Sparkled Beauty

I took a really long break from buying nail polish (only started again last month with a few holographic bottles), I am still tackling the unworn stash.

2013 was the year of Zoya Pixie Dusts, a true blast from the past :) So far I have shown you a shade from the Spring collection - Nyx and 2 from the Fall collection - Dhara and Chita.

Today is one from the Summer collection that year - Stevie. Now if you know me, I do like purples but the dark, vampy type more than this innocent-looking violet/ lilac colour. However, the sparkles and textures naturally drew me in fast.

This is 2 coats, complete opacity. I have not come across a Pixie Dust that I don't love, and Stevie is not an exception.

I do feel more girly wearing it, which is normally not what I look for in a nail polish. But it is just nail polish, similar to the "It's just makeup, it will wash off" mentality, so I am ok with it.

How has April been treating you? We got late snowfall for the first half of the month and it only starts getting warmer as we speak. May will be a very busy month at SB HQ, we'll see if I can keep up with the 5 posts a week standard :)

From the same Fall 2013 collection with Dhara, this is Zoya Chita, an awesome dark forest green with silver sparkles.

This green have the spotlight of its own. I don't have the concept of seasonal colours with my nail polish, so I wear Chita anytime, but I also can picture it as a Christmas colour, pairing with a red somehow.

Even better, it only takes one coat to full opacity. It deserves all the love, quite unique colour and the sparkly shine it attracts.

I don't know anyone named Chita, kinda secretly wish it were my name on this bottle :)

I have been having such great luck with the Pixie Dusts, nothing to complain about the 3 I tried so far. I'll link Nyx here too so you can revisit.

How has Fall been treating you so far? We had below 0 temperature for early mornings so it looked like we jumped straight from Summer to Winter with not much of a glance of Fall.

Life wise, I have been neglecting drafting posts at night, mainly because of the camera problem but also because I was uninspired. Hopefully that will change soon!

The Pixie Dust fever started with Zoya Dhara last month continues on today with Zoya Nyx.

Released a few months earlier than Dhara (from the Fall 2013 collection), Nyx (Spring 2013 collection) sure set the stage for fabulousness and sparkliness, which I am so late upon.

Considering how much I like darker polish and textures, so when Zoya put those 2 things together and I didn't jump on the train right away, I regret that so much :) But I'm here now!

Described as a periwinkle blue, Nyx is not the typical shade in the textured range that most brands put out.

This is 1 coat, leaving a bit of sheer opacity on the nails, just the way I like it. Nyx looks a bit more blue and darker on the nails than in the pic.

Not much else I have to say on it other than I love it, a lot :) Pixie Dusts rule. It is just a shame how much harder for me to get my hands on Zoya though.

Keep the Pixie Dusts, especially Nyx, in mind if you are doing the Exchange this year, going on until September 12.

This week has been abnormally hot, we are talking above 30 hot. I am absolutely not complaining, just stating a fact, because it is a rare event :)

I thought it would be appropriate that the nail colour is hot too. This is Zoya Dhara Pixie Dust, released in the Fall 2013 collection.

Described as a fiery orange copper with a matte AND sparkly textured finish, Dhara sounds like everything I want in a summer nail polish :)

This is just one coat, believe it! I love the sparkly matte finish so I did not use a top coat. No regrets!

Would you imagine that much gold shimmers hidden in the bottle without this bottle shot?

I think Zoya thought this through and added more shimmers so that they can shine through the matte finish without overpowering the overall look. And it worked.

2 weeks till school starts and back-to-school shopping for Squirt is done :) It would feel like summer is ending too, unfortunately. Could have had a few more trips in but Squirt and I have had a nice time so far. Hope your summer is longer and exciting while it lasts :)

I decided to put some bling on Friday night for the weekend, and looked for something a bit different from pastels :-) I chose Zoya Roxy and it was a good choice.

Roxy is a prize I won from Zoya on twitter, well one of those rare chances where they did offer something outside US :-)

It is a great polish for the weekend -a magenta purple with good amount of glitter. Though with 1 coat of Seche Vite, it was smooth. A bit sheer, but 3 coats brought opacity. So, I love everything about it :-)

To me, it's the deep magenta version of China Glaze Ruby Pump. Same level of awesomeness, just darker, more vampy kinda shade.

Last night I went to a friend's bridal shower, my first. It was so much fun, girls talking about marriage, kids and stuff like that, lol. One of the games we play called for tips for happy marriage, and one of the girls suggested not to spend too much time with the computer when we get home so we can have some quality time with the husband. And I went hmmm... It'd be kinda hard to balance that, from a blogger and twitter fanatic like me, lol, I talked to myself. Good thing the bf hasn't complained yet when he comes over.

Hope your weekend is going well as well. Can you believe it's the end of February already?

I always love to look at blog sales, to find things that I can't normally get from here. And a few weeks ago, I found some good stuff to buy :-)

The first haul is from Keri at Glimmer Gloss Glow. I was extremely happy with what I got, as belive it or not, these items are all the first of their kinds that I own.

The nail polishes are OPI DS in Fantasy and Vintage, and Zoya Matte Velvet in Loredana. I don't have any OPI, not mentioning the Designer Series. Always love holo polishes, so I hasd to get them. I haven't had any matte colour from Zoya either.

I also got some Bare Minerals pressed shadows in Firelight, True Gold, Fire Opal (first row), Aurora, Trinity, and Firefly (second row). I already put them in test runs a few times. The colours are gorgeous, but they don't stay on the lids as long as my pigments do, unless I put extra work in prepping the lids.

Keri included some extras too:
- Stila Convertible Color (Lip & Cheek Cream) in Peony
- Barry M Shimmering Eye & Lip Crayon in #7 Golden Bronze
- Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil in 1999.
My first Stila and Barry M too, and I was looking for a liner that is not black. So, perfect!

Another haul came from Sara at The Makeup Snob. I love the drugstore items that she had.

Here they are:
- Milani Wet/Dry shadows in Shamrock, Black Out, Girls Luv Pink, Leaf Green, and Blue Lagoon
- Jesse's Girl Baked shadow in Moonbeam
- Physician Formula Face Sculpting Trio in Tan Organics
- Revlon ColorStay Mineral Finishing Powder in Brighten
- L'Oreal Wear Infinite Pressed shadow quad in Petals of Promise and Bouquet of Strength (LE).

It's exciting to have new makeup to play with.

Visit my blog sale too, if you are looking for some MAC. I made a tab at the top of the page for it too, for easy browsing. Have a good day.

Merry Christmas everyone (who celebrates)! I bet most of you have already got up and opened your presents by now, so please do tell me what you got this Christmas :-)

I don't celebrate the same way here, guess you already know. So I'm celebrating with some funky nail art that I had done a few days before Christmas. This is probably the craziest pattern I have had on my nails. I know some of you had already done this with konad. I haven't even tried konad, so I had to rely on other people's talent to make my nails look pretty, lol.

The base colour is Zoya Elise, a wearable but sheer orange. As I wanted it to show up as a good base, I asked for 4 coats. Then the lady used her black pen to draw the tiger-y wiggly stripes from 2 sides of the nails in. The rest were bright yellow dots with black dots in the center, as animal print pattern :-)

This nail art is me, as I always wanted a tiger print nail art, but not me as the yellow dots are really bright and they crowded the nails a little bit. I love it anyway, lol. It'd be neat to be able to keep it till I get back to Canada, but I don't know it'll survive all the luggage handling I'll have to do for the trip.

Another shot of my nail art. The colour theme somehow matches what I am holding in my hand (orange and yellow). Can you guess what it is in the picture?

Hints:
- It's a fruit
- It has very distinctive smell (i.e. you either love it or hate it)
- It's tropical :-)

The piece I had was humongous while the seed was tiny, so I couldn't finish it in one sitting. This is quality at its best. Love it!

Enjoy the holidays, or at least the weekend (if you don't celebrate).

The picture pretty much says it all. Zoya's twitter promotion: You can get a BOGO deal at Zoya (works out $3/bottle) plus S&H until midnight today.

Unfortunately, this promotion is valid within US only, despite the fact that their twitter fans come from all over the world. What a shame!

I am still waiting for the day that nail polishes could be shipped freely everywhere, no border, no limit. I have missed out Zoya's Polish Exchange, and 2 twitter promotions already. Why is it so hard to be a polish addict?




This code was given on twitter by elf, and I don't see any fine prints, so I gues it's valid worldwide.

I don't know whether it works with the Studio Line shadows though.

Have fun!

When I did the UK makeup brands post, I was going to include Nails Inc. London, but as the brand is specialized on nail polish and hand/feet treatment only, I didn't think it'd fit to feature it.

In the picture is the nail polish in Long Acre, with exclusive London taxi charm (LE, £15). Nails Inc. bottle design is quite different from the rest of the market, chic and fun. The London themed charms seems to add up to that fun look even more. As you can see, the price is a bit in the expensive side. Also they do not ship outside the UK and Ireland, so the products are out of reach as well. For these reasons, I left this brand to the back of my head for a while, until today :-)

Hele at The Nail Buff (yep, it's her nail blog, apart from her beauty blog) is having a Nails Inc giveaway of a Sole Sensations pedicure pack. The center of the prize pack, to me, is the 2 bottles of Nails Inc. polish. I want!!!

So, I'll attempt an entry with this post.

First up is Revlon Fruitful Temptations in Not So Blue-berry. If you have seen my Revlon NOTD picture of this colour, you know why I liked it. It is different (from the rest of the collection), cool colour with 2 different tints, depending on what angle you look at it from. And the fun scent is always a bonus. Application is a dream, no problem whatsoever.

Next is Zoya in Pru, described on the website as a "metallic plum with magical gilded hightlights". This is one of the 4 Zoya bottles I own, thanks to a close-out sale at a salon. Even if I want more, I have no idea where else has it (no source or info about Zoya locations in this corner of the country). Pru has like the best plum colour ever, plus the bronze/gold fine shimmer makes it extra appealing. Check out Polish Mayhem swatch if you want to see it in action.

Lastly, China Glaze in Solar Power (from "ecollection"). I only own 2 yellow bottles that I hold close to my heart - this one, and the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lightening. I like yellow, you all know that, and it isn't easy to find the yellow polish that works (not too sheer, good application, no streaking, etc.). And I have no problem with Solar Power. Lightening would have made the list too, but it wouldn't be fair for the rest if I pick 2 yellows now, would it?

Let me know what your favorite 3 are, and enter the contest too, as it is fun. Last day is this Wednesday, don't miss it. Love you all!

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.