Red, Black and Gold Glitter Mani

Now that the summer is over and I've been spending less time in the garden, I managed to get some nail art done! 

The inspiration for this mani all started with me wanting really bright red nails.  After scouring my collection for the brightest reds, I finally settled on Essie's 'Fifth Avenue'.  I then came across Pure Ice 'Studette', a gold glitter polish with small amounts of red glitter mixed in.  I decided to pair the two by making a gold glitter decal in a fun shape, and applying it over the red polish on my ring finger to accent the nail... I really just wanted to do a simple look after not having done a lot of nail art for a couple months!

I decided to go with a thin gold glitter triangle that stretched from the tip to the base of the nail. I executed the design perfectly, and was in awe at the stunning accent! Unfortunately, I would only be able to enjoy the design for a few minutes - while it was drying, I accidentally smudged my nail while reaching for something!  I was so disappointed! I decided to try to salvage what I could, and to take the opportunity to push the design further. 

Luckily, the decal itself wasn't ruined, just the red portion on one side of the decal was smudged. I carefully removed the red polish from that side, and masked the (now dry) unblemished portion of the nail. Then I added a black polish, 'Never Have Too Mani Friends!' from the original OPI 'Hello Kitty' collection. It worked, and looked even better than the original design! I'm glad I didn't give up! Inspired by the new improved accent, I then went on to add more black and gold accents to the rest of the nails to tie everything together. In the end, I am so pleased with how the final look turned out!

The final look reminds me of the face cards in a deck of cards - it's all of the bold geometric shapes and the combination of red, black and gold. This mani would be a great look for a poker tournament! If I wanted to run with the playing card theme, a matte topcoat, and maybe a club, diamond, heart or spade nail stamp on the thumb instead of the gold and black circle would have been a nice touch... Wow, looks like once those creative juices start flowing, they never want to stop - here I am still designing the mani, after it's already complete! 😂  

Above, I have a collage of the polishes used, and below, I have a collage with some additional shots of the manicure.

Essie 'Ballet Slippers'

I couldn't possibly choose any other polish today...

Christmas Glitter Mani 2021

I fell behind with posting, but I really wanted to get this Christmas Mani up on the blog (even though there are a few older manis that I have yet to post! 😅), as it's becoming a bit of a tradition for me to do this same mani at Christmas-time:

I talked about the first two times that I did this manicure in this post from December 2018. I'm pretty sure that this is actually the fourth time I re-created this mani, as I distinctly remember wearing it during the holidays in 2019, however, it looks like I didn't take any pictures of it that year.

One change that I made from the original version, is that I am using a different gold base polish for my middle finger. In the first two versions I used Orly 'Luxe' as the base coat, which is a bit more of a true gold colour. This year (and I think last year too), I started using OPI 'Dazzling Dew Drop', which is a bit more of a brassy, yellow-toned gold. I think that this shade of gold works a little better with this bright, playful look. For both versions, I used Orly 'Halo' as the glitter topper over the gold polishes.

Once again, I love how it turned out! This manicure was so much fun to wear, as it instantly put me in a festive mood!  

Happy Holidays to all!

Grey, Red and Black Abstract Mani

I wanted to do a fun abstract pattern to go with a black, white and grey tie-dye dress that I wore today. This is what I came up with:

For this manicure, I used Nubar Citadel, a light gray creme polish, as the base for the stamped fingers. I then stamped an abstract texture pattern over it using a dark gray creme polish, OPI's "Liv" in the Gray.  The texture patters used were from ÜberChic Beauty Über Mini plates 'Texture-licious', and 'Texture-licious 3'. The two accent nails are painted red with OPI 'Let Your Love Shine'. I also added some cute red heart decals over my stamped index and pinky fingers, to tie the look together.

I also did a slight modification of the mani on my other hand: 

It's essentially the same design, but I double-stamped the nail stamped fingers with another texture pattern in black - Bundle Monster 'Straight Up Black' stamping polish. The texture pattern I used to top the design was from ÜberChic Beauty Über Mini plates 'Texture-licious' 4. This design more closely resembled the tie-dyed dress that I used as inspiration, but I liked both versions and couldn't bring myself to just pick one! 😄

I really enjoyed creating this manicure! It was a lot of fun to design, and a lot of fun to wear!

Revlon 'Elusive'

 Today I have a quick swatch to share:

Revlon #736 'Elusive' is a matte black crelly polish with Emerald green hexagonal glitter particles of various sizes. I'm pretty sure that this polish is discontinued.

I think that this is one of those polishes that looks a million times better in the bottle than on the nail. I find myself wishing that the black base was a bit more translucent, so that the glitter particles would be able to make more of an impact. I also think it would be better with a glossy finish instead of the matte formula that was chosen - of course that is an easy fix with a bit of glossy top coat. 

Overall, it's an OK polish. The formula applied and dried well. The final look is edgy, and somewhat unique. It's just not really my cup of tea... I could see myself maybe wearing it again around halloween, or as a base for nail art, or perhaps if it worked well with a particular outfit - but all in all, it is not one of my favourites.

China Glaze 'Ruby Pumps'

Today I have a swatch of an oldie but goodie, China Glaze 'Ruby Pumps':

'Ruby Pumps' is an amazing ruby red jelly glitter polish that is part of China Glaze's core line. Apparently, the polish was originally released as part of a collection called 'The Wizard of Ooh Ahz' way back in 2001, and then brought back due to popular demand in 2009.  'Dorothy Who?' is another polish that I own, that was originally from the same collection. I previously featured it on the blog in this post. 

In the picture above, the polish looks a lot lighter than it really does in person. However, it does a good job of showing the embedded sparkle from the shimmer particles in the deep red translucent base. The picture below more closely captures the gorgeous true shade of the lacquer. 

I believe that the 'Wizard of Ooh Ahz' collection was released for the holiday season, and I can definitely see how 'Ruby Pumps' in particular would be great for Christmas time. However, it is such a glamorous and glitzy look, that I'll make it work any time of year! 😄

Revlon 'Romantique'

Today, I have a snapshot of a mani that I wore last week. I was feeling like doing something neutral, and demure, so I went with Revlon 'Romantique':

'Romantique' is warm powdery pink creme polish. For me, this type of shade is perfect for when I'm not in the mood for a lot of colour. It's absolutely beautiful, and makes for an elegant mani. As can be expected from most Revlon classic shades, the formula for this polish was great. It applies cleanly and smoothly, and dried quickly.