Sparkled Beauty

I know it is an old polish but the colour tone suits how the day looks out there and how I feel inside. Also suits the Halloween occasion this week :)

This is Orly Darkest Shadow from the Smoky (Fall 2014) collection.

I have mentioned in the past that Quo by Orly Fall 2014 collection had almost duplicated the whole Orly Smoky collection. Case in point: Quo Dark Emerald (rebottled from Orly Smoked Out) and Prismatic (Orly Brush It On).

Except for 1 shade: Orly Darkest Shadow did not make it cross the border with Quo and was replaced by Quo Blue Shadow, a navy blue with shimmers. I am glad I found Darkest Shadow from the clearance sale at Sally.

Darkest Shadow is described as a black with lots of red and fuchsia shimmers. The shimmers are so strong and shine through that dark base that I sometimes have a hard time calling it a black.

Even better, it only takes one coat to be this dark and glowy. No layering needed. If I were going trick or treating with the kiddo this weekend, Darkest Shadow would be a good candidate for the nails.

Are you going to be the trick-or-treater or the giver that night, or the candy/ chocolate sale hunter the next day? Stay safe!

Have you ever had a polish stealing the spotlight from another polish that you planned to feature in a post? This mani was totally not how I thought it would turn out :)

I started out wanting to try Orly Digital Glitter just by itself. From Orly Surreal Fall 2013 collection, Digital Glitter quite stood out with a bunch of dark looking glitters.

It is deceiving though, as the fuchsia micro glitters and gold glitters totally mask the base colour, which is actually clear. I only realized this when I applied it on my thumb.

Then I had to look for a base, Color Club Pucci-licious was just sitting casually on the counter waiting. It was a gift from a lovely friend in Toronto for Squirt. They spent a day together making nail polish art and baking delicious cookies while I was stuck at a conference. Life isn't fair huh? :)

Back to Pucci-licious. Not to smooth talk my friend, but it is a really nice polish. One coat to opacity, which I didn't expect, and a nice shade of purple with a good balance of blue tone.

With that, Pucci-licious stole the show, not that I have a problem with it!

To be fair, with the glitters in Digital Glitter, it probably looks better on top of a black base, I wouldn't discredit it just yet.

Hope everyone is well rested after the super long weekend and has their fair share of chocolate from the Easter bunny.

I managed to stay in for the most part of the time off to avoid the mall's tempting call, but my main fridge stopped working yesterday (i.e. $$$) so the week didn't start out well for me. One day at a time, I have to deal.

I am lost for words, why did it take me so long to try Orly Galaxy FX line?

Well, I do know why (I have been knee-deep in glitters lol) but I still question myself for skipping on the line until I found some at Sally clearance sale.

First Galaxy FX shade I tried, Star Trooper, is everything and more! A black jelly with micro/ medium gold glitters and small/ medium white glitters, which glows on top of a dark base. Don't think I need to explain further lol.

I used a plum underneath here (LA Girl Rock Star in Party Animal) and was in love already. Don't know if I can stand the awesomeness if I use a dark navy base, the mani would look like starry night sky :)

Which base would you go for if you have Star Trooper? I need ideas as I'm sure I will reach for it again.

The bonus is, 2 coats on its own (see my thumb), Star Trooper looks equally pretty. The gold glitters show up more in this case and tint the clear base a little, which I appreciate.

Need I say more with the closeup? Don't think so :)

How are you all doing with the first week of April? I think it is harder to digest the fact that it is April because it does not look like Spring outside.

On the positive side, Spring/ Summer makeup are making their way to stores. I have seen some makeup I definitely want to check out, but surprisingly, it is not the case for nail polish.

Which collection are you looking forward to this Spring?

It had rained all weekend. I was splashed by a car while walking on the sidewalk, wet from head to toe (and no, the driver did not stop to apologize)! But good news, more pretty nail polish came to my life :)

I came across some kijiji postings last week. The nail polish were separated by brands and listed by full names. First thought came to mind: who in this neck of the wood has serious addiction like me? lol

Turned out, it was fellow blogger Beauty Obsessed whom I met at Sephora launch party last year. I was excited to meet up with her and grab some nail polish off her hands.

Using her categories, here are the drugstore nail polish I got:

First row: Joe Fresh Navy, Moss and Gunmetal
Second row:
- Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (yep, backup)
- Del Sol Girls Night Out
- LA Colors Wired and
- Essence Get the Fever.

Salon brands and higher end nail polish:

First row:
- OPI Yodel Me On My Cell
- Orly Goth
- China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard and Hi-Tek
- MAC Dark Angel
Second row:
- Zoya Arizona and Yara
- Essie Pretty Edgy and Queen of Hearts
- Lise Watier Violet Dore (another backup), and
- American Apparel Peacock.

These are the most exciting shades cause they are from brands I haven't owned before:
- Deborah Lippmann Nefertiti and Satin Doll
- Rescue Beauty Lounge Insouciant
- Soulstice Spa Milan and
- A-England King Arthur.

Do we agree that I totally found a treasure here? New shades or backups, I'm smitten with all of them. I'm thankful to have these in my possession, they will be very well loved. You'll see them in future NOTD posts.

While browsing Forever 21 extra 50% off clearance sale, I found some nail polish. They are CAD3.80 normally, I paid 50 cents each.

From L-R: Blue/Green, Teal, Turquoise and Purple/Multi.

The names aren't particularly inspiring, but the colours are pretty cool with either slight duochrome effects or fine glitters - both are what I can't get enough of.

Since we won't have a F21 store until next Spring, I figure it was ok to grab some stuff off their site for now :)

And lastly, I tweeted about Sally extra 50% off clearance two weekends ago. Here is what I left the store with that day.

First row are the Orly Flash Glam Fx Mermaid Tale, Be Brave and Sashay My Way, red tagged for $6.99 (before the 50% off).

Second row: Orly Synchro, Shockwave and Decoded (Electronica collection), $4.99 before discount. Sad that I missed Preamp, the last shade of the collection.

The lonely China Glaze in the pic was Elephant Walk, $3.29 on the red tag. This is the only shade I own from the On Safari collection.

Did you do anything fun in the weekend?

This is a huge collective haul from different places at different points of time. I was waiting on things to come in the mail to post them all together :)

I jumped on the W7 bandwagon in a heart beat as soon as I saw all 3 shades I wanted were in stock on Nail Polish Direct.

I didn't know much about this UK brand other than the fact that they made cheaper Nails Inc Sprinkles alternatives, only £1.95 a piece vs $11.

From L-R: Mosaic (dupe of Nails Inc. Pudding Lane), Salt n Pepper (close to Nails Inc. Sugar House Lane) and Lava Flow.

The brand only has these 3 shades with this type of glitter mix so far that I know of.

W7 is also known for some cool duochrome shades, I took full advantage of the cheap shipping - £2.95 for 9 bottles.

First row: Metallic Mercury, Metallic Jupiter and Metallic Neptune

Second row: Metallic Mars, Metallic Venus, Metallic Saturn and Diamond top coat (free with purchase of 5 W7 nail polish).

Shipping took a bit more than 2 weeks. My Metallic Saturn came without a name sticker, I tried to email and FB them with no answer. This turned me away from ordering more from them (was lemming some Barry M), so be warned.

With Shoppers' very first BOGO event on nail polish about 2 weeks ago, I got:

- Quo Center of Attention (from a LE display)

- Nicole by OPI Back to Reality... TV (Kardashian Kolor 2012 collection), Coral Denominator (One Less Lonely Girl collection, supposed to be a Canada exclusive originally), and A Million Sparkles (a 2012 shade).

I was glad to see Shoppers starting to offer some great sales like this. The key point to success is to pick the location with good stock level.

From the Cult Nails birthday sale near beginning of the month for $7 a bottle (reg. $10), I got:

- Annalicious, Feelin' Froggy, Manipulative (all are to be discontinued soon), and

- I Got Distracted. I've been eyeing this one for a while now, glad to finally own it.

Shipping for 4 bottles was $8 to Canada. I am already looking into another order, cause Cult Nails is coming out with the colour changing top coats, hard to resist.

Killed 2 long time lemmings via Ninja Polish: Floam and Sticks 'n Stones, $9 each.

These weren't on sale or anything, but they were really really hard to catch whenever they were back in stock on the site. They sold like hot cakes, I was just lucky that day.

Floam was originally from Nail Venturous but now is bottled under Ninja Polish brand, I'm not sure what the story is, doesn't really matter though.

Canada shipping starts at $3.50 for the first bottle, then $1 for each additional bottle.

I heard about Candy Lacquer over at a few nail blogs and loved the shades they offered. The day their etsy store opened, great shades were sold out within 5 minutes. Craziness!

I missed out on the great LE shades, only got Honey Bee, City Girl and Argyle, $8 each. These are glitters with interesting shapes and combination, definitely stand out to me.

Canada shipping was $5 + $1 for each additional bottle. A little higher than I wanted, but it was worth it to splurge on these.

A CP from the US, thanks to a blogger friend, for some shades that I couldn't get here at the time.

- Revlon Moon Candy in Supernova and Cosmic. These have showed up at our Walmart now :)

- Sinful Colors in Why Not, Dressed to Kill, Let's Meet, Leap Flog and Cinderella.
This wish list was before the drama that Sinful had with nail bloggers. I'm glad to have these colours now, but probably won't buy anymore until I hear some good settlement.

I did really well at Sally this month. These are from 2 different trips - one when I first heard the China Glaze Summer Neons collection was on clearance for $3.29, and one when clearance items were extra 50% off (last weekend).

First row: Beach Cruise-R, Under the Boardwalk, Ride the Waves

Second row: Hang Ten-Toes, Love's a Beach, Surfin' for Boys, and Orange You Hot.

Still missing the green and yellow :(

Other random shades on clearance, also at Sally.

First row: Finger Paints Go Van Gogh; and Late Night Rendezvous (Summer in the City collection)

Second row: Orly Forever Crimson; Sterling Silver Rose; After Party and Dayglow (Feel the Vibe collection).

No sign of the great bright shades from Feel the Vibe nor the Orly Glam Fx :( If you can find them, you'd be one of the luckiest people in the world.

This last bunch was a surprise, as I thought they were long gone. Crackle fever might be over, but I couldn't resist the shimmers, especially when they were $1.50 each.

So here are China Glaze Glam-more, Luminous Lavender, Gleam Me Up and Jade-D.

It's always a good idea to call your store before heading over, as I found Sally's sale isn't necessarily the same across provinces. I had one fail trip where a sale hosted at my friend's store was not at mine.

Layla is on 30% off at Lawtons this week, the best sale I have seen on it so far. The price came out to be around $11 after discount.

Lawtons only has the shades from the first release, so I only got Flash Black and Ultra Violet (which, by taking picture, I realized that I grabbed a tester of, lol).

The OPI Spiderman collection was on clearance, $3.49 a piece. I got Number One Nemesis and My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

Phewww, that is all, for now :) Hope this is a fun read for you on a Monday.

How was everyone's weekend? Squirt and I dragged our sleepy head out Sunday morning for some dim sum, much needed.

My Elf order when they had that 50% off sale came in last week, thought I can show you the stuff I got.

- SPF45 Sunscreen UVA/ UVB Protection in Sheer. Supposed to be a translucent powder, infused with Aloe Vera extract, Grape Seed extract, Vitamins A, C and E. Can't wait to try this out, extra protection will put my mind at ease at least
- Makeup Mist & Set with Aloe, Green Tea, Cucumber, Vitamins A, C and E
- Makeup Lock & Seal with a mini Blending brush
- Small Stipple brush. Considering the size, this would be more for blush or highlight.

Continue on:
- Nail polish in Fairy Dust, a flakie :)
- Matte Lip colors in Praline and Rich Red. I have heard good things about these, couldn't help but picking up a few to try
- Luscious Liquid lipstick in Strawberry. Didn't mean to order this one, as I have one or two from the last order, just didn't remember lol.

Still beating myself up for not browsing around a bit more, as I totally forgot to order the baked blushes and eyeshadows. Hate to pay shipping again to order more, so I'll wait it out.

I did participate in the surprise gift card event at Shoppers on Saturday, mostly for household items though.

Etival (a Canadian brand exclusive to Shoppers) is running a promotion until August 3 where you can get a free Urgen-C product (value between $20 - $38) when you spend $20 on Etival products. The icing on top is that the Urgen-C line is on big discount at the moment.

I picked up 2 of the Urgen-C Hydrating Surge mask with Multi-Pro, Vitamins A, E and COQ10 (reg. $20 each, 50% off), and get the Urgen-C Renewing Polishing treatment with Multi-Pro and Sepicalm for free (reg. $21, on sale for $9 right now).

I went to Sally with a sheer hope to find Orly Feel the Vibe collection but it's long gone. Saw a Nina Ultra Pro display with all neon/ bright shades. I'm not sure they are new, but I grabbed Punki Purple and Blu Blaze, on sale $3.99 each till the end of the month. By the way, found the Orly collection at Winners but the shades I wanted were not there. Check your store if you want some.

Couldn't resist Orly Sashay My Way on the display, $8.99 with Sally card. Missed out on the orange and green shade with similar glitter textures :(

The extra 50% off clearance was on when I went, so I got Orly Decades of Dysfunction and Buried Alive, $2.50 each.

Have a great Monday, ladies!

I'm back, kinda :) If you don't recall from my previous post, I am on vacation at my parents'. I can't promise to blog as often as I normally do, but I miss blogging (and talking to you all), so I'll pop in here and there if I have something exciting enough to show you.

This mani is not new, but it is cute. I was wearing Orly Purple Velvet here. It is a matte shade as you can see on all my nails except the middle finger.

This is 2 coats, and it is pretty opaque. It looks pretty both matte and glossy. As I grew to love purples, this Purple Velvet is a must have in my book.

I like Orly matte shades, they are quite unique and pretty. We all know how tricky matte nail polish can be, still that does not stop us from hauling some :)

I do have some review posts in draft and am hoping to finish them up to post. But for now, I am indulging in family love and home cooked food. I am home every 2 years, so I want to take full advantage of the time I have here.

Want to hear me babbling about the trip to get here? My flight was long, so I did a lot of people watching. I flew on a full Boeing 777 for 2 out of the 3 legs of the trip, and saw like 40 elderly people travelling with wheelchairs. It was quite a surprise, in previous trips, I saw many 2-3 wheelchairs max. Maybe it was near the year end or something, I don't know. Just hope I could still travel places like them when I get old :)

It was certainly a huge change from the quietness and the snowy weather of Halifax to the hot air filled with buzzing noise of Asia, so I'm staying in for the first few days. Hope you all are doing well.

Continue with my stash series - this is Orly, the later discovered brand (to me) but a favorite nonetheless.

These sets are what started me with the brand a while back. I was visitting the bf's parents during Christmas time and there was a Sally in town (at the time we didn't have Sally in Halifax yet).

So I walked in the store for the very first time and saw them near the door:
- Enchanted Duo on the left, with Prima Gloss and Enchanted Forest
- Sparkle Kit on the right, with Star Spangled and Tiara.

Perfect for Christmas, weren't they?

From the Sweet collection, I have 3 shades: Lemonade, Gumdrop and Pixi Stix. Later, I got Lollipop from a blog sale, but it didn't come with the little lipgloss on the side, so I didn't include it in the picture.

Have any of you tried the lipglosses yet? They look so cute, I couldn't bring myself to use them :)

I'm missing Cotton Candy and Snowcone, but that's ok. At the time the collection came out, pastel was so in, but I didn't want to haul the whole thing, lol.

And the rest of the stash:













On the left:
- First row, from L-R: Rage, Luxe (from Foil FX collection), Shining Star and Glitz.
- Second row, the mattes: Iron Butterfly, Glam Rock, Solid Gold, Matte Vinyl and Blue Suede.

On the right:
- First row: Fantasea, Alabaster Verve and Petit Four.
- Second row: Poison Apple, Merlot Mist, Charged Up and Prince Charming.

This stash will grow a bit more with the release of the highly anticipated Cosmic FX collection in September. As they'd be $10 a bottle retail, I don't think I'll get them from Sally unless there is a crazy sale for the month. Words are Transdesign already has them for $5 each, so etailer will be the way to go. I'll have to pull resources in the US for shipping on this one, lol. Are you excited for fall collections?

The bad polish addict in me stroke again as I fell for a huge blog sale on nail polish. Come see how many bottles I ended up with, lol. It's crazy with any polish blog sale, as you have to search for swatches, and put your name in for them, hoping no one else did before you.

I picked the shades I always wanted or the ones with brands I haven't owned any. It was a really hard job to decide on the final list, I'm telling you.

First row: Nubar Greener and Iced Licorice, Piggy Polish Piglet.
I decided on the 2 Nubar shades the moment I saw the swatches. Have to admire the blogger who sold them, as they are way too pretty to part with.

Second row: Star Gazer #138, Orly Velvet Rope, Lollipop and Spark.
Velvet Rope is stunning in the bottle with a nice amount of shimmer. Hope I can swatch it soon. I love the rubbery handles, didn't mind to get 2 more from Orly.

Here come the China Glaze. You all have seen these shades around: Blk-Bila-Bong, Orange Marmalade, Let's Do It in 3D and Social Animal. It's just me, the late "boomer" that haven't owned them yet, lol.

I needed Orange Marmalade to complete my Summer Days collection - the one collection I want to own the whole thing.

Kaleidoscope collection would be another one, so glad I got Let'd Do It in 3D.

Can't say I know much about Social Animal, but it looked pretty on blogs, and so did Blk-Bila-Bong.

Last batch: the OPI :)

You have seen my OPI Stash which was 3 colours and a top coat, then I got My Private Jet from VNS. And now I double the stash with Have You Seen My Limo?, Catherine the Grape, Parlez-vous OPI, Do You Lilac It? and Teal the Cows Come Home.

I was all settled with not having anymore OPI, as they are too darn expensive to buy now that etailers can't sell them. Surprisingly, nobody snagged these shades before me, so I was lucky to have them.

Should I be settled down now, lol? Darn, now I have to go back and take new stash pictures again for the brands I haven't posted about. Hope you guys don't take haul posts as showing off. I am just too excited and wanted to share. Cheers!

This is my little haul from Victoria's Nail Supply way back when they still offered shipping to Canada.

I am still waiting for another order that a very kind blogger friend offered to CP for me, but it didn't get here yet, so I might as well go ahead to post this one first.

First row, from L-R: China Glaze He's Going in Circles, Let's Groove and Sunset Glow.
Second row: OPI Lincoln Park after Dark Suede and Merry Midnight, Orly Rage and Solid Gold.

As you can see, this haul was for a few long time lemmings that I can't get in store anymore. I love pricing at etailers, it's the shipping cost that kills the order most of the time. VNS had a really reasonable shipping cost, too bad they don't ship internationally anymore. I might have to accept the fact that I can no longer order any more nail polish from the US. Sad, isn't it?

How is your weekend so far? Yesterday was the best day we had around here this year - high of 22 degrees, sunny and warm. What made it different was the cool breeze that kept us from being overheated in the sun :) Squirt had a good time riding scooters with her babysitter's kids around a duck pond, the bf and I tried out a new Korean restaurant, then sat out in the patio for some drink. The not so fun part of the day was I had a facial appointment and the lady suggested to do my brows. She waxed them a lot thinner than I'd like, don't know I'm going to do any FOTD soon :(

It is raining out today, supposed to be like this all day, lol. Wish I could just stay in bed the whole day. If you have nice weather where you are, have fun :)

I am in lilac heaven, can you tell?

This is Orly Petit Four from the Sally haul I posted yesterday. The colour shown here is not accurate (taken at night with flash), a bit too light. It is a dusty/ mauvy lilac IRL, definitely not a pastel.

I loved the colour so much, I left it on my nails for 3 days straight, passed the regular colour change schedule I have :-) It only showed minimal tip wear then. So glad I went back to Sally the second time to pick it up.

Application was easy and smooth. The brush could be a little wider but it's not too small either to complain about. I could get used to it :-)

How was your Mother's Day, all the moms out there? My dinner ended up at Wendy's, lol, because we forgot to make a reservation at our favorite Thai restaurant and it would be an hour wait if we just showed up. I gave up after trying a few other places. On the positive note, Wendy's chicken salad wasn't too bad of a meal :-)

Yep, hauls (in plural). I've been collecting a bottle or two, here and there. Thought I should put them all in one post :-)

If you haven't already owned Revlon Minted or the whole Day Dreamer collection, read up.

This week Superstore has Revlon polish on sale 3 for CAD10, sale stickers were all over the regular display. I found 2 new full LE displays of Day Dreamer and Scents of Summer, CAD4.99 each. No sale stickers on these though, as the staff said they weren't part of the sale.

But get this: when I took one from each collection to the price check, Scents of Summer rung in CAD4.99 but Day Dreamer was CAD3.34! Omg, I ran back to the display, got Minted, Lilac Pastelle and Gray Suede. Passed on Peach Petal but I might have to go back for it, now that I see nice swatches of it online, lol.

Note: you don't have to buy 3 bottles at a time to take advantage of this deal as the price is broken down to CAD3.33 or CAD3.34 a bottle already.

And the Sally Hansen Complete Salon is Commander in Chic, which I waited so long to get. Well, this line is normally sold for CAD8 or more, not really my affordable range. But, Shoppers has them on sale for 30% off (Sat - Mon), so they came down to CAD5.89 a piece, the best price I have seen. I couldn't help myself :-)

This is a surprise find at a Shoppers I don't normally go to. This store has a small beauty section and is not near to me, which explains why.

It was totally by accident that I saw a little clearance shelf with polishes for CAD5 each. There were some Gosh, Nicole by OPI, but I had my eyes on the Borghese bottles.

I picked the 2 shades that appealed to me the most: Festivo Fuchsia (from the Holiday collection) and Expresso Brown F (don't know why it has F in the name).

I love Borghese but it's not typically affordable unless on sale :-) I'm happy that I now have the 4 shades I wanted from the Holiday collection. The other 2 - Prima Platinum (silver) and Brava Blackberry (maroon) weren't that special to me.

This is from April, when Sally had B2G1F. Sorry I'm late to post on these.

From the first haul I decided I didn't need 2 bottles of Blue Suede, so I exchanged it. Plus from hauls I saw on blogs, I wanted a few more Orly shades. So here are: Orly Prince Charming, Petit Four, Alabaster Verve and Merlot Mist, CAD6.49 each.

I don't know why it took me that long to get into this brand more. It's fab, big bottle (18ml) with fun rubbery cap, and lots of fun colours. I love it that I took advantage of the sale to get a few and build my Orly army :-)

So if you are a polish junkie, check out Shoppers and Superstore this week. Have a lovely day!

I went to Sally for their Buy 2 get 1 free all nail polish promotion the first day of the month, hoping some LE bottles from last month were still there. I wanted to get this post up to let you know the promo works for discounted bottles too, you can mix and match brands, as long as the free bottle is the cheapest among the 3. I found some gems on the shelf :-)

First up is Orly, the brand I don't have many bottles from but love to explore more.

First row: Gumdrop (Sweet Collection), Charged Up, Fantasea, Luxe (Foil FX Collection), Blue Suede (Matte Couture Collection) and Pixy Stix (Sweet Collection), retail CAD6.49 each with Sally card.

Second row: Poison Apple (Once Upon A Time Collection), Blue Suede and Matte Vinyl (Matte Couture Collection). I found these at a different Sally store, discounted to CAD5.59 a piece. So, the exact same bottle could be on regular price at one store and on discount at another :-)

I wanted to try Sally Girl polish, so I picked 3. Some of their bottles do have names but not these, so there're just numbers: 812112 - a holo pink, 812002 - a shimmery dark purple and 812005 - a pink chunky glitter, retail CAD1.39 each.

I also got a few famous duo chrome shades from Nina Ultra Pro. First row: Molten Gold, Molten Copper and Molten Ruby, CAD5.29 each.

Second row are the discounted ones: Velvet Seas x 2 and Vintage Velvet (Crushed Velvet Collection), CAD4.19 each.

After getting these home, I went and checked swatches. Some shades looked good, but some were said to be sheer or with application issue :-) If you have any of the shades I got, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I might have to do a few exchanges.

Hope the week starts out right for you, ladies. Have a good day!

Last time Winners had the "Final Clearance" sale where lots of stuff have those pretty red tags on, I got a few things.

Korres Little Natural Products travel set, CAD8 (originally CAD12.99) with 50ml bottles of:
- Vanilla Cinnamon shower gel
- Vanilla Cinnamon moisturizing body milk
- Basil Lemon shower gel
- Aloe & Soapwort shampoo and
- Achillea conditioner.

Orly Glitz, CAD3 (org. CAD5.99)

Simple Pleasures 7-piece lip balm set, CAD3 (org. CAD6.99)

Baby Phat 2-pack tights with cosmetic case, CAD8 (org. CAD12.99).

Nothing exciting, and no makeup, as their shelf was almost empty at the time, a few elf sets and old makeup items that I had no intention to buy.

And this is what I got last weekend. This Borghese hand care set was CAD16 (org. CAD29.99), came with:
- Delicato Exoliating Cleanser
- Radiante Brightening Hand Cream
- Finale Fast Set Nail Spray
- Maximo Nail Growth Treatment
- Rejuvenata Cuticle Oil, and
- A small crystal nail file.

The items are of good size, with the clearance price, I don't mind giving them a try.

Another set that I saw in store came with a nail polish and some cuticle/ callus remover products, on sale for CAD23 (org. CAD29.99), just in case some of you are looking.

Now the highlight of the trip: Dollhouse's Hugo Cuffed Angkle Boots. I don't own anything like this.

Lovely fold-over cuffs, nice zipper details, pattern on the sole bottome, fun heels, etc. They are a bit higher than what I'm normally comfortable with, but they look lovely on :-)

The thing is: I paid CAD50 at Winners, and Dollhouse has them online for $28.99 at the moment (org. $60). Winners normally has great prices, but not this case :-(

The navy colour is gone (no sizes left) but the site does have the red ones in my size. What to do, ladies, what to do? Shipping to Canada is unfortunately $16 while within US is $6. Do you think they are worth the trouble? I suck when it comes to clothes and shoes, so fashionistas, help me out! If you think they're ridiculous, tell me now, lol.

1 question: Are Dollhouse shoes of good quality? There are quite a few funky styles on their site that I like too, but I'm thinking they might not be too practical, lol.

My Sally ran out of China Glaze Lemon Fizz last weekend, I got Orly Lemonade from the new Sweet collection (with the little gloss hanging on the side) for CAD4.99 (on sale), hoping for dupes. Found out that they aren't close.

The positive side of the trip is I didn't walk away with 1 polish. Found a few Finger Paints in a clearance basket. And they were CAD1.50 each. SCORE!

Most of the shades are in the red family and I didn't own any of them, which explains 6's, lol.

I got:
First row, from L-R: Magenta Mood (fine glitters), Mixed Media Maroon (shimmer), Museum of Modern Mauve (shimmer).

Second row: Art Appreciation Apricot, Signed By the Artist, You Hue! (all duochrome, by the look in the bottles).

They look similar in the picture, so stay tuned as I go through them and swatch.

A few notes (important!):
- China Glaze is officially CAD5.49 a bottle now at Sally everywhere (I checked).
The good news is they are on sale this month (March): 2 for CAD8, including the Up & Away collection. Go now!

The States unfortunately doesn't get the same good sale. Their flyer said 2 for $10. Interesting!

- A few people have found China Glaze Up & Away (the whole collection) at Winners for CAD5.99 a pop. A second source, if you don't have access to Sally's.

- Don't forget your Sally card reward (15% off coupon if you spent over CAD35 the month before) for extra saving.

"My very first..." Orly, and it's matte. Yay!

This is Orly Glam Rock, from the Metal Chic collection. I am missing one colour from this collection but very happy about the 2 I got with the Boxing Week haul II.

My first experience with a matte polish, I kinda like it. First, the colour does have a lot to do with that. Second, it applies easily and dries up so quickly (which means no smudging/ denting). 2 coats give you perfect opacity. And third, no top coat needed, so it is a quick application, just great when you are in a rush.

Thursday night, the bf commented that the matte finish made the polish look a little boring, lol. Didn't want to change this colour for the weekend yet, so I added a bit of China Glaze Cleopatra to the tips - like I normally do. All the lovely bright colours have to wait until next weekend :-)

It was freezing yesterday around here (I'm talking -26 with windchill), and it's probably the same for the weekend. Hate going outside but I'll have to. Stay warm you guys!

So on Saturday, we went shopping with my girl friend. It has been forever since I shopped with somebody else other than the bf and Squirt. Too bad my friend wasn't much into beauty products, so I went to Sally while she headed to Suzy Shier for some work clothes.

There wasn't any new China Glaze collection, unfortunately, but I did find very good deals on a few clearance items.

First row, from L-R: Orly Shining Star (a gorgeous gold top coat), Finger Paints Evergreen Dream, Sparkling Snow and Snowman's Scarf - all from the holiday collection. Too bad Icy Iris wasn't there. Still, CAD1.99 each was amazing.

I found the two bottles in the second row at Superstore. They were from the Sally Hansen Canada-exclusive collection - Burnt Sienna and Purple Heart, 50% off - CAD3 each. Another amazing collection, in my opinion. So, I was nail-polish happy :-)

I also got some clothes at Suzy Shier and Old Navy (taking advantage of the extra 50% sale on clearance items), so it was a good weekend. Hope yours was too.