Tara's Talons Patchwork Quilt & Strawberry Shortcake

Tara's Talon Strawberry Shortcake and Patchwork Quilt

I've two gorgeously girly polishes from Tara's Talons to share! Firstly, here is Strawberry Shortcake, a rich, hot pink with a slight shimmer

Tara's Talons Strawberry Shortcake

 What a super pink! I love bright pinks - this is a warm, rosy toned one with just a hint of shimmer that makes it seem to glow from within, somehow. Application was perfect, the consistency is quite thin but highly pigmented, which makes it super-easy to apply. I hardly needed to do any clean up with this mani at all. I've noticed some non-glitter indies have a tendency to gloppiness but Tara has got the formula perfect here.  I used two coats here, with Seche Vite to finish off.

These macros really show off the shimmery glow!

The other polish Tara sent me was Patchwork Quilt; this is an icy shimmer of a base with multicoloured glitter of all sizes and shapes. 

Tara's Talons Patchwork Quilt

I layered Patchwork Quilt over Zoya Julie, a pretty grey-lavender pastel shimmer. This is two coats of Patchwork Quilt, as I wanted to get a layer of the shimmery base over some of the glitters to create more depth. I'm sure Patchwork Quilt would look great over white (or even several coats on its own) but I wanted a pale coloured mani today, hence my choice of Zoya Julie. I used a coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food to smooth the glitter out before adding a coat of Seche Vite quick drying topcoat. I was really happy with how this turned out!

Tara's Talons Patchwork Quilt over Zoya Julie

Again, the formula and application were flawless. Tara's Talons was one of the first UK Indie brands to launch, and I'm somewhat embarrassed to say these are the first of her polishes that I've tried. I'm highly impressed, and I'll be sure to be buying more colours soon :)

Tara's Talons Strawberry Shortcake and Patchwork Quilt were sent for review. You can buy Tara's Talons polishes either from Tara's Etsy or her Website. Readers can use the code SAVE10 on either site to get 10% off Tara's polishes!

Quirk So Bloody Miserable Collection - swatch and review

Quirk So Bloody Miserable Collection

I was over the moon when Kerrie, creator at Quirk polishes, asked me to review her second collection, So Bloody Miserable. She's already made some fabulous polishes, but these really hit my spot since the whole collection is themed on two of my favourite colours, pink and black............. and it includes matte glitters and circle glitters!

First up, here is Eponine, a mixture of satin pink hexes and black shard glitter.

Quirk Eponine

I wore Eponine over Chanel Azure; I loved how the satin and matte glitters contrasted with the sparkly polish underneath. Most glitter manis seem to be sparkly glitter over a plain base, so it was fun to reverse things in this one! Eponine was really easy to apply, no fishing required. I used two light coats of Eponine, and smoothed it out with a coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food and a coat of Seche Vite to add a shine - Glitter Food dries to a satiny-semi matte finish but I forgive it that since it does such a good job of smoothing out glitter manis!

Quirk Eponine

I love Eponine! I think it would look awesome over any mid-toned colour; I'm planning on wearing it over a yellow or brown (or maybe a yellow to brown gradient) next. Here are a couple of macros to show the glitters in a bit more detail:

Quirk Eponine

The next polish in the collection is Cosette, a combination of light pink and mushroom matte circle glitter. OMG! This is the one I really wanted to try, from the moment I saw Kerrie's first bottle shots! 

Quirk Cosette

My base for this is a gradient of Rescue Beauty Lounge Abiquiu and Bourjois Sunny Sunday. The application of Cosette takes a little more care and patience than the other three in the collection, but it's totally worth it. I needed to do a bit of fishing to get the glitter onto the brush, but I'd expect this with any glitter polish this size. Another big bonus with Cosette (for me anyway, I have quite pronounced c-curves) is that the circle glitters are just the right size to lay flat anywhere on my nails. I've been frustrated by some of the very big circle glitters because I can't get them to lie flat on most places on my nails. Again I used Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food and Seche Vite to finish the mani. 

Quirk Cosette

I loved this combination of colours! I wore this mani for about five days, until it grown out around my cuticles so much it looked untidy. I want to try Cosette over a dark, smoky shade next! Here are a couple of macros:

Quirk Cosette

This one is Fantine, a mix of matte pastel and iridescent glitters in various shapes, along with black shards. 

Quirk Fantine

I wanted to create something really delicate with this, but I couldn't really decide what colour to use....... so I did a sideways gradient with OPI  My Vampire is Buff and OPI Gargantuan Green Grape, then stamped over it in white using a zebra image from the Cheeky Wild At Heart Plate. 

Quirk Fantine

Lots of pretty, delicate colours in here, and the black gives it a very interesting edge. This is just one coat over the nail art, with NPB Glitter Food and Seche Vite to finish off.

Quirk Fantine

And finally, Madame Thenardier. This one was a bit of a surprise, because when I saw the bottle, I was expecting big iridescent circle glitter in a base of black micro glitter, but when I put it on my nails there were big black circles too! Awesome! There's also smaller iridescent glitter in various shapes in there as well. You can see them in my bottle macro shot, but I took that after I'd put the polish on my nails!

Quirk Madame Thenardier

The big iridescent dots are a pinky copper shade, so I did a pink to ochre gradient as my base for this mani (Nails Inc Hampstead Gardens and M&S Autograph Quick Dry Nail Colour in Cherry Red (strange choice of name, it's a lovely hot pink)). Madame Thenardier was easy to apply, the glitters are very generous, I just needed a single coat here. Finished off with NPB Glitter Food and Seche Vite as before.

Quirk Madame Thenardier

Quirk Madame Thenardier

My verdict is that all these polishes are all amazing, I've really enjoyed wearing them in these manis and I can't wait to wear them again in different colour combinations - so I'm giving Kerrie's brand a big thumbs-up! I guess that makes me an official Quirkette!

The So Bloody Miserable collection launch on Sunday 8 December 2013, from the new Quirk website. They will retail for £6 each. You can keep up with Kerrie on her Quirk Facebook Page. And of course, on her blog, Pish Posh and Polish. 

Quirk polishes were provided for review. All other products in this post are from my personal collection. 

Nail Art with Picture Polish Imperial

Picture Polish Imperial with stamping nail art

From the moment I saw it, Picture Polish Imperial (a Picture Polish blogger collaboration polish with Jeanette aka The Swatchaholic - check out her own swatches of this wonderful polish here) was an absolute must have! I don't have a purple anything quite like this. It's sort of jelly with a hint of a blue shimmer and some small coppery gold glitter:

Picture Polish Imperial 

I wore this on its own for a couple of days before I added the stamping (Cheeky Wild at Heart jumbo plate stamped with Nails Inc Uptown Glamour (yes, one of the free ones with Glamour magazine)) and dots. Dots are Bourjois Sunny Sunday and American Apparel Hassid.

Picture Polish Imperial with stamping nail art

Here are some closer shots; my DSLR has turned the colour a bit warmer than it is in real life :(

Picture Polish Imperial with stamping nail art

All products in this post were purchased by me, apart from Nails Inc which was a magazine freebie. Picture Polish Imperial is available from the Picture Polish website, or through their international network of suppliers including Llarowe (worldwide) and Sally Magpies (UK).