with I don't know what, but I'm just in a funk! So I thought I'd try to liven things up a little bit with some spring-like colours to try to cheer myself up:
Flamingo
I think I might have bought Gosh's Flamingo 2 years ago but didn't get around to wearing it until the constant rain and grey skies just wore me out. I'd call it a candy pink, like strawberry saltwater taffy...mmm, taffy! It was good in two coats, ended up applying very smoothly and went chip free for 3 days.
One afternoon after being dismissed for the day from jury selection, I stopped by a Toronto institution for salon supplies, Toronto Barber and Beauty Supply, a store that has been in operation since 1937 to check them out since I hadn't shopped there in a few years. I'm glad I did go back, because even though the only polish lines they carry are OPI,Essie & China Glaze they are priced for a $1 less than other retailers and a lot of polish from their recent lines were discounted too. I was able to pick up Life Preserver and Lighthouse from China Glaze's Anchors Away Collection for Spring 2011 for $4 CDN. So if you live in the GTA and haven't visited this store before, I would recommend that you give them a try.
Life Preserver
Life Preserver is a slightly muted orange creme that I like so much, I was half tempted to chuck out the rest of my orange polishes for being to loud. Orange is fine but it's actually my least favourite of all colours. But I have a fair amount of cosmetics in orange because it really suits me well and I like how this polish isn't shrieky. It was good in two coats but there was some rather long lint that was already in the polish which hampered the application. It's not the first time, I've had lint problems with China Glaze. It's gotten to the point that I just expect that some straggler is going to be hiding in the bottle just waiting to drag across my nail and muck things up!
Lighthouse
Lighthouse is also from China Glaze's Anchors Away Collection and it's a super shimmery bright yellow that took 3 coats to get it to the opacity that you see in the photo. Not that it's a complaint from me but it may not suit other peoples tastes. I find it suits my skin tone well but I also could see that, perhaps if you are more fair skinned, it might make your fingers look a little washed out. Surprisingly, there was no lint in this polish!
I guess one of the things I like about these two polishes is that when I see the two colours together it makes me think of my canaries, Patches & Sherbert:
I recently picked up212 Sephora and it's described on the Sephora website as an "opaque smoky black with iridescent, gold and copper chunky glitter". Well, they're not selling themselves short on the description of the glitter, because there is a lot more colour going on in it besides gold and copper.
That's a lot of colour going on in there! You can see the flakies pretty well at the bottom of the bottle and the glitter is fairly dense too. I took a picture that was deliberately out of focus so that you can see the colours more specifically:
It's Like Christmas Lights in the Dark!
I really like all of the different colours that are reflected in the polish. One of the odd things I like to do is to look at the lights on a Christmas tree and squint so the lights get blurry! This polish reminds me of that. since there's so much glitter up in here, it sort of dulled the shine of the polish and was really bumpy, so I put a coat of Seche Vite just to smooth my nails out a bit and to give it it's shine back. It's a sparkly change from plain old black polish, not that there's anything wrong with basic black!
