9 Days of Shimmer - Day 4, Alice & Flowers

9 Days of Shimmer - Day 4

I got so excited when I saw there was a polish called Alice (super sad, I know). I was even more excited when I saw how gorgeous it was- different sized silver holographic glitter with silver stars scattered in the mix! I've layered it over Color Club What a Drag and it was opaque in two coats. There's three coats of Poshe as well, as the stars were a bit bumpy. Application was very easy, the glitter dispersed really well and wasn't clumpy. I did have to fish for the stars quite a bit, and I wish they were a different colour as they're not obvious at all on the nail, they merge into the glitter.

I've never really been into stamping over glitter before, but my star stamp over Liana looked so lovely it's kick started a new obsession! The stamp is from the new Bundle Monster set (plate BM-323) and the white is Konad Special polish. I thought the white flowers looked like snowflakes and gave it a very winter-y vibe.

Phew, almost halfway through my epic glitter swatch-a-thon! Tomorrow I've got one of my favourites from Shimmer - Karina!

Alice

xXx

Visit Shimmer' website here
Visit Shimmer's Etsy store here

This polish was sent for review

9 Days of Shimmer - Day 2, Liana & Stars

9 Days of Shimmer - Day 2!

Today I'm sharing Liana, a dark blue glitter (which really reminds of me of denim!) There's so much going on here- the tiny iridescent glitters have a holographic quality to them that really makes this polish pop. There's gold, purple, blue, red- I find a new glitter every time I look at it. 

I used Calvin Klein Electric Blue as underwear, but the same as yesterday's polish, the glitter applies so opaque that you can't even see it. There's also two coats of Poshe to make it extra shiny. 

 

I thought that a bit of stamping would look amazing over the blue, so I used Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and the star plate CH5 from Cheeky. And WOW, I am so in love with the end result, the silver brings out the tiny shimmers really well.

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post....something very glitzy and gold!

Visit Shimmer' website here
Visit Shimmer's Etsy store here

This polish was sent for review

9 Days of Shimmer - Day 1, Jasmine & Mermaid Scales

9 Days of Shimmer - Day 1!

Greetings all!

I recently got my grubby little mitts on a selection of ridiculously beautiful indie polishes by Shimmer. Seeing as we all love a bit of indie eye candy, I thought I'd do a themed post selection and share each and every polish with you! They really are so gorgeous they deserve individual attention. Each post will have swatches, and a bit of nail art too cause I get itchy nails!

First up: Jasmine. Beware- this is a pic heavy post!

I actually squealed when I saw this polish. It's a clear glitter base with a mixture of tiny hexes of green, gold, red, dark blue and light blue mixed with even teenier iridescent colours scattered throughout. The artistry involved in this polish (and all the Shimmer polishes) has blown me away, there's so many facets! I layered it over OPI Catch Me In Your Net, but two coats applies so opaque that you can't even see the base coat. Two top coats of Poshe for a really shiny finish. Also, lovely application, which surprised me for such a thick polish.

You can see the different colours of glitter better in the slightly blurred picture below:

I instantly thought 'mermaid' when I saw this polish- which coincides perfectly with this week's Crumpet's Nail Tarts Mermaid themed challenge - so I thought I'd add a bit of a fish scale effect with Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and my Bundle Monster plate BM-209

Isn't it amazing?! I'm in love!

Tomorrow: Liana!

Visit Shimmer' website here
Visit Shimmer's Etsy store here

 This polish was sent for review

Nicky Minaj Wannabe

Ever have the craving for blingy, chavvy, tacky nails? Well that's exactly what I had last week! So out came China Glaze's Shocking Pink. For the leopard dots, I blobbed 2true in Silver in random circles and then used a dotting tool to outline them in black.

They're great for a night out, as the pink glows under UV light, so in a nightclub they look AMAZING.

These are my 'night on the town' nails- I feel like Nicky Minaj and Jessie J's love child with these babies on my claws. And with the three layers of China Glaze, the silver dots, and the black outlines, and two top coats of Seche Vite on, I thought they would peel quite quickly, but they've lasted SO well with no chips or tipwear. They do feel quite bumpy though, I can't stop from compulsively running my finger over them to feel the odd texture. That probably sounds really weird and a bit pervy, haha- don't judge me! 


Catch you laterz

xXx

Zig Zag Patchwork

So I've been thoroughly useless at updating my blog all week....and I've got about ten million manis to upload! Typical. I'll start with this weeks Polish-aholics Anonymous challenge- for those who don't know, there's an awesome facebook group for those of us with an, ahem, addiction to polish! Every week they do a new challenge (e.g. candy themed, or taping) and people upload their versions of it. This week is patchwork, and I thought I'd do something different using tape.

I used 2true as the silver base (it's a cheapy polish from Superdrug). I thought it would be really thin and crap as it only cost about £1.50m but I was pleasantly surprised with it's opacity! I'd already cut tape into a zig zag pattern and lined it up on my dressing table, so once I'd made sure that was secure on my nail I painted over it with Avon Vintage Blue. I put it on pretty thick, and it would have taken YONKS to dry if I didn't pop some Seche Vite over the top to speed it up. Then I got my next layer of tape, put that over the blue and painted Shocking Pink by China Glaze over  it.

A few helpful tips if you're layering tape manicures-

1) Make sure that you use one coat polishes, not ones that need several coats 

2) Whip the tape off your nail the minute the polish is down, otherwise it will drag the polish when it dries and ruin your clean lines

3) When taking off the tape, try and lift it upward off your nails simultaneously from either side, rather than peeling from one side.

4) Try to de-tack the tape before using it. Stick it on your hand a few times before going on your nail, as that way it won't leave an annoying sticky residue on your nail (which is impossible to get off!) 

5) Work out how many strips of tape you will need and cut them in advance- faffing about with scissors and a wet manicure is a recipe for smudges. Starting from scratch when you're on the last layer is never fun!

Hope you found my tips useful! Send me any links to favourite tape manis you've done, I'd love to see them.

Alice

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