Sally Hansen Concrete and A-England Merlin

Tonight I've got one of my very favourite polishes to share with you: Sally Hansen Concrete. What makes this polish so special? Well, it's the best neutral I own, and it's the colour I pull out whenever I want to feel professional and polished. Concrete is a perfect taupey-pinkish-beige (in some lights it pulls more grey, while in others it's more of a soft purple/pink). It's always incredibly flattering- more so than any other shade in my collection. It also holds the status of being the only truly back-up worthy lacquer in my collection- quite a distinction! Without further ado, here's my beloved Concrete: 

I also decided to add a gradient of A-England's Merlin to this mani; the fine, delicate silver glitter makes a nice addition to Concrete, although I didn't get the glitter dispersion as even as I would have liked!

What do you think of Sally Hansen Concrete? Can you see why it's perhaps my favourite shade of all time?

Do you have a favourite polish of all time? Let me know in the comments!

The cutest manicure I've ever sported!

Yes indeed, I have for you today... *drumroll*... the absolute cutest manicure I've ever worn. This is a base of Lime Crime Milky Ways, topped with adorable metallic gold nail art water decals featuring a chubby waving cat, gold coins, and a fish blowing bubbles. Maybe they're lucky coin bubbles. I'm not really sure, but I like it! 

I'm not sure what the character on the thumb means, so if anyone reads Chinese language, please enlighten me!

A close up of the cute fish:

Aww, roly-poly waving cat!

What do you think of my ultra-cute manicure? I have to admit, I think this is my favourite experience with nail decals yet. They're easy to use, lie flat on the nail, and I love the gold metallic accent. Very fun!

These decals are available here, and the product code is "WDDC056".

*Nail decals were sent to me for unbiased review; all opinions are my own. 

Lime Crime - Les Desserts d'Antoinette

When I first saw The Manicure Addict's amazing swatches of the Lime Crime Les Desserts d'Antoinette collection, I knew they would have to be mine... and when I saw this wickedly brilliant pinwheel manicure she put together using all of the colours, I was even more convinced of the fact that I needed them.  One problem- at that time, Lime Crime did not ship to Canada. Since then, Harlow and Co has begun carrying the Les Desserts collection, but at the time I was rather sad about not being able to get my nails on these. Thankfully, Katherine (the owner of those fabulous nails over at The Manicure Addict) is just plain awesome and offered to be my US mailing address. A couple weeks later, these arrived in my mail box: Lavendairy, Peaches and Cream, Pastelchio, and Milky Ways.

Being awesome, Katherine also included some extra goodies- what an awesome surprise! It seems that the best kind of nail mail comes with tasty suckers.

First up is Lavendairy; I absolutely can't say no to a pretty pastel purple, and this one is very pretty indeed. While all the shades in this collection are pastel-ish cremes, they're not your typical pastel cremes. They're much punchier and more saturated than your standard pastel. This lavender pastel leans very pink, which makes it fairly unique in my collection. Gorgeous. This is two coats. 

Next up is Pastelchio; the first picture of this is a bit washed out, the second is truer to colour. It's an amped up pastel pistachio creme that is totally unique in my collection. While extremely thick, and a little tricky to work with, what you see below is one coat. Pretty amazing! There are a few thin spots, so if I was wearing this as a mani, I'd likely do two, but I'm still impressed. 

Peaches and Cream: a vivid creamsicle orange. This was another amazing one-coater- no streaky areas, although it was a very thick formula to work with.

My favourite of the collection is Milky Ways; what a fantastic and unique white creme! Quite unusual. It has a soft peachy undertone that keeps it from looking too stark. Beautiful.

Milky Ways photographed in natural light:

I was so taken with this collection that I decided to order one more from Harlow and Co; this is Once In A Blue Mousse, a pretty pastel blue creme. 

What do you think my picks from the Lime Crime Les Desserts d'Antoinette collection? I'm pretty thrilled with them! I decided to pass on the other two shades in the collection, a pastel yellow and a pastel pink, but if they're anything like these, you probably can't go wrong. The bottles are slightly smaller than a full size (I think they're around 10ml instead of 15ml), but they're really cute. I love the shape and the frosted glass. Adorable! Will these be finding a place in your collection?

A belated Halloween manicure!

Tonight I've got a Halloween manicure to share with you- I wish I'd posted it before now, but better late than never. And this is a good one. 

I started out with Layla Mercury Twilight, a gorgeous silver holographic. There are tonnes of silver holographics out there, but this is the only one you need. Stunning. 

Then I added a few Halloween-themed water decals to the manicure; I'd never used water decals before, and at first was kind of intimidated. But it's actually super easy! Just cut out the decals, and dunk them in mildly warm water for a minute. The backing will peel off, and you just slide it onto the nail, and manoeuvre it to where you want it. As a nail art novice, this was an easy way of accomplishing a cute mani. I was extremely pleased with the end result, and the stark black of the design contrasts wonderfully with the silver holo base. Very cool looking.

The water decals are available here, via an online retailer called KKCenterHK. The product number is "N.NAIL-WDHHK099". 

What do you think of my belated Halloween manicure? Have you tried water decals before?


*Nail decals were sent to me for unbiased review; all opinions are my own. 

F4 S'mores (with Barry M Mushroom)

Brace yourself for a whole 'lotta awesome! I've got another F4 polish to show you today: S'mores! This is one I knew I had to have as soon as I heard about it; the concept is just too delicious to pass up. I figured Barry M Mushroom would make the perfect milk chocolate base for this glitter, so I'll show you Mushroom by itself first. 

And with F4 S'mores overtop- how incredible is this?!

I absolutely love this combo! S'mores is such a perfect mixture of brown, bronze and white glitter. It definitely makes me think of chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallows! And I'm really happy with how this looks over Barry M Mushroom, which is a lovely polish in it's own right. What do you think of this combo? Are you as thrilled with it as I am?

F4 Pink Penquin

I've got a quick post for you tonight- this is F4's Pink Penquin. I'm pretty sure I layered this over one of the Maybelline Colour Show for fall polishes (Auburn Ablaze, I think?). Anyways, the base colour is dark enough that you can really see what kind of glitter comprises Pink Penquin; a mixture of small white glitters and a few black glitters with bigger pops of pink. This is really fun! I love all the fine white glitter in this, and it kind of reminds me of static on TV. Just prettier. What do you think of Pink Penquin? 

The only thing I don't get is the name... why Pink Penquin instead of Pink Penguin? I feel like there's a reference I'm missing there. Does anyone know what inspired the name in this case? Let me in on the secret! 

Pirate Polish Holiday 2012 Collection Swatches!

Tomorrow I'll be releasing the Pirate Polish Holiday 2012 Collection! Here's a sneak peek:

Left to Right: Holiday Glow, Joyeux Noël, Sugar Cookies, Christmas Lights, Christmas Tree In Blue

Sugar Cookies is a creamy white polish with multicoloured pastel glitters in various shapes and sizes. For me, the quintessential holiday treats are the sugar cookies my grandmother used to bake. Here I've tried to replicate the slightly golden hue of white sugar cookies fresh out of the oven; this isn't a stark white, it's very soft and warm, with some yellow in it.

I've had this fantastic metallic blue tinsel glitter in my stash of supplies for some time now. It reminded me instantly of the blue pine needles of a faux blue Christmas tree. I feel like coloured trees went through a phase of popularity back in the day- does anyone else recall this phenomenon? This is my Christmas Tree In Blue, a mixture of metallic blue glitters, silver hexagonal glitter, fine holographic blue glitter, and different sizes and shapes of white glitter. The overall effect is very snowy, icy, and glitzy. Below I've swatched it over a grey-beige shade.

Holiday Glow is a luxurious mixture of superfine copper and gold flakes, as well as a smattering of gold holographic glitters. It's a luminous combination that reminds me of candlelight. Below it is pictured on it's own, but it could also be layered to create an interesting effect.

Joyeux Noël is a perfect Christmas polish- red and green metallic glitters in a multitude of different sizes, along with a smattering of gold holographic hexagonal glitter. Very festive! Below it is swatched over a forest green creme. 

I wanted to create a lacquer reminiscent of Christmas Lights at night- this is my take on that theme. A deep grape purple jelly containing multicoloured matte hexagonal glitters, small twinkling silver holographic glitter, and large metallic purple glitters. Below it is shown over a dark purple creme (Illamasqua Baptiste).

I'm also pleased to be offering minis for the first time! They will be available individually for $5, and as a set for $22. The regular size bottles are priced at $10 each, and are available as a full set for $45.

This collection will be available tomorrow in the Pirate Polish Etsy shop. You can also follow updates by checking Pirate Polish out on Facebook.

What do you think of my Pirate Polish Holiday collection? Is anything catching your eye?