Blogroll Announcement

Hello! I don't have a new mani to show you today, I'm still rockin' my blinged out Pink Wednesday look from yesterday, but I do have something else I'd like to share with you.

http://staroversky.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/pen-paper.jpg

I have seen on various blogs a feature called a "Blogroll". I personally find them very helpful when I'm trying to find new polish blogs to follow so I have decided I would like to create my own. I want to do this to give my followers a little more exposure to other great bloggers. Instead of just going through all the blogs I follow and adding everyone, I would like to give you the opportunity to let me know if you would like to be added to it. 

My Blogroll will be in split into various categories. Let me provide an example. Say you have a blog solely dedicated to:

- nail polish (nail of the day, swatches, nail art, hauls, etc)

- fashion (outfit of the day, hauls, fashion trends, etc)

- cosmetics (face of the day, reviews, hauls, storage, etc)

I would have 3 (or more, if you have a blog dedicated to something else) Blogroll categories.

If you would like to be added to my Blogroll, here are the steps you can take:

1. You MUST be a follower of my blog to be added to my Blogroll. (I will check.)

2. EMAIL ME your blog's URL, the name of your blog and what category your blog fits under. If you comment on this post with your information I will delete it.

If you'd like, you can copy and paste my (make-shift) form below, so you can be sure I have received all the necessary info.

Blog URL:

Blog Name:

Blog Category:

My Blogroll will be posted once I have around 15-20 emails, and will be a continual work in progress.

Do you have a Blogroll on your blog?

Thanks for reading. :)

Pink Wednesday: Color Club Warhol & China Glaze Mrs.Claus

Good afternoon! Today I have my Pink Wednesday to share with you. I have to say that my nails are down to nubbins because my index finger (left hand) broke a few days ago and it was driving me crazy having my nails different lengths ... now they are filed down. *massive pout* I was just starting to like how long they were getting and then one breaks. C'est la vie. 

Base: Color Club Warhol, 2 coats
Glitter: China Glaze Mrs.Claus, 2 coats
Seche Vite, 2 coats.

I apologize for the staining but the pink was a pain, captial P-ain.

My camera absolutely FREAKED OUT at how bright this pink was and then I was a jerk and added a ton of glitter polish. Needless to say, my camera and I aren't on very good terms. ;)

Question: is it completely lame that my short nails are making me a tad depressed? I used to be a horrible nail biter and seeing my nails this short again makes me think of that again. Ugghh. At least they are pretty and polished.

Have you ever had to file/cut your nails down because of a bad break? Make me feel better and tell me about it!

Thanks for reading. :)

First Blue Monday: Claires Bright Skies

Hello! I'm so excited to share my first Blue Monday with you. :) See below!

Claires Blue Skies, 3 coats plus SV topcoat.

There is some VNL but at 3 coats, I was done, haha.

Today is actually grey out, the sun is just trying to come through,  so I hope to encourage the sun by wearing this aptly named polish. I apologize for the hasty cleanup but I am quickly running out of time. (I'm headed to work in about 20 minutes, EEK!)

Also, I applied only one coat of SV but I probably should have added another because you can still feel the glitter a little bit. (Most people would probably leave it, but I love a completely smooth finish.) I hope you enjoyed my first Blue Monday!

Did you join in on my new trend? Let me know: which blue was your Blue Monday mani?

Thanks for reading. :)

Sunshine Award

Good evening! The lovely Laura from Laura's Lacquers nominated me for the Sunshine Award. (Thank you!) One of the rules of this award is that you are to create a post dedicated to it. Therefore, no nail polish today. (Check my blog tomorrow for my first Blue Monday!)


Here is the award.

Rules:

Thank & link back the person who gave you the award.

Write a post about it.

Pass it on to 10 bloggers you think really deserve it.

Laura added this rule: "Name at least one everyday thing that makes you happy. (NOT the subject of your blog or this award, we all know that makes you happy!)"

Eight Bloggers (Sorry, I didn't pick ten.)

1. And Nails 4 All

2. Beautiful Lovely Things

3. Glamorous Girl

4. I’m Feeling Nail-Venturous

5. Nagelmaartje

6. Shatter Me Claire

7. The It Color

8. The Nailaholic

Favourite Everyday Things

1. Coffee with butter pecan coffee cream, YUM!

2. Sleeping in past 7am.

3. Getting my hair and makeup done in less than 25 minutes.

Thanks for reading. :)

Haul: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails

Hello. I definitely broke my "post every day" promise to myself. My post from Wednesday morning seems more like a week ago rather than a couple days. Please know that if I take a couple days off it isn't because I'm leaving, it is because life happens, as it did in this case. Should I ever decide to conclude my blog (which I honestly don't see happening) you will definitely get a head's up.

Today I have a haul and new idea to share with you. First, my haul.

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in Ice Queen and Frozen Solid.

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in Hard To Get, Limestone and Sturdy Sapphire.

My Wal-Mart finally got these in even though they were advertised in last weeks flyer and never showed up. I haven't swatched them yet, but I picked these five colours because they are, in my opinion, the most unique from the collection. I haven't swatched any of these yet, however I plan to in the coming week. 

As my stash grows I'm finding it harder and harder to come across polishes I don't already own something very similar to. Also, I'm trying to dramatically decrease my polish spending. I have so many polishes that I have purchased that I haven't tried. I would say 80% of my collection consist of un-trieds, it's shameful.

All right, now onto my idea. You may or may not have noticed the new picture in my sidebar, which looks like this:

I am really loving the Pink Wednesday's and thought I would create my own version with a different colour on a different day. While brainstorming I came up with "Blue Monday's". I Googled it and didn't find anyone else with this idea. (I would hate to take someone's thunder.) I have seen some bloggers do "Swatch Saturday's/Sunday's", etc, but have never come across Blue Monday. 

EDIT: Wendy from Love. Life. Beauty let me know that Nails Beautiqued does Blue Mondays. I did not realize this when I thought of my idea. I do my utmost to ensure people receive credit where it is due. I will continue with Blue Mondays however I want you to know that I created this without any malicious intent or knowledge that this idea had been created previously. (The photo is my own, I created it in Paint because I am not very tech-savvy.)

Anyway, what do you think of my idea? I would like to come up with something for each day of the week as I think that will give me motivation and inspiration each day. So far, Blue Monday is the first one I will start with. Stay tuned for my first Blue Monday and my Sally Hansen Hard As Nail Swatches!

Do you have a schedule or any guidelines you follow for certain days of the week? Let me know!

Thanks for reading. :)

PS: If you like my idea feel free to grab the photo and put it on your blog. Please give me credit if you do! :)

OPI Rally Pretty Pink

Happy Pink Wednesday! Just a quick update before I head off to work this morning. I have surprised myself, I didn't think I would wear pink enough to be able to participate in Pink Wednesday but apparently I do. :) I'm thinking of adding the banner to my sidebar and make it a permanent addition to my blog. Let's take a look at my mani.

OPI Rally Pretty Pink, 3 coats.

Mattified with Joe Matte Top Coat, 3 coats.

While looking at other blogs, I have determined that Zoya's Faye is quite a good dupe of this colour. I saw a random swatch of the Zoya and commented on the blog that I own Rally Pretty Pink and it looks very similar. Then I search for a comparison and saw that I was right - I was proud, it's the only polish that I ever successfully categorized as a dupe. ;) 

What do you think of Pink Wednesday, should I continue with them?

Thanks for reading!

Revlon Firefox & Stylish Blogger Award

Good afternoon. Today I'm wearing my Revlon Matte Suede polish in Firefox. You might have noticed that I'm not a big red polish wearer; I prefer blues, greens and purples. For some reason I always feel like there is a spotlight on my nails when I wear red and it makes me self-conscious. I could wear a glitterbomb or the brightest neon and not bat an eyelash, but for whatever reason, red gives me a slightly uncomfortable feeling. Maybe it's just me?

Revlon Firefox, 1 coat.

Revlon Firefox 2 coats (clear polish sandwiched in between the 2 layers.)

Firefox with Essie To Dry For Top Coat

I like the matte suede finish, but the shimmer that shows through when the topcoat is added is amazing. (Enlarge the photo's to see what I mean!) Lately, I have been having problems with my mani peeling off. Literally half of the polish would peel right off like an orange peel. As I said in the photo caption, I layered a clear polish (Color Club Vivid Top Coat) between the two layers of Firefox to hopefully help keep my mani in place.

To finish, Kassie from Unique-Desire nominated me with the Stylish Blogger Awrd. Thank you Kassie, you're so sweet! :)

The rules are:

1. Thank the person that gave you the award and link back to them

2. Post 7 things about yourself

3. Pass the love to 15 bloggers

4. Let them know they received this award

Seven Things About Myself

1. I’m a very friendly person, I love getting to know people.

2. I bit my nails from ages 2-20 and now think it’s a disgusting habit.

3. I owned approximately 15 polishes before March 2011 and now own 359!

4. I spend about 2 hours a day on my blog. (Polishing, photographing, uploading, writing, replying to comments/emails.)

5. I have never been outside of Canada.

6. I was married 9 days before my 21^st birthday.

7. Calla lilies and tulips are my favourite flowers.

Fifteen Bloggers

1. Ali's Nail News

2. Babbling Brooke

3. Big Apple Red Nails

4. Bright Lights, Big Color

5. Did Someone Say Nail Polish?

6. Elemental Styles

7. Getcha Nails Did

8. Jessica's Nail Art

9. Nail Polish Art Addiction

10. Nailspotting

11. Of Faces And Fingers

12. Polish Obsessed

13. Rebecca Likes Nails

14. Sweet Kawaii Boutique

15. The Nail Phile

Have a great Tuesday! Thanks for reading. :)

Haul & NOTD: Blue Floral

Hello! Today I have my Saturday haul to share with you and my mani from yesterday with a little addition. :) After I did my first haul I got a lot of comments saying that you enjoyed these so here is another! This is probably the last bit of polish shopping I will be doing for a while, unless more Color Club sets come in to Winners. (I can't resist those.) I have over 350 polishes now and I want to start swatching and sharing them with you all.

Let's take a look at what I purchased.

Essie To Dry For Top Coat
Essie (L-R) Too Too Hot (2), Sew Psyched, Turquoise & Caicos
Gosh Pool Party

Sally Hansen (Insta Dry) (Top L-R, Bottom L-R)
Silver Sweep, Slick Slate, Uptempo Plum, Night Flight, Blue Streak, Jade
Jump, Lightening, Snappy Sorbet, Pink Blink, Fuchsia Flare, Sonic Boom

Double Agents Top & Base Coat, Winners $5.99.

Here is my mani using the blue polish from my Simple Pleasures pack that I reviewed yesterday.

This is the most colour accurate, you can see the duskiness of it.

Sunset lighting.

Morning light. Added a sticker, but it doesn't look like one. ;)

I added two coats of SV to smooth out the stickers edge, IRL it looks like it was painted/airbrushed on - love it! That's it for today, lovelies. 

What do you think of nail stickers? Do you ever wear them?

Thanks for reading.

Simple Pleasures Swatches & Thank You!

To start, I owe you all a huge ... THANK YOU! ... for helping me reach 200+ followers (203 to be exact). I'm so thankful for each and every reader, I get so excited by every comment, email and new follower I receive - it's like Christmas for me! Never hesitate to ask any questions or make a suggestion, I would love to hear from you. :)

In my last post I asked if you would rather see the second Revlon 3-pack polish kit or my Simple Pleasures kit from my Haul last week. A lovely follower and blogger, thenailaholic, requested the Simple Pleasures pack and so that is what I have prepared for you today. (There was a lot of swatching this afternoon!)

The polishes included in the pack; un-named. They are swatched from L-R.

ACK, bare nails! This is two coats of the glitter polish. Clear base with small
silver glitter, 2 coats. (I would use this as a layering glitter polish.)

Beautiful orange/cantelope creme - 2 coats.
The VNL that you see in these photo's was not visible IRL.

I tried adjusting the colour for this polish however I couldn't get it spot on.
It is more of a cherry red (creme) than what it is showing here, 2 coats.

This photographed perfect - lovely medium pink creme, 2 coats.

This reminds me of Color Club Pucci-licious which I wore the other day.
This photographed more blue and brighter than it really is,
it is more of a muted medium true purple creme, 2 coats.

Slightly less bright than this photo, but perfect otherwise. I will try to get a
nice daylight shot of this and post it as an update. My favourite from this
pack. Medium cobalt creme, 2 coats.

This polish reminds me of L.A Colors Atomic. I'll have to do a comparison soon.
Medium teal creme, 2 coats.

I have to admit, I didn't have high expectations for these Simple Pleasures polishes, but I have to say I was blown away. I applied 2 coats for each of these polishes with no top coat to showcase the finish. The VNL was not visible IRL (macro shows everything...). They all dried quite shiny with the 2 coats, I was impressed. One thing I will say is that they have a very strange smell, not quite toxic but ... strange. Not sure how to describe it. Maybe, plastic-esque? Haha. Application was a dream.

Application: 10 - Perfect

Colour Range: 9 - Everyone will find something they like, but nothing highly unique.

Finish: 10 - Nice and shiny!

= 29/30

For $5.99 I will definitely pick up another Simple Pleasures kit if I ever find one at Winners again. If you have seen this pack and passed it by, I would recommend trying to find it, especially if you are trying to grow your collection on a budget.

I loved the blue shade so much that it is now my mani! Which is your favourite colour from the Simple Pleasures pack?

Thanks for reading!

Revlon 3-Pack: Garden

Good afternoon! Today I have the last swatch from the Revlon pack that I purchased a couple days ago: Garden. ("Waterfall" can be seen here - "Sparkle" can be seen here.) I am so excited to show you this colour - it is definitely the winner of the set. 

Note: please excuse the dry cuticles, I had swatched 4 polishes and used 100% acetone remover, bad girl - I know, I know. ;)

Garden, 2 coats. No top coat.

I was shocked: this is a ONE COAT nail polish! I applied two coats just to be positive, but had I been a little neater with the application this would have needed only the one coat. It is richly pigmented and smoothed onto the nail like warm butter, it was phenomenal. Not only was the application FLAWLESS the colour is beautiful. Yellow green's are so striking; very eye catching. Garden scored a perfect 100%.

Application: 10 - perfection

Colour: 10 - I love me some yellow-green's.

Finish: 10 - High gloss shine all on its own, gotta love that!

= 30/30

I just want to mention, I didn't rate the wear on these 3 Revlon's because I only swatched Sparkle and Garden and promptly removed them and wore Waterfall for 2 hours. However, if you are curious about one (or all of these) colours and their durability, feel free to comment below or email and request that!

To sum up this Revlon kit, I would say that it is definitely a good buy - 3 polishes for $4.96 from Wal-Mart, seriously? Some have mentioned that these polishes are near-dupes for other Revlon full sized polishes. For myself and perhaps others as well, I do not own the dupes so for me, this pack was quite handy. I actually went back to Wal-Mart this morning and picked up the other 3-pack which includes: Butterfly, Moss and Tulip. 

So, the question remains ... do you want to see those or should I post swatches of the Simple Pleasures pack from my Winners haul that I posted about a week ago?

Thanks for reading! :)

Revlon 3-Pack: Sparkle & Top 10 Award

The Revlon 3 Pack

"Sparkle" no topcoat
Index: 1 coat - Middle: 2 coats
Ring: 3 coats - Pinky: 4 coats

Ou, pretty holo hexagon glitters.

Obviously, this polish is vastly different from Waterfall. It has a clear base with silver and holo mini circle glitter and holo hexagon glitter. Unfortunately the hex glitters are sparse. Also, once you apply 2 coats it basically looks the same even if you add a third, or even fourth coat. This is definitely a layering polish for me, I really dislike having my natural nail show through even in the slightest so I cringed when I realized that I had to post this ... oh well, I'll take one for the team. Haha. Let's see how she scored: 83%

Application: 10 - It was a breeze!
Colour: 8 - Glitters are always pretty for layering.
Finish: 7 - Not enough holo glitters.
= 25/30

Also, as you read in the title, I received the Top 10 Award today from the lovely lady at Varnish Me Up - thank you so much! Two awards in one day ... it makes my head spin! :)

Top 10 Award

1. Thank the person who tagged you and link to their blog.
2. Put the Top 10 Award logo on your blog.
3. List your top 10 cosmetics.
4. Choose 10 bloggers to tag, link to their blogs, and let them know.

Top Ten Cosmetics (In alphabetical order)

1. Cover FX Total Coverage Cream Foundation SPF 30 in E10

2. Hard Candy Sheer Envy Primer

3. Hard Candy So Baked Bronzer in Tiki

4. Lise Watier Eyeshadow Quartet in Les Cuivrès

5. MAC Cremesheen Lipstick in Creme Cup

6. MAC Paint Pot in Soft Ocre

7. N.Y.C Browser Brush-On Brow Kit in Brunette

8. Quo Bronzing Powder Brush

9. Revlon Grow Luscious Mascara

10. Victoria’s Secret Beauty Rush Minty Lip Shine

10 Blogs
1. Colores de Carol
2. (im)properly polished
3. Life and Polish
4. Loves Rose and Purple
5. Nail Stories
6. Notes for Nails
7. Perfection is Possible
8. Posh for Polish
9. so nailed
10. Strange Nails

My choices for top 10 blogs stemmed from the fact that I think they too deserve more lovin's. (Like the Liebster Award.) Colores de Carol is the exception, she has 900+ lovelies but I thought she deserves some love for posting Zoya's Dovima which might be my favourite polish ever ... and I don't even own it!

Anyway, that's all for me, beauties. Two posts in one day - I'm wiped! :)

PS: Look below to see what I did with Waterfall from earlier today! (I posted my right hand because the left hand smeared, ugh.)

Sinful Colors in "Snow Me White" for the spots.
Nail Star Two-Way Nail Art Pen in Navy to outline.

Thanks for reading!

Revlon 3-Pack: Waterfall & Liebster Blog Award

Good afternoon. I got some exciting news today when I logged on to my blog: love4lacquer nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award! I'm so honoured. I'm loving my blog immensely and it's nice to be recognized for doing something you truly love, so thank you very much! (Manicure below the award stuff.)

The Liebster Blog Award!

What this award is for.

To follow suit, I would like to nominate the following blogs (in alphabetical order) for the Liebster Award:

Groupie Glam - Summer and Alexis are the authors of this blog and one of the first blogs I came across. They always have such fun and interesting posts and I love reading what they come up with! 

Living While Loving - Janelle is the author of this blog and always has tons of looks to share. I love her honest opinions on polishes and to-the-point posts. 

Polish and Charms - I love this blog! She shows us her manicures and jewlery that she creates. She has a real eye for creating beautiful pieces. 

These are the blogs that I feel need some more love so why don't you check them out? Love you ladies, keep on polishin'!

Today I wanted to review the new Revlon kit I picked up at Wal-Mart for $4.99. This kit comes with 3 bottles of polish. Each bottle is 7.5ml's which, in my opinion, is great for a "mini". Another thing I want to point out is that the handle is a great size for a mini polish. I felt like I had control over what I was doing more so than other mini's I have used. (ie: Sally Girl, OPI and Essence.) 

This afternoon I will be starting with Waterfall. Let's check it out.

From left to right: Waterfall, Sparkle, Garden.

Waterfall, 3 coats with topcoat.
Please excuse the shadows from my window screen.

This polish has a beautiful colour but it was a pain application-wise. The first 2 coats still had issues with streaking so I added a third to help even everything out. It kind of looks lumpy on a couple fingers; the polish gets a little gloopy. (Is that a word?) I had a couple bubbles come up but nothing too serious. It is a creme finish but with micro-silver glass flecks. I'm not sure if you can see it in the photo's but when I was on the way to the grocery store this polish caught the light in the most perfect way and it looked like diamond shards sparkling up at me. Wow.

Overall, I would say that if you have the patience and time to apply this polish, definitely go for it. The colour is beautiful (I'm a sucker for anything blue) and the micro glass fleck is stunning in the sun. Also, I used Nail Life Gripper base coat and Nail Life Speed Demon top coat.

If I had to grade this polish I would give it a solid 83%. (See below for how I came up with that, haha.)
Application: 6.5
Colour: 9
Finish: 9.5
= 25/30

Tomorrow I will review Sparkle so stay tuned!

Have you purchased this kit - what do you think of it?

Thanks for reading!

Melmers & Nail Polish Collection

Hey! This afternoon I went to Micahel's and came home with two Melmer's. I was skeptical that they would have them, but they did and with 50% off! My husband, being the enabler that he is, (God I love him) helped me build them. This post has a lot of photo's and not very good ones at that. I do apologize but I was in a time crunch.

In all their glory ... and grip mat, haha.

Hubby, hard at work.

Ta-da! :)

From top to bottom:
First Drawer
Base & top coats, cuticle stuff, nail art polishes, glitters.

Second Drawer
Paints, tools, sponges, extra cotton.

Third Drawer
Nail wheels, polishes to be swatched.

Fourth Drawer
Polishes with brands that I only have a couple of.
Comment if you want to know what something is.

Fifth Drawer
Hexagon glitter, half pearls, all different shapes of rhinestones, nail stickers, nail tape.
All items in this drawer found on eBay and for less than $4 each. (Most were under $2!)

Sixth Drawer
Backups, tape, Konad plate, test nail wheels, material, pan for mixing/dotting.

My polish collection! I'm not going to go in depth with it in this post but feel free to let me know if you would like to see it in the comments! :)

Well folks, that was my morning/early afternoon. I worked tonight and am exhausted, but very pleased. I like how everything to do with my nails are either on my polish shelf or in/on my Melmer's. It's nice to have it all together. One day I will have my own room for my polish and cosmetics (which is a whole other obsession, haha) but for now this definitely satisfies my need for an organized space.

How do you store your polishes? I would love to see your set up! Comment below and let me know or do your own post.

Thanks for reading.