Cirque Colors Metropolis Collection Swatches: November & December

Cirque's Metropolis collection, a series of creme nail polishes inspired by New York City, continues to grow! There are new polishes added to the line every month, and today's swatches cover the November and December releases. You can check out the September and October releases in my previous post.

Kickerbocker is a deep chocolate brown creme. It's very dark, almost black. Two coats.

Tavern On the Teal is a dark teal shade. It's slightly more green than my swatch shows here. Two coats.

The Devil Wears Cirque is a rich red creme. I love the name on this one so much. Two coats.

I don't have any complaints about the formula on these; they were all easy to apply, smooth, and glossy. The shades do feel very New York chic, though maybe I'm projecting a little too because of the collection name. "NYFW" does still reign supreme as my favorite Metropolis shade, though I do love the richness of Tavern on the Teal now, too.

The Metropolis collection is available now on CirqueColors.com, where each shade retails for $13.

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TUTORIAL: Give In to the Darkness, Inspired by Nail'd It!

Have you been keeping up with Oxygen's Nail'd It!, the nail art competition show? I've been watching it every week! I love how it starts off with a client-based challenge, and then moves into the high concept sculptural work. In this week's episode, three previous competitors are back for their second shot at the finale. Their challenge is to create nail art inspired by their nightmares.

Here's an insider tip: if you tune in to tonight's episode, you'll get to see yours truly! I'm sharing a quick tutorial for stenciled star nails during one of the commercial breaks. Eee!


Nail polishes used:
Cirque Colors Memento Mori
Sally Hansen Big Shiny top coat

My nightmare-inspired look represents my childhood fear of the dark. I've toughened up a bit since then, but can definitely still psych myself out at times when I'm all alone in a dark room. This design represents the darkness as an entity, creeping up on me. Be sure to watch the tutorial above to see how you can achieve this look for yourself!

Tune in tonight to Nail'd It at 9/8c, only on Oxygen. Keep up with the show on their Facebook page, and join the conversation by following Oxygen on Instagram and using the hashtags #NailedIt and #ShowMetheMani. Don't forget, I'm briefly on tonight's episode!

Disclosure: This post has is sponsored by reps from Oxygen and Nail'd It!. Press sample provided by Cirque Colors. All opinions are my own.

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Cirque Colors Metropolis Collection Swatches: September and October (Glossy & Matte)

Cirque's newest offering is their Metropolis collection: a series of creme nail polishes inspired by New York City. There are new polishes added to the line every month, and today's swatches cover the September and October releases. These polishes are all normal glossy cremes, but since I'm obsessed with all things matte, I wanted to share the shades with a matte topcoat as well. I think they all translate beautifully to matte.

NYFW was the release in September. It's a gorgeous, rich deep cobalt shade. It's a little darker than some of the other cobalts in my range. The formula was great and it covered nicely at two coats.

I've used Essie Matte About You as the matte topper in the second swatch.

Concrete Jungle is a concrete grey creme. Nice formula, covered evenly in two coats. This is a great and versatile shade, and would be a great manicure choice to complement any fall wardrobe!

La Vie Boheme is a black cherry creme. I wore this one as a full manicure, and I kept trying to pin the name of the color throughout the day... Was it plum? Was it raisin? Then finally... BLACK CHERRY! It was the perfect descriptor, to me. It's a very deep shade, looks very dark on the hand, but never so dark as to look black. Two coats.

The Metropolis collection is available now on CirqueColors.com, where each shade retails for $13. Be sure to keep an eye out for the November release, which should be hitting blogs soon!

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Chunky Sweater Nails Inspired by Very Emily

Today is the final day of the 31 Day Challenge! This month both flew by and went very slowly. Isn't it weird how time does that? The final prompt is "honor nails you love" and I've chosen Very Emily's knitted nail art design. I'm not a knitter myself, but I have been known to enjoy a good sweater! I'm totally enamored with the combination of soft shades and patterns in Emily's work; it feels very "winter luxe" to me.

Nail polishes used:
Contrary Polish Frozen
Cirque Carpe Diem
Cirque Au
Sonoma Nail Art Wine Country Wedding

The knit stitched and the "ball of yarn" nails were painted freehand. For the accent nail I stacked a gold leaf with a white glitter. Gold leaf just felt like the right choice last night. Maybe it was that "winter luxe" feeling I was getting.

On a related note, I want to do the stitching pattern in a million more color combinations! How cute does it look?

Previous nails I've honored:

• Rebecca Likes Nails' Candy Print
• Mr. Candiipants' Koi Fish
• Nailside's Abstract 80's Design

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Baptisia and Bones

Sometimes the simple combinations are the most delightful. This manicure combines a rich, moody Cirque polish with a large, flashy nail charm from Hex Nail Jewelry.

Cirque Baptisia is a deep, rich indigo shimmer with small flashes of silver sparkle. I used two coats for the coverage shown, and the formula was smooth. In the shade, you can really see the flecks of silver, while in the sunlight the deep shimmer of the base is more prominent.

I also added a fishbones charm from Hex Nail Jewelry. Nail charms seem to be used most often in complex nail art manicures, but I also like adding one to simple manicures on as a sort of "accent nail." It's sealed in with topcoat for additional protection.

These last two photos show Baptisia in direct light -- see how the shimmer of the base is more prominent?

Have you tried nail charms yet? Do you like to wear them simply or as an addition to a nail art manicure?

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Dusky Gradient with Gold Leaf

Remember when real gold leaf nail polish was all the rage, and every brand plus their moms came out with a variation? Then the craze seemed to rapidly die off, perhaps because the materials are difficult to get a hold of? This nail art was created during that time. That's right, it's time for another edition of: Spring Cleaning Out My Drafts!

I am 80% sure that this manicure used:
China Glaze Surreal Appeal
China Glaze Creative Fantasy

The gold leaf topcoat is Cirque Au.

I like the dusky combination of colors in this manicure with the gold flecks -- almost like fire embers flicking up from a beachy bonfire or something. I think, given the chance to do it again, I would replace the coral color with something a little pinker.

Did you get into the gold leaf trend?

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Pop Punk Skittlette with Glittery Skull and Distressed Accents

Back in 2002, Avril Lavigne's song "Sk8er Boi" ruled my world. Can you believe that song came out over a DECADE ago? I don't know about you guys, but I was all about that unbearably catchy tune. Maybe not the most poetic single, but I don't mind admitting that I rocked out to that many times as my mom drove me to the mall.

Avril came into the style spotlight for her heavy eyeliner and stick straight hair, plus a propensity for clothing and jewelry that incorporated symbols like skulls and stars. The glittery skull and distressed accent nails in this manicure, plus the combination of rich purple and black, really make me think of the Pop Punk Princess.

Products used:
Indigo Bananas Moonlight (Clair de Lune)
Misa Loveliest of Lilacs
American Apparel Hassid
Joby Skull Glitter Nail Art Decal
Cirque Vectors

I was very excited to play with the silver flake polish by Indigo Bananas (psst...the shop also has a rose gold version). It was less dense than I expected, needing four coats for the opacity here, but it didn't get thick on the nail so I didn't mind so much. It is really beautiful and reflective.

The glittery skull decal came as a part of a sheet with gold, black, and additional silver glitter skulls. I was really impressed with these. They're way easy to use; just make sure you let your base dry before you stick it on. A great accent and it looks really clean.

The ring finger was done using my distressed nail art technique. Cirque's black glitter polish, Vectors, provides a similar effect but with a little bit more geometry.

I think Avril would have been all over this manicure back in her heyday. A little punk, a little glam... Anyone else have "Sk8er Boi" stuck in their head?

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Super Bowl XLVIII

As I'm sure you're aware, today is Super Bowl XLVIII. I had to do some nail art for the occasion, but as I don't really have a team preference today (maybe slightly leaning towards the Broncos), I thought I'd take the opportunity to work on some freehand lettering and paint the Roman numerals.

The base of this manicure is Nicole by OPI Yoga-Then-Yogurt.
I freehand painted the letters with American Apparel Hassid.
The thumb is sporting Cirque Vectors (as are all the nails on my right hand).

I'm really happy with the way the letters came out, and I only ended up redoing one nail the whole time!

Hope everyone has fun this afternoon!

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Girly and Gilded Mix & Match

A few weeks ago, my sister Kelsey stopped by to get her nails done. You may remember her (and her nails!) from the last time we did a nail photoshoot featuring leopard print and a faux fur lined jacket. We were talking about manicure ideas and decided to do a girly mix and match featuring pinks, golds, and black. I did some sketching while we hammered out the details, and once the manicure was done, we did a mini photo shoot!

Polishes used:
Seche Dives In Head First
Seche Pretty Little Heartbreaker
American Apparel Hassid
Zoya Kerry
Cirque Colors Au - related here

Embellishments used:
Bundle Monster plate BM-008 (crown)
From the Heart 1 plate (Be Mine and I Love You) - similar here
Black, gold, and silver rhinestones - similar here
Hex Nail Jewelry Etched Hearts

It's no secret that stamping isn't my strong suit, and let me tell you... it was even harder for me to do on someone else! Thankfully, Kelsey was patient with me.

The 3D embellishments turned out just right -- not too much, not too little. My favorite nail might be the black rhinestone "K" on the gold base, though I do love a good polka dot, too.

I enjoy doing these combination manicure/photoshoots, though they do take a lot to get from start to finish! Thank you to my dahling sister for doing the modeling!

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Cirque Arcus Collection Glitters

The Cirque Arcus collection is a delightfully decadent mix of glitters, shimmers, metallics, and holos. I've already shown you one of the glitters, Helios, in a nail art look, and today I have swatches of the rest of the glitters from the collection to share with you. Read on and let me know which ones you're loving in the comments!

Electric Circus is a mix of small neon glitters in red, green, and blue shades. Doesn't it look like falling confetti? Or a rainbow snowfall? The glitter applied evenly and with nice density. I've shown it here over Zoya Neely but this would also look gorgeous over a light neutral like white or cream.

Kaleidoscope is hands down my favorite of this bunch and possibly one of my favorite Cirque polishes ever! The glitter mix in this polish is just such perfection. It has all the colors of the rainbow plus white, in various shapes and sizes. Definitely the cutest rainbow glitter topper I've seen. I've layered it over a custom polish; you could achieve a similar look with OPI My Vampire is Buff.

Le Invader is a pixely metallic square glitter mix in rainbow colors. Those of you with an insatiable hunger for square glitter will love it! The glitters are smaller so this polish is close to the confetti look you're used to with an angular twist. Shown over OPI Keeping Suzi at Bay.

Lullaby is another one of my favorites. This delicate mix of pastel satin glitters is beautiful and refined. It's a great work appropriate glitter, I think -- just imagine it layered over a nude! I chose to go for something a little more colorful and used OPI Mermaid's Tears as my base. Isn't it lovely? There are stars in this polish too but I didn't end up with any in my swatch.

Magic Hour is an iridescent glitter topper with hexes, bars, squares, and microglitters. This one looks best over dark shades so I layered it over Duri Nightfall. This is just one coat. It was easy to work with and definitely made the manicure look magical!

Which ones are you loving? Are you a Kaleidoscope fanatic like me?

Cirque polishes are available at www.cirquecolors.com and via these stockists. You can also keep up with the brand on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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You Get a Gold Star!

You go Glen Coco! Today's nail art is another variation of my sugared stars technique, except instead of a textured polish, I used a dense glitter. Make sure to visit the tutorial for details, and read on for the polishes that I used in this specific look!

Press Sample

I began with a base of Precision Nail Lacquer Pur-fect FX, a pretty rich purple shade. This was my first experience with Precision Nail Lacquer and I have to say I was really impressed! The formula was nice and the color was really pretty, plus the polish dried super glossy on its own.

Then, after letting the base dry completely, I applied painter's tape that had been punched with the stars. I sponged on a couple of rounds of Cirque Helios, a sparkling gold with holographic glitters. I chose to leave it without a topcoat, which gave it a sandy, finely textured effect.

The final step was using OPI Matte Topcoat to add some dots in the negative space. As you can see, this matte topcoat is SUPA DUPA MATTE, providing a great contrast with the base of the manicure.

I don't do enough matte and glossy combination manicures. They look so legit! They're subtle but bring that extra bit of oomph.

Shop the look:
Precision Nail Lacquer - Pur-fect FX
Cirque - Helios
OPI - Matte Topcoat

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Cirque Arcus Collection Holographic Lacquers

I'm always excited when Cirque Colors releases a new collection. The polishes Annie makes are always so beautiful! When she released her last collection, Objet d'Art, I highlighted the holographic polishes separately, and I thought I'd do the same for her newest collection, Arcus.

Press Sample

Bejeweled is a killer royal blue with a very strong holographic effect. It's deep and rich and beautiful, indoors or out. It doesn't have the "greyed out" problem that plagues many other holos. Two coats.

Vesuvius is a strawberry red with an equally strong holographic effect. In person, this polish looks a tiny bit more warm and coppery. It's beautiful indoors, and then you go outside and you are basically blinded by the holo. Two coats.

These polishes are really great, and I think they will hold up nicely when compared with other holos. Unfortunately I haven't wear tested these yet, so I can't tell you how long they will last before chipping. What I CAN tell you though is that these polishes apply beautifully, without streaking, patchiness, or bald spots. No aqua base needed!

As with all Cirque polishes, they are scented with lavender and clary sage essential oils. The scent is faint and just replaces the icky smell of nail polish.

These holographic polishes retail for $15 at CirqueColors.com. You can also order Cirque via their international stockists. For more information, keep up with the brand on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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