Glam Polish Mid-Winters Dream Collection - Swatches & Review

Hello everyone! 

I have another gorgeous Glam Polish collection to share with you all today.  This is the Mid-Winters Dream Collection, and it's full of the most beautiful icy pastels, with lots of holo glitter and silver glass flecks.  I know for Australians they get to have Summer while we have an awful Winter here in Canada, so it definitely compliments both seasons.  That's very unique from all the other Holiday Collections that come out this time of year, I would say, and I love it.

OPI Pure 18K Top Coat with Snowflake Nail Art + Tutorial!

Hello everyone!  And, Merry Christmas!

I've been obsessed with OPI Pure lately, the 18K White Gold & Silver top coat (I posted a little glimpse of it here).  I think I even like it more than the gold leaf top coats that were so popular this past year, and I absolutely loved those ones.  I think with this version, the white gold looks amazing over every single color, whereas with the gold, I feel like some colors suit it much better than others.

I don't have the OPI gold version (The Man With the Golden Gun), but compared to several of the other gold leaf top coats that I have, the formula of Pure is just perfection.  It has the perfect amount of clear base to white gold & silver, and it's just a dream to apply.  There are also lots of varying sizes of flakes, so you get really great coverage on the nail in just one coat.

I was looking forward to trying it over black, and the look is so chic and pretty, just as I imagined.

As you can see (or may have already seen on Instagram the other day), I added a snowflake on my ring finger, and I am very happy with how it turned out!  While I was googling photos of actual snowflakes, I came across one I thought was really cool, so I decided to try something similar with white polish, but of course I had to amp it up a little by adding some holo!

CND Blackjack (the best!), Nars Ecume, Square Hue Times Square, OPI Pure, and a size10/0 brush (from Michael’s)

Here’s a closeup that I posted on Instagram the other day:

I also filmed a tutorial of my snowflake, so I hope you all enjoy it.  Please let me know if you have any other questions or requests, and feel free to tag me @kgrdnr in your photos on Instagram if you try it! :)

I hope you all have an amazing holiday, and thank you for reading! :)

Kristin

Connect with me:

Instagram  |  Twitter  |  Facebook  |  Pinterest

Winter Forest - Snow Nail Art

Hello again!

Today, I have some more nail art to show you!  I have been in a wintery mood, despite the fact that I don't really enjoy winter here in Canada, but I created this nail art for the Nail Polish Canada Holiday Nail Art Challenge.  The theme for Week 1 is Snow!

The other day, I took a photo of my back yard; the snow had just fallen and coated the bare trees a lovely white.  It's quite a beautiful sight to wake up to in the morning (occasionally), so that was my inspiration for this design.

For the base of these nails, I used one coat of Essie Who Is the Boss, topped with one coat of Illamasqua Raindrops (this combo looks amazing by itself!).  Using a sponge, I added random spots of China Glaze White On White and Square Hue Portsmouth to give the base some depth.  The trees were painted using Square Hue Swahili Charm, and Iron Horse, and the snow is accented with a shimmery white by Cirque called Your Hand In Mine.

Square Hue Portsmouth, Square Essie Who Is the Boss, Illamasqua Raindrops, China Glaze White On White, Cirque Your Hand In Mine, Square Hue Swahili Charm (not pictured: Square Hue Iron Horse)

I am so proud of these nails.  This was my first time painting any sort of landscape on my nails.  It may have taken a few hours to complete, but I'm just so happy with the outcome that it was definitely worth it.

Thank you for reading! :)

Kristin

Join me on my other social networks:

Instagram  |  Twitter  |  Facebook  |  Pinterest

F.U.N Lacquer Christmas 2013 Collection - Swatches & Review

press sample

Today I have a really awesome Christmas collection to show you all from a brand called F.U.N Lacquer (or Fabulously Unique Nail Lacquer).  F.U.N Lacquer is a hand-made nail polish brand from Singapore.  The Christmas 2013 collection consists of six beautiful polishes; one holographic, three thermals, and two glitter toppers.  It's such a fun collection!

DECENTber is a red holographic polish.  I would say this a true red, which is quite rare for holos since they usually look pink.  It has a great formula; two coats was more than enough.  It doesn't have the strongest holo effect, but it's one of those that is much stronger in person than I could capture in my photos.

Wishing Star is a shimmery yellow thermal.  I'm not a huge fan of yellow so I thought I wouldn't like this one, but it turned out to be one of my favorites!  It's the most perfect sunshine yellow in it's cold state, and it's an icy pale yellow when it's warm.  I was surprised that the formula was not streaky or hard to apply at all, and I only used two coats for the photos.  The thermals in this collection dry to a matte finish, and I think the matte finish just enhances the beauty of Wishing Star.

Xmas 201"Tree" is a shimmery bright green thermal.  When it's warmed up, it transitions to an icy white with green shimmer, and it almost looks turquoise as it's transitioning; so gorgeous.  I love green, so this one was right up my alley.  It was also opaque in two coats, and once again it dried to a matte finish.

Icy Snow is a shimmery bright blue thermal.  It has a purple sheen to it that is just spectacular when the light hits at certain angles.  When it's warm, it turns an icy white with blue shimmer.  This one just glows, and it's definitely my favourite in this collection.  It needed only two coats to be opaque, and dried to a matte finish.  Icy Snow is the perfect name too!

 

You can see the bit of purple on my index in this photo!

Gold Mark is a holographic gold glitter topper.  There are a few sizes of gold holographic hexes, squares, and a really pretty gold flake shimmer in a clear base.  The glitter was so easy and smooth to apply, I used just one coat over Wishing Star for the photos below.

Winter Wonderland is a holographic silver glitter topper.  It's basically the silver version of Gold Mark, except it has a bit of iridescent glitter in the base which makes it really special and quite unique in my collection.  The formula was great on this one as well, I used one coat over Xmas 201"Tree" for the photos below.

I also added one coat of Gold Mark (ring & index) and Winter Wonderland (middle & pinky) on top of DECENTber for the photos below.  

You can really see the iridescent glitter in Winter Wonderland when it's matte as well.

The F.U.N Lacquer Christmas 2013 Collection is available for preorder now at funlacquer.storenvy.com, or you can purchase them individually starting November 11th ($13 US for full size, $7.50 US for minis).

Thank you for reading!

Kristin