Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Sephora + Pantone Parachute Purple

When I first saw previews for this polish, for some reason I thought it was a mini sized bottle, like the size of the Max Factor bottles. I have no idea why, maybe it was the square shape? Anyway, even though they're only 0.37 oz (approximately 11ml, which I consider to be medium sized), it's freaking huge! I was not expecting that when I took it out of the box. Here is a side by side comparison with a regular sized OPI:

Sephora + Pantone Parachute Purple is a lovely purple with teal shimmer. The shimmer is very strong in the bottle, but much more subtle on the nail. It's almost a one coater, but I did two coats to smooth out a couple of patches. It's a little more muted and red-toned than my photos show.

Lightbox

Lightbox

Sun

Sun

Shade - It's not this blue in real life. Also, sorry for the zombie fingers.
This nail polish is exclusive to Sephora and retails for US$9. There are six colours in the collection, available here. Unfortunately they don't ship to Australia, I got this one from a blog sale.
Sunday, October 28, 2012

OPI The One That Got Away & b by Bloom Osaka

I'm alive! Sorry for my absence, I've just been so busy. I went up to the Gold Coast over last weekend for the V8s. I was so busy with my graduation project that I ended up staying in the hotel room working on it the whole time. But I did get to fulfill my 10 year dream of seeing Good Charlotte live, so it was totally worth it! My grad project is due next Friday so I've been completely flat out getting it finished, writing the report, sending the report off for printing, working on my showreel etc... I barely have time to paint my nails, let alone update my blog. My cuticles are in a horrifying state. But there's only one week to go, and then after that I'm free!

Here's a polish I actually swatched before I left last weekend, but I couldn't find my camera when I got back and didn't have time to look for it until today. This is OPI The One That Got Away, a deep sparkly magenta with glass-flecky shimmer. It's one of those tricky shades that looks glittery at one angle, and almost metallic at another. It applied opaque in 2 coats.

Sun

Sun

Lightbox
I thought it might be a dupe for an Aussie polish in my collection, b by Bloom Osaka. They look almost identical in the bottle, except Osaka has a tiny bit of gold flash which unfortunately doesn't come out obviously on the nail. But swatched side by side they're quite different. They are both red based purples but Osaka is darker, and packed with much more shimmer. It looks like the shimmer in The One That Got Away is irregular shaped like flecks or shards, while the shimmer in Osaka is tiny round glitter. It also looks like it has different shades of pink and purple glitter in there. Both polishes are gorgeous and I don't think they are dupes.

Lightbox

Lightbox

I managed to pick up my first two piCture pOlishes from a store up at the Gold Coast, so swatches of those will be coming soon when I have time! Thanks for reading :)
Thursday, October 18, 2012

Pretty Serious Monster Mash Halloween Collection

If you haven't checked it out already, I'm having a giveaway! You should totally enter here :)

I know the majority of my swatches so far have been Pretty Serious polishes, but I can't help it - they are gorgeous colours and they've just released the Monster Mash Halloween collection. Being Australian, I don't really get all the hype over Halloween. It's not really a big thing here. But I won't argue against anything that means a new nail polish collection release!

The Monster Mash collection is comprised of six spooky-themed polishes, as well as the limited edition Emma Louise which was released at the same time, with proceeds going to charity. Today I have three polishes from this collection to show you - Mummy Mush, Gargoyle Ganache and Poltergeist Puddle.

Pretty Serious have the cutest packaging, and the boxes for this collection have had a revamp to a new holographic green style. I normally don't keep the packaging but these are so pretty I think I will. They also have a sticker on the top with the name of the polish for easy identification when it's sitting in a Helmer (or your IKEA item of choice) drawer.


These three polishes are so incredibly complex I might have some trouble describing them properly. Mummy Mush is a glass fleck multichrome which is predominantly light gold, and has nude undertones. The multichrome is quite subtle and shifts from blue/green to pink. It has a beautiful sparkle, like glistening gems. The formula is pretty thick so I recommend applying coats as thinly as possible, and waiting for each coat to dry before applying the next to prevent clumping and dragging. It's pretty much opaque at 3 coats. These photos show some VNL but it's not noticeable in person.

Lightbox

Indoors, natural light

Indoors, natural light
I also tried layering it over different colours. It's pretty tricky to apply thinly and evenly, so I think it might not be that good as a layering polish. This is one coat over Ulta3 Earl Grey.

Overcast

Overcast

Indoors, natural light
And this is one coat over black. It brings out the green duochrome a lot more.

Sun

Indoors, natural light
According to the Pretty Serious website, Gargoyle Ganache is "a multichrome shimmer with flashes of green, gold and purple through a stony gunmetal base." The purple is the most dominant shimmer colour here, and it complements the grey really well. This polish is totally unique in my collection, and I love this shade of grey. It's so interesting, without being flashy, and I can definitely see myself wearing this for more corporate or formal occasions. The multichrome shift with little particles of green and purple really stand out in the sun. The formula was perfect. This is two coats.

Lightbox

Lightbox

Sun

Sun
Poltergeist Puddle. I have no words. I think this seriously might be my new favourite polish, and I'll be damned if it wasn't the hardest one to photograph! My camera kept turning it blue, so it was impossible to capture the absolutely beautiful pink and blue shimmer. It's technically blurple, but it leans far more purple than blue. I could not stop staring at my nails all day! I've been wearing this as a mani for four days straight now, which is pretty much unheard of for me - I usually change my nail colour daily! The formula was perfect, and completely opaque in two coats. 

Sun

Lightbox
The following two pictures are more accurate representations of how the shimmer looks than the photos above, but imagine the purple and the blue are swapped, so the polish is purple and the shimmer is blue and pink. I'm sorry I couldn't get more accurate photos, my camera just refused to co-operate! This polish has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

Lightbox

Lightbox
I love these three polishes. Even though I'm supposed to be on a no buy, I have no regrets whatsoever. When my degree is finished I'll probably go and buy the rest of the collection. If the quality of all of the Pretty Serious polishes I've tried to date is anything to go by, they'll be amazing. They seem to hit the nail on the head again and again in creating unique, beautiful and above all, wearable colours - and of course I'm excited to see an independent Aussie brand do great things!

Pretty Serious nail polishes are $9.95 each and available directly from their website.

So what do you think about this collection? Yay or nay? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading!
Tuesday, October 16, 2012

A-England Saint George

A-England is one of my favourite brands - beautiful colours, amazing collections, perfect formula and on top of all that, free shipping! In my eyes, this UK indie brand can do no wrong. I only discovered A-England recently. At first I got a bit confused about the fact that is technically an "indie" brand, in that it is a small independent brand and not a big multinational company, based on the professionalism of its website, bottles and faultless polish. But all these factors just prove the dedication A-England's creator, Adina, has towards creating nail polish that everyone will love.

One of my favourite colours of all time is Saint George, a sparkling teal with a subtle holographic finish. This is a one coater for me, and dries crazy fast and shiny. Whenever I need to quickly slap on a nail polish and run out the door, I reach for this. These photos were taken without top coat.



Sun

Sun
A-England polishes are available directly from their website with free international shipping. They are also available from Llarowe.
Sunday, October 14, 2012

OPI Swimsuit... Nailed It!

Continuing on from yesterday's post, here is another polish from the OPI Miss Universe Collection - Swimsuit... Nailed It!. It's a bright blue base with dense microglitter, and looks almost metallic. I used three coats with no top coat.





I love this, and it's almost an HG for me. But my HG blue is slightly darker. Can you recommend one for me?

Thanks for reading!
Saturday, October 13, 2012

OPI It's My Year + Giveaway!

Big news: I'm holding my very first giveaway! I feel like a real blogger now! The prizes are awesome, if I do say so myself, and you will be kicking yourself if you don't enter HERE.

Now on to the polish. This is OPI It's My Year, from the 2011 Miss Universe collection. This is seriously one of my favourite collections, ever. The colours are just so gorgeous! It's My Year is a red-based purple with a really strong gold shimmer. The formula was great, it was almost opaque in 2 coats but I did 3 just to be sure.




The sun hasn't been out to play for a couple of days so I only have lightbox photos for now... I can't wait to see this one in the sun!

Thanks for reading :)
Friday, October 12, 2012

Zoya Zara

I really shouldn't be posting when I've got a massive final submission due tonight... But I had to take a break and paint my nails to de-stress!

Zoya Zara is a muted purple with gold shimmer. This is 3 coats.



I don't have many Zoyas because they're hard to come by in Australia. In fact, this is my only one! But I hope to stock up when I finally make it over to the US for a shopping holiday :)
Wednesday, October 10, 2012

China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea

China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea is a part of the Bahama Blues collection, which features some really beautiful blues. But I may be a bit biased because I'm a sucker for blues - I must have about 20 identical ones in my stash! Blue Island Iced Tea is a frosty metallic light steel blue. Like all the CGs I've tried, it has a very smooth formula that's a little too runny. It's a bit sheer so this is 4 coats with one coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast.



Sun
Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Butter London The Black Knight

Today's NOTD is a quickie but a goodie. The Black Knight was my first Butter London polish. BL isn't easily available in Australia so I hunted high and low for this before I bought it for too much off ebay. Then when I was picking up my parcel I discovered they stock BL at the pharmacy next door to the post office! D'oh!

(Photos courtesy of my new lightbox! Yay!)


The Black Knight is a mix of magenta, blue, red and silver glitters in a black jelly base. It needs 3 coats to be completely opaque, but for a jelly the formula is pretty good as long as you take care to apply thin coats. It's also top coat hungry and dries gritty and dull, so I've used one coat of OPI Top Coat and one coat of Seche Vite on this mani. But look at it sparkle! I love how the colours peek through in the coats underneath.

Sun

Sun
Now I'm sure you'll agree with me that the Butter London bottles are divine and classy, but they are a massive pain in the ass when you're trying to pick a colour to wear from your polish drawer! Because the cap is the same size as the bottle, you can't see the colour when you're looking down on it. So my solution was to cut little strips of scotch tape, paint a swatch on it, then tape it to the lid. It's not the most pretty or elegant solution, but it works! I did this with my Cult Nails bottles as well.



Butter London is available from selected pharmacies and online for around $20. Unfortunately the Butter London website doesn't ship to Australia yet so it's difficult to get some of the latest collections. If you're in the US, BL is stocked at Ulta and Nordstrom, and they have some store-exclusive colours. Check the Butter London website for all those details :)

What do you think? And what is your solution for storing difficult-shaped nail polish bottles?
Monday, October 8, 2012

Breast Cancer Awareness Mani - OPI Nothin' Mousie Bout It

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month so to show my support I decided to do a pink mani. I would have loved to do some nail art with little ribbons, but I'm awful at nail art, so this will have to do. This is 1 coat of OPI Nothin' Mousie Bout It over Pretty Serious Claris.

Please, please, please, I beg you... Do not buy Nothin' Mousie Bout It if you plan to wear it for the hearts! It looks pretty in the bottle but it's an absolute nightmare to apply! It's thick, gloopy, and it's next to impossible to get the hearts out. I had to apply the hearts by trying to catch them on my brush, picking them off with an orange stick and applying them one by one to my nails, and then try and apply a coat of the sparkles without dragging them off. The end result was thick and bumpy nails :( Next time I'll just use it as a sparkly top coat without the hearts because it is still really pretty.

Sun

Sun

Shade

Shade

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