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piCture pOlish bewitch!!

November 24, 2013
Nailpolish, piCture pOlish
24 Comments

Happy Sunday!

Today’s post… will cast a spell on you!

Well, I have been waiting over a YEAR to share this news with you… and the big day is finally here! Today I bring you… Bewitch, my collaboration shade with piCture pOlish!

When piCture pOlish first contacted me after Blog Fest 2012 to ask if I would be interested in participating, I must admit, I was shocked. My blog was still relatively new at the time, and there were far more established bloggers than me they could have selected. This was a huge honour, but even more so for a newish blogger!

When I finally collected myself after the shock wore off, I knew what I wanted. Loving dark, moody colours, my shade would have to be vampy… maybe holographic. I was inspired by one of my favourite piCture pOlish shades, Monroe, a jelly base with holo pigments, and asked for an aubergine shade with perhaps a sprinkling of golden fairy dust. And as we approached the final round of collaboration shades being released today, BEWITCH was born!

picturepolish_bewitch_btl

Bewitch is a complex aubergine shade that starts out as a purple jelly base with holographic particles, filled with golden shimmer. It is a moody shade that, though starting out with a cool purple base, looks warmer once applied, and slightly shade-shifts in different light. And it is shiny and sparkly, and truly: gorgeous!!!! I am so proud of this collaboration shade!

Have a look:

picturepolish_bewitch_shade_200wmIn daylight

picturepolish_bewitch_sun_200wmIn direct sun

And of course, a macro to show you the complexity of Bewitch:

picturepolish_bewitch_macro_wm

You can see some of the purple jelly base on the perimeter of the polish in the macro. I just love the juxtaposition of cool and warm tones in Bewitch! And that gold and holographic shimmer…!

picturepolish_bewitch_collage

A huge THANK YOU to the girls at piCture pOlish for allowing me the opportunity to create my very own polish shade! The collaboration shades are a phenomenal idea, and I personally own many bloggers’ creations.Thank you for being so supportive of us bloggers!

You must see this shade for yourself to be “bewitched…” and I hope you love it as much as I do!

I would love to know what you think, so please feel free to comment!

Get your very own Bewitch directly from piCture pOlish (they ship internationally!), or from their Network. Don’t forget to follow piCture pOlish on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, and check out their YouTube channel!

~xo

Shimmer Polish Gerry (and a beauty named Elaine!)

September 2, 2013
A-England, Nail Art, Nailpolish, Obsessed, Shimmer Polish
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Happy Labour Day Monday!

Today I have a gorgeous, glittery mani for you, and I hope you love it as much as I did. I think I wore this for a week, never tiring of it and always catching myself staring at its sparkly beauty… It truly is gorgeous. I was in the mood for purple when I created this look. 🙂

The base for my glitter gradient was the stunning A England Elaine, a regal purple creme with an insane shine. I’ve used Elaine before (and worn it many times!) and I knew it would be perfect. I used two coats but Elaine can be almost a one-coater:

AEnglandElaineIs that not a perfect, slightly dusty purple?

In order to retain some of the beauty of Elaine, I decided to apply a gradient of Shimmer Polish Gerry, a sparkly mix of violet and blue glitter with some red, black and silver glitters dispersed throughout. If you know Shimmer Polish (and if you don’t, what are you waiting for! See some of my posts here), you know that Shimmer creates some sparkly ultra-fine glittery gems.

Look at how beautiful this purple glitter gradient turned out:

ShimmerPolishGerry_ElaineI love the above pic in the shade – makes Elaine look so vampy while Gerry looks like it’s floating on the nail surface. (Where’s my polish remover… I think I know what mani to do next!)

Here it is in the sun:

ShimmerPolishGerry_Elaine2

And a macro shot (because I love macros so much):

ShimmerPolishGerry_Elainemacro

Get your very own Shimmer Polish here. Be sure to like Shimmer on Facebook to participate in their contests and see more gorgeous photos and new creations!

I usually purchase A England from Nail Polish Canada or from their US stockist Llarowe (but please check out A England’s site to see their other stockists as well).

So what did you think of my regal purple mani?

~xo

(Some product provided for consideration and review. All opinions are my own.)

OPI Euro Centrale!

January 19, 2013
Nailpolish, OPI
9 Comments

The upcoming OPI Euro Centrale collection for spring and summer 2013 is one I’ve been waiting for.  Described in the press release (see it here) as “celebrating a region where history meets modern design, the collection’s twelve new nail lacquers offer a mixture of glamorous metallic hues; playful bright shades in periwinkle, aqua and pink; and creamy blues in indigo, midnight and aubergine.” And glamorous and perfect they are!! I adore the huge variety of this collection, spanning the colour spectrum from light to dark and from creme to metallic to glitter.

First up, Vant to Bite My Neck?, a deep aubergine… vampy, the way I like my dark polish, with amped-up shine in a dreamy creme base. This could almost be a one-coater. It’s a perfect consistency, applying evenly and drying in great time. What did I say? Dreamy!!

OPI_Euro_VantToBiteThat is two coats over OPI’s base coat. I cannot wait to wear Vant to Bite again; it is such a versatile colour. I am a little surprised that this was included in a spring/summer collection, but all the more reason to love it! A year-round purple. (And I’ve really been into purples lately!)

As stunning as Vant to Bite My Neck? was, my most sought-after polish from this collection was actually My Vampire is Buff. On the other end of the spectrum from vamps are my other favourite polish colours: nudes and whites. And guess what My Vampire is Buff is? A near-white nude opaque creme! Aptly named, this polish’s name made me chuckle as I applied it. It kind of looks like a sallow, ghostly vampire’s skin…. lol.

This one needed some patience to apply… like many opaque polishes this close to white, I applied it generously on the first coat, and thankfully it leveled nicely. Here it is with two coats over base:

OPI_Euro_MyVampireisBuff

In some of the pictures I had seen, this polish looked almost white, so I have tried very carefully to capture its authentic colour in daylight (all my direct-sun pictures looked far too white). Isn’t it gorgeous?

You don’t have to wait much longer! The Euro Centrale by OPI will be available February 6, 2013, at Professional Salons and spas. For more information, visit www.opi.com, follow OPI on Twitter @OPI_PRODUCTS and become a Facebook fan!

What do you think of these two very different shades?

~xo

(Product provided for consideration and review. All opinions are my own.)

More Juicy Jellies!

May 27, 2012
Aphrodite Lacquers, Beauty, Nailpolish, Obsessed
7 Comments

You may recall my recent post about broken nail mail – poor Grapetini arrived in pieces, wrapped in purple-coloured bubble wrap. : (

In one of the best customer service experiences I have had so far with frankeners (and there are tons of amazing, incredible indie polish makers out there!) – Rebecca, the creator of Aphrodite Lacquers’ Grapetini, shipped out a replacement the very next day, even though the broken bottle had clearly been wrapped well and the accident was just that, an accident.

So today I have for you—at long last, Grapetini!!

Aphrodite Lacquers Grapetini, from The SandBar collection, is another gorgeous jelly-sandwich-in-a-bottle: a purple jelly with lavender and purple glitter in a base of tiny silver sparkles. It is the perfect purple, rich and royal, and can be built up by adding more layers.

I used Grapetini on its own, though you can definitely layer this beauty!

Here it is, 2 coats of Grapetini over a clear base coat, topped with China Glaze Fast Forward quick-drying top coat. (I skipped the Gelous coat this time and it still ended up perfectly smooth.)

In reality it looks a lot more like the pinky and ring fingers rather than the top two fingers, which look quite sheer in this light.

 

And here it is at 3 coats:

Here’s a closeup shot so you can see the gorgeous jelly sandwich effect:

Is it not a beauty??

My second polish of the day is Aphrodite Lacquers’ Ambrosia, another SandBar collection polish, a bright, bubblegum pink jelly with purple and light pink glitter, in the same base of tiny silver sparkles that makes these jellies so sparkly.

This polish ended up veering closer to a hot light pink rather than the pink grapefruit colour I imagined. If you are a neon or hot pink fan, this polish is for you!

I also wore Ambrosia on its own, though topped it with a coat of Gelous (out of sheer habit) before adding my top coat. What I love about these glitter polishes is that they are always so smooth after top coat! Some of my other glitter-heavy frankens just don’t seem to smooth out and occasionally end up pulling on a delicate outfit.

Indoors – artificial light

Natural light – with sun

And to show you the jelly sandwich sandwich effect again, here is a macro shot:

Follow Aphrodite Lacquers on Facebook here and find these beauties, along with her new collection, Outta This World, on her Etsy shop!

Psst, she has another new collection coming out as well! Details are on the Aphrodite Facebook page. 🙂

Hope you are having a fantastic long weekend if you are in the US!

xo

Lilac Bouquet – Guest Post!!

April 25, 2012
Beauty, Lynnderella, Nailpolish, Obsessed, Zoya
4 Comments
Hello! After a long absence due to my lack of camera charger (tres frustrating), I’m back with a review of Lynnderella’s Nosegay from her most recent collection, Lovely Is As Lovely Does.
Nosegay is a delicate lilac-coloured base polish with medium purple glitter in a variety of small shapes: square, hex, circular and some micro glitter.  All glitter is the same shade of purple and this really appealed to me, along with the fact that I’m apparently purple-obsessed.
As soon as Nosegay arrived in the mail from Llarowe, I knew I had the perfect base: Zoya’s Miley which is my current favourite polish.  Miley is a gorgeous pale purple-grey JELLY!!  Its application is a breeze for a newbie like me, and it dries to the most perfect sheer jelly finish.
As you can see in this side bottle shot of Nosegay, the bottle I got wasn’t mixed very well.  There was a lot of white at the base and the purple was sort of suspended at the top.  I did a lot of vigorous shaking to help blend the two colours, but even after all of that the two colours have yet to perfectly mix together.  I found with this Lynnderella that the glitter was very well distributed throughout the bottle, even though the colour distribution was poor. I didn’t have pooling of glitter at the bottom like I did with Gotta Love Brains (see review here).
Here I have on an OPI basecoat, 3 thin coats of Zoya Miley, one coat of Nosegay (with a bit of spot-glittering with the brush) and one coat of Essie Good to Go topcoat.  Even with all of these layers on, my overall manicure doesn’t feel thick like it does when I wear cream polishes, I think that’s one reason I love jelly polishes so much.  Miley does build to a nice opacity with 3 coats but it isn’t 100% opaque.
What do you think?  Are you a fan of the jelly and glitter look?  Have you worn Nosegay with another base?
~xo Mai~
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