Reflections at Twilight - Born Pretty Too Much Metals

What we've got here today is Born Pretty's Too Much Metals. Look at that chrome go! Er, ignore the short nail on my index finger, I broke it but I didn't want to cut my other nails that short.

[Born Pretty Too Much Metals]

Too Much Metals is from Born Pretty's Mirror Metallics Series. Too Much Metals is a chrome nail polish and comes with a very thick and wide brush. I could cover my entire pinky finger's nail with one swipe of the brush. I am pretty impressed by this nail polish. Look at the gleaming burnished metal look!

[Born Pretty Too Much Metals]

So, I think there is a reason the nail polish comes with a very wide brush. The less strokes you have to do with this nail polish, the smoother the result is. This nail polish is very interesting and I rather wish I took photos as I applied it. It's hard to explain but the nail polish has a tendency to draw close together. So at the first thin coat, it draws together in places which results in a patchy look.

That said, just keep going. Add another coat of nail polish, and then another. Try to use as few brush strokes as possible. The nail polish naturally fills in the gaps and smoothens itself out. It's fascinating how it does that. The nail polish on my middle finger wasn't very smooth at first. The way the brush had dragged the nail polish left a couple bumpy spots. But after 15 minutes or so, the nail polish seemed to smoothen itself out.

Have a look at Too Much Metal here or have a look through Born Pretty for other products you might be interested in. You can also use our code above and get 10% off for any full priced products. Thanks for reading and I hope you give this interesting chrome polish a chance!

Weathered Metal - Dance Legend HammeRing Creep

I've been trying to work through my years-old untrieds... so the next few posts will mostly be me trying to clear through them!

[Bottle to nail: Dance Legend HammeRing Creep (1 coat)]

This one is an interesting one from the Dance Legend HammeRing collection. This collection features a hammered metal finish, which you can sort of see up above.

[1 coat: Dance Legend HammeRing Creep]

The shade I'm wearing is called Creep, and it's a steely blue chrome polish, opaque in one coat. It is slightly brush-strokey but the hammered finish actually hides it quite well. The effect shows up as the polish dries, and one coat is sufficient for this polish.

[1 coat: Dance Legend HammeRing Creep]

I'm not quite sure if I'm a fan or not! It's certainly very interesting, I even got some pitting-like effects so it really looks like old metal. However, from afar, the effect is not very clear so it sort of looks like a slightly uneven coat of polish! Perhaps I need to experiment a bit more to bring out the hammered finish to best effect...

Smooth Operator - Dance Legend Chimera

Ah, my favourite colour!

[Dance Legend Chimera]

This is Dance Legend's Chimera, from their Mystery collection. It's a purple chrome nail polish that is fully opaque with two coats. No hassle to apply at all. Look at how smooth and lustrous it is!

Anyway, today is a fairly short post. I'm using this as a base for stamping, to no one's surprise, so next post will be about that!

Blast from the Past - Revlon Budding Chrome

Look at that chipped bottle! Does this count as a vintage look for nail polish bottles?

I picked this up in a bargain bin because I love Revlon chrome nail polishes. Before I started my nail polish craze, about the only nail polish I wore frequently was from this collection. Ah, innocent me, back in the days when I couldn't comprehend expensive nail polish or having more than five bottles!

[Revlon Budding Chrome]

This is Revlon Budding Chrome, which is a gorgeous, soft pink-silver chrome nail polish. Budding Chrome is from a rather old collection but the nail polish has withstood the tests of time. Application was smooth and easy with the expected dull chrome effect.

[Revlon Budding Chrome]

What an elegant and lovely nail polish. No top coat needed for this beauty! It dries relatively fast to a, well, chrome-like finish.

Scratch and Shine - Gold Leather Effect nail transfer foil

Who loves transfer foils? It's no secret that I do! Here's a gorgeous one that I did last year...

[Antique gold..]

Isn't it pretty! I love the antique distressed look over the pale gold.

[Bottle to nail: China Glaze Millenium (1 coat)]

I started out with a base of China Glaze Millenium, a beautiful silver chrome. There are minor brushstrokes but nothing too bad. I figured a nice chrome base would work well with the transfer foil even if they weren't the same shade.

[Base: China Glaze Millenium (1 coat); Foil: Gold Leather Effect ]

Here we go! If you need a refresher on how to apply nail transfer foils, click through our foils tag to take a look at some examples and application tips. As you can see on my index finger, there were a few bald patches, but they blended in alright with the base silver.

[Base: China Glaze Millenium (1 coat); Foil: Gold Leather Effect ]

This foil is called "Gold Leather Effect" and I can see why they named it that. It does remind me a lot of scratched up antique gold finish though, especially how it has a slightly matte sheen to it. It's certainly a gorgeous one and a mani I wouldn't mind repeating so if anyone comes across it, definitely snap it up!

Berry Berry Pink - China Glaze Merry Berry, Revlon Punch Chrome

The other day I felt like doing a slightly-girly-but-not-too-much manicure, and this was the result!

[Floral me up!]

I combined a vampy berry shade with some reflective chrome stamping in a bright magenta!

[2 coats: China Glaze Merry Berry]

I first started with China Glaze Merry Berry from the Holiday Joy collection. This is a vampy berry red, super shiny even without topcoat.

[2 coats: China Glaze Merry Berry]

Formula was gorgeous - squishy and glossy. This is two coats... it does look a bit like sheer in spots in this photo but it's not at all noticeable to the eye.

[Base: China Glaze Merry Berry (2 coats); Stamping: Revlon Punch Chrome]

I then stamped over with Revlon Punch Chrome, one of the older Color Chrome shades. This one's a pretty vibrant purple-pink shade and definitely contrasted well with the dark base.

[Base: China Glaze Merry Berry (2 coats); Stamping: Revlon Punch Chrome]

Chrome polishes are, as usual, wonderful to stamp with! I've started collecting as many as I can, especially the Revlon Chromes and China Glaze Khromes! =)

Ev's Past Plischtures - Another Catch-up Post

I actually have quite a few pics to get through, but these are some I've edited so far. Usually these manis are older ones where we don't have enough pics, tipwear is horrific or the photos are of low quality so Jme and I feel like they don't deserve their own post all to themselves. I hope you all enjoy them anyway!

Mani #1 - Base: China Glaze Hi-Tek + French tips: LA Colors Black Velvet + Stamping: Ulta3 Waterlily +  two different sizes of clear rhinestones. This is one of my favourite stamping pattern from my Konad plates.
 

Mani #2 - Base: Color Club Pretty in Platinum + French tips: Milani One Coat Glitter Red Sparkle + Stamping: OPI Color So Hot It Berns. A supposedly romantic mani somehow looks like skulls and crossbones instead...

Mani #3 - Base: China Glaze Gr8 + Funky French: Milani One Coat Glitter Silver Dazzle and Gold Glitz. This is what I call my CommBank manicure... =p

Mani #4 - Base: Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Pink Rose + Stamping: ??? (I don't remember!) + Clear rhinestones. What a terrible manicure... at least the holo is pretty to look at.

Mani #5 - Base: Milani Just Peachy (I think) + French tips: LA Colors Black Velvet + Ribbon nail sticker. I really love this colour combo, and this Milani orange is an absolutely stunning glass fleck.

Well, that's it for this lot. I guess I'll have to go edit more for the next catch-up post... there are so many cool new interesting manis I want to post about first though! Need more time...

Chinese Lacquer - ORLY Star Spangled, China Glaze Hi-Tek, Sally Hansen Glossy

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the Year of the Dragon - you would think I'd have a dragon-inspired manicure for you today but... no. =p My initial plan was to do scales but I got lazy and ended up doing a french+stamp combo again. This one is inspired by Chinese lacquer boxes (though to be honest, the result is more like Japanese lacquerware!). 

[Three coats: ORLY Star Spangled]

I started with a base of ORLY Star Spangled, a red jelly with red glitter. This is another possible dupe for the infamous China Glaze Ruby Pumps which I will be doing a dupe comparison post for (along with Milani Ruby Jewels) hopefully soon!

[Bottle-to-nail comparison: ORLY Star Spangled (3 coats)]

This is three coats, since it's a jelly it's fairly thin but since it is thin it spreads easily and dries fast so three coats isn't really a chore. You also get great depth with increasing layers. It can look pretty vampy in dimmer light but it definitely sparkles a bright red in the light.

[Base: ORLY Star Spangled; Stamp: China Glaze Hi-Tek]

I topcoat-ed, then stamped over it with China Glaze Hi-Tek, my trusty chrome stamp-buddy (I should really get a couple more from the Khrome collection!).
 

[Base: ORLY Star Spangled; Stamp: China Glaze Hi-Tek]

I can't remember if I took this pic before or after top-coating; the floral stamping looks kind of matte. Also I had trouble picking up the pattern on one end of the stamp as you can see. This sometimes happens and can occassionally be fixed by either varying the scraping pressure or scraping from a different direction across the plate.

[Base: ORLY Star Spangled; Stamp: China Glaze Hi-Tek; Tips: Sally Hansen Glossy]

I then completed the look with tips using Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine in Glossy - a deep blackened red.It looks black most of the time but shimmers deep red in the light.

[Base: ORLY Star Spangled; Stamp: China Glaze Hi-Tek; Tips: Sally Hansen Glossy]

I would have actually used black as I usually do, but in the spirit of the new year (where black is considered unlucky) I picked this colour instead! It's still red, right! =p

[Base: ORLY Star Spangled; Stamp: China Glaze Hi-Tek; Tips: Sally Hansen Glossy]

And there we go! A festive Chinese New Year manicure~ =)

Party Sparkle - OPI You Don't Know Jacques (suede) + China Glaze Hi-Tek

At work, we had our end of year formal event recently. I wore a blurple dress and pearls and had earlier consulted with Jme on what polish to go with (as this is extremely SRS BSNS, of course). We brainstormed a crazy concoction of deep purple (Glossyblossom Bright Galaxy), with a pastel holo glitter topcoat (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Disco Ball), then a champagne Konad over the whole lot.

Well.

I then proceeded to fall sick in the two days leading up to the event and was rather NOT up for experimenting too much so I ended up doing my mani in the afternoon just before the dinner event. Lacking brain power, I went with a colour scheme I'd used before. Check it!

[Base: OPI You Don't Know Jacques (suede). Stamping: China Glaze Hi-Tek]

[Base: OPI You Don't Know Jacques (suede). Stamping: China Glaze Hi-Tek]

The base was 2 coats of OPI You Don't Know Jacques (brown suede), then topcoat followed by stamping with China Glaze Hi-Tek (pale bronze chrome). I again top-coated everything, then decided to add a bit more bling....

[Base: OPI You Don't Know Jacques (suede). Stamping: China Glaze Hi-Tek. Blue 1.5mm Rhinestones.]

[Base: OPI You Don't Know Jacques (suede). Stamping: China Glaze Hi-Tek. Blue 1.5mm Rhinestones.]

Overall I was quite pleased with it, if a little unsure after adding the blue rhinestones. I did want to go with the theme colours of my outfit (blue/purple, brown, champagne and pearls) without being too matchy-matchy so I guess it worked out!

Salon At Home: Nyx Femme, Be Jeweled, Gilded Glitter

My first two swatches are from the Nyx Advanced Salon Formula collection, and I quite like them.

[Nyx Advanced Salon Formula Femme]

Nyx's Femme is a very pretty and classy silver polish with a touch of lavender-grey. I thought it would be a foil polish, but I don't think this is a foil. It's closer to a chrome polish, but shinier, and looks like it has an extra shimmer. In any case, I really like it!


[With Nyx Advanced Salon Formula Femme bottle]

Femme is easy to apply, dries smooth and you can get full coverage with just one coat. No topcat for this one.

[Nyx Advanced Salon Formula Be Jeweled]

My camera really was being strange for this collection. There are no bits, bubbles or bumpiness in any of the manis, but my camera might be picking up a reflection of some sort through the shiny surface of the polish.

In any case, Nyx's Be Jeweled is a gorgeous blue-green duochrome with dense gold micro-glitter giving it that shiny golden sheen. This is definitely a dupe for Zoya's Charla, but how close is it? Well, that's for another post, when I have Charla on! :)

[With Nyx Advanced Salon Formula Be Jeweled bottle]

Two coats were enough for full coverage. These pictures are all taken under indirect sunlight. Look at the polish in the bottle, isn't that gorgeous? 


The next few photos are from the older Nyx Girls collection.

[Nyx Girls Gilded Glitter over Nyx Advanced Salon Formula Be Jeweled]

I couldn't resist trying out Nyx Girls' Gilded Glitter layered over Be Jeweled.  Gilded Glitter is a clear based polish with assymetrically shaped solid gold flakes (not duochrome flakies). Among the bigger flakes, there are actually finer tiny flakes which will give manis a gold tint.

Don't my nails look like they could be used as a reference picture for dragon scales in some fantasy book? It's rather gaudy, but such an interesting look!

[With the Nyx Girls Gilded Glitter bottle]

It took four coats to get such dense coverage, but I did have rather long nails then. While it dried rather smoothly, I used Orly In A Snap topcoat over this because it's really hard for polish to dry all the way through when you layer on so many coats.

I thought I would try Gilded Glitter over something lighter.

[Nyx Girls Gilded Glitter over Carlo di Roma's white glass fleck polish]

I broke a nail on this hand so they're all rather short here. Gilded Glitter on its own has a golder/yellower look, and there's no way to cover my tips since it's actually a clear polish. So I thought I would try layering Gilded Glitter over a thin, white glass fleck polish. Works rather well I think! It's a very clean look, while still being quite interesting and shiny.

[With Nyx Girls Gilded Glitter bottle]

I got a few rather nice comments on this polish at work. This is two coats of Gilded Glitter over Carlo di Roma's very light, white unnamed polish.

There seems to be an identical gold polish from Nyx's Advanced Salon Formula line, and it's called Gold Glitter. I don't see any difference between Gilded Glitter and Gold Glitter from the pictures, to be honest.


If you're thinking about buying Nyx nail polish online, I suggest checking out their website for their pictures. You can click on the pictures for larger versions and those are much better than the swatches on Cherry Culture.

My next post will be a comparison between Zoya Charla and Nyx Be Jeweled. See ya!