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!

glittery purple zebras... they exist, right?

Hi everyone! Did you miss me?
Can you believe I didn't post for the last three whole days?!
Life catches up to you sometimes. I had a lot of school work and other things taking up my time.

But never fear... I always return.

To make my comeback, I'm posting some great nails I rocked a few weeks ago!

Purple, glitter, zebra... it doesn't get much better.
This idea came from a friend asking me to do her nails and do whatever I wanted. Somehow I landed on this, and then as soon as she left I did the same thing on my nails!

This look starts with 2 coats of China Glaze - Flying Dragon and one coat of Nails Inc - Bloomsbury Square.
I forgot to take a picture of this on my left hand so you get a messy right hand picture. Look at that great application... It's not usually that bad, promise.

Nails Inc is a bit pricey, but good news! Wet N Wild just released an exact dupe of this awesome purple glitter. It's called Back Alley Deals and it is in the Ice Baby collection. You'll only be able to find it at Walgreens. (Lucky me, my friend Sarah from Chalkboard Nails scooped up the ones I wanted and sent them to me! I got them today. Look out for swatches soon.)

Then I added the silver stamping with Sally Hansen Insta Dri - Silver Sweep and Konad plate m57.
And then... a coat of China Glaze - Fairy Dust.
Add some Seche Vite and you're good to go.

I just love the super sparkly purple base with the tiny rainbow of Fairy Dust. And animal print makes everything better, right?

I love this last photo! Click it to enlarge it and see how deep the polish looks. I just love it.

So, sorry for being gone, but I hope you liked my return! I sure did.
And I promise I have lots of awesome coming up. And I mean lots.
(Eye Candy? Ice Baby? Scent-scous? Beyond The Mistletoe? Back to Boho? Pride? Oh my!)

More about → glittery purple zebras... they exist, right?

these are a few of my favorite things

Teal. Gradients. Glitter. Sponging. Stamping. Stars.
Yes, these are a few of my favorite things. And here they all are in one mani!

Looooove this! Nothing better than a bunch of favorites!

This mani started out with 2 coats of Orly Bailamos.
Gorgeous 2-coat teal with shimmer!

I love this polish. I should wear it more often.

Then I began sponging on a shimmery deep teal from Forever 21, Love & Beauty - Green.
The names of the Love & Beauty polishes are hilarious. "Green" is not an accurate description of this polish, it is a dark shimmery, sheer teal with a slight duochrome effect.

Not blingy enough yet... Needs glitter and stamping.

Tada! I sponged on some glitter, Nails Inc. - Fitzroy Square from the Special Effects 3D Glitter line. Amazing teal glitter! My mom picked up that one for me in Vegas at Sephora!

I just love this. I'm going to stop saying that now.
The stamp is Bundle Monster BM14 with Wet N Wild Black Creme.

That picture is a bit out of focus but it is pretty!

I've had this on for 4 days now with no chips at all! I might have to leave it on for a few more :)
What do you guys think?

More about → these are a few of my favorite things

31 Day Challenge: Day 17

Ah, glitter. Today's theme is Glitter Nails.

I have a love/hate relationship with glitter.
I own a lot of glitter polishes. But do I wear them often? Not really.

Glitter looks awesome but it has quite a few annoying traits.
1) The removal. Let's not talk about how much fun it is scrubbing your nails for 10 minutes to get off all the glitter. You can use the foil method (tutorial here from Kayla Shevonne) but I just don't like doing it... So I scrub away. Or maybe sometimes possibly pick it off... But as a good nail blogger... Pretend I didn't say that.
2) The clean up. Got some glitter on your cuticles? Good luck getting rid of it. They don't call it "glitter herpes" for nothin'.
3) It is so hard to get even coverage on your tips. Now, not all glitter does this, but the one I'm showing you today does!
4) The wear time. I get mega chips with glitter polish within a day or two. Big chunks just pop right off. Sometimes entire nails just pop off in nail-shaped sheets! Sheesh.

Despite all the faults, I'm still addicted to glitter. So I keep buying it.
In Buffalo, I picked up this little baby:

This is Nails Inc. - Bloomsbury Square, which is from the Special Effects 3D glitter line.

Sephora had just begun carrying Nails Inc. right around the time of my trip so I knew I had to get my hands on at least one!
None of the cremes really wowed me but the glitters were awesome! I wanted all of them (of course) but, my mom was with me at the time, which ultimately meant I had to show some willpower and choose just one.
In typical Rebecca fashion, I picked the purple.

Ah, purple glitter. But not just any purple glitter! There is reddish-fuchsia glitter in there, too. You'll see that better in upcoming pictures.

I was expecting this glitter to be more dense - you're looking at 4 coats, and it needed all 4.
I was hoping that being a "special effect" meant it would be really good, application-wise, but nope.
It did dry pretty quickly though, and was perfectly smooth after one thick coat of Seche Vite.

The application problem I mentioned earlier is slightly visible in this photo. It's hard to get the glitter to adhere properly to the very edge of your nail and for someone crazy like me, it is quite annoying! It looks like your fresh mani has already been wearing off for a few days.

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of your right hand with a really large Canon Rebel camera? The button is on the right side of the camera, so you have to get in this awkward contortion so you can reach that button with your left hand... And then somehow get your right hand in front of the camera... And try to strike a nice "pose" ...It ain't happenin'. Sorry.

It sparkles pretty nice in the sunlight! But look at the glitter-free tips :(
(I didn't have my polish bottle close to me for these outdoor pics, so I held my OPI AvoJuice. Good stuff.)

Here is where you can see the difference in the colors of glitter. It's pretty unique, I don't think I own many glitters that are mostly one color with a pop of a larger, contrasting glitter.
Me likey.
Me wanty the other colors...

These polishes retail for $9.50 at Sephora in the states and I believe $12 in Canada.
Pricey, but not horribly so. Acceptable.

Are you wondering what else is coming up in the challenge? Here is a reminder...

What are you most looking forward to?

More about → 31 Day Challenge: Day 17