Polish All the Nails

I'm a big fan of routine.  To generate the quantity of posts I like for this blog, I do my nails at night and take my pictures in my lightbox.  I then write the post at lunch at work.  Works for me but means I don't have regular access to the sunlight needed to full show how amazing some polishes are.  Sometimes though, a polish looks so amazing in the daylight that I make a change to my routine as I HAVE to show you.  Glitter Gal Red Sparkly is such a polish that deserves the routine deviation.  Red Sparkle, funnily enough, is a sparkly red holographic polish.  Those words are completely insufficient in describing how amazing this polish is.  It GLOWS like it's on fire.  In all lights.  In the sunlight it just lights itself on fire, which is why I had to take these pictures outside.  Application was really good, a lot like those holo polishes from A England.  This is two coats but you could almost get away with one. ...

You know it's going to be a good day when my hands and fingers look just a little bit grey.  That means we have an incredibly bright neon, hooray! I got Pretty & Polished Beach Bunny in the mail the other day and holy melted eyeballs, batman, its it bright.   I underestimated the amount of orange in the base jelly here so my choice of Orly Passionfruit wasn't exactly spot on, but it was close enough in terms of loudness.  After two coats of it, on went Beach Bunny with its very pretty matte white glitter in various sizes.  The jelly was more opaque than I was expecting and now I'm itching to see what it would look like on its own, without the base colour.  Doesn't matter; is awesome either way. 

I'm not the most mature person in the world.  I have the sense of humour of a six year old and get jealous and one-uppy easily.  It's ok, I'm ok with it.  What it means though is that when I see a post like this on Reddit, I'm immediately consumed with the need to match it.  Don't know why, that's just what my brain thinks will be fun.  Brain, one day we'll learn.  Does mean I have sparkly nails though. To start, I added two coats of Revlon Stormy, a grey-beige cream.  I kinda like these kinds of colours, given me a break from neons and makes me feel a bit more like an adult.  You know, until I cover it in glitter.  Then, using my small silver holo glitter and my usual technique , I created my different glitter patterns.  I think my favourites here are either my index finger or my ring, both are new for me and quite interesting.  

Every once in a while, I take a wander around Winners, the kinda weird "bargain" store here in Canada.  They have an eclectic selection of nail polishes but usually nothing new.  Knock me over with a feather when I saw these two beautiful polishes, China Glaze I Herd That and I'm Not Lion, from the new On Safari collection.  I just had to try them out together and thought I'd play around with some stripes as well. To start with, I added two coats of I'm Not Lion, a soft gold glitter polish just packed with gold and holo micro glitter.  Application was good, although I dread taking it off.  I then added a gradient using I Herd That, a bronze version of I'm Not Lion, although the holo glitter is a little more sparse.  Lots of people seem to like the sponge gradient but I've never really got it to work so well.  I prefer to wipe most of the polish off, then paint 2/3rds of my nail, then half, then the tips.  Works for me.  Once that wa...

Given the sheer number of times I do my nails a week, you think I'd be better at matching them to outfits, events, etc.   I'm just not that kind of plan-ahead person.  EXCEPT FOR THIS ONE TIME.  My bf's parents are visiting from Australia and we took them to Niagara Falls the other day, complete with Maid of the Mist.  Thus, water-themed sparkly nails! The hardest part about my glitter nails is finding the right base to go with the right glitter.  The right glitter is always the blue holo glitter in my collection, it's always sparkly and beautiful.  Today, the right base was OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam, the pretty blue-grey polish filled with gold flecks from the Holland collection.  Application was good with this polish, as you'd expect from OPI, needing two coats.  I really liked how the flecks stood out in this one, they can blend in too much sometimes.  Once dry, I added the glitter polka dots using my usual technique.  Tada, n...

Oh, white polish.  You're interesting, but only for your unattainability.  The number of times I've thought, yes, smooth white nails would be nice now, only have it ruined by it being streaky or needing a million coats that inevitably get dinged.  It was, then, with trepidation that I tried The Hungry Asian, Cookies and Cream.  Cookies and Cream is a white jelly polish with a very sparse smattering of black glitter.  This is clearly intentional, to represent the cookie pieces.  What surprised me here was how well it applied.  Being a jelly meant that not only was it not streaky, there's a nice build-up of layers of glitter.  I only needed three coats for even coverage.  Even the glitter spread itself out properly. 

I'd like to take credit for the colour combinations I put together but most of the time it's just chance.  I pick colours that look like they vaguely go together, slap it all on and hope for the best.  It explains why some of my choices look better than others.  Well, today, one I picked nearly at random worked really well.  Do you know how hard it is to pick a complimentary colour to pink and green?  Anyway, pink and green diamond glitter spaced apart = glitter snakeskin nails! To start with, two coats of Nicole by OPI My Lifesaver, a sky blue with a hint of turquoise.  Application was decent, not too streaky after two coats, always an issue with the lighter colours.  Next, my stickiest top coat, ready for the glitter to be stuck on.  Using my usual technique, I made extra sure to press all the points of each piece down, as this shape glitter will catch on everything if you're not careful.  I also found working in columns, starting at t...

Have a guess what happened when my striping tape finally arrived from the internet the other day.  Go on, guess, it's like, totally the hardest thing ever because I'm not very creative.  Turns out, striping tape is really good for doing stripes *gasp*.  After a successful go with the tape and magnetic polish, I thought I'd try making nice, even stripes.  After picking my colours (rainbow, of course) and my base colour being Essence Be Your Sunshine, away I went. There were two things things a bit tricky about this particular set.  The base colour was fine, of course, application was pretty decent for a yellow (notoriously streaky), only needing two coats for opacity.  After a coat of Seche Vite was completely dry, I waited five more minutes (WAIT FIVE MORE MINUTES) and started on the tape.  It's fiddly to get the tape to even, especially once you cut off a longish strip, but I found starting with a strip down the middle then metering out either si...

Oh it makes me so happy to have the nail mail flowing again.  My bf doesn't approve, of course, but my blog must be fed!  My latest delivery was from a new Etsy seller to me, Black Cat Lacquer.  Let's take a look at the girliest polish from the three I received, Love Games.  Love Games is a gorgeous pink glitter polish comprising light and dark pink matte glitter hexes, light pink matte glitter hearts and silver holo glitter (!!).  I love the combination, I don't have anything like it in my collection.  Matte glitter AND holo glitter?? YESSS.  Application was really good for this too.  I didn't have to fish much for the hearts - what you see here is one coat.  The base colour here is interesting too - Revlon Strawberry Cream.  It's a scented polish and despite having done this last night, topping it with glitter polish and Seche Vite and showering, I can still smell strawberries.  It's a little weird, if you ask me.  Love ...

Oh magnetic polishes.  Sure, you're a cool gimmick but you're just not that interesting once the polish has dried.  Your colours aren't particularly special (special to me either being sparkly or bright) and you're usually expensive too.  That being said, I have a few of them but like to mix up the application.  With my rolls of striping tape arriving in the mail last night, I couldn't resist combining the two.  I've done it before, but I love how it turns out so too bad! First up, two coats of a new Revlon polish I picked up the other day, Sweet Tart.  It's a perfect pink bubblegum creme that happened to contrast nicely with Sally Hansen Magnetic Ionic Indigo.  Once the Seche Vite on top of Sweet Tart was dry, I added the striping tape in the sunburst pattern.  Looking at it, I should have either fully committed to the sunburst pattern or stuck with vertical stripes, but whatcha gunna do.   Next, on went the magnetic polish, using the m...

For quite I while there I was able to stay away from etsy.  All the glitter, it's like crack to me and I need money to, you know, do adult things.  My resolve cracked the other day when I found out that the Hungry Asian finally ships to Canada.  I managed to restrain myself to the little bottles so five polishes only came to ~$25.  Hooray for more indie polishes to swatch! I wanted to layer Sneeze Breeze over a matching blue as I wasn't sure how tinted the base was.  American Apparel Neon Blue was a good place to start so on went two coats, followed by two coats of Sneeze Breeze.  Coverage was good, said two coats are enough for opacity.  From the look of it, there isn't too much tint so I really want to try this over a different coloured base.  Soon!  The polish itself is made up of light blue and black matte glitters which I love.  It reminds me of a non-sparkly version of Pretty & Polished Beach Bum but you can never have en...

I don't know about you all, but I should probably take a break from the glitter mosaics for a few days.  I'm going cross-eyed!  For a change, I'll be reviewing glitter polishes instead, which is surprisingly different.  I've been lusting after the Sprinkles Collection from Nails Inc for a while now so when I saw them in Sephora the other day I just couldn't help myself.  Rather than review them individually, a kind of Ombre mani it is!  Exclamation marks! The pink polish in this collection is a little too close to the Deborah Lippmann/Claire's Candy Shop polish so I skipped that one, getting Pudding Lane, Sweets Way and Sugar House Lane.  All three polishes are absolute glitter bombs in a creme base and all of them apply like a dream.  After the hassles with Butter London Knackered, these were so easy to use.  They were opaque in two coats (I used three, you know, cos) and absolutely packed with glitter.  Look how pretty they are!  ...

As a rule, I'm pretty generous with my reviews of polishes.  I'm more than happy to blame my application, clean up, top coat interaction, etc but sometimes, a polish is just will not apply.  It makes me incredibly sad to say but Butter London Knackered is one of those polishes.  I tried this polish on its own but after three coats it was still too sheer so I decided to layer it over black, always a reasonable choice.  On goes the usual two coats of Rimmel Black Satin and once it was dry, I started with Knackered.  The first coat was ok, you expect it to be a bit sheer and a bit brush-strokey, nothing to worry about.  The second coat usually fixes all the issues but not this time.  The brush strokes got more visible, if anything, and no matter what I did, it still dragged at the cuticles.  Even when I took it off completely and started again, being even more careful it was still terrible.  Sure, the glitter is pretty and the duochrome is ...

Oh the sad sad state of affairs it is to try to take pictures of red nails.  I have a reasonably fancy camera and a white light lightbox but still, it's just not true to life.  If it were, you'd see just how amazing American Apparel Neon Red looks with differently shaped red holographic glitter applied on top of it.  These are so sparkly and contrasty in real life yet look a little dead here.  Imagine the most neony red from when you were a kid and you might be closer. I had some time the other night so I thought I'd play around a bit with different patterns in the glitter.  I love a uniform pattern but can't let things get too repetitive now.  I started out with the checkered pattern (with my usual technique) using the diamond glitter then let things get a bit crazzzzzzy with the flower, triangle and the lightning patterns.  I think my favourite would have to my index finger with the lightning pattern, I'm especially pleased with the border. ...

We have on our hands, everyone, a manicure that looks great from a distance and took me a great deal of time, but make me want to cry when looking at the macro-lensed pictures.  Let's take a look at the result of most of No Country for Old Men.  To start, I added two coats of Revlon Dreamer, a nice sky blue creme.  Coverage was good on this one, and the colour is pretty too.  Then, using my usual technique , I added all my glitter in.  The diamonds were the hardest to work with as you have to cut the ends off to make sure you get full coverage at the cuticles and tips, and you'll still get a piece or two that stick up.  Then, for the first time ever, my top coat smeared my glitter on the most intricate nails, as well as pooling in the cuticles.  If I'd just taken a bit more time, been a bit more careful :(

I'm afraid there's no escaping glitter round these here parts.  If it's not glitter mosaics, it's something with glitter in it.  If there isn't glitter in it, it gets glitter on it, dammit.  So I found these two Tokidoki polishes at Sephora on sale and once I got them home I couldn't help but do a gradient with them, they're just so sparkly.  Let's take a look at Ciao Ciao and Savana. To start with, I added two coats of Savana.  As a glitter it's pretty opaque so with three coats you'd just about be done.  Next, I added a coat of Ciao Ciao two thirds of the way down my nail, wiping most of the polish off the brush before applying, to get a soft line.  I then did the same with Savana, to make sure the line blended properly.  Being that both these polishes are micro glitter in a clear base, you can really add as may coats as you like and it will actually dry.  I then kept going up the nail, half way and then just the end, for the full grad...

It's been a little while since I've done a haul post and the polishes I've picked up over the past week have just been too good not to show you!  I've been doing a lot to curb my polish buying over the past few months - part of the reason I've been doing so many glitter posts - but I just had to get these ones.  Less talking, more polish pitcurreeressss! L to R, top to bottom: Tokidoki Savana and Ciao Ciao, Sephora Base Coat, Sephora by OPI Cab Fare, Nails Inc Pudding Lane, Sweets Way and Sugar House Lane, and Butter London Knackered

I came thiiiiiiis close to being a normal person today.  I was so close to just applying a beautiful, strong red and saying "yes, this is sufficient, I am finished now".  NOPE, GLITTER EVERYWHEREREREREREREEEERRRR. I've had Rimmel Stiletto in my drawer for a while now and oh how I pined for it when I had those horrible stains on my nails.  USE BASE COAT EVERY SINGLE TIME LADIES.  Even with a white base coat, the polish is just a jelly it just never looked right.  Now I'm being a proper person and don't have stains on my nails, I can use this gorgeous red jelly without issue!  Three coats is best with this one, just to make sure the finish is perfect.  Once done, I couldn't resist adding a little matching glitter.  I've had this red holo glitter for a while now and have been trying to find a way to use it, as it's tricky when it's so small.  Turns out, with a matching red base, glitter dots are perfect.  You don't really notice them u...

I love glitter so much it's a little embarrassing.  Anything sparkly and I'm in.  It's probably why every third mani or so I do is hand-placed glitter, mostly because the lined up glitter catches the most light.  When I don't have the time to do a full coverage glitter mosaic, I like to use smaller pieces of glitter, in a grid pattern, for that retro feel.  This one came out so sparkly, you'd think I have LED's embedded in my nails! To start, I added two coats of American Apparel Crescent Heights, an acid lime green.  My bottle's a little old so it was a bit gloopy but the second coat evened things out.  Then, using my usual technique , I started with the blue glitter, spacing them out evenly.  The trick with a grid is to start at the top of your nail, making sure that you don't end up with a gap as your nail curves.  Also work out if you're going to have three, four or five columns across your nail and space appropriately.  Once I'd don...

It's tricky, trying to decide on nails to do when you're to attend a networking event.  I want to simultaneously get a conversation started about my nails without being too in-your-face, given it was a tech social.  Of course, neon and glitter was a sensible choice! I've reviewed both of these polishes separately before but I love them both so here they are again.  First up, my absolute favourite neon orange, Claire's Flames.  It applies really well, only needing two coats while not being streaky.  Next, a coat of the densely glitter-packed Urban Outfitters Dust, a grey glitter in a mix of micro and medium hexes.  The glitter combination just makes the nails look really shiny, always a plus.