Pirate Polish Scimitar and Pirate Polish Fangs

I'm getting into the Halloween spirit, partially thanks to all the Halloween movies on TV this week- Beetlejuice is on right now and I'm enjoying it immensely. With decorations up, and pumpkin carving slated for tomorrow, I'm starting to feel quite festive! I've also got a good Halloween manicure to match: this is Pirate Polish Scimitar (a holographic charcoal grey shimmer) topped with Pirate Polish Fangs (a mixture of black and white diamonds, and assorted red, white, and black glitter in various shapes). 

This is Scimitar on it's own; it kind of reminds me of pencil graphite- if it was sparkly and holographic, that is.

Are you getting excited for Halloween? Do you have any favourite Halloween movies?

As always, Pirate Polish is available in the Pirate Polish Etsy store. You can also check us out on Facebook. Scimitar is part of the regular collection, but Fangs will only be around for a limited time; once Halloween has passed, it'll disappear shortly thereafter.

Cherry Blossom Nail Decals on Illamasqua Baptiste.

Recently I was contacted by KKCenterHK, a Hong Kong based beauty and nail art supplier, who asked me if I would be interested in reviewing a few of their products. I was quite happy to accept, as nail decals are a new technique for me to experiment with- I haven't experimented much with any kind of nail art, so this was a fun way to get started. Today I have a set of "3D" white cherry blossom nail decals to show you, and I've applied them over Illamasqua Baptiste, a deep shimmery purple and my manicure from the other day. 

Overall, these were surprisingly easy to use. I'm not sure why I was expecting it to be hard, but they're basically just slightly raised stickers you remove from the sheet and place on the nail. These pictures were taken prior to applying topcoat, but with topcoat they stay in place nicely. This is definitely a look I'll have to get used to, as I usually stick to plain colours without any nail art, but it was a nice way to dip my toes into the world of nail art. What do you think of these nail decals?

You can find more product information here, and the item code for this product is "3D-051".

*Nail decals were sent to me for unbiased review; all opinions are my own. 

Illamasqua - Baptiste

Tonight I have a gorgeous Illamasqua polish to show you: this is Baptiste, a very deep purple with lots of shimmery goodness. The overall effect was very velvety and rich; it looks quite dark (almost black) in low light, but mostly it appears as a very deep purple. The formula was par for the course when it comes to Illamasqua- very pigmented, easy to control, and opaque in two coats.

What do you think of Baptiste? Does this one have a home in your collection?

Since I always associate manicures with notable events, and I wore this lacquer on the night I went to a Dragonette concert, I'll leave you with an awesome music video for a song from their latest album: 

Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers - Nail In The Coffin

Is anyone else getting into the mood for Halloween? It struck me about a week ago, when I started decorating the house. Now I'm looking forward to kitschy Halloween movies and working on my Halloween costume (potential options include Wonder Woman, as well as The Log Lady from Twin Peaks- I just love Halloween costumes where only a handful of people "get" the reference!). 

Anyways, today I have some Halloween nails for you- I adore the little tombstone-capped Fantasy Makers polishes, and picked a couple of them up earlier this month. Right now I have "Nail In The Coffin" to show you, an extremely dark blackened shimmer with tiny golden olive-green flecks that barely peak through the base. I really wish the shimmer showed up more in this, but unfortunately it's pretty hard to see in most lights. 

What do you think of Fantasy Makers Nail In The Coffin? Did you pick up any of the tombstone-capped polishes this month? 

I'll leave you with a clip from one of my favourite kitschy Halloween movies: Hocus Pocus! 

Pirate Polish - The Pirate With The Golden Gun!

Have you been wishing for a more affordable way to cover your nails in luxurious flakes of real gold? Well, Pirate Polish has a (possible) solution for you! Presenting... 

The Pirate With The Golden Gun! Made with 0 karats of real gold flakes!*

But don't take our word for it. Read this user testimonial:

"If I close one eye, and kinda squint, it looks exactly like popular brand name topcoats of a similar name!" -T

Now available in the Pirate Polish Etsy store! 

*Made, in fact, with gold-coloured (read: yellow) shredded glitter. 

Well, I hope you all got as much of a chuckle out of reading that as I did writing it! If you're curious, these swatches are done over an old black label OPI (my only black label OPI, actually!) called Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ. 

Here it is by itself:

I hope you enjoyed today's post... let me know what you think of it!

Pirate Polish on Etsy
Pirate Polish on Facebook

Smitten Polish - Hydrangea

Today I've got a lovely indie polish to share with you: Smitten Polish Hydrangea. This is a pretty medium cornflower blue creme base with delicate blue and lilac glitter and shimmer particles. This is three coats of Hydrangea:

I think this is a really soft and pretty combination- and it definitely reminds me of hydrangeas, which are one of my favourite flowers...

Source

You can find Smitten Polish on Etsy, although it is also available via Llarowe. I don't see Hydrangea currently being stocked, but several other lovely shades are available!

What do you think of Smitten Polish Hydrangea?

Nicole by OPI - All Is Glam, All Is Bright

Today I have one of the new Nicole by OPI Holiday shades to share with you; I think it might be from the Kardashian-themed holiday collection, but I can't remember if it had the little tag it usually has on it to identify it as a "Kardashian Kolour", and I honestly don't care. I always wince a bit when I realize I'm looking at a Kardashian-inspired lacquer and prefer to block that aspect out all together and focus on the pretty colours. ANYWAYS. All Is Glam, All Is Bright is a very lovely ultra-fine glitter polish featuring a lot of white gold/silver glitter, red glitter, and what looks like a smattering of steel blue/grey glitter. Very interesting combination, and I really like it. It would be opaque on it's own in several coats, but here you can see two coats over my Sally Hansen Taupe Pearl Chrome manicure from the other day. 

Before I leave you today, can we talk about the name?

Blech. A nice polish like this deserves a less vapid name. I think this might be one for Stupid Nail Polish Names. 

Sally Hansen Taupe Pearl Chrome

Today I've got an oldie for you: Sally Hansen Taupe Pearl Chrome. 

It's taupe. It's chrome. 

Strange combination. But kinda pretty. See?

A little brushstrokey in the sun.

A look at the label:

So, what do you thing of this oddball polish? I had never considered the possibility of a taupe chrome before. It's weird, but neat. It looks a bit more taupe in real life than it does in the pictures. Want to see more blast-from-the-past Sally Hansen Chromes? Check them out here!

Man Glaze - ILF

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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!