Untried A & B: Alanna Renee Mardi & Black Cherry

I'm theming it up in March! Apart from doing the Californails challenge, I'm going to be swatching my untrieds from A-Z. This means each day that isn't a challenge day or Aussie Nails Monday, I'll be posting about a nail polish that starts (either the brand or the name) with a certain letter of the alphabet.

Today is A and B combined into one post - Alanna Renee Mardi and Black Cherry. Alanna Renee is a new Australian indie brand by Alanna from Pretty Purple Polish. It launched at the beginning of the year, and I was lucky enough to get these two from Alanna herself at the Aussie Nails Sydney meetup.

Mardi is a mix of pink hex glitter and small gold glitter in a pink base. The website claims that the small gold glitters helps build up the opacity so it only needs two coats, but I found I needed three. The formula was excellent and it dried very smoothly, but I would recommend waiting a bit longer between each coat to avoid dragging.

I absolutely love Black Cherry in the bottle. I wore this to Soundwave last week. It's a mix of large and small red hex glitters, large red square glitter and small black hex glitter in a deep red toned purple jelly base. I can't think of a name that would describe how this polish looks more perfectly. It needs three coats for complete opacity, and the base becomes almost black, but in a deep and squishy jelly-ish way.

I really want to love this but the formula just isn't quite right. It's a bit too thin so all the glitters sank to the bottom of the bottle, and I found it really difficult to get a good number on the brush even after vigorous shaking. I might just have a dud bottle unfortunately.

Bonus photo from the Blink-182 set at Soundwave!

Alanna Renee polishes are available from the Alanna Renee website (Australian shipping only) for $7.99 with free shipping over $50. They will soon be available from Shoppe Eclecticco and Color4Nails with international shipping.

I just got a new job, starting on the 20th! It's more corporate than my previous jobs so I've had to start investing in a new work wardrobe. This is what I've bought over the last few days:

• Witchery Knit Peplum Skirt $89.95. It has a rose gold zip down the front but I think it looks better at the back.
• Witchery Blue Silk Snakeprint Top $99.95. I can't find it on the website but the one in the pic below is similar. I'm really loving blue right now.
• Michael Kors Pressley Cap Toe pump in Stone Suede/Patent. Again, I couldn't find it online but it's the same style as the pumps in the pic below. $112.45
• I really want a Proenza Schouler Leather Satchel ~$2200, but I found this Atmos&here dupe on The Iconic on sale for $28.80 instead. I bought it in black as well for $35.96.
• 1&20 Blackbirds Contrast Shoulder Bag Satchel on sale for $31.96.
• I also want this Witchery Twist Jersey Skirt $79.95, but it might be a bit short for work. I'll have to go back and try it on.
• Total: $399.07. So much for saving, but these are essentials! And I now have $30 Witchery credit. I'm going to make more of an effort to buy only things that are on sale from now on.