Yellow It's Me...Matte

I'm having a bit of a blah day. It's my only day off work this week so I was planning on getting a lot done and I had some shopping to do. My bike is broken so I would have walked but I woke up to rain. I don't feel like missioning on the bus, so today has turned into a lounge around in pyjamas and catch up on some tv watching day.

I needed a nice bright colour to cancel all that out. So here is Nicole by OPI in Yellow It's Me - Matte. I'm not really a yellow person. I always think I'll like them but I never wear them. I like this one because it's not just yellow. It has a bit of a murky gold and almost green tone on my nails. The colour (but obviously not the finish) seems like it might be similar to Fiercely Fiona. I've only seen photos of that one so I can't be sure. Does anyone have both to compare them?

Swatches are after the jump.

Elf Matte Finisher

As you all know, I love matte nail polishes. So, when ELF released their Matte Finisher, I could barely wait for a good sale so I could try it out. Well, I tried swatching it over a couple colours today and I have to admit I'm a little nervous. As it started to dry, it turned the black creme an opaque white. Eek. Now, a few minutes later, it's looking a little less cloudy and it's definitely matte, but the colour is quite a bit duller. I had high hopes for this top coat so I bought three bottles. Fingers crossed that it looks better when it's completely dry. I'll update this in a bit to let you all know. And I'll have swatch photos as soon as I can charge my camera batteries. I lost the charger some time after my vacation. I know it's in the house, but no clue where.

Edit: The matte top coat is completely dry now. Most of the white finish cleared up, though there are a couple spots (which I've noticed with other mattes also). Overall, this top coat worked out fairly well. So, don't panic when you first try. Once I do a mani with this, I'll tell you all how it wears.

NOTD: Two-for-one Blue Glitters

Today's NOTD is a twofer. I hate wearing the same nail polish two days in a row, so a lot of times when I'm feeling lazy, I'll either add a coat of glitter or go from matte to glossy or vice versa to change it up without actually removing my polish and starting from scratch. I did this last week but of course forgot to take pictures before it was too late so I recreated the look to photograph. I have to apologize for the photos; glitters are always hard to photograph and these colours in particular were no exception.

I started off with China Glaze Dorothy Who? with a matte top coat. I absolutely love this colour. It's beautiful with a shiny finish but the matte top coat adds something extra that completely puts it over the top for me.

The next day I added a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Shooting Star to add even more glitter. Left is with flash; right, without. I find Shooting Star a little boring on it's own but layering it over dark blues seems to bring out the best in this polish.

Do you ever double up on your manicures to get an extra day? What are your favourite combinations?

NOTD: Cherry Red

I'm sorry for not posting lately. I was on vacation for a bit (more on that later) and since I got back, I've slowly been getting back into things. But I'm hoping to make up for it this week with lots of looks and reviews. So, to start things off, today's nails are Sally Hansen Extreme Wear in Cherry Red with matte top coat.  I wanted something red for Canada Day but a glossy red creme seemed too obvious. The matte finish adds just a little something special. Photo is with flash.

How did everyone else celebrate Canada Day? Or, for American readers, any special plans for the weekend? We ended up going to the city's celebration. I overdosed on cotton candy and the fireworks weren't anything special but it was fun anyway.

Elf Nail Polish Swatches (Matte)

Photo is with flash. With one coat of Claire's Cosmetics Matte Top Coat

Left to right: Mint Cream, Lilac, Desert Haze, Smoky Brown, Innocent, Nude, Chocolate.

Innocent is beautiful matte. I think this might be my perfect mannequin hands colour. I'd suggest not using matte top coat with smoky brown. It just looks like dry mud. I'm a little disappointed because it's so gorgeous glossy.The non-matte swatches are here.

NOTD: The (nearly) Perfect Lilac Creme (FINALLY!!!)

Revlon Gum Drop with matte top coat. With flash. I love this colour. And it smells like candy! But the formula is too thin. This is 4 coats and there's still a bit of streaking. That seems standard for Revlon polishes though.

Latest Xtreme Wear Swatches

All photos are with flash. Caribbean Coral is on the left; Going Green, right.

This is without top coat. Caribbean Coral is a gorgeous shimmery coral. It's not too pink and not too orange. I really like this colour but I have way too many corals. I always seem to buy them because they're so pretty but I don't wear them enough. 

Going Green is the perfect St. Patrick's Day colour. I just wish I had bought it months ago. It's about the colour of really healthy grass, with just enough shimmer.

I also swatched with matte top coat. I love Caribbean Coral with the matte finish. Going Green, on the other hand, loses everything that makes it special. The swatch photo looks much shinier than it really is. It's really just a dull, boring, completely unspecial green.

Mall Haul

I've been looking for a matte top coat lately and finally found one at Claire's. I used to shop there all the time when I was younger and loved their 10 for $10 sales. So, after finding the top coat, I looked around the store and picked up a few more things on clearance.

Can you tell I really like bows? Whenever my hair is short, I like wearing really girly clips or hairbands in it. I think my favourite of these is the purple one on the end. The colour matches my sunglasses really well.

 I also bought some bow earrings. I just started wearing earrings again for the first time in years. So, we'll see if I actually use these but they were too cute to pass on.

Of course, I also bought nail polish. A fluorescent pink that dries with a semi-matte finish and a glitter with hearts in it. I really like this glitter but it can be a pain to actually get the hearts from the bottle.I'll do a review on these polishes once I get a chance to wear them but for now, here's a swatch photo (with flash).

My absolute favourite find of the day has to be this keychain. I think ducks are the cutest thing ever and now I know I'll be finding excuses to be pulling out my keys in front of people to show this off.

Anyway, back to the matte top coat. I'm wearing it today over black polish and I love the effect. (And the fact that it pretty much doubles my nail polish options is a nice bonus.) It works better with some colours and finishes than others so I spent quite a while yesterday (too long probably) swatching it over different polishes. Here's a few of the swatches and I'll be doing more over the next few days.

This photo is with flash. The matte top coat is over the top half of each nail. Left to right: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Virtual Violet, Rockstar Pink, Blue Me Away, Gunmetal, Blue It, and Celeb City. 

Another store in the mall was having a no tax event and I managed to restrain myself and only buy three nail polishes. I haven't used KleanColor before or really heard much about them so I'll have a review up once I've tried them out but here's a swatch photo (with flash). 

Left to right: Aurora, Blue Pearl, and Mocha. The top half of Blue Pearl and Mocha each have matte top coat. (I guess I was really excited about that top coat.) I love the stars in Aurora but just by swatching, it seemed really hard to get them on the brush. Blue pearl is (obviously) a light blue with a pearlized finish and Mocha is just a medium brown.