Galaxy Nails

My last post I wrote about the Sephora Formula X The Twenty Two set that I purchased yesterday. The first manicure I decided to do with these polishes was galaxy nails, since the one top coat would make it so easy to do! 

It's still not as good as the ones I see online but it's better than the last time I tried! The tutorial I saw (Tutorial Video) on the Sephora youtube page done by cutepolish (CutePolish Youtube Channel) had only blue, but I added some purple and pink. The polishes I used in this were Dark Matter, White Matter, Brazen, Indelible, Omni and Meteoric.  

First I used a base coat, then one very thin coat of Dark Matter. This polish goes on very well with a very thin coat. Next I used a makeup sponge with White Matter to make the shapes I wanted to have the nebulas. Overtop of the White Matter I used Brazen, Indelible and Omni randomly then more Black Matter on the edges to blend it into the background better. After that a thin coat of Meteoric, a few Xs in White Matter and some top coat and it's complete! It is very simple but takes a little time when your careful with the shapes you want to create, and your non-dominant hand takes a little practice. 

Sephora Formula X The Twenty-Two

I wrote in a previous post about how Sephora had a new nail polish line called Formula X and I was in love with it, but it was a little expensive for me. Well today I was browsing online like normal, found my way on the Sephora website and saw a set of these nail polishes on sale for half price called The Twenty Two. This set has 22 smaller bottles of their nail polish and was $66.00 but was on sale for $33.00. Good thing I live close to a Sephora, I called them and asked if it was an online only sale and they said nope and they had one in stock and they'd hold it for me.

So this is the packaging, 11 in the front and 11 in the back. When I opened it I noticed a small bit of glass in the box, and found that the bottoms of a couple were cracked, but the bottom has a large section before it gets to where the polish actually is so it didn't affect it at all.

The fronts of the bottles have the Formula X logo and say what category they are in. This set comes with polish from four different categories: Toppers, Effects, Neon and Colour.

The first category is the one that I am in love with, Toppers that come from the Xploxive Top Coats section. There are four of these in the package, Wham!, Bionic, Turbulent and Meteoric. These are great to put on top of any polish and gives you so many possibilities for combinations. 

The next category is Effects, these four polishes come from the Chromes collection. These four are: Vroom, Need for Speed, Racy and Rocket Fuel. The chromes are very shiny and the colours are more neutral looking. They apply well and only need one coat for a nice finish.

The next category is Neons which come from the Electrics collection. There are only three of these ones and they are: Zap, Radioactive and Haphazard. I am in love with bright nail polishes and wish there were more than three of these, there are some really pretty ones on the website and many of them are currently out of stock. I would have preferred a pink or blue rather than the yellow since I have such a pale skin tone. 

The last category is colours, there are 11 polishes from this category. The colours are broken into two collections, the New Neutrals and the New Classics. In the New Neutrals there are: Thrilling, Extraordinary, Brazen, Infatuated and Unmistakable. In the New Classics there are: White Matter, Eureka, Flashy, Indelible, Omni and Dark Matter. 

These set would be perfect for anyone just starting to use nail polish, it is a full enough set to be able to try many different combinations and designs. I think it may be on sale because they are coming out with new colours in the collections, but I am not sure. They also had the PODS on sale for half price which are the one time use bottles but I am obsessive with touch ups so I could never use something like that, but they'd be great for travelling. I have already used these to do a manicure which I'll write about later since this post is already pretty long. I am very excited to try all of these out! 

Monumentour

Back in January I got an email from Groupon about tickets for Monumentour at the Molson Amphitheatre, lawn seats for $20.00. These tickets were for the lawn section which I have never sat in before, but since I missed seeing Fall Out Boy in Toronto last year when they had their tour I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them for $20.00 in the summer time sitting in the grass. 

Monumentour is a tour with Fall Out Boy and Paramore which is completely in the United States except for the one show in Toronto June 25th. I have been excited for this concert ever since I purchased the tickets, and awaited it to be summer to go to this. Finally it's the week of the concert and it had been raining alll week. Since it had already rained for a few days I was hoping that it would not be raining for the concert, day of it was a little cloudy all day but looked promising. I made my way downtown Toronto by subway and went to take the bus to the Amphitheatre and it started to rain a little. There is a lot of construction downtown, so what would have normally been a streetcar to Exhibition was a bus, and had the longest line for any bus I have ever seen so we decided to flag down a taxi to take us the rest of the way since it was nearing the beginning of the concert. As I sat in the taxi, it started to POUR rain. So we get there, go in the grounds and walk towards where our tickets are for (about half of the Amphitheatre is not covered, including the lawn section) and decide not to stand there in the lawn for the opening band since I basically went for Fall Out Boy which was playing last. We found this small covered area that looked like it used to be a little outdoor bar section where a lot of parents seemed to be sitting while their children were in the concert section. We sat there for about an hour and the rain got harder and harder. 

We decided to go to guest services and see if there were any upgrade options to get within the closed sections so I could actually see what I came for. We were told there is no upgrade option, but you can purchase a whole new ticket and be in the section. These tickets were 60 dollars each and we had the option of being on the floor or the two front sections on the left or the right. So we got two of these tickets, grabbed some food and drinks and went to our new seats. I did not realize the seats we were given were the front row, all the way to one side. At this points we had missed the opening band completely, and more than half of Paramores performance. From what I did see of Paramore they were really good, one song she picked someone from the audience to come up and sing the end of the song which was cool. After they finished they covered the stage and started changing it up for Fall Out Boy.

Fall Out Boy started and it was a great entrance! There were fireworks and fire and smoke it was loud and awesome. They had a good mixture of old and new music and put on an amazing show. 

It was a a great show, I am very sad that it rained I wouldn't have minded sitting in the grass area and watching even though it's fairly far back. I'm also surprised there was no option of upgrading the ticket, so basically I could have just went that day and got a ticket at the box office and not have spent that $40.00. It was a good day though, and look how pretty the CN Tower was that night! 

OPIs Glitter Off Base Coat

Just over a week ago I purchased a base coat by OPI called Glitter Off. This is a peelable base coat that they made to be used with glitter nail polishes. I wrote about the application of the base coat in this blog post: http://amandarocks13x.blogspot.ca/2014/06/julep-glitter-polish.html

This is the result of taking off the nail polish that I put on the first time I used this base coat. It lasted a few days and there were no chips and was still looking nice. The polish on one of my fingers got caught on something for a second while I was out and the whole piece of nail polish came off. When this happened I came home and peeled the rest of them off. Most of them peeled off very easily and in full pieces, but the polish I had on my thumbs was only one coat of polish and less of a glitter more of metallic finish were a little more difficult to get off. All of the polish came off without harming my nails, which is great because I normally get bored of my polish and start peeling it anyways and it normally damages my nails. 

I have used the base coat a few other times since this, and have some mixed feelings on it. One day I did my nails then I did a few dishes from dinner a couple hours later. The nail polish I was wearing basically fell off while doing the dishes. It seems the thicker the polish you put on over this coat, the easier it comes off. Each time I've used this base coat I have used Seche Vite fast dry top coat, and always make sure to seal the polish in by putting in on the tips of my nails which seems to help. 

Overall I really like this base coat, since it makes something I already do so much easier and better for my nails. I just make sure I do the dishes before doing my nails, and try to keep the polish as thin as possible. 

June Ipsy

Ipsy time! This is the June Ipsy, I got bag 73 this month and am really happy with it. Of all the items that I could have possibly gotten there's only 1 or 2 other items that I would have liked, so this was a good month! Ipsy is a monthly subscription service that costs $10.00 a month, but being in Canada I have to pay for shipping which is another 4.95 USD so you'll pay the difference of exchange rate. If you want to subscribe you can do so here: http://www.ipsy.com/r/3kg1

The first item I got is the NYX butter gloss in the colour Apple Strudel. I saw an email they sent to people who are not subscribed that everyone would be getting one of these in their bags this month. It is a really pretty colour and not very bright which is what I prefer. This is a full size item that sells for $5.00 on their website. Being in Canada it would probably have a different price though. 

The next item is the shimmer eyeliner from Nicka K New York in green. I think I would have preferred the one in blue but I already have blue, so it would be good to try this colour. The brush is a harder type of brush, kind of like a sponge feeling. This is another full size item worth $4.99 on their website. 

The third item I got is a mascara from Be A Bombshell called Lash Out. This is a black mascara which is all I use and the brush looks like a typical mascara brush that I see on the Maybelline ones that I use. This mascara is priced at $15.00.

The next item is Olive and Enzyme Cleanser from the company Skinn. It says that it is make-up remover and deep cleansing mask. It smells like orange and is a large sample so I am looking forward to trying this, it should last a long time. A 4 oz bottle of this sells for $24.00.

The last item I got is Dream Waves  Beach Spray from Marc Anthony. I used this today after I showered and it smells amazing! It reminds me of being at the beach. It sprays really well compared to most hair products I have in this type of bottle and gave my hair a slight wave. A 4.2 fl oz. bottle sells for 8.79 on the walgreens website which is where Ipsy says to purchase it, items like this always cost more here in Canada though. 

This is the bag that it came in, I'm starting to get overwhelmed with how many bags I have. I have been trying to use them to organize all my makeup and products but I'm starting to have too many. This months bag was worth approximately $40.20 and had all items I would use. Overall I am very happy with this month.

Toronto Ripley's Aquarium

Last year the Ripley's Aquarium of Canada opened in Toronto located right underneath the CN Tower. 

They currently have a promotion called "Summer Nights" where you get $5 off admission after 7pm, making an adult ticket 24.98. I decided Monday at 7pm would be the perfect time to go, since children are still in school and the aquarium is open until 11pm giving me a lot of time and it wouldn't be as busy. The website shows the hours of operation for each day, some nights they are closing early for events. I purchased my tickets online for entrance between 7 and 8 since I read that the lineup to buy tickets is usually fairly long. I was able to just open the email they sent me and they scanned the tickets off my phone so no printing was necessary. Since we went in right on the hour it seemed really busy right when you go in, but the group seemed to disperse pretty quickly so we were able to look at almost everything without anyone around. The first section when you enter is called Canadian Waters which features species that can be found in the Great Lakes and the Canadian shorelines. 

 

 

Some of the things you see there would make you never want to swim again..Right away it reminded me of the Ripley's Museum I went to in Niagara Falls with all the interactive educational items around in each section. The next section you go through is the Rainbow Reef. This is my favourite section, I like the colourful fish and reefs. 

 

Next was the Dangerous Lagoon. This section has a moving walkway on one side you can stand on and the tanks go up and around you, so it's like going through a tube. When reading reviews I read a lot of people said to avoid the moving walkway, but since it wasn't busy when I was there we were able to stand on the walkway and focus spotting interesting creatures and taking their pictures without having to worry about walking. The tank around this section went very far back so it was fun to try to spot different things. 

 

 

 

After the moving sidewalk there are tanks that have tubes you can crawl through to see the sharks up close or take pictures of people "in the tanks". There is also areas where you can touch different animals, a food court and a playground area. So if you were with children this would be the place where you'd take a rest halfway through the aquarium. In this section there is a small tank full of clown fish that is hallow in the middle so you can take your picture with the fish. 

Next was Ray Bay and Planet Jellies. There were a lot of interesting species in these areas and a large area full of information about different types of sharks. There was also a giant take full of jellyfish with mirrors on either side and the lights would change colour.

 

 

 

There was also a section called Life Support Systems that is all about how the aquarium is run. This takes you back up to the top floor where the gift shop is and the top of the large tank. There is a small glass floor section that you can look down and see the sharks and other species found in the large tank, and you can see a lot of sharks swimming near the top of the tank. It took us just over an hour to go through the whole aquarium which is shorter than I was expecting from what I was reading, but this was probably because we didn't have to wait to look in any of the tanks, we were able to avoid the crowd of people basically the entire time. 

Regular tickets are 29.98 for adults, 19.98 children 6-13 and seniors and 9.98 for children 3-5 (children under 2 are free). They also sell seasons passes for 125 for adults, 90 for children aged 6-13 and seniors and 75 for children 3-5. The passes allow you to visit the aquarium an unlimited amount of times for one full year, and they are open everyday of the year.