September 14, 2013

Hi guys! I know it's been two months since I last posted. At least I have some excuses:

1. I have gone back to work and it's exhausting keeping up with a full time job, taking care of baby, cooking, cleaning, maintaining regular workout,... you get my point.

2. I just wasn't feeling "it" for the last little while. Blogspehere looks very commercialized to me these days; very different from when I started back in 2008. I find that all the jazz and light has turned me off a bit on commenting a lot of blogs I used to read and blogging myself.

That being said, I missed blogging and through the years BeautySpot has become such a big part of my life that I thought I should at least attempt to make one post per week. I'm so grateful for those of you guys who still commented/messaged even when during my absence. Interacting with you guys really is my favourite part of blogging.

HAIR Anyway, this wasn't just an apologetic post. I posted some pictures of my new "fall" hair on Instagram a couple of weeks ago but thought I share them here too. I got them dyed over the Labour Day long weekend to a dark red shade with a purple base. My mom is my hair stylist as usual and once again she nailed it! I had SO missed my dark hair. I meant the highlight was an ok change but I will always be a dark haired girl at heart.



Plus, this hair goes much better with my signature makeup style of dark/red lips.



Now I know everyone and their mother is showing their excitement about fall, but unlike many places here in Ottawa Canada the weather is actually fall-like. We are down to a high of 14C most days and I'm thrilled. I've never been a beach babe and am down with the return of crisp and cool air.

NAILS to celebrate the return of dark shades, I got myself a new nailpolish from Essie's fall collection. I do own quite a few polishes and even though I purge often, my collection is still spilling over :/ So I'm quite picky about what I buy. It has to be absolutely unique and I think Essie's Vested Interest is:



It's a dust green shade and on me, I see blue undertones. If you have cool undertones you will likeley see the same on you. Either way this is a great fall shade and should look good on about every single skintone. The formula on this is ah-mazing! Seriously Essie has been so consistent for me the past few years formula-wise. I'me never disappointed. This was pretty much a one coater but I did a second thin coat because old habits die hard:



Hope you guys enjoyed this random post. I gotta go get Sofia now who's been singing to herself in her crib. Will have some makeup post coming your way next week!

April 24, 2013

Hi guys! Leave it to Chanel to release at least one amazing nail polish per year to lure me back into their camp. Just after I sworn off buying Chanel products in Canada (we pay waaaaay too much for them here), I pass by their counter yesterday and see the summer 2013 collection.

I was immediately drawn to Azure nail polish:



Azure is a gorgeous metallic teal and is a limited edition shade released by Chanel Gods this summer. My Chanel counter at the Bay just got these in yesterday so if you like the shade, hurry and pick it up now before it's gone. I mean look at this!!!! And today is cloudy so I couldn't capture its true beauty:



I applied two thin coats and unlike other metallic shades I've tried in the past, this one doesn't leave any brush strokes behind; huge plus in my opinion. The colour itself reminds me a bit of OPI Teal the Cows Come Home but more complex due to its glow.



I only own 7 Chanel nail polishes but they all 7 have great formula. Azure is no exception; the brush is the perfect width and the formula doesn't bubble. It's splurge worthy ($27CAD) in my book :D

Will you be picking up Azure? What are some of your favourite Chanel nail polishes?

April 16, 2013

I'm not really the best at nail design. In fact I think I kinda suck at it. But every once in a while I feel like trying my hands at it again. I did a neon and neutral polka dot mani this past weekend that turned out ok. Here's a picture:



And this is what I used:

Essie Haute as Hello, Essie Sand Tropez, OPI top coat and a dotting tool from Sally's.

I first applied 2 medium layers of Essie Haute as Hello and waited for it to dry. Then used the dotting tool to do the polka dots with Essie Sand Tropez. If you want them to look symmetric and even, first do three vertical dots in the middle of the nail bed and then two dots on each side. I also found it was easier to put a drop of my dotting shade on a plastic surface and then dip the dotting tool. I finished with a coat of OPI top coat. It's rare for me to do topcoat as I change my polish every day. But when I spend the extra effort and do some design, I keep my mani for a bit longer ;)



I think I will do this again next time with more contrasting colours. This one here is more subtle and I wanted it this way as I was afraid it won't come out great.

What are some freehand nail designs you like to do on yourself? Feel free to share links to your nail posts on this :)

January 4, 2012

I saw a display of Nicole for OPI Modern Family collection at my local Shoppers and decided to grab a couple of shades. I must add that they were pretty much out of most shades and it's not like I "need" any more nail polishes. But the ones I did pick were too cute and hard to resist:





I bought Back in my Gloria Days and Haley Good Lookin'. The Gloria polish is a nice glowing purple with pink shimmer and the Haley shade is a densely packed warm pink glitter. There are also some larger glitter bits in there. You can use this as a top coat or do three coats with no base like I did here:





My experience with Nicole brand is very limited but these two had great formula. The polish flowed easily and applied evenly. I actually managed to keep the same mani for 3 full days which is rare for me :)

Have you purchased any of the Modern Family polishes? What are some of your fave Nicole shades?

November 15, 2012

Hi guys! I dropped by my local Trade Secret to check out the holiday collections by OPI, Essie, Zoya and Misa. My Trade Secret totally sucks though; they seem to sell out of everything in a minute and never have a big stock to begin with. Half of the polishes I wanted to get were sold out and so this is what I ended up with:



OPI On her Majesty's Secret Service -  a blue/green shimmer in slate colour base, very unique to my collection.
Zoya Electra - multi coloured glitter bar in clear base. I don't have any bar shaped glitter polish so this was also a welcome addition.
Zoya Aurora - beautiful purple holographic. Oh how I love the holo effect this has!!

I'm gonna check out Loblaws in a few weeks as they also get the Essie collection just later. I really wanted a few shades from them too but my stupid TS is always out of everything!

Have you got purchased anything from various nail polish holiday collections? What is your favourite nail polish this season?

October 8, 2012

Hey guys! I know everyone and their mothers were excited about MAC Marilyn Monroe collection, but I was counting the days to see Nars Warhol collection and stalking my local Sephora. Well, I mean I was going in once a week as it's kinda hard to get out that much with a 6 week old baby!

After reading reviews of the collection online, I decided I only wanted a couple of the nail polishes and snagged them up yesterday. My small haul consisted of Back Room (black) and New York Dolls (purple).



The nail polishes come in a silver box as opposed to Nars' usual black ones and are signed with Andy's name. The bottle themselves don't have special packaging though:



My experience with Nars nail polishes, unlike the rest of their products, is very limited and the only polish I own from them is Jungle Red. The first shade I chose to wear was Back Room. I found the formula very easy to work with; not too thin or too thick. The shade was opaque and shiny in one coat. It's rare for a nail polish to look this amazing with only one coat so I'm quite impressed! I think Back Room will be my new HG black (my old one was Misa I Will Survive).

Here's a quick swatch for you, pre-cleanup as I was trying to take pics before sunset:

I use black polishes quite frequently so this was definitely a great investment for me. I cannot wait to try on New York Dolls now! Will post swatches when I do :)

Oh and it seemed that I had enough points to redeem them for this lipgloss set. I'm not a gloss person but we shall see how these will perform:

Have you guys bought anything from Nars Andy Warhol? What are some of your favourite Nars polishes?

September 28, 2012

Hi beauties! I have for you today my top 6 nail polishes. Every year, I add a few more bottles to my already gigantic stash of fall shades (I think there are 100+ bottles there I would call fall appropriate). But I can't help it, dark polishes just like red lipsticks are my weakness!

I tried to refrain from only showing you red and burgundy shades as that's kinda predictable. Here's a wider assortment of dark fall shades, all been loved by me for over 2 years :)


Left to right: Zoya Casey, Chanel Paradoxal, Misa Toxic Seduction, OPI Malaga Wine, China Glaze Rodeso Fanatic, Orly Goth

Closer look:





Zoya Casey - is a dark maroon and by far my most used nail polish of all time. Creamy and smooth texture and looks so delicious on!

Chanel Paradoxal - is a grayed purple, one of those unique colours you don't see all the time. Flawless application!

Misa Toxic Seduction - is a dark forest green laced with some shimmer and glimmer. This polish was my first Misa and made me go back for more.

OPI Malaga Wine - this wine shade is an OPI fall classic and needs no praises from me ;)

China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic - beautiful shimmering teal. More unexpected for fall but totally wearable.

Orly Goth - Awesome black with lotsa silver shimmer. I wore black nails all the time as a teen. This is my upgraded adult version.

Some swatches for you guys, same order as above:

What are some of your favourite fall nail polish shades?

August 13, 2012

Hey guys! I go for a quick walk in the mall near me pretty much every day as it is still too hot for me to walk outside. But I need to get some kind of exercise and walking seems to be it. On my last trip the the mall on Thursday, I stopped by Trade Secret and picked up a couple of nail polishes from the upcoming fall collections. Fall is my favourite season hands down! I love the cool breeze and shorter days, dark nails, vampy makeup, velvet, suede and leather clothing and the earthy fall leaves. I have always been a little vamp in heart, lol!

Here's what I picked up from left to right: Zoya Daul (fall 2012), Essie Sand Tropez (perm), OPI (Every Month is Oktoberfest)



OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest - is an amazingly glowy red purple shade. It's so dark and delicious I cannot get enough.



It was the first polish out of the three that I wore, so here it is on my nails. There's a bit of top wear from having this on for 4 days with no top coat:



Essie Sand Tropez - is a nice beige cream. Most of the nudes in my stash have pink, gray or peach undertone so I thought I try something fully "beige". Nudes are my fave nail polish colours after the vamps so I'm excited about this one too:



Zoya Daul - OMG this is so beautiful in the bottle; can't wait to try it on my nails. It's a violet shade with a tone of gold shimmer. I thought the entire Zoya Diva collection was gorgeous but I picked what I thought was the most unique the most "me":

What are some of your favourite fall nail polishes? Have you purchased any new polishes from the recent collections?

September 7, 2011

April 13, 2011

Hello my lovelies! I did some spring cleaning this past weekend. The process included cleaning the basement and switching my winter/fall clothes to spring/summer clothes. I also re-organized my closet in the process.

While I was on that, I thought I should also clean up my nail polish stash. I got rid of a buncha shades that I wasn't using anymore and reorganized the rest based on seasons. Yes, I'm lame and actually follow the seasons when it comes to my nails! And I have this many polishes as I do change my nail polish every single night. I never go out without nail polish, I just feel naked without it.

This is all of my fall/winter shades, all over my bed! I love my vampy shades but summer is coming and these need to go in the bottom box:


and here they are neatly organized in this box I picked up from Winners:


And here are all my spring/summer shades. Getting real excited about wearing some of these again!


I put them in the divider box on top of my fall/winter box. I switched them over every 6 months:


Both the box and the divider box on top are placed on a stool next to my vanity so they are easily accessible. I love having all my pretties nearby <3

Thank Goodness this was done and now I can find the shades I need much faster. How do you guys organize your nail polish stash?

March 21, 2011

Hey lovelies, hope you all had a fabulous weekend. I've decided to show you my top 5 nail polishes in various colour categories starting today. I was inspired to do this when I was going through my nail polish stash yesterday. I didn't even count the polishes, just reorganized them for the season. I remember the last time I counted them was 2 years ago and I had 90 bottles :/ and obviousely many more have been added since, I think the number is closer to 150 now. I just loooove nail polishes though; I change my nail colour everyday to reflect my mood. I can go without makeup but naked nails means naked me, lol!

For the first installment of favourite polishes, I have chosen my top 5 vamp, nude and gray/taupe polishes. All shades are described from left to right (in the picture).

1. Top 5 Vampy Polishes - vampy shades are by far my favourite colour of nail polish and hence fall is my fave nail polish season. I consider anything dark vamp, lol! So this category is multi-coloured, but all with a somber mood.


OPI Yes I Can Can - my all time most worn dark nail polish. There's no dark burgundy like this cream finish perfection.
Zoya Casey - The most gorgeous super dark burgundy brown. Looks gorge with my skintone.
Essie Sexy Divide - this is the dark purple perfection. Slight shimmer and smooth application; I have an NOTD here.
Chanel Paradoxal - this is more of a trendy gray purple. Very unique and always a conversation starter. You can see my NOTD here.
Orly Galaxy Girl - Another non-traditional vamp. This is a dark red brown with blue reflects, as seen in this post. Gotta love Orly's nail innovation.

2. Top 5 Nude/Natural Polishes - the nude and neutral shades are forever classy. I prefer the more unique ones that have a hint of taupe, gray than the band-aid look.


OPI Time-less is more - this is actually a pale white, not a chalkboard shade. The name perfectly describes the colour. Click here to see my swatch.
American Apparel California Topper - This is a gorgeous gray toned nude. Lovely in all seasons.
$OPI - Going Nude, eh? This is similar to the APP but warmer and lighter.
OPI Tickle My France-y - My all time most worn nude, what an elegant and ladylike shade.
Orly Country Club Khaki - lovely lovely light taupe nude. Excellent application.

3. Top 5 Gray/Taupe Polishes - this types of shades has been trendy since OPI released You Don't Know Jacques with their France Collection back in 2008.


Color Club Jewel of a Girl - My go-to light gray. Since I own a lot of gray clothing, this gets used a lot.
Color Club Snakeskin - a warmer and deeper gray, bordering taupe.
OPI You Don't Know Jacques - you probably all own this, if not you should! Def an OPI classic by now.
China Glaze Ingrid - I adore this dark taupe because of the tiny gold flecks. Looks amazing when the sun hits it. See here for swatch.
MAC Earthy Harmony - the perfect "conservative" colour that is still trendy. Click here for my swatch.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post. I will post the rest of the colours in sequence this week and the next. What are some of your fave polishes in colour categores listed?

November 4, 2010

Happy Thursday beauties! I'm starting to really get behind on my blog posts. I have more looks from this week to show you plus I haven't done my Tried and True series for a while and yet have to do my monthly favourites. For now, we have our new blog poll.

I purchased Paradoxal nail polish back when Chanel's fall collection was released. That was quite a splurge for me as even though I have a fondness for Chanel in general (and buy a lot of their stuff), I never spend more than $12 on a bottle of nail polish. I would say that Paradoxal was worth it as I've been wearing it at least once a week since. I've decided that I'm willing to splurge if the colour (and the quality of course) is very unique.

What is the maximum amount of dollars you're willing to shell out for a bottle of nail polish? Please share in comments.

August 26, 2010

I've said it in this blog before, but I absolutely adore fall shades for makeup and nail polish. I have a lil vamp living inside me that never sleeps, lol! My fave shades are burgundy, dark red, smokey purple... but really anything dark and sultry. Give all this, I'm already excited about fall. Ive been accumulating some nail polishes that fit the bill since the last two weeks, excuse the quality of pics, bad cloudy day today :/


1. Left to right: Midnight Mission, First Class Ticket and Ingrid all by China Glaze. I picked these up from Sally's.


2. Left to right: Out of This World, Lunar Eclipse and Galaxy Girl all by Orly. Orly's Cosmic FX is the best nail polish collection I've ever seen in a while! I got these from Sally's as well.


3. Left to right: Zoya Kotury (picked this from Trade Secret), Earthly Harmony and Jade Dragon both from MAC's new nail trend collection.

Overall, I'm loving this new vibe of small glitters in dark polishes. I have not worn any of these yet but I can see a common trend which I love! I picked up "cooler" toned fall shade this year as my stash is full of warm purple, burgundy and blood red shadeed nail polishes.

Here are some quick and dirty nail wheel comparisons. I will do full review and swatches of all these as I wear them:


1. MAC Rain of Flower (left) vs Orly Out of This World (right). I didn't pick up MAC as even though they are not dupes, I find the MAC shade just pales in comparison. Much more flat looking.


2. MAC Ming Blue (left) vs Orly Lunar Eclipse (right). Again I skipped the MAC shade. The base of these two is similar but Orly has more reflect glitters in it. You can't see it well in the picture but the orly almost looks like it has a purple flash to it IRL.


3. China Glaze Ingrid (left) vs MAC Earthly Harmony (right). These are in the same colour family of mushroom shades that have been popular since last year. They are different enough for me to justify owning both. The fine glitter is more visible in the MAC shade.

Did you guys get any new polishes lately? What are some of your favourite nail polish brands/shades?

August 12, 2010

Hey everyone! I had a little too much red wine last night and as I'm not used to drinking heavily in the middle of the week, I feel super tired. That and the affects of Monday's fainting haven't worn out yet. But we shall have our Thursday's Poll :)

I was organizing my nail polishes last night to make room for the new ChG ones I got (yet another post on that shall be upcoming sometimes soon). I organize mine based on season and usage of a particular family of colour. So I thought of this topic during my purge! What is your fave family of colour when it comes to nail polish? I would categorize it into warm brights (orange, yellow, coral), cool brights (blue, purple), vampy shades (burgundy, dark purple, blood red), dusty shades (grayed and dusty version of any colour), traditional (red and pink), nudes or "different" shades (green, anything not common).

I don't discriminate and wear all shades but I definitely have a preference for vampy shades. I love blood red, black, dark brown, navy or deep purple. That's probably I love fall, the sexy season, hehe.

What is your favourite family of colours when it comes to nail polish? Please use the poll embedded on the right side of the blog and the comment section.

August 2, 2010

Hey everyone! I just got back from a 4-day trip in TO and am pretty exhausted but thought I make at least one blog post. We had a blast in TO, though we do go quite often, this time we had more time so we got to see more friends in addition of going to Caribana. I also did quite bit of shopping, including a Zoya haul. I don't have easy access to Zoya here in Ottawa so I usually pick some up in TO.

Here's what I got:


Left to right: Stacy, Edyta and Casey - the first two are from Fall 2010 collection and the last one I'd wanted for ages and finally got! I love vampy nails!


Left to right: Gwin and Joy - these are not super unique but very pretty summer shades. I couldn't resist.

I will have swatches of these in the coming weeks starting with Gwin which I'm wearing right now.

Do you guys own any of these polishes? What's your general opinion of Zoya?

March 26, 2010

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all had a great week and start an amazing weekend. I've been having some stressful times in the office this week and yesterday especially was a rough day for me. I was so excited to get home and see my VNS (Victoria Nail Supply) package waiting for me at the door. I literally started jumping around the front door, lol! Obviously the first thing I did when I got inside was to rip the package open and take pictures of my goodies!

I'm a big fan of Color Club especially their neons as you guys might have heard me say (I've said it a million times, lol!). So I had to get some of those.


Left to right: Electric Coral, Explosive, Pucci-Licious

I was also super excited about the Orly Foil FX and Metal Chic so polishes from that collection were also part of my haul.


Left to right: Rage, Luxe, Glam Rock

Last but not list, who can forget about China Glaze Kaleidoscopes? I had to get three of those too!


Left to right: He's Going in Circles, It's My Turn, Spin Me Round

I will be wearing and swatching these beauties in the upcoming weeks, starting with Orly Luxe (see next post). I'm still super excited about my haul, hadn't done a big nail polish haul since October!

What is in your nail polish wishlist? Do you own any of these polishes? What do you think about them?