Swatch & Review: Picture Polish Bordeaux & Ornate

Hi guys!

I hope you all still remember me. Yes, I've been MIA for a little while, had personal issues going on and felt like I need to take a break from everything.  But things are better now, and I've been busy taking care of a puppy for the past 2 weeks. Yes! I finally got a puppy! Gosh she is an adorable little monster! Her name is Luna, and she is now 10 weeks old. She's a mix of Shiba Inu and Bichon. My little bundle of joy, and terror (sometimes, lol).

Anyway... Today I have 2 new Picture Polish collaboration shade to share with you guys, Bordeaux and Ornate. As you probably know, Picture Polish is one of my favorite brand. I'm never disappointed by the quality, beautiful shades and awesome formula. 

Bordeaux, is a deep red with scattered holo and flecks. It has great opacity despite of the squishy jelly finish. Dries very shiny and smooth. I used 2 coats on my swatches here, without top coat, just to show you how shiny it is. The first coat on my middle finger is slightly thicker than the rest, just in case you're wondering why it seems darker than the rest.

Ornate, is a purple scattered holo (it leans pink in some light, but mostly looks purple to me), with small gold and pink hex glitter. I love this combination, so gorgeous! It applies very easy. Other than shaking the bottle before use, I didn't try to fish the glitter out or anything. Every dip of a brush has just enough glitter on it. 
Opaque in just 2 coats, which is what I used here. I used one coat of HK Girl top coat. You might need 2 if you want a completely smooth surface. I can feel a very slightly texture after the top coat dries.

For once I didn't use artificial lighting for my swatches! All pics were taken using natural indoor lighting. I kinda like it, but can't really rely on the sun now that fall is here. I'm just enjoying whatever sunny days we have left.

Where to buy: Harlow & Co. or Picture Polish

Also, you might want to check out Harlow & Co. on Instagram, and go ahead and follow them. Katie is holding a fabulous giveaway there, make sure to enter! :)

**products were sent for my honest review

XO
Novi

Studded Spiral

Hi guys! Today's mani is a super simple and quick one! I'm wearing a Girly Bits shade called #islandtime, this was part of an LE trio released last year made exclusively for Gloss48. I have swatches of the trio here.
I created 2 accent nails using colour-shifted studs provided by Born pretty Store. You can find the product in this link. There are 3 different sizes, and mine is 1,5mm the smallest one. I attached the studs using the pointy end of an orange wood stick and top coat as the glue. Then I applied shiny top coat for the finishing touch.

This really took less than 10 minutes to get the accent nails done, and they seem to stick quite nicely, and these are the perfect size if you have a slim nail beds like mine! 
Don't forget, you can use my code NVG10 for all your purchases at BornPrettyStore.com to get 10% off.

XO
Novi

Summer Gradient & Stamping with Picture Polish and Born Pretty BP-L017

Hi guys! I'm back from the weekend, finished the third season of Orange is The New Black, twice. Yeah, I've had a productive weekend :p
Today I did a quite simple nail art, a gradient and stamping. The colours and plate I chose has a very summery themed. Perfect for the sunny days we have here. 

I'm also reviewing a Born Pretty Store plate that was sent to me a little while ago. Plate BP-L017, which can be found in this link, is a beach themed plate, complete from palm trees on the beach, sea shell, starfish, to underwater scenes. I had no issues with picking up the image, though I admit I was a bit lazy in wiping the plate clean between stamping so the image picked up stay clean and sharp. So the imperfection you may see here is purely my own fault. 

As you can see, I picked the starfish and palm trees design to use here. I also use a cute octopus design on my right hand. I stamped the designs using Mundo de Unas white, over a Picture Polish gradient, Coral Reef and Totes.

Don't forget, you can use my code NVG10 to get 10% off from your purchase at BornPrettyStore.com. They have variety of stamping plates, that I grow to love, plus a ton of other nail art stuff at affordable price.

**stamping plate was provided for my honest review

XO
Novi

Neon Splatter

I don't what went through my mind when I decided to do a splatter mani. I think I've done it once before, or maybe just attempted to. It was such.a.big.mess! Although, the result looks kind of fun, if you don't mind a messy look. 
I wanted to use a strong holo as the base, I was debating between Color Club Harp on It or Beyond, and went with the silver one. I used 5 different neon shades for the splatter, Models Own Sun Hat, Flip Flop, Color Club East Austin, OPI Juice Bar Hopping and Push & Pur-pull.

I thought this would be a fun mani for my weekend, but now I'm not so sure if I want to keep this. What's your weekend mani? 

XO
Novi

Hump Day Nail Art with Glam Polish

Hi guys! Am I the only one who's counting day and can't wait until Friday comes?? It's the new season of Orange Is The New Black! I binge watched season 1&2 last week to get ready for the new season. 
Anyway, today I did a sort of tribal-ish nail art look, they're basically just lines. Thick lines, thin lines, squiggly lines. I just don't know what to call it. So let's just take a look.

The thick lines are the sparkly Glam Polish Boing!, Pop!, and Yeah3x. The squiggly lines are Glam Polish Whoosh!, and the black and white used here are Cirque Carpe Diem and Memento Mori. All painted with my Winstonia detail brush #0000 and top coated with HK Girl top coat.

XO
Novi

Romantic Double Stamping with Born Pretty Store BP-L015

Hi guys! On this lovely Saturday, I'm showing you a nail art look done with a combination of stamping and the use of chevron vinyls. The plate I'm using for this manicure is provided by Born Pretty Store. I'm using 2 designs from plate BP-L015, which you can find in this link. Don't forget, you can use my code NVG10 and take 10% off your purchase!
I usually include a picture of the plate I'm reviewing, but I'm out of pure acetone and unable to clean the plate thoroughly for it to look nice in the pic. But all the designs are shown really clear on the link I provided. The full size designs are 20mmx15mm, there are 14 of them plus 9 smaller designs at the bottom.

The polishes I used are Romantically Involved, Dark Side of The Mood, and My Silk Tie, all from OPI 50 Shades of Grey collection. Plus Mundo de Unas black for the rose stamping over red. 
I used mini chevron vinyls to separate the top and bottom part of my nails, paint the red polish on top and the grey on the other half. I peeled the vinyls right away, and created a negative space between the colors. I applied top coat before I stamp over them. 
Since I'm using 2 different designs, prior to stamping, I placed a chevron vinyls over the negative space and a piece of tape to cover the half part I won't be working on. You want to be sure that the stamping polish is completely dry before you move on to the other half, or you'll risk on pulling the design off your nail with the tape, especially when you use MdU to stamp with. 

I'm quite satisfied with the finished look of this mani. Took a little longer to do than I expected, but worth it. I think it would make my life much easier had I chosen to use regular striping tape instead of chevron for the negative space. It's an option for you guys if you decided to give this a try! :)

XO
Novi

Cirque Colors Metropolis Collection - June Release: Golightly & Nolita Lolita

Hi guys! Not sure if you guys missed me, but I'm back. I struggled for a little while to even bring myself to sit long enough at my desk to start painting my nails, but I decided no one is gonna stop me from doing the thing I love! Plus these 2 polishes I got helped motivate me to start doing my nails again. 

The Metropolis Collection is a monthly release series of creme finished nail lacquers, highlighting the great city of New York. For the month of June, Cirque released 2 sweet, bright colors that are perfect to wear this spring/summer. I'll be showing them individually and worn together in a simple ruffian nail art with stripes accent. They are so perfect together! 

Both polishes have the same excellent formula, easy to apply, and opaque in 2 coats. Swatches are shown with 2 coats topped with Cirque Colors Liquid Laminate top coat.

Golightly

A tiffany blue creme

2 coats

Nolita Lolita

A bright pink creme

2 coats

The Metropolis Collection will be taking a break for the month of July and August, and will be back with new colors in September. 
These shades retail for USD 13.00 each, and can be purchased from www.cirquecolors.com or their stockist (such as Harlow&Co. and Nail Polish Canada). Complete list of their stockists can be found in this link.

Connect with Cirque Colors

Facebook - Instagram - Twitter - Pinterest

**Products were provided for my honest review

XO

Novi

Weaved Mani with Cirque Colors

A quick post to share my weekend mani, a basket weave look using 3 shades from Cirque Colors The Metropolitan collection, Doyers, Hudson, and Sunset Park. I used INM Northern Lights for the finish look, to add a bit sparkles. 

Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend!

XO
Novi

Glam Polish Pop! Nail Art

Ok, so I enjoyed doing comic-type graffiti nail art yesterday, which also happen to be the name of the polish. Today I'm back with another polish from the same collection by Glam Polish, Knockout part 2, with similar nail art as I did yesterday. 

I swear I think I'm starting to need a magnifier glass while doing my nail art. I always caught something that needed to be fixed while editing the photos, even then sometimes I need to look twice to find what I see on the screen, on my nails!

Oh well. I hope you're okay with some imperfection. Here goes, Pop!

If only I'm not on a long no buy (5 months and going strong, go me!), I would totally get the rest of the polishes from this collection and do this nail art for every single one of them!

Oh, and just in case you're not familiar with the brand (gasp!) or the collection, this one is called Pop! from Knockout collection part 2 released early this month (swatches & review for 3 of them can be found here)

XO

Novi

Glam Polish Boing! Nail Art

Hi! I'm back with a rather simple idea for a nail art. The idea comes from the names of Glam Polish Knockout Collection recently released. I have the swatches of 3 of them right here. 
I painted the name of the polish in a cartoon style, with the polish itself as the background, Glam Polish Boing!. The polishes I used are OPI Good Grief!, OPI Romantically Involved, Cirque Carpe Diem, and KBShimmer Eclipse.

XO

Novi

Neon Leopard Half-Moon Stripes

Heeyyyyy! Remember me? It's been a week! No reason whatsoever, I just suddenly didn't feel like painting my nails, at all. Not even a base coat for a whole week. Yeah.. I've been bad.
Anyway, I've had the idea to do this mani since last week, and finally did it today. I use the shades from last year's OPI Neon for this mani. It's super bright in person and kind of remind me of clowns for some reason....

My hand was so shaky painting these lines.. I couldn't believe one week off has so much impact on me. I guess I better keep on painting!

XO
Novi

Cirque Metropolis Collection - May Release: Hustle

Hi guys! I'm back with a monthly release from Cirque Colors. The Metropolis Collection is a monthly series of creme finish nail lacquers highlighting the great city of New York. For May, we have a bold chartreuse creme called Hustle.

The formula on Hustle is on the thick side, but it self-leveled pretty amazingly. I had doubts while applying it, cause it looked so uneven. But I looked away for a minute and voila! it totally smoothed out by itself. I used 2 coats with Cirque Holdfast base coat and Liquid Laminate top coat.
Now onto the colour, I feel that I need to mention that for some reason this leans a lot more yellow on me. I can only see hints of green on it in certain angle/lighting, most of the time I see this more like a bright mustard yellow. I took so many pics of this and they all look pretty much this way. I could've colour-corrected this to look like a chartreuse green, but I'd rather for you to see what I see. 
Also note that I have a warm skin tone with yellow undertone, that could have affected how certain colours look on me.

The first two pics were taken in my usual light box setup with daylight bulbs. 

Below pic was taken under direct sunlight (second day mani).

In the shade..

This is available from Cirque Colors starting May 1st, 2015, and from their stockists some time after that. You can find the complete list of their stockists in this link. 

Connect with Cirque Colors

Facebook - Instagram - Twitter - Pinterest

**Products were provided for my honest review

XO

Novi

Green Dotticure

I'm starting a new month with last month's manicure, haha. If you're following me on Instagram, maybe you remember I posted a beach mani a few days ago? Well, this is the one. It's so simple and yet I loved it so much I wore it for 4 full days! That's definitely a record. And when I removed them, they hadn't chipped at all and there's only very little tip wear. I was amazed, and then I remembered why I love OPI in the first place. They are so good on me.

My base is Damone Roberts 1968, the prettiest OPI green! Every time I wear this I regret not buying 2 bottles when they were on sale. I love this so much I want to wear it all the time! But at the same time I don't want to bottle to have noticeable fill line... You get that, right? Lol! I used OPI Christmas Gone Plaid for the dots and topped with HK Girl top coat. 

What is your favorite color that you have backups for your backup? :)

XO
Novi

Glam Polish Bling It On! Trio - Swatches & Review

Hi guys! I have awesome news for Glam Polish fans out there! If you're a micro glitter whore like me, you're gonna love these new shades I'm about to show you.

Rachel, the creative genius behind the brand, will be releasing the new Bling It On! trio on May 6th, 2015. This small collection consists of 3 super blinged out holographic shades packed with holographic micro glitter. 

For more pics and details, click below..