Happy Monday! It's the start of a brand new week, it's reading week, AND today is stat holiday Monday here in Alberta so I'm as happy as can be. For all you other university students like me, do you have any plans? Hopefully jet-setting somewhere warm or doing absolutely nothing? :)

Temperatures have been a little cooler here in Edmonton lately, causing me to reach for darker shades of polish yet again. This week on my tips I have Sable Collar from Essie's 2013 Winter Collection. Folks, this shade is stunning. A purple-brown base packed full of purple and red shimmer throughout, Sable Collar looks different at different angles and under different lighting. Sometimes it appears dark purple (as above), and other times it appears reddish brown with a warm purple hue. The formula flows well, and at two coats you achieve opacity, rich colour, and 4 full days of chip-free wear. If the temperatures continue to trend downward, I'll probably be reaching for this colour again and again.

There's a first time for everything. Yep. And this weekend, it snowed for the first time in Edmonton this season, and you can bet everyone was moaning and groaning as they tweeted their complaints and posted pictures of the small amount of snow on the weekend. I have a serious love/hate relationship with winter. I love the cozy sweaters and sitting by the fireplace.. heck, I even love the snow. What I absolutely hate is the cold wind and frigid temperatures. Ugh. It'll soon be time to sit back and endure the 6 month winter.

Cold weather aside, I was going through my polish collection this weekend, and a bottle of polish caught my eye. I definitely missed swatching it in the early summer, as Essie's First Timer is from the 2013 Resort Collection. Oops. Anyway, I initially purchased this bottle online since it looked like another pretty mint polish to add to my growing collection. Unfortunately for me, this shade has more yellow in it, making it more of a green leaning mint. The formula is slightly thicker than what I'm used to, but the polish easily glides onto the nail and levels itself out wonderfully. Dry time is quick, and the polish dries glossy before adding a topcoat. With up to four days of wear chip free, I'm a happy camper, but still wish it looked more mint on my nails!

Monday morning blues. It's the first day back for the second semester of the school year.. and I wish it weren't so. The break went by too quickly and I feel like I hardly had any time to relax! Luckily I'm headed off to a mini getaway this weekend to the mountains - snowboarding, hot chocolate and smores by the fire, hot springs... Ah, bliss.

This week on my tips is the only colour I picked up from the Essie 2012 Winter collection - Where's My Chauffeur. Not only is this shade basically my favourite colour in the whole world, its another one of those attempts to replicate the ever iconic Tiffany Blue. This robin's egg blue is practically spot on, but just a smidge darker (I believe the actual Tiffany Blue is patented..). The formula is slightly thinner than what I expect from Essie, so two coats is necessary for the shade to level out a dry to a glossy finish. Still easy to apply and with an awesome 5 days of wear time before chipping.. and a colour I will always go back to!

And here we are at the start of another week! Well technically the end of the start.. since it's 10PM where I am and probably already Tuesday everywhere else. School is crazy busy, forgive me :)

Today I wanted to share my favourite manicure I've done for the Fall season, and almost feel like it's my favourite of all time now. First up, as a base I used Essie's shade Carry On from the Fall 2011 Collection.

Carry on is a very dark eggplant creme shade, and can come across as black under darker indoor lighting. However, in the sunlight outside, it definitely comes across as a dark vampy purple shade.

The colour does apply darker than it appears in the bottle, but I don't mind sporting the darker shades for the fall season. Carry on has awesome staying power, lasting 5 days chip free, and the smooth formula applies beautifully.

Because the shade is so dark, I knew a flakie topcoat polish would do just the trick to amp it up for fall. I applied one coat of Essie's Shine of the Times - one of my all time favourite topcoats.

The gorgeous flakes flash from deep orange, to yellow, and to green depending on the angle - tell me that doesn't remind you of fall! I honestly could not stop staring at my nails for a couple days and can't wait to wear a combo like this one again. The shades in Shine of the Times really pops over any dark shade!

Happy Thanksgiving to the Canadians & Columbus Day to the Americans! I'm having Thanksgiving dinner with my family tonight - can't wait to gorge on turkey and pass out in a massive food coma. So much win. But on a more serious note, I'm very thankful not only for my amazing friends and family, but for everyone that reads my blog! The blogging community is so amazing and supportive, I've made many friendships, and I'm blessed to have crossed paths with all of you!

With Fall in full force here in Edmonton, it was only fitting for me to don a darker shade on my nails this week: Power Clutch from the 2011 Essie Fall collection.

So is this darker shade supposed to signify a person having a position of power? Haha, wearing darker shades makes me a feel more confident, while lighter shades are softer and more feminine.. is that where it comes from?

Power Clutch is a green-grey smoky creme shade, living up to the amazing creamy formulas that Essie consistently produces. The colour itself did apply darker on the nail that in the bottle, but I like the dirty colour quality that it has. Dirty grey, yeah.

The polish itself was very pigmented, and shown opaque here in two coats. I probably could've gone with one thicker shade, but the two thin coats allowed for a smoother application. The shade wore for up to 4 days chip free, and looked great paired with my darker fall outfits :)

Have a great week everyone!

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a fantastic weekend! I was down in Calgary - so nice to be with friends, relax, and just stuff my face with food. I was literally in pig mode.. Eat.. sleep.. eat.. wait & digest.. eat. Time to start working out again before I become a big ball!

On my nails this week is an oldie but goodie - Essie Turquoise & Caicos. With mint shades popping up everywhere, it was only right that I pulled out this colour to play with, and spice it up with some gold glitter (Sephora by OPI Only Gold For Me)! Not to mention, it's a great pop of colour for any outfit!


I find myself going back to this shade all the time. It's a beautiful vibrant teal-mint colour, quite similar to the classic Tiffany Blue. And luckily, this shade is permanent in the Essie collection - so you can pick one up too!


The formula is fantastic, and honestly, you could get away with just one thick coat on your nails. Application is smooth, and I always get 4-5 days of chip free wear. How much better can this colour get?

Which shades do you always find yourself going back to?

Happy Monday! To all my fellow Canadians - hope you had a wonderful Canada Day! For the Americans - the 4th of July is just around the corner.. so your extra vacation day is coming up! One of these days I need to experience it in the States for myself!

Today I have the colour that the Essie Spring collection is named after... Navigate Her. When I think of navigation, I think of blue.. but I guess Essie thinks otherwise, as this colour is a pastel green creme!


Unlike the usual mint greens that we've been seeing for the season, this one has much more yellow in it, making me think of algae. Maybe that's the connection to the sea and navigation.. hah!


Formula is fantastic to work with and application was a breeze. At two coats, this polish is opaque, but doesn't have the best staying power out there. After three days I began to see chips, and had full on chunks of colour missing by the fourth day. Booo! You might notice that my pinky finger has taken a vacation this week.. there was a major accident, and hopefully it will recover enough to reappear next week ;)

After a weekend of sunshine and rain.. it's Monday, folks. Hope you all had a great weekend!

This week I have another polish from the Spring 2012 Essie Navigate Her collection. I don't really comprehend the name itself, but To Buy or Not to Buy is quite a complex polish.

Under normal circumstances, it seems like your run of the mill lilac creme polish. But in the bottle, it's easy to see that its packed with blue/purple duochrome sparkles that shine when the light hits them just right.


Funny thing is, when applied on the nail, they basically disappear and are nowhere to be found.. unless you look hard enough and hit just the right angle. If you look closely at the bottle in these pictures, you'll see those little deceiving flashes of purple.


Although I have plenty of lilac polishes in my collection already, it's the presence of the glitters that make this one stand out above the rest. Application was smooth and the polish was fully opaque in two coats.


After 4 days, I start to see some signs of wear, so this polish is pretty good in my books. Although subtle, this polish might be a great addition to your collection! So to buy or not to buy? Buy.

Tour De Finance. What kind of race would that be? Probably super boring unless you're a finance major. Anyone out there in business? Hah.

Oh, Essie. This particular shade is from Essie's Navigate Her collection for Spring 2012. It's not really the most unique of shades, as it's a very typical hot fuchsia tone that many nail lacquer companies out there carry. But hey, it's a great shade for the summertime!


Although I tend to hate polishes that don't have a creme finish, Tour De Finance is one of those shades that can look like a creme, but have a subtle shimmer to it.


The shimmer hiding in the base shines pink & blue, and you don't really notice it much unless you're under the light at the right angle.


The formula here applies smoothly, although streaky in the first coat. I had to use two coats to even things out, despite having it be a highly pigmented polish. The only disappointment was issues with wear. I saw my first chips within a day, and it unfortunately went downhill from there. It's a very pretty colour, but for a shade that you can find produced by other companies, I would skip this one since the chips really aren't worth it!

Hi everyone! Happy Monday - not! Just kidding - I hardly slept over the weekend studying for two final exams that I wrote today, and now I'm studying for my last one that is tomorrow. Soon I'll be able to sleep in again! Hope you all had a better weekend than I did!

Today I have a beautiful coral red to share with you from Essie's Navigate Her Spring Collection. The coral red colour itself screams more Summer than Spring for me, as I tend to wear my coral shades in the Summer months - but no matter. This coral is so pretty when worn, and should be flattering on all skintones.

The polish itself was saturated and extremely pigmented. I think I could have gotten away with one thicker coat versus the two thin ones I applied.


The creme formula applied like a dream and was so easy to control on the nail. You might look at the colour and think it looks familiar, and yes! The shade is very close to the OPI Holland collection shade Red Lights Ahead... Where? They could almost be dupes of one another, but I see a little more orange in the OPI shade, and more red in Ole Caliente. If anyone wants swatch comparisons, let me know and I will compare them!


The polish wore wonderfully for a full five days before chipping - sounds good to me in my books :)

Talk to you all when I'm done my last exam!

Just popping in to say hello before I get back to studying! I'm writing my first exam this afternoon :)

I came across this image yesterday via Pinterest and LOVED it. I can't vouch for the validity (although I've tried to search everything, and even contact their PR - nothing has been confirmed!), but it is absolutely awesome either way.

I am a huge fan of the office, and love the names to the polishes - seriously, so fitting. I love Creed & Kevin.. they seriously have the best random lines in the show! Anyone else love The Office? I hope this picture is legit!

Have a great day everyone!

Happy Easter Everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend with time off to spend with your families! And hopefully the Easter Bunny didn't leave you toooo much chocolate :)

It feels funny for me to be sharing this colour with you right now, since Essie's Bangle Jangle is actually a shade from their 2011 Holiday collection. But the colour just screams Spring to me!

Bangle Jangle is a lovely creme shade of lavender, with a smooth formula and very easy application. The colour is fully opaque in two thin coats, and wears well for over 5 days.



I wore this colour on two separate occasions, just to put some variation out there.


Bangle Jangle worn with Sephora by OPI's Flurry Up on the ring finger above, and topped off with Essie's Shine of the Times down below. I still am obsessed with flakie effect - love that this particular topcoat shines orange, yellow, and green all at different angles.



And to finish off, the winner of the Christina M. Boutique giveaway is Allison! I have sent you an email, please respond within 48 hours!

Have a wonderful week! :)