Ulta3 goodies

I’ve been absolutely loving nail stamping lately. Well, more so than usual Everyone knows it’s my favourite form of nail art! Stamping never fails to wow people and have them asking how I did it. I then go into an explanation of stamping and how awesome it is and people just stare at me like I’m from another planet. Don’t get me wrong, they’re impressed, but I know a lot of people can’t fathom spending so much time and effort on nails. To me, and most other nail addicts, nails is a form of therapy. If I go more than a few days without painting my nails, I get craaaaanky.

 

Anyway, I got some more goodies from The Heat Group to play with. More Ulta3s – YIPPEEEE  

 

This is Footloose Fuschia:

A perfect, glossy fuschia creme. This is one of their older colours and I luuuuurv it. It’s such a vibrant pink. Formula was absolutely perfect and it was very nearly a one coater! I did two for good measure.

 

I added some Bundle Monster stamping for good measure:

Splatters! I used the Konad Special Polish in Pastel Pink. I am a huuuuge fan of the Konad pastels. They stamp so well and I love the single colour contrast of it over a darker shade!

 

Here we have Sizzling Red:

Yeeoooow! What a sexy shade! I love a good red creme and this one didn’t disappoint. This too was almost a one coater with a perfect formula but I did two coats as per my usual routine. I didn’t want to cover this beautiful shade but my partner loathes red nail polish (he calls every single red “Wh*re Red”) so I had to do something to try and redeem it in his eyes. Enter, stamping!

 

Booyah! I looove this! I can’t remember which plate this was but I looove it. My partner actually really liked it too so that means it’s definitely a winner

 

And last but certainly not least:

A mix n’ match mani with Striking on the pointer and middle fingers and Get Teal on the ring and pinkie fingers with a coat of A Lister on top. Two coats of Striking (although you can see I probably need a third because I have a liiiitle bit of VNL), two coats of Get Teal (which only needed one) and one coat of A Lister. Striking and Get Teal are two of my favourite Ulta3 polishes. Striking packs so much ultra fine glitter and shimmer into it but it remains sooooo smooth. It doesn’t even NEED a top coat! Get Teal is the perfect shade of deep teal and it glides onto the nail. I loved this colour combo!

Here’s another shot to show the glitter properly:

 

What’s your favourite Ulta3?

 

Em

Zoya Spam Part 2

So I intended to post part two of my Zoya spam a long time ago, but it just didn’t happen. I have been super busy with study and other polish projects.

 

Love Thy Polish is my indie polish brand which I created in December 2011. For a long time I just sold my polishes in my home town and at the markets here but at towards the end of last year I decided to create an Etsy store and have a go at selling them online too! I love concocting different combinations!

 

Anyway, here are some more pretties for you!

Zoya Evvie:

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With some Bundle Monster stamping. Such a super pretty green-grey creme. Beautiful in two coats.

 

Natty:

The perfect deep teal with just a hint of grey. I love this colour!!

 

Some stamping jazzed it up just that little bit more!

 

Have an awesome evening

 

Em

L’Oreal–Rebel Blue

I’ve been kind of loving sponging lately. It’s so simple yet so effective So when I did this mani I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

 

L’Oreal Rebel Blue with Ulta3 Lily White sponged on and the gorgeous puffer fishies from the 3rd Bundle Monster set stamped on as an accent.

So, so cute Rebel Blue is such a pretty blue and a dream to apply thanks to their awesome wiiiiide brushes.

 

How do you like my puffers?

Em

China Glaze–Atellier Tulle with stamping

The lovely Kristy from The Polish Haven gifted me this pretty, summery polish when I bought from her blog sale. It’s always nice to open up a package and find extras! Thanks, Kristy 

She gifted me a mini China Glaze in Atellier Tulle, a pretty deep red coral colour.

I was feeling summery so decided on a cute and fun mani using it:

Two coats of Atellier Tulle with some cute lollies and sweeties stamping on in Konad Special Polish White. I’m struggling to remember which stamp it is but I’m pretty sure it’s from the 3rd Bundle Monster series.

 

This was such a fun and happy mani. I really enjoyed wearing it

Have you been getting into the summery manis?

Em

Face of Australia–Calypso Gold with stamping

A little while back I won a blog giveaway over at the lovely Kristy’s blog. I love Kristy’s blog and entered the giveaway mainly because I was already reading it so regularly and thought I may as well. I didn’t expect to win, though
I won the whole Face of Australia Barbados collection! This is the first polish I tried from the collection, Calypso Gold.

 

Stunning white gold foil with just a hint of yellow gold. Two easy coats and fantastic formula. I love, love, love this colour!

But I decided it was missing something … stamping, of course

 

I used one of the new Bundle Monster plates and was so pleased with the results:

I just loved this mani It was so classy and beautiful. I used the Konad Special Polish in Warm Black, which is a black with a gold shimmer through it.

 

What do you think?

Em

Savvy-Grapetini with stamping

I do love a good bargain. A couple of months ago I was in Adelaide and picked up this cute colour from Priceline for $2.99. You can’t go wrong!!

This is Savvy’s Grapetini:
 

Two coats. The formula was pretty decent and I had no dramas with application. It wasn’t the most durable of polishes but for $2.99 whose complaining?!

 

I tried out another of the new Bundle Monster’s designs using the Konad Light Purple polish:

Pretty, right?

 

Em

M.A.C.–Screening Room with NEW Bundle Monster stamping

I bought this nail polish during my last trip to Adelaide and I’ve been saving it for a special occasion … What’s more special then me receiving the new set of Bundle Monster image plates in the mail this morning?!

I knew exactly which image I wanted to try first and what colour would be the perfect base.

 

That perfect colour is M.A.C. Screening Room:

Ahhhhhhh *drool*. Such a stunning deep teal creme. Oh man, this is gorgeous. At $22, this is the most I’ve spent on a single polish in, well, forever. But I just had to have it.

This is two coats. I’d heard the M.A.C. formula was pretty dodgy so made sure to be extra careful. I needn’t have worried because the formula was great!

 

I could not wait to break out the Bundle Monster plates so I tried a design from BM-315:

A gorgeous paisley print. I love paisleys!!! I used Konad Special Polish in Pastel Purple.

I was a bit worried this image wouldn’t transfer properly because of how detailed the design is. I had a lot of trouble with the second set of BM plates but I’m happy to report that these new plates are a breeze to use! I can’t wait to try out some more!

 

And now I’m blogging by kneeling on the ground because this little munchkin has stolen my chair …

i’m such a softie!

Em

OPI–Don’t Touch My Tutu with Bundle Monster stamping

When I want a pretty, delicate looking mani which will ‘cleanse’ my nails of all the crazy colours I’ve been painting them lately, I reach for one of my trusty OPI NYC Ballet Collection polishes.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. I love these polishes. I love them to the point where I can see myself running out of some of the colours. This is almost unheard of in my world! Perhaps I should get backups?

 

Anywhoo, this is the white from the collection, Don’t Touch My Tutu:

So, so pretty. Three coats. This was probably the worst formula out of the ones I’ve used but it still wasn’t bad. It was a tiny bit troublesome in that I had a couple of bald spots when I went over the same area but that was a minor inconvenience which I sorted out pretty quickly. If this is the worst formula, I’m in love!

I freakin’ love this polish. It is so pure and pretty and is such a nice, clean slate to work with. Am I mental for being so in love with a collection of polishes?!

 

Anyway, as pretty as it was on its own, I really wanted to try some more of my Fab UR Nails metallic stamping polishes.

This time I tried the metallic blue:

Freakin’ AWESOME!!! This time I didn’t have any trouble with the design drying quicker than normal on the stamper. The Metallic Blue worked perfectly and I absolutely love the colour.

This is a Bundle Monster design which I’ve been wanting to use for a while. I got so many comments on these nails!

The only thing about these Fab Ur Nails stamping polishes … they stink like Kleancolors! So they’re definitely not 3-free. But for someone like me, that doesn’t matter!

 

Have you been rockin’ the NYC Ballet Collection polishes like me?

Em

Custom Polish–Grass Roots

I made this custom polish the other day and I’m so pleased with it. Once again I was trying to make a dark green holo but didn’t quite get there because this colour captivated me.

 

This is “Grass Roots”

Two coats. Gorgeous, huh? I stamped “Merry Christmas” using Konad image plate M12 and the presents are Bundle Monster plate BM-205. That’s right, I managed to stamp using a Bundle Monster plate without screwing it up

 

Here’s another shot:

 

And another:

 

Ahhh pretty. I love how the blue of the rainbow pops!

 

Love it

 

Em

Halloween nails–Ulta3 Carrot Top with Bundle Monster

I’m finally posting my Halloween nails (only a week late!!)

I’m really not happy with how they turned out, but I’ll show them anyway!

 

Meh. This is two coats of Ulta3 Carrot Top, which is a really cool neon dark purple with a hint of red. I love this colour! I thought it would be way too bright for me but somehow it works.

I stamped with Bundle Monster for most of the nails but the spiders are Konad. You know what? Everyone raves about Bundle Monster but I just don’t get it. It is SO much more effort to get a clean image from their plates and some images don’t transfer at all! It’s so frustrating and quite often I ruin a perfectly good mani by stamping Bundle Monster over it and the image smudges or doesn’t transfer. It’s so irritating. The ghost smudged whatever I did and I tried to make it better by adding eyes but it so didn’t work. Ah well, better luck next time!

 

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

Rokk96 Silver Screen with Konad

I’m a little bit in love with this polish. It’s one I bought in my massive Adelaide Haul about a month ago and it’s so unique and pretty.

Here is Rokk96 Silver Screen:

Two coats of deliciousness. I love it! It is SO sparkly and the most gorgeous light blue which has a slight hint of lavender. And of course, it’s packed with silver glittery shimmer. Lurv!

These polishes are $7.95 each or three for $19 at Price Attack. They have some pretty awesome colours!

Here it is with some Konad on top:

I smudged my Konad-ing (Bundle Monster-ing?) a little, but you get the idea. This is from BM-206 in Konad’s Princess Special Polish in Warm Black.

The smudging is way less obvious in real life, but my new daylight lamp picks up every little flaw

 

Have you tried any of these Rokk96 polishes yet?

Em

BYS Pretty Pastel Peppermint with Konad

I love that I’m loving most of the polishes I’m trying lately. There’s nothing worse than trying a polish and thinking “yuck, I’ll never wear that again”.

This BYS polish is no exception: I love it!

 

 

Pretty Pastel Peppermint, three coats. I probably could have gotten away with two but I had a couple of bald spots.

It is such a lovely mid mint green. This was my choice for my weekend in Adelaide because I know BYS polishes wear so well and I was going to be wearing it for three days, possibly four.

 

And, how did you guess? I did some Konading!

 

BM-205. Love this pattern. It is just so pretty!  But my, oh my, was it a biatch. It wasn’t done very well, the edges were really sharp so when I cleaned it after each stamp, fuzz from my cotton pads kept getting stuck!! It took me until my second hand (strangely my right hand is way better than my right in this case) to get the hang of it.

 

Have you noticed that EVERY brand of stamping plates is different? Konad is awesome to use (of course) and they require little effort. A no-name Asian made plate I have needs more polish because the images are cut deeper and the Bundle Monster plates need less polish and a much firmer hand because the images are cut a lot shallower. Takes me a while to master each!! So don’t mind the messiness!!!!

Em