Dear RUS LAD556 mood polish

Normal look

In cold water

Dear RUS LAD556 is a color changing polish from peach to pink with a satin texture. It dries matte just like the other Dear RUS polishes I've had the pleasure of using: 560 - blue to seafoam green and 554 - auburn to purple with gold shimmer. The only difference from the others is the color shift - it's much less dramatic compared to other polishes. I was looking forward to this polish for a while, but I'm a little disappointed with it in that regard. Formula wise, it applies a bit thick, has the same consistency as OPI Suede polishes and is prone to bald spots on longer nails. When applying it, the first coat is going to be very patchy, but it evens out with 2-3 coats. Dries lightning fast, shimmer looks very nice with a topcoat! 

I gotta admit, even though the color doesn't change much, it's a super cute peachy pink and it goes well with my skintone - I like it!

China Glaze - Dare to Bare

**My apologies for the last two weeks - blog's been dead but not for long! At this point, I have a backlog of photos that I'm going to be posting until it's over and then.... Look forward to a major upgrade in photo quality!**

Here's something from my beauty store haul that I've been looking forward to - a peachy base with fine gold shimmer. China Glaze Dare to Bare is an interesting color - it dries darker than the bottle, formula didn't give me any trouble. Three coats, dried normally, wore pretty well. I am sad to admit that I didn't love this as much as I wanted to, somehow the bottle was lighter, creamier and it came out less airy and gentle looking. However it's a great peach color and I appreciate the shimmer - this would look great with a tan.

Do you like peach tones? If so, what's your favorite peach polish?

Peachy Graffitti

Today, there's more simple graffiti-style nail art, with the base being China Glaze - Peachy Keen. My hands look red for some reason, but at least the polish looks right. I used those nail art polishes with really skinny brushes in White first, then Black on top and pieces filled in with red. This is one of the easier nail art types to try, so give it a go if you're not sure or haven't tried it yet! 

Etude House - PK15 ♥

THIS POLISH. Oh my god, this polish!

I've not been excited about a colour for a long time and it's something amazing! A tiny, unassuming bottle of milky peach with a fine shimmer, I picked this up at an Asian mall and was looking forward to trying it. I wasn't expecting anything amazing, but maybe something to act as a sort-of-Orgasm dupe. 

I put it on... and was in love! This is a peachy-beige jelly with pink to golden duochrome shimmer which seems to come and go. The formula is great, I was wearing 3 coats, which gives a medium jelly coverage, while still showing the VNL. It dried fast and didn't chip for 4 days! I took it off after, but I could have kept going. My only problem is that my nails were more yellow than I expected, they offset the polish colour a little. 

I can say a million things, but let's have some photos do the talking:

You can see the shimmer better here

Flash shot!

 I feel like I've found a crazy nude jelly treasure... I think I need a backup.

Sure, it might sound weird to freak out over a nude polish when I'm into holos, duochromes and neons, but an amazing polish like that... I think it deserves all the praise it can get.

What are your thoughts on this polish?

Sorbet Swirl

This one sounded like a good idea, but I messed up on the stamping a little. It looks okay from a distance though! The polishes I used were Sally Hansen Instadri Snappy Sorbet and Lightning stamped over it. Very opaque cremes, I keep acquiring these strictly for the stamping most of the time because let's face it - Konad special polishes cost a lot and some are not opaque at all (I'm looking at YOU, special gold). I did like the color of Snappy Sorbet though, it's an incredible mango-peach and the name really fits because it's really neither. It's just orange enough to be bright and a little pink to separate it from oranges in my book. The pinkiness keeps it looking surprisingly nice on my skin tone and this is a big plus that China Glaze - Peachy Keen does not have. I think layering some shimmer effects polishes over this polish might be a good idea. 

What are your thoughts on peachy polish? Did you find one that works with your skin tone?

Spring Chevron nail art

I'm a bit behind in updates, but I wanted to share a tape manicure success I've had with masking tape!

I used China Glaze - Peachy Keen as a base and SH Instadry Whirlwind White and Blue Away for the taping experiment. Before when I did tape manis, I was using Scotch brand tape and had issues with tape getting left behind on the nail after I peel it off (even when I did it immediately ). This has caused me to shy away from tape manicures because they were a pain...until I got a helpful tip from someone on MUA telling me to use masking tape! Genius, I thought. It won't rip as easily and isn't as sticky. Needless to say, it worked perfectly. The tips aren't 100% even, but it came out better than I could've imagined.

What are your experiences with tape manicures? Have you tried em? Love or hate them?

China Glaze - Peachy Keen

China Glaze Peachy Keen is a polish I've waffled about with for about 5 months before finally buying it, I am glad I got it! It's a very opaque peach creme, leaning a little bit towards orange, as well as very bright. Peachy Keen impressed me on the formula, the first coat is a little streaky, but on the second coat it was solid and glowing! Its dries fast, glossy. I have been looking for a dupe for Chanel June and while I do not own it, Peachy Keen satisfies me in the same way. I think June is more of a jelly, but from seeing swatches in the store, they seem to compare nicely in terms of color. If I mix some clear polish with Peachy Keen, it would be more similar to June. Being a solid creme in 2 coats, Peachy Keen begs to be used for nail art both as a great base and working color. I'm going to experiment with this one eventually, it's too cute not to!

Sponge gradient tutorial!

Have you ever wondered about gradients on your nails? How to get it to fade without using an airbrush?

I want to show you my way of doing it...don't worry, it's very easy!

Sexy Bomb s32 vs s38

When I went on my mad Vancouver shopping spree for Sexy Bombs, I grabbed 2 very similar polishes, one was a milky pink and another was more of a peachy tone. Since they are so close to each other, I will be reviewing them together. They both contain pink metallic shimmer, and are both of similar opacity and application.  They also use the strange Sexy Bomb formula: runny yet opaque, sort of a creme with VERY fine metallic glitter, so it ends up being a subtle foily shimmer. They both apply like a dream and dry very fast. However, they do smell pretty strongly.

Read on for LOTS of pics!

NARS Orgasm polish

Orgasm is based on NARS's top selling blush of the same name. As the blush, it is a pinky peach base with golden shimmer. I've been lemming this FOREVER and when a Sephora opened here I bought this first thing.

 Now, while researching, I usually came across negative reviews. The formula was bad, streaky, the color dried orange, didn't look the same as in the bottle, etc.

I chose to disregard these, I thought "I can make it work. It'll good on my skin tone. It CAN'T look badly on me". With these desperate hopes of making it work, I purchased it and stared at the bottle. It's the best...so pink and the shimmer is very subtle. I wish it came out that way on the nails. When it dries (IF it ever dries) it does become flat orange... The shimmer comes through too much and kills the peachy pink, turning everything orange. That and it took about 3 coats to get the opacity you see here (not very opaque) and IT DID NOT DRY. It stayed squishy even under a coat of Seche Vite, which has never failed me. A day later and it's still getting nicks and scrapes. For 25 Canadian collars, this is a HUGE fail. 

This...has pretty much scared me away from most HE polishes. I keep hearing about Chanel stuck-upness in terms of customer service and the runny formula...keep hearing about NARS being streaky and runny. 

I found that if I stick to cheaper options, like WnW the results are great. The highest I'm willing to pay for a polish would probably be 12$ for OPI. Lesson learned...