january haul

January's haul isn't too bad... I didn't buy a whole lot myself...

Early in January I received a Christmas Secret Santa package from the lovely Kim in Singapore!

Etude House - BL505
Etude House - GR605
Etude House - PK009
Etude House - 10
Etude House - PGR701
The Face Shop - WH003
The Face Shop - GR506
Sasatinnie - SGL507
Zoya - Pheobe
Zoya - Lolly
Zoya - Mitzi

Got a lovely Christmas gift from Sarah @ Chalkboard Nails:
Sonoma Nail Art - Chalkboard Nails
Lush Lacquer - Slumber Party

I got some polishes from Pirate Polish:

 
Pirate Polish - Love In A Cold Climate (mini)
Pirate Polish - Lovandula (mini)
Pirate Polish - Be Mine (mini)
Pirate Polish - Cinnamon Girl (mini)

I picked up all four of the Liquid Sand polishes from OPI:
OPI - Get Your Number
OPI - Stay The Night
OPI - The Impossible
OPI - Can't Let Go

I reviewed a few polishes for Elixir Lacquers:
Elixir Lacquers - Elixiversary
Elixir Lacquers - Betty Brutality
Elixir Lacquers - Kandy Krusher

I found some Layla's on clearance at a local drugstore:
Layla - Flash Black
Layla - Metal Chrome
Layla - 10 (Softtouch)

Found a Color Club mini set at Winners for $7.99:

Color Club - Muse-ical
Color Club - In The Limelight
Color Club - By Design
Color Club - Style Icon


Got some free China Glaze at Sally's, with purchase of Seche Vite:
China Glaze - Escaping Reality
China Glaze - Pool Party
China Glaze - Secret Peri-wink-le

Bought a couple things from a blog sale:
OPI - The Violet-er The Better
Essie - Play Date
Maybelline - Cool Couture
China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle

Other:
Revlon - Girly
Nicole by OPI - She's Lily Something
Orly - Be Brave

I purchased 18. 4 of those were minis. And 4 were on clearance. And 4 were a blogsale. It's alright.

What's to come for February's haul?
It's gonna be good, at first - because I am on a strict no-buy for the next 3 weeks!
But then it'll be bad... 'cause I'm headed to Toronto.
Stay tuned next month...

guest post @ Nails by Kayla Shevonne!

Hey everyone! Today I'm not gonna post anything new here - because I did a guest post for my good friend Kayla from Nails by Kayla Shevonne!

Head on over to her blog to check it out. Here's a picture to spark your interest...

Hope you like it!

it's a Parfait Day for leopard print!

Happy Sunday! Hope you guys are having a better day than me - I'm feeling pretty under the weather. Bleh. And tomorrow is Monday. Double bleh.
Let's cheer ourselves up with some happy pink nails!

These cutesy leopard print nails started out with 2 coats of the lovely Lime Crime - Parfait Day.

All of these Lime Crime pastels are just so fantastic. They are so vibrant and the formula is perfect!
I showed three of the others before in this post.

I added some leopard print with a dotting tool and China Glaze - Gothic Lolita.
For some added shimmer, I slapped on a coat of CND Effects - Sapphire Sparkle.
I love the blue sheen it adds to the nail!

Manis like this never cease to please me! I think I would wear animal print every day if I had the time.

I bet this would look good with some of the other Lime Crimes... Now I'm dreaming of some minty leopard print! Add that to the to-do list...

Elixir Lacquers - Kandy Krusher

Hooray, it's the weekend! Hope you polish addicts have some fun plans.
Let's start the weekend with some fun glitter polish!

Elixir Lacquers - Kandy Krusher
This awesome glitter topcoat is from the upcoming  Roller Derby Ruckus collection from Elixir Lacquers, which will launch on February 1st.
(Also check out Betty Brutality which I posted a couple of days ago.)

At first I wasn't sure how these glitters would look together when I saw them in the bottle, but on the nail, I'm sold!
There's purple squares, big blue hexes, small red glitter, and some assorted iridescent glitter.
As expected, you do need to give it a good shake to bring up the heavier glitters, but it didn't give me much trouble. Shown is two coats and a bit of glitter-pushing to spread the bigger pieces how I liked.

(The base color is OPI - Russian Navy which I posted about yesterday.)

Totally in love with this! It was a perfect match over the navy blue and I love how unique it is. My glitter addiction lives on.
Check out swatches of the rest of this collection here from Nicole of Elixir herself!

The collection launches on February 1st and you can find 'em at elixirlacquers.com!

Product provided for honest review.

OPI - Russian Navy

Hey guys! Quickie post today because I've got some homework to do and I'm lazy.

Here's one of my go-to OPI polishes and also one of their best sellers.

OPI - Russian Navy
The must-have navy shimmer! If you're a polish addict and you don't have this in your collection, what are you waiting for?
The formula is great, just needs 2 coats, and it is always a satisfying color.

If I can't decide what to wear, this is one of the polishes I go for. It's a fave!

It also looks great with glitter topcoats... Check back tomorrow to see one! :)

I Love Nail Polish - Blow Pop

Hey guys!
Today I've got a fun glitter from I Love Nail Polish to show you! 

I Love Nail Polish - Blow Pop
This is a clear base with hex glitters in three colors - rosy pink, purple, and blue! It's a fun combo and you're looking at just one coat! The formula is great.

I've shown it here over China Glaze - Dance Baby but you can wear this over basically anything. It will match any color!

I also wore it over Essie - Play Date. Purdy!

You may remember the post I did on another polish from them - Matthew Peri.
As I said in that review, this indie brand is totally impressive, from the packaging to the formula to the brush to the cap to the bottle... I just love it. Everything about it.
 

Have you tried any polishes from ILNP? I still have two more to post, which I am in love with. So much good glitter. I'm a glitter fanatic, I know.

Blow Pop retails for $10 and is available now in the ILNP Etsy shop!

Product provided for honest review.

Pirate Polish: Love In A Cold Climate (Valentine's Day 2013)

Good afternoon!
I have a Valentine's Day polish collection to show you lovelies today - the Pirate Polish: Love In A Cold Climate Collection.
Which is super appropriate for me right now because we had yet another snow storm yesterday and it is very cold and snowy and I hate it.
At least I have my polish to keep me warm...

Four sweet and spicy polishes to make your nails feel loved this Valentine's Day.

Pirate Polish - Cinnamon Girl
This is a suuuper bright red jelly polish with lots of glitter to keep it interesting! This is 3 thin coats.
The red glitter in the red jelly is really nice, and the little holo sparkles add that extra "oomph."

I don't wear red polish too often but the vibrancy of this one was really satisfying! I did an early V-day mani with this one, but I'll save that for a future post.

Pirate Polish - Be Mine
How sweet! A pink creme with tiny gold holographic glitter and gold flakes. I love the shade of pink.
3 coats to cover all bald spots, lovely formula. Nice and subtle for those of you not into crazy glitters!

And for those of you who are into crazy glitters...

Pirate Polish - Lovandula
Love this! Purple holo diamonds, silver holo hexes, and lots more. Obviously we know this polish is perfect for me because of my love for all things pink and purple and glittery.

This is two coats of Lovandula over Be Mine. The glitter disperses really nicely! Not hard to apply and I didn't have to fish for glitter. Yay! This one is definitely my favorite of the four.

Last but not least, the namesake of the collection:

Pirate Polish - Love In A Cold Climate
Hooray for shaped glitter! This polish features blue and white/clear hearts, and lots of other blue and white glitters, in a clear base. There's also some iridescent glitters in there which for some reason were showing up brownish in these pictures... Please ignore that. In reality they flash nice iridescent colors.

This is three coats of Love In A Cold Climate over China Glaze For Audrey.
I did have to fish for the heart glitter but I blame that on the mini brush. They're pretty big so you gotta be patient to retrieve them. But it is worth it because they're great.

The set of 4 full size polishes is available for $36 or individually for $10.
Minis are sold as a set for $18, or individually for $5.
Get 'em right here in the Pirate Polish Etsy shop! And don't forget to check them out on Facebook.

BONUS: Pirate Polish is offering a 10% store-wide discount code this week!
"AWAYONVACAY" is the code - it's to make up for the fact that they will be out of town until Saturday, so all orders made during this period will ship after they return. 

Product sent for honest review.

Hits - Suspiro

Hey guys! Quick little nail-of-the-day to show off today.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up some polishes from Ninja Polish including this super cute glitter from Hits:

Hits - Suspiro
This is from the Mari Moon Multi Girl Glitter Shock collection from Hits.
A purpley-bluey/periwinkle base filled with pink, purple and blue glitter. Just how I like it!

The polish was more sheer than I was expecting - here you see 2 coats layered over a silver polish. (Don't ask why I layered it over silver... I happened to be wearing silver and wondered if it would be a suitable base for this. Turns out, it was!)

Google tells me that suspiro means sigh.
*Sigh*, I love this polish.

I wanna layer this over a light purple next to bring out the purple tones more! It's just so cute. I really can't get enough milky glitters!

You can get this polish right here on Ninja Polish for $6.

I have another polish from this collection that I have yet to wear and now I wanna bust it out! Perhaps for my next manicure...

OPI Liquid Sand - Get Your Number

Happy Sunday!

Have you guys seen the new Liquid Sand polishes from OPI?
I'm sure most of you have already, but in case you aren't familiar with it, I'll tell you about them!
Essentially they are glitter polishes "with a textured, matte finish infused with reflective sparkle."
You don't topcoat them, so they're textured/matte but the holographic glitter still shines! It's pretty cool.

I totally thought I would hate them. Like, really hate them. Gritty nails? On purpose?

Turns out, I was wrong, and they're cool as hell.

OPI - Get Your Number
The Liquid Sand polishes are debuting in the Mariah Carey Collection that is in stores now. There are four of them, and I picked up three. (I would have gotten all four had the purple not been sold out...)

You need just 2 coats to cover the nail completely. There is a blue jelly base so coverage is easy.
They dry pretty quickly - not as quick as a flat matte polish but still faster than regular polish.
Warning, you will be feeling up your nails all day long when you wear these.

I imagined it would be very annoying and snag on your clothes and hair, etc, but it doesn't really.
I will say though, it does snag on your wool while you are crocheting... But not everyone will have that problem! Just me and the grandmas! Hahaha.

I also have to say that this polish has amazing lasting power. I imagined it would chip pretty instantly - like most matte polish, but I have been wearing this for four days now with no chips. None!

I am sorry, OPI, for all the bad things I thought about your Liquid Sand polish. You were right. I was wrong. Please forgive me for not believing in you.

Of course, you can add topcoat to turn these into something totally different!

Adding topcoat gives it a jelly glitter look. Shown here is just one coat of topcoat and you can see it is still bumpy. You're gonna need at least 2 coats for a smooth finish. It eats up the topcoat.

I had to add some stamping to spice up the manicure on the fourth day!

Animal print never fails. I'm totally diggin' this look!

Phew, this was a long post!

What do you guys think of the Liquid Sand finish?
Love it? Hate it? Still not sure?

I definitely think it is something you need to see in person before you make judgement. It won't be for everyone, but I'm a fan! Can't wait to try out my other two shades.

Pure Ice - Touch Me Softly

At first I didn't like matte polishes. Now I can't get enough!
Here's a lovely matte from Pure Ice's recent collection of mattes. I forget what they called it... Velvet? Velour? Something...

Anyway. A lovely friend picked up six of the polishes for me and this one is my favorite, I think!

Pure Ice - Touch Me Softly
As you can see, it's really a suede matte, meaning it's packed with shimmer! Gorgeous.
The formula was wonderful, you just need 2 coats, and it dries almost instantly.
Perfect for when you're in a hurry!

You may remember I wore this under my swatch of Elixiversary from a few days ago.
That'll give you an idea of how it looks when you add topcoat. (Also beautiful.)

I wore this for almost 2 days before it began to chip. That's great for matte polish! I find OPI lasts on me like that, but other mattes like ManGlaze I can't keep on for 2 hours, let alone 2 days.
So I was impressed with the staying power of Pure Ice!
Despite only costing what, 2 bucks, it's great quality.

Ladies in the US, if these are still kicking around at your Walmart, definitely pick them up! You won't be disappointed.
I'm sure I'll be wearing the other colors soon and will have those to show off to you!

I'm off to watch Batman with my dad. Until tomorrow, lovelies!