Tag: throwback

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Hard Candy Zombie (2015 20th Anniversary collection)

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. & Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians celebrating this weekend. I hope it’s a wonderful weekend for you, full of Turkey & pumpkin pie.

Today I’m keeping the Halloween polish vibes going. Technically this isn’t a Halloween shade, per se, but it does have a very spooky name so I thought it would be perfect. This is Hard Candy Zombie.

1 coat + top coat

Even after 8 years, formula on this vintage shade is still very very good. I only needed one coat on most nails, although there were a couple spots where I touched up with a little extra. But it was a very good full coverage shade. The colour itself is a beautiful dark vampy purple, with burgundy shimmer. I do wish more of the shimmer had shown on my nails, though. In the bottle, it has such a stunning glow that sadly doesn’t fully translate to the nail fully.

This shade was originally released as part of the 2015 20th Anniversary collection that Hard Candy released as a tribute to the 90s. My assumption is that naming the shade Zombie is a tribute to the Cranberries song, although with it’s dark colour I feel like it’s also very perfect for Halloween.

Sadly, Hard Candy no longer appears to be in the nail polish game, which is a shame because all of the shades I own from them remain stunners, even after all this time.

What do you think about Hard Candy Zombie? Do you remember this release? What do you think — should Hard Candy get back into the polish game again? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

Have a great Sunday loves! 🖤

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SWATCH SUNDAY — OPI My Private Jet (new version)

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! I hope everyone had a lovely week. It’s officially Fall, which means I’m fully embracing all things knit sweaters, over the knee socks & knee high boots. 🍂🍁 My favourite time of year by far.

Today I have a fun nail polish to share with you that I actually can’t believe I haven’t shared before as it’s a favourite of mine this time of year. This is OPI My Private Jet.

2 coats + top coat

This shade actually has a really cool, albeit controversial, history. It was originally released as part of the Night Brights Spring 2007 as more of a liner holographic polish. Then, the re-released it in 2010 & people noticed it was a bit different. Okay, very different. Then, in 2018, they also released the shade in the Infinite Shine line with the new version of the polish — xoxo, Jen has swatches of that.

I’m not exactly sure when I picked up my bottle of My Private Jet, but it’s definitely the new scattered holo of the polish. The base is a beautiful dark brown, & it’s packed full of those tiny scattered holographic glitters. It also has a fun copper shimmer that comes through in certain lighting for a nice glow.

For a shade that is at least 6+ years old, the formula on this one is holding up very well. The polish applied smoothly in 2 coats. For my photos, I photographed it under my daylight bulb, with flash, so really get the holographic glitter to show. In my above macro shot, you can see how densely packed the holographic glitters truly are. Sadly, it doesn’t have the beautiful liner holo effect of the original, & I’m envious of anyone who has their hands on the original finish. But, as someone who didn’t know the original existed until after she fell in love with this version, I can appreciate both for what they are.

If you’re looking to get your hands on this beautiful shade, you can find the Infinite Shine version of this polish right on the OPI website — as well, as a few other places online. I also saw a few listings for the regular formula OPI My Private Jet with a quick Google search, although it has been discontinued out of regular rotation.

What do you think of OPI My Private Jet? Do you have this polish in your stash — either the original 2007 version, or the updated version? What are you thoughts on brands changing the formulas of polishes, but keeping the same name? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze High Hopes

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday! I feel like it’s been a while since I did a Swatch Sunday post, even though it’s only been 2 weeks. Today I dug deep deep into the stash for a bit of an oldie shade: China Glaze High Hopes.

2 coats + top coat

According to Google, this shade was originally released as part of the Spring 2010 Up & Away Collection. I believe I purchased this bottle myself circa 2013/2014, although I’m not 100% sure. It’s been in my stash a while though.

Formula on this beauty is smooth & easy to apply. The colour is a beautiful vibrant coral that was a smidge hard to photograph accurately. But I feel like these photos capture it most accurately.

The bright colour feels perfect for Summer, but would be easy to transition into Fall by pairing it with a deep burgundy. Yes, my mind is going there. I’m trying my best not to start thinking about Autumn, but our local Dollarama has Halloween already popping up, & Halloween is my favourite season!

But back to High Hopes! This shade is lovely & the colour is a great alternative to my usual go-to red manicure that I love so much.

I did find a few listings online for this shade — Sparkle Canada has it listed for sale, as well you can find the Gelaze version on the China Glaze website. I also found an Amazon listing, but I’m not sure if it’s a secondhand seller or not. However, there are definitely a few listings floating around for this fun vibrant shade!

What do you think about this beautiful vibrant coral shade? Do you have China Glaze High Hopes in your nail polish stash?

Let me know all your thoughts, & what shade you’re currently loving this week!

🖤

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Icing Stores Starlight

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. It’s a rainy, grey, & extremely blah day here on the East Coast — & it’s starting to feel like we’ll never see the sun.

I needed some cheering up after this blah, blah week so I started digging through my Claire’s/Icing drawer & found this old school beauty! & I just knew that I had to pick it for this week’s Swatch Sunday.

This is Icing Starlight.

3 coats + top coat

The formula on this beautiful jelly glitter is thin thin thin, but it builds to nice coverage. & because the formula is so thin, each coats dries down quickly before you apply the next one. It also means you can see each & every silver & holo glitter suspended in the base, which I love.

Truthfully, I could have applied a forth coat for a bit more opacity, but with the exception of my tips (where it shows of a bit of my natural yellowing from my nail polish obsession) I really love how this looks. & that could easily be corrected with a colour correcting base coat. Or, by using it as a topper over another blue polish.

In the bottle it reminds me a bit of China Glaze Dorothy Who? but the base is much thinner leaving the colour on the nail much, much lighter. However, it has those beautiful holographic glitters that really show up, so I can’t be mad about it. It’s a beautiful shade all on its own.

Sadly, this colour is long long out of circulation. If I had to hazard a guess, based just on the bottle shape, I would say I purchased this bottle somewhere between 2009-2011. The brand has gone through quite a few bottle changes since then, but I’m happy to see even a decade later, this shade applies & wears beautifully.

& sometimes it’s just fun to take a walk down nail polish memory lane with a shade you haven’t seen in a while.

What do you think about Icing Starlight? Do you have any oldies in your stash you haven’t pulled out in a while? This Sunday is a great day to find a shade you haven’t worn in a while, & pull it out!

Have a lovely day! 🖤

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Sunday Funday

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

It’s a beautifully sunny, albeit freaking chilly, Sunday here on my part of the East Coast. Winter seems to be lingering now. So I thought I would remind myself of better, warmer days with an old favourite Essie shade for this week’s Swatch Sunday post — Sunday Funday.

It was originally released as part of the Summer 2013 Naughty Nautical collection.

2 coats + Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Top Coat

For a polish which has been in my stash for (I think) at least 8 years, she applied like a dream. I needed to shade my bottle a bit, since it had settled leaving the colour weird, but I found it had no effect once it was on the nail — you can see in the bottle there is still some colour separation showing.

The polish itself is a beautiful pinky coral, with a gold glass shimmer. It gives it a nice sparkle. I had a bit of trouble with photographing, as everything was photographing really yellow, but I think that’s a phone camera issue rather than a polish issue. These pictures are definitely as colour accurate as I could get.

As mentioned, this shade was originally released in 2013. It was part of the core collection for a while, I do believe, but Essie lists it as no longer available on their website sadly. I did find a listing for it on Sparkle Canada, but I’ve never bought from them so I’m not sure how legit that is. Obviously, if it’s a shade you need to have, Ebay always might have it, as well as any nail polish clearance bins.

What do you think about this punchy Essie shade? Are you are ready for Spring & Summer shades as I am ready to share them? Let me know what you think of Essie Sunday Funday! & I hope you have a Sunday Funday (that’s just fun to say) too!

♥︎