Star Kin - Sunny Day Rain & Terracotta Army

How is everyone? Been enjoying the World Cup? We have certainly been. Today I have a post more for my kiwi readers, but of course you others can still enjoy some pretty polish pictures too. This is a brand new to my blog, Star Kin, that is the baby of Ami (from Every Sensory) and her mum, Annette. I'm really proud to support this kiwi team and they really do make absolutely beautiful polishes! Today I have 2, 'Sunny Day Rain' and 'Terracotta Army'…

This is 'Sunny Day Rain'. I have been trying to be on a low-buy for a good while now, but as soon as I saw this on Lani Loves, I knew I'd have to get it (thanks Lani <3). I love the mix of blue glitters in this and against the grey jelly base - perfect. The best part is that this polish is brimming with glitter, absolutely no fishing is necessary. The base is a bit sheer, but 3 coats was plenty for opacity.

For this skittlette mani (see ChitChatNails) I used Zoya 'London' on my pinky and stamped with Revlon 'Royal' and Bundle Monster BM-418. On my ring finger is a gradient using OPI 'Skull & Glossbones', OPI 'No Room for the Blues' and Revlon 'Royal'.

Next up is one of my favourites - 'Terracotta Army'. This is my perfect kind of polish. A most wonderfully saturated, burnt orange holo - what's not to love? I adore the colour of this polish. And to make things even better, this is really easy to apply and opaque - I think I used 2 coats for these photos.

Here's the kicker - NZ Post is really strict when it comes to sending polish out of the country (learnt the hard way here) so these polishes are only available to kiwis at this point. But for all you kiwis, head over to Star Kin on Etsy and show them some love.

Beatrix - Zoya

Hi all!

So I am clearly still working on this whole blogging and life thing. Bear with me, I will eventually learn how to juggle this. Anywho, let me show you what I am wearing. Yet another PixieDust - these are just too perfect when I'm busy because of the awesome wear time.

This is 'Beatrix' and ooooooo Mama she is a stunner. I have had so many comments on this polish since wearing it! The shade of orange of 'Beatrix' is not just a regular orange. It's a soft orange in some ways, but the gold glitters make it such a vivid eye-catcher (I am fully aware that I don't make a lot of sense). Love it!

'Beatrix' was ever so slightly less opaque than a lot of the PixieDusts I have tried in the past, but 2-3 coats was still enough for full opacity. As usual, 'Beatrix' was a breeze to apply and is wearing very well.

Thanks for popping by!

Polished by KPT - Permanganate & Dichromate

Press Sample

Hi everyone!!

I have my last Polished by KPT post for you today. This post is of another 2 thermals, 'Permanganate' and 'Dichromate', both from the Transition Elements collection. No surprises, these are another 2 that are GORGEOUS!!

Permanganate

This is 'Permanganate' which is a thermal & chrome polish. The transition is from a beautiful icy blue when warm, to a rich purple leaning blue, almost indigo, when cold.

These pictures show 'Permanganate' transitioning from hot at the top through to cold in the bottom photo. I absolutely adore the finish of this polish, the slight chrome affect catches the light so beautifully giving it a real x-factor in my opinion (and perfect with these colours in particular).

Dichromate

'Dichromate' is an equally beautiful thermal chrome polish. This one is just perfect for the autumn weather we are having at the moment. I absolutely love this fiery polish. The gold, coarse shimmer again gives this polish that little extra something.

Again, the top photo shows Dichromate in cold temperatures and the bottom photo is cold (look at the shimmery goodness against the orange!).


Both of these polishes were lovely to work with. Easy to apply and nicely opaque – 2-3 coats was plenty for me. Both of these were very sensitive to temperature changes and were constantly changing and often seen to be the most wonderful gradient between the 2.


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 - Naughty & Nice, Blood As Thick As Gold, Harvest Moon

Press Sample

Hi Hi!!

I was so lucky to receive a parcel from Katherine, the brains behind Polished by KPT. I am a big fan of Katherine's polishes, in particular her thermal polishes that change colour with temperature. I have 3 thermal polishes to show you today - 2 from the Fall 2013 collection and 1 Holiday 2013 polish.
Note - Polished by KPT are restocking on the 1st of December at noon PST. All 3 of these polishes are included in the restock along with a few others. 'Naughty & Nice' is being sold as part of a collaboration trio that also includes a polish made by Serum No. 5 and one by Lacquer Lust.

'Naughty & Nice'

'Naughty & Nice' transitions from a beautiful berry red/purple when cold, to a pale candy pink when hot. It is packed with irregular gold micro glitter pieces and there is iridescent blue shimmer in there too.

I love how the shimmer appears so different in the hot and cold looks of 'Naughty & Nice'. In the darker cold colour, the blue really pops and the gold shimmer is a bit more showy. In the hot colour though, the shimmer appears to give the pink colour a more delicate and ethereal look. Love it.

'Blood As Thick As Gold'

'Blood As Thick As Gold' changes from a gorgeous deep claret colour when cold to a nude when hot. It is full of gold flakes and also pink shimmer. The nude colour leans very yellow toned on me - in fact it is almost exactly my skin colour - truly nude.

The flakes in 'Blood As Thick As Gold' make it appear so luxurious to me. The look of it reminds me a lot of brocade. So gorgeous.

'Harvest Moon'

On to my favourite of all so far, 'Harvest Moon'. I absolutely love everything about this polish. The cold colour is so beautiful and autumnal, just slightly burnt, but still bright. The hot colour is what really makes this polish for me, a stunning icy nude. The holo is reasonably strong in this polish, but very fine.

This is 'Harvest Moon' transitioning - apparently this is the pattern that my fingers heat up in. These 2 colours are so complimentary. This is a real must-have polish in my opinion.


I am coming to learn that a good formula is the norm with Polished by KPT polishes. These 3 were all easy to work with, if slightly on the thick side (though not in a bad way at all). All were opaque in 2-3 coats depending on how thick I made the coats. These were all very sensitive to temperature change and changed colour fairly readily.


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. 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.

The Halloween Mani that Isn't...

Hi!

I have a mani on today that was originally going to be very different and was set to be my first Halloween mani of the year. I always try what I'm going to do on my left hand first, but when I stamped over the polishes I used on my left hand it didn't show very well, so I decided to use the same colours with paler polishes... Long story short, it is no longer even remotely Halloween-ish other than the fact that the Dollish Polish glitter is part of a Halloween collection :D

So as you can see, not overly Halloween-inspeired in the end, but oh well. Once I saw how the gradient on my middle finger looked, I knew I had to use a chevron stamp inspired by my biggest nail crush of all time, Lauren of Tales About Nails!

Polishes used... The base for the glitter is Lime Crime 'Peaches <3 Cream' and the glitter is Dollish Polish 'What's This? What's This?' from last year's 'This is Halloween' collection (which has been rereleased in limited quantities this year). On my middle and index fingers is a gradient and water marble using Lime Crime 'Peaches <3 Cream', 'Pastelchio' and 'Lavendairy'. These are both stamped using Color Club 'Beyond' with Bundle Monster plates BM-408 (index) and BM-423 (middle).

As mentioned, Dolly has brought back last year's Halloween collection by popular demand. At the time of writing this post, these are still in stock, so hop over to her shop ASAP and grab them because they are awesome!!

Pucker Up - Takko Lacquer

Press Sample

Hi!

Another late night post from me. It has been a LONG day! I had 3 tests today at uni then had to write up a big report tonight. So to make me feel better, I figured, why not post this now instead of in the morning. So tonight, I have another beautiful Takko Lacquer to share with you. This is 'Pucker Up'.

'Pucker Up' is quite a unique colour to my collection. I don't have any apricot-y corals or oranges quite like it, I don't think. It is bright, but not as saturated as some apricot toned polishes can be, which I think makes it all the more wearable, but it's still bright enough to be eye-catching and gorgeous.

The shimmer in 'Pucker Up' is really gorgeous too. I think amazing shimmer is certainly a theme in all of Sheryl's polishes. This polish has heaps of irregular microshards of pink and gold and they catch the light so beautifully. They go so perfectly with the base colour of 'Pucker Up'. The shimmer effect is not too in-your-face, but it is far from shy.


'Pucker Up' had a good formula. Again, not too thick, not too thin. I used 2 thick-ish coats for this. If you use thinner coats, I would probably recommend 3 coats. It is fast drying though and doesn't have any issues with pulling or anything like that so I could get away with slightly thicker coats.


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 for info about restocks. Takko Lacquers are sold from their own shop, but only with US shipping. For us international ladies, Takko lacquers are stocked at Llarowe, Mei Mei's Signatures and Edgy Polish.

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

For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Jelly Sammie with Big Hair... Big Nails - OPI

Once again I have eaten a feast of food tonight and have finally gotten home (happy and full) to some internet, so... It's jelly sammie time again! This time with something a little brighter...

This jelly sandwich doesn't translate super well to these photo, but you can get the idea at least. For this look, I used 2 coats of China Glaze 'Surfin' For Boys', followed by a coat each of KB Shimmer 'Bejeweled' and CrowsToes 'Absolum - Your Potions Master'. I finished up with 2 coats of OPI 'Big Hair... Big Nails'.

This picture is a little closer to how insanely bright it was in real life.



Overall I really liked how this turned out. It was a bit different to what I've done before but at this time of the year it felt pretty perfect. I probably could have done with an extra coat of top coat for these photos, but as I've said before a little texture never bothers me. Everything in this mani was easy to apply formula wise. I used 2 coats of 'Big Hair... Big Nails' because I love the more suspended/floating look of the glitter in a jelly sandwich.

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!!

Peaches ♥ Cream - Lime Crime & Bejeweled - KB Shimmer

Hello!

Hope everyone is having a happy Halloween? I am not so much... If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen that 15 mins before my biochem exam today, I had an ovarian cyst rupture. Not the best timing let me tell you! Luckily they could get some morphine into me at the doctors so I didn't have to go to hospital this time :) Anyway the moral of the story is, I am currently in bed in a fair amount of pain, so I might just keep this short and sweet.

I didn't do a Halloween mani, as I just haven't had time, but what I have to show you is orange at least. And never mind that, the polishes today are freaking GORGEOUS!!! On the bottom = Lime Crime 'Peaches ♥ Cream'... Also this is the debut of my nubs on the blog, since I gave 'em all the chop due to my middle finger peeling like no ones business. I am actually kinda loving this length. I'm gonna let them get a bit longer, but these are nice and easy to manage. What do you guys think?

'Peaches ♥ Cream' is a right little bugger to photograph. This is not quite colour correct, but it's about as close as I could get. It's a little bit whiter if that makes any sense. It reminds me of sherbet. There is top coat only on my top two fingers and you can see that it dries ever so slightly matte without top coat.

Then this happened. This is KB Shimmer 'Bejeweled'. I saw this on Chalkboard Nails and knew that I had to get it. Boy-oh-boy am I glad I did. It is delicious! The coppery gold glitters get a little lost in these pics, but I am LOVING this combo. These polishes were just sitting together on the table after they arrived and it was actually The Boy who said "you have to wear them together". Man does he have good taste or what?!

So formula-wise... Brilliant. Two fantastically opaque coats of 'Peaches ♥ Cream' with a thin coat of 'Bejeweled' on top.

I got these both from Harlow & Co. KB Shimmers are $9USD and Lime Crimes are $8.50USD or get the whole set of 7 for $49 (I may or may not have done this after trying this one!). AND I have just checked and all the Lime Crimes are currently in stock so GO GO GO! And the bonus of it all... Free shipping if you spend $50 :)

Riveting - China Glaze

I am having blogging withdrawal! I have been slightly AWOL as I am visiting my family for a few days during the Easter break. I have just had the most delicious family dinner and am SO full as I type this.

I have finally got a few of The Hunger Games polishes from China Glaze and I absolutely love the ones I got. This is 'Riveting' which, as the name suggests, really is riveting.

'Riveting' is a gorgeous bright, burnt orange with glitter that seems to shift between orange and gold. The glitter in this beauty is the kind of glitter I mentioned in my last post ('I Don't Give A Rotterdam') - sort of flakie, sort of glass flecked, but not quite either. I just can't get enough of it.

'Riveting' is the polish representing District 3 (technology), but I have just started the book and while I read it, this is what comes to mind during the opening ceremonies - "The girl who was on fire".

In more indirect light, 'Riveting' still shines like nothing else. The glitter particles seem to always be prominent. I love how they seem as though they are floating in a viscous fluid. This polish has a real depth to it.

Close-up... See the suspended look of the glitter... Love...


So from all my gushing, it's probably safe to assume that I love this polish. I am certainly one for a polish that stands out in the crowd and 'Riveting' is certainly an eye-catcher! The formula on this was thinner than I expected, but definitely not in a bad way. The first coat was surprisingly sheer, but it built up really nicely. Two coats was nearly enough (in fact it was enough for my left hand), but for the sake of photos, I am showing you three coats. I used Orly 'Bonder' as the base coat and Essie 'Good To Go' on top.

A Roll In The Hague - OPI

I LOVE what I have to show you today! I'm just going to get right to it... This is 'A Roll In The Hague' which is part of the Holland Collection that came out recently by OPI. This is a fantastic collection which I'm slowly acquiring most of.

This is the most eye-catchingly amazing polish. 'A Roll In The Hague' is a super saturated orange crème polish.

Even in indirect light, this colour still looks like it has a spotlight on it. It seems to illuminate in any light.


Basically I don't have a huge amount to say about 'A Roll In The Hague' because the photos say it all. I will add that there is one more thing to love about it... The formula was absolutely easy to work with. It was pretty much opaque at one coat but I did a second coat just because that's what I do! :) One more thing, this polish isn't hugely shiny when it dries so I would recommend not skipping top coat.
I can't wait to show you some more Holland Collection polishes.