Ready to Rave?

This is probably one if the last bright shades I will be wearing this summer. Red-y to Rave, apart of China Glazes Electric Nights collection from last summer. I have been hearing rave (no pun intended) reviews about this shade since it's release in 2015, things like how it is a true neon red. Reds are not my go to polish if choice, I typically avoid them. I'm pretty sure this one ended up with me due to a sale of some sort!

In the bottle, this does look like a unique shade. It is a medium red that does look bright. When I applied to my nails I swear it looked orange! I have no idea why. The formula was good and only required two coats for full opacity. It's not a top coat hog, so it shines beautifully with a layer of topcoat. On its own it dries to a matte/satin finish.

 

The shade was pretty difficult to photograph correctly. Although I edited each photo for colour, I would have to say the photo that shows the shade as true as I could get on screen is the first photo in this post.

I find the shade of this colour is really dependant on the lighting you are in. It definitely is bright, and I found it to be a red-based coral shade. Not a true neon, but super duper bright!

Fra-gee-lay!

Today I have my Christmas eve/day mani to share with you. The last few days have flown by in a blur! I have been wanting to pull out I new Christmas glitter from last year, Funky Fingers Fra-gee-lay all of December but wanted to get the most out of a gel mani I was wearing. Once I decided what I wanted to layer beneath it I rushed to get it on my nails!

Fra-gee-lay is a glitter topper made in a clear base with shiny red and gold hexes of a few sizes and white matte hex glitter. I wanted to get all the glitter pieces to be visible on whatever base I used. I originally thought a plain would be a nice base but then the matte while glitter pieces would blend in. I then remembered a favorite holiday polish of mine, China Glaze, Frosty!

I layered one coat of Frosty over a thin layer of a standard white creme polish (Sally Hansen, Ghost) and then layered one coat of Fra-gee-lay overtop. It worked out perfectly! Frosty has a glassflecky shimmer and a slight ivory base which gave the subtle contrast to the matte white glitter I was looking for.

This was a super festive mani that I will now be removing today in favor of something a little more sparkly for New Years Eve!

Singin' in December!

Happy December! Today I have a rich burgundy creme from the first collaboration Gwen Stefani did with OPI, I Sing In Color. I recently purchased this shade and was craving something neutral and vampy to wear.

 What you see on the nail is two coats with a top coat. I found on it's own it wasn't super glossy, Seche Vite added a nice shine. In most lighting it looks pretty dark, I knew I wasn't wearing a black and didn't ever consider it a black while I was wearing it but I did get comments that it looked black.

 

Overall application was good and removal wasn't messy. I find rich pigmented shades to be messy and even stain during removal but this was not the case.

Blazin' Hot!

Happy Friday!

I have been drawn to my winter and holiday themed collections as soon as December came! I think I will try to stick to this theme, like I did with Halloween polishes in October. Today I have a beauty from Zoya's 2012 holiday Ornate collection, Blaze. I originally passed on it because I don't usually buy reds and the holo particles looked no way near as saturated as the others in the collection (Aurora and Storm). I finally decided to purchase from a blog sale and scored this beauty for only $4!

Blaze is this amazing rich burgundy jelly that is so much more awesome than I could imagine! Not only is it a fabulous colour, but holo shimmer flecks are scattered throughout. It is so beautiful and fully opaque in one generous coat. I used two thinner coats to get even coverage and lengthen wear. 

I am very picky with my red polishes. I find that I can love a red in the bottle, but won't be tempted to buy it. Maybe it's because it's such a classic hue and I like to choose polishes that are more unique. If I choose a red it usually is glitter based. Blaze, however has redeemed my love for red polish! The deep red was hard to capture on camera, so it is not exactly colour accurate, the photo below is probably the closest, just a tad darker IRL.

Another thing I love about this polish is the subtle change in low to bright light settings. In direct lighting you get this awesome scattered holo glitter sprinkled throughout the deep base. In low lighting it is so deliciously vampy. With minimal light to reflect off of the holo shimmer, it appears to be subtle, pieces of red microshimmer. So awesome! If I wasn't wearing this right now it would be a polish I'd consider for Christmas! That says a lot since my go to polish combo is usually China Glaze Party Hearty!

My Heart Light

One last modification to my previous layering of manis! It started with Sally Hanson Salon Nail Lacquer in Hearts on Fire, a saturated red Jelly on Valentines. I then sandwiched Sinful Colors Unwrap Me, a black and red/magenta glitter, in between Hearts on Fire on Saturday. Finally on Sunday, I added a simple Bundles monster stamp to my ring fingers from plate BM-411.

I stamped with Konad special polish in white. I love this design, I almost overlooked it at first glace. does that ever happen to you? You don;t even realize awesome designs that are included on your plates.... probably because you own too many like me...! If you created this design for the Bundle Monster contest last year, please let me know!

As you can see I applied the heart monitor design to line up with the smile line on my nail and I am happy with the simple yet elegant look.  you can really see the pop of magenta in the gliter, I love how it peeks through. A whole lot of red for me this past weekend, but I promise I will have a polish from the other end of the colour spectrum tomorrow!

Jelly Sammich

Woohoo! I love long weekends that end on a Monday, it's like two for one, loooong weekend and short work week! Today I have a jelly sandwich I did with a bright jelly red polish, Sally Hanson Salon Nail Lacquer Hearts on Fire, previously shown in my last blog post. This combo of glitter and polish was created on a whim and I love the end result! The glitter I used with Hearts on Fire is Sinful Colors Unwrap Me.

Unwrap Me was apart of Sinful Colors holiday collection this past Christmas. It is made up of black regular small and medium hex glitter and a sprinkling of red/magenta hex glitter. It contrasted well with the red base. I applied one thicker coat of the glitter over one layer of Hearts on Fire, dabbing to get even coverage of the glitter on each nail.

I then layered another coat of Hearts on Fire over the glitter. Once that was dry I added a final thinner coat of glitter on top and finished everything off with top coat. I am super in love with this combo! I mean, it has black glitter, black glitter is one of my favourite things ever! The red/magenta hex glitter is subtle, however it peaks through beautifully in most lighting, it reflects the light so well.

Hearts on Fire!

Valenine's Day has come and gone, but I have a few more posts coming up with Valentine themed nails. Today I have a deep red jelly to share with you, Sally Hansen Salon Nail Lacquer in Hearts on Fire.

Heart's on Fire was apart of the older Sally Hansen salon wear line, you know, the square bottles with the rubber handles. I have a good collection of these and the formula on this one in particular is just awesome. It is a deep red jelly that is super saturated with colour, it is deep and bright at the same time. One coat applied like butter and was just barely sheer. A second coat gave full coverage with the squishy jelly look I love!

I have never worn this polish before (I did apply it to my sister for her Pokemon inspired nails in this post if you are interested) but thought it would be perfect for Valentines, and I was totally right! True red is a colour I usually avoid unless it is super dark and vampy. there is some sort of glitter (Ruby Red Pumps) or finish I really am drawn to. This fantastic red jelly has easily made it to my list of wearable reds for me!

I have a few more looks coming up with this polish, one layering experiment and one stamping look. Stay tuned :)

My Favourite February Polishes for Valentines

Wow, already the first week of February with Valentines day coming up fast, under two weeks away! Today I have some of my favourite pinks, red and everything Valentines, perfect for Febuary and leading up until the 14th. I have each of the polishes grouped below. Click the links to view my past manis with these polishes

First up, some reds!

China Glaze - Ruby Red Pumps, a red glitter in a red jelly base.

China Glaze - Rose Among Thorns, a pink leaning red neon.

OPI - Gettin' Miss Piggy With It, a full coverage glitter made up of various shaped and sized red, silver and magenta glitter.

Pinks

OPI - Teenage Dream, a full coverage glitter made up of silver holo and pink glitter of various shapes and sizes in a sheer pink base.

Zoya - Paloma, a sheer bright pink

OPI - La Paz-itively Hot, a hot pink creme with a flash of blue (I love this one matte!)

Purple/Magentas

China Glaze - Infra-Red, a deep magenta holo.

Zoya - Katherine, a plum jelly.

OPI -Houston We Have A Purple, a magenta based purple jelly.

Neutrals

China Glaze - White Cap, a sheer milky white jelly jam packed with iridescent gold shimmer/tiny flakies.

OPI - Bubble Bath - a buildable milky nude jelly.

China Glaze - Dandy Lyin' Around, a white creme with silver microshimmer.

And lastly, some glitter toppers

Sephora by OPI - Flurry Up!, made up of various sized silver glitter in a clear base

China Glaze - White Cap, a sheer milky white jelly jam packed with iridescent gold shimmer/tiny flakies. I know I listed this twice, but it is so awesome on it's own or layered over ANYTHING else. google it and you'd see it's awesomeness!

Sephora by OPI - Only Gold For Me, made up of various sized gold glitter in a clear base

Hope you found some inspiration for your Valentines manis :)

Twinkling Lights

I am FINALLY back! I have been MIA for waaaaay too long now,  I can't believe it is already the second week of January! I have been constantly busy since the week of Christmas and took the last two weeks of December off. I am not looking forward to going back to work, but we all have to go back at some point, right?

This week will be my blog catch up week, I'll start off with my awesome Christmas mani! I had a hard time deciding what polish I wanted to wear, I knew I wanted it to be sparkly but also festive. China Glaze Twinkle Lights, was the perfect mix of both! Released apart of China Glaze's Let it Snow 2011 holiday collection, Twinkle Lights is a mix of  predominately gold glitter sprinkled with red and green. I even spy some stray holo glitters in there as well, if the light catches it just right! 

When I first purchased it in 2011 I probably figured I would use it as a topper, but I decided to try it on it's own to see if it could be built up to opacity.. I love that t is sparkly and gold without being over the top, in your face Christmas. 

A little backstory on my Christmas manis incase you are new to the blog or forgotten, I have been wearing China Glaze Party Hearty on my nails for 4 years straight in some way or form on my nails. This year  decided I wanted to try something new that would still be as festive as the Christmas in a bottle shade that is Party Hearty. I initially looked to some of the other red and green glitters I owned but they just weren't working for me. When I came accross Twinkling Lights I knew it would be perfect, it would match the gold dress  had in mind for Christmas as well.

I only needed two coats for full opacity which was an unexpected surprise. This is probably due to the fact that the glitter is slightly larger (ie. compared to the glitters from the 2013 holiday collection) It applied pretty well considering it was a dense glitter. It had good coverage due to the larger sizes of glitter. Unfortunately it did not last as long as I'd hoped, glitters always tend to wear horribly on me. I am thinking of testing out a few base coats with glitter polishes to see if it helps with adhesion and longevity on the nails. If you have any recommendations for any good base coats to use with glitter polished please let me know!

Candy Cane Crush!

They should totally make a holiday themed candy crush, unless they already have and I am out if the loop, that would be awesome! Today I have an eligantly festive mani, it includes use of a sheer nude and a mixed finish glitter! I have really been loving the look of nudes topped with glitter, it is defiantly a grown up way of rocking glitter! Makes me want to try out some new nudes too!

For my base I applied two coats of Zoya Lula which is a sheer peach nude. After two coats it was not opaque but gave my nails a nice foundation for the glitter, I just wanted to even out the colour of the nail and blend the free edge in to the pink nail bed.

Once I added my glitter polish on top it also helped with blending the nail bed and free edge of my nail together beneith. I used Finger Paints Kiss By The Tree, which is like candy canes crushed up in a bottle, applied in a dabbing motion to apply the glitter over the nude base. The clear base of the polish can be a little thick and goopy, I had to fish around the bottle a bit to saturate the brush with the right amount and type of glitter I wanted for each nail. The good news is that in doing this I got the perfect coverage for each nail, yay! The bad news? Bubbling :( lucky for me it is hardly  noticable due to all the smaller glitter pieces. Another pro about this glitter is the finish, I find a lot of glitter topcoats have a satin finish, this one is all gloss and I love it! I didn't need a top coat and it dried pretty fast, especially considering I applied a thick layer.

I love this look and will be wearing it to a Christmas party this weekend. 

MEGA Haul from Cherry Culture

This just may be my biggest haul to date! Cherry Culture had a huge promo last month with a coupon code for 40% off your full purchase! Not only do they already carry China Glaze for a great price, but an additional 40% off, that is just nuts! To make things even better (...or worse depending on how you look at it) they offer free shipping in the U.S with a purchase of $40 or more. Calculating the total I spent divided by the number of polishes I purchased I ended up spending under $2.50 a polish! I purchased only China Glaze polishes with the exception of one LA Colors duo which I have left to the end of this post, i needed one more item in my cart to equal $40 lol.

I was very impressed with Cherry Culture's customer service and shipment time. The bottles were also safely packed, very well I may add, and delivered without any polish fatalities. I think there was one bottle that had a tiny leak, but it was just around the inside of the bottle, no polish was lost, not a big deal to me. One out of 17 bottle is not bad ;)

I will start off with what I was anticipating the most, the Monster Ball collection! I picked up the full collection for this year, excluding Goulish Glow since I own enough glow-in-the dark polishes already. Pictured below is Fang-Tastic and Boo-gie Down, these are the two glitter toppers in the collection.

Fang-Tastic is a multi glitter in magenta, green and blue. Not your typical Halloween shade, however I think this will work well for jelly sandwiches. Two coats are shown on the nail wheel below.

Boo-gie Down is an awesome Halloween topper with shades of gold, copper orange, black and white glitter in various shapes and sizes. I'd love to try this over a nude creme! Two coats are shown on the nail wheel below.

These next three shades from this collection can be built to opacity, the first two are Howl You Doin? and Bat My Eyes.

Howl You Doin'? Is such a complex shade. I have noticed a lot of other bloggers refer to this one as a Merry Midnight(OPI)/Fowl Play (Orly) dupe, however I don't think this is a dupe for either. It may be close in theory, but it is unique in my collection. I will do a comparison of all three polishes soon. This shade is made up of a deep grape jelly and scattered purpley-blue glitter and irregularly shaped shards of glitter. To me these appear golden, however the base of the polish alters them to red. Two coats are pictured in the swatch below.

Bat My Eyes was the shade I was most looking forward to. It is made up of a murky grey/olive base with varying sizes of green based gold hex glitter and orange holo bar glitter. Two coats are pictured in the swatch below.

Last but not least from the Monsters Ball collection, Bump in the Night.

When I first heard about this polish I was so not interested! I wasn't a huge fan of the textured polish trend started late last year, however, as I type this post I am sporting an OPI liquid sand lol. These trends usually seem to grow on me after a while. I've already written about this polish in a previous post, click here for more info. One coat gives full coverage, however I added a second for more texture in my swatch below. I LOVE this! The name rocks too :)

Swatches:

Next up is the rest of my order seen in my rainbow nail wheel at the top of this post. Lets start with my favourite colour ever, blue! Left to right, Midnight Mission, Ride the Waves and Splish Splash.

Ride the Waves and Splish Splash are apart of the Summer Neons collection from 2012. although they may look similar in the bottle they are quite different in formula and appearance on the nail.  Ride the Waves is a deep blue jelly while Splish Splash has a medium blue base with a faint microshimmer. Since they are considered neons they dry to a matte finish, below is two coats with no top coat.

Midnight Mission is a deep denim blue with silver shimmer, this is apart of the Vintage Vixen collection. Below (on the right) is one coat. Great formula on this one!

Next up are some purples and a grey! Immortal (swatch pictured above), No Plain Jane and Harmony.

Imortal is a medium grey with glass flecks and blue microshimmer. This is apart of the Wicked collection, Halloween 2012. Two coats were used in my swatch (above, with the blues).

No Plain Jane is a purple based duochrome which shifts to a gold/beige. The effect is not super strong, but it does add some nice depth. The formula was a bit sheer in my swatch below, I needed three coats. On a side note, the Bohemian collection, was one that included silver caps which are usually coated in silver paint. This particular cap is a silver coloured plastic, I actually prefer this!

Harmony is apart of the Romatique collection, it is he perfect purple foil. It appears more pink in the photos, but it is actually a medium purple. I originally purchased this for stamping, but I think it would be the perfect base for No Plain Jane. What a happy coincidence! One coat is shown in the swatch below. An easy one coater, perfect formula.

Argo apart of the Hunger Games collection is swatched in the photo above on the far left. I must have lost the bottle photo, too much polish! Argo is a green olive polish with a goldish shimmer. I love these kinds of shades! This one reminds me of OPI, At Your Quebec and Call, however it is not a dupe. Two coats were used for the swatch above.

More Shades ahead! From left to right Kinetic Candy, Gaga Green and Entourage. Kinetic Candy and Gaga Green are from the Electropop collection.

Kinetic Candy is a soft blue pastel creme, a little bit brighter than the photo suggests. My swatch shows one coat. 

Gaga Green is a light green creme, sligtly deeper than the photo suggests. My swatch shows one coat. 

Entourage is from the Kicks collection, it is slightly brighter than Gaga Green and has a yellow gold shimmer. My swatch shows two coats. 

Last up are L.A. Colors Flash Pop duo in Mad Duo and China Glaze Riveting.

Mad Duo is a combo of two mini polishes, one is a pink holo based glitter comprised of various sized glitters and the other is a bright orange based coral. My swatches below are show one coat of each polish. I have also included a photo of how the polish is packaged, similar to the Revlon duos. I like that you can remove them from the middle division piece for easier application

Riviting is an orange based red shimmer, not a typical colour for me, but I just love the orange glow in this polish! Two coats are shown in my swatch below.

So there you have it, possible my largest haul to date, but for the price I paid I simply could not leave them! It took me forever to post this due to all the photos and information I wanted to include, I'm glad it's finally up and over with :)

Any comparisons you'd like to see? Let me know in the comments section below.