ILNP - Party Of Four

Okay, when it comes to indie nail polish, I am totally out of the loop. Like way out of the loop. So far out of the loop that I don't know if I could ever get back in.
I had a couple of pretty bad (read: awful) experiences in the early days of the indie craze. Stained nails, awful polishes, poor quality. And while I'm sure there are still things like that going on, holy crap, some of the brands have stepped up their game.

I was going through some old pictures I had never gotten around to posting, and came across these swatches of an old ILNP shade from back in the day. Looking at the pictures just now prompted me to check out their website. OMG. Cue the drooling. Ultra chrome? Ultra chrome flakies? Holographic ultra chrome flakies? What even. Someone get me one of those, stat.

Anyway, in case you ever stumble upon some older ILNP shades in a blog sale or what have you, here's a nice one to check out!

ILNP - Party of Four
This polish is a glitter topper with pink, blue, silver and black glitters. Lots of different shapes and sizes but it forms a cohesive look that I am super into.

I can't tell you for certain what base color I was wearing, but I thiiiink it was OPI - The Violet-ter, The Better.

I also made the whole look softer and milkier with a coat of OPI - Don't Touch My Tutu. I like it even better this way!

ILNP is definitely a great example of an indie brand that is 100% on par with the big brands, if not even better. I'm glad I have a couple of the old shades but I need to grab some new ones!

So tell me, what are some of your favorite tried-and-true indie brands? Anything I am hardcore missing out on?

I'm off to draft some more posts. Until next time!

catch up haul! miss me?

Hey everyone! Look at that - I was on unplanned hiatus again. Whoops. Did you miss me? Let's catch up.

I don't even really have a good excuse this time for being inactive, so I totally admire bloggers who have a full time job and families and stuff and still manage to blog on the regular because clearly I am not capable and I don't even have a job at the moment (and certainly no kids). I am in grad school, so there's one decent excuse I suppose.

I've also got this prettttty great new boyfriend (Hi, Andy!) who's been bugging me to get back on the blogging game because he thinks it's really cool (because duh, it is). He even helped me organize some of my nail polish AND make swatch sticks. Legit. So, he's a keeper, and I'm sure he will keep reminding me to stay on track. I know it seems like a lot of the blogging world has transitioned to mostly Instagram and quicker platforms like that but hey, someone's still gotta keep writing a whole bunch of nail polish nonsense somewhere to keep us all in the know.

I've got a few goals in mind for this new blogging spurt, which I will hopefully make good on:
1) Learn about all the new and upcoming stuff so I don't feel left out.
2) Get my Facebook page up to 10,000 likes. (It's been so close for so long!)
3) Have a blog sale. (Lemme know in the comments if you'd be interested in that!)
4) Run a sweet giveaway!

Anyway. I haven't done a haul post since February. So there's six months in there plus most of September that I haven't done (or even thought about). And obviously, being somewhat out of the game, my polish shopping has gotten way, way less shameful. But I still have my moments. Let's see what I can remember...

A photo posted by Rebecca Likes Nails (@rebeccalikesnails) on Mar 5, 2015 at 6:01pm PST

In March, my true love Chalkboard Nails sent me a package full of love, and of course nail polish. She sent me my first LVX polishes in such fun colors, my first CND Vinylux, and some Color Club minis because girl knows I love me some CC.

LVX - Midori
LVX - Porcelaine
LVX - Laguna
CND Vinylux - Grand Gala
CND Vinylux - Dazzling Dance
CND Vinylux - Chiffon Twirl
Color Club - Tiny Umbrella (mini)
Color Club - Sea-ing Blue (mini)
Color Club - The Islands (mini)
Color Club - Frozen Daquiri (mini)

My friend Tracy came to my rescue when she spotted the China Glaze Electric Nights collection at our local beauty supply this spring. I was stuck at work all week that week and never would have made it there before the good stuff sold out, so not only did Tracy pick them up for me, but she delivered them to my work. Can I get an amen? Thank you Tracy!

China Glaze - Point Me To The Party
China Glaze - Let The Beat Drop
China Glaze - Can I Get An Untz Untz
China Glaze - PLUR-ple
China Glaze - UV Meant To Be

And because I clearly have amazing friends, my pal Jessica sent me a message at like 1 AM one night letting me know there was a huge bin of Nicole by OPI polishes for FIFTY CENTS at a supermarket near me. So naturally I went right away. And got every color. Because duh.

Nicole by OPI - Plum To Your Senses!
Nicole by OPI - Carried Away
Nicole by OPI - Goodbye Shoes
Nicole by OPI - Sweet Daisy
Nicole by OPI - Party Bus
Nicole by OPI - Backstage Pass
Nicole by OPI - Lips Are Dripping Honey
Nicole by OPI - A Lit-teal Bit of Love
Nicole by OPI - Honey-Dew You Love Me?
Nicole by OPI - Diva Into The Pool
Nicole by OPI - Light a Candle
Nicole by OPI - I'll Have The Salmon

A photo posted by Rebecca Likes Nails (@rebeccalikesnails) on Apr 27, 2015 at 6:18pm PDT

In an attempt to remain current and cool, I ordered myself one Enchanted Polish from a Nail Polish Canada restock in April (and the other one pictured was for a friend.) And yum, look at dat ColourPop!

Enchanted Polish - Dream On

A photo posted by Rebecca Likes Nails (@rebeccalikesnails) on May 22, 2015 at 4:07pm PDT

While in Florida in May, I found some polishes on clearance because clearance is my bitch.

OPI - My Silk Tie

OPI - Shine For Me

OPI - Christmas Gone Plaid

OPI - So Elegant

OPI - You're So Outta Lime!

OPI - It's All San Andreas's Fault

A photo posted by Rebecca Likes Nails (@rebeccalikesnails) on May 16, 2015 at 7:27am PDT

I needed to be restrained in the Lancome company outlet in Florida because they carry Urban Decay now. Almost just said "I'll have one of everything" but I showed some restraint. The whole thing pictured above only cost $68 so you knowww the deals were insane. My haul included the Electric nail polish trio:

Urban Decay - Deep End
Urban Decay - Gold Mine
Urban Decay - Woodstock

Other than that, a few random purchases I can recall include:
L'Oreal Color Riche - Hello Captain
Essence - Glitz & Glam
Essence - Under The Sea
Essence - Underwater Love
Essence - Rock My World
Nicole by OPI - A Million Sparkles

PHEW! I made it. I think. I definitely missed some in there but who knows what.

It feels good to be typing to you here in this little white box once again - I hope at least some of you are still subscribed to me and excited to hear from me. Drop me a comment below and say hi! And I'll see you again soon. 

i'm on that mermaid life

Hey everyone! I've got some amazing nails for you today if I do say so myself! (And I do say so.)

Totally wanted to leave these on for the rest of my life.

The base color for this mani is a new-ish one from Essence (it came out in Canada in maybe October or November), called Aquatix Bay, I did three coats for best coverage.
The seashell stamping image is from the Cheeky summer collection, plate CH-38.
I used a Mundo de Unas stamping polish. I think it's called Lilac. They stamp sooooo amazingly.
I added some rhinestones and pearls to continue with the mermaid effect.

Mermaid nails are just the best. I am a mermaid. If you didn't know.

Hope you guys enjoyed these nails as much as I did!
BTW - Any of my polish friends out there in sunny Florida wanna take me to the Iggy Azalea concert in May? I'll be there for vacation with my fam, and at this rate, I'ma be taking my mom to see Iggy Iggs.

january/february haul 2015

Hey everyone! I know y'all love these haul posts, so sorry if you've been having haul-withdrawal since November. I actually don't think I bought a single polish in December (Christmas was busy!) so there was no haul for that, and then January was slow as well so I decided to lump it into one for Jan/Feb!
It might be really hard actually for me to think back to what I have bought though. I need to start updating my spreadsheet on the regular like I used to! Maybe I'll get started on that after this post.

Once again, I can't get my Instagram photos to embed properly like they always did before (anyone else having this problem?!) so I had to save them and upload them.
So anyway, please follow me on IG if you haven't already and you can see my haul pics in real time as they happen! Hahaha.

I ended up buying a bunch of Color Club at Winners. Are you surprised? (One of these was from the last haul though, I just happened to be labeling them all and took a photo.)
They had four new collections there all at once and I basically had a mental breakdown trying to decide what to buy. I left one behind and now it'll probably haunt me forever. As per usual.
I won't list all the individual names here, but the collections I did take home are:  
Poptastic Remix, Seven Deadly Sins, and one half of the Celebration collection.
I almost left the Seven Deadly Sins behind because I didn't realize that's what it was, but man I am glad I got it because I wanted to try their textured polishes!

I got these two ridiculously priced polishes on clearance at Winners:
Ciaté - Apples and Custard
Nails Inc - Ives Street

Also at Winners, I found a ton of Formula X polishes from Sephora. Like, a TON. From all sorts of their collections. And they are $4.99 compared to the usual $13-16ish. I found six of the matte glitters and had to talk myself down from getting all six. So I got three:
Formula X - Crash (the bright blue)
Formula X - TNT (the dark blue)
Formula X - Maniacal (the green)

I picked up my very first Enchanted Polish during a restock at Nail Polish Canada. Haven't used it yet, but I plan to soon!
Enchanted Polish - Amazing

Oh wait, I think I did get one polish in December! My bestie Dan did me a solid and while on vacation he picked me up a Mac nail polish that had sold out online before I could snag it. My first Mac polish, too!
Mac - Just Jewels 

That brings me to a total of 26 polishes, as long as I haven't missed anything!
But I probably did.
#yolo

ColourPop Super Shock Shadow Swatches - Part 2 - The Mattes

Hey everyone! Happy Sunday! Today I am coming to you with some more ColourPop eyeshadow swatches. I mentioned in my first post that my friend Therese would be swatching her collection for our viewing pleasure, and oh boy, now I pretty much want every single color.

Definitely check out the first post for all the details on the formula and stuff, but just know that these are super pigmented cream-to-powder shadows with amazing colors for just $5 each.

Today I'll be showing you the matte shadows from ColourPop! These were a highly anticipated release, and I did show off three of them myself but Therese has all but one of them so here they are in their full glory. (We are only missing the matte black and I am sure you can imagine what that's like anyway.)

Fairfax - A dark brown matte, great pigment, but that basically doesn't even need to be said.

Mittens - A brick red-brown matte, definitely a unique shade. I must own this.

Effect - Deep blackened teal matte, crazyyy pigment. Yum.

Bill - Muted plum beige matte. Great transition color!

Hustle - Burgundy matte with violet undertone. All day every day.

Cop A Feel - Light creamy beige matte. Another great transition color. This whole section is really!

Hanky Panky - A light cool-toned matte taupe. Gimme.

Play - This is a peachy neutral matte taupe. Unique!

To-A-T - Mid tone matte brown. Warm tones definitely suit me to a T.

Bandit - Warm rusty brown matte. Warm yes gimme more.

Doe-A-Deer - Deep matte violet. Want this so hard.

Tink - Deep matte charcoal! Basically dyin' to get this for smokey eyes.

Girl Crush - Mid tone warm matte gray. So good. 

And just pretend there is a black matte on the end called Roulette!

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A big thank you goes out to the wonderful Therese for these great swatches! And there are still plenty more to come. Like, lots. 
She wasn't sure she would have the skills to take good swatch photos but I think she did an amazing job, am I right? :D
And again check out the first post for all you need to know about ColourPop.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post, and have a great week! I'll see you soon with some nail posts.

valentine's day smooches

Hey everyone! You know what? I think I'm really committed to blog-revitalization this time. I even did nail art on myself like two times this week. That's a lot for me lately! I hope this is me coming back around to the nail game. I've missed it!

I even did seasonally-appropriate nails. Valentine's Day nails!
You may remember from years past that Tiffany from Nail Polish Canada is my nail-valentine and this year is no different because she sent me another lovely plate to play with. 

Muah! Lil' kisses.
I started with a base of Formula X for Sephora - Hyped, a super vibrant purple with amazing shimmer.
It dries semi-matte as most neon purples do, so you're able to quickly go in and do some stamping.
I stamped the lips image from Bundle Monster BM-H17 using a light pink stamping polish from Mundo de Unas.
Add some Seche Vite and you're done! 

Super cute for Valentine's Day, or Galentine's Day! Hope you guys are having a lovely day whatever you're up to.

If you're feelin' this mani, you can buy the plate here on its own for only $3.40! Ships free in Canada, too.

ColourPop Super Shock Shadow Swatches - Part 1!

Hey everyone out there in blog land! Do you miss me? I know I am a total and complete space case when it comes to my blog of late, however I'm pretty into the idea of revitalizing it! Let's get some posts up in this bish!

I gotta admit, I kinda spend more time on makeup than nails lately, so I'm hoping to try out some more makeup posts for the blog. And never fear, I do still love all things nails, I just have practically zero time to do my own between working full time plus grad school plus nail clients plus actually trying to have a social life sometimes. But I'm working on getting back into it! I'm not up on all the latest nail crazes, but I'm sure with a little help from you guys, I'll get there!

So today I've got a makeup post ready for ya! I recently fell in love with a new product so now I'm gonna share it with all of you.

If you've been living under a makeup rock, you might not have heard of ColourPop Cosmetics. They have been blowing up on Instagram and YouTube and practically everywhere else. And for good reason, too. They've got a beautiful range of eye shadows and lip products, and soon there will be blushes in the family as well.
What makes their shadows different is the formula. The ColourPop Super Shock Shadows are like this totally different and unique texture that is a cream-to-powder type of deal. It's actually squishy. You have to touch it yourself to understand. And the ultra mega bonus is that they're all $5 a pop. FIVE BUCKS! That's not even a good sub at Subway.

I have to say, when I first saw people obsessing over these I was like "Nahhh, this girl doesn't need another product to hoard. I'll pass." But the more I saw pictures and videos I was like YAASSS NEEED. The pigment is so intense, and the glittery ones are so stinkin' beautiful. I couldn't resist any longer. I bought ten.

Each shadow comes in a little box, and you have to keep the individual pots closed tightly when not in use because they can dry out and no one wants that.

And now it is swatchey time! I've included flash and natural light photos for some sparkle realness. Each swatch is just one small swipe, because like I said, the pigment is just out of control.

Tassel - A very glittery white shade. You could put this anywhere for BAM sparkle. Highlight like mad.

Meow - This one is my favorite. It's impossible to capture all the sparkle going down in here. It's a dark silver base and it reflects with pink and purple and maybe even blue glitter. When I put this on my eyes for the first time, I spent the next half hour looking at it. Ooh aah sparkle yes wow. You need this on your face like yesterday.

Ibiza - Blue! Beautiful vibrant turquoise blue. Not as sparkly as the others, more pigment-based, but still glitters like a damn goddess. Gimme.

Dare - Be still my heart. Sparkly vibrant purple. Need I say more?

Bae - I'm pretty sure that this shade was the reason I broke down and bought some. It's a bruised purpley red, with a turquoise duochrome flash. It totally transforms in the light and it's so cool.

Hustle - Another reason I had to order. A burgundy matte with pigment like whoa. I can't stop loving warm eyeshadow looks and this is a great shade for that.

Effect - A deep teal matte with insane pigment. Just a beautiful color. So dense and creamy.

Bill - Talk about creamy. This one even feels creamier than the others. I figured I had to get one neutral color. Who doesn't love a good nude?

Cricket  - Sparkle time. Do you see this? A smokey plum-brown with just so much glitter. So beautiful. Take your usual everyday Naked palette look, and then add this on the lid? Unreal.

Sequin - More glitter. More. This is a very metallic copper with all your sparkle needs.

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What do you guys think of these amazing shadows? Can you believe they are $5? Would you like to see more? Yes? Great, because I have a trick up my sleeve.
Even though these are my only Super Shock shades as of now, my amazing pal Therese has a whole bunch more. And she is going to swatch them for us all! And I'll be posting them here. ColorPop has such an amazing range of colors and I'm pumped to be able to do a whole series of posts. We will even include some of their Lippie Stix somewhere along the line. Stoked!

So for now, I leave you with this subtle ColourPop eye look I posted on my Instagram. See you guys again soon!