♥ NYC Empire State Blue and that electric file thing ♥

wow!  this polish was $0.93. It needed 4 coats, and probably could have used a 5th - but it is a lovely blue shade abundant with teal micro-shimmer. I picked up a few of these NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel polish's in the USA as they are no longer available in Canada. I had to go to 3 different stores to round up all the ones I wanted.

Although some of these NYC's are sheer and require an extra coat or two compared to other brands of polish, I think they are a great polish and this collection has some stunning shades.

I have quite a few shades of polish like this and will need to do a comparison of them. Thankfully this shade is common in every single company's polish collections so it is easy to find. I actually think I have 5 polish's extremely close to this. NYC Empire State Blue applied perfectly and dried fast, so I did not mind doing 4 coats and would gladly do more.... I love NYC polish's - I don't think I have been disappointed yet.

Shade

The battery operated nail file I purchased at the Dollarrama is very similar to the Salon Sharper that I have. It doesn't seem as sturdy as the Salon Shaper, it feels kinda flimsy = But it files perfectly, just as well as the Salon Shaper. As long as good quality batteries are used this will definitely come in handy for me in the future.

I'm also thankful that the bits that you can purchase at Sally Beauty Supply; like grinding wheels and buffers, fit perfectly in this thing. So I am happy ~ not to shabby for $2 bucks♥

Top the Original Salon Shaper and below the Dollarama knock-off ( with fancy case for bits )

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Shade with Flash

Shade with Flash

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♥

♥ Sinful Colors All About You layered over San Francisco ♥

Award winning macro shot

2 coats of Sinful All About You layered over San Francisco... I love those metallic gold chunks of fleck ---sooo pretty!

NOTE: are those flecks? are they glitter? I think they are 'flecks' I hope I am right because any polish with semi translucent chunks of -whatever they are-... I have been calling "flecks" So if I am wrong please let me know ♥♥♥

I am in love with this Sinful Colors brand of polish.... $ 1.50 USD = wow. They are available on Cherry Culture for $2.00 USD... I did not check the shipping, though. They have so many beautiful finishes in their core line that I found at Walgreen. You lucky USA girls!


The gold chunks of metallic gold fleck in this polish All About You; are just gorgeous. I decided to layer it over a shimmery green to really get those gold flecks to pop. I like the sparse copper glitter in this polish... there is just enough of it to compliment the amount of gold fleck and not overpowering or competing with the flecks. Is that a fluke ~ or a well thought out glitter combination.... it seems most glitter/fleck concoctions are just a mish mash of components..... but this seems like someone put alot of thought into it.

All about you seemed really thick but was easy to apply and dried fast. I like the idea of layering these types of polish over their opposite colour ( on the colour wheel ), It creates a totally unique look.

Setting Sun

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Neat! I found this at the Dollarrama in my town for $2.00!

I have the 'real' Salon Shaper from TV, and that was found in the infomercial aisle at Walmart a few years ago. I think most of these battery operated nail files are only as good as their batteries.  It is a good idea to purchase good quality batteries for all these types of things.I will do a full review of it and post my results.

These things are great to have for an artificial nail wearer. I don't mind hand filing my artificial nails but some people may appreciate this device.

I have also used this for small projects around my home as I find a Dremel tool intimidating, this has a slower rpm and the grinding wheels do a good job of some softer woods and plastic items during my crafty hobbies.

The rest of the photos in this post are of Sinful Colors San Francisco, 3 coats with no Top Coat. I had planned on layering Sinful Colors All about You over this.  I really love the shade of green this polish is. It's a little too sheer but totally worth 4 to 4 coats. Next time I wear it I will use a 'buff' shade of polish first and layer Sinful San Francisco over it. 

 

 Sinful Colors San Fransisco 3 coats no TC.

Indoor Flo

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Shade w/ Flash

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♥

♥ Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl ♥

Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl is a lovely jelly-ish glass flecked polish. There is some neat colour changes going on in the bottle with the flakes but this does not translate well across the nail. This is two coats of Daddy's Girl layered over 2 coats of N.Y.C. China Town, and a coat of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat. I was surprised at how dark this polish was and expected it to be a little lighter and a little brighter. Next time I wear this I will be layering it over a light baby pink or even a light perriwinkle shade of polish.

Below; I have layered this polish over a bright pink Color-Rama polish; Candy Apple, on my ring finger and layered Sinful Colors Daddy's girl over it. I think it looks really cool layered over a bright pink or red shade as well as a darker shade.

ColorRama Candy Apple 2 coats on my RING nail

 Sun

Shade with Flash

Layering Daddy's Girl over NYC China Town darkened the overall color of this polish. I know that this will look great without being layered over a darker opaque colour, but I wanted a rich dark shade of polish for my nails today. If you do a Google image search of this polish there are dozens of photos of Daddy's Girl alone; it is sheer and probably needs 4 to 5 coats to be opaque and to achieve the bottle colour.

I love any sort of flake or chunks of glitter in my polish right now.... Thankfully there is alot to choose from with recent collections.

The rest of these photos are of Sinful Daddy's Girl Layered over NYC China Town.

Shade with Flash

Shade with Flash

Sinful Daddy Girl

X-treme close up

Indoor Flo ( 2 coats of NYC China Town )

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Shade

Shade with Flash

♥

♥ Sinful Rise and Shine ♥

Oh my goodness, this is fabulous!

Sinful Rise and Shine, 2 easy to apply and fast drying coats. LOVE IT! The shimmer in this is so pretty, the colour is amazing.... is it a fluorescent? ... is it a neon? It's gorgeous! When I tried to take photos with flash, or photos in the shade, the camera showed a complete different colour. I'll have to do some research on this polish for a better colour description.

 I cannot believe that this polish was only $1.50 US. I though because these were inexpensive that they would not be so great, but my goodness, THIS ONE is lovely. I should know better I usually end up modeling polish's under the $4.00 mark on the regular. ( I do have some fancy rich lady polish's - but I love my drugstore / department store / dollar store stuff waaaaay more.)

The other 9 I swatched on nail boards are just as pretty. I have read that you can purchase these on line, and I will definitely be adding alot more of these to my collection in the future.

Immediately below is a photo without Top Coat. This polish will look amazing with a matte top coat but I had to add TC to see that shimmer = WOW is that ever pretty. I have a lot of polish's in this colour family but I am totally in love with this. It is going on my toes like ASAP.

NO TC - 2 coats... 2 awesome fast drying coats

Shazam! with Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat

Indoor Fluorescent

Loooove the satin finish on this. I had to add Top Coat though - I needed to see that shimmer!

My thumb nail - above has TC on the lower diagonal. I usually have a hard time taking photos of my thumb and the label... I am not sure what I did but this photo turned out great!

♥

Indoor Florescent

Sunshine

Shade,... umm what's up with this colouring?

♥

Here is a Lemon Twist a Top Coat from the Color-Rama collection by Maybelline. these are the old skool polish's I picked up at the Dollar Tree. I love polish's that have little bits of flecks in them...  If they are packed with flecks like the China Glaze Summer Daze collection or even sparse glass flecks like this polish.

Lemon Twist, 1 coat over Avon Green Olive

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♥ Avon Green Olive & about the Colour-Rama's ♥

Avon Olive Green 2 coats with 1 coat of Nailene TC - I am so impressed with Avon = WOW

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Wow This Avon Polish Olive Green is fabulous. This is 1 coat plus one thiiiiiin coat. I think this could be a 1 coater. The formula is fabulous and the drying time was surprising. It dried  fast considering it is very humid in my region of the Country right now.  The colour is a lovely rich green in a creme finish.

I have not used Avon nail polish for years, but if this is an indication of the quality I will likely put them on my 'to-buy' list. I picked this up at an AVON KIOSK IN THE MALL!!!!! How cool is that. In the USA at Fargo's Mall  in North Dakota they had this little Avon Kiosk where you could buy products right there - instead of ordering it and waiting. = Instant Gratification.   How awesome is that?

I also picked up another lovely polish 'Jade'. These two polish's have different names in Canada and in Europe. They are both lovely shades and have a great fast drying formula. I think they are still $2.99 for all the Nail Wear Pro polish's in the Avon Book and in mall Kiosk's ( if you have them in your state - do they have these in Canada?..... I wish! )

♥

About the Colour-Rama's;

My very first stop on my trip to the USA was The Dollar Tree. I just about fainted when I got to the Make-up aisle. I actually left behind like 12 to 15 packages of these Color-Rama's becuase there was little girls looking at them and asking their mom to buy them and their Mom said 'Next Time' and I thought...... If I buy all of these, I'll be an awful human being. I even went back the next day to grab them all and just couldn't stand the the thought of hoarding 100 cute Color-Rama polish's = How cruel would that be!  Imagine those girls coming back tot he store and they were ALL gone? I also snagged some very pretty L.A. Colors polish's at the same Dollar Tree. I think that the L.A. Colors colr craze polish's are available at all Dollar Trees .

{{ I will be editing my haul photos...soon.... }}

I was actually hoping to spot the Old Skool Maybelline Blue Jeans collection- However I am delighted to have found these. I bought alot of polish during this trip, things that I cannot get in stores here in Canada. I am thankful for all the cool bargain polish that i can find here in my town at the local dollar stores yet I have to say that Americans are very lucky, there are literally 100's of beautiful, good quality polish's availbale in the CVS, Walgreens and Kmart and Walmart for .93 cents to $2.00.

Love My Nail's, Perfect 10, NYC, LA colours are all under 2 bucks! My Main focus was Sinful Colors and the were $1.50 each at Walgreen last week. I picked up the 10 I wanted for sure, but left my list in our Hotel of the names of the other Sinful Polish's I wanted. I have read that these are available in Canada recently? ==AWESOME== 

My only complaints about my polish shopping trip were that I didn't spot any of the new Pure Ice polish's.

YES! they were 1 dollar per package of 3. Alot of them were sheer and boring looking; there are some stunning shimmery top coats in here that mimic those CND Effect polish's. So if you happen to live in Grand Forks and neeeeeeed some awesome old Skool nail polish - get yourself to that Dollar Tree. I bet that even weeks later they will all still be handing on those hooks..... the ones I left behind.

Also; I know I have mentioned alot about stalking stores...... Its true you really do need to pop into stores a few times a week, I always ask....'when will you be getting a shipment of polish or make-up'. It is a good idea to ask and be kind to the ladies ( or dudes ) who work/manage/own stores. You never know = they could whip out a box of Nail Prisms one day.

' Welcome Home Children '

♥

I am lacking with my Toe Nail Polish photos. I have had the best luck with the polish's I choose for my Pedicures = N.Y.C.'s and China Glaze. I have been re-wearing Polish's that I already have T.O.T.W. photos of so I don't bother posting. Below is Icing Blue Goose a lovely glass-fleck like medium blue layered over N.Y.C. West Village, a fabulous rich Navy packed with shimmer.

N.Y.C. and China Glaze Polish's last forever on my toes. I used a coat of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat, then applied 2 coats of N.Y.C. West Village, then the Icing Blue Goose. I added a coat of Nailene TC the next day. It's held up well for almost 8 days now.

Also my BIG TOE nail is an artificial nail.... I walked into a piece of wood ( I know..... I know... ) and broke my toe nail straight across but halfway down my nail bed. I have a few photos chronicling this injury, too and the healing process and finally the outcome of this injury.... which I will post eventually.

Icing 'Blue Goose' layered over 2 coats of NYC West Village

( my poor dry toe-nail cuticles )

...... and some more Avon Green Olive....This is a prefect Dark Green Creme. I highly recommend it. I believe it is still $2.99 in Canada and the USA.... I am looking forward to seeing alot of swatches on the blogs of the different colours available for summer and fall. They look lovely in the brochure.

The square cap, though...... ( me and my nail polish caps.... )

SunShine

Shade with Flash

Shade with Flash

♥

♥ Icing Van Gogh w/ NYC Chinatown and MEGA USA HAUL'IN ♥

2 coats of Icing Van Gogh, 2 coats of NYC china town, and a profane amount of rhinestones 

FIRST; here is my USA polish Haul.... 96 POLISH'S!

I was elated to find those older Maybelline Color-Rama's at the dollar Tree..... I LOVE THAT STORE. and as soon as I step foot in any state in the USA I go to the nearest Dollar Tree I can find!!!!!!!

I am a thankful  and lucky girl, I got to spend 5 glorious days with my mom, and a trip to the USA with my aunts. It was very, very nice.

I have alot of photos to take. I very rarely see the actual polish's from older Maybelline Color-Rama's; just the top coats. There are so many fabulous shades from this line = I am very lucky!

So; Back to my mani ~

Here is an experiment I did with the Dollar-Rama rhinestone embellishments and some Nailene rhinestones. I used a clear polish to adhere the rhinestones in place ( using a small piece of UN-COOKED spaghetti to pick them up and place them into the wet clear polish). When I felt that they were set in the clear polish I applied a coat of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat, to seal everything in. The top coat 'fogged' up the dollar store rhinestones, they lost their sparkle and clear-ness while the Nailene ones stayed clear and sparkly. I actually think the contrast between the shiny sparkly Nailene rhinestones and the dollar store rhinestones is really cool.... it looks like bubbles.

This look with the rhinestones was experimental, I literally slapped on some clear polish and just began adhering the rhinestones randomly all over my nail. I knew I would be busy with my hands and shopping, and I wanted to see how well the rhinestones would stay on my nails. They lasted for 5 whole days, with the first rhinestone falling off at 6 and 1/2 days. 

I made sure everything was dry before I started doing stuff, though. Because the last time I tried an experiment like this I had taken out the garbage immediately after applying the stones and I totally ruined my manicure. So if your ready to go crazy with rhinestones or other embellishments, make sure it's totally dry before you start any activities with your hands.♥

My manicure was 2 coats of Icing Van Gogh, a fabulous icy lilac chrome. I applied Nailene French Tip Guide on the diagonal and then applied 2 thin coats of NYC China Town a deep dark purple shimmer. I did not use Top Coat for the rest of my nails.

Mr. Orange approves

♥ after 5 days  ( three of those days were serious shopping) ♥

I started to pick these off, then thought I should take a before and after for the blog.....It actually wasn't that difficult to get these off. The silver backing remained on my nail but came off with ordinary nail polish remover just fine. Also; check out that TIP WEAR. I did not use top coat when I did this mani.

after picking off the rhinestones

The rhinestone backing came off with nail polish remover just fine.

♥