Category Archives: Nail Polish Swatches & Reviews

China Glaze Phat Santa Swatches & Review

China Glaze Phat Santa Swatches & Review A poor red polish has to put in a lot of effort to keep my attention because I have a bad case of Wandering Eyes – I just love playing the colour field! 😉 And if a swampy-green looker passes by, you can bet that I’ll give it a double-take!

But when China Glaze Phat Santa flosses its bottle and shows me what a smooth operator its formula is, I become putty.

This is one of the best simple, classic, and festive red jelly polishes on the market. And you know me – I rarely rave about a red. But this is like liquid euphoria.

Every time I’ve worn this, I seriously swoon. It’s so glossy and vibrant!

If you aren’t looking for lots of bells and whistles and just want a clean, sleek red, this is a top contender to land that spot in your heart this Christmas. Continue reading →

Nail Art Tutorial: Snowflake Nails

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Sunlight Snowflake Nails Nail Art Tutorial & Swatches Here are the Snowflake Nails I’ve been wearing for quite some time. Actually, I procrastinated quite a bit when it came to snapping photos, so all these photos you see are of my 4-day-old manicure.

Later in this post, I show you how to recreate it. This is one of the easiest looks that I’ve ever done, and even if you have a shaky hand like I do, it’ll turn out great. Precision isn’t required for this design! 🙂

*Plays trumpet* All the pictures (except the step-by-step tutorial photos) were taken with my new camera! *Jumps up and down*

They were the result of my first 10 minutes fiddling around with the Canon EOS Rebel T3i DSLR camera. Even though it was my first time using a Canon camera and my first time using a DSLR, I found it to be extremely user-friendly.

I still have to experiment with it some more because there are so many cool settings I must try out so I can get more creative. For now, though, I was pleased with how it performed…especially in dim natural light (which was my true test because my old Sony Cyber-shot always produced grainy photos in that setting). Also, shades of blue like this gave my old camera a really hard time. Seemed like it ain’t no thang for the Canon! Continue reading →

Cult Nails Hypnotize Me Layered Over Cult Nails Iconic Swatches & Review

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Natural Light Cult Nails Hypnotize Me Swatch & Review Cult Nails Iconic Swatch & Review Sometimes you can come up with unique manicures just by adding glitter on top. It dawned on me that I don’t layer polish as often as I would like.

So, I took a peek into my Helmer searching specifically for two polishes that I’ve never worn before and that I thought would look cool paired together.

Cult Nails Hypnotize Me (teal-blue glitter) and Cult Nails Iconic (red flakie) kept looking up at me like adorable puppies that you can’t ignore. Forget puppy eyes. Nail-polish eyes get me every time! 😉 (Okay, so they don’t actually have eyes, but work with me here…)

In this post, I’ll mainly show you photos of this layering combination. Yes, there’ll be a mini review of each polish, but they won’t be full reviews because I prefer to save that for posts dedicated exclusively for each colour.

If I’m able to snap photos of these polishes when I wear them separately later, I’ll provide thorough reviews of them at that time. Continue reading →

Nubar Raspberry Truffle Swatches & Review

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Sunlight Raspberry Truffle Nubar Swatch & Review Any nailphiles out there who are also chocoholics? Nubar Raspberry Truffle is for you! 😉

I like small portions of chocolate. If I eat a lot, I just get tired of the flavour. Maybe that’s odd. I definitely know more people who can really gobble up large amounts of the yummy treat.

One of my ex-boyfriends is a chocolate fiend. You know how dense and rich truffles are? Well, this guy made homemade truffles…the size of hamburgers! It was really gross…haha! (I had to drink an entire glass of water after eating just one mouthful of the intensely chocolatey one he made me.)

Lately, I’ve been feeling golds and browns more. Raspberry Truffle was one that I wanted to try ever since I bought it a year or so ago, but just didn’t get around to it because green polishes were beckoning to me. (I know that hearing voices isn’t normal. 😉 But what if they come from nail polish? Isn’t that better?)

Raspberry Truffle is an interesting brown – you have to check it out in different lighting to truly appreciate it. Continue reading →

OPI DS Glamour Swatches & Review

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Flash OPI DS Glamour Swatches & Review Think about a blue that first comes to mind when someone says ‘denim’. Now, imagine that it’s holographic. You’ve got OPI DS Glamour – it’s an oldie, but a goodie!

I really miss these kind of holographic colours that used to be in the OPI DS (Designer Series) collection. They were really outstanding in every way.

Like all OPI DS polishes, they cost more than your typical bottle of OPI. Thankfully, when I first got into nail polish, this was really easy to find for even less than the retail price of a regular OPI bottle, so it didn’t hurt my wallet.

There are still new colours added to the Designer Series collection, but I think they pale in comparison to the beauties from just a few years ago. I wonder if it’s because of a pigment shortage or a price increase for it.

If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on it without paying a small fortune, I urge you to buy it. This is a very special polish! Continue reading →

China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses Swatches & Review

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China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses Swatches & Review So…it’s the first day of December. How did time go by so quickly? It’s crazy how it’ll be Christmas soon.

To pay tribute to the changing seasons and fun holiday traditions, I decided to share China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses with you! It was part of the China Glaze ‘Tis the Season 2010 Collection.

I’ve always thought that hanging mistletoe at the top of a doorway was a very cute idea, even though I’ve never actually done it myself. Have you?

Hehe, when I was a teenager, and saw that my friend’s parents hung mistletoe, I kept hoping that they’d invite my crush over.

I had the whole thing planned out – I’d slyly inch him closer and closer to the mistletoe until it was too late. 😛 Needless to say, that never happened. However, I did end up getting my first kiss…just not under the mistletoe and it wasn’t a set-up. 😉

Do you have any fun mistletoe moments to share? I’d love to hear them because I’m a sucker for romantic stories…not the kind in cheesy novels with Fabio-type men, but the real-life variety (and still without Fabio – sorry, I’m not a fan)! Continue reading →

OPI Grape…Set…Match Swatches & Review

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Sunlight OPI Grape Set Match Swatches & Review Some exciting news! A couple of days ago, I purchased a DSLR camera (my first one ever). All this time, I’ve been using a really ancient Sony Cyber-shot DSC W200 point-and-shoot camera, so it’s a huge upgrade. 🙂 The Sony was good, but it’s been dying on me a lot lately.

I’ll be playing around with the new toy for a couple of weeks or so before I introduce photos I take with it on here.

Hopefully you’ll all notice a big quality increase when I make the switch. I’m mostly curious about how well it works in dim light, since my current camera can’t handle it. (When I use the DSLR on the first post, I’ll announce it.)

Today I have for you OPI Grape…Set…Match, which is part of the OPI Grand Slam England Duo Set. Continue reading →

Swatch And Learn

Separating beauties from beasts