In cinnamon, when you put the cursor into the top-left corner, it invokes expo and there's a lovely little animated effect (sort of a blue ripple). Is there any way I can take this effect and apply it to Unity? I've already used Compiz-Config Settings Manager to set the bottom right corner to invoke expo, but is there an application or something similar that I can use to replicate that lovely ripple?
SnapOverflow
Unfortunately, no you cannot.
Unity uses Compiz to do its effects, whereas Cinnamon uses a Window Manager known as Muffin, which is a itself a fork of Mutter. These two are far removed from Compiz, so you will not be able to port animations so simply.