Deborah Lippmann – Ruby Red Slippers

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! In celebration of this special day, I’ve used my new, occasion-appropriate polish…

Deborah Lippmann’s Ruby Red Slippers. Sigh. Doesn’t Deb just do the best glitters? What with Across the Universe and Happy Birthday, I don’t think you can go wrong with a Lippmann glitter. Breaks the bank though, so I only purchase on special occasions. What was it this time? A special Shoppers/Murale promotion where I got an additional $80 from spending my points! It’s like I got this baby for free :p

I have the same issues with this as I did with Across the Universe. The base black colour is super sheer (which is necessary in order to allow the red hexagonal and round glitters to really pop). But it’s an easy fix – just start off with a coat of black polish (I used OPI’s Black Onyx here), apply two coats of the glitter polish and it looks perfectly opaque. As with most glitters, this polish is a bit thicker than usual, but again, this is necessary to suspend the glitters within the liquid.

I love this, I really do. Not as much as Across the Universe, as this one is a bit one-dimensional in comparison. But for what it is, it’s pretty badass. I’m not much of a mushy Valentine’s Day celebrator – I avoid the cutesy pink nail polish on the day at all costs. This is a much sexier and exciting option, don’t you think? ;)

Easiest nail art ever: Playing with texture!

A couple of days ago, I felt like pulling out some black polish and going a bit goth. Goth wasn’t enough though, and I straight-up wanted to look badass. Enter: matte top coat!

The only one I own right now is by Joe Fresh (again, $4 a pop) and it’s decent. The matte effect is certainly effective, although you may need two coats to avoid streakiness. Longevity is another issue. After a day of wear, the tips of my nails inevitably brush against cloth, skin, what have you, and the matte finish polishes itself to a dull shine. It’s actually an interesting ombre effect, with the matte being strong near the cuticle, and fading into shininess at the nail tips. But I wasn’t having it that day.

I whipped out my top coat, ready to polish each nail back to glossy inky blackness. But I decided to try something different! Behold:

The easiest nail art ever. Seriously. And it looks so cool! Before the top coat polish globs flatten out and dry down, it looks almost like water droplets!  This is all you need:

• Nail polish of your choice – preferably a dark one, because I think the contrasting textures pop more than with light colours. I used OPI’s Black Onyx.
• A mattifying top coat (again, Joe Fresh)
• A regular shiny top coat – I would suggest a non-fast drying one. When you create the dots, fast drying top coats tend to dry faster (duh) when they come into contact with air. You can be left with weird blobs/indentations, or bits if stringy dried top coat. Not fun. I used Nails Inc. Kensington Caviar top coat, which is fast-drying and not ideal for this. Still looks okay though if you can work quickly enough.
• Something to make dots with. You could get a nail art dotting tool – you can choose one based on how big you want your dots to be. I ended up using the end of an old crappy concealer brush.

So simple. Just apply regular polish, apply the matte top coat, then dip your dotting tool into the shiny top coat and dot away! The effect is fun and edgy, but requires little effort. Give it a try sometime, and let me know how it goes!

Dior – Rock Coat

I cannot tell you how many bottles of nail polish I got for my birthday. I guess that’s just what happens when you have a lot of girlfriends who know you write a nail polish blog :p Thanks everyone!

Consequently, I have a lot of new material to blog about that I really should get around to. This is one of my more recent gifts (thanks Chu!).

Rock Coat over The One That Got Away

OPI The One That Got Away by itself

Dior Rock Coat (shown in the first image over OPI’s The One That Got Away, ) is a super sheer jelly gray-black that’s designed to be used over other colours as a top coat. It turns the existing colour into a smokey, vampier version of itself.

In theory, a really cool idea. I’m all for changing up my nail colour, especially if I’ve had the colour on for a few days and want to jazz it up without applying a new shade. However, you have be quite careful and strategic with Rock Coat. Getting the exact right amount of polish on the brush is important in order to achieve a streak-free finish. Even so, it’s sort of a hit-or-miss product – I HATE brushstrokes of any kind, so this kind of variability in application really irks me.

A lot of this has to do with the type of polish you choose to use underneath, though! I’ve had great luck with it over high-shimmer foil polishes such as OPI’s The One That Got Away (pictured). It turns the bright glittery polish into a more glowy, “dark on the edges, light in the centre” finish that I love so much. It’s pretty difficult to use over light pastel creme colours though – the streaks show up like crazy.

holycrapyouneedthis: Joe Fresh – Twilight

Joe Fresh, knocking it out of the park again. Starting with a close-up this time!

Ugh. Joe Fresh Twilight is a $4 polish, people. And it has flakies in it. Beautiful duochrome-tastic flakies. It has a sheer black jelly base (that, upon first coat, looks utterly crap), that builds to an opaque black in two coats. And suspended within it are the most hypnotic bits of misshapen glitter flakes (“flakies”) that flash blue, green, orange, and gold (the bottle photo below shows it particularly well).

Uggggggggghhhhh (just to be clear, all these guttural noises are meant to evoke feelings of desire and lust, and not of disgust).

I cannot contain my love for this polish. There was only one of these left on the racks at Superstore, and when I picked it up, I audibly said to myself: “Oh my freaking God”, and put it into my basket within two seconds of picking it up. I knew instantly I had to have it. I can even look past the fact that it shares a name with my least favourite teen vampire franchise.

I do realize this polish is better suited for the colder months—in fact, this would make a kick-ass Halloween manicure. But I don’t care that it’s May and was 16 degrees yesterday. I’m going to wear whatever awesome nail polish I want (keep in mind, this is coming from the girl who has been aching for the return of spring and summer for the past couple of posts now. What can I say? I just can’t commit to one season).