Clinique A Different Nail Enamel for Sensitive Skins review + swatches

Clinique has decided to re-enter the nail polish world with their new A Different Enamel for Sensitive Skins. Yes, that is apparently its full and proper name xD.
From their promo material:

"Did you know a person touches their eyes on average 200 times a day? With all that comes in contact with
hands and fingers throughout the day, there are many culprits that can irritate the eyes. Did you know that
nail enamel can cause irritation and even contact dermatitis on the suspectibly thin skin around the eye?
Amongst the dermotological community, nail enamel is also considered a significant allergen source for
periorbital dermatitis - a facial rash that develops around the lower and upper eyelids. People who suffer from these conditions often-times do not realize the connection between touching and rubbing the eye area, and fresh manicures."

After 3 years of research and a further 3 years of product development, Clinique has finally debuted their Different Enamel for Sensitive Skin.  
I personally don't suffer from any sensitivity towards chemicals in nail polish so I can't really comment as to whether or not these polishes perform as claimed, however, the final formula underwent a 1 month trial on women with sensitive skin and eyes and is also approved by dermatologists and ophthalmologists.
Unfortunately my press samples did not come with an ingredient list for these polishes. I have made a request for them from Clinique's PR and will update this post when I receive them. Since majority of nail polishes nowadays are "3 Free", meaning they are free of Dibutyl Phthalate, Formaldehyde and Toluene, it would be interesting to see what other chemicals Clinique has eliminated from their version. 
Formula wise, the creme finish polishes verge slightly on the thick side, the jelly finishes are lovely and trouble free as always and the foil finish was even and streak free. All the shades I tested were 2 coat opaque. Unlike some of the organic/vegan polishes I have tested in the past *cough* Spa Ritual *cough*, these Clinique polishes all had a decent wear time. I was able to wear them for 5+ days with minimal tip wear.
There are 12 permanent shades and 9 limited edition shades for the Summer (my favourite is Really Rio!!!).
At $18 for 8.9ml/0.3oz of product it is on the pricey side, and I still don't really know how these differ from the other 3 Free polishes out there but if skin sensitivity is a concern of yours, or if you're trying to cut out harsh chemicals from your beauty products, then definitely check these polishes out.
Available from May 2013 for CAN$18 from Clinique counters, Clinique.com and Sephora

All swatches are done without topcoat.
Really Rio (Creme)

 Pinkini (Creme)

 Sweet Tooth (Jelly)

 Hula Skirt (Creme)

Red Red Red (Jelly)

Black Honey (Jelly)

Strappy Sandals (Metallic foil)

CND Spring/Summer 2012

CND PR recently sent me their Spring/Summer Lookbook along with two polishes for review. I must plead ignorance of the CND brand because it's really not a brand that stares back at me from a shelf when I am perusing nail polish options. In fact, a search of their website yielded no results of retails stores anywhere in my province! Luckily their PR were kind enough to confirm that both Spa Time in Tsawwassen and Pink Lime in Yaletown carry CND products and offer CND and Shellac manicures. They are actually quite well known within the professional circle and do a lot of the nails for the various fashion weeks, but unfortunately aren't really on the average consumer's radar. Easier access in the future please!
I own a few of their Nail Effects polishes and absolutely love them, but this will be the first time I try anything from their colour line.
Both Poppyfield and Electric Orange are part of CND's permanent line and are tres on trend for this Summer's bright pops of colour.

Left: Poppyfield. Right: Electric Orange.

Swatches from top: Poppyfield; and Electric Orange

I LOVE Poppyfield!!! It is such a beautiful bright coral and I foresee it making lots of appearances on my fingers and toes this Summer. It really does look like a field of poppies!! Also *cough* Tangerine Tango *cough*. I am tempted to do a black half moon with it next time so that each finger can look like a poppy petal mwahahah! Electric Orange reminds me of ripe persimmons...ahhh...Summer!

Source.

These polishes were 2 coaters for me, you might even be able to get away with a single thicker coat. The formula leans a tad on the thick side but was very easy to apply with no gloopiness. Drying time is pretty fast, and the finish is very glossy - the swatches above are without a topcoat. The brush is a straight wide brush akin to that of OPI and is easy to control. I didn't have any chipping in the 3 days that I wore each colour.

CND polishes go for CAN$6 to CAN$13.50 each.

I actually forgot to check my beloved Nail Polish Canada to see if they carried CND polishes and indeed they do!!! It's not a huge selection but they carry both regular CND polishes as well as their Shellac range. I don't know why I didn't look there in the first place.

Essence lipstick review

Full steam ahead with reviews of my recent Essence cosmetics haul.
I picked up a few of Essence's lipsticks along with their lipglosses that I reviewed in my last post. With the low price point, I had to constantly remind myself that at last count my lipstick/gloss collection numbered well over the 50 mark. Twas difficult job but someone had to take one for the team. These lipsticks have apparently won Allure's Best of Beauty award and Essence products are not tested on animals.
The colour I got is called "Like A Lady". Must be a very bold lady xD.

Swatches:

They sez:
"soft, seductive and unbelievably creamy: the popular essence lipstick is available in ten new shades just in time for spring! thanks to the new color-coded packaging, it's super-easy to reach for your favorite color and pick the right lipstick to go with your new spring outfits.
available in a total of 10 different colors."
Nunu sez:
These lipsticks reminds me somewhat of Rimmel Lasting Finish lipsticks, it has a tad more slip but the formula and finish are very similar. A plus for me is that the Essence lipsticks don't have that weird chemical licorice scent that Rimmel lipsticks have, instead it has a faint caramel/vanilla scent.
As you can see, the pigmentation is amazing. It begins to fade around the 3 hour mark but the darker colours will stain. On me, the formula was not drying.
The only sad thing is that the colour selection is kind of meh and too many of the colours have a frost finish. Also try the colours Red Carpet and Fairytale.
For $2.99 each, you really can't go wrong and I whole heartedly recommend these.

Bonus NOTD: Zoya Bevin

Butter London Spring Summer 2012 collection swatch and review

Nail Polish Canada generously sent me 2 polishes from Butter London's Spring Summer 2012 collection for review. These guys seriously need to add "There is no charge for awesomeness and attractiveness" on their checkout page. They have an awesome selection of polishes, awesome prices and awesome service. Every time I place an order with them, I'll get a tracking number by that afternoon and by the next day my order will be sitting in my mailbox. Awesome. I'm not even singing their praises because they send me a polish every now and then to be reviewed, I genuinely like them as a company, I love that they're local and happily give them my money.

Butter London's Spring Summer 2012 collection consists of 5 polishes and I received Bossy Pants and Disco Biscuit for review. Butter London polishes are 3 free, cruelty free, vegan and fast drying.

Bossy Boots is a pale dusty pistachio green creme, it is darker than OPI Strange Tides but not as dark as Revlon Spanish Moss or Essie Sew Psyched.
Formula was flawless, no cuticle drag, no gloopinesst. I did 2 thin coats here but 1 medium thick coat will also give full opacity. This wore for 4 days with some tip wear. I wore this shade to Vancouver Fashion Week xD

Disco Biscuit is a raspberry jelly with pink and blue micro glitter. This was 3 coats and there was still some visible nail line. Due to the micro glitter, it dried gritty and required 2 coats of top coat to smooth out. The formula wasn't the easiest to work with as the glitter makes the jelly clumpy and thick. I had to shake the bottle to settle the clumps several times during application. It doesn't look like much once its dried, but after a top coat or two, the beautiful squishy jelly finish comes out and my nails look like sparkly hard boiled sweets. Eeeee! SO MUCH LOVE!

Each polish retails for $17 and the entire Spring Summer 2012 collection is available from Nail Polish Canada. You can also win all 5 polishes from the collection by entering Nail Polish Canada's contest here.
Check out their HOT DEALS section for polishes on sale at up to 40% less! Enter "HOT10" for an extra 10% off anything from that section!

Nunu's Kitchen - Ultimate mentaiko kimchi udon

Because it's really THAT good!!
This makes about 4 servings (or 1 1/2 if you live in my household -______-")

Ingredients:

• 4 things of Udon - I like the frozen ones, they have better texture and taste.
• About 200g of fresh mentaiko (Japanese marinated pollock roe). Use more or less depending on your love of mentaiko. We like LOTS of it xD
• Kimchi - amount also depending on your love of kimchi.
• 1/2 tbsp garlic butter/regular butter, melted
• 1 tbsp cream
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise. You should probably use Japanese mayonnaise like Kewpie but I just used Hellman's 1/2 The Fat Mayonnaise because that was all I had xD.
• 1 tsp granulated dashi.
• 1 stalk green onion, chopped
• Toasted nori for decoration

Method:

• Boil water and cook udon according to instructions. Drain when done. I usually also run the noodles through cold water to wash off any starch and to stop it from cooking further.
• Remove mentaiko from casing and mix with mayonnaise, dashi, melted butter and cream.
• Heat up some oil in a pan, once the oil is hot, add the udon to the pan. Stir fry the noodles for a bit. Yes "a bit" is a unit of time. Basically just enough to heat up the noodles again xD.
• Add kimchi and mix well with udon.
• Add mentaiko, turn off heat and mix until everything is....mixed.
• Add chopped green onion and toasted nori before serving.
• Watch as significant other shovels your portion into his mouth.
• Whine.

Judgy face cat is judging you.

Bonus NOTD - Wet n Wild in Back Alley Deals (Thank you D!)

Barry M Croc Nail Effects

Tired of the whole crackle nail fad? I thought I was but then I saw this post by Vicky and was instantly seized by the lemming monster.
Instead of cracking vertically like most crackle polishes, the Barry M Croc Nail Effects creates a pattern reminiscent of a reptilian hide as it dries. A thin coat would give you the smaller "scales" you see in Vicky's post and a thicker coat will give you bigger scales. I guess this means if you want an ultra realistic pattern, you would do a thin coat on either sides of the nail and then a thicker coat along the crown of the nail.
Whilst crackle polishes tend to have the same consistency as cottage cheese, the Croc Effects polish is very thin and easy to control. It also dries glossy instead of matte.
The application process (dude, did I just call putting on nail polish an "application process?!) is also slightly different to applying a crackle polish. Crackle polish can only be applied to dry nails, but the Croc Effects polish must be applied to nails that are still slightly tacky in order for the pattern to develop. It takes a while for the pattern to finish developing so hold off that top coat for a few minutes.
I found that it worked best over polishes that are 1 coat opaque, metallics and frosts in particular create a really good contrast. For my NOTD I used Orly Rage - a beautiful rose gold metallic.
Barry M products are unfortunately not available in Canada but you can purchase the Croc Nail Effects for £3.99 from their online shop which ships internationally. Those in the UK can find it in Boots and Superdrug.

Revlon Lip Butter swatch and review

So the Revlon Lip Butters have finally made its way into Canadian pharmacies. It's been available across the border for quite some time but I've never been able to pick any up as the displays were always either empty or the colours I wanted have all been opened and tested.

In Canada, these retail for just under $10 each. I've seen them go on BOGO and 50% off at various pharmacies so don't ever pay full price if you can avoid it xD.

I first came across the full line of 20 colours during the Revlon, Almay London Drugs Beauty Event. I received Red Velvet from the event's swag bag, Sugar Plum as a Christmas pressie from my friend Eva and bought Lollipop and Sweet Tart when they were on sale at Shoppers Drug Mart for $3.99

Left: Red Velvet. Right: Sugar Plum

Left: Lollipop. Right: Sweet Tart.

Revlon sez:

"- Buttery Balm + Shiny Color
- Buttery balm with beautiful shiny color to give you baby soft, healthy glowing lips94% of women felt lips      were softer, smoother, and instantly hydrated.

- Hydrating mango, shea and coconut butter formula boosts lip moisture by 156%
- Pampering gel formula provides super charged hydration and glides on lips buttery smooth
- Sheer to medium color with buttery shine
- Available in 20 luscious shades"

Nunu sez:

Before Revlon Lip Butters came into my life, I thought the Maybelline Baby Lips were the shizzle. I take that back, Revlon Lip Butters are the shizzle.

Whereas the Maybelline Baby Lips were more balmy, the Revlon Lip Butters felt like an ultra moisturising lipstick. The finish is high shine and almost jelly like. Think Dior Addict and you're pretty much bang on. The Lip Butters are also way more moisturising than the Maybelline Baby Lips balms. Texture wise, the Maybelline Lip Balms are rather hard and waxy, the Revlon Lip Butters really apply smoooooth like buttahh (Dorothy I'm saying this in your ghetto way xD)

Darker shades tend to wear for longer and will stain lips slightly, but on average I had to reapply every 2hrs or so. 

The price makes me wince slightly but the quality is superb. I would not hesitate to buy when they goes on sale.

Swatches from left: Red Velvet and Sugar Plum

Red Velvet:

Sugar Plum:

Swatches from left: Sweet Tart and Lollipop.

Sweet Tart:

Lollipop:

Bonus Christmas NOTD:

 Quo by Orly - Wine & Dine and Sinful Colors - All About You

Do you like my Christmas present?xD

NOTD - Starry night in Provence

Steve from NailPolishCanada braved a gaggle of giggly, makeup obsessed girls to attend our 2nd annual Vancouver Beauty Blogger meetup and I'm so glad he did because now I've discovered one more place where I can feed my nail polish disease!
Let's face it, Canadians don't have access to half the cool polish brands that Americans do, so we resort to e-tailers who either jack up prices or charge us an arm and a leg to ship to our poor deprived igloos.
NailPolishCanada.com changes all that. It is Canadian owned (in Vancouver of all places! OMG! West Coast has something cool!), has reasonable prices and, best of all, free shipping on all order over $29.
For example, Zoya (A.K.A. They Who Won't Ship To Mooseland), retails for $8 on the Zoya website, NailPolishCanada's Zoya prices range between $5.50-$8.75!
Zoya, CND, Spa Ritual, OPI, China Glaze, Color Club, Essie, Seche Vite, LCN (the magnetic ones!!), and Soulstice Spa are just some of the brands they carry.
Steve kindly provided each of us with 2 Soulstice Spa polishes to try out.
Soulstice Spa Nail Colours are vegan, cruelty free and 3 free. Usually this culminates in gloopy polish (*cough* Sparitual *cough*) but the two that I tried are amazingly smooth and easy to control.

Provence is a light lavender along the lines of CG Light As Air. It has a jelly finish, and is a 3 coater. I did not experience any cuticle pull and both polishes dried glossy and wore for 4 days with minimum tip wear.
Soulstice Nail Colours are $8.50 each on NailPolishCanada

Provence on its own:

I threw on a coat of NYC Starry Silver Glitter (micro silver glitter with larger pink and blue hex glitter in a clear base) to make this NOTD more festive xD

Thank you for introducing me to an awesome new brand NailPolishCanada!

Deborah Lippmann Holiday 2011 Do Ya Think I'm Sexy and Adopt A Polish

Please read this post with this video on full blast. 

Nikki from Nail Polish Canada nonchalantly asked me the other day if I would like to review a polish from the new Deborah Lippmann Holiday collection. I sent back an email full of garbled expletives and exclamation marks. A week later, this little bottle of wonder arrived. (By the way, I am totally convinced they have a bunch of elves in their employment. How else can you explain polishes arriving 1 day after they've been mailed??!!)

From thumb: Deborah Lippmann Do Ya Think I'm Sexy; over China Glaze Frosty; over China Glaze Cleopatra; over NOX Twilight Black Tie; and over OPI Black Shatter and Cleopatra.

Damage:

$22 from NailPolishCanada

Review:

Named after Rod Stewart's 1978 hit, Do Ya Think I'm Sexy consists of medium sized red hexagon glitter suspended in a clear base. I don't know if this polish is intended to be worn alone or as a top coat, but in order to get complete coverage, I had to do 2 coats and then strategically blob more glitter particles where it looked a little bald. Layered, it looks best over a dark base as a light base tends to make the red glitter, to quote Justine, "look like measles". Layer it over a gold foil or glitter for a really festive look! Personally I prefer it alone, the scale like look of the glitter pieces makes me think of some glorious red reptile xD

This needed a good 2-3 coats of top coat for a smooth finish.

Wear time is surprisingly long for a glitter. Most glitters tend to chip off in chunks on the 2nd or 3rd day but this one wore for a solid 5 days before I removed it. Removal is a bitch so foil the heck out of it.

While some might find Do Ya Think I'm Sexy to be more craft glitter mess than mullet shaking, Lycra clad sex god, I really love how it looks on its own and it's definitely going to make more than one appearance on my fingers this holiday season!

So, do ya think I'm sexy?

Adopt A Polish!!!

How would you like to take this family of four home with you?

Or how about her?

All these polishes and more are waiting for you to take them home with you!

Every day, thousands of nail polishes are abandoned or abused. They are not sticky, or old, they are fine, new polishes. They are stuck on a shelf, and all they desire is to be used, and maybe taken for a night on the town. 

You can help by applying to adopt an in-need polish. By doing nothing you are ensuring the agony continues. These are new polishes and there is no charge to adopt, all you need to give is your much needed love.

Tell Adopt A Polish why you'll be a good parents to these sad polishes and you could take them home! Visit adoptapolish.org for more info!

Quo by Orly 18 Piece Mini Nail Polish Gift Set

At last! After being taunted mercilessly by Rasilla and Sparkled Beauty's photos I finally managed to track down this nail polish set just in time for Shoppers Drug Mart's bonus points redemption!
Quo is available exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart. The set contains 18 mini polishes. Each bottle contains 4.4ml of product and the set retails for $39.
Unfortunately I have no nail swatches for you yet as my Halloween mani is still in full force. Will try get some skittles swatches out for you guys sometime next week?
If you're interested in obtaining your own set, I can confirm the set's availability at the Shoppers on No. 5 and Cambie in Richmond, and the Shoppers at Old Orchard Centre in Burnaby.
In the meantime, enjoy the photos!

Swatches from top left to bottom right: Very Vixen (jelly); Mystic Night (shimmer); Garnet (glass fleck shimmer); Precious (glitter); Turquoise Moonlight (glass fleck shimmer); Celestial Star (glass fleck shimmer); First Class (foil); Filthy Rich (foil).

Swatches from top left to bottom right: Sapphire Sparkle (glass fleck shimmer); Cold Stone (shimmer with holo glitter); Rock Show (glass fleck shimmer); Rock Star (shimmer); Red Hot (jelly); Wine & Dine (shimmer); Old Hollywood (jelly); Love Game (duo-chrome)

Swatches from top left to bottom right: Cold Stone (shimmer with holo); Rock Show (glass fleck shimmer); Rock Star (shimmer); Night Sky (glitter); Wine & Dine (shimmer); Old Hollywood (jelly);Love Game (duo-chrome);True Love (creme)