Quick Christmas Manicure

 Today, I have a quickly done Christmas skittles mani to share:

For this manicure, I used two polishes from the L'Oréal Paris 'Vernis a l'Huile' line of polishes. The polishes were colour B34 'Déjà Blue', and colour B22 'Moulin Nights'. I did a simple 2 alternating colour skittle manicure.  I thought briefly about covering everything with gold glitter, but decided against the idea solely because I want to do another manicure for Christmas Day, and want this mani to be easy to remove!

I actually did a full manicure with Déjà Blue for my previous manicure (I didn't get a picture of it, so there's no corresponding post  😞). When I noticed that the 'blue' is actually more of a turquoise that leans toward evergreen, I thought it would look really good with red as part of a Christmas mani.

OPI Fall 2020 'Muse of Milan' collection: 'My Italian is a Little Rusty'

Today I have another polish to share from the OPI Fall 2020 collection 'Muse of Milan'. This one is called 'My Italian is a litle Rusty':

'My Italian is a Little Rusty' is a warm chestnut brown creme polish. To me, it seems like a darker version of 'Have Your Panettone and Eat it Too', another polish in the 'Muse of Milan' collection. Just like '...Panettone..', 'My Italian is a Littly Rusty' is super-autumnal, and instantly puts me in a fall mood! In fact, these were the only two polishes from the collection that really sparked my interest.

I found the shade to be quite lovely - it reminds me of fresh, unworked clay... so earthy and gorgeous! I also think it worked will with my skin tone. On me, the colour is very neutral, but the extra warmth adds a bit of 'oomph', to make the over-all look a bit more interesting. The formula was also very good.

All in all, this polish did not disappoint! 

OPI Fall 2020 collection, 'Muse of Milan': 'Have Your Pannetone and Eat it Too'

It's Labour Day, today - Happy Labour Day! And with that, comes the unofficial end to the (relatively) relaxing days of summer. It's always sad to realize that the summer is almost over, but at least we still have all of the beautiful fall nail polish collections to look forward to! 😉

Today I have a swatch to share from the new OPI Fall 2020 collection: 'Muse of Milan'. The polish is called 'Have Your Pannetone and Eat it Too':

The colour lies in between a spiced pumpkin orange, and a very warm caramel brown - although it definitely leans more orange. It goes really well with my skin's warm undertones, and gives an overall very neutral look on me. This colour is so perfectly representative of fall, for me... it reminds me of pumpkin pie, yellowed leaves, and tan leather boots - all things that just scream autumn!

The formula was also very lovely. It took two coats for full opacity, dried well, and has a beautiful shiny finish. All in all, I'm really happy that I picked this polish up!

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Pucker Up'

 Today, I have a swatch of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Pucker Up':

This is a bright, poppy red polish, with a jelly-like consistency and shiny, slightly translucent finish. It is very intensely pigmented, and covers quite well even after one coat. I enjoyed wearing this polish - it's bold and fun, yet classic and elegant at the same time!

Sinful Colors 'Gold N' Roses'

For today's post, I have a swatch of 'Gold N' Roses', a shimmery rose gold polish from Sinful Colors:

The polish applies quite thin, so I used three coats of polish for this mani. The final look was pretty -  very soft and elegant. However, it was a little too neutral of a look for my mood at the moment, so I decided to try to jazz it up by adding some nail gems!

Essie A-List... Possibly My Perfect Shade of Red?!

 I'm not quite certain, but I think I may possibly have found a strong contender for my perfect shade of red! The polish is Essie 'A-List', and she's a real beauty:

Essie's web-site describes the A-List as an "award-winning, classic creamy red polish". The polish is a cool-toned, slightly deep shade of red that will likely flatter a variety of skin tones. It also applies really well, and dries to smooth, shiny finish.

I find 'A-List' to be really chic and elegant, and I could see myself using this as kind of a manicure wardrobe staple for those times when you want to look polished, and put together, without too much fuss. What I really love about the polish is that I'm always looking for deeper reds that read as red (as opposed to burgundy), and don't give off brown undertones - so far, A-List seems to fit the bill! The real test is seeing how it looks under fluorescent lighting, but I haven't gotten a chance to do that yet.

All in all, I'm completely smitten with this polish, and look forward to using it again!

'Shades of Coral' Manicure

 

For today's mani, I decided to a skittles manicure using a dark, medium, and light shade of coral. I used three polishes from Essie's Gel Couture line to accomplish this look: 'Sizzling Hot', 'Signature Smile', and 'Couture Curator'. I'm calling it my 'Shades of Coral' mani! 

I actually really enjoyed this look. It's fun and summery, but also sweet, and playful! For some reason, it kind of reminds me of 'Strawberry Shortcake' - the cartoon, not the dessert! Perhaps little green and white accents would complete that look... hmmmn... that could be a fun mani idea for the future!

Polish Cutout Decal Mani: Version 3

Today I have another polish cutout Decal manicure to share:

 

I still had some sheets of polish leftover from my decal making manicures that I shared on the blog a few posts ago: the 'Polish Cutout Decal Mani' version 1, and version 2. I didn't wan't to waste the sheets of polish, so I came up with a quick abstract mani using strips of polish I cut from the sheets using my pinking shears, and regular scissors. I topped the manicure with a matte glitter topper called 'Can I Get an Untz Untz' from China Glaze's iconic 'Summer Nights' collection that they released in Summer 2015.

The finished look isn't exactly as I had envisioned, but I kind of like the chaotic, random vibes that this manicure gives off! Cutting up the nail polish strips and applying them directly to the nail was a great way to use up more of the sheets of polish.  There still are more odds and ends left, so if I feel up to it, I may be able to do one more version of the 'Polish Cutout Decal Mani', but we'll see...

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!

Polish Cutout Decal Mani, Version 2

Today, I have another polish cutout decal mani using the leftover materials from my last post. This time I used 'Green Apple' as my base polish and added cutouts I made with pinking shears, and a hole punch from dried sheets of 'Inchworm' and 'Berry Blue'. I really like how this mani came out. I love the geometric shapes, and the fun colours.

Polish Cutout Decal Mani

Today I have a quick nail art manicure to share. Recently when organizing my stationery, I found a bunch of materials I bought to make nail polish decals: decorative shears (pinking, scalloping, etc) and novelty shaped hole punches (stars, hearts, butterflies, dragonflies etc...). I decided to do a quick manicure to play with all of the materials!

For this manicure, I used the scalloping shears to make the layered waves on my middle finger, and I used the star shaped hole punch to make the star decals on my ring finger. Below, I've included a picture of the materials that I used.

For the decals, I decided to go with some quick drying, opaque and super-pigmented polishes, so my Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes fit the bill for the job. I spread out a layer of each of the 3 polishes I chose on my born pretty nail art mat, and added a second coat after those had dried. Then I went to work creating some fun shapes to add to my nails. I always over-estimate how much polish I will need for the decals, so I had a bunch of polish sheets left over. I plan to do another decal mani or two to use up a bit more of the sheets. Stay tuned for more decal fun!

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 'Precious Petals'

Today I have a swatch of KB Shimmer 'Precious Petals', over the polish featured in my last post, L'Oréal Paris Le Vernis à l'huile, colour number 663, 'Sable Tuileries'. You can link to that last post right here. 

'Precious Petals' was originally released as part of KB Shimmer's Summer 2015 collection. It is a glitter topper with matte hexagonal glitters of various sizes in lilac, pastel aqua, white, and hot pink, as well as a very fine holographic glitter.

I like how when paired with a neutral base, the glitter really stands out. I think this would also look nice topped over various shades of pink, purple, and blue/aqua.

L'Oréal Paris - Le Vernis à l'huile, 663 Sable Tuileries

Today I have a quick swatch to share of a gorgeous neutral polish by L'Oréal Paris, from their line of polishes entitled 'Le Vernis à l'huile'. The swatch is of colour number 663, 'Sable Tuileries'. After doing a bunch of skittles manicures, and a multi-coloured crelly glitter polish in my last few posts, my eyes were drawn to this toned-down neutral shade when I was looking through my collection. 

I actually had a few other fun mani ideas lined up to do, but I guess I needed a bit of a palate cleanser of some elegant, understated nails... This classic creamy taupe shade really hit the spot!

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!

China Glaze 'Cackle if you Want to'

'Cackle if You Want to' was released as part of China Glaze's Halloween 2015 'Ghoul's Night Out' collection. It is a glitter topper with matte purple and black glitters in a variety of sizes. The purple glitter particles are quite unique, in that they have a light purple and dark purple alternating 'pinstripe'. 

Even though this was part of a Halloween collection, it can work with a variety of nail looks, any time of year. For this manicure, I used 'Cackle...' over China Glaze's 'Ahoy', the polish that I wrote about in my last post, which you can see here. The combination creates a manicure that is edgy, fun, and artistic.

Even though I don't frequently wear glitter topper polishes, I'm really happy to have this one in my collection. The colourway is pretty versatile, since it is only one colour and a neutral, which allows it to be worn with a greater variety nail polish shades. Also, it is pretty unique (particulary for a mainstream polish). Overall, it's a really cool option for adding some visual interest to a simple manicure.

Swatch: China Glaze 'Ahoy!'

Today I have a swatch of China Glaze 'Ahoy!', a very pigmented fuschia crelly polish with gold shimmer particles.  Apparently,  'Ahoy!' was originally released as part of China Glaze's spring 2011 'Anchor's Away' collection, but I think it may have become part of the permanent collection, as I'm pretty sure that I purchased it well after 2011.

'Ahoy!' is truly quite lovely. The cool-toned, dark pink shade is beautiful, and is suitable for any season. And to top it all off, the gold shimmer really adds dimension to the finished look of the polish. All in all, it is absolutely stunning!

Summer Fun Shimmery Skittles Mani

Today I have another summery skittles mani to share, this time using all bright shimmery colours. I even managed to throw in a bit of embellisment, with some nail jewels! 

For the manicure I used four different Sally Hansen Polishes. I've been having a lot of fun shopping my stash lately, and using older polishes that I haven't really used much in years. I've been rediscovering a lot of fun drug store polishes that I bought back when I just started getting into nail polish, some of which are now discontinued.

Polishes Used

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear ‘Hot Magenta’

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure ‘Wedding Glitters’

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear ‘Ivy League’

Sally Hansen Hi-Definition Nail Colour ‘Three D’

All in all, I really like how this manicure turned out. I think the colours work really well together, and they are so cheerful!