The Scholarly Nail just posted Pure Ice Heartbreaker over Revlon Royal, which reminded me that I’ve had this sitting in my drafts for a while! So without further adieu… this manicure started out as OPI Ski Teal We Drop with Pure Ice Heart Breaker on top. After doing that up, I noticed it had that special glowy look reminiscent of Rimmel Mania, a gorgeous deep green-blue duochrome. This got me thinking– is it possible to layer Pure Ice Heart Breaker with another polish to create a dupe? Let’s find out!

Index: Rimmel Mania
Middle: OPI Ski Teal We Drop with Pure Ice Heart Breaher
Ring: NYX Jungle
Pinkie: OPI Ski Teal We Drop with Pure Ice Heart Breaher

I’ve always heard NYX Jungle was a decent dupe for Rimmel Mania, but I find my OPI Ski Teal We Drop and Pure Ice Heart Breaker combo looks a little closer. NYX Jungle is too golden green.

So, with that in mind I changed things up and tried out a couple more layering combos:

Index: Rimmel Mania
Middle: Revlon Midnight Affair and Pure Ice Heart Breaker
Ring: Finger Paints Avante Garde Green and Pure Ice Heart Breaker
Pinkie: ORLY Meet Me Under the Mistletoe and Pure Ice Heart Breaker

Revlon Midnight Affair and Pure Ice Heart Breaker comes the closest, matching the darker polish colour, but it doesn’t match how freaking glowy and bright Rimmel Mania truly is! I’m still on the hunt for a fine dupe, but Rimmel Mania is one unique polish!

Oh boy did I ever have fun with this manicure! You’ll have to excuse the tip wear though, I had this on for a couple days before I had a chance to take photos.

Enough excuses– I’m sure you children of the 80s and 90s remember Lisa Frank, right? Or am I old? Wait, don’t answer that.

This started with two coats of white (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whrilwind White) to which I then randomly dabbed on neon polishes. The white makes the neons POP with less coats. I only used two coats per neon shade, all Color Club– Yum Gum, Raspberry Rush, I Always Get My Man-Darin, Get Your Lem-On, The Lime Starts Here, Wicked Sweet, and Gimmie a Grape Big Kiss. I then used black stamping polish from the Born Pretty Store and my new favourite stamping plate, also from the Born Pretty Store– M78!

As you can see, the lines on the M78 plate are very crisp. It’s a handy little stamping plate and I have more manicures using it lined up for you soon! The Born Pretty stamping polish is also awesome– no streaks, yayyy! I tend to get streaks when applying top coat to stamping polishes (Konad and Insta-Dri polishes) and have to wait for foreverrrr for the stamping polish to set. Not this time– I applied top coat almost right away and was pleased to see I didn’t end up with a smeared mess!

What do you think? Would you rock something so… work-friendly?;) I wore this to the office and haven’t been fired yet, so I suppose that’s a good sign!

Born Pretty sent the stamping polish and plate for review.

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, but I love me some duochromes. Here’s a lovely, and easily obtainable, one from Hard Candy. This is two coats of Hard Candy Beetle over black. I like putting thinner duochrome polishes over a black base. I find it makes the duochrome appear stronger. This polish shifts from a burgundy red to orange to almost an olive green. It was cloudy when I was taking photos of course, so the green tint didn’t quite make an appearance.

Over top of Hard Candy Beetle, I used Konad Special Black polish and Konad plate M71. I like the delicate floral print. It reminds me of a busy wallpaper.

What do you think? What are some of your favourite duochrome polishes? Anything else worth checking out from Hard Candy?

Jenna Froggy is giving away some Essence items! This is open internationally.

Jilltastic Nail Design is giving away some hand care items.

Beauty-Shoes-Nails-Fun is having a 4,000 Likes giveaway!

Organized Like Jen is giving away some Sephora by OPI and Julep! This is open internationally and ends May 15, 2013.

Lacquered Lover is giving away some OCC lip tars (okay, not nail polish, but these things are awesome!) This is open to U.S. residents only.

Over the last year or so, we saw major brands releasing duochrome polishes– finally! Some of them… well, “meh” comes to mind in describing them. Not quite as bright or awesome as a Sally Hansen Nail Prisms. There was one that really stood out– not only does it have a strong colour change, but it’s actually unique! I’m talking about Color Club Port-Folio, of course! This is two coats with some stampage on top!

Color Club Port-Folio shifts from a gorgeous purple to a deep mint green. Of all the duochromes I own and have seen, I’ve never come across one quite like this. I didn’t even need to layer it over black to make this baby pop!

And of course I can’t just wear plain polish. Over top is a fauxnad plate I picked up over at Ninja Polish, K01. This is stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep, which is one of my all-time favourite stamping polishes.

What do you think of Port-Folio? Do you own it? How do you like to wear it?

I guess we’ll start with my giveaway first;) I’m giving away a $25 voucher to the Born Pretty Store! This is open internationally and ends May 8, 2013.

Naked Without Polish is having a belated birthday giveaway. This is open to U.S. and international and ends May 31, 2013.

There’s a HUUUUUGE multi-blogger giveaway going on! Some prizes are U.S. only, but there are also international prizes to be won as well. Check it out!

Ashley is Polish Addicted is having a spring fling giveaway herself! This is open internationally (excluding Italy) and ends May 20, 2013.

In an attempt to buy less polish (and omg it’s working! I bought one bottle last month but it hasn’t arrived yet. A coworker gave me a polish on Monday that she didn’t care for, but I didn’t spend anything on it… this is getting SCARY) I’m getting more and more into layering random polishes.

This started with two coats of Sephora My Favorite Jeans (kind of like Revlon Royal but less squishy-looking). I then added a coat of Clarins 230 (a.k.a. UNICORN PEE!) and ended with a coat of Femme Fatale Suspended Starlight. I LOVE Suspended Starlight, but the bummer thing is that you really have to fish for those star and moon pieces. I think this may either be discontinued or just out of stock on Llarowe, but I’d recommend picking up Revlon Celestial FX if you’re keen on recreating this manicure. I bought Celestial for my mom and did her nails with that a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t have to go fishin’ for glitter.

For some reason, and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m not having luck with lighting today or maybe the blue glitter is diminishing it, but I can’t seem to get the green shift of Clarins 230 to show up. I prefer the glowy red shift anyway, and think it looks awesome with the stars over the blue background. SO GLOWY.

What do you think? What’s your favorurite way to wear unicorn pee polishes?

My best friend’s baby shower was Sunday, so I thought I’d do my nails up to celebrate! This is three coats of Girly Bits Twitterpated, a light purple holographic polish with an awesome pink-purple shimmer. Over that, I stamped the little heart and baby bottles from Bundle Monster plate BM-307 with Konad Special White polish. On my ring finger, I stamped a background from Bundle Monster plate BM-310 with Konad Special White polish and topped that with an owl with Bundle Monster plate BM-309 and Konad Special Black polish.

You can see the holo a bit better in the above, blurry photo.

Hoser (the best friend in question) is decorating her daughter’s room in lavender and owls, so I thought I’d be cute and matchy-matchy.

Congrats Hoser!

I guess we’ll start with my giveaway first;) I’m giving away a $25 voucher to the Born Pretty Store! This is open internationally and ends May 8, 2013.

Gnarly Gnails is having a 500 post giveaway! This is open internationally!

Piece of Pie is giving away a $20 voucher to the Born Pretty Store! This is open internationally and ends May 27, 2013!

Lace and Lacquers is giving away an anti-aging hand care kit! This is open to U.S. residents only and ends May 3, 2013!

Nailderella is giving away polishes from The New Black! This is open to EU residents only.

Konad Addict is giving away China Glaze texture polishes! This is open internationally and ends May 31, 2013.

That’s right– Sailor Moon nail polish! Indie polish company Sonnetarium came out with a trio of Sailor Moon-inspired nail polishes. I picked the trio up for my best friend Hoser’s birthday earlier this month and snuck in a bottle of Daydreams & Moonbeams for myself. I’ve been too scared to try it out because I really wanted to surprise my friend! So here it is, finally! Sonnetarium Daydreams & Moonbeams!

This is one coat of Sonnetarium Daydreams & Moonbeams over two coats of Soulstice Spa Venice (a shimmery metallic gold). I wanted to put Daydreams & Moonbeams over another polish because it is quite sheer and to my delight Venice was the perfect underwear for it! The end result looks very similar to what I see in the bottle of Daydreams & Moonbeams!

Sonnetarium Daydreams & Moonbeams is chock-full of tiny red and yellow glitters, small/medium blue and yellow glitters, and red hearts. The best part– I didn’t have to go fishing for glitter. Having to fish out the larger glitter pieces is a nightmare in some polishes, but I kept picking up those heart pieces every other time I dipped the brush into the bottle. Hooray!

I picked up my Sonnetarium polishes from Beauty Pop Shop. I ended up getting on a waiting list there in December/January, so I’m not sure what the deal is there right now.