Ricki's Coral Caspia

Tonight I have an unexpectedly awesome lacquer to share with you: this is Ricki's Coral Caspia.

I found this at the Canadian clothing retailer, Ricki's, for a few bucks. I'm really happy I did pick this up, because it's a diamond in the rough. Coral Caspia is a borderline neon coral with a gorgeous silver/blue shimmer. I didn't manage to capture this in the pictures very accurately, but in person it was very beautiful.

The first two pictures are the most colour accurate, but in this next picture (under artificial lighting), I think the silver/blue flash is most evident. Gorgeous.

What do you think of Coral Caspia? I'm so taken with it, I'm giving it a coveted "awesome" tag. Entirely unexpected, coming from a sale bin at a clothing store!

Comparison Post with China Glaze Kalahari Kiss and Illamasqua Stance

In my post about China Glaze's On Safari collection last week I mentioned doing a comparison post for Kalahari Kiss; I have that (plus another comparison featuring Illamasqua Stance) for you today. 

By far the closest colour to China Glaze Kalahari Kiss in my collection is MAC's In The Buff (a limited edition shade from summer 2010). However, I think these two colours are far from being twins. Kalahari Kiss is much brighter and cleaner, whereas In The Buff has a much dirtier, murkier tinge to it.

Left to Right: China Glaze, MAC, China Glaze, MAC

In The Buff leans towards the greenish/grey side, while Kalahari Kiss is much more of a clean camel-beige. It's also much more wearable than In The Buff, and generally more flattering, in my opinion. Formula-wise, I'll also take the China Glaze over the MAC. MAC's lacquers are notorious for being weak in terms of formula, and this was still a little streaky at two coats, were Kalahari Kiss was perfect.

The other comparison I wanted to share with you features Illamasqua Stance and Zoya Charisma.

When I first tried Illamasqua Stance, it's nearly-neon vividness brought to mind another purple-neon: Zoya Charisma. However, the two are actually quite different.

Left to Right: Illamasqua, Zoya, Illamasqua, Zoya

Illamasqua Stance is much more cool toned and purple leaning, where Zoya Charisma is more of a warm pink-red. Charisma is also more of a true neon, drying with a matte finish. I much prefer the look and finish on Illamasqua Stance. For me, there is no contest here- Illamasqua knocked this one out of the park. You can see my original swatches of it here.

Just for the heck of it I also pulled out NARS Anardana to add to the comparison (it's shown here on the index finger), but it much more of a pink, rather than purple.

I hope these comparisons helped you out! Which colours are your favourite?

Illamasqua Stance

Today I've got a stunner to share with you- this is Illamasqua Stance. It's a very saturated, nearly neon, bright pink/purple. The formula, as usual with Illamasqua, was flawless. What you see here was two coats:

Isn't she gorgeous? Definitely an attention-grabber.

I think this is a pretty unique shade, although now that I think about it, Zoya Charisma has a similar kind of feel to it (neon pink/purple), but if I recall correctly it's not as pigmented. I'll do a comparison post in the future between these two.

What do you think of Illamasqua Stance? I'm pretty crazy about it, I must admit!

The first time I wore this polish was to a Janelle Monae concert; I love how I always associate certain lacquers with notable events that occurred while I was wearing them. It makes me love them all the more. Do you do the same thing?

I'll leave you with an awesome Janelle Monae video (if you haven't checked her out before, I highly recommend it!):

Pirate Polish Swatches: Part 3

Tonight I have Part 3 (check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you missed them) of my Pirate Polish swatches- this will be the last instalment before my lacquers go on sale for the first time this Wednesday! I'll have more details on ordering at the end of the post. On with the show! 

Salt & Pepper is a shredded glitter topcoat in black and white; here you see it layered over Essie Mojito Madness, which is a lovely vivid green. Black and white glitter topcoats have been all the rage lately, but I can see why- it's an incredibly striking effect, and layering possibilities are endless. This is my rendition of the black and white glitter trend! 

This is Walk the Plank, which you've seen before in Part 2 of the Pirate Polish swatches; because I re-did some of my swatches, I've decided to post a couple more pictures of it: 

Walk the Plank is a vivid blue with two kinds of blue glitter (including holographic blue glitter), as well as multicoloured flake glitter.

This next polish is an unusual one; it's something of an Anomaly. I've combined two kinds of colour-shifting pigments, and this was the result.

While Anomaly might not be a conventionally pretty lacquer, I'm rather taken with it. It's fun to play with in different lighting, and the colour shift is quite pronounced. In the sun it looks very sparkly, while in the shade it looks smoother and more like a metallic.

Because Anomaly is a mysterious polish, here's a mysterious swatch of it... very film noir, no?

The Jackal: a mixture of intense neon purple pigment and holographic shimmer. I recommend using a topcoat with this one, as colours with neon pigment tend to dry matte as opposed to glossy.

"And in case you hadn't known... they call me 'The Jackal'."

Finally I have Scimitar to share with you; this is a deep steely charcoal-grey with holographic shimmer.

I was having a hard time capturing the holographic sparkle in this, so this is another shot of a Scimitar prototype- same base colour, but including gunmetal hex glitter which I later omitted (it simply got covered up by the base colour). This should give you an idea of what the base colour looks like, but please ignore the hex glitter you can see in the bottle (and the corresponding lumpiness on the nail).

Before leaving you, I wanted to make a note about another lacquer I posted about recently- remember Pirate's Booty, from my first set of swatches? Well, the bling-y gold glitter in it has curled in the lacquer base. I'm not talking completely folded over "taco" glitter, but there is a definite curve to it (not entirely unusual in large glitter pieces). A thick topcoat like Seche Vite helps immensely in smoothing out the curved glitter, but you'll still feel texture. Here's a picture of me wearing it recently, and while I'm personally not bothered by the texture of the glitter on the nail, I know some people dislike it. If you're thinking about ordering this, it's something to be aware of. 

As mentioned previously, this first round of orders will not be done via Etsy, but will be taken via email, and payment will be made directly with PayPal. This will allow me to calculate shipping costs, work out any kinks, and figure out what lacquers are most popular. Lacquers will be sold in a full sized (15ml) bottle, for $10 each. I'm mostly anticipating orders from friends and acquaintances, as well as the lovely readers of my blog. If you're interested in ordering, I'll begin taking orders this Wednesday, July 11th- please send an email to piratepolish@gmail.com with your order requests at that time.

Lacquers available for purchase (bearing in mind that some of these lacquers are being produced in limited quantities while I'm waiting for more materials to arrive!) include:

Poison Apple
The Buffster
What's Up, Doc?
Anomaly
Salt & Pepper
Radioactive
Matrix Code
Scimitar
Down the Rabbit Hole
The Jackal
Borsch
Walk the Plank
Pirate's Booty (please see my above note about curling glitters)
Buried Treasure (I had been planning on reformulating this one, but because I've received requests for the version shown in my recent swatches, this version is available on request).

Links:

Pirate Polish Swatches
Pirate Polish Swatches Part 2

Pirate Polish on Facebook

Pirate Polish Swatches (Part 2)

On the weekend I shared with you the first set of Pirate Polish swatches, and today I have several more to share with you! In case you missed the original announcement, I've started creating my own nail lacquer, called "Pirate Polish". If you want to check out the first round of swatches, you can find them by clicking here. 

The first lacquer I have to show you today is food-inspired! I'm not kidding- this is Borsch. Not familiar with it? It's a super tasty beet soup (common in Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine and Russia). 

Borsch (the nail lacquer, not the soup) is comprised of a vibrant pink-red broth base with shiny reflective red hex glitter (chunks of beets) and green bar glitter (no borsch would be complete without dill, of course). 

I'm currently working on a whole set of food inspired polishes, including Toasted Marshmallow, Ice Cream Sundae, and Salmon Nigiri, among other concepts. To be honest, I find the whole idea to be deliciously strange!

"At last... when people ask you what's on your nails, you can tell them 'Borsch'."

Next up is Radioactive. This is a truly retina-searing combination of neon yellow and neon green particles. It freaked out my camera in a big way, but I think you still get an idea for how bright it is.

The next polish, "What's Up, Doc?", could probably fit into the food-inspired category, but is certainly more directly inspired by Bugs Bunny. It's comprised of large (slightly holographic) green hex glitter, small green glitter, and orange bar glitter in a clear base, which makes for a very carrot-y combination. What you see here is What's Up Doc? over top of American Apparel Hunter, a plain dark green creme.

Walk the Plank is the next lacquer I have to show you. This polish has a vivid blue base with a variety of blue/holographic glitters in it. It also contains flake glitter, but I may tweak the formula a little because I feel that the flakes are getting overwhelmed by the everything else going on. Please let me know what you think!

Next up is a lacquer named after Buffy the Vampire Slayer: this is "The Buffster". If you're a Buffy fan, you might recall some of the intense fashion choices made during the course of the show (it was the 90's, after all), including a shiny bright purple pleather trench coat worn by Buffy in season 2. This is was this polish reminds me of!

This lacquer has a bright violet base colour, ultra-fine purple glitter, holographic sparkle, and a strong pink flash.

Think of this as the polish you might wear if you want to channel Buffy the Vampire Slayer without having to revisit your 90's wardrobe.

I'm planning on creating a few other Buffy-related lacquers in the future (Orb of Thessala, anyone?).

The last polish I have for you today is called "Down the Rabbit Hole". I like the way glitter looks in a glossy black base, so this is a whole melange of different glitters in a black base. It does make me think a little of Alice descending head over heels down a rabbit hole, hence the name. I'm still thinking to tweak this one a little more- is it missing something? Let me know what you think in the comments!

That's all for today! As I mentioned in my last Pirate Polish swatch post, I'll be taking orders pretty soon (I'll announce it here on my blog, as well as on my Facebook page). While eventually I'll open my Etsy shop, this first round of orders will take place via email and payment will be made via PayPal. This will allow me to calculate shipping costs, work out any kinks, and figure out what lacquers are most popular. Lacquers will be sold in a full sized (15ml) bottle, for $10 each. Mostly I'm anticipating orders from friends and acquaintances, as well as the lovely readers of my blog! I'm looking forward to taking this first step into lacquer-making business! As always, please give me your feedback on these lacquers and let me know what you liked/didn't like, and any suggestions you might have.

Want to find Pirate Polish on Facebook? http://www.facebook.com/PiratePolish

Thanks!