Elianto Dark Sea Green

I had the opportunity to do a swap with one of my lovely readers from Singapore. This was one of the polishes Cheryl chose for me. Thanks!

Sea Green is a dark vampy teal jelly. Almost looks black in most artificial lights. It reminds me of the deepest darkest part of the ocean. Or maybe it's more like the Caribbean sea at night? Either way, it's a super dark teal jelly. I think it's teh awesomes.



Three coats with top coat. Only with the Ott Lite and sunlight does it actually look like this. It doesn't even really require bright sunlight, which is weird, must just be the type of light. You don't see the bald patches at all in artificial light.

Pic of the Moment: I'd like to take this time to wish you all a very Happy Halloween. I was over at my friend Owen's house carving pumpkins yesterday. I'd forgotten how bad pumpkin smelled. My friend Andrea was saying it just smelled bad because it wasn't entirely ripe yet. Holy, it was gross. So I did not scoop out any innards. Disgusting. But yes, here is my pumpkin.



I was aiming for a wink. But it looks skeptical. I don't know, what do you guys think it looks like?

And here's my friend Andrea's pumpkin, it's got an OH MY face.



And then Owen's brother did this:



Lol. Anyway, have a happy and safe Halloween my little kumquats!

Who's a Wiener?

Number 180's a wiener! Is that how you spell wiener? I have no idea. Anyway, yes, the winner for my giveaway is:



And they are:



Congrats KarenD! I've emailed you. Please reply.

Nfu-Oh 555

So I'm semi on hiatus. I might still post, but I might not. My nails aren't in great shape right now, minorly separating from the nail bed. And I've kept my nails really short because I have to move stuff at work and am scared of breaks. I also feel like poop. Really not used to the new job yet. I just always feel exhuasted. But at the same time I still want to wear polish. Lol. So yeah. This job is only for two months, so we'll see how things go. And don't forget to enter my giveaway. It ends tonight. Edit: Hahahaha, oops, giveaway actually ended Friday. Oh well, whatever. I'll count all entries that came in, even late.

Now for jbrobeck's pick.

555 is a blue-based purple creme. For some reason this just doesn't do it for me. I didn't like it at all and ended up putting a coat of China Glaze Holographic topcoat on it. The pics are bluer than the polish. Seriously, I hate photographing purple polish.



Three coats without topcoat. It looked good at two coats but then under bright light you could see streaking so all three coats are needed. No other application issues.

Pic of the Moment: I took these pictures while On a bus on our way to Kaiping out of Shenzhen. The one thing I love about China is just how lush and green everything is. Too bad I couldn't stand the humidity.













Not sure if you guys can see, but at the top of the hill on that last pic, there's a temple. Actually, here, let me try and crop it for you guys. I thought it was pretty cool.



Hope you guys enjoyed the pics. As far as I can tell, there are about two posts-worth of pictures from my trip. I lied, there are at least three more posts-worth of pictures. I took more than I thought, but still less than I would have liked.

OPI Cosmo Not Tonight Honey!

I'm baaaaaaack!!! I have so much to show you guys from my trip. Look for it in my pic of the moment for the next few posts.

Kitty's pick.

Cosmo Not Tonight is a slightly pink oyster polish with pearl shimmer. I think the pink is mostly just the colour of my nails showing through. I was originally just going to slap this on and post it then take it off right away. But I was surprised how much I liked it. It's a really pretty colour and it just looks classy. Also a great colour for my first day at work. (My contract with the Military Museums ended last month and I was lucky enough to get a job right away with Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. I was originally supposed to start work yesterday, but my boss changed that to Monday because she figured I'd need some recovery time, which is good because I slept for something like 14 hours on Thursday night. I've never had jet lag like that before.)



This is three coats with top coat. Applied smoothly but it's streaky, as most pearly polishes tend to be. It's also a bit sheer. Even at three coats you can see VNL, but as most of you may know, I don't mind a good sheer polish. And I actually preferred the way it looked at two coats. Overall I'm really glad I grab this. And for $5, it was a pretty good deal.

Pic of the Moment: So I took quite a few pictures while I was in China. And lots of boring vid. But this is the pic I wanted to show you the most. My massively swollen mosquito bite. I got 17 of these. All but one of them swelled up. I always have a really bad reaction to Chinese mosquitos and this time was no exception. My allergic reaction was so bad that I had to start taking anti-histamines because my joints were hurting so bad. I could barely move my arms. My trips to China always remind me why I'm on a personal mission to kill every single mosquito ever hatched.

Sally Hansen Purple Gala vs Hard Candy Mr. Wrong

Just a little message for StBFF, in case you're reading this. Hope you're feeling better. I'm thinking about you and praying for you!

So I recently bought Purple Gala and it reminded me very much of another polish, Mr. Wrong. I decided to do a comparison. And I thought there was a chance it looked like Molten Metal too. But I was completely wrong there.

Both are purple foils. But Purple Gala has a more red-purple base where Mr. Wrong has a more blue-purple base. The gold is also more prominent in Mr. Wrong. You'd be able to see this better in lower light, but I couldn't get those pictures to turnout. So these polishes are similar, but not complete dupes.



Two coats for each. As far as I could tell, formulas are similar. Applied well.

Pic of the moment: So ever since I moved here, I've been meaning to get out and get pictures of the fall colours. I'm slowly doing that this year and you guys got to see that with my earlier pictures. But the pictures I really wanted to take are the ones of the ravine near my house. This ravine is part of an amazing network of green space the developer left, more or less, natural for people to enjoy. They put in pathways, some seating areas and it's stunning. When you're walking through these pathways, you'll see deer and there are also coyotes. I've spent quite a bit of time here as it's literally two blocks away from my house. These were taken a couple weeks ago. Three days after I took these pictures, the leaves came down. So please enjoy this next set of autumn-ness. There are quite a few pics.

There are two ponds when you enter the ravine. I don't think these are natural. They were created as storm drain reservoirs. So when it rains, these get pretty high. It's a good idea, have the drain water come in here, it looks nice and it sort of filters the water before entering the groundwater.



And we continue down the path.


The second pond.


Here's the edge of the second pond.


This is the view of the second pond from another angle. These ponds usually have duck in them, but it was late enough in the year that they've gone south. During spring the little ducklings are out. Soooo cute.


Continuing down the path. Eventually the path starts to wind upward.


This is a view from, probably, the highest area of the ravine. Just look at that huge expanse of green leafy awesomeness that hides bunnies, coyotes, and deer. By this point, I was sorta drenched in sweat and was ready to pass out. It was really warm that day and I was over dressed.


A pic of the path we just went up. That's the last pic for this little photo session.


I'm scheduled to fly back home tomorrow. Hopefully I come back with lots of stories and pictures to share. See y'all soon! Also, remember to enter my giveaway!!

Frilly Lilly Prosperous

Recently, (Read: Like three weeks ago) I had the opportunity to have a polish change from a local Calgary spa called Frilly Lilly. First off, some info about Frilly Lilly. Debra Van Dyke, the lady behind Frilly Lilly, opened the first flagship store in 2005 in Calgary. They currently have two Calgary locations, and one in Victoria, BC and another in Vancounver. Frilly Lilly is a boutique and spa. They're known for their waxing and line of pretty and yummy smelling products. They also sell things like jewelry, undies and accessories.

I heard about this brand from a friend who let me try her Frilly Lilly Peppermint lip balm. I thought it was awesome, so I looked them up and saw that they had nail polish. I was also really surprised to find out that it was a Calgary based company. And even more surprised to find out that one of my old high school friends was Debra Van Dyke's son and helped his mom run the business. I honestly never expected to run into someone I knew on this crazy nail polish adventure of mine. So cool.

Now onto my visit. Right when you walk in the door, you're greeted with this. Super cute. Definitely frilly. Totally has the boutique feel to it.



This was the McKenzie Towne location. I wish I had gone to Mission instead, which is the flagship store, just because it was closer. But I was a complete dope and made my appointment at the wrong store. *Facepalm*

Anyhow, the tech who did my nails was Brandy, I told her if she did a bad job, I wouldn't mention her by name. Lol. The polish I chose was Prosperous. (Btw, with that name, I'm so wearing this for Chinese New Year, and the colour is perfect.) They really only had a very conservative collection of polish. Mostly reds, pinks, some purples and browns. But I've been told they have more colours coming out for Christmas. Brandy also told me that they did CND Shellac there. Prosperous is a blue based red polish with gold shimmer. Please excuse my middle finger. That was entirely my fault. The moment I hopped off the chair, I ruined my nails by grabbing my purse. I just can't have nice things, I tell ya.



Two coats with topcoat. The polish applied well. Very smooth. Good opacity. I think Brandy did an overall good job. No polish on the sides. Very professional. Super nice. When you just look at it, it looks great, but under the harsh lighting of an ott lamp and the merciless focus of macro mode, it looks like poo. The one thing I wish professionals would adopt is using a brush for cleanup, and keep polish away from cuticles. She also used quick dry drops. It's been a long time since I used those. So not used to it. I felt greasy all over for a while. But it dried fast. If I had been a little more patient and just sat there for a couple more minutes, I wouldn't have screwed up my nail.

February 3, 2011: I've done an updated review here if you're interested in reading it.

***Polish change and polish were compliments of Frilly Lilly.***

So while I was at Frilly Lilly, I also grabbed a pot of that lip balm I liked so much.



And a bottle of Frilly Lilly Cuticle Remover.



Pic of the Moment: If I were a cat, I'd be the one on the bottom left corner. Hahahaha. Actually, now that I think about it, I could probably be both. I can do the I'm-not-amused face like a pro!

OPI Happy Anniversary vs OPI Stars in My Eyes

A few months ago a friend of mine was looking for OPI Stars in My Eyes. It was part of OPI's 2007 Holiday in Hollywood collection. Which means it was long discontinued. So I went looking for dupes and found OPI Happy Anniversary. I put this swatch together for her.

It goes Happy Anniversary on my index and ring fingers, Stars in My Eyes on my middle and pinky. Both polishes are semi-sheer sparkly silvers. But SIME is a slightly more bluey silver and HA lets a bit more of your own nail colour show through.



Both colours are two coats. Opacity appears to be the same.

I would say if you don't have to have SIME, then HA is a good enough alternative. But HA might have just recently been discontinued. I got my bottle for something like $5 in the clearance bin.

Pic of the Moment: My dad gave me a new bamboo plant to replace the one two plants that I killed. Yeah, I may wear a lot of green polish, but my thumbs are definitely not green. The first time was probably because the pot was too small. The second time was during exam week. I was at school like twelve hours a day and well, kinda forgot to water it because I was only ever at home to sleep. So... May this one live a long and healthy life.



Do you like how it sits it my grad mug? It just seems fitting. I declined using a vase because this was perfect.

Color Club Black

Hello my loves. Today, I go on vacation. For the next ten days I'll be in China. During this time, posts will go up as usual, every three days at 8:00 AM MST. Although they will not be my regular pick posts. I've pulled together a bunch of stuff that I've been meaning to post but just never got around to so you guys would have something to read while I'm gone. Anyhow, be good. I'll miss you! See you soon.

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Katie's pick.

Black is black. Mm, yes, go figure, eh? Lol, anyway, it's a black creme. This is my go-to black. It takes care of all my black nail polish needs, including Konad. This is actually the first time I've ever worn black. Just black. I've always done something with it. It's odd wearing black. But it didn't last long, as you'll see later. I also feel like it washes me out.



One coat. Yes, you read that right. It's good in one coat. And that is why it's my go-to black. Love it. The one thing I don't like about wearing black is that every single mistake just shows up so much more. I think it's just because I'm so pale. But I don't seem to have this issue with other dark polishes.

After a couple hours I couldn't do the black anymore. So I slapped some bundle monster on it. This is China Glaze 2030 on top. Probably the best stamping job I've ever done. Which is sad because, as you can tell, it's not all that good.



Bundle monster definitely has small full nail templates. Because I have small nails and I totally ran out of room on my index and middle finger.

Pics of the moment: This next series of pics was brought to my attention by Mandy at Chocolate and Cream Cake. Wookiee the Chew. Drawn by James Hance. So darn cute.

'Wookiee The Chew', in the style of the original Pooh books tells the adorkable tale of the little biped that belonged to Chrisolo Robin (and Chrisolo Robin belonged to him).

You can get the book Wookiee the Chew here if you're interested in more. I totally emailed him about international shipping but he hasn't gotten back to me yet.

Ardene Nail Polish

A tiny little Ardene haulage. I thought you guys would be interested in hearing about these polishes. For those who don't know, Ardene is a Canadian chain that sells clothes and accessories. They were at one point very similar to Claire's but have since moved away from more trinkety items and more toward clothing and accessories. I was happy to see they started selling their own line of nail polish. The new colours they have for fall are particularly awesome. Check it out. Two jellies, a taupe and a kickass green. There were more, a light beige, a light green, some glitters, but I didn't pick those up. These retail for $3.50, but I got them 2 5 for $10.



So what do you guys think? I sorta squealed when I saw these.

And just a little reminder to enter my giveaway. Link on the sidebar to the right.

Nubar Peacock Feathers

Kendall's pick.

Peacock Feathers is a deep grape purple shimmer that turns a very dark grey teal. A very subtle duochrome. This is why it looks so dark at the edges. The purple is a little more red-based than the picture shows. The bottle colour is the truer purple shade. Edit: Ok, my bad, it turns green at a different angle. In bright sunlight it is definitely green. Not subtle at all. Wow.



Three coats with topcoat. Alright, I totally need new topcoat. Anyone down in the states willing to do a swap with me or specially purchase some Poshe for me? I can swap Joe Fresh, Ardenes, and GOSH polishes. I can also swap chocolate. I'm experiencing intense tip shrinkage. If you can, please email me at perrypiepolish at gmail dot com. I would totally appreciate it. Alright back to the polish. This is actually good at two coats, but I added a third because I didn't do a very good job. Applies well, no issues.

Pic of the Moment: Spider Cat!!!! Hahahaha! Yeah, that's all your getting from me now. So beat.



And Mystique.



Daredevil.



See many more awesome Marvel Cats here. And thanks to my friend Mandy from Chocolate & Cream Cake for showing me. Totally check out her blog if you guys have a minute. So much interesting crap there. And I love her Nerd News.