Quo by Orly Bubble Bath and Sailor's Blue

Tonight I've got two lacquers to share with you from Quo by Orly's spring collection: Bubble Bath and Sailor's Blue. FYI, these are the exact same as the Orly polishes Peaceful Opposition and High on Hope, except re-packaged into the Quo by Orly lacquers carried by Shopper's Drugmart in Canada. 

This is three coats of Bubble Bath, a milky white with lots of silver glitter in different shapes and sizes. I'm a sucker for silver glitter in a milky base because it makes the glitter look like a cool reflective white glitter, and not so much straight-up silver. Neat look, although the formula was a little globby. 

Sailor's Blue is a smokey navy blue with tonnes of purpley-red and gold shimmer. This one is really cool and the shimmer flashes a whole bunch of different colours. A little bit multichromatic!

What do you think of these polishes? Did you pick anything up from the Orly spring collection?

Color Club Bright Night and Pearl-spective

Today I've got two lacquers from the Color Club Kaleidoscope Collection (Spring 2013): Bright Night (intense, vivid, cobalt blue), and Pearl-spective (a fine flakey shimmer topcoat that flashes pink and gold). I layered Pearl-spective over top of Bright Night for this manicure; I was really happy with how much Pearl-spective stood out as a topcoat, and loved how finely milled the flakey shimmer was. 

And a shot of Bright Night by itself- sorry for the partial shadow! This really deserves a number of photos because it's so perfectly vivid and blue (not to mention utterly smooth and creamy), but I've just got this one for you today.

What do you think of these two shades from the Color Club Kaleidoscope collection?

Julie G Gumdrops Collection

Today I've got swatches of the Julie G Gumdrops collection- a set of six gorgeous sugar-texture (or "liquid sand" texture) polishes. I've got a skittles manicure that shows off the first five shades. Thumb to pinkie, these are: Blueberry Fizz (pale blue with bigger silver-y shimmer particles), Hot Cinnamon (intense, vibrant red with subtle gold glitter), Rock Candy (teal with different sizes of sparkly glitter particles), Crushed Candy (grape-y purple with silver glitter accents in different sizes), Tangerine Dream (bright citrus orange packed with golden sparkle). 

I've also got swatches of the final shade, Sugar Rush (a vibrant red-orange with tiny gold glitter):

I ordered this whole set as part of the pre-order for $20 from the Jesse's Girl Cosmetics website, and I can't say enough in terms of quality for the price- these are all gorgeous, and I'm not sure my skittles swatches quite do them justice. My favourites are Hot Cinnamon, Rock Candy, and Crushed Candy. I highly recommend these if you're into the textured look- they're inexpensive and really fantastic!

Do you have any plans to pick up some of the Julie G Gumdrops polishes? And while I'm asking, what do you think of my new nail shape? I recently filed them into more of a rounded/almond shape, and have been loving them! 

SpaRitual Aurum

SpaRitual Aurum: now, who couldn't find it in their heart to love a gold as outrageously luminous as this one? It positively glows. Pure liquid awesome. 

And can you tell that I'm still posting manicures from the holidays? I just thought Aurum was a perfect match to this shiny metallic gold bow. 

OPI - The Man With The Golden Gun

Tonight I've got OPI's The Man With The Golden Gun topcoat to share with you- while I couldn't justify shelling out the cash for this myself, I was pretty thrilled to find it in my stocking at Christmas. The gold flakes aren't very dense in this- what you see below is one coat over Zoya Marley. This is a pretty Easter look, but next time I think I'll try this over a darker colour (although I think I'll wait for a semi-special occasion... I can't help but think plastering gold leaf on your nails requires a special event- I guess grocery shopping doesn't quite count). 

I kind of think this is worth it based on the shiny golden bottle alone- it's like a trophy! Definitely the ideal gift for a nail fanatic. Did you buy into the gold flake topcoat trend this past season?

Picture Polish - Atomic

Tonight I have Picture Polish Atomic to share with you; this has a scattered and subtle holographic shimmer in a soft silver/white base. Not visible in the pictures, but more visible in real life is a golden-pink flash. Quite pretty, and definitely better in reality than in my pictures. The holographic shimmer in this is kind of flakey and really interesting, although visible mostly in bright sunlight (unfortunately on the day I took these, sunlight was in short supply). I used three coats to achieve full coverage. 

What do you think of Picture Polish Atomic? Did you pick up any of the recent Picture Polish collaboration shades?

Zoya FeiFei

After yesterday's post about Gosh Galaxy, I thought Zoya Fei Fei might be an appropriate polish to share. It has the same dense shimmery metallic finish, but has a steely blue base instead of brown. It also has a tremendous amount of gold (and purpley-pink) shimmery flecks in it. Very pretty. 

What do you think of Zoya FeiFei? Given the choice, would you opt for FeiFei or Gosh Galaxy?

Gosh Galaxy

I've got a short and sweet post for you today- this is Gosh Galaxy, a sparkly and complex mixture of pewter-y taupe with multicoloured shimmer (including particles of blue and pink and flashes of gold). It has a similar finish to Zoya Fei Fei and other related colours. In fact, it reminds me a little bit of The World Is Not Enough from the OPI Skyfall collection, except more brown in tone. 

What do you think?

Rescue Beauty Lounge Piu Mosso with Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Rescue Beauty Lounge's Piu Mosso is a deep navy blue with barely-perceptable golden shimmer (easy to see in the bottle, very hard to see on the nail). I've tried my best to catch the shimmer in these photos, but in reality, it mostly looks like a deep navy blue creme. 

Directly under artificial lighting- the most shimmer I could coax out of this polish:

Piu Mosso is the very first Rescue Beauty Lounge lacquer I've ever tried- and I have to admit, it didn't quite live up to expectations. While gorgeous in the bottle, that pretty golden shimmer doesn't really translate on the nail. And it certainly didn't look anything like it does in these swatches. Formula-wise, it can't be faulted (practically a one-coater, easy to control), but it was something of a let down. Especially with the high price tag (even higher once you factor in international shipping). 

Thankfully, I have a super awesome friend who is also into lacquer, and presented me with Max Factor's fabled Fantasy Fire for my birthday back in November! Amazing, right? Even better, she gifted me TWO bottles of Fantasy Fire. It's like she could see the dilemma coming- if you've only got one small bottle, you can only use it sparingly. But with a back-up, I can awesome-ize any boring manicure I want. Case in point: Piu Mosso gets taken from "meh" to "zomg!!1".

In the sun:

In the shade:

Utterly drool-worthy. And to think, I'd never expected to get my hands on this one. Fantastic birthday present, from an amazing friend. You know who you are!

Multichrome Madness: Enchanted Polish I Am The Walrus + Bonjour Paris

If you haven't tried any of Enchanted Polish's incredible multichromes, you're probably missing out. Case in point? Enchanted Polish's I Am The Walrus, an amazing multicoloured splendour that shifts from purplish red to orangey gold to something approaching green. Oh, did I mention it also has scattered holographic particles? Feast your eyes:

As if that wasn't enough, I topped this manicure off with Enchanted Polish's Bonjour Paris, a colour-shifting glitter topcoat. Bonjour Paris is mostly purple and blue with some flashes of red and gold. Combined with I Am The Walrus, this was pretty mind-blowing.

I haven't seen this much multichrome awesomeness since THIS happened. What do you think of this manicure? Do you own any Enchanted Polish lacquers?

Pirate Polish "Love In A Cold Climate" collection swatches (Valentine's Day 2013)

I'm thrilled to announce the release of the Pirate Polish "Love In A Cold Climate" collection for Valentine's Day 2013! This collection is a set of four polishes, and I think there is something here for everyone. 

Left to right: Be Mine, Lovandula, Cinnamon Girl, Love In A Cold Climate 

First up is Be Mine, a soft candy pink creme peppered with fine golden accents: subtle golden flakes and tiny golden holographic sparkles. By far the most demure polish of the collection, this lacquer fits the bill if you're looking for something soft and sweet, and yet it has more going on than your standard pink pastel. Be Mine is opaque in two coats.

Lovandula is the perfect lavender glitter bomb; tiny purple holographic glitter, bubblegum pink hexagonal glitter, an abundance of diamond-shaped lavender glitter, and large silver holographic hex glitter. For such a cute looking polish, this lacquer definitely packs a big holographic punch. Lovandula is shown below, two coats over a purple creme.

Lovandula also conveniently doubles as a disco ball, in case of impromptu Valentine's Day dance parties...

Cinnamon Girl is a scorchingly bright red jelly, teeming with red glitter in every imaginable shape and size. It also features tiny silver holo glitter, which adds extra depth and sparkle. I really love the idea of red-on-red when it comes to combining a red jelly with red glitters. While opaque by itself in three coats, this polish can also be layered over a dark vampy shade to bring out more contrast between the base colour and the red glitter. I'll be sure to show you swatches of what Cinnamon Girl looks like layered in the coming days.

Love In A Cold Climate is this collection's namesake, and is notable for its abundance of icy blue and white hearts. It also contains a wide range of bright blue and snowy white glitters in various shapes and sizes, as well as tiny iridescent blue square glitters. Here I've shown two coats of Love In A Cold Climate over a deep blue creme.

I'm happy to announce that this collection will also be available in miniatures. The set of four minis is priced at $18 ($5 individually), while the set of four full-size polishes costs $36 ($10 individually). 

These polishes are currently in stock at the Pirate Polish Etsy store, and are limited edition for Valentine's Day. For more information, and to stay up to date on new releases, check Pirate Polish out on Facebook.

What do you think of these sweet offerings for Valentine's Day? Are you feeling the love?