Well it's the final day of the Digital Dozen's tape mani challenge week. For today I wanted to use tape in a different way and this is one of my favorite color combo's! I had some gold nail strips on hand anyway that I received in a swap ages ago. I used the other half of the box on accent nails so I decided to use these in a new way! I used some fancy scissors and cut them into shapes. Then I adhered them on top of the polish and top coated to finish. The finished look was really stunning! I have to say, this week has challenged and very much inspired me. Some of the things the other ladies did are just out of this world. I definitely want to try to experiment more with tape! I hope it inspired some of you as well! Don't forget to check out their amazing designs for today!

Colors Used:

butter LONDON Fiver

Sally Hansen Gold Glitter Nail Strips

I'm so incredibly excited for the swatches I have for you this week!! I'm not normally a big indie polish lover. Don't get me wrong, there are a few I really adore, but many of them are difficult to get a hold of, expensive, disappointing, and don't have longevity.  I can't speak for the longevity of this polish myself since these are my first bottles and I got them at the beginning of the month. However, from what I've seen and heard (and the appearance of my bottles after several weeks) I can vouch that they are good quality polishes.  These are from a brand called Shimmer Polish.  I've seen these around and they're just lovely but I hadn't tried any for myself until these stunners came in the mail.  I have five total to show you from the new line and they are all as amazing as the one before them!  I wanted to give them each their own post so you can really see all of them in their glory and appreciate them!  This is the first on the list!  She is called Tracy.

Tracy is described on the Shimmer polish store as a tarnished holographic gold and that's exactly what she is.  More over there are SO many colors packed into Tracy and it gives your nails a very disco ball effect.  There are glittery polishes and then there are Shimmer polishes.  If you own any of the China Glaze 3D glitter polishes then you'll understand what I mean when I say these take sparkly to a whole new level.

This picture is a macro shot from the ShimmerPolish store.  You can see that it's just completely packed with glitter. Most of the glitters are gold and there are several sizes and shapes including bar glitters, hex glitters and micro glitters. It also has reddish bronze glitter, green glitter and holographic glitter.  As far as application and formula I would liken these to the infamous OPI Burlesque glitters.  You can absolutely layer them but I only used two coats above and as you can see it's not hard to achieve full coverage.  The polish is thicker but mostly because of the amount of glitter inside.  Despite being on the thicker side they are not hard to work with and dry pretty quickly.  They do NOT dry shiny but that's also to be expected with such an amount of glitter. Two coats of Seche Vite sorted it right out and it was smooth and shiny and...I really wish I could capture the amount of sparkly! I have four more of these glorious beauty's to show you this week so stay tuned for them!!

 You can pick up Tracy and try her out yourself here!!

You can purchase ShimmerPolish directly from her Etsy site for $12 each.  She also makes amazing custom polishes for just a little more. This polish was sent to me for my honest review.

It's time for another edition of Dupes Up! This weeks contenders:

Deborah Lippmann: Here Comes the Queen from the Juicy Couture exclusive three pack

vs.

Essie: As Gold As it Gets from the Luxe Effects collection.

Retail Cost: $8

A close up shot of the bottle shows that the two are nearly identical.  They're both gold glitters in clear jelly bases and both have a coppery gold shimmer to them.  The glitter is not uniform and is almost a tiny flake type glitter rather than your standard round, square or hex shape.

 I swatched these over both black and white polish.  The effect over white is very subtle.  Even in person you don't get much gold from one coat though the subtle shimmer is nice.  This is one coat each over Hard Candy The End and Ulta Snow White.  You can already tell from the black swatches that that Lippmann glitter is much more compact.  One coat of it nearly covers the nail with flecky gold glitter while the Essie is a bit more sparse.  

Indoors the effect is a bit more pronounced but it's still apparent that the Lippmann has more oomph per swipe.

 A close up of the black swatch.  The Lippmann is on the left and the Essie on the right.

And the white.  Since the jelly base is clear it's really more of a glittery effect than an overall gold appearance.  I like the Essie but I think I like the Lippmann better.  It's more expensive, sure, but since you get double the effect in every coat it seems to me the cost is really roughly the same.  One thing is for certain, while they may not be EXACT dupes owing to the Lippman's more compact glitter you could certainly use two coats of Essie to achieve the same effect.  If you're looking for a flecky gold glitter this season, one of these two is sure to satisfy the want!

Essie As Gold As It Gets can be purchased at Ulta and drugstores nationwide. Deborah Lippmann Here Comes the Queen  is available exclusively through JuicyCouture.com.