Essie Bangle Jangle

This is a colour I picked up from Essie's Winter 2011 collection. I picked up another too, which I will review possibly tomorrow. I didn't really care for this collection, because it's not very wintery to me. This colour is a light pastel purple, which is the only reason I bought it. Purple is my favourite colour. Here is 1 coat:

This went on nicer than I had expected. I have only ever used 1 Essie colour before, and it was very watery and thin, and put me off Essie polishes. But I have to say, I was impressed with this one, and I'd say my opinion has changed on Essie. This coat is still sheer, but has a thicker texture than I was expecting. Here is 2 coats:

This turned out nicer than I thought. I didn't need 3 coats, which I usually do with thinner colours like this one. I found that this one dried a LOT darker than the bottle shows though, as you can somewhat see in this photo. I liked it better in the bottle :( Anyways, I enjoy this colour overall, and would recommend it. Not very Chriatmassy though, right?

I decided to add a small touch to my thumbs with my new nail discs I got for Christmas. I'll post a picture of them later. My boyfriend's mom found them for me somewhere, and didn't even have to order them online! I also got my mom to order some for me for Christmas from Bundle Monster, but they still haven't arrived yet! I am waiting VERY impatiently for them. Anyways, here is my thumb designs:

It looks like a cute corset design, and I thought it'd be cute. I need to learn to place them better, though. Haha. Anyways, I'm headed to bed. Night!

OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air

Hey guys! So this is one of my new polishes that I got for Christmas. My sister chose it for me! This colour is from the Muppets collection from Winter 2011. It is a glitter for sure. It is small hexagonal grass green glitters and larger hexagonal silver glitters, with a clear base. I find this colour difficult to apply, because it is very sheer due to the clear base. I wish the base had have been green, which is what I was expecting. I wanted a few of the other chunky glitters from this collection, but after seeing how this one turned out, to be quite honest, I don't think I'll be buying any more. Here is 1 coat:

 As you can see, it goes on really thin. In my opinion, like I said before, it should be a green base rather than a clear base. Here is 2 coats:

As you can see, still very thin. I don't think I would wear it like this. I don't think it's very flattering at all. I was going to try this with 3 coats, but I already knew it wouldn't turn out much better than this, so I didn't bother. I think this colour is best for layering. One day soon I will buy a nice green to layer this with, and maybe even try a jelly sandwich! I think this glitter would work well for that. So as I said, I think this is best for layering. So that's exactly what I did!  And since I got it on Christmas day, I layered it over a red for a festive manicure for my Christmas dinner. Here it is:

This is how it turned out. It was impossible for me to get a picture without the glitters looking totally black. This is the best I could do. This is OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air layered over OPI Off With Her Red. I like the way it turned out, and I like this colour a lot more layered. Do you have any of the Muppets glitters? How do you like the way they turned out?

China Glaze Tinsel Town

Hey everyone! Merry Christmas Eve! I am doing this post quickly because it's actually a colour I swatched yesterday and didn't have time to post. This is an awesome colour from China Glaze's winter collection. It is called Tinsel Town. It actually looks like tinsel! it is sooo pretty! I love it. It's more of a glitter than a colour. I'd describe it as a lighter grey base filled with what looks to be silver, grey, and black glitter. It's smaller glitter, but not micro. Here is 1 coat:

 This is 1 coat. This makes me happy! It went on thicker than most glitter go on. I usually use a base with glitters like this, but the base in this one is dark enough to pull off without needing a bazillion coats!

This is only 2 coats! I left it like this, when usually I put on 3 coats of everything. I have never owned a China Glaze glitter, and after seeing how nice this applies I will definitely invest in some. I think "Tinsel Town" is a perfect name for this colour because it totally reminds me of tinsel. I found that this was an easy application for a glitter. The texture is nice and thick. I often find that with glitters it's hard to distribute the glitter evenly across the nail, but this polish has enough glitters to cover the nail evenly, which was nice. I would recommend this colour, and after this I am a believer in glitters by China Glaze! I am excited to try more glitters. I am very impressed in this!

Note: The products featured in this post were sent to me for review.

Seche Base Coat and Top Coat

Hey guys, today I'm going to do a review on Seche "Crystal Clear Base Coat", and "Dry Fast Top Coat". I have only ever seen these sold at Sally Beauty Supply, where they retail for about $12.00, I believe. On the website it says $6.99, but I swear when I bought it I paid somewhere around $12.00....maybe I should start to buy nail polish online! Anyways, I'm going to do the base coat first. Here it is:

I don't really know why it's called "crystal clear", because it's not! It's a bit milky, with a pearly tint. You can't tell at all when there is a colour on top though! Even the sheerest colour I own. It goes on pretty thick for a base coat, which is good in my opinion. I haven't taken off my nail polish yet, but I have a sparkly colour on and I have a feeling that since this base coat is thicker it will make for an easier removal of the glitter! I will update you on that tomorrow when I change my polish. Here is my plain nails versus my nails with the base coat on:

So these are my plain nails. Don't mind my dry fingers :(

This is my nails with the base coat on. As you can see, it's not totally transparent like most base coats I've seen. It also has a slight shimmer to it. It's also kind of streaky, which you can't see through the colour. I found the streakiness had no effect on the application of the colour coat. Here it is with no flash:

You can see the streaks as well as the milky tint here. But like I said, it had no effect on the colour application. I actually see the thickness as a plus, as I said above. I will not know until tomorrow when I try to remove my glitter if my hunch is correct, so I will let you know! I have also put it on my toes, with a darker colour so I can test whether it prevents staining. I will give you the verdict on this as well in the future. Overall, a great base coat in my opinion. It's great in application, and I believe will be effective in saving my nails. Next I will do the top coat. Here it is:

This is the dry fast top coat. And boy, does it dry fast! It is completely dry to the touch and chip-free within 2-3 minutes! Amazing. This top coat goes on a bit thicker than most as well as the base coat. It is awesome though, because it makes your nails super super shiny! I have bought this top coat before it had been sent to me, and I used it right up until the end. It does go stringy really quickly, but nothing a thinner can't fix. I think this is also due to the fact that I used it daily. This has to be the best top coat i have ever used, and is worth every penny. You just need to be sure to have thinner handy, because if it gets too thick, it isn't easy to get back to its original consistency. I would totally recommend this top coat. I just received this one today, but since I have bought it in the past, I can say that it lasts forever without chipping. I have never left my nail polish on for longer than a week, but I can say that even after a week this top coat still had not chipped, and I felt bad taking it off because my manicure was still in perfect condition! As I said above, I would recommend this top coat. It is worth the money, and will do exactly what a top coat is expected to do.

Note: The products featured in this post were sent to me for review.

OPI Steady as She Rose

Another long day of work! I am just exhausted these days, and never get time to do swatches before 10pm. But today I actually got to do this one before the sun went down! But of course it was raining, so I didn't get any nice pictures in natural light. I cannot wait for summer! Have I said I missed summer before? Haha.

This is a colour I have had for a while, since the Pirates of the Caribbean collection came out. I love this shade, because light pastels look awesome on me I think. This is called "Steady as She Rose", so you would think it would be pink. It actually looks more purple to me! Its a lighter purple, definitely a pastel, with a bit of grey in it. I enjoy this colour for a while, but not longer than a day because my eyes begin to play tricks on me and it looks dirty after a while! I think its just the grey tint to it. Here is 1 coat:

It goes on really thin. There's no way you could get away with this. Here is 2 coats:

 Even 2 coats is really thin. Here is 3 coats:

Alright, so this is 3 coats. Even this is still see though! All these pictures show this colour pretty well, I was impressed. I enjoy this colour so much, but I wish it was easier to apply with less coats! Overall, I would recommend this colour. It's a really nice colour on, especially in the summer when your skin is darker!

China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint

So today I worked all day, and finally got to do my nails when I got home! I had the same nail polish on for 2 days....ugh. Not much time for anything this close to Christmas! Well today I chose a colour I bought recently, China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint. It is self explanatory, a pastel mint. I bought this when I bought China Glaze For Audrey, and I saw it right beside it and had to have it. Here it is:

Here is 1 coat. It goes on better than I expected 1 coat to go on! It's obviously still pretty sheer, but it impressed me with how well it went on because it is a pastel shade. It is a wonderful mint green, and this colour is a pretty great representation of it.

This is 2 coats (Before I fixed my cuticles haha). I didn't even need a 3rd coat, when usually I prefer 3 coats with pastels. I had to touch up a few places, but overall a great application! Also a wonderful shade that I cannot wait to use in the summer! What do you think about this colour? Do you like pastels?

OPI Nicki Minaj collection

Guess what I got?!!! I am so so so excited! I didn't think this collection was supposed to be out until January! I walked into Trade Secrets and had a heart attack! My boyfriend was nice enough to get me ALL of them for Christmas! I am absolutely in love with every single one! Take a look:

Aren't they wonderful?? I got them on Friday, and I didn't have enough time to post. I swatched them all though! I was debating grabbing the shatter because I am not really into the whole shatter trend, but it was called Super Bass shatter so it was a must because that's one of my favourite Nicki Minaj songs! So as you can probably guess, they are all named after a Nicki Minaj song, like Katy Perry's were. So cute! Here are my swatches:

This is "Pink Friday". The top picture is 1 coat, and the bottom picture is 3 coats. I didn't post the picture of 2 coats because it wasn't really necessary for me to do 3 coats, I just hate being able to see any evidence of streaks. I love this colour a lot! I think it is one of my favourites of the collection. I thought it was going to be very sheer like a jelly, like OPI Heart Throb (which I own)...but it is not at all. It is actually more pastel. It doesn't look quite like the shade of pink in real life as it does in the photos above. If you listen to Nicki Minaj, it is the exact replica of the pink on her CD cover for Pink Friday. I would recommend this if you like pinks, it will be a wonderful addition to your pink collection! I was very impressed with the outcome of this colour, and I loved the application. Not as streaky as other pastels I have used.

This is "Did it on 'Em". It is a bright green, with a hint of yellow. It reminds me of the green from the Shrek collection. I love this shade, but I have to say I am disappointed with the application. I thought this was going to be the more pastel colour, but in fact this is the jelly. The above photo is 1 coat, followed by 2. I would have been more satisfied with 3 coats, but I didn't have time to be honest. I think these photos portray the colour pretty accurately. I did all these swatches at night as I often do, so I can't often get photos of the colours in natural light. Stupid winter, making the sun set by 4:30!

This one is "Fly". The top is 1 coat, bottom is 2 coats. This is the colour I decided to wear for the night. It is a blueish-turquoise which I am in love with. I love love love the application of this, I thought it was going to  be the most difficult to apply but I was wrong! I am very impressed with how opaque it was with 1 coat. I put 2 because it was still see through, but overall a very nice application. You don't need to put it on very thick either to get the opaqueness, so it dries pretty quickly also.

This is "Save Me". I am super impressed with this colour! It definitely did not look as cool online as it does in person. It is very difficult to explain! It is a clear base with a whole lot of glitter. It is made up of tiny little silver glitter, blue rods, and holographic rods. The most prominent is the holographic rods, which are very unique! I posted photos of 1, 2, and 3 coats. I probably could have even did 4, but I didn't want it to peel. This is to be expected of a glitter with a clear base. I think I am going to try it with a black base. I have yet to try it over all the colours in this collection, which I think would turn out pretty neat. I am glad I got this glitter, and I am debating grabbing a second bottle because I love how unique it is. I don't think I have ever seen a glitter like this!

This is "Metallic 4 Life". I totally thought this would go on as black as it looks in the bottle. It is actually a charcoal base with a ton of glitter; black, silver, big, small. I decided not to layer a million coats of this on my nails because it would be very hard to get off, so I decided to layer it over black. I put 2 coats of OPI Black Onyx before putting 1 coat of Metallic 4 life. I love the way it turned out! I don't think I would ever use it without a black base. So I suggest if you buy this colour, grab a black for a base because it will be a lot easier for you to apply this colour. I enjoy this one very much, and I think I'm going to use it tomorrow.

This is "Super Bass Shatter" over top of all the other collection colours. I thought this was going to look awesome, but I am kind of disappointed with it. Like I said, I'm not a shatter fan to begin with...but this did not go on as nicely as I thought. It turned out well over the pink, but that's about it. I was expecting it to look awesome over the green but it didn't!

Overall though, I enjoy this entire collection! As I have been writing this review, I can't say that I have a favourite... because I love them all so much! What about you? What one is your favourite? What one(s) would you buy?

China Glaze Sexy in the City

Hey! This is an awesome colour which I have tended to neglect. I bought it a while ago. There is a very similar colour to this which is called "Shower With Me", which I was going to buy just because of the name! But I saw this one right beside it and I like the shade a lot more. It is a brighter blue, with a little bit of a greenish-turquoise in it. None of these pictures capture the green in this polish, it is WAY cooler in person! Here is 1 coat:

It goes on pretty nicely if you ask me! This probably captures the colour the most accurately.
Here is 2 coats:

This is 2 coats. As you can see, it looks nothing like the shade in the photo above. I enjoy this colour a lot, and I feel bad that I had neglected it! I would definitely recommend this colour if you like bright colours, it is a good buy! What do you think of this colour? Would you wear it?

Jelly Sandwich :)

Hey guys! So the other day I was looking online and I discovered something called a jelly sandwich manicure! I'm sorry that I haven't heard of it before, lol. But for any of you who don't know what it is (like I didn't until the other day!), it is a 3 layer manicure. You use a jelly as a base coat, a glitter on top of that, and the jelly again on top of the glitter. It gives this weird but awesome effect! It looks exactly like the glitter is sandwiched in between! I showed my boyfriend and he was amazed! I think I am going to need to buy some more glitters and jellys to try some more of these out, because I LOVE this look! Here is my experimenting:

 This is OPI Do you Lilac it? (purple) and OPI Gargantuan Green Grape (green), sandwiched with OPI Its my Year. This was the first one I did, and didn't turn out very well. I should have used a more sheer colour for the jelly, but unfortunately I don't have very many jellys.

 This is China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le sandwiched with OPI Simmer and Shimmer. I loved this one, although it doesn't look as awesome in the picture above as it did in real life. Simmer and shimmer is blue mixed glitter, so it looks a lot cooler underneath a solid blue because you can see all the other sparkle colours.

This is OPI Heart Throb sandwiched with OPI Teenage Dream. I loved this one a lot! I didn't leave it on though, it's kinda girly for me, haha. I did 2 coats of Heart Throb on the top and bottom. The Heart Throb was a great jelly to use to layer, and I will probably try it again with different glitters.

This is what I decided to do and leave on my nails for the day:

This is China Glaze Innocence sandwiched with OPI Its my Year. This also looks a lot cooler in person, and I am disappointed that I couldn't get a better picture to show you guys! I also missed putting Innocence on ONE sparkle on my middle finger, which bothered me so much I fixed it later! This is the perfect colour to do a jelly sandwich with though, and I will be trying it with other glitters!

A tip for all of you: a base jelly is optional, but I highly recommend that you use a base of some sort. Especially if you use a chunky glitter. It is a pain in the butt to get off! It took me 2 or 3 tries to get this one off. Also, don't put your jellys on too thick. If you have too many thicker layers, it begins to peel off within a few hours!

OPI A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find

So this is my post for what I did on my nails the other day but did not get a chance to post for you guys! I did my nails with a new colour that I bought. It is from the Hong Kong collection in 2010. I've been looking everywhere for an orange that is similar to my favourite orange by Rimmel, because it is almost gone! This is the closest I could find, and I'm quite impressed with how close it is to the Rimmel one! Here it is:

It is in between a red and an orange. I love it! It has a pretty decent application as well. This is 2 coats. You can still see through it a little bit, but I was satisfied with it. The brush is like all other OPI brushes, although I had trouble applying it to my pinky for some reason. But my brush has a problem: there is one tiny bristle that is out of place! I am going to have to cut it off or something, because it is super annoying and gets on my skin! I got a picture of the little bugger:

Very annoying! And I guess this gives you a sneak peek of what I ended up doing with my nails! I decided that if I left the orange on it was too plain for me! So I decided to make them into tigers :)

I used the nail art brush and made stripes on them! I didn't care much for how my other hand turned out, and I was going to take it all off. But my boyfriend really liked it, so I decided to leave it for the day!

Christmas Nails

Hey guys! I'm so sorry I haven't posted in a few days. School is crazy! I am almost done though, tomorrow is my last exam and then I will be back! It is late yet again, so I will be posting one thing tonight. I have 2 things to post tomorrow to make up for the 2 days I missed posting! But anyways, today I won't be doing any swatching. I am just going to show you what I did on my nails tonight because I need to study! I had to go to a Christmas party with my boyfriend and I decided to give myself Christmas themed nails! This is what I came up with:

I started with white tips. I used Alpine Snow, and there is also Essie Feed Me base coat.

I added little holly-like designs on one nail on each hand. I used the end of a bobby pin because I do not have a dotting tool yet! The green is OPI Jade is the New Black, and the red is OPI Red Hot Ayers Rock.

I later added sparkles with my nail art polish that I have used in posts before, just to add a fancy touch. I think I liked it better without the sparkles, what do you think?

Well I need to get some sleep now. I am sorry for the short post, and I promise I will make up for this all tomorrow!

OPI Alpine Snow

Okay, so when I said I had to remove the pink earlier today, I obviously had to pick a new colour! I didn't want to put my nails through any more suffering and decided to give them a break from darker colours for a while. I decided to go with just a plain white because I am in love with the length that my nails are right now, and the white is super flattering on them. I didn't photograph this colour at 1 coat, because to be honest I forgot. I have just been having a rough day! But here is the finished product with a top coat on:

I LOVE the way this looks on my nails! I always feel like my nails are the centre of attention when I have a light pastel on like this! People may not care for the plain white, but I love it!

But anyways, I love the application of this white. A lot of whites are streaky and thin, but this one goes on very nicely. Some streaks with the first coat, but they cover up very nicely with a second coat. Some places may need to be touched up, but a whole third coat is not necessary. I have worn this colour before, and it lasts quite a while as well. If you are looking for a nice white, I suggest this one. It has awesome application and is a wonderful colour to wear just plain like this.


As you may or may not have noticed, a lot of my pictures alternate between my right and left hand. I am left handed! All my dominant work goes on my right hand, which is very difficult to photograph. So when you see photos of my left hand, that is not my best painting job! I am getting better at photographing my right hand, so I will most likely stick with that because it looks a lot nicer since it was done with my dominant hand. I will most definitely be photographing my right hand when it comes to nail art, because it is way nicer on this hand.

So is anyone else as excited about this as I am??? I absolutely LOVE Nicki Minaj, and I love all of these shades! I know I will be buying all of them.....going to be an expensive trip!

I can't even pick a favourite! They are all amazing! I believe they are to be released in January 2012. I will be setting money aside for them for sure!

China Glaze Innocence

Hey guys, so I had to do this one in a rush today before I left for school. This is an older colour I believe, I bought it about a year ago. It's a really nice pale pink, one of my favourite kind of nudes. This is actually one of the only nudes I own. It goes on so sheer, I usually use it as a base coat for a french manicure. Here it is with 1 coat:

Please ignore my poor finger, I picked at it and I shouldn't have! So this is how I usually leave this colour when I use it for french manicures. It is very thin, but tints your finger a slight pale pink. I really should have shown you a picture of my fingers with no polish on as well. Here is 3 coats:

As you can see its still sheer, and very streaky even after 3 coats. But I still love this colour. Whenever I want more plain nails, I choose this. Only apply this colour when you have a long time to let it dry, though. I had half an hour to let it dry before I had to leave for school. It was still wet, because when I got to school they were already ruined. I had to take it off when I got home! I wish it were a little thicker, because I would wear it more often if it were not such a hassle to dry.