FOTD, Nails, Casual Outfit: A bit of red with a deal at Winners

I don't post a whole lot of "deals" that I manage to score at stores because Dale very much looks after me and spoils me with things. But I'll try to share with you any deals I can score!

In Canada we have a store called Winners and if you have time (and patience) to sift through racks and shelves, you can often find a great deal. 

Winners is sort of like Marshalls - which, I am happy to say, has arrived in Canada. 

Oh yeahhh! 

So look what I found at Winners the other week which I am happy about. 

I bought these using one of the gift certificates Dale got for me from Winners :) Such a sweetheart!

I loved the marked creasings and fades on these!

I love the black sequins on the back pockets of the jeans and there's even a bit of sequins on the front pockets too. They blend in really well since the jeans are a dark wash.

Yay! $16 for jeans?! I couldn't believe it LOL 

And I like how they look. Plus they are comfortable and the denim is soft. 

The brand of jeans is Almost Famous. I have not heard of this brand but these look better (and feel better) than a couple of my $180+ CDN pair of jeans. 

Have you heard of the brand Almost Famous Clothing?

So here's yesterday's FOTD, OOTD (with the new jeans) & Mani....a bit of red. 

Wore this casual outfit to meet clients

Red Checkered Shirt is from Forever21

Jeans are by Almost Famous

Heels are from Guess 

French manicured nails are by Revlon 

(the "medium length" nails are more conservative with Revlon - read, shorter) 

Soooo, I'm going to meet Dale today at the airport!! :) 

Gosh we are so last minute LOL We're still flying to New York tomorrow, however he might change our flight to stay one extra day in New York city...and during this weekend, we might make an overnight trip to Atlantic City New Jersey. I kind of like last minute changes - makes it more exciting!

 I'll take lots of pictures and share with you later :)

Have you scored any shopping deals recently??

NOTD: A Hit with the Guys + New York

Heyyy! I'm back home in Toronto from my trip out West....and this was my welcome home bouquet of two dozen roses from Dale ;) He knows I love the coral coloured roses and extra baby's breath. He's a sweetheart

And this was my manicure during my trip out earlier in the week

For fun, I had asked Dale what colour he would like my nails to be. He said hot pink :) So I immediately thought of the China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy nail polish that he picked up for me last month. A couple of coats of China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy:

Funny I didn't realize I had a small birth mark on my pinkie until I saw this picture! Huh, the things I discovered via blogging....

This colour is really bold especially on fake nails like this. I liked it but spruced it up a bit with some chunky glitter polish at the tips. I like to do this to jazz up any base coat colour

Left to right: No brand chunky blue glitter polish I bought in Thailand, China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

Sooo, this is the first manicure where I got numerous compliments - and all the compliments were from random gentlemen (the security guy at the airport, the gentleman sitting beside me on the plane, the male air flight attendant..etc..). I didn't get any compliments from the ladies...ah well. Hence the title of this post!


Now I gotta focus on my studies and catch up on some work stuff. But I can't complain because in two weeks Dale is taking me to New York!!! Ahhhh! I'm really excited :)

If you have any suggestions on must-see places in New York, please let me know


How is your weekend coming along? :)

Nail Polish Swatches & Reviews: Claire's Icing, China Glaze, SH & Orly

There are so many things I want to post, but I have been kept busy

Thank you for being patient though - I will try to update blogger more regularly again ;) 

As promised two posts ago, here are swatches for some of the nail polishes Dale picked up for me last month. 

The first swatches are from a limited edition set of Icing Nail polishes from Claire's

There is no name for the set nor for the individual nail polishes.
Note that the bottles in the set (12 mL each) are a tad bit smaller than the standard 18 mL nail polish bottles

So from left to right here are the swatches (all the swatches are two coats, no top coat)

This magenta colour has a really nice iridescent sheen to it

I like this blue-green colour more than I thought I would :)

This blue nail polish dries matte

I really like how bright this orange shade is....it reminds me of palm trees and tropical weather ;)

This colour is really why I wanted the set - the bright purple looked so pretty in the bottle. The formula came out thinner than expected though

Although the Claire's Icing Limited Edition nail polishes do not have any names, the regular sized individual nail polishes do have names.

Here is Claire's Icing nail polish in "Laura's Fave"

I was on the hunt for a nice turquoise-blue nail polish colour....and the colour of "Laura's Fave" caught my eye when I was walking past the store!
It's a nice colour but I wish it was more opaque...so it might be "Laura's Fave" but it's not Karen's Fave LOL


The next nail polish was along the St. Patricks' Day themed shelf

This is Claire's Icing nail polish in "Green with Envy"

This is two coats...but I find that three coats gives a nicer finish

This was my St. Patrick's Day manicure of the week with three coats
I really like it! It took me half a day to get use to it since I tend to be more demure with my choice of colour with longer nails...but it grew on me quickly and I'll be wearing this even during the year

Overall it was my first time using nail polish from Claire's. And they're quite good. There wasn't any streaking that could not be covered after two coats of nail polish, and the only one requiring a third coat was the green glitter one (for intensity preferences). The colour has lasted me 3-4 days without major chipping, and that's pretty decent wear for me


*********

Here are several other nail polish swatches from a few other brands

This one is China Glaze "Innocence"

I really do not understand the great reviews on this nail polish colour
I personally think China Glaze is slightly overrated (sort of like MAC eyeshadows)
Basically, this is any other light ballerina-ish pink colour - I can find at least two others like this at my local pharmacy drug store for half the price. I thought the formula would be slightly more opaque....but what really bothered me was how long it took for this nail polish to dry. It seriously took much longer than other nail polishes to dry.


Next up is China Glaze "Flip Flop Fantasy"

Unlike China Glaze "Innocence", I do recommend China Glaze "Flip Flop Fantasy" if you're looking for a hot pink colour. There just isn't a hot pink colour nearly as bright as this one (that I could find), which is nicely opaque with two coats and applies well. Dale picked out this colour - good one Dale ;)


The following two are nail polishes are from Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri line

If you know me, you'll know that it's difficult for me to resist anything of nude or taupe colour - that's high heels, dresses, tops, lipgloss, lipstick and even nail polish....

This one is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Quick Sand"

I should have read some reviews prior. I must say that the negative reviews regarding the brushes for this line of nail polish is quite accurate as you can see

Honestly, if you're going to design a nice wide brush (like OPI) please ensure the opening of the bottle is substantially wider than the brush width!!!

For some reason the formula for "Quick Sand" sadly comes out looking like sand on my nails each time I've used it. I keep getting a ton of air bubbles for this nail polish colour. I'm not sure if it has something to do with this particular nail polish formula since the following nail polish is also from the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri line and it applied very nicely

This is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Sonic Bloom" 

With the exception of the strange combination of a wide brush and small nail polish bottle opening, I quite like "Sonic Bloom". The formula applied very smoothly.

I find that the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri nail polishes dry just as fast as the Claire's Icing Nail polishes. In fact, the China Glaze "Flip Flop Fantasy" dried a tad bit faster than the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes....so I do not agree with many reviewers that said the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes dry much faster than other brands


The last one for this post is Orly in "Passion Fruit" from their Hot Neons collection

This was my first Orly nail polish and wow! I'm really impressed with the formula and I absolutely love the rubberized handle on the brush:

If the rest of Orly nail polishes are anything like this one in terms of formula, application and even the rubberized handle, then this might very well become my favourite brand of nail polish. I know China Glaze gets a lot of love, but sometimes the formulas are not to my liking. And yes, the OPI nail polish brush is quite nice, but I found the Orly one great to work with too. We shall see!

Do you have a favourite nail polish brand? 


What have you been up to lately?? :)

Accessories, Dresses, Makeup

Some of the things I got in the past month from...well, you know who ;)

Forever21 Floral Print Dress in "Blue Pink"
Shoes: Charlotte Russe Peep Toe Bootie with Side Zipper 

The dress above reminds me of Tommy Bahamas because of the print and bright colours
And the peep toe booties above are from Charlotte Russe - I la-la-love them ;)

Black dress with shoulder beads from Forever21 

I love the taupe colour of this Forever21 Perforated Knit Dress. It is a bit long (just above the knees), but it's nice for a more formal dinner

A couple of bandage dresses from a store on Yonge Street in downtown Toronto called Axiom

Frederick's of Hollywood "Intoxicating Ingenue Dress" 

It was my first time visiting a Frederick's of Hollywood store when I was in Buffalo NY last month.

Dale and I went to the Walden Galleria location, which was a slight disappointment. I was expecting the store to be bigger, or at least have a better selection compared to their vast online selection. 

But we did manage to find a couple of things including this nice black one shoulder ruffle dress ;) 

As for the patent peep toe slingbacks above, I'm surprised they're not sold out online at Charlotte Russe yet. They can match almost any outfit and they're super comfortable yet sexy. I have them in every colour now :) yay!

If you read my blog, you'll know there's a running joke between Dale & I with holes in my socks

There's some affordable jewelry that I really like at Forever21

This is their lavish panel bracelet in light green/gold

Dale chose these two earrings out for me himself from Aldo - they're really nice :) 

The left pair is "gibler" in silver and the right is "gundlach" in white nubuck

I have swatches of all seven Icing nail polishes, which was picked up at Claire's. I will have it up in my next post shortly ;) 

The bottom pink ring is the faceted faux stone ring from Forever21, the middle ring is the vintaged filigree ring from Forever21 and the top cream coloured ring is the faceted bead ring in olive/gold from Forever21.

I love rhinestones so the jointed leaf earrings from Forever21 are a favourite! 

Left to right: China Glaze in "Innocence", Nina Ultra Pro in "Punki Pink", Orly in "Passion Fruit"

I picked out the far left polish, he picked out the other two bright colours (his favourites). I will try to get some swatches up in my next post

I agree with all the highly rated reviews of Rimmel Royal Gloss - the texture is smooth & not sticky 

I rarely get a chance to visit Wal-mart, but on my last visit I picked up a couple of Hard Candy Painted Lady lipsticks, a Hard Candy Plexi Gloss and their Lash Tinsel Glitter Mascara 

I have swatches of both lipsticks which I will also try to get up on my next post shortly

I did not pick out these Estee Lauder and Clinique makeup items myself - but for Estee Lauder, I love the luxe gold packaging and you can feel the quality from the amazing texture of their lip products

This is my second Hot Tools curling iron (the 1.5") - he got this for me when we were in Buffalo NY

I much prefer Hot Tools over Conair curling irons - for quality and the way it handles.

The price of Conair curling irons in Canada is pretty much the same as Hot Tools if you're getting it in the USA or through ebay ($30-$40)

The Tokidoki Sodashop perfetta cosmetic case from Sephora. The print is super cute! And I love how there is an inner slide slot inside the makeup bag. 

Ahhh you know me with Hello Kitty! :P

We were in Sephora and I loved both the HK compact mirrors - by why oh why was the rhinestone covered one not a compact (it's a one-sided mirror)? So I chose this Hello Kitty compact instead which is super super cute - love the outer mirror finish and there's a magnifying mirror as well as a regular one inside

I will have some swatches up in my next post

Doing anything exciting this weekend? ;)