Essie Shine of the Times compared to Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure and Nubar 2010

I love my flakies... so how did these three stack up? 

Favourites of 2011: L'oreal Owl's Night (Project Runway Collection Fall 2011)

The illusive L'oreal Owl's Night! I've wanted this for over a month now and it hasn't yet shown up here in Canada. My hopes diminished last weekend when I saw some of the less popular colours from the Project Runway Collection, on a "Fall Collection" dispay. Really? We want the same displays as everyone else! Anyways... two weekends ago I went across the boarder on a nail polish adventure. My main mission was to find Owl's Night. I went to four (yes four!) Rite-Aids to try to find it. It was really a long shot but I was obsessed! Finally my iPhone took me to a little Rite-Aid in the middle of a small town and I found it!!! Mission accomplished. 

So Owl's Night came out late September and has been very hard to find. Each display has 2 spots for it! But if I found it, maybe you sill can too. And who knows... maybe it'll show up in Canada (fingers crossed). I used two coats and one coat of IMN Out the Door Top coat. Perfection. Absolutely love this colour. It's a very dark olive colour with the most amazing gleaming shimmer to it. Stunning! This was $4.99 US. Some have said it's a dupe to Sally Hansen's limited edition Sequin Scandal colour, but I would say they have similarities but aren't dupes. See comparison below.

Winter 2011 Trend: Dark Olived Toned Lacquers

I'm so into these!!! These olive toned polishes seem to be everywhere right now. I have to say I was a little weary of them at first but the moment I tried one, I was in love! These to me are winters neutral, I can't see these clashing with a lot in your wardrobe. They are also interesting colours without being to flashy or blingy, perfect for the office. I included YSL Black Bronze in the olive category cause it really leans to the green side when it't on the nail. All of these I've picked up in the last month or so, so they still might be available where you live. I think everyone should at least try one of these this winter!

SPOTTED: Vancouver Nail Polish Shopping - Halloween Weekend

Here are some of the newest polishes that I've spotted around Vancouver today. Lots of holiday displays have started to appear! I'm so excited for the Holiday!

This Revlon display was found at London Drugs. It's Revlon's Spice It Up Collection for the Holidays. More twirly displays from revlon. My picks from this collection are Mistletoe and Glitz and Glam. These were $6.49 CAD each/15mL at London Drugs. 

REVLON SPICE IT UP COLLECTION

FOR HOLIDAY 2011

This display was also at London Drugs. It's called Festive and it's Lise Watier Holiday collection for this year. It has two polishes, Festive Chic and Fairy Taupe. They also have a light inside the cap, to help "illuminate" as you paint. Kinda cool, probably won't help all that much, but still neat. My pick was Festive Chic. From what the cosmetic lady at London Drugs said, most stores only received two of each polish, I have no idea how true that is though. Lise Watier is also sold at The Bay and Sears, Sears ships anywhere in Canada. At London Drugs they were $12 CAD each/12 mL.

LISE WATIER FESTIVE HOLIDAY COLLECTION

FESTIVE CHIC & FAIRY TAUPE

CAP WITH A LIGHT!

This isn't a display but it sure should be cause I've been dying to see these!!! This is the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Designer Collection for Fall totally hidden! At first glance I thought these were just some sorta overflow or discontinued polishes, but nope it's the entire collection! I go to this particular London Drugs all the time cause it's close to work and I've never seen these before. So if you looking for any of these watch out for them, they could just be coming out here. My picks where Oxide a Tracy Reece colour and Green Tea also a Tracy Reece Colour. So happy to have found these! This is from a London Drugs on Hastings if that helps anyone. They were $7.99 CAD each. 

SALLY HANSEN DESIGNER COLLECTION

FALL 2011

While I was in Pacific Center I stopped by Juicy Couture and noticed they had all of the Deborah Lippmann Holiday set out! They were about $53 - $57 CAD each. I'm loooving the packaging cause I looove anything pink! Totally beautiful. 

JUICY COUTURE DEBORAH LIPPMANN 

2011 HOLIDAY COLLECTION

The only new polish type item at Shoppers Drug Mart this week was this really nice Quo by Orly 18 piece mini collection. This was $39 CAD. It is Orly's regular collections repackaged for Quo. It has Cosmic FX, Mineral FX, Foil FX, and Oui from the Holiday Soiree Collection minis from what I can tell. I think this is an awesome set! Too bad I own all the colours I like in it otherwise this would be mine.

QUO BY ORLY 18 PIECE MINIS SET

THANKS FOR DROPPING IN!

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pumpkin Spice (Halloween 2011)

I don't know about you, but here in Vancouver it feels like Summer just started. It's September 4 and it's the first day my apartment was too hot to handle. Hence, I made my way to the air-conditioned mall to grab a cool drink and take a look around. Now Pumkin Spice I've seen around for almost a month now and just never picked up, but for some reason today I had to have it. I kept telling myself it was too much like China Glaze's Ick-A-Bod-Y from last years Awakening Halloween collection to justify me buying it... but I still bought it. No will power.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pumkin Spice (three coats)

After I swatched it I thought it was terribly ugly. Like really really fug. So I played around with it a bit and compared it to last year China Glaze's Ick-A-Bod-Y. And I'm glad I didn't just give up on it, over black I think I like it better then Ick-A-Bod-Y.

Left to Right

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pumkin Spice (three coats)

China Glaze - Ick-A-Bod-Y (three coats)

OPI - Black Onyx (two coats) & Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pumkin Spice (one coat)

OPI - Black Onyx (two coats) & China Glaze Ick-A-Body (one coat)

As you can see both polished look much better over Black. They both have a clear black base that takes many coats to build up something more opque. They both have the same orange glitter but China Glaze's has much more. I think I might like Pumpkin Spice more... I'm a little torn, it all depends on how much sparkle you like I guess. 

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear retails for $3.50 CND (and about the same in US). It can be found many places, this particular bottle is from London Drugs, I haven't seen the displays with Pumpkin Spice out anywhere else yet. London Drugs usually has the Limited Edition displays out first. 

China Glaze is a little harder to find in Canada. It' retails for about $7 CND. Ick-A-Bod-Y was a limited edition colour from last Halloween collection only sold at Sally Beauty Supply. In the lower mainland there are two in Surrey and one in Abbotsford and one in Bellingham (if your a cross boarder shopper). China Glaze is also sold at many salons.

I'd love to read our comments on the two! Thanks!

SPOTTED: Drug Store Fall Displays... August 2011

I found my self with time to kill at lunch today. I walked to a London Drugs in Vancouver and checked out 3 nail polish displays that I didn't see last week. Sally Hansen has a new fall collection in their Insta-Dri line out, Revlon had a limited edition Edgy Elegance collection on display, and Essie had the Carry On collection out. 

Sally Hansen's Insta Dry Limited Edition Fall line. Consisted of jewel tone colours. Bronze Ablaze, Coco A GoGo, Grape'scape, Presto Pewter, Quick Brick, Ruby Rush, & Tealy Fast. I really wanted to find something unique in the bunch but they all seemed like colours that were not-so unique. I passed on all of them for now, nothing really jumped out at me has something I had to have right away.

Revlon's Edgy Elegance Collection I liked the most. It consisted of foil type polishes in lighter metallic hues. Cutsy names like Princess, Fierce, Girly, Catty, Downtown, Aloof, Innocent, & Punk. My personal favourites of the bunch were Fierce a pink/purple and Princess (just for the name lol).

And last but not least, the Essie's Carry On Collection. I love Essie, Essie before this year was incredibly hard to find the new collections in Canada. The Carry On collection has 6 new shades. Carry On, Power Clutch, Glamour Purse, Case Study, Very Structured, & Lady Like. I already ordered online Power Clutch which seems to be the standout of the bunch, after seeing Glamour Purse in person, I might just go back and pick it up. 

Final thoughts all very different, I'm very glad there is a good selection in the new fall collections. Power clutch is the one out of all the collections I'm liking the most.