Takko Lacquer - Dark Paradise

Press Sample

Hi all!!

I hope everyone has had a lovely and safe Christmas and New Year! We are visiting my family in Wellington and it's so nice to be home. I haven't been able to paint my nails much lately as my wrist is still immobilised, but I let it out of my brace to take these pictures. Also please excuse the still slightly broken nails, it is taking me a while to get on top of it all. Anywho… this is the ridiculously gorgeous Llarowe-exclusive polish by Takko Lacquer – 'Dark Paradise'.

'Dark Paradise' has a beautiful deep, but very sheer, inky base and is packed full of multi chromatic flakie glitter. The flakes change from red to gold and blue to green, with all the shades in between. Pictured here is one coat over a-england 'Queen of Scots'. I actually wore this mani for New Years as it reminded me of fireworks.

In lower light, the more copper tones peek through the blackened blue base. In bright light and more extreme angles, this polish really comes alive – bright green and red glow from your nails. 'Dark Paradise' was stupidly difficult to capture (even after 100-odd photos) and so you will just have to take my word that you NEED this polish.


As I mentioned, this polish is jam-packed with flakes and so you can easily control how much you have on the nail. I think it would be relatively easy to build up. I didn't experience any dragging or anything, however one thing I noticed was that even after 2 coats of top coat, my nails were still slightly textured. I think a thicker top coat would be recommended.


Make sure you check out Sheryl's blog to find out about the inspiration behind her polishes, along with other updates. Also keep an eye on Takko Lacquer's twitter and instagram for info about restocks etc. Takko Lacquers are sold from their own shop, but only with US shipping. For us international ladies, Takko lacquers are stocked at Llarowe, Femme Fatale and Mei Mei's Signatures.

This product was provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.

For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Polished by KPT - Hyacinth & Let's Get Peachy!

Press Sample

Hello hello

How is everyone? I am still crazily trying to work out how to manage being so busy, but hopefully I will continue to find my groove at uni etc. Meanwhile it has been a joy to be wearing the latest thermals from Polished by KPT's 'March Into Spring' collection. I have 2 more to show you today - 'Hyacinth' and 'Let's Get Peachy!'.

This is the polish I was telling you that I was wearing at the end of the last post. This is a beauty and a half! I absolutely love love love it.

Starting at the top 'Hyacinth', when cold, is the most gloriously rich blue/purple/indigo (I can't decide which) colour. The middle mid colour show the beautiful periwinkle leaning colour that 'Hyacinth' becomes. In hot temperatures, 'Hyacinth' becomes almost cornflower blue. Also, can we just take a moment to look at the shimmer and flakes in this baby. The shimmer in this is a pinky colour and it seems to just play against the blues so perfectly. The flakes also catch the light and play so beautifully against the colour of the polish. The best part? This is so sensitive to temperature changes, it seemed to be different every time I looked at it. Katherine, you are a wizard putting so many things I love into one bottle of brilliance <3

This is 'Let's Get Peachy!', the most subtle of the Spring collection. I love how different this polish is to anything in my stash. The top photo is 'Let's Get Peachy!' in cold temperatures, next hot, and then transitioning. In my photos it is a bit hard to see the transition and though it's subtle it's a bit more obvious in real life.


Both of these were easy to apply. I used 3 coats of 'Hyacinth' and the same of 'Let's Get Peachy!' (which is slightly sheerer, though perfectly buildable).


Polished By KPT polishes are available direct from Katherine's Big Cartel shop if you're in the USA. For those international people, check out this 'where to buy' tab. You can also keep an eye out for restocks etc by following on Facebook,Instagram, Tumblr or Pinterest.  All polishes are 3-free and not tested on animals.

These products were provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.

For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Polished by KPT - Blossoming & Love In Bloom

Press Sample

Hello!

How are you all? Some lovely polishes arrived at my house a week or so ago and I am very excited to share them, so let's just get started with 2 of the thermal polishes from the recent 'March Into Spring' collection from Polished by KPT - this is 'Blossoming' and 'Love In Bloom'…

Blossoming

First up is 'Blossoming'. Starting from the top is the colour when hot through to cold. This is absolutely gorgeous with the flakes in there that just peek through the gold micro-flake type particles. This is so spring/summer-y to me. It makes me sad that we're heading quickly towards Winter (even though I don't mind Winter at all really). The cold colour especially makes the gold stand out so well.

Check out how packed in those particles are and the way they seem to shift in colour from pink to gold depending on how the light is catching them. 

Love In Bloom

'Love In Bloom' is similar to 'Blossoming' in the style of the small flakey particles and the gorgeous way in which they catch the light, appearing to shift in colour. Again, the photo at the top is the hot colour for this polish with the dark purple appearing in cold.

Both of these polishes have a jelly-like base that is a little sheer, but builds really easily. I wore three coats when I wore both of these and that was plenty for me (though I think for photos, I have used 4 coats of 'Blossoming').These polishes are slightly on the thick side, but not at all in a bad way. It has been very muggy here and these 2 polishes didn't change colour very readily while I was wearing them unfortunately (I had to use iced water to take pictures of the cold colours), I will have to wear them again when the weather is a bit less humid and warm as usually my Polished by KPT thermals change all the time throughout the day.

Polished By KPT polishes are available direct from Katherine's Big Cartel shop if you're in the USA. For those international people, check out this 'where to buy' tab. You can also keep an eye out for restocks etc by following on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr or Pinterest.  All polishes are 3-free and not tested on animals.

Make sure you stay tuned for the next couple of polishes from the 'March Into Spring' collection as the one I'm wearing as I type this up is AMAZING!!

These products were provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.

For more information, see my disclosure policy.

We're All Mad Here - Takko Lacquer

This post has been a LONG time coming. Oh boy, I have tried to photograph Takko Lacquer's 'We're All Mad Here' so many times, but it is a gorgeous little ratbag to photograph accurately. Anyway, here we go, finally with the post.

The beauty of 'We're All Mad Here' is ridiculous. Such a complex polish. That's why it's taken me so long to put up photographs.

'We're All Mad Here' is an intense royal blue/blurple that is so saturated and eye-catching. In these photos, you can see VNL (visible nail line), but in real life you couldn't. The shimmer is similar to what is in 'Kiss The Sky', so it has that gorgeous shift from red through to yellow and green. You can sort of see the green shift in my middle finger in the bottom photo.

This close-up shows the flakes that really make this polish magical. They are what makes 'We're All Mad Here' so unique and just plain spectacular.


'We're All Mad Here' has a lovely formula to work with. It is fairly thick, but dries really fast. I used 4 coats here because of my camera picking up VNL, but I think if I wasn't taking photos 3 coats would be enough. The slight sheerness of the blue is what allows the flakes to be so visible and also gives the polish that jelly sandwich appearance where the flakes look as if they're floating.


Takko lacquer is available from a few different places now. Keep an eye out for when Sheryl restocks her shop, otherwise you may be able to find Takko Lacquers at Llarowe, Mei Mei's Signature and Edgy Polish. Also Sheryl has just released her new collection. Take a look at her inspiration boards on the Takko Lacquer blog and you may start seeing a couple of them pop up around here shortly ;)

Elle's Spell - Barielle

I have another polish that I borrowed from my mum to show you today. This is Barielle 'Elle's Spell'. I don't own any Barielle polishes so I was quite excited to try this one out. I actually first saw 'Elle's Spell' on Gaby's (@lacquerloon) Instagram and soon after that I found out my mum had it, so finally I have wriggled it out of her grasp and onto my nails.

'Elle's Spell' is a deep red/burgundy jelly filled with flakies, the type that is found in polish like Essie 'Shine of the Times' etc. It is such a luscious red wine colour.

The flakies in 'Elle's Spell' are the type that shift from Red to gold to green. As usual the green is only seen at extreme angles and is quite hard to capture in a photo without giving you a frame full of the tip of my fingers!! Anyway you can kind of see the green shift on the sides of my fingers in this photo. I love when I suddenly notice the green in this polish in real life.


When I first saw this polish, it was layered and I imagine that layered may be the best way to use it. This is 'Elle's Spell' on its own and I have 5 thin coats on this hand. I don't actually mind seeing a bit of VNL so I am wearing 3 thin coats on my left hand and it looks fine. Generally I like to show how a polish looks on its own if I can, so that's why I built this one up so much to get full opacity. The colour deepened so much as I put on the last 2 coats and made it so much richer.

A bit o' stamping with a-england and Cult Nails...

So I know I hardly ever do nail art on here and really I'd love to do more, but I'm just not so good at it! I know, I know practice makes perfect, so after exams I'm going to try my hand (lol sorry!) at a bunch of different techniques.

Anyway on to the post... What better way to procrastinate from studying than to do some stamping. I'm quite a rookie so this is quite a scary endeavor! And as I show you guys my dominant hand (my right one), it's particularly scary. You all see the work of my VERY unco left hand in my pics :)

I started off with the fabulous 'Elaine' from a-england's The Mythicals collection. 'Elaine' is a gorgeous dark purple that is one of the glorious darks that never becomes too dark so as to appear black. It keeps it's purple tones perfectly!

'Elaine' is a sort of aubergine purple. These two photos show 'Elaine' with no top coat! Yes, she is naturally this shiny. LOVE!

Next up I used another of a-england's beauties 'Princess Tears' to stamp an image from Bundle Monster's plate BM04. I've seen a few people using 'Princess Tears' for stamping recently and I loved the subtle beauty of it, so I thought I'd give it a go. It was very easy to stamp with, giving me no problems at all!

I love how the holo in 'Princess Tears' still manages to shimmer away. So pretty. By the way, if you want to see 'Princess Tears' on her own, have a look here.

A bit of a close up on the design. I've never used this design on myself before, but I tried it out on my Mum back at christmas time when I first got the stamping plates.

Seeing as how I apparently can't leave well enough alone, I just had to apply this beauty that arrived in my mail box that morning...

This is Cult Nails 'Seduction' and it's my first taste of the Cult!! I got Cult Nails base and top coats (more about them at the end) and I couldn't resist getting this too. I think there are going to be MANY more Cult Nails polishes joining my stash in the not so distant future. Anyway... 'Seduction' has a purpley-blue jelly base with a whole lot of gorgeous flakies. They shine so many different colours! Red, orange, copper...

... Green, yellow, blue...

And all at the same time! I love 'Seduction'! It's got just enough pieces to give good coverage without over-powering. I just want to mention that I'm almost entirely blaming loving Marta of Chit Chat Nails who has made me want Cult Nails polishes for a long time and finally I couldn't stand seeing her amazing swatches of them for another moment without trying them for myself. So thanks Marta!

Right, to the formulas... 'Elaine' was nothing short of perfection. Almost opaque at one coat so that the second coat provided perfect coverage and HIGH shine! 'Seduction' was also a pleasure. I used one simple coat and it was easy to get enough flakies and they spread really easily too. I used the other newbies to my stash for this too. I used Cult Nails 'Get It On' base coat and 'Wicked Fast' top coat. I've seen so much hype about these online lately and so I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about. Well let me just say that I took this manicure off this afternoon (about an hour ago) and it had been on for 7 days! I had no chips and barely any tip-wear! I have to say this is probably partly due to the AMAZING wear time that a-england polishes have, but I have given my nails a bit of a thrashing this past week too! I have since put on my next mani with Cult Nails base and top coats and we'll see how it goes this time, but after this first go... I can see why all the raving!

a-england polishes are available for £9 with free worldwide shipping from their website and Cult Nails polishes are available from their website for $10USD. Both are also available from a bunch of e-tailers.

Dating A Royal - OPI (Jelly Sandwich!)

I have my laptop back! And that means I got all my photos back. :) So I will be showing you today my first attempt at a jelly sandwich. I decided that I really wanted to wear OPI's 'Dating A Royal' a little while back, but I felt like wearing something more than a single colour. 'Dating A Royal' is one of those jelly/crème hybrids. Definitely not a crème, but to my eyes, I don't think it's a full jelly-jelly either. Anyway, enough chit chatting, let me just show you and you can decide for yourself...

To start with, I did 2 coats of 'Dating A Royal', it still looked a bit see through but I was putting lots on top so that's OK. Next I layered one coat of OPI 'Last Friday Night', then one coat of Essie 'Shine Of The Times'. As you can see, at this point, it's quite an assault on your senses! The glitter is pretty full on...

I then added one more THIN layer of 'Dating A Royal', et voilà... One Jelly Sandwich.

A couple more photos, both taken in full sunlight. The overall look was reasonably subtle, but to be honest I really loved it.


'Dating A Royal' is such an easy polish to apply (as are most jellys I've tried). It's so smooth and spreads effortlessly on the nail. Of course it dries super glossy, but with the glitter underneath, top coat is needed to smooth out the gritty texture some. I used a nice thick coat of Essie 'Good To Go' but if you want no gritty-ness, you will likely need more than just that. I had lots of fun with this sandwich and so I will definitely be trying this again with some other jellys.

Valentine's Day Mani

Happy Valentine's Day!

So I thought now that I have a blog, I might get into the holiday spirit a bit more and so I decided do a bit of a Valentine's day theme for the weekend.

I started off with 3 coats of OPI's 'Mod About You' from the 2006 brights collection 'Brighter By The Dozen', though 'Mod About You' is now one of OPI's classic Brights By OPI colours.

'Mod About You' is a whited-out pink shade that just makes me feel like a walking, talking Barbie! Not necessarily in an entirely bad way either :) It's just fairly in-your-face considering it's a pastel pink.

In indirect light, 'Mod About You' becomes a little warmer and slightly pinker, which is really pretty.

Next, I stamped hearts using Konad plate m3. I used OPI's 'Manicurist Of Seville' as my stamping polish. I have to say that it's one of my all time favourite polishes and it stamped pretty well! I found it impossible to get the filled in hearts to be actually filled in, as you can see, but I didn't really mind. It reminded me of when I used to draw balloons (or hearts) over all my school books as a kid and I always had to add the little line for where the light hit the balloon (or the heart). I felt like, at this point, my nails looked pretty boring and were clearly missing something... Enter Essie 'Shine Of The Times'...

In direct light (see my ring finger), 'Shine Of The Times' appears to give a slightly purple tinged texture rather than a full rainbow effect. When light hits it from more of an angle (see my index finger), you get the full glory of 'Shine Of the Times' and this is just what I thought was missing from this manicure.

         

All of the colours seen in 'Shine Of The Times' were so incredibly hard to photograph! The photo on the right is about as good as it gets in showing you the elusive bright red/copper that appears every now and again. To see more of this absolute beauty of a polish, have a look at my previous post of it.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how my Valentine's nails came out. This manicure is so unlike me in so many ways, but I've really enjoyed wearing it. But now to the business side of things... The formula. 'Mod About You' is certainly not my favourite polish to apply, though it's not the worst. You just have to be a little patient and take a little more care than usual. Typical pale polish application - beware of streaks and bald patches. I had to use 3 coats in order to get full opacity and get rid of streaks. The photos of 'Mod about You', on its own and with just the stamps on, are without top coat and as you can see, a top coat would add a bit of much needed shine to this polish. 'Manicurist Of Seville', as I stated earlier, was a fairly successful stamping polish. It's beautifully opaque and I think it has just the right amount of red to sit nicely with 'Mod About You'. I used a fairly thick single coat of 'Shine Of The Times' and that was easy to apply and spread evenly. Underneath all of this, I used Essie 'Millionails' and on top I used Sally Hansen's 'Insta-Dri'. 'Shine Of The Times' can be prone to eating up top coat, leaving a gritty texture, so I decided to go with this slightly thicker top coat and it still has a slight texture to the touch - though I'm not too worried. Hope you are all having a lovely Valentine's Day! I actually celebrated yesterday as I'm working tonight :)

Essie - Shine Of The Times and OPI - Over The Taupe

I got my first flakie! I'm so excited about this polish! I've have been dreaming of owning Essie 'Shine Of The Times' since it first was blogged about last year, but unfortunately New Zealand doesn't really get much in the way of new collections by Essie. I've been keeping an eye out online for this pretty polish and it has never been in stock until Wednesday when I saw that Candy Girl (candygirl.co.nz - a Christchurch based online shop) had it back in stock! I ordered it straight away and it was in my letterbox yesterday morning (the very next day)! :)

I used OPI 'Over The Taupe' as my base colour underneath 'Shine Of The Times'...

'Over The Taupe' is a brown/taupe crème by OPI. The best way I can describe this colour is "mousey". It's such a soft and gentle colour.

I love this colour. It's a perfect work colour - subtle but something a little different. I love the way that it's essentially a brown nail polish but that in some lights it looks as though there is some grey in there and even at times a bit of a purple hue.



Now onto the wonder that is Essie's 'Shine Of The Times'...

This is from the 'Luxeffects' Collection released late last year. As I earlier mentioned, this is a flakie top coat.

The flakes in this polish are multi-chromatic and depending on the light, they range from looking red to  orange to gold to yellow to green. Like all of autumn in a single bottle of polish.

In this photo you can see more of the yellows and greens that shine through in this top coat when the light hits it at a more extreme angle.

From a more front on angle the reds and golds shine through. It's like a reflection of a bonfire burning on my nails.

You can really see the irregular beauty of the flakie pieces. Interestingly at some angles it looks as though there's nothing extra on your nails then you move just the tiniest bit and this fiery light suddenly bursts out to catch your eye.

Final macro pic just because I can't get enough of this polish!!


Now to the formulas of these polishes...
'Over The Taupe' is not my favourite polish to apply. Lucky I like the colour so much that it seems to make up for it. This polish is reasonably thin and is very difficult to make the colour even on the nail. It is a 2 coater if I take extra care during application, otherwise it is generally a careful 3 coater in order to get nice even coverage. The above swatches of 'Over The Taupe' are 2 coats using Essie 'Millionails' as my base coat and no top coat. Even though there's no top coat, you can see the beautiful gloss that results from this polish.
'Shine Of The Times' is rather thick and I thought it was going to be difficult to make it spread evenly. But... turns out it was really nice and easy to apply. It sort of just glided over the nail without much thought. On top of 'Shine Of The Times' I used a-England's 'The Shield' top coat and I'm super pleased to say that I have not one single chip after work last night. I was behind the bar last night which means scrubbing coffee machine, hands constantly in water and cleaning products and meths etc! Walking out with zero tip wear hardly ever happens after a Friday night.

Hope you enjoyed sharing my excitement about my first flakie! :)