China Glaze: Fast Track and some Hunger Games talk

Before I start to talk about China Glaze's Fast Track, I just want to say how excited I am for Catching Fire coming out to theatres!  

I received the entire Hunger Games book set from my friend for my birthday in 2011.  While I haven't been a teenager for a long time, I feel like this series has themes that any age can relate to.  For anyone who hasn't read the books, it's about 400 pages each book.  But I feel like the font size is a good size and it's not like there's a lot of white space on the page (if I were to compare this to other Young Adult books).  

My ingredients for the lamb with dried plum stew

I am currently rereading the series for a refresher for the movie.  One night, I must have not eaten a lot for dinner because I was pretty hungry.  In this series, there's a lot of description for food, meals, etc.  Everything sounded really good at that time of night (this was around 12am), even the hunted squirrels sounded pretty good.  Anyway, Katniss' favourite dish in the Captiol is lamb with dried plum stew.  So I kept reading about this, so I decided to make it.  

The finished product, which was pretty good.

I found a recipe and decided to make it.  So here are some of my pictures below.  It turned out pretty good.  I occasionally eat lamb in restaurants but not often.  I have to say I was pretty proud of myself just because I usually make simple dishes, or simple Chinese or Japanese dishes, but never a stew.  It's funny because I have cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner for my family and relatives, but I found this to be more challenging. It was my first time, and I had to follow a recipe instead of just knowing what to do and doing it.  It turned out pretty well too.

I decided to paint my nails with Fast Track this week since the movie is coming this Friday.  Fast Track is part of China Glaze The Hunger Games Collection that came out last year before the movie came out.  There were twelve colours which represent each district.  I had bought Fast Track (District 6) and Smoke & Ashes (District 12).  My bottle of Smoke & Ashes actually broke, so now I'm left with Fast Track.  There's a collection by Cover Girl for Catching Fire inspired by The Capitol, but none of the colours appealed to me, so I didn't pick up anything from that.

Thoughts
Fast Track applied really nicely and easily.  I found that it covered well after two coats.  The first coat was a bit thin, but the second coat really evened everything out and it looks really pretty.  It's a subtle colour and I really like the gold shimmer, which is obvious even without bright light or sunlight.  I feel like this is a nude with obvious gold shimmer that give it something extra but is still pretty subtle.

I usually get pretty good wear from China Glaze.

Breakdown
Basecoat: butter London Nail Foundation
Colour layer: China Glaze Fast Track (2 coats)
Topcoat: butter London Hardwear

I'm pretty sure I bought this on eBay since that was the main way I could find China Glaze. Now I know China Glaze is available on other websites.  Fast Track is still available on sites selling China Glaze.  I checked nailpolishcanada and it's still there.  The bottle is 14mL (0.5 fl oz).

butter London: Wallis

I bought Wallis a while ago but never wore this.  I always felt like I had to be in a certain mood to pull this off, which is funny because I wear polish for a full week. Last week I decided that we're in the fall, this is the perfect shade, it's now or never.  

Thoughts

This is such a stunning colour. It's so unique, well probably one of the most unique colours in my collection.  I know this has some similar dupes but I decided to buy the butter London one for this shade.  I've had a few problems with chipping but I really like how butter London applies for the outstanding ones I do own.

The formula was pretty easy to apply.  The thing is, I painted with two coats and afterwards, I noticed it was pretty patchy.  This isn't the case for the swatches I saw online.  So, I'm not sure if it's my technique. I also noticed this chips really easy.  On the second day of wear, my tips were already worn down.  By the end of the third day, there were pretty big chips.  I applied it on Sunday and removed it by Thursday.  

I received the most compliments I have ever received for Wallis.  For team meetings, people would interrupt the team meeting to say how they really liked my nails (this even with some chipping).  Every time I was having a conversation with someone, (maybe cause I move my hands when I talk) someone stopped my hand to take a closer look.  I did mention the chips but no one seemed to care because the colour was so unique.  When a coworker asked me for the name, I definitely described it as "butter London, Wallis...named after the woman who the King renounced his crown to be with..."  My coworker laughed and well, I believe she will remember the name of this polish now.

Breakdown
Basecoat: butter London Nail Foundation
Colour layer: butter London Wallis (2 coats)
Topcoat: butter London Hardwear

Wallis retails at the butterlondon website for C$17.00 for 11mL (.04 fl oz).  Also available on the nailpolishcanada website for the same price.

Rescue Beauty Lounge: Réveillon

I wasn't sure if I was going to buy anything as part of this sale but knowing how once a colour from RBL sells out, it won't return made me buy something.  I'm speaking like a true hoarder.  Anyway, before seeing the polishes, I had an idea of what I wanted.  After the reveal, the colours weren't what I imagined it to be, which is fine because I didn't win this contest.  

Anyway, I bought Réveillon because it is blue and it has a nice pink shimmer to it.  I also really liked the concept.

Thoughts

After I wore this, I really like this colour.  It's so beautiful and it does remind me of winter.  Since winter is just around the corner, I'm not sure if I want to be reminded of the cold, but I am reminded of the beauty of winter.  The coverage was pretty good.  I would say this is medium to thick consistency.  I also find that I paint a lot nicer when I wear something from RBL.

Breakdown
Basecoat: butter London Nail Foundation
Colour layer: Rescue Beauty Lounge Réveillon (2 coats)
Topcoat: butter London Hardwear

Réveillon was part of the pre-sale and is on sale on the RBL website.  It is U$20.00 (for me, I had to add shipping) for 12mL (0.4 oz).

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Haul

I have a quick post today.  My order from the pre-sale of Rescue Beauty Lounge's The Fan Collection 2.0 came a few weeks ago.  Shipping was pretty fast, but I paid for shipping.

Anyway, I'm always excited to receive a package because I love how the package comes with delicate wrapping.  So I just wanted to show the pictures below:

I love this wrapping.  I'm not sure why but I just think it adds something to my purchase.

I bought Reveillon and Naked Without Polish.  I wasn't sure if I wanted Fire Queen, but I decided in the end not to buy it.

More box pictures

My polishes

Close up of Naked Without Polish

The green flash that is part of Naked Without Polish

Reveillion.  

There's a pinkish flash in Reveillion.

I will add my thoughts after I have worn these polishes.

Essie: Cashmere Bathrobe

First off, I would like to apologize for my pictures below.  It was a busy week and I only had a chance to take pictures off of my iPhone 4, instead of including shots from my camera as well.  I decided to post it anyways since I already wore this colour and I wanted to talk about it.

Cashmere Bathrobe is part of the Essie Fall 2013 For the Twill Of It Collection.  When I first saw this, I knew I had to have it.  It's a dark grey with shimmer.  To me, this is the fall version of my spring/summer loves (Madison Ave-hue and Sunday Funday).  Naughty Nautical is also this finish too.  I found that while I really like how Naughty Nautical, I didn't end up wearing it that often.

Thoughts

I really love this colour.  I think it is the perfect type of dark grey without looking black.  Also the shimmer really helps.  I found that the shimmer wasn't as apparent as it is in Madison Ave-hue or Sunday Funday, but it is noticeable.  The polish is pretty pigmented and it was pretty good coverage after one coat.  I painted two coats to even out my paint job.

Breakdown
Basecoat: Seche Base
Colour layer: Essie Cashmere Bathrobe (2 coats)
Topcoat: Seche Vite

The balance of my camera might make this look green-ish?  However, the colour is pretty dark and true to the bottle depending on the lighting and where you are.

I bought Cashmere Bathrobe on nailpolishcanada.com for C$7.95 for 13.5mL.

2013/12/01 UPDATE: Nicer natural light pictures

There is quite a difference between these pictures and my original.  My original were taken in the morning in office lighting.  These update pictures are more true to the colour on the bottle and the nail.

OPI: Muir Muir on the Wall

It's getting so cold lately.  All I want to do is stay in bed!  Well mostly on weekdays, when I get up, it's still dark outside!  I wake up around 6:30am to get ready for work but lately I've been rolling out of bed by 7am.  In the summer it's fine since by the time I get out of bed at 6:30~6:40am, the sun is out welcoming me.  Even if it's a rainy day, the clouds aren't so dark.  I am SO ready for daylight savings time.

Today, I have another fall shade to share.  This is from the OPI San Francisco Fall collection called Muir Muir on the Wall.

Thoughts
I'm not sure what I expected.  For some reason I thought this would be like a duo chrome, similar to Peace&Love&OPI but it's not.  I only thought this because the bottle has some green-ish flash on the edges and I thought that would pretty cool on the nail but you can't tell.  This colour is definitely a red with a brown tones.  Depending on where the light hits, the edges of the nails are dark, and in the centre it's where the shimmer really comes out.  I used three coats since my first coat was so thin, and my second coat was a little batchy.  My third coat really made the colour appear a lot more rich.

I did a comparison post when I first bought it to compare it to the two colours I bought last fall but haven't had a chance to wear.  I also own another colour from OPI that is similar to these three but I haven't worn it yet.  Overall, I really like this colour.  I think it's very beautiful for fall and I can see the fine glitters that make up this colour.  It already started to chip a little on my second day of wear.  I think in the end of the day, the question is, if you own any of the other colours that are similar to Muir Muir on the Wall, do you really need this? Not really, unless you're really into these types of colours.  I bought this because in the store lighting it looked different.  Then I realized I have three others very similar.

Breakdown
Basecoat: Butter London Nail Foundation
Colour layer: OPI Muir Muir on the Wall (3 coats)
Topcoat: Butter London Hardwear

I painted my nails at night so the pictures turned out a little more dim.

How the polish looks under lamp lighting

I bought Muir Muir on the Wall at Trade Secrets.  It retails for C$9.99.  The bottle is 15mL (0.5 Fl. oz.)