Revlon–Ruby Ribbon

I really must be feeling Wintery at the moment because I’ve been going for a lot of deeper, richer polish colours. I don’t blame me for feeling Wintery because the nights/early mornings here have been bloody cold!!! It got down to –2.4 degrees the other morning. Brrrrr!

 

This is Revlon Ruby Ribbon Matte Suede:

Hrmmm … I’m not sure how I feel about it! I really like the photos now but I remember when I was wearing it I just wanted to stamp over it because it wasn’t the most exciting polish!

This is two coats which went on well.

I had a feeling this polish would look better with a top coat, so I applied a coat of Seche Vite:

Much better! Still not grabbing my attention but it really brought out the shimmer. I still think a nice silver stamp would have looked awesome over this. I think this will go back in my untrieds drawer to remind me to try it again sometime!

Have you been using darker colours for Winter, Aussies?

Em

duri–Devil Wears duri with Chi Chi Crystal Top Coat

I’ve never worn a duri polish before. My friend Kate got this for me from the US when she was there last year. It looked like such a pretty colour in the bottle!

This is Devil Wears duri:

Two coats, I believe. But could have easily been one. The formula wasn’t too shabby. It’s got a nice shimmer but it just doesn’t really do much for me!

 

So I tried to fix it:

Yeaaaah, still not doing much for me. A coat of Chi Chi Crystal Top Coat (which you could barely see) and I still wasn’t impressed.

So what did I do?

Ohh yeah, mattify it! MUCH better

 

Matte flakies are the bomb, would you agree?
Em

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

China Glaze Blue Sparrow

This is one cool polish, but it was so not what I expected.
I expected a shiny, glittery blue polish, but instead I got this:

China Glaze’s Blue Sparrow, two coats. Still gorgeous, but I was not expecting it to turn out matte!
Because it was matte, it dried super fast. It applied easily but it wore like crap.
I wanted to see what it looked like shiny, so I added a coat of Seche Vite:

Pretty! But you know what? I actually preferred it matte! My partner agreed.
So I put a coat of China Glaze Matte Magic over the top and called it quits.
I did this after dinner one night and had a chip before the end of the night. Ugh, it was so chipped by the end of the next day, I had to take it off. Stupid pretty but undurable mattes!

I like this polish, and I prefer it matte, but to avoid annoying chips I think I’ll have to wear it with a top coat in the future.


What do you think, matte or gloss?

Em

Bloom Edinburgh with Nubar 2010

Ah, I’m finally getting stuck into some of the polishes I bought on my Adelaide trip last weekend.

My partner chose this one when I was having trouble deciding which to try first.

 

Bloom Edinburgh. A gorgeous, gorgeous dark green (almost black) with a stunning shimmer through it.

This was two coats, but it is definitely a one-coater. You know me, I just like to do two even if it’s not necessary! This applied like a dream, so smooth and lovely.

I wanted to keep wearing it so after day one I added some flakies:

 

Nubar 2010. *Droooooool*. I love me some flakies.

But do you know what I love more?

 

Some matte flakies. I added a coat of China Glaze’s Matte Magic as the top coat.

I may have to get a bucket to attach to my chin because I love this. Seriously, matte flakies may just be my new ‘thing’. Don’t be surprised if you see 2010 layered on top of EVERYTHING and then mattified

 

Which do you prefer, matte or shiny flakies?

 

Em

Friday mail day + Miki goodies

Wheeee! Friday was mail day. Love it

But on Thursday I was getting impatient waiting for my China Glaze, Color Club, OPI, Essie, SpaRitual, Nubar and BYS polishes to arrive. Sooo I strolled down to the chemist and what did I see?

 

 

Cute little mini Miki’s!

They do not have names so I shall name them! The left polish is actually a beautiful dark green with a gold shimmer through it, so I’ve named it Forever Green. The red also has a gorgeous gold shimmer and I called it Fire in Her Eyes.

 

This Little Piggy, Rainclouds, Spring Sky, Faded Frog.

 

Two for $5!!! Tell me, does that count for breaking my No Buy August?  

These just screamed out at me… such pretty, spring colours! Do you like my names for them?

 

So first up in my Friday mail was a bottle of Seche Restore:

Waaay back in June I ordered some off ebay. The seller never sent it, I had to lodge a dispute through PayPal (thank God for PayPal!!!) and I eventually got my money back. I had to reorder it from somewhere else and I finally have it! Yay I have a few polishes I want to thin and my SV bottle is almost at the stage where I need to thin it.

 

Backups of SV (you can never have too many ) and China Glaze Matte Magic top coat (awesome photo, Emma, face the label AWAY from people )

 

Hopefully my COLOUR polish hauls will be here soon!!

Em

BYS French White + Cherimoya 2012 Judgement Day

I was in the mood for a simple mani over the weekend because I was still getting over my sickness. The very effort of putting my clothes in the washing machine had me breaking out in a fevered sweat so I knew I had to keep my nails simple or risk passing out and waking up with my face stuck to my nails.

Don’t laugh, last year I had this same kind of illness and I pushed myself to go to uni and ended up passing out at a bus stop, throwing up on my way down and splitting my face open. I ended up with a hell of a black eye, graze down one side of my face and four stitches in a big cut above my eye. I have some awesome photos of it

I learnt a massive lesson from that: when you’re feeling sick, it is just not worth pushing yourself.

I pushed myself to go to uni because my tutor threatened the whole class pretty much every week by saying “you MUST come to EVERY lecture and tutorial or you will not pass. If you miss a class, you have to have a damn good excuse. You have to be on your deathbed.”

So I went to uni and I paid the price.

I learnt that sometimes it is just not worth it to push yourself. Nothing is worth putting yourself at risk for. Nothing is more important than your own personal health and wellbeing.

Anyway, lecture over. I hope you learnt something from it too

Onto the good stuff:

 

Two coats of BYS French White with a layer of Cherimoya 2012 Crackle in Judgement Day.

Preeeeeeeeeeeetttyyyyy! I really wanted to use the French White as a base for something but I knew it would apply like a biatch (and I was right).

Two coats later and I still had a streaky mess. But meh, what does that matter when you’re layering a pretty colour like Judgement Day on top!?

Have I ever mentioned how much I love these crackles!? I decided to go matte today, so this was a very quick job. The Cherimoya dries pretty much instantly so you don’t have to worry about smudging.

In the photo, you can see the French White. But not long after I took the photo, the Cherimoya started to “stain” the white, so now it is an awesome light but bright pink. I think it looks pretty awesome. I can understand that it would be annoying if you wanted to keep the white, but it worked for me

 

Have you tried the Cherimoya 2012 crackles? What did you think?
Em