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! 

Morgan Taylor - Just One Bite

For St Patrick's day this year, I did a 'Green Plaid Mani' which used 'Mistress of Mayhem', a sparkly dark green polish from Morgan Taylor's Fall 2020 'Disney Villains' collection. Today, I have a swatch of another polish from that 'Disney Villain's' collection. It is a metallic red polish called 'Just One Bite':

'Just One Bite' is the Morgan Taylor 'Disney Villain Collection' polish that was themed around the Evil Queen from 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'. The name is a reference to the poisoned red apple that the queen offers to Snow White. Fittingly, it is a gorgeous apple red polish with a finely milled shimmer that gives the polish a metallic look. 

I'm partial to metallic reds, so of course I absolutely had to have this polish when I noticed it in the collection! Now that I've tried it, I can say that I really enjoyed wearing it. The colour and finish were beautiful, and worked well with my skin tone. I also think the formula was fairly decent, and the polish was reasonably long-lasting on the nail. Overall, I'm quite happy with this polish!

Essie 'Cupid's Beau'

Today's swatch is 'Cupid's Beau', from Essie's Valentine's Day 2021 Collection:

'Cupid's Beau' is a vibrant, shimmery, reddish-orange polish with a metallic finish. It's not the typical type of shade you would expect from a Valentine's day collection, but it's a beautiful polish nonetheless. It's also really versatile, as it will be great to wear this bright, shimmery shade right into spring and summer, and since the orange leans more red than yellow, this darker orange shade will even work for fall!

The packaging was a little different for the 2021 Valentine's day collection than it had been the last couple of years, as Essie has steered clear of the Valentine's Day themed decorative bottle wraps that they had been using. I actually really liked those bottle wraps, as they made the bottle stand out, and they added an air of celebration, and festive fun to the collection - the bottles were dressed for the occasion! They were also really easy to remove, for those who prefer to be able to easily see the polish in the bottle at a quick glance. For the 2021 Valentine's Day collection, the bottle decoration was just limited to the bottle caps. I actually miss the wraps!

All in all, 'Cupid's Beau' is a lovely, eye-catching polish, and I enjoyed wearing it!

Yellow, Green, and Blue Dotticure

 Today I have a nail art manicure to share:

This yellow, green, and blue dotticure was really quick and easy to do. I just alternated some blue and green holographic polishes as my base colours, and then added dots of various sizes and colours with a dotting tool. The overall look was very whimsical - it was a lot of fun to wear!

Below, I have a shot of the polishes that I used o create this mani:

I used 3 polishes to create this manicure. The base colours were two different holographic polishes from Cirque Colors, 'Emerald' and 'Sapphire'. These polishes were both originally released in Cirque Colors' 'Facets 2018 Collection', which was themed around various precious gemstones. The third polish was a bright yellow that I used for the dot design. It is called 'Hit the Lights' and it was part of Nicole by OPI's collaboration collection with Selena Gomez, which was released way back in January 2013!

I have so many nostalgic feelings around the (now retired) Nicole by OPI line! I remember how OPI saved the majority of their fun, bright, and bold shades and formulations for this line. It was so much fun to browse through them in the drug stores!

Below, I have some additional shots of the manicure.

OPI '15 Minutes of Flame' - Hollywood Collection for Spring 2021

Today, I have another polish from the OPI Spring 2021 Hollywood collection. This beauty is called '15 Minutes of Flame':

'15 Minutes of Flame' is a stunning metallic fuchsia polish. On the OPI website it's tag line is that "this fuchsia nail polish has a flair for the dramatic" - it's so true, the polish is very bright, and eye-catching, with a shimmery finish that reflects light in such a way that the polish seems to glow from within. 

I found the formula on '15 Minutes of Flame' to be a little tricky to work with, but I feel it's still worth it for the gorgeous colour and shimmer pay-off. The coverage is really good, and if you have a smooth nail surface, you might be able to get away with one coat. When I used one coat, it applied well and dried easily, but did nothing to hide the surface imperfections on my nail. 

I decided to go for a second coat, but that's when I ran into problems with the formula. After a few attempts, I found that it's best to give a fair amount of dry time between coats to ensure that the first layer is dried thoroughly before applying the second. This seemed to minimize bubbling. And also, if applying two coats, it's probably best to give a good amount of dry time before doing other activities, or going to bed. The first couple tries, I did my nails about an hour before going to sleep, and woke up with a little bit of smudging.

All in all, I really do love '15 Minutes of Flame' - despite how careful I had to be when applying it. It such a fun, and flashy colour and finish. I'm looking forward to more great manis with this awesome shade!