Seasonal Manicures

Hi all! I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays! This year I was so fortunate enough to be invited to a few holiday parties/dinners. At first I planned on wearing a different holiday themed manicure to each event. But that idea pretty much went out the window when I was up til midnight wrapping last minute presents and writing out cards a couple nights.

I'm not very good at nail art so water decals are the perfect cop out for me. The patterns are so pretty and once you get the hang of it they're fool proof to use! I wore this red and green tartan pattern for about 2-3 days, the pictures were taken on day 2 so you can see some tip wear. Considering I washed a ton of dishes, wrapped presents and washed my hair the wear of the water decal was pretty great. I used a base coat, a topcoat and I wrapped the tips. I purchased my decals from eBay through this seller. There were no instructions included with the decals but there a ton of tutorials on YouTube...or if any of you guys would like I could also do a tutorial post in the future.

My second manicure I used OPI Die Another Day as a base, stamped a white pattern from BM - 222 and added a loose glitter accent nail. I must say that my pictures do not do the Die Another Day justice. The polish is super duper gorgeous in person. The application was a dream and it dried so glossy and shiny. Originally I just wore the base coat and could not stop starring at my nails because they looked like little glossy pieces of candy. But the downfall was that it looked so bad against with my skin tone I had to add on to it to offset the colour a little.

This manicure was my absolute favourite. I used China Glaze Winter Holly from their Holiday 2012 collection and a star glitter I fished out from NYX Girls Dreamy Glitter. This polish caught my eye just as I was about to cash out at the supply store and had to go back and grab it. I'm such a sucker for dark emerald greens. The accurate colour was so difficult to capture. In the bottle there are tonsss of green yellow and red micro-glitters shimmering all over the place in a greenish jelly base. It reminded me so much of a decorated Christmas tree that's why I had to include a star at the base of my nails! The depth and beauty of this polish really makes up for the amount of work I had to put into applying it. A top coat is absolutely necessary with this polish because the glitters dry so gritty. I did 3 thick coats to achieve opacity and 3 topcoat layers but even then I couldn't get a smooth glossy finish. These glitters were thirsty!

All polishes, water decals used in these manicures were purchased by me. In all manicures I used nail envy as a base and NYC Grand Central Station as a top coat. Stay tuned for my next couple posts about Urban Outfitters - Pink Holo, OPI Skyfall collection swatches and my favourite fall/winter items! Thanks for reading!

Annie

OPI Ulta 2012 Holiday Exclusive: Stuff My Stocking

I had the pleasure of participating in a swap in one of my nail polish groups, I was lucky enough to be paired up with Katharine who sent me a bunch of goodies including this holiday set from Ulta. Up here in Canada we unfortunately do not have Ulta stores so I was pretty psyched to try out one of their holiday exclusives. The set includes four 3.75ml polishes, 3 coloured and 1 rapid dry topcoat. In this set we have a red, a green and a purple, pretty traditional holiday shades.

Last Minute Shopper - Last Minute Shopper is a very traditional seasonal/holiday red, it has a metallic feel to it. I thought the application of this polish was great, I achieved opacity in 2 coats. The colour is actually more red in the bottle but looks more magenta against my skin tone. 

Skip the Gift Wrap - Of all the polishes from the set, this colour was my favourite from the bunch. On the nail the colour reminded me of beautiful emerald gems. Again, it has a metallic like finish to it and opacity was achieved with 2 thick coats. Application was a little tricky because it is one of those polishes that show every brush stroke and possible flaw on the nail. Other than that, gorgeous!

Gift Cards for Everyone! -  I love the name of this polish! In the bottle this colour looked the most promising, a beautiful metallic purple with blue micro-shimmer (see second picture above). But it was the most difficult one to work with. I felt like the polish was very thin and streaky. I applied 3 coats and still there were some bald patchy spots as you can see in my swatches.

All swatches were topped with a layer of the OPI Rapid Dry Topcoat included in the set. I received this set in a swap so I do not know how much they are sold for. They're available at Ulta during the holiday season. Thanks for reading! And thanks again for the swap Katharine!

Annie

Glymm & their Holiday Special Stocking Stuffer

Hi Readers!

Tis the season of gifts..for myself J (hehe). Today my Glymm stocking stuffer came.
This is jam-packed and although Glymm told us it would feature stuff we received in earlier bags, I am still happy ^_^.

Contents:

Glymm Golden Giftbag: $12.00

Lashcard (2 cards): ($6.99/10 cards) $1.40

Evolvh UltraShine Moisture Shampoo (59 mL): ($24/250 mL) $5.66

Evolvh UltraShine Moisture Conditioner (59 mL): ($25/250 mL) $5.90

Clark’s Botanicals Intense Radiance Mask (*7 mL): ($72/50 mL) $10.08

Villainess Warming Body Cream – Dulce En Fuego (*5 g): ($15.75/170 g) $0.46

M. Asam Perfect Teint (5 mL): ($42/50 mL) $4.20

Caudalie Fleur De Vigne Shower Gel (1 oz): ($12/6.7 oz) $1.79

Vasanti BrightenUp! Enzymatic Face Rejuvenator (12.5 mL): ($34/30 mL) $14.17

Cyberderm H20 Hydration (*5 mL): ($60/50 mL) $6.00

 Cyberderm PM Anti-Age (*5 mL): ($115/50 mL) $11.50

Burt’s Bees Tinted Lip Balm in Tiger Lily (4.25 g): $7.99

Glymm Giftcard: $40.00

* = estimated size

Total minus $40 giftcard & glymm giftbag = $69.15 before taxes J

This stocking stuffer retails for $35 ($39.55 w/ tax), this is a pretty good sale since it includes a $40 giftcard which expires in December 2013. (yay!!)

The cherry on top is…I got it for $18 because of a misprint which they honoured, so thank you Glymm for a super awesome stocking stuffer J

The only con to this bag was the promise of spanning through all beauty categories! Was hoping for makeup related items versus skincare but oh well, guess that’s where my giftcard will go towards.

Glymm is a monthly beauty box subscription located in Quebec, Canada. This sub is only offered to Canadians at the moment. If you are interested in signing up, please use the following link: https://www.glymm.com/share/mirc.a9

promo codes:

PolishMeUp – if you’re buying a year’s subscription will give you an additional polish in your package

One of my favourite perks is their perk system! ^_^ 100 points = $10 off anything off their boutique. You get 10 points per survey item, each month usually contains 4-5 items, so around 50 points a month!! In 2 months, you can indulge in something from their boutique..knowing me you know I go for their butterLONDON!!! I cannot rave how much I love they offer butterLONDON. 90% of my butterLONDON collection comes from Glymm. Just one of my awesome orders of BL :)

ps. you get points on your purchases too (subscription & boutique)

Until next time,

 Mir 

It's Like Candy For Your Nails! - Club Nail Polish

Hi peeps!
 I have a little info on an up and coming nail polish subscription service which is also available for Canadians! I know there are a few out there but not many are available to us such as Nail Art Society & Square Hue. The other one available to us is Julep, feel free to comment below if you're interested in a link & referral code!

Anyway, back to Club Nail Polish!

I will copy and paste a message I received from Gerry of CNP about the exciting service, soon to be available to us :)

http://clubnailpolish.com "It's Like Candy For Your Nails!"

What we are...
We are a "Nail Polish Of The Month Club"
There are 3 different monthly subscriptions.
Pretty little packages will be sent out by the 15th of each month
The nail polish is a secret even though we try to not send out the color you hate the most, if you hate any at all.
You will be able to cancel anytime
It will be available to Canada & USA
We hope to launch very soon. In the meantime we have a Pre-Launch sign-up going on. You can find it here.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/clubnailpolish/472731602748898?sk=app_100265896690345So stay tuned, ears perky and ponytails bushy!
We're ClubNailPolish.com

"It's Like Candy For Your Nails!"

It sounds really cute, I've already pre-signed up and filled out my info. Hope to see some ation soon
- Mir

birthday mani! Ulta + NOPI

Hi People!!
So it was my birthday a few days ago!!! woohoo!
& although I wasn't celebrating I still decided I should have some sort of birthday mani.

Currently, I'm trying to go through my untrieds so I put on Ulta's Bam-Blue-Zled. Which is supposed to be a Sprog by butterLONDON dupe. For the accent nail I put on Nicole by OPI's Rainbow In The S-Kylie. Which is a dupe of various other rainbow glitters such as OPI's Rainbow Connection, Milani's Gems, etc etc!!

sorry the accent nail isn't too clear, I have to take my pictures on my blackberry until I figure out why my battery drains after one picture on my camera :(

The formula on Bam-Blue-Zled is quite good, not streaky and opaque in 2 coats. For $2, it's definitely  a great deal if it is a butterLONDON dupe since butterLONDON is $17! I wish I had Sprog to compare to show you guys/girls but I don't :(

I used 1 coat CG base coat, 2 coats Bam-Blue-Zled, 1 coat CG topcoat, ring finger had 2 'dabbed' coat of Rainbow in the S-kylie.

Bam-Blue-Zled (10 ml) was purchased by me at Ulta for $2 USD (original retail: $6 USD), and Rainbow in the S-kylie (15 ml) was purchased by me at Shoppers Drug Mart for $10.99 CAD!

Urban Outfitters - Silver Holo

The sun came out to play again this past weekend and it gave me the perfect chance to try out another Urban Outfitter holographic polish. This time I used Silver Holo, an intense silver holographic polish that glowed in the sun and indoors. I can't even begin to describe this beauty, this polish is one of the strongest holo polish I own. It was so distracting because I couldn't stop staring at my nails the entire weekend! Like I mentioned about the Urban Outfitters - Green Holo in my previous post, the formula was a little thick  for my liking and I had to work a bit to get even coverage on the nails. But I promise you the work is totally worth it. I tried to capture the polish as best as I could but these pictures doesn't do justice, definitely a polish you need to see in person!

I used nail envy as a base coat and 2 layers of polish (1 thin, 1 thick) to achieve complete opacity. The polish can be bought in-store at Urban Outfitters or online, each bottle is 15ml and sold for $10. Some girls mentioned that they were able to pick these up as part of the 2/$8 offer. Unfortunately I wasn't that lucky and paid full price but it's definitely worth while to check your store to see if they have these as part of the special. Thanks for reading :)

Annie

Urban Outfitters - Green Holo

The weather here was fantastic this weekend, and what better way to show my appreciation for some sun than with a new holographic polish. What I have to share today is one of Urban Outfitters new holo polishes. There are 3 colours in total from the collection, Silver Holo, Green Holo and Pink Holo. In-store the polishes looked nothing special but under the right lighting you will be blown away. As you can see from the pictures below the bottle has a silver cap, it seems like many polishes companies are following this signature when it comes to holographic polishes. As a consumer, I'm a fan. It makes to easier for me to spot HTF polishes and it makes the polish all the more special and distinctive.

I haven't had the opportunity to try out any of the halo hues from Color Club but from swatches I've seen online I would say Green Holo looks like a slightly muted version of Color Club's Angel Kiss. They're both a gorgeous seaform green colour but Green Holo looks just a little less green in comparison. I found the formula of the Urban Outfitters' polish to be a bit goopy and difficult to work with. It took a bit of effort to eliminate all the patchy spots but in the end I think the swatches speak for themselves and all the hard work was worth it. The colour is super holo even indoors with artificial lighting.

I apologize in advance for how super greasy my fingers look but I was so excited to share this amazing polish and my cuticles were horribly dry and unpresentable.

I used 2 layers, 1 thin 1 thick to achieve complete opacity. The polish can be bought in-store at Urban Outfitters or online, each bottle is 15ml and sold for $10.

Annie

disclaimer.

This is a personal web-blog. We are not professionals nor have received any formal training in these particular fields. We are just two Canadian friends who love nail polish and cosmetics among many other things!! The content of this blog is only based on the opinions of the bloggers of A.M. polishes. We all have our preferences regarding colour choices, scents, finishes, etc and we do not intend to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual(s).
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update:

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