Orly Glitter Swatch Spam!

Hello lovelies! Slowly, but surely I am getting through my polish stash, one polish at a time. My post today kind of cheats because I've done a skittle mani to show you some pretty great Orly glitter polishes. Let's take a peek!

Each Orly glitter polish is swatched over 1 coat of Wet'n'Wild "Black Crème".

 

 

 

 

I added a few extra pictures than I usually would to show the holographic glitter as best as I could capture it.

Index: Orly "Monster Mash", 1 coat

Middle: Orly "Shining Star", 2 coats

Ring: Orly "Right Amount Of Evil", 1 coat

Pinky: Orly "Be Brave", 1 coat

Monster Mash has a green tint base colour with holographic green hex, micro round and micro bar holographic glitter. It is a great layering polish! You might be able to build opacity but you're looking at 5+ coats. I would layer it over a similar base colour and do a few coats if you want a completely blinged out mani.

Shining Star is a polish I picked up on clearout at Sally's months ago and never had a chance to try out. It is a yellow/golden glitter polish with random light green glitter. Nothing crazy special about this one, but pretty none-the-less. I did two coats to match the opacity level of the other Orly glitter polishes.

Right Amount Of Evil is fantastic. It boasts an orange tinted base filled with the prettiest pink shimmer. I find that rather ironic considering the name. It also has silver holographic hex glitter and micro holographic silver bar glitter.

Be Brave is one of two string glitter polishes that I own. I just picked up the one that is released in this years Sinful Colors winter collection and that pretty much sums up my string glitter polish collection. (Swatch coming... sometime.) It consists of pink holographic string glitter in a clear base. Simple. Pretty. I like it. I really like that the pink flashes purple at every angle.

All in all, I'm happy to have these polishes in my collection. Glitter has been something that I have struggled with for the same reasons as pretty much every one else: removal. I know the tin-foil removal method, folks. I really do. I am just lazy. Yes, I am usually too lazy to sit around and do nothing for 10 minutes. Haha. How ridiculous do I sound? ;)

Do you have any of these Orly glitter polishes? What do you think?

Isn't She Pretty?!

I'm dusting off the archives and showing you a manicure that I loved wearing!

Revlon "Emerald City", 2 coats

The light green shimmer is strong enough in Emerald City that it is visible without topcoat. Very pretty. Application was a breeze, no problems. After a few hours though, I couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to glitter-fy my mani.

Emerald City with ACO "Day N Night", 1 coat

This sparkled SO NICELY. I was very happy. Even Mr. Polish commented on it;  not once, not twice, but multiple times. I was a happy lady!

Question: do you separate your un-trieds from your polish collection or keep them all together? My polish collection went from approximately 11 polishes to 983 (as of today) in about a year and a half. Needless to say, I have only worn about 20% of my collection and am constantly trying to figure out different ways to store my polishes. Untrieds/tried. Brand. Color. A combination?

I need help!!!

Haha... not that kind.

Have a fantastic day and thank you for reading. :)

Wear Your Pearls, Darling

As you know, I've been trying to use more of my nail art supplies and came across my nail wheel of flat back half pearls. My wheel has a variety of sizes of these pearls and I chose the biggest size. Why not, right? Let's see what I did.

Grey: OPI - "Sheer" Your Toys, 2 coats
Accent nail: Holographic franken, 1 thin coat
Top coat: Seche Vite, 1 coat

 

 

"Sheer" Your Toys was released in the Holiday Wishes collection, winter 2008. I found it while snooping around drug stores in my area and found it amongst 60 other discounted OPI's over a year ago now. (Yes, I left with multiple polishes.) I can't believe that I'm only JUST getting to wear it now. I saw it posted on KarenD's blog "Frazzle And Aniploish" a few days ago (I love going through all of her posts, it's therapuetic for me in some strange way) and decided to finally give it a go.

"Sheer" Your Toys is a very pretty light grey polish. In the bottle you see what appears to be red specks, but they don't translate very well onto the nail. It ends up looking more shimmery, which I'm completely good with. The picture captures the grey side of this polish quite well but it lower lights, it has a strange color shift effect. Not like a duochrome persay, more like the polish looks lilac toned instead of straight up grey. KarenD also mentioned this in her blog and I was interested to see that I had the same result as well.

Hope you are having a fantastic Tuesday!

Rhinestone Polka Dot Nails

Fact: eBay and I have become very good friends over the past few years and over that time I have amassed quite a large collection of great nail art supplies. Rhinestones (1mm, 2mm, 3mm - round, square, heart, star - glitters in hex, round, micro and bead, etc etc...) are one of my favourite ways to jazz up a manicure yet I seldom use them. Today, I remeded that.

I'm really happy to share with you my actual NOTD. That practically never happens, so without further ado, please take a peek!

Base Colour: Sally Hansen (Extreme Wear) - Grey Area, 2 coats
Dots: Acrylic paint in blue and purple (brand is Decora from Dollarama)
Gems: 1mm round blue, 2mm hot pink square
Topcoat: Seche Vite

What do you think of my bedazzled manicure? I definitely dig it.

OPI "Animalistic"

To date, this was literally one of the hardest polishes for me to photograph accurately. In retrospect, I really should have taken advantage of the sun that I had that day and did an outdoors shot, however we are all much wiser after the fact...

OPI "Animalistic" 3 coats

Short and sweet for today.
I will be posting a new, recent mani in a few days time!

Bright Summer Rainbow Shatter Mani

I have an old summer manicure to share with you today.
I got a lot of compliments and comments on this nail look and will definitely recreate it next summer using a different colour palette.

Take a peek!

 

 

 

On The Dark Side with ORLY "After Party"

I've got a simple swatch for your viewing pleasure.



Orly's "After Party" with 2 coats.

 

 

 

 Purple, red and aqua shimmer? I'm so there.
The nubbins are cute too. ;)

I'm currently growing out my nails. They have been short these past couple months because of general life craziness so I can't wait to have them long and pretty again!

Have a great weekend polish lovers!

Tuxedo in the Nude

I've missed you. No seriously, I have. 

The past few months have been a rollercoaster for me. Excuses, excuses. I know. Anyway, I'm going to try and see if I can get back into the swing of things here. A weekly post is seeming to be something I can stick with. Let's see what happens.

I went through my old drafts and found a mani I thought was pretty cute and somewhat appropriate as a Halloween themed manicure. I present my nails, all tuxedo'ed up. ;)




I used:
 Essence "Modern Romance", 2 coats
Wet'n'Wild "Black Creme", 1 coat
Top coat: Seche Vite.

Voila!

Mint Polish Comparison Post

This is rather late, but better late than never, right?

I have NO IDEA what is going on with my formatting, but please bear with me.

1. Gosh "Drizzle" - 2 coats

Not even close to mint, this polish is a very greyed out and
dusty, faded green creme.

2. Revlon "Minted" - 3 coats

This is like a more muted cousin of Sally Hansen's "Mint
Sorbet" (#10). Smooth and very pretty.

3. Essie "Turquoise & Caicos" - 4 coats
Jelly based polish, needing 4 coats for opacity. Leans slightly
more green and is darker than the others.

4. Essence "You Belong To Me" - 2 coats
More blue toned rather than a "true" mint. Great coverage
and application.

 

Round Two

5. Gosh "Silky Mint" - 3 coats
Medium warm toned green creme. Although the name says
it's a mint, it leans just a little too green for it to be
considered a traditional mint. Gosh has great formula's,
very easy application.

6. OPI "Mermaids Tears" - 3 coats
A dustier version of "Silky Mint" (#5). Love this colour,
perfect for a more muted mint polish. 

7. Cosmetic Arts, un-named - 3 coats
Very cool, blue-leaning mint creme. Wish it had a name. No
complaints with application.

8. Color Club "New Bohemian" - 3 coats
This is the quintessential mint - my favourite out of them all.
It leans the slightest bit more blue than green and I think
that's why I like it. It works well on my skin tone (it causes
the least amount of lobster-clawness out of all the swatches)
and looks very refreshing.

 

 

Round Three
 

9. Sally Hansen "Green Tea" - 3 coats
Pale, muted mint green. Pretty and whimsical. I love this
type of greyed out polish.

10. Sally Hansen "Mint Sorbet" - 3 coats
Vivid but pale green mint. Perfect for summer; looks
awesome on tanned skin. Application was slightly thick.

11. Avon "Aqua Fantasy" - 2 coats
Very blue but has a very slight edge of green so I included it,
just to compare. White shimmer gives it a frosted feel and
the application was AMAZING. I need more Avon polish in
my life. Like yesterday.

12. Wet'n'Wild "I Need A Refresh-ment" - 2 coats
I kind of hate the name of this polish ... but the polish is
beautiful. More blue than green, the creme formula glides
on smoothly. Pretty but not quite mint. Mint-esque.

 

I wasn't exactly strict with my polish picking; I wanted to
include some polishes that lean a bit more blue (or green) just
to show the contrast to the what is traditionally thought of as
a mint polish. Personally, I feel like this helps the comparison
process.

My favourite "true/traditional" mint out of these 12 that I've
shown is Color Club's New Bohemian. As I mentioned
above, it is a great polish against my skin tone. Unfortunately
for me, most polishes in this colour family give me lobster
claws and a bit bonus, and part of the reason why New
Bohemian won out, is that it didn't cause my hands to look
so red. The fact that it is the perfect blend of blue and green
also helped, haha. ;)

My friend J wanted a review on Minted by Revlon which I
swatched in this post, so for J and all else who want to know
a bit about this polish ...

Application was good although a little thin on the first two
coats. I added a third to smooth everything out and make it
perfectly opaque. It dries shiny in case you're wondering. (I
would still add topcoat for longevity.) I can't comment as to
the wear of the polish because I only swatched it but I find
Revlon to be fairly decent. I don't wear polish for much
longer than a 2-3 days and it lasts well during that time. All
in all, I would give you a big thumbs up and green light:
go buy it! :)

What is your favourite mint polish? Let me know!

- A Polished Touch

Comparison: Essie & Claire's

Comparison posts are one of my favourite types of posts to read. 

I love knowing what dupes/near dupes are out there.

While swatching Claire's "Tigerlily" I thought that it looked nearly 

identical to a polish I had worn a couple months prior: Essie's 

"Nice Is Nice" (which I did a blog post on here).

Let's take a look and see what the pictures say.

Claire's "Tigerlily" - 3 coats

Tigerlily is a very pretty soft lilac creme.
I did 3 thin coats for a nice opaque finish and topped it
with Beauty Secrets Hardener High Gloss Top Coat.


Index and Ring: Tigerlily (Claire's)
Middle and Pinky: Nice Is Nice (Essie)

Nice Is Nice also had 3 thin coats but was a little pesky,
application wise. I found the formula to be a bit thinner
 and slightly harder to build than the Claire's.

The two polishes are almost exactly the same. Tigerlily may have
a touch more grey in the formula but overall, they are dupes in my book.

Enjoy your Tuesday! I have another comparison post coming up on Thursday!

- A Polished Touch

China Glaze Dotticure

 I took an unplanned 3 day break this past weekend.
An injury + purchase of a new car + work = no time.
I'm back now. Obviously, haha.

I am kind of cheating with today's Blue Monday post.
The blue is only done as an accent.
Oh well.

My polish shopping has finally slowed a considerable amount.
Now I'm playing with all my goodies.
Let's take a peek!

Brown: China Glaze - Mahogany Magic (2 coats, no topcoat)

Blue: China Glaze - Electric Beat (dotted)

One thing I love about my China Glaze polishes is that they usually dry SUPER shiny. The above pictures have NO TOPCOAT. Unreal.

Mahogany Magic was released with the Hunger Games collection. (As if you didn't already know that.) It applied like warm butter, mmmmm. Perfect and effortless - 2 coats to perfection. Warm mid-tone browns aren't necessarily my favourite colour to wear on their own but I love adding a contrasting colour as an accent. As you know, dotticures are my favourite so that was the natural choice. The colour combination looks pretty neat to me.

Electric Beat was released with the Electropop collection and is one of my favourite blues. It is similar to what I consider to be a cornflower blue but more faded. A touch of grey probably gives it that muted feeling, I love it. Electric Beat is qute pigmented so I had no issues with layering it over a darker colour.

Have a wonderful Monday!

- A Polished Touch

Layla Hologram Effect "Mercury Twilight"

Photographing a holographic polish isn't as easy as it sounds. That being said, this post is quite picture heavy. I couldn't decide which to leave out, so you get to see practically all of them. ;)

I tried that new accent manicure where you polish your index/middle fingers one colour and the pinky, ring and thumb another, then reverse the pattern on the other hand. I'm at a loss as to what that style is called but I found it really interesting. Order amongst the disorder. Cool.

The black I used is my trusty Wet'n'Wild Black Creme of which I used 2 coats.

Also, please ignore my hideous fingers. I do apologize.



Indoors

Indoors

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Indoors, shaded

Indoors, shaded

Indoors, shaded

*awestruck*

This is my first ever true linear holographic polish. I'm still amazed by it. I might be wearing my Layla's all summer now. Well, on the sunny days at least. ;)

Mercury Twilight is a silver STRONG linear holographic polish that shows the entire rainbow spectrum even in the dimmest of light. I used the file that is sold with the polishes before applying and it made all the difference in the world. I tried swatching them before doing the buffing/polishing and WOW. You WILL notice a huge difference in the strength of the linear effect. I definitely recommend that you do this step before applying the polish.

The downside was that I used 3 coats of polish and still had some bald spots. In the sun you don't notice them at all, but indoors you can. I would recommend the dab method to cover any such bald spots. 

Mercury Twilight definitely has the strongest linear effect that I can see so far...  I'll have to wear them all and let you help me decide. ;) I added Poshe topcoat and it didn't seem to dull the linear effect although I had some major chipping by the end of the day, and not just on my Layla adorned nails. My W'n'W nails had some pretty significant chipping too ... I really want to love my Poshe topcoat, I'm trying to give it a good try, but this surprised me. A lot. I know holo's are known for their chipping but I never have that issue with my Black Creme. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Has your Poshe top coat caused any chipping issues?

Until tomorrow, stay polished!

- A Polished Touch