Quick NOTD!

Hey everyone! So after I had worn Sunshine Sparkle on its own for a few days, I wanted to add something extra. I was searching through my tiny stash of glitter topcoats and landed on one I recently bought and hadn't tried yet, Model's Own Ibiza Mix from the Hed Kandi collection. This glitter is awesome! It's a mix of pastel and bright colours in a clear base. I see gold, blue, and copper microglitters, with small gold, copper, pink, and aqua hexes. Awesome!! I really liked it over Sunshine Sparkle and I can't wait to use it over some other colours.
I got my Ibiza Mix from Harlow & Co, I seriously love that website. So many pretties, and it's Canadian so shipping is super cheap for us!

Yes by this point my base colour had chipped and my cuticles were overgrown monsters but shhhhh.... LOOK AT THE SPARKLE!!! :)

Revlon Sunshine Sparkle

So today I have another Revlon polish for you, also part of their core line. Sunshine Sparkle is a light buttery yellow with subtle silver shimmer. I love the colour of this polish, it's very light and happy! Unfortunately, the formula leaves much to be desired. It's sheer and streaky, and refuses to self-level. The pictures show four coats, and some nails could probably have used a fifth but I wasn't having any of that. It's also very slow to dry on it's own, a quick-dry topcoat is a must here! All that said, I still love the colour enough to keep it around until I find a better pastel yellow. 

Speaking of quick-dry topcoat, I need to find  some polish thinner soon because my Seche Vite is taking on the consistency of glue, yikes!

Well that is it for now, I hope you all have a lovely day and thanks for reading!

Revlon Scandalous aka Facets of Fuschia

Hello! So today I have a drugstore find for you, I quite like it! Revlon Scandalous is a black jelly base with pinkish purple hexes and microglitter. When this was first released it was called Facets of Fuschia, but then it was renamed Scandalous and made part of the core line. The cool thing about this polish is that it's a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance. I would much rather pay under $5 than the $15+ hers sell for, yay bargains! This went on pretty sheer the first coat, but by the third it was nice and opaque. The glitter is thick enough that I didn't need to dab it on at all. My only minor complaint is that when doing cleanup, I had a few stubborn glitters that wanted to stick out past my polish line a little, but you can't win them all!

Unfortunately I have just the one picture for you, there was a weird smudge on my middle finger that is really distracting on all the other pictures. Funny how these things never show up to my eye or the camera screen! I need to look more closely I think!

Flakie Goodness!!

Hello!! Sorry for the mini disappearance, I really wanted to post but things got in the way. This mani was one I wore last week, but I loved it too much not to share! For this I used China Glaze First Mate, an awesome navy creme. I really liked the formula and found that if I used a thicker coat, it's pretty much a one coater! Then I used HITS Twist, a flakie with blue-green colour shift and a royal blue jelly base. This mani was really fun for me, it made me think of the ocean!
As you can (unfortunately) see in the second picture, cleanup can be a be a little difficult with deep shades like this so be more careful than I was lol! I really like how in the second picture you can see the green flakies on my pinkie and then they look blue on my other fingers.
The first picture is in sun, second inside in natural light!
That's all for now and I have more posts coming, I had an awesome kijiji purchase this week. Broke my no buy, but... Mad As A Hatter is mine!! Anyway thanks for reading, and more to come!

Unusual Combo!

But I think it works! I have these two polishes and I didn't know what to do with either of them. One is Lickety Split Lime, from the Sally Hansen Instra Dri line. This colour I got a couple years ago, probably on a whim. I tried it then but didn't really like it, and I remember it staining badly so I hadn't reached for it since. The other is Revlon Sparkling, which is a warm-toned pink glitter. I think it is a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening. I couldn't decide what to layer Sparkling over, my pinks are mostly cool-toned so they clashed. Then I decided to try a more out-there colour combo, using my neglected Lickety Split Lime!

The formula on the Lime was good and it did indeed dry quickly. The brush in the Insta Dri line takes some getting used to though. I also liked the formula on Sparkling, it's not super thick and gooey like some glitters can be and I didn't have to work too hard to distribute the glitter. I did two coats of each polish, and doubled up on base coat to make sure I wouldn't have staining. Plus a topcoat and voila! What do you think of the combination?? One photo in sun and one in shade! 

China Glaze Dance Baby

Hello! So I don't think I've mentioned this here yet, but I am doing a no-buy July! Luckily my blog is new enough that almost all of my polishes are unswatched so I have lots to tide me over. I'm still finding it difficult not to buy any more though. And to make it extra challenging, I'm trying not to buy ANYTHING this month except for bare essentials like gas and food. Yikes. But it's for a good reason, and hopefully I will be able to share that with you all soon!
Today's nail polish is Dance Baby from the spring China Glaze collection. I got quite a few from the collection, and like the others I've tried, the formula on this was a little thick for my taste. It seems to work best in two thickish coats. Normally I prefer to do thinner coats but it's just not happening with these ones! No worries though, the polish was still easy to control. I would describe the colour as very girlie, almost Barbie-like. It makes me think of candy and princesses and all that jazz. It's a blue-based bubblegum pink and dries slightly darker than bottle colour.

 As you can see, I flipped this picture. My bottle isn't actually backwards! But that would be pretty cool if it was, right?

Ozotic Pro 513

So a while back when it was announced that Ozotic was discontinuing it's 500 series of polishes, I went on a spree trying to snap up the ones I wanted. This one wasn't originally on the list, but I love purple and holo so I figured better safe than sorry! Into the cart it went, and I am VERY glad it did! This is a bright medium purple that in shade looks like it has silver shimmer, but in the sun transforms into these awesome bright rainbows!! I seriously don't think I will ever grow tired of linear holos, they're like magic to me. Simple pleasures, right?
This was three coats over basecoat, no top coat. I think I probably could have gotten away with two coats except there was a little extra polish at the free edge because I suck at wrapping my tips still, so the third coat leveled everything out.

Now feast your eyes on the glory!!!!

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Exquisite Peach

So today I have a weird colour. This has been in my stash for a little over 5 years now. I bought this at some dollar-store type place shortly before my high school graduation because it almost exactly matched my dress. Oddly enough, now I don't care for this colour on me nail polish-wise, but I loved my dress. Anyway now that I have sufficiently aged myself, let's get on with it!
This colour is weird because the peach is offset with a strange greenish shimmer. The base colour itself doesn't change, so it's not a duochrome. I don't see colours with unusual shimmer often, I think I would like it a lot in a not-peach tone haha. Formula wise I don't recall having issues, it was sheer so I used three coats. The first photo is in sun, then in shade, then close up of the unusual shimmer. Hmm there appears to be some kind of bald spot on my pinkie, oops! Look away!

Essence Colour and Go Choose Me

Hello hello! Long time no post, I'm sorry! Boonstock was really fun, I loved so many of the bands and DJs! I ended up really liking Volbeat and Gob even though I hadn't listened to them much before. And obviously Avicii was great as usual. So after that exhausting weekend, I ended up getting sick (boo!) so I spent the past few days sleeping and sniffling. Then Wednesday night we went to Avicii again in Calgary because my boyfriend is obsessed with him. So pretty much I'm just getting back to normal now, and that includes posting.
Today I have a polish that sat in my untried pile for quite a time until I got around to it. It's a beautiful colour, it just took me a while to get it on! It's Choose Me from the Essence Colour and Go mini line. I actually didn't even know Essence was available in Canada, but then I found a small display at Shoppers Drug Mart and it had some polishes! Choose Me is a bright teal with gorgeous gold glass fleck shimmer. The formula was nice, I did three coats out of compulsion but two probably would have sufficed. The brush did seem a little strange but that could just take some getting used to.

This colour is EXTREMELY dupe-able. I believe OPI Catch Me in Your Net, Orly Halley's Comet, and Zoya Charla are all dupes to it. However this was I think $1.49 so really, can't go wrong there.

Pictures are outside, in the first shot I was getting rained on! Then the sun peeked out for the first time all week, yay! I'm holding topcoat because the mini bottle is a PITA to hang on to!