Throwback Thursday! OPI — Ruble for Your Thoughts (Nail Lacquer) Swatch & Review

2016-10-132017-06-30 fivezero6 Comments

Collection: OPI 2007 Fall, Russian

Today’s Throwback Thursday was released in OPI’s 12-shade Russian 2007 fall collection. Some fabulous colors were released in this set, like An Affair in Red Square, Boris & Natasha, Midnight in Moscow, Russian Navy, and St. Petersburgundy.

Ruble for Your Thoughts (NL R56) is a lovely orange rose with plenty of pinked copper shimmer. It’s probably somewhere in between a shiny new penny and a deep rose gold.

I spotted it on clearance at Winners just over the weekend, and thought I’d snatch it up since it’s been discontinued for quite some time. It looked a little bit meh in the bottle, but upon closer inspection, it’s really quite a pretty shade!

I did have to use Goo Gone to get all those sticky labels off the front.

The polish’s name is, of course, a play on the common English phrase penny for your thoughts, but swapping out pennies for rubles, Russia’s currency unit (the name is also used by Belarus). Personally, I prefer the spelling rouble, but it’s spelled both ways in English. Ruble properly corresponds with dollar, but I guess if they named the shade Kopek for Your Thoughts, most English-speakers wouldn’t get it. Yes, I had to look up the name of the smallest subdivision of the Russian ruble! 1/100 of a ruble is a копейка.

Russian ruble note commemorating the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Image: wikipedia.org

Valcena — Multi Active Hydratante Day Cream Review

2016-09-292017-07-01 fivezero7 Comments

This is the second part of a series of Valcena reviews I will be doing! The following are Valcena products I’ve got in my queue. Starred (*) items are ones that have been sent to me by Valcena for review; the others I have purchased at Winners:

Eau Lactée Cleansing Milk *
Cleansing Gel
Cleansing Scrub
Éclat Anti-Age Face Mask (mini) *
Roller Glacé Eye Contour Cream *
Nutri-Lift Sérum *
Nutrition Absolue Day Care
Multi Active Hydratante Day Cream * (today’s review)
Multi Active Régénérante Night Cream
Hydra Nourrissant Body Lotion *
Rose Absolue EDT Natural Spray *

Valcena Paris were kind enough to send me a package of some of their most popular products for honest review.

They included some mini sizes, as well (two of which I already owned personally, and one of which they already sent in full-size, so that was a bit funny!), and a lovely note from the PR contact:

Today I will be reviewing an item they sent to me, the Multi Active Hydratante Day Cream, which is the partner to the Multi Active Régénérante Night Cream I reviewed earlier.

Valcena — Multi Active Régénérative Night Cream Review

2016-08-222017-07-01 fivezero16 Comments

Back in May, I bought an attractively packaged night cream at Winners that was also attractively priced at CA$12.99. I’d never heard of or seen this brand before, but it was apparently a French brand, and the product was made in Bulgaria:

I started using this cream straight away, which is a bit unusual for me as I have a habit of collecting products and not getting around to trying them for months! But the “Natural Rose Absolute” label on the package swayed me, as I am a seriously big fan of rose scents.

I had just run out of the night cream I was using at the time (Yves Rocher Anti-Age Global Complete Anti-aging Night Care) and had not yet opened up one of the others I had stockpiled, so Valcena’s rose scent moved it right to the front of the queue.

Haulage! Nail Polish, Part I (Summer 2016)

2016-07-282017-07-01 fivezero5 Comments

Yes, indeedy, I have parts I and II for nail polish haulage in June and July 2016!

Basically, I can hardly resist a nail polish sale, so just about all of these were picked up on sale from places like Winners, Dollarama, Rexall, Shoppers Drug Mart, Amazon, and Wal-Mart.

Here’s the all damage (5 picture sets in all)…

First, several randoms from Winners, Amazon, and Shoppers Drug Mart.

Essie Nail Polish in Violet Auction
OPI Infinite Shine Nail Lacquer in Pretty Pink Perseveres (I ordered To Be Continued…, a pastel periwinkle, but a third-party seller on Amazon accidentally sent me this pale pink, instead)
OPI Nail Lacquer in Gelato On My Mind
China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Bite Me
L’Oréal Colour Riche Vernis à l’Huile in Grenat Irrévérent (went to three drugstores to find this product display! The bottle is awesome.)

Next, we have the funky, twisty new bottles of gel polish from Essie. I got the duo from Rexall and the remaining two at Amazon (Canada).

Jenna Hipp Essential Nail & Hand Cream Trio

Haulage! Winners & HomeSense (April–May 15, 2016)

2016-05-202017-07-03 fivezero16 Comments

I know it’s only halfway through May, but I felt like doing another roundup of my Winners & HomeSense finds for the last month and a half. (See January–February here, then March here (well, in all of those Haulage Week posts!)

My husband, who follows these things, informed me this week that sales at existing TJ Maxx stores in Canada (that’s Winners, Marshalls and HomeSense) have gone up something like 14%! I think that’s over the last quarter…or year? Anyway, it’s gone up! I suppose I’m just doing my part for the stock price, right? And TJ Maxx has been doing better in Canada than it has been in, say, the UK (where it’s TK Maxx) and Australia.

Anyway, here’s the haulage:

Cargo Lip Gel Color Kit — **Cargo** Lip Gel Color Kit [CA$19.99]
This 4-pack of full-sized lipsticks was a little too well-priced for me to pass up! I gave two away (**Amore** and **Bella**) and kept **Dolce** and **Felice** for myself. I normally don’t care for lipstick tubes made of cardboard (yeah, you, old school Stila!), but these sure are purty. Made in China. MSRP US$25, though it’s currently on the website for US$15.

Cargo Lip Gel Color in Dolce — **Cargo** Lip Gel Color in Dolce.

Cargo Lip Gel Color in Felice — **Cargo** Lip Gel Color in Felice.

Jennifer Lopez perfume in Deseo (eau de parfum 50 mL)

Haulage Week! Ellen Tracy & Jennifer Lopez Perfumes

2016-03-302016-03-29 fivezero3 Comments

This week, I’ll be posting about some little hauls I’ve made recently, rather than swatches and reviews. Here’s the haulage post schedule for this week:

Monday: Essie, Illamasqua, Smashbox, W7
Tuesday: Zoya
Wednesday: Perfume (Ellen Tracy, Jennifer Lopez)
Throwback Thursday: MAC
Friday: Essence, L’Oréal, OPI

Today’s perfume haul is my last one this week from Winners (the Canadian TJ Maxx). Early each year, Winners runs a red tag clearance on older stock, and I snagged two scents at super-cheap prices.

Ellen Tracy makes one of my favorite perfumes (Tracy), and on the strength of that plus online rave reviews, I also bought Bronze, which remains untried in my stash. I’d been seeing a flanker, Exotic Bronze, for pretty cheap at Winners, but I didn’t want to buy it until I’d given the original a spin. However, the new red tagged price of CA$8 swayed me and now I have two untried Bronzes in my collection.

Haulage Week! Zoya

2016-03-292017-07-01 fivezero5 Comments

This week, I’ll be posting about some little hauls I’ve made recently, rather than swatches and reviews. Here’s the haulage post schedule for this week:

Monday: Essie, Illamasqua, Smashbox, W7
Tuesday: Zoya
Wednesday: Perfume (Ellen Tracy, Jennifer Lopez)
Throwback Thursday: MAC
Friday: Essence, L’Oréal, OPI

Today’s Zoya haul was also all purchased at Winners (the Canadian TJ Maxx)! Every now and then, a load of Zoyas will show up at Winners and Marshalls here, and this time I was even happier because they were CA$4.99 instead of CA$6.99!

Zoya’s one of my favorite nail polish brands, and so I came home with seven shades. I believe many are discontinued, which is probably why they’re at Winners, in the first place.