Grey-t To Be Here - Essence

I have just a short sweet post for today. This is another polish sent to me from the lovely Mimi from Makeup Withdrawal. Essence 'Grey-t to Be Here'...

 'Grey-t To Be Here' is a gorgeous grey polish with those little glass fleck bits in that I love. What makes this polish particularly loved by me is the fact that the little flecks have a shift in colour from an orangey-gold through to bright pinky-purple and sometimes even appearing slightly green. Here's the thing... I found the shimmery particles near impossible to capture in all their glory. Have a look at the bottle to see what I mean. The visibility of the shimmer in real life is not as much as what the bottle shows, but significantly more than what is seen on my nails in these photos.


This polish was easy to work with and I used 2 thick-ish coats. I really liked this polish and actually got a few comments on it at work. Sometimes I think a nice simple polish with a little shimmer is just what I need :) Thanks Mimi!

Teal of Fortune - Wet n Wild & Spectral Pup - Dollish Polish

HI!

Today I have a gorgeous polish to show you, sent to me by the wonderful Mimi from MakeupWithdrawal. Mimi is amazingly talented and I learnt not too long ago that those talents include knowing exactly the kinds of polishes that I would love when I, myself, seem not to know! Mimi sent me a package of goodies that I can't get here in NZ and every single polish was so perfectly me. Anyway, let's get on with having a look at one of those beauties...

This is Wet n Wild 'Teal of Fortune'. It's a glorious blue colour with all sorts of little glass fleck pieces in it that make it shift colour, giving it a very ocean like appearance. I love the kind of flakie, glass fleck pieces in these kinds of polish. They intrigue me how they appear almost just like coarse shimmer from a distance then you see them close up and they're so much more. The depth that they give polish is what gets me every time.

I paired 'Teal of Fortune' with Dollish Polish 'Spectral Pup' from her Halloween collection. Since the moment I saw that collection, I knew I wanted that polish, but I couldn't for the life of me think of something to layer it over. I think that this combo works well together though. I love the tealy blue with the orange in 'Spectral Pup'. I should also say that this glitter glows in the dark. It actually has a fine iridescent shimmer in it too, but this is quite hard to detect in these photos. The glow is pretty strong in this, which surprised me actually. Trouble is, I have absolutely no idea how to get photos of it that actually make it look good. If I ever work it out, I'll be sure to update this post.


Both these polishes were really easy to apply. I used two coats of 'Teal of Fortune' on my ring and pinky fingers and you can see a little bit of VNL, so I added a third coat to my middle and index fingers. There is just one coat of 'Spectral Pup'. One thing I will mention is that this blue stains like mad! BUT not if you remove it like normal. My index and middle fingers were fine, no staining. My ring and pinky fingers on the other hand... they are still a hot mess! I used the tin foil method to remove the glitter and it's as though I managed to melt big streaks of blue into my nails. Only in random patches, but it's the worst staining I've ever had in my life. Moral of the story... don't soak fingers in remover with this polish on. Other than that little mishap, I really enjoyed these polishes, so thanks Mimi!!

Order Of The Garter - a-england & Fantasy Fire - Max Factor

As I said to you the other day, I got Max Factor 'Fantasy Fire' from Esther from Fab Fingertips. Well it was just sitting on top of my Helmer next to a-england's 'Order Of The Garter', so I just thought I'd try it on top of that first. I think this isn't the best combo to show you 'Fantasy Fire' in all its glory as it wasn't super obvious, but I still loved it...

In full sunlight, 'Fantasy Fire' (on my ring finger and pinky) is very subtle and really just gives 'Order Of The Garter' a little bit of extra red shimmer. Speaking of 'Order Of The Garter', this is one seriously magical polish. I originally didn't get this polish with the rest of The Legend collection and when I did finally get it, I could've slapped myself for taking so long! It has the most gorgeous turquoise-y glass flecks in it that just make it come alive! I love blue polish and I think this may well be at the top of my list of loves!

'Order Of The Garter' is such a beautiful vibrant blue. I think this is a really wearable blue as well. I know that some people tend to shy away from blues, but this polish, though quite bright, is one that will look beautiful on everyone, I think. See how 'Fantasy Fire' just seems to turn 'Order Of The Garter' into a shimmer bomb. Love.

In lower, indirect light, you can see a little better the red veil that 'Fantasy Fire' gives 'Order Of The Garter'. In artificial light, at night, 'Fantasy Fire' really comes out to play and becomes much more obvious. You can really see the duochrome action of it. Trouble is, I couldn't really capture it on my camera.

You can catch a glimpse of the duochrome effect of 'Fantasy Fire' here and other than that, you'll just have to take my word that this combo is absolutely gorgeous! One of those things you have to see in real life.


As far as formula goes... It's not a surprise to anyone that a-england gives me another perfect formula. I used 3 thin coats of 'Order Of The Garter'. Two coats was so close to being enough, but the third coat just gave it a little extra oomph. 'Fantasy Fire' is just one quick thin coat, no problems there.

As usual, a-england polishes are available from their website with free worldwide shipping. Unfortunately, 'Fantasy Fire' is a UK exclusive so unless you live there or know someone who does, it may well prove elusive :(

Striping Tape Mani... Camelot - a-england & Aurora Borealis - Dollish Polish

True to my word, I'm busy trying my hand at different types of nails and todays... Striping tape. I recently bought a whole lifetime worth of striping tape from the Born Pretty Store for $8.99 USD and I gotta say I really enjoyed this mani a lot too!

For this mani, I used 2 coats of Sally Hansen 'White On', I then added the striping tape in the design that you can see, next I added 1 awesome coat of a-england 'Camelot', pulled the tape off and topped everything off with one quick coat of Dollish Polish 'Aurora Borealis'. Please excuse the tip wear you can see here - I'd already worn this for around a day and a half and I didn't wrap the tips with black (knowing me and my butter fingers, I would've got black all around the pretty white lines!)!

Holy duochrome batman!!! 'Aurora Borealis' is so incredibly GORGEOUS!! look at the duochrome action!

You can see the electric tealy blue that shines through in this photo...

Now see the purple! Serious love of this polish right now!

And still the colours keep changing! My index finger shows how pinky 'Aurora Borealis' can appear. I love how my index finger has its own little gradient thing going on in this pic :)



I loved wearing this mani and I really liked the contrast between the black and the white. I won't bore you with details about the formulas because to be honest, they were all great. I just recently purchased Sally Hansen 'White On' because I've never had much luck with my only other white polish (OPI's 'Alpine Snow'), 'White On' is really really thin but it's certainly easy enough to work with. The only thing I had a bit of trouble with, was that the striping tape seemed to leave little marks on the white polish. Not so obvious in real life though as they appear in theses photos. Anyway, overall fairly successful I think :)

Fast Track - China Glaze

I've got for you all today a beauty that I know has been on pretty much every blog already, but I figure the hype has settled a bit now, so I may as well throw my piece in too. This is China Glaze's 'Fast Track' from The Hunger Games 'Capitol Colors' released just recently.

From the very first moment I saw the previews of this collection on all the blogs, this was by far the colour that I was most excited about (weird I know). I love neutral shades and the gold in this just made my heart skip a beat every time it popped onto my screen! When this beauty arrived at my door, it was even better in real life! I LOVE this polish!!!

'Fast Track' reminds me of those suede couches where if you brush the fabric one way it changes colour. I used to love visiting people with these couches and making all sorts of pretty patterns! The simple things in life ay?! Anyway 'Fast Track' is a gorgeous soft beige colour with that kind of glitter/flake/glass fleck that I love!

In lower indoor ambient light, the polish deepens slightly and somehow the gold becomes more apparent! Now this polish reminds me of cashmere. 'Fast Track' represents District 6 (transportation), but it makes me think of District 8 (textiles) lots! Best thing about this polish... the gold never becomes lost!

I love this type of finish but I just don't know how to describe it! And I also love that 'Fast Track' is jam-packed with these little glass flecks/flakes/glitters.

The formula on this polish was also perfect! I used two coats on my left hand and it was opaque to the naked eye, but I did a third coat on my right hand for photo purposes as the macro settings on my camera love to make polish look like it's less opaque! Overall we have a major winner! I used a-england's 'The Knight' as my base coat and Essie 'Good To Go' on top.

Kiwi's, this polish is available on Candy Girl for $14.95.