ManGlaze Butt Taco

Hi everyone! I'm back from my vacation and ready to blog like crazy! I have so many new polishes to show you, and I'm so very excited for the next month.

Since I haven't had much time for swatching lately, today I have the mani that I wore to my friend's wedding last weekend. This is ManGlaze Butt Taco. Butt Taco is a gorgeous coral-orange suede. The base color is much more coral than it looks because the silvery shimmer really brightens the color to an orange.

The formula was perfect for a suede, like other ManGlaze matte polishes. It dries quickly enough to be fast and convenient, but slowly enough that application is a breeze. This is three coats, although it was opaque in two. I added the third coat to add durability since I wore this mani for 4 or 5 days (which it lasted chip-free). Unfortunately I was in a hurry so the only picture I grabbed was one with top coat, I'll have to re-swatch this one later. :)

I love this color! It looked gorgeous with my mint lace dress, hot coral shoes and belt.

Cult Nails Morning Glory and a Comparison

This spring, Cult Nails (one of my favorite nail polish brands) released their In The Garden Collection, which included one creme, one shimmer, and three wax finish polishes. The wax finish polishes are a satin matte, so they have just a touch more shine than a typical matte polish. Morning Glory is a beautiful magenta pink wax finish polish. I absolutely adore polishes in this color family, and the wax finish is just so interesting and sophisticated.

Morning Glory is very opaque, I could almost get away with a single coat. The formula was a bit thicker than usual for Cult Nails, but a good thick, not difficult to apply. Morning Glory is also very fast drying, so you have to work quickly to avoid getting any bumps or ridges in your polish. If you do end up with a bump it's easily leveled out by an additional coat.

Cult Nails Morning Glory Comparison

Then I decided to compare Morning Glory to another bright pink matte finish polish in my collection: ManGlaze Lesbi-Honest (two coats of each). While Lesbi-Honest is a suede finish (matte with shimmer) it is similar in color to Morning Glory. 

Have you tried Morning Glory? Are matte finish polishes your thing?

Cult Nails Polishes retail for $12 and are available from Cult Nails Online Store

ManGlaze Mink Mitten

My Stash

I'm back today with ManGlaze Mink Mitten swatches! I promise I haven't disappeared off the face of the planet. I've been a bad blogger lately and it's been ages since I've had a chance to post (I'd make the usual excuses of life being busy, being out of town, and having family issues come up, but you've heard all of that before).

ManGlaze Mink Mitten is a beautiful silvery blue-toned purple suede finish polish. The finish really strikes me as a matte foil finish, it's extremely interesting, and unlike anything else I've seen.

The formula was excellent, just like the other ManGlaze polishes I've used. This is two smooth coats of Mink Mitten and it's perfectly opaque. The wear time was excellent and I wore this manicure for two or three days without noticing any tip wear.

Funny to think of a matte polish as being sparkly, but Mink Mitten definitely sparkles. 

The funniest thing happened when I went to remove this polish. I made a swipe with my acetone and looked down to find that the foil base of the polish was still intact while the color was totally gone leaving a silver matte foil behind. (Photo below shows four fingers after acetone and the thumb normal.) I can think of lots of nail art possibilities with this one!

I can't believe how much I love matte finishes anymore, but I love the unique look of Mink Mitten, it's so beautiful and different in my stash!

ManGlaze Nawesome Sauce Swatches and Review.

My Stash

I don't know why I have a sudden love for matte and suede finishes, but my obsession is still in full force! ManGlaze has to be one of my favorite brands for suede polishes since they don't chip and dry quickly. Suedes are really great when you want a fast manicure and don't want to take the time for base coat and top coat.

This is ManGlaze Nawsome Sauce, a suede finish dark green with just a hint of olive and silver shimmer.  The finish starts out much more matte but wears to a semi-matte finish after a couple of hours (pictured below). The formula was smooth and fast drying, and this is two flawless coats over a base coat. I didn't have any staining from this green (which was surprising considering how dark it is), however, I did use a non-acetone based remover that doesn't cause as much staining as acetone-based removers.

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Nawsome Sauce is just an awesome green (see what I did there?) I love the base shade and the color balance and that special touch that the shimmer adds. Are you a matte/suede polish lover?

ManGlaze Fatty's Got More Blood Complete Review and a Comparison!

I've never been a fan of matte nail polish until recently, and now that I am ManGlaze is the brand to go to! The names are a bit vulgar (so if that offends you, I apologize but they're also pretty funny). These polishes are technically suedes, since they are matte polish with shimmer, but they're gorgeous!

Fatty's Got More Blood is a purple-toned blood red with silver shimmer.

The formula on this one was great! Opaque in two coats and fast drying, you just need to work quickly to prevent the polish from drying mid-nail.

Wear test! 

Manglaze polishes wear amazingly well. Mattes have the reputation of chipping easily but I put this polish through the ringer and didn't get any tip wear what-so-ever! As the polish wore, it got a bit shinier, losing that inky matte look, see for yourself:

Dupe Test:

Since I've been on a matte-kick lately I thought it would be great to compare Fatty's Got More Blood with another of my newer mattes: Layla 07 Queen Bordeaux. They looked similar in the bottle but....

 Index and ring: FGMB; Middle an pinky: Layla 07

No dupes here, although in indoor lighting they look a bit more similar. Layla Queen Bordeaux is a bit of a lighter red with gold shimmer rather than silver. The textures of these two polishes are also very different. ManGlaze is a true matte with a very fine grit texture while Layla Softouch polishes have a grittier texture (that is still soft) and are more sparkly. FGMB wears longer without showing tip wear, but Queen Bordeaux maintains the matte effect longer.  (Please ignore the strange mark on my middle finger, I got distracted part way through application and it left a little bump which I was too lazy to re-do!)

Are you a fan of matte/suede polishes or do you need your top coat? :)

St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Mani!

Do you ever have an idea for nail art that just doesn't translate well from your imagination to your nails? This was one of those manis for me. I think it turned out okay in the end, but it was a struggle every step of the way! For a St. Patrick's Day Mani I had the idea to do a rufian mani with a yellow base, green on top, and a shamrock on each nail. Clearly that isn't what I ended up with!

What you see here is a half-moon manicure with a base of Manglaze Nawsome Sauce. The yellow is one coat of Cult Nails Tempest (white base to cover the green) and two coats of Cult Nails Feel Me Up. I then added the awesome shamrocks compliments of Make It Stick nail decals. 

I wish I had either used less polish layers or waited longer for them to dry since the polish was very thick on the tips of my nails, and a bit uneven. I used Seche Vite to try to speed the drying time, then ended up with a matte top coat so smooth out the bumps.

The shamrocks are from Make It Stick (set of 50 available on Etsy for $5) were absolutely perfect for this mani! They're so much easier than getting out all of my stamping supplies (I'm not even positive that I have a shamrock on any of my stamping plates either). They are thin flexible vinyl decals with a sticky backing. They come on a small sheet similar to stickers. I simply peeled them off and placed them carefully in the center of my nails using my fingers, but tweezers can also be used to handle the decals. These can be placed on wet or dry polish, and if you use them on dry polish they can be re-positioned before you add top coat.

Overall not a failure, but certainly not my best work! What do you think? Do you have anything planned for St. Patrick's day?

*product(s) in this post provided to me for review.*