Essie Sleek Sticks

Hi everyone! A little while ago Essie Canada's facebook page offered a free sample pack of some of their new Sleek Sticks to their fans and I was lucky enough to grab a set! The only nail appliqués I have ever tried before are the OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps which I adore, so let's see how the Essies stack up!

I'm not sure if I'm just terrible at applying these, but I think they were a lot more trouble than they were worth. The stickers were quite awkwardly shaped and they didn't stick to my nails well. I did the dishes later that evening and noticed that they had started peeling up, and from there it was easy to remove them.

Here's a pic from another angle so you can see kind of what they look like. I wasn't too thrilled with them, and I definitely won't be purchasing any of my own. 

Have you tried the Essie Sleek Sticks? Do you have any tips for using them?

Lynnderella The Glittering Crowd

Morning everyone! I have a confession to make today..this is the manicure that I wore on New Year's Eve. That's right..nearly three months ago. I honestly just found these photos and I couldn't believe that I've waited so long to show you this stunning Lynnderella polish.

I really wanted the glitter in this polish to stand out so I layered two coats over black. Did you know that there are over 100 different types of glitter in The Glittering Crowd? I was so lucky to snag a bottle of this before Lynn stopped making it!

As soon as I applied the polish it was begging me to matte-ify it, and I complied. Following one easy coat of Essie's Matte About You this is what my nails looked like.

Mmmm, look at all those different glitters. This look is so fun and colourful.

What would you use as a base colour for The Glittering Crowd?

Animeniac Cosmetics - Swatches & Review

Morning everyone! I hope you're all having a great first day of the month. Today I have a new indie brand to share with you that I'm really excited about - Animeniac Cosmetics. I was contacted by them to try out and review a couple of their polishes and I think you guys are going to like what you see! They generously offered to send me a full sized polish and a couple of their minis to play around with - let's see what I got up to with these!

This is Sandman and it's a beautiful gold metallic foil polish. I used two easy coats here for opacity, this glided on like butter! I was really impressed with the formula on Sandman. I have to say, I'm a big fan of the full-size bottles that Animeniac Cosmetics uses, they are clean and professional looking.

Here's the colour label attached to the bottom of the polish bottle.

And here is something I'm thrilled to see included on their bottles - an ingredients list! 

I wanted to put Sandman to the test and see how it fared again my favourite gold polish ever - Quo by ORLY Filthy Rich. Here you can see that they are quite similar in colour, with the Animeniac polish leaning a bit more silver. 

Here you can see a comparison between the two, they're obviously quite similar and I'm very happy about this because my Quo by ORLY polish is running out. I think the Quo polish is a little more opaque, but I usually end up using two coats of either one so it doesn't much matter.

I'm thrilled to have found a polish that can rival one of the staples in my collection.

This is Geek Chic and it's one of the mini bottles I got to try out. This isn't a combination of glitters that I would pick out for myself, but if multicolour glitters are you calling then you should check this out. Here I used two easy coats over OPI You're Such A BudaPest. It was easy to get a lot of glitter on the brush, I never had to fish around.

I like the combination of the different shapes and sizes of glitter in Geek Chic. I bet this polish would look awesome layered over a bunch of different colours.

Here's a bottle shot of Geek Chick, it's pretty fun isn't it? Glitter polishes with such a heavy presence of red and pink aren't usually ones that I opt for, but I did like the way this looked layered over a cooler toned colour.

The next polish I was sent to review is Mayhem, and it is not yet available on their website. I honestly wasn't expecting to like Mayhem much - boy was I surprised! I couldn't tell by looking at the bottle if it was in a truly clear base or not, and it definitely is for anyone who's wondering. I chose to layer it over both OPI Skull & Glossbones and OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! Ok Fine! Shown in the above photo is two coats of Mayhem.

I knew I loved this polish as soon as I saw it over the darker OPI, but there was something missing - matte! I threw on one layer of Essie Matte About You and took this manicure from cool to amazing. Mayhem reminds me of crayon shavings on a chalkboard, I can't get enough of this combination.

Here's a closeup of the matte goodness for you to enjoy. I really like the purple glitter shards in Mayhem.

Such a fun polish, I can't believe I didn't think I'd like it at all. If you're interested in trying out a glitter shard polish Mayhem is absolutely one I would recommend, the glitter was easy to work with and none of it stuck out from my nails.

The last polish that I received to review is Screen Saver. This is a gorgeous black and white polish in a transparent base. To really show this off I chose to sport two coats of Animeniac Cosmetics Screen Saver over a gradient using China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and OPI Can't Find My Czechbook. Something to note about this polish that sets it apart from all the Connect The Dots - esque polishes is that the white glitter isn't completely opaque, which I think is a nice touch.

I think this is just gorgeous, such a fun gradient and Screen Saver looks awesome over top. Once again I had no problems with the formula. I did end up fishing a little bit for the two bar glitters, but I know that some people hate bar glitter so much that this might be a bonus for them.

Something I did notice about this polish was that it took quite a while to dry completely, this may have to do with the many layers of polish to achieve this look, but I would recommend a coat of a quick dry topcoat like Seche Vite.

Here's a bottle shot of Screen Saver, see what I mean about the white glitters being slightly translucent? 

Overall I'm quite pleased with the Animeniac Cosmetics nail polishes that I got to try out. They have a great selection on their website, I love that they don't stick to just glitter topcoats and that they have a variety of nail polishes that cater to those who aren't so crazy about glitter. You can purchase Animeniac Cosmetics nail polishes from their website right here. 

What did you think of these polishes? Which was your favourite?

EDIT: The lovely people at Animeniac Cosmetics have been generous enough to offer 25% your order to all Cutie-cles readers! You can enter the code CUTIECLES25 at check out to get this discount. This code is valid through March 31st, 2013!

Lynnderella Inner Space

Hello everyone! Sorry for the little absence over here at Cutie-cles, I was in a car accident this weekend and ended up totaling my (parents') SUV. Nobody was seriously hurt in the accident, but I've had some mild shoulder and back pain, as well as some bruising on my chest and knee. Now of course this hasn't stood in the way of painting my nails physically, but I've been dealing with insurance companies, police reports, rental car companies, and trying to find a suitable new car for my parents to buy, which has kept me pretty busy. The accident was completely the fault of the other driver, so apart from having to put a lot of time into this, thankfully I'm not going to have to pay a tonne of money.

Anyways, that's enough of my lovely weekend, I just wanted to fill you all in and let you know things may be a little slow around here for a bit. Today I have a polish to show you that I actually wore about two weeks ago and never got around to posting for some reason. I am in love with Lynnderella Inner Space, but I really don't like the combination of it with the Essie polish I layered it over, I'll have to pick something better for next time.

So this is two coats of the dynamic and gorgeous Lynnderella Inner Space over four freaking coats of Essie A Crewed Interest. Four coats...unbelievable. If this mani turned out amazing maybe I wouldn't be as bitter, but the formula on the Essie just plain sucks - runny and sheer!

Inner Space on the other hand if just perfection! I love love love all the different glitters going on in this - it reminds me of if Connect the Dots and The Glittering Crowd had a baby.

I really enjoyed the star glitter, although due to the extreme curvature of my nails it wouldn't lay down flat. I managed to make it smooth(ish) with topcoat, but peeled the star off a day later.

I know I've been promising you a chance to win a Lynnderella in a giveaway for ages, and I'm just waiting on one more prize to arrive in the mail to get things launched!

What do you think of Inner Space, do you love it as much as I do? What colour do you suggest I layer it over for the next time I wear it?

Day 25 - Inspired by Fashion

Hi everyone! Today's post is inspired by fashion, and I'll be the first to admit, I don't really follow fashion that closely. Luckily for me I do work at American Eagle as some of you may know, and so I do get some information about current trends. I decided to do skittles on my nails representing the different washes of coloured and patterned skinny jeans and jeggings that we have in store for Fall.

Here are my nails, and below are photos of the jeans themselves!

Would you wear any of these jeans? I'm skeptical about those ones with the leaves..

For this manicure I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Kiss Me on my Tulips, Do You Lilac It?, Pink Friday, Berlin There Done That, Zoya Wednesday, Zoya Kristen, Essie Mojito Madness, Essie A Crewed Interest, China Glaze Liquid Leather, China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, and Barry M Cobalt Blue.

These were pretty fun to do! The floral nail is my favourite, which one is yours?

I love to see everyone's manicures and today is no exception, please take a moment to check out the blogs of the lovely ladies below!

Day 13 - Animal Print

Hey there everyone! I guess I'm not exactly late posting this because there is still an hour left in the day in my timezone. I couldn't decide on just one animal print to do, so I decided to do animal skittles! I'm happy with how these turned out, not ecstatic, but happy.

So, from thumb to pinky, it's tiger, peacock, giraffe, zebra, and cheetah! Let me make a little list of the colours I used: Zoya Arizona, Zoya Veruschka, Quo by ORLY Filthy Rich, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys, OPI Jade is the New Black, OPI Green-wich Village, OPI Funky Dunkey, OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Unfor-greta-bly Blue, China Glaze Liquid Leather, and Essie Beach Bum Blu.

One day I will master peacock feather nails.

What's your favourite way to wear animal print nails?

Essie Mojito Madness

Good morning! The other day I found a giftcard to a drugstore that my Great Uncle had given me a few years ago, and having never used it, I ran up and browsed around. They had a pretty good selection of Essies, but Mojito Madness was the only one I picked up. I had terrible application problems, but as I have mentioned the weather here has been off and I'm usually never one to experience bad bubbling.

 

Eugh, bubbling in green polish just reminds me of those bumps on pickles. :(

 

The colour is gorgeous, so I will try it again when the weather here is back to normal.

Did you pick up any of the shades from Essie's latest collections?

Essie A Crewed Interest

Good evening everyone! Today I have an absolutely lovely polish to you, that quite honestly, was a bit of a pain to apply. This is Essie's A Crewed Interest, a lovely peachy colour. I used four coats for opacity and I had some problems with streaking and with bubbling on a few nails. This may be due to rushed application, but the formula on this was no walk in the park. Fortunately enough, I am in love with this colour so I will put up with the poor formula!

I'm trying this new thing where I don't hide the rest of my post under a "Read More" button, because some recent feedback in a facebook group I'm in suggested it's easier for readers to navigate like this. What do you guys think?

Here it is in the shade.

This colour is so pretty, it's the perfect peach for spring or summer and it looks nice against my pale skin.

I really love how clean this colour is!

I know some people really like the Essie formula, but I don't think I've ever used one that had a nice creme formula. What has your experience with Essie nail polishes been like?

Major Haul

Hey everyone! Today I have a haul post for you guys, remember my roommate Anisha who is from New Jersey and also loves nail polish? She routinely lets me ship packages to her house and her parents came down to Montreal this past weekend to help her move and they brought us a whole bunch of nail polish! Let's see what I got!

Wow! Keep reading for some more pics!

Gold Plated

Ready for the second day back to the routine? I'm excited to try out my new classes today, it's Tuesday meaning I have Social Psychology and History of Latin America since 1825. I'm predicting these to be my two favourite classes, and therefore Tuesdays and Thursdays to be my favourite days. What classes do you have today, or are you working? Still on vacation?
As you saw yesterday I put on two coats of Essie Jamaica Me Crazy, but I wanted to spice it up a little bit. The other day I picked up makeup sponges and used them for the first time in my sock monkey mani, but this time I wanted to try a different type of sponging, sort of like a gradient! Here goes!

I love how these two look together! I used Quo by ORLY Filthy Rick as the gold polish.

Jamaica Me Crazy

How about a nice bright fuchsia to colour your Monday happy! Today I have Essie Jamaica Me Crazy to show you. My mom is going on a cruise at the end of this month which stops in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica! I told her she HAS to paint her toenails with this before she leaves, and then I regretted leaving my bottle of OPI Cozu-melted in the Sun in Montreal. Jamaica Me Crazy is a beautiful shimmery magenta-fuchsia colour and I used two coats for the photos below.

Keep reading for some more photos!

At the Beach

Well..I can always wish I was at the beach, can't I? Not that I should complain too much, it has been a VERY mild winter so far this year for Canada, but it's always nice to go to the beach and with the polish I have on today I can pretend I'm there! I have Essie's Beach Bum Blu, which might be the first time an Essie has been posted on this blog, although definitely not the first time I've worn one. This past summer I alternated between Beach Bum Blu and Jamaica Me Crazy on my toenails, since we were allowed to wear flip flops to work (okay..it was American Eagle..not that strict of a dress code). After photographing this polish I'm not sure I will wear it on my fingers because it is a little streaky but it is great for my toes!

It gives me lobster hands to some extent, but it's such a pretty colour I can put up with it for a little while. I used two coats of Beach Bum Blu for my photos, which you can see more of after the jump!