Limited Edition Xtreme Wear

I told myself I wasn't going to buy every single new Xtreme Wear. But I just can't seem to help myself. I picked up four more yesterday and they're on sale this week at Pharma Plus ($1.99) so I'll probably get the rest this weekend.

Left to right: Mystic Lilac, Fireberry Red, Plum Burst, Cherry Punch

Sally Hansen did a great job with this collection and I'm having a hard time choosing a favourite. I thought it would be Purple Gala or Concrete, but after I swatched Mystic Lilac I wasn't so sure. It looks nice enough in the bottle, but on the nails you can really see how gorgeous this polish is. Pale greyish lilac with iridescent green shimmer. Mystic Lilac is subtle enough to be work-appropriate but still has a wow-factor when the light hits it.

Fireberry Red is the perfect fall version of Red Carpet. Dark and deep and dramatic. I already know this will be my Christmas nail colour.

Plum Burst true plum creme. Nothing too special but still a nice colour.

Cherry Punch looks like fruit punch with string and regular glitter mixed in. About half this collection seems to follow the same pattern of a shimmer base colour with the same glitter. You can pass on these if you have In the Spotlight or any other string glitter top coat since most of the base colours aren't very unique or special.

Have you guys tried these new Xtreme Wears yet? Which are your favourites?

I'm Michelle and I have a problem...

I think I'm addicted to nail polish. There's just something about using a new colour for the first time. Or the feeling you get when you finally find something you've been searching for. More than once that has caused me to come home with a bag full of polishes when I go to the store for something unrelated. Well, today I actually went for nail polish, but not nearly as many as I ended up buying. After seeing the new Xtreme Wear limited edition colours, I couldn't stop thinking about them. I want to wait for a sale, so I only bought two for now. But while I was at Pharma Plus, I saw the new Sally Hansen HD display. And I had a tough time choosing just one. 

Left to right: Sally Hansen HD Laser, Xtreme Wear Concrete and Purple Gala, Hidden Treasure

Hidden Treasure! I don't think there's anyone left who isn't in love with this one. My sister found two bottles at Zellers a while ago so we each have one but when she spotted this today, I knew I'd regret not buying it. I'm trying to decide if I should save it as backup in case more lines don't realize how coveted flakies are right now. Or should I pass it on to someone still lemming it?

I also went into Sally Beauty for polish thinner and ended up buying a China Glaze. Fairy Dust (the name is perfect!) is a holographic glitter. I can't wait to try it over black, and any other colour.

And since I can't be near a Walmart without checking out their nail polish selection:

I picked up Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost, French White Creme, Blue Moon, and Tickled Pink. I originally had about twice as many in my basket but managed to narrow it down since I had near-dupes for the others. For $1.57, these wear pretty well and there's a decent selection of colours. I also got some Rimmel Recover foundation for five cents each (that's right, $0.05!). Between two of us, we cleared out the display. I love finding makeup on clearance and you just can't beat that price. The same foundation was on clearance for eight bucks at the drugstore.

NOTD + Tag

This is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Going Green over Revlon Peach Petal. Obviously, before clean-up (again). Peach Petal is way too thin (like most Revlon) and tends to be streaky so this is 4 or 5 coats. And the colour isn't too special on its own, but I like how it turned out with the green. I used bundle monster plate BM20. On its own, Going Green is a medium shimmery grass green which is pretty enough but I really like how it looked more like a softer, pale jade green here. And I added a flower just to make it extra-special. Thanks to Stephanie for setting me off on this nail sticker kick. :)

I also have a quick survey from Stephanie so here goes;

1. Have you ever felt so disappointed in a nail polish you wanted to throw it out the window? And why?
Nothing that extreme but SH Divine Purple let me down. The colour was great but it lasted about an hour before chipping. I'll try it again with Seche Vite and if it still fails, then maybe I'll have to change my answer.

2. What are your top three favorite nail polishes?
  That's really tough. I can name three but then I think of one more that I really love and before I know it I have a list of 10 or 20 I can't part with. But if I absolutely had to name just three? SH Xtreme Wear VIP Pink, SH Hidden Treasure, and China Glaze Dorothy Who?, and also Revlon Gum Drop. I'm sorry it's just too hard to name only three.

3. What is your favorite online store?
I really like ELF for affordable, good quality cosmetics. But lately I've been hooked on ebay for accessories, nail stickers, and a million other things.

4. Is there anything you'd like to share with us that you haven't shared before?
Not that I can think of at the moment, but as I keep blogging, you'll all learn more about me.

5. What is your favorite song of the moment?
Right now, I'd have to say something of Michael Buble, but I can't name exactly one song. My taste in music isn't usually very similar to his stuff, but lately I've really liked it.

Birthday Swatches

Today I have some uber-special swatches to share with you. What makes them so special, you ask? First off, they're both amazing colours (and I've been lemming one of them for ages). But, even better, they were birthday gifts from my sister. Yep, it's my birthday. Twenty-five years old today.

So, let's get to the swatches. First up is Make Up For Ever eye shadow #92. This is the gold standard of purples. It's medium dark but bright and, wow, I can't even describe how perfect it is. This has been on my wish list for a while and I am not disappointed. I had a tough time photographing this colour because my camera tends to distort blues and purples, but after trying what seemed like a million settings, I got pretty close.

The top swatch is a little too pink and the bottom is a little too dark. But these were the closest I could get so I'll keep trying. Left in each photo is with base; right, without.

Next is Orly Viridian Vinyl from their Plastix collection. I didn't pay too much attention to this collection, even though I love matte polish and these are somewhere between matte and glossy. The texture is somewhat satin and really does look like plastic. And the colour is a gorgeous deep teal. From the bottle, I wouldn't have chosen it for myself but once I swatched it I knew it was perfect for me. (My sister knows my tastes better than I do sometimes.) This seems like a great transition colour with autumn coming fast.

Top is without flash; bottom, with.

Last but not least, I got Seche Vite top coat, which I've wanted to try but thought was just too expensive. So, I'll give that a shot on my next mani and see if it lives up to the hype.

Before I go, happy birthday to Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Donnie Wahlberg, and everyone else celebrating today!

NOTD: Hidden Treasure + Gum Drop

This is Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure over Revlon Gum Drop (with flash). Hidden Treasure is tough to photograph so this doesn't show how amazing it really is. Over dark polishes, it looks like green and copper flecks. But my favourite way to wear it is over pastel creams for pale blue, pink, purple, and green reflections. Up close, the flakies are noticeable but from a bit of a distance, it just looks like a really cool duo-chrome-y effect.

This is without flash. It's a bit blurry but shows more of the flakies in the polish.

And, since I've been meaning to use nail stickers more often, I added a flower to one nail:

Sweet Friends Tag

First off, I know I haven`t been blogging much lately, so I am sorry for that. I don`t even have a good reason. But I do promise to do better. And I do have some NOTDs and a couple reviews ready to go. 

So, with that out of the way, I want to thank Stephanie at Imperfectly Painted for tagging me with the Sweet Friends award. Thank you! And if you haven`t checked out her blog yet, definitely take a look if you`re into nail polish (which, of course you are).

The Rules:

1. Post who gave you this award
2. State 10 things you like
3. Give this award to 10 other bloggers and notify them with a comment

Now, for ten things I like. 

1.My pets. I have two dogs and one cat that I love more than anything in the world.

2.Hockey. Typical Canadian, eh? I especially love the New Jersey Devils.

3. Retro bicycles

4.Vegan cheesecake. I could eat this for every meal for the rest of my life and be very happy (and incredibly unhealthy).

5.Perfumes or body sprays that smell like food. Well, obviously not all foods. But anything sweet or fruity, especially vanilla, brown sugar, strawberry, coconut. My very favourite right now is Bodycology Vanilla Cupcake.

6.Brat Pack movies. Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, etc. I could watch any of those movies a million times and still love them.

7.Make-up. Goes without saying, but I`ll say it anyway because it`s true.

8.Reading. When I was younger, I would read an entire book in one day. It was usually Nancy Drew or Sweet Valley High. Over the past few years, I haven`t been reading as much but lately I`ve started again. Now, I love Stephen King, Jonathan Kellerman, Robin Cook.

9.Anything pink. I know, I`m really girly. But it`s by far my favourite colour. I counted my clothes once and fully half of my entire wardrobe was some shade of pink. When I do laundry even the dryer lint is bright pink unlike most people`s drab gray. Lol is that TMI?

10.White Collar. My sister got me started watching this show halfway through last season and I watched about six episodes in the first 24 hours. I am absolutely madly in love with Neal Caffrey. Definitely one of my all-time favourite characters.

I tag Simone, Heather, Susie, Scrubbing Up Well. And I want to tag all of my readers. And thank you for following this blog.

NOTD: Pink + White Polka Dots

Today feels like a fuchsia day. I don't know why. I'm not even sure what that means. But if I had to choose a colour today, I would say fuchsia. So I started out painting my nails with Wet n Wild Frosted Fuchsia. I really love this colour. I've been searching for the perfect dark pink for a while. I have probably a dozen pinks but they're all too light so when I found Frosted Fuchsia for a buck at Walmart, I knew I had to give it a shot. And it's absolutely perfect. Dark but still bright with just enough purple/blue undertones without actually being purple.

It looked prettty on its own and with a top coat would have been just fine but of course I just couldn't leave it alone. So, I added white polka dots with fauxnad plate BM19.

To just look at my nails quickly, they look fine, but up close in this photo, I realize how badly the dots turned out. I used NYC Snow White. This isn't a very good polish for fauxnading. It's too thin and streaky. But I've had it for ages so I don't even know if they make it anymore anyway. That said, I think white designs look adorable on pink, so I'm definitely gonna be looking for a good white polish for fauxnading (without paying Konad $7 for special polish, hopefully).

I thought I might have a pink somewhat close to Frosted Fuchsia, so I went through my stash. But the closest is Xtreme Wear Hot Magenta. And they're not terribly similar. Frosted Fuchsia is quite a bit darker and has more blue in it. I'm sure if I wore them on consecutive days, most people wouldn't notice the change though, so I'll have to make sure I don't do back-to-back manis with them. 
edit: I totally just realized that I posted these swatches without saying which is which. Real helpful, right? Hot Magenta is on the left; Frosted Fuchsia, the right.

I know this has been pretty wordy, but one more thing: as much as I love the colour fuchsia, I can't stand the word. I always want to spell it fuschia. I know that doesn't even look like it could be spelled correctly, but neither does fuchsia. It doesn't even sound like a real word, let alone a gorgeous dark pink. That's just my rant for the day. :)