Life and Polish

Belated Love Day

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 18:07:00 +0000

Happy Fat Tuesday everyone! I am excited at the thought of eating pancakes tonight, and even though I had a lovely long weekend, today I have a migraine and it's making it difficult to get anything done, so hopefully it leaves so I can enjoy some pancakes!

This was my other Valentine's manicure, very simple, using the same BM H17 plate. The polish is a LAQA&Co one that I seem to have lost the colour sticker for, so I'm not sure of the name sadly!

Thanks for reading <3

Happy Valentine's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Hi Loves, Happy Saturday & Happy Valentine's Day! I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get back to posting, but I've really trying to rehab my nails. I bought OPI Nail Envy and I've taken the last 2-3 weeks or so to just use Nail Envy by it's self and it seems to be working!

That being said, Nail Polish Canada sent me the cutest Bundle Monster Valentine' Plate and I figured it'd been long enough, so I had to try some of the images. I love Valentine's Day, and I'm pretty sure even if I wasn't in a relationship I would, a) because my boyfriend and I really never do much, and b) I love pink and hearts and flowers, so I'm pretty sure I could just justify buying those things for myself and I'd be happy!

This plate is so cute, I instantly fell in love with the little love birds!

I tried 2 different manicures, but I'm posting my favourite one! I used Essie Dressed to Kilt (this is my new go-to red btw) and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then stamped with Dressed to Kilt and Konad Special White. On my pinky and index fingers I used the new BM plate, BM H17, BM H18 on my middle finger(another Bundle Monster Valentine's Plate), konad m95 on my thumbs, and konad m46 on my ring fingers!

I hope you all have a fantastic Saturday, whether you're celebrating or just trying to pretend it's a regular weekend!

Thanks for reading <3

Help Needed!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Hi Loves & Happy Monday! I'm sorry I didn't post at all last week, but I have a dilemma.

One of the reasons I fell out of polishing my nails was that I seem to have had some kind of change in my body chemistry and the result of that is that my nail polish, regardless of brand, top coat, base coat (combo or mix 'n match) chips within hours, and usually I am able to peel off in full sheets. This used to happen when my various quick dry top coats got old, thick or close to the bottom of the bottle, but now, even a fresh bottle or a non-quick dry top coat will do that to me. I've changed base coats, I've tried matching base coats to top coats or polishes, and nothing. So far the top coats I own are Cult Nails, Rica, HK Girl, KBShimmer, Revlon, L'Oreal Gel, Seche Vite, China Glaze. I also have the HK Girl Base coat, Zoya, Orly Bonder, L'Oreal Gel Base, Cult Nails base coat, a Revlon and a China Glaze.

So, I'm not sure how much I'll be posting because honestly I'm tired of painting my nails only for them to peel off again. I need some recommendations, even though I know preferences/body chemistry is different for everyone, but I need a solution!

I'm also interested in the new OPI Infinite Shine system, it is a bit pricey but if any of you have tried it or you know of any reviews out there for me to read, please let me know!

Thanks for reading! <3

Chanel Provocation

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Happy Monday Loves! I hope you all had a fantastic vacation! I actually ventured out to the mall over the weekend, and it was surprisingly not busy..I may even go back tomorrow! I haven't been to a mall in months, mostly because my local one never seems to have what I want and I did ALL of my Christmas shopping online!

My mother got what I consider the best Christmas present this year. My brother bought her Chanel Provocation, which has been on my lust list since it came out. I have actually had it on my ebay watch list forever, and I somewhat forgot that it was still in stores. My brother has high-end taste, so he went to Holt Renfrew and bought my mom, my sister & I all high end nail polish. I was a bit concerned when he told me he bought my mom a "medium purple" (in his words) as she is mostly a sheer pink or no nail polish kind of woman. BUT, just like me, she LOVES this colour and kindly let me use it on New Years (after I did a manicure for her with the polish as well!)

Sadly, Chanel doesn't wear long on me, I may have to invest in their base coat to see if that makes a difference. My photos aren't 100% accurate colour-wise, but don't worry, you'll be seeing this shade again!

Thanks for reading <3

New Year's Eve Nails

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Happy Friday Loves! I hope you all had a fantastic NYE, regardless of what you did, and hopefully 2015 is treating you well so far! I stayed in, as my boyfriend and I have been sick over the holidays, and he is still recovering! It was nice to relax, and I made sure that my nails were festive and we had champagne!

I borrowed my mom's Christmas present for my base (which I'll talk about another day soon, I love this polish) and sponged on OPI Spark de Triomphe and Essie Set in Stones. The base colour isn't coming out quite accurate, since I was in afternoon winter sunglight (which made it too sparkly and freaked out my camera) or in indirect light, (so I could show you the sparkle without all the light hitting it!)

Have a great weekend & Thanks for reading <3

Christmas Eve Nails

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 20:51:00 +0000

Hello Loves! I know, I know, it's almost New Year's Eve and I'm only just getting around to putting my Christmas Eve nails on the blog! Oh well, this Holiday has been busy & tiring! I'm still undecided as to what I want on my nails tomorrow, I'm not going anywhere fun/I have nothing festive to wear clothing-wise, but I want my nails to be as festive as possible!

I copied this look based on something I saw while scrolling through my popular page on Instagram. I don't remember the account name, since I didn't save the photo, so if you know who these belong to originally, let me know and I can credit them! I used Revlon Vixen, Konad Special White and a whole bunch of BM plates and some dotting tools!

I hope you all have a fantastic New Year's and I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for all of us! Thanks for reading <3

Belated Christmas Nails

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 23:25:00 +0000

Hi Loves and Happy Sunday! I'm sorry it's been awhile since I posted, I meant to post on Tuesday or Wednesday the nails I wore last Saturday (the 20th) for my family party, and then post what I wore on Christmas Eve later, but my family has been sick on and off for the last 2 weeks, and I started to think I was coming down with something too! In the end, I seemed to only have laryngitis and a bit of a chest cold, so I actually feel perfectly fine, but I can't speak and I haven't been hungry, which equals not eating, and therefore I've been pretty low energy!

Anyways, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and you're starting to look forward to the new year!

These simple nails are what I wore to my family party on the 20th. I intially planned on matching whatever Christmas socks I wore (our theme was Crazy Christmas Socks) but I ended up running out of time, so I quickly threw this together. I used Essie Dressed to Kilt and stamped a snowflake from one of my BM plates, the put a rhinestone in the middle.

Thanks for reading! <3

Merry Pinkmas

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 22:00:00 +0000

Happy Sunday Loves! I hope you're all having great day, I'm relaxing and watching Football after my extended family's annual Christmas party last night. It definitely wiped me out and it will be early to bed with me tonight!

I have done a "Pinkmas" manicure before and this year I felt a little uninspired, but I decided to cheer myself up with a seasonally appropriate pink manicure. My base is Essie Mod Square, and then I stamped various BM Christmas images in Konad special white, OPI Mod About You, Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and OPI You're a Pisa Work!

Thanks for reading <3

Christmas Ornaments

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 03:32:00 +0000

Hi Loves & Happy Friday Eve! Today was probably my last teaching day of 2014! It feel so weird to say that, but hopefully in the New Year I am teaching more! This is going to be a quick post because I'm about to fall asleep. I've been getting ready for my family holiday party on Saturday, about 50ish people come to my house every year!

I used the BM H03 plate again and stamped over China Glaze Emerald Sparkle with Sally Hansen Silver Sweep. I couldn't really capture it with my camera (and no sunlight) but Emerald Sparkle really glittered behind the design and it almost was like my nails were full of teeny glittering ornaments!

Have a great Friday everyone!

Thanks for reading <3

Christmas with Bundle Monster

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 19:15:00 +0000

Hi Loves, Happy Tuesday! I meant to post this yesterday but somehow I forgot! I can't believe we're so close to Christmas! It doesn't feel like it anymore, since we've now had about 4 days of rain after last weeks snowstorm, so it's just wet & damp here! I'm hoping over the next week we get a little bit of snow each day, so it doesn't overwhelm us, but so it starts to really feel like Christmas!

Nail Polish Canada is an awesome Canadian online polish retailer, and I've enjoyed using them over the past few years, they have everything from polish, to LED lights to treatments and stamping! They kindly sent me a Christmas plate, Bundle Monster H03 and it's one that I have been eyeing over the last few Christmases!

I had to try out the cute bells & mittens image, so I stamped it in China Glaze Passion over OPI Christmas Gone Plaid!

I hope you're all having a great week! Thanks for reading <3

Snowy Scene

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 17:34:00 +0000

Hi Loves & Happy Thursday! I painted these a few days ago when it was all green and my nails did not match the outdoors, but looks like the weather decided to take a hint. Eastern/Central Ontario got our first hit of snow and man, it slowed us down. I was supposed to be on my way to Windsor for a funeral, however, after getting up at 5am and leaving at 5:50 am, it took us more than 2 & 1/2 hours to get to the beginning of Scarborough, which normally takes 25 minutes, so we had to turn around and go back home, since we were going to miss the funeral/wake, and then we'd be sitting around in Windsor waiting until we could go home and miss coming back in Toronto afternoon rush hour! Oh well, at least the snow looks pretty when I'm not driving in it, and now I'm on the hunt for some good winter boots!

I tried a gradient, but I think I needed to be a bit heavier with my colours, since they were a bit washed out. I used Picture Polish Beige, and sponged on OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Essie Marshmellow. You sadly can't see the white too much, but oh well. I stamped various snowflakes on with Sally Hansen Silver Sweep. I used 5 or 6 BM/Konad plates, so I'm not going to list them all!

I hope you're all having a great Friday Eve, if you're stuck in the snow, or going to get hit later tonight, stay safe!

Thanks for reading <3

Peppermint Nails

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 22:02:00 +0000

Hi Loves & Happy Tuesday! I can't believe we're already into the second week of December. Last week I was felled by my first cold in a while, and let me tell you, it's hit me hard. It's been sort of a cross between a nasty cold & the flu, but thankfully I'm on the mend and I can eat again, so I'll be better in no time!

One morning I couldn't sleep and I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw these nails by Chelsea of the Nail Network and I knew I had that exact plate and I got to work recreating them!

I used Essie Dressed to Kilt, konad special white polish and China Glaze Lighthouse. Candy Canes are my favourite part of the holidays (or anything peppermint related really) so I was happy with how these turned out!

Thanks for reading! <3

OPI First Class Desires

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

Hi Loves! Happy Thursday, or Happy Friday Eve! I hope you're all having a great week! I'm going shopping with a friend tonight, and since I'm actually done all my Christmas shopping, it'll be nice to hang out and browse without having to find and cross items off a list!

When the OPI Gwen Stefani Holiday collection first came out, I knew I had to own some of the colours, and when I saw First Class Desires in person, I knew it would come home with me. It's a gorgeous dark purple with gold shimmer. I love it, and I plan on wearing it ALL. THE. TIME.

If you don't own this, well, what are you waiting for?! Go get it!

Thanks for reading <3

It's That Time of Year Again...

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 23:55:00 +0000

Hi Loves! Where have I been, am I right? I know it's been about 6 months since I've posted anything, but really more like 8 months since I was really posting. I have not been in the mood to post, or even paint my nails for awhile, which has been making me sad. However, Christmas is my favourite Holiday and ever since October I have been getting back into "seasonal" colours and manicures, and I've been itching to start decorating for Christmas since November 1st!

Since it's started to get cold here in Ontario, I've been buying and lusting after sweaters ( I am always cold) and I figured why not wear them on my nails. Karen from Nail Call posted a combination on twitter/IG and I had to recreate it.

I used China Glaze Passion, then stamped with Cult Nails Nevermore and Nail Craze plate 03. I cannot for the life of me get this stamped straight, but oh well!

Thanks for reading!

Nail Polish Canada "Great Polish Giveaway"

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 17:27:00 +0000

Hi my loves!

I know I have been absent awhile, and I'm trying to get myself back into blogging, and so when Nail Polish Canada contacted me, this seemed like the perfect jump-off point!

From their website:

"THE GREAT POLISH GIVEAWAY OF 2014

We’ve partnered with Cirque Colors, NCLA & Picture Polish to host the biggest giveaway ever.

One winner will take home up to 200 nail polish from over 10 different brands! The prize starts at zero, then bloggers can each pick a favourite shade to be added to the prize."

Along with a number of other amazing bloggers, I was given the opportunity to choose a shade to be added into the giveaway, and because I love NCLA, I decided their mint green shade, NCLA AM: Beauty Sleep, PM: Shopping Spree was the perfect shade! I don't actually own this shade, but it's on my wishlist and it's gorgeous!

Feel free to enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*This contest is only open to US & Canadian Residents

& goes until August 15th, 2014*

I hope you all enter & I am crossing my fingers for you!

Essie Mod Square

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Sat, 03 May 2014 14:35:00 +0000

Happy Saturday my loves! I've got no real plans this weekend and it's still raining here which is gloomy, but at least it's Saturday. I just want it to be warm, since I bought some shorts on Wednesday and I want to wear them! However, it is Starbucks Frappuccino Happy Hour this week, and I am definitely going to take part in that!

So, more pink to show you today, but Essie Mod Square, how did it take me so long to own you. This is such a "Barbie Pink" colour, I just love it. Sadly I didn't have very good luck getting photos of it that were colour accurate, but trust me, you need to own it!

I don't have much else to say other than I love pink (which I think you know) and have a great day.

Thanks for reading <3

White and Gold

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Happy Wednesday my loves! I know it's spring, and spring needs rain to make everything green and floral, but the GTA is in for some serious rain for the next week and I am not too happy. However, tonight my mother & I are on our way to a local (ish) outlet mall, which has a Kate Spade and a J.Crew outlet and I am SO excited, so hopefully some retail therapy cheers me up.

If you don't know, a few months ago I stumbled upon Caitlin Covington and her blog, Southern Curls and Pearls and she has become my new fashion/accessory obsession, and most recently my nail muse! Caitlin posted these nails on instagram, now hers are a gel manicure but I had to try this out for myself. I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and then used a striping brush and China Glaze Passion. I need a steadier hand, and for my index nail to grow again, but otherwise I LOVE the result, thanks Caitlin!

Thanks for reading and I hope your weather is nicer than mine!

<3

L'Oreal Extraordinaire Gel Lacquer Review

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Happy Saturday my dears! I'm off to a Blue Jay's baseball game this afternoon, sadly it's not very "spring-like" weather here, so the dome won't be open but I'm still excited! I haven't been to a baseball game in about a year, so it's going to be fun.

So, if you follow me on twitter, you might have noticed a while back that I was searching for this nail polish system, and even though it wasn't on L'Oreal's Canadian website it was in all the stores. I bought it at Walmart (it was cheapest) and I've worn it a few different ways and here are my thoughts:

It's not revolutionary. It's a top coat and base coat together, and you then buy the polish seperately. They have a special "gel" polish just to go with this top coat and base coat, although the colour selection is quite small. Now, I put gel in quotations, because it's not gel. It's like regular polish. The base coat does dry amazingly quick, as well as the top coat, and the polish is quite nice, with the pink shade I chose I almost got away with one coat. However, on my nails it didn't last amazingly long. After about 4 days I had tip wear and some chipping, as you can see from the pictures. When I did try the top coat/base coat out with non-L'Oreal polishes it also worked quite well, even somewhat better, so I enjoy the top coat. I am currently trying the base coat, polish and top coat combination on my toes to see if it holds up better than my nails.

The back of the box with all it's claims and instructions

The full range of polish colours, not too exciting, but similar to traditional gel polish colours.

These pictures are all after the first application, it's bright, it's shiny, and obviously it's pink, hence my polish colour choice.

So, you can see the tip wear, which as always, looks worse in pictures than in person. It's still shiny and lovely, but it did start to develop more chips.

So, final verdict: Not a "I need this ASAP" product, but I do like it, and it's a good base coat/top coat to add to your collection that you can get in the drugstore. As always, some people's body chemistry will really work with this and so if you're interested, it's not too much of an investment to buy the system to try it out.

Thanks for reading <3

NYC Greenwich Village

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Happy Thursday Loves! I am very happy it's Thursday, because then we're only 1 day away from Friday and man I need Friday. I have cut out coffee completely after a 3 week stint of 2-4 coffee's a day, and it's been rough, but sadly I think it's helping my headaches..hopefully I can re-introduce 1-2 coffee's a day back into my regimen because I miss it!

I realized, looking into my drafts/photos that never got published, that you're in for a lot of pink nail polish in the next little while. I'd been very lazy in terms of painting my nails and all I wanted to wear was various shades of pink...oops! Sorry if it seems a bit repetitive in the next little while! I borrowed this polish from my boyfriend's Mom, she's constantly been painting her nails this colour and after realizing I have nothing similar in my stash (or if you're my boyfriend, I apparently have everything similar..but we all know there are a million shades of pink!) I decided I needed to borrow it. For some reason I always thought this polish would be green whenever I heard the name...but nope!

My nails are shorter, because about a month an a half ago they ALL broke, so I caved and filed them down, so sorry it's a bit odd to suddenly see short nails!

Have a great Thursday loves!

Thanks for reading <3

Happy Belated Easter

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hi loves & Happy Tuesday! I hope you all enjoyed your Easter weekends, and if you're like me & had a 4 day weekend I hope it was fabulous. The weather on Monday was actually beautiful, it almost felt like summer..sadly it's not lasting long but I'm hoping it comes back.

I meant to get this manicure up on Saturday but a) I was lazy and b) I was also busy, and wanting to be lazy but having 2 dinners to go to, 2 church services to attend, planning an event and finishing up my 13 day supply job for a coop teacher last week meant this is up today. Oh well! Nail Polish Canada kindly sent me the Bundle Monster H09 plate (aka an Easter plate) and so I planned out this quick but cute manicure!

I used Essie Watermelon as my base, then dotted with NCLA As If, Tennis Anyone? and Orly Blue Collar, and used the hatching chick image stamped with Konad special white polish!

Please ignore the sad index nail, it had a fight with a filing cabinet and it obviously lost :(

I hope you all have a great Tuesday :)

Thanks for reading <3

Green Hopes for March

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 20:23:00 +0000

Happy Saturday loves! I have a bunch of pictures from February that I wanted to post (lots of pink) but I wasn't feeling any of that! It's the beginning of March, and even though it still seems that winter will never end (today is a "warm day" at -2C) I'm hoping that by March Break it will begin to seem that Spring is on it's way.

I wanted to wear some green to start out the month (in the hopes that outside will soon be green too) so I used a base of Revlon Minted, and then using the saran wrap method, sponged China Glaze Starboard on top. It sort of looks like those super retro counter tops but, I think it looks pretty cool anyways.

I hope everyone's weekend is going well. I've had my Starbucks fix already and that always makes my Saturday a great one!

Thanks for reading <3

Purple and Glitter Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 11:00:00 +0000

Hi Loves and Happy Tuesday! and guess what, Happy Birthday to me! (and my sister, and brother!) I am 25 today and even though it sort of feels like a milestone birthday, it's actually going to be somewhat of a weird Birthday for me. This is the first year in 25 years that we will not be spending our birthday together, as triplets. My brother is on his reading break in University but he is in Japan for a school project, and my sister lives about 3 hours away and since it's a Tuesday, we both aren't able to get together. We did celebrate a couple of weekends ago, but it's still a bit odd, celebrating as an only child today!

I didn't put too much thought into what I wanted on my nails for today, I flipped through my nail wheels and my eye caught KBShimmer Diva, a purple glittery beauty and I was sold. I layered this over 1 coat of China Glaze Grape Pop and it's amazing. It even happened to be sunny out so I could snap some photos!

My nails on both hands have mostly rehabbed from my peels, however my right hand (which you never see) is still much shorter than my left. I decided that as it was growing, I'd be a bit adventurous and change up my nail shape! Marta posted this photo on instagram, and I figured if she could give it a try, I could too! My nails were slightly different lengths, and not fully long enough for a full/real almond shape but they're getting there! I'm not sure if I like it, I need to wait for them to be a bit longer before I commit to filing my left hand to match!

Thoughts on the new shape? I like the idea of not having corner breaks!

I hope you all have great days & I hope my brother & sister enjoy their birthday-day!

Thanks for reading <3

Happy Valentine's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 11:00:00 +0000

Hi loves & Happy Valentine's Day! I'm sorry it's been 2 weeks since I've posted, as I said in my top-coat round up post, my nails have been terrible so I have been rehabbing them and I'm happy to say they seem to be back in good shape, thanks to my favourite Barielle Nail Rebuilding Protein. I seriously love that stuff, it works wonders on my nails.

Nail Polish Canada so kindly sent me one of the Bundle Monster plates from their holiday-themed collection, I have a wishlist from that set and BM-H18 was on it! I love hearts, pink, and everything that goes with Valentine's so obviously this plate is right up my alley. I used a base of OPI Strawberry Margarita and then stamped with the BM plate and China Glaze Passion. I loveeee this. So simple, just pink, gold & hearts!

I have more pink/Valentine's themed manicures and I want to use more images from the plate, so the rest of February will probably have lots of that in it!

I hope you all have a fantastic day, whatever you're doing!

Thanks for reading <3

Top Coat Round-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 11:00:00 +0000

Hi Loves! I'm sorry I have been MIA lately. January has been super cold, and I have had no motivation to paint my nails, or really do anything. I'm a bit frustrated with 2014, since teaching prospects are not looking too promising, and yet I can't seem to get any kind of part-time job! Oh well!

I have been trying out a huge variety of top coats in the last year, and so I figured I'd do a round-up post and let you know my thoughts! I know Sam did a similar post, but I'd been thinking about doing one of these for months, and so I figured I'd still post my thoughts! I didn't take any actual photos of my bottles, mostly because they are half used, and don't look that nice! This will be a big post, so most of it will go under the cut!

So if you're interested, keep reading!

I'm going to rank them from least favourite to most favourite! Let me preface by saying my results will by no means be the same as yours. Body chemistry/nail chemistry plays a huge role, and I've included links to purchase if you feel you want to try something out (despite my feelings). This is not sponsored in ANY way, just my honest thoughts.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri ($7.49)

This one, along with the Revlon Quick Dry are pretty much a tie for last place. SH Insta-Dri was recommended to me, as a cheaper, easier found top coat back when I first started blogging, because SV was so expensive and hard to find. I bought a bottle, but I wish I didn't. It was a waste of my money, as it NEVER dries on me. It's also really thin, and watery and I find it floods the nail.

Revlon Quick Dry $5.46

I picked this one up on a whim at Walmart once, it was inexpensive, so I figured I'd try it out. I once raved about it on here, but alas my thoughts have changed. My first bottle was great..until about 2/3rds in, so I figured I'd buy another bottle... BIG mistake. My first one must have been a fluke because every other bottle I've bought has not dried. It is like buying a regular top coat. It might be my nail chemistry but...definitely not a quick dry topcoat on my nails.

INM Out the Door Topcoat $11

I stumbled upon this, like usual, trying to find a replacement for SV after one of my many times getting frustrated with it's formula. Again, I found that this one took quite a long time to dry, although eventually it would, but it was definitely not what I was looking for in a Quick Dry topcoat. It also got quite thick rather quickly, something I was trying to avoid, since I already had SV do that for me.

Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat $8.95

I have a love-hate relationship with SV, as it opened my eyes to Quick Dry topcoats and I no longer had to spend ages waiting for my nails to dry. It was fast, shiny, and doesn't ruin my stamping. BUT, I find there are many cons to SV, the formula tends to get thick as you get towards the end of the bottle, requiring thinning, it shrinks/cracks my polish, sometimes it won't dry depending on the polish underneath, and it still contains Toluene, so if I were pregnant I wouldn't use it, and I can't use it on my young cousins who still bite their nails.

Rica Glossy Glam Topcoat $10

I bought this after hearing Marta Warmuz rave about it for a few months, and as soon as it was available at my local online retailer, I took the plunge. I do like this topcoat, but sadly it didn't live up to my expectations, which I blame on my body chemistry. I find that it does dry quickly, although not as quickly as I hoped, but it still shrinks my polish, and it smears my stamping. It does make my polish last for a long time and stays shiny, but the shrinking and smearing are what disappoints me most.

Cult Nails Wicked Fast $12.50

Cult Nails, what can I say, this is great polish company and when they released their top coat and base coat, I knew I needed both. I was on a break from SV (yet again), so I decided to try something new. This dries fast, is glossy, doesn't smear and doesn't shrink my polish. The only downsides I find are the fact that it is a bit expensive (compared to most) and that when you near the bottom, it's hard to get it onto the brush and out of the bottle. It's still one of my favourites though and I need to be buying a new bottle soon!

China Glaze Fast Forward $9.50

China Glaze is one of my all-time favourite polish brands, and their top coat is no exception. It dries almost as fast as SV, doesn't smear stamping, doesn't shrink polish, doesn't get thick near the bottom it's big 3 free, and it's fairly inexpensive. The only downside is the smell, which I don't mind after the first few seconds.

KBShimmer Clearly On Top $6

KBShimmer, this is my number 1 favourite topcoat. This indie brand has taken the polish world by storm and their topcoat is no exception. It's glossy, dries fast, doesn't shrink, doesn't smear polish AND the price! Look at that price, no wonder it's always sold out on Harlow & Co. This is what I have been using for the past 4 months and I have barely made a dent my bottle! If you are looking for a new top coat, this my recommendation!

I have one other topcoat I have been trying out, the Glisten & Glow HK Girl Fast Drying + Super Shiny Topcoat but I haven't had it long enough to decide if it's as good as/better than my top contenders.

I hope this round-up helps you, and if you have any other top coats you LOVE that I haven't included, I'd love to hear about them in the comments :)

Thanks for reading <3

Nude and Gold Dots

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Life and Polish) — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 11:00:00 +0000

Hi Loves, Happy Monday. Sorry it's been a week, but time seemed to fly by last week. I worked quite a bit and started running outdoors again, so it was pretty busy! This past weekend though I just cleaned and relaxed!

After all the red and green of Christmas I've been craving simple or clean colours and this colour scheme just popped into my head while looking through my Helmer! I used a base of piCture pOlish Beige and Revlon Gold Coin for the dots.

I hope you're all enjoying January, it seems like it's going by so quickly, I hope time slows down!

Thanks for reading <3