Butter London Disco Biscuit - My Last Summer Pedicure

Today I wanted to share with you a quick swatch of the lacquer that became my last summery pedicure of the season. This is Butter London Disco Biscuit, a gorgeous hot pink jelly with lots of fine blue shimmer in it. This was a long-time lemming of mine, so I'm happy to say I finally got my hands on it. 

I'll leave you with a couple pictures I took over the summer; the first was taken late in the evening when I was vacationing at the lake, and the second was taken early one summer evening from my balcony when the newly risen moon just appeared over the horizon.

As summer draws to a close, I hope all of you had a good one! Are you looking forward to fall?

New Pirate Polish Swatches! (Part 5)

I'm excited to announce the addition of several new polishes to my Etsy shop! These are the new pretties that I've been working on lately:

Left to Right: Treasure Chest, Fruit Punch, Sea Monster, Companion Polish, Orb of Thessala

Orb of Thessala: This is another Buffy: The Vampire Slayer inspired lacquer to go along with Pirate Polish's The Buffster. Orb of Thessala is a mixture of small white and silver square glitter in a clear base swimming with holographic shimmer. Very sparkly and ethereal, and lots of fun to layer over different bases; below you can see it over white and over black. 

Treasure Chest: A glitzy gold glitterbomb that would satisfy any pirate's hunger for treasure. This is a mixture of several gold glitters (including lots of gold holographic glitter), large "rubies", and gold coins of every variety. Here it is layered over a plain black creme, and the third picture is blurry to show off the crazy holographic potential of this polish.

Sea Monster: A mixture of different sizes of vibrant turquoise and holographic glitters in a glossy clear base, including large blue-green holographic hexagonal glitters and large square silver holographic glitter. This combination makes me think of mysterious watery depths, and I think it pairs lovely with a black base (as shown here), but I'm looking forward to trying this over a variety of other colours.

The last two shades I want to introduce are ones I've experimented with in several different renditions, but these are the ones I've settled on.

Fruit Punch: I've been playing around a lot with jelly formulas (so much fun!), and came up with a lovely warm red-pink jelly tone I'm calling Fruit Punch. This is still squishy looking, but opaque at 2 coats, and it's positively loaded with holographic shimmer. This blazes in the sun!

Companion Polish: Last, but certainly not least, I have the long-awaited final version of my Companion Polish. Drawing inspiration from the video game Portal, this is a mixture of different sizes and shapes of white and grey glitter, and a lot of pink hearts. Don't worry; you'll never be required to incinerate your Companion Polish!

Companion Polish pictured here with a plush Companion Cube... Awww!

This is Companion Polish layered over a light grey creme:

And it looks like Companion Polish found a Companion Domo! Did somebody say "cute overload"?

Treasure Chest and Orb of Thessala are now available on the Pirate Polish Etsy shop, and Fruit Punch, Sea Monster, and Companion Polish will be joining them shortly. 

You can also find Pirate Polish on Facebook, and any inquiries can be made via Etsy conversation or email (piratepolish@gmail.com). 

What do you think of the new Pirate Polish lacquers? Is anything catching your eye? I'd love to hear your feedback!

NARS - Anardana

NARS Ratin Jot was my first ever NARS purchase, and I hadn't been planning to pick up another so soon... but then I saw Anardana, an extremely rich and vibrant fuchsia pink. Anardana is another colour from the same collection as Ratin Jot (Thakoon for NARS collection), and I couldn't pass it up- this set was limited edition, so I didn't know how long it would be around. 

This was so bright it kind of freaked my camera out. The formula was perfection, and I barely needed two coats. The polish was easy to control, and levelled out perfectly.

In case you were wondering what exactly "Anardana" is (I know I was), it's actually a kind of spice made from dried pomegranate seeds.  The word is from the Persian language, and the spice is commonly used in India and Pakistan. Although I didn't recognize the name, I've actually tried it before in an Iranian friend's cooking (mixed with saffron and rice). It's quite tart in flavour, and slightly fruity. 

What do you think of NARS Anardana?

Lush Lacquer Neon Blast and Pink Panther

I decided to do some layering with the Essence polishes I showed you yesterday! 

Here I have Lush Lacquer Neon Blast layered over Essence Walk on the Wild Side:

Neon Blast is a mixture of shiny blue, purple, pink, and green glitters in a wide range of sizes and shapes.

The next one is Lush Lacquer Pink Panther layered overtop of Essence Grey-t to be Here; I'm really thrilled with this combination! I think this grey provides the perfect background for Pink Panther which is a mixture of pink, white, and black glitters.

What do you think of these glitters from Lush Lacquer? Do you think they make good complements to the Essence polishes?

New Essence Shades! Walk On The Wild Side and Grey-t To Be Here

Today I have two of of the new Essence colours to show you: Walk on the Wild Side and Grey-t to be Here. 

First up, I have Walk On The Wild Side, a smokey evergreen shade with green shimmer. This is a really nice one- good application, and the shimmer is noticeable in both shade and sunlight. It's pretty unique; I don't have anything like it in my stash. 

The second shade I have to share with you is Grey-T To Be Here, a gorgeous light grey packed with red shimmer. It's a bit hard to see in the photographs, but the red shimmer is surprisingly apparent on the nail. Sometimes when you see lovely shimmer in the bottle it may not translate on the nail, but this one does and it's gorgeous. This one is also unique in my collection, and I'm very glad I picked it up!

Overall, I can't praise these two colours enough. For the price point, they're excellent. I'm also loving the new bottle shape! So much better than the old Essence bottles. These ones are also a bit bigger, and just generally have a nicer, smoother shape. The caps are really great, too- they have a little "notch" where you tighten them and you know they're fully closed (without having to tighten them so much that you can't get them open next time around!).

Have you tried any of the new Essence lacquers? If not, I highly recommend checking them out! In Canada they're available at Shopper's, and cost a mere $1.89.

Nails Inc Sugar House Lane

Tonight I have Nails Inc Sugar House Lane to show you; this is the second of the "Sprinkles" polishes I've purchased (see Pudding Lane here). 

This one is a strange mix... small black and white glitter in a taupe/putty base. Very odd. The formula was good, and this covered in two coats, but I think I prefer Pudding Lane over this one. I think the blue base in Pudding Lane really made the glitter pop; in this case, I think the taupey base colour just looks a little too muddy for my liking. Not that it's bad! I still love the jelly sandwich-esque look, it just doesn't wow me as much as yesterday's shade. 

Unlike Pudding Lane, Sugar House Lane (the actual location is in Newham, a borough of London) doesn't seem to have any particular associations with major historic events, although it was a site of intense industrial growth from the 18th century on. And that's my random tidbit of information about today's Nails Inc namesake!

What do you think of Nails Inc Sugar House Lane? Do you like it better than Pudding Lane?

Nails Inc Pudding Lane

As soon as I heard about the Nails Inc "Sprinkles" collection, I knew I had to get my nails on them. The combination of different glitters in a coloured/milky base is right up my alley. It's also a very indie-polish thing to do, so it's interesting to see a bigger brand like Nails Inc trying this out. 

Today I have Pudding Lane to share with you; this is a mixture of gold and navy blue glitter in a medium blue base. Interestingly enough, the gold glitter looks more like green because of the blue base colour. Coverage was good in two coats. 

The overall effect is that of a "jelly sandwich" manicure, without the extra work of having to layer a sheer polish underneath and overtop of a glitter. Very cool.

You know how Nails Inc polishes are always named after an actual street/avenue/square in London? Well, I had to google it...

...and there is an actual Pudding Lane in London.

Image Source

And apparently Pudding Lane is rather infamous, too, for being the site of The Great Fire of London (1666), which started in a bakery on Pudding Lane. Well, I have to admit I learned something new today.

What do you think of Nails Inc Pudding Lane? 

Ricki's Coral Caspia

Tonight I have an unexpectedly awesome lacquer to share with you: this is Ricki's Coral Caspia.

I found this at the Canadian clothing retailer, Ricki's, for a few bucks. I'm really happy I did pick this up, because it's a diamond in the rough. Coral Caspia is a borderline neon coral with a gorgeous silver/blue shimmer. I didn't manage to capture this in the pictures very accurately, but in person it was very beautiful.

The first two pictures are the most colour accurate, but in this next picture (under artificial lighting), I think the silver/blue flash is most evident. Gorgeous.

What do you think of Coral Caspia? I'm so taken with it, I'm giving it a coveted "awesome" tag. Entirely unexpected, coming from a sale bin at a clothing store!

Essie Penny Talk

I have my other purchase from the Essie Mirror Metallics collection to show with you today; this is Essie Penny Talk. 

Penny Talk is a coppery chrome metallic with a similar formula to Blue Rhapsody. The finish is relatively brushstroke free, provided you're somewhat careful with application. What you see here is two coats. Because of the chrome finish, you might want to consider buffing your nails before application, or using a ridge-fillng base coat to help hide imperfections.

I'm really happy that I picked this one up, mostly because I have a huge weakness for coppery shades, not to mention for chrome polishes. Combine the two, and I'm sold!

What do you think of Essie Penny Talk? Will you be picking it up?

Essie Blue Rhapsody (plus glitter gradient!)

Today I have Essie Blue Rhapsody from the new Essie Mirror Metallics Collection to share with you. 

Blue Rhapsody is reflective light blue metallic polish. In the sunlight, some very minor brush strokes are apparent, but mostly this applied very smoothly. This kind of polish does tend to highlight any imperfections on your nail, so it's worth it to buff out any problem spots before painting (or, consider using a ridge-filling base coat to help with creating a smoother surface).

Overall I'm fairly happy with how this looks- I'm crazy about chrome/metallic polishes, so it's a keeper for me.

I couldn't resist adding a glitter gradient to this manicure! Maybe it's KawaiiKagura from Nailpocalypse  and all her recent posts featuring awesome gradient manis, but I pulled out two different glitters to experiment with:

China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara, and Claire's Night Sky.

The two nails on the left have Claire's Night Sky, and the two on the right have China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara:

I think both of these glitters are a perfect complement to the shiny metallic blue of Essie Blue Rhapsody, but overall I really love how Lorelei's Tiara looks as a gradient over this! I'll have to remember to pull this combination out during the winter- it reminds me of ice and snow.

One last picture to show of the amazing holographic glitter in Night Sky:

What do you think of Essie Blue Rhapsody? Do you think it works well with a glitter gradient?