I'll tumble For Ya - Dollish Polish (+ Gradient)

Hello!!

I'm half way through my exams! WOOHOO. Today I have a little mani to show you that I wore for about the last week. I haven't worn a glitter for ages (I don't have time for the removal process), but I was really feeling like wearing one. So naturally I had to look in my Dollish Polish drawer in my helmer. I came out with 'I'll Tumble For Ya' and thought I might do a gradient inspired by the glitters like I did for some of my last few Dollish Polish posts (here, here and here). So here you go…

I love 'I'll Tumble For Ya' so much. There's something about white polish that is just so clean. The glitter colours in this polish are just so perfect together too. For the gradient I used Avon 'Strawberry', OPI 'No Room For the Blues' and OPI Greenwich Village'.


I used 3 coats of 'I'll Tumble For Ya'. As you can see in the bottle there are stars and bigger glitters, these didn't wanna come out and play too much and I couldn't be bothered fishing too much so I just made do with exactly what came out on my brush - I don't mind that it's slightly more subtle. The formula was really easy to work with though and really opaque too.


Head on over to Dolly's Big Cartel shop because I've just checked and this polish is in stock right now. Make sure you follow Dollish Polish on her various social media sites to keep up with updates (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram)


Hope you are all doing well and I will see you on the other side of my exams next week :D

Heads Will Roll - Takko Lacquer

Press Sample

Hi folks!

I have an absolutely fantastical polish to show you today! I have Takko Lacquer 'Heads Will Roll' which is a thermal polish, released in Sheryl's latest collection. I have been on a bit of a thermal kick lately. They're just so fun to wear with them changing colour all the time.

This is 'Heads Will Roll' when it is cold. Um.. hello gorgeous polish. The shimmer in this polish is out of this world amazing!! I cannot explain how beautiful the blue, icy shimmer is AND holo is always a way straight to my heart. Too much beauty for me to handle.

This is 'Heads Will Roll' when hot. I love this side of it too. Again that icy blue shimmer makes it so special. I really love soft cream/white shades like this, I think they can be really flattering.

And now for 'Heads Will Roll' as it is transitioning from hot at the cuticle, to cold at the tips. I can't say enough good things about the beauty that is this Takko Lacquer polish. It was not quite as sensitive as some other thermals I have tried, it doesn't change quite as fast, but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing, just an observation.


'Heads Will Roll' has a wonderfully easy formula to work with. No pulling or anything like that. I thought it was going to be a bit sheer at first, but it was built to good opacity at the end of the second coat, though I am showing 3 coats here.


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.

Black & White Watermarble

Hi lovely people!

I have so so much going on with uni work at the moment so this will be a short sweet post. I did a water marble a couple of weeks back and lets just say it was not the easiest time I've had. It was a really cold night and I couldn't make any of my polishes that are usually fine work. Anyway eventually this happened...

I can't even tell you how many polishes I tried the night I did this. It looked as though some polish explosion had happened afterwards though, as there were bottles of polish EVERYWHERE! In the end I had to go back to my trusty a-england 'Camelot' and OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' and this time I added INM 'Northern Lights' to the mix. I also put a layer of 'Northern Lights' over the top of everything too to give a teeny bit more sparkle.


Overall I don't think this came out too bad. Lots of people seemed to like it, but I just knew how much trouble it was, so for that reason alone I couldn't love it too much... Anyway, hopefully next time I have a little more luck.

Tempest - Cult Nails & Sweet Hook - China Glaze - Stamped

Hi!

I have a quick little mani to show you today that I did before work yesterday. I feel like it's been forever since I did any stamping so that's what I did...

I felt like something Spring-y and I really am loving this. I know I'm backwards as we are in Autumn at the moment, but I'm always like that, when the weather is getting crap I always feel like happy Spring or Summer colours. My bases were China Glaze 'Sweet Hook' and Cult Nails 'Tempest' and I stamped using Konad White and Lilac (? - there's no name/colour). The stamping plate I used was my most adored LeaLaC XL - B.


Formula-wise, 'Sweet Hook', as I have already told you, is perfect in 2 very easy, thin coats. 'Tempest' took a little getting used to. It's fairly thick and my first 2 nails (the ones you see in these photos) needed 1.5 coats, or one and a little thin one to even it out, but once I got used to it my other nails only needed 1 coat. So yes, I think 'Tempest' lives up to all the anticipation of it being a one coat white, which is amazing - Go Cult Nails! The images picked up perfectly from the plate, as they always do, so that part was good and easy too :)

Cult Nails 'Tempest' is available from the Cult Nails website and you can get the LeaLaC XL - B plate from Llarowe.

Neon Water Marble Take 2...

Hi guys!

Sorry for being slightly AWOL. We have had a busy last week in Wellington trying to spend lots of time with family before coming home. Anyway, I had another terrible time trying to marble in Wellington. There is something about that city that means I just can't make it work! After about 3 hours of trying, I managed to pull together something that looked like it worked. I had wanted to do some pastel colours, but the China Glaze neons were the only ones that I could make marble, so here we go...

Don't look too close, because it is not my best work, but considering how much went wrong I think it turned out ok. I used OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' with China Glaze 'Sun-Kissed', 'Surfin' For Boys', 'Splish Splash' and 'I'm With The Lifeguard'. On the top is a coat of Chi Chi 'Disco Diva'.

As to what went wrong, I have NO idea! I was using polishes that I knew marbled well as I have used them before but something just wasn't right. We tried everything to fix it (temperature, different water etc etc) and I have come to the conclusion that there is just some sort of curse against me marbling in Wellington :) Now I'm back home I am going to reattempt my original idea.

Christmas #1 with a-england and CrowsToes

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I had such a nice Christmas Day yesterday. It was 29˚C in Wellington which is basically unheard of. Anyway, this is one of the Christmas manis I did before Christmas...

I loved wearing this mani. It felt so festive. a-england 'Perceval' is one of my most favourite polishes in my entire collection and I have been grabbing for it more and more lately. It seems such a perfect red for Christmas.

For the water marbling on my index and middle fingers, I used OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' and 'Perceval' with a coat of Chi Chi 'Disco Diva' on top (apparently I can't do anything without it these days). On my ring finger is a coat of CrowsToes 'Maxxed Out' (BEST CHRISTMAS GLITTER EVAH!!) and on my pinky is a coat of CrowsToes 'Hell Hath No Fury'.

As far as formula goes, 'Perceval' is about as good as it gets. For this mani, I did use 2 coats, but I have many times in the past worn it as one coat.The glitters were both great as well. I love the glitter payoff you get with all CrowsToes polishes.

Hope you are all having a safe and happy Christmas/Boxing Day. I'm off to have another family feast tonight :D

Parfait Day - Lime Crime & Putting On The Ritzzz! - Dollish Polish

I have another Lime Crime for you today. I have to say, the more I wear these Lime Crime polishes, the more I am so pleased that I got the set of them. I love them so much. They are fast becoming some of my most favourite polishes. Today's Lime Crime is 'Parfait Day' with a bit of Dollish Polish 'Putting On The Ritzzz!' for good measure.

This polish is so bright and as usual with the Lime Crime polishes that I've shown you, it is pastel, but also verging on neon. The thing I love about 'Parfait Day' is that there's actually a slightly dusty feel about the pink which is unusual when it's so close to leaning neon.

This photo shows a bit more of the neon side of this cotton candy pink. I think 'Putting On The Ritzzz!' worked really well with 'Parfait Day'. I got so many comments on this combination while I was wearing it earlier in the week.


'Partfait Day' applied just like the other Lime Crime polishes that I've shown you, it dries satiny and very fast. Like them, it was also really beautifully opaque, requiring barely two coats for perfect coverage. 'Putting On The Ritzzz!' was a bit of a tricky little bugger to apply, but nothing that a good mix and a bit of patience won't help. The first coat I applied of 'Putting On The Ritzzz!' didn't give very good coverage, but as you can see, with two not very thick coats, the coverage is good in the end.


Lime Crime's are available from Harlow & Co. (and remember they have free shipping with orders over $50USD) and 'Putting On The Ritzzz!' can be purchased from Dolly's Big Cartel shop. (keep an eye on her shop updates to see what will be in the upcoming restocks and when they'll be happening).

Polish Days: Bling

It's that time again... Polish Days time. To be honest with you, I thought I had till the 6th (which would be the 7th here in NZ and suddenly I realised that the 4th was the actual date, so late last night I got to it and came up with this...

It's not really at all what I had in mind for this Polish Days, but I think it turned out ok given that it was a bit rushed. I used a-england 'Camelot' as my black base and Sally Hansen 'White On' as the white base. On the pinky finger is a couple of coats of Chi Chi 'Disco Diva' (which does NOT want to sparkle properly on camera!) and on top of that on my index finger is a coat of Cult Nails 'I Got Distracted'. I also used my little gold studs from the Born Pretty Store and some sticky little gem things that I got from the scrap booking section at The Warehouse.


Well, hopefully next time I can be a little better organised for Polish Days. Also, just to finish this little post, I would like to say congratulations to Hannah from Polly Polish and to her Mr who got her the most GORGEOUS ring that could inspire this month's theme.

P.S. this is my 100th post! WOO. Thanks to everyone who reads my little blog :)

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!!

Polish Days: MAN-icure

My first Polish Days! I'm very excited to have finally joined up with this awesome idea. This months theme is MAN-icure in tribute to Movember. I instantly knew what my MAN-i would have to be, as it is something that I get teased about loving, due to its manly nature (according to my friends). One of my big loves in life is Formula 1, namely Sebastian Vettel.

For those of you that don't know, Vettel is the current world champion, having won the championship for the last two years in a row, so he is car number 1. The 1 on my ring finger is the one on his RB8 (car) this season. The water marble is taken from the Red Bull colours (his team).

This is a quick snap of my Red Bull cap. Unfortunately I got this before Vettel won the championship the first time so it has number 5 on it. Anyway you can see the colours of the team there nicely.

The final MAN-i that you have just seen was actually attempt number two... I originally wanted the bright yellow from the nose cone of the RB8 in the water marble, but it didn't quite work as I had wanted...

As you can see, the colours all sort of muddied together. Much as I don't hate this, I am glad I redid the two nails. I love how the F turned out in the top one anyway.


I used a whole lot of polishes for this MAN-i...
a-england - 'Excalibur' & 'Camelot'
OPI - 'Red Lights Ahead... Where', 'I'm Not Really A Waitress', 'Yoga-Ta Get This Blue', 'No Room For The Blues', 'The 'It' Color'
Nicole by OPI - 'Listen To Your Momager'
Sally Hansen - 'White On'
Konad - Special White

If you have any questions about what I used where, please leave a comment and I'd be happy to tell you more :)

For the middle finger I used LeaLaC XL - B stamping plate and for my ring and pinky finger I used striping tape to get all the lines nice and straight.

I had lots of fun doing this MAN-i and it actually served as the perfect distraction to take my mind of the pain in my tummy while I was sick :)

If you want to sign up for the next Polish Days, hop over to Polly Polish for information.

Bone Daddy - CrowsToes

I have a potential fail to show you today... I decided to try layering CrowsToes 'Bone Daddy' over something that wasn't grey. I love the look of that, but it's all I could find swatches of. Being that it's a Halloween polish and we were coming up to Halloween at the time, I thought I'd try something a little weird... So I ended up layering 'Bone Daddy' over China Glaze 'I'm With The Lifeguard'...

I ended up with two fairly thick coats of 'Bone Daddy' over top and I wish I had left it at one. I kinda love how weird it is, but I'm still a little on the fence...

I love the little blue flashing glitter in this polish! It's really eye-catching. I think this blue plays kind of well against the green... the grey jelly base of 'Bone Daddy' just nicely toned down 'I'm With The Lifeguard'.


So, as I said at the top, potential fail, but I somehow dig it... I had lots of comments about it, so it certainly made people notice haha. What do you think? I like playing with weird combo's with my glitters and pairing things that you might not think would suit. Sometimes it just works better than others ;)

I purchased Bone Daddy from Llarowe for $13USD and I've just seen that there's heaps of CrowsToes in stock (including 'Bone Daddy') right now!

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.

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.

Expecto Patronum - Dollish Polish

I am officially at the beginning of a two week study break :) I'll be going home to Wellington in the second week, which will be nice, and hopefully I'll have a go at a few more nail techniques (might have another go at water marbling). Anyway, I've got a polish to show you today that I love, but I'm going to be honest, considering that it is inspired by Harry Potter... I was bound to like it. This is Dollish Polish 'Expecto Patronum'.

'Expecto Patronum' has a white, jelly base with three different sizes of teal glitter. There is also some iridescent flakie bits in there too. You can't really see them in any of my photos but they appear sort of red in real life and they catch the light.

I love polishes that basically give you an instant jelly sandwich. The base is just sheer enough to be able to see the glitter in the underneath layers.

You can see the jelly sandwich look in the macro, where some glitters are more prominent, at the surface, and some are slightly more hidden.



I used four coats of 'Expecto Patronum' for these photos. I actually left my left hand at three coats and that was enough for regular wear. The polish was a bit too thick and that gave me pretty thick nails. I will definitely thin it out a little bit next time I wear it, not a big issue though. One thing I loved was the clean look of the white polish without the white-out look. The teal glitter gives 'Expecto Patronum' a really ethereal look, perfectly fitting for this magic inspired polish.

Dollish Polish is available from Llarowe and of course Dolly's Big Cartel shop, as well as a couple of other e-tailers.

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 :)