ANNOUNCEMENT and Sundress Inspired Mani

I have no excuse, I realize. Well, actually I do.

WE BOUGHT OUR FIRST HOUSE!
:)

Mr. Polish are thrilled and to add to it ...
WE ARE HAVING OUR FIRST BABY!


Haha, might as well throw it all out there.



Long story short, we spent the summer working like crazy to save up the last bit that
we needed to buy a home (which we did in October) and then BAM, we
find out we are expecting the first week of February. Second trimester, here I come!


Okay, enough about me, here is a mani that I did back in June for my youngest
sisters high school graduation. I wanted to recreate the print on my dress and I
feel like it turned out pretty well!

 

 

 

We are having fairly mild weather here today (about 10 degrees) and felt like
getting into the Spring mood a little bit.

Black & White Glitter with Blue Ombre

How are you lovely people doing this Sunday? Mr.Polish and I went out to
celebrate Father's Day with his parents and grandparents this evening and it
was very nice. I hope all of you got to spend a little bit of time with your
loved ones today!

I was quite inspired today and did two manicures. Here is the first
one for your viewing pleasure.

Let's take a peek!

There is a whole lotta stuff going on in this mani. Solid ombre on pinky,
middle and index. Sponged ombre on ring and thumb. I decided to
layer the sponged ombre over white to add a bit more brightness.

China Glaze "Whirled Away" was begging to be used so I added that to
the solid nails to make this even more complex. Usually I keep things
fairly simple but like I said, I was feeling inspired.

Below is a shot of the mani prior to being glitter-fied.

 

 

 Polishes Used:
Index: Zoya - Blu (2 coats)
Middle: China Glaze - Electric Beat
Pinky: Essie - Mezmerized

Ring & Thumb: Sinful Colors - White On White (2 coats)
with all colours mentioned above, sponged, lightest to darkest.

Glitter Polish: China Glaze - Whirled Away

I found Whirled Away slightly tricky; I had to pick out the glitter to get
it to look the way I wanted. Not a huge complaint but worth mentioning.

Would you rock this mani? Let me know!

Winking at the Royals

There is a retailer here in Canada called Ardene's and they carry a line of polish called "ACO". Boy, oh boy. I am impressed. I have purchased many polishes from this brand because they are phenomenally pigmented, long wearing and cost $3 a bottle. (They always have a deal on in-store: 2 for $6.)

Today I am going to share with you one of my favourites: "Royal Wink". Let's take a peek!


 

Shown above is 2 coats with Seche Vite.

Unfortunately this shade of purple doesn't agree with my camera and is showing more blue than she really is.

Royal Wink is a beautifully saturated medium purple leaning slightly blue. Two effortless coats with a nice self leveling effect makes this a dream polish to apply.

There is something implicitly perfect about a creme polish, wouldn't you agree?

Gaga Gets Glittered

When the glitter bug gets her hands on you, she doesn't like to let go!

I have another glitterfied mani to show you that I just completed, and one that I am very happy with. Sometimes, simple is best. Let's take a peek!




Polishes Used
China Glaze - Gaga For Green (2 coats)
China Glaze - Silver Lining (sponged)
Seche Vite topcoat (1 coat)

I found Gaga For Green to be a little on the thin side. Three coats would have probably been better, but retrospect is always 20/20. ;) Application was good. No complaints.

Bright and glittery. Perfect for spring/summer.

I just realized that I did a similar look last year. Click here to take a peek!

Glitter gradients are my "go to" for adding some quick glam to a mani, what is yours?

Feeling Glittery

I'm back with another mani today. *pats self on back*


In my polish collection I own many glitter polishes, yet I rarely make use of them. Today I was in the mood to try one of my favourite (un-used) glitters out. Let's take a peek!


Borghese in Berry Confezione - A berry fucshia creme, that looks very juicy on the nail. Shown here, two coats without topcoat. Application was smooth, although slightly thin. VNL is minimal, but present. Berry Confezione leans a little more purple than what you see here.

 

For some sparkle and glam I added two coats of Orly "Bubbly Bombshell". I wanted to up the jazz factor so I added two fimo flower pieces in pink and tangerine and then finished it all off with a healthy coat of Seche Vite.

Voila!

What do you think of this sparkly, floral mani?

Color Club Glitter Swatch Spam - Pic Heavy

Holy smokes.
It's been a while.
A long while.


I have serious committment issues with my blog and I've taken it to a whole other level, so instead of harping on it, I have some glittery goodness for your viewing pleasure.


Glitter spam. Does it get any better? Really? Nah, I didn't think so either.


All glitters are Color Club. No, I do not remember which ones although if you ask really nicely, I will let you know what is what. (Comment below if there is one you are interested in!)


I'm lazy tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blurry to show glitter-mazing-ness.

All glitters were layered over one coat of Wet'n'Wild "Black Creme"

Have a fabulous night (or day)!

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