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?

Zoya Spam!

Happy Easter, everyone! How about some Zoya spam to celebrate? 

Zoya Aurora: gorgeous (and insanely sparkly) scattered holographic purple. Looks different in the following pictures depending on lighting- in reality, it's somewhere in between. 

Zoya Bela: soft and squishy-looking peachy pink jelly.

Zoya Jacqueline: creamy yellow-toned off-white creme.

Zoya Marley: a light pastel purple with soft pearly shimmer. Very pretty, and perfect for Easter!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Dior Marilyn

Guess what? Today marks one year since I started blogging! I'm happy to say that I'm still loving painting my nails and showing them to you, not to mention that along the way I was inspired to create my own polish line! All in all, this has been a great year when it comes to my love of the lacquer. And today I've got an exceedingly pretty polish to share with you: Dior Marilyn.

Dior Marilyn was released as part of the 2012 holiday collection, and the bottle is ridiculously lovely to look at. The sort of item that I can't stand to stash away in a drawer and instead want to keep displayed on my night stand- very old school Hollywood glamour. The formula was exceptional, perfect coverage in two coats and easy to control. Colour-wise, Marilyn is a strikingly bright and clean red creme (leaning a touch more blue, I think, but very balanced between warm and cool tones). It's insanely glossy, and almost looks like a jelly because it's so slick looking. I've got to admit, I don't often go for reds, but this is just so perfect- and while it's a definite splurge, I got it for my birthday back in November, so I don't feel guilty about this one. Feast your eyes:

Well, what do you think of Dior Marilyn? I'm tempted to say it's worth it based on how precious the bottle looks alone...

Pirate Polish Cinnamon Girl (layered over OPI Midnight in Moscow)

Tonight I have a twist on one of the shades from the Pirate Polish "Love In A Cold Climate" Valentine's Day collection. While Cinnamon Girl can be worn alone as a (very bright and intense) red jelly, as shown in my original swatches of the Pirate Polish Valentine's Day collection, it can also be layered over a darker shade to show more contrast between the red base and the multitude of red glitter. In this case, I used one coat of Cinnamon Girl layered over OPI Midnight in Moscow. 

OPI Midnight in Moscow, by itself:

Overall, I'm pretty thrilled with how this turned out; I love seeing the contrast between the base and the red glitter, in all it's varied shapes and sizes. Speaking of which, how enormous and awesome is that giant square red glitter?

Cinnamon Girl is currently in stock (along with the rest of the Valentine's Day collection) in the Pirate Polish Etsy store.

Layla Soft Touch in #07 Queen Bordeaux + Jindie Nails Candy Cane

Today I've got another festive manicure to share with you- this is Layla Queen Bordeaux with Jindie Nails Candy Cane as an accent nail. I was extremely excited to try out the new Layla Soft Touch line; it features a fairly unique finish, a combination of suede/matte/rubber finishes. It's not as stark or chalky as a straight matte, and the shimmer isn't as evident as with the OPI suede polishes. This has a lot  of depth- it's not immediately apparent in these photos, but Queen Bordeaux has a fiery red metallic shimmer in it, although it's rather subtle. I don't have anything similar to it; Man Glaze's Fatty's Got More Blood is more plum toned, and has very different shimmer. 

Overall, I'm very pleased with how this manicure turned out. I also opted to do an accent nail using Jindie Nails Candy Cane, in order to amp up the festive holiday theme. Candy Cane is a lovely white jelly/creme with different sizes and shapes of red and green glitter in it. It's quite sheer, so expect to use 3-4 coats for full opacity. The end effect is glorious- like crushed candy canes on your nails! 

I think this picture in full sun brings out the depth of Layla Queen Bordeaux the most. Isn't she beautiful?

What do you think of my festive manicure? Are you intrigued by the Layla Soft Touch line, or have you had enough of matte/suede/rubber finish polishes?

Availability: I purchased Layla Queen Bordeaux from Nail Polish Canada, and Jindie Nails from her Etsy shop.

Hare - Atolla

I've got another Hare polish to show you tonight- this time it's "Atolla" from a recent Hare collection that is inspired by the world of marine bioluminescence. I find the concept behind this collection riveting- the deep sea is such a relatively unexplored territory, and bioluminescence is just, well... cool! 

Onwards to the pictures; this is Atolla, a juicy raspberry jelly packed with iridescent blue glitter. 

See how deliciously jelly-ish the base is?

Bioluminescence? Check!

And with that, I'll leave you with this video of wacky deep sea creatures that glow. Enjoy! 

OPI Skyfall Collection Minis - Swatches!

It's rare that the OPI minis released with each major OPI collection contain the colours I really want from the collection, but in this case they contained every colour I really wanted to get my hands on! I have swatches of the four OPI Skyfall minis for you today.

First up I have Goldeneye- a dense golden flakey glitter in a clear base. This is two coats of Goldeneye, and if wearing this for a manicure I'd probably do a third in order to ensure opacity (in the last photo, taken in direct sun, it tends to look a bit sheer at two coats). I really love this one, and it's my favourite of the bunch. Incredibly luxurious and glitzy, I haven't come across anything like this before! 

Live and Let Die is a deep forest  green with golden-green flecks. The formula on this was fantastic- almost perfect in one coat. It reminded me slightly of Essence Walk on the Wild Side (reviewed here), but compared to that this is a darker green, and the glass fleck is more pronounced.

The Spy Who Loved Me is an extremely bright cherry red jelly with flakey gold shimmer in it. When I say "cherry red" I'm mostly thinking of that red pencil crayon that was always assigned the title "Cherry", even though it wasn't anything like the colour of a real cherry. Has anyone else puzzled over that? At least in my experience, cherries are usually a deeper red- nothing like this shade. Well, anyways, no matter how you want to describe it, this is a lovely red. It feels very festive, and holiday-appropriate!

The World Is Not Enough is an interesting one; formula-wise this was a little frustrating. It's quite sheer, and requires at least 3 coats for opacity (I used three below, and it could have used another). It's an unusual mixture of taupe/silver/pink flakey shimmer. I'm loving all the flake shimmer in this collection. Overall I like this, and appreciate how unique it is; I think I might try layering it over another colour next time, though.

What do you think of the OPI Skyfall minis? Will you be picking up any colours from the collection?

Sinful Colors Cinderella + Revlon Whimsical

Sinful Colors Cinderella and Revlon Whimsical are both polishes I've long admired- finally, after searching high and low and waiting patiently for them to show up in stores near me, I broke down and ordered them via eBay. Predictably, I saw them the following week at a local store, but isn't that the way it always goes? 

First I applied two coats of Cinderella; it really could have used a third, but I was in a rush and wanted to layer Whimsical overtop anyways. The pink shimmer in this is really gorgeous, albeit subtle. 

I think Cinderella makes a nice base for Revlon Whimsical. Whimsical consists of a mixture of metallic pale blue and pink hexagonal glitters and smaller glitter flecks in a pale milky blue jelly. I love how soft and pretty this looks! I've been lemming Whimsical (a dupe of Deborah Lippmann's Glitter In The Air), for a long time, so it was satisfying to finally get this on my nails.

I always associate particular lacquers with notable events that occurred when I was wearing them- in the case of this manicure, I wore it when I went to see my favourite Canadian band play a concert recently. I'll leave you with one of their songs- enjoy!