Essie Jazz

Essie Jazz falls firmly into the category of putty-ish neutrals, although in certain lighting I do see it leaning decidedly more taupe and less beige than the photos you'll see here (this is 2 coats of Essie Jazz):

Right now I'm wearing Essie Jazz on my toenails and absolutely loving it- this is a surprise to me, because I'd always been of the opinion that bright, punchy colours were pedicure colours, and definitely not fleshy-toned neutrals. Well, I've changed my tune on that! I should credit Stephanie at Short N Chic for converting me to this school of thought, because after seeing her write blog posts about how wonderful neutral tones are on toenails I finally gave it a try myself! I'm so glad I did.

Do you like to wear neutrals on your toes? Or do you reserve them exclusively for your fingernails?

Finally, I'll leave you with another kind of "jazz"-  a tune by Miles Davis. This is one of my very favourite pieces of music...

Color Club Sci Fi

I have another Color Club magnetic polish to show you today- this time it's an olive green with brilliant gold sparkle. The magnetic design combined with the sparkle in this makes for a really cool effect- when the magnet separates the pigments, the gold sparkle in this really comes to life. 

This was two coats of Sci Fi (with the magnet applied immediately after the second coat of lacquer).

As I mentioned in my last post about Color Club Magnetic Force, the magnet is really easy to use, and creates a wavy pattern design. If you're new to magnetic lacquers, I would highly recommend trying one of the Color Club polishes.

The finished effect on this polish kind of reminds me of a favourite bracelet of mine (interestingly enough, the bracelet is also "magnetic" in the sense that the small beads stringing it together are magnetic- I suppose that makes them a really good match!).

Overall, Sci Fi was a huge winner for me- the gold sparkle in this makes it a stunner. What do you think of Color Club Sci Fi?

Color Club Magnetic Force

I have a magnetic polish to share with you today! This time I'll be showing you Magnetic Force, a deep blackened eggplant-burgundy shade, from the Color Club magnetic collection. This is what two coats of Magnetic Force looks like:

The magnetic pattern that is created is a wavy design (as seen on the cap), which is neat, but I do find myself wishing for more new shapes! Hopefully magnetic polish designs will become more diverse in the near future.

The magnetic design, and actually the whole bottle, is very similar to the Nails Inc. magnetic lacquers. In fact, I'd say it's an exact match to the Nails Inc. bottle (although the colour of lacquer is different, of course).

I'm still crazy about magnetic polishes and the cool effect that results with the application of the magnet. In this case I found it very convenient to use- as you can see, the cap has a magnet in it, which you can remove from the brush for ease of use, and it comes with a raised cuticle guide to help with placement.

What do you think of Color Club Magnetic Force? Are you planning on trying more magnetic lacquers?

Jessica Bronze Tailed

Today I have Jessica Bronze Tailed to share with you; this is one of the trio of Jessica polishes that copies the very popular Chanel Illusion d'Ombre lacquers. I don't have Chanel Quartz, so I can't tell you if this is an exact dupe for it, but I've done my best to capture it in pictures for you:

Bronze Tailed is a curious shade- a taupey tan with tonnes of silvery shimmer. I certainly don't have anything like it in my collection, but I'm not totally sold on it as a flattering colour. I don't find it unappealing either, though! Just unusual.

What do you think of Jessica Bronze Tailed?

And before I go, I'll leave you with this awesome music video from Rufus Wainwright's new album. I love pretty much everything about this, including Helena Bonham Carter's participation in it. Enjoy!

Revlon Royal and Revlon Copper Penny

I finally picked up Revlon Royal after a year of waffling over it (on sale, no less!), and I'm so glad I did. This is a beautiful deep jelly blue, good in two coats. A little visible nail line is apparent here, but I found that didn't really bother me for a change.

I probably should have left well enough alone, but I decided to attempt a polka-dot manicure using Revlon Copper Penny. I don't have a dotting tool, so I improvised with a bobby pin. This was the result:

I like the colour combination, but my execution was a bit lacking. I couldn't get the dots to be uniform, so some ended up being quite globby and irregular. What do you think of my rarely witnessed attempt at nail art?

I'm pretty crazy about Revlon Royal- what do you think of it?

Kind of random, but for some odd reason Revlon Royal reminded me of this:

I have no idea what "Ube" jam is, but in my imagination I picture it to be roughly the same colour as Revlon Royal. FYI, I picked these "Stik-O" wafter stick snacks up at a Filipino grocery store on a whim, so if anyone can enlighten me as to what Ube jam actually is, please do (in this instance I choose to believe simply googling it would take all the fun out of wondering about it...).

Doesn't the Stik-O boy look super evil?! That's a creepy and menacing grin if I ever saw one, and I'm pretty sure that's what sold me on buying these things in the first place. They're not half bad actually!

So there you have it. Nail art, Ube jam, and menacing grins. Hope you enjoyed!

Purple Comparisons!

I've been meaning to post this comparison forever (at least a month or two), but I'm only just getting around to it now! This is a comparison of pastel purples; as it happens, this is perhaps my favourite "easy-to-wear" shade for my nails. It always looks great!

This is the line-up! Left to Right: Essence A Lovely Secret, OPI Planks A Lot, OPI Done Out In Deco, Essie Bangle Jangle, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac.

This is how they look on the nail; I'm pretty sure this was two coats of each:

Thumb to pinky, this is Essence A Lovely Secret, OPI Planks A Lot, OPI Done Out in Deco, Essie Bangle Jangle, Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac.

Essence A Lovely Secret is far more blue-toned than the other lavenders here, but is rather interesting in its own right. It has a very subtle shimmer running through it, and on the nail it appears more speckled than anything. Quite unusual! Enlarging the pictures should give you a better idea of what it looks like.

OPI Planks A Lot is clearly the deepest purple here, but it still has the same dusty quality to it that OPI Done Out In Deco has. The Essie is far more grey, and Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac is much brighter and cleaner than the others.

Overall, I love OPI Done Out In Deco for the lovely faded quality it has, but I really adore Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac. It's the perfect bright pastel lilac colour, and for the price point you can't go wrong. Do you have a go-to lavender you'd like to recommend?

Oh and by the way...

This post is Purple-Domo approved!

Nerd Lacquer - Quantum Bluniverse

Today I've got yet another awesome Nerd Lacquer to share with you! This time it's Quantum Bluniverse, a deep sea blue base filled with a whole bunch of awesome glitter: big gold and bright blue hex glitter, plus a very strong golden shimmer which runs throughout the polish. The interesting thing about the golden shimmer is that the shimmer particles are very large. I'm not prepared to call it glitter, but it's not your average golden shimmer either. Very cool.

This is two coats of Quantum Bluniverse:

How great is this? It applied well, and it wasn't hard to get the glitter out of the bottle and onto the nail. I did have a technique to ensure I did get lots of glitter, though- I made sure to shake the bottle after painting every 5 nails.

What do you think of Nerd Lacquer's Quantum Bluniverse?

A-England Dragon

Today I have another fabulous lacquer from the A-England Legends collection (you can see pictures of St. George here and Ascalon here). I really adore the A-England polishes; they have the most fantastic formula out of any brand I've tried. A-England Dragon is no exception. It's extremely easy to apply, and smooth and opaque in one or two coats at most.

Dragon is a gorgeous yellow-toned green, with subtle holographic sparkle and golden flash. Behold!

And it looks like Dragon found a companion in another dragon of mine:

Although I feel obligated to mention another dragon this brings to mind:

"TROGDOR!!!"

I hope you've enjoyed having a look at all these dragons! I wonder, which one is your favourite? 

Zoya Ki and Essence Where Is The Party? Comparison

Today I have a quick comparison post to share with you, featuring two similar and very awesome duochrome polishes. Zoya Ki and Essence Where Is The Party? are both lacquers with a shimmery deep blackened purple base, and flash green and steely grey.

Top to Bottom: Zoya Ki, Essence Where Is The Party?, Zoya Ki, Essence Where Is The Party?

It's not very evident here, but in reality Zoya Ki was a bit more blackened looking, a touch darker than the  Essence polish. Other than that, these are very similar colours. They're also both extremely interesting lacquers! I never get tired of the duochrome effect, and these polishes both do it well. If you don't have either of these, I'd recommend Essence Where Is The Party? because it's more accessible and only cost $1.49. A very worthwhile purchase, I'd say!

What do you think of these lacquers? Do you own one or the other? Would you like to?

Nerd Lacquer - I Aim to Misbehave

Today I have Nerd Lacquer's "I Aim to Misbehave" to share with you. If you're unfamiliar, this polish references the show Firefly, which you should absolutely watch if you haven't yet. It also has an incredibly awesome opening theme song:

I Aim to Misbehave is a plummy purple-red colour with tonnes of glitter in it. I definitely recommend doubling up on a thick top coat in order to smooth it out. This is two coats, with plenty of Seche Vite topcoat.

I like this polish, but I do find myself wishing it was more of a jelly base, in order to let more of the lovely glitter shine through. I found it was getting covered up by the base a little too much for my taste, making it look a bit bumpy. 

Finally, I want to leave you with a couple more pictures of a Nerd Lacquer polish I reviewed earlier, and which I have no reservations about... this is Warrior Ethos, glittery jelly red perfection!