China Glaze-Flyin’ High with Konad

It’s one of my favourite colours again I swear, I will NEVER get sick of blue/teal polishes. Never ever ever. I have so many that are similar but slightly different and I love them ALL!!!! China Glaze does some AMAZING blues and here is one of them:

Two coats of Flyin’ High. Gorgeous, gorgeous colour and amazing formula. I honestly could not fault this polish. It was to die for Just looking at the photos makes me want to wear it again and again!

 

I wanted a simple image to stamp over this colour so I didn’t cover it up too much. I decided on a pretty Konad image:

So cute Reminds me of a patchwork quilt!

Do you like?
Em

Bloom-Zooey

Ah, the last of my Bloom haul from a couple of months ago.

This is Bloom Zooey:

A very densely packed silver glitter. This was two coats, so I was pleased I didn’t have to do a million coats to get coverage. It was relatively smooth after I threw a coat of Seche Vite on top.

Not a bad little number! It’s not very ‘me’ but I can appreciate it all the same. I think this would be AWESOME with a really simple dress and heels for a night out on the town. A bit of bling on the nails!

What do you think?

Em

Revlon–Jelly with D’Signer stamping

This pretty polish has been sitting in my untrieds drawer since my lovely friend Kate gave it to me as a birthday gift at the start of April. Wow, that’s almost four months! I’m so glad I decided to try this polish because I love it. I love, love, love it. I’m definitely going to bring this baby out for summer because it is just such a gorgeous, happy colour.

This is Revlon Jelly:

Ahhh, isn’t it beautiful?! This was two perfect coats. Formula was amazing, it dried fast (it was one of the Top Speed ones) and it wore fabulously.

 

I’ve been meaning to try out my D’Signer nail stamping plates for a long time. I got them from Catch of the Day, an Aussie deals website, months ago but have never gotten around to using them. I tried out a different flower on each nail

 

Not bad! I dotted the middles with Ulta3 Frangipani, a bright summery yellow.
I felt like these plates wouldn’t stamp crisply enough. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t bad (especially not for the $7 I paid for the whole kit which includes 5 plates, a stamper and scraper), but there is no way I’d pay the $20 price tag these are supposed to have in Target. The whole nail images are tiny, tiny, tiny, and I doubt they would fit my nails at all.

This mani was very cute and it made me feel very young, like a 11 year old girl doing her nails for the first time!

 

Have you tried the D’Signer Nail Stamping Kit?

Em

Ulta3–Enchanted

As you all know, I don’t have access to a lot of polish here in the desert. I was whinging on the Aussie Nails Facebook group that I wanted the new Ulta3 magnetics and the lovely Kelly sent them to me! Thanks, Kelly!

 

I tried out Enchanted first, which looked grey in the bottle but turned much darker once the magnet was applied.

I decided to try out all the different magnets and got this:

Thumb: star, pointer finger: diagonal lines, middle finger: chevrons, ring finger: vertical lines, pinky: star again.

The magnet was pretty crap to use, I’ll admit. A small flat magnet stuck on a piece of cardboard. This first hand turned out well, apart from the chevrons. Apart from that design, all the other designs turned out pretty well! I got to my right hand and wow, I could not make it work. For some reason I could not get the design to show up on the curved parts of my nails. I understand that this was due to the flat shape of the magnet but how come I managed to do my left hand alright?!

 

I would definitely recommend using a different magnet for these polishes. For the price (AUD$4.95 each which includes one magnet), I can’t really complain though.

I’m looking forward to trying “Bewitched” next, the pretty deep red.

 

What do you think of the Ulta3 magnetics?

Em

Ulta3–Spring Break with China Glaze–Custom Kicks dotties

I got this Ulta3 from the local Woolies when they first started selling them. Since then the bins have been picked over and there is only a handful of boring shades left.  I managed to snag this one before it disappeared.

 

This is Spring Break:

A beautiful royal purple creme. It’s actually got a really strange finish to it, kind of rubbery. I actually prefer it like this to having a top coat on!

This is two coats. The formula was pretty good, no major issues here!

 

I was in the mood for some spotties so I got out my dotting tools and China Glaze Custom Kicks:

 

Oh I LOVE this colour combo! I did a few different sized dots to mix things up a bit. I loved the result

 

What do you think?

Em

Revlon–Stonewash & Custom Polish–Party Smurf

I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect white polish for a long time now. I haven’t found it yet but this Revlon polish is pretty dang good, especially if you don’t want a stark white!


Revlon Stonewash, two coats. Formula was awesome and it’s got a slight shimmer to it. As I said, perfect if you want to avoid that “liquid paper” look on your nails.
The accent nail is a custom creation of mine that my sister in law named “Party Smurf”. Someone has been playing too much Smurfs on their Android phone

I loved this mani because it felt so clean! Sometimes it’s nice to have a simple, palate cleansing polish.

My next white to try is Ulta3 Lily White, the PRC version. I’ve heard it’s the best one coater white polish from the Aussie girls. I hope so

Em

OPI–Care to Danse?

I’m almost through all my OPI NYC Ballet Collection polishes. Ah, what a good collection. This is the pale purple of the collection, even though both in photos and on the nail it looks pink!?

 

This is Care to Danse? Three coats. The formula wasn’t as great as the others I’ve tried but still not too bad and evened out with three coats. I did some Konad stamping over the top in silver which was so pretty and girly, I loved it

 

You can’t go wrong with these polishes, do you agree?
Em

China Glaze–Recycle

I’m still on the hunt for a perfect grey polish. I thought this was it but nope, it just doesn’t do it for me.

 

China Glaze Recycle:

Two coats. Formula was not too bad, but it’s just so boring. Am I too honest in my reviews, too brutal!? Sometimes I feel like I am! Some polishes are just so disappointing though, especially when you see lovely swatches on other people’s blogs. It doesn’t help that this is a terrible photo but honestly, it doesn’t make much of a difference because the colour just washed me out and did not suit my skintone.

 

Into the swaps pile you go!!!

Em

HITS–Dreamer

Sometimes a polish has a crap formula, but it’s so worth it. This polish is one of those.
I bought this off the lovely Carli during her recent blog sale. I got some polishes I’ve seriously been lemming for a long time like a couple of Sally Hansen Chromes which are supposedly awesome for stamping. Thanks, Carli!

This is HITS Dreams from their Mari Moon collection:

Excuse the terribly oily cuticles … someone obviously forgot to rub the cuticle oil in
This was two coats over NYC Color Night (which is the same as Ulta3 Black Satin). It’s a one-coater black which I love! The formula for Night was pretty decent, a little patchy in some coats which made me think it wasn’t going to be a one-coater but it evened out in the end.
HITS Dreams had a terrible formula. I don’t know it needed thinning but it was gluggy and thick. I didn’t want to add thinner because I didn’t want to risk thinning it too much. Anyway, it dried surprisingly quickly for how thickly I had to paint it on and I loved the result.
Really, who doesn’t love a good multichrome? I saw so many colours in this – blue, purple, gold, red. It was just absolutely stunning and it was my favourite when it turned a deep, dark blurple. *sigh*. So pretty!

Do you have any of the Mari Moon polishes?
Em

OPI–Congeniality Is My Middle Name & Crown Me Already!

Why did I wait so long to get the OPI Miss Universe collection!? What a stunning collection of polishes! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, OPI are awesome at their smaller, 4-6 polish, collections. I think their 12 polish collections are a bit overkill and a bit greedy. I generally only ever want a few polishes out of the larger collections but I tend to want most of the smaller collections.

 

Anyway, enough babble and onto the pretty polishes!

Congeniality Is My Middle Name (two coats) and Crown Me Already! (two coats). This photo doesn’t do Congeniality Is My Middle Name justice. It’s a pretty, deep magenta with a lovely shimmer. Formula was not too bad but it stained the hell out of my cuticles which made for a long clean up time.

Crown Me Already! is beautiful! It’s a super chunky silver glitter with fine and large glitter and large hexes. Again, the photo doesn’t do it justice. I don’t usually like chunky glitters but this one is a real exception.

 

Do you have this collection?
Em

Bloom - Kitty

I’ve been loving these Bloom polishes lately. Bloom is an Aussie brand which used to stick to more traditional colours when they first started but have since branched out into some lovely, different colours.

Like this one!

This is Bloom Kitty:

*drool*… A beautiful pistachio green. I love this colour and don’t have another like it in my collection! A lot of pale greens are the mint greens like essie Mint Candy Apple, which are lovely but this one is just something special for me.

This was two coats which went on perfectly. I was going to stamp over this but didn’t want to cover the stunning colour!

 

Do you have many Blooms?
Em

Chanel–Peridot

Here we go, my first Chanel. *dreamy sigh*. This polish is just frickin’ unbelievable.

I got this polish from Ozsale for $15 a few months ago. I saw it and leapt on it because it was an awesome prize. I was deliberately saving it for when I went to Adelaide for a weekend so I could test how long I could get out of it and so I didn’t have to put up with chipping, yuck nails.

 

What a perfect polish to wear when you can’t change your polish.

Honestly, isn’t that just spectacular? This polish, as you all know, is a gorgeous duochrome which flashes from gold to green in the light. I actually preferred this polish in the shade because it just glowed. How I love glowy polishes!!
This was two coats which were a pretty good formula. I had a few problems with dragging but I just waited a little longer for each coat to dry and I was fine!

Now, the wear-time.

Amazing.

I applied this polish on a Thursday night and went to Adelaide on the Friday afternoon. I got back the next Monday night. The only reason I changed my polish was because I had time to and I knew I wouldn’t have time the next night. My polish still looked amazing. I had a little bit of wearing on a couple of the corners. Not chips, just a bit of wearing. But you could only notice if you looked closely.

 

I must say this polish has certainly fuelled my want for more Chanel polishes, including the Les Jeans collection. Hrmmm…

 

Em

Custom Polish–Silver Surfer

I’ve been taking a break from my custom polish line, Love Thy Polish. There has been so much drama in the polish world about ‘indie’ polish makers and it’s made me take a step back and realise the polishes I like to make (and most of the time don’t make) are generally not what the blogging community want. On the other hand, they’re not what the general public want either. They’re somewhere in the middle. They’re what I want. And I’m fine with that! I get more enjoyment out of making half a bottle of polish for myself, trying it then and there, taking photos of it and blogging it. So that’s what I’m doing at the moment.  Who knows, maybe I’ll go back to selling them and I’ll still make them by special request, but we’ll see!

 

Anywhoo, enough babble and onto the holo goodness!

This is my silver holo, Silver Surfer. Nothing fancy, just a shitetonne of Spectraflair dumped in suspension base. I realised I didn’t have a silver linear holo and was craving holo goodness! I love making holos because they always turn out beautiful

 

What do you think?
Em

No Buy July!

It’s hard to believe it’s the start of another financial year.

This time last year I announced that I was going to do a “no buy July” because of the amount I’d spent on polishes and other nail-related things.

Well, guess what? This year isn’t any different!

 

Behold, the polishes I have bought in the past few weeks. Eep!

Some are from blog sales, others were sent to me by some amazing South Aussie bloggers who felt bad for me not being able to get some of the new polishes that have come out. Either way, that’s a lot of new polishes!! I’ve still got some polishes coming as well as a nail art book, some MASH plates and I received my Bundle Monster plates recently too.

 

So it’s time for a no buy July!

Whose with me?

Em