Ulta3 Mermaid Green

Here’s another one from the Ulta3 Spring/Summer collection. This is Mermaid Green:

 

Pretty, right? This is two coats. Very easy application (and easy to do in a rush because I was running late) and awesome wear.

This is a different green, just like Mojito (why is it that every time I say/write “Mojito” or “Fajita” I think“mo-jeye-toh” and “fah-jeye-tah”?!) I really like that so many of the colours in Ulta3’s Spring/Summer collection are just a tad different. I’m not sure what makes this green so different, but I like it!

 

The only problem is, which one to try next!?

Em

NYC Color Pink Cheeks French Mani with Konad

Another Kate mani! My friend Kate just jetted off to America for two weeks, the lucky thing, so I did her nails for her before she left.

She felt like a simple, classic french made funky with a little Konad.

Here’s what we came up with:

Gorgeous! I used Manicare French White for the tips and NYC Color Pink Cheeks for the pink. Pink Cheeks was a little opaque to be used as a french pink and covered the white tips too much, so I freehanded another coat of white on top of it. I was surprised at how well I did with the freehanding.

I added a cute little bow onto each ring finger and then Kate said “man, it would be so cool if there were some way to make the centre of the bow silver”. No sooner had she spoke that I’d grabbed my dotting tool and Sally Hansen’s Celeb City and dotted the centre of the bow. It’s the little things that make a mani really pop!

I love doing Kate’s nails because, while she gives me free rein, she has some great ideas and we always have so much fun!

Em

Chi Chi Moondust

I think I’ve found a new favourite.

I’ve recently been disappointed by some glitter polishes not being nearly as bling-y as they look in the bottle (I’m talking about you, C-c-courage), but this Chi Chi polish is … wow. I don’t have any other words to describe it, so I’ll let you see for yourself.

 

Wooooooooooooooow.

This is two coats of Chi Chi Moondust. Now this was what I was expecting from C-c-courage. A black jelly base with tonnes of purple glitter. So, so blingy.

I used two coats of Seche Vite because this was a hungry little glitter, but the second coat made it nice and glossy.

 

Here’s another gratuitous glitter shot:

Yum. Can I just, like, eat this or something?!

This actually wasn’t a total PITA to remove. I used the foil method and it started to slide off by itself after a minute or so. A glitter that isn’t horrible to remove? You will always have a place in my heart.

 

I’ve been saying lately that I’m “over” glitters. Well, I’m not. I’m not over glorious glitters like this. I think I’m more over using glitter as a top coat. Because, honestly, who could hate this?!

 

Em

piCture pOlish Twinkle with Bundle Monster cheetah print

This polish is one of those polishes which comes out totally different than you expect it to. Luckily, it was in a good way.
This is one of the piCture pOlish nail polishes I won in Julia’s giveaway.
In the bottle it’s a very, very light lilac with a subtle sparkle through it. Now here it is on the nail:


You can’t tell me that’s lilac! To me, it looks pink. A beautiful, dainty pink. Unfortunately the beautiful sparkle doesn’t translate onto the nail, but it’s still amazing.
Silly me forgot to take a photo of the polish before I stamped all over it, but this is two coats stamped with Konad Princess Special Polish in White using the Bundle Monster plate BM-221.
The formula was pretty good. It was a little thick at times, but nothing unmanageable. I’m really starting to become obsessed with these piCture pOlishes. They are Aussie and affordable (by Aussie standards. Nail-a-holics overseas may think $9.95 is a bit rich for a polish but it’s really not when you consider how much OPI costs over here).

I’m completely in love with the square bottles and the font they use on their labels. It just looks really well put together. The only thing that truly irritates me about these polishes is the little subheading above the name of the polish on the label.
Have a look at the photo below and tell me what’s wrong with this picture:


If you haven’t noticed, it’s probably because you’re not a total English and grammar perfectionist like I am.
The label on Flirt clearly says “warning you may get loads of attention!”
Argh. There should be a colon in there somewhere, I’m sure of it.
Okay, so they’re not all like this but there are a few. And it annoys me. Because if I were to go and spent a tonne of cash on my own business creating nail polishes, I would be making sure everything is perfect before selling them to the public.

Alright, I’m being a bit harsh. I think it’s the journalist in me coming out to play. I’m generally a total pain in the butt when it comes to spelling and grammar because if I notice something wrong I will point and laugh at it. My bad.

Anyway, back to the awesome things about piCture pOlish! Their colour selection is to die for!! When I won Julia’s giveaway, I spent so long trawling through their website trying to narrow down my huge wish list to just three polishes. Let me tell you, it was incredibly hard to pick just three beauties. I chose Twinkle, Marine and Flirt (as you can see above) and I am so happy with my choices. They are such gorgeous summer shades.

Do you have any piCture pOlishes?

Em

China Glaze C-c-courage

Oh look what it is, another purple! Colour me surprised

 

This is C-c-courage from China Glaze’s The Wizard of Ooh-Aahz collection:

 

Hmm. I was actually really disappointed by this polish. In my head, I saw it as a purple version of Ruby Pumps but it truly wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a pretty purple, but it just completely lacks the depth that Ruby Pumps has. This photo actually makes it look a lot prettier and more sparkly than in real life.

First of all, two coats of this dried matte. MATTE?! There’s the problem. Even with a thick coat of Seche Vite, I wasn’t impressed.

It’s a pity, because it is a nice shade of purple, but it just didn’t do it for me.

I’ve been wanting to order most of the other colours from this collection but that was when I was sure they were like Ruby Pumps in a different colour. Does anyone have the whole collection? Do you think it’s worth getting the others?

Em

China Glaze QT

We’ve been having some fairly nice weather here in the desert … not too hot, not too cold. Warm days with a gentle breeze (or some days, a fierce wind which sends red dirt flying everywhere).
So I took advantage of the sun to wear a beautiful holo!


You all know what this is! Two coats of China Glaze QT from the OMG! Holographic Collection. It’s such a stunning deep pink linear holo.
The good thing about this polish is that it’s a gorgeous colour even in the shade. There are some holos I’m just not a fan of until I can see the rainbow shining through, but this beauty is just pretty all the time!

Fellow Aussies, are you breaking out the holos for Spring? Claire, I know you are!!

Em

Miki Fit for a Queen

As you can tell, I’ve really been feelin’ the purple polish lately. I’m not sure what it is, but I’m so drawn to purple at the moment. I’m loving beautiful deep, bright pinks too.

If you haven’t gone to your local chemist and raided the Miki polish tubs (usually sitting on a shelf or on the counter), I suggest you get on it straight away.

Behold, an unnamed purple Miki which I have dubbed “Fit for a Queen”:

 

Isn’t she a beauty? Honestly, these $2.50 polishes apply like a dream and they have amazing wear too. I really can’t fault them.

I wore this for two days and I didn’t have any chips, dents or tip wear.

I added some cute Konad because my nails felt naked (and, okay, I’m obsessed):

 

So, so perdy. I loved this mani. It felt really dainty to me and it was so easy to do. I think my favourite Konad polish is the White Princess Special Polish. It just seems thicker than all the rest and stands out on most base colours.

 

What do you think?

Em

BYS Reign Supreme with Revlon Galaxy

I haven’t worn a BYS polish in a while (two weeks, maybe, that’s a while ) so I thought I’d try one of their new ones, Reign Supreme:


This is two coats. A pretty, pretty colour, but it wasn’t really anything special. The formula was amazing, possibly one of the best I’ve used.

I’ve developed an aversion to wearing polish with nothing on top (apart from holos, of course!) so I added some Revlon Galaxy as feature nails:

There is so much going on in Galaxy. I tried to capture the sparkle, I truly did, but my camera kind of freaked out and refused to cooperate. But you can see in the bottle there are fine holo glitter particles as well as bigger silver hexes. I originally thought the hexes were circles, but they have very small sides to them.

I’m just not feeling glitter at the moment. Has anyone else “gone off” glitter?

Em

piCture pOlish - Marine

It’s official, I am in love with piCture pOlish nail polishes. This is the first polish I’ve tried from Julia’s giveaway and I am most impressed.


This is two coats of Marine. This was very nearly a one coater, but I had a few spots I needed to go over again so I ended up doing two coats.
The formula was a dream. Love!
I then used my dotting tool to do some cute pink polka dots in an unnamed “B” brand polish.

I love this colour combo. So, so cute.

Em

Bloom Tel Aviv and Antwerp with nail art

I had my friend Kate around to do nails last Sunday. I love doing her nails because she lets me do whatever I want

 

I went with Two polishes from the B Bloom Collection: Tel Aviv and Antwerp:

 

This is two coats of Tel Aviv and three of Antwerp. I failed at capturing the gorgeous glitter in Tel Aviv, but you can see it in the bottle. It is so dark it’s almost black, but such a beautiful colour.

Antwerp is white with a very fine pearl shimmer through it. It’s not very noticeable at all but subtly pretty.

First I used my new fancy french tips stickers and then attacked her with my dotting tool. She loved it  

Because I’m a perfectionist, I think it’s too messy, but as long as she’s happy, I’m happy!

 

Does anyone else find it a lot harder doing someone elses nails? Doesn’t make sense because you get to use your dominant hand the whole time, but I think it’s a control thing. I can put my hand wherever is easiest for me, but if it’s someone else’s hand it’s more awkward.

Also, does anyone think the fancy french nail looks like a tuxedo!?

Em

Ulta3 Mojito

This is a bit of a strange colour. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. But it’s like a neon pastel.

This is Mojito, from Ulta3’s Spring Collection:

 

Beautiful, beautiful neon pastel green. This was two coats. The formula was amazing and it wore so well. Two days and not one chip.

I’m really impressed with Ulta3’s Spring Collection. Last time I was in Adelaide, my sister managed to score six out of the eight colours for me. I’ve been wanting those two other colours (Mermaid Green and Sunset Pink) ever since. I made my sister a few Spectrafrankens and she found the Ulta3s for me in return Thanks Cat

I am sooo excited to get the other two colours. Ulta3 continually impress me with their unique and gorgeous colours and quality for such a cheap price.

And get this, they even have good customer service, too! When I was doing my nail marbling I noticed that I had a terrible brush in my bottle of Tangelo. There were huge bits of brush sticking out everywhere and I knew it would be totally impossible to do a mani with it. Fine for water marbling, not so good for neat painting! So I rang The Heat Group, who make Ulta3 and one of the lovely ladies there, Chantal, organised to send me out a replacement bottle. Three days later I got the bottle and a nice little note. Truly awesome customer service for a $2.45 bottle of polish.

 

Have you seen the Ulta3 Spring Collection?

Em

Water Marble nails using Ulta3 Spring Collection

Beware: Messy nails ahead.
I tried water marbling for the first time last weekend. While I have a lot of improvements to make, I am actually weirdly proud of what I did and can’t wait to try again.

I used some colours from the Ulta3 Spring Collection for this marble pattern:

I used Blue Marlin, Tahitian Lime, Tangelo and Frangipani.
I used room temperature tap water in a plastic cup and toothpicks to swirl the polish into patterns. I used scotch tape to tape around my nails to protect them.

Here is my left hand:

You can really tell this was the first hand I did. Note the thumb: this is a result of sticking the sticky tape too close to the nail and when I ripped it off, I wrinkled half the polish. I also felt like part of the design wasn’t dark enough, so I dipped it again. That’s what that ugly murky colour is. Note to self: Never double dip!
The pointer finger was poor placement on my part. It made me realise I needed to make better designs.
My middle finger got smudged while I pulled the tape off. Note to self: Pull the tape AWAY from your nail, not towards! And it’s much easier to cut the tape off rather than rip.
I love the design on my little fingernail. This was the kind of thing I wanted to achieve on all my fingers!

And here’s my right hand:

Love the thumb, although the blue is a little washed out. I’ll need to make sure I use more highly pigmented colours next time.
My pointer finger, again, was poor placement and not enough colours. My middle finger wasn’t great either.
The ding in my ring finger was because I didn’t let my white base coat dry enough and I smudged it while marbling my other hand. I had to paint over it and it dried funny Love the design, though!
And my little finger also got a ding in it because I was too sloppy pulling the tape off.

I learnt a few things while water marbling which should help so much in my next attempt:

• Make sure you let your base coat dry properly.
• Make sure you get your tape close enough to your cuticles/edges of your nail but not ON the nail
• Cut the tape off carefully to avoid smudging
• Use highly pigmented colours or it could look washed out

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed seeing my first attempt at water marbling. I promise the next attempts will be better!

Em

Bloom–Maui with Konad

This is one of the Bloom polishes I got on clearance in Target during the great Adelaide haul.

Can I just say how much I love these b collection by Bloom polishes?! They have such a great range of colours and the formula is amazing. They are normally $12.95 each, which is reasonable for an Aussie polish, but this was out for $3.38 on clearance in Target. How can you go wrong at a price like that!?

Anywhoo, on to the prettiness:

Cute, right? Such a gorgeous, lolly pink. I was so in the mood for a nice pink. This was two easy coats. Application was a breeze and I barely had any clean up to do because of how nice it was. It’s long wearing too – I still don’t have any chips and it’s almost the end of day two! And I am hard on my nails. Love!

 

I attacked it with Konad, of course:

Such a pretty, pretty stamp. And I love the colour combination. I felt so girly wearing this. I’m not a girly girl by any means, and I never used to have any pink polishes, but lately I’ve been going crazy for them!!

 

I realise this photo is blurry and crappy so I took another one after I’d been wearing the mani for three days:

 

Look at that! Only the tiniest amount of tip wear and a really small chip (only the top layer chipped so there was still a layer underneath it). Brilliant wear I’m so excited to try the rest of my Bloom polishes now.

 

Do you love a good pink?

Em

Goodies galore!

I finally received my Ozsale order the other day. I’m not sure if I’m going to be ordering from them again, to be honest. While they have good prices, these took forever to get to me. They do warn you that items won’t be despatched until after the sale closes, but these took about five weeks to get to me from only a couple of states east from where I am. Not impressed! They ran out of one Bloom polish so they’re meant to be refunding it. I’ll have to keep an eye on that!

Anyway, onto the haul:

 

Bloom

Adelaide, Sydney and Cairo.

 

Vienna, Antwerp, Tel Aviv and Bianca.

 

A four way buffing block. I’ve already used it and I must say, I’m really impressed!

 

Revlon

Ocean Breeze, Galaxy, Perplex, Rock and Grape Icy. I’m so annoyed! I bought a mini Revlon three pack the other week and there is a purple in it called “Rock Star”. You guessed it, it’s the same as “Rock”!!! Gerrrr!

 

This is Galaxy up close. What a pretty, pretty polish. Can’t wait to layer this over a nice dark polish.

 

I also received my order of the Color Club Foiled collection. Before I show you them, look how the lady I bought them from wrapped them:

Isn’t that ADORABLE?! It’s the little things, people.

Anyway, here’s the foily goodness:

Wheeee!!!! I’m sooo excited about these! I probably should have shaken these up a little before the photos but you get the idea!

 

And finally, I got my giveaway prize from Julia’s giveaway: three PiCture pOlish nail polishes! I even got to choose the colours Here’s what I chose:

When I opened these, I just stared. How beautiful are these colours?! I love everything about them. I love the colours, the bottles, the rubber tops, the font on the label (I’ve done graphic design at uni so I’m alllll about the fonts!)

They just look amazing. The three colours look so stunning next to each other too. I wonder if I did that subconsciously?

I’m sorry I’m gushing about these polishes, but they are just sooo pretty.

Alright, I’ll stop now … until I try them

 

And that is it for hauling for at least October! I’m thinking it will stretch well into November too. I currently have 119 untried polishes, and I need to get through some of those before I buy any more!

 

How many untrieds do you have?

Em

The Face Shop BL602

When I was in Adelaide a couple of weekends ago I did a mani for Mum. She’s been wanting one for so long but it’s so hard to find time to sit down and do nails when I’m in Adelaide. It’s always so rush, rush, rush. But I was going to a wedding around the corner from my parent’s house so I went to their place a little early and did her nails.

She was very pleased with the end result!

 

(Sorry for the crappy photo … it wasn’t very good lighting!)

The base is The Face Shop’s BL602, a gorgeous purple with a blue flash, or is it blue with a purple flash? It’s more of a duochrome, really. It’s totally and utterly gorgeous and I can’t wait to try it on my own nails.

Mum loves Konad too so I let her pick a design. She chose the classic zebra print from M57 stamped on with Konad Princess Special Polish in silver. We both loved how it turned out

She was so worried the colour and stamping would be too “young” for her, but I told her that that’s the great thing about Konad: you’re never too old! These colours really suited her!

 

Have you done manis for anyone else lately?

Em

Modelista Sao Paulo

This is the first polish I tried from my epic Adelaide haul.

 

Modelista Sao Paulo:

This polish was a real beauty! Two coats, such easy and smooth application. It wore like steel, too. It’s such a pretty royal purple. It’s not a shimmer but it’s not quite a metallic. I’m not really sure what to call it.

 

I’m really impressed with the Modelista polishes. I really wasn’t sure about them at first, but I figured I didn’t have much to lose because they were out on clearance.

 

Do you own any Modelista polishes? Unfortunately I only have one more: Koh Samui, a beautiful bright pink.

 

Em

Spectrafranken–Goblin Snot

This is the final Spectrafranken for the week! I just wish it were something a bit better than this

 

This is Goblin Snot:

*sigh*. I had such high hopes for this Spectrafranken, but it’s just not as holo as I’d like it to be. It may be better in the sunlight but the past few days here have been very overcast. No sun to be seen!

This is two coats. I might add some more Spectraflair but I’m not sure whether to bother …

 

Now it is time to send links to all my Spectrafrankens to Cathy at More Nail Polish so that she can continue putting together her mega blog post on Spectrafrankens

 

Em

Spectrafranken–Unicorn Tears

As per yesterday’s post, I am definitely not sick of holos.

I have another Spectrafranken beauty for you today. This is Unicorn Tears:

 

Two coats of deliciousness. This one is just stunning. It is just so pretty and reminds me of something you’d wear to a fairy party. Lurv

 

Unfortunately this was a bit of an experiment so I don’t have an exact recipe. I was actually trying to make a pale pink holo but it didn’t work out.

I started with my 5mL bottle and poured in NYC Color’s Cotton Candy up to the widest part of the bottle at the top. Then added my usual three tiny straw spoonfuls of Spectraflair. I didn’t like what I saw so I added probably five drops of black. Still didn’t like what I saw. So I added maybe five drops of Ulta3 Gooseberry, a dark, dark purple. That’s when I got to this colour and stopped because I was in awe of the pretty, pretty purple.

I named it Unicorn Tears because it just feels and looks so mythical and magical. I’m a little obsessed with it, can you tell?

 

I have one more Spectrafranken to share tomorrow: Goblin Snot. Get excited, people!

Em

Spectrafranken–Albino Smurf

Okay, so I’d like to retract my previous statement that I’m getting sick of holo polishes.

Please strike that from the record and take a look at this:

 

Oh yeah, I’ve got my Spectra-mojo back. Seriously, I think I was just disappointed in the last two Spectrafrankens I tried (He’s My Lobster and The Legend of Ron Burgundy).

This is two coats of Albino Smurf. It is so freakin’ gorgeous I can’t even stand it. It’s so shiny and metallic and the perfect blue. It’s like a brighter version of 2NITE from the China Glaze OMG! Collection.

 

I would love to give you the recipe, but this was a bit of a mutant franken. I was trying to make Kristy’s Terrific Teal Franken but I definitely did not end up with the same colour as her. I used my 5mL bottles as usual and poured in BYS Dark Teal up to the widest part of the bottle at the top. I added my usual three tiny straw spoonfuls of Spectraflair, dropped in a ball and shake shake shaked.

Er, not exactly the colour I was looking for?! I added a boatload of Ulta3 Midnight, a black polish, and this is how it turned out. I’m still scratching my head as to how it turned out so different. Maybe I added more Spectraflair? Either way, this colour is stunning.

But I’m still left wanting Terrific Teal

 

Em

Spectrafranken–The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Yet another Spectrafranken I only have three left to try: Albino Smurf, Unicorn Tears and Goblin Snot. So stay tuned for more of these by the end of the week.

 

This is The Legend of Ron Burgundy (you can thank my partner for that amazing name):

 

Hrmmm … another one that looked better in the bottle then on my nails. And like He’s My Lobster, it took full sunlight to see the rainbow holo goodness.

This is two coats. I have to say again, I really hate the brushes in the bottles I ordered. The shape of the bottles are so cute but I will never buy these bottles again because of how irritating they are to use.

I’m going to have to source another supplier for them. The place which was recommended to me is out of stock of the bottles I like. Boo! Anyone got any ideas?

 

Anyway, the recipe is easy peasy. 5mL bottle, pour some NYC Color’s Professor Plum up to the widest part of the bottle at the top, add three tiny straw spoonfuls of Spectraflair and shake it all around. Could not be easier! It could have used a bit more Spectraflair.

 

I hope you’re enjoying the holo goodness. To be honest, I’m ready for a break from the holos. I’m craving some good old fashioned colours. Did I seriously just say that!?

Em