Nubar – Violet Sparkle

Hey readers! I’m starting at my new job today, and I’m very excited for my grown-up life to begin (yeah, right…hahaha). Sadly, it’s one that requires me to be in business attire, and I now have to keep my nails in check. To celebrate (perhaps mourn) the occasion, I’m posting a polish I could never wear to the office. Sigh.


Nubar’s Violet Sparkle. I got this at Winners a few weeks ago for a reasonable price (under $7 probably?). I’ve never seen Nubar being sold anywhere else in Vancouver, so I had to give it a shot. Glitters are not typically my thing, but this one hypnotized me. It’s a highly reflective, super bright purple glitter, with its tiny particles suspended in a clear base. A party on your nails! It dries to a pretty gritty finish, so I had to follow with another coat of top coat the next day. Not really a big issue though.

As expected, removal is a big pain. With glitters, I sometimes like to apply one more layer than necessary (over a base coat). Followed with two coats of top coat, and you’re left with a brittle, thick layer over your nails – that is so easy to chip/peel off. I know it’s horrible for my nails, but the base coat makes it easier to peel off without damaging the natural nail. The glitter comes off in several pieces, and you don’t have to use nail polish remover (which just gets glitter all over the place)!

OPI – Every Month is Oktoberfest

Well bless me. It’s colours like these that remind me why I love OPI so much.


OPI’s Every Month is Oktoberfest, from the 2012 Germany collection, is one of those OPIs with an old-school feel. It’s a beautiful inky colour with a deep purple-blue base, filled with subtle yet highly reflective red shimmer. The combination of the dark base with the intense shimmer makes this polish one of those “glowing from within” types. In the shade, it looks like a vampy creme, almost black. But when the light hits it, it positively glows. Shimmer aside, it also has a beautiful glossy finish.

The formula is also reminiscent of the old-school OPIs – smoothly flowing, liquid-y, never gloopy. Yet, it’s quite opaque – you should only need two coats with this. As always, the ProWide brush is fantastic and makes application a breeze. Definitely worth checking out for the fall season!

Color Club – Magnetic Force

I’ve finally found a magnetic polish that didn’t break the bank and actually works!

It’s Color Club’s Magnetic Force. Doesn’t it mesmerize you? I was very happy with the overall look and the ease of use. I started off with one coat of the polish on all ten fingers without using the magnet, which is located in the removable cap (the polish by itself is a frosty, almost chrome purple-y taupe). I then painted each finger one at a time with a second coat, followed by the magnet (which turned parts of the polish into a flat dark brown). The trick is to hold the magnet steady and as close to the nail as possible without actually touching it, and to use a thin enough layer so that globs of polish won’t be attracted to the magnet.

A few months ago I received two Essence magnetic polishes for my birthday, but the magnetic effect did not work well at all – a combination between the crappy polish and the ineffective magnet. I was about to write off magnetic polishes until I tried this one – so glad the Color Club one works delightfully! Found at Winners for $6.99CAD, it’s also the least expensive magnetic nail polish I’ve seen (other typically go for around $12 a pop).

Illamasqua – Jo’mina

Sorry for the hiatus! Finals season hit and I barely found time to put on a fresh coat of polish, let alone photograph and blog about it. I’m back now to share a polish I bought in celebration of finishing all my undergrad exams!

Illasmaqua’s Jo’mina. This is a colour you have to see in real life to appreciate – I haven’t seen anything like this by another brand. It’s a very bright warm purple creme. It’s nearly neon and has the quality of purple highlighter. In fact, I held up my fingers to a purple highlighter I have and it is the exact same colour. Jo’mina is very opaque (i.e. not at all a jelly, unlike American Apparel’s Neon Violet – review here - full disclosure though, Neon Violet is a completely different colour) and goes on near-flawlessly in one coat. I used two coats, mostly out of habit, and to go over some tiny patchy bits.

I salivate over this. I can’t stop looking at my fingers. I’m constantly surprised by how gosh darn BRIGHT this is. I mean, as bright as it can get for a light-medium purple creme. You need this. Worth the $18CAD, I would say, as this is a colour I see myself going back to time and time again, especially for the warmer months.

On a somewhat unrelated note, who else is peeved that we Vancouverites only get Illamasqua nail varnishes here? I’m waiting with bated breath for the full makeup range to arrive at some point. Fingers crossed!

Sally Hansen Gem Crush – Big Money

Of course the name of this polish would be appropriate for me to wear on my grad dinner night – I am a Commerce student after all! I gotta make the big bucks :p

Sally Hansen’s Gem Crush Nail Color in Big Money. I’m not a huge fan of glitters – they’re terrifying to remove and a little too much for everyday wear. I do love this one though! The tiny base glitters  are a neutral gold, almost metallic taupe, interspersed with larger round particles of lavender glitter. It’s one of the more unique and wearable ones I’ve seen, and it’s pretty dense for a glitter polish. Tips: To make removal easier though, I started with a coat of OPI’s Tickle My France-y (review & swatch here), and used two coats of Big Money. Also, glitters tend to “eat up” top coat , so you might want to use two layers of top coat if you want that ultra-glossy smooth finish.

Close-up of the neutral gold + lavender glitters

Bonus – it went with my dress beautifully! (Say hello to my friend Justina on the right – she was integral in persuading me to start this blog, by the way! Justina, don’t hate me for using this photo please :p).

Essie – Velvet Voyeur

Another one of my birthday polishes…yes, it took me 6 months to get around to blogging it. Don’t judge me. And thanks to Alison for this one! :)

Essie’s Velvet Voyeur. I couldn’t ask for more in a vampy polish – this is the ideal mix of deep purple, burgundy, and brown. It applies somewhat streaky in the first coat (as most polishes do, it’s just more obvious with an ultra dark colour), but a second coat fixes everything. It also dries to a gloriously glossy finish, although I did follow with a top coat (out of habit more than anything).

I really don’t have else to say about it. It’s perfect!

American Apparel – Neon Violet

A few weeks ago I bought a coupon for American Apparel nail polishes – $15 for 5! Sweet deal. Look for more AA reviews in the near future!

American Apparel’s Neon Violet is a very bright violet-magenta jelly. It doesn’t strike me as exactly…neon. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hella bright. But it’s neon in the way that a neon purple highlighter is – it always seems to pale in comparison to the wacky neon yellows and greens. I just don’t really think neon purple exists, but I guess this is the best approximation.

Nevertheless, the polish is still brighter than your average purple/magenta jelly, so I was still pleased with it. Application was a breeze as well, but jellies tend to be easy to work with as long as the opacity is there (which it is, for this one).

Quo by Orly – Celestial Star

If I wasn’t sure before, I am now…I’m definitely obsessed with nail polish. I saw this in the corner of my eye in this dinky little display hidden behind some other displays at Shoppers Drug Mart. I had never even heard or seen this brand or collaboration before, and yet I was somehow mysteriously drawn to it. Is this unhealthy? Only time will tell.

Quo by Orly? Has anyone really heard of this yet? There seriously needs to be more Canadian beauty blogs…I’m missing out on all sorts of great stuff! I was immediately drawn to this fantastic colour:

Quo by Orly Celestial Star. Wow. Wow. A gorgeous electric mid-tone royal blue/purple duochrome foil with a crapload of foil shimmer. It shifts from this crazy bright blue to a gorgeous purple/pink when I move my fingers. The shimmer looks insane under all kinds of light, but looks particularly near-fluorescent when under low-light outdoors. Holy crap. I love this colour. The shimmer makes the polish look like it might be gritty, but it’s actually perfectly smooth to the touch. The above photo under incandescent light doesn’t nearly reflect the awesomeness of this polish. Check out some of the other shots taken outdoors with my iPhone:

Freaking insane. In my thumb in the third photo you can see the colour shift the best – see how the top portion of the colour looks purple, then shifts to blindingly bright blue near the bottom? It’s way more exaggerated in real life.

Actually, this polish reminds me of Lunar Eclipse from Orly’s Cosmic FX collection (which I don’t have, but have seen countless swatches of). Could this be the same polish? I wouldn’t be surprised; this is Quo by Orly, after all. There are two other shades from this Quo by Orly collection that appear to be dupes of Orly Cosmic FX polishes as well. Maybe this is Orly’s way of making these great colours available to Canadian customers?

These polishes retail for something like $10 for 14ml of product, and you can find them at Shoppers Drug Mart. That seems a bit steep to me. Regular Orlys retail for around the same price, but you’ll get 18ml of product…so if you really love this colour, try to find Orly Lunar Eclipse. Can’t really think of a Canadian retailer that has a large stock of Orly though. :(

But if you don’t really care, just go to Shoppers and give this a try. The last time I was there though, they were completely out of this colour (to be fair, they only had 3 of them on display) but I’m sure they’ve restocked since then. GET IT. These foils are phenomenal!

OPI – Steady As She Rose & Silver Shatter

It’s been a while! Almost two months in fact, since I’ve written a new post. Hope all of you have had a wonderful summer in the meantime!

I didn’t have a chance to swatch (or even use) many polishes while on exchange in Europe. I did receive several new ones from friends for my birthday when I returned to Vancouver (thanks guys!) but I left for Hong Kong only a few days after that. And the lighting in my room in HK leaves much to be desired; couldn’t get a decent photo of anything.

But enough of the excuses! I’m back now to spread some more nail polish love, and that’s all that matters, right? :)

Okay then, here goes nothing. I’m clearly a little rusty. I have here a nail polish that my dear friend Antin got for my birthday (pictured above is me with two of them. Doesn’t she have good taste? :p)

OPI Steady As She Rose, another pale and muted hue from the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides collection. I would clumsily describe this as a light, grayed, rose-lavender creme. Looks really clean on the nail. Applied somewhat streaky in the first coat; my advice is to apply as little pressure as possible with the brush to prevent dragging. It’s a great colour for those looking for something relatively neutral, but that is still a little out of the ordinary.

Here it is, shatterized (a word I just made up, what).

OPI Silver Shatter, which I believe came out in the same collection. I really love the look of Silver Shatter over pale, muted colours, so it was a perfect addition to the Pirates collection.

I bought Silver Shatter myself while I was in Hong Kong. I usually shy away from purchasing OPIs in HK as they are grossly overpriced – they run for about $120HKD/$15CAD on average, which is almost twice as expensive. However, I found this in Bonjour Cosmetics on sale for $64HKD, which makes it cheaper than the usual places I buy OPIs from in Vancouver. Nice!

The OPI Shatters are irritating, though. My Black Shatter is so goopy, it’s almost unusable. Silver Shatter turned goopy near the opening of the bottle within minutes. I fear the shelf life of the OPI Shatters is going to be very short indeed, so keep that in mind when purchasing. I’ve actually still got two more Shatters to review, so keep an eye out for them!

Spring is in the air! Joe Fresh – Iris

Ah, life is good. Exams are over, my final marks have been released (and…they are satisfactory :D), I’m traveling to Europe in a little over a month, and the sun is out! What more could you ask for? Yeah, maybe a nice nail polish. Yesterday alone, I hauled five polishes. Even for me, that’s excessive. This was one of them:

Joe Fresh Iris. I also bought Moss and Gunmetal (Joe Fresh polishes are $10 for three). What a lovely spring-y colour! A medium blue-purple (“blurple”) creme, just like an iris. And for once I’m not wearing it to make myself feel better, but to rejoice in the sunshine!

This colour went on smooth and opaque in two coats. It dried just a bit matte, so if you desire an ultra-shiny look, make sure to finish it off with a good top coat.

I’ve blogged about Joe Fresh polishes before, but just to reiterate: the brush is a bit wider and flatter than your traditional polish brush, much like the OPI ProWide brushes. It is attached to the clumsy, short white cap. I do wish the cap was removable (like Chanel polishes) to reveal a skinnier, easier-to-hold lid. It’s not a huge problem though, because the brush works well and the formula flows smoothly.

My experience with Joe Fresh polishes has been really good so far, so I’d definitely recommend them!