Review: China Glaze’s Dash of Dazzle polish set

Nail Polish Canada contacted me to ask if I wanted to review one of the China Glaze Happy Holi-Glaze polish sets. I picked the blue and gold one called “Dash of Dazzle,” the other set was a pink, red, and a glitter. If you want to check out either set, or any of the polishes in the collection, you can find them at NailPolishCanada.com…

But for now, let’s take a look at my swatches, shall we?

The packaging on the set:

This is how the sets look, with that box holding all of them together. And Nail Polish Canada sent me some Christmas coloured lollipops, too!

A closer shot of the bottles:

From left to right: Mingle with Kringle, Bells Will Be Blinging, and So Blue Without You.

Nail Wheel swatch of Bells Will Be Blinging:

Just one coat; this is how I like to swatch my glitters so I’ll be able to see how they’ll layer over another colour.

Nail Wheel Swatches of So Blue Without You and Mingle With Kringle:

Above: One coat. I usually do at least two coats on my nail wheels, as I like to see how many layers it takes to reach full opacity on the nail. But even at one coat, these polishes are pretty close to opaque. They are also pretty much the exact same consistency, and spread really nicely without any streaking. Below is a picture of these polishes with two coats:

On the Nail:

I did two coats of So Blue Without You, and then two thin coats of Bells Will Be Blinging (which is a ridiculous name!) on the accent nail. I really love how well these two colours work together. And the colour of the So Blue Without You polish is just fantastic; it’s like a cold, bright, almost foil-like blue. Definitely in love.

There are lots more colours in this collection, aside from the two sets that are available. Also, right now the sets are available for $15 each on NailPolishCanada.ca, and shipping is free in Canada, so now is probably the time to pick one up if you’re interested!

Thanks for reading!

**I was sent this product for review, but I was not paid to endorse the product or the site. All my opinions are completely and 100% honest as always.**

My Current Nails: Valentine’s Day Nails v2.0

Look at me, getting two different nail art looks up in less than a week! My first manicure started chipping after Tuesday’s trip to the gym so obviously that was the perfect excuse to strip it off and do another themed mani. Especially since me and my boyfriend are celebrating Valentine’s Day tomorrow (today for you, most likely. February 13th)  instead of the 14th, to avoid crowds.

Anyways, here’s a look at what I did this time: Valentine Heart Leopard Print! Also, I apologize about my cuticles, they’re looking a little shredded…

Left hand:

Right hand:

Thumbs:

I used:

• China Glaze in Fast Track as a base colour
• ELF in Bubblegum Pink
• Butter London in Chancer
• LA Colors black striper

I hope you all have a very happy Valentine’s Day, whether you’re single or have a boyfriend or girlfriend! Thanks for reading!

<3

My Current Nails: Valentine’s Day Edition

No, I know it’s not Valentine’s Day yet, however, it has been a really long time since I last uploaded a nail polish post, and even longer since I showed you any nail art. If I’d done any, you’d have got to see it, but I’ve been keeping it pretty simple lately. Just the other day, though, I did do my first Valentine’s mani of the year, and I’m absolutely in love with it, so of course I had to share:

Left hand:

Right hand:

For the base colour, I used a soft, shimmery unnamed pink polish from Ardene, and for the hearts and dots I used my neon pink LA Color striping polish with one of my tiny paint brushes. And, of course, it’s all topped off with a coat of Seche Vite.

I hope you like these, and if you take inspiration from them for your own nails, I’d love to see how yours turn out!

Thanks for reading!

Christmas Light nails! (My Third, and final, NailPolishCanada contest entry!)

Hello again! As the title says, this mani is my entry into the final week of NailPolishCanada.com’s Christmas Nail Art competition, and, once again, I’m hoping you guys love it and go vote for me! I’d love it so much! Here’s the link:

http://www.nailpolishcanada.com/holiday-nail-art-challenge-week-3-decorate-the-tree/

The theme for the week is decorate the tree, so what better than Christmas lights!?

Here’s my mani:

In this close up, you can see the shimmery white base a lot better (even though you can also see my mistakes a lot clearer, too!):

And here’s a look at my kinda messy right hand… because I’m right handed, so give me a break! I did pretty good with my left hand! =P

Polishes used:

Base = two coats of Sephora by OPI’s A-ha! Moment and one coat of Collection 2000’s Sparkle Top Coat
Black wire = LA Color Black Striper
Red lights = OPI Keys to my Karma
Green lights = Revlon Posh
Yellow Lights = OPI Did It On ‘Em
Blue Lights = Fascino #26

And, of course, my Seche Vite topcoat, which I’m running out of my second bottle of! Luckily, I have another unopened one waiting to take its place! =)

So, thanks for reading, and please please vote for me in the competition! It would mean a lot!

<3

Christmas Present Nails (My NailPolishCanada week 2 contest entry design!)

For some reason my nail art brushes have vanished, so these aren’t what I originally planned for the to be. I wanted to line them with silver and draw a bow on each one, but I opted for a black striper after almost destroying two nails trying to draw lines with my silver and a dotting tool.

But anyways… Here’s a look at my entry into week two of NailPolishCanada’s nail art contest. This week’s theme is “Gifts,” and you can see the entries and vote (for me?) here. And here’s how I did mine:

I used so many polishes I won’t list them here, but if there is one you want to know about, just ask, I’ll remember.

Also, I would be so thankful, once again if you would vote for me this week. Just click here to go vote! Thanks to everyone who voted last week and to anyone who votes again for me this week!

Stay tuned for my October/November empties post in a couple of days!

<3

Snow Nails (My entry for the first week of NailPolishCanada.com’s nail art contest)

In case you weren’t aware, NailPolishCanada is doing a themed nail art competition. This week’s theme is Snow. I know this is a bit of a half-hearted attempt, especially compared to some of the other entries, but I would appreciate it immensely if you voted for me! I promise my entry for next week will be better prepared! (Click here to go vote)

The best nail:

In case you’re wondering, the blue is Sephora by OPI’s Blue Grotto, under a holographic topcoat that is just basecoat and a bunch of holo microglitter. Then I used a white LA Colours striper for the snowflakes.

Thanks so much, and please vote!

My Current Nails (and some of my other latest manis)

My current mani is two coats of Wet N Wild Wild Shine in Caribbean Frost, and then two coats of Orly Mermaid Tale. The colours match surprisingly well:

Another recent mani was using this adorable little bottle of polish:

Which I made! My friend Brit and I did a meet-up with another redditor, who had polish-making supplies that she let us use. I made this pretty purple holographic polish, which I really like. Look how shiny! (I called it SparkleBerry)

And, I recently re-found a bottle of Ardene nail polish—Cotton Candy Pink—that I’d forgotten I had. It’s a really soft, almost Barbie pink… Maybe Barbie princess? Without flash:

With flash:

And that’s all for now. What polishes have you been wearing? Thanks for reading!

Halloween Nails!

I almost didn’t bother doing these, but after my last manicure chipped after only one day, last night I decided to go ahead with these, instead of doing nail art for my Halloween costume, which wouldn’t have made much sense anyways!

These are very simple, and nothing spectacular, but I really like how they are almost entirely monochromatic. My left hand turned out pretty good, I think, and it looks like I managed to escape streaking for once!

I used Sephora by OPI in Caliente Coral for the orange, Revlon in Posh for the pumpkin stems, and China Glaze in Smoke and Ashes for the black details. (Which I think makes it look just a little cooler, since it gives the designs a little sparkle, even if that didn’t come out in the pictures).

In case it isn’t clear… Thumb to pinkie: Spider web, web and dangling spider, kitty and the moon, jack-o'-lantern, and bats.

Those are all spider webs, minus, of course, the jack-o'-lantern. Excuse the shrinkage on the tip of my thumb-nail… Stupid Seche… -_-

I hope you like these! Maybe they can be inspiration for some last minute Halloween nails of your own? I’d love to hear what you’ve done to your nails for the holiday, and if you have pictures or a blog post about them, feel free to send me a link in the comments. I also love seeing or hearing about your costumes, plans, or make-up… Basically, I just love Halloween!

I hope everyone has a fun, candy-filled, and safe time this Halloween! =)

My Current Nails: Matte Bronze Nails

Hey, this is just a really quick post to show off my extremely simple—but in my opinion, very cute—nails!

And here are the polishes I used, China Glaze Harvest Moon and Sephora by OPI’s Matte Top Coat:

It’s kinda odd how much I like this, since China Glaze’s Stone Cold is a very similar idea, but with more of a pewter metallic which is automatically mattefied. However, I really love the look of the mattefied bronze polish here!

I never really fell in love with the matte polishes while they were cool, but I think now I’ll be trying them out with some types of polishes I never tried before, because I am really loving this pairing! Also, my Harvest Moon is a lot more empty already than I had thought… I don’t want to run out! It’s easily one of my favourite polishes, and now I even have one more use for it!

What are you wearing on your nails? Leave me your comments! =)

Owl Nails!

So owl nails had been on my list of art I wanted to try for a long time, and I finally got around to it the other day! I’m pretty impressed with it, and I love my derpy little owls, even if they do look kinda odd. I think they’re cute!

The polishes I used were:

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mint Sorbet, Essie in Fiji, Sephora by OPI in A-Ha! Moment, ELF in Bubblegum pink, Wet’n’Wild Wild Shine in Blazed, L.C. Colors Art Deco in Black, and Revlon in Posh.

Right hand:

Right thumb:

Left hand:

So, what do you think? I love them! Have you ever tried owls? How did they turn out? Also, if the watermark super annoying, or alright? Let me know, please!

Thanks for reading!

Fall Coloured Splatter Mani

I feel like I say this a lot, but that’s because I like asking for opinions… anyways, I asked my boyfriend what I should do to my nails this time, and he suggested a fall themed splatter. I’m not sure I like how this turned out, but he does, so I’ll let y’all be the judges!

Polishes I used:

• Base colour: Fast Track by China Glaze
• Red: Redwood by Icing
• Bronze: Harvest Moon by China Glaze
• Orange: Caliente Coral by Sephora by OPI

And, as usual, Nail Envy for my base, and Seche as my topcoat

So, please let me know what you think! Do you agree with me that it looks like a bit of a mess, or with my boyfriend that it looks cool?

My Current Nails: Bright Reverse French Manicure

Requested by my boyfriend. I actually have been wearing this for (I think) four days, though my thumbs have peeled off and needed redoing since I first painted them.

Also, since then, I’ve received compliments from 3 or 4 different people! =P

Anyways, I used Strawberry Margarita by OPI for the pink base, and Smoke and Ashes by China Glaze for the black tips. There is a bit of tip wear, though that may be shrinkage, since I used Seche Vite as my topcoat. I think it’s stopped shrinking since last night, though, when I added a coat of Out the Door topcoat to the other nails at the same time I repainted my thumbs.

If you’re wondering how I did the tips, it’s just a simple tape line!

What do you think? Let me know what you’ve been wearing lately!

Orly “Mermaid Tale” and “Spazmatic”

Yesterday I finally received these lovelies in the mail. I won them from Ina at My Nail Polish Online’s last giveaway. And they are absolutely gorgeous! They’re my first ever Orly polishes, and I’m in love, especially with Mermaid Tale. Take a look:

Blurry on purpose, so you can see the holographic bits!

Nail wheel swatches, both one coat. As you can see, Spazmatic is less concentrated with glitter, and also has blueish duochrome microglitters. Mermaid Tale is much denser, and has large and small green hex glitters, some of which are holographic:

And, although I wasn’t planning to redo my nails before my PAX mani, my butter LONDON Chancer mani started chipping (as usual, terrible quality polish, but beautiful!)… so I couldn’t help myself. Here’s two coats of Mermaid Tale over my bare nails:

What do you think? I love the density of the glitter in Mermaid Tale, and Spazmatic is a gorgeous, deep TARDIS blue! These polishes are definitely going to get a lot of love! Thanks Ina (if you’re reading this)!!