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! 

Cirque: Cape Liz, Vaudeville, Hellebore

So, this year for Valentine's Day I received what was pretty much the best Valentine's Day present ever from my significant other: a whole whack of lacquer-y amazingness in the form of Cirque's delightful polishes. Was there ever a purer expression of true love? Well, from a lacquerhead's perspective, anyways. 

 The pretties, left to right: Cape Liz, Galinda, Vaudeville, Hellebore, French Roast, XX, Cypress

Today I have a few of these beauties to show to you- first up is Cape Liz, a stormy light grey-blue with small flakey shimmer particles in it. Gorgeous, and a little demure. This reminds me of a bluer version of Illamasqua's Raindrops- it has a similar shimmer running through it.

Vaudeville: ridiculously pretty soft purpley-pink with strong golden/green shimmer running through it. I love this colour combination, and the shimmer makes this polish something special.

Vaudeville, with it's pink/purple base and greenish shimmer, also seemed like a natural companion to Hellebore, which is a mixture of predominantly green glitter with subtle purple accents. I applied Hellebore as a gradient over Vaudeville.

So far, all of the Cirque polishes I've tried have been excellent in terms of formula; I can't wait to try the rest of them! I'm especially pleased with how the Vaudeville/Hellebore manicure worked out- it's a perfect springtime combination... if only spring would actually show up around here. Which brings me to my next topic, regarding the weather in my neck of the woods. I apparently inhabit some kind of wintery hell dimension, because so far April has looked much like this:

Is it too much to ask for temperatures above freezing? And for further illustration as to the amount of snowfall we've had this past month, check these out:

 Trees be like: "what is this, quicksand?!"

 ...he's trying to run away from the memory of this winter.

What about you, dear reader? Has spring time arrived in your world? 

A-England Dorian Gray and Lush Lacquer Lite Brite

Here's a look at a combination I did back in January: A-England's Dorian Gray with Lush Lacquer's Lite Brite layered overtop. First up, here are a couple pictures of Dorian Gray by itself:

Dorian Gray is a charcoal metallic grey, opaque in two coats. It has a somewhat pearly finish, and at first I thought it might show a few frosty brushstrokes, but after drying it looked pretty smooth. Overtop I layered Lush Lacquer's Lite Brite, an extremely punchy and vibrant glitter topcoat; I can spot big magenta metallic glitters, small turquoise squares, various orange, blue, and purple glitters, along with some tiny silver speckles. Overall, it's a really fun and high impact layering glitter. Highly recommend.

As I mentioned, I originally wore this manicure earlier in the year, and at the time I happened to be visiting Banff and Lake Louise. While sight-seeing around the Chateau Lake Louise, we were lucky enough to have a look at some amazing ice sculptures that had been carved as part of an ice-scupting competition. There were so many incredible and intricate sculptures- here's a look at one (with a pretty stunning backdrop, to boot).

Hare Polish - Midsummer's Midnight

Tonight I've got a gorgeous lacquer from Hare Polish to share with you; this is Midsummer's Midnight, and it's a black jelly polish with lots of purple, green, and blue glitters swimming in it. I especially love the blue squares in this- they're not as numerous as the purple and green glitters, and it adds so much depth. If I recall correctly, this was opaque in two thick coats. 

This was also my first experiences using white glue as a base for a glitter polish; if you haven't heard about this method of glitter removal, read all about it here. I just emptied some white glue into an empty polish bottle, and applied it as a base coat (allowing it to dry completely) before applying my polish. Unfortunately, removal wasn't as slick for me as I'd hoped. It seems to work great for other people, but in my case I really struggled to get the polish off and I think it stripped some of the surface of my nail off with it (I really should have just given up and broken out the remover, but I was stubborn enough to want to finish what I'd started). Oh well, back to the tin foil method for me!

 

Have you tried using white glue as a method for making glitter polish removal easier? What were your experiences?

OPI Suzi Says Da! + Dandy Nails Grave Robber

I'm ashamed to say that these pictures are from a manicure I wore waaaaay back at the beginning of last November. I guess they just kept getting pushed to the back of my un-posted folder. Nevertheless, you're finally seeing them tonight. Suzi Says Da! is one of the polishes I picked up from the OPI Russian collection (which I'm extremely enamoured with- it's an older collection from Fall 2007, but there are still a few polishes kicking around from it if you look hard enough). This is a deep red-toned brown creme. It reminds me a little of darker Chanel Rouge Noir. From what I recall, the formula was good, and I used two coats for these pictures. 

This one was taken under bright artificial light:

This was also a perfect base colour for Dandy Nails Grave Robber, a combination of metallic orange and steel-blue shredded glitter in a clear base. Very unique, and such a cool colour combination. I applied it as a gradient to the tips of my nails. I really love how this turned out, and it wore for ages. 

I'll also take this opportunity to show you a really cool bracelet I picked up last fall- it's a white "blood vessel" motif cuff that I really loved pairing with the vampy-ness of Suzi Says Da!. I purchased it from Nervous System's Etsy store. I highly recommend checking them out- they make some really amazing and unique items!

What do you think of my accessorizing? Have I piqued your interest in anything I've shown you today?

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine - Scarab

After looking high and low, I finally managed to get my hands on some of the Sally Hansen Lustre Shines (it always seems to take forever for these displays to show up in Canada). Today I've got Scarab to show you; this is a lovely blue-green metallic shimmer with a modest duochrome shift. My photos don't quite convey how intensely bright and eye-catching this was in person. It might not be the most unique polish, but there's no need to mess with a good thing, right? 

Did you pick up any of the Sally Hansen Lustre Shines?