Mrs.P's Nail Potions: IHeartNY Collection

I've got something pretty exciting today, it's the entire I<3NY Collection from Mrs.P's Nail Potions!  There are 5 polishes in this collection, each represents one of the main characters in Sex and the City.  I've used Mrs.P's descriptions of the inspiration behind each different polish, and all photos are two coats without topcoat.  Let's get right to it!

Can't Colour Enough is "inspired by Samantha Jones and her colourful and out there personality and fashion.  It's a neon pink jelly with a little bit of extra fine holographic glitter for that shimmer and sparkle to represent the life in the fast lane aspect of Samantha and then is loaded with many different glitters of different shapes and sizes kind of like a party confetti to represent all the high profile PR events and parties that Samantha attended and organized/hosted."

Application on this one was a little tricky.  I dabbed on the first coat to get the glitter spread evenly, a second coat evened it out nicely and was much easier to apply.  At first glance I thought it would be a lot like DL/Claire's Candy Shop, but looking at it now, it looks like the pink sister of P&P Pool Party.  This one isn't personally my taste at all, but I think that the extra fine holo glitter adds a nice touch to an exciting polish!

All Lawyered Up is "inspired by Miranda Hobbs.  She has the simplest of style of all the girls and is the iconic redhead of the show.  Most times you see her in her straight-laced suits as she is a lawyer so I thought I would keep this Potion very simple and straightforward and bring in the red/orange to represent her hair.  It's a red jelly base with medium hex glitters in red and orange."

This polish applied fairly easily, it had a good consistency and the glitter spread itself pretty well with just a few extra strokes of the brush.  The vibrant orangey-red jelly base just screams "redhead" to me, it's so perfect!  I used two coats here for complete coverage, though I think it would look even better with a third to add more depth to the jelly!  (Please ignore the ding on my ring finger, silly me!)

Searching for Mr. Right is "inspired by Charlotte York and her forever search for the perfect husband.  Charlotte was always a hopeless romantic and believer in true love.  It's a white jelly with pink heart glitters and fine white iridescent and holo pink glitter.  It's very pretty and romantic and girly, just like Charlotte."

I like the finished look of this polish, but I think that my bottle was missing the iridescent glitter.  My photos look quite different from Bree's own photos in her Etsy shop.  Application was troublesome with this one; the white base is a little patchy  and the hearts needed to be placed on.  I think the base is maybe a little too opaque, I had hoped that the hearts would show through more.  I used two coats; probably would have been better with three thinner coats because it was getting a little thick.  Formula aside, I think this is a really cute and girly polish, and would be perfect for Valentine's Day!

The Big Apple is "inspired by Carrie's two true loves, Mr. Big and New York City.  It's a black jelly which represents the nice tailored black suits Mr. Big usually wears with fine silver sparkles to represent the spark between Carrie and Mr. Big and all the lights of NYC.  There is also white diamond glitter which I thought picked up on the crisp white shirts Mr. Big always wore under his suits and red hex glitters to represent the love that Carrie feels for both Mr. Big and NYC.  Red is also the colour of apples and NYC is the big apple after all!"

Unfortunately, my anticipated favourite of the collection was a bit of a letdown, and it's probably my fault.  I used two coats by itself because most the other swatches I've seen are over a black creme, and now I see why.  It's perfectly opaque by itself in two coats, but it's quite thick and the glitters don't sit well at all on top of each other.  I'll swatch this one again soon over a black creme, because I'm sure it will be tons better and I really want to love this one! 

**EDIT: I've reswatched The Big Apple; one coat over black with one coat of Seche Vite.**

The Naked Dress is "inspired by Carrie Bradshaw and her famous "naked dress" from Season 1 on her first date with Mr. Big.  It's a nude jelly with gold holo glitter in fine and medium hex.  The gold glitter represents the "Carrie" necklace that she always wore and treasured throughout the entire series."

I've saved my favourite for last!  Nude jelly with gold holo glitter?  Yes, please!  This nude is super flattering, and the glitter is so perfectly dispersed in the polish for a nice even coating.  Application on this one was the easiest of them all, not a hitch!  I imagine this would be a great work-appropriate polish, nude with just that little bit of sparkle.  My mom has had her eye on this polish ever since it came in the mail, you can bet the mini bottle of this will go pretty quickly! 

This collection is currently available at Mrs.P's Nail Potions Etsy shop.  She is also doing a giveaway this month where the lucky winner will receive (free of charge, all they have to pay is postage) a full-sized set of the entire collection!  For every bottle of Mrs.P's Nail Potions that is purchased during the month of November, you will get one entry into the giveaway!   You can keep up to date with Mrs.P's Nail Potions on Facebook and Twitter. 

I love The Naked Dress, but All Lawyered Up is a close second!  Which polish is your favourite from this collection? 


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

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 17th birthday!  Because I've been really busy this week preparing for a performance tomorrow, I decided that instead of doing something fancy, I'd wear one of my favourite polishes. 

I chose my one and only Deborah Lippmann polish, Ray of Light, which I've actually only worn once before because I'm trying to conserve it due to the price tag.  Come on though, navy blue, jelly, and colour-shifting flakies?  TOTALLY worth it.  

I wore two coats of Ray of Light, and it looks a little patchy in the photos but looked perfect in person.  Added the copper-coloured studs to match the flakies in the polish, and topped with one coat of Seche Vite which the polish gobbled up.  

This one one of my favourite polishes that I own, it's such a perfect combination of my favourite things!  I really want a polish similar to this but a deep red-toned purple jelly base with red/gold colour-shifting flakies... Any indie makers out there raising your hands?  

Seeing as I've got an important performance tomorrow, I don't have any special plans for my birthday.  School this morning, then ballet class this afternoon and a run-through of the show this evening.  My mom is making a delicious dinner though, so I'm looking forward to that tonight!  :)

Swan Song

So I'm a little late on today's Castle Mani Monday post (seeing as I've just finished watching tonight's episode) but I've got a quick post! 

I'd like to put it out there that I'm going to be keeping these manis pretty abstract in the interpretation so that they can be enjoyed by everyone.  Since last week's post was inspired by Beckett's look, today's mani was loosely based off of one of Castle's looks in tonight's episode. 

Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle

I started with a base of Zoya Dove, placed stiping tape in a line down the center, and painted over with Orly Decoded before removing the tape and adding a top coat (which apparently didn't do much good since it got all scratched up right afterwards).

I haven't been doing my nails as often as I'd like the past couple of weeks because I'm swamped with rehearsals for a big performance that's this weekend (that plus the fact that I'm almost done reading The Hunger Games series and I only started 3 days ago.)  My birthday is this coming Friday (the 16th), and I'm having trouble deciding what I want to wear on my nails!  I'm thinking of re-creating one of my favourite previous manis in different colours, so let me know if you have any suggestions!  :)

Grey Ombré

I'm sitting here trying to come up with some clever name for this like my Grey-dient.  Grey-bré?  Om-grey? Yea, not really working for me.

This was my first time trying ombré nails, and I really like it!  I've been sick for two days now (though I still have to go to dance - can't miss any rehearsals with the show coming up next Saturday!) and even though it was late last night, I had already been wearing my last manicure for three days and it was getting pretty chipped.  I wanted something fast and easy that was still more interesting than a plain mani, so I finally decided to try this. 

From thumb to pinky I used Sally Hansen Black Out, Orly Shockwave, Grey franken (2 parts Zoya Dove, 1 part Orly Shockwave), Zoya Dove, and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. 

I like the look of the colours transitioning from one to the next across the fingers!  I was a little nervous about having to mix a colour for the middle finger, but I think it came out just right.  I actually ended up liking the colour so much that I might make myself a mini bottle of it! 

I also went a little crazy with the nail file last night, they feel like such nubs after how long they've been the past few weeks!  Oops! 

I'm working on collecting some stuff for a giveaway soon, because lots of exciting events have all seemed to converge!  I just passed 300 blog followers, I'm getting close to 5000 Instagram followers (@emmaclarem), my next post will be number 100, and it's my 17th birthday next Friday, November 16th!  :)

The Final Frontier

Today I've got the second installment of what will hopefully become a weekly post on my blog, Castle Mani Monday!  Every Monday I'll have some nail art inspired by the Castle episode of the week, and if you don't watch Castle, this is the premise of the show.  

This week's episode is called The Final Frontier, and is based around a sci-fi convention where a murder (of course) happens to take place.  I based my nail art off of the shirt that Beckett is wearing in the episode stills.  Look, I even included a picture.  :)

Stana Katic as Kate Beckett & Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle

I used Orly You're Blushing as a base, and then used my dotting tool to draw on random blobs in Essie Merino Cool and Orly Plum Noir.  Two coats of Seche Vite for a smooth finish. 

I'm really happy with how this turned out, it was a little time-consuming but doesn't require very much skill at all.  It looks almost like animal print or camouflage, thought I'm not really sure in what situation purple camouflage would be useful. 

As I said at the beginning of the post, I hope to make this a sort of weekly thing every Monday morning, so look out for another Castle-inspired post next week!  Castle is on ABC Mondays at 7pm PST. 

Effie, Upgraded

Just a quick one this morning since I'm about to dash off to rehearsals all day, followed by a fundraiser performance tonight.  I really liked my Effie Trinket Halloween nails, but wanted to add something to them to wear for an extra day.  I didn't know what to add, until I came upon a post by Polish All The Nails that gave me some inspiration!

I replicated her design in this post, making triangles from the sides of my nails with the loose gold glitter from the Born Pretty Store. 

Sealed it all in with two more coats of Seche Vite, and I've got an upgraded Effie manicure!

If you don't already, you really should read Polish All The Nails; she does the most amazing things with loose glitter!  Wish me luck on the performance tonight!  :)

Happy Halloween, And May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor!

Three things: 

1. It's November 1st, so my 17th birthday is in 16 days!

2. Halloween is over, therefore it's officially Christmas time. 

3. Starbucks Christmas cups FTW. 

I had a really fun time yesterday, I dressed up as Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games!  Since I was going full-out with my costume, hair, and makeup,  I just had to do my nails to match!  

I started with two coats of Essie Super Bossa Nova, a bright pink polish that loves to stain.  Grrr.  I sponged Essie Good As Gold onto the tips, topcoated, and was done!   I was going for this look that she wears during the reaping, which is actually quite toned-down compared to her manicures in the rest of the movie!

I had dance until 7:30 last night (and then rehearsal ran over time,) after which I went to my friend's house, ate pizza, and we went out for a while.  Since we're "too old to trick-or-treat", we went door-to-door collecting non-perishable food donations to help the homeless.  Halloween for a good cause!

Unfortunately, we got stuck in the middle of a torrential downpour (of course, we can never have a rain-less Halloween!) and ran back to my friend's house, high heels, pencil skirt, ruffles and all.  At least I brought an umbrella!  

Hope you all had a great Halloween! :)