China Glaze On Safari Native Collection for Fall 2012: Jungle Queen and Exotic Encounters

And so we end this series with the last two of the set that I was quite happy to get. These were the other two colors, apart from Man Hunt, that I was eying. Now, before I got sucked down the rabbit hole that is nail polish hoarding collecting, I missed quite a lot of those kick @$$ colors that they just don't do anymore. One of the oldie but goodies that I've been drooling over was Chanel Paradoxal. Sadly, I also missed out on the Revlon dupe called Perplex so it was a happy day when it was re-released as part of the core collection and renamed Naughty. Sure, it was nice, but the formula wasn't the best. So when I heard of another possible China Glaze dupe from the On Safari collection, getting the Native set became a no-brainer.

Ending the series with a bang: a pretty teal and a Paradoxal dupe (?).

China Glaze On Safari, Native Collection for Fall 2012: Elephant Walk and Prey Tell

The thing about getting sets is that sometimes, you end up with nail polish colors that you probably don't want. But the lure of a cheaper price per bottle can be too good to pass up that more often than not, purchasing a set comes out as the better deal. Now, if you're lucky, these 'unwanted' shades will only be one out of, say, six. That's decent odds right there. But if you're luckier, these initially iffy shades turn out to be surprise loves, after all. Continuing part two of our China Glaze Fall 2012 collection series, here are two such colors that I wasn't really excited to get. But all things considered, these two turned out to be a happy addition to my ever-growing nail polish family.

On the deck today: Prey Tell and Elephant Walk

Nail Art Wednesday: A China Glaze On Safari Take On Neo-Noir Nails from the Phillip Lim 3.1 F/W'12 Runway

Whilst browsing the latest nail trends for F/W'12, I chanced upon a how-to of these fantastic looking nails from the Phillip Lim 3.1 show on one of my favorite beauty blogs, Beauty Editor. Essie Weingarten (the celebrity manicurist behind the brand of the same name, Essie) is credited with creating this look. She says of this design, “This graphic nail design is dramatic yet incredibly wearable. Women of any age can wear this look to make a super-modern statement that is still totally chic.”

(Image Credits)

The inspiration: neo-noir, comic-inspired nails.

I can't agree more! But instead of the black, grey and white that was originally used, I wanted to put my own spin on things and challenge myself by using only colors from the China Glaze On Safari Native set. So here's my take on these modern statement nails:

My surprisingly stylish (if you don't mind me saying) version.

China Glaze On Safari, Native Collection for Fall 2012: Man Hunt and Purr-fect Plum

There's no point denying the inevitable. The leaves are changing and the temperatures are dropping. While fall isn't official for a few more days, I've resigned myself to the fact that my neons and brights just aren't as appealing as they were in the hotter months. For the next little while, they'll be relegated to the back of the drawer (much like the flimsy tops and summer dresses) while the vampy, darker shades get their share of the limelight (along with the cardigans, sweater dresses and wool coats). Embracing change, here's a look at one of the first fall collections that trickled in as early as July (!).

When word of the China Glaze On Safari collection got out, I knew the blue one had to be mine. Promo photos portrayed it as a gorgeous medium blue creme that I've been looking for. Thankfully, I've got some of the most awesome nail polish buddies ever and with the help of Mary from Swatch and Learn, I managed to snag the Native 6-piece set for a steal (thanks again, Mary!). I also had my eye on what looked like a Chanel Paradoxal dupe (in hopes the formula would be better than the Revlon one) and the dusty teal one, so it made more sense to get the set. All the others made for a nice bonus. I've decided to bend the rules again, and do a review of two shades per post (just so we don't take forever to get through all six!), much like how I reviewed the Hunger Games-inspired Capitol Colors Collection from earlier this year. We'll jump start the series with a Monday blue and pretty plum:

On the deck today: Purr-fect Plum and Man Hunt.

Nail Art Wednedsay: Falling Leaves Nails

September is right around the corner (how'd that happen?!). Holiday collections are being revealed as early as late August. There's a definite chill in the air at night. But I'm still in denial. I'm not quite ready for summer to end yet! I haven't even had the chance to sport more of my newly acquired neons! But there's not much sense fighting the changing seasons. I was just out the other day running errands when I realized that some of the trees are already changing colors. Simply put, it's as inevitable as taxes. But please don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't like autumn (because I do). Rather, I'm averse to the fact that I'm running out of time to sport my brights. Yes, I'm one of those people who tend to wear certain colors only during certain seasons. I suppose you can say that this is my version of matchy-matchy. Now, fall isn't official till September 22, but like those holiday collections trickling in, let's jump the gun with these falling leaves nails:

I'm thinking that sporting these puts me somewhere between denial and acceptance.

Nail Art Wednesday: Two Years is Cotton or Paper? Stamping and Saran Wrap Nails

Let me start by explaining the cryptic sounding post title: I looked up the traditional anniversary gifts and Wikipedia said that two years means cotton in US and paper in UK. Hmm... no Canada? So I decide to just do both in today's nail art to commemorate this super special day for Mr. J and I.

Our happily ever after began two years ago today. *grin*

And here's the nail art I came up with to celebrate!

The Hunger Games and China Glaze Capitol Colors: The Savagery featuring Luxe and Lush, Stone Cold, and Fast Track

First we talked about the Martyrs and Freedom Fighters, then we moved on to the Hopeful and the Obscure. To end this Hunger Games and China Glaze Capitol Colors series with a bang, we'll be zeroing in on the Savagery of the games. After all, when only one is to be declared victor (and sole survivor) among 24 others, you really have to step up your game. For this fourth and last part of the series, we'll look at the characters who are so driven to win that they let the killer instincts in them surface in this kill or be killed scenario. If you're thinking career tributes, then you're definitely on the right track. Without further adieu, here are the polishes that represent these savage few:

They say there's beauty in madness, isn't there?

The Hunger Games and China Glaze Capitol Colors: The Obscure featuring Electrify, Harvest Moon, and Foie Gras

As of this writing, I still haven't seen the movie, though by the time this post goes live, I would have so it's hard to gauge at this point how Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen will measure up to the one my imagination conjured. I have heard lots of glowing reviews so I might have set the bar all the more higher before watching it. We'll see. At any rate, let's continue on with the third part of our Hunger Games and China Glaze Capitol Colors series. Out of the four, this installment will be the hardest to expound on. Simply because it is exactly what it is: Obscure. I suppose with 12 districts to play with, add to that the Capitol and District 13, it was probably difficult for Suzanne Collins to make sure all the districts were well represented. These three fell to the wayside but the colors that represent them still manage to make them shine:

Glitter, foil and creme. Not a trio to sneer at!

The Hunger Games and China Glaze Capitol Colors: The Hopeful featuring Mahogany Magic, Dress Me Up, and Smoke and Ashes

Before I go all fangirl crazy and start flailing about in excitement because today is big movie day, we're continuing with the second installment of the China Glaze Capitol Colors collection. If you haven't caught on yet, I've grouped the polishes specifically based on the traits of the key characters I've chosen to represent each district. Last post was about the Martyrs and Freedom Fighters who gave up their lives and fought for a cause they strongly believed in. In this installment, we'll highlight the Hopeful among them, those who had a knack for finding the silver lining in every grey cloud.

Without further ado:

Earthy and grounded colors for the optimists.

The Hunger Games and China Glaze Capitol Colours: The Martyrs and Freedom Fighters featuring Riveting, Hook and Line, and Agro

It's a mouthful of a title, I know. But there was simply no more concise way to appropriately summarize everything that will be talked about in this post. See, this collection first started as a rumour that was fed by a company leak of photos of the actual colors. Then, there was the threat of lawsuits and even more drama. Thank goodness it was all sorted out to reveal the exact same colors that was originally leaked, albeit with different names that a quick thinking fan pointed out were a representation of each of the 12 districts as outlined in the books. And now, I am the happy owner of the entire collection with the enabling aka pre-order option of the awesome Nail Polish Canada (they even came earlier than expected, double yay!). I know there were some that were skeptical about the color choices, but I feel it did do the books justice. More on that in a bit. While I know that I probably won't wear some of the colors as often as the others, I still felt strongly about wanting the entire set because (to my knowledge) this is the first nail polish collection that's based off a book series. As a certified bibliophile and nail polish addict, this easily made the entire collection a must-have for me.

I wanted to be able to do in-depth reviews for each color in the same fashion as is my usual, but if I stuck to one color per post, that would take me months just to show you all of them! So while I'll still be doing in-depth reviews, instead, it will be with three polishes in the spotlight per post. That will make this series a 4-part one over the next couple weeks and just in time for the movie release on the 23rd (boo yah!). Now, I'm fairly certain that by now, you've seen a bajillion swatches and reviews of this much anticipated China Glaze collection. So I have to raise the bar. To set these posts apart from the flock, I'll be showcasing not just swatches and a review of the actual polishes, but as well as how it ties in with the books. I'll be picking key characters from each of the districts that the nail polishes represent and somehow, show you how they all connect. This is the part where I say beware of spoilers as I'm fairly certain there will be quite a bit. I'll be writing this with the expectation that you've read the entire series. If you haven't read any or all of them yet, read on at your own risk or simply skip the text after the district name and number in bold. Also, if you're a huge Hunger Games fan and disagree with whatever I've written, please don't flame me. Let's just talk about it in the comments, okay? Okay!

Needless to say this will be a preeeetty long post, photo heavy and with walls of text so grab a coffee, sit back and relax. All set? Here we go!

The first three pretties in this series!

China Glaze For Audrey

Continuing in the vein of this month's Valentine-esque colors, we'll be deviating a bit from the traditional colors. Usually, Valentine's means pink, red and white, and by now I'd think you'd have been sick of pink. See, it dawned on us that the month of love doesn't necessarily just revolve around these three colors. There are a few out there that are also associated with the holiday, albeit not as obvious and used in your average Valentine's Day decor/display. One of the colors that jumped out was a pretty shade of blue that as a box any woman would absolutely love to receive as a present any day:

Maybe the boy will take a hint when he sees this pretty blue on your nails, hmm?

Nail Art Wednesday: Shattered Hearts Nails

Not everyone is a fan of Valentine's Day. For some of my friends, they've long dubbed the day as S.A.D.: Singles Awareness Day. For others, it's just a highly commercialized holiday that brings enough money to florists and chocolatiers to last them the whole year long. (Have you seen how much prices of flowers and chocolate boxes are jacked up during February? It's ridiculous!) I wanted to do something other than the usual cheesy V-day mani, as well as use the black shatter polish I got from the China Glaze Haunting set. I was going for a "broken hearted" sort of theme but my optimistic streak ended up turning it into something edgy and fun instead:

"You shattered my heart(s) but I filled it with glitter!"

China Glaze Glittering Garland celebrates an early Merry Christmas!

Diets be damned, the coming weekend promises at least 3 days of buffet-style dinners and lots of family fun. Then, of course, there's the gifts to be given (and received!), candy canes and chocolate to be had and lots of peppermint mochas. Right after which will be the chaos of Boxing Day (I'm on the look out for a new camera but so far the Boxing Day flyers I've seen haven't looked very promising..). The only thing that would make this weekend all the better (and probably a whole lot crazier) would be a lot of that wonderful white stuff that you see drifting over your screen. It's undoubtedly bound to be a crazy busy weekend, so I truly hope your Friday is treating you well. While we're at it, let's enjoy this calm before the storm with a bit of glass-flecked magic from China Glaze:

Like green foliage on a Christmas tree!

China Glaze Ruby Pumps takes you away from holiday induced stress

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With 7 days left before the big 2-5, I'm fairly certain that tempers are fraying and the stress of the holidays might be getting to you. If not, I applaud your cool, calm composure (grace under fire!) or your unbelievable case of procrastination ("oh, I can still do it on the 24th"). Either way, I'm of the mind that when things get more than a little crazy, I wish I could either stop time for a bit to catch my breath or click my heels and transport myself to anywhere quiet. That last bit brings to mind one of the best know red jelly and glitter polishes of all-time (incidentally also perfect for your holiday mani):

That right there is the reason why it's so popular and timeless.

China Glaze Lighthouse

Yellow isn't really my color. I can't pull it off the same way I can't do a pastel peach. (Both shades come out looking weird with my skintone.) But in continuing with the red, gold and green series we'll be doing all month long, I find myself reviewing a yellow anyway.  Before I picked this up, I had only one other yellow in my collection that I primarily use for nail art purposes. Well, two if you count a color changing polish I have from In the Mood (will do a review on that when it gets colder! :D) that's yellow when warm and orange when cold.  So when I asked Mr. J to help me pick out a color when I was last at Sally Beauty, he picked this yellow, rationalizing that I didn't have a lot to begin with. But where does it fall in with the red, gold and green part of the deal? Well, this one can pass for gold with the bling of glass flecks and microglitter.

See what I mean?

Truckload Tuesdays: Sally Beauty Steals and a Mini Review

No, I did not steal from Sally Beauty but for the price of the polishes that I got, it sure felt like I did! I did a quick run last weekend and ended up going home with five new pretties.

Gift set that I got for $8.99 + taxes.

Back of the box set.

L-R: Fowl Play, Sweet Peacock and Lucky Duck

This boxed set was such a no-brainer. Three full-sized Orly polishes and a pretty faux suede wristlet with feather accents for only $8.99 (with a Sally Beauty Club card)? Yes, please! I've been wanting to get my hands on Fowl Play since it came out but I waited, thinking that I'd rather get Cult Nails Unicorn Puke/Clairvoyant over it. Good thing I did and scored a great deal with this set! Better still that the two other polishes that came with it were the exact same colors I also wanted from the collection. I guess this is one of those few, few moments where delaying and waiting till the last minute makes it worth it?

Impulse buys: China Glaze Lighthouse and Glittering Garland, and a hand cream

I saw that China Glaze was also on sale and $1 off if you purchase 2 so I figured it was a good time to get Glittering Garland. I've been looking for Emerald Sparkle and have never seen it anywhere so when Glittering Garland came out, I was pretty excited that it would make a good substitute for now. Plus, it was a flakie. You know I had to have a flakie. Lighthouse was the hubby's pick since he says I don't have enough yellow. (As a matter of fact I only have a single yellow in my stash. Well, unless you count a color changing polish that changes from yellow to orange, then that would make it two.)

As for the hand cream, the cheapie/discount sucker in me couldn't pass up a 99 cent deal at the counter. *sigh* You can never have enough hand cream, can you?

Yuletide Vanilla by Beyond Belief (strange name for a brand)

Ingredient list at the back.

A dollop of the hand cream on skin.

I wish I can say that this is the best 99 cents I've ever spent on a hand cream but really, you get what you paid for. I do like that it's not particularly greasy feeling but I don't feel it's very moisturizing to begin with. It'll work for those my-hands-are-parched-beyond-belief-and-I'll-take-even-bacon-drippings-to-moisturize moments (that might explain the brand name..?), otherwise, don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed. As for the Yuletide Vanilla scent, it really doesn't smell particularly yultide-y or vanilla-y. I find the bergamot overpowers any sweetness from the vanilla that it actually smells like a perfume you'd expect an older lady to wear. No, don't get me wrong. It doesn't smell bad. But it's such a strong smell and you know what they say about too much of a good thing..? That.

The moral of this story is to never pick up anything from the counter, no matter how tempting or cheap that something might be. Put the blinders on, pay for your purchases and leave with quality products that you wanted in the first place. Don't make the same mistake I did.

Hammie asks: Are you an impulse shopper? Do you delay purchases till the last minute to score a better deal or do you jump on the bandwagon as soon as the next big beauty thing comes along?

Nail Art Wednesday: Calgary Flames Nails

After I did the Toronto Maple Leafs nail art in honor of Mr. J's birthday, I've had a nagging feeling that kept telling me that I needed to be fair and do one for the Calgary Flames, too. It could very well just have been Hammie with his subliminal messages, but wherever the thought came from, I knew it had to be done. See, I'm not originally from Toronto. I lived on the opposite end of the country, closer to the gorgeous Rockies in Calgary before moving here and that was where I first learned to appreciate hockey. I have a theory that wherever you first fall in love with the sport is where your loyalties will lie, no matter where you move in the future. So even if I now count Toronto as home, I still root for the Flames (Sorry, Leafs..). What better way to show your support even without a jersey or face paint on than to wear them proudly on your nails?

Go Flames!

China Glaze Cross Iron 360

Pumpkins. Falling leaves. The one fruit Mr. J can eat boxes and boxes of. What do they have in common? You guessed it right: Orange! This is one funny color. Funny in a weird kind of way. When I think "orange" it usually brings to mind both summer AND fall which I find strange because those two almost feel like polar opposites. But maybe it's because of how one transitions into the other that allows orange to straddle both seasons.

When I got the China Glaze Haunting Collection, I have to admit that it was primarily for It's Alive. The swatches I've seen of the entire collection had me hoping they'd include one of the vampier shades in the 4pc set. So when I saw the orange shimmer alongside It's Alive...I'll be honest. It was a bit of a let down. However, on the nail, not so much.

How could I stay unhappy wearing this?

Color Club New Bohemian

When I was asked by the talented Marta from Chit Chat Nails if I wanted to do a triplet post with the wonderful Carolina from Colores de Carol, how could I say no? (Subliminal message: Those links are there for a reason. You know you want to click them...) I was so excited, I felt like the luckiest girl alive! Luckier still that the polish picked for today is extra special. It's so special that it definitely deserves three times the love.

Hammie says: A warm welcome to all the lovely ladies who are here through Marta from Chit Chat Nails and through Carolina from Colores de Carol! We are most honored by your presence and we hope you enjoy your visit with us!

Hammie dice: A cálida bienvenida a todas las bellas damas que están aquí por medio de Marta de Chit Chat Nails y por medio de Carolina de Colores de Carol! Estamos muy honrados con su presencia y esperamos que disfrute de su visita con nosotros!

Pretty, isn't it?

China Glaze It's Alive

You know those little jelly cups that sometimes have bits of fruit inside them? I love those so much that I can finish a tub in one sitting. Almost (but not quite) as much as I love chocolate. I also prefer jelly instead of tapioca in my bubble tea. So it comes as no surprise that I have a thing for jelly finish nail polish. I used to be on a creme kick but once I put on a jelly, there was no turning back. It's easily one of my favorite finishes just because it looks so squishy and it's crazy shiny...really, what's not to like? But you know what's even better than a jelly? A jelly with glitter! Revlon Facets of Fuschia was such a hit that I knew I had to get more of these wonderful jelly glitters. So when I saw the 4pc China Glaze Haunting collection on sale at Sally Beauty, it was practically a no brainer. The star of the set?

China Glaze It's Alive in all it's jelly glitter awesomeness.