LaCC: Fall 2014 Collection

Hello!  I'm super excited about today's post, since I get to share another LaCC collection with you!  This is a collection of five polishes that were released for Fall 2014; there's a beautiful blue, a great nude, and the ever-useful black, white, and grey.  Let's get to it!  

Continue reading after the jump. 

QUO by Orly: Summer 2014 Collection

You may remember back in April I shared the QUO by Orly Spring 2014 polishes, which was my first experience with the brand and I was very impressed.  Today I've got three of the the Summer 2014 polishes to share with you and, spoilers, these are amazing!  

Read on for the full review. 

LaCC Spring/Summer 2014: New Releases

Good morning!  I wasn't planning on posting today, but I got some exciting nail mail and just had to squeeze in a post... I've got the two new Spring/Summer releases for La Couleur Couture!  :)

LaCC is one of my favourite brands for their consistently flawless creme formulas in universally flattering shades.  On top of that, LaCC polishes are 5-free, cruelty-free, vegan, breathable, gluten-free, paraben-free, and UV inhibiting.  What's not to love? 

Onto the new shades!  1997 is a complex creme; depending on the lighting it can read as a dusty mauve, lilac, grey, or periwinkle.  So beautiful!  

I applied two effortless coats, sandwiched between LaCC 2012 base coat and 2013 top coat, which keeps any mani chip-free for days on end.  I'm so in love with this shade; it feels very rainy-spring-day to me, which is a lovely bit of nostalgia for me as I grew up in Vancouver where it's rainy 80% of the time.  It also happens to be where LaCC is based!  ;)  I've already done some nail art over this beauty, so look out for that post in a week or so.  

1996 is an interesting green creme, it borders between a pastel green (like 1968) and an army green.  This one also looks different depending on the lighting, so I can do a comparison with some other greens if that's something you're interested in seeing.  Let me know!

Once again, two perfect coats for opacity.  No top coat on this swatch, just to show you how shiny these polishes are by themselves!  They also dry incredibly quickly.  This one feels like a lovely floral green, and is a very flattering shade that I'm sure would look amazing on a lot of different skin tones!  I'm already bursting with ideas for nail art with this one, it'll be great for floral looks!  

You can see my reviews of previous LaCC collections here:  Spring/Summer 2013 & Fall/Winter 2013.  LaCC polishes are available online through the LaCC website, a list of other online retailers can be found here.  Also, as of very recently, LaCC polishes are available at 750+ Shopper's Drug Mart locations across Canada!! 

I'm head-over-heels for these two new shades, and I really can't wait to get to working them into some fun nail art looks!  I'd love to hear your thoughts as well!  :)

Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided for review and my honest opinion. 

LVX Mynt & OPI My Favourite Ornament

I purchased both of these polishes pretty recently, and when I saw them sitting next to each other on my desk I knew they'd make a good pair!  

LVX Mynt is a beautiful light vibrant mint creme, with full coverage in three thin coats.  (Two thicker coats would probably do the trick too.)  This was my first LVX polish, and I was really impressed with the formula!  I found a ton of LVX polishes at Winners for $6 each a few weeks ago and picked up three, so you'll be seeing the other two around here eventually as well. 

OPI My Favourite Ornament is a full-coverage gold micro-flakie; I used three thin coats for opacity here too.  This one isn't advertised as a Liquid Sand, but it does dry to a textured finish so I chose to leave it without top coat.  I think you'd need at least two coats of a thick top coat to smooth it out.  I really love the lighter gold colour, it's so flattering! 

I'm really happy with both of these recent purchases, and they look so cute together!!  This mani definitely helped get me in the mood for some more spring-hued looks, despite the gross weather.  What do you think?  :)

Miss Ashleigh Polish: In The Navy, My Merlot Made Me Do It, & A Pastel Experi-mint

Good morning!  Last week I was chosen to be in the company's production of The Nutcracker; rehearsals have been going like crazy, with the first show in just over a week now... I'm hoping it'll all go smoothly!!  

Today I've got a super overdue review of some awesome Aussie indie polishes!  After swatching and editing, a bunch of these photos went missing among all the folders on my computer and I couldn't find them for the longest time... And yet as I was about to revert to re-swatching them, they turned up!  Anywho, here's the first three of six stunning polishes I've got from Miss Ashleigh Polish! :)

Studded 50/50

Good morning!  I had received four of Essie's spring/summer polishes in the mail while away and was super excited to play with them when I got home, so I decided to combine them all (along with some Born Pretty Store studs that also arrived while I was away) in this nail art look!

I alternated the base colours on each nail, taped off half, and painted the rest with another colour.  After removing the tape, I used a slow-drying top coat and tweezers to apply the square studs.  This look was pretty simple to achieve, but looked very striking!  Swatches aside, this was actually the first mani that I wore when I got home last week! 

The light periwinkle blue is Rock the Boat from Essie's Summer 2013 Naughty Nauticals collection.  Formula is a little thin, and requires three coats for opacity.  Lovely shade with a beautiful shimmer!

The other three polishes are from Essie's Spring/Summer 2013 Resort collection.  The bright teal-leaning-blue is In the Cab-ana, which only needs one coat for opacity if you're careful!  Super bright and awesome shade with a fabulous formula!  The light pinkish lavender is Under Where?, and is also on the sheer side, requiring three coats for opacity.  Very pretty shade for nail art, but unfortunately doesn't really flatter my skin tone.  The bright green is First Timer, which joins the bright blue in the almost-one-coater club with another great formula and an awesome shade!

I know I'm pretty late to the party with these, but all in all I'm still really loving them!  Essie always comes out with some great cremes, and these will definitely all become staples in my collection.  Did you pick up any of these or other polishes from Essie's spring/summer lines?  :)

piCture pOlish: Fairy Floss

Although I do have dance today, I'm really looking forward to the rest of the long weekend!  We're going down to the US for some shopping, so all this weekend's posts will be scheduled.  Depending on my internet access, I'll hopefully still be able to reply to comments and emails as normal.  :)  

Anywho, it's been a while since I showed you a piCture pOlish shade, but I have one today to share!  You can see all my previous piCture pOlish swatches and reviews here. 

This is a beautiful cotton-candy pink creme, appropriately named Fairy Floss.  You're seeing two perfect easy coats, with one coat of Seche Vite.  

I've actually ended up using this colour way more than I thought I would when I got it a few months ago; it's not my usual type of colour but it's really grown on me!  It's a perfect light-but-bright pink that is super flattering and doesn't look too Barbie-ish.  It's made it's way into a ton of my nail art!  

piCture pOlish is available at picturepolish.com.au as well as through lots of other network members around the world. Check out the Network for a full list. 

I'd say that if you're on the hunt for a perfect light pink polish, this could be what you've been looking for!  What do you think of Fairy Floss?  :)

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

OPI Swatch Spam

I've acquired quite a few OPI polishes over the past few months and the photos have just been sitting in a folder, so I figured I'd show them to you all together!  I've got four Euro Centrale shades, two Liquid Sand polishes, and one from last year's Spring/Summer Holland Collection.

This post is super picture-heavy, so read on after the jump!  :)

piCture pOlish: Twinkle

There's no new Castle episode tonight, and therefore no Castle Mani Monday post.  I do, however, have another beautiful piCture pOlish shade to show you!!  Take a look.  :)

This is piCture pOlish Twinkle, a cool-toned pinkish-lilac with a very subtle silver shimmer.  Formula was great as usual with this brand; it was almost a one-coater but I used two to avoid any patchiness in the photos.  Topped with one coat of LaCC 2013 top coat for a shiny finish! 

I really like this polish, even though these cool-toned pinks/purples don't tend to look very good on my skin tone.  Still a super pretty polish, regardless!! 

piCture pOlish is available at picturepolish.com.au as well as through lots of other network members around the world. Check out the Network for a full list. 

How do you like this polish?  I think it's perfect for spring (even though the weather is still winter here), but is it something you'd wear in the coming months?  :)

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

La Couleur Couture Swatches

I have all these swatches sitting on my computer, so I figured I might as well show them to you!  If you keep an eye on Llarowe's Facebook page, you may have already seen some of them.  I've got twelve polishes (whew!) to share today, including some pictures taken with my NEW camera!!  Exciting stuff, so read on!  ;)

La Couleur Couture is "a unique vegan friendly nail polish collection. Classy and edgy with couture quality staying power, la couleur couture is available in a range of fashion-forward and trendy colours. Founder and creative director Farima Hakkak’s mission is for all women to not only look good and have healthy nails, but to be strong and to create their own possibility."   

Full swatches and review after the jump!  :)

piCture pOlish: Camo

Happy Monday!  I've got another piCture pOlish shade to show you today, as well as a Castle Mani Monday post to come later, for which I used this polish as a base for my nail art!  

piCture pOlish Camo is a spot-on army-green, with the signature perfect piCture pOlish formula!  Two coats shown, no top coat because it dries this shiny all by itself!

piCture pOlish is available at picturepolish.com.au as well as through lots of other network members around the world. Check out the Network for a full list.  

Look out for my Castle Mani Monday nail art later today!!  ;)

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. 

Orly Electronica Collection

Or, well, half of it.  I picked up two polishes from the Orly Electronica collection sometime in June when they were on BOGO sale at Sally's; I'm really glad I did because they'll definitely be some of my go-to colours for fall!

Decoded is a dark grey creme, which you saw a couple of days ago in my Grey-dient.  In the pictures it's leaning much more blue-toned than it is in real life, it really is a true grey.  Two coats, flawless formula, stunning colour.  LOVE.

Shockwave is a rich dark royal blue which you saw in my review of Tough As Nails Lacquer the other day.  Pictures were taken outside, and it appears quite a bit darker in indoor lighting.  It's one of those blues that looks navy at times but never looks black; love that!  The VNL you can see in the pictures wasn't visible at all in real life.  Same thing: two coats, flawless formula, amazeballs colour.  DOUBLE RAINBOW.

Gosh, how I love Orly.  Every polish I own is so freaking fantastic (despite the near-inevitable SV shrinkage!)  Luckily I've learned to mostly avoid it with very careful application, and it's sooo totally worth it! Orly FTW! :D  

Do you guys love a good fall-coloured creme as much as I do?  Do you own either of these polishes?  Which one is your favourite?  Comments make me happy :)  Thanks for reading!

Pacific Blue & Lacey Lilac Gradient

I'm back!! :) I literally got home 2 hours ago after being away for a month and I'm already writing a post, haha.  This is a manicure that I did one weekend while I was away using two Sally Hansen polishes, a base of Lacey Lilac sponged with my recently acquired Pacific Blue.   Topped with two coats of Seche Vite, as always!

The photos are not as good quality as normal because I didn't have my normal setup, but I hope you'll forgive me this once. ;) 

I had a really good time at ballet school the past month, I felt like I learned a lot and I really enjoyed the teachers and all the friends I made, and I'm seriously considering that school's post-grad program for next year, so it's been an exciting time! 

As for my blog, I realize that over the past while my posts have been mostly consisting of swatches and reviews and have probably been quite boring to read, and I apologize for that.  I feel like I have been neglecting my blog but I've got more time now to get back to what I love doing and the reason I started this blog, nail art!  I hope you'll stick around with me over the next couple of weeks as I get back into the swing of things with my blog and posting regularly again! :)

Ruffle Manicure

Good morning :)  This is something that's been sitting around in my "to do" folder forever, so since I thought I had nothing to do, I decided it was about time I gave this a try!  

For this look I followed this tutorial from Sarah at Chalkboard Nails.  I saw this picture that she posted to Instagram and I decided to follow those colours, since I felt it was more "me" than the greens and blues she used in the tutorial.  

Since there's so many colours, I'm going to stray from my norm and make a list. Here they are, from top to bottom as they appear on my nail:

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac

L'Oreal Yellow (can't find a name)

NYX Matte Teal

Essie Watermelon

Essie Mojito Madness

OPI Mod About You

Essie Mesmerise

Island Girl Color Changing Polish Pink/Coral

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet

Seche Vite (2 coats)

As you can see, the sun finally decided to come out!  I hope we'll finally get some summer weather around here.  

Once again, if you live in Canada or the US, please enter my 100 Follower Giveaway!! 

My sister says that my nails look like a cozy knit sweater... not exactly what I was going for, haha!  I'd love to hear what you think! :)

Tina and Lucy: Moonstone

Here is part two of the Tina and Lucy polish reviews, and this morning I've got Moonstone to show you!  

First off, let me just say that Moonstone is by far the most frustrating polish to try to photograph; it's much prettier in person.  Moonstone is a seafoam-leaning-army-green, with glassy flakies throughout.  The effect is very subtle even in person, which is why it was very difficult to capture on my camera.  If you look closely in the pictures, you can see on some of my nails the flash of the flakies when the light hits it just right.  

Formula on this one was relatively sheer.  I had on two coats of OPI Barre My Soul (very sheer nude polish) before I did this, and decided to keep it on to minimize the number of coats I'd need of Moonstone to not have any visible nail line.  This is three thin coats of Moonstone, followed by two coats of Seche Vite.  I did need two coats of Seche Vite because some of the flakies didn't lie flat on my nail.  Application was very easy and the flakies were spread evenly.  

You can see the flakies better in the bottle:

I feel like this colour shouldn't look good with my skin tone, but I really like it so I don't care; I'll wear it anyways.  This polish is definitely very unique among the masses of glitter-bombs that you see from most indie sellers; I really like the subtle effect. 

You can buy Tina and Lucy polish at their Etsy shop, and like their Facebook page for updates.  Their store is temporarily closed, but it'll be open again soon! 

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

Deborah Lippmann Ray Of Light

Here it is, finally; my very first Deborah Lippmann polish!   I bought it last Sunday and now I'm asking myself how on earth I waited so long to wear it.  

So what if I spent $18 on a bottle of nail polish?  I REGRET NOTHING.  Ray Of Light is the most beautiful navy blue that's somewhere between a creme and a jelly, and it's packed with coppery colour-shifting flakies.  Holy crap, I think I may have died and gone to nail polish heaven.  

First coat was very streaky and difficult and I was a tad bit worried, but the second coat went on absolutely perfectly.  Two coats of Seche Vite later, and I'm left with this beautiful thing on my nails.  I can't stop staring.  Seriously.  

Cue picture spam: 

I was extremely impressed by how flat the flakies were on the nail.  I've found that previous flakies I tried had a tendency to eat my top coat, but not this one.  Pure perfection.  Omnomnomnomnom.  Yea, I'm going a little crazy.

Anywho, I've got a few posts planned for the next couple of days, but I also have my provincial exam on Thursday, so posts may be sporadic and/or short.

Are you drooling over this polish as much as I am?  Do you have a favourite Lippmann polish?  Leave a comment, they make me happy :)