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?

Jindie Nails - Stompin' Gilbert Grapes

Tonight I've got a polish from Jindie Nails to share with you: this is "Stompin' Gilbert Grapes", a white crelly (creme-jelly) base with purple, green, and orange (or pink-y orange? For some reason they look pink in other online pictures, but to me they seem orange) glitters. The purple and green glitters come in various sizes and shapes, including some larger hex glitter and medium sized square glitter. The orangey glitter is much smaller. For me, this took a solid 3-4 coats to cover completely, but it was totally worth it. I love the soft milky/jelly base with the pretty combination of glitters in it. 

What do you think of this polish from Jindie Nails? Do you love the milky glitter look?

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?

Glitter Gal - Light As A Feather

I can't help but feel that my swatches don't quite do this one justice; this is Glitter Gal's Light As A Feather, a stunning white linear holographic. I haven't come across anything quite like this, and I remember when this first came out it was pretty unique. Now, with more and more indie makers creating fabulous polishes and exploring new combinations, it might not be as exceptionally unique as it once was, but it's still a fantastic lacquer. Behold:

I really love how light and ethereal this looks. It looked even more flawless in person- delicate and probably subdued enough to be work appropriate, but made special by the addition of holographic glow. Yep, this polish has definitely earned its coveted "awesome" tag.

What do you think of this gorgeous white holo?

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!

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 Dove + Pirate Polish Love In A Cold Climate

Zoya Dove is a gorgeous (you guessed it) dove grey creme. Application was lovely, and it covered in two coats. I'm especially pleased with this grey because it's fairly neutral- it doesn't lean too green or too blue. It's perfect. And now it's my #1 grey creme. 

I decided to top Zoya Dove with two coats of Pirate Polish Love In A Cold Climate; all in all, I think I prefer Love In A Cold Climate layered over a dark blue, but this is still quite pretty. Mmm, blue heart-shaped glitter.

I purchased Zoya Dove from Nail Polish Canada; when I picked it up, I also nabbed the other polishes from the same collection (Zoya Intimate Collection Spring 2011). At the time, it was on sale for $36- it doesn't seem to be now, but it might be worth keeping your eye on if you're looking to pick this collection up!

Pirate Polish Love In A Cold Climate is part of my Valentine's Day Collection, currently available in the Pirate Polish Etsy shop. I'm currently away, so all orders will ship after my return this weekend, but to make up for the inconvenience I've activated a coupon code to give you a 10% discount off your order- just enter "AWAYONVACAY" as a coupon code and your order will be adjusted accordingly.

What do you think of Zoya Dove as a base for Love In A Cold Climate?

Nails Inc - Sweets Way

Today I've got one of the Nails Inc Sprinkles polishes to share with you; some time ago I also showed you Pudding Lane and Sugar House Lane, but I think Sweets Way tops them both. This is a milky-based glitter polish, featuring delicate blue, peachy-pink, and white glitters in a white base. I don't recall application being too much of a pain, and it had decent coverage; overall, an excellent lacquer. 

What do you think of Sweets Way? Did you pick this one up when it first came out?

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?