My first EVER nail mail!

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On to the nail stuff!


I know that the following is a lot more exciting for me than anyone else out there, but I just must share with you all.  I finally got my first nail mail! WOOHOO! 


For those who don't know what that is, it means that I swapped some pretties with another girl, from a different country and hence the whole mail thing. You can end up with some wonderful nail lacquers that are not locally available to you and at the same time make another girl happy with ones that you don't need to live.

Ready for it?! Here's how it showed up. Well, this is after I tore into it  

*wide grin*

 Eeeep,  What could be in there?!

Ok, so I almost posted this without the reveal, but I can't help it. WOOHOO I got Carbonite!! Finally! I'd be great to have the real thing, but I don't have the funds for Chanels yet.

L-R-> OPI Lincoln Park After Midnight, KIKO 262, Revlon Carbonite, Ulta Jaded

How awesome are these little earrings? These were a bonus I didn't know I was getting.  So cute.

Now I need to figure out which one to try first! Any requests to see a swatch?

EDIT:  Since I've received the above package, I've now received my second one and I'm far too excited to not share it, especially to all my purple & blue loving friends.

First off, I'm soooo glad that the girl I swapped with was a seasoned swapper because she taped up the envelope and in this case I'm glad she did. Why? I went to the mail box and got caught in a crazy rain storm and the key wouldn't work!! AAAACK! I stood there getting rained on for a good 3 minutes.  Needless to say I got home drenched. Yep!

You can still see where the water beaded up on the tape of the evelope. Did I mention that I'm sooo glad it was taped up?! Look at all the pretties all bundled up in bubble wrap, all cozy.

Ready to see what's in this one?! This is epic nail mail!

L-R-> Nfu-Oh 53, Orly Out Of This World, Milani 3D Hi-Res, Zoya Julieanne, American Apparel Peacock, L.A. Girl Millenium

This package was so big, I had to break it up into two photos. Wheeee!

L-R> Essie Sexy Divide, Wet 'n Wild Teal Of Fortune, Nubar Peacock Feathers, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Teal-y Cool, Color Club Fashion Addict

I can see now why swapping with other girls can be addicting, it's definitely exciting.

Till next time!

NOTD: Orly Halley's Comet & Bundle Monster 225

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On to the nail stuff!


I really fell in love in Orly Halley's Comet and just needed to try a Konad/fauxnad over it, but choosing the right design is tough sometimes, it doesn't always work. I think this one does. So, I started off with Halley's Comet, see the full post on it HERE.

I haven't used my Bundle Monster plates for some time, so this was a great time to try the flower design on plate # 225.

I used Wet 'n Wild Black Creme for the stamping. Photos taken outside on an cloudy day.

This particular design shows a lot of the stamp colour, in this case black, but I think it really works because it makes the colour underneath pop, no?

Till next time!

Haul from United Kingdom & BOGO sale at Rexall Pharmacy

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Recently I found out that a great friend of mine who used to live in Canada but now lives in the UK was coming to visit my family. Although she doesn't share my passion for nail lacquer or even tries to understand it, when I heard of her visit I promptly asked her to bring me back some pretties. By the sounds of it, she was in a great hurry and wouldn't be able to do it, but she surprised me with a little bag today. Woohoo!


I wasn't specific in terms of which shades I wanted, other than telling her I like purples, teals, blues and greens and I really wanted to try BarryM's. Ready to see what she brought me?

All the pretties are from the UK,other than the 3 on the right

WOOHOO! I got Dusky Mauve, the dupe to Chanel's Paradoxal. I can't believe she picked this up for me not knowing what she was buying! I squeeled like a little girl when I pulled it out of the bag.

L-R-> BarryM Emerald Green 284, BarryM Vivid Purple 161, BarryM Dusky Mauve 313, BarryM Cyan Blue 294 (see swatch HERE)

I haven't heard of the brand below called 2true.  Have any of you out there tried it?

L-R-> GOSH Golden Dragon 564 (see swatch HERE) & 2true # 13, 2true # 12, 2true # 16

The Sally Hansen shades I bought today at Rexall Pharmacy, they have a BOGO (buy one get one) special on right now, so it was worth it.

L-R> Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac 270, Sally Hansen Midnight Sky (see swatch HERE), Sally Hansen Deep Blue Sea

I'm excited about this haul but feel like I have too many pretties to try now. Nah, who are we kidding, there can never be too many pretties, but my list of untrieds is getting long.

Till next time!

NOTD: Joe Fresh Peacock

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I know this is not unusual for me, but I have to share a photo of my new friend.  I call him Freddy. He keeps coming around looking for nuts and the more I put out, the more he stuffs his little face. Ha! So cute!

On to the nail stuff!

Today I want to show you a local Toronto brand lacquer, Joe Fresh.  This is Joe Fresh Peacock. If you look at the bottle, it looks like a beautiful blue-purple duo-chrome.

I bought this one a while ago, and showed bottle shots HERE to tease, but I think it's time to show what these pretties look like on the nails.  This is 2 layers of Joe Fresh Peacock, but it's almost a one-coater if you do it right.

I really wished for this to look the same way on the nail as it does in the bottle, but no matter how much I twisted and contorted my hands, it just didn't.  On the nail it's not a duo at all. Boo.

For those of you who have this, have you been able to get the duo-chromeness to come out and play at all?

Till next time!

My last contest winner & blog roll

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On to the nail stuff!


The other day, to my pleasant surprise, I learned that the winner of my first Name It & Win It contest was another fellow blogger. Not only that, but she has beautiful nails and quite the photography skill.  I'd like encourage you to take a look at her blog and see her awesome skills at The Posh Polish. 


Of course, since I'm a photo junkie, I also have to show you a couple of the photos she took when she received her prize from me:

Acid Trippin'

Don't drink the Coolaid

Purple Haze

Black Market

I must say, seeing my creations on someone else's nails is quite exciting, plus the names she gave them are kind of funny.  This of course makes me wonder, who will be the next winner of my next Name It & Win It contest and what will be the names of those frankens! That contest is coming up soon, so please be patient.

Once again, here's a quick round up of the blogs I came across in the past little while.  You can always click on the Blog Roll tab on the top to see the ones you've missed in the previous weeks.  I know some of you love to find new blogs to read.

Week 7: Aug 15-24, 2011

Crazy for giveaways

Imperfectly Painted

Jems From Jenny

Milan & Vanaily 

Sophy Robson

Pretty Random

Polish Mania

Polish Obsessed

Till next time!

NOTD: KleanColor Blue-eyed Girl

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How many of you have done swaps so far? The other day I completed a swap with a new friend over at My Nails: A Love Affair and we had a great time conversing and figuring out what pretties we wanted from one another.  She reminded me of a KleanColor beauty I've swatched but didn't post yet, so here is KleanColor Blue-eyed Girl #191.

It's a blue jelly filled with hex glitter in two sizes.  This is the first time you'll see me putting this type of lacquer on because I've never liked jellies or glitter much, but this one's fun.

 Photos taken outside on a cloudy day

Please excuse the poor application. I know some of my nails look lumpy because I didn't really know how to do it right, I sort of globbed in all on, ha! This was 3 coats and obviously no underwear, you can see the VNL.

 Artificial lights

How many of you like jelly finishes? How many of you wear glitter?

Till next time!

How to restore/revive an old bottle of lacquer/nail polish!

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On to the nail stuff!

For those of you on MUA, you know what I'm about to write, so you're allowed to skip through the text and go look at the pretty pictures! 


To everyone else, read the following post very carefully! 


I know most companies have expiry dates on cosmetics and tell you to throw them away when they've passed those dates.  This may be a wise thing to do with mascara and other products that can grow bacteria and be harmful to you, but nail lacquer is not the same - IT DOES NOT GO BAD! 

Yes, it can separate and look like what I call nail polish cheese, but just shake it and you're good to go. Also over time it can get thicker or even dry up into a little clump, but guess what?! 

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO THROW AWAY OLD BOTTLES OF LACQUER! 

It can be brought back to life. How? Read on!

Here we have exhibit A - a hard to find, discontinued beauty called Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Garnet Lapis.  I found her and decided to immediately rescue her and bring her home with me. You can see in the bottom right corner right through the bottle because there's no liquid there and in the left, the ball inside is stuck to the side.

Click any photos to view larger

I tried to show what is happening inside the bottle to the best of my abilities and no, this is not trick photography, I'm holding the bottle on its side and right side up, to show you that what's inside is solid, no longer a liquid.

What do you think, this one looks beyond repair, right? Would you throw this out? NO! Go to your local beauty supply store and look for Thinner - that's the magic solution to this - literally!

DO NOT USE NAIL POLISH REMOVER!

I happen to have this Beauty Secrets but there are others like Seche Restore, you just have to find a fave. 

All you do once you got your thinner is open the bottle of the almost dead beauty and be careful, if it's completely try, the brush can be stuck in there. I opened mine to find a bunch of lacquer stuck on the bottles neck. You can pick that stuff off and put in right back in the bottle, it might have some pigments that you'd want to save.  Then pour the thinner into the bottle and either shake or let it sit, depending on how patient you are.

How much to put in? I'd say enough to where you'd think the level of polish would have been. I allowed mine to sit over night and then shook for a bit to mix it all up and this is what I ended up with.

Oh yeah, this beauty was back to herself, nice and smooth formula and just look at the multi coloured flash in the bottle. She's saved! I just had to try it on and look how great it is, multichrome!

Isn't she just a beauty? I'm glad I saved this one! It makes me wonder how many wonderful bottles of greatness have been thrown out or discarded by girls all over the world because the didn't know to use thinner to bring them back to life *sigh*

Before I forget, earlier I yelled at you to make sure you don't use nail polish remover and for those who are wondering why, think about it - when you use remover, it's to remove the colour off of your nails, separate its particles and break it down.  Why would you add that to the lacquer? It'll just ruin it! 


I know I've seen on tv and read in magazines the advice to add remover to old polishes and it just makes me sad that this advice is still circling out there, it's doing nothing but harming unsuspecting bottles of beauties.  So don't make me sad, don't add remover to them. Thank you!


Till next time!

Contest update!

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GUESS THE NUMBER OF BOTTLES CONTEST!

Click HERE to enter

UPDATE ON THE CONTEST

I'm sorry to have a second post today, I hope no one gets annoyed by that but...


I wanted to say thank you for all of you who have entered so far (29 of you up to right now) and I must tell you it makes it exciting for me to be on the other side and see the guesses come in. No one has guessed the right number yet BUT 2 of you have come soooo close, within 1 number of the actual number.  I'm actually thinking of moving up the end date of this contest so that we can move on to the next one sooner. What do you girls think?