Let Them Eat Cake Mani

For today's post, I have a manicure themed around an 'oldie but goodie' indie nail polish, NCLA's 'Let Them Eat Cake':

For this Manicure I used NCLA's 'Let Them Eat Cake', a gorgeous lavender glitter crelly polish from NCLA's 'Duchess of L.A.' collection, which I believe came out in 2014. I added two metallic glitter accent nails, one in lavender (Essie's 'Stroke of Brilliance'), and another in plum (L.A Girl's Glitter Addict 'Provocative'). These glitters closely match two of the colours in the metallic glitter mix used in 'Let Them Eat Cake'. 

'Let Them Eat Cake' would probably be one of my favourite polishes, If I really had to try and pick favourites! I've always loved the colour scheme, and even after all of these years, the formula is still impeccable! 

Revlon 'Girly'

 

Today I have a quick swatch to share of a Revlon polish that I purchased years ago. It's called 'Girly', and it is a pink crelly loaded with purple, pink, and fuchsia hexagonal glitters. At the time of it's release, Revlon had made a bunch of crelly glitters like 'Whimsical' and 'Facets of Fuchsia', some of which were dupes of popular Deborah Lippmann polishes at the time. 'Girly' was one of the original creations in the release. The swatch picture above is two coats of the polish.

L'Oréal Paris 'Spot Me'

Today I have a swatch of a L'Oréal Paris nail polish to share. This is 'Spot Me', colour number 151, from their Spring 2014 'Les Blancs' collection. The collection was a 6 piece offering themed around the colour white. There were four creme polishes (a white and 3 pale pastels), and 2 white based crelly glitter polishes. I picked up both of the crellies, one of which is today's swatch, 'Spot Me':

'Spot Me' is a pale blue-tinted white crelly polish loaded with matte black hexagonal glitters in a multitude of sizes. The finished look on the nails is very reminiscent of a quail or robin's egg, or perhaps even 'cookies and cream' ice cream! I absolutely adore this polish - it's such an elegant and sophisticated way of wearing glitter.

Below, I have both of the crellies from the 'Les Blancs' collection, side by side for comparison. When placed beside eachother, you can really see the differences.'Spot Me' on the left is cool-toned, with an ever-so-slight blue tint, while 'Le Pastille' on the right is a warm-toned, pale peach shade. I actually did a post featuring 'Le Pastille' five years ago. You can see that post here.

Overall, both of these polishes are absolutely amazing. They apply well, dry quickly, and look stunningly chic. What's not to love!

Collections of Yore: Jelly Belly + Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Collab

I've decided to start a new series on my blog called 'Collections of Yore', where I highlight nail polish collections that came out in the past which I still have in my collection. There have been so many wonderful collections that have been released over the years, and it's nice to take a trip down memory lane, and to be inspired to revisit old favourites. 

Sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in the hype for the next new thing... Lately, I've been really making an effort to do a lot more 'shopping of my stash' and giving some love to the polishes that I already have in my collection. A lot of the polish collections that I want to revisit in this 'Collections of Yore' series were super popular when they came out, so I know that a lot of other people may still have a lot of these polishes too. Hopefully these trips down memory lane will be beneficial to other polish enthusiasts as well.

The first polish collection I wanted to highlight in this first instalment of the series, was only released about a year and a half ago: The Jelly Belly + Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Collaboration from February 2019.

There were a total of 11 shades in the collection, 7 creme polishes, and 4 glitter crelly polishes. I only picked up 8 of the polishes. The three polishes from the collection that I passed on were 'Coconut', a creamy white creme polish; 'Tutti Frutti', a multi-coloured glitter crelly in a sheer purple-pink base; and 'Island Punch' a dusty lilac creme polish. 

Below, I've included a picture of the 8 polishes that I purchased from the collection. The top row contains 'Very Cherry', 'Peach', 'Strawberry Cheesecake', 'Buttered Popcorn', and 'Bubble Gum', and the bottom row contains 'Green Apple', 'Berry Blue', and 'Blueberry'. The shade names with hyperlinks link to posts where I've swatched the colours. I've also used a couple of the shades in nail art which you can link to here and here.

I really enjoyed this collection. I love Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes for nail stamping and nail art. The cremes are typically very opaque, highly-pigmented, one-coaters which work well for a variety of nail art applications. The shades from this collection that I have used so far have lived up to this Sally Hansen Insta-Dri reputation, and did not disappoint! I also think that the glitter crellies in the collection are really gorgeous. All in all, I'm really looking forward to using these polishes more in the future, and I am happy to have them as part of my collection!

Swatch: KB Shimmer 'Laugh Myself Lily'

Today I have a swatch of KB Shimmer 'Laugh Myself Lily'. I believe that this polish was originally released as part of their Spring 2014 collection. It is a light blue crelly glitter polish with pink, blue, white, and holographic circle and hexagonal glitters of various sizes, as well as a fine holographic dust.

This summer I have been wearing mostly bright, warm colours, so it was a nice change for me to have a predominantly cool-toned manicure. This polish makes me think of water lilies floating on the surface of a reflective pond... It truly is quite beautiful! 

Swatch: KB Shimmer 'Full Bloom Ahead'

For today's post, I'm sharing a gorgeous glitter crelly polish from KB Shimmer, 'Full Bloom Ahead'. I believe it may have been originally released as part of their 2014 Spring collection. The polish has fuschia, navy, gold, teal, and orange hexagonal glitters in various sizes suspended in a white semi-translucent base. It is so fun, and playful - it reminds me of a jawbreaker!

Revlon 'Whimsical'

Today, just in time for "Throwback Thursday", I have an oldie but goodie nail polish to share - Revlon's 'Whimsical'. There's quite an interesting history behind this polish. I think it came out sometime around late 2011 or early 2012.  It was a dupe for a really popular polish at the time by Deborah Lippman, called 'Glitter in the Air'. The Deborah Lippmann polish was named after and inspired by a song by the artist P!nk, which she famously performed at the 2010 Grammy Awards while doing aerial acrobatics. 

I remember being so excited to buy this polish back in the day. It looks so gorgeous in the bottle - the colours work so well together.  Also, there was a bit of a novelty factor, as crelly glitter polishes were not that common back then in mainstream brands. 

This particular bottle has held up well for how old it is (I'm not sure exactly when I bought it, and I think the polish was available for a few years after it was released). The base may have yellowed slightly, as I seem to recall it being more of a brighter sky blue, but it still looks essentially the same.

All in all, it was fun to pull this polish out of the collection and take a trip down memory lane!

Simple Stamping Accent Mani featuring KB Shimmer 'Funky Cold Patina'

Today I have another throwback post from the archives I mentioned in my last post. This is a simple nail stamping manicure with a gold design stamped on my ring finger as an accent, over KB shimmer's 'Funky Cold Patina'. Unfortunately, since the photo is from so long ago, I no longer remember which stamping plate, or which gold nail polish I used. The stamping image looks like it could possibly have been from a Moyou London Optical Illusion collection plate, however I can't say for sure.

Verdigris Mani 3.0

Polishes Used	Stamping Plates Used
China Glaze ‘Too Yacht to Handle’	Lina Nail Art Supplies:
Essie ‘Lady Godiva’	- Make Your Mark Plate 02
Essie ‘Say it ain’t Soho’	- You’re a Damasque! Plate 02
KB Shimmer 'Funky Cold Patina'

In my last post on KB Shimmer's 'Funky Cold Patina', I mentioned that I had plans to do a look inspired by that polish. 'Funky Cold Patina' got me thinking about some manicures I had done in the past based on copper patinas. Now, I typically don't like to repeat the exact same nail art manicure more than once, but for today's look I have decided to do the third incarnation of one of my favourite manicures ever - the 'Verdigris Mani'. I'll include a link to a post where I talk about the two previous versions that I did, and give a little more background on the manicure, right here.

This time around, I wanted to do a copper relief effect for the base copper parts of the manicure, and then put little spotches of light teal over it, to simulate copper relief art that has just started to develop a patina. To make the copper relief effect, I stamped a damasque pattern from Lina Nail Art Supplies 'You're a Damasque!' plate 02 using a chocolate brown polish, 'Lady Godiva', over an amazing copper polish, 'Say it Ain't Soho'.  I then double stamped a texture image from Lina Nail Art Supplies 'Make Your Mark', plate 02 in light turquoise to create the verdigris effect. The other nails are painted with 'Funky Cold Patina'.

I really like how the manicure turned out, but if I could do it again, I would find a way to incorporate some of the copper polish onto some or all of the turquoise nails: perhaps making the ring finger an accent nail that incorporated both looks on one nail, or even just having 3 copper/effect nails by painting the pinky finger the same as the index and middle fingers... Below, I've included a couple additional shots of this manicure.

KB Shimmer 'Funky Cold Patina'

Today I have a swatch and brief review to share of a fun polish from the indie brand KB Shimmer. The polish is called 'Funky Cold Patina', and it is a turquoise crelly polish with copper, shades of blue, and purple hexagonal metallic glitters of various sizes. It was initially released in the KB Shimmer Spring 2015 collection.

First of all - I love the name! As a punny play on the title of the 1980's Tone Loc song 'Funky Cold Medina', in my head, I can't help but say the name of the polish in the same cadence Tone Loc uses when he says the verse in the song! 

Second, I love the concept. The polish is clearly inspired by the patina formed by copper oxidation:  verdigris. I've done a couple verdigris manicures in the past, and my next post will be another version of a verdigris manicure, featuring and inspired by this polish.

As for the polish itself, it applies beautifully, has a great formula, and is absolutely gorgeous. I also really like how this shade of turquoise looks on me. In addition, I've noticed that the polish has held up really well over the few years that I had it, with no bleeding of the glitter colour into the base, and the polish consistency remaining perfect for smooth application. To me, this appears to be a great testament to the quality of the materials being used by the brand!

All in all, I'm really happy with this polish, and I can't wait to play with it in the next look that I create... stay tuned!