My First Julep Maven Box - With Swatches

Hey guys,

So I'm so stoked because I finally received my very first Julep Maven Box

Click read more to see what I got!

My First Helmer

Hey guys,

So we're mixing it up today, instead of nails I'm going to be showing you my stash.

This weekend I took the plunge and went and bought my first helmer! So excited. I actually put it together without any help! (well Briar helped supervise)

Click Read More to see my Stash!

China Glaze - Call of the Wild

Hey guys,

So today it really just dawned on me that beginning on Friday will be a full solid month of TV inspired manicures. I really need to get my act together before then. I've also decided that I'm going to try to do a stash post tomorrow. So that will really depend on how things work out time wise tonight.

This is a colour I grabbed a little while ago from China Glaze's On Safari collection. These pictures don't really do this much justice but what this colour really reminds me of is dried blood. Sounds a bit gross but it's true I actually used this one in my zombie nails manicure I did for halloween. I actually think I have 3 more from this collection that I never got around to swatching or wearing. Memo to self: Move into untrieds bucket.

This is

China Glaze - Call of The Wild

Matte topcoat over the ring finger.

Nicole By OPI - My Empire My Rules

Hey guys,

Sorry about the slight hiatus. I've been really busy for the past few days and it really didn't even occur to me that I hadn't blogged yet. I got my first helmer yesterday! I love it so much. I actually didn't even realize how tiny they were. That being said it holds polish so nicely I have so much room left over. Now I just need to figure out what to do with my old drawer set. I'm thinking about putting my crafting supplies in there.

Anyways I'm on a huge NOPI kick right now so here's another swatch I've been sitting on for a while.  I'm so into these taupey grey colours. 

This is 

Nicole by OPI - My Empire My Rules

from the Kardashian Kolor collection

Saran Wrap Manicure

Hey guys,

So today was probably the first day of the week that my day at work has not almost killed me, and tomorrow is Friday. I can see the light!! Also I'm in the process of swatching my new piCture pOlishes!!! So excited to show you guys that. So pumped there will totally be spoilers on my twitter.

So I'd seen saran wrap manis all over the place for a while and finally decided this needed to happen. I loved the way this one turned out. I had a boat load of compliments on this one too. These colours work beautifully together and whats better than a Princess & her Prince Charming??

For this I used

Cult Nails - Charming

Cult Nails - Princess

Nicole by OPI - Shoot for the Maroon

Hey guys,

So exciting news! My new piCture pOlishes came in the mail today! I haven't had time to swatch them yet but I'm hoping for this weekend! Sad news, I have one more episode of Pushing Daisies left *sob*

Anyways moving on. So it's no secret Maroon 5 is my favourite band, more-so their older stuff but what can I say I love it all, and have for years. So when I saw this I just had to grab it. As beautiful as this is normally I really love this with a matte top coat!

This is 

Nicole by OPI - Shoot for the Maroon

Cirque - Kabocha

Hey guys,

So sad news, well not really sad but I went to Superstore yesterday on the suggestion that the NOPI Selena polishes may be hiding out there. No dice that being said I now know what a nail bar is. The hunt continues. I will find them. It's become an obsession.

So here's a polish I meant to post way back in October but well it clearly fell to the wayside.

This is 

Cirque - Kabocha

It's glow in the dark too except I found the glow to be a bit weak so all pictures I took didn't turn out so you'll just have to take my word for it. This is a bit sheer so it takes about 3 coats to get it mostly opaque. Could be fun for layer though. We can add that to my to do list.

Zoya - Aurora & Storm

Hey guys,

So I'm going to tell you the story of my Sunday. If you follow me on Twitter you'll already have maybe heard part of this. Well it all started with me suddenly deciding I didn't have enough Nicole by OPI in my life, what brought this on I'm not entirely sure but it happened. So having seen swatches & comparisons of the two new collections on The PolishAholic's blog here and here (isn't she amazing?? by far one of my favourite bloggers, I can only aspire to be like her one day, However thats not going to happen so anyways moving on...) I decided there were a few choice colours I needed.

So my adventure begins. I decide to hit the Shoppers Drug Mart closest to my house because well why drive an extra 5 minutes if I don't have to? Well no dice, nothing not a glimpse of Selena or Phil Dunphy anywhere! On to the next one, this time a Rexall that I have had success at in the past. Well they had half of both collections. but of course the halves that I wasn't interested in. However here their NOPI Kardasian Kolors were all half off so I grabbed 1 of them and an Essie polish.

So still not happy with my 3 polishes I currently had onto the next stop, another SDM. Well here I was met with the same displays as the Rexall I had just hit, but this one also had their NOPI's on sale. So grabbed another one, a GOSH polish also on sale and my very first Essence. So by now I only had 2 more drugstores to hit up before I had exhausted my town's resources (without hitting up Walmart or anything like that) so onto the next Rexall I went.

Jackpot. Here I found the WHOLE Modern Family collection and greedily grabbed the 5 I wanted. Still only half of Selena though. (I'm already annoyed at the stupid display that didn't have the cremes) So after a quick good luck from my bestie Nicole (figured it might be good luck sharing her name with the polish and all) I headed to my last SDM. No dice. So I headed to Starbucks, while waiting in line I got the notification that NPC had finally posted the New piCture pOlish shades.

All in all the trip was a semi-success. I certainly didn't come home empty handed. but now on to the completely unrelated to this story polishes!!!

 

This is 

Zoya - Aurora

This colour is unreal, at first I thought it may be a bit like OPI Extravagance except the glitter in this is much more intense and the colour is a bit different.

Zoya - Storm

Storm is the black version of Aurora, equally as gorgeous. 

OPI Swatch Mega Post

Hey Guys,

So I have a whack of swatch posts piling up and I really feel like it's keeping me from doing fun random stuff like nail art or just fun crazy manicures. So I'm going to do my first Swatch Mega posts, I'm not sure how often this will happen but it will be sure to happen on occasion.

Click Read More to see the Mega Post

OPI - Every Month is Oktoberfest

Hey guys,

So right now I'm sitting in my basement, nursing a giant headache and my Lord of the Rings marathon is underway. Last night was my friend's 18th birthday, but being the first of her friends to turn 18 she went out with all of us old farts (aged 30-23) and while I don't drink so I'm not hungover, a night of being out in loud music while I'm already sick. Yeah I'm feeling rough today.

This was another polish from my Secret Santa this Christmas (isn't she wonderful?!) I kept staring at this one when I wore it to work.

This is

OPI - Every Month is Oktoberfest

From the Germany collection

A England Matte'd

Hey guys,

So while I swatched all the Gothic Beauties (and Beauty Never Fails) I made mention of wanting to see them all Matte so here it is. I was actually surprised. I find matte usually brings out the subtle shimmer in a polish and makes it more noticeable. However for quite a few of these matte-fying them did absolutely zip. Sorry for the semi sloppy matte job on most of these my Essie Matte About You is getting a bit old (I just now replaced it) so it was being a pain in my butt.

These are definitely more beautiful in their original form.

Beauty Never Fails

Dorian Gray

Jane Eyre

Lady of Shalott

Ophelia

Tess D'Urbervilles

OPI - I'm All Ears

Hey guys,

So now that I've decided upon next month being TV nails month I am ridiculously excited. I've decided to focus on shows that I love, there will probably be a few a few you guys have never heard of, and probably some ones you guys might feel I left out. Never the less I'm excited to exercise my more creative side.

This is

OPI - I'm All Ears

From the Vintage Minnie Mouse collection
This one is pretty but in retrospect I should have layered it over something seeing as it is on the sheer side.

EKG Manicure

Hey guys,

So I spent yesterday at home sick, at least it gave me a chance to read Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks in preparation for the movie coming out next month. That and I started watching Pushing Daisies. umm OBSESSED! Seriously how wonderful is Lee Pace?? We can add a Pushing Daisies Manicure to the list. Maybe next month will be a month full of manicures inspired by my favourite shows. I like this idea. I may run with it.

So this was really nothing special I was just looking for something different.

For this I used

Zoya - Isla

Orly Instant Artist - Crisp White

Zoya - Whitney

Hey guys,

So this weekend I watched all 8 Harry Potter movies (yes you can expect some Harry Potter themed nails soon once I get through my swatch pile... seriously I need to start making a list) while finishing swatching all my polishes onto the swatch sticks that finally came in the mail. Three days later and all my polishes are swatched and organized. 

This is

Zoya - Whitney

This one is pretty much a dupe for OPI - Kiss Me On My Tulips. It seemed appropriate to post right now because I'm watching Whitney right now.

Cult Nails - Charming

Hey guys,

So we have our last Cult Nails day! Well until I acquire come more of them anyways.

I saved one of my favourites for last. This is also from the Cult Fairytale collection.

This is 

Cult Nails - Charming

I love this purple so much. I read in one review that a blogger said it reminded them of "bubbles" and actually it really does. It's beautiful and definitely shares my favourite spot with Flushed.

Cult Nails - Princess

Hey guys,

So normally this would wrap up a week of swatching but like I said this was a week plus 1 so tomorrow will mark the last day.

So when I was on my mission to buy Flushed. I discovered that at that time you could only buy it as part of the whole Behind Closed Doors collection which was at a special price. Which considering I only wanted the one polish was more than I wanted to spend. I had to have Flushed though. Free shipping for Cult nails starts at $75. I am a terrible sucker for free shipping. and I only needed $35 more dollars to qualify (I'm such an idiot) So that was at least 3 more polishes. So I found Time Traveler that was easy. From there where did I go? Then I came across the Cult Fairytale collection. You guys know how I feel about Fairytales. Fortunately only 2 of the colours jumped out at me. This is the first one.

This is 

Cult Nails - Princess

To me naming a blue polish Princess seems a bit bizarre but then I think of Cinderella and my world tips back into place. This one is very pretty.