R.I.P

A somewhat oldie, but a goodie and perfect for October!

Today I have Orly R.I.P., a black jelly base with shiny orange copper mini and hex glitter. It has a wonderful formula and applies like butter! The glitter is easy to distribute, but keep in mind that I did have the bottle stored upside-down so the glitter was held at the top of the bottle.

I only needed two coats for full opacity. I applied a coat of Seche Vite over top and it added a nice glossy finish without being sucked up by the glitter. All in all a perfect kick of to the Halloween season!

Pearl Jammin'

Happy Friday!
This polish, apart of China Glaze's Grunge collection for fall, is such a throwback! There is something unique about Pearl Jammin' that takes me back to those old school Revlon Street Wear polishes. I feel like I had one back in the 90's that was a similar shade of blue. What makes Pearl Jammin' relevant now is the contrasting copper microshimmer.

Pearl Jammin' has a soft, baby blue base with a bright copper/pink, pearlized shimmer running throughout. I have found that similar polishes China Glaze has put out like this are too subtle on the shimmer, where as this one is right-in-your-face! That being said the overall look is very subtle and chic for fall. I found it to be the perfect transition shade to the cooler months ahead. I love fall and the gorgeous polishes associated with it, but I am just not ready to give up my brights just yet! Especially since the weather around here still feel like summer.

The formula was great. I could have built up this shade to full opacity in two thick coats, but I opted for three thinner ones to avoid any strong brushstrokes from the pearl shimmer finish. The pearl finish may not be for everyone, but it really makes this polish. I find it alters the shade depending on your light source.

I am usually not a fan of frost or pearl finishes but I am really digging this one.

Fave Halloween Polishes 2014

Halloween is quickly approaching, I just can't wait for Friday! Today I  have a short list of my all time favorite Halloween themed polishes... this year anyways! Every October I go through my stash and go through all the Halloween shades I have. Here are some of the polishes I cannot get enough of in the month of October. For previous swatches of these polishes, click on the polish name in the title.

China Glaze Its Alive

A deep green jelly base saturated with bright lime green glitter in various sizes. The deeper base makes the glitter appear to be darker. Such a great shade, China Glaze has amazing green polishes for Halloween.

Sally Hansen Pumpkin Spice

The perfect Halloween shade must include orange and black! Pumpkin spice is made up of a murky black jelly base and coper orange glitter. At first I didn't see the hype over this polish, but I was in love the first time I wore it. And yes, I have two bottles, it's that awesome! I needs about three thin coats for full opacity, but it is well worth it for the final outcome.

Orly, Monster Mash

A slimy green jelly base jam packed with green and holo glitter of various sizes. This polish is so awesome! My favorite of Orly's Halloween collection from 2012. I actually layered this over It's Alive for Halloween in 2012!

China Glaze Boo-gie Down
This is the newest favorite to my list, I purchase it last year at the end of the Halloween season.
I just recently wore this as an accent in a Halloween themed mani last week. There is a lot going on in the bottle, matte black (various sized hex and bar glitter) and white glitters with a sprinkling of gold and copper hex glitter. Such a great mix for Halloween. I love it over a sheer nude, super classy, and the formula is awesome! Super easy to apply with great coverage as a topper at one coat.

What are your favorite colours and polishes to wear during the month of October?

Boo-gie Bats

Happy Friday! Halloween countdown: 1 week left! There is also only 1 week left to enter my Halloween giveaway here.

I finally pulled out my Bundle Monster holiday plates and created a simple but fun mani with a full nail bat design and Halloween themed glitter!

For this mani I used the following:

Base - Revlon Peach Nectar

Ring and thumb fingers - China Glaze Boo-gie Down

Bundle Monster plate - BM-H08

I applied two coats of Revlon, Peach Nectar over my base coat. Once that was dry I stamped some bats in black polish using Bundle Monster plate BM-H06 on three of my nails. For my ring finger and thumb nails I applied  a generous coat of China Glaze Boo-gie Down, a gorgeous mix of black, white, copper and gold glitters.

Boo-gie down is such an awesome glitter, I love it over the nude base. The colours remind me of sophisticated candy corn with yellow and orange replaced with shiny gold and copper. This is such a subtle and easy mani. I really love bold stamping over a nude base, especially when most nails are stamped, it's not so in your face or tacky.

DONT FORGET TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY! It runs until the end of the month! You get to pick which set of nails files you like should you prefer a different colour

Pumpkin Spice!!

Love this polish, love the name, just love it!! This is one of my all time favorite Halloween polishes! I wore it around Thanksgiving which was also appropriate due to the pumpkin reference.

I will keep this post short since I have posted about this polish in the past. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, Pumpkin Spice is a murky black jelly polish with copper glitter scattered throughout. At first glance from afar it appears to be black. The lovely copper glitter reflects beautifully throughout, they almost look like hot embers.

This polish is quite sheer, but the build up is worth it to get that squishy, jelly, glossy finish. I used three regular coats, not too think, not too thin, with some time in-between to build up this polish to an opacity I was comfortable with. You could always layer a coat or two over a black or darker base polish.

fun with my halloween "props"

Perfect for October! I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Nail Mail + A Dollarama Find

NAIL MAIL!!

Cult Nails has been having some really good promos lately, I took part in the buy 3 polishes, get one free deal last month, my pics included;

Be Loco - a bright, orange leaning coral creme

Blazed - a orange coper glitter in a clear base

Riot - a bright teal creme

Flushed - a medium purple with a duochrome shimmer which flashes from magenta to green

Be Loco and Riot were only one coat in my swatches! Blazed and Flushed required two coats for full opacity. Super awesome new additions to my collection :) As always the formula is flawless.

Another random polish I purchased recently is from Dollarama is Nicole by OPI, Brilliant Idea.

2 coats for swatch above

This glitterbomb is packed with bright swampy green minro and hex glitter. It reminds me of a lighter version of China Glaze It's Alive from their 2011 Haunting Halloween collection. I immediately needed this polish to make a glitter gradient :) hopefully I will get to it before October is over!

Hot Lava!

Happy, Happy Friday! Such a perfectly fall polish today, for a sunny breezy fall day.

Sally Hansen Lava is apart of the Lustre Shine collection and is the only foily finish polish. In the bottle the duochrome looks super cool, at first glance I notice a pink copper and yellow gold. On the nail it is so much more than I expected it to be! Since It appeared more of a red/pink base, I wasn't sue how wearable it would be for me, I hardly wear any reds and a pink shimmer/foil is usually not my thing. But it was too pretty not to buy!

I used three coats on my nails, two coats were fine to build up for opacity but I added a third to smooth everything out. On my nails I see a flash from pink, copper, orange, gold and yellow, unlike anything in my collection and I love it! the perfect shade for fall, reminds me of the changing leaves.

After 3 full days of wear in indirect natural lighting

I am super duper fall and halloween inspired lately, I don't even care that it's not October yet! Already started watching horror movies and baking fall treats last weekend and intend on doing the same this weekend. I even picked up a baby pie pumpkin this week :) Cant wait to make him in to something yummy!

Fall Glitter

Today. Have my first full wear of a fall collection polish of the season AND it's a glitter! I find myself not reaching for glitters as much anymore, mainly due to dreading the removal process. That being said I'm sure you have heard by now about Essence's Peel-able base coat and what others are using as a substitute, good old white glue! Here is a great tutorial that shows and explains the full process the best. I decided to give it a try myself with a beautiful polish from China Glazes fall safari line, I Herd That.

I Heard That it a densely packed glitter made up of mostly copper and yellow micro glitter with a sprinkling of holo glitter that appears silver in low lighting. In the sunlight the holo glitter flashes a bunch of colour which you can see in the photo below. Although the glitter is set in a clear base I only needed two coats to reach opacity. They were a bit thicker than usual coats and I blotted a tiny bit to get it even, but application was awesome for a glitter. The overall formula is perfect, not too thick not too thin.You could also use one thin coat over another polish for a glittery top coat.

This polish reminds me of one of my all time favorite fall/Halloween polishes of all time, Trick or Treat by Del Sol. In it's normal state it looks pretty close to this polish, to see how the colour shifts in the sunlight check out this past post.

I applied two coats of Seche Vite to really make the glitter sparkle and get a nice, smooth surface. I will be tracking the wear of this polish with my DIY peel base coat and let you know how it goes later in the week.