Revlon Colorstay – Rain Forest

Hey strangers! I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but you know how it is. In these past three months, there have been more pressing things to deal with and experience than nail polish blogging – graduation and family vacations, to name  few. But I’m happy to be back now and I’m ready to share some great polish finds with you again :)

This is Revlon Colorstay’s Rain Forest (#220). I bought this gem a few months ago, but obviously haven’t gotten around to blogging it until now (sorry!). An inky, nearly-black green with tons of lighter green/golden shimmer. The shimmers are flaky and lay flat, so the polish is not glittery or gritty at all. I love these kinds of colours! Dramatic and interesting with the sparkly golden flakes, but still wearable. You’ll need two coats with this one – the first one might appear a bit sheer, but a second, slightly thicker coat will allow for sufficient opacity.

This is my first Revlon Colorstay polish and from what I’ve tried, I like it quite a bit. The brush is different from the regular Revlon line – this one is shorter, fatter, and sculpted into a rounded shape. Some find these “sculpted” brushes are easier to use, but I find them to be a hit or miss. Thankfully this one was shaped quite nicely and not splayed all over the place, so I was able to achieve a nice line at the cuticle. As for wear (note the “Colorstay” name), I didn’t find it to wear better than the regular Revlon line, nor any other average polish.

St Patty’s Day Mani: Revlon – Posh

Hope everyone has something fun planned for St Patrick’s Day! If you don’t already have a manicure planned for the occasion (as normal people typically do…bahaha), here’s one to consider!

Revlon’s Posh! A fabulous creamy and bright medium grass green. It doesn’t lean particularly to the yellow or blue side. As a comparison, it’s around the same deepness as OPI’s Jade is the New Black (review here), but considerably less blue-tinged. Not much to say about this, except that the formula was absolutely divine – opaque in one coat (two shown here just to smooth everything out), and the brush was easy to work with. A perfect St Patty’s Day colour if I do say so myself!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure – Grass Slipper

There was a sale on the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure line at Shoppers a few weeks ago, and of course I took advantage of a good deal! I took this chance to buy a colour that I knew I didn’t own – one that is unique, attention-getting, and mood-boosting :)

I think Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Grass Slipper fits the bill! A simply gorgeous, clean-looking lime-yellow green creme. Not much to say about it, except that just looking at it makes me happy! Formula on this was was superb for a drugstore brand. Two easy coats, no streaking issues or weird consistency at all. The brush, which I usually hate (it’s one of those “sculpted” ones) worked decently. I think these kinds of brushes are a hit or miss. If they’re cut well, they work well. If they’re cut poorly, it’s just a big ol’ mess. Luckily I got a good one with this bottle.

I have read that this colour can stain quite a bit (I certainly experienced this with another one Sally Hansen’s bright colours), so make sure you use a good base coat before applying!

Essie – Power Clutch

Don’t feel like writing a preamble today, so…I won’t :)

Essie Power Clutch is from their Fall 2011 collection “Brand New Bag”. I bought this thinking I needed a true slate gray creme polish to add to my collection. I was…wrong?

The official shade description calls this a “striking, deep gray-green”. I didn’t believe the description when I bought the colour. In the store, it was clearly gray. But upon closer inspection, this is certainly a gray that leans a bit to the green side. Can’t see it? It’s hard to tell in the photo, but this is definitely not a blue gray or even a true gray. Quite a unique colour, I’d say! The green doesn’t come out to say hello all the time, but when it does, it’s a pleasant surprise.

As for application, I don’t know if I bought an old bottle or what, but it was the tiniest bit too thick. The brush wasn’t able to spread itself easily and I had just had an all-round nightmare trying to apply this the first time around. A few drops of polish thinner did the trick, though, and it applied smoothly and beautifully.

Models Own Pro – Green Envy

So, a few months ago I did a five-week exchange term in Europe. The program was based in Manchester, UK, but we traveled to several places as well. After seeing a glimpse of Europe, I have to say that the UK blows every other place out of the water when it comes to shopping for clothes or cosmetic products. There’s just so much variety in the brands and they’re usually quite affordable. I, for one, was just excited to see with my own eyes the UK products and brands I’ve been reading and listening about for years now!

One of these products was Models Own nail polish. There were so many colours I wanted to pick up, but considering my excessively restrictive baggage limit, I had to resist the temptation to buy like 10 new polishes. I believe these was the only one I bought with my own money while abroad (will go into that later in another post :p).

Of course, Models Own Pro Green Envy is not part of the regular Models Own line, but the “Pro” line. Bought this at Boots at The Trafford Centre in Manchester (HUGE mall; if you’re ever in Manchester you must go, maybe after seeing the stadium. Also, shout out to Amy and Arianna, who went with me! :D). Around 8 pounds I think, which is 3 pounds more expensive than the regular line. Why the price discrepancy? Honestly, I’m not sure. Are the bottles bigger? I don’t have a regular Models Own bottle to compare it to. Could it be that the colours are more on-trend or edgy? Who knows.

Either way, I love Green Envy! A super dark green polish with tons of tiny shimmers. Or is it just a black polish with tons of tiny green and blue shimmers? Not quite sure, but either way this polish is beautiful. It applied beautiful in two effortless coats and dried quickly as well. No complaints here…8 pounds well spent!

Canucks Nails!

In case I have readers who don’t know, I’m based in Vancouver, and the Canucks are in the Stanley Cup finals! Canucks fever is absolutely palpable in the atmosphere, and I’m loving every second of it. My celebratory walk frolic down Granville Street after our Game 1 win was exciting and nostalgic – brings back memories of the 2010 Winter Olympics. For my friends who are fans and are out of the country right now, I’m sorry that I’m rubbing it in your face a little bit. Miss you, and wish you were here to celebrate with the rest of us!

I’ve been planning to do a Canucks manicure for a while, and even tried out a few things but failed MISERABLY. I ended up simplifying the design down to just blocks of colour and stripes, like the bottom of the jersey. Simple enough? It’s really nothing spectacular. But it still took me forever. And you don’t even want to see what my right hand looks like (horrific, the white lines are not straight at all). BUT WHATEVER. At least it looks Canucks-esque.

I’ve blogged about the blue and green before – Orly La Playa and OPI Jade is the New Black, respectively. The white stripes were done with the Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen. It looks like a felt pen with a narrow tip and dispenses a rather watery liquid. I call it a liquid and not lacquer because it behaves a little differently than typical nail polish. When I use the pen over top coat (which is completely dry), I am able to scratch off the white stripes without disturbing the polish underneath. This is brilliant for nail art because you can fix mistakes very easily. Obviously, you’ll want to seal in the pen’s design with a layer of top coat afterwards.

If I was patient enough, or my hand steady enough (probably both), I would have drawn in the little white hockey stick…but the stripes were hard enough as it is. I guess I’m just not cut out for nail art! But for my team, I will at least try :)

WOOOOOO CANUCKS! ONLY THREE MORE WINS! BRING IT HOME!

OPI Pirates of the Caribbean – Stranger Tides

I saw the display for the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides collection ages ago, and thought the collection was a bit…strange. If you do a quick Google of it, you’ll notice that it consists of several pastel shades and another shatter polish (Silver Shatter–I actually really want this, as it looks amazing over the pastel shades). Doesn’t really scream Pirates of the Caribbean to me. Then again, I always thought the collaborations with movie franchises somewhat odd. But no matter. I purchase nail polishes for the colour and not so much its affiliation with a movie or celebrity (coughJustinBiebercough. More on this later :p).

I ended up getting OPI Stranger Tides, which is a muted, pale grayish-green creme. It looks sort of ugly in the bottle, but I love it on the nails. Quite a unique green colour if I do say so myself. I don’t own anything like it. The closest colour I can think of is Essie’s Sew Psyched, which is several shades darker with subtle white shimmer running throughout. I love that, despite being an uncommon polish colour, Stranger Tides is still very wearable.

This colour also had a great formula and needed only two coats to reach full opacity. No issues with streaking here. And it goes without saying, but I love OPI ProWide brushes. Makes applying nail polish such a breeze, seriously.

Joe Fresh – Moss

So according to my friend, the name “Moss” for a nail polish is not very appealing. I’d beg to differ!

Joe Fresh Moss. Okay, admittedly this is not the most delicately pretty nail polish in the world. I know a lot of people are turned off by green nail polish to begin with, let alone one that is yellow-based. I, however, love this! A flat medium-dark green creme that is heavily yellow-based. Mossy is the perfect word to describe it. Again, no problems whatsoever with the Joe Fresh formula and application. A definite good buy!

Joe Fresh – Peacock

Hey everyone! I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s sad because Reading Break is over, and let me tell you…I did absolutely nothing. Honestly. I’m kind of ashamed of myself. And also extremely proud – I certainly can’t enjoy any more of this couch potato bull crap starting today :( Midterms and papers! Sigh.

But what better than to cheer yourself up with an inexpensive nail polish? Those of you who live in Canada may be familiar with Joe Fresh, which sells affordable clothing, accessories and beauty products at Loblaws, Superstore, and various free-standing stores across the nation. This is the first nail polish I’ve tried from the brand and I have to say, I quite like it!

Joe Fresh Peacock is a deep teal (leaning on the blue side) with intense teal shimmer – in the bottle you can see a bit of a teal and purple/blue duochrome shimmer but it’s barely visible on the nail, except in low light. To me, it’s the teal version of the polish featured in my last post, Essie Sexy Divide. It has that same glowy quality (perhaps with somewhat more visible brush strokes, but they’re not at all obvious) – dark round the edges and light in the centre. So pretty!

The bottle is a bit clumsy though – the lid is really short and wide, making it a bit awkward to get a good grip on it when applying. However, I like the brush a lot. It’s very similar to the OPI ProWide brushes which I find very effective for neat application. Formula was good as well, as I only needed 2 coats to achieve opacity.

After checking out the colour range, I can say that Joe Fresh polishes are very on-trend (I can’t wait to try out some of the super pretty pastels). For $4 a pop, or $10 for three, it’s a great way to try out some new colours without making a huge commitment. Fair warning though: on a per-ml basis it’s not the cheapest polish around (it’s a bit more expensive than OPI), but I’m still going to pick up some more colours the next time I’m at Superstore! :)

Successful Skittle Shatter!

Whoa, I finally got OPI Black Shatter to look, well, like advertised.

I’ve been itching to try this mani ever since I’ve gotten Black Shatter, if only to see if I can pull off the cool-looking, if slightly juvenile “skittles” manicure. Skittles meaning using different (usually bright) colours on each finger. I’ve tried variations on it before (my favourite being the gradation manicure – shall post one of those another day), but have been too scared to actually rock the look. The hope with Black Shatter was to make the look more edgy and “disguise” some of the bright colour while keeping visual interest. Well, we’ll see about that…

First, skittles! Cute, right? Should have probably used a more pastel yellow but alas, I do not own one (can’t help but think American Apparel Butter would be a perfect substitute!). Let’s go through the colours:

• Thumb: OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender
• Index: American Apparel Manila
• Middle: Revlon Top Speed Jaded
• Ring: Orly Gumdrop
• Pinky: Revlon Gum Drop (yes, I used two polishes named gum drop. It was a coincidence, I swear! Also the pinky one happens to be scented. Sickly sweet…don’t think I could do a full mani with it, barf)

Time to shatter it up!

Looks like the juvenile skittles got introduced to some recreational drugs and are now looking significantly more edgy! Definitely something that I could wear without feeling self-conscious. Though I got plenty of weird looks from people today anyway (one girl especially who stared at my nails the whole time I was washing my hands in the restroom). Regardless, Shatter takes out the saccharine quality from the bright pastel colours and makes the whole look more wearable. Awesome!

Oh also, compare this to how the shatter looked over the GOSH Holographic polish I wrote about a few days ago. See how the shatters actually look fully formed rather than…weird tree branches? I don’t know if before I used layers that were too thin, didn’t let Holographic dry enough, or just the weird nature of holographic polishes in general. Just know that if you own OPI Black Shatter, here are some helpful tips:

• Let the base colour dry completely.
• If you want the shatters to be far apart, apply a thicker layer.
• Be sure to apply a shiny top coat to protect the shatter layer, as well as smooth out the wonky brush strokes.

:) Have fun!