Thursday 27 February 2014

Above the Curve Doctor Who Collection Part 1: Relative Dimensions and Slitheen

Hey everyone! Today I'm back with the other two polishes from part one of Above the Curve's Doctor Who Collection!

I'm happy to report that my midterm went better than I thought it would! I'll find out my mark next week so I'll know for sure pretty soon! Anyways, onto the nails!

Above the Curve Relative Dimensions

I'm going to start right off by saying that after I applied my top coat, this polish (called Relative Dimensions) seemed to change colour (become darker and warmer) and the holographic effect was dulled. I had just combined two half-empty Essie Good to Go top coats and it did feel quite thick when I applied it, so maybe it was something to do with that? The brush in the bottle was a bit wonky so maybe that had something to do with it too? It was crazy shiny on it's own so if your top coat makes it change colour just skip the top coat!

Above the Curve Relative Dimensions

The formula and consistency of this polish was perfect as I've come to expect with Above the Curve polishes! I used two coats and a coat of top coat for these photos!

Above the Curve Relative Dimensions

This polish is a fairly cool-toned medium purple polish stuffed with holographic pigment! I'm sorry that my pictures aren't accurate, but you can check out other swatches by some lovely ladies on Above the Curve's Facebook page!

Above the Curve Relative Dimensions

This one is super gorgeous, I really love it!

Above the Curve Relative Dimensions

Above the Curve Slitheen

Next up we have Slitheen, a dark green holographic polish. This is what the finish of Relative Dimensions looked like before top coat, except this is after top coat!

Above the Curve Slitheen

Again, perfect formula and consistency! I love my greens and this polish is such a unique shade of green!

Above the Curve Slitheen

This is also just two coats of polish and a coat of top coat!

Above the Curve Slitheen

Above the Curve Slitheen

Thanks so much for reading everyone! Sorry for another brief post, I just really wanted to get this post up tonight! Happy Thursday! =)

Tuesday 25 February 2014

Above the Curve Doctor Who Collection Part 1: Donna and The Silence!

Hey everybody! Today I have two polishes from Above the Curve's new Doctor Who Collection to share!

I have a midterm tomorrow to study for so I'll make this post fairly quick! It's in organic chemistry which is the class I'm the worst at so I'm kind of nervous. Scary things aside, let's get on to the pretty polishes!

Above the Curve Donna

Donna is a bright orange metallic polish with holographic pigment tossed in! I find I don't own or wear a lot of warm-toned polishes like this, and I really don't know why because they're gorgeous!

Above the Curve Donna

The formula on this baby was amazing; it dried quickly and had the perfect consistency!

Above the Curve Donna

This polish was nice and opaque too, needing just two coats for full coverage! I also applied a coat of top coat for the pictures you see here (not that it needed it, it was super smooth and shiny on its own)!

Above the Curve Donna

Above the Curve The Silence

The Silence is a black polish stuffed with holographic pigment, purple to blue duochrome shimmer, and what look like pink and blue flakies. In other words, this polish is gorgeous!

Above the Curve The Silence

Again, no issues to report with the formula here because it was amazing too!

Above the Curve The Silence

What you see here is two coats and a coat of top coat but you could probably get away with just one coat of this bad boy. Isn't it stunning?

Above the Curve The Silence

Thank you so much for reading everyone! I'll have the other two polishes from this collection up on Thursday! Happy Tuesday! :)

Friday 21 February 2014

Above the Curve Valentine's Collection Swatches and Review: UPDATED!

Hey everyone! Today I have swatches of the Above the Curve Valentine's Collection to share!*

I'm just going to start off by saying these all had perfect formulas and consistencies (apart from a little glitter settling) so I don't have to repeat myself throughout this post! Another thing I really love about this collection is that Shawn and Angel (the makers) didn't include a pink (because I don't really like pink on myself and it's my least favourite colour). Purples, plums and browns are definitely more my thing! I loved each and every one of these and didn't want to take them off as I was swatching, but stay tuned to find out my favourite!

UPDATE: I found an easy way to white balance my pictures using GIMP (a free photo editing program) so most of these pictures are now white balanced (it made the Sun and flash pictures worse)!

Above the Curve All You Need is Love! WINE!!!

First up is All You Need is Love! Wine, a lovely plum-coloured polish with holographic microglitter and a bunch of different sized and coloured glitters!

Above the Curve All You Need is Love! WINE!!!

What you see here is two easy coats and a coat of topcoat! I probably got less glitter on my nails than I would have from a perfectly mixed bottle but I love the look of it this way! I think it's harder for glitters to redistribute in small bottles because of the brush and mixing balls in the way!

Above the Curve All You Need is Love! WINE!!!

This is my favourite from this collection! I'd love to know your guys' favourites in the comments!

Above the Curve All You Need is Love! WINE!!!

Above the Curve All You Need is Love! WINE!!!

Above the Curve All You Need is Love! WINE!!!

Here's a shot of this baby in the Sun! Check out all the holographic glitter! Are you guys as in love with this as I am?

Above the Curve Circle of Love

Next up is Circle of Love, a clear-based glitter polish with metallic pink and holographic silver microglitter and a bunch of circle and heart-shaped glitters in different sizes, colours and finishes!

Above the Curve Circle of Love

This is one thick and dabbed coat of Circle of Love over one coat of American Apparel Mount Royal! Now that there is a bit of product gone from the bottle I think it will be easier to redistribute the glitters when I use this again! Even still, I managed to get quite a bunch of glitter on my nails including some of the hearts!

Above the Curve Circle of Love

I was very tempted to keep this one on but I think I have to go on a bit of a glitter strike. Even when I use the foil method and have three or so coats of polish under a glitter topper my nails end up peeling where the glitters were! Then I have to buff my nails smooth and I've been buffing them probably more than is good for them. It's really frustrating, I wonder if I should go on a Nail Envy break and use it as directed for a few weeks. Do you guys have any advice for me? Let me know!

Above the Curve Circle of Love

Above the Curve Circle of Love

Above the Curve You Java Me Crazy

Next up is You Java Me Crazy (love the name!), a warm brown holographic polish!

Above the Curve You Java Me Crazy

You know what I said earlier about my peeling nails? Even after buffing them you can see what I mean in these pictures! Since this polish was so opaque (I only used one coat and a coat of top coat) you can really see the places my nails are peeling. Anyway, my peeling nails aside haha, this polish is another lovely Above the Curve one-coater brown polish like Friday the 13th, so naturally I love it!

Above the Curve You Java Me Crazy

Above the Curve You Java Me Crazy

Above the Curve You Java Me Crazy

Unfortunately the Sun went down before swatching these last few polishes so a flash picture and a picture above my light box is the best I could do!

Above the Curve You Java Me Crazy

Above the Curve Truly Madly Deeply


Lastly, we have Truly Madly Deeply, a metallic and holographic warm-toned purple polish! I am actually wearing this right now (as I often do with one polish per swatch fest) and it's definitely unlike anything I own which I love! I've been trying to get a picture of this in the Sun all day but it only came out once and I missed my chance! I hope it comes out again, if so I'll post the picture on my Instagram!

Above the Curve Truly Madly Deeply

What you see here is two easy coats and a coat of top coat, it was very easy to work with like the rest of this collection!

Above the Curve Truly Madly Deeply

Above the Curve Truly Madly Deeply

Above the Curve Truly Madly Deeply

You can't see the holo effect too well here, but you can see it's metallic aspect!

Above the Curve Truly Madly Deeply

Thank you so much for reading everyone! What do you think of these polishes? I think you could wear them year-round and that they're gorgeous! Happy Friday everyone!

*These polishes were provided in exchange for my honest review.

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Gradient with Glitter and Textured Chevron Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have some gradient and chevron nail art to share!

Yesterday we went on a field trip to a hospital to talk to some genetic counsellors and it was really interesting. Interesting in the sense that after a month and a half of being in a genetics course I am seriously considering a career in genetics, or possibly even genetic counselling. Not so interesting in the sense that over the weekend our teacher emailed us the two PowerPoints we went through at the hospital and the fact that we didn't get to see the cytogenetics lab because the cytogeneticist was on holiday. Oh well, it was still much nicer than a busy three hour genetics lab!

Gradient with Glitter and Textured Chevron Nail Art

Today nothing overly interesting has happened, though I did wake up twenty minutes before I had to leave for school. These are the days that I throw on a hoodie and a cardigan on top for warmth and don't even bother with a shirt haha. I'm very glad that my boyfriend woke up earlier and made us our morning teas in travel cups so I'm not still exhausted! Anyways, onto the nails!

Gradient with Glitter and Textured Chevron Nail Art

For the gradient nails I started with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and a coat of top coat (because I wasn't sure what I was going to do yet so I wanted my nails dry so I couldn't mess them up)! I then sponged two layers of Essie Turquoise & Caicos and Essie Mod Square on my nails from a wet makeup sponge, and added a coat of topcoat to smooth out the gradient a little more. I do think it being wet helps to create a smoother gradient, and it doesn't soak up the polish as much so you save polish! I finished off with two coats of Black Sheep Lacquer A Letter to the New York Post and another coat of top coat!

Gradient with Glitter and Textured Chevron Nail Art

The green to pink gradient was completely inspired by Steph Stone Nails on Instagram (link here)! It's a really interesting combination to me because green is my favourite colour and pink is my least favourite. I'm surprised that I like these so much because they're half pink! =P

Gradient with Glitter and Textured Chevron Nail Art

For the chevron nails I just did two coats of Sally Hansen Lick-O-Rich (it's opaque at one but some parts are shiny and missing the texture bits) and two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls for the white lines! Lick-O-Rich dried really quickly and had a lovely formula, the only bad thing I could say about it is that it takes about half a day for the sharp textured bits on the edges to wear off, so try and avoid scratching up your face!

Gradient with Glitter and Textured Chevron Nail Art

What do you guys think of this mani? I loved wearing it because the black nails were so bold and stood out even from far away! I also love a good gradient with a matte black and white glitter topper, so this is a win-win for me!

Gradient with Glitter and Textured Chevron Nail Art

Thanks so much for reading everyone! Anything exciting going on with you guys lately? Let me know! Happy Tuesday!

Saturday 15 February 2014

250 Instagram Followers & 150 Tumblr Followers Giveaway! :)

Hey everyone! Today I have a super exciting giveaway to share!

I recently hit 250 followers on Instagram and 150 followers on Tumblr so I thought it was a perfect time for a giveaway! There are two prizes as you can see below, both with four awesome and unused polishes! This giveaway is only open to residents of the US and Canada because I can't afford to ship anywhere else being a student :P. The next time I have enough money hanging around I'll do another international giveaway! Shipping is just so much more expensive from Canada.

Here are the prizes!


Prize 1- from left to right: Essie Turquoise & Caicos, Rainbow Honey Magic Cake, OPI Moonraker, and Revlon Espresso (my favourite black creme because it's a one-coater)!


Prize 2- from left to right: Essie Jazzy Jubilant, Rainbow Honey The Kraken, OPI Malaysian Mist, and Revlon Espresso!

I have swatched the Rainbow Honey's you see here (my own bottles, not these) so here's a picture of each of them!

Rainbow Honey Magic Cake (link to my post on these for more info)

Rainbow Honey The Kraken (link to my post on these for more info) 


Thanks so much for following me everyone, whether you have for a year or a day! I absolutely love it when I can interact with you guys and respond to your comments, it makes my day! Thanks so much for taking a look! =)