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?

Lots of Layering featuring China Glaze, OPI & WetnWild

Layering is one of my favourite things to do with polish. I love creating different combinations and seeing the result. Today I have one that I really love and hope you will too!

China Glaze Frosty

1 thick coat, just to see what it looks like on its own

Frosty was released with the China Glaze 'Tis The Season To Be Naughty or Nice 2010 holiday collection. I wish I could have found a backup bottle however there was only one left when I found the collection in April 2011 at a hair salon, marked down to $3.99 a bottle. (Needless to say, the entire 16 piece collection made its way into my home over a period of 10 months; I searched everywhere to complete the collection and thankfully didn't have to resort to online ordering, I dusty hunted. ;) Haha.)

Look at all the layering!

The above two pictures consist of Wet'n'Wild French White Crème (2 coats) with 2 coats of Frosty layered on top.

I added 2 coats of OPI I Juggle ... Men (a pink and blue shimmering, layering-only polish, you will never reach opacity with this on its own) on top of French White Crème and Frosty. I think the result is very pretty although it was much nicer IRL. I wish it would translate better on camera, alas it does not. You'll have to take my word  for it, or, if you have the polishes, try it out yourself! (If you do, I would LOVE to see!!)

Side thought: Do you have a "go to" black and white polish that you use for layering? I do ... somewhat. My black go-to is Black Crème by Wet'n'Wild. It. Is. Perfection. I figured that if W'n'W can nail a basic black that they could nail a basic white as well. I'm kinda 'meh' about French White Crème. It doesn't apply as evenly nor as opaque in one coat as Black Crème. Ah well. It did the trick, I guess. 

Although the finished look is a little thicker than I would like, I guess that's to be expected of 6 coats of polish. Quick note, I didn't use any topcoat for the photo's. 

What do you think of this layering? Does it remind you of the glimmer and shimmer you see on freshly fallen snow? That's what it reminds me of. :)

Layering: Essie Made To Honor & Sally Hansen Glass Slipper

Evenin'! I've been into layering lately and I wanted to try out my new Sally Hansen flakie polish Glass Slipper. I was going for a soft, feminine mani and I think I achieved that. Check it out. :)

Essie Made To Honor

3 coats, no top coat

Made To Honor is a beautiful sheer pale pink jelly. Application was easy. I usually really dislike wearing polishes as sheer as this this one is absolutely beautiful. My nails were slightly stained and Made To Honor covers that and blurs the imperfections on my nails. Love this.

Sally Hansen Glass Slipper

2 coats layered over Made To Honor
1 coat Seche Vite

Glass Slipper is a semi-opaque silvery white flakie polish that is meant for layering. I loved this combination. The flakies applied nice and evenly across the nail. I added a second coat for extra sparkle and shine. 

One note. Lately I have had the issue of my Seche shrinking away from the cuticle line which you can see if you enlarge either of the last two pictures. Very frustrating! It doesn't affect the free edge of my nail, just near the cuticle, and only sometimes ... does anyone have this problem too?

I think this would be a beautiful, understated Valentine's Day mani. What do you think?

Sally Hansen Purple Pizzazz & OPI Siberian Nights

I hope you don't mind seeing some swatches from a few weeks ago when my nails were a bit shorter ... you're good with it? Excellent. :) Let's press on.

Sally Hansen - Purple Pizzazz, 2 coats - no topcoat

Indoors, indirect sun

Outdoors, direct sun

I admit, I hate this. I have seen a few swatches of this polish on its own and usually they are done with 3-4 coats. At the time of doing this I didn't have the patience to do that many coats. I removed it and grabbed OPI Siberian Nights, one of my favourite polishes.

Siberian Nights, 2 coats - no topcoat

Indoors, indirect sun

Indoors, tilted to show the deep grape tones

Yikes, sorry about the hasty cleanup!

Sunset, somewhat indirect

I figured that this would make great "underwear" for Purple Pizzazz so I then layered it back over Siberian Nights. Oh, the process!

Indoors

Back to my usual, trusty setup - sans sun ;)

Now this, I love. I found Purple Pizzazz to be troublesome when worn alone. With its jelly finish I found that it would build at the tip of my nails and therefore look more opaque there. The unevenness of it bothered me. However, layering it over a similar, opaque base colour really seemed to do the trick. The glowy shimmer really jumps out against the darker, pigmented base.

Siberian Nights was an absolute dream. She was on my wishlist for a while until I impulsively purchased her and am so glad I did. I could have gotten away with one coat but I wanted to make sure she was camera-ready. ;)

Do you own Purple Pizzazz? If so, do you wear it alone or layer it?

Layering: Finger Paints "Twisted" & Lemony Flutter

I finally got around to posting my favourite one of the Finger Paints Special Effect flakie polishes: Twisted. I layered this over OPI Roadhouse Blues from my post here.

Twisted, 2 coats over Roadhouse Blues

*swoon* This flakie polish borderlines on insanity, and I mean that in the absolutely best way possible. Like I said above, it is my favourite out of the 5 that were released in this collection. Reasons? Multi-coloured flakies. Dense ratio of flakie to base. Smooth, slightly thick application. 

Don't be worried, the "slightly thick application" is definitely a plus with this polish. I applied two thin coats for my swatches but one regular coat would have achieved the same effect. Case closed. Twisted is amazing.

Now, onto the product review...

For Christmas my sister got me some LUSH products and along with them she also gave me a sample of Lemony Flutter. I'm not sure how many of you have tried this but if you haven't already go to the nearest LUSH and ask one of the (extremely nice & very helpful) sales people. They'll let you try it out and take a little sample home.

I will be honest. The word "Lemony" didn't make me sing to the highest heavens. I actually hate lemon. Although this is not the case with Lemony Flutter. It has a very distinct lemony smell but very crisp and fresh too. I am truly terrible at describing scents but you have to trust me; even if you can't stand lemon, like me, you should like the scent of this. Almost mouth-watering. 

As for actual use, I love it. It has a thick consistency and a little goes a very long way, so use sparingly. It absorbs nicely and provides intense rehydration for those dry cuticles. I used up my sample from Christmas and the sample size lasted me about a month. That's crazy! 

I went to LUSH today and picked up the full size which cost me $14.95(CAD) plus tax. The sales lady was very helpful and we got to chatting about the product and that I am a nail blogger and I said I was going to give this product a huge shout out. If you're reading nice LUSH sales lady, HI AND THANK YOU! :)

Have a great Friday, folks and enjoy your weekend!

Color Club "Holiday Splendor"

I did some layering with my Sally Hansen Going Green mani from earlier today. I'll let the photo's do all the talking.

Holiday Splendor, 2 coats - no topcoat
Blurred to show the sparkle, ouuu.

I got the Beyond The Mistletoe Color Club collection a few weeks ago and I'm so in love. Just look at Holiday Splendor. I dare you to say you don't love it as well (and mean it!).

Because of the layering I did Holiday Splendor looks very green in these photo's but it is slightly more blue IRL. I used two coats of Holiday Splendor and it applied wonderfully. The holographic glitter is absolutely UNREAL. You literally have to see it to understand just how radiant it truly is. I need to wear this as a full mani and not just swatch it. 

Holographic glitter - you can't go wrong, can you?

Blue Monday: Wet'n'Wild Bijou Blue & Color Club Platinum Record

Blue Monday, round 2! Not too much to say in the intro except that I hope Mr.Hockey likes this blue polish, too. ;)

Bijou Blue, 3 coats - no topcoat

Bijou Blue is an absolutely gorgeous blue/aqua/teal but applied a little thin. I applied 3 coats and you could still see VNL although it wasn't as apparent IRL. (Apparently I'm lovin' me some abbreviations.) The shimmer gets me Every. Single. Time. Application was very good although like I said, a little thin. Just be careful that you don't flood your cuticles.

I wanted to add some bling to my mani and had been wanting to try out some of my new Color Club glitter polishes from the Backstage Pass collection, so I took out Platinum Record and went to town.

Platinum Record, 1 coat - Seche Vite, 1 coat

The silver glitters look black at some angles in my photo's but I can assure you that they are only silver. This glitter polish is comprised of large hexagon and micro-round silver glitter. They are densely packed into a rather thick, goopy clear base. Honestly, application was dreadful. Let me explain.

I put on the usual amount of polish I would use and tried applying like I usually do. This did not work. The glitters clumped and the clear base didn't cooperate or level at all. I took the tip of the applicator and had to place the glitters in a more appropriate order. It was time consuming and a little annoying but I love the effect it has on this mani. When I went out to the mall after applying this (of course I decide to go with the most annoying glitter to do as my full mani) I got a ton of compliments and comments on it. I was pleased and felt as though it made my effort worth while.

As I wore it, the rather thick coat of Seche that I applied seemed to be swallowed by the glitter because I could feel the edges of the hex glitter sticking out and could actually pick them off, which I did because I'm naughty like that. Haha. Oh well, mani's never last longer than 24-30 hours anyway! Oh, the life and times of a nail blogger. ;)

Glitters: pain in the "behind" or worth the effort?

Layering Finger Paints "Asylum"

I've been playing around with my Finger Paints special effect flakie polishes. Before I took off my Over-Exposed In South Beach from earlier this week I thought I'd play ...

Asylum, 2 coats over OPI Over-Exposed In South Beach
No topcoat on any of these photo's.

Asylum is a blue/orange flakie that leans more indigo/coral over the OPI polish. I'm in love with my flakie polishes and am so glad I could finally get my hands on all 5. 

*goofy little seat dance*

Gorgeous flakie-ness. Need I say more? Hopefully not, because I gotta head to bed! ;)

Blue Monday: L.A. Girl "Deejay"

As much as I absolutely adore wearing neutral shades in my wardrobe and as much as I love collecting neutral polishes, I somehow find myself drawn towards brighter shades when polishing my nails. I think I'll have to start swatching my more "work appropriate" polishes, they are feeling neglected I think.

My Blue Monday mani is a tribute to my love of crème blue polishes (which I later cover in glitter, haha) and my affinity for doing accent nails. I used L.A. Girl - Disco Brites in Deejay for all nails except for my accent nails which I polished using a California Colors polish found at Winners. They came in a set of 5 and they were un-named so I creatively called it "Baby Blue". My creative polish names are quite impressive, no?

Deejay, 2 coats - Baby Blue, 3 coats

After polishing I kept looking at my nails, enjoying the two shades of blue but wanting something more. I looked in my Blue Melmer drawer and picked out two corresponding glitter polishes, both by ACO (the polishes by Ardene's) named Blizzard and Blue Glitter. Blizzard is on top of Deejay and Blue Glitter is over Baby Blue.

Blizzard is on my index, middle and pinky - Blue Glitter is on my accent nail. 

One coat on each.

Blizzard reminds me of the type of glitter found in Deborah Lippman's "Across The Universe". I know it's not an exact dupe of the glitter, it is just reminiscent of it, in my opinion. Also, Blue Glitter was a let-down. As I applied the glitter I noticed that the colour from the glitter pieces seemed to bleed as I swiped the brush across my nail. Highly frustrating. I will try it out again over a white polish to see if it does the same thing. I've never had that happen before, I was slightly shocked.

I should mention as well that I didn't apply a top coat over the glitter polish and probably should have. I hated the texture the glitter gave my nails. It was rather odd. It felt like a combination of chunky glitter and plastic, as if the clear base dried plastic-esque. Strange.

Anyway, although it sounds like I hated this mani, I really didn't. I quite enjoyed it for the 24 hours that it lasted. ;)

Do you own any ACO or Ardene's polishes?

Blue Monday: Finger Paints - Motley (Part Two)

Today I have for you the second part of my Blue Monday mani. I mentioned yesterday that I was at Sally's and found 4 Finger Paints polishes for $1.99 in the clearout section. I also happened to find 3 of the 5 newly released Finger Paints Special Effect flakie polishes. I grabbed Motley, Asylum and Flecked and was disappointed to find out that none of the Sally Beauty Supplies (there are 3 in my city) ever received Twisted or Flashy. Needless to say, they all have my phone number and will be calling me as soon as they receive them, haha.

Anyway, after that long ramble, I have my finished Blue Monday mani for you.

Motley, 2 coats layered over Gallery Glam

Please excuse the dry cuticles but I just had to show the 

depth of the polish and the amazing flakies.

I'm not sure there are any words to describe how perfect Motley is. She is a beautiful teal/green/blue flakie polish and I find that layering it over Gallery Glam really helped to add depth to the mani. You can see the shimmer from Gallery Glam coming up through the flakies and it really adds that extra dimension and WOW factor. *dreamy sigh* 

I found that I could see a really vivid indigo flash in the flakies ... I'm not sure if this is because I layered it over Gallery Glam, but it was absolutely gorgeous. (Has anyone noticed that, too?) I need to try all of them over black soon so I can compare. Any reason to wear flakie polish is a good reason to me!

Do you own any of the Finger Paints flakie polishes? What do you think?