HPB Presents Smoke Nail Art

Hobby Polish Bloggers (HPB) presents New To You, our theme for January.

My "new to me" is smokey nail art. I saw this done by Chalkboard Nails and thought it would be something possible for me to try. My nail art skills are fairly limited!  You can see the tutorial HERE.

My black base is Formula X Dark Matter and the smoke was made using Essie Absolutely Shore.  This was easy enough to do. I actually wore this as a full mani on both hands. I'm curious to try this using different colours to see if it still has the same effect.
Make sure to check out the rest of the posts below!
*nothing to disclose*

An InLinkz Link-up

Sally Hansen inta-dri Halloween Limited Editions

Today I have three polishes from the Limited Edition Halloween shades from Sally Hansen. I just picked up the basic creme shades. White, orange, and black.

Up first is OMGhost. This is a white creme. Photos are one coat. There were issues with self leveling but top coat did correct it. It is on the thick side and with the giant brushes that this line has, I did find it a bit tricky to apply.

Pumpkin Queen is a medium orange creme. Although it's bright, it isn't a neon. It really does remind me of a pumpkin orange. This polish is on the thin side compared to most of the insta-dri line. I still had full coverage in two coats though. It dried down a bit so I added top coat.

And then there is Fright Night. This is a creme, but also has a bit of a jelly quality to it. Thinner then the white shade, but I still had full coverage in one coat. It was a bit of a generous coat though. If you prefer to apply in thin coats, you'll probably need two. This dried super shiny. I did notice some bubbles once I took the photos. This is from the polish as I don't have top coat with these pics.

I think these are great choices for staple polishes. They would also be great for nail art. I want to see if they work for stamping, but haven't had a chance yet. I do need to point out that I hate the bottles used for this line. Who thought a giant brush in the smallest bottle would be a good idea?
Thanks for the visit!

*polish purchased by me and all opinions are my own*

Canada Day Nail Stamping

My first Canada Day manicure for you.

My base colours are Cult Nails Nevermore and Tempest and OPI Coca-Cola Red. Index finger is stamped with Sally Hansen Silver Sweep using MoYou Mother Nature 07. Middle and ring fingers are plate BM-H11 using Rica Whiteout and Mundo de Unas Black. Pinky is plate BM-004 with Silver Sweep again.

Thanks for the visit. I hope to be back soon with more patriotic nail art for you!  

Powder Perfect Magnus Bane and Downworlder

I was really excited that Harlow & Co. brought in some of the Powder Perfect line. I love being able to try new brands. And I seem to have a weakness for Aussie indie brands. Powder Perfect polishes are 5 free and come in 13 ml bottles. Both of these shades are based on the Mortal Instruments book series. Yes please!

Magnus Bane is a black jelly based polish full of glitter. In fact, there is so much purple micro shimmer in it that it does look more purple then black. All the glitter didn't interfere with application. It went on easily and I had full coverage with two medium coats. Smoothed out perfectly with one coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

Downworlder is a deep blue jelly with holographic glitter in silver, blue, and teal. Not as densely packed as Magnus Bane. I used three thin coats. And again, one coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top smoothed everything out. No issues to report with application. Has a great squishy look to it.

I was really happy with both of these polishes. I can't wait to try more from this brand!

Powder Perfect links STORE | FACEBOOK | ETSY or available from Harlow & Co. if you live outside of Australia. I believe these are also available internationally from Edgy Polish. Thank you for visiting today and I hope you enjoyed.
Also, please excuse the different watermarks. I've been trying to figure out photoshop for the last month. I've managed to add text and crop so far. It will be the death of me, I swear!

Mentality Polish Divergent

Divergent is a newer release from Mentality.

This is a black leaning dark purple holographic polish. Two coats for full coverage. Could be a one coater if I had applied more carefully. This dries to a semi matte finish, so you will need top coat to bring out the full holo effect. Top coat will also help with leveling issues. I did have a few. Overall, I was pretty happy with this one!
First pics are in shade followed by indirect sun. In the shade it appears more of just a black holo then it does in sun.

Mentality polish can be found at their site HERE. International shipping is available, but there are some restrictions. I purchased this from Harlow & Co which also ships worldwide.
Thanks for dropping by! Hope you have a great weekend.

*polish purchased by me and all opinions are my own*

Lead Light Nail Stamping and Glitter oh my!

Hello everyone.  I'm back with more lead light stamping for you today.  Or, as I like to call it, paint by numbers.  I know, I am dating myself ; ) And glitter of course!
I'll list all the polishes used after the photos.

The base colour for all nails is Color Club Look, Don't Tusk. The stamping is Mentality Scoundrel and MoYou London plate pro 08. The glitter accent nails are done with Glam Polish Day Dreamer. The lead lighting is done with L'Oreal jellies in Lilac Coolers, Creme de Mint, Bananarama Love,  Jolly Lolly, and Berry Nice.
For those that have tried this technique using the OPI Sheer Tints, I have to mention that the L'Oreals work much better.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed!
Credit for this technique goes to Messy Mansion.

*all products purchased by me*

Formula X for Sephora Omni and Bionic

Formula X for Sephora is their new line of polish. To view the collection please visit Sephora.

Omni is a royal blue creme polish. The formula had great coverage, but didn't self level. Top coat did help, but not completely. Photos are two coats with top coat. No issues with staining.

Bionic is a matte glitter topper. Various sizes of matte black and matte pale lime green glitter. Photos show one coat of Bionic. No digging or placement of glitter was necessary. No top coat used in photos.

Overall thoughts are I love Bionic! Omni didn't really do anything for me. Of course, blue isn't usually a fave of mine, so that could be part of the problem.
Thanks for stopping in today. Hope to see you back soon!

*polish purchased by me and all opinions are my own*

Oh Canada nail art

Today is a better late then never post. These are the nails I was sporting for last weekends gold medal hockey game at the Olympics. Can you guess who I was cheering for? Go Canada !!!


White is Cult Nails Tempest. Black is Cult Nails Nevermore. Red is Sally Hansen xtreme wear in Pucker Up. I made the maple leaf decal and then applied it to the nail. Crooked ;) Oh well. This was my first attempt at a braided nail, or fishtail nail. Not sure which is the correct term? Think it turned out all right.

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope to see you back soon !!

Zoya Dahlia swatches

Dahlia is a PixieDust shade from Zoya. Personally Zoya makes my favourite textured polishes.

Dahlia is black with fine silver glitter. Opaque in two coats. No top coat, of course. Some of the PixieDusts do look good with top coat, but I prefer them without.

Being in Canada I have few options to purchase these. My go to is Nail Polish Canada. I sometimes can find them at Winners. How do you guys feel about textured polish. Is the fad done? I think they might stick around a bit longer. Also, just an FYI, I think the PixieDusts are great on toes! Try it out.

*polish purchased by me and all opinions are my own*

Julep Cleopatra black latex polish

Julep Cleopatra is a black polish with a waxy finish. Please note that this does not contain latex. I actually really like this type of finish. I even have the Wax That top coat from Cult Nails so I can do this to all my polish. So even though I like this type of polish, this particular one just didn't cut it. You need to apply VERY precisely or else it will be noticeable where you missed or applied too much. You'll notice this in my photos. I like my polish to be a bit forgiving when it comes to this. Or usually a top coat will help to even things out, but this is designed to be worn without top coat. You'll also notice that I ended up with some little clumps of something (pigment maybe) on a couple of the nails. Really unappealing to look at! This is two coats of Cleopatra with no top coat.

So this is ending up in my nail art only pile! A disappointment to be sure. Thoughts? Am I the only one that has mysterious clumps in their polish?  Thanks for stopping in today. Hope you all have a nice weekend.

*polish purchased by me and all opinions are my own*

Cult Nails with a breast cancer awareness spin

I'm sure you are all aware that October is breast cancer awareness month. I thought I would do a pink manicure but a little differently! Basically just went with a brighter pink then most and did some swirls instead of ribbons. Nothing earth shattering!

All products used in this are from Cult Nails except for the base coat. I have Morning Glory, which is a magenta with a wax finish, Nevermore is a super shiny, opaque black, and Tempest in white. Top coats used were Wax That and Wicked Fast.

Cult Nails can be purchased HERE. They also have a list of other retailers at the bottom of the page.

Thanks for visiting today!

*polish purchased by me and all opinions are my own*