China Glaze Autumn Nights Collection: Part 2 "Gossip Over Gimlets"

Hi everyone! After a bit of a delay, I have the second half of the new China Glaze Autumn Nights collection. Don't forget to check out my swatches of the first half called "Strike Up A Cosmo."

While I really loved all, or almost all, of the polishes in the first half of the collection, I feel that this half is either hit or miss for me. Like the first six polishes, all the ones I'll show in this post have an excellent formula. But some colours are rather ordinary and worth passing on, unless you don't have anything like it already.

China Glaze Autumn Nights Collection: Part 2, "Gossip Over Gimlets"

Charmed, I'm Sure is a dark eggplant creme. Not a highly unique polish, but it's a great colour and if you don't have one like it, I highly recommend it. It's very pigmented and goes on perfectly smooth. It also has a great consistency and is not runny or streaky. This was 2 coats.

China Glaze Charmed, I'm Sure

China Glaze Charmed, I'm Sure

Gossip Over Gimlets is a silver-gold foil. It is mainly silver and if you look close you can see specks of gold. On it's own I find this rather bright and blingy - for lack of a better word - but I think this would be great as an accent nail or in nail art. The consistency was perfect and minimal clean up was needed. Overall the formula was excellent and it went on very evenly. This was 2 coats.

China Glaze Gossip Over Gimlets

China Glaze Gossip Over Gimlets

China Glaze Gossip Over Gimlets (direct light)

Kiss My Glass is a steel grey metallic. It looks very similar to Public Relations but is more of a blue/cool-toned steel grey. It also has a great formula like the others - it goes on smooth and is perfectly self-leveling. In the photos it looks like it is very frosty and brushstrokey, but this is less noticeable in person. This is another one I'm not too keen on as a full mani, but I think it would be great for nail art and stamping. 2 coats here.

China Glaze Kiss My Glass

China Glaze Kiss My Glass

China Glaze Kiss My Glass (direct light)

Public Relations is a steel grey metallic with a slight purple tone. It's very close to Kiss My Glass in both colour and formula, so you probably don't need both of them. The formula was very good, it went on very evenly and smooth. However, I did have some issues with bubbling, but that might be user error. Like Kiss My Glass it appears to be on the frosty side, but is better in person. 2 coats.

China Glaze Public Relations

China Glaze Public Relations

China Glaze Public Relations (direct light)

Queen B is a dusty dark blurple creme. I love the colour and although it might not be the most unique, I don't think I really have anything like it. The formula is okay, but I found it was a bit runny and had a tendency to pool in my cuticles. Otherwise, it goes on very smooth and is perfectly self-leveling. This was 2 coats.

China Glaze Queen B

China Glaze Queen B

Rendezvous With You is a dark burgundy/purple foil with a silver shimmer. This is hands down my favourite polish of the entire collection - the colour is so beautiful and vampy with an amazing, eye-catching shimmer. Also the formula is perfect - the consistency was just right and minimal clean-up was needed. Like the others, it goes on very smooth and evenly, and while I used two coats here, it easily is a one-coater.

China Glaze Rendezvous With You

China Glaze Rendezvous With You

China Glaze Rendezvous With You (direct light)

Out of this half of the collection, my favourite is Rendezvous With You, followed by Queen B and Gossip Over Gimlets. From the collection overall, my favourites are Rendezvous With You, Don't Make Me Wine, and Strike Up a Cosmo.

While some of the colours may not be the most unique, I think this collection is strong for having a variety of colours and finishes, also there's not a single polish with a poor formula. It really does get me in the mood for fall colours.

What do you think of this collection? Are any of these calling out your name? :)

31 Day Challenge: Day Eight, Metallic: Paisley, Taboo, Steampunk, and Studs

Hi everyone! I hate to blog and run, but that's exactly what I'm going to do. It's almost 5 am here and I really need to get up at a reasonable hour in the morning.

Steampunk and paisley metallic nail art

I've had Chanel Taboo in my untried box for a few weeks now, and I thought it would be a great base for some metallic nail art. When I was thinking of designs to pair with it, I eventually settled on paisley and steampunk. Don't ask me why I put the two together - I just thought it would be neat. :)

Steampunk and paisley metallic nail art

I started with two coats of Taboo, and using a fine liner brush did the details with Essie Penny Talk from the Mirror Metallics collection. When that was finished I added touches of Essie Blue Rhapsody, from the same collection, in places to add some variation.

The beauty of Chanel Taboo 583 - swatches coming soon! :)

Steampunk and paisley metallic nail art

The studs are from the Born Pretty Store of course! This design just called for the rarely used ring stud, lol!

Steampunk and paisley metallic nail art

I like the design and idea behind this, but I went pretty quickly so that I wouldn't be up too late. I definitely want to do a steampunk and/or paisley design sometime again soon.

What do you think of this?

---

An InLinkz Link-up

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013: Art Deco Stained Glass Nails + Tutorial

Hi everyone! I'm so happy to be participating in this year's piCture pOlish Blog Fest!! I'm sure you have already seen other posts today, but basically Blog Fest is where a bunch of nail polish bloggers (over 130!) around the world put together a post featuring polishes from the Australian brand piCture pOlish. The event is organized by piCture pOlish and they provided the polishes and the instructions. I've seen piCture pOlish Blog Fest posts from previous years by bloggers much more established than me, so I'm extremely honoured to have been chosen for this.

The theme for this year's Blog Fest is "Year of the Blogger", and it's about celebrating what bloggers do. We were instructed to make our most amazing nail art ever and to create a step-by-step tutorial of our design. Even though it seems like a lot of pressure, for me it was the perfect opportunity to challenge myself and to create a design that would push my abilities.

About This Design

I was given three polishes from the Metallic Shades collection: Bombshell (a vibrant blue metallic with shimmer), Goddess (a copper metallic), and Metallic Mush (a pale gold metallic foil). I've been wanting to do intricate stained glass nails for some time now, and these three polishes really suggested the Art Deco era. Art Deco design was influenced by the machine age, and it's known for it's streamlined aesthetic and geometric patterns and shapes. The designs on each nail were taken from Art Deco stained glass designs that I found online. My thumb is a duplicate for my middle finger.

Keep reading for a step-by-step tutorial on how to do stained glass nails. While this design took quite some time, six hours in fact (yikes!), you can use these instructions to do simplified stained glass nails.


Art Deco Stained Glass Tutorial

Here's what you'll need:

• black nail polish
• a detail nail art brush
• various coloured polishes to fill in the design - shimmery polishes look best for that stained-glass look
• nail polish thinner
• lots of patience!

Step #1

Step #1: Apply base coat and let dry. Using black polish thinned with nail polish thinner, draw your outlines on your nails. At this point, use a very light touch and go slowly, but don't worry if you make a mistake, you can fix those later.
Optional: Apply a base colour - perhaps white or nude, but nothing too dark - after your base coat. If your coloured polishes are very sheer or you're worried you won't be able to cover the whole nail, having a base colour will help hide those imperfections.

Step #2

Step #2: Reinforce your lines by going over them a second time. You want to make them darker but also you can fix any mistakes made in Step #1. You don't want your lines to be too light or it will be hard to see them when you apply your colours.
Tip: Use a bit of nail polish remover and a detail brush to "erase" any mistakes made. You're going to be covering over any mistakes with the coloured polishes so you don't necessarily need to do this, however, if having an incorrect line is going to mess you up in future steps, it might be good to try and take it out.

Step #3

Step #3: Start filling in the shapes with your coloured polishes. I started with Metallic Mush and filled in all the intended spaces on each nail before moving to the next colour. However, you can complete each nail before moving on to the next.
Reminder: Since you will be moving your hand around a lot to get into small spaces, be careful not to smudge the work that you have done on your other nails! I'm talking from experience here. :)

Step #4

Step #4: Fill in all the shapes with your colours, making sure to paint up to the cuticle (leave a tiny gap!) and on the edges of your nail. You will probably need two coats for good coverage.

Step #5

Step #5: Go over the black lines again, the same as you did in Step #2. Fix any mistakes with touch-ups.

Step #6

Step #6: Clean up your edges with a fine eyeliner brush dipped in acetone. Seal with top coat and you're done! I used KBShimmer Clearly On Top, I love it because it doesn't smear your nail art!


Tips and Tricks:

Tip #1: When doing any complex or intricate nail art, make sure to do a sketch first, preferably with some of the polishes you'll be using. Here's a look at my sketches along with my mock-up of the final design. I played around with the designs I wanted on each nail. When that was settled I drew my final design and filled it in with the colours I intended to use. This acted as my blueprint when I was working on my nails.

Nail art brushes: liner brush (top) and detail brush (bottom)

Tip #2: When doing fine lines like this, use nail polish thinner to make the polish more fluid. This will also prevent it from drying out right away. Also, work very slowly. I find it helps to paint a very light line - using more thinner - then go over it again to darken the line - using less thinner - rather than trying to do the line all in one go.

Tip #3: For painting straight lines, I find that it works best to pull the brush towards me. Also, I tend to move my hand around and try painting at different angles in order to get the best angle and brush direction for the line I'm trying to make.

I hope these instructions were helpful. I went into a lot of detail because I wanted to cover as much as possible. Unless you are working with a very intricate design, or wanting to get very fine lines, stained glass nails are not very hard to do.


The piCture pOlish Blog Fest Awards

This year there will also be Blog Fest Awards. Here's the details from piCture pOlish:

There is 3 (only) awards that will be voted and chosen as follows via our special Pinterest Blog Fest 2013 board:

• 1 x Award - as voted by PP friends and fans
• 1 x Award - as voted by all (you) participants of Blog Fest 2013
• 1 x Award - as voted by Jules & Megs of piCture pOlish

The winners will get to work with piCture pOlish to make a collaboration shade, so it would be very awesome if you took the time to vote. It doesn't have to be for me, but if you do want to throw your vote my way, that would be greatly appreciated. :)

I believe the special Pinterest Board is HERE. If that changes, I'll update this post.

Voting is on the piCture pOlish website, there you will also find a link to the Pinterest board. Link is HERE.

About piCture pOlish

You can follow piCture pOlish through the following links:

On-line Store   

Facebook    

Twitter    

Pinterest    

Instagram

For ordering from piCture pOlish check out their Shipping, Network and Everyday Deals pages.

What do you think of this design? Have you been checking out other designs for piCture pOlish Blog Fest?

*Polishes were provided by piCture pOlish for Blog Fest. See my disclosure policy for more details.*

Orly MegaPixel FX Collection - My Picks!

Hi everyone! I have swatches of a few polishes from the Orly MegaPixel FX collection to share with you. In case you haven't heard of it, this is Orly's response to the texture polish fad. The collection is made up of six metallic shades that contain shimmer, glitter, and of course texture. For some reason this collection kind of slipped under my radar. I picked one up out of curiosity at Sally Beauty Supply about three weeks ago, and it wasn't until I got home that I realized it was a new collection of texture polishes. I then went back and got two more that caught my eye.

Orly MegaPixel FX: Plum Pixel, Aqua Pixel, and Pink Pixel

I picked out three polishes from the collection: Aqua Pixel, Pink Pixel, and Plum Pixel. The other polishes that I passed on are Silver Pixel (a silver glitter texture polish), Rose Pixel (a very light pink glitter texture polish, a tad lighter than Plum Pixel), and Black Pixel (a black texture polish, some shimmer but not as much as the others).

I'll offer my thoughts on the collection after the swatches...

Aqua Pixel is a vivid aqua blue glitter texture polish. It has lots of tiny micro-glitter and some very small hex glitter in a matching colour. This really is a gorgeous colour, and it was the first one I picked up. The application was really easy, it went on smoothly and minimal clean-up was needed. This was two coats.

Orly MegaPixel FX Aqua Pixel

Note: Aqua Pixel is an exact dupe for Julie G Rock Candy from the Frosted Gum Drops Collection. You really don't need both, unless you're me and can't get enough of this colour. ;)

Orly MegaPixel FX Aqua Pixel

Orly Pink Pixel is a very vivid rose-pink metallic texture. Like Aqua Pixel is has very fine micro-glitter and texture with very small hexes in a matching colour. This was two coats and the application was great. It went on very smooth and had a perfect consistency.

Orly MegaPixel FX Pink Pixel

Orly MegaPixel FX Pink Pixel

Orly Plum Pixel is more of a pewter metallic texture, with micro-glitter and small hexes that match colour-wise. This was also two coats and the formula was the exact same as the others. In the store, I found this very similar in colour to Silver Pixel, and I kind of wish this was more of a real plum colour.

Orly MegaPixel FX Plum Pixel

Orly MegaPixel FX Plum Pixel

The pros, the cons, and everything in between: If you like metallics and textures, this collection is great. I really love the shimmer in these polishes, however, I found the texture to be on the smooth side. Not that you want to be wearing rough grit sandpaper, but it was less texture than I experienced with Zoya's Pixie Dust and OPI's Liquid Sand. I also wish that there was more variation in the colours. The silver, plum, and pink ones are very close in colour, so maybe a gold, or a deep plum metallic would be nice additions to the collection.

Another thing I like about this collection is the formula. Like I mentioned, all went on very smoothly, only required two coats, and had an ideal consistency that required minimal clean up.

While I enjoy the shimmer and (some of) the colours, there's one thing I find problematic with these polishes. That would be the drying time. For me, texture polishes need to dry fast, especially since they are meant to be worn without top coat. Since I rely on a top coat so that I'm not incapacitated for hours while waiting for my polish to dry, then I expect texture polish to dry quickly. Is that unreasonable? These polishes will dry to the touch in about 15-20 minutes, however, they are not completely dry for at least an hour. And even then it's still possible to ding, dent and smudge the polish. So if you get these, expect to be using a quick dry top coat unless you want to sit around for 2-3 hours waiting for your polish to dry completely.

What do you think of these? Have you tried anything from the Orly MegaPixel FX collection? What's your favourite texture polish?

Dior Bird of Paradise Collection Vernis Nail Duo in Samba (001): Swatches and Review!

Hi everyone! I was in The Bay a few days ago and I saw the new Bird of Paradise collection from Dior. The collection includes a variety of products - blush, lipstick, eyeliner, eyeshadow, etc. - but more relevant to my interests, and this blog, where the two nail lacquer duos. These are mini sized duos that are billed as "summer nail lacquer duo for tips & toes." Each duo consists of two 7ml/0.23 fl. oz. polishes in the signature Dior bottle. According to the Sales Associate at the Dior counter, these polishes are very limited edition, and not part of the core collection. However as we'll see with the second duo, one of these polishes has been released previously.

Dior Bird of Paradise Collection Vernis Nail Duo in Samba (001)

While my logical left brain told me I shouldn't be splurging on these, my emotional right brain said "go for it!" Lol. So right brain won this time, and I bought both duos. I'm showing you the first one today, and the second one I will show you later this week.

The individual polishes don't have names, so I'll be referring to them by their bottle numbers. All swatches are with a coat of Seche Vite. Edit: I noticed that photos have a slightly off appearance when viewing them in the blog post. Viewing the photos in the lightbox mode is recommended. To do that simply click on any photo.

Dior Bird of Paradise Collection Vernis Nail Duo in Samba (001)

402 is a pale jade creme. On the Dior website it's labelled a "sea blue," however, I don't agree with that description. I find this to be such an amazing hue. I don't normally gravitate to colours like this, but I fell instantly in love once it was on. The formula is perfection and it went on very creamy and smooth and was completely self-levelling. I used two coats for these swatches, and I was just in awe of how easy it applied, and how flawless it looked.

Dior Vernis 402 (Nail Lacquer Duo in Samba 001)

Dior Vernis 402 (Nail Lacquer Duo in Samba 001)
(note: I don't know why this looks so different from the other photo,
but they were similar in my photo editing program)

794 is the stunner of the collection, and the one that has caught every body's eyes. This is a metallic teal green with an electric green shimmer. While there is a slight shift towards blue, I wouldn't call this a true duochrome. The formula on this one was also perfect, and I used two coats here. You do have to have a bit of a steady hand as the brushstrokes are slightly visible, but it is very minimal. One issue I had was slight shrinkage at the tips after applying top coat. I didn't have that issue with my other swatches from this collection, so I believe it's something about the makeup of the polish itself.

Dior Vernis 794 (Nail Lacquer Duo in Samba 001)

Dior Vernis 794 (Nail Lacquer Duo in Samba 001)

Dior Vernis 794 (Nail Lacquer Duo in Samba 001)

Comparisons: In searching my collection I did manage to find a few polishes that were close to these, however, there's no dupes here.

Dior 402 Comparison

• Pinky/Index: Dior 402 was a shade darker than the other two, it also had the best formula out of the three shown here.
• Ring: Models Own Jade Stone is a shade lighter than the Dior but very similar. This was three coats.
• Middle: Essie Turquoise & Caicos is lighter and more sheer than the others. It also is a tad more muted in colour. Out of the three this had the worst formula, very sheer and almost watery, but three coats for full coverage.

L-R: Dior, Essie, Models Own, and Dior

I also have bottle shots, which include Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet. The Sally Hansen is much lighter than the Dior as you can see.

Dior 794 Comparison

• Pinky/Index: Dior 794
• Ring: China Glaze Unpredictable I thought would be similar based on the bottle but this is not close at all. It's more of a green-gold base with slight blue duochrome.
• Middle: Sally Hansen Scarab (Lustre Shine line) is the closest to the Dior, and very similar in formula, but the Sally Hansen is more blue than the Dior. 

L-R: Dior, Sally Hansen, China Glaze, and Dior

According to promotional material I've seen, this collection is supposed to be available in May, but as I said, I found it already on display. I was also told that it was very limited edition, so if you are interested you might want to keep your eye out for it. I paid $30 CAD for each duo. 

What do you think of this duo? Are you tempted to buy it? Stay tuned tomorrow and I'll have some nail art using this duo!!