Haul & Swatches - Icing & Claire's Magnetix, Glitter Crackles, Etc

This is around hmm, probably half the hauling I've done lately LOL.  I'll be posting up the other half, which is mainly an order from Nailogy, a little later.

Here's a closer look at the Icing polishes:

Pink, Blue & Silver Magnetix & Purple Glitter Crackle.  I really don't like that Icing doesn't name any of their polishes that have effects.

From Claire's:

Gold Magnetix, Fuchsia & Turquoise Glitter Crackle, & Night Sky - which did in fact turn out to be a dupe for Icing Epic Winning, as you can see in the swatch vid below.

From Hot Topic:

Warpaint Beauty matte top coat Mattify & glow in the dark Glow Turq.

The China Glaze Ulta Exclusive Holiday colors I was so thrilled to find:

Fireside Glow, Ultamate Holiday & Mistletoe Me.

Zoyas - my 2 free bottles & my 2 clearance bottles:

Holly, Izzy, Ali & Paz.

And those that I only had one of each brand:

OPI DS Temptation, Nails Inc magnetic Whitehall, Sephora by OPI Blasted Opalescent Gold, Barielle Pink Sherbert,  Wet n Wild Disturbia (which had something of an accident when I was marbling with it LOL - right into the cup so that's why it's go pink all over).

Lastly (for now), here's a look at a comparison of Night Sky & Epic Winning, swatches of all the Magnetix, and swatches of the glitter crackles:

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

Ulta Haul

I did not, repeat NOT, intend to get all of this at Ulta.  But you know, buy 2 get 1 frees are just hard to resist =)

 

 

Top row:

 

 

Ulta Not From Concentrate, Barielle Cowl of the Wild & Gelt Me to The Party, OPI Silver Shatter, Smok'n in Havana, What's With The Cattitude?, Ogre-The-Top Blue - the last 2 of course from the Shrek collection.

 

Bottom row:

China Glaze Black Mesh crack polish, Starboard, Lighthouse - both from the Anchors Away collection - L'Oreal Yellow Seahorse, Coral Starfish & Blue Marine - all 3 from the Summer Siren collection.

 

& here's the haul vid:

 

 

 

I thought at the time I walked out of Ulta, and at the time that I recorded the haul vid, that I would be set for a while ... then my mom came home talking about this new Sally Hansen display she spotted - and I went on a mission that ended up with some ne Hard as Nails colors in weird new bottles, and some of the SH crack polish colors that I thought weren't due out until June =)  So stay tuned for that haul probably later this week.  Thanks for reading.

 

~Colette

NOTD: Barielle Hidden Hideaway

I don't know how I managd to wear this for like 3 days & not get a decent sun pic.  There's even been plenty of sun, I'd look outside while I was at work & think how nice & sunny it was - but by  the time I get outside, there are clouds =(  This one is gorgeous in any light though - Barielle Hidden Hideaway:

 

Thanks for reading =)

 

~Colette

NOTD: Barielle Elle's Spell (+ Matte Magic)

Elle's Spell is from Barielle's Holiday Hustle collection and is indeed perfect for the holiday - red, flaky, blingtastic goodness all over my nails ... even though it did take 4 coats to make it happen:

The Holiday Hustle collection also comes in a fun mini-set although I'll confess those normally turn me off because they don't have all the colors & are rarely the colors I would pick myself if I were choosing only 4 - but Elle's Spell is included in this one, so that's a plus.  They also have a holiday sale going on right now, so the more you spend the higher percentage you save - I don't think you even have to use a code =)

Here's a look at this awesome polish in motion:

 

I did matte-ify it for the 2nd day & it got, if possible, more awesome.  Matte just does such wonderful things to flakies:

What do you guys think of this color, are you as in love as I am?

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

November Hauls

Yes, several hauls ... 'cause, you know, I need more polish.  NEED it =)

 

I never used to go to Ulta ... then I got a coupon from someone else, then I got their card, now I get coupons freaking all the time & they whisper at me to spend them ... and if I don't have a coupon from the mail & need a polish fix, 95% of the time there's one to be printed from their website LOL.

 

China Glaze was buy 2 get 1 I believe for this trip:

 

Left to right:  Jolly Holly & Little Drummer Boy - both from the 'Tis the Season to be Naught & Nice holiday collection.  & then Swing Baby, from the Vintage Vixen collection.

 

Then I went to Target & just couldn't resist the glitter in this Elf 3-pack:

 

 

Left to right:  Twinkle, Golden Goddess & Cranberry.

 

Yesterday I made another stop at Ulta:

 

 

Left to right:  Emerald City, Ruby Ribbon & Perplex - which Revlon is touting as a Paradoxal dupe.  I don't have it to compare, but this color is gorgeous enough that I want a backup bottle =)  It's on my nails as I type & it's making me very happy.

 

...and then today I stopped at a different Ulta.  I've mentioned they've started carrying Barielle - these were the first that tempted me to buy them:

 

 

Top - from the Barielle Holiday Hustle collection, Jess' Champagne Toast, Elle's Spell.  Bottom - from Essie's Winter collection, Smokin' Hot & Going Incognito, and from their Fall collection Sew Psyched.

 

I should be good for a while now ... probably.  Maybe.  We'll see =)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

 

NOTD: Barielle Two Timing

I had a hard time picking a color last night.  I didn't have enough time to do the mani I was thinking of, (that I did tonight) so this was kind of a compromise, but I like the way it turned out.  This is Barielle Two Timing:

Then I used Misa Ghetto Fabulous - my favorite gold for Konading - and a full nail design from image plate m56:

I hadn't used this design before, partly because unlike some of the other full nail designs, it doesn't have a perfect match that you can line up for double-stamping.  But I found if I flipped it to stamp the opposite direction, instead of going end to end, that worked pretty well.  When I have seams I want to hide I tend to put them towards the bottom ... here's an example, the nail that matched up best:

Also, by total coincidence since I did this mani last night, I got an email today from Barielle with this sale:

As if I needed more temptation on my no-buy LOL.

I have a new naked nails post coming soon, including a breakdown of my normal nail maintenance routine after several requests last time.  I took some pics today but have more still to do so I'm not sure if the actual post will come this week or next, but it is on the way =)

Last thing, I'm putting up a quick poll regarding my YouTube content - please take a moment to vote =)  I'm just running it for 1 day, to kind of test the waters & get a quick sample of what my readers & watchers want. I'll be discussing that once it's finished & the January book poll also, hopefully by the weekend. Thanks for reading (& voting!).

~Colette

Another Barielle Sale

Barielle has some more pretty good discounts available through Christmas:


Too bad I've already bought myself so much polish for Christmas LOL. Is it too early to start ordering for my birthday next summer?! =) Honestly I wouldn't mind if Zoya did another giveaway before Christmas too, maybe this time call it Purple Friday? Thanks for reading.

~Colette

20% Off Sale at Barielle!

Just in time for "Cyber Monday," Barielle is having a 20% off sale! It doesn't look like there's a special code or anything, just head on over & start filling your shopping cart =)


I am a Barielle affiliate, so if you click my links in the post or in the sidebar to the right, you can help me out with the expenses of running a blog & being a polish fiend =)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Guest NOTD: Mom Wearing Green!

WOOHOO! I finally got my mom to wear green polish =D This is Barielle Polished Princess, which I used as one of the colors in my Fall-toned water marble the other day:


She's loving this, and I am refraining from telling her "I told you so" too often LOL.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Fall-toned Water Marble w/ Barielles & DS

I realize I forgot to mention, last post, that I did cut my right hand down a bit. The patch on my middle finger finally grew out past the tip of my finger, and I decided to get rid of it & hack the others to match. It's almost even with my left now, although they're both a little lopsided. I'll be doing another naked nails post soon ... I don't exactly like them this short, but they are really healthy right now.

I tried something a little different with this marble, rather than go with a black base for my colors, I decided I wanted to play up one of the colors in the marble, so I used a couple coats of that as a base. From the All Lacquered Up collection, Barielle Polished Princess:


If I were wearing it alone, I would probably do another coat, since there was still some visible nail line.

Now, I know some of you don't really understand why I wasn't pleased with yesterday's marble - & it's not that there was anything wrong with it. I just know that marbles can be SUPER impressive, like I think this one is. Marbling done with Polished Princess, Two Timing - which is another Barielle - and OPI DS Desire:


I think if my nails were at my preferred length, this really would have turned out exactly as in my head, but I'm still very happy. This is the same basic technique & design as I showed in my tutorial. The marbling "recipe" for this was 4 drops each alternating between PP & TT, then 2 drops of Desire in the middle. I particularly like the thumbs so here's a close up on them:



I think this will tide me over for a while with water marbling LOL. Thanks for reading.

~Colette