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?

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

My First Franken

I am obsessed with linear holographic polishes, I admit it. I recently went on eBay and scored a few of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms and while waiting for them to arrive I attempted making my own.

The pictures do not show the linear effect, even though it was visible IRL. Ah well. Let's take a peek, shall we?

2 coats, no topcoat.

My pictures make it look like a dense, scattered holo but the linear effect was goin' on. Promise. That being said, it was a rather thick polish. I used a holographic pigment and I honestly cannot remember the specifics about it. I know that it wasn't the SpectraFlair pigment, but it was along those lines. Perhaps I added too much to my base, but I finally got it opaque enough. Only after added the pigment and waiting an hour did I realise that I didn't use a suspension polish and all the pigment fell to the bottom. Major ARGH. 

Anyone know of a relatively cheap clear, suspension polish that is good for frankening? Let me know in the comments!

Blue Monday featuring China Glaze, ACO & L.A Girl

Happy Blue Monday!

China Glaze Kinetic Candy

2 coats, no topcoat

I've been reading in the blogosphere that people had excellent application with this polish. I, however, did not. It was a little thick and that made it tricky to work with. Manageable, but I had higher expectations for this one. The pretty pale blue always wins me over though, so there's no hard feelings ...

 1 coat Seche Vite on top

Silver: L.A Girl Sterling Silver, 1 coat

Medium blue: ACO True Blue, 1 thick coat

The polka dots are done with black and white acrylic paint.

True Blue is actually more teal than it shows here, *sigh*. Ah well. Still pretty, no?

Honestly, I tried to do the cloud mani that everyone has been trying out lately and it was a complete fail, so I turned the fail into a win by making it look like I intended for this to be like, well, this. Haha. 

Hope you enjoy! Have a great Monday!

OPI "Spark De Triomphe"

Lately I have been really into layering polishes. Part of this new obsession is that I'm trying to swatch my whole collection and I have a large amount of glitter polishes in said collection. I have for you Spark De Triomphe which I purchased in the Serena Gram Slam pack with the White Shatter. (I also got the Rally Pretty Pink, which I swatched last year, with Red Shatter duo.) I layered it over Elf's Metal Madness from this post here.

 Spark De Triomphe, 2 coats - no top coat

Layered over ELF "Metal Madness"

Ouuu, so pretty. Every time I see a glitter mani I think:

1. Pretty

2. Oohh, that's gonna be a pain to remove.

Haha, who's with me, huh? I actually saw a really neat trick to remove glitter polish that isn't the foil method. *gasp* I know, right!? I'll try it out on myself first and then share it with you in the coming weeks.

I have to admit, when trying to describe this polish everything I was trying to put into words was ... lacking. My solution? A copy and pasted description, courtesy of Michelle from All Lacquered Up.

"OPI Spark de Triomphe is the bright shining star of this collection.  This clear based glitter is chock full of so many kinds of glitter; silver and gold micro-glitter, silver and gold foil pieces, gold hexagonal glitter.  It’s a cornucopia of glitzy goodness.  The overall effect comes off more gold than silver but the gold is more champagne than yellow. Adding the silver particles definitely keeps this one neutral.  One could use this as a topper but the glitter is SO jammed in the base that it really steals the show from whatever color you layer it over." - Michelle, All Lacquered Up

How perfect is her description? Seriously, wow. Thank you, Michelle! Needless to say, this is an amazing glitter polish and if you can find it, you should definitely pick it up! (I've seen the duo's on sale for half price at various Canadian retailers.)

Did you buy either of the Grand Slam duo's?

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep & OPI Black Shatter

Who is completely over the whole crackle/shatter/fracture polish craze? I have a confession to make. I never caught the fever, so to speak. I think it was just the whole overload of it in the blogosphere that made me back up and not even want to try. Well, that's a lie, I did do a post on my Turquoise Shatter from OPI last summer, but I only wore that mani for a day or so and then never touched my crackle/shatter/polishes again.

Today I have what I consider to be the original/traditional crackle mani. Silver and black.

Silver Sweep, 2 coats - no topcoat

Silver Sweep has good application, a little streaky but I don't mind because I usually use this as layering polish. One thing that bothers me about the Insta Dri line is that the brush is huge and the bottle opening is tiny. It doesn't make any sense to me. *shrugs*

With Seche Vite, 1 coat

Left hand shots ... and now for something absolutely comical ...

I swear my pinky doesn't look like this IRL, I was holding 

the bottle tightly with, apparently, my pinky. ;)

Hahaha. Welcome to the my pathetic attempts at photographing my right hand. Look at my pinky, all squished and looking really odd. *chuckles* So, so bad. I had to share, we all could use a good laugh now and then, no?

Black Shatter applied nicely, no complaints. Average, I would say, though I really did like this mani. Very quick and simple, yet it earned many compliments from co-workers and customers. I was pleased.

Be sure to stick around; I'll be posting a "non-traditional" crackle mani in the next couple days. ;)

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?

L.A. Girl Glitter Addict Polishes

Lately, I feel as though I keep yammering on about Winners and today is no exception. I also feel as though I keep buying polish even though I specifically said that one of my New Year's resolutions was to spend LESS on polish. Anyways...

While on my crazy "shop at every Winners in a 30 mile radius" nail polish finding spree, I picked up 4 of the L.A. Girl Glitter Addict polishes: Eutopia, Explosion, Nostalgic and Uninhibited. I used 2 coats of Wet'n'Wild Black Crème (on the index, middle and ring) and French White Crème (on my pinky) as the base for each of these glitter polishes.

 From L-R: Eutopia, Nostalgic, Explosion, Uninhibited 

I thought this shot looked neat. *nerdy smile*

I won't lie, I love me some glitter and let me tell you, these delivered. These swatches are one coat of polish over top of the base coat and they applied perfectly. Good glitter distribution with basically zero effort. A quick sweep of polish and voila! 

As far as I can tell, all four of these polishes consist of a regular sized hex glitter and micro-round glitter. 

Eutopia is a beautiful, vivid purple that leans slightly blurple to me. Explosion has a disco ball-like effect on the nails and I think that would be really evident if I had layered it over a metallic silver. Nostalgic is a blue leaning green with micro holographic glitter thrown into the mix and Uninhibited is a black glitter. I did notice that in my bottle of Uninhibited I have a couple teal and red glitters mixed in. There are only a few, but I'm very curious as to how they got in there. Does anyone have this polish and can verify if theirs has them too?

I would say my favourite out of the 4 that I purchased would be Uninhibited because this is my first black glitter polish. What an interesting effect; I will be trying out some different layering combinations with this in the future. The runner-up would be Nostalgic because I like the mix of teal and holographic glitter - lots of dimension and sparkle. Very fun!

Black glitter polish - do you own one?