Femme Fatale Cosmetics: Spindleweb & Winter Hyacinth

Hi all!  Apologies for the lack of posting over the past week; I always think I'm going to have more free time than I actually do at these things, and by the time I get back from a long day of dance all I want to do is sleep!  Nevertheless, I've had a pretty productive weekend in terms of blogging stuff, so there should be a couple more posts coming up soon.  

Today I've got two super awesome polishes to show you from the Australian indie brand Femme Fatale Cosmetics!  I received four polishes to review, but I took so many photos that I decided to split them up into two posts.  These were my first polishes from Femme Fatale, and I was pretty impressed.  Click the jump to read more on what I thought!  :)

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013: Year of the Blogger

I was so excited when I found out that I was selected to take part in this year's piCture pOlish Blog Fest; it's been so hard to keep it a secret until now!  This year's theme is 'Year of the Blogger', and we were all asked to create a unique nail art look using three piCture pOlish shades provided to us.  It was quite a challenge because we had no say in which polishes we were given, but that's all part of the fun! 

Direct artificial lighting

This post is super picture- and gif-heavy so be sure to read on after the jump for a tutorial!  :)

Guest Post at Manicurator!

Hi all!  Posting will be a bit more sporadic over the next week or so as I get settled in with my new schedule here at my summer intensive, but I wanted to drop by and let you all know about a guest post I did for the lovely Victoria over on her blog Manicurator!

You can click here to go to Victoria's blog and see the full post!  :)

Mint Manis for Talia Joy

I had planned to show you the last of the beautiful Shimmer swatches this morning, but instead I've decided to join in on Nail Polish Wars' fantastic idea to post mint manis in honour of Talia Joy Castellano.  Talia was an extremely talented 13-year-old makeup artist and YouTuber, who was battling two kinds of cancer (neuroblastoma and preleukemia) since she was diagnosed at only 7 years old.  Despite all this, she still managed to keep upbeat, motivated, and overwhelmingly positive.  She passed away on Tuesday morning, and since her last Instagram photo was of a mint manicure, we have all joined together to do mint manis in honour of Talia.  

I pulled out what has become one of my favourite summer cremes, piCture pOlish Honey Dew.  I added a double-accent nail with BM-322 and Essie Good As Gold, and put a gold square stud (which I found in a clearance bin at the drugstore) on all the other nails.  It's all topped off with two coats of Poshé top coat. 

I really love the combination of the bright minty green with the gold, there's something very classy but modern  and stylish about it.  In other news, I'm getting used to the round nails and they're growing on me a bit.  I'll still go back to squares though once I have enough length at the sides.  

You can share your mint manis for Talia on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, etc. with the hashtags #MintManisforTalia and #TaliasLegacy.  You can also add your mani to the Inlinkz collection below.  I'm excited to see what everyone else has come up with in honour of this beautiful girl.  Keep Talia's family and friends in your prayers! <3

The Inlinkz for this event is after the jump, since there have been over 200 entries!  Click below to have a look. 

Triangular Geometrics & Round Nails

Oh dear, I have round nails!!  They were getting quite long, and I was planning on going back to super-nubs before leaving for a month on Saturday, but I decided to go round for a few days just to give it a go...

I was talking to Alexis while filing them (and freaking out,) and we both agreed that round nails look much better with nail art.  So what did I do?  Nail art it up!! 

Matt Smith is still somehow managing to make it into non-Doctor-Who posts.  My apologies. 

This nail art was initially inspired by this manicure by Alexis, although mine turned out quite differently in the end.  I'm pretty happy with it!  

I started with two thin coats of OPI You're Such A Budapest, freehanded the lines with Essie Good As Gold, and filled in a few of the lines with piCture pOlish Peaches n' Cream over white acrylic paint.  It's all topped off with two coats of Poshé, which I just got my first bottle of over the weekend and LOVE! 

Anywho, while it is an interesting change, I'm still not quite sold on the whole round-nails thing, personally.  I'll definitely be back to my lovely squares within a few days.  What do you all think of the look?  :)

La Couleur Couture Summer Giveaway Winner!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations!!  I've emailed the winner to be notified (and congratulated!) on her win!  If I do not hear back within 48 hours, another winner will be chosen.  

My gratitude goes out to Farima at LaCC for so generously providing these lovely polishes for this giveaway, and thanks to everyone who entered!! :)

Shimmer Polish: Part 3

I've got more Shimmer Polish swatches for you this morning!  You can see parts 1 and 2 here and here, which each include six polishes.  Since I pulled out my lightbox again to photograph my Nerd Lacquers, I've really begun to appreciate what it does to show off the fine details in glitter polishes.  Therefore, these last six Shimmer polishes will be broken up into two posts of three polishes each, since I've got normal and lightbox photos for each and don't want to overwhelm with too many photos.  Hope that makes sense!

Continue reading after the jump!  :)

Winstonia Store Review: Nail Foils & Orange Sticks

I'm taking a short break from the regularly-scheduled program of Nerd Lacquers that we've had this past week to show you a few products from the Winstonia store! 

This manicure was done using the nail foils in colour #39, which you can find here.  There's a ton on the roll so you'll never run out; it's 1.5 inches wide and 44 inches long!  This was my first time using nail foils and I was a bit nervous due to my lack of a special foil adhesive, but it was actually really easy! 

I started with two coats of Lacquer Lust Orion and a layer of LaCC 2013 top coat.  Once that was dry, one nail at a time I added another thin coat of Orion.  While that was still tacky, I pressed a piece of foil over the nail and rubbed to transfer it.  I then went over it a second time in an attempt to cover any holes I had left.  I managed to get pretty good coverage; you can barely see any black poking through!

I also got this pack of orange sticks to review, which I was super excited about.  You can find them here.  I use these things ALL the time!!  I tried to take my own photo but the package was too reflective, so this is the photo from the website.  My package looks the exact same. 

The package comes with 30 wooden sticks in three different sizes, which is pretty much a lifetime supply!  I mainly use these to clean up any major messes as I paint my nails, although they're also great for dragging designs for a water marble mani and making super-tiny dots.  Just a really great useful thing to always have handy, if you ask me! 

Back to the nail foils!  Since they were so crazy reflective, I decided to take a few photos in my lightbox to better show the coverage.  This was so cool, almost an acid-washed look, but with a mirror-like finish!  I might just have to grab myself a few more nail foils; how awesome do the holographic ones look?! 

You can purchase these products through the Winstonia store; the nail foil here (I showed #39) and the orange sticks here.  

What do you think of this look?  Have you tried nail foils before?  I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was, but how do you find working with them?  :)

Disclaimer: Products in this post were sent for review and my honest opinion. 

Nerd Lacquer: Regeneration

Guess what I've got today?  More Doctor Who Nerd Lacquer!! 

Source

This crazy-Matt-gif is becoming a thing, isn't it?  I love it.  Today's polish is Regeneration, an orange jelly base with tons of different sizes of gold, yellow, and orange glitter packed in.  

Since I'm done watching all of Eleven's episodes, I'm working on going back and watching series 1-4 with Nine and Ten.  Since I'm watching Nine right now, I figured it was only fair to include a little Eccleston.  ;)  Relevant, I promise.  What is regeneration, you ask? 

Source

Here's a tip: don't shoot a girl while she's regenerating!  

Source

I used three thin coats of Regeneration for full coverage, topped with one thick coat of Seche Vite for a smooth finish.  These photos are in the lightbox.  

Unfortunately, I quickly came to the realization that this polish looked absolutely horrible on my skin tone; it looks better in photos than in person though.  My skin hates oranges like the Doctor hates pears.  I quickly came to this conclusion about this polish: 

But then:

Fandom crossover WIN.  The combination of Nerd Lacquer and Doctor Who is just too awesome to not like, even if the polish in question looks like a dog vomited on my fingers against my skin tone.  You can bet I'll be wearing it again, quite possibly on Christmas day as I mourn the loss of Matt Smith.  

Just to see if it made things better, I matted it with one coat of Essie Matte About You.  The Doctor still hates pears.  

So, what are your thoughts on this polish?  I like it in theory, but it just looks awful on my skin.  Ah well, can't win them all!  Now the most important question: who is your favourite Doctor??  I haven't seen all of new Who yet; I've watched almost all of Nine's episodes as of last night, and in all fairness I haven't really seen enough of Ten to judge, but I think that Eleven will always be my favourite, since he was my first Doctor.  I'll be super sad to see him go in the Christmas special, but at the same time I'm excited to see who will be cast as Twelve!  Opinions; let me hear them!  :)

Source

La Couleur Couture Summer Giveaway

Hi all!  This giveaway is a bit overdue, but it's finally just started to feel like summer here over the past week or two!  To celebrate, I'm giving away five of my favourite Spring/Summer Collection La Couleur Couture polishes to one lucky winner! 

A HUGE heartfelt thank-you to Farima from LaCC for providing these polishes for a giveaway!  I chose my five favourite shades, pictured above; the winner will receive these five brand-new bottles.  The colours are, left to right, 1977, 1992, 1968, 1972, and 2011.  Here are some swatches (from my own personal bottles) to give you a better idea.  ;) 

1977, 2 coats, LaCC 2013 top coat

1992, 3 coats, LaCC 2013 top coat

1968, 2 coats, LaCC 2013 top coat

1972, 2 coats, LaCC 2013 top coat

2011, 3 coats, LaCC 2013 top coat

Entries will be taken through the Rafflecopter widget below.  Technical stuff!!  This giveaway is open to Canada and the continental US.  Must be 18 or older, or have parental permission to enter.   I will package the prize to the best of my ability, but am not responsible for anything that happens to the package after it leaves my hands.  The winner will be emailed by me, and will have 24 hours to respond with a valid mailing address; otherwise another winner will be chosen. 

This giveaway starts now, and will end in one week, at 12AM on July 17th (same as midnight on the 16th).  It's a quick one, since I'm leaving to go out of town for a month  on the 20th and want to get it shipped out before I leave.  Rafflecopter time!  Good luck to all!  :D

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Le Bunny Bleu Giveaway Winner!

A winner has been chosen through Rafflecopter for the $75 gift certificate for Le Bunny Bleu...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations!!  I've emailed the winner to be notified (and congratulated!) on her win; you will also be emailed directly by Karimah from Le Bunny Bleu with the gift voucher code!  If I do not hear back within 48 hours, another winner will be chosen.  

My gratitude goes out to Le Bunny Bleu for generously sponsoring this giveaway, and thanks to everyone who entered!!  I've got another giveaway planned (with polish this time) which will be up in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that!! ;)

Nerd Lacquer: Exterminate

Today brings MORE NERD LACQUER!!  This polish is a tribute to a classic Doctor Who villain that everyone loves to hate, the Daleks.  I've even done a Dalek accent nail to go along with this one!!  Woot woot! 

Another crazy Matt gif. Because I can.

This is three thin coats of Nerd Lacquer Exterminate, with a Dalek accent nail à la Accio Lacquer!  I scraped down the inside of the bottle with a toothpick and turned it upside-down for a while before using it, to stir up the glitters that were stuck to the bottle.  The base for the ring finger was done before all that, so it doesn't have much glitter on it (on purpose.) 

Source

Only one coat of Seche Vite here again, same as I Think You Call Me... Sexy which I posted the other day.  These photos are in the light box as well, because otherwise you lose all the great detail of the individual glitters!  

Uh-oh, someone's flipped the Dalek upside-down.  It's not going to be happy.  Basically, RUN! 

Source

For the accent nail, I used striping tape from the Born Pretty Store for the stripes, and the "eggs" (oh, Rory...) are some studs that I picked up at the drugstore a while ago.  The colours worked perfectly and I was super happy with how this mani came out; I ended up liking Exterminate a lot more than I had initially expected!  :)

My apologies, but if you've now got a lemming for this hate-filled beauty, getting your hands on it could be quite difficult.  To best exterminate your desire for this, I suggest browsing nail polish Facebook groups for anyone looking to re-home a bottle, and stalk the Nerd Lacquer Google+ page (has anyone figured out how to use that yet?) for updates on any future restocks! 

Sorry once again, Mishka. Source. 

Whovians, it's your turn!  Sound off in the comments, let me hear your thoughts on this Nerd Lacquer!  :)