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

Cult Nails Flushed

Ooh do I have a beauty to show you today. Cult Nails is one of my favourite brands (that’s no secret), but this one is a real winner.

 

Flushed, two coats. I just love this beautiful purple with pink shimmer. Cult Nails, I love you. Take my money.

 

 

Some cute stamping with the Nailz Craze plates. I just love the Nailz Craze plates. They have awesome designs and I’ve used them over and over again!

 

Do you love Cult Nails as much as me? How about Nailz Craze?

 

Em

Diamond Cosmetics–Don’t Teal My Heart Away

Oh my, this is an old photo. I am so, so, SO far behind on blogging it’s not even funny. I couldn’t tell you when I took this photo. Maybe three or four months ago? I can’t seem to get on top of blogging. It’s the editing photos process which puts me off. My desktop computer is being a bit of a dinosaur at the moment so using Photoshop means it runs like a pig. Ah well, I’ll just keep plodding along and maybe one day you’ll get a mani photo which is less than a couple of weeks old

 

You all know I looooove teals. This teal creme is somewhat of an exception.

Don’t Teal My Heart Away by Diamond Cosmetics, two coats.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice colour, but it just seemed to lack depth and whatever it is that draws me to teals. Eh, you have to try these things!

 

What’s your favourite teal?

Em

Kiko–383 and 389

I’ve really come to love Kiko polishes. They are Italian and I got some in a swap from a lovely lady in the Netherlands not long ago. I couldn’t decide between two colours to try so I decided to try both!

The gorgeous bright mint green is  389 and the dark teal is 383 (grrr to polish companies who don’t name their polishes).

Two coats of each. They both had a pretty decent formula. I couldn’t complain!

 

Have you tried any Kikos? What do you think?

Em

Ulta3–Spring Break with China Glaze–Custom Kicks dotties

I got this Ulta3 from the local Woolies when they first started selling them. Since then the bins have been picked over and there is only a handful of boring shades left.  I managed to snag this one before it disappeared.

 

This is Spring Break:

A beautiful royal purple creme. It’s actually got a really strange finish to it, kind of rubbery. I actually prefer it like this to having a top coat on!

This is two coats. The formula was pretty good, no major issues here!

 

I was in the mood for some spotties so I got out my dotting tools and China Glaze Custom Kicks:

 

Oh I LOVE this colour combo! I did a few different sized dots to mix things up a bit. I loved the result

 

What do you think?

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

Sportsgirl–Show Off

What better way to welcome the cooler weather then to wear a gorgeous, squishy dark teal jelly. I’ve really been into the darker colours lately and I completely blame the weather! I love cold weather though, so I’m loving it. The nights and early mornings here are sooo cold, so at the moment I’m rugged up with a blanket on the couch. Bliss!

 

This is Sportsgirl Show Off:

Such a beautiful colour. This is two coats and it had an awesome formula. As most dark teals, it stained a little around my cuticles but nothing too drastic. I do love teals, they’re my favourite!

 

This is my first Sportsgirl polish and I’m pretty impressed so far. My sister gave it to me for Christmas and I’ve only just gotten around to wearing it (that says something about the state of my untrieds drawers …)

 

Are you enjoying the cooler weather?

Em

BYS–Drop in the Ocean

Wow, BYS have really done it this time. This relatively newish polish is absolutely STUNNING.

Take a look:

WOW. This photo does not do it justice even a little bit. This is a gorgeous medium teal colour but my camera refuses to pick up its true colour and Photoshop refuses to come to the party and let me adjust the colour accordingly (or I’m just not doing it properly ).

 

The formula is amazing and it almost covered in one coat. I did two just to be safe. The wear was fabulous! I had a little bit of chipping on the third day but that’s because I was doing hot stone massages for half the day and kept dragging my nails along the stones (which I loathe. It’s like fingernails down a blackboard to me).

 

I did some pretty nail stamping with my trusty Red Angel image plates:

I used Konad Special Polish in Pastel Blue. I really love these Red Angel plates. They have amazing images and they are fantastic quality for such a low price. I think you can only get them on Amazon!

 

What do you think? Do you love this colour as much as I do?

Em

China Glaze DV8

This polish is dangerous. Why, you ask? Because I couldn’t stop staring at it while I was wearing it. I stared at it as I drove to and from work. I stared at it as I walked around work (sometimes crossing roads). I stared at it every time I was outside.

You guessed it, it’s a holo!
But not just any holo. This is China Glaze DV8:

 

Ahhhhhhhhh.

Perfect. Such a totally and utterly perfect teal linear holo.

The formula, not so perfect. Two goopy coats which were streaky and hard to manage. But I got there in the end because I knew it would be worth it. And it so was.

 

Here’s another gratuitous holo shot:

You are delicious, DV8. Marry me?

 

I found this beauty in Adelaide a few months back when I was dusty hunting. I wandered into a little Asian nail salon on the off chance they’d have some cool polishes. I scored four China Glazes from the OMG! collection and one from the Kaleidescope collection. Now that was a good day’s shopping!

 

It’s inspired me to break out the Spectraflair and start creating some more Spectrafrankens!

 

Are you taking advantage of the beautiful weather to wear some holos?

Em

 

P.S. Sorry for the not-as-frequent posting over the past few days. I’ve been super busy at work and am currently in Adelaide doing three days of intensive massage courses! Regular programming will resume soon!