Deborah Lippmann Don't Tell Mama and Supermodel

Today I've got two lovely Deborah Lippmann lacquers to share with you; first up is Don't Tell Mama, a blackened emerald shimmer. I believe this was two coats. 

Secondly, I've got Supermodel, a gorgeous tangerine-red jelly. This was three coats, and it mostly covers visible nail line, but retains a lot of wonderful squishy jelly-ness.

Of these two, I'm rather enamoured with the bright, clean tangerine red of Supermodel. Extremely attention-grabbing! And I can certainly recommend Don't Tell Mama if you're in the market for a good blackened shimmer.

I picked these up a couple months ago during a big sale Nail Polish Canada had on Lippmann polishes- and if you're interested, you can still nab some of these pretties for about 50% off. Are there any Deborah Lippmann polishes you would recommend?

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?

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?

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?

Color Club Port-folio

Color Club Port-folio is a lovely medium purple with extremely strong duochrome green flash. This reminds me of an oil slick, or maybe the shell of a beetle. Very cool polish, and not one that's gotten a whole lot of hype, from what I can tell. Remember when duochromes like this were the mythical unicorns of the polish world? Decent application, and this was two coats:

What do you think of Port-folio? Has it caught your eye?

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! 

SpaRitual Aurum

SpaRitual Aurum: now, who couldn't find it in their heart to love a gold as outrageously luminous as this one? It positively glows. Pure liquid awesome. 

And can you tell that I'm still posting manicures from the holidays? I just thought Aurum was a perfect match to this shiny metallic gold bow. 

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?