My latest Nerd Lacquer trio

Harlow & Co got a new shipment of Nerd Lacquer polish last week. When it comes to funky glitter polishes, I am a weak, weak person, so I ordered a couple! Unfortunately I only managed to get two into my cart before they sold out, but Katie from Harlow & Co was kind enough to include a sample bottle of a third polish with my order!

Onto the swatches.

First is Cyance Friction - CYANCE FRICTION is a super bright cyan/teal with copper shimmer, large and medium copper hexagonal glitter, medium turquoise square glitter, and a gorgeous pink-violet flash. Opaque in two coats, and unarguably fabulous. Cyance Friction exists because Michael Shermer is so freaking awesome.


In the sun:


And a picture in the shade, to show the purple shimmer from another angle:


This polish was a little hard to apply because of the amount of large chunky glitter. It was very pigmented, and the rich teal base with that lovely purple shine is just awesome. It doesn't need a ton of glitter taming, but I did use a coat of Gelous before I put on my topcoat for some extra smoothing. I really like this!

Next up is Shiny, inspired by one of my favourite shows of all-time, Firefly. SHINY is a clear sky blue with sapphire shift, silver and white microglitter, ultrafine opalescent blue glitter, multiple sizes of silver hex glitter, plus medium square white and silver glitter. It's spacey, it's cool, it's synonymous with "fine," and it's very shiny indeed. Quite opaque in two coats, and surprisingly smooth with a single layer of top coat.



I didn't bother with the Gelous on this one as it was pretty smooth overall. Can you see the sapphire shimmer in there? I tried my best to capture it, but it's very subtle! This polish is beautiful, so icy blue with SO MUCH SHINE. It really is shiny, in all the best ways. It's jam packed with tons of silver glitter, and that sapphire shimmer just makes it for me.

Last but not least is a Harlow&Co exclusive: Han Shot First. HAN SHOT FIRST is a deep dusty teal with giant gold square glitter, medium square turquoise glitter, gold small and micro, smallish holo hex. FAB.



Check out the crazy glitter in this one! Holo glitter, huge square gold glitter, shimmer, and more all packed into that gorgeous base. This may be my favourite of the bunch! Easy to apply, even with that huge gold stuff in there. The holo doesn't come out to play quite as much as I'd like, but that's ok, it's definitely there and shows up like crazy in bright light. I used one coat of Gelous under my topcoat for this one.

I had a little trouble getting the larger glitter out at first in these polishes, but then I had a lightbulb moment, stuck the bottles upside down overnight, and tried applying again this morning - success! I actually had trouble with TOO MUCH of the big glitter rather than not getting any.

Overall I'm pretty happy with this small haul of Nerd Lacquers. If you haven't had a chance to try them yet, start stalking the Etsy shop and Harlow & Co for updates - it's worth it.

Deborah Lippmann Spring 2012

After waiting what feels like FOREVER, the new Deborah Lippmann Spring 2012 collection is finally in my hands!

First up, On the Beach, described as Rich Riviera Blue.



Rich is right. This blue is just eye popping! Pure, clean, bright, and lovely. This is two coats over a base coat (Deborah Lippmann Rehydrating Base Coat), with no top coat - yep, it's just that shiny. The first coat was sheer and a bit streaky, but two coats fixed that.

Next up is Mermaid's Dream, described as Seafoam Splendor.



This is one coat layered over On the Beach. It's a very interesting polish, it feels almost like you're applying a thin layer of cool liquid metal over your nails. The finish is officially described as a glittered shimmer, but that isn't quite right - it's very unique. I have nothing like it in terms of finish or application, it's almost like a micro glitter combined with a foil.

And finally, some layering experiments. I left these two images full sized, so you can click through and see close up just how Mermaid's Dream looks layered over other polishes.

All swatches are one coat of Mermaid's Dream layered over a base colour. From left to right:

Black creme (DL Edge of Glory), Blue creme (DL On the Beach), white creme (Sally Hansen White On), silver foil (Sally Hansen Celeb City), gold foil (Nicole by OPI Not a Gold Digger), mint green (Sally Hansen Mint Sherbet), three coats of Mermaid's Dream on its own, and finally a layering experiment: On the Beach, Mermaid's Dream, and one coat of Essie Shine of the Times.

Click these to enlarge.

Natural light:


Flash:

Vintage nails

I had a lot of fun last night doing this! I set out to do a stamping mani on top of China Glaze For Audrey with a matte finish, but once my nails were painted I figured I'd try my hand at some vintage wallpaper styles instead.



The base is China Glaze For Audrey.

The stripes and dots were done with my Konad stamping polish. This stuff is great for doing nail art - super opaque!

The vintage roses are a combo of Sally Hansen Fuchsia Power and Deborah Lippmann Shape of my Heart, with China Glaze Holly Day and Sally Hansen Mint Sherbet for the leaves. This is where I realised I had no leafy greens in my collection - must rectify that today!

The polish I'm holding is Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream, which just arrived at my office this morning. Check out the MASSIVE box it came in! I cracked up laughing when the FedEx guy walked in with this.



All that box and padding for one teeny tiny bottle of polish. Sadly, there's a second box just like it on the way tomorrow with On the Beach inside (they shipped separately for some crazy reason).