Tag: Swatch Sunday

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Deborah Lippmann Stronger

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Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday! I’m currently on a very, very long drive to Northern New Brunswick to start our Christmas celebrations, but I wanted to make sure I got a Swatch Sunday post done for today! & I thought since we are only 3 days away from Christmas, we needed to get glittery! & boy, are we going all out!

Today’s Swatch Sunday pick is Deborah Lippmann Stronger. This shade was originally released in 2013 & created in part with Kelly Clarkson. I picked up my particular bottle at Winners/Marshall’s a few years back, probably on sale because that’s usually the way.

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The polish itself is a smoky purple jelly base which is packed full, & I mean full, of multi coloured & holo glitters. There are varying sizes as well, which you can really see in my macro shots. Absolutely stunning. This is definitely what I like to call a party glitter — the kind of polish designed for a special occasion, like Christmas or New Years Eve, when you just want everything about you to sparkle. Or maybe if you’re having a down day, & you want eye catching movie star worthy nails for buying bananas.

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Normally a shade like this, I would wear layered over a corresponding shade like dark purple or navy blue. This cuts down on the coats you need, which helps make removal easier & saves on polish. For my swatches though, I pulled out my UNT peel off base coat & applied the polish all on it’s own to see it in it’s true glory.

For my swatches I did 2 coats of polish which for me was enough, but wasn’t completely 100% opacity. I feel with the holo though, it fills in the gaps & you don’t even notice you can kind of see my naked nail. If I really wanted full coverage, sponging would be the way to go, especially when you have a bit of a trickier formula due to the dense glitter.

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I applied two coats of top coat to my nails to seal & smooth my glitter. One layer of super quick dry top coat (YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat) & then a thicker glossy top coat (Essie Gel Setter) just to smooth everything out.

I definitely recommend wearing a peel off base coat with glitters like this, just because it makes removal so much easier than trying to soak off a thick layer of glitter. I’ve done it–it takes way too long, uses way too much nail polish remover, & is no fun at all. Peel off base coats, like UNT Ready for Take Off, make life so much easier because you can just pop it off & move into the next manicure. & that makes me happy!

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So what do you think about Deborah Lippmann Stronger? Do you have a favourite glitter like this? Any secrets to removal you can share? Hop on over to my Instagram, & let me know what you think!

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SWATCH SUNDAY—Dimension Nails Amazonian Manatee & Pygmy Sloth

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Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! How crazy is it we only have 2 Sundays left until Christmas? I’m still attempted to get my Christmas presents together… the stress level is real!

But, I was lucky enough to receive an awesome gifted package from my girl Victoria at NailStuff.ca featuring some fun new goodies. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you would have gotten a sneak peak already, but Victoria sent me 3 brand new polishes from 2 new-to-me brands. & first up we’re taking about Dimension Nails!

Dimension Nails is a vegan, cruelty free Indie brand that is 10 free. That means it’s free of 10 not good for you ingredients including formaldehyde, toluene, & other really bad for you ingredients. Love that! Nailstuff.ca is a seller for the brand here in Canada, but you can also purchase directly from the Dimension Nails website as well. Also interesting is the fact that some of her shades–including the two I received–are collab shades with others which is so cool!

Now let’s get to the swatches!

Continue reading “SWATCH SUNDAY—Dimension Nails Amazonian Manatee & Pygmy Sloth”

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SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Peppermint To Be & Don’t Get Elfed Up (Holiday 2015)

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Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! Crazy to believe we’re already celebrating the second Sunday of December! I thought I would keep the holiday polish trend going by sharing two of my favourite holiday themed polishes from collections past: China Glaze Peppermint to Be & Don’t Get Elfed Up! from the 2015 Holiday Cheers collection. The original collection contained 12 beautiful metallic & glittery shades (plus one cream!) I bought 6 of the shades in a mini set from Marshall’s, & a big bottle of Ugly Christmas Sweater (which I feel like I need to share in a post all its own.)

For today’s post I decided to share the two polishes I seem to gravitate to most: Don’t Get Elfed Up which a is deep dark teal-y metallic shade with super intense turquoise shimmer & Peppermint To Be which is a vibrant pink toned red, again super shimmery.

So onto the swatches!

Continue reading “SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Peppermint To Be & Don’t Get Elfed Up (Holiday 2015)”

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Icing Stores Santa Baby

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Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! & happy December 1st as well! The countdown to Christmas is officially on, so naturally it’s time to get SERIOUS about all things holly & jolly. This month, I’m going to be dedicating all my Swatch Sunday posts to polishes of Christmas past, which are my favourite to pull out during the holidays.

First up, I chose a shade that’s a few years old but is probably one of the most Christmas-y shades I own: Icing Stores Santa Baby. For those who don’t know what Icing is, it’s a accessories store owned by Claire’s–basically Claire’s big sister store–& during holidays like Halloween, Christmas, or Easter, they always come out with themed collections. This bottle of polish was originally released as part of their 2015 Christmas collection, & I’ve been pulling it out ever since!

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Santa Baby is a glitter topper — the base is clear, & it is packed full of an assortment of glitters in red, green & white, all ranging from tiny micro glitters to medium sized bar glitters. But the coolest part about this polish is that it is scented like peppermint/candy canes once dried, & it comes through even with a nice coat of glossy top coat to seal it in. Seriously… the barista at my local coffee shop commented on how cool this polish looked on my nails, & I literally was like “you have to smell them! It smells like candy canes!” I’m a little weird sometimes.

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For my swatches, I applied one coat of Santa Baby over Essie Wrap It Up, & sealed everything in with Essie Gel Setter to level my nails out. This is one of my favourite ways to wear this polish & the best option for showing it off in all its glory. Second to that, this shade makes for the most perfect glitter gradient which I’ve shown off in years past. I’d love to try to sponge it on someday, & maybe I will as like an accent nail with some peel off base coat if I’m looking for a one night kind of manicure. I’d be really curious to see what it looks like all sponged on.

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As you can see, it’s like Christmas-y confetti on the nails. How amazing is that? I just adore the different range of glitter styles packed into one bottle. It always makes me feel festive whenever I put it on, even if I’m feeling more Grinch-y than Elf-y! Instantly it is like my holly & jolly levels will begin to rise, no rum spiked egg nog needed at all.

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Sadly this polish is 4+ years old, so it’s no longer in production. I even checked online to see if there was a similar product available, but there doesn’t seem to be any Christmas nail polishes at all this year by them. So this is definitely one of those lock it in the vault kind of shades if you happen to have it as part of your collection, because it really is special.

Do you have any special to your Christmas polishes you pull out every year? Let me know what yours are, & stay tuned because I have more Christmas themed nail polishes to share with you this month!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essence It’s Raining Men!

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Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

Today I’m sharing a pretty old polish from my stash that I haven’t worn in ages: Essence It’s Raining Men! It’s been quite a while (like 5 years) since I last wore this colour, so it felt like a good polish to grab. I’ve gushed before how much I love the Essence line of nail polishes, so I have a ton of them in my stash. & some of my favourites are like this beautiful blue: deep, right & slightly sparkly.

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For my swatches I did base coat (always), & two coats of colour. For my swatches, I didn’t apply top coat so you could see it on its own when it dries, & as you can see it dries pretty shiny! The base is a beautiful dark blue, with a ton of lighter blue, turquoise shimmer & purple glass fleck glitters. The first coat goes on pretty patchy, but with the second coat you can see how opaque the polish becomes.

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I know it’s not a typical Christmas polish, but I love love love blue for Christmas for some reason. Maybe it’s because my Granny’s favourite colour was blue & she used to decorate with so many blue ornaments it makes me think of her. & Christmas was my favourite time of year with my Granny, so that’s why I just wear so much blue as December approaches. I mean, she would have never worn a polish this colour, but I feel like she would appreciate it on me. 💙

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Sadly, this shade is way discontinued as Essence has update their nail polishes a few times since I purchased this beauty. I did look in my stash, & I’d say that China Glaze Blue Iguana is a close shade. Also, Essie Tied & Blue from their new holiday 2019 collection is very close in colour (from the swatches I’ve seen), although the finish is much different.

What do you think about this colour? Do you have a non-green/red polish that you love to wear during the holidays? Let me know in the comments below!