Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Whoa, it's New Year's Eve! 

Chainmail is another polish from Cirque's recently released Alchemy collection. Man, this collection is a liker a goldmine for stunning! Chainmail is a true glitter polish with silvery grey tiny hex glitters and silvery grey microglitters with random pops of rainbow from a sprinkling of holographic hexes. The overall effect is of an industrial glittery dark grey with a slight blue tint to it that shimmers and scintillates like sun on rippling water. This polish balances itself gracefully between glamour and edginess with its lively organic light play and cool metallic darkness.

Although it can be layered to opacity on its own, I chose to layer Chainmail over a england's Dorian Gray, a dark grey one coater with a silky metallic look. Chainmail has a fluid, non-sticky formula that applies smoothly with even glitter distribution. It dries quickly to a beautiful satiny finish with a surprisingly smooth pebbled texture that I found eminently appealing. But I wanted to show the glitters to their best sparkly advantage so I applied topcoat. Two layers of Poshe got me a glossy glasslike finish. 

Photos show two coats of Chainmail over one coat of a england Dorian Gray, with treatment and basecoat underneath and two coats of Poshe to finish.

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

Cirque Chainmail over a england Dorian Gray

My photos don't do justice to this polish so you'll have to trust me when I say that it is all drop dead gorgeous sparkly goodness. It's a sparkle bomb in any light -- in the sun it's flat out madness. The random holo glitters are just numerous enough to perfectly accent the grey with festive winks of blue or red or violet, so pretty. But mostly it's all about the interplay between dark and light, bound together by bazillions of dark silvery grey glitter. If you love sterling chainmail jewelry (and who doesn't?), this is your go-to polish. If you love wearing black, this is your go-to accent. If you love beautifully crafted glitter bombs, this is certainly one for the books.

Love it. A lot.

xoxo,
Aunt Liz

Cirque Curiosity

Curiosity was released in 2012 as part of Cirque's Objet d'Art collection. It's described on Cirque's website as "a bright cherry red with gold flecks and shimmer." This is a well-saturated medium-toned bright scarlet red jelly polish with the smooth application of a creme and the look of a true glass fleck. It's amazing! It reminds me of those "tinct with cinnamon" hard candy disks you see around Christmas, it has their translucence and bright clear color.

All of the Cirque polishes I've experienced so far have delighted me with their ease of application and Curiosity is no different. Smooth, fluid, with perfect viscosity for easy control and manipulation, this polish is incredibly forgiving for a jelly. It goes right where you put it without any tendency to stick to itself which allows you to fine tune those edges like nobody's business. Never pulls patches, never bubbles. Pigmentation is excellent given how translucent is is, with buildable even coverage. Dry time is also fantastic and results naturally in a silky satin finish. Topcoat really brings the shimmers and flecks to life.

Photos show three coats of Curiosity over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Poshe. Please forgive the peeling fingers, they are still trying to recover from the great gloveless bathroom scrub of a couple of days ago.

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Cirque Curiosity

Totally incendiary! I adore the shardy shimmer and flecks, tiny and delicate but with a big impact -- they are just gorgeous peeking through that brilliant Christmas red. When you're not close enough to see the flecks, there's a shimmery gift wrap ribbon look to Curiosity that is quite fetching. 

¡Lo quiero! 

xoxo,
Liz

Glitter Gradient with Orly Decades of Dysfunction and Cirque Ophelia

Decades of Dysfunction was released as part of Orly's Dark Shadows collection in spring 2012 and is identical to Pure Porcelain, which was released the previous year. It is a very desaturated nude/pink/blush creme, an off-white or putty color with undertones of beige and pink. I love this cool-toned neutral, it hits a nice note with my pinkage and doesn't feel too stark on me the way a lot of light colored polishes do.

It's a nicely formulated polish with a fluid creamy consistency that is easy to control and flows evenly onto the nail in a self-leveling way. The pigmentation is excellent. I had show-through on my most furrowed nail beds at one coat but on a less-ridged nail or two I was amazed to find almost complete and even opacity -- outstanding for such a light polish! Two coats provided sufficiently even coverage to use as a base for my gradient although I almost applied a third. I'm glad I didn't as it evened out further after the gradient with the application of topcoat. I did get some bubbling on my left thumb nail for some reason, probably because one of the coats was a little too thick. Decades of Dysfunction dries naturally in good time to a lovely glossy finish.

Photos show two coats of Decades of Dysfunction over Seche Rebuild treatment and Butter London Nail Foundation basecoat with no topcoat. Mortifications du jour: lack of clean up finesse (wobbly lines, I can do better), acetone residue and generally dry and tattered cuticles and fingers. PSA: if you clean your bathroom fixtures with Comet and don't wear gloves, this will happen. D'oh.

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction, showing a little bit of streakiness

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Orly Decades of Dysfunction

I am kind of delighted with Decades of Dysfunction, I must say. If only the name weren't so totally appropriate for my life!

Using this as a base, I used Ophelia by Cirque to dab a gradient on the tips. Ophelia is part of Cirque's Dark Horse collection released in 2012 and is a glitter topper. It has abundant cornflower blue glitters in microfine and fine iridescent shards and medium hexes carried in a clear base. The color is absolutely beautiful. I wanted so badly to go full on with this pretty topper and cover every available square millimeter of nail with it. Honestly, how I managed to keep from doing just that is a mystery in this world considering my general lack of self-restraint.

Ophelia is as well-behaved as it is lovely. Because I was dabbing carefully and slowly, I had the bottle open for a good while so I added a few drops of polish thinner twice during the process to preserve flow and avoid stickiness. I've learned that for me, one of the most important things to remember in creating a nice gradient after technique is moderation (see above confession re self-restraint). To avoid applying too much glitter at once, I wiped each brushful nearly dry at the neck of the bottle and used the thin side for dabbing. This took longer to do, but it worked.

Photos show one carefully dabbed on coat of Ophelia at the free edge over the Decades of Dysfunction manicure above with a topcoat of Seche Vite. 

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction on the nail, Cirque Ophelia in the bottle

ditto

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Cirque Ophelia over Orly Decades of Dysfunction

It's been a while since I tried out a gradient and I'm happy with how this turned out. Even if the look is a little delicate for this time of year, I love these two polishes together. 

xoxo,
Aunt Liz