Sunday 4 May 2014

Cirque Xochitl and pals

By now there was a mass of posts on Cirque's latest Collection Heritage consisting of a bunch of holos. I got myself five of them and to the day they neatly sat in the row of polishes I reserve for to be worn NOW. Well, I don't know about you but this NOW sometimes grows easily from days into weeks with me and in this particular case left me with some sort of exasperation. Whenever I had some time for swatches the weather would have been cloudy or rainy and during the week, when my manis need to get done at speed light it was sunny. So when the sun decided to stop over for a brief visit I threw all of them together to get them out here finally.

Did I trigger your interest by claiming to have thrown them together? Just recently I started to see more and more Bloggers going for the "dry brush" nail art technique which sounded easy enough for me to give it a try:




I started with two coats of Cirque Xochitl, let it dry, applied a layer of Top Coat and from there the fun started. I used Powwow, Sani and Sky Woman for the above mani.  I whipped off the nail polish brush extensively before swiping a random part of my nail swiftly and feather light. I let it dry for some time and sealed it with a layer of Glisten&Glow HK Girl.

And here is Cirque Xochitl on its own. Xochitl is to me the perfect interpretation of Radiant Orchid - the much acclaimed color of the year. The linear holo mostly ranges from golden yellow to turquoise and there is a healthy dose of silver shimmer thrown into the ring as well.


These are (as mentioned above) two coats over my regular Base Coat. The consistency is "signee" Cirque, thin but excellently formulated, not overly pigmented over the first coat but opaque at two. Already the first coat went on even - IF I did not opt for anything but thin coats. Warning: do not go repeatedly over the same area - Cirque polishes are not forgiving and start to clump and drag immediately. The dry time is quick.

Final thoughts: I really, really enjoyed doing this dry brush technique and I liked the result. I cannot tell if I was just lucky to choose the right set of polishes to try it or if this is finally a technique that a klutz like me can master easily. Overall I would say that polishes with a thinner consistency and lower pigmentation might be more suited for this technique than a one coat cream polish.

Have you tried this technique too? What would you say about the ideal polish consistency to be used for it?

I ordered Cirque Xochitl, Powwow with Cirque's own website and Sky Woman with Pshiiit Boutiqe.

I look forward to reading your comments - thanks for visiting!!!
Christine

13 comments:

  1. Blast you and your Cirques!!! :P UGH...so lovely, and you always make me want every one of them!! :( I think what you did here looks cool...like an Impressionist came up to you and threw a bunch of paint on your hands and then beamed you up to 1977 outer space!! Did that make ANY sense...

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    1. Awww thank you Melissa - hahaha ok, blast me ;-)! And once more you nailed it - impressionism goes Disco Sci-Fi!!! You see, you totally made sense and yes, I totally agree - xxx

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  2. This looks stunning! I've never tried any Cirque polishes but seen a few I fancied. :-)

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    1. Thank you Ananka :-)! Cirque by now has a remarkable range of colors that at one hand flatter many skin tones yet have a unique twist and edge to them that sets them just that nudge apart from the pack - if this makes any sense…..

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  3. Great job, the nail art, color and everything looked awesome! I still haven't tried this technique but feel super stoked to do so :D Holo seems like a good start to try the technique too, the rainbows really connect the colors together. :P

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    1. Thank you sweetie <3!!! And now I understand why I could do the job - the holo covers any smudges and flaws perfectly - I already wondered, why it turned out so well - LOL!!! I think the road to take here in general are less pigmented, thin polishes - unless you want to recreate an oil painting or a Pollak ;-). I have seen a dry brush stroke mani with the Nail Polish Wars using multi chromes and they seem to do the job also very well.

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  4. Hi pet! Wow! U did more nail art! Getting addicted…? ;)
    It looks fantastic!! I love the result! I must try this technique! X is pretty on her own too but I love the nail art more! Hope your week will be bearable love! I'm going to work in a minute until late…. Viele Küsschen! xxx

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    1. Hi doll - hmmm I detect a slight increase in my curiosity to explore nail art ;-)!!! So happy for your support in my nail art experiments - thank you tons - well you know about my week by now, no? :-S - no further comment needed (eye-roll) - viele Küsschen xxx

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  5. I've never heard of the dry brush technique but it sounds simple and looks very pretty. Impressionist goes Disco Sci-fi is pretty much dead on, too! And my gosh, a radiant orchid holo? That is polish perfection right there. I'm so enjoying this color of the year, and I'll be sad when it is deemed "outre". But, I also won't let that concern me :)

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    1. Also, your title, Xochitl and Pals, is very cute :)

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    2. Hi Liesl, thank you love - I think I like this color of the year even better than Emerald - it seems to offer more... or am I totally off ground here? I don't care about in or out either - we are individualistic, right? Hehe, I came up with the title because I was too lazy to type out each and every name and then it is not a proper review of the other colors and they are obstructed by Xochitl, so.... I gave myself enough justification to take the easy way out ;-)

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  6. Ooh Christine, that technique sounds pretty easy, and the end result is gorgeous! (I'm always looking for nail art like that hehe.) I love your pairing of purple and blue... those two colors are meant to go together. :)

    ~ Yun

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