Lynnderella - Connect The Dots

Hey everyone!
I neglected posting all day today just because I'm lazy so I decided to do a quick little post before I go to bed so I don't feel guilty for not posting 2 days in a row... Haha!

A few weeks ago I got a bottle of the infamous Lynnderella's Connect The Dots.
Black and white glitters are all the rage and there is really no questioning why. They're just so freakin' cool on your nails!

I layered CTD over two OPI polishes I wore just to try some layering combinations! I'll show those to you tonight along with one small comparison.

Lynnderella - Connect The Dots over OPI - I Don't Give A Rotterdam!
I loved this combo, the muted blue color really looks nice with the crazy glitter and added shimmer of CTD. I think CTD is best over bright colors but I like seeing it over more soft things for a change. It's versatile.

Lynnderella - Connect The Dots over OPI - Paint My Moji-toes Red
I tried out CTD over a coral red, seeing as coral/tangerine is supposed to be the color of the year, or whatever that nonsense is. As usual, it looks great.

My one complaint about Connect The Dots is the bar glitter. Good grief, the bar glitter likes to poke out of topcoats and annoy the crap out of me. I end up picking most of them off with tweezers in a few hours. They lie flat at first... And then go rogue.

You may remember my post before about Cover Band - Sticks 'n Stones, an amazing creation made to resemble CTD.
If you're not crazy about polish, you would probably think these are identical. But for us polish lovers, you can totally see how these are different when they're next to each other. and I love them both in their own way. I don't think I could part with one, like I previously thought I might.
Here's a quick comparison I did:

CTD has some pretty shimmer going on and overall more glitter, but overall smaller glitter. I also found my CTD to be pretty heavily white.
SnS has no shimmer, lots of big glitter pieces, and a pretty even black/white mix.

They give two different looks. You know, if you've got polish-eyes. I can't pick a favorite.
I saw this picture on Pinterest earlier and thought it would be appropriate for this post:

Photo from Like A Candy Shop. Soooooooooo true.

If this black-and-white-glitter-post wasn't enough to fill your glitter appetite, please head over to Chalkboard Nails and check out her massively huge comparison post.

Tomorrow I'ma be posting a neon CTD mani I wore last week sometime. It's a good one. See you then!

More about → Lynnderella - Connect The Dots

Cover Band - Sticks 'n Stones

Sticks 'n Stones may break my bones... But black and white glitter excites me.

Cover Band - Sticks 'n Stones
You. Need. This. Plain and simple.

If you're "in the know" in the polish world, you'll know that this polish is meant to be similar to Lynnderella's Connect The Dots, to give people a way to get this look without a) having to pay the Lynnderella price and b) having to deal with Lynnderella's drama.

Duping polishes within the indie polish community is really a drama-filled topic so I won't say much about it other than "the more the merrier" and "it's just nail polish."

I've actually got a bottle of Connect The Dots on the way to me right now. I committed to buying one but then assumed I would never actually get it once Lynnderella shut down her blog and all that.
I then bought Sticks 'n Stones to get my fix.
...And got invoiced for the Lynn the next day.
So that was annoying, but I bought it anyway. And now after comparing this one to swatches of the Lynn, I like this one better! Maybe I'll swap the Lynn when it comes.

Anyway, after all that rambling, onto the rest of this post.

I started this manicure with probably the stupidest combination of colors. Stupid because they are so hard to photograph.

This is a mixture of four Color Club polishes.
I started with a base of Peppermint Twist and let that dry.
I then added a quick coat of Peace Out Purple, and swiftly used a tissue to blot most of it off.
I did the same thing two more times with Mrs. Robinson and then Disco Dress.

That's what your tissue will look like when you're done! I really like this technique, it gives a cool blend of colors.
And if you don't add topcoat, it leaves a cool texture too! (But I can never go without topcoat.)

None of those photos accurately show the colors, though.
Only one photo I took (out of like 100) shows the colors right.
And it was taken with my iPhone. Go figure.

Super bright, super fuchsia, and super awesome with Sticks 'n Stones on top!

Here's a bottle shot:

Sticks 'n Stones, as you can see, is a glitter polish that is packed with white and black glitter in all different shapes and sizes.  There's also a tiny bit of iridescent glitter floatin' around in there.

I'm still wearing this mani as I write this post, and it is still distracting me. I keep stopping what I'm doing to look at my nails.
I realized just how many times I was being distracted when I was in the shower, washing my hair, and I stopped to look at my nails. Really.

...I just did it again.

The mix-y base color combined with the different shapes of black and white glitter is just so eye-catching and fun to look at. It almost looks like a splatter effect, but without the mess of actually doing a splatter!

The one issue I had with the polish is that sometimes the bar glitters will not lie flat. I had to pick off three pieces with tweezers because I couldn't stand feeling the edge of them sticking up.
But that's a pretty minor (and obsessive compulsive) problem.

For some reason I decided to do one accent nail on my right hand, and I'm going to show it to you, but be warned that I am awful at taking pictures of my right hand! And vacation was not kind to my right hand, so the nails are looking a little sad.

My accent nail is China Glaze - Turned Up Turquoise. I adore this color but it is another pain in the butt to photograph. Having one accent nail is pretty random but I dig it.

As I said earlier, you need Sticks 'n Stones because it is fantastic.
You can buy it from the website Ninja Polish which I am proud to say is ran by two of my friends!
Sticks 'n Stones is currently sold out, but there is a nice feature on the site that will email you when it is back in stock!

Have a lovely day, everyone!

More about → Cover Band - Sticks 'n Stones

i'm home! / april haul!

Hey everyone! Back to live posting here from RLN headquarters.

I had a fantastic time on vacation, spent a ton of money, ate a whole bunch of good food, and of course brought home a lot of polish.

I'm gonna start this post with my usual monthly haul list, and then move on to the stuff I got while on vacation!
Before I left for vacation, I wasn't really being as good as I should have been...

I got a bunch of Color Club at Winners:
Color Club - Hypnotic
Color Club - Clean Break
Color Club - Daisy Does It
Color Club - Wing Fling
Color Club - Metamorphosis
Color Club - Fly With Me
Color Club - Sparkle and Soar
Color Club - Sky High
Color Club - Diamond Drops
Color Club - Blue-Ming
Color Club - Blushing Rose
Color Club - Lavendarling

I did a review for piCture pOlish:
piCture pOlish - Peacock
piCture pOlish - Monroe
piCture pOlish - Mask-A-Rade

I got two polishes from my friend Briana:
Icing - The Golden Age of Glitter
Icing - After Party

I bought two polishes from Pretty and Polished:
Pretty & Polished - Party on my Yacht
Pretty & Polished - The Amazing Technicolor Topcoat

I got a bunch of OPI on clearance for $1.99! (Such a good deal!):
OPI - Paint My Moji-toes Red
OPI - Pedal Faster Suzi
OPI - I Don't Give A Rotterdam
OPI - French Quarter For Your Thoughts
OPI - Vampsterdam
OPI - Give Me The Moon!
OPI - 18K Ginza Gold
OPI - Skull and Glossbones (backup!)


I also got 2 OPI's from AveYou that my friend Marissa kindly helped me get:
OPI - Lincoln Park After Dark Suede
OPI - We'll Always Have Paris Suede

Other stuff:
LCN - Love Me Love My Polish (99 cents!) 
LCN - Sweet Serenade (99 cents!)
Born Pretty Magnetic - L-001 (sent for review)


Okay, I did pretty bad before leaving. And I'm sure you know how it goes from here...

I picked up a bunch of Color Club's from a few different places! Good prices, too. I'm trying to complete the Poptastic collection (because there are way more than just the 7-piece set) and I almost have all of them now! As well I hope to finish my Glitter Vixen collection (3 left to find.) And I was totally excited to find the other purple glitter (the mini) as I've been lusting after it!
Top row:
Color Club - Where's The Soiree? 
Color Club - Peace Out Purple (mini)
Color Club - Youthquake (mini)
Color Club - Too Violet (mini)
Color Club - Magic Attraction
Bottom row:
Color Club - Feelin' Groovy
Color Club - MODern Pink
Color Club - Koo-Koo Cachoo
Color Club - Peppermint Twist (full size backup!)
Color Club - The Lime Starts Here
Color Club - Mrs. Robinson

Of course I splurged on some Sephora by OPI polishes. I told you that more Betsey's would come home with me! And a shatter did, too. It was on sale.
Sephora by OPI - Sparkling Personality 
Sephora by OPI - Opalescent Blasted
Sephora by OPI - Cartwheels on the Catwalk

I picked up a few random things along the way, of course.
OPI - Lemonade Stand By Your Man (I am in love with this name! And it was on sale. So I got it.)
Love & Beauty - Orchid (Saw this at the cash at Forever 21 and I figured hey, I'm buying half the damn store anyway, this can come home with me too.)
Sinful Colors - Dream On (I picked this up at Walgreens, my first time ever inside one. It was on sale for 99 cents so picked it up. Later on I regretted it because CC Mrs. Robinson is the same color and I bought that too.)
Nails Inc. - The Thames (OMG, this was on clearance so of course it came home. The bottle is so awesome, it's a nice collectible to have. They sell for $24.50 at Sephora in Canada and it was on sale for $11.)

These pretties came to me from the lovely Hayley from Here Comes The Sun. We've become friends online over the last year or so, and we decided to meet up and do some polish shopping!
Hayley picked me up and we hit up a few malls and had a great time. She brought me these three beauties (as well as Color Club The Lime Starts Here as seen above to complete my Wicked Sweet collection that you may remember came with a wrong color.)
Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Blush Diamond (I think that's what it is, no name on it.)
Maybelinne Colorama - Ruby Rays (flakie!)
Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Emerald Amethyst (duochome!)

Thank you so much for taking me out Hayley, and for bringing me these pretties! It was lovely meeting you and also nice getting a break from all the family time! Hahaha.

I came home to two amazing nail mails that my dad kindly rescued for me while I was away and unable to stalk the mailman.
Cover Band - Sticks and Stones (from Ninja Polish! Love those girls!)
Sonoma Nail Art - Sonoma Sunset (be sure to stalk Michelle's Etsy store! Love this girl too!)

Okay, that's all the polish.
Count? 55.
Some were for review, some were gifts, some were super cheap, and vacation stuff never counts, right?

I'm also gonna show you some of the other exciting stuff I got while on holiday!

I bought a freakin' ton of clothes. There's no Forever 21 or H&M in my province so whenever I get to shop there, I go crazy! I could have bought like five times as much but my mom might have shot me if I made her go into anymore F21's.
You'll notice I got a lot of leopard print... a lot of dots... a lot of hearts... a lot of bows... Life imitates nail art? Haha!

Hello Kitty clock for $8? Yes please.

I love sandals! Especially ones that are sparkly purple or ones that have bows.
I also picked up some black pumps for $10 and some Nike sneakers but I didn't take a picture because they're not as special as these.
The purple ones are American Eagle but they are from Payless and the bows Steve Madden from DSW. In love!

I made my very first MAC purchase...
I was lusting after this item for a while after seeing it online but I wasn't sure if it would work with my skin tone.
And then the lovely guy at MAC said "Are you kidding me?! It's perfect for you!"
He convinced me after complimenting my hair/eyes/skin (as I'm sure he does for everyone) but I felt special, okay? Haha!

What is this mystery item?

MAC Viva Glam Nicki Lipstick
I figure, if I'm spending $17.50 on a lipstick, it might as well be crazy, and even better that the money goes to charity.

I bought Lush's Lemony Flutter cuticle butter as well but forgot to take a picture. That was a splurge too but you know, vacation, guilt-free, etc.

Now you've seen pretty much everything.
But I've saved the best purchase for last...

I went to the Betsey Johnson boutique in Toronto. What's inside this hot pink bag?

A hot pink box. And what's inside the hot pink box?

A hot pink bag. And what's in the bag?

A beautiful ring!
OMG, I love it. I'm so happy I found it, and I got it for a steal. 

Holy crap, it makes me so happy.
(Manicure featuring Color Club The Lime Starts Here and MODern Pink - done while on vacation!)

Okay, you've seen my polish and my splurges and my Betsey ring. I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed shopping for all the things in it. Heh. See you guys tomorrow!

More about → i'm home! / april haul!