Category Archives: burgundy

Matte Burgundy and Flakie Goodness!

I haven’t done up any flakies or matte manicures for a while, which is a shame because flakies and matte polishes is one of my favourite nail polish trends! This is two coats of OPI Diva of Geneva and one coat of Essie Shine of the Times followed by a coat of China Glaze Matte Magic.

I love how Shine of the Time shifts from orange to gold to green. And while I do enjoy these types of flakies over black polishes, reds and burgundys really seem to make the colour shift pop more. The dulling effect of the matte polish makes the flakies stand out even more– it lightens the polish and then BAM! It’s like a bonfire on my nails!

What are your favourite polishes to top with flakies? What are some of your favourite ways to wear matte polish?

Triumphant Return of the Glitter Gradient Manicure!

Well, I don’t know if it’s necessarily a triumphant return, but I haven’t done a glitter gradient in what feels like forever, so here you go!

I did this one up a little differently than usual. I started with OPI Tease-y Does It, and then used China Glaze GR8 and Bundle Monster plate BM-301 to stamp on a faux sponge effect. Usually I’d just sponge on some GR8 or whatever polish is my middle polish in a gradient manicure, but this stamp is such a good substitute that I needed to try it out. I then blobbed on some China Glaze Medallion for that blang-blang!

How does the stamp compare to just sponging on polish? Well, it saves you money on sponges I guess. You’re probably using just as much polish considering what you have to clean away from the stamp and the polish you scrape off the plate. Either is fine. I found that the stamp didn’t transfer that well to the very tips of my nails, but that’s probably just because they’re getting long again and I suck at distributing enough pressure.

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2012 – possible Essie Starry Starry Night dupe-ish?

About a month ago, piCture pOlish put out a call for bloggers looking to participate in Blog Fest 2012. I remember seeing posts last year and totally wanted in on it. My blog was accepted so now I get to share two beautiful piCture pOlish shades with you!

piCture pOlish sent two shades– Demeter and Orbit, which are both new to the piCture pOlish line.

I really like the shape of these bottles. I know that’s kind of a weird thing to zero in on right away, but I’m running out of room (okay, 200 polishes later, I’ve officially run out of room!) on my nail polish racks, so being able to store these skinny-side-out helps me fit more polishes. Because more polishes are clearly what I need! The handles are also nice and rubberized, like the Ozotic polish handles.

Each bottle also has a QR code on it, that will take you either directly to the piCture pOlish site or to the Network member’s (like a distributor), depending where it was purchased from.

Let’s start with Demeter! Demeter is a unique colour, which is saying something considering I have a crap ton of polish yet nothing even close to duping it in my collection. Demeter is this burgundy-blood-red-brown colour with holographic particles throughout (and is part of the piCture pOlish holographic line), but shows up more brown than anything on the nails. This is two coats of piCture pOlish Demeter. It was relatively opaque in one coat, but two gave it a more polished (hah!) look. Dry time was impressive, and application was smooth.

Beyond all that, Demeter is even snazzier because it was jointly created by Katie from Harlow & Co (a fellow Canadian and a distributor of awesome polishes!) for their new Collaboration Collection. This polish is an online exclusive to piCture pOlish and Harlow & Co.

The second shade… oh my goodness. This is two coats of piCture pOlish Orbit. I was so happy when I opened the package because what do I love? No, besides duochromes! I love dark blue polishes with sparkles. I’m forever hunting down Essie Starry Starry Night dupes (and even better– Bonne Bell Nail Gear in Scandal. Don’t judge me– those photos were taken before I bothered to clean up my manicures!). My most recent potential Starry Starry Night dupe was CM Midnight Impostor, which I wasn’t a fan of. The glitter was too large and just… an off colour? It was weird. Nice enough polish, just not doing it for me.

But Orbit? Oh god. I wish I had Essie Starry Starry Night to compare it to, but let’s just look at swatches online and fantasize. Orbit was opaque in one coat, but I like the extra coat– gives the finished product more dimension. Orbit has a beautiful medium-dark blue base with silver and blue sparkles. It dried a little slower than Demeter, but nothing too bad. The polish ended up being quite rough/grainy feeling once it dried, so I was worried it would be a topcoat-eater. No worry needed though, after one coat of Seche Vite it was all smooth!

I did a little side by side of piCture pOlish Orbit (index and ring) and CM Midnight Impostor (middle and pinkie) just for reference:

Orbit is a brand new “Mesh” shade, and unlike Demeter, this will be available online and from all the piCture pOlish network members/distributors. And that’s great news because this polish is fantastic!

For more information about piCture pOlish and their lines of polishes (they also sell Ozotics!) visit them on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

These polishes were sent for review by piCture pOlish, but the review is my own honest opinion!

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms – Burgundy Orchid

If you’ve been around for a bit, you know I love me some duochromes and multichromes! This is an oldie from the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms line in Burgundy Orchid.

This is two coats of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Burgundy Orchid over black. You can see the shift from purple to burgundy, and even a bit of copper.

I can’t get enough of these Nail Prisms! I have a few more coming in the mail that I can’t wait to show you soon! What are some of your favourite Nail Prisms, or for that matter, some of your favourite duochrome and multichrome polishes?