Sparkled Beauty

As you might have read from the Introduction post, I started my love with makeup just less than a year ago, very late in life unfortunately. It just had never been an interest to me until the stage of my life where I started thinking what I had done to myself. It was just like a lightbulb moment that opened my eyes. I started with eye makeup and was hooked. And as it was getting good, I fell for another beauty aspect of lie - nail polish!!!

It all started with a sale, haha... Lawton all of a sudden had 50% sale on NYC polish - I guess they tried to replace the old label (NYC Long-Wearing Nail Enamel) with the new ((In a New York Color Minute Quick Dry Nail Polish).
It wasn't even advertised on their flyer, so I was so surprised finding out about it during my "regular" makeup isle walk. I grabbed almost all the colours I thought would work for me (14, to be exact) at CAD.89 each. I figured it wouldn't be a big loss if they didn't work for me (or I can return the ones I haven't used). The verdict: they were 50/50. Some shades worked really well (opaque after 2 coats, reasonable wear and tear) like "Mod Mauve" - the middle bottle on first row, and "Starry Silver Glitter" next to it. Some needed 3 coats to show up, mostly the pastel ones. But for such a low price, they are fun to play with. As they are rarely available anymore, I wouldn't bother to list the shades.

With this good start, I started to look around for polish at the drugstores. Again, I have had more luck with the clearance section at Lawton. I found these Revlon Glimmer Gloss bottles at CAD1.40 each.
Second row, from L-R: Banana Blaze, Blueberry Burst, Pina Colada Pop, and Cherry Fizz. They were pretty sheer, as the purpose was to add a shimmery/fine glittery look on top of another polish. First time using one of these, I applied it like any other polish. I didn't notice any difference on my nails and was gonna return them. I tried it one more time after reading the instruction "Shake gently and apply 2 coats". So I did, and liked how it showed up. Nothing extreme, just a fine shimmery look, just like I want it. I think I would keep all 4 shades now. The other 4 Revlon polishes were from Superstore (a grocery store with a reasonable cosmetic section) and Walmart, about CAD2.50 each (on sale, of course). First row, from L-R: Silver Screen (it looks more silver IRL, not blue), Gold Get'em (the gold shimmer didn't show up in the pic very well), Iced Spice, and Blackberry.

Also from Revlon, introducing the famous scented polish line. About 2 weeks ago, Lawton had Revlon polishes on sale for half price. I was asking myself whether they had the scented polishes in yet (as the line was still pretty new in Canada, I haven't seen it around), and if they did, whether they included it in the sale.
And the answer was yes for both questions. Awesomeness!!! The first Lawton I went to was in the mall and stock was quite minimal, so I went to another one to spot all 8 shades of the line. In the picture, from L-R: Raspberry Rapture, Not So Blue-berry, Mad About Mango, Pretty in Papaya, Coconut Crush, Passionate Fruit, Sublime Strawberry, and Mon Cherry. These were normally on for CAD$5.50, so I got them for CAD2.75 each, except for Coconut Crush (CAD1.65), no idea why but I wouldn't complain. I was so happy to find them all and even got some extras for my sister and friends. I haven't tried any of them on, as they are "a bit" too bright for work, but I'm anxious to put one on for the weekend, when I have some time.

I was very excited to own a few bottles from this next brand - Zoya. First, I have not seen Zoya anywhere around here. I heard there are some salons that have them, but I never saw one that does.
Zoya.com does not ship internationally, so I was out of luck. Second, this brand is 100% 3-free - Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde and Toluene. As I sometimes share my polishes with my little Squirt, I would opt for safe ones when I can. I saw a post on Kijiji about a month ago, a lady closing her nail business and offered what she had left in stock for CAD4 a bottle. I came to check out the shades. she only had red-ish shades, so I only grabbed 4. From L-R: Elise, Pru, Chloe, and Brooke. Application is a breeze with these cuties. Love them! Zoya is running their Nail Polish Exchange where people could send in their (used/unused) polishes to exchange for Zoya bottles at $3 each (shipping & handling). Lots of polish addicts took advantage of this little program. Too bad, it is not available outside US.

This is another favorite brand of mine, China Glaze. Beginning of April, Sally came to our city, for the first time. I was so excited. Also during the month of April, they have Buy 2 get 1 free all nail polish brands. I certainly took advantage of the sale, plus a coupon for $5 off $25 purchase.
Here's the damage. If they had later collections in stock (starting from Summer Days), the number would be a lot higher than 21.
First row, from L-R: Fairy Dust, Golden Enchantment, Ruby Pumps, Lubu Heels, Chiaroscuro, and In Awe of Amber.
Second row, from L-R: Awakening, Solar Power, Blue Sparrow, Strawberry Fields, Raspberry Festival, Cherry Pie, and Exceptionally Gifted
Third row, from L-R: Avalanche, Summer Rain, Vertical Rush, For Audrey, Cherish, Poetic, Turned Up Turquoise, and Base coat.

The rest of my stash, from multiple brands with different sales.
First row: Claire's Go Green (CAD!), Icing Let's Tango and Awkward (CAD2 each), Seche Vite top coat(CAD6.89), Sally Hansen's Nail Quencher base coat (CAD4), Cover Girl's Hannah Montana polish in Pink Twinkle (this one is for Squirt, CAD2.15)
Second row: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lightening (CAD4), L'Oreal Dozen Red Roses (CAD1.50), Rimmel Camouflace (CAD3.14), Rimmel Dazzle and Pearly White (on clearance for CAD.05 each. I know, 5 cents!!!), Sally Hansen Beet Red (clearance for CAD.25), and Sally Hansen Vintage Frost (CAD2).

I believe I have enough polishes to play around with for a long time, still that doesn't stop me from hunting for more. I read in some polish blogs that people could find some great cheap polishes at the dollar stores, but here where I live, I couldn't find any. The hunt goes on, and that's the fun of it.

It has been grey, wet and cold out for the last few days. Hope it is sunny where you live. Thanks for stopping by.