Haulage! Stash Matters’ Giveaway (2016)

2016-02-262016-02-26 fivezero9 Comments

Last month, one of my favorite beauty bloggers, Stash Matters, ran an amazing giveaway to mark her first blogiversary, and I was so lucky to be one of the winners!

Since we live in the same city, Stashy suggested we meet up, and earlier this week, we finally did for the first time! Neither one of us had done such a meetup before, so it was a new experience for us both.

I was a little nervous at first, but was immediately at ease upon meeting her for the first time—the meetup ended up being a lot of fun! I had my peanut with me, as well, and he took to Stashy instantly (a great sign, because I tell you he can sense evil!). We both chatted for a while and then had a leisurely stroll through the shiny new Saks that had just opened up downtown.

Of course, we did a little gift exchange, too, which is what this post is mostly about! I was only meant to receive five items from her giveaway, but of course, Stashy had to go and throw in some excellent extras, as well!

Here’s what I received, all delivered in a cute, reusable shopping tote:

adorable card with drawings of luxe handbags!
Annabelle Smoothie Eyeshadow Pencil in Cocoaloco
Bath & Body Works Waikiki Beach Coconut Eau de Toilette
Bath & Body Works Waikiki Beach Coconut Ultra Shea Body Cream
Clarins Pure & Radiant Mask with Pink Clay
C.O. Bigelow Supreme 2X Lip Shine in Spearmint
MAC Pro Longwear Eye Shadow Pro Palette Refill in Uninterrupted
Nicole by OPI Oil to Go Cuticle Oil
Sephora Contour Eye Pencil 12HR Wear in Tiramisu
Shiseido Perfect Rouge Lipstick Mini in RS612 Gilded Wine
Smashbox Blush Brush #16

haulage from Stash Matters' giveaway, greeting card
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Dollarama haulage, OPI & Nicole by OPI Nail Lacquer

Haulage! Dollarama (Canada) — OPI, Nicole by OPI, Sally Hansen, & Minions

2015-08-282015-08-27 fivezero8 Comments

My local Dollarama (Canadian dollar store chain) usually just has some Sally Hansen, Wet n Wild, snakeskin Essies and loads of odd brands like Mariposa.

But I lucked out this week and found some OPI and Nicole by OPI (they usually have the latter, but in really boring/unfortunate colors) that piqued my interest.

I guess browns and golds are not as popular, so they end up at the dollar store! The masses’ loss is my gain!

Holiday polishes at the drugstore

2007-12-132015-09-16 fivezero1 Comment

I was at the drugstore today and saw these holiday collections…I just wanted to get these written down before I forgot them all!

Nicole by OPI. In November, I posted my photo and review of Merry Merlot!, which is from this collection. I’ve now had a better look and here are some of the others.

There’s a semi-sheer-looking sparkly white called On Nicole’s Wish List, which is like the white version of Merry Merlot! It’s lovely and very snow-ish, and I nearly picked it up today. The $10 price tag turned me off, though. There is also a gorgeous shimmery gold with bits of microglitter in it. The gold looks very neutral, neither too pale not too deep, and I had to tell myself “gold looks bad on you!” over and over again to prevent this polish from falling into my shopping basket. There’s a shimmery cherry red, very pretty but nothing new, and a cherry red creme…ditto on that one. Finally, there’s one called “Warmest Wishes” or something to that effect, but it’s a cool-toned pinked purple shimmer.

On to Rimmel, who appear to have two polishes out as a holiday LE. They are both in the new LycraWear 10 +Minerals line, in the small cylindrical bottles. One is a deep shimmery purple called Fantasy (purple lovers are gonna fall for this one!) and the other is a blackened sparkly blue called Electric. I picked this one up (on sale for CAD$3.29) and hope to have a photo of it posted by the weekend. Nice to see that Rimmel is following the trend for deep blues this season. I’m betting that Fantasy and Electric would look pretty cool layered over one another, too!

Sally Hansen, of course, could not be outdone. I saw a pretty fun looking display of the lower-end SH polish line, Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, in plenty of cute colours. Even though this is the cheaper of the SH lines, I personally think it is the best in terms of formula. I really like the application of the Xtreme Wears. The packaging’s a little cheap, but hey, it’s a drugstore polish! Anyway, there were reds, pinks, a shimmery silver that leans to gunmetal, a white pearly shimmer that looks nearly opaque, a dark blue shimmer, and an awesome sparkly Christmas-green that I picked up. It’s called Groovy Green, and I also hope to have pics of it up soon. It cost me CAD$2.99, retail.

Finally, I almost ran into a large display for Revlon’s holiday colours. I didn’t see anything too exciting, and quite a few of them were just core colours being re-pimped (Cherries in the Snow was one, and it’s a huge fave of mine). However, I did notice one called Blackest Black. Curiously, this one looks like a plain black creme, but when I looked carefully, I saw blue sparklies! They’re kind of sparse, though, so I don’t know how noticeable they would be on the nail. It’s cool to see that Revlon tried to do something a little different from the standard black creme.

NOTD: Nicole — Merry Merlot!

2007-11-132015-03-08 fivezeroLeave a comment

So I lied. I couldn’t help trying out my new bottle of Merry Merlot!, especially since my CC Warming Trend mani had started to chip (my fault, as I didn’t use a base coat).

Merry Merlot is one of 4-6 new polishes in Nicole’s holiday collection this year. I say 4-6 because I can’t quite remember. I spent most of my time gawking at Merry Merlot. There was a pretty but not quite spectacular satin-y red shimmer, what looked like a white version of Merry Merlot (white with white microglitter), which I’m plotting to go back and get, and probably some pinks and bronzes but I don’t remember. Sorry, I was naughty!

Here’s Merry Merlot! in all her sparkly, deep red glory. Not as blinged-out as China Glaze’s Ruby Pumps, but just as pretty and festive. Holiday parties, here I come! Rating: 5/5.

(P.S. I’m starting to make my swatch photos larger. Whaddya think?)

Bottle Pics: A few new colours from Nicole & CND

2007-11-122015-03-08 fivezeroLeave a comment

I won’t have time to do any swatching for the time being, but here are bottle photos of a few new polishes I picked up. They’re lovely jewel-tones and great options for those upcoming holiday parties.

Nicole by OPI – Merry Merlot!

CND – Rich Ruby (this is the most gorgeous satin-y red)

CND – Deep Velvet

Nicole by OPI — Cocoa à Go Go, v.2? (Nail Lacquer)

2007-08-302017-04-04 fivezero1 Comment

After being discontinued for several years, the Nicole line of nail polishes by OPI have been spotted back in some Shoppers Drug Marts (a pharmacy) in Canada. Strangely enough, however, it appears that OPI has kept some of the original colour names, but changed the colours!

I just need to take a time-out here and shriek: “Stop doing that!!!” It is so freakin’ annoying. Is it that hard to come up with a new name for a new colour? Gah.

Okay, onto the review. I saw some newer collection Nicole polishes (with new names, thank goodness): Cozy Red Rosey, a gorgeous red, was one…there was also a shimmery gunmetal grey. There were two more, but they didn’t look as interesting. These new polishes were retailing for $10, which I sort of scoffed at. I went to the clearance basket where some of the older, new Nicoles were marked down to $5.99. Much better! I picked up Cocoa à Go Go, code NI 178, a warm, slightly pink-browned copper shimmer. Now, I went to look up the old version of Cocoa à Go Go, and it turns out the original was a light brown creme, with the same code. Hm. I think I like the new version a lot better. This polish applied very nicely and two coats was perfect. I don’t have anything quite like it, so I’m quite happy with this purchase. Rating: 4/5.