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?

Illamasqua Harem and Nurture

Tonight I've got two gorgeous Illamasqua lacquers to show to you: Harem and Nourish. 

Harem was released earlier this year and is a lovely blue-based pink creme; it's not quite your standard pastel pink- it has much more of a lavender hue to it. As per usual, the formula was great, barely needing two coats for perfection. 

Nurture is part of last year's Rubber Brights collection, and sports an interesting satin/rubber finish- it is also the most incredible vivid green. It's extremely bright, but doesn't come off as a citrusy neon- rather, it has an beautiful fresh leafy-ness to it, if that makes sense. I absolutely loved wearing this one, and was sorry to remove it. Very unique.

What do you think of these lacquers from Illamasqua? Can you think of any polishes similar to Illamasqua Nurture?

Man Glaze Cabron and Black Cat Lacquer Black Hole

Feast your eyes on Man Glaze Cabron: a shimmery matte in a deep blackened indigo purple shade. Very dramatic, and totally stunning. As we've come to expect, the label art is amazing. 

On a side note, whenever I pull this lacquer out I immediately start humming this song (which is a great bonus to owning this polish, now that I think about it):

Finally, I've got a few glorious snapshots of how Cabron looks with Black Cat Lacquer's Black Hole layered overtop; you might recall that I first showed this one on my blog here, but failed utterly at choosing a winning layering combination. I'd say that problem has been rectified here, wouldn't you agree?

Man Glaze - Fuck Off And Dye

Man Glaze's Fuck Off And Dye is a gorgeous medium warm-toned pink with silver shimmer. Matte finish, of course. The formula was excellent, as per usual with Man Glaze, and I might add that the label art is also awesome (also to be expected). Check it out:

It's the perfect colour to wear on those days when you'd really just like to let your fingers do the talking.  I rather like it because it allows me to feel secretly snarky and slightly passive-aggressive all day. Y'know?

Layla Soft Touch - Stone

Awhile ago I showed you one of the Layla Soft Touch polishes (a deep red, called Queen Bordeaux), and today I have another one to show you. This is "Stone", a gorgeous and soft greyed out pale purple that has silvery pink shimmer running through it. The Soft Touch finish is very unique- not quite a matte or a rubber type finish; this particular shade is most like the OPI suede finish polishes, but even then it's a little different. Not quite as dull, and the shimmer isn't quite as pronounced. The formula was good, and although it took awhile to dry, it wore like iron. Better than any matte-type polish I've ever tried, and in fact better than most manicures I would usually finish with topcoat. Impressive!

What do you think of Layla Soft Touch in Stone? Have you tried any of the Soft Touch polishes yet? If so, how would you describe the finish?

Man Glaze - Butt Taco

This is a lovely shimmery matte orange from Man Glaze:

...and it's called Butt Taco. 'Nuff said.

ManGlaze Fatty's Got More Blood

After featuring a deep matte red in my last post, I thought I should show you another one today: this is ManGlaze's Fatty's Got More Blood. Whereas Layla Soft Touch Queen Bordeaux is more of a deep brick red, Fatty's Got More Blood has quite a bit of plum in it- it leans decidedly more purple. It also features this extremely fine holographic shimmer in it. It's only visible in direct sunlight, and isn't so apparent in my photos, but it's really pretty. 

Of course, and as always with ManGlaze, we have to talk about the awesome label art. In this case, it features a badass vampire chick indiscriminately gorging on various decapitated body parts. Who doesn't wanna see that on a nail polish bottle?

In this next photo, I think it's almost possible to see the holographic shimmer...

So what do you think of Fatty's Got More Blood? Is this ManGlaze polish calling your name? What do you think of the name/label art?

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.

Man Glaze - ILF

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ManGlaze Lesbihonest

Today I have the hilariously titled "Lesbihonest" by ManGlaze to show you. If you're not familiar with ManGlaze, they make incredibly awesome matte nail polish, usually with clever and funny names (see my review of ManGlaze Santorum here). They also feature unique bottle artwork for each colour, which I think is really cool.

Lesbihonest is a vibrant deep fuchsia pink, which lovely silver shimmer running through it. The application was great, particularly for a matte nail lacquer (they can sometimes be a bit finicky to apply). This covered beautifully in just one coat!

Above pictured in natural light, and below in artificial light.

The bottle artwork:

And I received a bunch of cool stuff with my order! A couple ManGlaze business cards (which have an interesting metallic finish), a few ManGlaze post-it notes (the instructions suggest leaving them somewhere public, like below a drive-through window), and a ManGlaze guitar pick.

The back of the business cards are hilarious. They read "Your friends are ugly" followed by "Please give this card to someone kinda foxy".

The sweet ManGlaze guitar pick- perfect for opening cans of pop/beer! No more broken nails. I've actually gotten a fair bit of use out of this.

I ordered my ManGlaze polishes through ManGlaze's Amazon store, and am currently very tempted by Mayonnaise (white matte) and Fuck Off and Dye (hot pink- but honestly, I want it for the name alone!).

What do you think of Lesbihonest by ManGlaze? Do you own any ManGlaze polishes?

Man Glaze Santorum

I thought "Santorum" by Man Glaze would be a fitting polish to post on the day Rick Santorum announced his withdrawal from the Republican leadership race. Man Glaze exclusively produces matte polishes. This was my first time trying Man Glaze, and I have to admit I was drawn in not because I'm crazy about matte polishes, but because of the hilarious name choices and awesome coordinating labels for each lacquer. That said, I'm very happy with how this lacquer looks on the nail. This is two coats (although it was nearly perfect in one) of Santorum:

This is a matte brown polish with lots of shimmer, including subtle red and green shimmer. Yes, this is a brown polish called Santorum. I'm preferring to think this was solely inspired by the colour of Rick Santorum's brown sweater vest (LOL), and not that other association with Santorum. Ahem. Moving on... Man Glaze also references one of my favourite movies in a quote on the label:

"For Relaxing Times, Make it SANTORUM Time"

I love Bill Murray, and the whole movie is pretty great. If you missed out on Lost in Translation, definitely check it out. 

Finally I'll leave you with a couple photos of Santorum with a topcoat. I might actually prefer it this way, it really brings out the tiny red and green shimmer and shows how much depth this polish has.

What do you think of Man Glaze Santorum? I ordered my polishes from Man Glaze's Amazon store, but be sure to check out Man Glaze's website for other ordering options.