Tag: Swatch

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COMPARISON POST — My Favourite Cobalt Blues (Pacific Blue Dupes)

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! Today I have a special post I swear I’ve been meaning to do FOREVER but just never got around to doing — a comparison post featuring a few of my favourite cobalt blue shades!

I have done a couple of these comparison posts in the past, & they always prove to be popular, so I thought that it would be fun to do another. All the shades you’re about to see are inspired by my love of one polish: the original formula Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue. If you don’t know, Pacific Blue was the most perfect cobalt blue polish that ever existed, which sadly saw a formula change in 2014… a formula change which led to serious uproar in the nail polish community. This led to mainly nail bloggers searching for dupes, & stocking up on any old formula bottles they could find… myself included. As a result, I have quite a few cobalt blues in my nail polish collection… & I wanted to compare a few of my favourites to see how they lived up to the original.

As you can see, I’ve selected 5 of my many blues for comparison… can you tell which ones are which from the above swatches? All polishes were applied over my base & finished with top coat (Essie Gel Setter).

Continue reading “COMPARISON POST — My Favourite Cobalt Blues (Pacific Blue Dupes)”

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Gel Couture Princess Charming

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday! I’m super excited to share brand new swatches with you of a new polish! & yep I changed my nail shape again. Round/almond nails just work so much better with newborn life.

Today’s polish pick a new to me shade which was actually gifted to me by my Mom as a gift after having our baby girl: Essie Gel Couture Princess Charming. 🌸

This pink neutral has an amazing formula which goes on in easy coats. It is almost a one coaster, & you could quite possibly apply in one if you were super careful (my pinky only needed one coat). I did two with thin coats, & everything levelled down perfectly, even before I added my top coat (Essie Gel Setter).

This link is such a nice neutral shade, which boarders on almost a nude. This is definitely a great Office appropriate shade that you could wear everyday. There is a hint of mauve to this shade as well, & I really like the duskiness of it. It would also make a fantastic base for nail art.

This is only my second ever Essie Gel Couture shade, but I must say if all of their polishes are like this I’m definitely going to need to change that! I am beyond impressed with the formula & how smoothly it applied. Not only that, but it seemed to dry quickly before I even applied my top coat. I’m definitely curious to see how well the polish holds up for me & how long it lasts on my nails before chipping.

Do you have a favourite Essie Gel Couture shade? Do you own Princess Charming in your own stash? Share all your thoughts on this polish down below.

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d LA Dreamin’

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday. Today I’ve got a bright & girlie pink to share with you from deep in my stash: Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d in LA Dreamin’. This shade is from the Shoppers Drug Mart based Quo by ORLY range & I picked up this particular shade in the clearance last Summer for only $1!

For those who don’t know, these Color Amp’d shades are designed to wear like gel, lasting longer than your tradition polishes. They are designed to be paired with a Gel-like top coat that, when paired with the polish, will create that gel like bond on your nail.

For my swatches, I used 3 coats of polish & finished with top coat. The polish itself is very, very thin so you need a lot of layers in order to build opacity. You could definitely use some white undies to keep layers to a minimum, but for my swatches I wanted to show the polish on its own.

Even with 3 coats, there is still some visible nail line showing (although not as well in my swatches). Even though I don’t usually like thin formula polishes like this that show off nail line, there is something about this pink shade that I don’t mind it as much. It also has this slightly neon quality to it that I really like with my skin tone for Summer because it brings out the natural olive undertones in my skin & makes me look more tan… which is ALWAYS a good thing.

Who doesn’t love pink!? What colour do you feel like is your shade for Summer? I feel like with how much I’ve been wearing it lately, pink/coral is going to be the shade for me for Summer 2019!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Color Club Wham! Pow!

Good Afternoon lovelies & Happy Swatch Sunday! I know I missed last week, so I’m back this week with a colour totally out of my comfort zone–Color Club Wham! Pow!

According to NailPolishCanada, this shade was originally released as part of the Poptastic collection. I picked up my bottle in clearance at my favourite pharmacy, for only $1.99, but you can find this shade online for a mere fraction of its original cost.

This shade is very neon, like highlighter orange neon, which obviously made for a difficult time while trying to photograph in my light box with my iPhone. For my swatches, I did 2 coats of base coat, 2 coats of polish & finished with a glossy top coat.

I was super impressed with the formula–sometimes Neons can be less than easy to apply with super thin formulas that need white undies, or they drag really bad, & need too many coats, but Wham! Pow! went on with only 2 easy coats. The first was kind of patchy, but the second coat filled everything in & levelled beautifully.

This colour is definitely out of my comfort zones–usually when I pick oranges I go for more coral shades as opposed to something so bright & neon, but I was feeling in the mood for something different! I do like how shades like this always make you look more tan than you actually are.

& below is what I did with my swatch: I added some holo glitter with both Sally Hansen Make It N-ice & Quo by ORLY Falling Star. You can also see how the colour shows more truly in the sunshine versus the photos in my light box.

what do you think of today’s Swatch Sunday pick? Would you rock this colour? Let me know in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Superchic Lacquer Throwing Shade

{PR sample}

Good afternoon lovelies & happy Sunday!

Today I have a fun gifted polish to shade from you, thank was so graciously sent to me by my friend over at Nailstuff.ca.

On top of all the amazing nail art goodies, there is a fantastic selection of Indie polishes that you can also choose from! & today’s selection is from her awesome collection: Superchic Lacquer Throwing Shade.

This gorgeous Indigo liner holo applies in one coat! & has a flawless application. Sometimes I find holo polishes can be thin & drag, but I had zero problems applying Throwing Shade. I started off with 2 coats of base coat (based on what I’ve read online) followed by one coat of my polish & then sealed everything in with a glossy top coat.

Even with artificial lighting, you can see how awesome the shift of rainbows is both on the nail & in the bottle. If only we had another sunshine-y day to see it in all it’s true glory, but sadly we have another cloudy rainy day happening in Halifax. No worries… still completely distracted by how gorgeous this polish looks!

& below you can see it with flash. So. Much. Holo!

What do you think of this blue holo? What colour polish is your favourite holo? Share all your favourites down in the comments below!

💙