Nail Art NOTD: Valentine’s Nails with Pahlish Total Eclipse of the Heart

There are so many great Valentine’s collections from polish brands this year, and they have really put me in the mood for girly, pink, heart-covered nails.  I knew I must have a pink and red glitter polish already (all right, I probably have a few), so I looked through my stash and found one that reminded me of Valentine’s Day, Pahlish’s Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Total Eclipse of the Heart has a light pink jelly base packed with pink shimmer.  Added to this base is small silver holographic and pink glitter, some tiny pink bar glitter, larger silver bar glitter, and large red square glitter.  There’s a lot of glitter going on in this one, so I may have missed something, but those are what jump out at me on the nail.

The application for this one was somewhat tricky, as these glitter bomb polishes can be.  The red square glitters are very difficult to get out of the bottle, and they will be missing from your mani entirely unless you put a lot of effort into getting them out.  I ended up painting two quick coats that had no red glitter, than I went back over with a third coat in which I fished the red glitter out (which took some effort) and dabbed it onto the final look.  The red glitter is really what makes the look of this polish, so the effort was worth it.  I achieved good coverage after three coats, but I probably would have used a fourth if I hadn’t been afraid of covering the red glitter that I had just painstakingly placed on my nails.  The consistency of this polish was on the thin side, although it was not difficult to work with, and it dried quickly.  I used my normal base and top coat with it for the photos.

I decided to add some interest to this mani by doing an accent nail that I modified from a simple tutorial I saw on The Beauty Department’s nail art Pinterest page.  The tutorial used the reinforcement stickers for loose-leaf paper that we all use for half-moon manis to create a chevron mani that has the look of hearts.  It’s super cute and perfect for Valentine’s Day.

What do you think of this girly Valentine’s Day mani?  I love it!  I think the accent nail is the cutest.  It is totally reminiscent of hearts on my nails.  I’m sure I’ll use this idea as inspiration again.

I purchased Pahlish Total Eclipse of the Heart a couple of years ago for $8.00 or $9.00.  This color is no longer available, but Pahlish has other awesome colors available in their online shop.

Swatch and Review: Pahlish Sleep to Dream

When I saw the Pahlish Winter Collection, I knew I just had to have Sleep to Dream.  (Actually, I felt that way about pretty much all of them, but Sleep to Dream called to me the most).  I just recently got this one and just couldn’t wait to get it on my nails.

Sleep to Dream is such a complex color; the base is a deep burgundy-purple-colored jelly, and this is full of multi-colored shimmer.  As it dances in the light, the shimmer shines in shades of purple, orange, gold, and even a pinky-orange color.  The combination of the dark jelly base and the bursts of bright shimmer really is breathtaking.  The shimmer is not difficult to see, either.  There is practically no light to speak of here today, and the shimmer still looked exquisite in my indoor lighting.  The color of this one remains true to its appearance in the bottle when applied, which is such a rare joy!

This polish applied very easily and dried extremely quickly.  I needed two coats to reach opacity, and it looked good enough after these that I didn’t automatically apply a third coat like I normally would.  Without top coat, the finish is a little dulled, but one coat of top coat brings out the brilliance of all that shimmer.  I used my regular base and top coat for the photos.

Don’t you just love the look of this polish?  I have really been taken by all the great wine-oxblood-burgundy polishes that have been in this fall’s collections, and this is really one of the prettiest I’ve seen.

I purchased this from the Pahlish online shop for $9.00.  I practically never get back-ups for polishes, but I’m definitely considering getting another bottle of this one before it’s gone.