Star Stamped Nail Art

Contains Press Sample Purchased Myself

Hello readers, 
Today I've got some starry stamped nail art to share with you. Let's take a look

Round Up: Nail Polish Combos

Contains Press Sample Purchased Myself

Hello readers, 
Today I've got some recent polish combinations I've worn to share with you. Let's take a look at swatches. 

Round Up: Nail Polish Combos

Contains Press Sample Purchased Myself

Hello readers, 
Today I've got some recent polish combinations I've worn to share with you. Let's take a look at swatches. 

Brand Challenge: Enchanted Polish

Purchased Myself

Hello readers,
Today I have an assortment of polishes from Enchanted Polish to share with you. Let's take a look at swatches.

Summer Of Untrieds Days 21, 22 & 23: Girly Bits, Green & Micro Glitter - Girly Bits Get Weaponized, Darling Diva Polish Eat Your Veggies and Enchanted Polish Seven Nation Army

Hello readers,
In my attempts to get caught up on the summer of untrieds challenge I combined three days worth of themes into one mani.  I also realized that I skipped ahead and did a teal mani on the 18th when the theme was actually green.  I must have been really excited about teal, haha.  So, for day 22, which is actually when I was supposed to do a teal polish I did a green one instead.

I used Get Weaponized and Eat Your Veggies for a soft gradient from teal to green.  I then added on coat of Seven Nation Army over top for a little extra something.  I had no issues with any of the formulas and they were all easy to work with.  Photos show the gradient with one coat of HK Girl top coat in overcast natural lighting.  In direct sunlight all of the polishes have a nice scattered holo shimmer.

I really love how this turned out.  The colour shift in the gradient is really soft and delicate and the glitter on top makes it a little different.

Happy polishing,

Michelle

A Mani In Memory

Hello readers,
As some of you may know, my dad passed away last weekend.  Tomorrow is his memorial service and though it seems trivial I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what polish was appropriate.  Then it clicked.  My dad was an electrical engineer so I decided to use Pipe Dream Polish Electric Soul and Enchanted Polish Engineered To Destroy.

I used Electric Soul as the base and then stamped Engineered To Destroy using a pattern on Cheeky plate B that reminded me of gears.  The stamped design is very subtle and only shows in certain lights but I'm still very happy with it.  Photos show the mani with CND Super Shiney top coat in natural light.

Happy polishing,

Michelle

Battle Of The Purple Multichromes Part II - The Holo Multichromes!

Hello readers! Are you ready for some more comparisons??  Did you catch Part I of my purple multichrome comparison yesterday featuring Girly Bits I Hit My Bunny Phone and KBShimmer Pigment Of My Imagination?  If not, you can check it out here.  Today I have the four remaining holo purple multichromes to show you and you can decide if they are different enough to need them all.

Enchanted Polish Yesterday vs Girly Bits Belly Jeans vs Enchanted Polish Octopus's Garden vs ILNP Cygnus Loop (H)

Right off the bat we can see that two of these are definitely not dupes.  EP Yesterday is more pink toned than the rest and Girly Bits Belly Jeans has more holo.  EP Octopus's Garden and ILNP Cygnus Loop (H) look identical in the bottle though so it was worth checking out if that translated to the nail.  Photos show two coats of each polish with no top coat in natural lighting.

The verdict?  I'm saying Octopus's Garden and Cygnus Loops (H) are dupes.  They have the same amount of holo and the same colour shift.  The only difference I found was that Cygnus Loop (H) was a tiny bit more pigmented.  I think if I had added a third coat of Octopus's Garden then the opacity would have been exactly the same.  Belly Jeans has the same colour shift as those two but has significantly more holo pigment.  Yesterday is a different colour all together.

Out of the two dupes I would have to declare ILNP Cygnus Loop (H) the winner.  It is slightly more pigmented which is always nice, it is readily available and it's cheaper than the Enchanted Polish.  I hope this comparison makes your multichrome shopping a little less confusing and your bank account a little happier.

Happy Polishing!

- Michelle

Dupes: Enchanted Polish Ciao Milano vs Darling Diva Polish Maxed Out vs Ozotic 528

Hello readers! Today I have a comparison post for you that has been floating around my brain for a while.  I wanted to see how close Enchanted Polish Ciao Milano, Darling Diva Polish Maxed Out and Ozotic 528 really are.  These three polishes all contain glitter that shifts from green to purple to coppery orange depending on the angle.

Enchanted Polish Ciao Milano, Darling Diva Polish Maxed Out and Ozotic 528

They all look quite similar in the bottle.  Maxed Out looks a little bit more purple but I think this is just because of the curved bottle as opposed to the flat fronts of the EP and Ozotic bottles.  I used China Glaze First Mate, a medium blue creme, as the base colour for all three.  I left my pinky finger with only the base colour so you can see the change due to the glitter toppers.  For Ciao Milano and Maxed Out I used one coat and for 528 I used two coats.  Photos show the three polishes in natural lighting with no top coat.

I think I'm seeing double...

Source

So what do you think?  I think they look pretty much identical!  There were only a few small differences.  Maxed out has a tiny bit more sparkle in person since along with the colour shifting glitter it has a tiny bit of holographic sparkle as well.  The Ozotic dried a little bit more smoothly than the other two but it did require two coats to get the same glitter coverage.  If I could buy only one I think would have to go with Maxed Out.  First of all, it's much easier to actually get your hands on.  EP restocks as we all know are just crazy.  Ozotics don't seem to be in stock consistently either.  Second, it's way cheaper.  Darling Diva Polish Maxed out is $9.  She also makes a version of this polish without the added holo, Happy Wife, Happy Life, that retails for $8.  The Enchanted Polish and Ozotic are in the $15 range depending on where you purchase them from.  Are these dupes? I would definitely say yes!

Enchanted Polish - https://enchantedpolish.bigcartel.com/
Darling Diva Polish - https://www.darlingdivapolish.bigcartel.com/
Ozotic - https://www.llarowe.com/catalog/Shop-by-Collection/Ozotic, https://www.nailpolishcanada.com/categories/ozotic.html, https://www.harlowandco.org/collections/ozotics

Happy Polishing!

- Michelle

Striping Tape - Episode I

Hello readers! I've had some striping tape sitting around for a few months but hadn't worked up the time/nerve/courage to actually give it a try. In honor of my 'Moar Nail Art!' new years resolution I decided to take the plunge. The results were... better than I anticipated. Based on reading other nail blogs and forums there were two key tips that stood out. 1) Wait until your nails are 100% completely dry before taping. Not dry to the touch or just after using a fast drying topcoat. Dry all the way through. I used a mani that I had already had on for a few days already as my base colour, so no issues there. 2) Make sure you pull the tape off while the polish is still when for crisp edges. Ok, I think I can handle that. I used Enchanted Polish Octopus's Garden as my base colour and China Glaze Cords as my taped accent colour. Here's what I came up with and how I did it.

 1) Tape a star pattern onto your nails using three pieces of striping tape.  For my design the pieces didn't really need to extend up past the top of my nails, but I found that made it easier to pull them off later.  I also taped up both hands right from the start.

2) Use your accent polish (CG Cords for me) to fill in the three triangles at the bottom of your nail. Then while the polish is still wet, peel off the striping tape.  For this design I found painting a whole hand and then removing the striping tape from that hand after worked alright.  Then, just repeat for the other hand.

3) I wanted to go a little further with my design so I used a small nail art brush to paint a smaller triangle of the base colour (EP Octopus's Garden for me) inside the center taped triangle.

4) Wait for the polish to become tacky/not easily smudge-able and then add your favorite top coat.

I really happy with this, especially for the first try.  As long as you make sure that your base polish is 100% dry and you peel the tape off while your accent polish is still wet striping tape isn't so hard.  I could see it being a small nightmare though if you didn't adhere to those two guidelines though.  Have you given striping tape nail art a try?  Do you have any must know tips to make it any easier?  I need to scour the interwebs now for other striping tape designs that catch my eye and can go on the "nail art to try" list.

Happy Polishing!

- Michelle

Enchanted Polish Octopus's Garden Swatches & Review

Happy New Years readers! Today marks my first review of 2014.  2014...have to get used to typing that now.  I decided to start the year off with an holo multichrome, Enchanted Polish Octopus's Garden.  I've actually had this one in my collection for about a month and a half but this is the first time I've worn it.  Let me tell you.  This polish has officially got me addicted to multichromes.

Octopus's Garden is a shimmery polish that shifts from blue to purple to coppery orange.  It has a soft scattered holo and applies flawlessly.  In indoor lighting I find it looks more blue but in sunlight purple seems to be the more predominant colour.  I used three coats but you could definitely get away with two.  No issues with streaks, sheerness or smoothness with this one.  I went a little photo crazy since this polish takes on new look with every change in angle and lighting.  Photos show three coats of Octopus's Garden with one coat of CND Super Shiney top coat in natural lighting.

You may have noticed a few small bumps in this polish in the photos.  This is not the EP's fault.  I used an older base coat and I should have know better.  It was starting to get a little bit thicker than I liked and apparently had a some tiny dried up bits in it.  Time for that bottle to go to polish heaven.  Over a proper non-dried out base coat Octopus's Garden will be 100% smooth.  So, do I really have to say anything else? Not really.  The pictures speak for them self.  I've had this polish on for three days now and still catch myself examining the colour shift as I move my nails back and forth.  I'm pretty sure this is how I look to others.

Source

My goal for the new year is to do more nail art so I'm off to play with striping tape for the first time.  I'll have the results of that experiment up tomorrow.  Until then, happy polishing!