Sparkling Spring Manicure

I have cabin fever, big time, so I’ve been gravitating toward colors that are reminiscent of spring flowers, like this manicure! I wish the lighting had been better for this, but the sun is rarely out, and this is the best natural light I had at the time.

The taupe/purple base is NARS Night Rider. It has a ton of silver shimmer and flakies in it; so much that it’s difficult to remove! On top of that, I added Butter London Stardust. This is an amazing silver holographic topper. Finally, the accent nail is Zoya’s Pixie Dust polish in Vespa. The result was a very spring oriented manicure that was SO sparkly!

My favorite polish of the three is probably Stardust. I definitely recommend checking it out in person!

What combinations have you been reaching for lately?

NARS Yoshiwara! A Very Sexy Red!

Sometimes it is just fun to wear bright red, isn’t it? Red is the ultimate nail polish color. It’s classic, clean, and feminine. I saw swatches of NARS Yoshiwara and thought it was the prettiest red I had ever seen! This was part of the Kuroko mini coffret. Well, I didn’t want the rest of the shades, so I went to trusty ol’ eBay to see if I could just get this bottle, and I was successful!

Yoshiwara is a clean, classic, sexy bright red. The formula of this polish is AMAZING. It just glides onto the nail and is very fluid. I used two coats, but think it would benefit from using three. Yoshiwara is also super glossy and dries really quickly! It is definitely worth scouring eBay for if you don’t want the entire Kuroko set.

Alphabet Challenge: NARS Orgasm

Good old NARS Orgasm. If you don’t know, this color is a major cult classic thanks to the blush of the same color/shade. Personally, I love the blush, so I just had to try the nail polish of the same name, right? Well, Orgasm does not disappoint! It is a beautiful peachy pink with gold shimmer.

The polish is very sheer; the above swatches are three coats. I don’t mind that it’s sheer. This kind of shade is one that lends itself to being sheer because it is so soft looking. The formula is good; maybe a little runny, but nothing difficult to control.

What do you think of this shade? Are you a fan of this NARS line?

Alphabet Challenge: NARS Koliary

NARS Koliary is part of the Spring 2012 NARS collaboration with designer Thakoon Panichgul. This is the only polish I have from the Thakoon collab, and I found it on eBay. The polishes from this collection were unfortunately limited edition, but they do have a good reputation for being some of NARS’ best polishes!

Koliary is a vibrant “cyan blue”. The formula of this polish is perfect and I love how bright this shade is! Luckily, there are similar shades out there if you can’t find this. According to Temptalia, Zoya Robyn is a little lighter than Koliary, so that might be a good match (I do not have Robyn so I can’t compare!).

I love this color and can’t wait to wear it on my toes this summer!

NARS Schiap

It is super cold and positively bleak outside this week. Once the holidays are over, I am always ready to fast forward into spring. It would be one thing if we had some snow for skiing and such, but no, it’s just gray and miserable out there. That is why I decided it was time for some HOT PINK polish!

NARS Schiap is a cool toned pink and super vibrant! I absolutely LOVE NARS eyeshadow and blush, but had never tried a nail polish before; I was very happy with the formula. It is incredibly pigmented and went on nicely. A little streaky on the first coat, but good with two. I layered it with OPI Pirouette My Whistle, one of my favorite glitters!

NARS polish is very expensive; I believe it is $18 per bottle, which is the same as Deborah Lippmann. That said, I recommend scouring eBay for NARS polish, because you can find it for much cheaper! I just fell in love with this color after seeing swatches of it online, and I don’t have any pinks quite like this one, certainly nothing as vibrant without being a neon. One negative about this polish is that it took a long time to dry, even with a fast dry top coat!

As you can see, my nails are still pretty short right now. My hands are also painfully dry. I need to really take some time to take care of my skin this week. Anyway, I see myself wearing Schiap a lot this summer, especially on my toes!