Category Archives: Product Reviews

China Glaze Escaping Reality Swatches & Review

China Glaze Escaping Reality Swatches & Review When the weather is gloomy or you’re feeling down, nothing perks you right up like a bright and playful nail polish.

China Glaze Escaping Reality fits the bill perfectly.

It’s a lovely shade that’s bold. I enjoy saturated colours like this because they pack a punch. And, in this case, it’s a bubblegum punch. How girly!

Shh…I think I’m beginning to like pink more. For the longest time, I’ve blogged about how I find light pinks difficult to sport, and that’s why I didn’t wear them often. However, I set a personal goal to try more pinks in general. To my surprise, I found a lot that I liked and would wear again. (But green still has my heart! No case of the Wandering Eye here. I’m committed to my true love.)

And the name of this polish speaks to me since I often have my head in the clouds. Being a Pisces, I guess it should come as no surprise…

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OPI Vant to Bite My Neck? Swatches & Review

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Vant to Bite My Neck Swatches & Review OPI Vant to Bite My Neck? is a dark purple from the Euro Centrale Spring/Summer Collection coming out in February 2013.

If you’ve followed Swatch And Learn for a little while, you may have noticed that I don’t maintain a nail length. I sport all different lengths from little nubs like in today’s post to longer nails. (It’s not because I’m crazy. Well, okay, maybe just a smidgeon. I just appreciate diversity, and perhaps I’m a little indecisive. Maybe…I haven’t decided! Haha, kidding! I did that on purpose.)

I trimmed my nails super short quite a few days ago, but you’re just seeing it recently because there’s a bit of a lag between the manicure I wear and when it gets published on here. (You’ll probably notice that more when one day my nails are really short and then the next day, they’re much longer. Sometimes I upload manicures out of order. I swear I haven’t been drinking the werewolf’s Kool-Aid…even though it’s supposedly delicious!) 😉

The first polish I reached for after trimming my nails was Vant to Bite My Neck? because I just love how chic dark shades look on short nails.

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Nail Art: Blue Flocked Nails (Plus My Experience & Application Tips)

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Blue Flocked Nails Nail Art Swatches Don’t rub your eyes. Yes, my nails in today’s post are indeed fuzzy! These are Blue Flocked Nails that made me feel like I was the Cookie Monster…or Fuzzy Wuzzy (the bear)!

You saw me try this look most recently on a guy for fun, except I used pink flocking powder in that case.

To achieve this extreme nail art, I used blue flocking powder and secured it to my natural nails with a regular (and beautiful) nail polish (Orly Royal Navy).

I wore this as a full manicure and went about my normal routine to test it out.

It’s definitely not a practical manicure. This is best suited for a special event like Hallowe’en when you need something ‘out there’ and don’t require it to last as long as nail polish. When worn for such an occasion, I think it’s a really cool novelty!

After ‘surviving’ a full day of wearing this, I’m really excited to share my experience with you. This was like nothing I’ve ever tried before, and I’ve never heard many people talk about it, either.

Come see more swatches of this fuzzy manicure, and allow me to tell you all about what it was like to wear flocked nails!

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Cult Nails Coveted Swatches & Review

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Cult-Nails-Coveted-Swatches-Review Cult Nails Coveted from the Behind Closed Doors Collection is a deep, sexy green lacquer that is right up my alley.

Green is a ‘comfort polish’ for me. It very rarely lets me down. ‘Ole Reliable’.

And my fondness for green is no secret. 🙂 My good friend, Marta, from ChitChatNails gave me this bottle as a gift! Imagine my excitement when I learned it was from the newest collection! (Thanks, Marta!)

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Nail Art: Flocked Manicure & Caviar Manicure…on a MAN!

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Caviar Nails Flocked Nails on a Man There have been two extreme nail trends that I’ve wanted to try, but found them very intimidating: the Flocked Manicure and the Caviar Manicure.

Flocked nails have a crazy monster-fur texture. It’s almost like having turf on your nails. (If you use grass-green flocking powder, you could totally do some really fun golf nail art! The sport is a snooze to me, but I could get down with a nail design.)

And, I’m pretty sure that by now, every nailphile knows about Caviar nails. It consists of tiny little beads that completely cover your nails.

So, since I was a General Tao chicken *bawk bawk bawk*, what did I do? I turned one of my wild stallion male friends into a guinea pig, of course! 😉

You may recognize his thumb. Yup, he’s the same dude who I did freehand sheep nail art on in a previous blog post.

He went from a firm “No!” to an “Okay, but I want you to choose which colours to use!” within literally a minute of my convincing, pleading, and sticking out of my lower lip for maximum pouting power. Haha! (This is the only time I resort to such infantile tactics. It’s probably also the only time that they’d work. Plus my friend doesn’t take himself too seriously. The dude’s cool like that.)

My friend’s bravery encouraged me to try the flocked manicure on myself. When I do, I’ll share swatches of it on here as well as a detailed review plus application tips in a separate post. Expect that soon-ish. (I won’t be sporting a caviar manicure, though.)

Edit: I ended up trying a flocked manicure. Click here to see my blue flocked nails!

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Nail Art: Red Fiend Nails

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Red Fiend Nails Nail Art Swatches Today’s Red Fiend Nails feature China Glaze Bend Over Backwards (red), Whirled Away (black and white), and Get Carried Away (black, silver, and red), all of which are from the incredible new Cirque du Soleil Collection.

You may know that red isn’t my favourite nail colour (although I sometimes crave it), but when it’s combined with black and white, I’m crazy about it!

I was inspired by the artistry, fun costumes, and unpredictability of the Cirque du Soleil shows when I designed this simple look. (I’ve never been to their live show, but I’ve seen some of their specials on TV. Brilliance can’t even begin to describe the talent in that production!)

The Cirque du Soleil polishes in this post were lent to me by the same friend I mentioned in the previous two posts. (She’s saving me a lot of money right now, haha, but I do plan on buying a few bottles to add to my collection! Can’t be a complete polish mooch, right?) 😉

This design includes Bend Over Backwards (red), Whirled Away (black and white), and Get Carried Away (black, silver, and red).

Out of the nail-art designs I’ve done so far with the Cirque du Soleil shades, I think this is my favourite because it’s the most cohesive.

Also, a lot of people accent the ring finger, but I chose to accent the middle finger with black. Thought it was appropriate. 😉

P.S. At the end of this post, I’ll provide mini reviews for each Cirque du Soleil polish.

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Nail Art: Blue Fiend Nails

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Blue Fiend Nails Nail Art My friend was nice enough to lend me these blues from the China Glaze Cirque du Soleil Collection: Water You Waiting For and Hanging in the Balance!

Just like with my Green Fiend Nails, I decided to wear more than one shade as my manicure for these Blue Fiend Nails so that I could return her precious bottles sooner.

The bonus? It was easier to remove when you have glitter on just two fingers.

In this post, not only will I share some more photos of this design, but I’ll also give quick mini reviews on both polishes in case you’re curious if they’re must-haves or not.

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