Surratt Artistique Blush consolidated picture

Ok, I'm just putting this out there because I could not find a combo pic like it anywhere. I grabbed the promo pics directly from Barneys and made the collage in Picasa. They are (as of December 2014) $32 each.




I'll repost my two blush pictures from August here too, I guess

Reswatch: Pahlish Toxic and Timeless over NARS Midnight Express

I just re-swatched this polish (one of my favourite indie polishes), Pahlish Toxic and Timeless. This is actually the third bottle of this polish I've tried. This is one of the older formulations (though from what I can tell, it's not the original version). The base colour is very clear and jelly, but takes a few coats to wear on its own (see solveig's amazing swatch here).

I used 3 coats over 2 coats of NARS Midnight Express for the pictures below. In real life, I prefer just 1 coat of the NARS as undies, because you get more of a jelly finish (but since I take pics with flash, it would have photographed terribly). I believe Shannon's reformulated this shade to be opaque in 2 coats now based on customer feedback, but I think I like this version the best ♥

Pahlish Toxic and Timeless over NARS Midnight Express

Kiko 336 (similar to Nails Inc Baker St)

Here's another quick Kiko swatch. It is not colour accurate at all, unfortunately! My camera just can't capture this type of blue well.

If you know how Nails Inc Baker Street looks, this is very close, but I would say just a smidge brighter. I also think the formula is nicer and the brush is definitely better (almost all of my Nails Incs had funky brushes, irritatingly).

Imagine it to be a bit darker and richer, more saturated than even this picture. It can look different depending on the light! One of my favourite polishes at the moment.

Kiko 336



I already sold my bottle of Nails Inc Baker St so I can't do a comparison :x Sorry...

Kiko 345 and topped with Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs

I picked up this polish when Kiko debuted state-side earlier this year. I've worn it a few times since then, but only took pictures of it this week so I could update my nail polish spreadsheet!

I love the bottle shape of Kiko polishes. The brush is a bit stiffer than I'm used to, and is a little less wide than OPI. The formula itself is nice and creamy, if not a tad thick. I may thin it a bit next time I go to use it. Opaque in two coats is pretty great, especially for a mint like this.

Kiko 345 (2 coats)



I purchased this (among many other mint green polishes) in hopes of finding a dupe (or better) of American Apparel Office (which takes 3 coats for opacity, and I hate the super long brush stem)

Kiko 345 is not a dead on dupe for the AA, but it is the closest I've found, and I think I actually prefer it to AA Office. AA Office is long gone from my stash now, but I posted this swatchstick comparison picture back in March:



For my second day, I topped it off with Lynnderella for my NOTD:

Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs over Kiko 345 (there are no black flecks in LLL; the flash is just reflecting strangely off the microshimmer)

Re-swatch: Zoya Valerie

Again, another long lost re-swatch I forgot to post... Zoya Valerie. My favourite undies for Lynnderella Very Pretty Vampire.

Zoya Valerie


Man, my application was so nice back in the day... haha, I don't think I'd have the patience to do such a good clean-up job these days!

Re-swatch: Nina Ultra Pro Never Glum Plum

Another very old re-swatched polishes that I failed to post. I haven't worn this one in a while; I wonder if I'll still love it as much as I used to?

Nina Ultra Pro Never Glum Plum

Illamasqua Baptiste, Collide, Rampage

I've been updating my spreadsheet and Pinterest nail polish stash board and just realized I don't think I ever posted swatches of Illamasqua Baptiste or Collide, and didn't post a re-swatch of Rampage.

Unfortunately, since Illamasqua backed out of the North American market, I don't know where you can buy Illamasqua in person anymore. You should still be able to purchase from their website online, but I'm not sure if there are shipping restrictions on nail polish still out of the UK.

That's OK, though. The bottle/cap annoyance I whined about before is enough to deter me from new colours, so I'm happy with the 5 bottles of Illamasqua I now still own (Baptiste, Collide, MILF, Raindrops, and Rampage).

Illamasqua Baptiste

Illamasqua Collide

Illamasqua Rampage

NOTD: HARE Rococo Grandeur

*sidesteps in*

Hello. I just thought I'd post my NOTD. I'm going through some of my polishes that I hadn't gotten around to photographing. HARE Rococo Grandeur was one of them. There's a couple chips on my nail here (sorry) because I'm also testing NPB Glitter A-Peel and seem to have lost a bit on the free edge of my index and middle finger. I have no idea if I'm going to suddenly lose an entire nail's worth of polish at work this week. It's likely, though, isn't it?

Unfortunately this shade is LE from a a year or two ago. I love the light blue base and the glitter mix. It's a pretty thirsty glitter, so I topped it with a gel top coat out of frustration. It's massively pretty though, isn't it?

HARE Rococo Grandeur: 2 coats, topped with gel topcoat (Harmony Gelish Top It Off)

Surratt Blushes - Se Pomponner and Ponceau

Work has been crazy busy again lately. After a particularly bad weekend of work, I went to Barneys and picked up these two Surratt blushes. They aren't dupes for anything in my collection, which makes me happy :) The two shades I picked up have a nice, smooth texture and the colours are clear and bright. The only downside is the flimsy plastic packaging and not being able to stick them in magnetic freestyle palettes (plastic pans). The empty palette you can purchase requires you stick the pans down with the double-side tape label, which is not appealing to me at all.

I ended up sticking two square metal Z-palette stickers to the back (near the top and bottom, so the shade name is still visible) and storing them in my MUFE palette :)

Surratt Se Pomponner and Ponceau



Pan comparisons: NARS Gaiety, Surratt Se Pomponner, Burberry Hydrangea Pink (also a recent acquisition), Sleek Flamingo (just about falling apart, but a big love)


Pan comparisons: RBR Orpheline, Surratt Ponceau, NARS Gilda


Arm swatches (sponge tips, 2 swipes each)


Also, check out the labeling snafu: the outer box says 0.14oz/4g, but the sticker label on the product itself says 0.2oz/6g! The blushes are quite small, so I'd say the 0.14oz/4g size is correct.


Hope the helps someone! I'm not sure any of the colours in the range interest me, but I will reserve the right to change my mind later :)

Blog Sale Updated

Blog Sale Updated! How you like mah obnoxious image. Click to go there!


Undergoing a massive purge, if you can tell :)

OPI GelColor Taupe-less Beach and Comparison

Hello lovelies! I have a nail post today! I just started getting into doing my own soak-off gel (SOG) manis, so there may be a few posts like this in the future. I'm working on a post about the initial set-up in case you are interested in doing your own SOG manis, so look out for that post if you're interested.

I've decided to begin my SOG mani adventure with the OPI GelColor system. One of the colours I purchased was Taupe-less Beach from the recent Brazil collection. This colour is also available in the regular nail polish line, but as far as how close the regular and gel versions are, I cannot comment on that. I know sometimes gel polishes are not exact dupes for their regular counterparts, so keep that in mind.

OPI GelColor Taupe-less Beach (3 coats)


I was hoping this OPI would be a slightly warmer dupe for Essie Chinchilly (one of my all time favourite work-appropriate shades). However, due to my very yellow undertones, the OPI leans VERY mauve/purple on me compared to other swatches I've seen.

Comparison: Essie Chinchilly, OPI GelColor Taupe-less Beach, Orly Country Club Khaki (regular, not gel), SH CSM Fedora


In some lights, I am very pleased with this OPI colour. In others, I am very angry it is so mauve. I think this one is going into the purge box, unfortunately! Definitely a beautiful colour, but I know there are better shades out there for me!

Hope you guys have a good weekend! Orange is the New Black Season 2 is up on Netflix now, so I am pretty sure I know how my weekend is going to go. AWESOMELY.

Needle Felted Wedding Favours (picture heavy post)

I had a small wedding (about 35 guests), and decided to make personalized wedding favours with needle felting, a new hobby I picked up late last year. Half way through, I was seriously doubting my judgment in this decision, as these little guys take a lot longer to make than you might think!! Some were "quick", at around 2 hours, others took me maybe 8 hours spread over a weekend. Yikes! But when I was halfway through, I figured I might as well persevere and stab my way to the end.

I finished my last favour the weekend before my wedding, and I was working on my cake topper until 2 days before we flew out!

After I took these pictures, I tied tags with each guest's name and their table number, so they doubled as table escorts :) They were a big hit with our guests!


Kero-chan from Card Captor Sakura - one of my old college roommates loves Kero-chan, and I had made her an amigurumi version years ago (when that was my hobby du jour).


Mandora - friend above's SO is obsessed with a game with this as its main character. He was thrilled with it as well.


Doraemon - a friend's favourite childhood cartoon character. This friend actually had to cancel last minute, so I just popped this in the mail for her.


Daria - a friend's fave cartoon character


Mario with an overly long torso. Should've made him into Luigi!


Gromit also with an overly long torso.


Boo - one of my friends is obsessed w/ Boo the Dog. This is one of my favourites, so cute! She loved it so much!


Colossal Titan head (Attack on Titan) - this didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, but I think it still looks cool. It's for DH's youngest brother, who loves anime, and was most recently obsessed with AoT.


Pooh - DH's mom loves Winnie the Pooh!


Hawaiian Pig - inside joke w/ one of my childhood friends. This one took me quite a long time to make.


Brian - SIL's favourite cartoon character. I think this one turned out really well :D


Carlton the Bear (Leafs mascot) - a friend's SO's favourite hockey team... even though they didn't even make the playoffs this year!


TARDIS - for DH's friend's wife who recommended we hunker through the first few super corny episodes of Doctor Who (new series)


The Doctor in beaver form (goes with the TARDIS) - I had made an amigurumi beaver for DH's friend back in college (he hung it from his rearview mirror), and decided to make a miniature Doctor version :)


Totoros - for a couple of Ghibli studio fans amongst our guests. She told us that our photographer borrowed them to take our ring pictures! We haven't gotten our photos back yet, though, but am looking forward to seeing this picture!


Chibi Batman - a huge Batman lover - I couldn't make a realistic looking one, so I made this sorta "cute" version


Happy Feet penguins - They ended up in the guest's jacket pocket like a pocket square - SO CUTE.


Wolf that turned out better than expected, but still pretty awful - for one of our old college roommates whose last name is spelled something like Wolf


Starship Enterprise - My older brother's fave show (from what I can remember). This didn't turn out great, but I saw him playing with it at his table with his son, LOL.


Rubik's Cube - one of DH's friend is really into it.. competitions and what not) - this one took FOREVER for some reason. I'm really happy with it though! I used a template from online for a real solveable cube design. He said he could tell I made it solveable.


Brown lab - DH's cousin loves brown labs. She said this one was much better behaved than her dog, LOL.


Bull - DH's father is really into the stock market. I felted on a pair of bulls balls, and he got a kick out of that (it's not like I could leave them out, right?!).


Koala bear - one of my friend's said her and her SO's spirit animals were a koala bear and pig, but she wouldn't tell me whose was whose, lol


Pig 1 - to go w/ the koala bear


Mouse - my mom was born in the year of the mouse


Pig 2 - my dad was born in the year of the pig


Calico cat


Black cat - DH's aunt got a new black kitty! this is not a great representation of it, though. I didn't have the right colour of dark gray wool, unfortunately.


One of DH's aunt's cats - I am very happy with this one! The spots are all in the right places!


One of DH's grandma's cats - One of the first cats I made, so not looking great, but she loved it.


Big Ted - a friend's childhood bear. They christianed him "mini ted"


Bears - some extras for last minute guests



Narwhal for my 4 year old nephew (I posted this before the wedding). He kept bending the horn, but loved it, and asked me to make him a shark, a manta ray, and two Transformers (Bumblebee and Optimus Prime). I said "sure" and hope he forgets he asked me.


Finally, the last two I made were for our wedding cake topper! I asked my dress designer for some scraps of lace for the veil (even though I am not wearing a veil lol). I fixed the cat's feet a little bit after I took this picture (extended and flattened a bit) as well, but haven't taken an updated picture yet.