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 All That Shimmers & All That Glitters collections

Hi all!

I’m back from a short hiatus. I’ve had computer problems and they were finally fixed today so I have my precious computer back *strokes*.

 

Today I have for you the new pretties from Sea Siren Cosmetics, a new Aussie indie. It’s a collection of four glitter toppers, the All That Glitters part, and four shimmers, the All That Shimmers collection!

And away we go, maties!

 

I’ve layered a glitter over the shimmer that I feel best corresponds with it. But there are endless possibilities here

 

Bronzed Siren and Seaduce

This is two coats of Bronzed Siren with a coat of Seaduce on top. The formula of Bronzed Siren was good but I found it quite brush strokey and more frosty than shimmery. It’s not really a shade I’d usually wear but I’m sure it would appeal to a lot of girls who want a bit of metallic bling on their nails! I layered Seaduce on top and had no trouble getting any glitters out, including the big silver holo diamonds which you can see a lot of on my middle and little fingernails.

 

Seas the Day and SeaQuake

First of all, don’t mind my ring finger. I bumped it and didn’t realise it was that bad until I looked at the photos over a week later.

This was two coats of Seas the Day which is a really pretty pink-toned purple shimmer. It is inspired by the Pantone Colour for 2014, Orchid, and it is absolutely spot on in that regard. It’s quite a glowy purple with a lot of depth.

I layered a coat of SeaQuake over it. I’d heard reports of curling in some of the larger glitters but I didn’t experience any difficulty applying it. Looking at my photos, there’s quite a lot of reflective curling happening but I didn’t have any problems applying it!

 

Okay NOW we’re getting to my favourites.

 

Temptress and Enchanted

Um, HELLO gorgeous glowy red with a golden shimmer. This is stunning! I did three coats because I had some pesky nail line showing through, but the formula was great. I am a huge fan of reds but I am really, really picky with them. This one passes the test with flying colours. Formula was great!

I added a coat of Enchanted, a simple gold and black glitter topper which kind of reminds me of a bumblebee! I think I needed a second coat because it just doesn’t look right to me.

 

And now, drumroll please …. my favourite of the collection!

 

Jealosea and Great Barrier Reef

Jealosea is a stunning deep aqua with a lovely delicate shimmer through it. It’s almost a one coater but I did two just to be on the safe side. The formula is amazing. I’m in lurv!!

I added accent nails of Great Barrier Reef, which is my favourite glitter of the collection. I love the vibrant purples, greens and blue glitters. This is just one coat so it’s got a lot of glitter packed into it!

 

You can get these at the Sea Siren Cosmetics website for $6.95 for a 5mL bottle and $15.95 for a huge 15mL bubble.

 

Em

Deadset Babes–Dark Night

Boy do I have a preeeetty polish to show you today! I recently bought some beautiful holos from Deadset Babes and the lovely Bella threw in a couple of extras to review.

 

This is After Dark, a new DSB polish which “a black creme base loaded with a purple to blue and slight red duochrome.”

 

This is two coats:

How beautiful is that? The formula was awesome and it wasn’t a stainer which meant easy clean up  

You can see the gorgeous deep blue and purple. I had trouble catching the red but it’s definitely there!

Here’s some more pics:

 

 

*drool* I just lurv this polish. You can get it from Deadset Babes who are also on Etsy!

 

Em

Femme Fatale Cosmetics Sea Pony

This is the last of my products from Femme Fatale Cosmetics to review It’s one of Sophie’s very own, Sea Pony.

 

Sea Pony is a vibrant purple crelly base with a boat load of pink, yellow, red, purple and more glitters of all shapes and sizes.

 

This is two coats:

I really wanted to like this. I know a lot of people do! But it’s just not my thing. I don’t really ‘do’ chunky glitters.

BUT on the plus side, it did have an awesome formula. Two smooth coats, no dragging. There was a plethora of glitters that came out with each stroke so no fishing required at all. I was quite impressed!!!

I do really love the combination of colours. They contrast really well.

 

What do you think?

Em

MUD Lavender Fever and Meet Minty with Delush Star Gazer

Hellooooo everyone!

Long time no blog! Life has been a little crazy so the poor blog has fallen by the wayside. Never fear, I am back I’m not self indulged enough to believe you all missed me, but I am glad to be back blogging!

What has kick started this, you ask? Well, I have some lovely little polishes from Femme Fatale Cosmetics to show you! I’ll just show you one today, but it’s a pretty one.

 

Firstly, I picked up a couple of the new MUDs in Woolies. They were on special for $1.50 each – you can’t beat that! The two I used as my base coats are Lavender Fever and Meet Minty. They are both gorgeous, summery colours. The weather is heating up here in the desert so it’s time I get out of the habit of wearing dark, vampy colours.

I got a mini of Delush Polish Star Gazer in my press kit from Femme Fatale. It’s a neon glitter topper. I hadn’t actually heard of Delush Polish before, let alone tried them, so it was good to get something different!

I admit, this isn’t my usual style of polish. When I got it I thought “It’s okay, I’ll just swatch it on four fingers and take it off straight away”. Then when I painted my nails using Lavender Fever and Meet Minty, I realised it was the perfect base colours to try Star Gazer on. So I decided to do a full mani with it!

This is using one coat of Star Gazer over the top of Lavender Fever and Meet Minty:

It’s pretty, huh!? It almost looks like two different polishes over the different base colours because over the purple, the neon yellows and greens really pop, but over the green, the pinks and purples jump out at you. I ended up really liking this polish What a pleasant surprise!

 

I added an extra coat just to see if it was worth doing:

As you can see, you do get a fair bit more glitter with your second coat.  I definitely think it’s worth the extra time! Being a glitter topper, this dried incredibly quickly and one coat of Seche Vite was all I needed to smooth it out.

 

Overall, I’m pretty chuffed that I got this polish for review because it is not something I would usually choose for myself, but I really enjoy wearing it!

 

You can get Delush Polish from Femme Fatale Cosmetics for AUD$12.00 each. Sophie now ships internationally, so that is great news! She has many other brands including Cirque, Emily de Molly, Gloss n Sparkle, Girly Bits, Enchanted Polish and, of course, my own brand Love Thy Polish!

 

What do you think? Is this a good look for summer?
Em

piCture pOlish Blogfest 2013

Welcome to piCture pOlish Blogfest 2013!
Each year piCture pOlish select some lucky bloggers to blog about their products. Everyone posts on the same day, at the same time.
This year I was lucky enough to be selected for Blogfest and the theme was nail art.
Uh oh. Nail art. Hrmm.. My version of nail art is to do some nail stamping. I knew I’d have to put my thinking cap on for this one.
Luckily there are some nail art ideas out there for us not-so-talented nail artists. I’ve put together a tutorial on some simple nail art that anyone can do – a “Nail Art for Dummies”, if you will.

Away we go!
First, select the piCture pOlish shades that you plan to use:

Lucky me was given Antique, Mardi Gras and Atomic.

There’s a little bit of prep work involved so make sure you do these few steps the night before you plan to do your mani.
Grab a sheet of household baking paper and paint a few coats of polish onto it. Allow it to dry overnight.

I wasn’t sure how much I was going to end up using so I painted quite large strips. You don’t have to wait too long in between coats for the polish to dry, just make sure you wait at least six or so hours after the final coat.

Carefully use tweezers to peel off your polish strips.


Grab a craft punch from somewhere like Lincraft or Spotlight. They are pretty inexpensive (mine was $7). Use it to punch the shape out of the polish.

Be careful as the polish can get quite brittle! You may need to lightly pull the polish away from the punch.
You can also use scissors to cut out thin strips or pinking shears to cut zig zagged strips.

You’ll end up with a lot of pretty shapes and, in my case, some sparkly strips.


Now we’re ready to paint the nails!

I used Atomic as my base colour with an accent nail of Antique. Atomic is such a pretty but subtle colour.
Antique is almost a one coater but I did two coats to be on the safe side. Atomic seemed quite sheer at first but it built up nicely with three coats.

Grab your third polish. In my case, it’s Mardi Gras, a multi coloured glitter topper.

I chose to go simple with this one. I simply painted two coats of Mardi Gras over Antique. It’s a subtle but glamorous look!

Use either a toothpick, a metal manicure tool or a dotting tool to pick up one of your shapes.

Dip whatever tool you’re using into a slow-drying top coat first so you can stick it to the nail properly.

Carefully lay it on the nail in the position you want.

Try not to move it around too much because you may smudge the base colour!
You can use cuticle nippers to cut off any overhanging bits.
I then did the same with the polish strips to form a diagonal line pattern.

Add a coat of top coat and you will end up with this:

There you have it, a pretty yet simple to do nail art manicure.

Now sit back, relax, and throw your arms out in glee!


Em

Happy birthday Pretty Serious!

Photo thanks to www.pretty-serious.com

 

It’s a celebration today! Today marks the first anniversary of Pretty Serious, brainchild of Kaz.

Kaz has worked hard over the last year to establish her brand and she produces such amazing nail polishes, eyeshadows and lip glosses.

Without further ado, here is Daphne’s Birthday Party!

 

Gorgeous, right? Daphne is Kaz’s chickie babe who adorns all her branding material and she is so CUTE!

This polish contained medium sized pink, blue, green, gold and silver glitters. So sparkly and blingy, I couldn’t even capture it. This was two coats. The first coat was a little patchy but the second coat evened it right out!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Daphne, Pretty Serious and Kaz! You have done an amazing job

Em

Aussie favourites–Chi Chi Plastic Fantastic and Pretty Serious Liquid Leprechaun

I have a couple of Aussie stunners to show you today.

The first is from Chi Chi, an awesome brand who have a huge range of polishes and other cosmetics.

 

This is Plastic Fantastic:

Such a pretty deep mint aqua-y green. I found it hard to describe this colour, can you tell!? Two coats. A great, creamy formula.

I stamped some pretty flowers on top.

 

And this is Pretty Serious Liquid Leprechaun:

This is from Pretty Serious’ Halloween collection. It truly is like someone threw a leprechaun into a blender and hit the go button. Poor little leprechaun  

This has a boat load of green and gold glitters. I just love it! It only needed two coats and application was fantastic so I needed to do minimal clean up. Winner!

 

Go Aussies!

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

Love Thy Polish Dreams collection

I’m proud to announce the new Love Thy Polish Dreams collection will be released tomorrow (27th April) at 10am South Australian time.

This collection is inspired by Stevie Nicks and is a collaboration between Love Thy Polish and Tammy from Lacquer and Leather. Thanks so much, Tammy, for coming up with some amazing colours and being truly inspiring. And thanks for keeping me in line and telling me when something isn’t good enough

 

Thanks also to Kristy from The Polish Haven for the amazing swatches and blog post.

 

 

You can buy the new Dreams collection from www.lovethypolish.com … if you live outside Australia please contact me via the website to arrange your order as I will need to do a shipping quote for you.

 

I’m excited! Are you?
Em