Earth Lines - Revlon Star Crush

Not all my manis with magnetic polishes work out because I seem to have an inability to hold the magnet still, but this one seems fairly successful.

[Revlon Star Crush]

This is Revlon Star Crush. I like that it's so easy to apply, easy to get the pattern to form and there's this shiny scatter of gold microglitter that becomes more apparent after the pattern forms.

[Revlon Star Crush]

After I applied the topcoat, the pattern did spread out a little, but the pattern is still visibly clear and pretty.

Cocktail Glass - Layla Ceramic Effect Ipanema Girl

Jme and I picked up a bunch of Layla polishes earlier this year and Jme has swatched quite a few already which you can check out in our Layla tag. Here's one of mine!

[Bottle to nail: Layla Ceramic Effect Ipanema Girl (2 coats)]

This beauty is Ipanema Girl from Layla's Ceramic Effect line of polishes. Isn't she so beautifully glowy!

[2 coats: Layla Ceramic Effect Ipanema Girl]

Ipanema girl is a green glass fleck with an intense lime shimmer as you can see in my photos! These were all two coats for full opacity, though as usual, that depends on the length of your nail. 

[2 coats: Layla Ceramic Effect Ipanema Girl]

I rarely have problems with the formula of glass flecks and this was no different. Dry time was relatively quick and the finish was quite glossy even before my usual layer of topcoat. The intensity of the glass flecks combined with the strong glow gives it quite a foil/metallic finish.

Compared to China Glaze Running in Circles, a staunch favourite of mine (swatch and review here), Ipanema Girl is a lighter shade, more towards lime, with finer sparkle and a slightly jelly-like finish. I still prefer Running in Circles, but it depends what you're after - both are gorgeous!

Nature's Punk - Maybelline Boom Box Black, Revlon Sassy

In terms of world events, this has been a pretty crap week. Give your loved ones a hug and a kiss. Let's appreciate who and what we have.

I'm going to try to put the depressing thoughts behind us now, and let's move on to a subject that won't end in navel-gazing.

[Maybelline Boom Box Black]

I snapped up two of the new Maybelline Color Street Artist collection. This is my favourite.

[Revlon Sassy]

I used Revlon Sassy as the base, a crayony green shade that I rather like. It's duller in real life as opposed to in the photo which was taken under superb fluorescent lights. I say superb because I just changed one of my lightbulbs and the newer, pricier one is really outshining the others.

[Top coat: 1 coat of Maybelline Boom Box Black
Base coat: Revlon Sassy]

Now this is Maybelline Boom Box Black on top of Revlon Sassy.

[Top coat: 1 coat of Maybelline Boom Box Black
Base coat: Revlon Sassy]

Boom Box Black is loaded with matte pale green and black hex glitter of all sizes and tiny pale green bar glitter. The glitter pay off is crazy for these polishes, needing only one coat for great coverage. I didn't notice any bubbles either.

I really like the look of Boom Box Black against a slightly darker green because it just gives the mani depth instead of having strong contrasting colours. I'll be trying Boom Box Black over a different coloured base to see how it looks too. I'm liking what Maybelline is putting out lately. The quality, the price and the creativity are all A+.

Glitter Glamour - ulta3 Orchid, Shimmer Karen

I bought this during a blog sale, and I have to say, I love it.

[Base: ulta3 Orchid
Top: 2 coats of Shimmer Karen]

This is Karen, from Shimmer Polish. The polish is so heavy with glitter in a clear base, that I've no idea how to begin to describe the glitter. Just take it as chock-full of tiny hex and square glitter, in silver, purple and holo. It's magnificent! At two coats, the coverage is pretty solid, as you can see. I used ulta3 Orchid as the base, because I didn't want to build to opacity using Karen and I also wanted a darker purple for it to contrast against.

[Base: ulta3 Orchid
Top: 2 coats of Shimmer Karen]

Here, you can see how Karen looks at just one coat.

[Base: ulta3 Orchid
Top: 1 coat of Shimmer Karen]

The consistency was great, and I loved the glitter mix. Very, very nice results.

Spring Forward - Femme Fatale Cosmetics A Tisket A Tasket

Back to full manis this week! Here's one that I've already shown a skittle of in a past post.

[Flower garden]

This delicate polish is A Tisket A Tasket, from Femme Fatale Cosmetics. As I previously posted, this is a combination of mint, green and aqua with some pink highlights, all in a pale green jelly/creme base.

[Bottle to nail: Femme Fatale Cosmetics A Tisket A Tasket (2 coats)]

I only have a mini of this one but you can really see the variety of shades and shapes of glitter in this little beauty! I especially love the neon pink and aqua!

[2 coats: Femme Fatale Cosmetics A Tisket A Tasket]

I think these were all two thick coats and you get lovely depth with the jelly/creme base. The base looks almost white in my photos, but there's a faint tint of mint to it as you can tell from the bottle shot.

[2 coats: Femme Fatale Cosmetics A Tisket A Tasket]

All in all, a beautiful mix as usual, and one that really puts me in mind of spring (despite the fact that it's mid-winter at the moment, eek!).

Confetti Party - Coco Allure Cleopinktra, Coco Allure Bootiful, Barielle Falling Star

Ev and I don't often coordinate what we're posting each week, and once in a long while, we end up posting about the same nail polishes. This week turned out to be one such example, but I've decided to carry on!

[Top: Coco Allure Cleopinktra
Middle: Coco Allure Bootiful
Base: Barielle Falling Star]

This is Coco Allure Cleopinktra over Coco Allure Bootiful over Barielle Falling Star!

[Left: Coco Allure Cleopinktra
Right: Coco Allure Bootiful]

Barielle Falling Star is this gorgeous blue polish with orange/bronze glitter. I love it, and it makes a gorgeous base for these glitter toppers. Here's a swatch of Falling Star.

Ev has described these two polishes already on Monday. I'll be lazy and quote her spot on description from here: Bootiful is a mix of black, orange and purple glitter in two sizes each of hexes and squares. - Cleopinktra is a mix of gold and magenta hex and square glitter in different sizes.

To be honest, I've found Bootiful doesn't make for a great topper. The consistency is fine and there's glitter aplenty. I think the problem is there's too much big black glitter in the polish and the glitter are all too similar in size. It could just be my personal taste.

But I love Cleopinktra. The variety of square and hex glitter is perfect, and the pink/magenta and gold combo is gorgeous. Layering Cleopinktra over Bootiful is magnificent, in my opinion. The combination just really works together! That both Ev and I did it without consulting each other shows that we individually thought it was a winning combo. :)

[Top: Coco Allure Cleopinktra
Middle: Coco Allure Bootiful
Base: Barielle Falling Star]

The last photo was taken in natural light, with my nails falling in the shadow a little. The glitter look almost like they're glowing here.