Category: Swatch

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essence Me & My Lover (Sparkle Sand Effect)

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. ❤️

I thought since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, I should pick out something sorta Valentine-y for my nails. After digging through my stash, & through a lot of red nail polishes, I decided on this oldie from Essence: Me & My Lover.

2 coats, no top coat.

This shade was originally released in 2014/2015, which is when I picked it up at my local Shoppers Drug Mart. It is a sparkle sand effect shade, which means that it dries down to a textured finish.

Unlike some other sand effect polishes I’ve used, Me & My Lover has a finer grit, so the textured finish is a bit more subtle. It’s there, but it’s also easy to smooth out with a coat of glossy thick top coat.

The red is a beautiful pink leaning red — there seems to be some gold glitters & magenta glitters mixed in. It makes for a very, very beautiful polish. It also dries fairly quickly, which is an important thing when it comes to textured polishes. No body has time to be waiting around for their polishes to dry for hours.

The formula is also really easy to work with, which I always get excited about when it comes to extra old polishes in my stash. I’m definitely glad I decided to pull it out, because it was just the red I was looking for!

What do you think of this Essence shade? Do you remember the textured polish craze? Do you still have any of your old textured shades—which ones were your favourites?

Let me know in the comments below!

& have a happy Valentine’s Day tomorrow!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Color Club Bewitched

Hello lovelies, from the frozen North. Well, not quite, but after a big one Winter storm, it certainly feels like it.

Have I mentioned I am SO over Winter?

So obviously this means I need to obsessively apply holo nail polish to my nails every chance I get. My local Walmart has a few of their Color Club collections in for $5, including the range of holos. So I’ve been buying myself the occasional one when I need to cheer myself up. Today’s Swatch Sunday pick: Color Club Bewitched.

2 coats, no top coat

Color Club Bewitched is a beautiful lilac liner holo with a pretty shift of pink. On my first coat, I was a bit nervous this was going to take a lot of coats to build opacity, but the second coat covered any patchiness the first coat might have had.

The holo is very strong on this polish & really pops — especially in the sunshine. I really like that it has that little bit of shift as well because this definitely makes this shade different than other holographic polishes in my stash.

Also you can’t say no to $5. Especially when it’s after a particularly rough day, or another snowstorm. I think I’ve bought most of the liner holos they have in the collection, with the exception of a few… but we still have six more weeks of Winter (at least), so I’m sure I’ll have time to add more.

What do you think of Color Club Bewitched? Do you have this holo in your collection? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Smith & Cult The Message

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! Today I have another fun new to me brand to share with you, that once again I found thanks to Winners! Smith & Cult The Message.

It actually came in a gift set, which included 2 other polishes & an adorable make up bag. & the price for all those goodies? $9 on clearance. Even if I wasn’t already itching to try out the brand, a deal like that cannot be passed up! Plus I’ve been following Smith & Cult on Instagram for YEARS but have never actually seen their polish in stores! So it was definitely meant to be.

2 coats + top coat

First things first — these are some heavy duty bottles. The feel very upscale compared to other nail polish brands, which is neat. Of course, finding a spot in my drawers took a second, but they’re definitely the kind of bottle you want to display. Also I originally thought that I had got a dented polish top, but all my shades were like that, & it appears to be intentional.

The formula of the polish itself was smooth & easy to work with. I needed two coats for full opacity. The shimmery red is very nice, which shows a bit more berry on my nails than straight up red.

The Message is definitely a red polish I could easily throw on if I was stuck on anything else to wear— red is always my go to in those moments— & also would be a lovely choice for Valentine’s Day! This would definitely be a lovely date night polish. I ended up topping my nails with some liner holo top coat (Starrily Eclipse… my go to), which I’ve been wearing for the last couple days. Excited to see how this polish holds up during an extended shift at work.

Like I mentioned, I found this shade at my local Winners — I’ve also seen some single bottles at Marshalls as well. If you’re not finding them at yours, or don’t have a Winners/Marshalls you can also purchase Smith & Cult polish through their website, as well as on Amazon. Although, I will say — the prices are considerably higher than the deal I got at Winners, so they’re definitely on the higher end of nail polish prices.

What do you think about this beauty of a red? Have you tried Smith & Cult The Message, or any of their other shades? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below & tell me what’s the most you’ve ever spent on a single nail polishes?

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Cadillacquer Leilani (Thermal)

•pr sample/gifted•

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

Sorry for the lack of posts this week — 2022 hasn’t quite been my friend. I came down with the flu right before the new year, & even almost 2 weeks later I’m still just starting to feel like myself again. Which means, I need to get started with some fun January nails.

This week for Swatch Sunday, I have another gifted polish care of NailStuff.ca to share: Cadillacquer Leilani.

2 coats + top coat

Cadillaquer Leilani is a beautiful jelly blue thermal, which is packed full of multisized glitters, & shifty flakies. In it’s cool state, it is the funky blue colour you see in the bottle, but when your hands are warm (or when you dunk them in some nice hot water) the polish shifts to a semi sheer golden white colour.

The formula itself is quite easy to work with — not too gloopy or runny, which is good when you’re working with a shade which needs more coats. I went with two coats of polish, but I definitely could have applied another to hide the bit of sheerness it had while hot.

Below, you can see it in its “warm” state, after I dunked it in some hot water, as well as when my fingers started shifting back.

I’m always a sucker for thermal shades, & the dramatic colour difference between the hot & cold state of this one is really fun. As I’ve written before, I’ve been a sucker for thermal nail polish since my Claire’s “Mood” nail polish days, so it makes me so happy to still be able to play around with these shifty shades, even after all these years.

If you’re looking to add this shade to your collection, you can find it (& other Cadillacquer shades) for purchase via NailStuff.ca.

What do you think about Cadillacquer Leilani? Are you a fan of thermal nail polish? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Dimension Nails Kronosaurus

•pr sample/gifted•

Hello lovelies & happy 2022!

It’s the first Swatch Sunday of 2022, in fact, & I’m excited because I have a beautiful polish to share with you that was gifted to me c/o: the oh so sweet @NailStuff.ca: Dimension Nails Kronosaurus. This shade was released as part of the Prehistoric Collection — a whole collection of polishes named after Dinosaurs!

Two coats, no top coat.

How freaking stunning is the beautiful blackened blue? It’s absolutely perfect for this time of year!

The formula is smooth & easy to apply. I applied 2 coats for full coverage, but you may be able to get away with one thick coat if you have shorter nails. The brush on the Dimension Nails bottle is also great because it’s wider, meaning you need less swipes for full coverage.

The shimmer is so beautiful, & I love how you don’t have to fret about too many brush strokes because the wider brush. You might remember I used this shade for one of my New Years Eve looks, & I feel like it has a lot of nail art possibilities! I also really want to see how it looks with matte top coat over top — I bet it is stunning!

Dimension Nails are Vegan, Cruelty-free, & Certified by PETA, Leaping Bunny, and Logical Harmony. They are also “10 free” which means they don’t contain any ingredients like formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, dibutyl phthalate, toluene, etc.

In Canada, you can buy Dimensions Nails via NailStuff.ca. In the USA, Dimension Nails can be bought directly via her website.

What do you think about Dimension Nails Kronosaurus? Do you love a deep blue shade like this? Do you own any Dimension Nails in your stash? Let me know in the comments below!