Glitta Gloves

NCLA swatches: As If! and AM: Beauty Sleep, PM: Shopping Spree

2013-05-07T04:12:00.000-07:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Tuesday :) Hope you're all having a great start to your week!

I've just got a quick post today. One of my favourite shopping sites, Nail Polish Canada, recently started carrying NCLA polish, so here are swatches of two of the pretties from the spring collection!

This is my first experience with NCLA polishes. I wasn't sure what to expect. They retail for $16 - so definitely more of a luxury brand and unfortunately the price can be fairly prohibitive for some of us. That being said, the colours are really gorgeous and chic.

First up is As If!, a "timeless lavender creme." The NCLA website also says it's "pastel perfection" and I must agree. I'm such a sucker for colours like this, they're always so flattering and feminine. The formula was a bit thin and patchy, so this was three coats plus topcoat.

And the other pretty for today is AM: Beauty Sleep, PM: Shopping Spree, a "sophisticated, light mint pastel colour" that is "perfect for every season". MINT. Mint that doesn't give me major lobster hands! Happiness. Again, thin and patchy. Three coats plus topcoat.

You can get these from Nail Polish Canada. They retail for $16 CAD and you get free shipping on orders over $25!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

The products in this post were provided to me in exchange for an honest review. For more information, see my disclosure above.

Instagram rehash: recent manicures

2013-05-04T04:12:00.000-07:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Saturday! I know I've been gone for a while... I had some technology issues and was just feeling pretty uninspired. I'm starting to find my mojo again so I've been working on building up some swatches so I can start scheduling posts like I used to. It won't be every day (it still amazes me to think I used to do that) but probably three times a week. That's my goal, anyway.

So... yeah. Anyway, I've been a bit obsessed with double accent nail manicures recently. And mix and matches because I see them so much on Instagram and I love how they look! This is one I did a while ago but I really liked it. The pink is Zoya Lolly, the white is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (I use this polish so often haha). The glitter on my index fingernail is Whimsical Ideas by Pam Eloise (never saw that show but the circle glitter omg) and then I just stamped with a Bundlemonster plate. I failed really hard at doing a frame nail on my thumb so it's not visible except the side haha. Oh and black rhinestones near my cuticle for my pinky because black rhinestones.

Next is a pretty simple manicure. My love Jen sent me OPI The Man With the Golden Gun, so of course I had to try it! I decided to layer it over China Glaze Tart-y for the Party (such a cute name and colour). I love purple and gold together. Sadly, TMWTGG is a bit sparse, which I was expecting but still... boo! This is two coats with a lot of patient dabbing haha. I did love this manicure though! Tart-y for the Party had a great formula though, two easy coats for coverage.

I've been completely obsessed with mint polish for the past couple of months. It's an illness. I just need to hoard all of them. This was a pretty one - NCLA AM: Beauty Sleep, PM: Shopping Spree. Formula was a bit patchy and uneven - I did two thin coats and one thick one to even everything out.

Zoya Vespa. Unsurprisingly (given my love for all things glitter and my general preference of wearing them gritty), I'm loving the texture trend. The Zoya Pixie Dusts are fabulous. They're gritty without catching on everything (sorry OPI and China Glaze, you know I still love you) and I love how they sparkle. I've worn all the Pixie Dusts from the first set now and I'm desperately waiting for Nail Polish Canada to get the summer ones in because I need. I need all the textures, honestly. Except the pink OPI Bond girl that I refuse to say the name of because it grosses me out. Anyway, three coats.

All the texture pls. I love the China Glaze textures too. Jen said they look like ceiling and I totally agree and I dig that okay. The China Glaze textures seem closer to the Nails Inc leather effects/Milani textures in that they're cremes, rather than the gritty sort of glitter that Zoya/OPI are doing, but still. Hotness. I picked up two from the collection. Index and middle fingernails are In the Rough, ring and pinky fingernails are Of Coarse!. Of course I had to have the green and the blue. Two coats of each but these are quite opaque - I imagine someone more careful could get away with one.

And my most recent mix and match! Or should I say mix and matte? ;) Yeeeep I am that cheesy. Anyway, I loved this one. I wanted something dark but fun... even though it's spring... because I do what I want haha. I used lots for this one. Index to pinky: Zoya Dahlia, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls topped with Lac Attack Dementor's Kiss, Zoya Chyna and China Glaze Concrete Catwalk topped with Different Dimension Social Suicide. My thumb was just Concrete Catwalk on its own. Two coats of all of the bases, one of each of the glitters. I left the Zoyas to their own devices, of course, but I did topcoat my other nails.

And that's it! Hopefully I'll be back and starting the posting on Monday or Tuesday. We have a lot of stuff going on over the next couple of days but I aim to find time to sit down because finishing up this post has reminded me of why I always come back to blogging. :)

What do you lovelies think? What have you been wearing lately? Are you on board with the texture trend?

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

piCture pOlish spam!

2013-04-03T03:13:00.000-07:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy hump day :) I apologise for my absence once again... I've really lost my blogging mojo lately. My nails are still always polished and I'm still reading and lurking and stalking for new collections, but lately the dread of the amount of work it takes to edit photos is outweighing the joy I get from actually posting. I was feeling inspired last night so I decided to take advantage of it (swatchathon while listening to the Spice Girls... yeah baby) and swatch a bunch of my piCture pOlishes that I haven't shown you guys!

I know I've shown a few lately but I really love piCture pOlish. Such pretty colours and I absolutely adore the blogger collaboration shades - it's so cool to see what lacquerheads come up with! Not all of these are collaboration shades but I'll note which ones are. :)

WOW there's a fair amount of photos. Under the cut, as usual!

First up is Cosmos - "this one is totally out there!". I DIE. This is seriously one of my favourite polishes ever. I only got it somewhat recently (January, I believe) in an order from Harlow & Co. and I've worn it more times than I should (I always try to wear untrieds haha). It was created in collaboration with Camille of Pshiiit and it is stunning. I think it's the perfect starry sky polish. It's so deep and dimensional and *dreamy sigh*. The formula is lovely too. The first coat is light but the second coat deepens it up to perfection.

Next is Mad Magenta - "pink and crazy as can be!". This one was SO hard to photograph accurately. It's neon in person. Super bright and happy. My photo makes it look a bit more blue than it is in person too. Sorry guys, I really wish this one wasn't so tricky because it's beautiful! This is two coats.

Aphrodisiac - "this potion leaves a magic touch!". Another tricky one for my camera. It's much more obviously purple in real life - in my picture it looks almost black but it's not. It's definitely dark but it's still very obviously purple. Nice vampy shade. Two coats.

Atomic - "WARNING... totally explosive!". This was created with my sweet friend Sarah from Samarium's Swatches! Atomic looks gorgeous layered but for my swatch I wore two coats on its own. It's really hard to capture - I definitely recommend checking out Sarah's post for some layering combinations and to read her colour story!

Kryptonite - "super human nails for you!". This is another collaboration shade - this was made with Kathy of More Nail Polish. You guys know I'm a fiend for green so no surprise, I adore this one. The green is so lovely and rich and I live for the larger holographic particles featured in some of the shades in this post. You can see a lot more photos and read Kathy's colour story for Kryptonite here! This is two coats.

And last but not least is Demeter - "for all the down to earth goddesses!". This stunner was created with Katie of Harlow & Co. I live for brown polish. I do not get people who don't like brown polish. I think it's just lovely and chic in an interesting way. Demeter has the same large holographic particles as Kryptonite. They're lovely, they add some interest to the gorgeous brown base! This is two coats.

Phew! What do you lovelies think? Do you own any of these beauties? Are you lemming any?

You can get piCture pOlish from a variety of places, including the piCture pOlish website, Harlow & Co., Nail Polish Canada, Pshiiit Boutique, Llarowe... check out the piCture pOlish network to find an etailer for your country! You can also keep up with the piCture pOlish girls on Facebook and Twitter... they have an Instagram account now too!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Some of the polishes in this post (Mad Magenta, Atomic, Aphrodisiac) were provided to me in exchange for an honest review. The rest were purchased by me.

OPI chevron manicure

2013-03-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Monday :) I hope you all had a good weekend!

Just a quick post today - I'm partaking in a nail art challenge on instagram (if you want to partake, the tag is #nailartmar). One of the prompts was chevrons, so I did my first ever chevron manicure!

I used OPI Samoan Sand as the base... two coats since I wasn't worrying about vnl. I can't believe it took me so long to get this polish - I always held off on it because I thought it would be too brown for me, but it's actually quite flattering (I think anyway)... then I used OPI You're Such a Budapest for the tips.

The first photo is with topcoat (CND Air Dry) and the second photo is mattified (using Essie Matte About You). I loved this manicure but I loved it even more matte!

What do you lovelies think? Have you ever done chevron tips before? I think I need more practice with them... I really like the way they look (is it weird that I thought this manicure was unusually classy for me?) but it took me waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long to do them. I won't be trying again unless I've got a few hours haha!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

piCture pOlish Tiffany and Gene Doll

2013-03-17T23:30:00.000-07:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Sunday (almost Monday)! I'm sorry I didn't post for a bit - I had a... well. You know when you settle on doing something and it seems like a perfect idea but then you do it and regret it immediately afterwards? That was me last weekend. On Saturday I was removing my manicure and I noticed that I had a crack pretty far down on my index nail. At first I was going to just let it grow out, but then I remembered how that worked out for me the last couple times I decided to wait (torn or broken before said growing out actually occurred) so I decided to just bite the bullet and file it down.

Except for that thing where I actually am the worst type of person to have square nails in that it's hard for me to do anything in a straight line. So I was watching Saw (yeah) and not really paying attention... and ended up filing way more of my nail off than I intended. Then I was depressed about it because my nails have never been this short... and of course when I'm willing them to grow they don't seem to be growing at all. And yes, I know I'm exaggerating like woah here but that's just how I roll.

They're finally not so ugly that I'm embarrassed to show them, so I'm combining two piCture pOlish posts into one!

First up is Tiffany. I die for colours like this. I could have a million of them and it would never be enough. They're flattering, refreshing and I always feel happy when I look at them. Tiffany is more balanced than some of the other colours I own in this family (a lot are much more blue) so it's a welcome addition to my stash. These photos are from when I wore Tiffany as a full manicure, which is why my nail length is ~~better~~ different. Sadly, I had some issues with the formula. It was a bit patchy and streaky, so it took three coats to get it even. I don't mind three coats, but application did take a bit of skill and patience... I ended up doing two thinish coats and one thick one to even it all out. So three coats with topcoat.

Then I decided to layer Gene Doll over Tiffany because I thought it would be a cute combination. It was, I dig it. Gene Doll is two sizes of fuchsia glitter in a clear base. Perfect for jelly sandwiches! I layered one coat of Gene Doll over Tiffany plus topcoat.

What do you lovelies think? Aren't you so ready for spring?! I need some nice weather asap, we've been having some weirdness lately here.

You can get piCture pOlish from a variety of places, including the piCture pOlish website, Harlow & Co., Nail Polish Canada, Pshiiit Boutique, Llarowe... check out the piCture pOlish network to find an etailer for your country! You can also keep up with the piCture pOlish girls on Facebook and Twitter... they have an Instagram account now too!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

The polishes in this post were provided to me in exchange for an honest review. For more information, see my disclosure tab above.

Lac Attack Muggles (Harlow & Co. exclusive!)

2013-03-05T01:00:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Tuesday :) Just wanted to write a quick post and share a new polish with you guys!

As you may know already, Harlow & Co. is now carrying Lac Attack! So no worries, fellow international loves who were worried they wouldn't be able to buy LA (since Ana only ships within the US now) - Katie has us covered! They won't be carrying the entire LA line but there's room for expansion, I think. Currently Katie will be stocking the Magical Musings collection, with the addition of one polish exclusive to Harlow & Co., which is called Muggles. Which I'll be showing you today. Right now, in fact.

Muggles has silver, magenta, purple and aqua shards in a clear base. It's a really fun layering polish that even us magical folk can enjoy! I swatched it over a lot of colours but these were the two combinations I liked best.

Application on Muggles is good. Like most shard glitters, you do have to do a bit of dabbing and be careful, because the shards tend to want to group together at the edges of your nails, but I expected that, so it didn't bother me at all.

First up: three thin coats of OPI Did It On Em and two coats of Muggles. I chose Did It On Em because it's one of Anastasia's (non-Lac Attack?) favourite polishes and this combo reminded me so much of her that it made me smile every time I looked at it. I topped this off with CND Air Dry.

The second combination is much more basic. Two dabbed coats of Muggles over two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, topped with CND Air Dry.

What do you lovelies think?

Muggles is only available through Harlow & Co. The launch for Lac Attack on H&C is today (5th March) at 12 PM EST (9 AM for me, 5 PM for the UK, etc etc). The polishes will sell for $9 for full-sized bottles and you can click here to shop or prep yourself for shopping!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

piCture pOlish Coral Reef

2013-03-03T20:37:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Sunday! I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was nice, relaxing and we're going out for Chinese food tonight, yum!

Today I've just got a quick post for you on another piCture pOlish. I'll warn you now, it's really hard to photograph this one accurately! I tried adjusting the colour as best I could, it makes my skin look really weird and orange but it's closer to how it looks in person so I don't really mind. It's pinker in person, almost neon but it doesn't have the icky formula that some neons tend to have.

Coral Reef is a vibrant... well, coral. It's really nice, more pinky than orange. Formula-wise it was good, a bit thick but not unmanageable. I just used thinner coats and all was well. Coral isn't my favourite colour for myself (I'm so cool-toned that I always think it looks weird) but I definitely see myself rocking this as a pedicure in the near future, it makes me ready for sunshine and blue skies!

This is two coats, no topcoat. :)

I can't wait to rock this on my toes! What do you lovelies think?

You can get piCture pOlish from a variety of places, including the piCture pOlish website, Harlow & Co., Nail Polish Canada, Pshiiit Boutique, Llarowe... check out the piCture pOlish network to find an etailer for your country! You can also keep up with the piCture pOlish girls on Facebook and Twitter... they have an Instagram account now too!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

piCture pOlish Jade

2013-02-26T03:35:00.003-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy ~~Sunday~~ Tuesday? I scheduled this post for Sunday but I must have saved it as a draft by mistake... fail harder, Kirsten, seriously haha. No wonder none of the feeds went through... ummm anyway let's just get on with it, shall we?

Today I've got another lovely piCture pOlish to share with you. This is Jade, which is pretty much everything I've been wanting in a polish lately. Greenish, springy and no lobster hands. And that shimmer!

Formula-wise, Jade was what I expected. I don't mean that negatively, just that shades like this tend to require a bit more work. I anticipated needing at least three coats and that was what I ended up using. It was a tiny bit tricky to get to level out but nothing unmanageable, just a bit of patience and a steady hand and you'll be fine.

So, three coats plus topcoat (CND Air Dry). Sorry for the lack of a macro shot, I took a billion but none really showed the shimmer so it seemed a bit pointless to include one.

What do you guys think? I'm seriously ready for spring already, bye bye dark polishes! Once summer rolls around I'll pull my vampy pretties out again, being seasonally inappropriate is always cool. ;) Are there any colours you're craving lately? Do you own this beauty?

You can get piCture pOlish from a variety of places, including the piCture pOlish website, Harlow & Co., Nail Polish Canada, Pshiiit Boutique, Llarowe... check out the piCture pOlish network to find an etailer for your country! You can also keep up with the piCture pOlish girls on Facebook and Twitter... they have an Instagram account now too!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

piCture pOlish O'Hara

2013-02-17T01:08:00.002-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Sunday! I hope you all had a good weekend. My parents went out of town to go to a dog show and see my uncle... they're hopefully meeting with a bulldog breeder today! I'd love for them to get a bulldog... I've always wanted one but they're looking at brindle coat ones and I'd want mine to be white. We had a dog but had to put her down four years ago, this is the first time they've actually really considered getting any kind of pet since. A new dog definitely wouldn't be a replacement for our other dog (Stella) but we've got lots of love to give to an animal that needs a good home. So here's to hoping!

Today I've just got a quick post for you on a real stunner. I'm normally not too keen on red polish (which is always weird to people who know of my love for red lipsticks and wearing darker red clothing) but sometimes a red blows me out of the water and I can't help but fall in love with it.

Enter piCture pOlish O'Hara - "for the Scarlett in all of you!" Gorgeous sparkly cherry red crelly (jelly-creme hybrid). I am in love. With my nails all nubbiny (every time they grow a bit I file them down again haha) red looks pretty good on them... if it's not too horrifically vain of me to say that. Sorry! I couldn't stop staring at my nails when I wore it! The formula is nice too, really pigmented (so be careful around your cuticles - I tried but wasn't careful enough) and not as sheer as I was expecting based on knowing that it was a crelly.

This is two coats with topcoat (CND Air Dry).

Sexy, right? I love reds like this! Even though they make me look super ghostly haha. What do you lovelies think? Have you worn any hot reds lately?

You can get piCture pOlish from a variety of places, including the piCture pOlish website, Harlow & Co., Nail Polish Canada, Pshiiit Boutique, Llarowe... check out the piCture pOlish network to find an etailer for your country! You can also keep up with the piCture pOlish girls on Facebook and Twitter... they have an Instagram account now too!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

The product in this post was provided to me in exchange for an honest review. For more information, see my disclosure tab above.

Whimsical Ideas by Pam In the Whole Wide World

2013-02-14T03:33:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Valentine's day! Not the biggest fan of the holiday tbh, but I do tend to take it as another day to remind the people I care about of my love for them! Even though they should know it already hehe! I hope you're all having a good week so far!

Today I'm showing you what I'm actually wearing, which is a nice change. I got awesome nail mail yesterday from two of my favourite people, Anastasia and Jen. It was excellent, I'm lucky to have such wonderful friends. :) In my package from Jen was my first order of Whimsical Ideas by Pam polishes - after Jen posted swatches of the Valentine's day collection, I knew I couldn't resist ordering any longer. Sadly, Pam doesn't ship internationally, but Jen was lovely enough to let me send the order to her instead! I got six polishes that I'll hopefully be sharing in the next bit... they're seriously gorgeous!

So of course, I decided to wear In the Whole Wide World first. One, it's gorgeous, and two, I don't really do Valentine's day manicures (not my thing lol) and I really wasn't feeling wearing pink or red, so I figured I'd compromise by using a glitter that had hearts in it. That sort of counts, right? Jen is also helping me in my attempt to find the perfect minty polish, so I had to try one out... this is Zoya Neely. I'm actually quite keen on it, it still makes my hands look a bit lobster-y in photos but it's not noticeable at all in person, really! Yay!

Neely is super nice - I was expecting the formula to be a bit of a nightmare but it was great in two coats, self-levelling and ready to go. In the Whole Wide World gave me a bit of trouble but that's to be expected with shape glitters, I think. I just wanted more hearts! Also, in my photos it looks like there's black glitter in it... there isn't, it's pink/holographic glitter but for some reason my camera didn't see that. Sorry!

So, this is two coats of Neely with one and a half coats of In the Whole Wide World - I did the first coat by painting normally and went back and dabbed hearts wherever I wanted them haha.

This is Neely on its own. Again, not as lobster-y irl. Such a nice colour!

That's it from me today! What do you guys think? Do you own any Whimsicals yet? I want all of them now, honestly. I can't wait to wear them!

You can find out more ordering information by visiting Pam's Facebook page. The polishes are $10 each and you have to email her to place your order. As I mentioned above, as of right now Pam ships within the US only.

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Video: recent haul

2013-02-11T01:37:00.001-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Just a post to let you know that I posted another video... this one is just a haul from recently.

Thanks for watching! Have a beautiful day!

Entry for the Harlow and Co Valentine's Day contest!

2013-02-09T03:30:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Saturday! I hope your weekend is going well thus far. :) I'm still in Vancouver, so this is another scheduled post, but let's go ahead and assume that I'm having a great time!

I've got a quick post for you today - Katie of Harlow & Co. was recently accepting entries for a Valentine's Day nail art contest and I decided to enter. I KNOW. It's my first contest! There are some really gorgeous manicures - you can vote for your favourite here!

I decided to keep my entry pretty simple - I started out with two coats of piCture pOlish Monroe (so. effing. beautiful. I die) on all my nails except my ring fingernail, which got two coats of Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream. Then I stamped using Konad M59 and Nicole by OPI Positive Energy, which is my favourite silver to stamp with. On my accent nail I added one silver rhinestone and one red rhinestone near my cuticle. That's it!

That's it! What do you lovelies think? If you want to vote for any entry, here's the link again - and thank you if you decide to vote for my manicure!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

China Glaze Mosaic Madness

2013-02-07T01:42:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! HAPPY BIRTHDAY NERA! Imagine me singing this song to you okay? Okay good appreciate it this year!!! Happy Thursday! Another TVD day and today is my 23rd birthday... I feel like an old lady! I don't have my birthday manicure to share with you guys, since I'm still in Vancouver, but I'll definitely share it on Instagram today and hopefully next week on here! This is another scheduled post... fun fact: I scheduled this one for the exact time I was born - 1:42 AM. My mom must have really hated my twinny and I! Side note - my twin (Erin) is never amused when I quote Birthday (the Beatles) to her but it's too perfect... "they say it's your birthday, it's my birthday too"? It's written for twins!

This is the manicure I wore a couple of days ago when I had to test for my full drivers licence. We have a graduated system here, you start out with an L (learners), then you have an N (new driver) for... two years when I got mine, I think. Since I didn't drive while I lived away from school, testing for my full licence took me a while lol... I tested only two days before my licence expired! But I passed, yay! Despite kind of botching a parallel park... ;)

I wanted something cheery on my nails and I've been OBSESSED with yellow lately. I don't know why. I guess it's another one of my colour phases. Yellow and a mint that doesn't lobster me, pls. Still searching! Working on tracking down Orly Jealous, Much? and hoping that it will work on me!

Anyway, this is China Glaze Lemon Fizz (love this polish and I never have issues with the formula - two coats and I'm good!) as a base, then one coat of Mosaic Madness over top. This combination makes me so happy!

That's it for my picks from the Glitz collection (I hate the full name of it lol). Did you guys scoop any up? If they released these without the bars I'd need them all but for now I'm content with the ones I've got!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

piCture pOlish Orbit

2013-02-06T03:33:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Wednesday! I hope your week has gotten off to a good start. I'm a happy bunny - I'm seeing Muse tonight and my birthday is tomorrow! I'll be in Vancouver for the next few days but I scheduled this post and one (or two, since I haven't finished writing them yet lol) ahead of time. I meant to post a giveaway too but I haven't gotten a confirmation email from rafflecopter as of writing this... fail?

Anyway, I've got a gorgeous piCture pOlish to share with you today. This is Orbit - "the perfect travel partner!" I seriously love the little sayings that the girls put on each shade, they always make me smile. Orbit is a silvery glitter in a navy base. The navy base is perfect - blue enough that you definitely know it's blue but not so opaque that it hides the glitter. It's seriously a stunner, I couldn't stop staring at it! Formula-wise, it was a tiny bit thick, but I think I'll thin it a bit next time and it'll be perfect. It wasn't super gritty, I just used two coats of CND Air Dry and was good to go!

This is two coats of Orbit, topped with two coats of Air Dry.

*Sighs* Isn't it so beautiful? I can't wait to wear it again!

What do you lovelies think? Would you rock this beauty? Do you own it?

You can get piCture pOlish from a variety of places, including the piCture pOlish website, Harlow & Co., Nail Polish Canada, Pshiiit Boutique, Llarowe... check out the piCture pOlish network to find an etailer for your country! You can also keep up with the piCture pOlish girls on Facebook and Twitter... they have an Instagram account now too!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

The product in this post was provided to me in exchange for an honest review. For more information, see my disclosure tab above.

China Glaze Graffiti Glitter

2013-01-31T04:45:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Thursday! I hope you're all having a good week. It's another TVD day. I may die of the anxiety. And of course my birthday is on a Thursday this year! I turn 23 on February 7th... craziness. I feel old!

Anyway, I've just got a quick post for you today of a new beauty that you may consider picking up. When Jen posted the China Glaze Glitz Bitz 'n Pieces collection I was amazed that I actually wanted them, since they contain bar glitter. I'm not a bar glitter person AT ALL, but when I wandered across them in person about a week ago, I immediately texted Jen and asked her which ones I needed. She, of course, replied right away with the two that I was already holding! Brain twins, no? It was kinda creepy, I laughed like a nutter and the girl in the store was staring at me like I was dangerous.

Anyway, so I picked up two from this collection (so far?). This is the first one I have to share with you, Graffiti Glitter, which is gorgeous emerald green glitter mixed in with the black hexes and bars. I tried to channel Jen, since she layered hers over a super pale green (Zoya Neely), but since I don't own Neely yet, I picked a green that wouldn't give me mad lobster hands, Orly Gumdrop. I always remember Gumdrop as being much mintier than it really is, but I digress.

Application on Graffiti Glitter was okay. It was a bit thick, but I'll probably thin it before I wear it the next time. I also noticed that the bars tended to build up a bit on the brush. I always paint my thumbnails first, then go from pinky to index, so you can tell that my index fingernail ended up getting a lot more bars than the nails I did first. Kinda interesting.

While I'm thinking about it, can any of you recommend a minty green that won't give me lobster hands? What are your favourite minty green polishes?

Two coats of Gumdrop, one of Graffiti Glitter and CND Air Dry.

That's it, short and sweet. What do you guys think? Are you eyeballing any of these? Like I said, I'm surprised at how much I like them... I'd still prefer these exact glitters minus the bars though, I think!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Mixed finish double accent nails

2013-01-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Thursday! It's TVD day. I feel like I never post on Thursdays but that's probably because I'm usually pretty much dying in anticipation of what will happen tonight. Do any of you guys watch the Vampire Diaries?

Today I've just got a quick post - I shared this yesterday on my Instagram (glittagloves) and you guys seemed to like it, so I figured I'd do a post on it too! I know I said in my last post that I'd have a stash video up next, but I'm facing some logistical errors (translate: I'm an idiot and making videos is hard) so yeah. I'm working on it. I have a lot of my less classy moments to edit out... I ended up whisper singing a lot so it got creepy pretty fast.

ANYWAY, I've been seeing a lot of double accent nail manicures lately (instead of just one accent nail - like your thumb or ring fingernail, you do two, usually side by side) and I'm loving them so hard. My love Whitney of Dressed Up Nails (it legit took me twenty minutes to write that sentence because I went to her blog and got distracted by her freaking flawless ~~shit~~ I mean posts ~~because I'm professional~~) posted a couple of accent nail manicures recently on her Instagram, and a couple of them were with less traditional accent nails (her index for one, I believe!) so I was inspired by that. I was also inspired by the nail art she does, and how her designs always flow really well together without necessarily being the same - like these, for example. Can you tell I love her blog? I also love her nail length... literal perfection imo, I'm loving shorties so much right now.

So, I started out with OPI Ink (suede) on my index and middle fingernails. I decided to use one of the Nicole by OPI Selena Gomez (it pains me to own these) glitters that I picked up on my ring and pinky fingernails. The glitter was Sweet Dreams. I tried layering it to opacity on my thumb but it wasn't quite the coverage I was hoping for, so I chose to layer it over OPI Funky Dunkey. I didn't want the base colour of FD to show through too much because I realised after that I didn't do the best job of colour-matching the small glitter lol.

I loved the mix of the matte with the shiny sparkly glitter... I always adore matte nails and I didn't get the nickname Glitta Gloves for my love of cremes, so it was right up my alley! Two coats of Ink, no topcoat, one coat of Funky Dunkey and three of Sweet Dreams with Seche Vite.

Wow my nails are super nubby right now haha! Anyway, what do you guys think? Have you been mixing finishes lately? Playing with accent nails?

Hopefully I'll have my stash video up soon... and I got an awesome order from Harlow & Co. today, so I'll be posting those beauties soon too! I'm determined to get back onto the blogging train... I miss writing to you guys and deluding myself into thinking that people care about my ramblings!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Skittle manicure with China Glaze Def Defying

2013-01-20T03:01:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Sunday! I hope you're all having a good weekend :) I'm hopefully going to have a video up later on today but I figured I'd post this quickly since I've got the pictures edited.

So, you guys read Marta's blog, right? Of course you do. I love her blog - her manicures are always inspiring and chic. Much classier than what I could ever pull off but Marta does it beautifully! Some of my favourite manicures that she shares are her skittle manis - like this one she posted recently, which is amazing, or these two... I love how she mixes it up and does different designs on all (or most) of her nails but it doesn't look childish! I feel like it always looks childish on me but it's probably my colour choices.

Anyway, this is my first attempt at a proper skittle manicure. I used China Glaze Def Defying and American Apparel Hassid. Started out by painting all of my nails but my thumb and ring fingernail with Def Defying, used Hassid on my thumb and ring fingernail. Decided to mattify it (you guys know how much I love black matte nails, right?), then decided to add polka dots. Pinky and thumbnail left on their own, then added LA Girl Glitter Addict in Uninhibited on my index. This was so fun!

So there it is, just a quick post. What do you guys think? Have you done any skittle manicures before? How do you like to mix them up?

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Illamasqua Raindrops

2013-01-16T02:30:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy hump day :) I feel like I haven't done a pink Wednesday post in ages... I should work on that. I should work on posting, actually. I haven't been feeling that inspired lately... we're going through some rough family stuff at the moment so I feel like I'm kind of a permadowner at the moment. I'll work on that, promise.

I decided to post this polish because I got an email a couple of days ago reminding me of its return... Illamasqua's infamously beautiful Raindrops. That is indeed a direct link to buy the polish, if you decide you'd like to. Spoiler alert for what the rest of this post will contain: you need it.

They also have an awesome sale on at the moment on some gorgeous polishes... I placed an order because it appears that they're getting rid of Scorn, Baptise, Load (how could you not want that polish just for the disgusting accuracy of the name.... is it just me) and Sangers lipstick... those of you who follow me on twitter or instagram know how much I love red lipstick! So yeah. Those are a few of the things I scooped up haha. Can't wait to get my order!

Anyway, Raindrops. It's beautiful. It's one of my favourite polishes of all time. I usually wear it layered (because up until recently I didn't think I'd ever be able to get it again!) but in honour of its return, I decided to show it to you guys on its own. It looks lovely layered over light greys, purples or blues though. Raindrops is sheer. It's right in the description on the Illamasqua website and they aren't lying. I've only ever worn it on its own twice... once when I first got it (I think about a year and a half ago, just before they got rid of it), when I kept my nails much longer, and it took me four coats on some nails but from what I remember, I needed five on most. Keep in mind that I tend to use thin(ner) coats, so that does factor in. Now that I keep my nails much shorter, I was good with three coats.

This is three coats of Raindrops, plus topcoat (Essie Good to Go).

Illamasqua polishes are available from the Illamasqua website. Here's a direct link to Raindrops again. On the Illa website, the polishes are £13.50, which is $21.67 USD, or $21.34 CAD, apparently. You can also get Illamasqua polishes from the Sephora website, but I don't see it in the section for Illamasqua polishes. They're $14 USD ($16 CAD) so hopefully they'll be getting the new collection soon!

Ahhhh isn't it so pretty? What do you guys think? If you hadn't owned it before, will you be scooping it up now that it's back?

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Favourites of 2012: Indies!

2013-01-02T01:26:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Wednesday! I'm sorry this post is a bit late. I didn't have proper swatches for all of them (like I've mentioned previously, I'm lazy/always post mani photos on instagram but they're not the same quality as what I prefer to put on here since they're just phone pictures) and yesterday was a bit of a write-off for me haha. I hope you all had a safe and happy new year!

So, let's jump in. Before we start, I just wanted to mention that there are a couple of brands that I included in this list that aren't what I would consider "indie" - not handmade/foreign etc. The reason I grouped them all together was really for convenience and to avoid going crazy trying to categorise everything properly haha. So this list would more properly be titled "indies/foreign/not widely available/only available for purchase online/not available in traditional stores". Or something like that. Anyway, enough talk, more photos?

Lac Attack Dementor's Kiss

Layered over China Glaze Concrete Catwalk

I'm sure nobody is surprised that I put this on here. I know I'm biased since I helped Ana make the collection but you'll forgive me, right? I love this so hard. You guys know how I feel about black glitter. Obviously I go mental for it since I'm pretty sure it's the only glitter colour that has its own tag on here haha. Anyway, I love how this turned out. The black really pops with the red mixed in and it's easy to work with and just plain awesome. This was two coats.

a-england Dragon

Adina seriously blew us all out of the water with her collection of holos, the Legend. I'm still not over how beautiful they are. This was one of my favourites but I kept missing out on the chance to buy it (it was popular!) but finally managed to score it on Ninja Polish. It's such a rich green, adding the holo and the gold that runs through it is just icing on the cake. Also, Dragon? Seriously. It was made for me. Two easy coats.

Dollish Polish We're Simply Meant to Be

Over Sally Hansen Ion

This might be a party foul. I'm not sure. Is it a party foul for me to include polishes that aren't available anymore? If so, I'm sorry. When I heard that DP was releasing a collection themed around one of my favourite movies ever, the Nightmare Before Christmas, I knew I was going to have to try every day to get them. They were only available for about two weeks leading up to Halloween, which is really sad, because they were fantastic. This is my favourite of the ones I snagged - I love to look at it. It's so interesting - I love the smaller aqua and pale purple glitters mixed in with those large yellow and purple hexes. And obviously I love square glitter so if you make it black square glitter... I'm all up on that. This was two coats.

Lac Attack Jewel of the Nile

Over OPI So Many Clowns, So Little Time

God. I feel like this polish started so much this year! I was crazy about it but never lucky enough to catch it when it was in stock. I tweeted about it (because I have a serious twitter problem) and Ana replied right away... and the rest is history. I didn't know then that we would end up becoming friends (I didn't know she was my spirit animal then) - I just knew that she was talented, made pretty polishes and seemed nice. It's crazy how it started with Jewel of the Nile and ended up with us collaborating on a collection with a common passion as the theme... I feel so lucky to have "met" Ana! Jewel of the Nile is special to me for sentimental reasons, but also because I just think it's beautiful. I love the combination of glitters and it's matte glitter and I'm all about matte glitter.

Shimmer Polish Mary

Over OPI Danke-Shiny Red

I completely blame Salla for getting me to pay attention to Shimmer Polish. She was posting such beautiful swatches and I knew that I wouldn't be able to resist. This is such a lovely glitter. I love the combination of colours and that black glitter is to die for. I DIE. I feel like black glitter is a common theme already on my list. I'm such a sucker. I love the complexity of Shimmer glitters, and it was surprising to me that Mary was my favourite, since I'm not usually keen on red... but Mary is too beautiful to ignore!

KBShimmer Oh Splat!

No surprise here, right? I love polishes that look like candy, as I mentioned in my mainstream favourites post, and Oh Splat! just looks like happiness to me. I was so happy when Katie of Harlow & Co. started stocking KB, since they don't ship internationally directly from their store. I got a bottle of Oh Splat! for myself and one for a future giveaway... did you know that this polish was so popular that Katie did a restock of JUST Oh Splat! this year? Yeah. Craziness! This was three coats. Two is good for most people, apparently. but I can't seem to get rid of bald spots with two.

Different Dimension Social Suicide

Over China Glaze Concrete Catwalk

Black and white glitters rule my heart. I just love how versatile they are, you can use them to spice up any manicure and it will look awesome! I really loved Different Dimension's take on it for a lot of reasons - one, it's super easy to apply and the coverage is nice. But also Mean Girls reference. +10000000000000. I can't tell you how often I reached for this polish this year. I was just thinking about layering it over my current manicure haha. Obsessed.

Dollish Polish Toxic Avenger

Here's another one that's not available anymore... I'm sorry. It's strange that I picked two LE/discontinued Dollish Polishes for my list... I'm a bit of a jerk aren't I? Anyway, holographic and multichrome? SOLD. I only have a mini of this thanks to my amazing friend Jen, so I used it sparingly this year, but the first time I wore Toxic Avenger I kept the manicure on for over a week... I loved it that much. Two coats.

Girly Bits Mother May I?

I loved Girly Bits this year. If I had to pick just a couple of indie brands that we were all watching this year, Girly Bits would definitely be on there. It doesn't hurt that Pam is a total sweetheart! Mother May I was a standout for me. I love the combination of the iridescent shimmer and the different sizes of glitter. Also square glitter. I am shameless about square glitter. I definitely got a lot of wear out of this one! Three coats.

Jade Vermelho Surreal

I wouldn't classify Jade as an indie brand, as they aren't handmade, but they are foreign so they ended up on this list. I can't wait to reswatch this with some proper sunlight though - I had to make do with what I have! I'm eternally on the quest for the perfect red holo and this one is definitely pretty damn close. It's really pigmented and lovely and vibrant - obviously red (a lot of red holos come out looking more pink on the nail), almost squishy looking and WAY more holographic than my photo is making it seem. Lovely. Two coats.

a-england Princess Tears

Sensing a theme here? I'm such a sucker for holos haha. I love Princess Tears so much, it's a lovely colour and it has gorgeous shimmer that runs through it as well. It was like a classy lady colour with something extra when I was in the sun. Do you guys classify polish colours? I always like to wear classy shades even though I don't think that I'm classy at all haha. Anyway... I can't wait to see what Adina does in 2013! Two coats.

Lac Attack Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Over OPI Yoga-ta Get this Blue

You didn't think I would only have one polish from the Magical Musings collection on here, did you? Nooooooooope. If you had asked me last year if I thought a polish with bar glitter would be on my favourites list for ANYTHING, let alone favourites from the year, I would've laughed in your face. Yet here we are.... I love this glitter so hard. The bars feel perfect given who it was made for (Fred and George) and I love how the orange and yellow really pop over a dark blue. I'd love to see this over a dark red too... *makes note* This was two coats.

So, what do you guys think? What were some of your favourite indies of the year? Who will you be keeping an eye on? Are there any brands you want to try? I'm so excited to see what indie makers come up with in 2013, I feel like we got so many unique beauties from them in 2012. I'd like to see more black glitter please.... and more khaki green glitter!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Favourites of 2012: mainstream brands

2012-12-30T00:01:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Sunday! I know I don't usually schedule posts for Sundays (~~or ever lately, let's be real here~~) but I wanted to get my favourites lists up before the official new year.

It's weird, I've been blogging for two years but I've never actually done a favourites list. It was actually really difficult! I decided to have a top 12 for mainstream brands and indie brands because 1+2=3, three is my favourite number and I just like the sound of it. So... yeah.

This year was definitely the year of the indies, imo, but that doesn't mean the brands we all know and love were releasing garbage haha. A lot of really gorgeous collections came out this year, but I think my two favourites from mainstream brands this year were the fall OPI Germany collection and the China Glaze summer neons. The Germany collection really had something for everyone and I think it was a great reminder of why OPI has become such a successful brand - they're excellent at what they do, but I definitely have a bias for what types of polishes I think they do best, as you'll see from my selections ;)

The summer neons were just mental haha. I think part of the reason I love the collection so much is because it just captures everything I love about China Glaze - I think (for the most part) they're excellent at coming out with collections that are quirky enough to keep people like us interested (you know, people who own hundreds of nail polishes) but still have polishes mixed in that the average citizen would wear. I loved the shimmer that the neons had in them and the gorgeous semi-matte finish they dried to. I used all of them a lot this year!

So... keep reading to find out what made my list! :)

butterLONDON Two Fingered Salute

I'm sure that pick surprised exactly nobody haha. Everyone went mental for this polish this year and it's not hard to see why - it's gorgeous. Sage green base with little copper flecks and a bit of a pink flash? Sold! It's got a really nice formula too - two coats and it's perfect.

China Glaze Aquadelic

Switching gears entirely, here's the first of the cremes on my list haha. I remember when I first got into polish... I really wasn't into cremes at all. I feel like this is the year that I finally learned to appreciate them properly. Aquadelic was one of my most reached-for polishes. It's got a wonderful formula (good in one coat but I used two for the photo) and the colour is just so fresh and clean-looking.

Essie Bikini So Teeny

In the bottle Bikini So Teeny looks all shimmery and awesome but it doesn't really translate to the nail. Let's get that out of the way first. That being said, I LOVE THIS COLOUR. It looks oddly... classy (can blueish polishes be classy?) to me and it just makes me feel calm haha. It's a bit patchy so I used two coats but probably would've used three if I was going to wear it as a manicure. I see a bit of an uneven patch on my ring finger that would drive me mental.

Nails Inc Sweets Way

If the Sprinkles collection can count as a proper collection (since it only has four polishes?) then I'd like to add it to my list of favourite collections of the year as well. I love them all. Dear nail polish companies: a friendly tip. Things we love: nail polish and candy and also nail polish that looks like candy. More pls. It was hard to choose a favourite but I had to go with Sweets Way - it's just so cute! This was three coats and topcoat. It's a bit sheer (since the base is so light) but easy to work with and the glitter payoff is quite nice, no worries about needing to place it at all.

OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby?

This is the first of the polishes from the Germany collection on the list, isn't it? Well. I would hate to spoil things for you but there might be one or two more coming up. Maybe. Remember that time I posted like an orange polish a week for an entire summer? I'm still not over orange. I loved DYWMB (the name makes me want to curl up and die though) so much. It made me think of fall and sweaters and pumpkins and lattes and scarves and boots and spices. I love fall. This polish seriously glows. I think the Germany collection showcased how well OPI does shimmery polishes, I seriously still can't get over how gorgeous these are. This was glowy and lovely in one coat but two coats deepened it up and made it perfection, imo!

China Glaze Running in Circles

I legit just posted this polish but whatever, I still can't get over it. Even looking at the photo as I'm typing right now makes me want to die. HOW ARE YOU SO PERFECT, RUNNING IN CIRCLES. It's not even fair to the other polishes. This is everything I like in a polish. Glowy, green, shimmery, green, flawless, green and also perfect. Two coats and it was good to go. I want to wear it again now!

Nails Inc Baker Street

If you exist, like nail polish and haven't at least heard of this polish, you're crazy. It's insane. It's the best blue I own. It's so attention-grabbing and beautiful. Given that I rarely wear colours (even when I do they're on the darker side, like deep purples or reds), this polish is a perfect accessory for me - a way to add colour without having to wear coloured clothing. I can't be the only one who feels like a neon sign in coloured clothing most of the time. Two coats of utter perfection. You seriously need this.

OPI Danke-Shiny Red

Yes.... a red. Are you surprised? I was too. I got this polish on a whim one day while I was out shopping with my sister... left it untried for a couple of weeks, then decided to test it out as a base for layering and ended up loving it so much that I just wore it on its own for two days, then mattified it and wore it for another day. Three days is pretty much a lifetime for me to wear one manicure haha. Seriously though, this red is perfect. It's rich and glowy and perfect. Again, one coat would be just fine if you were in a hurry, but two gives it the perfect depth. Nghhhhhh

China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard

I have to start out by saying that this is NOT colour-accurate. Neons are really difficult to photograph and I'm shit at colour-editing, so imagine this but eye-searingly bright. I used this polish a ton this summer, like in my neon watermelon manicure (which somehow photographed better then than it did in my lightbox now, the photos in that post are closer to how it looks irl). Anyway, it's lovely. It's green and it has that shimmer to it and the interesting semi-matte finish. I love neons because I'm a tacky bish but this one is something special to me.

Sephora by OPI XOX Betsey

This was one of the first nudes I got this year and it's been an obsession for months since haha. I'm on the hunt for the perfect nude polish, the perfect nude lipstick... this isn't a perfect nude for me but it's a lovely palette cleanser that I reached for often. It's very similar to OPI My Very First Knockwurst, but Knockwurst is a bit dustier. For some reason it looks a bit granny-ish on me but I don't think this one does, so that's why I chose it. :) Two coats and it's good to go.

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

Sorry for the angry hands here, I've been swatching like a fiend to try and get my lists done and the combination of winter and acetone has not been kind. Anyway, I doubt it's surprising that I put thsi on my list, it was a go-to palette cleanser for me this year and I used it a ton for layering. I know some of you might be thinking "it's just a white creme" but IT ISN'T. It has a touch of grey in it that makes it much more wearable than a white, which always looks stark and frankly alarming on me haha. Two coats.

OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest

Here's a little story. When the Germany collection first came out, I grabbed my initial picks and this was not one of them. Then my dear friend Liz were texting one day discussing polish (as per usual, really haha) and she told me that she couldn't find this polish ANYWHERE. It was sold out everywhere she went and she really wanted it. I, of course, being the hoarder that I am, decided that I would need to obtain a bottle for her and one for myself immediately. At first I didn't get the appeal, I wore it once and wasn't blown away. I think my nails were in a particularly fug phase at the time so that's probably why I didn't like it. Then I wore it again and I was in LOVE. These vampy shimmers remind me of why I love OPI so much, it reminds me of older polishes like Yoga-ta Get this Blue! and others that are just staples in any collection, imo. The shimmer reminds me a bit of 230 when it's layered over a dark purple - it's just missing the green flash. It really is a beautiful polish. I'm glad I saw the light! Two coats.

So, there's my list! There are so many other polishes that I would've put on here if I could have... but quickly, let's pretend there's an honourable mention spot to my list too. It would have Essie Boxer Shorts, Essie Leading Lady, Essie Butler Please... which seems like a lot of Essie. Let me explain. I really loved Essie this year, there was at least one polish in every collection that I wanted/ended up getting (which isn't that common for me with Essie, tbh) but when I decided I wanted to make my list 12 polishes long, I had to start making the painful cuts haha. That's why China Glaze It's a Trap-eze isn't on here either! I had a couple of Color Clubs and Misas on my original list too, and it pained me to cut them out but I was set on 12 haha.

What about you lovelies? What were some of your favourite polishes from mainstream brands this year?

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

China Glaze Stroll

2012-12-27T01:12:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Friday! I hope those of you who celebrate had a wonderful Christmas and hopefully aren't still feeling the effects of the subsequent food hangover. ;) I know I said I would be posting a second part to my holiday manicures but I just didn't get the chance to do proper swatches. I'm sorry! But I decided to actually post the manicure I'm currently wearing (as I type this!). It's not often that I can make my lazy self blog right away on a colour that I'm really liking (this is far from the first colour that I've wanted to blog instantly, it's just one of the first I've made myself do haha) but this polish is too gorgeous to not share. Plus, it's been a while since I posted an older polish that I'm loving at the moment, so here we are!

I went polish shopping day (not quite boxing day but I work in retail so of course I worked boxing day hehe) and ended up finding some super awesome deals. I posted the haul on my instagram (@glittagloves) and this is one of the polishes from it. I went into a Chatters (which, for those non-Canadians reading, is just a salon) that I've never been to before (but that my mom told me had some nice gems hidden in their core polish racks) and found some cool stuff. I grabbed this one first and knew I needed it. China Glaze Midtown Magic is one of my favourite dark colours ever (have you met how sexy it is, seriously) and this immediately reminded me of a red version of it!

This is China Glaze Stroll. This came out in 2009, so sadly, it still has that weird formula from when companies were trying to figure out wtf they were doing with the B3F stuff (thankfully, we've moved past that!). For those of you unsure of what I mean, let me explain. For some reason, the polishes released after that initial shift are pretty hit and miss. I feel like for the most part polishes are more consistent now, but most of the polishes I've got from around that time are thin. A bit watery and definitely likely to flood your cuticles, so a steady hand and patience during clean up is a must.

That being said, it's totally worth it. So here it is. Three coats plus topcoat. I'm so in love with this polish. I don't know how I got along without it before it waltzed into my life.

So... yeah. This polish is flawless and I think everyone needs it. I'm going back to staring at my nails now!

What do you guys think? Do you own Stroll? Do you like vampy colours with flecks like this? Are you getting tired of the darker polishes of the winter season? I'm excited for spring pastels... they always make me look like a corpse but I love wearing them.

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Christmas manicures, part one! China Glaze Running in Circles and Pure Joy

2012-12-24T10:57:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy ~~Saturday~~ errrrr Monday, rather! Apparently I am a failure with days of the week haha. Christmas is coming up fast so I'm forcing myself to snap out of my rut and post some of the photos that I have on my camera... if I don't post them they're just sitting there taking up space, right? Right. Exactly.

So today I've got two of my favourite polishes to have come out for this holiday season. Both are China Glaze - I feel like ChG always has really beautiful holiday collections. Of course, I always think there are too many red cremes but that's just my opinion haha. More glitter please!

First up is Running in Circles. You'll be seeing this one on a certain list I'm working on! I can't even with this polish, it's seriously perfect. Even if you aren't really a fan of green polish (if such people exist), you'll love this one. The depth and complexity of it make it a real winner in my book! This is two coats.

Next up is Pure Joy, a red and gold glitter in a clear base. It's not the most unique thing ever but this is the red and gold one I have and I quite like it. The glitter payoff is excellent and I love that the glitters aren't the same size - the red is smaller and more dense and the gold is the accent, not the main feature haha. I layered one coat of Pure Joy over one coat of OPI Danke-Shiny Red. And yes, I did topcoat this one - a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche kept it smooth and glassy.

I have two (possibly three) more of my festive manicures to share with you tomorrow and then I'll (hopefully) be starting in on my favourites of 2012! I can't believe that it's been two years since I started blogging... crazy. Hopefully 2013 will be more consistent with me being here, because I really do love doing this and I always miss writing to you guys and talking about pretty things when I disappear.

So, what do you lovelies think? What are you going to be rocking on your nails for Christmas? DO YOU OWN RUNNING IN CIRCLES YET???

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Lac Attack Mayan Goodbyin'

2012-12-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Friday! Hope you all had a great week and have a great weekend with your loved ones ahead - can you believe it's almost Christmas? I must say that I can't wait for Christmas to be over - holidays in retail are no fun haha.

Today I've got a pretty polish to share, created by one of my cheekiest (and loveliest) friends, Anastasia of Lac Attack. She decided to mark the supposed end of the world (which is supposed to be today, yet we're all here, no?) by making a beautiful LE polish. Who knew the end of the world would be so autumnal? I love this colour combination so much. True to form (our Skype dates have taught me that she's kind of a troll - not that I didn't suspect it before, of course), it's called Mayan Goodbyin'.

I decided to show MG over white so you guys could see the different colours in it - this is two coats of Mayan Goodbyin' over two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

Today is the last day you can get this beauty - December 21! Anastasia is restocking the shop today at 4 PM EST and Mayan Goodbyin' will be included, as well as the Magical Musings collection :) Prices will be the same as always - $8 for a full-sized bottle and $4.25 for a mini.

What do you lovelies think? Will you be scooping anything up during Ana's sale today? <3

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

OPI Visions of Sugarplum

2012-12-10T01:57:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Monday! I can't believe we're getting close to being halfway through December... time flies! I'm sorry for my prolonged absence (again)... work has been crazy (I really hate working retail during Christmas) and on my days off I've been awful and unproductive and lazy. I do have a ton of stuff I want to share, though, so I'm going to try to get my butt in gear! I'm going to try leaving my lightbox all assembled as inspiration to take photos... not sure what I'll do for inspiring myself to edit but I'll work on it.

Today I've got a post that I brought up during my Essie Butler Please post... the bottle shot at the end was the gorgeous OPI Visions of Sugarplum. This is a beauty, it was an Ulta exclusive in 2009, I believe? Since then it's become HTF but I just checked on ebay and it's not a fortune... if you don't mind paying $20 ish for an older polish. I personally have paid more than that to obtain lemmings (Clarins 230) so $20 seems fairly reasonable to me. Then again, I know that sometimes people luck into finding it in random spots - my bottle came to me courtesy of my beautiful friend Jen and I think she stumbled upon it in a drugstore or at... one of those department store things that we don't have here haha.

The formula is perfection. Really easy to work with and control and I was really pleased with the coverage in two coats. This is two coats plus topcoat.

If you follow my Instagram (@glittagloves) you already saw it but I just wanted to mention it here - during my lightbox assembly I got a few cuts and in these photos the cut on my index finger was particularly gross (I imagine that it wasn't too happy that I kept accidentally getting acetone in it) so I photoshopped it out. Just wanted to throw that out there!

Mmm. This is definitely the type of polish I like to wear around this time of year, I'm really into the rich jewel tones at the moment! When I'm not rocking tons of glitter, of course. ;)

What do you lovelies think? Do you own this beauty? Are you lemming it?

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

Lac Attack Magical Musings collection swatches

2012-11-24T08:30:00.000-08:00

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Saturday whooo! I hope all my American friends had an excellent Thanksgiving!

Today I've got swatches of the Lac Attack/Glitta Gloves collaboration collection, Magical Musings. These are, of course, Harry Potter-themed polishes, and you guys know how hard I love Harry Potter, so I might possibly nerd out a bit talking about some of these.

I don't really have words for how much I love these. I've dreamed of a Harry Potter collection for so long that I can still hardly believe that this is real and that I got the chance to help make one!

All swatches are with basecoat and topcoat. Some are on their own, some are layered - I'll specify in the intro to each polish.

Just so I'm not repeating it over and over - the formulas for these were great. These glitters are more dense than glitters Anastasia has done previously, and I know she was worried about them being super thick. They weren't at all. I found them all easy to apply and even the problem children (there were two, sort of) were still easy to work with.

Swatches under the cut - lots of photos in today's post!

First up, fittingly, is Amortentia. Amortentia is the most powerful love potion in the world. It smells like whatever attracts the person most. This is a really lovely polish. I know I'm not really one for pink but it's gorgeous. Pink glitter with some holo glitter mixed in and light purple hexes. I was surprised at how much I loved this one on! I wore it on its own but I imagine most people will choose to layer it - my nails are so short at the moment that it took me three coats to reach a level of opacity I was happy with, but people with longer nails would probably need more. I think this would look really cute over periwinkle... I must try that soon!

Dementor's Kiss. I don't have words for how much Dementors scared me when I was younger. I didn't even know what Dementors would make me think of but I knew that I wouldn't like it haha! A Dementor lives off the sorrows of people, and its strongest weapon is its "kiss" - sucking a human's soul out through their mouth. Creepy, eh? Anyway, this is a black and red glitter in a clear base. I love it, are you surprised? Black glitter. I layered two coats of Dementor's Kiss over one coat of China Glaze Concrete Catwalk. I wanted to keep it dark and thought the red would show up nicely over the dark grey.

Durmstrang. Another one of the European wizarding schools, located somewhere in the north, because Dumbledore introduces them as "friends from the north" and because of the furs that are part of the uniforms. I'm pretty sure Rowling said that it's in Scandinavia. Also, in the Goblet of Fire film, it appears that Durmstrang is an all boys school and most of those boys are pretty attractive (not Krum, though. Definitely not Krum eww) so yeah... I'd be okay with that. Durmstrang is a somewhat sheer shimmery icy blue with gold shimmer and black diamond shards. I wanted to keep going with the cold theme, so I layered two coats of Durmstrang over two coats of China Glaze Splish Splash. This is (sort of) problem child one - I had a bit of issues getting the diamond shards to not just immediately go to the edge of my nails. A bit of placement was required but it wasn't difficult so I didn't mind too much.

Death Day Party. Harry goes to Nearly Headless Nick's 500th death day party in the Chamber of Secrets. He finds out that Nick feels left out among some of the other ghosts because he can't join the Headless Hunt (since his head isn't actually severed, you see). Nicholas is one of my favourite characters so I love this polish for making me think of him haha! This is a really hard polish to describe... lots of flakes and iridescence. I love that the main colour of the flakes is grey though. I chose to layer this over a white to try and show as much of the colours as I could. This is two coats of Death Day Party over three coats of Essie Marshmallow.

Beauxbatons Academy. The French wizarding school. If I couldn't go to Hogwarts, I think I'd like to go to Beauxbatons.... even though I don't speak French haha. One of the things I think most people think of when they think of Beauxbatons is the powder blue carriage the students arrive in during the Triwizard Tournament... I always loved the mental image of it. I'd like that carriage also. This is definitely one of my favourites of the collection. I love them all but this is the first polish I wore and it actually pained me to remove my manicure so I could keep swatching them the next day! Beauxbatons Academy is a pale milky-with-a-hint-of-blue with white squares, two different shades of blue, yellow and iridescent glitter. The base for this polish is fairly sheer, but I used a ridge filler as my base coat, which helped hide some of my staining (as well as giving me a tiny bit of white) so I felt more comfortable wearing it on its own. I'm sure it would be beautiful layered but after testing a few combinations out on a nail wheel, I really preferred how it looked on its own. This was three coats.

Felix Felicis. Liquid luck. A desperately tricky potion to make but man, I'd make it all the time if I could. Harry taking the Felix was one of my favourite parts in the movies just for this...

"Not to mention the pincers..."

Anyway, Felix makes the drinker lucky for a time (depending on how much they take) - they will succeed in any endeavour they attempt. I'm amazed that people don't make it all the time, seriously. Except for it being toxic in large quantities and the kinda weird side effects if it's brewed wrong... Felix Felicis is a gold glitter topcoat. I see everything in here. Little gold flakes, gold shimmer, gold hexes, gold squares (be still my heart!)... perfect. A great layering polish (especially with the holidays coming up!) and one coat gave me excellent coverage. This is one coat of Felix Felicis over one coat of OPI I Brake for Manicures.

Hogwarts. My dream school when I was younger. I was so convinced that I would have an owl telling me I got accepted, man. How many children were crushed when they didn't get them? Cruel. Anyway, despite the cruelty of its namesake, I love this polish. It's a mixture of silver, orange, green and blue glitter - there might be more colours in there that I can't see but those are the main ones. I loooooooove this one and it's kind of like a little piece of Ana and I in there hehe - part of our House colours are in here! According to Pottermore, I'm a Ravenclaw and she's a Slytherin! No wonder we get along so well, to me Ravenclaw and Slytherin are quite similar. I hate when people say Slytherin is the "bad" house, it's so black and white. The qualities that end up getting people sorted into Slytherin aren't necessarily bad. ANYWAY, this is three coats on its own. :)

Holidays in Hogsmeade. The only all-wizarding village in Britain. I would love to live there pls. This is a perfect Christmas polish. Two shades of green, large red and white glitter. I know it was only just Thanksgiving for some of you but we celebrated Thanksgiving in October and Christmas season has officially hit at my work, so I've got the holidays on the mind. I chose to layer this over two coats of OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow suede... one of my favourite greens ever. This was the second (sort of) problem child - this one is a bit thick. Not so thick that it's impossible to work with, just thick enough that I was conscious of it in comparison to the others. I also had more issues getting the white glitter out than the red and green - not sure why but perhaps I only noticed it because I love white glitter haha.

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Named for the joke shop two of the best characters (Fred and George and oh god FRED) started up. That store sounds like the happiest place ever, no lie. I could live there forever. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes is a mixture of orange and yellow glitter and yes, that is bar glitter you see, and no, I don't hate it! I think it's perfect for a Fred and George polish haha. I wanted to layer this over a bright blue but the combination was seriously making my camera spaz, so I ended up layering it over a darker blue instead. This is two coats of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes over one coat of OPI Yoga-ta Get this Blue!.

And last (but certainly not least) is another one of my favourites, the Horcrux of It... A Horcrux is an object in which a witch or wizard has hidden their soul. Yes, this is pretty much reserved for the bad guys because you have to split your soul to make one and yes, you do that by killing someone. Voldemort had seven Horcruxes because he wanted to be immortal but that didn't work out so well for him, so I wouldn't recommend making one. This is a sheer black base with small green and mustard-ish glitter, plus larger green hexes. Seriously love this. And with a thin topcoat (Essie Good to Go) it was so shiny! This is two coats of the Horcrux of It... over one coat of Wet n' Wild Black Creme.

SO MANY PHOTOS.

So! That's our collection? What do you guys think? I seriously love them. I'm biased though, so... do any catch your eye?

The Magical Musings collection will be available December 1st on the Lac Attack website. It says that international shipping isn't currently available but don't worry, Ana is sorting that out! These will be $8 for a full size and $4.25 for a mini. You can also keep up with LA on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated on an exact time for the sale. :)

I really wanted to get these up and give you guys at least a week to ponder on what you might want to scoop up when they go live... it's now 8:30 AM here and I haven't slept yet, so I probably won't be responding to tweets/emails/comments for the next few hours. I do want to say, though, that Anastasia and I have been so overwhelmed with the support from you guys - all of your sweet comments have meant the world to us and we're so happy you guys are excited for these!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!