FiA#5 Football

.... I don't like football. I don't watch football... I'm in BC, near Vancouver. We're hockey people. And by "we" I mean "they" because I don't find sports that interesting. So instead of doing a team logo...

I have to say, it was really hard to take pictures of this because it was so shiny! GLARE =O

So, two coats of China Glaze Harvest Moon, with a stripe of Billie Silver near the tip and the football stitches from the cuticle =)

See my weird angle attempts at getting the glare off and showing you the design haha...

Is this "Football" enough?

Check everyone else! They're more team oriented than me mostly ;)

Hannah from Polished Prisms
Stephanie from A Little Polish
Suer from Creative Nail Design By Sue
Katee from A Girl And Her Polish
Ashley from One Nail to Another
Karine Assemien from Karinea0a
Kayono Lan (aka Johanna) from Neues vom Kellerkind
Charlotte-Louise from Charlotte's Nails
Alyson Epstein from Beads. Nails. Food.
Maribeth from Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite
Becky from Glam Fiend
Angie from Our Painted World
Alethia from Never-Ending Nail Art
Sarah from Dakila's
Amanda from Mandy's Polish
Lisa from Lisa's Nail Obsession
Kelly from Nails for the Sake of Sanity
Stephanie from All Things Beautiful
Martina from From Head to Foot

Swatch: China Glaze Harvest Moon

You guys should know that I worship China Glaze, mostly because I only have five and I refuse to pay more than the $5 each I did for these when they're $8 up here. When the Hunger Games collection was released, I made an order and this is one of those.

I did two coats, dry time was good, but not as fast as Essence. Formula was amazeballs China Glaze perfection. One thing I will say though, the brush picks up too much polish and makes application gloopy if you're not paying attention and wiping enough before you apply... Other than that, pics!

SO shiny

 This metallic bronze is one of the first colours I thought of when fall came around. It's incredibly shiny as you can see. The next two pictures are in more natural light.

What do you think? Are you as enamoured of China Glaze?

Swatch: Essence Princess Prunella

Guys. Guys. Y'know how annoying it is to be a "free-thinker" with insurmountable amounts of brand loyalty? Extremely disheartening. And then you hit a brand like Essence and you just don't even think about it anymore. This is another of those that I mindlessly bought because it was Europe, there was Essence, and I hadn't seen it before (the other being High Spirits). The bottle doesn't look like my cup of tea, kind of a brown leaning mauve with pink/purple shimmer. Anyway, I decided I was feeling girly one night and wanted to use this as the base for something I didn't think I'd like but I knew I had to try...

I'm just speechless in love. I was so torn (again) about covering it up with anything. Dried quick, two coats, shiny, smooth, luuuuurve...

Are you guys as enamoured? I have yet to be disappointed by Essence... 

Swatch: Julep O Canada

I had this idea in my folder for a while - I thought it'd be interested to layer Julep O Canada over the Color Club Magnetic Force Electro-Midnight. Buuut.... after doing the initial swatch of Electro-Midnight and having it turn out SO well I was really wary.

Luckily for me (and you?), I take some chances on my nails ;)

Because of the dark blue, both the opalescent, light blue and the red glitter stand out, which I found was a problem over white (we lose the opalescent bits). I thought the glitter would cover up the waves too much but they still stand out and it looks AMAZING. I am extremely happy.

As for Julep O Canada, this is one "coat" with some dabbing to get the red glitters to spread out.

If you guys wanna start your own Julep collection, it only takes a penny! Click HERE to take the quiz, then at checkout use the code PENNY to get your almost free box =D Lemme know which profile you are!

Swatch: Color Club Magnetic Force Electro-Midnight

Hi! When I first heard about magnetic polish, I was in Ulta and say the Laylas for $15.50USD! It was REALLY cool, but there was nooo way I was gonna spend $16! And then I saw Color Club on A Girl And Her Polish and I started my hunt! On a trip down to the states, I found them in Hot Topic just like she said =D

I bought it because Katee just makes it look so good! When I tried it I realized I had actually been hoping for a more teal colour which I wasn't going to get in this one. HOWEVER, for $7, I couldn't regret it <3

This is my second attempt at using this polish. I put down one coat on each nail and then, one nail at a time, I put down a nice thick coat and held the magnet as close as I could get it. On thicker attempts, I saw the polish even reaching up to try and mess itself up on that magnet! Bah xD I was careful though, and it didn't happen. By the time I got to the pinky on the first hand, I had it down.

Tips:

1. Hold the magnet really close and really still.
2. Hold for a long time.

That's it! Here's the pictures!

This is the first layer. I tried to magnetize on the index finger but you can see it doesn't work too well =)

This is after I figured it out on the pinky and went back

 I used 2 - 3 coats depending on how strong I managed to get the stripes.

 And then I did the other hand.

I hate when my off hand turns out better!

 GAH the depth of those stripes!

=D Sorry for the messy cuticles. I love it! And this is one of the most affordable magnetics so I'm glad I picked it up. As you can see, the magnet I have is waves but I really wish I could get a set with that fishnet pattern that nails Inc has =P

Last comments: This dried super quick but stains like mad! Wear basecoat =D

What do you think?

Swatch: Julep Jodie and Piper Polish

Julep Jodie is classic Julep formula. Two coats, dries quick and shiny and gorgeous colour. It's kind of a dusky autumnal red with shimmer. I wanna apologize for the mess, I did this real quick (it's past my bedtime).

So to make things more interesting, I decided it was time to try the Spectraflair topcoat from Piper Polish. I am incredibly glad I found this because that flame is amazing. Take a look =D

In direct bright light

In direct bright light again

Ditto above

Out of direct bright light

It dried nicely, SO SMOOTH and stunk like a motherf***er. I am ready to try this outside and wait for the compliments =D

As usual, click here for Julep and use the code PENNY for a one cent intro box after you do the quiz.

And Piper Polish is on Etsy with a lot of holographic polish =D

Have you also liked my Facebook page yet? ^^

De Dutch De-Lish

I finally get to write about food again! I've been trying to save money lately, so I haven't had the opportunity to go out but after this I've got one more meal budgeted for next weekend =).

For now, I'm going to talk briefly about one of my favourite places to eat breakfast food! I say breakfast food because I am a firm believer in bacon being an anytime kind of food. ;) Can't beat the bacon.

Unless you're at De Dutch and get the Pannekoeken.

Here's the trick with De Dutch. You've gotta go with someone. Obviously, I go with my man, and we order a breakfast platter and a Pannekoek. This way, we get our healthy balanced breakfast and a sweet unique treat =D

For about $15 a person, we get what you see here...

 One full piece of buttered toast (whole wheat or white bread), hash browns, and a salad (green or fruit). On the right there is the most delicious thing ever - Chocolate Strawberry Whip Pannekoek. We'll get to that =)

That left side looks a little sparse doesn't it? That's because the toast is covering the coup de grace ;)

Two enormous pieces of bacon!

 BACONBACONBACONBACON... And under the hash browns: eggs!

1 piece toast, 2 pieces bacon, 1 egg, hash browns, salad =D

 Now for the best part. The first thing you do is make a huuuge mess =D

And then you nom it!

=D Between the two of us, we spend about $30 and though this meal feels deceptively light but is EXTREMELY filling. So there you have it! Don't be deterred when people tell you it's too expensive, just take a buddy ;)

In other news, it was Branden's mom's birthday yesterday, and we made brownies!

Branden's mad baker decorating skills =D So cute. I'll give you a moment to squee <3

Oh! One more thing! I started a Facebook Page for the blog, so if you use Facebook, maybe you can head over and like me? <3? (It's on the right there too ;) >>>>)

Have a great day =D

Swatch: Rainbow Honey Celestia

Guys, this one is BEAUTIFUL. If you're going to get ONE Rainbow Honey, get this.

So trying to decide on a colour today I knew I was in the mood for a nice light blue. The first thing I tried was Sinful Colors Cinderella, from my haul post. I decided I was over it. It was too sheer to wear on its own, and it was not sheer enough to be a top layer for another polish. I would NEED to do it with a light blue underneath and that's just not cool. I did five layers before I got fed up and wiped it off. SO, if anybody wants Sinful Colors Cinderella, gimme a shout! I don't know any princesses who would like it anymore (thank god - no offense to nice princesses).

ANYWAY, I still wanted light blue so I dipped into my Rainbow Honey, which I expect to layer. Starting with three coats of Essence You Belong To Me, I did two coats of Rainbow Honey Celestia, an ethereal mix of glitter that appears clear but flashes the cool colours of the rainbow with light blue being the main base colour. I'm definitely going to try to layer it on different colours to see what the effects really are but for now, we're playing it safe =)

TLDR; This is two coats over three coats of Essence You Belong To Me:

 I could see a bit of a difference in spots on my nails where the Celestia landed, so I added one more coat for good measure. You can never have too much of a good thing!

 I am completely in love!

EVEN MORE SO in the sun =D

More colour accurate!

Yay blue!

 It looks like clear water (even though I'm sure I've never seen water like this).

It was just so bright and dreamy <3

The sparkle doesn't show up well in the pictures

Spontaneous Compliment Count: 3
You can buy Rainbow Honey here and like the Facebook page for swatches and sometimes even coupons ;)

And on another positive note, oven-made s'mores! =D Life is awesome.