Review: Jamberry Matte Topcoat

Hello!

I have been on a continuing quest for a matte topcoat that comes even close to China Glaze's Matte Magic, since the only form of this I've been able to find is the teeny little bottles, for not so teeny little prices. The only ones I've seen that seem to do as good of a job are from brands that are not cruelty-free, so they are a no-no for me.

So, I was very eager to try out Jamberry's matte topcoat when I was given the chance to review one of their topcoats, since this is a brand that I can feel good about buying from.

But of course, the question is...does it mattify the way I want it to? I have tested it out over a variety of polish types to see what it will do...Let's take a look:


First, let's take a look at it over Cult Nails Coveted:

Jamberry matte topcoat over Cult Nails Coveted

The index and middle fingers have Jamberry matte topcoat, while the ring and pinkie do not. The matted nails have that cloudy look that changes the finish but not the color perfectly. The matte creates that nice contrast with the flakies underneath that gives them a different dimension and light, and also allows the teeny glimmers of light to come through in the rest of the polish.


Next I tried it overPicture Polish Mallard:

Jamberry matte topcoat over Picture Polish Mallard

The matte also did a dramatic job here; it creates a wax finish without dimming the flakes. This is a very dark polish to start with, so there isn't as much light coming through as in Coveted, but notice that the different colors in the flakies are all still showing their gorgeousness.


Next, something a little brighter--Hare Polish Asteroid Turf:

Hare Polish Asteroid Turf

Jamberry matte topcoat over Hare Polish Asteroid Turf

This is my favorite way to wear matte topcoat, over a polish that has a high contrast between the base color and the glitter. And the Jamberry passed my test here--this is exactly what I want a matte topcoat to do, to give that flat finish without decreasing the beauty of the polish beneath. These glitters still sing out, and the base color looks smooth and deep. Dare I say it? I prefer this polish with the matte topcoat over the regular topcoat. It looks like a beautiful meadow filled with little purple wildflowers this way. :)

How about a similar glitter that doesn't have quite so much direct contrast? Here it is over InDecisive Lacquer Zea Mays

InDecisive Nail Lacquer Zea Mays

Jamberry Matte Topcoat over InDecisive Nail Lacquer Zea Mays

Just...just...yeah. Do I even need to say it? All of the skill that the maker put into designing the glitter blend and its relationship to the base color remains...but is enhanced. It feels lush, rich, lovely.


And finally, what about a plain old creme? Let's take a look at it over Jamberry's own Cardinal:

Jamberry Cardinal

Jamberry matte topcoat over Jamberry Cardinal

This show best how evenly the topcoat applies; I've tried other matte topcoats that were a bit patchy, but this goes on and dries perfectly.

Jamberry's matte topcoat exceeded all of my expectations, and I feel comfortable putting it into the same category as my personal standard-bearer, China Glaze Matte Magic. If you're looking for a good matte topcoat that is 5-free, cruelty-free, and works extremely well, you can check it out by clicking here. And check out their nail lacquers, they're excellent as well. :)

Hugs and loves!
M.

(Matte topcoat and Cardinal provided for review. All other polishes from my personal collection.)

Before & After: Ruffian Turf

Hello!

Just because it's fall doesn't mean we can't have bright colors, right? At least, not here on this blog, that's for sure. :)

Finally I have a chance to swatch for you one of my long-time lemmings, which I got a while back but had to set aside to swatch the fall polishes I wanted to show you. But at long last, here is my much coveted Hare Polish Asteroid Turf, and bright magenta glitter set in a lovely lime crelly:

Hare Polish Asteroid Turf, 2 coats, artificial light

I wore it like this for a bit, and then...then I received a mix of circle glitters as a gift from a friend of mine, and absolutely had to use them. I started by turning the manicure into a ruffian with Zoya Keiko on top, and then added some of the glitters:

This is a fun mani that makes me happy and will brighten up the rainiest day, I think. Not that I'm having that problem here--we're in drought. Again. Grrrr...

Hugs and love to all,
M.

Review: Mash 3D Nail Art Confetti

Hello!!

I was very excited to be approached by Mash recently to review some nail art products for them. The first item I sat down to play with was the 3D Nail Art Confetti that they sent to me...because it's sparkly and pretty, and 3D nail art is all the rage right now!

This set contains 12 different types of 3D confetti, in different shapes (hearts, stars and flowers) and colors:

Mash 3D Nail Art Confetti

The pots are huge, as you can see by the relative size of my thumb (which is a normal-thumb sized, lol); unless you're doing nails for everyone in your neighborhood every day, these will last you a long, long time--years and years, unless your cats spill them everywhere (::gives warning skunk-eye to her cats::). Here is a close-up to see the confetti better:

Even though there are 12 pots, there are actually more types of confetti than that; the ones that have a hollow center also include the shapes that were punched out of the center, so you get a two-fer, as you can see below:

This also gives you a sense of just how many are in each pot--what I dumped out there barely made a dent in what was left, as you can see. These are excellent quality, and the shapes are uniform, so you won't find yourself with uneven shapes when you're trying to make a pattern (see the manicures below). They're also very sturdy, so you're getting good stuff here.

When I look at glittery wonders like this, the little girl in me screams out, and I have to play play play! For the first manicure I did, I thought I'd do a simple skittle mani using the different gold hearts above. I started out with a base of Hare Polish Rusty Hearts, a beautiful gold-flaked red. Then I staggered the hearts in an alternating pattern down the nails:

Look at how they sparkle in the light!

Note how the shapes are all the same size and color (except when the light hits them); you can't tell from these pictures, but they are all uniform height, as well, so they all sit at the same level on your nail.

I love how it came out--this would be such a fun mani for Valentine's day, or for any romantic occasion. :)

For my second manicure I went patriotic, in honor of the upcoming Memorial Day holiday, and did a flag manicure with the white stars. I started with a base of Risque Azulcrination (holla, Janaina!), and  L.A. Colors Hot Blooded. I stamped the stripes of the flag with Konad white, and Winstonia plate W107:

How perfect is that? Rock out that flag, baby. :)

A couple of questions you might be asking yourself. First, how easy are these to apply? If you use the dotting tool technique or the pick-up pencil technique I've showed before, these are fast and easy to apply--both of these manicure took me only minutes from start to finish. You're probably also wondering if the confetti stay put...I covered them with one coat of top-coat, and they stayed put just fine--in fact, I had to pry them off with a lot of effort to get them off (using nail polish remover makes this easier, but I did a pull test to see how they'd hold up). You shouldn't have any problem getting several days of wear out of them (probably longer with the hearts and flowers, since they don't have the sharp edges that catch more easily).

This set goes for $5.99 on the Mash website, at the time of this posting. I've seen similar nail confetti at my local beauty supply store go for twice as much for half as much product, so I was impressed with the price as well as the quality. If you're into the 3D trend and want some options in fun colors and shapes, I highly recommend you check this out. :)

Thanks for taking a look! Peace and love,
M.

(The 3D Nail Art Confetti in this post was sent for my 100% honest review. I am not affiliated with Mash, and the links are not affiliate links.)

Fix My FAIL: Glitter Fail

Hello!!

Just in under the wire for February I'm introducing, as promised, a new feature: "Fix My FAIL"!

Sometimes my manis come out okay, and sometimes they just...don't. And sometimes they don't more than other times...And I sit staring at them saying to myself 'that looked so much better in my head...there is so much I'd do differently...'

Well, I thought that it might be fun to see what you'd do differently.

The idea is this. Take my mani and make it better. Deconstruct it and rebuild it.  You can do this any way you want--maybe you like the polishes, but not the design, so you want to do a different design with the same polishes (or similar ones). Maybe you like the design, but not the colors I chose. Maybe you see what I was going for and decide to replicate it, but know you can execute it better. Maybe you like what I did exactly as is, but would have added something else to finish it. You just have to have some element of the original manicure, take it, and run with it. I'll give you some more specific examples with the failed manicure below.

This is a for-fun contest, meaning there will be no prize, just the fun of doing it and bragging rights if your manicure 'wins'. For this first go-round, the winner will be chosen by popular vote--whichever entry gets the most 'likes' on the Facebook page will win. If you enter the contest, you cannot like your own entry, of course. I will include the winning manicure in a follow-up post on my blog. :)

Okay, let's take a look at the first FAIL manicure. I started with the beautiful Hare Polish Rusty Hearts, which is a deep red with orange-gold flecks:

Hare Polish Rusty Hearts

Hare Polish Rusty Hearts

With a polish that pretty, you wouldn't think you could possibly be able to make it a fail. But oh, oh, oh, I did. I added a gold-and-black glitter in a swipe around three-quarters of the nail; in my head, this looked really elegant and pretty... Here's what it looked like IRL:

Yeah...not so much.

I hereby officially apologize to these bottles of polish for doing this to them.

Yeah. Not much to be said there except...What a waste of polish.

Okay so. What would count as a 'Fix My FAIL' entry? You can't just submit a swatch of red polish or just any manicure with a totally different design on red polish. What you could do is use a red polish with a black-and-gold glitter, but combine them differently. Or you could do a sweep design with similar placement, but maybe not with glitter, maybe with a hand-drawn flourish instead. Or maybe you think this mani would have worked if the glitter were exactly the same and positioned the same way, but it was over a grey instead of a red. The point is, there must be some recognizable element that relates to this manicure. Other than that, go nuts! Have at it! Have fun! And Fix My FAIL!!!

Can't wait to see what you guys do. :)

Xoxox,
M.

Before & After: R is for Revelrie In Rubellite

Hello!!!

This week's letter in the Llama Nails alphabet is 'R', and I decided to show you Revelrie in Rubellite.

I recently got extremely lucky and happened to stumble on a Hare Polish restock at Llarowe. Before I'd fallen in lust with several Hare Polishes, but only was able to get my hands on one, Oceans of Alloys. Several more restocks came and went, and though I tried to get to them in time, I failed miserably. So this time when almost every one I wanted was available, and while it stretched the edges of my budget, I grabbed a couple. I figured, who knows when I'll get a chance again to grab them again, and if they're anything like Oceans of Alloys in terms of quality, they'll be worth it.

One of the ones I grabbed was Revelrie in Rubellite, a dramatic combination of wine jelly base and burnt orange glitter. In a million years I never would have thought to put these two colors together, and wow, I'm so glad that Hare Polish did. Just stunning:

Hare Polish Revelrie in Rubellite

Revelrie in Rubellite full on

Look at how the light dances off those glitter pieces...sigh...

The formula on the polish was a bit trickier than Oceans of Alloys, but that may be due to the fact that I'm still learning how to apply jellies most effectively (I'm way better than I was!).

To decorate this, I decided I wanted to do a reverse-wisteria look, since the glitter itself reminds me of bunches of wisteria hanging down off of something. So instead of a flower handing down from leave, I thought I'd stamp leaves hanging down from flowers. I call it 'Revelrie In Reverse', lol. I stamped using Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime and Bundle Monster plate BM11:

Tell me that background doesn't look like bunches of flowers...

Or, upside-down (right-side up?) if you prefer...:)

RIR is certainly pretty enough on its own, without decoration, and I was afraid anything I added would just make it busy and crazy. There is certainly a lot going on here visually, but I do love the way the green works with the wine and the orange, and I think the way the stamp has each leaf (or petal) separated from the others works will with the glitter.

Thank you for taking a look! Please check out the other 'R' manicures linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.

Before & After: Presents & Gift Wrap

Hello!!!

Today is the next installment of my Winter Holiday Challenge with CNT. Today's prompts is presents/gift-wrap.

I decided not to go with traditional Christmas colors because I'm doing that for so many other manicures this month, so I chose a polish that could work for Christmas, Hanukkah, a birthday, or any other gift-giving occasion; I chose the amazing Oceans of Alloys by Hare Polish:

Hare Polish Oceans Of Alloys

Hare Polish Oceans of Alloys farther away

This is the first Hare Polish I've ever owned--I love many of them but never seem to be able to catch them when they're in stock, even when I'm there literally an hour after the restock! But it's okay, I'll keep trying, because if this polish is anything to go by, this is an amazing line. This is loaded with glitter, but went on smoothly like a non-glitter polish, and had amazing even coverage.

Next I decorated it with some nail tape, and a bow stamp from a Cheeky XL plate--first I stamped the bow in white (Sally Hansen White On) and then with Gold (Barry M Gold Foil) so there was a bit of contrast:

Gimme it, I'll tear that wrapping right off!!!

I'm happy with how this turned out, but do wish the bow matched a bit better. Ah well, no biggie, really!

Thanks for looking! Please check out the other participants' manicures, linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.