A step by step Zombie accent nail tutorial!
Here’s a quick picture tutorial on how I did my accent nail of the zombie manicure I’m currently rocking to celebrate the return of one of my favorite shows on tv right now; The Walking Dead!
1 – You’ll need 4 colors of acrylic paint for this. Black, White, Magenta and Green.
2 – Some fine nailart brushes and a fountain pen, if you’re careful with your topcoat you can also use a permanent fineliner pen for the black lines. The topcoat will smear this easily though, so please watch out if opting for that version!
3 – A tiny bit of water and I personally use a bit of plastic to mix my acrylic paints on.
4 – Start with a polished nail. I choose Catrice Planet Tokyo out of the current Neo Geisha collection because the idea for this manicure came off a set of shoes called Zombie Stompers by Iron Fist and those are a nice bright green. Wait until your nail is completely dry before working with the paints.
5 – Dab two rows of teeth, don’t be too precise, these are zombie teeth we’re talking about here! And also add two white splotches where the rotting pink flesh around the eyes will be, this will make the pink that we’re painting over it pop. Most colors in acrylic paints are a bit jelly like and the white will help them become opaque.
6 – Once the white is dry, paint the pink over the white splotches, you can be a bit messy if you want, it will only add to the rotting flesh effect.
7 – Once that bit is dry (and acrylic paint dries quite quickly if you don’t paint it on too thick) make two white circles for eyes.
8 – To add to the Zombies sickly green color use a bit of light green for a bit of contrast in the face and also highlights.
9 – After everything has dried the hard part comes. Thin your black acrylic paint and use it with your little fountain pen to add on the black. Again, don’t be too precise, the skin is yucky looking so a dot or line of extra black won’t matter too much. Just make sure the eyes, nostrils and teeth stand out and you already have quite the face. I made sure to add in cheekbones and the little lines over the teeth that you usually find in real skulls as well to add to the image of a creepy little zombie.
On my other nails you can see that I just painted a few stripes with foilglue and once that had dried I dabbed some glitter onto them and used my black acrylic paint to add some cracks and lines to kind of match my zombie’s face. But you don’t have to do that if that’s too much for you and you just want a little pet zombie on your nail.
And we’re done! I hope you’ll try this tutorial for yourself and you’ll show me how you did!
Posted in 2013, Acrylic paint, Black, Catrice, February, Glitter, Green, Links, Magenta, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Opaque, Oumaxi, White | 
7 CommentsNeo Geisha by Catrice
Widely popular on the international catwalks: the Asia trend, inspired by the Japanese Geisha look. Red lips and black eyeliner are absolutely essential for the silk kimonos, collarless jackets and spectacular footwear of this trend.
The Limited Edition “Neo Geisha” by CATRICE is a modern interpretation of the traditional Geisha look that unites artistic Japanese elements with facets of the Western World. The colours: red, dark blue and nude are mixed with intensive green, pink and purple. A combination of classical and modern.
This collection has 5 new polish colors, 4 bright jewel tones and one nude. The nail polish with a high coverage comes in five trendy colors and is extremely long lasting and intensely bright. Various effects – plain or with a shimmer – create a modern, individual Geisha look.
- Discreet Artist – Nude pink
- Picked Cherry Blossoms – Hot pink
- Madam Butterfly – Cherry red
- Dance In Gion – Royal blue
- Planet Tokyo – Jade green
As you can see Picked Cherry Blossoms and Dance in Gion have a shimmer to them, I can’t see if the nude, the red and the green have that too on this product picture. We’ll have to see in person I guess! I personally like the jewel tones and will be checking them out in the store, the nude, not so much.
To me this isn’t a very exciting collection but the colors are nice and cheap enough to pick up on a whim. What are your thoughts on these?
This collection will be released in Febuary and will be out through March in 2013.
Orly Hope and Freedom Fest for Spring 2013.
Lose yourself in an environment high on hope: Where positive vibes abound. Optimism comes alive. And music and spontaneity define the mood—giving rise to Hope and Freedom Fest, the new Spring 2013 color collection from Orly.
Join hands to celebrate social change, a suit yourself spirit, and festival inspired style. Experience color come to life through communal unity meets personal expression.
I must say, while I’m not into glitter usually, the look of Peaceful Opposition does intrigue me. I also like the look of High on Hope but other than that I may skip the rest of this collection.
No idea when these will come out but I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something!
Butter London by Gwyneth Paltrow for Goop and the Sweetie Shop Lacquer Collection.
How about these three beauties? Gwyneth Paltrow designed them for Goop, her own online Lifestyle magazine. Each week, Goop premieres one exclusive limited edition collaboration. Whether it’s a wardrobe staple, a home accessory, or a beauty must, they believe these are the curated essentials for you, your wardrobe and your home. Gwyneth started Goop in the fall of 2008 to share all of life’s positives. From creating a delicious recipe to finding a perfect dress for spring, she began curating the best of lifestyle to help her readers save time, simplify and feel inspired. Enough about Goop and on to the pretty polishes! Let me introduce you to the ”Trifecta of bespoke lacquers”, from left to right in the top three rows of pictures: Hampstead Heath which offers a mossy, green and gold shine, great for a holiday occasion. Abso-bloody-lutley which is the ultimate deep cherry opaque red and Bread & Butter pudding which is a sheer ivory cream. The latter one doesn’t really make me want to run out and buy it but man, that green and even that deep cherry red are delicious! If it wasn’t for the price I’d buy them I think. You can pick up the Goop and Butter London nail polish set for $36 at Goop.com.
Butter London also recently unveiled its Sweetie Shop Lacquer Collection, which will be available from January 2013. The new collection includes six shades influenced by the pastels of sweets such as cotton candy milkshakes and macaroons. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it? But will it look good in the bottle and on the nail? Well let’s have a look at these colors and find out!
The shades are from left to right:
- Jasper – A nice mellow yellow.
- Kerfuffle – A lovely shade of sherbet.
- Fiver – An icy mint color.
- Fruit Machine – A sweet bubblegum pink.
- Molly Coddled – A wonderful bright violet.
- Cuppa – A perfect tea with milk color, it doesn’t get more British than that.
The Sweetie Shop Lacquer Collection will be available from Boots, Harvey Nichols and butter LONDON’s website priced at £12 each. www.butterlondon.com
Which of these collections speaks to you? Or are they both not your thing?
Posted in 2012, 2013, 3 Free, Beige, Beige Greige category, Blackened Red, Butter London, Cerise, Collection, Coral, Cream, Crème, Crimson, December, Fashion, Glitter, Gold, Green, Lavender, Lemon, Lilac, Mint, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, News, Nude, Opaque, Pastel, Peach, Pink, Preview, Purple, Red, Set, Sheer, Style, Trend, Violet, Webshop, Winter, Yellow | 2 CommentsChina Glaze releases the Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away collection.
I’ve known about this collection for a few months now but was asked to not speak about these just yet as China Glaze was keeping these under wraps for just a little longer…, and boy was it hard to keep these to myself because man, aren’t they interesting? To me the larger glitters look like something a lot of polish lovers have been buying from the Indie Polish makers and now China Glaze is bringing this amazing look to the general public as well, I love it!
There are 12 colors in this collection as you can see in the collage I made of them up here, and these are their names:
I’ll be curious to see what the swatches of this collection will be like and what everyone’s favorites will be.
What are your thoughts of this little set? Is this a must have or a must pass for you?
For those interested in buying these, Transdesign has the collection up already!
Illamasqua releases Sephora exclusives stateside!
As you may possibly know, I adore Illamasqua and everything they stand for. Their colors are stunning and their collections innovative. So it is no surprise that I like this set of nail polishes with a rubber-like finish they’ve come out with. There are 6 new colors and 4 from a previous collection that are now being sold via the American Sephora site as online exclusives. That means it’s not easy to obtain these colors for everyone outside the USA, which makes me a bit sad, but what can you do, right?
Like I already wrote, 4 colors aren’t new. Faux Pas, Kink, Taint and Vice are all part of the Theatre of the Nameless collection that they released a while ago. I own both Vice and Taint from this collection and they are absolutely beautiful. The finish sits in between gloss and matte and the polish stays on for a long time without any chipping, which can often be a problem when they have a different finish. The other six colors listed alongside these four colors below are all brand new.
Let’s take a look at them all now, shall we?
- Aorta *- scarlet red
- Devotee *- candy pink
- Faux Pas – blue violet
- Kink – bottle green
- Nurture* – vivid green
- Optimist *- warm yellow
- Prosperity *- rich purple
- Serenity *- bright turquoise
- Taint – stone brown
- Vice – deep cerise
And this is the description of the colors on the Sephora site:
What it is:
A highly pigmented matte nail varnish with an innovative rubber-like finish.What it does:
Go beyond ordinary nails with this chip-resistant rubber-finish nail color that contains the finest high-grade color suspension materials for creating a fast and buildable waxy rubber finish.What it is formulated WITHOUT:
- Parabens
- Sulfates
- Synthetic Fragrances
- Petrochemicals
- Phthalates
- GMOs
- Triclosan
Man I so want that Prosperity one, I mean you can’t ever go wrong with a royal purple! And I also would love to complete my Theatre of the Nameless set with the other two polishes I’m still missing. Hopefully someday…
What do you think of Illamasqua? Have you tried their products before?
Color Club Halo Hues collection sneek peek!
Finally, the polish world has listened to our prayers, we’re getting more holographic polishes! And soon too!
Color Club is releasing the Halo Hues collection this month, which means they’re beating China Glaze to the punch which are set to release a set in the spring of 2013. Very smart thinking you guys! The polish world obviously needs a little bit of competition. That way more companies should catch on and before you know it every brand will have some holographics, just like that whole (in my opinion) horrible crackle fad caught on last time.
There will be six polishes in this collection and dear god I want them all!
From left to right:
- Harp On It
- Cloud Nine
- Halo-Graphic
- Blue Heaven
- Cherubic
- Angel Kiss
I seriously am anxious for these to come out, even more so than the upcoming extensive OPI James Bond collection I think! I LOVE me some holo and I don’t think you could ever have enough holographic polishes as a nail polish lover.
Do you have any holographics?
Posted in 2012, August, Blue, Collection, Color Club, Gold, Green, Holographic, Metallic, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, News, Opaque, Peach, Pink, Preview, Purple, Red, Silver, Style, Summer, Trend | 3 CommentsVideo – How to do nail art using acrylic inks.
And that’s how I created the nails I posted yesterday. I hope you enjoyed the video and that it inspired you to try out this method yourself.
You can buy the inks, brand Daler Rowney, and the pen shown in the video at an artist supply shop, craft store or even on eBay. The white polish I used underneath the design is O.P.I.’s Alpine Snow to get a nice clear image for the video. The inks are usually so opaque though that you can use any color you like.
If you decide to try this, I’d love to see your work! Link me in the comments if you want.
Butter London releasing 3 Fall Macy exclusive shades!
Butter London is releasing 3 lovely shades that are exclusive to Macy’s in the USA, which means, because they sadly do not ship polish overseas, that most of us will just have to daydream about these. But I can’t help but share these with you because I have fallen head over heels with the purple one… Of course.
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- Squatter is an opaque, lime green crème. The term used for someone who is staying (but not paying!) in a vacated location.
- Brummie is an opaque, bright purple crème. A colloquial term for the people, accent, and dialect of Birmingham, England.
- Cake Hole is an opaque, nearly neon hot pink. 1960′s Brit slang referring to ones mouth. It’s now mostly used as a juvenile colloquialism – “shut your cake-hole or I’m telling mum!”
Man I want it so badly I can taste it, I love both the green and the purple, and I love the pink for the name, it reminds me of Supernatural, something Dean would totally say to Sam… Yep, I’m a dork I can’t help it…
Pointless Café has done swatches of all three of these and I suggest you hurry over to see because they really are yummy!
Do you have any Butter London polishes yet? If so, which one? I’d love to know!
Posted in 2012, 3 Free, Butter London, Cream, Crème, Green, Limited Edition, Links, Opaque, Pink, Preview, Purple | Leave a commentCatrice presents the “Upper WILDside” Limited Edition.
It’s time for exciting contrasts! Catrice takes you to the unspoiled world of prairies with the urban flair of the modern age city. A chic lifestyle is connected to the longing for freedom and a search filled with adventure. This contrast is reflected in the colors of the Upper WILDside LE: Warm natural hues like brown, beige, warm red and orange are up against gutsy blue and green. Indian look vs. urban style: wild but chic!
The colors are from left to right:
- Red rocks!
- Hunting Heritage
- Wild West-side
- Urban Outrider
- Be Aztec
Of course there are other products in this collection but you know me, I’ll focus on the Upper WILDside by CATRICE – Ultimate Nail Lacquer
The exciting Upper WILDside colors – warm Orange, brown and red meet cool urban blue and green. They will dry to a matte finish with a surface that feels like suede. (*Edited to add that it seems that only the red and orange will be suedes. The press information wasn’t really clear on that sadly.)
As you can see, these polishes have a shimmer in them that will look amazing when worn as is, without topcoat. But when you put either a glossy or a matte topcoat on these polishes they’ll look even more amazing. And that’s why I’ll try to get my hands on all of these colors as soon as they are out come the end of September. They’ll only be in the shelves until the end of October so if you want these you should hurry!
What’s your favorite color of this set? I personally like them all this time!
Essie Fall 2012 Stylenomics collection.
I just ran into this while reading one of my nail magazines and I couldn’t wait to share!
These will by out August 1st 2012 in the United States.
You can buy these individually but there is also a 4 pack of mini’s coming out containing the following colors:
- Skirting the Issue
- Stylenomics
- Don’t Sweater it
- Head Mistress.
I personally like all but Head Mistress so I might just get this. (Unless I just buy the full sized bottles of Skirting the Issue and Stylenomics…)
Do you have any Essies and what is your favorite color?
Posted in 2012, 3 Free, August, Beige, Beige Greige category, Collection, Cream, Crème, Essie, Fall, Fashion, Green, Grey, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, News, Nude, Opaque, Pink, Preview, Purple | 6 CommentsMani update – Neon-ized it!
Do you ever have this problem of enjoying the time consuming nailart you’ve done but just are not feeling the colors anymore?
That’s the problem I had with my Monochromatic Manicure. I just needed some color after rocking the black and white for a few days. So what I decided to do is give in to the current neon and gradient craze and sponge some of my neons over this to make it look more summery. Because neons are usually quite sheer it would show the pattern still so I wouldn’t feel like I had wasted my time drawing all kinds of stuff on my nails when I’d only wear the manicure for a few days.
This is what they ended up looking like:
And this is what I used to achieve the effect. Please ignore the condition of my neon yellow, I know it looks miserable but it was in a bag along with a few polishes that broke when I flew back from vacation last year and I haven’t taken the time to clean that one up just yet…
Pictured are:
- China Glaze – Purple Panic
- Essence nail art twins – Gabriella
- Kiko – 336
- China Glaze – In the limelight
- China Glaze – Celtic Sun
- A cut up make up sponge
Have you tried gradient nails yet? If so, what colors did you use?
Posted in 2012, Acrylic, Acrylic paint, Black, Blue, China Glaze, Duri, Essence, Fashion, Fuchsia, Gradient, Green, Hot, July, Kiko, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Neon, O.P.I., Pink, Purple, Rainbow, Rejuvacote, Seche Vite, Sheer, Sponged, Style, Summer, Trend, White, Yellow | 4 CommentsEssence Colour Art!
*These colors are only available on the large display version in stores.
The rainbow within reach! the colour pigments shimmer in 15 of the brightest colours. they are available from matt to gentle shimmering, metallic and also in different high-gloss effects. These will retail for €2,49 a piece The colours can be used alone or mixed together and are applicable on eyes, lips and nails. The Colour Arts nailbase is a translucent nail polish, if used together with the colour arts pigments it creates uncountable fascinating colour combinations! it can be used as a sealing coat also. This is going to be sold for €1,59 per bottle. Now let’s take a closer look at the pigments and see which is which in the little gallery below:
Essence “Colour Arts” will be available from September 2012 in the Netherlands and from halfway August to halfway September 2012 in Belgium.
I’m curious, will you be experimenting with these or would you rather just buy a ready made polish?
Posted in 2012, Beige, Black, Blue, Brown, Collection, Essence, Fashion, Franken, Franken Polish, Frankenpolish, Glitter, Green, Hot, Lemon, Lilac, Matte, Mauve, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Neon, Nude, Opaque, Orange, Pigment, Pink, Press release, Preview, Purple, Red, September, Shimmer, Style, Summer, Teal, Topcoat, Trend, White | 2 CommentsColor Club’s Fall 2012 Collection, Rule the Runway preview.
No words, just pictures, may I present to you the new Color Club fall collection called “Rule the Runway”
There seem to be cremes and duochromes, and I love it!
I have to admit… I love all of them (apart from the reds, I just do not do red on my nails :S) and I want them! And look, yet ANOTHER Peridot dupe!
What do you think of these pretties? And do you own any Color Clubs yet?
Posted in 2012, Blackened Red, Blue, Collection, Color Club, Copper, Cream, Crème, Duochrome, Fall, Gold, Green, Grey, Metallic, Midnight Blue, Preview, Purple, Red | 1 CommentI’m feeling Nail-Venturous week, day 1: The Shimmer Effect, Corrupted and Flying Blue Jay.
This week I’m going to be celebrating the nail polishes I have that are made by Amy of I’m Feeling Nail-Venturous. Not because it’s her birthday, not because it’s almost my birthday. I’m doing this because she has some amazing polishes and I am very proud of the fact that I’ve designed the labels of the polishes that are being sold through Ninja Polish. You may know her work through a quirky polish that is currently taking the nail polish world by storm called Floam, which I shall be featuring later this week, but now onto the first three Nail-Venturous Lacquers that deserve a spotlight as well.
The polishes I am featuring today come from Amy’s own Etsy shop which is currently closed. Follow her Facebook page for updates though, you never know when she might return with an amazing new batch of polishes. They do not have my label but that of course doesn’t take away from how awesome these polishes are.
Take a look at the beautiful polish here on the top left. It’s called the Shimmer Effect and I was attracted to it right away, not just because it’s purple, but also because there is such a richness in other colors in there. There’s silver, green, light blue, orange/gold. It is simply stunning. And it sadly is a bit hard to capture but there’s a green pearly sheen over it as well that is just so unique. The official description is this: The Shimmer Effect has a purple base loaded with shimmer. It also has tiny square glitter as well as ultra fine green glitter. This polish has full coverage in two coats. This product is 3 free, and comes in a 15ml/.5 oz full size bottle.
In the picture I’ve applied two coats of polish over Rejuvacote, so no base color underneath to make this baby opaque, that’s how gorgeously pigmented it is, I was very impressed! It also applies easily and I did not have any trouble distributing the glitter evenly over my nails. Because it’s so full of glitter the surface of the nails will be slightly bumpy once it dries so I recommend you use a nice thick glossy topcoat over this polish to really bring out the colors and smooth out the surface.
Up next, pictured here on the right, is a polish called Corrupted. It’s a nice dark blue that I decided to apply over a blue polish, not because it will not be opaque after a few layers, but because I did not want to use a lot of layers so this polish will last me a while.
I first used a basecoat and a layer of Sinful Colors Neptune before applying Corrupted and just look how it shines, isn’t this pretty? Amy describes this polish as follows: Corrupted has a dark blue jelly base with ultra fine blue and gold glitter. It also has blue and white diamond shaped glitter, blue and turquoise small glitter, and gold shredded glitter. This product is 3 free, and comes in a 15ml/.5 oz full size bottle.
Again, as with all glitters really, you should really wear a nice thick glossy topcoat with this to bring out the glitters even more and to keep your polish from chipping.
Now, last but not least, here on the left is Flying Blue Jay, this polish is quite different from the other two as it doesn’t have any reflective glitter but only whites in different sizes and some blue micro glitter. This is what creator Amy has to say about it: Flying Blue Jay has a dark blue jelly base with various sizes of white glitter and ultra fine blue and white glitter. This polish is 3 free, and comes in a 15ml full size bottle.
I think this is a very unique polish, something I’ve not seen before in other brands. Amy also has another polish that kind of looks like this but it is a black base with white glitter called Voodoo Doll which I shall be showing you later this week.
I started, again, with a base of Rejuvacote and a layer of Sinful Colors Neptune before putting this color on in two layers. I think this one out of the three featured today is the hardest polish to apply. Well, no correction, it is easy to apply as the color applies smoothly, but you need to fiddle around a bit to place the big glitter as they will not go on evenly if you don’t. Does that ruin the polish for me? Heck no, it’s a stunning vibrant blue that only stands out more with the white glitter that shows through the color. You are guaranteed to get compliments wearing any of today’s polishes though, mark my words!
Glitter polishes usually are not my favorite but man I do have to admit to having a weakness for these three because wow, look at the colors and the glitter combinations, Amy clearly knows what she is doing and has an eye for color and texture and I admire her immensely for that.
What do you think of these three featured today? Do you have a polish by Nail-Venturous Lacquers yet? Or is this possibly the first time you’ve heard about indie (independent) nail polishes?
Posted in 2012, Blue, Clear, Duri, Franken, Franken Polish, Frankenpolish, Glitter, Gold, Green, Hot, I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous, Indie nailpolish, Indie polish, June, Lilac, Links, Manicure, Mauve, Metallic, Midnight Blue, Multicolored glitter, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nailventurous, Ninja Polish, Opaque, Orange, Purple, Rejuvacote, Review, Seche Vite, Style, Swatches, Topcoat, Trend, Webshop | 6 CommentsGradient Friday!
I’d like to take this moment and share my nails of the week with you, these are gradient nails that I made using O.P.I. polishes and a little make up sponge. It looks complicated but it really is quite simple. If you want I’ll soon do a tutorial to show you exactly how to do this type of nailart that will surely blow many people’s minds this summer. For now I’ll just show you some pictures.
Okay onto the manicures. This, besides the sponge, is what I used for the one pictured on the right.
I used Alpine Snow, a pure white, as a base. It’s important to use a light opaque base when you use light colors to sponge as the sponged colors go on very sheer. Over that I sponged (from the bottom left to the top right) Need Sunglasses, A Roll in the Hague, Red Lights Ahead… Where?. Dim Sum Plum, Funky Dunkey and last but not least I put on a thin coat of DS Shimmer to give it the subtle holographic effect. And really that’s all there is to it! I know I’m making it sound like it’s a piece of cake, but really it is!
Now I enjoyed this manicure so much that when I finally had to take it off later that week due to chipping I whipped up another gradient manicure by just using 5 polishes instead of 7.
This next one I made by using a clean make up sponge and first painting my nails white again with OPI’s Alpine Snow, and letting that dry, before I painted my sponge for the gradient (as you can see in the little picture on the bottom right of that little collage on the left there.) I went from yellow to green to deep blue using Need Sunglasses, Jade Is The New Black and Roadhouse Blues, all colors by O.P.I. I topped them again with OPI DS Shimmer to give them that nice holographic shimmer and after that they were good to go.
I feel there are a lot more gradients in my future and I want to try one with metallics soon.
But for now I leave you with the gradients of a few good friends of mine who all did their own version of a gradient this week for Gradient Friday.
I hope you’ll pay them a visit and check out their work.
And of course let me know what you thought, did you have a favorite, and will you be trying this technique for yourself soon?
Posted in 2012, Blue, Cream, Crème, Duri, Fashion, Fuchsia, Green, Links, May, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails of the week, O.P.I., Orange, Purple, Red, Rejuvacote, Seche Vite, Topcoat, Trend, White, Yellow | 22 CommentsOh MAN how cool is this bottle?!
I don’t do this often, but I am going to start off by showing you 20 pictures of nail polish. Here we go:
I may have to ask one of my friends in the USA to get some of these for me though, as these for the bottle alone already looks too unique to pass up!
Have you ever bought a polish merely for the unique bottle? And what do you think of these colors and finishes?
Posted in 2012, Black, Black Light, Blackened Red, Blue, Clear, Collection, Crackle polish, Cream, Crème, Crimson, Flakies, Fuchsia, Glitter, Glow in the dark, Green, Hot, Hot Topic, Lemon, Links, Metallic, Midnight Blue, Multicolored glitter, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Neon, News, Orange, Pink, Preview, Purple, Rainbow, Red, Shatter, Shatter polish, Shimmer, Silver, Style, Trend, Webshop | 4 CommentsLook at my Layla!
Look at what I’m wearing today, isn’t it just amazing? I think this is the best black holo I’ve seen since Glitter Gal came on the scene! The color is called Flash Black and is by an Italian brand called Layla. There are 8 beautiful colors in this set, the colors out right now are:
- Mercury Twilight
- Coral Glam
- Retro Pink
- Ultra Violet
- Jade Groove
- Mermaid Spell
- Ocean Rush
- Flash Back
There will be more colors out soon but I am not certain if I want those yet because they are more scattered. And I like my holographic nail polishes to be a bit more linear like these.As a very VERY early birthday present I recently ordered myself the entire set of 8 colors from http://www.aveyou.com which worked quickly but is very expensive and I don’t think as a European it’s worth ordering from there again. But hey, you live you learn right? You American ladies (and gents) have it good because not only can you order them at Ave You but they are also for sale at Ulta and their webshop HERE. Notice that these are certainly not cheap and that you can also just buy one or two, but I do think they are seriously worth getting all. I actually think it’s safe to say that these are a serious contestant in the Holo Holy Grail of polishes. Anyway, they all got here safe and sound and are amazing in person, so amazing in fact that it’s pretty much impossible to really photograph or film the beauty of these polishes.
I mean look at these bottles, even the holographic effect on the wrapping is pretty awesome don’t you think?
Here’s a very short video of these babies in indirect daylight:
Aren’t they lovely? Seriously though, pictures and video don’t do these any justice, you need to see them in person as you can see on the pic below here, sometimes in pictures and videos they’ll look really subdued when in reality they so are not!
I’ve swatched these on a wheel so I can see them together and compare them to other holographics in the future. Each swatch has no top or basecoat and consists of 3 layers of the polish. I do this with all my swatches for comparing reasons. These nail polishes truely need two or three layers to become opaque and they can be a bit difficult to work with sometimes. You have to shake them really well before applying or else there are actual clumps of the tiny metallic glittery shards on the nail that you will have to distribute fast because these polishes dry quickly. And when you’ve just applied them they do not look very appealing at all at first, but when they start to dry the reflective pieces in the polish start to lay more flat and you get this amazing rainbow effect on the nail.
Now, let’s give this polish some stars. All in all I give these polishes the following rating:
– For staying power so far: I’ve only worn this Black Flash and Coral Glam for two days and Ultra Violet for three but so far so really good!
– For color: They have all colors imaginable since they have a rainbow reflection, I love it!
– For coverage and application: You really need to build up the color and the opacity of these and they are a bit hard to apply sometimes, but most holo polishes are.
– For price: $15.50 is quite a bit of money, but man, do these colors rock
- For amount: I would have loved to have more for this price. But it is a reasonable 10 ml/.34 fl oz.
Had you heard of this brand yet? Or do you maybe already have a few or are planning to get some? Let me know!
China Glaze Crackle Glitters swatches and thoughts.
Recently I posted about the new China Glaze Crackle Glitters in this post right here. And now I have a little exclusive for you all, I have been sent these to review and swatch so hang on, keep on readong and I’ll show you what these look like! And I’ve got to say, I wasn’t expecting this because I was a bit over crackle but oh man, these are so cool!
As you can see there are four lovely glittery crackles to this collection, they all came with the same little tag (as pictured on the polish on the left) that has the China Glaze logo on the front and on the back there are directions on how to apply these to the nail. (Click the image to read the directions)
Just to make sure I did everything right I read these little notes before swatching them as some crackles are to be applied when the base polish is still wet, the other type, like these, are to be applied when your base polish has dried completely.
I used a black polish called Liquid Leather, and a white polish called White on White, both by China Glaze, as a base of these swatches and made sure it was completely dry before I applied these crackles. Application went really smoothly, something I did not expect as glitter can be quite problematic to apply.
As you can see when you click on the picture on the left, this glitter is just so fine that you don’t have any trouble distributing them evenly and you have a moment to make sure all is covered before these start to crack.
And oh my, when it starts to crack it is very pretty! The glitters are shimmery and light enough to contrast beautifully with the basecolor and you get a nice clear crackle effect. It is important that you do topcoat this after it has finished cracking as it seems to dry quite matte.
Sadly I don’t think swatching these on my own nails would look very nice at the moment as I pretty much broke all of my nails on my left hand when I picked up my laptop and it slipped. Ouch. So you will have to do with my nailwheel instead I’m afraid. I hope you can forgive me.
Let me show you these on the black base first:
Jade-d is a soft green, so soft actually that it looks more gold than anything. But it is pretty, especially in certain color combinations which I will talk about soon as well.
Glam-more, the second polish pictured is a nice and bright fuchsia that really pops over a dark color and looks really nice over a light color as well.
The third color Gleam Me Up is a light blue, I think, after Glam-More my favorite polish of the set.
Last but certainly not least there is Luminous Lavender a soft purple, or indeed lavender color.
I personally prefer lighter colored crackles like these over a dark base, but to each their own of course. I will show you these colors over white next to show you the difference in effect.
See how the Glam-More pops and the other three are just kind of sitting there being pretty? There’s nothing wrong with them over white, but with the black they just look better to me.
I was toying around with them a bit more in combination with other China Glaze colors and I came up with a few snazzy combinations.
First there’s Jade-d over Stella because the green looks even more gold over this luschious wine red it gives it a very interesting look don’t you think?
The next two combinations just scream summer to me, Glam More over For Audrey and Gleam Me Up over Orange Knockout, these colors just pop over brights like these and they’re sure to catch anybodies eye.
Last but not least Luminous Lavender over Urban Night, both a shade of purple, but still complimenting each other rather well. Very classy I think so myself.
Now you’ve seen my swatches and read all about the polishes do you think you’ll get yourself this set? I was not planning on buying these but now that I have them and was able to test these I have to admit I am quite impressed with them! So if you get the chance, do pick one up, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised as well! They will be out this may!
Posted in 2012, Blue, China Glaze, Collection, Crackle polish, DBP, Formaldehyde, Fuchsia, Glitter, Gold, Green, Lilac, May, Metallic, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, News, Preview, Purple, Shatter, Shatter polish, Spring, Summer, Tips and Tricks, Toluene, Topcoat | 4 CommentsChina Glaze Magnetix II!
After the success of the first set of China Glaze magnetix that were released this February they are set to release a second set of 6 magnetic polishes and a fabulous new magnet that I am really looking forward to.
First let’s take a look at the colors:
Here we have from left to right:
- ColdFusion – A lovely golden copper color.
- PositivelyInLove – A rich magenta.
- Bond-Tastic – A chocolate bronze brown.
- GetCharged – A dusty purple.
- SparksWillFly – A deep blue.
- Confused – A gorgeous green.
I like them a lot but I have to confess that this isn’t why I am so excited about this collection… Do you want to know what makes my heart beat faster? It’s the magnet, they have collected such unique magnet shapes for this set that I can’t wait to get my hands on this one!
I mean just look! There’s a grid! And there’s circles! And there’s of course some stripes, which are something all the magnetic polishes look fab with.
If you want to see what the circles and the grid do look at the girl on the display, click on the image to make it bigger, don’t they look unique? The grid especially gets this whole 3d look. I hope it also looks like that when you do it yourself but time will tell on that one I guess.
Sadly I have not found a release date for these yet, but as soon as I do find it I will edit this article.
What do you think? Do you have the first set of China Glaze Magnetix, or have you tried other magnetic polishes yet?
Posted in 2012, Blue, Bronze, Brown, China Glaze, Chocolate, Collection, Copper, Fashion, Gold, Green, Hot, Magnetic, Metallic, Midnight Blue, Nail Art, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, News | 5 Comments
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