Review: Sephora Formula X Voltage

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Sephora Formula X polishes.  I love them, because they're gorgeous and hate them because they're $15 each.  I hate them a bit more for being so gorgeous I'll PAY $15 each.  After Outburst was so stunning the other day, I had to get the red one, Voltage.  Next pay I'll probably get the other three.  Sigh.  Let's bask in sparkliness, shall we?

Voltage is an absolutely amazingly awesome red jelly polish, packed with different sizes of gold holo glitter.  I don't know what it is, but I'm obsessed with the layered effect you get with these polishes.  I didn't want to have to worry about opacity here so I started off with a thin coat of Urban Outfitters Spiked Punch.  I then layered three coats of Voltage on the top.  You can get away with two but sparklies so three for me.  I sealed everything in with a coat of Seche Vite and stuck on some Hex Nail Jewelry because I like them for accents.  Sparkly!

The Verdict: Of course I love this.  My fingers still hate red polish but don't care, this is too awesome.  The formula is great - you don't have to dig for glitter - and it's just sparkly all the time.  I'm sitting here at work under fluorescent and natural light and they're rainbowing all over the place.  I'm just sad I'm going to have to buy the other three now.  At $15 each :( silly Canada.

My Nails Are Covered in Glitter and No Two Pieces Are The Same, I Checked!

When you've done as many posts as I have, coming up with new content gets really difficult!  You end up having to be creative, even if it means throwing on all the glitter you have on your nails.  Which is awesome, because I'm not the biggest fan of the more subdued manis.  If it hurts a little to look at, that's what I want.  Let's take a look at what it looks like when you cover your nails in glitter, with no two pieces alike on an individual, nail, shall we?

I got paid on Friday so of course that means I'm going to go to Sephora and choose another of the Formula X polishes.  It's getting a little harder to choose as I already have the more interesting polishes but Freaky Like Freud is so sparkly it just has to come with me.  I started by applying a coat of Sally Hansen Celeb City because I wasn't sure of how opaque Freaky would be.  After the silver, I applied two coats of the glitter.  It's worth putting underwear on this polish.  Next, I applied top coat all over a nail and went nuts with the glitter.  When you're doing this "random" glitter pattern, start with the big pieces and work your way down to the tiny pieces.  When you're done it's best to apply two coats of Seche Vite because you don't want your larger pieces coming off. 

The Verdict:  I really like how nuts and sparkly this looks.  So glad I have so many different shapes and finishes in my glitter, makes this kind of mani really interesting to look at.  I also love how sparkly Freaky is.  Definitely worth it.  Sparkly!

MEGA-SPARKLIES YESSSSSSSSS GOOD TITLE, LAURA

Ok so this may look familiar.  I have used this glitter before, it's just that it's so sparkly, I can't help it. Like, the most sparkly.  Sure, it's a pain because you have to be careful you don't get two pieces stuck together and the glitter won't sit flat flat but LOOK AT THE SPARKLIES.  I even made a time-lapse video of how to do it!  It's like, if I say I'll do something a thousand times, I might actually do it! Also, sorry about the lobster fingers, sparklies > normal skin tone. 

I wanted a really sparkly base to match the glitter so I started off here with two coats of Sephora Formula X Freaky Like Freud, a ridiculously sparkly micro-glitter polish.  Then, I applied my usual thick coat of top coat down the middle of my nail, laid down my first column of glitter then laid out each side.  The good thing about using matching base colours is that you don't really have to bother about cutting your glitter to fit.  Looks better without it for once.   Two coats of Seche Vite and you're done.  Just make sure you press all the glitter down as you go.

The Verdict: THIS CAME OUT SO SPARKLY I CAN'T EVEN WORDS GOOD. Like, SO SPARKLY. LIKE, SO SPARKLY. I love you, glitter, for always.

Minimalist Carmen Miranda Nails!

I don't have quite the same volume of time free to do my nails I used to, because I now have to commute 20 whole minutes to get to work and I keep falling asleep at crazy early times.  This usually results in me slapping on the nearest polish I can get away with two coats of and then accenting with as many charms I fancy at the time.  Charms are the best for making your nails fancy with no effort what-so-ever.  Yesterday I felt like wearing smiley-face charms with pineapples on top.  It took stablenails on Instagram pointing it out that I'd inadvertently created minimalist Carmen Miranda nails.  THIS PLEASES ME, THANK YOU STABLENAILS. 

To start, I applied three coats of Sephora Formula X Equinox, a really pretty foily purple duochrome polish.  I know I said two but this really does look better with three.  After sealing said coats off with Seche Vite, I used nail glue to apply my Sparkly Shop Smiley Face and Pineapple charms.   I love these charms so much, like, LOOK AT THEM.  Especially the pineapples. They're small and flat so they even stay on well, if you're not the type for giant King Cobras.  I wear those cobras so much, they make me feel badass.  Anyway, minimalist Carmen Miranda nails!  Woo!

The Verdict:  Sure, I'm biased with these charms cos I chose them in the first place but LOOK AT THEM.  I can't believe I didn't notice what the combo looked like too.  Woo for crazy charms!

DON'T FORGET, IF YOU WANT 15% OFF AT THE SPARKLY SHOP, USE THE CODE BLOGGYPANTS.  I WANT EVERYONE TO HAVE CHARMS AND SPARKLIES.  Totally not for money, I swear.

Pink Mega-Sparkly Nails!

It's hardly a secret how much I love sparklies.  If it were at all practical, I would make my middle name Sparkly.  Laura Sparkly Tucker.  That does have a nice ring to it.  Anyway, this adoration of all the sparklies means just about my favourite thing ever is dazzle glitter.  It's like a bunch of tiny pieces of glitter were smushed together into a larger piece.  And oh, so sparklies.  I've done red and silver manis using this glitter before so that's the perfect excuse to use the pink.  That makes sense, right? 

For once, I actually have a video to show you how to do this.  It's exactly the same process here.  I started with a similar base polish - in this case the gorgeous Sephora Formula X Fine like Einstein - and applied two coats.  When using dazzle glitter, it helps to have a holo base in a similar tone. Means you don't have to spend as much time filling in the spaces around your cuticles because the gaps just don't show that much.  I then applied my usual line of glitter down the middle of my nail, filled out each size and trimmed any excess glitter off the ends of my nails.  Two coats of Seche Vite is good here too. 

The Verdict:  Well, this is awesomely sparkly and dazzly and of course I love it.  The base polish did its job, it didn't even really show when I lost a few pieces of the ends of my nails over the course of the day.  

You can find this glitter in a set with three other colours over at The Sparkly Shop.  I totally wouldn't hate it if you just had a look, sorry!

31DC2014 Day X: Flowers! Lots of them!

Less complaining, more nails is now my motto and dammit that's a thing I'mma do.  Let's call these my nails for the Flowers prompt of the 31DC2014.  I rarely have a concrete idea in mind when I do my nails and this a good idea of how an idea evolves into pretty decent nails, if I do say so myself.  Let's take a look, shall we?

Rather than go through the same old steps of how I did this - you can look at any other post for that - let's go through how this came about, shall we, stream of consciousness style!  "Ok flowers.  Flowers.  Hmm.  Well, I could make flowers out of circle glitter. Ooh those white dots would work well.  Ok, so what do they go with?  I have those white daisy charms that I keep having to order in for the shop.  I'm sensing a theme here!  Ok, so I have two different kinds of daisies.  IN THE GRASS.  No, not that green, not that one or that or that or ohhh sparkly let's go with Formula X Lightning, any excuse to use those polishes.  It needs a base though... not that green not that not that yess Revlon Posh is perfect.  Two coast of that, two coats of Lightning, glue the charms on dammit get off my finger charm stupid glue ok yes it definitely needs more glitter daisies oh yes slather on that too thick top coat gotta buy more ok top coat aaarouuund the charms and done."  

The Verdict:  I'm actually really happy with how this turned out, even though it's green and I'm not super into that.  The flowers were all nice and flowery too.  Woo!