Nail Art: Shimmer Polish

Showing posts with label Shimmer Polish. Show all posts

Hi guys, today I have another stunning Shimmer Polish to show you. This is Candace, which is a mixture of gold holo and black micro and hex glitters. You guys may recognise this as the base for yesterday's leopard print mani.

These photos show 2 coats over a base of W7 - Gold Mirror. The accent nail is 1 coat over Sinful Colors - Black on Black, all with top coat. This is a really sparkly polish, and I love how much it twinkles in the light. I also love that the fine black glitter just tones it down slightly, making it seem a little more classy in my opinion.

Naturally, I had to get some close-ups for you, it would have been rude not to! I love the depth of this polish, all those tiny glitters make for such an interesting visual.

The formula on this, just like all the other Shimmer Polishes I have tried, was really easy to work with. It has a good glitter-density, but not enough to make application tricky. Just like most other glitters, it dries a little gritty, so you do need a top coat to bring out the true beauty of this polish.
You can buy Shimmer Polish on Etsy here and follow her on Facebook here. Cindy also has a lovely blog where you can see swatches of her polishes here.
What do you guys think of this polish? Do you like it?

Hi guys, today I have somewhat of a double duty post for you, hence the ridiculously long title. I recently decided to join in FingerFood's Theme Buffet, which is a relaxed weekly challenge that takes place on Sunday's, hosted by the lovely Sam from FingerFood. The first prompt is animal print, which seemed like a perfect time to review another item from Winterberry Nail Art.
p.s. there's a discount code at the bottom :)

If you saw the first post where I showed you the whole order, you may have already guessed, but today I am using the leopard head charms. The base for this mani is Shimmer Polish - Candace (swatches coming soon), with W7 - Gold Mirror undies, and Sinful Colors - Black on Black on the accent nail. I drew the leopard print with my Barry M Nail Art Pen, which is really good by the way. The paint flows nicely and is easy to control. I didn't have to re-do any nails or even go over a single spot for opacity, and this is the first time I have used any brand of nail art pen, so it gets a big thumbs-up from me.

I attatched the charm with regular top coat, but I would advise using nail glue if you want it to last more than an hour or 2. I wore this for a couple of hours without losing them, but I wanted to be able to remove it quickly and easily, as I did this at the weekend when I had a bunch of untrieds calling to be worn! The charm itself is hollow at the back, but it is still a little bit weighty. It wasn't too bad, but as I'm not that used to 3D nail art I was aware that there was a little extra weight on that finger. And at least I'd notice if it came off though :) It just about fits my ring finger, but I do have very small hands and nails, so I imagine it would fit most people. The back also has a slight curve to it, to help it adhere to the nail better, which is a nice feature.

I wasn't 100% sure if I was going to mattify this or not when I started it, but it seemed a little too busy whilst glossy, even for my taste. I do have a couple of glossy pictures though, so I'll let you guys decide for yourselves. When it came to mattifying this design, I did have to apply the top coat really carefully around the charm, but it wasn't too hard :)

Anyway, as always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this design, matte or glossy? Also, what do you think of 3D nail art in general, do you wear it yourself, like it on others only, or not like it at all?

*Rachel has kindly given me a discount code to share with you guys :) Use the code PEPIPO15 at the checkout for 15% off all items, including sale items.

Don't forget to check out the other ladies who are chowing down on some animal print today, via the thumbnail below :)

Hi guys, today I have a gorgeous swatch of Shimmer Polish - Karen to share with you. This was the base for this mani from the 33 day challenge, and has been sitting in my un-posted folder for ages, so I thought it was about time it got it's turn in the spotlight! Karen is a stunning mix of lavender pink and purple glitter, with lots of other colours in small amounts. I won't try to name them all, as there are way too many. Cindy is a genius at complex glitter mixes, and always seems to know what colours really work together, but I don't think I could ever name every single type of glitter in any of her polishes :)

You have probably noticed that this is in a Barry M bottle - I bought this on Facebook ages ago, but when it arrived, the neck had broken off the bottle, as it wasn't wrapped very well. I managed to save almost enough to fill this bottle though, so all was not completely lost.

These pictures are 2 coats over Rimmel Lycra Pro - Ultra Violet, with SV top coat. I am very much in love with all of the Shimmer Polishes I own, and Karen is no exception.

What do you guys think of this polish? Do you like it?
You can buy Shimmer Polish on Etsy here and follow her on Facebook here. Cindy also has a lovely blog where you can see swatches of her polishes here.

Hi guys, I'm back for Day 32 of the #33DC, and I'm very sad that it's ending. I may jump into a Christmas challenge after this though, so that will be cool. The prompt for today is Shapes and I chose to go with this simple heart doodle design.

The base for this mani is 1 coat of Barry M - Gold Foil and 2 coats of Shimmer Polish - Candace. Candace is a mix of gold and gold holo hex glitter, and fine black glitter. When that was dry(ish) I quickly free handed the hearts with black acrylic paint, and top coated.

Although this was a very simple mani, I liked wearing it a lot. I think with a stunning glitter base like this, it's best to keep your design simple. You don't want it to look too busy, after all, the glitter is the star of the show!

What do you guys think? Do you like this mani, or do you think it's a little too simple?
Don't forget to check out what shapes the other Nail Tarts have done for this prompt, via the thumbnails below.

Hi guys, today I have the last (for a little while anyway) instalment of Fragrance Direct Friday and my first festive mani this year. This weekly feature will be going away for a little while, but instead, I will be posting about some fabulous budget polishes from elsewhere around the web on Saturdays. I have some really great shades that are quite hard to find swatches for online, so I'm looking forward to sharing all those beauties with you in the weeks to come!

The first polish I have to show you today is this very Christmas appropriate green from the Revlon Top Speed line. This is Emerald, and the formula on this beauty is divine! The photos show 1 coat, no top coat and no clean up. Yes, you did read that right, I didn't do clean-up. The formula on this is so easy to control that I didn't really need to. That has happened to me a total of 3 times now, so it's pretty big. There were a couple of streaks when I applied it, but it self-levelled nicely. Dry time was pretty short (not that I have much to compare, as I always use quick-dry top coat), and it dried nice and glossy.

This was 99p here, and they are still in stock, so if you need a dark green for Christmas I would absolutely recommend this. Naturally, I was compelled to do my first Christmas mani over this base. It would be rude not to!

The little trees were stamped from PUEEN42 with Barry M - Gold Foil, and the accent nail is 2 coats of Shimmer Polish - Candace.

The second polish I have to show you is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Lively Lilac which is available here for £1.49. This is 2 coats with top coat, apart from the ring finger which needed 3 coats to help cover some bad staining I have on that nail. It didn't quite do it, but never mind. Incidentally, that staining is from Brisk Blue from the same line of polish. It didn't stain when I wore it alone, but I used it as a base for a chunky glitter polish, and it left stains in spots under the larger pieces of glitter. That was a couple of weeks ago, and it's still pretty bad. Any tips on getting rid of them would be greatly appreciated : )

In the bottle, this appears to have some silver shimmer, but I couldn't really see it on the nail which was a shame. I picked this up because I know a lot of the Insta-Dri range are good for stamping, however I'm not so sure this one will. I'll try it anyway, and let you guys know how I get on, but I'm not holding my breath.

That aside, this is still a nice polish so I will still get some use from it, and I didn't spend a lot so I'm not too bummed about it. What do you guys think of these polishes?

Hi guys, sorry I didn't post yesterday, I was working on some nails, and time just flew by. It was almost midnight before I even realised, but I think it was worth it. I'll be posting the mani on Sunday so you can decide for yourselves then. : ) I am back today though, with Day 29 of the #33DC. I'm so sad that there's only 4 more days after this, I have enjoyed this challenge so much, and it has really pushed me to be better, and more adventurous. I am hoping I'll have time to join in on a Christmas challenge soon though, so hooray!

The prompt for today is your favourite pattern, and for me that has to be black lace. If I didn't have a lace stamping image, I would have gone with leopard print as that is a really close second, and I'm not sure if I can freehand lace. *Adds that to the ever-growing list of things to try*

The base for this mani was 2 coats of Rimmel Lycra Pro - Ultra Violet, and 2 coats of Shimmer Polish - Karen. You may notice that I'm holding a Barry M bottle in the photo, but that's just because poor Karen arrived with her neck broken, so I had to salvage what I could and chuck the bottle. I still love her though, and will be posting swatches of her soon! The lace image was stamped from PUEEN33 with Konad Black. This is actually the 4th time this particular image will be blogged, which sounds like nothing, however this blog is only 3 months old so that is quite a lot : D

I loved this mani, Karen is stunning, and would make me love this mani even more if that were in any way possible. It just adds so much depth to a fairly simple pattern! Now, if only I could stop getting so brush happy when doing clean-up, then all would be right in my world : D
What do you guys think, do you like this, or maybe think there's a little bit too much happening here for you?

Hi everyone, happy hump day! I'm back again for Day 11 of the #33DC and the prompt for today is 3D. I don't normally do a lot of 3D nails, mostly because I can't stop picking at them when I do. However, since this is a challenge, I decided to go for glittery stud-fest. And why not!

This was a pretty quick and easy mani to do, although it annoys me that the studs could be a bit straighter. In real life though, it's so darn sparkly you would never notice. I used a base coat of PVA glue so removal isn't so hard, then I used 2 coats of A-England - Avalon, and waited for that to dry fully. (I didn't want any bald patches if I had to push the studs around the nail quite a bit) Then I added 1 thick coat of Shimmer Polish - Caroline, and applied the studs immediately. They did need a bit of pushing, but that was partly because I didn't know how many studs would fit on each nail to begin with. 2 coats of top coat to keep them on, and viola!

I did this last night, and I still have all my studs on now, so that's a good sign. These are just so blingy in real life, I like them so much more than I thought I would! I'm also looking forward to what I have planned for Friday if I can pull it off. It's another new one for me, so I will be doing it tonight, just in case I need to try twice! Wish me luck : D

Don't forget to check out all the other awesome 3D mani's for today on the links below : D

Hi guys, did you have a good weekend? I'm back today with Day 10 of the #33DC and the prompt for today is flowers. First, I would like to apologise for the grainy-ness of my photo's today. I was fiddling around with my camera settings without really knowing what I was doing! (As you do) I appear to have fixed it now, but not before taking this mani off : ( Hopefully, it's not too bad for you guys to look at.

Flowers are not something I normally do, but I had painted roses on my friend once before, so I figured I'd give it another go for today. I started with a base of La Femme - Ice Blue Cream on all my fingers except for the index and pinkie, and used La Femme - Lilac Cream for those 2 nails instead. Then I added some stripes of Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream on the thumb and middle finger with my striping brush. On my index finger I added 2 coats of Shimmer - Karen and on the pinkie I used 2 coats of Shimmer - Caroline. For the roses, I got some violet acrylic paint, and mixed a little with white, and a little with black to get the colours for my high/low-lights. I then painted rough, messy circles with the original paint as a base for my roses, and added tiny strokes of the lighter and darker colours to create the "petals". Then on the glittery nails, I painted sections on either side with the same violet paint, and once that was dry I added 2 stripes of Ice Blue Cream to help tie them in with the rest of the design.