Sparkled Beauty

The last shade in Essie Cashmere Matte 2015 collection is Just Stitched, a warm pearly pink.

Just Stitched is probably the easiest to wear among the 3 light shades in the collection - All Eyes on Nudes is nude, Wrap Me Up is a very soft pink that it looks off white.

Can't deny that the semi matte finish and the subtle green sheen make this colour a pink that I want to wear.

Below, on the left, is the close up bottle shot where you can see more of that green shimmers.

On the right is Just Stitched with a top coat and an accent of Finger Paints Hollywood Decadence from the Film Noir Fall collection (Fall 2014). I figured milky matte blue, pink and gold glitters would bring Just Stitched to the next level.

Have you checked out the Cashmere Matte collection?

Now that the little meltdown I told you about yesterday when Lunar New Year hit had a chance to calm down, let things go back to normal, shall we? :)

The fifth colour I have to show you from Essie Cashmere Matte 2015 collection is Spun in Luxe, a matte black with blue shimmers.

This is just one coat of Spun in Luxe, without a top coat. I appreciate the opacity and pigmentation of the matte black base.

Those amazing shimmers you see in the bottle, however, only slightly transfer to the nails, not the same intensity unfortunately.

Mind you, at the right angle, the blue shimmers are beautiful and I still pretty enjoy Spun in Luxe, but that sheen is not as strong as that in Comfy in Cashmere and Coat Couture, my two favorite shades in the collection.

Since it is a matte black, my favorite way to wear Spun in Luxe is, you guess it, as a base for a glass fleck/ flakie or duochrome polish. See an example below :)

The collection is out now, so track it down to grab a bottle (or a few). You will not regret it!

Shout out to OPI Girl Color, another "mysterious" OPI shades I found at Dollarama.

Applied on top of Spun in Luxe, Girl Color shows off its strong blue and green shimmers. A good pairing right? I layered it on a little thicker on the middle finger to enhance the milky pinky beige base too.

And if you wonder why Girl Color is mysterious, follow the link above to read more. It is the rebottled version of Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love from the Kardashian Kolors collection (Holiday 2011).

Have a good Thursday guys. We have more snow coming lol..

Continue on with Marsala colour theme (earthy wine red and about), it is the nails' turn.

I also had the work cut out for me this time, Essie offered two of the shades that fit the colour trend.

Alternating on my nails are Essie In Stitches (also bottle colour in the last picture) and Essie Angora Cardi, (bottle shade in the first two shots), 2 coats each.

In Stitches by itself looks like it could fit in the Marsala colour family, but next to Angora Cardi, not really :) In Stitches is more red tone while Angora Cardi has more purple.

Angora Cardi suits my skin tone better but In Stitches would look great on fair skinned ladies.

What other Marsala polishes you have tried so far this year?

We are continuing on with the next 2 shades from the Essie Cashmere Matte 2015 collection today.

I know your eyes are drawn to Coat Couture, described as a greige with purple/ green shimmers.

I actually looked up greige to learn that it's a beige with added black (and taupe is a red-based beige with added green). So ultimately, Coat Couture is related to the second colour I wore here - All Eyes on Nudes, a neutral leaning toward nude pink.

If it's up to me, I'll say Coat Couture is a charcoal grey with a purple tint and strong green shimmers :) Easy to understand why it rivals my other favorite shade in the collection - Comfy in Cashmere.

I thought a bottle shot of All Eyes on Nudes is necessary as it looks more pink (hence a little nicer) on the nails than in the bottle.

Still, it is pretty much my skin tone colour and gives me "mannequin hands". I will not wear a full mani with it alone. On the bright side, it is great for negative-space nail art or as an opaque neutral base when needed.

Important to note: Wear time on these two shades is the same with the first two I linked above.

Another note: Target Canada :( Just heart breaking!

It was a surprise seeing Essie Cashmere Matte 2015 collection in the mail box when I came back from vacation.

I like the idea of this collection very much - satin matte texture with a subtle micro-iridescent finish, with great pigmentation. They are almost all one coaters.

Featuring here is Comfy in Cashmere, described as a mauve with deep velvet undertones. Look at that aqua glow in the bottle and quite visible on the nails too.

The colour combination between the taupe/ mauve base and that glowy accent works very well in this case, plus the satin matte finish helps the polish look more alive, not flat. Granted, Comfy in Cashmere is my favorite colour in the collection.

The accent nail is Wrap Me Up, a soft pink also from the collection that appeared more like a beige on me.

I used one coat of Comfy Cashmere with no issues, but Wrap Me Up took an extra light coat to cover some bald spots that happened when I brushed over the already applied polish. So make sure you have enough polish on the brush for one perfect coat.

Wear time is the only thing that took me back from this collection. I did not want to apply a top coat to ruin the beautiful finish, so this mani did not get pass one day wear on me. The colours came off not just at the tips but randomly in the middle of the nails :(

Essie Cashmere Matte collection is out this month.

There is a makeup sale going on this week at Superstore that I missed in the Weekly flyer post (my flyer was missing a few pages, bummer). I include the list below, with stuff I bought, please have a read.

Maybelline:
- Color Sensational/ Color Sensational Vivid lipsticks: CAD6.97 (save $2) - I got Fuchsia Flash, Vivid Rose and Hot Plum (pictured).
I have been wanting to get these Vivids for a while now, couldn't pass up the deal. Was hard to walk out with just three, I tell you
- SuperStay 24hr 2-step lip colours: CAD7.97 (save $2)
- Volume Express/ the Rocket mascaras: CAD6.97
- Dream Matte/ Liquid Mousse foundations: CAD9.97 (save $2.50).

I am holding out for the Maybelline Whisper lipsticks that is coming out very soon. Do give me a shout if you spot them in store (in Canada).

Cover Girl:
- Lip Perfection lipsticks/ Lip Perfection Jumbo gloss balms: CAD6.97 (save $1.50)
I got a lipstick in Embrace (pictured), seems to be the darkest shade on the purple side that the line has
- Outlast lip colours: CAD6.97 (save $3)
- Last Blast/ Clump Crusher mascaras: CAD6.97 (save $2) - I got one in Very Black (water resistant version, pictured)
- Clean makeup: CAD5.97 (save $2).

Happened to have a few Cover Girl $2 off coupons from Brandsaver to use with this sale, I was very happy.

L'Oreal:
- Colour Riche lip colours: CAD7.97 (save $2)
- Voluminous 24h Power/ Voluminous Million Lashes mascaras: CAD7.97 (save $1)
- Magic Skin Beautifier BB cream: CAD12.97 (save $3)
- Studio Secret Perfecting base primer: CAD11.97 (save $4).

Revlon:
- Super Lustrous lip colours/ ColorStay eyeliners: CAD5.97 (save $3)
- Brilliant Strength/ ColorStay nail polish: CAD4.97 (save $1.50).

Almay:
- Smart Shade Perfect & Correct primer: CAD12.97 (save $3)
- Intense-i Bold shadows: CAD7.97 (save $1.50).

Selected Essie nail polish are CAD7.97 (save $2). I didn't get any new shades, but found some on clearance for cheap (reduced to $4.99, before the 50% off pink stickers):

- All Tied Up (Bikini So Teeny summer collection)
- Don't Sweater It (Stylenomics fall collection), and
- Power Clutch (Brand New Bag collection - Fall 2011).

I haven't been getting any Essie lately, might go back for more. I don't really care what collections they are.

Sally Hansen Real nail polish strips (selected) are CAD7.97 this week too, if you need any.

So head on to your Superstore/ Loblaws and check out the cosmetic section before the flyer changes.

First shade to try from my nail polish haul posted yesterday: Essie Pretty Edgy, glitterized and mattified.

It's kinda hard to believe I hadn't owned this shade yet, quite a unique green now that I see it on the nails. And it's a pretty good cream, opaque in one thich coat or two thinner coats.

I wore this mani over the (rainy) weekend, did catch a few precious moments when it cleared up to snap this pic. With natural light, no sun, no flash, the colour is pretty accurate and the glitters show up better.

This one is with flash, to show you the matte shine. Does it sound like an oxymoron? Hear me out first.

To get this look, I added two coats of Nicole by OPI Bring on the Tinsel as a glitter top coat, then Claire's matte top coat on top. I always admire matte glitter looks on nail blogs but don't do it often enough on here. It turned out pretty awesome this way.

Bring on the Tinsel has green, red/ fuchsia and silver fine glitters in a clear base, a pretty good pairing colour to Pretty Edgy.

Bottle shot to show you the quite complex glitter combination. I appreciate the unique size of glitters in this case, taking a break from indies' chunky glitter mixes.

Ignore the uneven nail length here. The nail on my middle finger broke off real bad while I was trying on some jeans, and it took forever to grow it out. Having longer nails is not just for show to me, cause the tip of my fingers would hurt if the nails are too short. Can't tell you how mad I was when that nail broke.

Anyway, hope a little green on the blog brightens up your Tuesday. Have a great one!

Hi everyone, this week seems to be so slow, and the weather has been either cold or rainy. I am under the cloud for a while now, it sucks.

On a happier note, I had Essie Demure Vixen on. If you remember, I got it for cheap from a nail supply store in California back in June. I had high expectation for it.

It is very pretty in the bottle, with the purple sheen glowing through the glass. However, that didn't transfer to the nails (see the pic), and my camera can't capture it either.

So I ran to the melmers, looking for a sheer polish in the same colour family, and I found Pure Ice Busted.

Now the purple showed up well, after 2 coats of Busted. It's funny that at this angle, the purple sheen in the bottle shone through very pretty too. If Demure Vixen could do the job by itself, it would be a perfect shade, unless you are after the pure base colour it has.

For next time though, I would only add 1 coat of Busted instead of 2, just to that the purple doesn't overpower the base. Under certain lighting, my nails looked all purple which wasn't the look I wanted.

Here are the close-ups.












On the left is with flash, on the right is indirect natural light. What do you think? I really love this combo, will wear it again.

Thursday night, I had to change my nail colour and remembered that Essie Midnight Cami was requested for a swatch. So here it is :)

When I took the bottle out of my Melmer, I realized that it looked really dark, almost black under my desk light.

Under flash, the blue showed up more vividly, so I'd say it was a dark navy blue instead of black lol. Either way, it is not a work safe colour. Lol, what was I thinking?

It has been a while since I put on an Essie colour, so the brush gave me a bit of a mess around the nails, as you can see. Not a fan of the tiny brush, I couldn't do the 3-stroke technique with this one.

Can't deny it is a lovely colour, and I didn't want to take it off, but Friday was still a work day, so I kinda camouflaged it with China Glaze Golden Enchantment.

Click to see the magic of Golden Enchantment, as it shines multi colours with the light. I'm telling you, it could revive any dull shade of nail polish under the sun. As we are being blessed with so many new wonderful glitter top coats and glittery nail polish, I kinda neglected it, and its cousin Fairy Dust too. Glad I had a chance to use it again.

So how did your weekend go? I did a bit of a hunt for the Revlon Just Add Sparkle glitters, and checked out Walmart's clothing clearance racks. Saturday, my friend and her hubby took us out sailing on their new sail boat, it was so nice and relaxing. It was hot, so a bit of breeze when we got out to the ocean was very nice. And today we all went to the F&F sale at Suzy Shier and Bluenotes, got some nice things. Didn't have the energy to check out Old Navy and GAP Give & Get sale, but I think I shopped enough :)

After the long weekend of glittery nails, I reached for Essie Delicacy for the week.

This is my very bottle of Essie, I was hoping for a pale pink that is work appropriate. It just becomes a little hard to choose colours for work, as I bought too many bottles of bright/ summery colours :-). I'd blame China Glaze and Sally Hansen for that, lol.

Application was good, but 3 coats and it's still sheer. I would doubt that the 4th coat could change that. Probably that's the risk of going for a light colour, but with regular price of CAD8-10/ bottle, I expect a little more from Essie than this.

I know it's not the same coverage for all Essie colours, but it's the first one I tried. I got this one on sale, so it isn't too bad, but I really hope the other one I got would be better. Come on Essie!

It is freezing here today, temperature early in the morning was 2. Frost warning is on for tonight, no fun at all. Oh well, at least we had 2 sunny days for Thanksgiving. Hope you have fun coming back to work/ school :-)

Soo... did you guys have some good buys at Shoppers x20 points event on Saturday? Shoppers was b.u.s.y. on days like this with bonus points and good sales.

I didn't get much.
- Sally Hansen New Lengths Ceramics in Mod Mauve, Seaside and City Lights (CAD1 each - clearance section).

- Benefit "that gal" brightening face primer (CAD35), a completely impulsive buy. I don't own any Benefit product and thought I could always use some brightening and primer in 1.
Would any of you let me know whether it works ok?

- Essie in Delicacy and It's Genius (CAD4 each). Shoppers is probably the only place that sells Essie here, normally around CAD9 a piece, not my price range for polishes. Found these near the cashier of the beauty section, clearance basket. They were all in the nude/ pink/ red/ purple family which sucked, but I managed to pick out 2 wearable shades. Essie at this price? I wouldn't mind!

I'm enjoying the extra day off, long weekends are so nice to have!