Polish Me Silly - Envy swatch

I took a selection of my favourite polishes to London with me. And a few basic ones for work, just in case it is necessary.

The first mani  I did in London was  Polish Me Silly Envy. It's an amazing multi-chrome polish! Look at it go in the two slightly different angles! The bank employee, male, even commented on the colour shift when I was opening my account. Lol. Gosh opening a bank account is painful here. I still haven't gotten all the numbers and whatnot I need to access it properly. :-(

Ulta3 watermarble nails

I used Blue Marlin and Strawberry Sundae in this watermarble mani. As you can see, I need heaps more practice. But luckily I won a set of the top 15 bestseller bottles of ulta3 polish to play with from Sonailicious and have plenty of good quality cremes to play with.

My patterns are a bit off. Other people loved it, but I always end up feeling a bit ambivilent about watermarbles. I think it's because it's a bit psycheldelic and I'm just not into the 60s hippy look.

After a couple of days I added the Glisten and Glow holo top coat. Unfortunately it dulled the colour a bit, so I'm not sure if I should have done that. 

An Indie Extravaganza 2 from Powder Perfect swatches - part 2

I now have the remaining half the the Indie Extravaganza Volume II to share. The first part is here. I didn't time using these polishes well. *sigh* The weather in Melbourne hasn't been all that cooperative in terms of sunshine and I kept missing out on the good sunny moments. 

I've also been trying out a slightly different hand pose — with a slight angle/tilt. Not sure if it's better, but it does mean the names on the bottles show if they are on the bottom!

All of three polishes were painted on PVA glue base and topped first with Essence gel-look plumping top coat and then finished with HK Girl top coat for a smooth, glossy finish that is easy to remove! Sort of easy. Depends on my glue application. I am not sure if I've mentioned before, but I had not tried any of the brands in this volume. Just, you know, FYI.

First up in part time is Two Birds Lacquer with Popcorn. Admittedly not my favourite confectionery.
As for the polish. Well, it's a yellow... and so it did take 4 coats to achieve the colour you see here. As you can see it's a creamy yellow shade, and sort of jelly-like, with tiny black specks. There were so larger glitters, a medium hex and a large hex glitter in there, but like the kernel skin of it's namesake, hard to get out. It's hard to fish though, because the polish itself is relatively opaque. I am not fussed about that as I am not so into the big glitter at the moment. I am quite happy with the glitters I did get out. I even see a hint of micro holo in there!

The next is Shades of Phoenix's contribution, Triton. SoP is one of those indies brands that I first noticed and made me pay attention to the indie world, but I never actually got one until now! Sadly, this was the only sort-of in focus photo I managed. The light was terrible and I forgot to try again later. 

The polish itself was good, but if you look, you might see some little triangles in it, but I couldn't fish it out of the bottle! I think that on the left hand, only the ring finger managed to get one.

And the last but not least, Hollish Office Party. To me, it was reminiscence of Emily de Molly Somber Party. Both are blueish-greyish cremes with glitters. A serious polish with a fun side. The glitters are larger here of course, but still easy to apply, no fishing required (but do of course make sure you've mixed it a little!).

Both this and Peita's Polish Flying Trapeze appeared to have used the same combo of pink and aqua small dot glitters. Luckily, I love that colour combo!

So my overall thoughts, all had that great formula that I am coming to expect from all the aussie indies, although the two favourites for me are Peita's Polish Flying Trapeze and Hollish Office Party. I felt that the purple holo was a bit typical and the two with the larger glitters was too hard to fish onto the nail. Neither shade suited me particularly well either, I thought. 

I believe these are still available from Powder Perfect's store here.

Cute Snowy Christmas nails

I only managed one other Christmas mani, this cute snowy manicure. I used Celestial Cosmetics Sapphires of Tarth, from the Game of Thrones collection as base. Then used Illamasqua Blizzard for the falling snow effect and Formula X White Matter for the fallen snow. The silver glitter is also Celestial, the LE December 2014. Decal from Born Pretty store that I got last year (if you have a photographic memory you'll have recognised that I used the same decal last Christmas). Topped with Essence gel look top coat. 

I think the mix of finishes made it very effective. My nail art has been more miss than hit lately, so it was nice to get one to turn out nice and cute. Although I am not sure what caused the bubbles on the index finger. Anyway... it wasn't obvious and I just drew your attention to it for no real reason!

The nailguytv said these were "very cool". That made me very proud! Lol. He was on Nail'd It! I want to watch that so badly. 

Glam Polish Euphoria

Short post, not much to say. I also ate too much of those Korean sweet potato noodles and now I am feeling very uncomfortable. Anyhoo. 

I have here one very pretty glam polish, like all glams are. It even has some white gold flakes. Talk about lux! I just love blue nail polish and my collection of blues is getting ridiculous.

Picture Polish Fool's Gold by the Nailasaurus

I have been coveting this one for months, ever since it first came out. When my sister rang while I was half asleep saying she was putting a Picture Polish order in, this was the only polish name that came to me.

Create with the Nailasaurus, this is one sexy shade of blue with hints of gold. That is courtesy to the micro gold glitters and gold shimmer. So elegant, so eye catching. 

This here is three thin coats topped with my old favourite, hk girl top coat.

And Omg, omg! I tagged the Nailasaurus and she liked my photo on Instagram! Lol, fangirl moment!

Celestial Cosmetics Inception

My mani for the last two days has been the now sold out LE Inception by Celestial Cosmetics. It's a gorgeous neon blue holo. This is the second time in as many months that I've worn this polish, and on its own to boot! I actually intended to do some nail art on it, but couldn't bear to after seeing how gorgeously blue and sparkling it was.

Funny story to go with this post. I got a reminder last Friday for a hospital appointment for yesterday. I was having a good rant about how stupid it was to give me a reminder about an appointment when they haven't sent me a letter about the sms reminder.

When I got to the hospital I saw my mum was there. I thought, "hm, that is a coincidence" and went to tell reception I had arrived. The woman tells me I'm already down. I was a bit confused, as I had just arrived, made my mum come over and demanded her letter, and it turns out that mum had gone there with my letter thinking it was her appointment and he receptionist didn't think to wonder why she is 30 years older than the patient she was expecting! Not only that, she went and changed my GP details on the system! Who does that? Not sure who I am more annoyed with, the hospital or my mother!

Anyway, another photo. The sun finally came out and I quickly tried to take a photo of its full holo goodness! Not sure what happened instead, but it looks interesting!

Blue, Blue and Pink: dry marbling/polish dragging simple nail art

As I am house-sitting, I don't have as many polish to choose from as usual. All the polishes here I have purchased in June... I bought a lot of nail polish in June. So much for cutting down because I am not working. Opps! (At least I have so far managed to resist buying the awesome looking neon, holo polishes Celestial Cosmetic released recently?)

The marble effect was best on my right thumb and left ring finger I think

The dry marbling, effect was never really a look that interested me. It looks a bit too hippy, tie-dyed look for my taste. But I wanted something visually interesting but not too fussy. I was limited by the fact that I didn't have any tape or sponges with me. So I figured, what the hell, let's give this technique a go. I used my smallest point dotting tool to do the dragging. 

The polishes I used: Revlon Coastal Surf, Revlon Parfumerie African Tea Rose and Sally Hansen Pacific Blue. And yes, African Tea Rose does smell like roses. Like old school, rose scented soap!

Last day of work, first day of unemployment

I'd barely settled in, just found my feet at work, but now it's come to an end. I will miss many of the people there and the clients. Well, most of them. Anyway, long post, feel free to skip to below.

Not that I've had much time to process anything. My last day of work was, of course, was crazy. It always seems to go nuts on a Friday. Anyway, despite my best efforts, I didn't make it out till almost 6pm. I probably should have gone straight to the house sitting and then to see Mum at the hospital. But I decided I had to go down to Southland for an after work shop. I splashed out a little at David Jones and picked up a very on trend fushia and orange clutch, and two Nail inc polishes. I was a bit hesitant about the blue... After these are not cheap, even on sale, and I'd purchased three blues already this month. But next month is a new financial year and sale would probably be over. I also got my first foil finish. I have some old chrome polishes but pretty sure none of the old hand me downs from over the years are foil.

I did eventually go feed the cat and see my mum. The I decided to try all my different blue polishes. But then it got bed sheet marks. So I redid some of them and collected a bottle of hk girl from home. I made 4 trips to the hospital, mum wanted to go home for things, etc. It was pretty exhausting mentally. But I did finally made it back to the house I'm sitting and fixed all my nails. And I fixed my manicure.

I used, from thumb to pinkie: Nails Inc - Chelsea Bridge Road, Revlon - Coastal Surf, Nails Inc - Kensington Park Road, Sally Hansen - Mermaid's Tale and Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue.

I picked up Pacific Blue purely because the blogosphere was going into a melt down about the reformulation. So I had to know what the original is like. I wasn't specifically after a blue like that, but it's a handy addition to my collection. Mermaid's Tale was a find in Chemist Warehouse for $5. Blue jelly glitter and on sale. I had no choice.

Clearly, I've had no time for anything more than phone/iPad photos. I don't even have my camera with me and the adsl2+ line has been down. Thank goodness I have a data account with the iPad! The Kensington Park Road is more of a neon blue and in real life is more distinguishable from Coastal Surf than this photo would suggest.

Blue Glitter

Another of the mani that's been sitting in my draft for a little while. I adore the Maybelline Sequins collection, and although this is the last one I picked up, Sea-quins, it is actually my favourite colour of the set.* You should consider getting it, it's such a pretty bright blue! They've got another glitter line out now (I've been good thus far, and have resisted buying more), but I think you might still find a few bottles in Priceline or Chemist Warehouse. 

Alas, however, it's probably a bit much to have all glitter nails and the removal would have been a huge pain. So I tried to mix it up. Except... The plain light blue nails (Natio, I think) seem so plain, like I got halfway through doing my nails and ran out of time!

* I just googled, hoping for a link to the Maybelline site, but found this other blog that shows a lavender that I never, ever saw on the shelf! I thought i had the whole set! I spent ages trying to catch Sea-quins in stock! I need some purple glitter!

I found the perfect coral shade in Emily de Molly Setting Sun!

I wasn't planning on doing any nail polish shopping for a while. I have a nice haul coming back from the States with my sister, after all. But then new shades were being released at Emily de Molly and the owner was closing shop from 5 May for an undetermined length of time because she is having a baby - so I went and had a look at the store. I clicked on Setting Sun and read the description. I got as far as bright (almost neon) coral... and that was it. I had to have it.

So I got it.

I also picked up Turbulence because my collection is lacking a dark blue jelly glitter bomb and stamping. Because I am determined to find my stamping mojo one day.

Setting Sun perfectly matches the colour of the top that inspired my obsession with finding a bright coral polish.

My order from the Born Pretty Store arrived on the same day, so I got to do some nail art with the neon studs at the same time. I can't wait to use the neon nail stickers and do more swatching!

Illamasqua Speckled Gradient for Easter

So the last time I went past the Illamasqua counter at Myer, I picked up three speckled polishes for $5 each!  These are Mottle (green), Fragile (blue) and Speckle (purple). Scare (pink) was on sale too, but I didn't like the shade and passed. I also paid full retail price for red lip liner and lipstick... which was not so much of a bargain... I have always been a heavy eye makeup girl, but have been slowly developing a collection of bold lipsticks collection. So much easier to do than eyes too, tbh.

The Illamasqua lady had suggested that these would go well as a gradient. I agreed and this is the result. 

The black glitter made it a little messy. But it was the perfect Easter manicure without doing literal eggs, which I wore over the Easter weekend. I put on an off-white base to help the colours pop and to minimise the number of layers I needed to sponge on.

It just felt like it should be matte. So I made it so the next day.

Some splatter nail art

It's been a while since I've done any nail art. So I tried a simple splatter skittle in an unintentionally patriotic colour combo. I can't say I'm in love with it... Probably should have gone all out and did all splatter nails. But splatter is always so fun to look at!

Online tutorials always seem to suggest dipping a straw and blowing... but I've found that getting a big blob on the brush and then just give it a big blow onto my baggie works much better. 

What you see immediately below is the modified version it, which I will wear to work tomorrow. After the jump, you'll see that it's the thumb I've changed. 

I also had a go at stamping... why am I so bad at stamping? The little bit of white on my left pinkie is what I hadn't quite scratched off yet after my failed attempt at stamping. I think I need to start practicing by making stamping decals, until I get the technique right... I am terrible at lining it up and the colour is never as defined as photos of other people's stamping!

The original was three coats Celestial Cosmetics Cosmic Rays. The red nail was The Pink Planet. Both were samples from other orders.

The red in the splatter is OPI Oui Bit of Red, the white is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and the blue is CK Electric Blue. Everything topped with a generous coat of HK Girl. I love that stuff, I really need to figure out how to get the big refill bottles, I go through so much of the regular sized bottles!

Falling for Brazilians... OPI Sands

I had sworn no polishes until the end of February. Then I saw all the swatches for these. I ADORE textures!

I forgot to take a photo of the Samba-dy Loves Purple, but here's a look at You're So Flippy Floppy and my favourite, What's a Little Rain Forest? Although I have to admit that against my yellow-toned skin it brings out the red and loses some of the eye-catching brightness. It's still awesome.

Right now I am wearing some nail art using I'm Brazil Nuts Over You with a base of Suzi's Hungary AGAIN! I got the simple idea from this post from Fierce Makeup and Nails. The photos have me posing with my new ipad mini in its so-not-yellow-maybe-chartreuse case. I sadly kept forgetting to take a photo in nice light, so the photos look kind of... crap. Doesn't help my hands have taken a battering with all the hand sanitiser it has endured in hospitals for the last month.

But the good news is, my Dad came home from hospital today! He's recovering so well that they've only given him one medication for the next three days. That's it! Sadly, I can't say the same for the pile of paperwork I need to help him do during his extended sick leave.

 

Celestial Cosmetics - First foray into duochromes

I don't know how other people take those amazing colour shift photos. Perhaps it's my lack of light box. I also had trouble catching the natural night. If it's overcast and I get home late from the gym, I don't have much to work with. Really need to invest it light and/or macro lens. 

Anyways, I decided to get some of those duochromes, even though they're not really my usual style. They look so pretty in photos! 

I really wanted Mother of Dragons, and one in a dark colour. I considered Kingslayer, but decided to go with sapphire of Tarth. It's all about strong female characters for me and these two are representing and taking it to the men and kicking butt! 

First up, Sapphire of Tarth. To be honest, it's a bit darker than what I would be normally drawn to, and whilst it looks great it photos, it was a bit much for the middle of an Australian summer.

And the sexy Mother of Dragons. This was pretty gorgeous.

Next time, I think I might try to do a gradient with the two — what do you think?

Boxing Day sales goodies and a belated Christmas present

Sometimes, trying to find a gift is hard. And knowing that it might be on sale the day after is just infuriating. So my sister decided to take advantage of the sales to find me a present. Although it wasn't on sale in the end, she did also pick up a half priced OPI gift set while she picked up the OPI Euro Centrale mini polish collection. I, too, picked up a bottle of liquid sand on sale, in a brighter shade of blue.

I also picked up some Illamasqua polishes and a interesting Revlon one for $3. After my smelly Boe purchases from Big W the other day, I have decided to go for quality over quantity with polishes (oh the stink of those glitter toppers still makes me grimace). Not shown is the 6 lipstick set from Illamasqua that my sister got and, of which I've taken two.

I also found a Review dress that I liked (they have such big sales regularly that I can't help but wonder what their margins actually are). And my sister wanted to check out EB games, and I ended up with a couple of days somehow as well.

All things considered, this was a very modest spree - the Euro Centrale shouldn't even appear in the photo since it was a gift!

Of course, I had to try my new polishes straight away. 

So the polishes from L-R are: Can't Find My Czechbook, Suzi's Hungary AGAIN!, You're Such a BudaPest, OY-Another Polish Joke!

OY-Anothr Polish Joke was a surprise hit for me - I loved the effect the fine gold shimmer glitter (whatever) had on the already bright and happy colours!

Edited: Here's one with the baby guinea pigs