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Extend Your Manicure

July 21, 2013
Beauty, Colors by Llarowe, Jelly, Nailpolish, Obsessed, Shimmer Polish, Tips
2 Comments

Friends often ask me how my manicure lasts so long, and do I actually cook/clean/wash dishes? (For the record, yes, yes, yes! I actually love cooking.)

So how DO you make your manicure last longer?

Well… there are those all-important first steps: have clean, dry nails before starting your mani (even wiping quickly with a cotton pad soaked in alcohol can help polish adhere longer by removing nail oils), use a good quality base coat under your polish, allow a few minutes to dry between coats and apply 2 coats of polish… finish off with a top coat – I love a quick-dry top coat such as FNUG’s IGEL or China Glaze’s Fast Forward top coats. Wrap the free tip of your nail as you apply top coat (swipe it over the free edge).

So you have done all of the above. Now what?

Even the most careful among us will experience some tip wear after a few days. If you are not ready to let go of your mani, which was the case for me when I was wearing the beautiful Colors by Llarowe Cherry Bomb (see it here), you can extend your mani for a few more days!

How? Simply apply a gradient of your favourite glitter, preferably with a tinted base, over your tips!

How to apply a gradient?

“Dry-brush” the first coat of glitter: wipe the brush of the glitter polish inside the bottle, so you are left with more glitter, less base, and apply this over the tips. Let dry a few minutes.
Apply another coat of glitter polish over your tips, this time applying the glitter polish normally.
Let dry, apply top coat, and voila!

Here is the beautiful Shimmer Polish Karina, a perfect glitter to complement Cherry Bomb, applied as a gradient over my tips:

Colors_CherryBomb_ShimmerKarina2 Colors_CherryBomb_ShimmerKarina1

The best part? This barely takes a quarter of the time of a full manicure!

 

What do you think? Would you try this over a few-days-old mani?

~xo

Shimmer Polish Spam!

November 17, 2012
A-England, Nailpolish, Nicole by OPI, nubar, piCture pOlish, Shimmer Polish
7 Comments

Today I have you for a whole slew of beauties from Shimmer Polish! Some of these you have seen before but I really wanted to do a weekend spam of Shimmer Polishes as I have some gorgeous combos for you.

First up, one of my very favourites from this batch, Karina. Karina is a beautiful deep red/burgundy jelly base packed with red/burgundy/black glitter. I have worn this colour alone a few times already (I told you, it is an absolute favourite!) but here it is at 2 coats layered over Nicole by OPI’s Here we Kome A-Karoling.

Another one I immediately fell in love with was Vanessa (previously reviewed here), a slightly grey jelly base with pewter, silver,  red and black glitter. This was an amazingly sparkly polish — simply spectacular!

Here it is layered over A-England’s Dorian Gray:

Check out the macro:

Now on to a brighter mani, Shimmer Polish Sophie in a gradient over stunning Nubar Rouge. I did this mani in support of one of our Go Pink Wednesday efforts, previously reviewed here.

Isn’t this simply gorgeous?

Then there is stunning Shimmer Polish Jennifer. Being a Scorpio, I am completely in love with water and the colours associated with it, though I try not to wear blue nail polish (well, I say that)… However, I can’t help but gravitate towards blues and turquoises!! When Cindy from Shimmer asked me what my favourite colour was, I hesitantly said blue… she assured me that Jennifer was light enough to allow wearability. Well… she was right. Check out gorgeous, sparkling Jennifer below over Nicole by OPI Kardashian Kollection’s Deck the Dolls (previously reviewed here):

Jennifer is in a clear base, packed full of multi-colour glitters in different sizes: it includes silver, blue, pink, turquoise and some black glitters.

Here I used it to accent the elegant Nubar Velvet Silver:

Here is Shimmer Polish Cassandra, an irridescent glitter mix in a clear shimmery base. I loved the simple sparkle of Cassandra  and tried it over several different undies.

Here is is over picture polish’s White Wedding, an amazing bright white jelly with tiny holographic sparkles created by Leah Ann Larowe:

Isn’t that gorgeous?

And here is Cassandra over a darker base, A England’s Dorian Gray (yes, I am in love with Dorian Gray 🙂 ) :

And last but not least, Shimmer Polish Carmen, a gold and copper glitter mix in a shimmery holographic base. Carmen builds to opacity very quickly so I did not need a base for this, but I did have some trouble capturing the perfect photo:

I am totally loving every single one the polishes pictured here. I can’t wait to mix them up with new base colours (like wearing Cassandra over a black base)!

Which one is your favourite? And do you have any Shimmer Polishes?

Shimmer Polish is available on Cindy’s Etsy shop. Don’t forget to follow her blog and her Facebook page for lots of giveaways and news about the brand!

(Products were provided for consideration and review or from a giveaway. All opinions are my own.)

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