Category: Swatch

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SUNDAY SWATCH POST: Quo by ORLY Sweet DreamĀ 


Like any nail polish addict, when I go into a store that sells nail polish (pharmacy, grocery store, department store, Dollar store) always have to look at the polish selection. Even though I’m trying not buy polish I don’t need, I like to know what’s available on the off chance there something I absolutely need right now, or something on an awesome sale. 


While shopping at my local Shoppers the other day, I was checking out the Quo by ORLY selection & came across a colour I hadn’t seen before: Sweet Dream. I picked it up & immediately noticed the pretty pink shift in it. Suddenly I realized I needed this colour. Of course, not before I picked it up & put it down a few times trying to decide. Pretty sure the girl in Cosmetics either thought I was crazy or trying to shoplift. 

Sweet Dream is a pretty pearlescent blue with a subtle pink & turquoise shift that is sadly much more evident in the bottle than on the nail. But, when you hit the right light it is hard to not get distracted! The polish is super sheer–I used 2 coats over a single coat of Sally Hansen Babe Blue undies (& there is still some visible nail line happening.) I’m not sure how many coats it would take if you wore this polish on its own, but I bet it would be a few, so I definitely recommend using it over undies. I’d be interested in seeing how different undie bases would bring out the shimmer. But even with the extra work, Sweet Dream is so, so worth it.  

I mean, check out that shift:

I can’t even begin to explain how much I love this blue. It’s like Unicorn Nails in a bottle! All it’s missing is a flakie top coat, which I wish I had though of! Next time. I’ve been trying really hard to not buy polishes I already have 1000 versions of, & I can safely say I have absolutely nothing like this colour in my stash already. (trust me, I went home & tried to find a dupe. Nothing!)

Quo By ORLY polishes are available for purchase at Shoppers Drug Mart stores across Canada. For my international friends, I know sometimes Quo polishes are recreations of ORLY polishes that already exist, & from my Quick internet search I believe that Sweet Dream is a dupe of ORLY Angel Rain from the Fall 2013 Surreal collection. Looking at swatches in Google, I’m pretty convinced these are dupes. 

So what do you think of Quo by ORLY Sweet Dream? What has been your latestest have to to have polish buy? Let me know in the comments below! 

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SUNDAY SWATCH POST: OPI Living On The Bula-vard!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently won some contests via Instagram, & one of them was a set of 4 OPI minis from their Spring/Summer Fiji collection. I wore the other 3 colours in my tropical leaves accent nail design, but hadn’t yet shown off the 4th so I thought I would do a quick swatch for you. 

OPI Living On The Bula-vard! Is a super virbrant red leaning coral that goes on opacque in 2 coats. The first coat went on a little thin, but the second coat filled in the colour well. At first I honestly wasn’t sure how I felt about this colour, but as soon as it was on my nails I instantly fell in love. It’s not quite coral & not quite red–it’s honestly this perfect combination of the two in this weird way that makes me so happy.  

Living On The Bula-vard! definitely reminds me a lot of another OPI favourite–My Chihuahua Bites!–which is probably why I love it so much. & now I’m wishing I had checked to see if they were close to dupes before writing up this blog post… Whoops! Never the less, I will definitely be buying the large sized bottle of this colour. This is the kind of colour that brings out my olive undertones & highlights my tan so it’s perfect for Summer days! 

Do you have a favourite from the OPI Fiji collection? I’ve only tried the 4 minis, & I thought that Two Timing The Zones was my favourite, but after wearing it, Living On The Bula-vard! definitely has come out as the clear winner! 

I’m going to try & make swatch Sundays an ongoing thing. I’m always taking pictures of my solid colour manis, but never post them so I thought it would be a good time to start! This could be old favourites, new polishes, or just randoms from the stash. If you have a request, let me know in the comments below! ā™„ļø

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My Spring Polish Picks


If you’re like me, your love of nail polish may run into barriers such as money & time. Being a new Mom, I can’t afford to go crazy on buying nail polish like I used to, because you know… diapers. That means when I do want to buy polish, I have to make sure it is really something special. So instead, I’ve been “shopping” my own stash instead of buying new polishes.

In that spirit, I decided to go through & pick my favourite polishes for Spring from the shades I already own! It took me a while to pick my personal favourites from all the polishes I own, but these are all shades I can see myself reaching for in the coming months, & screams Spring to me!  I’ve listed the seasons these polishes were released, but I know some are part of the permanent core collections.

Continue reading “My Spring Polish Picks”

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Joe Fresh Gel Look in Key Lime Pie 7 day test.Ā 

As I teased in my last post, I wanted to test out the durability of the new Joe Fresh Gel Look polishes. They boast up to 14 day durability, so I wanted to see how long I could get the polish to last on my nails. I used to never wear my polish more than a day or two, but now that life has gotten busier I need a polish in my life that lasts between mommy mani time! 

Day one:

From my original post, Key Lime Pie on the first day. For those who don’t remember from my previous post, I used three coats for application, with no base or top coat required. 
Day two:

After a day of wear, (and many diaper changes on top of other Mummy duties!) polish still looked  the same as the day before. 
Day Four:

After four days of wear, there was minimal tip wear, most notably on my thumb and pointer finger. Also you can really notice the growth at my cuticles after four days. 
Day Seven:

After 7 days of wear there is noticeable chipping on my pointer, as well as serious tip wear on my other fingers. You can also see how much growth is at the cuticle after a week of wear. My other (dominate) hand saw similar chipping, although more. 

The chipping was enough for me that I wouldn’t want to go longer than I did (not to mention the growth at the cuticles). That’s not to say it couldn’t last longer, but for this experiment 7 days was my cut off. And for a polish that requires no base or top coat, I thought that was pretty impressive!

As mentioned in my previous post, these Joe Fresh Gel Look polishes can be found at your local Loblaws or Superstore for $5.

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SWATCH POST: Joe Fresh Gel Look polishes

Hello loves, it’s been a while!

For those who don’t follow me on Instagram, I gave birth to our son last week so I’ve been spending the last little while snuggling with little Bubs and being a Mommy (with naked nails!) But I finally got a minute for my nails, which was perfect because I just so happened to receive these brand new Joe Fresh Gel Look polishes to test out!

The colours I received for review  were Cotton Candy, Raspberry Tart and Key Lime Pie. These polishes are designed to last as well as gel polish, without requiring a UV Light, base coat or top coat. As you can see from the release that came along with my polishes, they boast that this polish can last up to 14 days! I’ll have a second post coming where I review the lasting power of the polish to see how long it lasts for me.

For my below swatches, I applied my polish as directed with no base coat and no top coat.

 

Continue reading “SWATCH POST: Joe Fresh Gel Look polishes”