Zoya Reece and updated collection pic

So tonight, my Zoya cherry was popped after I decided to try Reece from the 2010 Spring Reverie collection. What a beautiful colour to lose my Zoya virginity to! Reece is a dark magenta duochrome flashing gold and light green. It's just so damn pretty. The brushes for Zoya polishes are smaller than that of OPI and China Glaze but I like it! I have long and slender nails so I actually screw up quite a bit whenever I apply OPI or China Glaze colours. The formula for this was perfect - not to thick or thin; and it dried relatively fast. I wore a base coat of Seche Clear, two coats of Zoya Reece, and a top coat of Seche Vite. If you love pink and purple polishes, you need to get Reece - it's the best of both worlds.

And here's an updated collection pic. I am too lazy to take them all out and name them all; but there is mostly OPI and China Glaze colours in there. Some stuff from Zoya, Color Club, Sally Hansen, Claire's, Avon, and Wet n' Wild too!

DISCLAIMER: The product(s) in this post was/were purchased by me.

OPI Who Needs a Prince?

Besides the fact that the last two holos I applied chipped like mofos, I would've had to remove them anyways since I have a business presentation tomorrow. So I decided to apply a more neutral and professional colour. Here's OPI Who Needs a Prince?:

OPI Who Needs A Prince? is an almost white creme with pink/red shimmer. You wouldn't be able to make this distinction from far since it pretty much looks like a light peach. It's sheer on the first coat and opaque by the third. It's a very classic, yet pretty colour. I used OPI Natural base coat, followed by three coats of OPI Who Needs a Prince?, and finally, one coat of Seche Vite top coat. I have yet to discover another shade from another brand that is a dupe of this. You can purchase this shade via eBay (like I did) or scour for it in your local beauty store or hair salon.

DISCLAIMER: The product(s) in this post was/were purchased by me.

Goodies!

I received my Color Club order earlier last week from Head2ToeBeauty (www.head2toebeauty.com); bought two Claire's polishes yesterday; and bought a jar of The Apothecary hand cream today.

First up, the Color Club haul:

In all their glory...

From left to right: Oooo La La, Front Row Diva, Pardon My French

From left to right: Oh Naturale, Fashion Addict, Revvvolution

All gorgeous colours IRL, but I have sadly only managed to try one colour: Fashion Addict. Fashion Addict is a gorgeous lilac holo and is very dense in colour. I only needed two coats to achieve full opacity but there is just one little problem - it chips ridiculously fast. We are talking within a matter of hours of drying here. At first, I thought it was because I tried the whole Seche Vite as base coat experiment but I had noticed that the few nails that only had Fashion Addict on were chipping as badly. I don't know if I just applied it on wrong and perhaps needed a base coat or if the formula was wonky. It's such a shame, because it is probably the prettiest shade of purple nail polish I've got.

On the the next one, the Claire's haul:

Glisten, Heart Princess

These two gems are still looking pretty in their bottles. I bought them because I was so fascinated with Claire's' mixable nail polishes, but it was buy one get one 1/2 price so I got suckered into buying Glisten as well.

Last but not least, The Apothecary hand cream: *My best buy*

I picked up this jar of awesomeness for $6.99 at...*drum roll please* Homesense! This stuff is heaven for your hands, nails, and cuticles. It's rich but not in excess, so it doesn't leave your hands feeling sticky and greasy. It also absorbs well into the skin quickly so you get instant dryness relief. The best part? The scent is incredible. I love body product based on honey and/or almonds; lo and behold, this smelt like honey AND almonds. I think I'm in heaven! Who would've thought that Homesense would have hidden treasures like this? I also bought my typical Joico shampoo and conditioner for $14.99 each - the conditioner usually sells for around $21! Talk about a sweet deal :)

I've got another nail polish order coming in (hopefully) this week and I believe I will be done, at least until the China Glaze fall collection comes out. I'm excited for that collection...I'm also excited that the Blackhawks are moving on to the Stanley Cup final for the first time in 18 years! Byfuglien has been clutch...kinda reminds me of the Gelinas of 2004 *sigh*. Anyways, next post is a nail polish review!

China Glaze OMG

China Glaze OMG from the OMG Collection is so worthy of it's name. It's a stunning silver holo that is gorgeous in almost all lighting and dries incredibly fast. It is definitely the gem of the OMG collection. I used Seche Vite top coat as my base coat (try it) and three coats of OMG to achieve full opacity. I will now resume staring at the shiny.

UPDATE (21 May 2010): Even though OMG is incredibly beautiful, it's probably the least durable out of the entire OMG Collection. Three of my nails chipped today, so off it went! It was nice while it lasted though. :(

DISCLAIMER: The product(s) in this post was/were purchased by me.

History will be made? No doubt.

The NHL playoffs this year are definitely making history in all sorts of ways - the Caps and Bruins would rather not be a part of it though.

Some tidbits:

Conference quarter-finals (round 1) -

1. 8th seeded Habs rally from a 3-1 series deficit to eliminate the President's Trophy winner, the Caps.

2. Top 3 seeded teams in the West advance to round 2 (Sharks, Hawks, and Canucks) while the bottom 3 seeded teams in the East survive another round (Bruins, Flyers, and Habs).

Conference semi-finals (round 2) -

1. Hawks eliminate the Canucks a year to the day on May 11, 2010 in pretty much the same fashion as they did in 2009.

2. Habs move onto the Eastern Conference finals eliminating the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Pens. "Giant Killers" is right.

3. The Flyers become the 3rd team in NHL history to rally back from a 3-0 series deficit to come back and win the series against the Bruins. 3-0 definitely aren't the Bruins' magic numbers (see game 7).

4. The top 2 seeded teams in the West will battle in out in the Western Conference final while the bottom 2 seeded teams will be duking it out in the East.

These are just the tidbits that stick out like a sore thumb. Who ever predicted that the Habs (who wouldn't even be in the playoffs if they were a part of the Western Conference) would see themselves in the Eastern Conference finals? How often do teams have ever blown 3-1 or 3-0 series leads? When was the last time a defenceman ever shot the puck in his own net only to rebound and lead all NHL defencemen in the playoffs in points? Would you ever even think that Johan Franzen was capable of scoring 4 goals in one game? The Flames and now Bruins, may be out, but this year's playoffs have been nothing short of unbelievable. History will be made; but for a lot of teams this year, I don't think they want to be part of history.

China Glaze Rated Holographic

Good lord, I am loving my holographic polishes right now - I seriously cannot wait to try out all of the holos waiting to get painted on my nails. I am loving the Kaleidoscope collection right now and seriously want to get my hands on more shades from that collection - I've only got Rated Holographic and Kaleidoscope Him Out. :(

Which brings me to my latest swatch: China Glaze Rated Holographic - part of the discontinued Kaleidoscope collection released a few years back. The colour is a little more pink than TTYL from the OMG collection and it is so friggin' gorgeous. The holographic particles are larger and not as smooth as the OMG collection shades but I think this is what makes it so special! It gives that extra OOMPH to your nail colour! The holographic effects are visible under dim light but are incredible out in the sun. Yes, I am in love with Rated Holographic - so damn pretty.

Drying time was super fast and I used 3 coats to achieve full opacity. Again, no base or top coat. The only downside to this was its wear time. After work today, I noticed quite a bit of tip wear on my fingers. No biggie though - I just layered on another coat to touch it up. I'm gonna go stare at my nails now - it distracts me from the Bruins' loss tonight. *sigh* Have a great weekend!

DISCLAIMER: The product(s) in this post was/were purchased by me.

Current nail polish collection.

I don't even know what to say. I've got more coming within the next week and there's a good chance I'll never use all of these colours ever. *scratches head*

Allow me to...

...embrace my inner puckbunny for just one moment.

Toews looks insanely good in that picture. *sigh*

Okay, puckbunny moment over.

China Glaze TTYL

To avoid being called a liar, I am posting my first ever nail polish swatch: China Glaze TTYL. Nail polish connoisseurs will notice that the OMG Collection by China Glaze was released in 2009, so this nail polish swatch isn't exactly new. Well, it's new to me and I absolutely love it! The colour looks fantastic on my skin tone and the holographic effect really shows. The above pic was taken under artificial lighting. I used 3 coats to achieve full opacity.

The formula for TTYL was great - it applied smoothly and dried super fast. I did not use a base coat or top coat. I also thought that the wear time on it was pretty good for a holographic polish - it lasted for a good week with minimal tip wear. I deal with cash and coin going through the bank on a daily basis so it was a pleasant surprise.

There you have it, my first ever nail polish review. More to come soon!

DISCLAIMER: The product(s) in this post was/were purchased by me.

Trash-talking, smack-talking, and the like.

So I lied - this post won't have random nail polish swatches. Instead, I'm going to give my perspective on trash-talking/smack-talking when it comes to sports; particularly in hockey. With my Flames out of the playoffs, I'm cheering for the Bruins but I'm also keeping tabs on the Western Conference. I don't like the Canucks; in fact, you can say that I hate them...even more than the Oilers and Leafs. It's not the actual team that I dislike but it's the fans - a good chunk of them are bandwagoners, rowdy, obnoxious, and just plain classless. So naturally, I've cheered for the teams playing against them in the playoffs. The Kings didn't get the job done in round 1 so I cheered for the Blackhawks. Now I'm a huge hockey fan and I trash-talk...in fact, I probably trash-talk quite a bit. Rivalries are pretty much non-existent if there isn't any healthy trash-talking going around, but I keep it at the trash-talking. Fans who get violent and riot take things too far - rivalry is one thing, but getting violent over someone's personal choice in sports teams is totally uncalled for.

Anyways, I sure as heck trash-talk among my friends and coworkers who are fans of other teams and I take it to my Twitter and periodically, Facebook as well. It's all fun and games and we are still friends at the end of the day. Unfortunately, one of my followers on Twitter started to take MY smack-talking about the Canucks pretty damn personally. Since she didn't have any balls (hehehe, get it? Balls?) to tweet me directly, she decided to periodically post on her Twitter about my "negativity" towards the Canucks. First, you're following someone who's made it clear that she loathes the Canucks, what do you expect? I am not going to praise Luongo on a great save or Kesler on a great blocked shot - if I did, I wouldn't dislike the Canucks to begin with. Second, "negativity"? Really? Trash-talking is supposed to be positive? Are you kidding me? Whatever. I ignored her because she seemed to be a pretty decent person outside of being a Canucks fan.

Fast forward to yesterday - May 11, 2010. I am so pumped for the Blackhawks to finally eliminate the Canucks in front of all 19000-something fans at GM Place. I notice that Sami Salo is playing. If you follow hockey religiously, you'll know that Salo sustained a sensitive groin injury a few nights back. It was originally thought to be a ruptured testicle (ouch?) but it wasn't; nevertheless, he sustained a pretty damn painful injury. He was definitely in no condition to play and you could tell that by the way he skated and took shots - the guy was better off to have sat out and had someone like Nolan Baumgartner take his place. Now Salo playing despite the extent of his injury is pretty valiant and maybe admirable, but this is game 6...an ELIMINATION GAME. If you can't play nowhere near as "good" as you normally play, you are better off to sit out and have someone fill your place - someone who can at least try to match the pace of a young Blackhawks team who want to win pretty badly. To still play despite the seriousness of your injury is therefore, arguably selfish. Yes, I tweeted that...and Ms. Canucks fan got her panties in a bunch and decided to hide behind her computer screen and tweet her thoughts. Blah blah blah, I'm a hater, blah blah blah, Salo isn't playing with a "broken ball", blah blah blah, get educated. Really, a Canucks fans telling ME to get educated? Too funny. Enough is enough, so I tweet back (in the same way she's been "attacking" me) and tell her to quit being so damn whiny - it's smack-talk, deal with it. Now I get told that I should stop whining because my team didn't make the playoffs - a very typical Canucks fan response. Excuse me, where am I whining? Why would I? The Flames at least have a Cup and if you don't factor in this season, they made the playoffs all of the last 5 years; the Canucks only made it 3 out of 5 times in the same time span. Ms. Canucks fan is getting pretty upset with each of her tweets and says she doesn't care about how many Cups the Flames have and again, emphasizes that I am negative. Good lord, this is stupid and this is trash-talk - stop taking MY dislike for YOUR team personally. It becomes so stupid to the point that I finally blocked the idiot. NA NA NA NA NA NA HEY HEY GOODBYE to the idiot and the Canucks; I won't have to see the plethora of retweets by her ilk anymore.

What is the moral of this story? Anyone who takes trash-talking personally needs to watch more sports and suck it up. It's existent in all sports and is a part of rivalries. Friendships shouldn't end because of trash-talking and if they do, you or the person is plain dumb. Some of my very good friends and coworkers are Oilers, Leafs, and even Canucks fans, and trash-talking is all fun and games and it stays within sports. It's understandable to get upset when trash-talking evolves into personal attacks that have absolutely no relevance to sports; but anything else is fair game. I remember getting a death threat via Facebook from a Canucks fan years ago - it was hilarious but made me wonder how effed up some peoples' mentalities are. Sports are a form of entertainment - we have our favourite actors and actresses like we have our favourite teams. No one deserves to die, get beat up, get spat on, get thrown beer at, etc., because of their choice in teams; people shouldn't have to be silent to not offend other fans if they feel like taking jabs (within reason) either. Canucks fans: Take note.

My first blog post!

Never in my life did I think I'd have my own blog...23.92 years later, I'm typing out my first blog post.

A little about me: I'm a 20-something year old business student born and raised in Calgary. I've also got a minor in philosophy and LOVE my Calgary Flames. My 2nd favourite NHL team are the Boston Bruins. Since the playoffs started, I've also had a liking for the LA Kings, Nashville Predators, and Chicago Blackhawks. My favourite current NHL players are Jarome Iginla, Rene Bourque, Andrew Ference, and Shea Weber. My favourite band of all-time is...*drum roll*...New Kids on the Block! Don't laugh, I'm a Jon girl all the way. I have a newfound love for nail polish! I used to have a tiny collection of maybe 2 or 3 nail lacquers but its grown to 40-some bottles and counting. I am a very private person for the most part, so don't expect me to leak any details about my private life.

The purpose of this blog will be to blog about hockey AND do nail polish reviews, swatches, etc. Interesting combination, no? And of course, there is the other stuff in between. :) Thanks for following my blog, I promise things will get interesting from here. Hockey fans and lacquerheads unite! Up next: random nail polish swatches!