Sea Siren Cosmetics Cabin Fever and Seashells

Hi hi all!

I bought a couple of Sea Siren Cosmetics polishes recently and the owner, Deb, was kind enough to include a few of her “Captivating Classics” shades.

 

She included these two beauties:

 

Cabin Fever. A beautiful red crelly. This is too squishy to be simply a creme! As you can see, it leans very orange on me but I don’t mind it. It flattered my skin tone!

Because it was a crelly I needed three coats for full coverage but it had a great formula. So gorgeous!

 

Next up is Seashells:

A perfect nude creme! I loooove this. It’s hard to find a good nude and everyone’s skin tone is different so we all suit different shades of creme. This is definitely a shade that flatters my skin tone. I love it! This was two easy coats.

 

Aaaand, the two I bought:

Sea Dayze and Code Purple. Such gorgeous, vibrant cremes. I loooove these. They go so well together so I had to wear them both at once. This is my current favourite way to wear a couple of shades if I can’t choose which ones to try first.

Two easy coats of each.

I added some stamping to jazz it up a little:

Love this  

 

Aaand one more shot just because I liked it:

 

Have you bought any Sea Sirens yet?

Em

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

Sea Siren Cosmetics–Sea Mist

Hullo hullo!

I have my last Sea Siren polish to show you today. This is Sea Mist, a lovely pastel blue creme.

 

Isn’t it luuurvely?  This was two coats but I could nearly get away with one. The formula was butter smooth! I’m really enjoying these pastel cremes from Sea Siren. They are just so perfect for Summer! Pastels suit my skin tone and i got loads of compliments on this simple mani.

 

Have you enjoyed the Sea Siren posts? Remember, you can grab them on their website and find out other info and see more pic on their Facebook page.

 

Em

Sea Siren Cosmetics–Motion of the Ocean with Beachy Peachy dots

Halloooo!

Guess what I have today? That’s right, another beauty from Sea Siren Cosmetics!! Are you enjoying these posts? I sure am!

 

This is a beautiful mint green creme, Motion of the Ocean:

Oh, you are beautiful *strokes polish*. I love, love, LOVE this shade. I have always had a thing for a good mint creme and Motion of the Ocean doesn’t disappoint. Formula, as I’ve come to expect from Sea Siren, is perfect. It is almost opaque in one coat and you could probably get away with one coat if you painted a little thicker than normal. This is just a breathtaking colour and so summery and classy. It flatters my skin tone too – winner!

 

I used Sea Siren’s Beachy Peachy to do a dotticure:

Excuse this dodgy photo. I’m not sure why it turned out so orange … When I tried to tweak the colours it threw the mint way out and made it into a blue so I chose to have orange fingers

I can’t really comment on Beachy Peachy yet because all I’ve done is dot with it, but I’ll be doing a full mani with it soon It’s certainly opaque enough to dot with and I didn’t have to use too much polish to get good, clean dots.

 

How do you like dotticures?

Em

Sea Siren Cosmetics–Tranquility and Pamper Me Pink

Woohoo, I have some more Sea Siren polishes to show you I’ve had so much fun trying these out this weekend. This time I have Tranquility, a pastel purple creme, and Pamper Me Pink, a pastel pink creme.

 

These babies are to die for:

Seriously. UNF! Perfect smooth, glossy coverage in two coats. These were nearly one coaters!! I am so, so impressed. The formula was impeccable and clean up was minimal because it was just so easy to apply!

This is my favourite way to try out a couple of polishes: the thumb, pointer and middle fingers one colour and ring and pinkie fingers another! Pink and purple go well together and these two were no exception. Sorry if it seems like I’m gushing over these polishes but I just love them. Pastels can be streaky, slow drying and a general pain in the ass, but these pastels are the complete opposite.

 

I jazzed them up a little with some nail stamping:

I used my Pueen plates and a silver stamping polish. I just love this netted roses look

You can get Sea Siren Cosmetics on their website. Don’t forget to like them on Facebook too!

 

What do you think?
Em

Sea Siren Cosmetics–Yellow Submarine

Why hello there!

How are you all? Can you believe it? Another blog post from me. Aren’t you lucky? Turns out having full weekends off for the first time in a few years is agreeing with me! Plenty of things to do to keep myself busy, that’s for sure.

 

Sea Siren Cosmetics is a new Aussie indie who put the call out on their Facebook page for swatchers not long ago. It took me a while, but I jumped at the chance to review some pretties. When Deborah, the owner and creator of Sea Siren, asked me what kind of polishes I’d like to review, can you guess what I said? CREMES! GIVE ME CREMEEEEEEEES! When you ask most nail fanatics what their favourite polish finish is, they usually say holo, glitter, duochrome … it’s not often that you get someone who says creme. But ladies, that’s me! I love cremes. I love them so much that I never have any new ones to try because I always try them as soon as I buy them So I was chuffed when my Sea Siren parcel arrived.

 

Let’s take a moment to talk about Sea Siren’s branding and packaging. Anyone who knows me knows that these things are very important to me. Having a bit of a background in graphic design and pursuing this field more recently, good packaging leaps out at me. Similarly, poor packaging really turns me off. It can be a make or break for some.

Firstly, Sea Siren wrapped the polishes and other goodies so beautifully in blue tissue paper with her own branded labels on them. She included flyers with information about her products.

Take a look:

Sorry for the dodgy phone pic, but I was at work and there was no way I was waiting until I got home where my camera was to rip into these bad boys. But just look how pretty it all is! It was a shame to destroy such lovingly wrapped parcels.

 

Inside …

AHHH MY GOD! SO CUTE! These boxes are stunning! The bottom ones are the big ‘bubbles’, as Deb calls them. They are a huge 15mL. The top are the Wanderlust minis and they are an ADORABLE 5mLs. I posted them together so you could see the size difference. The itty bitty boxes are so adorable!

Deb sent me Tranquility (a pastel purple), Motion of the Ocean (pastel mint), Pamper Me Pink (pastel pink, duh) in the full size. The minis are Yellow Submarine (pastel yellow), Beachy Peachy (pastel peach) and Sea Mist (pastel blue). All delicious cremes

 

She also sent me something completely and utterly amazing.

MONT BLEU CRYSTAL FILES!!!!!!!!! I squealed when I saw these, I really did. It’s lucky I was by myself at work because I can imagine how silly I looked. She sent a hard cased one (the blue) which is GENIUS. I can keep it in my bag and not worry about it snapping and a gorgeous travel sized blue file with sparkly Swarovski crystals on it. Oh so beautiful. I had heard such good things about these files. I had only used cheap glass files in the past and was not impressed, but I’d heard these were different.

 

I was NOT disappointed. I used them for the first time this morning and holy moley they work a treat! They are so smooth and SHARP! They take off a decent amount of length but they are not harsh on the nail at all. Usually I HATE the feeling of my nails after I’ve filed them but I didn’t after using Sea Siren’s file I am completely in love. So completely in love. I think I need more of these products. Deb also stocks a cute little travel kit which has a travel sized Swarovski crystal file, a pair of nail scissors and some Swarovski encrusted tweezers all in a little case. LOVE!!

 

I’m going to stop babbling now and show you the first of the Sea Siren polishes I used. This is Yellow Submarine:

A beautiful, glossy pastel yellow creme which is actually quite bright! This was two easy coats. Usually yellows are a pain in the rear to apply but this one was fine! It actually flattered my skin tone really well and looked so fresh.

 

You can buy Sea Siren Cosmetics from the website and make sure you ‘like’ the Facebook page too!

 

Em

OPI Mermaid Tears and Chi Chi

Another OPI for you ladies today! This is Mermaid Tears from the Pirates of the Carribean collection:

Two coats. Perfect. I can’t rave enough about these Pirates polishes. They are my all time favourite OPIs. Love!

 

This is an unnamed Chi Chi polish I got in a set at Christmas time last year:

This is a lovely purple creme. Two coats. The whole set of polishes (I believe there were 8) is gorgeous. Such a good buy for $19.95!

 

Em

China Glaze Hanging in the Balance and Whirled Away

I really, really loved this mani.

For my Secret Santa present from the lovely Peita from Peita’s Polish I received three of the polishes from the China Glaze Cirque du Soleil collection.

 

This is Hanging in the Balance, a beautiful bright blue creme. Stunning, isn’t it? It stains like a biatch, so beware! I layered Whirled Away, the black and white glitter, on top.

I really love the colour combination but the glitters were just too big for me. I’m not a big fan. If the glitters were smaller then it would be a winner!

I also stamped a koi fish design from plate A48. Beautiful fishy!

 

What do you think?
Em

OPI Jade is the New Black

I got this beauty in a grab bag from the lovely Carli of Vintage Musings of a Modern Pinup.

 

OPI Jade is the New Black, two coats. Gorgeous! I love, love, love this! I’ve really been into greens lately and this is a good one! This wore amazingly, too. Good job, OPI!

 

And of course, a little stamping for good measure. I use a plate I got from Aliexpress and the Konad pastel purple special stamping polish.

 

Do you think Jade is the New Black? I’m starting to think so
Em

Cate Ruby New Yorker with Butter London Blagger

Recently I was lucky enough to score a couple of mini Cate Ruby polishes to review. Cate Ruby has the cutest bottles with a stretchy diamanté ring that you can remove from the lid and wear Who doesn’t love a bit of free bling?

 

This is one of the polishes I got:

New Yorker is a vibrant red creme. I have to admit, when I got this I thought “Sigh. Just another red creme.” and I did not think it would come close to knocking Butter London’s Pillarbox Red out of the first place position for my favourite red.

But it did.

This is a ONE COAT RED. ONE COAT, people!!! It had a gorgeous, buttery formula and was super shiny even without a top coat. Honestly, this was a dream to apply. Some reds are a total b*tch to clean up but this one wasn’t and I didn’t need much clean up at all due to the amazing formula I’m super impressed.

I added an accent of Butter London Blagger, a gorgeous medium blue creme. This is an amazing polish too.
The two polishes look so beautiful together.

 

I have one more Cate Ruby to review … stay tuned!

You can buy Cate Ruby from stockists listed on their website: http://www.cateruby.com.au/.

 

Em

Boe Green Valley with Modi

Don’t you love it when you find dupes for expensive polishes that are super duper cheap and even better than the original!?

 

A dear friend of mine, Tammy, gifted me this gorgeous Boe sea foam green:

 

It’s called Green Valley and was a lovely squishy crelly. Two coats of a lovely application.

The awesome find was this Modi black and white glitter which is pretty much a dupe for Lynnderella’s Connect the Dots. This beauty only cost me a few dollars + shipping from Korea Depart. What a find! I think two coats of this looks amazing over Green Valley.

 

Do you own Connect the Dots or a dupe?

Em

OPI spam–What’s With the Cat-itude, DS Signature and Stranger Tides

I have a bit of a built up of photos happening since I’ve been slack with blogging. I’m not sure of an exact number but it would be well over 100 polishes to blog about Whoops!!!

 

So here are a few of my favourite OPIs.

The first is a fairly hard to find polish from the Shrek collection. It’s one of my favourites!

 

What’s With the Cat-itude is a beautiful eggshell blue. Two coats, a creamy formula which was easy to apply. This colour really flattered my skin tone.

 

 

DS Signature is one of my favourites too. A beautiful medium pink linear holo. Two coats, such an easy formula for a holo. *Drools*. What’s not to like about this?!

 

Stranger Tides from the Pirates of the Carribean collection is one of my favourite neutrals. This is a bit of a strange colour but it is just so flattering. It’s a green toned neutral.

I layered Peita’s Polish Sky’s The Limit over my ring fingers and thumbs. This Peita’s Polish is a custom made just for me which I got from Peita when she was my Secret Santa in the Aussie Nails Facebook group last year. I love this gorgeous mint green and white glitter combo.

 

Hope you enjoyed!
Em

Catrice spam

Evening, ladies!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Years. I sure did! I got plenty of polishes as well as a new light box, other beauty goodies and other things. I was thoroughly spoilt!

 

Today I have some Catrice spam for you. These are from a swap I did with a girl in The Netherlands. Without further ado:

 

ACid/DC:

This was a stunning lime green shimmer that I loved. Two coats was all I needed for full coverage and the shimmer was just so pretty and vibrant.

 

Sold Out For Ever:

Another pretty green. This was such a lovely pistachio green creme which really flattered my skin tone. Two coats, awesome formula.

 

Hip Queens Wear Blue Jeans:

I was actually a little disappointed in this colour. The bottle showed a stunning electric blue shimmer but it just didn’t translate onto the nail which made me sad .

Anyway, this was a one-coater polish but I did two coats to be on the safe side. Looking back at this photo makes me want to chop my nails down to nubs again.

 

I added a coat of OPI Pirouette My Whistle to jazz it up a bit. The colours go together quite well, don’t you think?

 

I neeeed to get some more Catrices!

Em