Oh Splat! - KB Shimmer

Hi!
I have a polish to show you that I know you've seen a bit of lately, but I thought I may as well put my two cents in! I have 'Oh Splat!' from KB Shimmer for you...

I freaking well love 'Oh Splat!' oh so much! I love a polish that is milky white with glitter in (think back to 'Expecto Patronum').

I'm not even going to try and name all the glitter colours, let's just say there's a whole lot of multi-coloured glitter in there. This is only two coats! It's so opaque which is amazing.


As I said, two coats of opaque goodness. Formula on this was surprisingly easy. It was pretty thick but as you only need two coats, it didn't bother me at all.

I bought 'Oh Splat!' from Harlow & Co. for $9 USD.

Water Marble take 2...

HI!!

I know I've been slightly AWOL of late, but today's my birthday so I'm hoping you can forgive me.
If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you will have seen this mani in the making a few weeks ago. When I went to visit my family in Wellington, we decided to have an evening of roast dinner and water marbling. One of my other polish crazed friends came over too and it was lots of fun. I decided that due to the terrible weather in NZ at the time, I needed some neon happiness to pretend it was summer already. Like I said, the weather was pretty average, so my photos are under a very overcast sky, hence the ghostly skin ;)

I used four of the recent China Glaze Summer Neons - 'Splish Splash', 'I'm With The Lifeguard', 'Sun-kissed' and 'Surfin' For Boys'. I love how they mixed to give orange, teal and purple as well!
In the process of making of this mani, anything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. Needless to say, it was a fantastic learning experience. For the longest time, the polish just wouldn't spread on the water. We changed the temperature of the water multiple times to no avail. After much mumbling and grumbling, The Boy realised that the polish itself was super cold. So everyone set to work heating up the polish and everything went according to plan after that :)

I'm also slowly learning how to avoid bubbles, but I did get a few little ones. There was a bubble on my ring finger that popped as I pulled my finger out of the water and as it popped, it released a whole lot of polish on to the surface, so I got a little ghosty smear on that one. Generally speaking though, from any regular distance, these looked pretty cool. I got a fair number of comments when we went shopping the next day :)

These were the designs on my ring and pinkie fingers on my left hand. They were actually my favourites so I thought I'd show you them too.


In the end, I think this water marbling attempt was a success. I had lots of fun doing this and I'm hoping that each time I try to water marble, I will learn a bit more. I can't wait until I have time to try marbling again :)

Lady Of Shalott - a-england

Hi!!

I'm super excited today! I have the first of my new a-england polishes to show you. I received the Gothic Beauties a couple of days ago and naturally I had to get right onto wearing them. I started off with 'Lady Of Shalott', so here we go...

I don't even know what to say about this polish! It has some kind of magic that makes me just stare at it and lose all ability to form sentences.

'Lady Of Shalott' is in essence a black cream, that is chocka-block FULL of shimmer that shifts from blue to purpley pink. The blue of the shimmer is electric and in the right light, it makes this polish come alive. I love how navy 'Lady Of Shalott' looks in this bottom picture. Very regal.

The purple shift of the shimmer was near impossible to capture on the nail, but you can see it peeking out in these photos (particularly on my ring finger in this bottom photo). It's not as obvious as it is in the bottle, but at funny angles, it would just catch my attention.

So this is the side of this Lady that mesmerizes me the most. The rich dark beauty of this polish is... well... mesmerizing! In regular indoor lighting, this polish does look very dark. But, here's the thing... Even when the shimmer isn't really shimmering, it still has a rich look to it. A plain black can look flat, but the shimmer in this makes it almost appear darker, deeper than black. I know that doesn't make sense, I think you just have to see it to know what I'm talking about.

 So, I think you likely realise by now that I am in love with this polish! It reminds me of the most beautiful midnight sky.


Right, to the formula... Perfect and nothing less than what I have come to expect from Adina's wonderful creations. It was two easy coats. I did have to use a couple of coats of top coat as I use Essie 'Good To Go' which is thin and the shimmer kinda ate it all up a bit. No biggie though, cause look at how pretty and glossy it is now :) Let's just say that I can't wait to wear the rest of these Beauties.

The Gothic Beauties are available now from Llarowe and I think they will be available shortly on a-england

Monroe - Picture Polish & Some Studs

I have my first Picture Polish to show you tonight. I've always wanted to try Picture Polish, but the postage from Australia is a bit steep (even though it's just over the ditch). Well to cut a long story short, I ended up ordering 'Monroe' from Ninja Polish when I heard that it was being discontinued in its current incarnation. Picture Polish are reformulating this beauty. I actually wore this while I was in Wellington and there wasn't a whole lot of sun happening, but luckily the one bit of sun happened to be while I was wearing this, so I managed to snap a few pics. Anyway, onto 'Monroe'...

I am so glad that I snaffled this little beauty up. 'Monroe' is a gorgeous burgundy polish with little scattered holo throughout. I added some studs from Born Pretty Store. I used the 2mm gold square studs and 1.5mm gold round studs. I love using these studs, as they really are so easy to work with (plus you get enough in the pack to last a life-time).

I have popped in this slightly blurred pic so you can get a slightly better idea of the holo. It isn't hugely obvious, but there is absolutely no doubt that it's there. I actually quite like the subtlety of it in this polish to be honest.

'Monroe', in different lighting, deepens quite a lot in colour. It becomes much richer and more burgundy. I love the elegance and sophistication that this darker look brings to the polish, along with the edge that the holo gives it.

'Monroe' was slightly sheerer than I expected, but three coats gave me full opacity. Two was very nearly enough and if you use thicker coats, two might be fine. It has an almost jelly like consistency to it giving it a gorgeous squishy, shiny finish. I absolutely love this polish! I think if this is what all Picture Polish polishes are like, I'm going to have to look at getting some more!

Picture Polish can be purchased online from quite a few places including the Picture Polish website, Llarowe, Harlow & Co and Ninja Polish. Keep an eye out for the new 'Monroe'!

Update: Kiwis, Picture Polish and Ozotics can be purchased now from Gracie Lou :D

Princess - Cult Nails + Some Stamping

Hi!

I've had such a nice week at home in Wellington and I'm so sad that it's over, but oh well, back to real life and I have so much coming up at uni! Anyway... I have a little mani to show you tonight that I wore a week or two ago. I'm still trying to do a bit more stamping practice, so I thought I'd try a double stamping. I used Cult Nails 'Princess' as the base colour and stamped with Konad White followed by a-england 'Camelot'. I used Bundle Monster, BM-316.

I think this turned out to be quite a nice subtle mani. I was aiming for a similar-ish position of the stamp each time and that gave a nice bit of variation, but still kept everything sort of uniform. This is actually the first time I've used a polish specifically designed for stamping and it really was so simple to use (how has it taken me this long to try it?).

This is 'Princess' on its own. It's a really gorgeous soft looking polish. It's really flattering for a blue, which is always a bonus. 'Princess' actually has a beautiful pinky shimmer in it. It's not overly obvious but in any sort of direct lighting, it really pops out. I found it incredibly hard to capture, but you can kind of get an idea of it in these photos.


All these photos show no top coat. I almost always have trouble with top coat smudging my stamping - if anyone has some tips for me, please let me know :)
I used two coats of 'Princess' and I have to say that this polish is so close to being opaque in one coat. I always love to wear pale colours, but I HATE their application, so this was a pleasant surprise. It almost had that sort of foamy thickness, but wasn't at all difficult to apply. I already mentioned that Konad White was really easy to use and 'Camelot' stamped perfectly too. I also has no problems at all with the plate, BM-316. I'm so happy with Bundle Monster's third set, I love the designs and they've been brilliant to use so far.

Hey Jude - Enchanted Polish

I'm home and I'm so happy about it! I can't believe our trip is almost half way over already! Anywho, as promised, I have 'Hey Jude' to show you today. Holy mother of multichrome goodness, this is one seriously impressive polish!!!

*WARNING* this polish has a serious number of colours and so naturally this is a picture heavy post, so I'm putting most of it under a jump...

These show 'Hey Jude' in the sun in all it's holographic glory. I love these polishes that are holo and multichrome! Be still my beating heart. The second photo shows the more gold-ish sheen that 'Hey Jude' often has in sunlight. It actually shows even more gold and sandy in sunlight, but for the life of me, I could not capture it.

Kaleidoscope Eyes - Takko Lacquer

Hi folks!

I had originally planned to post Enchanted Polish 'Hey Jude', but I changed my mind. Instead I would love to show you a gorgeous polish by Sheryl, from Takko Lacquer. I just want to say first up, that Sheryl is just so lovely and add that to this amazing polish and I'm telling you, we have a winner! I can't wait to buy more of her polishes (in fact there's already some more on the way)! On to the polish... this is 'Kaleidoscope Eyes'...

'Kaleidoscope Eyes' is essentially a blue to purple duochrome polish, but it's so much more than just that. Other than the fact that it's also holographic, I get a grey shift too. In fact when I removed this polish, it looked really grey on the pad. The main colour you can see in most light is this gorgeous teal-y, aqua colour.

You can see here the aqua to grey shift I was talking about. I love this side of this polish. I think it's so ethereal. It's certainly the softer side of 'Kaleidoscope Eyes'.

Next up purple. This is the first of the purples 'Kaleidoscope Eyes' shifts to. A softened lavender colour, again with that veil of grey just shading the sides of my nails. Did I mention that I love this polish?

This is where 'Kaleidoscope Eyes' comes alive. The shift here is more toward a brighter pinky purple, almost fuschia leaning. Still you see that grey, only this time it's looking a little more charcoal.

Last up, you can see the darker blue to purple shift. Love love love love love.



I am on such a multichrome kick at the moment (queue 'Hey Jude' post next). I just stare at my nails constantly when I wear them. Add holo to the mix and I am a goner! 'Kaleidoscope Eyes' was everything I hoped for and more after seeing the first swatches of it by Rie over on Nails & Noms. I used 2 care-free coats for full opacity in these photos. 'Kaleidoscope Eyes' was a little on the thick side, but not in a bad way at all. More in the way that it glides on like butter. My bottle leaked ever so slightly on it's long journey to NZ, but not much (just into the lid), but that just means I'm not sure if it may have thickened up a little.

Takko Lacquer is available on Etsy. The polishes are $15USD. They are slightly pricey, but if they're all like 'Kaleidoscope Eyes', they're worth every penny. International Shipping starts at $8USD, but if it costs Sheryl $2 or more less than that, Sheryl will refund you the difference (as was the case when I ordered this polish). Takko Lacquers are all made using cruelty-free, natural pigments and minerals (the holo isn't Spectraflair) and they are also 3-free.