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?

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?

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?

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?

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! 

Maybelline Cocktail Dress

Tonight I've got a quick post to share with you- this is Maybelline Cocktail Dress, a fine black glitter with bigger red hexagonal glitter mixed in. The formula was just okay- I think this took three coats to achieve opacity. 

It actually reminds me a little bit of one of the OPI Mariah Carey Liquid Sands, "Stay The Night". The red glitter in the OPI is smaller and more of a magenta-pink, and of course the OPI also has the textured element to it, but they are somewhat similar in overall effect.

What do you think of Maybelline's Cocktail Dress? Does the name annoy anyone else? It makes me think that this is a lacquer with an identity crisis: "I'm not a nail varnish... I'm a dress! A REAL dress!" Alrighty, then, little delusional polish. It's kinda cute when you think of it that way, I suppose.

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!

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...

OPI Stay The Night (Liquid Sand)

I couldn't resist picking up the four new OPI liquid sand minis- I'm always intrigued by a new texture/effect in nail polish, and I haven't seen anything quite like this before. Today I've got "Stay The Night" to show you- this is a black with red glitter combination. It makes me think of asphalt with glowing red embers. I found application to be easy, and this covered in two coats. In reality, the red glitter in this sparkles like crazy- definitely worth checking out in person!

This last picture was taken shortly after application, and it looks a little bit glossy yet. I did find that in order to maximize the fully matte "liquid sand" look, it is best to let this one dry completely. I've noticed that with some swatches of Stay The Night other bloggers have mentioned that they wish it was less glossy and more matte- I think this may be partly because Stay The Night was swatched, but not allowed to fully dry. Just a hunch, anyways.

Overall, I really like the liquid sand effect. It's not terribly gritty, although if you're sensitive to texture you might not like it. The best way I could think to describe it was that it feels kind of like a cat's tongue. Okay, that sounds like a weird comparison to make, but it's strangely accurate. It's not so gritty that it will snag on anything, but it does feel kind of rough. 

The other interesting thing I noticed about this polish is that when first applied, it looks like a normal non-glitter polish. Then it kind of granulized into this grittier finish. Pretty cool. Removal was also a breeze- not at all like removing an all-glitter polish. 

What do you you think of the liquid sand finish? Have you, or will you, be trying these out? I'd love to hear your thoughts on these!

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.

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?