A trio of pretties from Femme Fatale Cosmetics + the evil Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

Why hello there!

 

It’s been a long time! I had good intentions to keep blogging regularly but then something threw a spanner in the works: I got hand, foot and mouth disease. For anyone who has had this, you are probably cringing right now. HFM is easily the worst sickness I’ve ever had. It started out one Tuesday after a public holiday. I felt tired and achey and had a sore throat. By lunch time I was struggling so I went home. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t get warm. I ended up having to go steal my partner’s warmth because he was on night shift. I didn’t feel too bad after I woke up that afternoon so I was lulled into a false sense of security. That night I woke up every half hour to an hour either freezing cold or boiling hot. It was awful! I barely slept! The next day I went to the doctor’s who said I had “a virus”. Soon after that I started developing spots on my hands. By late that afternoon my hands were covered in large, angry red bumps. I barely slept that night because they were so itchy. The next day I went to the doctor’s again and showed him. I also showed him the ulcers that developed on the roof of my mouth. He said I had “an infection”. I knew he was wrong. From everything I’d read, I knew I had hand, foot and mouth disease. I also knew it was going around the small town I lived in and I work in a hospital soooooo… you do the math!!

 

Spots started popping up on my feet too, and my hands got so sore that I couldn’t even hold my toothbrush to brush my teeth. I couldn’t stand washing my hands. I couldn’t do anything!! The next day I tried to take a shower and my feet were so painful that I physically couldn’t stand on them while I tried to shower! I had to turn the taps on using a towel and it still hurt!! I lasted about 30 seconds in the shower and then gave up and left the shower half running because I couldn’t turn it off properly. I went back to bed for the day. I also got weird crusties around my nose which were painful, red and weeping. Over the next few days the pain got less and less and the rash started disappearing, apart from my poor nose. A week later, it was almost gone. “Great!”, I thought, “The worst is over!”.

 

WRONG! That’s when the peeling started. Oh, the peeling. Over the next week my skin peeled way too many layers off. The poor, new skin underneath was raw. It peeled right under the free edge of my nail and right up close to the sides of my nail bed. This was big, thick chunks (sorry!). It hurt and I looked like a leper. I was so self conscious of it and everyone asked me what was wrong with my skin. Everyone just assumed I had dermatitis. If that’s what dermatitis is like, I never want to experience it.

 

Anyway, it’s over two months later now and I’m still suffering from the lasting effects of HFM. My nails have peeled from the cuticle down towards the free edge. They form a white bubble on the surface of the nail first and then it starts peeling. It is revolting. It could be a lot worse – the whole nail could have lifted! But for someone who is so precious about their nails, it’s fairly cruel.

The whole point of this story was to explain why I am so delayed in sharing these beautiful polishes from Femme Fatale Cosmetics. I actually took these photos when I still had the remnants of the rash but it wasn’t sore anymore. Thanks to some strategic lighting and cropping, you can’t really see the rash. I’ve got loads of pics though, if anyone is interested

 

Cirque Powwow

This is such a stunning Barbie pink holo with an added bonus of purple micro flakies. It is gorgeous! This was two easy coats and it lasted and lasted on my nails!

 

Liquid Sky Lacquer Spring Showers

In the interest of full disclosure and honesty, this polish wasn’t for me It was really, really sheer. This was four coats and I still had VNL. It’s supposed to be a thermal but I always have issues getting thermals to change colour. Maybe it’s because I’m so hot blooded It has a pretty, delicate pale blue, almost silver base. I think it would be great layered over a pale blue or even white, but I’m not really a layering kinda gal!

 

Rainbow Honey Ultimate Weapon

Oooohh this is bootiful! Such a deep, shimmery, shifty polish. A gorgeous deep blue/purple base with purple and blue shimmers. This was almost a one coater! Such easy application and so striking on the nail. I just loved this one.

 

Hope you enjoyed my babbling story about HFM and the pretty pics

Em

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 spam

Hiya

 

Onto the second part of my spam from The Heat Group, the Ulta3s! Aussie nail fanatics are very familiar with these $2 bargains. Ulta3 is awesome quality polish for a fraction of the price of most others. Ulta3 has been awesome at keeping up with the latest trends and have come out with some really cool polishes lately.

 

Here is a shade from their recent pastels collection, Corsican rose:

Gorgeous, right? This is a dusty mint green. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that I LOVE cremes and I LOVE pastels. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with a good creme and pastels are perfect for the warmer weather. It also helps that it flatters my skin tone like nothing else and makes my nails look twice as long as they are

This was two easy coats of a great formula. Pastels can be notoriously difficult to apply but this was an exception. I do have a lot of shades like this but in my opinion, you can’t have enough of them

 

This is one of Ulta3’s oldest and most common shades, Lollypop Lilac:

It’s a glitzy foil which is more of a dusty purple than a lilac. Talk about bling bling! This was two coats but it would easily be a one coater.

 

I did some weird nail art with it:

I used Essence Sweet Or Nude? for the base colour, which I liked a hell of a lot more than I thought I would. It’s a shimmery pale pink which is a touch frosty but not too much. Two coats. Then I dotted some random Lollypop Lilac dots on it. I’d say it’s a bit of a fail but oh well, I gave it a go

 

Have you got either of these bargain pretties?
Em

Essence spam!

Hi there my pretties!
Today I have some Essence polishes to share with you. Sarah from The Heat Group was kind enough to send me some polishes to review, so here is the first instalment.

Metal Glams
This is from the BRAND NEW collection, Metal Glam:

Petal to the Metal. I actually liked this polish a lot more than I thought I would! It’s a pretty, delicate pink-toned lilac. It went on quite smoothly with not too many brush strokes. This was two coats but it was almost a one-coater! Almost unheard of for such a light shade. This would be fantastic to use for stamping, I think.


Steel-ing the Scene. Not going to lie, this isn’t really my kind of colour, but I didn’t mind this. It wasn’t a brassy bronze  so it went a lot better with my skin tone than most bronzes. This one was streakier than Petal to the Metal but still not too bad. I wasn’t too careful when applying it so I think you could get a lot less brush strokes than I did.

This is one of Essence’s core collection, Red Ahead:

Er. It’s brown. I didn’t realise it was meant to be red until I read the label! To me, it’s a beautiful chocolate brown creme. I love it! Browns are one of my favourites (even though a lot of people don’t like them) and this will be perfect for winter. I’m really unsure as to where the ‘red’ in the name comes from, but I don’t mind as I’m chuffed it’s a brown instead! This was two easy coats.

I hope you enjoyed the Essence spam! I’ll be back tomorrow with some Ulta3 spam!

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

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

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

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

Cate Ruby Purple Mania

Happy Aussie Nails Monday! I signed up to do the ANM challenge each week when it first started months and months ago but this is the first one I’ve actually done.. Whoops!

 

I have another Cate Ruby beauty to show you today. This is a deep purple shimmer and it is a ONE COATER! I did not even feel tempted to do another coat ‘just in case’ like I always do.

Gorgeous, right?

 

The theme for ANM today is ‘bling’, so I added a bit of bling:

I’m hating the pink hexes I put on my ring finger but loving the rhinestones on the rest of the fingers  

 

What do you think?
Em