L is for Lilac

The week's almost over and I still have the letter L to show you in our Alphabet Challenge! So today I have three polishes, all in L. Lilac, Lilacism and Lolly. Sounds like a beginning of a joke, doesn't it?
I first decided to use Zoya Lolly and Nabi Lilac Matte. I'm a total freak for the matte finish. I really love it, and these two looked like the perfect match.
Zoya Lolly was a bit hard to work with. It's formula was a bit too thick, the polish refused to even itself on the nail and the stroke lines are visible, no matter what I tried. But it is extremely pigmented and it has such a sweet medium-pink color. Almost neon-y but not quite. Two coats give complete opacity.
Nabi Lilac Matte is much easier to work with. It is opaque in one coat only and although matte, it has this beautiful shimmer that hides any brush strokes pretty well. However - do note that Nabi Lilac is extremely stainy! Make sure you put at least two coats of a good base under it!
A close up look at Nabi - Lilac Matte
Zoya - Lolly and Nabi - Lilac
Then I decided I wanted to add some stamping. My idea was to stamp on Lolly with Lilac and on Lilac with Lolly, but after several tries I realized that matte polishes are not really working as stampers. The polish dries too fast and I wasn't able to get the pattern onto my stamper on time. Also, for some reason the Nabi Lilac wouldn't accept any sort of stamp! Anything I tried just wouldn't stick. So I decided to replace the Nabi for Essi - Lilacism.
Essie Lilacism is a light lavender color. It applies real easy although it is not as pigmented as any of the other polishes. It needed 3 coats for full opacity, although if I was a bit more careful, I suppose I could get it right with only two. But Lilacism is a shiny polish and it did not look right next to Lolly, so after stamping I added a shiny top coat to them all.
Zoya - Lolly stamped with Essie - Lilacism, and Lilacism stamped with Zoya - Charisma.
Photo taken indoors in artificial lighting.
Zoya - Lolly stamped with Essie - Lilacism, and Lilacism stamped with Zoya - Charisma.
Photo taken in natural lighting and direct sun.
Over all I liked all three polishes. But I wonder if there is any way to stamp over a matte polish and have the stamp only - shiny.
So what do you think of this sweetness explosion? Is it too pink for you? LOL It actually is for me, but I didn't think of anything else for L. After all, L is for LOVE.






13 comments :

Unknown said...

It looks so striking sweetie! I love the additional stamping detail, it really makes it amazing xx

Jackie said...

love this!

Franziska said...

I think the matte is so pretty in pictures, but I'm always nervous about how it looks in real life so I haven't tried it yet (so no tips from me!). I also haven't tried stamping (I sound like such a noob!) but I just wanted to tell you that I really like your nail shape (god this is awkward...). ok thats all :)

Gosia said...

Lovely stamping and lovely polishes!! I prefer the topcoat version of Lolly but Lilac matte looks awesome!!!

Andrea said...

L is for love, and I love your pretty mani! I am not a fan of matte polishes, myself, I like how they look on others, but I always end up being disappointed in how they look on me. Lolly is really pretty, though. It makes me want to use my Matte-ly in Love top coat on a bright pink. I also like the Nabi polish. I have a few of the magnetics, but yikes, they do stain! They also stink. P-U! Lol.

The best part of all of this? Your stamping!! I like the 3rd color. I think it really gives some dimension to your mani! So pretty!

Essie Rae said...

Ah, so cute. You are very talented:)

Debbie said...

Pretty colours. The stamping looks great!

Jacqui of The Scholarly Nail said...

Beautiful!! Love both versions of the manicure but especially the one with the flower stamps! So pretty =)

Sandra said...

Both manis look so pretty!

Liesl said...

Both manis are very pretty, I don't know that I can choose a favorite! And nothing is ever too pink for me <3

Yun, The Polish Hideout said...

I love pink, so it totally isn't too much for me. Of the three looks, I think my fav is the one with Lolly and Lilac Matte as accent. The pink/purple combo is so pretty! Ah, staining always seems to happen to me with matte polishes.

~ Yun

The Lacquer Tracker said...

Beautiful! I love the matte manicure, especially. And you wondered about how to stamp over a matte mani and only have the stamp shiny- well that reminded me of an old post by Lacquerized... you can find it here: http://www.lacquerized.com/2010/04/lacquered-leopard.html She did a beautiful job of a matte manicure stamped with a glossy leopard pattern. Gorgeous, and subtle, I think! Hope that helps.

Karen said...

I love this post! I love everything about it! The purples are great, the stamping is spot on. The Mattes look great. Everything is good with these looks.

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