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.

Sky Blue Dotticure

Today I have a dotticure to share:

This manicure was quick and easy to do, and a lot of fun to wear. It's simply a bright sky blue base, with silver, orange, and dark teal layered polka-dots. This is the perfect type of mani to do if you want to incorporate a little nail art into your manicure, but don't want to do a lot of thinking or planning. I haven't been doing a lot of manicures lately, so it has been really fun to revisit this hobby after a little while away!

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!