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!

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!