A little while ago I picked up Mermaid's Lagoon, a really beautiful teal with coppery pink shimmer. When I first applied it, it looked fantastic: the color was great, and the shimmer was very visible. But as it dried, the color changed from teal to green! So I took it off, and figured it just reacted weird with that particular top or base coat, and tried it again a couple weeks later. Well this time the color changed again, and the shimmer disappeared. Agh!!

Jesse's Girl Mermaid's Lagoon

Look how visible that beautiful shimmer is in the bottle, yet it was nowhere to be found on my nails! Also the picture above is very color accurate to what the color should have been, but it was a few shades greener in actuality.

+ CND Copper Shimmer & Crimson Sparkle

So I just decided I'd have to amp it up by adding my own shimmer and sparkle with CND Effects, and then it looked pretty awesome.

I've never had issues with a nail polish reacting that way where it changed colors, or at least not to where I noticed it. I really wish this color looked as good on my nails as it does in the bottle though!

Smooth Moves

One of my favorite blues, Smooth Sailing is a gorgeous periwinkle/cornflower from Essie's summer collection last year. It also has a really unique glass-flecked texture with a subtle purple, pink, and teal sparkle.

Essie Smooth Sailing

The formula is fantastic, easy to work with and only needed two coats.

Later I topped it with a coat of Zoya's Opal, one of their beautiful new flakies with pink & green iridescent fire. I think it complements the blue nicely!

+ Zoya Opal

A long time lemming of mine is Misa's Decadent Drifter, a greyish green with stunning coppery-pink shimmer. So with my trusty CND Effects Copper Shimmer and Crimson Sparkle, I decided to see if I couldn't recreate this beauty with some of my colors. Behold the quick and dirty swatches!

[1] Rimmel Steel Grey [2] Revlon Gray Suede [3] MAC Quiet Time [4] Sally Hansen Wet Cement [5] Sonia Kashuk Fatigued (All + CND Copper Shimmer & CND Crimson Sparkle)

Well... not quite, but still pretty cool nonetheless!

Velvet Sparkle & Shimmer

I've been really into green & teal polishes recently, and one of my all-time favorites is Finger Paints Vintage Velvet, a really lovely dusty teal-green.

Finger Paints Vintage Velvet + CND Copper Shimmer & CND Crimson Sparkle

Of course I wanted to add some glitz so I have CND Copper Shimmer and Crimson Sparkle layered on top.

Moar picture spam.

Just look at that pink sparkle! *Mesmerized*

These CND Effects polishes are just amazing, they add another dimension to an otherwise "flat" (if not gorgeous) color.

Now You Sea Sparkly Pink!

Ah, layering. Why have just one color when you can have several, all at once? As much as I love the shade of L'Oreal Now You Sea Me, I couldn't resist adding one of my favorite shimmery duochrome-y polishes, simply named "Blue Multi" from Forever 21's line of polishes, Love & Beauty. Oh, *and* I put CND's Crimson Sparkle over that, just to give it a little more sparkly.

L'Oreal Now You Sea Me + Love & Beauty Blue Multi + CND Crimson Sparkle

So much duochromatic shimmering goodness! I am love.

But wait, there's more! I decided it also needed some pink glitter as a "subtle" accent.

+ Forever 21 Blossom

Mmm... glitter jelly sparkle sandwich!

Sally Hansen - Gray by Gray + Shimmer & Sparkle and RAINBOWS

Since I can't just leave a pretty color alone, even the lovely Gray by Gray, a beautiful muted azure blue, I decided to sparkle it up with some CND Copper Shimmer. See below:

I wanted something similar to Rescue Beauty Lounge's Piu Mosso, but this is a much lighter and more muted blue. Don't they look lovely together? I love these complimenting colors! But, I still wanted to add more...

So naturally, I grabbed my favorite flakey: Nubar 2010.

The iridescent oranges and greens really pop!

I just love layering over cremes. It's so fun to take a somewhat plain color and see what you can transform it into!

Random Haul & Layering!

Here are a few polishes I've picked up recently:

Left to Right: CND Copper Shimmer, China Glaze White Cap, Nicole Green Up Your Act, Poshe Topcoat, Poshe Nail-Strengthening Basecoat

I've been so excited about all of these! Originally I wanted to use Copper Shimmer to try and recreate one of the colors from Rescue Beauty Lounge's Firebird collection, Piu Mosso, a beautiful royal navy creme that flashes orange & red shimmer. Well I don't have a proper royal navy to test this on yet, but I did really love it over Nicole by OPI's Green Up Your Act, a gorgeous murky teal that leans toward jade green.

Green Up Your Act & Naked nails

Thought I'd show off these nice dings in my polish, too. >.>;;

Pretty amazing together! Next I want to try it over Sally Hansen's Gray by Gray, a nice, dusty blue-grey. I also expect I'll be layering White Cap over just about everything-- it adds an amazing gold sparkle to colors! I absolutely loooved it over Nubar's Indigo Illusion, and will post pictures of that soon. ♥

The Poshe top & base coats are 3-free (no formaldehyde, toluene, or phthalates) and I think it's great that the base is also a strengthener "for dry, brittle, weak, peeling nails". So far I've liked them quite well, no shrinkage or peeling. All in all, a most excellent mini-haul!