Shop The Stash: LA Girl Sparkle Ruby

Hi Hi!

I've been digging through the babies again this week and rediscovering stuff I bought forever ago and loved.

Soo this week I found my LA Girl Sparkle Ruby. This was one of the scattered holos LA Girl released a few years back. This is actually the only collection I own in its entirety and coincidentally these polishes are some of my faves. Although the holo effect isn't that strong the polishes are gorgeous.

Lucinda over at Moden Makeup has also been shopping her stash and rediscovered an oldie but goodie Color Club Snakeskin.

Have you found any oldies but goodies in your stash recently?

Until next time...

Review: Essence The Gel Nail Polish

Hi Hi!! Hope everybody's good.

I'm now the proud owner of 3 new Essence polishes.

Now these weren't on my wish list per se but I've wanted to try the brand for a while. They're all from the Gel line but one's a matte line and I'm going to review them for you today.

I picked these polishes up on a visit to Wilkos. The three I got were Serendipity, Miss Captain and I *heart* my blue jeans.

The Gel polishes are part of a three step system that provides a gel like finish without the UV/LED light. I only picked up the colours as Wilkos had neither the base nor top coat but if I ever come across them I'm definitely picking them up. This brand is currently not available in Barbados.

Serendipity

Serendipity is a lavender greyish colour. The pigmentation and formula on this polish is amazing, smooth like butta as I like to say. It's definitely got the feel of a gel polish. What I would say as someone who likes products to last is the polish seems as thought it may thicken over time and require some thinners. Other than that no complaints.

In the pics below I used two coats but this polish could be a one coater if you're careful. The brush is also amazing in my opinion. It's got those brushes I like, similar to the brushes from the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure line. It lets you get that nice perfect line close to the cuticle.

Serendipity

Serendipity

Miss  Captain

Miss Captain is one of those hard to describe colours. By my eye it's a cross between a dusty teal and a slate grey. Might be a bit hard to visualize but the pics below are pretty true to colour. The formula was just like that of Serendipity, creamy perfection. This could also have been a one coater but I used two again. This colour is unique to my collection but I'm not really a fan of it.

Miss Captain

 I *heart* My Blue Jeans

I *heart* my blue jeans (no idea how to get a heart here) is also from the gel line but it's a Matt (Essence's spelling not mine). It's a beautiful navy blue polish, perfect fall colour if you live somewhere where the seasons change. The formula and brush on this one were like the two. This one surprisingly is also unique to my collection. I intended to top coat it but the matte had me good. Drying time was ok, my two coats took about 30 minutes to dry completely.

Roundup

Overall I'm impressed especially for the price point. The formula and pigmentation was great. The brush was amazing in my books, and I say in my books because most people don't seem to be fans of this type of brush, particularly people with small fingers. Drying time on Serendipity and Miss Captain was good; when I say drying time I mean dry to touch because I go over with my topcoat before everything is completely dry. I can't speak to longevity as I change my polish every two days but from all reviews they last. These are my first three Essence polishes but they definitely won't be my last.

Until next time...

Haulin' - Another Year, Lots of New Babies

Hiii

I recently got back from visiting the queen, officially it was called vacation but I returned more exhausted than I left. This is why I didn't fnish the September Nail Challenge I started. The rush to get things together at home and at work before travelling took some time and energy. And I know it's not necessary to have things in order but for me it is. 

Anywhosie, as I was gallivanting through London I made sure to pick up some new babies. I got 16 in a total, a resounding 10 down from last year's haul if I remember correctly. Let's hear it for self control and a diminished wallet- YAYYYY!!!

So I'm here to share the new babies with you and I'll do a review on each in separate posts.I tried to group brands together so this post wouldn't be too picture heavy.

As I said over the next few weeks I'll have separate posts on each.

Until next time...

Shop The Stash!!

Hi Guys,

How's everything? I'm back from vacation and trying to get back into the swing of things.

A few weeks ago I was feeling overwhelmed and stressed out and I don't know about you but when I'm feeling that way, I need one of two things: a snocone or new polish. So I left work in search of one or the other to cheer me up but my snocone man was MIA and I couldn't find any polishes that jumped out at me. This gave me the idea for a new blog series: Shop The Stash!!

Basically this is a challenge to myself to keep out the people's stores and make use of what I've got. It's by no means a no-buy 'cuz we all know how those go. What I noticed is that I've got a few un-trieds and several polishes that have only been once or twice so I'm putting them to work.

To start off the series I pulled out a baby that hasn't been used in a while: OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI and did a simple mani. I added some gold studs to make it blingy and top coated with Old Faithful. For the newbies that's my Glisten and Glow HK Girl.

Do you guys have any untried or once-used babies lying around? Feel free to join me and shop your stashes too. Let me know in the comments. 

Until next time...

September Nail Challenge | Mozaic & Mermaid

Heller Hellerrrr!!

I'm back with entries three and four of @clairestelle8 September Nail Challenge.

The theme for day 9 was 'Mozaic' and I recreated a favourite mani of mine and it came out great. I knew days in advance which colours I wanted to use and made sure I got this one together on time. Here's the link for the first mozaic mani I did. I was dying to try my Oy! Another Polish Joke and made sure to weasel that one in here. I'm really liking this colour scheme.

Day 12's theme was 'Mermaid', and like day 9 I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do and was pleased with how it came out. I made stamping decals for the first time using my Gal Cosmetics stamping plates and Konad Stamper and they turned out way better than expected.

All in all I was really proud of these two manis. Almost made me feel like I got my groove back lol. I hope you guys like them. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Until next time...

September Nail Challenge | Coral & Flowers

Hi again,

Hope everybody's good.

A few months ago I completed the February nail challenge and promised I'd do another soon but then life happened.
 While scrolling through my Instagram feed last week I came across a picture on @gigislacqueredup page of @clairestelle8 September Challenge and decided to give it a go. The last one I did was back in February and I've been meaning to do another but life happened.

Below is the list of entries for the challenge.

Ok, so the plan is to show you my entries for the challenge every Sunday as usual as I have no time to blog during the week. So far I'm off to a bad start lol.

Anyway, they're eight manis to be done in the challenge and I knew from the outset they were going to be a bit of a challenge for me asthe nail art's a tad bit rusty from non-use.

The first mani for September 3rd was themed 'Coral' and I did a simple mani with a gold accent nail. Now being entirely truthful this wasn't what I had planned. I'd initially pulled out the nail vinyls and shades of coral in the stash and got to work. But...it turned out nothing like I envisioned. Hence the boring plain Jane mani.

September 6th's mani was a bit more detailed. The theme was 'Flowers' so I got out the dotting tools and set to work. Here's what I came up with. Not perfect, but I liked it.

So those were my first two entries fort he challenge and hopefully I only get better from here.

Hope you liked them. Until next time...

Mini Haul from OPI!! and My Top 5 | Collab with Moden Makeup

Hey Guys!!

Last Saturday I took a trip to Mozaic to knock a lemming off my list. One polish! I left with three, which in all fairness shows endless restraint on my part. Yayyy me. Think I should reward myself...maybe with more polish.

While messaging Lucinda asking her to talk me out of this trip and save my wallet she came up with the brilliant idea that we should do a collab. And that's just what we did. Here's the link to Lucinda's haul post. She did more damage than me lol.

On this most recent escapade I picked up Miss Piggy's Big Number which I wanted for ages along with The Sky's My Limit from the Ford Mustang Collection and Oy! Another Polish Joke! from the Euro Centrale Collection.

For those Bajans who may not know, Mozaic is located in Limegrove Lifestyle Centre and sells exclusively OPI products: from polish to moisturizers to implements. If it's OPI, they've got it.  They've recently moved from their previous location to their new store opposite Eye Q Stylist Opticians on the first floor. The majority of their polishes retail for BDS$24.95 which is fine for me as the majority of their colours are from newer collections. Another plus is that you know you're buying authentic OPI.

 So let me show you what I got.

Miss Piggy's Big Number

The Sky's My Limit



Oy! Another Polish Joke

Lucinda and I also decided we should include our top 5 OPI polishes so you guys know what we're loving...may also make choosing a colour easier.

borrowed from www.swatchandlearn.com

Chiffon My Mind from the Soft Shades Collection is my absolute favourite OPI of all time. It's a recent purchase but it was love at first sight. I've got no pics of it because I've only worn it on my toes. Forgive me but I'm about to rave about this. I'm a lover of white toes 'cuz they're always crisp and look really clean but sometimes pure white polishes are too stark and have that White Out effect. This...this polish is the perfect soft white with a magenta and blue shimmer. The shimmer is what gives it its character and makes it that much better than a regular white. PERFECT TOE COLOUR!! I got this one from Stylish Apparel in Sky Mall for $25.

Monsooner or Later

I'm not a fan of red polishes so Monsooner or Later is the perfect 'red' for me. It's a bright red orange creme I always go to when I want something closer to a classic colour. It's also one of my go to toe colours when I want a break from the white.

DS Extravagance

DS Extravagance was another lemming of mine that I knocked off my list thanks to Mozaic. It's probably one of the prettiest colours from the Designer Series line.

DS Lapis

DS Lapis was an 'accidental' purchase I picked up when I got DS Extravagance. It's also from the Designer Series line. It's a gorgeous blue and my pics do it no justice, sorry to say. This was an unexpected love for me though.

Tomorrow Never Dies

Tomorrow Never Dies was released with the James Bond collection and was an unintentional purchase for me. Loved it in the bottle but what you see in the bottle isn't what you get. It's even more gorgeous on the nail.

Those are my top 5 OPI's for the time being., maybe by year end I'll have a new one or two to add to the list.

Now you know what we've been up to. What are your OPI faves? Let us know in the comments below.

Until next time...

Review: Sephora Formula X

Hi Guys,

I'm back from my mini unexpected hiatus. I haven't posted since April because I was feeling overwhelmed and needed a break and it was approaching my biggest deadline for the year at work which just added to it all. But everything's back to normal now so I'm back. Lucinda will be pleased.

Speaking of Lucinda, a few months ago the Moden Makeup girls took a trip to IMATS NY and brought me back two new babies to add to the collection. Aren't they sweethearts!! :) They were both from the Sephora formula X line which got me going because they're my first from the brand. Even did my happy dance in front my office door. Oh the shame! *hides face*

Anywhosie below are my two babies they got me.

Today, I'm going to do a review of the two polishes she got me.

First up is Sephora Formula X Continuum. This is a gorgeous sky blue colour, actually the only shade like it in my collection. The shade of blue reminds me of the sky here in Barbados on a really sunny day. If I was any kind of photographer I'd have a pic to insert here but we all know I suck at that.
The formula on this polish is creamy perfection and could be opaque in one coat if you're careful. It didn't stain on me so that's a plus in my books as blues tend to make a mess of my nails. I used two coats in the pictures below out of habit but like I said I could've gotten away with one. You can purchase this colour here.

Sephora Formula X Continuum

in sunlight
 

The second colour they got me is Vivacious. The name threw me off because it made me think of a bold pinky purple. It's actually a gun metal colour with the finest silver shimmer running through. It's a good alternative if you want a  nice dark colour but you don't want to use a black. The formula on this like Continuum was superb. It's not a cream polish but it went on the nail that way. I used two coats here again. Please excuse the kinesiology tape in the last two photos. Here's the link for where you can buy.

Sephora Formula X Vivacious

Overall these two polishes impressed me particularly for their quality so I'm gonna be adding some more to the stash sometime.

Until next time...

Double V's and Pinks to Please!

Hii!! I'm back again and this time with a girly manicure.

On a normal day I hate pink but for some reason I was feeling it today. So I pulled out my pinks and got to work. 

Products Used:
ORLY Bonder

Rimmel Pink-A-Boo

L.A. Girl Dazzling Pink

OPI DS Extravagance
HK Girl Top Coat

Striping Tape

Scissors

Tweezers

I started with two coats of Pink-A-Boo on all my nails and then went over with a coat of top coat to dry everything quickly.

Once that was dry I taped off two Vs using the striping tape. I filled in the larger V using Dazzling Pink and the smaller V with Exrtavagance. I pulled off the striping tape as I was done filling in each nail and then went over with a final coat of HK Girl.

Sorry the second V isn't that clear. It's only looking blurry now I've uploaded them but hopefully you can still make it out. Anyway I hope you like.

Until next time...

Mosaic Tiles

Hiii! Hope everyone is having a good Sunday!

I was in the mood for a fancy-ish design recently unlike the simple stuff I was feeling the past few weeks so I pulled out some stuff and got to work. I've seen this design on several Instagram pages in past months and figure I'd give it a try.

Products Used:

ORLY Bonder Basecoat

Wet N Wild French White Cream

OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana

OPI DS Reflection

OPI DS Extravagance

ORLY Luxe

Glisten & Glow HK Girl

Striping Tape

#00 Nail Art Brush

Tweezers

Scissors

Clean-up Brush

Here's how it went down.

I did one kinda thick coat of French White Cream on my middle and ring fingers and went over with a thin coat of HK Girl. I wanted it to dry quickly so I could apply the striping tape.. Be sure to wait until the base is completely dry before applying the tape. Once that was dry I applied striping tape horizontally and then diagonally in a criss-cross style to create little triangles on the nail. I then filled in each little triangle with DS Reflection, DS Extravagance and Luxe in as random a design as possible. Once all the triangles were done I pulled off the striping tape and went over with a final coat of HK Girl.. 

My other naked nails got two coats of I Just Can't Cope-acabana and everything was then sealed with HK Girl.

Here's the finished product. It reminded me of mosaic tiles hence the name of the post.

Hope you like it. Until next time...