Hauls Catchup Post

So, I did this before when I realized how far behind I was with "real" haul posts, i.e. haul posts with close up bottle pictures.  & I am obviously very far behind again so here's another load of haul vids, but I AM going to do a real post for my Christmas haul, because I want to include the names of all the polishes I just referred to by number in the vid.  So here are my haul vids since around September.

Some Ulta & Target hauls:



My rather large BOGO from Ulta Butter London haul:



L'Oreal Project Runway haul:



Color Club Halo Hues and some other stuff hauls from Head2Toe Beauty:



The Zoya Ornate collection as well as the Gilty Pleasures Trio:



A Walgreens haul:



And OPI's The Man with the Golden Gun as well as the other colors I picked from the Skyfall collection:



So, as I said I'll work on a "real" haul post for the Christmas haul which is mostly Layla & China Glaze with a few other polishes.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

The Haul Post

Usually for hauls I'll do a vid, and then I'll do some close-up pics with whatever info I forgot to mention in the vid - because no matter how thorough I think I'm being I always forget something. But most of these I never got around to bottle pics, or if I did I never go around to editing them, and at this point I don't think I'm going to ... so if you're interested to see any of these polishes before they get full manicure posts, the vids are it ... pick & choose as you will because there are kind of a lot LOL.  I've also included the related swatch videos and/or polish in motion vids that I've finished, although there are others I still would like to do.

This vid is mainly on the China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitter collection - I still haven't gotten around to swatching the Nabis that I mention at the end:



Big Lots is of course one of my favorite places for discounted polish, and I really enjoyed getting these glitters from Michael's - even though so far all I've done is gaze adoringly at them:



The gorgeous, gorgeous, GORGEOUS Layla Hologram effect polishes:



If you do want to see more of that awesomeness I've got 4 polish in motions so far, for Flash Black, Ocean Rush, and Jade Groove & Mercury Twilight which are quite similar -  full posts for these still upcoming:






I always look forward to Zoya's Earth Day sale - I'm already looking forward to the next one LOL although I'm sure there will be other good sales before then =)



A few colors from the OPI Spiderman collection:



Many  of you probably already know that Just Spotted the Lizard is a dupe for Chanel Peridot:



A gigantic Big Lots haul of Revlon polishes, along with a decent serving of DSW's Anise brand:



My first haul of the initial 5 Orly Flash Glam FX glitters:



Another bucketful of glitter, this batch from the Dollar Tree:



My unexpected birthday haul including the Essie Mirror Metallic collection:



Revlon's Moon Candy flakies from Walgreens:



And swatches - so hard to capture flakies on camera but I tried:




And to end on a bang, the crown jewel of all these hauls as well as my most recent (well, except for the ones I just bought & haven't recorded yet!), my prize for winning Orly's Flash Glam FX contest - the entire 22 glitters, plus the Fired Up collection - awesomeness, awesomeness & more awesomeness:



I've done polish in motion vids for Sunglasses at Night & Be Brave, as well as 2 swatch videos on these so far - and I would like to do another set of swatches, with no base and/or complimentary base colors.  Not sure when that will happen but coming eventually =)






So, that's it ... for now ;)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Small Butter London Haul

I was excited to receive these colors from a Butter London product rep:

Here's a closer look at the bottles - left to right Disco Biscuit, Royal Navy & Yummy Mummy - which as I mention in the vid was supposed to be a lip gloss which is currently still on it's way =)

I have a bunch of other haul vids that I recorded & uploaded & then never got around to taking bottle pictures for the blog post ... in addition to all the NOTD pics I have to edit ... and finish up books from (ugh) last year & then start this years list ... in other words plenty to do but for now I'm headed out to lunch with Mom LOL.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

(These were sent to me for review)

Haul - Hunger Games, Color Club Magnetics & Layla

If it's not one thing it's another ... for those of you who don't follow the Fan Page, Frisky has been quite sick & so I've been spending some time with her.  She is curled comfortably, close on her blanket on the chair next to my computer right now.

Anyway, this haul post has been a ridiculously long time coming.  I originally shot the haul like a month ago, but I wanted to include the swatches with the blog post & didn't get around to editing those until a few days ago.  Here's the haul vid:

& for a closer look at the bottles - first China Glaze:

Top row are all from the Hunger Games collection - Harvest Moon, Fast Track, Hook and Line, Stone Cold, Smoke and Ashes & Luxe and Lush.  Bottom - First Mate & Long Kiss.

The Laylas, which at this point I have worn each of them & I am so in love:

Black Metal, Silver Galaxy & Metallic Sky.

The Color Club Magnetic Force colors - which, on a side note, are exactly the same down to the name as the Finger Paints magnetics.  FAIL Finger Paints, for shame:

Steel of the Night, Electro-Midnight, Hipnotic & Magnetic Force.

& the last of the magnetics (for this haul) from Claire's:

The Unnamed Silver & Unnamed Green.

My OPIs from the Holland collection:

Vampsterdam - which I recently used in a tutorial - Dutch 'Ya Love OPI?, Gouda Gouda Two Shoes & Wooden Shoe Like to Know?

My very first Illamasqua polishes, which I received for review:

Radium, Bacterium, and from the Theatre of the Namesless collection, Taint & Vice.

And lastly Milani (top) & Savvy & Finger Paints (bottom):

Hot Pink, Lavender, French Rose Opal Frost, Chrome & Comet's Collar.

Finally, here's the swatch vid!

I am not making anywhere near the progress I would like playing catch up.  But just know that I'm also nowhere near ever giving up blogging!  I will fit it in somehow, eventually.

Thanks for reading.  

~Colette

(These Illamasqua polishes were sent to me for review)

China Glaze Magnetix Collection & Swatches (& the Rest of my Huge Nailogy Haul)

I need to put myself on a no-buy ... soon LOL.  But probably not until after I snag some colors from the Hunger Games collection =)  I placed a rather large order from Nailogy after I saw the China Glaze Magnetix collection swatched on The Nailphile.

So hard to resist filling up the cart to get free shipping =)  The original reason for the order was obviously the China Glaze Magnetix collection:

Attraction, Drawn to You, Instant Chemistry, Pull Me Close, Cling On, You Move Me.

Here are the Essie colors that I picked up:

Navigate Her (from the Navigate Her collection), and Armed & Ready (from the Go Overboard collection).

& finally the Color Club colors:

Top:  Glitter Envy & Wink, Wink, Twinkle (from the Starry Temptress collection).  Middle:  Alter Ego (from the Alter Ego collection), Nouveau Vintage (from the Back to Boho collection) & Cold Metal (from the Foiled collection).  Bottom:  Sugar Plum Fairy, Beyond the Mistletoe & Holiday Splendor (from the Beyond the Mistletoe collection).

Here are all of the colors from the Magnetix collection swatched with all 3 of the magnets:

And here are some close up shots:

I don't feel like I'm getting quite as much done this weekend as last, but still - some progress is better than none =)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

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

Zoya True & Fleck Effect Haul

I was sooo happy when these arrived on Saturday - the package tracking estimate had been Monday the last I looked so it was kind of a surprise.  I had to play with them of course, and the swatch vid will be coming soon - I actually thought of several more colors I wanted to try as soon as I finished recording, so I will probably do a few more swatches when I get home later & tack them onto the end of the vid.  But for now here's a look at the haul:

As a side note, if you're wondering why this post is so early in the morning - uploading takes freaking forever  & a half now that I'm doing HD.  I have to really plan ... or at least try to plan ... or at minimum roll with the punches LOL. In this case, I started the upload before I went to bed, got the blog post ready, then verified everything was ready to publish & made it live before I head off to work.

Most of the True collection - I wasn't too taken by the 2 neutrals so I skipped them:

Left to right:  Bevin, Skylar, Lotus, Tru.

Fleck Effect "Mylar Glazes" as the website refers to them:

Maisie, Opal, Chloe.

As a side note, I found out the Grapefruit Surprise Sugar Scrub free 7 oz "sample" that I got sells for $18 direct from  Art of Beauty & isn't much cheaper on amazon.  Nicest freebie I've receive lately =)

And my couple of oddballs:

Essie Dive Bar & Revlon Rain Forest.

I can't wait to use the rhinestones I show in the vid too, although I don't think they need their own pics - I literally got an idea when I saw them & it wouldn't leave my head so I had to go back & purchase them.

UPDATE:
I had a few people wanting to see the bottles for the acrylic paint:

This is Silver Bling & Gold Glitz.  They had lots more glittery & holographic colors, but I decided I should start slow ... no need to buy one of each yet.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Christmas Eve Haul & Finger Paints Special Effects Swatches

I don't usually go out on Christmas Eve - but I'm glad that I did this year =)

I don't exactly know what's up with these absurd little nail files Orly's attached to the bottles ... and yet I still like having them LOL:

Au Champagne & Ma Cherie from the Holiday Soiree collection.

China Glaze:

Holly-Day & Champagne Bubbles from the Let it Snow collection.

I forgot to take a picgture of the Sparkle Topcoat, but here's the real treat - the Finger Paints Special Effects collection:

Black Expressionism, Asylum, Flashy, Flecked, Motley & Twisted.  They are completely & totally awesome =)  Don't believe me?  See for yourself:

Here are a few close-up shots of the swatches:

& now I learn - a bit late, because I'm so behind on reading other blogs - that Zoya is coming out with flakies!  & I only have like a week & a half to wait until I can order them!  *Drool*  Are you in love with flakies?  Have you picked up the Finger Paints and/or will you be picking up the Zoyas?

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Pre-Christmas Haul

I have my Christmas Eve Haul still to post too (which includes my Finger Paints Special Effects!).  But I got some good stuff in this haul too:

Ulta Salon Formula:

Taupe on a Rope, Into Astrono-Me?, Smoke Screen, Envy, Chocolate Kiss.

Orly:

Stone Cold, Emberstone, Rock the World.

China Glaze:

Haunting, Near Dark, Trendsetter.

Revlon:

Mistletoe, Smoldering, Catty, Naughty, Dreamer.

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength:

3k or More, Glass Slipper (which you can see on my mom's nails over Big Smoke HERE).

And of course, finally:

Essie Shine of the Times.  Never expected to find it at Walgreens LOL.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Early Christmas Haul ... And A Rant on Video Formats

The rant has to come first.  Because I have been SO PISSED OFF for like 3 days.  Partly I can only blame myself, but mainly I'm blaming Canon & Microsoft.

 

SO - I did just enough research, in looking into my new camera, to know that it shot videos in a different format than my old camera, and that Movie Maker does not support that format.  OK, so I'll have to switch to a new program, Live Movie Maker was supposed to support it.  SUPPOSED TO.  So I shoot, not one or even two but three different vids - a tutorial, a haul & a vlog - & I download Live Movie Maker ... and then, THEN I find the ugly truth:  If you can actually get it to work with .mov files, you have serious luck & have won the codec lottery.

 

Everywhere I look online are people having the same problems.  First it imports the video but I get no sound.  I updated my codec pack, and then I get nothing!  No sound OR video.  So I try converting it using my normal video converter - one format was half-crap with the sound unsynced, the other was total crap quality although the sound mostly matched.  WTF.  Canon, why would you do this to me & everyone else who's not running a Mac that will actually accept this format without a fight?

 

Eventually, after digging around online & searching forums, I found a work-around solution.  Turns out ZoomBrowser - which is Canon's software - actually has a feature I never had cause to use before, and can convert .mov's to .avi's.  After my first attempt I wasn't to optimistic but I gave it a try with crossed fingers.  Wonder of wonders it mercifully worked.  However, I thought I'd then be able to use them in trusty old Movie Maker - nope.  Denied.  So I still had to learn Live Movie Maker. 

 

I still hate it so far - it's all icons & no real (apparently now "old-school") drop-down menus, much like Office 2010.  But I managed to fumble my way through editing this haul vid together.  I hope you guys like it because it's made of blood & sweat & tears!  I'm still not 100% happy with how the quality ended up after conversion, and I'm still working on lighting & stuff, but ... here's my first vid with the new camera (I do recommend checking it out actually on YT if you can since the widescreen is a bit more of a smoosh than the 4:3 was):

 

 

 

On to the bottle pics - like last time, I didn't try to keep every shopping trip separate for the pics, I just sorted them out by brand.  First up are these gorgeous Sally Hansen Gem Crush glitters, several of which look like dupes to my eye for colors in the China Glaze Eye Candy collection:

 

Top row:  Showgirl Chic, Cha-Ching, Big Money, Bling-tastic (Best polish name EVAR!  You guys know that's my word LOL)  Bottom row:  Glitz Gal, Lady Luck, Razzle Dazzler, Be-Jeweled.

 

On to the China Glaze - as a side note, I don't remember if I mention in the vid but I only found the Eye Candy collection at one Ulta, so it may be more widely available now, or you may have to search it out:

 

Top row, from the Let it Snow collection:  Glittering Garland, Ring in the Red, Blue Year's Eve, Tinsel Town, Icicle.  Bottom row:  Marry a Millionaire & Some Like it Haute (from the Eye Candy collection) & CG in the City (from the Metro collection).

 

Next OPI:

 

Top row, from the Muppets collection:  Gettin' Miss Piggy With It, Designer ... De Better!, Warm & Fozzie.  Bottom row, from Ulta's selection of colors that are being discontinued:  Ali's Big Break & Gargantuan Green Grape Matte.

 

From the Color Club Scent-suos collection, that I was shocked to find at Sallys:

 

 

Orna-minted, Kiss Me Mistletoe, Sugar Plum Yum.

 

One lonely Orly, from the Holiday Soiree collection:

 

 

Androgynie.

 

L'Oreal, from the Birds of a Feather displays:

 

 

Raven's Strength & Amazon's Flash.

 

Butter London, from the absurd Dressing Table box set ... I tried, I  really did, to resist - I left them behind once but the second time I just gave in to the contrast of dark & light blings:

 

 

The Black Knight & Tart With a Heart.

 

Elf - there was another set of 5 at Big Lots, but the colors were more boring to me than these:

 

 

Blue Mist, Purple Pleaser, Lilac, Fuchsia, Mango Madness.

 

And finally the Revlons:

 

 

Carbonite, Silver (which is not ... it's seriously just grey) & Pink Again.

 

So, I'm all set for a while I think ... until I give in to that urge for more magnetic polish, hmmm... =)

 

As a side note, huge wide screen vids take eons to upload.  I prepped most of this before bed, but the vid took like 3 hours so that's why it's getting posted in the morning before work.  I'm really hoping we're in good enough shape I won't have to do 10 hours today - if I get home at a reasonable hour, I'll be catching up my posts &, if you people would like, posting the tut for the manicure I'm wearing in the haul vid.  Thanks for reading

 

~Colette