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!

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!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure – Kook-A-Mango

 

Hope everyone’s having a wonderful summer, because I certainly am! As you may know, I’m currently on a summer exchange program to Europe, and I am having a blast. The problem with traveling around several countries is that packing light is a necessity. As a result, I’ve only brought (gasp) two nail polishes with me. I’m already getting bored of them. It’s times like these that I wish I had this colour with me.

That is, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure’s Kook-A-Mango. A flat coral-orange creme. It leans towards orange in the above photo and in real life as well. There’s not so much red to speak of, and it’s not really pink either. It is a very wearable orange colour which would be perfect as a mani or pedi for lounging around on the beach (could’ve used this when I was in Barcelona…). Formula was decent. Opaque in two coats. I’m not a huge fan of the brush, but somehow I managed. I wanna wear this nooooow. :(

OPI – Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

OPI’s Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous is from their Swiss Collection for Fall 2010. What a fabulous colour! A gorgeous charcoal (reminds me of pencil lead) polish chock full of foil shimmer. It glitters beautifully in the sunlight, but isn’t gritty to the touch at all, and removal is pretty easy too. At two coats, application gave me no troubles at all. Not sure what else to say about this. It’s quite a straightforward colour and not much to write home about. If you’re into gunmetal foil nail polishes, you’ll certainly love this!

Layering 101: Essie – Kisses and Bises

A few weeks ago, I scored a beautiful new Essie polish from Shoppers Drug Mart for $2.99! Keep an eye out for SDM’s clearance racks, as sometimes there are gems lurking.

The shade I snagged is Essie’s Kisses and Bises, from the Spring 2011 collection French Affair. I was actually considering buying this at full price, because the shimmers in it are beautiful. I can’t pinpoint what colour exactly, but I would describe it as pink and gold, maybe a dash of copper? The shimmer is extremely fine and suspended in a milky off-white base colour.

On its on, Kisses and Bises won’t add much colour to your nails, but it is a brilliant layering polish. I’ve shown it layered over OPI Do You Think I’m Tex-y?. As you can see, it adds such a beautiful dimension to the jelly colour underneath. There are some visible brush strokes, but it’s not noticeable at all.

I’ve also tried Kisses and Bises over a black polish, and it looks even more phenomenal. The wicked pink/gold shimmer really alters the base black colour into something very unique indeed. I will post this combination when I get a chance!

OPI – Do You Think I’m Tex-y?

Just wanted to let everyone know first that I will be updating this blog less frequently over the next month, as I will be on exchange in Europe! No worries, I still have posts scheduled when I’m gone, but I’ve been busy packing and getting my stuff organized, so I haven’t had much time to write many posts in advance. Oh well. Here goes nothing!

OPI’s Do You Think I’m Tex-y?(CRINGE) is a “sorbet” finish polish from the Texas collection, just like the previously-blogged Guy Meets Gal-veston. What that means is that it’s a sheer, jelly-like polish. At one coat, it looks like a watery film of pink, with lots of your natural nail visible underneath. At three coats, it increases in opacity but still appears to look squishy…almost like a juicy berry. You don’t need a top coat with this one to achieve a high-gloss finish (yay!).

I actually quite like these new sorbet finish polishes from OPI, even though they’re not revolutionary in any way (no matter how hard OPI tries to convince me otherwise). Application was great, and they’re actually pretty opaque for jelly polishes. Three coats will be enough to get rid of a very noticeable nail line.

I’m a Belieber: Nicole by OPI – My Lifesaver

Was there any nail polish obsessed person out there who didn’t cringe when they heard about the Nicole by OPI collaboration with Justin Bieber? I don’t know what else to say but…why? It’s so unnecessary. Thankfully, either JBiebz has really good taste in nail polish, or I just caught a lucky break.

Nicole by OPI’s My Lifesaver is a dead-ringer for the previously-blogged Gumdrop by Orly, an extremely clean-looking light/pastel turquoise creme. This colour is perfectly on trend, but I don’t know if I can give Justin Bieber the credit. Formula is very good on this, two coats and you’re looking at fully opaque coverage and a smooth finish.

However, I HATE THIS BRUSH. The Nicole by OPI Perfect Stroke brush is a perfect nightmare. I don’t mind the “sculpted” brushes so much (I just came up with that. Good, right?). I’ve used them before (like the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri line), but for some reason these Nicole by OPI ones are particularly difficult. They’re not consistent at all, and are not shaped into a nice semi-circular shape that can fit nicely with your cuticle line. Every one I’ve tried has had a very strange shape and is so difficult to work with. The bristles are also quite stiff and can cause some dragging of the polish on your nail. If it weren’t for the superb formula, this polish would have been a nightmare to work with.

All I ask is for nail polish companies to use flat, rectangular brushes, much like the OPI ProWide ones. Or at the very least, use a traditional brush shape (thin, and circular at the base). If you’re going to do a “sculpted” brush, please make sure it retains its shape properly. Ugh.

Apart from that though, My Lifesaver is an outstanding colour with a great formula. Definitely worth checking out! Props, JBiebz. Props.

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!