Pirate Polish

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Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Random Swatch Spam

I know I've been away for some time- can I make it up to you with a massive amount of swatch spam? I hope so! 

Colorama Transparente in white (this was probably 4 or 5 coats). 

CrowsToes accent nail- gorgeous! Layered over Essie Devil's Advocate. 

Dior Lady 

Essie Bikini So Teeny (I won this one from the lovely Karen at Frazzle and Aniploish). 

Butter London's No More Waity, Katie. Totally agree with Stupid Nail Polish Names about this one.

Cirque Galinda as a gradient over Zoya Caitlin.  

 CND Sapphire Sparkle layered over a pastel purple. 

Colorama Transparente in green. 

Essie Devil's Advocate. Unbelievably glossy.  

HITS Cairo as an accent nail.  

Illamasqua Scorn layered over Rescue Beauty Lounge's Jane. Loved wearing this combo!

Jindie Nails Tried and True as an accent nail. 

KBSchimmer's Get Clover It.  

La CC's 1992. Does this look like 1992 to you?

L'oreal's Silver Sparkle, also courtesy of Karen at Frazzle and Aniploish

Model's Own Utopia; lovely colour, but very thick and bubbled like crazy.  

Modha Atrevida: shimmery eggplant charcoal.  

Ninja Polish Color-Changing Garnet, layered over what I think is Sally Hansen Copperhead.

OPI liquid sand in Honey Ryder. 

Monday, December 23, 2013

Babyliss Miracurl Giveaway (courtesy of Nail Polish Canada)

Have you heard about the Babyliss Miracurl? Ever since I saw this demo video, I've been coveting the idea of "easy"curls (mainly because I have never been able to find my way around a curling iron- honestly, on a good day I manage a straight part, but doing my hair has never been my strong suit). 


Anyways, I was pretty psyched to hear about Nail Polish Canada's Miracurl giveaway- they'll be choosing three winners to announce on Christmas Day (a "Christmas Miracurl"… bahaha), so if you're as intrigued as I am, you better scoot over and check it out at THIS LINK! The giveaway is open to Canadian and US residents, and while you're over there, definitely check out their righteous selection of nail lacquer, too. They're pretty much the best nail polish e-tailers, ever. And they're CANADIAN, which almost makes me feel down right patriotic. And I'm Canadian, so we usually keep that sort of thing under wraps. You get the picture. Check it out. 

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Chanel Dragon

Are five photos too many for a red creme? Not when it's this red creme! This is Chanel's Dragon. Fitting name- this lacquer is hard to ignore. I wore this and loved it, especially for a Vaudeville-themed "speakeasy" night I attended a while back. This was probably the longest my nails have ever been, and I trimmed them down shortly after this manicure, but it was really fun to sport long, red nails for a couple days. Very retro and glamourous! 






What do you think of Chanel Dragon? Does it catch your eye?

Monday, July 22, 2013

Deborah Lippmann Don't Tell Mama and Supermodel

Today I've got two lovely Deborah Lippmann lacquers to share with you; first up is Don't Tell Mama, a blackened emerald shimmer. I believe this was two coats. 



Secondly, I've got Supermodel, a gorgeous tangerine-red jelly. This was three coats, and it mostly covers visible nail line, but retains a lot of wonderful squishy jelly-ness.




Of these two, I'm rather enamoured with the bright, clean tangerine red of Supermodel. Extremely attention-grabbing! And I can certainly recommend Don't Tell Mama if you're in the market for a good blackened shimmer.

I picked these up a couple months ago during a big sale Nail Polish Canada had on Lippmann polishes- and if you're interested, you can still nab some of these pretties for about 50% off. Are there any Deborah Lippmann polishes you would recommend?

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Jade - Magia Negra

Alright, folks. I've just discovered the most amazing black holographic polish ever made. All other contenders can officially pack it in. They're not touching Jade's Magia Negra. Observe:




Sunny days were made for this lacquer (and not the other way around...).

Jade Holografico polishes are available from both Llarowe and Ninja Polish. It's currently out of stock at Llarowe, but it is in stock at Ninja Polish- which is where I'm assuming you'll be heading after having seen these swatches. Well, what are you waiting for?

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Layla Soft Touch in Mudhattan

You may recall my appreciation for the Layla Soft Touch line in my posts here and here. Well, it hasn't wavered with my latest experience with Layla's Soft Touch in Mudhattan; I'm still loving this smooth semi-matte nail finish! Mudhattan is, as you might guess, the colour of mud. More particularly, it's the dusty taupe brown of dried mud. And it's also got the coolest red micro shimmer- seriously, click the pictures to make them bigger and scope it out! 




Very cool. This manages to feel chic and edgy at the same time. I can't recall if I bought this particular bottle through Nail Polish Canada or Ninja Polish, but I can vouch for both of them being fantastic retailers!

Have you tried any of the Layla Soft Touch polishes? If not, have I piqued your interest in them?

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Zoya Pixie Dusts in Godiva and Vespa

I'm loving the textured trend lately, particularly Zoya's rendition of it, the Pixie Dusts. Today I've got Godiva and Vespa to share with you. 

Godiva is a light sandy beige with lots of silver sparkles- these really are best witnessed in person in order to appreciate how much sparkle these pack. They especially come to life in the sunlight. 



Vespa is a dusty light sage green with silver sparkle. Gorgeous, and again even better in person.




While I'm loving the textured trend, I have to say one thing about it- I hate wearing textured polish while flossing my teeth! It just... feels wrong. It gives me the creeps! What do you think of the textured trend? Are you loving it?

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Illamasqua Harem and Nurture

Tonight I've got two gorgeous Illamasqua lacquers to show to you: Harem and Nourish. 

Harem was released earlier this year and is a lovely blue-based pink creme; it's not quite your standard pastel pink- it has much more of a lavender hue to it. As per usual, the formula was great, barely needing two coats for perfection. 




Nurture is part of last year's Rubber Brights collection, and sports an interesting satin/rubber finish- it is also the most incredible vivid green. It's extremely bright, but doesn't come off as a citrusy neon- rather, it has an beautiful fresh leafy-ness to it, if that makes sense. I absolutely loved wearing this one, and was sorry to remove it. Very unique.





What do you think of these lacquers from Illamasqua? Can you think of any polishes similar to Illamasqua Nurture?

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Picture Polish Honey Dew and China Glaze It's A Trap-eze

First of all, my apologies for a lengthy disappearance- sometimes life (regrettably) gets in the way of blogging about nail polish. I should be back to posting fairly regularly, however. And to kick that off, I've got a great spring manicure to show you: Picture Polish Honey Dew, with a single layer of China Glaze It's A Trap-eze layered overtop of the ring finger as an accent nail. I love the way this turned out- Honey Dew is a gorgeous, dreamy, melon green, and It's A Trap-eze is sheer enough to let the base colour shine through to create a delicious milky effect. 





Speaking of Picture Polish, did anyone else get the chance to try the new glitter base, "Revolution"? I was able to get my hands on it through Nail Polish Canada when it first went up on the site, and have only really tried it with Cirque's French Roast (a pretty glitter dense polish), and can't say I noticed a dramatic difference in removal. If I did it again, I'd probably just opt for foil method. I'm assuming it's more to do with my particular body chemistry, as others have reported excellent results using Revolution.


What about you? Any great successes (or otherwise) to report with Picture Polish Revolution as an aid in glitter removal?