Leopard print with NARS x Pierre Hardy collaboration Sharks set

I got the NARS x Pierre Hardy Sharks set from a friend for my birthday back in May and I FINALLY got around to using it!

For the leopard print, I used konad m57 and the advanced stamping technique by Mae... here is her pictorial and brief Instagram video tutorial

1. Basically you start stamping as normal... (If you aren't familiar with stamping here's a good quick how to) 

2. Once the design is on the stamper you fill in the parts you would like with regular polish, before transferring the polish onto your nail. I filled in the leopard spots. 

3. Then wait for the polish to dry on the stamper. I don't have a nail polish holder like Mae so I used a water bottle to hold the stamper upright while I worked instead. It was a bit too high on my desk but otherwise worked quite well.

4. Once the polish on the stamper is dry, apply top coat to the nail

5. Wait until the top coat is about 3/4 dry. It shouldn't be wet but should still be sticky in order to pull the design off the stamper, otherwise the design won't transfer

6. Using a rolling motion, transfer the design from the stamper onto your nail

7. Seal with top coat and done :)

I hope my explanation made sense... if not feel free to ask! Also check out Mae's tutorial for more tips and tricks

Now onto the NARS x Pierre Hardy polish review... I don't really know how to take product pictures yet... I feel like these look like eBay pictures lol

The set comes in this cute little box

Inside: the two bottles of polish (facing opposite directions like shoes!) and a bag meant to represent the shoe dust bag

The tiny shoe dust bag unfolded

Continuing on with the shoe theme, the polishes are named "Sharks Left" and "Sharks Right"

While this idea is cute I honestly don't think I'll ever remember which color is left and right haha so I'm just going to call them "Sharks Yellow" and "Sharks Purple"

Yellow - 3 coats

Purple - 1-2 coats

The purple is nice, a slightly dusty lavender color. While not a unique color, it's amazing formula won me over. It is very pigmented and easy to work with. You could get away with one coat if you are careful. My thumbs needed 2 coats due to deep ridges. My left ring finger was perfectly even and opaque with only 1 coat but unfortunately I didn't let the polish sit long enough after shaking it up and ended up with a bubble... so I went over it again before taking these swatch pictures to hide the bubble. I needed 2 coats of purple on my right hand because my left hand sucks at painting lol

The yellow is exactly what I was looking for in terms of color. I wanted a nice light yellow... so many yellow polishes I've seen are bright taxi yellow. I didn't want something like Illamasqua Load either though which is such a light yellow it's off white. In terms of formula, this definitely wasn't as good as the purple, but still very good considering it's a pale yellow. I've tried similar shades from Sally Hansen and NYX. I made it to 5 coats with those... and it was still streaky... then I realized there was no way it was ever going to dry and gave up :( I guess I could try those over a white base... might work better... but using this instead is so much easier! The yellow was a bit watery in texture but very pigmented. Try not to go over an area twice or it will drag the polish away and end up streaky. Better to just wait for it to dry and do another coat. 

Overall, these are both quality polishes that are worth the higher price... especially the yellow! The shoe box and dust bag are very cute touches although I'm not sure what to do with them now that the polishes are in my normal polish rotation. The rest of my polishes are organized by color so it's messing up my system if I keep them together... but then the box and mini dust bag are too cute to just throw away. My friend told me I'm a hoarder lol... umm yeah... first world problems :p