april haul + follow me on instagram!

This month, I did really good with my polish-buying!
SUPER good actually, considering I went on a little trip! Let's all be proud. Here it is:

I got some indies for review:

Serum No. 5 - Day GlowSerum No. 5 - Sky Lights
Serum No. 5 - Forest Lights (mini)
Serum No. 5 - Poppy Fields (mini)
Serum No. 5 - April Showers (mini)

Animeniac Cosmetics - S.H.I.P
Animeniac Cosmetics - Chibi (mini)
Animeniac Cosmetics - Late Night Reading (mini)
Animeniac Cosmetics - Jolted (mini)

Picked up two Zoyas:
Zoya - Nyx
Zoya - London

Bought a lot of Hard Candy... But they're pretty cheap:

Hard Candy - Pixie Pink
Hard Candy - Gummy Green
Hard Candy - Pink Taffy
Hard Candy - So So Sequin
Hard Candy - Party Central
Hard Candy - Black Tie Optional
Hard Candy - Mermaid Magic

And then, in St. Louis, I only bought three polishes!:
Deborah Lippmann - Do The Mermaid
Deborah Lippmann - Just Dance
Julep - Rebecca

I hated to actually buy a Julep, but when I saw my name there on the display at Sephora, I snatched it up real quick. The Lippmanns were from Nordstrom - expensive, but hey, I was on vacation!

So, if I am not forgetting anything, I only purchased 12 polishes this month. Wow!
But I did buy a lot of other stuff while I was away...

Just for fun, there's some of what I bought in St. Louis. We went to two huge malls in one day and this is what happened... LOL. I took this photo after unloading it all in the hotel room.
I am so obsessed with my giant Betsey Johnson weekender and iPad case. I actually picked up more Betsey things from Macy's too, the next day. There were some ridiculous sales. $60 wallet for $20? Yes please! And can you believe I only paid $42 for the huge bag?! I LOVE SALES.
Plus I'm so excited to try my new goodies from Sephora (NARS Orgasm blush and Bare Minerals foundation and a sample of Urban Decay Naked Beauty Balm!) 
Lots of Hello Kitty stuff followed me home, too, of course.

And now a bit of news - you can now follow me on Instagram! @rebeccalikesnails
I tried using it for a little while just as a personal account and I liked it but couldn't get too into it. But now I'm gonna use it for my blog with some personal stuff mixed in and I think it will be a lot of fun!
I just posted a pic with one of my new Lippmanns... Check it out!
(And while you're at it, check out this photo from @chalkboardnails to see some of my crochet skills.)

One last thing...

my (non-winning) entry for Gel II's Reaction Contest!

Hey! This post will just be a quickie because I've only got two pics. My camera was NOT cooperating on this day! Too bad, considering I was trying to win a contest. Haha!!

Gel II had a contest where you had to use one or more of their Reaction color-changing gels to create a manicure. I wasn't too happy with what I came up with, but I ran out of time to do anything else!

You may remember from my original review post, but when your hands are warm, this polish is pink!

And when you're cold, they're purple!
But I'm just too damn hot to keep them purple for very long. (In more ways than one. Heh. Heh. Heh.)

I did a glitter gradient with some loose silver glitter on top of the gel, and added the star stamp from Bundle Monster BM-21.

It is cute, but I knew it wasn't gonna be a winner. There were some seriously cool entries! Oh well! I tried.

I'm back home tomorrow - haul post time? Perhaps!!

Product provided for honest review.

two random glitter bombs

Herro.

Sometimes, when I'm fooling around with new polishes, I end up just layering a bunch of them together to see what happens.

This one is so beautiful but sadly it was just too many coats and it was taking too long to fully set, and I took it off. :(
Here's what it consists of:
American Apparel - Hunter (2 coats)
piCture pOlish - Festival (3 coats)
Shimmer Polish - Jenny (1 coat)
OPI - Yule Love This Silver (1 coat)

Sparkly and greeeeeen. So purdy.

Here's another random mix that was on my other hand at some point last week:

I love this more every time I see the second photo!
The base here is OPI - Suzi Skis In The Pyrenees Suede, and on top I layered two new glitters.
Hard Candy - Party Central
Hard Candy - So So Sequin
I'm gonna try to get swatches up of all the Hard Candy glitters that I bought at some point, but let me just tell you for now, you need these!! Loving it. So hard.

Hooray for glitter bombs!

my first ombré! with butter london jelly

I do gradient nails all the time. So how come I haven't done an ombré until now?

It's a bit streaky, because I did it by layering more and more coats of Butter London - Stroppy, a sheer purple jelly with shimmer, over the light purple creme of China Glaze - Light As Air.

It was hard to get even coverage, especially on the one-coat and two-coat nails, but I really like how it turned out! Very subtle, but still noticeable, and it was one of those manis that feels "chic" on your nails. Do you know what I mean? Of course you do. You're reading my blog, after all, you must be nuts like me.

I definitely wanna play more with ombrés now! But I would probably have a hard time trying to pick out polishes that work together instead of doing the layering thing. Hmm... We'll see!

Tonight I will be seeing my favorite hockey team, The Chicago Blackhawks! They will be beating the crap out of Dan's favorite team, the St. Louis Blues. Be sure to watch the game and try to spot us in the crowd! HA!

:)

Sonoma Nail Art - Pink Clockwork

Where in the world is Rebecca right now? On a plane to St. Louis... I'll be back soon! But there are posts scheduled, never fear, I am never too far away.

Today's polish - a special glitter from a special friend!
I love Michelle from Sonoma Nail Art and her beautiful creations.

Sonoma Nail Art - Pink Clockwork
I bought this polish from my phone while visiting my uncle in a hospital in Toronto. Dedication. HAHA.

Here I've layered it over OPI - I Theodora You, a pretty pale pink to help set off the glitter.
I've got the whole Oz The Great And Powerful collection from OPI and I will have swatches of all of those up at some point after I return home!

All kinds of pretty pink glitters and some silver, too! One coat of topcoat and it is perfectly smooth.

So into it. I put it on within an hour of receiving it in the mail! That could be some kind of record.

Thank you Michelle for creating this pretty! Next time I think I'll layer it over black because I saw Laurie of Dressed Up Digits do that in here post here, and that's why I bought it in the first place!! Gorgeous.

You can find Sonoma Nail Art on Etsy! This one is not currently in stock but it will be back at some point.
There are so many nice ones in stock right now... Must resist...

Serum no. 5 - Forest Lights, April Showers, & Poppy Fields

Hey guys! Here's the second half of my Serum no. 5 review that I promised yesterday!

Today I'll be showing three cute glitters! Be sure to check out yesterday's glow-in-the-dark post, if you missed it.

Serum no. 5 - Forest Lights (over American Apparel - Hunter)
This one is my favorite of the bunch! I'm just a sucker for green sometimes. The shimmery base is really nice and I like the mix of glitters! This is two coats that went on easily. Thumbs up!

Serum no. 5 - April Showers (over Essence - Rock Rebell)
Love me a good iridescent glitter! This one has a very shimmery base and lots of different glitters in the mix. This is two coats, I probably would like it a little more if the glitter was a tad more dense, but it is still lovely!

Serum no. 5 - Poppy Fields (over Color Club - Mamba)
This one isn't my favorite, it just isn't something I'd really wear, but I totally see the poppy-inspiration and I think that's a really cool idea! Shown above is two coats of glitter, and I really like the circle glitters, of course.
The polish does have a slightly tinted base which I didn't realize at first, and I tried to layer it over a beige, and I can't decide if I like it that way or not.  

What do you guys think of these polishes?
Forest Lights is definitely my fave - don't miss that one if you are into green glitters.

Serum no. 5 can be found in their Etsy store, $12 for full size or $9 for minis.

Don't forget to check 'em out on Facebook and Tumblr for updates.

Product provided for honest review.

Serum no. 5 - Day Glow & Sky Lights (glow in the dark!)

Boooooonjour.
I have another indie review for you lovelies today.
I know - I've been doing a lot of indie reviews lately. I'm gonna try to do a bigger variety of things in the coming weeks! I don't currently have much more in my review pile, so I'll get to play around with some more stuff.
(But I just love indie glitter.... okay... all glitter...)

Today's featured brand is Serum no. 5! And these babies GLOW IN THE DARK!

Serum's full-size polishes are 16.7 mL and the minis are 9mL - bigger than most! They also come in cute little boxes which always makes me feel like there must be something special inside... Hehe. That's a detail I always appreciate.

Serum no. 5 - Day Glow
Day Glow is the most popular polish from Serum, I believe. It has a very strong glow effect!
I haven't tried other GITD polishes, but apparently this is one of the strongest ones around.
This is three coats for full opacity. Make sure to give it a good shake to stir up the glow pigment and get the glowiest nails. Glowiest? Yeah. Glowiest.

Glowing!! Awesome right? I was a little bit mesmerized.
I did find that I needed to charge my nails under a bright light to get the super strong effect, and it did wear off kinda quickly, but it did glow for a long time at its less-strong level.

I really want to go to a neon party or something with this polish on!!

Serum no. 5 - Sky Lights
The second GITD polish!  This one is not a full-coverage polish, so I layered it over OPI - Don't Burst My Bubble just to cover up my stains but to allow the polish to glow to its full potential. It gives a shimmery, icy blue look to the nail. And...

It glows blue!! So cool. I didn't know this one was blue until I turned off the light and I was so happily surprised! The shimmer in the polish gives the glow a more grainy look which you can kinda see in the second photo.
For me, this one didn't last as long as the other, but still a decent amount of time!

Imagine wearing both of these in the one mani... Alternating glow colors... Must try it!

Serum no. 5 can be found in their Etsy store, $12 for full size or $9 for minis.
Currently there are a few of these GITD polishes in stock and they sell fast! So if you want em, go go go!

I will have swatches of three of their glitters up tomorrow!
Don't forget to check 'em out on Facebook and Tumblr for updates.

Product provided for honest review.

Zoya - Nyx (aka FAIL)

Have you ever bought a nail polish, put it on, and thought: "Holy crap, why on earth did I even buy this, I wish I could return this, this cost me six dollars, I could have spent that on something good, I hate this so much I don't even want to give it to a friend because they will hate it too, please get this off my nails right now"?

Well that happened to me last week.

Zoya - Nyx
You may be thinking, "Rebecca, that is so pretty, how come you hate it?"
There are a few reasons why.
1) It looks so much nicer in pictures than it does in person. It's more gray and the sparkle is not so prominent.
2) It is sheer, way more sheer than I was expecting, it needed 3 coats and I seriously wanted to do a fourth. That ain't cool for a textured polish because the more coats, the more dry-time.
3) Speaking of dry time, THIS WOULD NOT DRY AT ALL.

I seriously left it on for 30-40 minutes and while yes, it was dry on the surface, it was not nearly set and I could easily have wiped it all off. After that much time. UGH!

I ended up adding topcoat to make it dry, which of course ruined the textured finish. I only had time for one coat of topcoat so it was still textured somewhat but not in a nice way, and I hated it, a LOT.
And to make matters worse, I didn't have time to put on something else, and ended up leaving it on for TWO WHOLE DAYS days because I was so busy studying for an exam and then writing said exam.
The more I had to look at the polish, the more I hated it.

I was sooooooo looking forward to the PixieDust polishes from Zoya but now I am SO turned off.
I bought one more besides this (London) and I am not even sure if I will bother trying it.

From the reviews I've seen, no one else is having the problem I had. Is there anyone out there who is hating the PixieDust polishes with the burning passion that I am?! Gah!!!

new nail goodies @ Shoppers & Walmart!

Hey all! Quick post today to let my Canadian ladies know about some new nail goodies I found at Shoppers Drugmart and at Walmart.

Shoppers first:

I may be way behind with this news because I am sort of out-of-the-loop right now, but I was excited to find new things from Essence! 
They were in the permanent Essence display, below the polish.
The stampy set is "01 Be Creative!" and it was $3.99, and the decorations are "01 Fantastic Metallics" and "02 Amazing Bling Bling", $3.49 each.

I'm really excited for the plate!

A bow! And a really cute heart! Can't wait to use it.

There was more new stuff too that I didn't pick up. They are now carrying some of the Nude Glam polishes - I think there were 5 (but we all know I don't need another nude), a double-ended dotting tool, and a gel-like topcoat.

I also recently saw a new limited edition display, Vintage District.

However I totally displayed restraint and didn't buy anything! But I kinda wish I had bought the nail art decoration kit now so it could join its friends that came home with me today. Haha!

My store also had a ton of Gosh on sale for $3.50 so be sure to check out the clearance section too.

And at Walmart...

The new Hard Candy polishes!!!!! Multiple exclamation marks!!!!!!
Canadian Walmarts never carried their polish before so I basically did a happy dance in the aisle when I found them. And by "basically did a happy dance" I mean "actually did a happy dance" and my mom judged me.

I showed IMMENSE RESTRAINT by not buying all of them. And I picked up seven.

Good thing my mom was there judging me, or else I would have probably gotten a lot more.
They were $3.97 each or .96 or something. 

So, Canadian ladies, are you running to your stores right now?! You should be! Get your goodies!

Shimmer Polish - Eva, Liana, & Irene

Hey! This post coming to you from a very happy Rebecca - I've finished my exams! So I am done with school until September. Time to catch up on all the good stuff: nails, crochet, crafts... Hehe.

I'm still working my way through my Shimmer Polish! I've been swatching so many of these lately, but I don't even care, because I love them. Be still my glitter heart.

As I say every time, Shimmer Polishes are very complex and full of so much fun glitter.
The formulas are wonderful, glitter-packed without being gloopy, and they can be worn layered or built up on their own.

The middle one of this bunch, oooh chiiiild, so great. Swatches!

Shimmer Polish - Eva
Eva is a red jelly base with lots of microglitter in shades of red and silver! This is two coats of the polish alone, no base color. It covers amazingly for a jelly! Very glamorous. Red lovers would love this one!

Shimmer Polish - Liana (over OPI - Suzi Skis In The Pyrenees Suede)
I die. Omg. This one is just so beautiful! I did not want to take it off when I wore it. I've been showing four photos of every Shimmer but this one had to have five... I couldn't remove one.
This is just one coat of the glitter, it is soo dense, and the blues are just beautiful! Plus the sprinkling of other colors... Gah. Perfect.

Shimmer Polish - Irene
Irene is an extremely dense champagne gold microglitter polish. Shown is just two coats alone! No undies. And it spread out easily and neatly despite how glitter-packed it is.
Although this is very sparkly, I think it could be considered one of the more subtle or work-appropriate glitters due to its nude-gold hue. It's so pretty!
One of my nurses is named Irene and I considered giving this to her... But no. I need it. Sorry Irene.

________________________

I think I still have 7 of these left to swatch. Can you handle it?

Shimmer Polish is available in their Etsy shop, or you can order via email.
The polishes are $12 each, and you can even order custom polishes for $15.
Head to shimmyshimmer.com for the details! And don't forget to check them out on Facebook.

Here are my other Shimmer posts, in case you missed 'em:

• Shimmer Polish - Leslie, Jennifer, & Jasmine
• Shimmer Polish - Erica, Nichole, & Karen
• Shimmer Polish - Candace, Lucie, & Maria
• Shimmer Polish - Julie, Jenny, & Trisha

Products provided for honest review.