Zoya–Posh with Essie Luxeffects

 I am really, really disappointed with this polish. I've been wanting to try a Zoya matte velvet polish for so long and I finally got a couple.

This is Zoya Posh:

Um, boring. Why do all the photos I've seen of Zoya matte velvet's look so gorgeous and, well, velvety!?
This photo actually makes it look a lot nicer than it actually looked on my nails. Blah.

To brighten it up a bit I added a coat of one of the new essie Luxeffects:

This is As Gold As It Gets. My brother got this beauty for me for Christmas and I'm a little obsessed. One coat and it's the perfect amount of micro flakies.

Of course, what could be better then flakies? MATTE FLAKIES :D

Oh I loooooved this. It was so classy and understated but interesting at the same time.
I just added a coat of China Glaze Matte Magic and it transformed it!

Have you done any matte manis lately?

Em

BYS–Drop in the Ocean

Wow, BYS have really done it this time. This relatively newish polish is absolutely STUNNING.

Take a look:

WOW. This photo does not do it justice even a little bit. This is a gorgeous medium teal colour but my camera refuses to pick up its true colour and Photoshop refuses to come to the party and let me adjust the colour accordingly (or I’m just not doing it properly ).

 

The formula is amazing and it almost covered in one coat. I did two just to be safe. The wear was fabulous! I had a little bit of chipping on the third day but that’s because I was doing hot stone massages for half the day and kept dragging my nails along the stones (which I loathe. It’s like fingernails down a blackboard to me).

 

I did some pretty nail stamping with my trusty Red Angel image plates:

I used Konad Special Polish in Pastel Blue. I really love these Red Angel plates. They have amazing images and they are fantastic quality for such a low price. I think you can only get them on Amazon!

 

What do you think? Do you love this colour as much as I do?

Em

Custom Polish–Struttin’ Like a Peacock

Here is one of the custom polishes from my new nail polish range, Love Thy Polish.

 

This is Struttin’ Like a Peacock:

Three coats, I think this was. It’s a peacock green coloured jelly with green flitter and green hexes. Yummy

 

What do you think?

Em

essie–Buy me a Cameo

I’ve been so uninspired with blogging lately. I think it’s because I’m pouring all my creativity and inspiration into my custom polishes. So when I wear a polish I hate I don’t want to blog about it and I put it off. But then I tell myself that I should still blog about the polish even if I hate it because I can’t love everything!

Anyway, this is a polish I hate: essie’s Buy Me a Cameo:

Two coats. Urgh. It does not do it for me. It makes my cuticles appear red and gross (I swear they’re not that bad!!!). Because it’s a pearl finish you can’t escape the lines.

 

I was so unimpressed with this polish.

 

Have you worn this one before? What do you think?

Em

Love Thy Polish custom nail polish range

So I’ve been a wee bit preoccupied lately and have been neglecting my blog. You probably haven’t noticed but I haven’t been posting as much. I’ve been working on a new project which has taken up most of my free time, and I’ve been having so much fun with it!

 

So without further ado, I give you …

I’m creating my own nail polishes and selling them! At this stage they are all hand mixed/hand poured, but I’d like to get it to the stage where I get them manufactured.

 

Here is a taste of some of the summer colours I will be releasing at the next Market Day in my town. I’m still deciding on a name for this collection. There will be a couple more polishes in this range too.

 

 

Regular/glitter/shimmers will be $12 and holos/colour morphing polishes will be $15 each.

 

I’m still working out the finer details but I just wanted to share this with you!

 

I have a Facebook page too, so please go and ‘Like’ it!

 

Thanks everyone,

Em

Ulta3–Violet Rumble with Konad

Well, Ulta3 have done it again. Another amazing colour for $2.25. How do they do it!?

This is Violet Rumble from their new Gelato collection:

Two coats, fantastic formula. I loooove this colour. It's a pastel purple but like a bright pastel, if that makes sense?

I added some stamping:

I used my Red Angel image plates and dotted the middle of the flowers with my dotting tool and Ulta3 Frangipani.
Wow, I really didn't notice just how smudged my little finger was. Oopsies :P

I love this mani because it's so pretty and summery. Seeing and it's 40 degrees here today, it's quite appropriate!!

Em

Custom Polish–You’re On My Turf

 Another custom polish. I seem to like the green holos at the moment, and that's just fine with me! It's been sunny and hot here so a perfect opportunity to show off the gorgeous rainbow effect that Spectraflair gives custom polishes.

Here is You're On My Turf:

Two coats. Goooorgeous mid-green holo :D Love it!



I have been so addicted to holos lately, and I love that I can make my own so easily.

Have you been mixing up any polishes lately?
Em

Lish Gel Polish Day 11

This is the last day of the Lish Gel Polish trial. I made it to Day 11 before I cracked and removed it. It had just grown out too much and I had to paint my nails dark colours so the pink wouldn’t show through.

 

So here is Day 11 of the gel polish":

Still looks awesome apart from the regrowth.

 

A little bit of wear on the corners but that’s about it.

 

Pretty pleased with the wear overall, but I think to get more out of it you would really have to get it painted right up close to your cuticles to avoid major regrowth.

 

What did you think of my little experiment?

Em

Essence–Gold Old Buffy

I do love Essence polishes. I’m glad Targets in Adelaide are finally all stocking this brand.

 

This is one of the polishes from their Vampire’s Love collection. I picked up most of this collection when I was in Adelaide over Christmas because it had some unique colours.

This is Gold Old Buffy:

First of all, love the name! This is two coats, a really dark green with gold shimmer. It is absolutely stunning and unique. Love it

Awesome formula and it wore like steel for three days. I did apply it over my gel polish which may have helped its wear time, but I was still impressed!

 

Here’s another shot of the glorious shimmer:

I can’t wait to try the rest of this collection

Em

Bloom–Adelaide

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to try this polish. It’s been sitting in my untrieds drawer for about three months now.

 

This is B by Bloom’s Adelaide:

Ahhhh. It took me about five seconds to decide that I was an idiot for waiting so long to try this polish.

This is two coats and it was the most perfect formula I have ever come across. I had minimal clean up because it was just such a beautiful formula to work with.

This polish is also awesome because it’s named after where I grew up and visit regularly from my home in the desert.

 

Here’s a better photo which shows the stunning glitter/microshimmer in the nail.

If you look closely at the bottle, there is a lot of gold shimmer in it, but none of this translates on to the nail. I’m kind of glad because the shimmer which appears is more than enough. It is gorgeous!

 

I’ve seen this on a lot of Aussie blogs, and I’m glad I finally got to try it.  Long live Aussie polish brands!

Em

Ulta3–Blue Heaven

I love this polish. I love, love, love this polish. I did this the day I got my gel polish put on so I only got to wear it for a couple of hours. Heartbroken! I will definitely wear it again soon.

This is Ulta3 Blue Heaven from their new Gelato collection:

Two coats of perfection. Beautiful formula.
I just LOVE these bright pastels. Can’t get enough of them! So perfect for summer and they will brighten me up in Winter, I can tell!

Do you have the new Ulta3 Gelato collection?

Em

Lish Gel Polish–Day 9

Day 9. Still going strong!

 

Look how much my nails have grown!!!! It’s awesome to see! Here’s day 1’s post so you can compare. Woohoo  

 

Another photo which looks pretty much the same (haha):

 

I honestly wonder what I would have to do to get this to chip?!

 

Em

Lish Gel Polish–Day 8

Day 8 of the Lish gel polish. I do have a little wear at the corners, but otherwise it’s still chugging along brilliantly!

 

 

I’ve got some more photos from other angles so you can see the wear:

 

Tiny bit on the corner of my pointer finger.

 

And a tiny bit on my thumb.

 

Overall, not bad for 8 days!!! I don’t think I’ve EVER gotten that long out of a regular polish!!!!

Em

piCture pOlish–Nude

This is the first polish I used on myself after I left my nails naked for a week over Christmas. This is piCture pOlish Nude – I thought it was rather appropriate!!


Awww, look at those lil nubs. Poor things, they were so trashed.
This is three coats of Nude. Sorry to say but this was a terrible formula. First piCture pOlish I’ve used where I haven’t been 100% impressed It was a lovely nude colour though. I had chips the next day so it wasn’t too hard wearing either Boo.

This was my New Years Eve colour. Exciting, right? I didn’t get time to do anything fancy and I didn’t have much of my nail stuff with me in Adelaide.

What did you do to your nails for New Years?
Em

Zoya Rihana with Essence Time for Romance

While I was in Adelaide I painted B’s mum’s nails. She was kind enough to let us stay at her house for a week so it was the least I could do!

 

She picked Zoya Rihana as a base, a stunning burgundy shimmer:

This was two coats. It almost covered in one but there were a couple of bald spots. Beautiful smooth formula.

 

I layered my new Essence Time for Romance glitter on top:

This is just one coat! See how much glitter comes out!? I love it!!!

 

And finally, I stamped a couple of gorgeous Konad images from image plate S10:

Naww, a bunny and a kitty. B’s mum loves bunnies and kitties. She has three bunnies and two kitties. I fell in love with one of the kitties, Cassie, while I was staying there. She was so adorable and would snuggle up on my chest and wrap herself around my neck while I was sitting on the couch. I wanted to take her home with us!!

 

What do you think?

Em

Lish Gel Polish–Day 6

Day 6 and the Lish gel polish is still going:

Yup, no chips. Some nail growth which is normal, but it’s still perfect. I’m actually considering getting a clear or neutral gel polish mani regularly because my nails look amazing. I could totally get used to not having nails break when they’re at my perfect length.

 

I did get a little bored with the colour so I did some stamping on top:

This cute design is from the Red Angel plates. They have some really different designs which I love!

 

How long can I get out of this gel polish mani? What’s your bet?

Em

Adelaide Christmas Haul!

I picked up some awesome polishes while in Adelaide over Christmas and New Years. Some were presents, some were ones I bought for myself. Are you ready? Here we go!

BYS

A Drop in the Ocean. I’ve been wanting this blue for ages and finally picked it up. It looks like a gorgeous, gorgeous vibrant blue.

Essence
I have been lusting after Essence glitters ever since I saw them on quite a few Aussie blogs. I picked up the two that appealed to me most:

Blue Addicted and Time for Romance. Jam packed full of glitter. I’m in lurv!

I also got some from the Vampire’s Love collection because they had some pretty unique colours which jumped out at me. Excuse the shocking photo.

The Dawn is Broken, Gold Old Buffy, Into the Dark and True Love. I cannot wait to try Into the Dark, which is a beautiful blue with a silver glitter through it.

Mimco
Do you know, I didn’t even know Mimco made polishes?! B’s mum got these for me as a Chrissie present and I love them.

Russian Red and Nude. I’ve tried the Russian Red on my toes already and it is stunning. It’s a one coater (which stains the cuticle like crazy, mind you!!). I can’t wait to try Nude.

Inglot

203 (flakies, eeee!) and XL7.
I’m a bit mad at myself because I wanted the blue flakie. I picked it up and gave it to the shop assistant and she said they had run out… she showed me XL7 quickly and said “it’s pretty much the same but it’s the same price for a bigger bottle”. I should have clicked that there was no way they were going to be selling the same polish in a bigger bottle for the same price!! XL7 is gorgeous, but it’s definitely not a flakie. Grr. So now my hankering for the blue flakie still remains.

Revlon
$4.95 for a Revlon polish when they are up to $17 in pharmacies – can’t go wrong!


I picked up these three Glimmer Glosses because they looked so perdy. This is Blueberry Burst, Apricot Freeze and Pina Colada Pop. Can’t wait to layer these babies!

Sportsgirl
My sister got these for me for Christmas. I’ve never tried the Sportsgirl polishes before but they look like gorgeous colours!


?? and Lucky Star. I can’t actually see the name of the beautiful dark teal polish because it’s rubbed off the label. Can anyone help me out here?

Ulta3
Ulta3 have released yet another gorgeous collection, their Gelati Collection.
These have to be my absolute favourite Ulta3 colours yet. They are perfect for summer!


Violet Rumble, Kiwi Kaos and Lemon Tart.


Blue Heaven, Strawberry Sundae and Mango Mayhem.
These are all gorgeous colours, what I’d call bright pastels. I can definitely see a skittle mani in the future!

NYC Color
I picked these three polishes up in a service station on our way out of Adelaide on New Years Day. For any non-Aussies, a service station is a gas station/petrol station.
They were 3 for $6 so I jumped at them!


Gold Coin, Bronzed and Copper Penny. So perdy. B picked them out for me and I can’t wait to do some tape manis with these.

How do you like my haul? That will be all the hauling I’ll do for a while now. I have so many polishes to try!!

Em

Lish Day 4

Day 4 of the Lish gel polish.

Not a chip, not a scratch, not a dent.

I think I’d have to be one of the only people I know who would actually be wishing this polish would just chip already! I’m dying to paint my nails. I feel like I’ve lost my identity! My routine is to come home from work, get changed into comfy clothes, and paint my nails (if I don’t have a massage to do). Without my routine, I feel lost!

 

No, this isn’t the same photo as from Day 1. It’s just that good.

 

So basically, if you’re someone who loves to paint your nails every day or two and don’t actually mind getting a chip here and there because it’s an excuse to change your polish, this gel polish is not for you.

On the other hand, if you want something durable and hardwearing which doesn’t seem to chip no matter what you do, this is for you. I have been so rough on my hands the past couple of days because I’ve been packing stuff up and moving stuff around in our house because we’ll be moving house soon. Usually lugging boxes around and rearranging things leaves my nails in a mess, but they are still perfect.

I think I might have to get Amanda to do a set of these for me when I move house. It will protect my nails from shifting heavy furniture and boxes and keep my nails perfectly polished when I don’t have time to do a mani.

I’m off to Konad on top of these babies!!! If I can’t paint, I shall Konad!!!

Em