Essie Bordeaux

So I've totally gone and changed my header for the month of June. I know, I know, early, but it's fun. I always changed my blog. How you guys like it? Anyhow, I'm looking at this header and it looks so summer-like. And then I look at what the weather's been like recently and they just don't match. We've had snow in the past week. And it's been rainy and icky. But it's looking better and better. But less talk of the weather and more talk of polish.

This is jellynat's pick. I am so glad you picked this. I freaking love wearing red. And this one's a stunner.

So I'll tell you a little story about how I came to be in possession of this polish. When I first saw it, it came in a little set along with A-List, another red polish. I wanted it. It was awesome. But at the time I was trying to curb my spending. StBFF was supposed to be that frugal voice in my head. You know that voice that tells you no, don't buy it. Well, I totally lack this voice. Hahaha. So she asks me if it's on my wishlist, I say no, she drags me away. Sometime later, I was back at that Winners and there was still one left. StBFF wasn't there telling me not to grab it. So I totally did. Hahaha. And I'm glad I did, because now it's retardedly expensive to get Essies.

Bordeaux is a deep wine red jelly. Oh so squishy and awesome. My pic looks less squishy than it is in real life, though. And my mom actually likes this colour. She almost never likes my nail polish. So thank you Nathalie. Hahaha.



This was three coats with top coat. Application was great, absolutely no issues. Just the usual sheerness that jellies have.

American Apparel Peacock

Lots and lots of apologies for not posting. I just started a new job on Tuesday and have been sorta beat. I went from three weeks of sitting on my lazy ass to full time work running around like a headless chicken at the Military Museums. So please forgive me.

Crap, I didn't realize it's been twelve days since I posted an actual polish review. I'm posting because I'm stuck at home with cramps. Try explaining that to your coworkers at a military museum when they're all guys. That was awkward.

Anyway, here's origami's first pick. And I fully expect to get 10 comments when I post this. Origami is...There's no other way I can put this. She's a vomit commenter. Hahaha. What happens is, she'll do catch up in the middle of the night, then when I wake up in the morning, I'll have 13 comments in my inbox all from her. And then she'll disappear for like three weeks, then do it again. So I look forward to what you think.

Peackock is a very blue leaning teal creme. Wicked rich colour. This pic is actually a bit more blue than it is in real life. I wish my camera had a white balance option. But I bought it for $99 and it's lasted me this long.



One perfect, buttery smooth coat. Love it. I did no clean up on this. I was too excited to take pictures. There's also uneveness up near my cuticle. Normally the second coat would fix it. But as you know, one perfect, buttery smooth coat. Hahaha. This is with top coat.

After a couple days, I didn't want to take it off so I slapped on a coat of OPI Significant Other Color. Freaking love the way it looks. It's green when you look at it head on, purple looking at the sides. And you can still see blue under. Sooo interesting. Check it out.




I totally pulled a Feline here to give you guys a better look at the purple awesomeness.


Please ignore the chip. I took this picture after I realized the initial pics didn't turn out that well.

So in other news, all I do when I get home is eat and then crash in front of the tv for a movie. I've watched so many ridiculous sappy, mindless movies this week. But the one that comes ahead is Enchanted. Freaking awesome movie. I've been listening to the soundtrack for the past week. So good. Here's a little sample.

SpaRitual Giveaway Winners

Hello my little kumquats. Hahaha. Yes, anyway. Giveaway announcement! Sorry it took me so long to get to this. I wanted to make sure I knew how the winner was going to get their polishes first.

So what I did was take all the entries, printed them, and then cut them up. Put them in a hat and drew.


My desk is totally glass, so look at my awesome jammies. They have penguins on them. Lol.



Let's start with the second place winner who will receive a bottle of SpaRitual Optical Illusion from me. *Drum roll*



Now for the first place winner who will win two bottles of SpaRitual polish in their choice of colour from Spa Boutique is...



Who asked for SpaRitual Surreal and Quiet Storm.

This is a case where the extra entries really made a difference. Both these ladies had three entries. Congrats darlings! I shall be emailing you momentarily. You've got 48 hours to get back to me. If you do not reply within that time, I shall pick a new winner.

OPI Malaga Wine and OPI St. Petersburgundy

Possible dupes?

What say you?



Can you even tell these are different colours? Malaga Wine on the left, St. Petersburgundy on the right. MW has slightly more blue than St. Petersburgundy. But that's only in some lights and even then I'm not entirely sure if it's really there or a trick of my eyes.

When I bought St. Petersburgundy (there has gotta be a way to shorten that name) I found a bottle of Malaga Wine to compare it to in store. It looked like St.P (there, that's better) was darker than MW so I bought it. So either OPI's changed MW's formula since I bought my bottle (I wouldn't be surprised if they had) or I was smokin' something at the salon. Although it could be the perm solution...

Anyhow, I've decided to give St.P up. I see no point in having both. And any room I can make in my collection is a good thing.

So lovely readers. What's your verdict?

Edit: Oh, the weird black scribblies you see on the back of the acrylic nails would be black sharpie. I had to label the backs or I would have never known which was which.

My First Lemming

This was my first ever lemming. I still don't have it. It's butter LONDON's Come to Bed Red. I've never gotten it because I couldn't justify the price. Now that I look at it. I'm sure I have dupe but I still want it.



Do any of you have lemmings that you want just to have? Despite the fact that the colour isn't all that unique? Or maybe you want it because everyone else wants it too. La Boheme's like that for me too. Rainforest used to be like that.

Swappage!

Ok, just one more post from me for the night. Dude, these haul posts are hard work. One of my lovely readers, whom I shall call wombough (because that's her username on MUA) oh so kindly offered to send me Hidden Treasure. I got it! Yaaaay!!! So... I don't think it's coming up here to Canada. I just haven't seen the display at all. I think this will be an American exclusive. Understandable considering us Canadians are lucky enough to get those Canadian exclusives. Anyhoodle. Here's what she sent me.


L-R: Hidden Treasure (Squee!!), Just Tea-Sing, Matte Magic

So excited to give these a whirl.

And in other news, I have been completely addicted to the Avatar theme song, "I See You" by Leona Lewis. I've had it on repeat since I got home this afternoon. What totally annoys me though, is that if you want to download it from iTunes, you have got get the entire soundtrack. You can't just download that track on its own. I mean, generally I wouldn't have minded if the other songs were ok and they had lyrics. But this was the score. I find scores were written to give movies cohesion, so all the tracks tend to sound the same. I wasn't willing to spend $10 to get one song. Boo on record companies. But here's the track. Have a listen.

Haulage!

So I clicked on my blogger dashboard and it said I wasn't currently following anyone and I think I had a mini heart attack. But it was just a glitch. Phew.

So for the Canadian ladies out there, Rexall is having a 50% off sale on all their nail polish. All their nail polish. Run, do not walk, to your nearest Rexall. I hauled something fierce today. $4 Sally Hansen salons people. Although I have no idea if this is across Canada. So make sure you check the flyer at the link.

So here be my haul.

NYX. I've never seen any of these in stores in Calgary before. So I was super excited to grab these. Although they were $5.99 before discount. Pretty pricey, if you ask me.


L-R: South Sea, Asphalt, Express, Roasted, Silver Plum

Nicole by OPI and Sally Hansen Salons. The Nicoles were reg $10 and the Sally Hansens were reg $7.99. Totally worth it for the SH polishes. And I got an extra bottle of Commander in Chic to swap with people that don't have access. Let me know if you want it. My contact info's in my FAQ.


L-R: Rent a Magenta, You're an Angel, Fairy Teal, Commander in Chic

Del Sol: These polishes change colour in the sun. Soooo awesome. I was most excited to get these. As far as I know, Rexall was the only place that has these. The top row is what it looks like in the shade, the bottom is what it looks like in sunlight. The colour should change more than what the pics show. We didn't have much good sun today.


L-R: Electrick, Peek-A-Boo, Ruby Slipper, Calypso

Randoms. Dude, they didn't fit anywhere, but are still awesome. Here they are. I have no idea how much these were.


L-R: Water Mist, Applause, Signature Taupe, Rose Attraction

Rescue Beauty Lounge Plie

Nosh, this is an ugly mani. Not ugly because of the colour, but because I have various dents, one bubble, tip shrinkage, and my skin doesn't look all that awesome. But what can I do? And you can see the colour fine.

Stephanie's pick.

Plie is a dusty light pink creme. Gah, I can't tell if I like it. One minute I'll think it's awesome. The next not so much. Totally weird.





Three coats and TC. I was kinda surprised I needed three coats. But it applied well. So meh.

I think this a great office colour. I wish I hadn't ruined it. I probably could have worn it for another day or so.

BTW, if you haven't, go pick me a colour to wear. And if you're Canadian, enter my SpaRitual giveaway. Links in the sidebar.

Claire's Yellow Brick Road

You know, I've always been drawn to the colour yellow. It's probably because it's so happy and bright. But anyhow, I got these all at Claire's for their buy 10 for $10 deal. I also have a million extras for frankening.

I really hate it when a company changes the colour of a polish but leaves the name. Here are three incarnations of Claire's Yellow Brick Road. I've numbered them 1, 2, and 3 so I can distinguish them.





1) In the bottle it looks like a lemon yellow shimmer. But on the nail it's definitely neony.
2) This is a nice deep true yellow. Also a shimmer.
3) I don't really know, maybe an orangey yellow shimmer? Also neonish.



All of these are three coaters. Even then, I probably could have used another coat. No topcoat so you can see how 1 and 3 look matte-ish. (Please ignore how horrific my index finger looks.) All formulae were easy to apply, no issues except for opacity.

Overall, all three colours are... Frig, I smell BBQ. Omg, so hungry. Ok, yeah, where was I? Yes, all three colours are super fun. The shimmer is an interesting touch. And for a $1 each, how could you go wrong?

And now here's a pair of my favourite boots. I have no idea if I've already shown you guys, but it seems to fit in this post.



And Canadian readers, make sure you enter my SpaRitual Giveaway.

Flipping my freaking lid

Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow is getting SUEDE-fied!!

Got this from P'ssion. No idea if it's true or not. But if it is true, so excited.



Please check out the source for more info.

I wonder why a suede polish has never been done with gold shimmer though. Wouldn't that look freaking wicked with the green?

Wonder how close to Zoya Veruschka it'd look too.

And why does OPI insist on re-using names when matte and suede polishes never look the same as their name-sakes?

Models Own Green Grass

Alisa's pick.

So far, looks like my nails are back to normal. So back to normal for the bloggy.

Green grass is a yellow leaning green creme-jelly. And it totally looks like I have turf on my fingers. This is way too yellow for my skin tone, though. I'm not feeling it at all. And considering how Models own has a tendency to chip, I don't expect this mani to last long.



Two coats with TC. Probably could have used three, but like I said, I wasn't expecting to wear this for long, so I didn't bother with a third coat or cleanup. This polish applied nice and smooth though. And the smell wasn't all that bad. Just an FYI, I totally put on lotion before I took the pic, so I hope that doesn't mess with how it looks.

SpaRitual Optical Illusion

There are no words. *Loves*


Please click to see how amazing the gold flakies look.

Canadian followers, don't forget to enter my SpaRitual giveaway for a chance to win this or two other polishes of your choice.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Mismas

Yeah, so Quatchi pwned the Vancouver Olympic mascots poll with 21 out of 49 votes. Miga and MukMuk had 12 votes each. And poor Sumi was last with 4 votes. So I went out and got a Quatchi and will be adding it to the giveaway stash for whenever I do my next giveaway.

Now here's Erin's pick.

Mismas is purple and nothing but purple. My pictures are too light and too blue though. Oddly enough, it's darker when it dries. So it's darker than bottle colour. I really like it because of how rich the colour is.



Two coats with top coat. Almost perfect at one coat. So obscenely buttery smooth. There's a wee bit of tip wear on this pic because I took this a couple days after I put it on.

Question for y'all

If you were to win one of these Vancouver Olympics mascots plushies in a giveaway, which one would you want?


L-R: Sumi, MukMuk, Quatchi, Miga

Pics are completely clickable, and please give me your answers in the poll to the right.

Sumi


Mukmuk


Quatchi


Miga

That's it!

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, I've given up on you. You frustrating nail polish. I don't need you. Hmmpff. *Turns around and crosses arms*

I can't find. I want it. I've given up on it. Boo.

And here's a random NOTD for you guys. This was way way back in early Dec. I think it's China Glaze Sci Fi over OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue. Wow, it's been a while since I did a vertical shot like this. And dang, this is sorta a really crummy picture.

GOSH Metallic Green

So, new month, new banner. I changed it a few days back because I was impatient. I've also added a page up top there for a banner archive. Just so I can look back on what banners have been up on ye olde blog.

Now onto CucumPear's pick.

This is exactly as its name says. A light green metallic polish. This is probably the only light green I've ever liked and I'm surprised how much I actually ended up liking it. This was taken in low early morning light. So freaking shiny.



Two coats with top coat. I totally expected this to be one hot streaky mess, and at the first coat it looked that way, but it completely levelled out and was just fine and dandy at two. I think the pic enhances the streaky, it wasn't that bad in real life. I also don't remember my hands looking so loberstery either. Anyway, application was weird. It was a lot like a China Glaze Khrome, sorta thick and gooey. It also dried quite fast. And was opaque in one coat, but I had to add the second coat because of the weird application issues. I think it'd be good for stamping. I had one more issue with tiny tiny bubbles. I think next time I'll have to be more careful, thinner coats might help.

By the way, Canadian followers, don't forget to enter my SpaRitual giveaway.

Edit: This was an NOTD from before I stopped wearing polish. I've been naked for quite a while now. I'm just trying to slowly post old NOTDs and hopefully when I run out of pics, my nails should be back to normal.