Orange dots!

Zoya Jacqueline with orange dots

I'm getting more and more fond of dots! For this bright, jolly mani I used a base of Zoya Jacqueline and added big dots using an old Dior Addict polish, Orange Artifice. I love the finished effect! Not much more to say about this - here are a few pictures from various angles......

Zoya Jacqueline with orange dots

After a couple of days I decided to add a bit of black. I was going to add zebra stripes, but when I started freehanding stripes on my thumb I thought that much  black overpowered the dots, and, because the mani had plenty of topcoat on, I was able to remove the bit of black polish I'd applied before it dried properly without too much damage. So I added black glitter instead - I chose Nail Laquer UK Dog Days which is a variety of black hexes, squares and microglitter in a clear base with a sprinkling of multicoloured glitter in various sizes, shapes and finishes (matte, holo, metallic) to give it a bit of extra interest.

Zoya Jacqueline with orange dots with Nail Lacquer UK Dog Days

I love this glitter - I'm a great fan of all black glitter but I think the touch of bright colours really adds an extra lift. I used two coats of Nail Laquer UK Dog Days for this mani, smoothed out with a coat of Gelous and a final coat of Seche Vite quick drying top coat.

Zoya Jacqueline with orange dots with Nail Lacquer UK Dog Days

I purchased Nail Lacquer UK Dog Days from AJ's Etsy Shop. I've had the orange Dior about ten years and Zoya Jacqueline was a gift from a friend this Spring.

An InLinkz Link-up

Pocket Money Polishes Magic with Dior Waterlily and Chanel Paradoxal

Pocket Money Polishes Magic with Dior Waterlily and Chanel Paradoxal

This is one of Charlie's new August glitter toppers - it's called *Magic* and it really is a magic combination of colours! There's lime / neon green hexes and squares, some aqua holo hexes, dark satiny purple hexes and a nice smattering of tiny greenish-gold glitter in the background which pulls the whole thing together!

I wanted to use a base that wouldn't fight with the bright colour in Magic, so I decided on a gradient with Dior Waterlily and Chanel Paradoxal - these colours are darker and more muted shades of the colours in the glitters in Magic itself. I didn't get pictures of the gradient without the glitter - sorry - as I was being a bit lazy and didn't bother cleaning up until I'd finished everything! I used a damp makeup sponge to to the gradient; I painted my nails first with Waterlily, let them dry a bit, then I slopped a blob of Paradoxal and a blob of Waterlily onto a sheet of plastic then smooshed the colours together a bit with my sponge before dabbing them onto my nails for the gradient. When the colours for a gradient are as different as this, I think it's worth taking a bit of extra time and care to get the blending smooth - I'm pleased with how this turned out :)

Pocket Money Polishes Magic with Dior Waterlily and Chanel Paradoxal

Here's a macro shot of Magic in the bottle to show all the lovely glitters:

And a couple of macros of it on my nails:

Pocket Money Polishes Magic with Dior Waterlily and Chanel Paradoxal

I love the combination of colours in Magic. I've noticed with some indies that the first few colours that release are great, then they kind of run out of ideas and the polishes start to get boring. That doesn't seem to be the case with Charlie. This is her third collection, and the colours seem to be getting better and better. I've got a few more new ones to share in the next couple of weeks :D

I bought Pocket Money Polishes direct from Charlie at her Website; she makes quite small batches but she does restock regularly. You can follow Charlie on Facebook for more information about her polishes too. Chanel Paradoxal and Dior Waterlily are a couple of old stalwarts from my stash!

Dior Lime

Dior Lime

Spring green is one of my absolute favourite colours, so Dior Lime was an instant lemming the moment I saw it. One of Dior's Spring / Cruise collection colours (along with Dior Mango) from earlier this year, I'm not sure it ever made it to the UK Dior counters, but a lovely polish friend in the US ordered this from Dior Boutique for me :)  I was a little wary of buying, as I do have quite a few colours in this family - for example Illamasqua Smash and Gosh Early Green, but Sheila at Pointless Cafe included a comparison of these two in her review of Dior Lime that totally put my mind at rest.

Dior Lime

The colour and formula are wonderful. The finish is ever so slightly jellyish; I used three coats plus Seche Vite quick drying topcoat for this mani.

Dior Lime

I added a lovely new yellow and green glitter to this mani after a couple of days - but I'm saving my pictures of that one for a post about the glitter polish itself later this week!

Dior Mango, Elevation Daisen and Essie Action!

Dior Mango with Elevation Daisen and Essie Action 

This blog needs some colour! My last few posts have all been about neutral polishes, so time for a change...........Dior Mango is a polish I've been lusting after for a while. And whilst it didn't disappoint in the least, once it was on my nails I wanted to add something a bit extra to make it more special!

Here's Dior Mango on it's own. It's a wonderful colour, and the formula and application are perfect. Two coats with Seche Vite quick drying top coat:

Dior Mango

I wore Mango alone for a couple of days, then I added a coat of Elevation Daisen, which is a lovely glitter topper with circular glitter in various sizes and shades of pink, plus iridescent microglitter in the background. In my last mani with Daisen I used a contrasting background, Rescue Beauty Lounge Abiquiu, but this time I was inspired by this gorgeous mani by Sminkan and I wanted to pair pink circle glitter with orange. I wanted to create a sandwich / jelly effect rather than full on bling, but Dior Mango is too dense for that, so I used a thin coat of Essie Action, which is a bright orange neon and worked perfectly. Essie Action also turned up the brightness of the orange a few notches, which I like! 

Dior Mango with Elevation Daisen and Essie Action 

And a couple of macros to show the detail in the glitter:

Dior Mango with Elevation Daisen and Essie Action 

I didn't purposely place the little glitter on top of the big one on my index finger, but I love how it turned out! And a fuzzy abstract pic to finish with.....

Dior Mango with Elevation Daisen and Essie Action 

I'd been lemming Dior Mango since I first saw swatches when it was released earlier this year, and after several months of stalking the Dior counters without success, I asked a friend in the US to order it from Dior Boutique for me. I got my Elevation Daisen in a swap but it's still a current Elevation colour and Lulu does keep restocking it. You can buy Elevation polishes at Lulu's website http://elevationpolish.bigcartel.com/ and she posts about restocks, new colours etc in her blog http://lovebrownnailpolish.wordpress.com/category/elevation-polish/. Llarowe recently started selling a few Elevation polishes too! Essie Action is readily available; I can't actually remember where I bought mine. I'm not sure I'd really recommend Essie Action though, as the pigment in my bottle settled quite badly and all got stuck up in the brush - it needs a lot of shaking to make it usable. I've seen other comments about this happening too, so I don't think I just got a bad bottle or I've stored it badly.