Category Archives: Quick Look

Essie Spring 2017 Collection Swatches & Review

Essie Spring 2017 Collection Swatches Review

Spring for a new nail polish!

While the mercury drops and the snow accumulates here in Toronto, how does this Canadian choose to warm up? Not with a scarf, a homemade knitted hat, or cozy cashmere gloves, but with nail polish, of course! That’s beauty blogger logic for ya. 😉

Launching worldwide on February 21, 2017, the Essie Spring 2017 Collection may help you forget the cold and make you think months ahead.

The Essie Spring 2017 Collection landed at Swatch And Learn headquarters yesterday, and the moment I locked eyes with each of the six shades, it began an undeniable spring fling!

  • On the Roadie is a green that makes my heart race towards the checkered flags and secure first place.
  • Blue goes all the way with All the Wave, a royal indigo that’s a crowning glory.
  • Designated DJ will take you for a spin or a midnight stroll on the wild side.
  • Dive into the deep end of the pink spectrum with B’aha Moment!, and leave nails exclaiming, “Eureka!”
  • No pardons or apologies are necessary with a stunning soft coral mango shade like Excuse Me, Sur!
  • Finally, we have the sixth shade in the collection, Backseat Besties, which will be a frontrunner for those who are BFFs with pink.

Overall, the collection offers a variety of colours that will appease those who enjoy statement nails and delicate manicures alike.

I used two coats of colour for all of my swatches (except for Excuse Me, Sur and Backseat Besties, where I used three coats).

The two coaters provided excellent, full opacity with a creamy formula that was easy to apply. The three coaters had a slightly milky consistency, so to cover up streakiness, that third coat was needed.

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year 2017

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing you an exciting 2017 that’s full of love, adventures, and great memories!

Remember, it’s not always what the world holds for you, but it’s what you bring to it.

Let’s make every moment count with a fresh start to a new year that will challenge us to achieve personal goals and be our strongest and best! 🙂

Nail Polishes Shown:

Also, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to each and every single one of you who participated in my Zoya Enchanted Collection worldwide giveaway! 🙂 It ended on December 31, 2016. As stated in the blog post with the giveaway details, I will be announcing the three Zoya Enchanted Collection winners on January 2 or January 3, 2017. Stay tuned, and good luck, everyone!

Disclosure: This post contains press samples provided by PR.

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Wearing Zoya Mary to see the Nutcracker

Zoya Mary The Nutcracker National Ballet of Canada

I’m popping in briefly to say hi, and that I hope that your holiday was peaceful and full of happiness with loved ones!

May the New Year bring you new challenges that will propel you to fulfill your dreams! 🙂

Before Christmas, I went to see The Nutcracker, which was one of my favourite childhood Christmas stories that I still hold near and dear to my heart today. Imagine how happy I was to finally see the live ballet performance for the first time this year!

To add the icing on top of the cake, the seats were amazing, as I could see every minute detail on the costumes and the elaborate sets very clearly. It was such a treat to be close to the stage and to witness the magic unfolding in front of me.

It was held at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, and it featured many talented dancers. It came as no surprise that every seat was filled!

This was one of the items that I can now cross off my bucket list. 🙂

On my nails, I wore Zoya Mary, which is one of the shades in the new Naturel 3 Collection. (Check out my review and swatches of the collection that I posted earlier, if you missed it.)

Also, I’d like to remind you that on the days when I don’t blog on here, stop by my Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media because I usually post swatches and more on there on a daily or almost-daily basis.

P.S. My worldwide giveaway is still going on. You have until December 31, 2016 to enter for your chance to win the Zoya Enchanted Collection! There will be three winners. See that post for all the details.

Disclosure: Zoya Mary is a press sample provided by PR.

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Pretty Serious Museum of Naileontology Collection (3 New Shades)

Pretty Serious Museum of Naileontology Collection 2016 Swatches Twitter

I hope that you all are having a wonderful Christmas Eve! 🙂

A dynamic trio has been added to the Pretty Serious Museum of Naileontology Collection for 2016, and they are available on the Pretty Serious website:

  • Mad Skull of Cloverton – Pink-green pearly duochrome
  • Chariots of the Red Sea – Red glitter jelly
  • Disc of the Heavens – Green glitter jelly

Mad Skull of Cloverton has a delicate sensibility with an air of elegance, like a modest string of pearls worn with a Little Black Dress. The soft pink dominates the nail polish, and it’s accented with a flash of angelic green.

The formula of Mad Skull of Cloverton was on the sheer side, but it builds up opacity quickly with a second coat. I opted to use three coats to further bring out the intensity of the pretty duochrome.

Chariots of the Red Sea offers depth because the glitter is suspended in a jelly base, which allows the sparkle to peek through, rather than get covered up and look flat. Two coats is all you’ll need for this beauty to fully cover the nail.

Disc of the Heavens has subtle glitter in a jelly base that, when worn with two coats (as I did here), looks more like a crelly (creme-jelly hybrid). It has a milky look to it.

All Pretty Serious nail polish are formulated without Toluene, DBP, Formaldehyde, and Formaldehyde Resin. Also, you’ll be happy to hear that they are vegan and cruelty-free.

My favourite of the trio? While I have a soft spot for green nail polish, the one that caught my attention the most was Mad Skull of Cloverton because of the duochrome shift!

P.S. Have you entered my worldwide giveaway? Enter by December 31, 2016 for your chance to win the Zoya Enchanted Collection! (3 winners! Be sure to read all the details in the giveaway’s blog post.)

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Pretty Serious Ghosts of Christmas Past Collection Swatches & Review

Pretty Serious Ghosts of Christmas Past Collection Swatches Review

With Christmas just an ole Saint Nick wink away, I thought that I’d share with you swatches of the festive Pretty Serious Ghosts of Christmas Past Collection that recently arrived in my mailbox! (You can find the collection available to purchase on the Pretty Serious website.)

While it’s a holiday collection, these colours can be worn any time of year, so don’t keep them in the dark corners of your Helmer. They want to be taken out for a night on the town. Who wouldn’t?

My favourite, while difficult to choose among so many beauties, is Enchanted Evergreen (the dark green) because my affinity for green nail polish knows no bounds. Gimme, gimme, gimme! 😉 If you’re a green lover, I’m sure you’ll love it, too, because it’s richly pigmented, and it has darkness and depth without looking like a black polish.

Hmm…but Peace on Earth is tied for first place. It’s an ethereal seafoam green that has delicate flashes of pink. These flashes remind me a lot of the inside of some pearlescent seashells. Magical and fairy-esque don’t even begin to describe its appearance.

You can never go wrong with a classic holiday red like Velvet Bow (a rock-and-roll metallic) or Verry Merry Berry (a super shiny creme).

Make nails sing a Christmas melody with silver (Fairy Lights) and gold (Tarnished Tinsel).

Then, there are the two top coats that can completely transform your existing manicure, taking it from strolling down the sidewalk to modelling on Mars (in a good way)! Hehe, oh the places that my mind sometimes goes. 😉

Jack Frost doesn’t nip at my nose. Instead, this iridescent glitter top coat makes my heart race like Usain Bolt! I tried it over Enchanting Evergreen, and it created a blue galactic wonder on my nails! (If you like my swatch of it, you will love it even more in person.)

Mojito is the other top coat. It has fine green shimmer, so adding it to any manicure will bring out its inner ribbit. 🙂

If some of you aren’t already familiar with Pretty Serious nail polishes, they’re cruelty-free and vegan. They also don’t contain Toluene, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, or DBP.

P.S. There’s still time to enter my Zoya Enchanted Collection worldwide giveaway, but hurry – it ends December 31! (Remember, there will be three winners!)

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Zoya Naturel 3 Collection Swatches & Review

Zoya Naturel 3 Collection Swatches Review

A few days ago, the Zoya Naturel 3 Collection launched on Zoya’s official website, and it includes six colours that are work-appropriate and that will flatter different skin tones. (As a refresher, check out the official press release that I published on here earlier.)

While I am the first one to pounce on a bold, vibrant nail colour, I can appreciate muted tones that offer understated elegance.

For formal occasions or in conservative settings, it’s not always appropriate to wear a manicure that screams louder than a neon-plaid jumpsuit. Those times call for wear-anytime colours. The Zoya Naturel 3 Collection fits the bill!

As you know, Zoya nail polishes are often given women’s names. I’m thrilled to see that Zoya has finally released a nail polish called Mary! 😉 It’s described as a ‘raisin,’ which is accurate because it’s a soft brown with a tinge of purple mixed in. I love how it’s slightly different than your run-of-the-mill gingerbread brown.

Zoya’s creme nail polishes are always on point with smooth, pigmented formulas that are consistent and reliable. The ones in the Zoya Naturel 3 Collection live up to my expectations because they were a dream to apply, and I only needed to use two coats to achieve full opacity.

The formula is also very forgiving, in that it doesn’t dry too fast, so you have some time to paint over your nail several times to get the look and coverage you want. No hiccups here! Plus because they’re cremes, they were easy peasy to remove.

They also are shiny, even without a top coat. (All of my swatches in this post are shown without a base or top coat, and you can see how glassy the nail polishes are!)

My favourites? Aside from being biased and having a soft spot for the one named Mary (hehe), Debbie and Jill are my next choices.

Which ones are you gravitating toward?

P.S. If you haven’t already, remember to enter my Zoya Enchanted Collection worldwide giveaway by December 31st! (There will be three winners. Check that blog post for all the details. Good luck in the draw!)

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Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham: Bringing You Closer to Stars Hollow

Lauren Graham Talking as Fast as I Can Gilmore Girls

Excited to get my hands on Lauren Graham‘s new book, Talking as Fast as I Can!

I’m a huge Gilmore Girls fan, and my all-time favourite characters are Lorelai, Kirk, Emily, and Jess. Who are yours?

So far, I’ve watched 3 out of 4 of the new reboot Netflix episodes in the A Year in the Life series. Trying to hold off on that last episode because I don’t want it to end! 🙂

Any fellow Gilmore Girls fans out there?

(On my nails: Revelry Red and Stellarbration from the CND Creative Play Celebration Collection. Click the link to see my swatches of all eight shades in the collection!)

P.S. Remember, you still have until December 31, 2016 to enter my worldwide giveaway for your chance to win the Zoya Enchanted Collection! There will be three winners! See that blog post for all the details.

Disclosure: This post contains nail-polish press samples from PR.

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