Glitter Polish Removal Part One: Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter A-Peel Review

You may have noticed that I have been wearing a lot of glittery manicures lately.  This is due to the fact that I've been testing out two different glitter removal base coats, Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter A-Peel and Picture Polish Revolution.  Today I'm going to show you the results from NPB Glitter A-Peel.

Following the suggested directions in the Etsy listing I used two coats of Glitter A-Peel followed by a coat of my regular base coat, CND Super Stickey and then did the rest of my manicure exactly the same as always.  I made sure to top every one with a good amount of glitter polish.

There was something incredibly satisfying about peeling the polish off.  I wore each manicure for 1-2 days without any chipping before I peeled them off.  I showered, did dishes without gloves and even played at the beach without any noticeable wear or any premature peeling.  I personally find that it is easiest to start at a bottom corner of a nail and then work your way peeling upwards but I think you just need to find what method works best for you.  I didn't notice any damage to my nail surface either.  Here are my bare nails right after peeling off the green and gold mani.

I am in love with this base coat.  It is a miracle in a bottle.  It now takes me a maximum of 10 minutes to take off glitter and I don't have to use up any cotton pads or acetone.  The only reason I don't use it for every single mani is that I can't put strengthener underneath.  It is definitely my go to base coat for any manicure that involves glitter.  If you want a bottle of your very own (which you really should) you can buy Glitter A-Peel from the Nail Pattern Boldness Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/NailPatternBoldness.  You can also get it from Llarowe.com.  Thank you, thank you, thank you NPB!!!!  You have saved me countless hour of scrubbing at stubborn glitter and drying out my skin with never ending acetone.  I can't wait to see what you come up with next!

Lucky 13 Lacquer Accio Lacquer Swatches & Review

I just got my very first Lucky 13 Lacquer order in the mail and it was tough to decide which to try first but I finally settled on Accio Lacquer from the Mischief Managed collection.  This polish is a taupe creme base packed with copper, gold and red microflakes.

The formula was easy to apply and the polish became opaque after three coats.  It dried very smoothly and I just added a thin topcoat to avoid chipping.  I usually don't go for neutral colours but the mix of shimmering microflakes makes this one stand out.

Pictures show three coats of Accio Lacquer with one coat of CND Super Shiney top coat in natural sunlight.  This is a great option when you want a more toned down polish that still has some personality.  I can't wait to try out the rest of the polishes from my order.  If you want a bottle of your very own check out the Lucky 13 Lacquer shop at https://www.lucky13lacquer.com and facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Lucky13Lacquer.  What do you think of this neutral polish with a twist?

Darling Diva Polish Love Don't Live Here Anymore Swatches & Review

Disclaimer:  These polishes were offered at a reduced price or at no charge to manicuremanifesto.com in exchange for published reviews.  All reviews are fair, honest and reflect my personal opinion.

Today I tried out another of the colours from Darling Diva Polish's Madonna collection, Love Don't Live Here Anymore.  This polish features fine gold gitter and fuchsia hexes in a clear base.

 

I decided to use it as a glitter topper but the glitter is quite dense and so I think you could use it as a full coverage glitter too by using about three coats.  Application was flawless.  No dabbing needed and it dried really smoothly.  I just used a thin top coat to make everything nice and shiny.

Pictures show one coat of Love Don't Live Here Anymore over China Glaze Creative Fantasy with one coat of CND Super Shiney top coat in natural sunlight.  I usually prefer silver to gold but I love the contrast between the gold glitter and my purple base colour.  My nails feel very... 'royal'.  If you'd like a bottle of your very own check out Darling Diva's Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/DarlingDivaPolish.  I am just loving glittery nails on these sunny summer days!

Laquerlicious Unity Salt Water Swatches & Review

I couldn't resist buying some polishes from Laquerlicious Unity a few weeks ago when they added lots more to their clearance section and had a free shipping promo.  One of the polishes I got was Salt Water.

This polish is a mix of large teal hex glitter, medium holo teal square glitter, small teal hex glitter, tiny teal hex glitter, medium white hex, medium white square, and small white matte square in a clear base.  Despite being packed with glitter, this polish was really easy to apply and didn't require any dabbing to get  good distribution of glitter.

Pictures show two coats of Salt Water over three coats of Butter London Henley Regatta with one coat of Gelous in natural sunlight.  I am in love with this polish.  The big variety in glitter size and the mix of iridescent and matte glitter adds great visual texture (with minimal actual physical texture).  My nails are just so sparkly I catch myself randomly staring at them.  If you want a bottle of your very own there are still some available for $5 in the Last Call Clearance section of the Laquerlicious Unity Etsy shop.  What do you think of this polish?  Do you like glitter toppers or do you prefer a full coverage polish?

Dupes: Butter London Henley Regatta vs Icing Glitz & Glam

I don't purposefully look for polish dupes but sometimes I find them by accident.  I recently bought Butter London Henley Regatta and put it on the home for all my new polishes, my coffee table.  Sitting on the table was Icing Glitz & Glam which I had recently been given.  I noticed that the two were very similar and decided to do a proper comparision.

In the bottle the two look identical.  The ratio of teal and blue glitter appears to be the same and the glitter size is not noticeably different.  What about when I actually put it on my nails?

The pictures show three coats of each polish with one coat of CND Super Shiney top coat.  Henley Regatta is the tiniest bit darker than Glitz & Glam.  However, if I wasn't looking at them side by side I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.  The formulas were virtually identical as well.  Both took three coats to get opaque and both dried with a slightly gritty finish.  Considering the ~$10 price difference I think Icing Glitz & Glam is the clear winner here and can definitely be considered a dupe for Butter London Henley Regatta.  I love figuring out ways to save people money!

Darling Diva Polish Like A Virgin Swatches & Review

Disclaimer:  These polishes were offered at a reduced price or at no charge to manicuremanifesto.com in exchange for published reviews.  All reviews are fair, honest and reflect my personal opinion.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Canada Day long weekend and you aren't having too much trouble easing yourself back into work this Tuesday morning.  Yesterday I showed you a sneak peak of Darling Diva Like A Virgin as part of my Canada Day mani but today I have lots of swatches and the full review for you.  I am a big fan of Darling Diva Polish.  If you look over at my "Indie Stash" list you can see I have purchased a lot of them so I was very honored to be chosen to swatch some of her polishes.

Like A Virgin is a mix of white and silver circles, micro holographic gitter, white bars, white hearts and blue/purple iridescent glitter in a clear base.  It is part of Darling Diva's Madonna collection.  The clear base is fairly thick but I think it needs to be that way to keep all those larger glitters from sinking straight to the bottom of the bottle.  I used one coat over Zoya Blaze.  The only glitter that I had to work to get out were the heart glitters.  Also, I did have to do some dabbing to get the larger circle glitters evenly distributed on my nails.  If you just brush the polish on all the larger glitters will end up near the tips of your nails.

Pictures show one coat of Like A Virgin over two coats of Zoya Blaze in natural sunlight.  I used one coat of Gelous as a top coat.  I honestly wasn't expecting to like this polish very much.  Personally, I'm not a fan of shaped glitter so the hearts didn't really appeal to me and I find bar glitter tends to look 'chaotic'.  However, I surprised myself once I got it on my nails.  I actually really like it.  Because the heart glitters aren't on every nail and I was easily able to align the bar glitters straight up and down the two things I didn't like were remedied.  It also dried quite smoothy for a polish with so many large glitters.

If you'd like a bottle of your very own check out the Darling Diva Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/DarlingDivaPolish.  Don't forget to like her facebook page for sneak peeks, sales and giveaways too!  What do you think of this Madonna inspired polish?

Happy Canada Day!!!

Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians!!! Here's the red and white mani I'm wearing today.

Zoya Blaze and Darling Diva Polish Like A Virgin

I'll have more photos of this Darling Diva Polish tomorrow but right now I'm off to bbq food, go for a beer and then watch some fireworks.