Catrice Dirty Berry

Here's another swatch I've had for a while. I wish Catrice (and Kiko) were available in the US, but I'll try not to complain too much since we do have so much available (and at better prices than anywhere else). Just makes me wish my April Paris-Berlin trip wasn't canceled at the last minute!

Catrice Dirty Berry (2 coats) - Awesome formula and no top coat in this swatch. It is sooooo shiny on its own O_O




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I'm still recovering from our long-weekend away, but I'll leave you with a couple pics from the trip!

Beautiful view of Napa Valley from a B&B we were ready to book for our wedding night, but turns out is already booked up :(


The best thing I ate all weekend, and easily the best scallops I've had in years (at Redd in Yountville, CA)

Maybelline Sapphire Masquerade

This is my only Maybelline nail polish at the moment. I don't find myself at the drugstore much lately, so I don't even have that many drugstore nail polishes in my stash anymore! I remember the good ol' days of hitting up every CVS, Walgreens, and RiteAid in a 15 mile radius trying to find certain polishes... *wistful sigh*

Maybelline Sapphire Masquerade (2 coats) - Very textured and thirsty glitter, and is warmer IRL than pictured. I think it is so pretty! I like it more than I thought I would based on how it looked in the bottle :)




I'm not sure if it'll make it through the next round of purging, though, as I've been tending to drift away from glitters!

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I'm taking tomorrow and Tuesday off work for a long-weekend trip out to the SF-Bay area. We are going to see some friends, family (my sister-in-law is about the pop, though! I think her due date is over the weekend! So I'm not sure if we will be able to see them), and take a couple trips up to Napa to meet with some vendors for the wedding. We've lined up appointments with a bakery and 2 florists. Hopefully we'll have both those vendors booked by the time we get back!

Hope you all (North American readers, anyway) have a great long weekend!

Some miscellaneous OPI swatches

I had these sitting on my computer for a while, finally decided to post them! Sorry the pics are a bit washed out. I thought there was something wrong with my camera lately, but it just turned out my lenses were incredibly dirty XD

OPI Ali's Big Break - 3 coats for the pic, good in 2 IRL. Very pretty, but I need to admit to myself that I rarely ever reach for red, so I probably shouldn't keep this. I like that this is a pinky-red. Very, very pretty.




OPI Not Like the Movies - 3 coats on its own (I think it was 3 coats, anyway). I wasn't interested in this polish originally, but a swap-ortunity arose and I decided to see what the fuss was about myself. Eh, I don't care for it. Then again, I am not really a big fan of duo/multichromes for some reason.





OPI Fly - 3 coats for the pic, but nice in 2 IRL. I loooove this. It's a lot more vibrant in real life. I really dig this colour, but I think I should have done a comparison with Nails Inc Warwick Way. I probably don't need both...



OPI Metallic 4 Life - I can't remember if this is 2 or 3 coats. Sorry there's a moustache in the second pic - I got a dent and didn't realize until I started processing the pictures. I like this polish in theory, but it's one of those polishes that I only like if it's completely smooth. That means lots of topcoat and more chances to ding it up (like I did). Thus, I am still on the fence.




Happy Hump Day!

Essie Fall 2013 Vested Interest and Cashmere Bathrobe

It's been a busy summer, but I won't bore you with excuses about where I've been.

I bought two new nail polishes this weekend, which is pretty significant considering my last nail polish purchase was in early March (O_O)!

I was in the city for some wedding dress appointments, and decided to check out a beauty supply shop that sold Essie and OPI. Essies were $5.99 and OPI were $6.99. Not great deals, but any discount is a good discount! Here's the store I went to, in case you are in NYC: Nicka K.

I picked up two green-grey shades, as apparently they are my weakness. I went with Vested Interest and Cashmere Bathrobe from the Fall 2013 collection.

My line-up of Essies in this colour family:


Essie Vested Interest (2 coats) - Very nice formula.



Comparison: Essie Vested Interest and Misa Dirty Sexy Money (2 coats each) - I could have sworn I had a shade similar to Vested Interest, but the closest thing I could find was this Misa. Obviously not dupes :p

Edit: someone reminded me about Essie School of Hard Rocks, which I had at some point but looks like I purged already. Here's my post with that swatched from a couple years ago: Essie School of Hard Rocks


Essie Cashmere Bathrobe (2 coats) - Also a fantastic formula. The flash makes the shimmer stand-out, but in normal indoor lighting, it is not really apparent. Still, I like it.




Comparison: Essie Armed & Ready, Cashmere Bathrobe, Power Clutch (2 coats each) - Again, the flash shows shimmer much better, but in normal lighting, all three of these look very similar on the nail. Power Clutch and Armed & Ready are more similar to each other, in terms of base colour, though. Cashmere Bathrobe is decidedly cool-toned on me.


I'm glad I picked these up!

I hope you are all having a great summer so far! Until next time :)

Non-Nails, but Sailormoon-related post!

So, possibly you guys might know I was a huge Sailormoon fan in my childhood, and when I did my Starlight Polish review post late last year, I had the following story:

"Sailor Saturn was my favourite senshi, but looking back now, I couldn't tell you why. I made my mom make a Sailor Saturn Halloween costume for me one year, and every house I went to asked, "Ohh are you Sailor Moon?" and I had to retort "No, OBVIOUSLY, I AM SAILOR SATURN". That costume was so good! I seriously hounded my mother on every detail of the costume. I'll try and see if I have a picture of me in it, or the costume itself (assuming mother has not sold it for $5 at a yard sale), so I can show you guys later! :D"


Well, I was home over Memorial Day weekend, and happened to find this picture in a photo album!

*drumroll please*



You can possibly see the tell-tale signs that I was from Canada. That is:
1. Sweatshirt under my costume.
2. Sweatpants/snowpants worn under my costume, on the bed in the picture
3. Winter jacket over the costume, also on the bed.


Hope you guys are doing well :)

Updated stash pics!

I have been a bad blogger.

String of excuses: work has been very busy, wedding planning has been a pain in the neck, I've been having problems with my camera or lens, my cuticles are in no shape for macro photography, so on and so on.

As a peace offering, I thought I would post my latest stash pictures. I plan on doing a spring cleaning of my stash over the next month, and hopefully downsize a bit!

If you are interested in my plan of attack for purging, my last stash post had my "purge policy" written out in excruciating detail (lol). You can see that post here.

And here we go!

Pinks



Reds


Orange/corals


Light/mint greens


Greens



Olive/poopy-greens


Grey-greens


Turquoise


Teals


Light blues


Dark green-blues


Dark neutral blues


Bright blues


Medium blues


Periwinkle blues


Light purples


Medium purples


Dark warm purples


Dark cool purples


Taupe/brown/neutrals


Nudes


Whites


Greys


Black/silver


Gold/warm metallics


Topcoats



Mixed glitters


If you have any questions about what a particular polish is, let me know!