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!

Glam Polish Welcome to Storybrooke Collection Swatches & Review

Glam Polish has a new collection out, Welcome to Storybrooke, inspired by ABC's TV show 'Once Upon a Time'. I personally watch and enjoy the show; not only am I a sucker for fairy tales slash anything Disney related, but there's lots of good eye candy for both ladies and the fellas. Speaking of eye candy, let's take a look at these Glam Polish shades!

Hat Trick is a multichrome holographic that shifts from a pink-rose to copper to green. I've chosen to layer my swatch over black, because that's how I would wear it out into the world.

The Thing You Love Most is a multichrome holographic that shifts from violet to pink to orange. Again, I've layered one coat over black for my swatches to amp up the multichromatic effect.

A Land Without Magic is a teal-leaning emerald green holographic with iridescent microglitter and shimmer. I used two coats.

Desperate Souls is a deep, blackened purple with a holographic finish. It has a pretty green shimmer to it that shifts to a warm pink when seen at an angle, though unfortunately I had a tough time capturing it in my photos. Two coats.

Fruit of the Poisonous Tree is a deep, plum colored holographic with a magenta shimmer to it. This is by far and away my favorite of the shades I received to swatch, which is not to say the others were bad! This one is just that good. It's fully gorgeous and luxe. Two coats.

Second Star to the Right is an indigo holographic with blue glass flecks (I called them "sparks" in my notes) that shift to pink/violet. It leans more purple in person; my second photo is most accurate. Two coats.

So, what do you think? My top picks are Fruit of the Poisonous Tree, A Land Without Magic, and Hat Trick. All of the shades had great formulas, and dazzled with their complex finishes. No duds here, it all comes down to your personal color preference.

The Welcome to Storybrooke collection is available now from www.glampolish.com.au. Shipping rates to the USA are $7.95 for the first polish and $1.00 for each additional polish.

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

Star Bright - Reverse Stamped Glow in the Dark Stars

We're almost at the end of the 31 Day Challenge! Today's prompt is "inspired by a tutorial" and I took the opportunity to try reverse stamping, a technique I've never tried before. I always like the results other people get from it, and the Challenge is all about pushing yourself, so advanced stamping seemed like the way to go. I did struggle, but the finished product doesn't look too shabby! I used this tutorial from Drama Queen Nails for my guidance.

Nail polishes used:
Formula X Dark Matter
OPI Angel With a Leadfoot
Serum No. 5 I Gleam In Pink
Serum No. 5 Solar Power
Serum No. 5 Orange You Sunny
Serum No. 5 Ultra Violet
Serum No. 5 Indi-glo
Vivid Lacquer plate VL002

If you wanna try out this technique, be sure to visit Drama Queen Nails for her tutorial. The basic gist of it is that you create your own decals by stamping and painting on a plastic bag or a piece of wax paper. You peel the "decals" off, flip them over, and stick them on your nails.

I used five of the Serum No. 5 neon glows for this look, and it was AWESOME in the dark. Tiny little glowing stars, floating around. I love that they glow different colors, too.

Check out the other tutorials I've tried in the past:

• Cutie owl half moons
• Candy mermaid scales
• Floral pond manicure

Inky Negative Space Nail Art Inspired by Donna Karan

Today's 31 Day Challenge prompt is "inspired by fashion." One upside to doing the challenge in September is that this day always follows New York Fashion Week, so there is plenty of inspiration to browse. I flipped through a massive Harper's Bazaar slideshow and fell in love with this Donna Karan dress. I made sure to include not only the inky shapes, but also the black detailing and negative space of the neckline.

Nail polishes used:
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
American Apparel Hassid
Painter's tape

I taped off skinny triangles at the base of my nail, and then painted on the cream shade. I removed the tape, and used the distressed/dry brush technique to add the inky shapes in black. Then, I used a small nail art brush to add the delicate black V details at the tips of the triangles, as well as a few smaller splatter details.

I love the graphic, splattered look of this, and the black and white palette only enhances the graphic effect.

Previously, on "Inspired by Fashion" day:

• Max Azria spring look
• Betsey Johnson bright gradient with "silly string"
• McQueen textured skull scarf

Tattered Monochromatic Spray Marble

I never look forward to the water marble day of the 31 Day Challenge. This year, instead of putting myself through all of the pain, I went straight to a technique that I do have fun with: the spray marble! This technique is a sister to the water marble, and I actually prefer the edgy, tattered outcome.

Nail polishes used:
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
Polish My Life Storm Clouds
Jessica Cosmetics NY State of Mind
China Glaze Ghoulish Glow
Formula X Dark Matter

I started out by using a triangle makeup sponge to do a gradient of cream, grey, and dark grey. Then, I painted on a coat of glow in the dark topcoat, because why not?

The spray marble began with filling a plastic cup with room temperature filtered water and taping off the area surrounding my fingers to minimize mess. I gently dropped one drop of black polish on the surface of the water, and then used a spray bottle to mist a 50/50 mixture of water and apple cider vinegar on the polish. I've seen other people use hairspray, perfume, all sorts of other mixtures to break up the polish on the water, but @madamluck was the first one I saw that used the vinegar mix. It worked great!

I dipped one finger in at a time, removed excess polish from the surface of the water, and pulled my finger out. Remove the tape, clean up, and topcoat; you're done!

The glow was stronger where it was layered over light polish. Looks kinda like alien eggs, doesn't it?

Previous water marble work:

• Turquoise water marble
• Starburst candy water marble
• Soft flower marble

Autumnal Gilded Half Moon Stamping

Today is half moon day for the 31 Day Challenge, and the nail art I did is not exactly my most inspired! I do like the outcome, it's just not a showpiece. Truth be told, I was just not having it last night. We are a little more than halfway through the challenge now, and it is starting to catch up with me. Sleep was on my mind!

Nail polishes and products used:
Enchanted Polish Vampires Suck
Priti NYC Chrysanthos
Nailz Craze NC03 stamping plate
Half moon Nail Vinyls

After painting my nails with Vampires Suck and letting it dry completely, I blocked off the half moon shapes with the vinyls. I stamped over the vinyls using Chrysanthos, and then removed them to reveal the un-stamped half moons!

Since Vampires Suck is a gorgeous holo, I had to include some direct lighting shots, despite the stamping being harder to make out.

Take a trip down memory lane with these half moon manicures from previous years:

• Sweet and girly leopard half moons
• Retro striped half moons
• Delicate lace half moons

Matte Metallic Gold French Tips, with Bonus Glossy Shots

This may very well be the simplest nail look I've ever done for the 31 Day Challenge, and I did it intentionally! We have this bowl at my house, and it's a gorgeous matte black with a gold rim. I was feeling really inspired by it and decided to try a matte gold french tip with a black base. Plus, could you bear to add anything else to this gorgeousness?

Products used:
Duri Into the Further (black)
Lacquistry Amazeballs Extra Fine (gold)
Essie Matte About You (matte topcoat)
Half moon Nail Vinyls

This look is easy to do! Start by painting your nails with black, and applying a coat of quick dry topcoat. Make sure your nails are completely dry before moving on! I used half moon vinyls for a more rounded French tip, but you could also use French tip guides if you prefer. Paint on a coat of your gold polish, and then remove the vinyls. Seal with glossy topcoat, let it set, and finish with matte topcoat.

This also looked great before I added the matte topper. My choice of gold, Amazeballs, looks better glossy, but I think I prefer the black when it's matte. Which one do you prefer, overall?

More metallic mania!

• Nfu Oh 61 silver holographic
• Magnetic metallic with gold leaf
• Distressed metallic gradient