New Year's Eve Swatch Spam

I thought I'd leave you with a bit of swatch spam on the last day of the year. Thank you so much for your support in 2014! Here's to an amazing and prosperous 2014!

 

* All macro swatches (except Partners in Lime) have one coat of Julep's matte top coat in order to better show the complexity of the polish.

 

Indigo Bananas Galactic Halo (holo) - 3 coats

Indigo Bananas Viridescens - 2 coats

KBShimmer Partners in Lime - 2 coats

picture polish dragonfly - 2 coats

picture polish shy violet - 3 coats

Reverie Nail Lacquer Bayberry - 2 coats

WingDust Wednesday : Perfect Little Satellite

When I was going through my WingDust drawer trying to decide what to wear this week, Perfect Little Satellite jumped in my hand and screamed, "ME! ME! ME!" Ok, not really, but I did feel the urge for SPAAARKLE! (sing with jazz hands)

Perfect Little Satellite is jam-packed with platinum flakes, purple shimmer and I don't know what else. Magic? Under direct light/sunlight it's crazy sparkly and holo-y. I posted a video on Instagram yesterday so you can check that out.

NB: Did Instagram get rid of the "embed" function? Or am I just blind/tech-challenged?

Now, we know that flakies can sometimes be difficult to handle as they can be on the thicker side. That was not the case with Perfect Little Satellite at all! I used three thin coats and easily got to the desired opacity and everything lies nice and smooth. I added a coat of top coat for extra shine.

WingDust Collections

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Daily Hues Nail Lacquer : Fiona, Selina & Tatum

* these items were provided to me at a reduced cost in exchange for an honest review

 

 

So, there's a bit of a story behind these swatches. I took them quite awhile ago - June to be exact - and have been sitting on them since then. First off, I want to say that I was BLOWN AWAY with the pigmentation of this polish - it is freaking incredible! The colours are insanely vibrant, gorgeous, and show-stopping. However, when swatching, I noticed that there was a bit of undissolved pigment in the bottles - Tatum and Fiona being the worst. I contacted Jenn (who was awesome to deal with!) and she apologized, saying she thought she had pulled all of the bottles as it was a known issue. She offered to resend the package. Some time passed and I emailed her again to say I hadn't received the replacements. She was super apologetic and said she sent them over a month ago. Ack! Apparently they were lost in the mail. By that time, Tatum was retired and she offered to send something else instead. I told her that we'd give it a bit more time (this was in August) because sometimes packages to Canada can take FOR-EV-ER. And then I promptly forgot. Durr. :/

So, here we are in December and I'm finally getting around to posting these. The little bumps you see in Fiona and Tatum are undissolved pigment but, in no way does it affect my enjoyment of these stunners and the issue was corrected long ago so future batches should not have any problems. Plus, the customer service I received was top notch which goes a long way in creating a repeat customer. In fact, I just ordered three more colours from her Black Friday sale!

 

On to the swatches!

 

Fiona is a brilliant green with scattered holo. The formula was great and shown here is two coats plus top coat.

 

Selina is an insanely bright blue with scattered holo. Shown here is two coats with top coat.

Tatum is a gorgeous magenta with scattered holo. Shown here is two coats with top coat.

 

Daily Hues Nail Lacquer

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Splendor Nail Lacquer : Holiday Traditions collection

Happy Cyber Monday! I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. We put our tree up yesterday - a little early but the kid was demanding it. :)

Today I have the Holiday Traditions collection from Splendor Nail Lacquer to share with you. Good timing too because you can still take advantage of their Cyber Monday sale!

*20% OFF with code: BFCM2014
**Free shipping on orders $50+ with code: FREESHIP50
***Free Finishing Touch top coat, full size, with all orders $25+. No code needed.
****Other mystery gifts at $10, $15, $20. No code needed.

While this collection may seem simple, it is based on Leslee's holiday memories and family traditions.

* Descriptions from Splendor Nail Lacquer 
** A note on the formula: they are all on the thin side so you will need to take care to avoid pooling at the cuticle.

Balsam "A dark forest green with a flash of shamrock shimmer. Every year my parents and I would take a day trek out to the family cabin in search of the perfect tree. It always had to be a balsam, we would carefully haul it out of the bush on a toboggan and make our way back to the city to decorate it."

I love this one so much. It's bright and glowy and just perfect and I wore it for over a week! Shown here is two coats of Balsam with top coat.

 
Bing "A cheery cherry red with fuchsia shimmer and gold holographic dust. Growing up my parents insisted on watching White Christmas every year. While I didn’t and still don’t have much of an appreciation for the movie hearing Bing Crosby singing Christmas Carols will also bring back fond memories for me."

This is another lovely polish - the perfect Christmas red! Shown here is two coats of Bing with top coat.

 
Popcorn Garland "A clear glitter topper with white squares and dots and pearl hexes. A great way to entertain the kids and decorate the tree. I recall several years of carefully stringing popcorn onto a thread, hardest part was not eating all of it."

I love red and white together (the Canadian in me?) so this combo was a no-brainer. Shown here is one dabbed coat of Popcorn Garland over Bing, with top coat.

 
Pudding Sauce "A soft shimmering pale caramel nude. Every family has some recipes that get handed down through the generations. In ours it is a steamed Carrot Pudding that is served with a delicious buttery caramel sauce. My Grandma was always the one who made the sauce and sadly after she passed we discovered that was a recipe know one knew and it wasn’t written down anywhere. Nearly 20 years later the Pudding Sauce still hasn’t been quite perfected but every year we tweak it until hopefully one day it is just right."

This is a tough one. Due to the metallic nature of the polish it is fairly streaky. That said, there is something about the tone of this one (a bit more brown leaning?) that I think would enable it to play well with most skin tones. Shown here is three coats of Pudding Sauce with top coat.

 
Tinsel "A linear holographic medium silver metallic. My Mother has an unnatural love and obsession with Tinsel. Not the kind neatly tied into garland but the stuff that comes in individual statically charged strings. Every year she would painstakingly hang those shimmering silver threads one by one until the tree glistened."

This is such a pretty silver. It's deeper than your typical silver holo - almost burnished - but still has that lovely holo shine. The holo isn't super strong but it perfectly mimics tinsel on a Christmas tree. Shown here is two coats of Tinsel with top coat.

Do you have a favourite holiday memory or tradition? For me, I LOVE opening stockings first thing Christmas morning. The kids were always allowed to open ours as soon as we got up, as long as we left the adults alone. :)

Splendor Nail Lacquer

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