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. 

Glam Polish Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo

I gave my Notice of Intention to be Admitted to be a lawyer this week! The trial I am involved in is now in the media. Despite the nature of the crime, it is a great experience and the staff of the court in particular are great! I feel like I'm part of some greater every time I step into the building. I want to work there one day!

Anyway, onto nails! I had my eye on this one since I first saw swatches and it just had to be the first Glam Polish I tried from my first ever Glam nail mail!

Excuse the colour... kept forgetting to re-do in daylight.

Here are so quick snaps of it over Ulta3 Lilac Bloom. Match made in heaven I think!

Can't wait to try them all. It's like pokémon for nail polish addicts.

Ulta3 Polishes: Black and White on Hot Pink Fruit Tingle

I haven't been feeling the intricate nail art lately. I guess all the drama is bringing me down. This is one from a while back now, but I love the combo. And it's a bargain mani, two Ulta3 polishes, at rrp $2, this is $4 worth. Goes I need my inner cheapskate Asian to kick in more often. They're such great little bargains! I have been on a hunt for a nude lipstick. I actually found one nude I liked at Mecca, but they were out of stock. Maybe I should just forget about that one, after all, Ulta3's lippies would be a 10th of the price! I have been playing with the lipsticks and have my eye on their Caramel Kiss (only a tester left at the stand I was playing with).

There's a bit of a story about how this mani came about. As I previously mentioned, I purchased a hot pink Ulta3 polish, called Fruit Tingle. I just had to have hot pink polish after seeing the girl on reception at my gym with pink nails.

From the camera phone - it made it really cool toned for some reason

I have also been on a lookout for black and white dot glitter. I had seen Ulta3's Stop the Press in the bin before. But my sister had said she was going to get the Disney nail polish set which also had a black and white glitter topper, so I didn't grab it. Them it turns out she never went back for the Disney polishes. So I was still short of a black and white glitter topper in my collection. But of course Stop the Press wasn't in the bins I'd scoped out since.

And then my Mum got sick, and long story, I found myself at the hospital's pharmacy, which stocked Ulta3. And in their bin was Stop the Press, which I promptly added to my purchase. It has a fair good glitter payload, that's one coat with some additional dabbing to fill in some gaps.

And so I have my very simple, but visually arresting hot pink nails with black and white dots. Well, they're small hexes, but you can't tell unless your nose is right up at my fingertips!

World Cup Nails - Team Australia!

I love me some World Cup football. It's the only time I really watch soccer or become patriotic. Another time I  become a rabid green and gold Aussie fan is probably when I am travelling and I am feeling a touch homesick. That doesn't happen often.

Sadly, we're already bundled out of the tournament, which the third and last game against Spain being a dead rubber. But here is the mani I had before the dream ended.

I used Ulta3 Inten-city on thumb and index. On index I coated with Picture Polish Aurora. 

Middle finger is OPI Copacabana with Formula X Turbo. Ring finger is Revlon Parfumerie Wintermint (yes, it makes my hands smell like toothpaste) and little finger is OPI Copacabana. Studs are the Born Pretty Store wheel of neon studs that I've used before.

I didn't actually take these photos till a couple of days later.

I lost the studs after a few days, and actually had a second mani for the second game. I forgot to take nice photos, so here's one from 2am in the morning, sitting on the dark snap from Instagram.

Neon Orange gradient with matte glitter topper

Continuing my rebellion against winter with bright colours, I created a neon orange gradient. This isn't fully a stateside haul mani. The light orange neon is from a collection of this cheap brand that neither of us have heard of. She thought this colour would be right up my alley, and she was right (despite our constant bickering, sisters always know each other best). The brand is Claire's and this colour is The Extra Mile.

Ulta3 Tahiti, Formula X Thunder and Claire's The Extra Mile

The darker colour is the ring-in, a coralish neon orange by Ulta3 called Tahiti. I used Formula X White Matter as my white base. All this was then topped with Formula X Thunder (why it's call that, I don't know, can't say it reminds me particularly of thunder), a matte glitter topper with big white hex, smaller blue hex and micro dots glitter. The payoff was pretty good, only minor fishing for the big white hexes. 

I learned something when painting this... neons are HARD to clean up! But I loved it and couldn't stop staring at my in-your-face nails for the whole full week I had it on! Admittedly, some of that time was spent staring and rueing the fact that I broke a corner off my left index. It's always that spot lately!

Attempting some different poses

How about this pose?

I picked up a bright pink Ulta3 today, I couldn't help myself. The receptionist at my gym has bright, bubblegum pink nails and I just had to get some bright pink polish (despite my usual aversion to traditionally 'girly' colours and my promise not to buy anymore nail polish for a while - but hey, it's only $2!). My battle against winter continues!

The ongoing search for the perfect bright coral - some comparisons

After a rather horrid day at work, which was followed by a rather disastrous exam, whereby I left my exam notes at work, I need some pick-me-up. I treated myself to some Celestial Cosmetics, however, after placing my order, I had nothing to show for it (yet). 

Then the following day I had to go into hospital for a procedure, so of course I checked out their sales bin for nail polishes. I found some Revlon polishes going for $5 each, so I got two. 

The one I have here is Mai Tai Ask? (Rather OPI-esque name, I thought) I painted these immediately after my procedure at the hospital was over. Literally, I went and purchased my polishes, got some food, ate it, and then started painting at the food court.

I since now realised that I have a couple really close to this colour. I guess everyone finds that they are always drawn to certain shades. This particular one went with me on a visit my old workplace for after work drinks... that became a wild night of partying and champagne.  

Anyway, the next morning, beyond a hangover, I also realised that it was more orange than coral and I had things similar. So I pulled out my bottles and compared.

L-R: Ulta3 Carrot Top, Kit Orange.com, Revlon Mai Tai Ask? and Revlon Tropical Temptation

Index to pinky as above

As you can see, I keep leaning too far into orange. And I have three barely distinguishable colours (they're a bit more noticeably different in real life). Tropical Temptation is not quite as bright or opaque as I like. So, I am still on the hunt for a good bright/neon coral. I do have OPI Live.Love.Carnival coming as my of my sister's USA goodies-for-me, but I am still after something more neon and pink-leaning. Any tips??