Monster Lacquer White Noise

White Noise combines 2 of my latest obsessions: indie polishes and BAR GLITTER!!!! I was oohing and aahing over the bottle before I even opened it because I knew it would look amazing.

It's ideally a topcoat, since the black and white matte bar glitter is in a clear base. For this swatch I started with a coat of CND Stickey base coat and applied one coat of White Noise over one coat of Catrice So Suit!, a semi-matte "soft touch finish" grey. I topped it with a coat of Seche Vite. I got great coverage and loved the end result!

White Noise was easy to apply and while it's not a total glitter bomb, it's packed with enough glitter pieces that you don't need to fish around for them and they apply pretty evenly with each stroke.

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Glitter haul and swatches!

This is my first "haul" post, and it was sort of unplanned. Funny how things happen sometimes.

A few weeks ago I got a mini bottle of ANNY Timeless Love, a blue glitter that I thought would make a good topcoat. Today I decided to try it out. So I applied two coats of a light base color, then started to apply Timeless Love...and it's NOT a topcoat.

It was even better!

Mid-week quickie

I've been so busy the last week with the start of school again! The kids in my class have been trickling in for their second and last year with me, and before that I spent two days setting up my classroom. That included A LOT of lifting. Meanwhile after school I've been preparing materials and projects for my class, writing up our monthly newsletter...anyone who thinks teaching Kindergarten is just singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and coloring should probably try it for a day ;-)

But, as much as I do love my job and the kids in my class, all that hasn't left me with much time for a proper manicure.

However, this afternoon I played around with an ANNY polish I got recently.

To create this look, I started with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.

I then painted on two coats of ANNY One and Only, a smoky lavender creme. The bottle I'm holding in the photo is one of their minis, which I really like because they're sold individually and not in sets, so you can get a smaller bottle of a color you want to experiment with or that you know you won't use too often, but without committing to buying or storing a full-size bottle.

I added a coat of Catrice A Million Styles in Have an Ice Day (can you tell how much I love that topcoat?) for the ring finger accent nail.

I then applied one coat of Essie To Dry For as a topcoat.

The Essie base and topcoats aren't my favorites, even though I have them. I still love the staying power CND Stickey Base Coat gives me and the shine, protection and quick but thorough drying I get from Seche Vite. But I'm guessing I'll change this polish in another day or two, and the Essie base and top coats should be fine until then.

I'm looking forward to trying more looks with this shade. It's a softer color than it photographs as, not quite as dark. And like all the ANNY polishes I've tried it has a great formula and applies easily.

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Glitter Topcoats - Part Two

For the second post on glitter topcoats I chose Catrice Cosmetics A Million Styles in Shake It! Flake It! This is a holo flake topcoat and they've been getting really popular, along with holo polishes.

I again chose a selection of different kinds of base colors to highlight the versatility of topcoats and the effects they can have.

For both photo sets, clockwise from top left: Essie Master Plan, ANNY Green Racing Drag, Essence Colour and Go Quick Drying Nail Polish in Camouflage, Essie PoppyRazzi Collection in Lights.

Before topcoat...

And here are the same colors with one coat of Shake It! Flake It!

Topped with holo flaky yumminess!

I was expecting more of an effect with the Master Plan and Lights, but I really loved how Shake It! Flake It! looked on the darker colors, especially the ANNY Green Racing Drag. It also brightened the Essence Camouflage beautifully, making it look less grey and drab.

Essence polishes are available in many European drugstores, but you can buy them in the US via Ulta.com

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Glitter topcoats - Part One

So I decided to do a short series on glitter topcoats and why I think they're so awesome. Probably the most obvious reason is versatility. You can turn a more sedate creme polish into a much more eye-catching look with just one coat. It's almost like doubling your collection of polishes with that extra bottle of topcoat!

The glitter topcoat I'm using in today's post is the same one I used on my ring finger accent nail in my previous post, Catrice Cosmetics A Million Styles in Have An Ice Day.

To show a few of the possibilities, I chose (clockwise from top left for all photo sets): Essie - Bikini So Teeny (a pastel), Essie - Sand Tropez (a muted neutral), Catrice Cosmetics - Caught on the Red Carpet (a classic starlet red), Chanel - Vendetta (a dark, vampy color; one coat).

So here's what I started with...

Just polish, no topcoat.

Nice enough colors on their own, right? Now these are the same colors coming up in the next group of photos, with one coat of Have An Ice Day, taken in regular indoor lighting.

Oooooh, glitter!

The topcoat definitely amps up the polishes and they take on a beautiful, fine particle glitter. 

But hang on, it gets better! 

In my previous post I wrote about how in direct sunlight Have An Ice Day takes on a fiery, prismatic shine. There haven't been too many sunny days in Munich recently, but the bright halogen bulbs in our entryway provide a pretty close comparison in the next set of pictures.

WOOOOOOOW, glitter!!!!!

Pretty cool, right? Even still photos don't fully do it justice; it looks gorgeous in motion. That's part of why the photos in the last set all look a bit different from each other, since I was moving my hand around trying to get a photo that captured the light best.

I've worn this topcoat with Bikini So Teeny twice (once on all fingers, the second time with one glitter accent nail) and really liked it, but I was really happy with how it turned out on the Vendetta. It almost looks like a photo of some of the "nebula" nail art photos I've seen, but not nearly as time-intensive!

A topcoat like this would be great not only for evening, but would also be fantastic for a daytime wedding outdoors. Bikini So Teeny could be a cute and easy "something blue"and the Sand Tropez or a similar neutral would be just muted enough even with the glitter to still be festive but not too distracting.

Now go out and grab yourself a bottle of glitter topcoat and start having some fun!

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