Hare Polish: Electric Flame

Electric Flame by Hare Polish really is a hard polish to capture on camera, you can't quite get all the nuances of it.

It's a  peachy orange jelly with glowing blue and purple glass flecks and the same iridescent blue hexes. It really does glow on your nails, can't get it in the picture although I tried my hardest.

This is 3 coats on its own.

indoors

 

direct sunlight

Information: Facebook // Etsy // Llarowe

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Smitten Polish: Capitana El Rubi

Today I have for you Capitana El Rubi by Smitten Polish, part of the new Shipwrecked collection. I was wanting to wear a red when I decided to use this polish. I love the different glitter shapes in it. The formula was pretty difficult to work with -- I tried to use 3 coats, but even though I waited for each layer to dry, it bunched up in areas. The glitter didn't quite come out as I wanted. I suppose I could have used thinner on it but I was stubborn.

It's a maroonish red polish with pink and silver glitter (including circle glitter!) and a purple shimmer/flash and I wanted to love it but it didn't quite happen. It ended up being a very thick manicure (coats of polish plus tons of topcoat). Maybe 5 coats of topcoat -- I added one more before taking these pictures, and in the 1st you can see the trouble area.

Gorgeous polish, in need of a good amount of thinner, though.

Information: Facebook // Etsy // Llarowe

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Scofflaw Nail Varnish: David Bowie's Bulge

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been very absent -- I think finals burned me out from doing anything other than veg. I was only doing a manicure once a week -- when I'd usually do them two or three times a week. And even then, I rarely moisturized (good thing it's not winter) so my cuticles were in a sad state.

But I'm back! Sad news, I did not get into the MBA program I applied to but I think it's for the best in terms of my interests and background experience. So I'll be entering my third year of law school -- actually, I'm already in it as I started summer classes last week. One year left! How... scary.

Onto today's swatch, it's from Scofflaw Nail Varnish. Interesting name, David Bowie's Bulge, eh?

It's a deep coral polish with subtle shimmer, accented with matte and holographic teal glitters of various sizes and also features small dark red glitters and a bronze microglitter. I REALLY loved the bronze microglitter aspect of it, it added some nice sparkle. I think it took me only 2 coats to get this result, and the glitter came out beautifully. Perfect summer color!

Their information: Facebook // Etsy // Llarowe

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OPI Polka.com black jelly sandwich

I recently scored Camouflage Colour Black in a Lust Have It! sample box - at first I was disappointed, since it's just a plain black, but then I swatched it and discovered that it was extremely sheer. Hurray! Jelly sandwich!

I started with a couple of layers of Black, then dabbed OPI Polka.com, a pink/blue/purple glitter (see my original swatches of it here), and finished with an extra layer of Black.

The result reminded me of some of the indies in jelly bases floating around - I'm in love! It's made me want to collect jellies in all the colours (so 2012, I know).

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Copper oxide and copper metal: Butter London Two Fingered Salute and Face of Australia Studio 54

I've been really obsessed with work safe polishes since finally scoring a temporary teaching job, my first income since my scholarship ran out. I recently scored my second ever Butter London polish in a Sydney nail meetup from the lovely Rebecca - it's Two Fingered Salute, a dusty pastel green with copper microglitter, which I think is work safe from a distance. The microglitter just happened to match the newly released glitter Face of Australia Studio 54, so naturally the two had to pose together in a mani.

I loved this combination - Two Fingered Salute is such a pretty, elegant colour. It just so happens that the green is the colour of oxidised copper (think Statue of Liberty) and the copper is, well, copper, which made my (not very) inner nerd quite happy!

I would love to have more Butter Londons, but my wallet just won't let me yet! What are your favourite work safe colours?

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OPI Black Spotted franken fail

When OPI Black Spotted was all the rage, I tried to make a version using easily accessible supplies (for my guess at the science behind Black Spotted, check out my post here). Unfortunately, it turned out that none of the things I tried were close enough to heptane to work, and instead I got a kind of cool-looking dirty, grungey effect, which I layered over some neons for fun. While it's kind of cool, I don't see myself wearing this again!

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Purple Use-Up-the-Polish mani number 2

Here's my second mani to try to get through a few untrieds - China Glaze Marry a Millionaire and Nubar Peacock Feathers. I didn't think I wanted Marry a Millionaire based on swatches I saw online, but when I went to the mythical Pro Nail Supply in Sydney and saw it glowing in the corner, I had to have it! The green bits of bar glitter look stunning against the grey tinged purple (grurple?).

Peacock Feathers was a lemming of mine, and while it's not the most stunning multichrome, I love all the colours it contains.

I'm not sure if these shades really work together - they're both not really on the same spectrum of purple. But it was a very visually interesting mani to wear!

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Illamasqua Rampage (Jelly Sandwich)

Hey ya'll! Long time.

I haven't been painting my nails much this year (I'm adjusting to my new job, I moved, I got diagnosed with a fairly serious auto-immune disease), but I'm still keeping up with my favorite nail blogs! I'm going on vacation today to South America! Toot toot! I took yesterday off too, so with my extra time I did my nails for funsies. I'll remove the mani before I get on the flight (I'm a big believer in not doing my nails on extended vacations, I'll bring a nail file and some moisturizer and that's it) but it's been a nice 24 hours with this manicure.

 


(3 coats - 1 coat Rampage, 1 coat AtU Lippmann, 1 coat Rampage)

This is about as glittery and loud as I can imagine myself getting these days.  The murky glitter (I love the way it glints below the surface) is a little less visible in person.

Both Rampage and Across the Universe are mega-classics, so I'm sure you guys know the formula on both are lovely for a jelly and glitter respectively.

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Purple Use-Up-the-Polish mani number 1

During my Helmer clean out, I discovered that I have an obscene amount of purple polishes I haven't even tried. Obviously, this needed rectifying, so here's the first of my half/half manis where I jam two purple polishes together and try to make them work in a manicure.

First is Gloss 'n Sparkle Purpetual Darkness paired with OPI DS Original (two coats layered over Models Prefer Beam Me Up). DS Original is the most linear holo I own, but it's really sheer. I really liked this mani - it was interesting enough to last me a couple of days, but not too exciting that they'd become a conversation starter. For some reason I hate when talk centres around my nails, it makes me feel really awkward! Do other nail addicts have this problem?

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WINNERS!!!

And the 3 winners are picked!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'll be emailing y'all soon with the codes! Thank you for participating if you did, and I'll be holding more giveaways soon! It's quite fun, actually :)

I'm a 3L NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YA!!

<3 minnie 

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GIVEAWAY REMINDER!!

Hey guys!! Sorry for lack of posts, it's been really rough with finals :( But! Today is the last day to enter in my giveaway!!

GIVEAWAY!!!

I'll be announcing the winners on Thursday! Good luck!!!

<3 minnie

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Coco Allure: Jupiter Aurora

I remember when duochromes first became popular -- Nubar had a number of them out, and I found them intriguing. They don't capture my interest as much as glitter does, so to have the combination of the two is pretty darn awesome.

Coco Allure: Jupiter Aurora is a multichrome glitter topcoat. It shifts from green, to teal, then purple, with some burgundy and hints of copper. I tried to get fancy with striping tape but it may have backfired a little bit. I should have done it the opposite way -- black with the glitter star.

This glitter topcoat is super dense, this really is one coat over black. Gorgeous and I definitely was not bored with it while I wore it.

Coco Allure can be found on their Facebook page here and their Etsy here :)

Don't forget to like our Facebook page and enter in my giveaway for Llarowe GCs!


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Loki's Lacquer Omicron Persei 8

A quick one today: I recently came across this swatch of Loki's Lacquer Omicron Persei 8 again in my files, which I originally posted in my swatchathon of the Futurama collection from Loki's Lacquer. It's probably my favourite swatch of the whole collection, even though the polish in the bottle didn't wow me - but over black, it's a stunner!

Unfortunately Loki's Lacquer isn't widely available outside of Australia, but you can ask nicely and see if there's any way of getting it to you on their Etsy store here.

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Zoya: Kennedy + Darling Diva Polish: Sakura

As is obvious, I love glitter. The world of glitter for nail polish has exploded since the indie scene popped up and flourished and I'm pretty excited that different shapes of glitter are now becoming more prevalent. Square, circle, flower shaped, etc. Darling Diva Polish: Sakura involves each of these shapes in a super cute springtime glitter topcoat.

mattified!

Sakura is a glitter topcoat made up of spring green circle, square and hex glitters, pink circle glitters, hot pink circle glitters, translucent white square glitter, iridescent glitters of various sizes, and pink flower shaped glitter. This is two coats of Darling Diva Polish: Sakura over 2 coats of Zoya: Kennedy. The glitter applied pretty well, I didn't have to fish at all for the flower shaped glitter. Formula was actually really great!

You can find Darling Diva Polish on their Facebook here, Etsy here (on vacation until May 3rd), and on Llarowe!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and to enter in my giveaway for Llarowe gift certificates! 



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Pretty Serious Mummy Mush

Another Pretty Serious polish from the Monster Mash Halloween collection today! This is Mummy Mush - a gold chunky shimmer with a greenish blue multichrome glow that really comes out over dark colours. Over the bare nail, like in my 3 coat swatch, it's warm-toned. Given my fear of shiny shiny nails, I won't be wearing this one on its own very often, but I'll be using this in gradients and layering combos!

You can buy Pretty Serious here, and they ship worldwide, so hide your wallets now!

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