Tough As Nails Lacquer

Today I've got a couple polishes made by a lovely fellow blogger, Elizabeth of Tough As Nails Lacquer.  I have two glitter toppers to share with you, 43 Quintillion and Not A Plain Jane.  

First off, I'm just going to mention that Elizabeth has the most amazing product descriptions in her shop; take a look at this one: "43 Quintillion is a topcoat lacquer. It contains hex glitters all of the colors you might find on a certain cube-shaped game from the 1980s, which happens to have forty-three quintillion combinations. 43 Quintillion is the life of the party -- she's a little bit wild, a little bit mixed up, and is always working to see how high she can get her bangs and how crimped she can get her hair."

How great is that?  In my eyes, her greatest feat with this one is that she managed to make multi-coloured glitter not look obnoxious, which is what I find with most others.  I love the mix of black and white glitter peppered throughout the base, it adds so much more visual interest to set it apart from all the other multi-coloured glitters. 

Most of the swatches I've seen of this have it layered over brighter colours, so I chose to layer it over more neutral colours to let the glitter stand out.  Here I've shown it over my Grey-dient of Orly Decoded and Zoya Dove. 

I did have to dab this one on, but I didn't have any problems getting glitter out of the bottle; this was one coat.  I used one coat of Seche Vite for the pictures, but I think you'd probably need two to get a completely smooth finish.  Overall I really like this one and think it's a really versatile polish with endless layering combinations! 

Here is how she describes Not A Plain Jane: "Not A Plain Jane is a topcoat lacquer, containing hex glitters in varying shades of white and pink, along with a few white hearts. Not A Plain Jane is named for one of my favorite people. She is sophisticated, feminine, completely fun, and known to sprinkle fairy dust in the lives of those she loves."

I layered this one over Orly Shockwave (swatches of that soon).  I noticed that, not mentioned in the description, there are also quite a few of what look to be light pink shards.   I didn't get any hearts on my nails, but I saw a couple in the bottle.  Maybe the shards are just ripped up hearts... I'm sorry, that sounds awful.  Either way, I don't personally care for heart glitter so I actually prefer the shards. 

Here I've dabbed on just one coat of glitter; this one is a little more packed with glitter than 43 Quintillion but I think but they are both just about right coverage for glitter toppers. 

Same as 43 Quintillion, I've pictured one coat of Seche Vite but you'll probably need two for a completely smooth finish. 

Be sure to check out Elizabeth's Tough As Nails Lacquer blog, Facebook page, and Etsy shop where her polishes sell for $9USD per full-sized bottle, and she ships to Canada! Woohoo!  :)

Disclaimer: The products in this post were sent to me for review and my honest opinion.  

Glequin Ruffian

Inspired by all of the glequin manicures I've seen around lately, I finally caved and bought some for myself.  I used gold glequins on a base of Orly Prelude To A Kiss for this ruffian(ish) look.

I'm really happy with how this turned out, it looks very elegant and classy, with just a little bling ;)

The glequins held up pretty well on my left hand, but they started falling off my dominant hand after about a day.  It's probably because I only used one coat of Seche Vite, (always shrinks like crazy when I put it over Orly) so next time I think I'll use two coats and it should last longer.

I got the glequins from the Born Pretty Store.  Here's a code to get 7% off your order; click on the picture to be brought directly to the website! :)

Grey-dient

Puns aside, here's a fall-appropriate gradient that I'm absolutely loving!  I started with two coats of Orly Decoded, (swatches soon) and sponged on Zoya Dove. 

I didn't realize until after I was done, but I did the opposite of what I normally do for gradients.  Instead of starting with a lighter colour and sponging on the darker, I started with the dark and sponged on the light.  I guess that Dove was opaque enough, because it obviously worked alright. :P

The colours are showing up really blue in my pictures, but in person they are both true grey colours and blend together beautifully.

Hate to toot my own whistle, but I felt like a freaking genius when I thought of this grey-dient thing.  Not gonna lie.  (Super awkward for me if its been done before and I didn't know...)

Anywho, I've also done some layering over this which looks super awesome, but you'll have to wait for another post for that ;) 

Recently we've been seeing gradients done more often in pastel and bright colours, but how do you like the gradient with more muted fall colours? :)

Burberry Nail Art

Today I've got something that I'm really excited to share with you, Burberry nail art!

I used a base of Essie Topless & Barefoot, and added white stripes with acrylic paint, black stripes with a cheapo striper polish from the grocery store (can't read the label, black writing on black polish!) and then red stripes with acrylic paint.  Topped with two coats of Seche Vite. 

Freehand nail art is definitely not my forte, but I'm really pleased with how this turned out; I got a lot of compliments on it!  :)  What do you think about wearing the designer plaid on your nails? 

Nacozari & Stamping

Hey!  Just a quick post tonight showing you a mani I did with Sassy Lacquer Nacozari, which I won in a giveaway a couple of months ago and hadn't yet gotten around to using! 

Nacozari is a beautiful light blue-leaning-green, though my photos make it look really blue.  It has a very subtle copper-y shimmer in it which only comes out in direct sunlight, but when it does it's stunning!

Formula was a little streaky, but workable.  This is three coats with two coats of Seche Vite.  I stamped on the birds with Konad white polish and BM-315. 

What do you think of this? Are you a fan of subtle stamping accents? 

Pool Party!

I know, I know, it's getting a little late in the year for pool parties.  However, I think I'll make an exception for today. 

Pool Party is my first bottle of Pretty & Polished, and unfortunately I don't love it as much as I was hoping.  The formula was super thick and goopy, and I spent a lot of time fiddling around with glitters while trying to avoid the inevitable dragging. 

This was three coats of Pool Party. The glitter was still pokey after two coats of Seche Vite because the square and bar glitters curled like no other.  I would have preferred to add another coat to smooth it out, but all the coats were already too thick for my liking. 

Also, I used a liquid glue base coat for this to see if the glitter would just peel off, instead of dealing with tedious tin foil and such.  Sometime (eventually) I'll have a post up on how that worked out for me! (Hint: I'm definitely a convert!)

 

I do like the way this looks, I'm just not nearly as excited about it as I was hoping to be.  Oh well, maybe next summer I'll like it more.  What do you think?

Aphrodite Lacquers: Friday Night Glitter Bomb Collection

Tonight I've got some serious eye candy for all you glitter-bomb lovers!  You may have seen my previous reviews of Aphrodite Lacquers Romance Novel and Outta This World collections, and now I've got Rebecca's newest collection, the Friday Night Glitter Bombs!

This collection consists of ten glitter topper polishes with super fun names; I have five to show you!  I'll mention that for all of the polishes I used one coat of the glitter topper over a base, and photos have no top coat.  I've shown each of the polishes over two different base colours to show just how versatile they are!

First is probably my favourite from the collection, Peacock Earrings. Rebecca describes this polish as a "clear polish base, with a very fine holo shimmer, multiple different black and white glitters, with small holo glitters of 3 colors (purple holo, blue holo, and teal holo)."  Over one coat each of Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac and Pacific Blue. 

Gossip is described as a "sheer pinkish polish, with pink and light purple flakes, small purple microglitters, and a color changing shimmer that goes from aqua to purple to pink."  This one was impossibly difficult to capture in pictures.  It is so incredibly stunning!  I love the fact that it's so versatile; layer it over a pastel colour for a touch of fairy dust, or layer it over a dark colour for a party-ready look!   Over Sally Hansen Black Out and Lacey Lilac. 

Next up is Pre Party, a "sheer pink polish base, with a color changing shimmer that goes from pink to coppery gold, and multiple different pink, black, and white glitters."  The description calls it a sheer pink base but it doesn't change your base colour at all.  The shimmer is very obvious and gorgeous in this one, though overall this isn't my cup of tea.  I've shown it over Revlon Raspberry Scone and Essie French Affair. 

 

VIP Room is described as a "sheer aqua base, with an aqua shimmer, aqua micro glitter, and iridescent squares that are kind of bluish and purpley and teal."  First off, yes, bluish is a word, and therefore purpley should be also. This one, like Gossip, is one that changes completely depending on the base colour.  The irridescent squares are very eye-catching!  Shown over Sally Hansen Black Out and Pacific Blue. 

Last is Velvet Rope, a "sheer purple polish base, with a color changing shimmer that goes from blue to purple to pink, and multiple different purple, black, and white glitters."  This one had some slight issues with glitters that appeared to curl.  It isn't too bad, but might be a problem for some people.  I can tell you that it does smooth out with two thick coats of top coat, though I have no top coat on in the pictures

I've spoken to Rebecca about this and she is aware of it; she says that if you would like one of these polishes and the slight curling is an issue for you, to just shoot her a message and you can figure something out! :)

I've included a few pictures of the curling culprit. Feel free to click to enlarge. (No top coat pictured.)

In terms of application, VIP Room and Gossip were very easy to apply.  Peacock Earrings, Pre Party, and Velvet Rope were a bit more difficult; the glitter liked to clump together and required some minor dabbing to get an even coat.  I think that the end result is worth it, though! :)

Aphrodite Lacquers can be found on Etsy here and on Facebook here.  Her polishes are consistently beautiful and stunning for only $8USD per full sized bottle!  She has such a diverse collection of polishes, her store is always stocked, she's always coming out with new polishes, and her customer service is excellent!  Rebecca is so sweet and I highly recommend Aphrodite Lacquers to everyone and anyone! :)

Disclaimer: These products were sent to me for review and my honest opinion.  The views represented are completely my own and have not been influenced in any way.  Promise.