China Glaze - Goin My Way?

China Glaze - Midnight Mission

China Glaze - Swing Baby

China Glaze - bogie

China Glaze - Jitterbug

China Glaze - Jitterbug is packed full of silver grey micro glitter particles that has a metallic finish.

China Glaze - First Class Ticket

China Glaze - First Class Ticket is a dark purple with blue and purple shimmer. Photo shows 2 coats.

China Glaze - Emerald Fitzgerald

China Glaze - Emerald Fitzgerald is one of my favorite greens, the green shimmer through out adds a three dimensional depth. Photo is of 2 coats.

China Glaze - Hey Doll

China Glaze - Hey Doll is a dark rose, from a distance it looks like a brown. This photo was 2 coats, after 3 days of wear. My index finger has some slight shrinkage, but i didn't wrap my tips, or put on a top coat.

China Glaze - Vintage Vixen Range

I love the Vintage Vixen range. I'm kind of a year late to the party on this one, but I'm OK with that. Winter is really kicking in here in Melbourne, and the range has just the colours I feel like wearing.
This is a very classy range. They are dark polishes, but still manage to pack in colour and shimmer. 
I got 8 of the 12 colours. I passed on Ingrid, Classic Camel, Riveter Rouge and Foxy. I don't really wear reds and yellow just doesn't suit my skin tone. I regret not getting Ingrid though.
Here are the colours in order of the first and second pics:
1) Hey Doll, 2) Emerald Fitzgerald, 3) First Class Ticket, 4) Jitterbug, 5) Bogie, 6) Swing Baby, 7) Midnight Mission, 8) Goin My Way?

 

Purple Grey

This is the colour I automatically go for first every time. When ever I look through colours in a range, my mind screams 'buy it!' when i come to the purple grey. My boyfriend asked me why I needed 12 different bottles of  same colour. Obviously he is colour blind, because they aren't the same colour. And yes, i do need them all. I just wish there were more clothes and make up in this colour so I could cover my whole body in it. These are my four favorites;
L'oreal - Delicate Dusk. Of the four this is the lightest with the most white in it.
Color Club - Give Me a Hint. This one is the most purple of the bunch.
Essie - Merino Cool. My personal favorite. I'm like Goldilocks on this one, hungry for purple grey, I find its not too purple, its not too grey, its just right.
Sally Hansen - Salon - Commander in Chic. The brownest of the four.

The photos show 3 coats of all except the Color Club - Give me a hint. I had to use four, and still there was a little bit of a bald spot at the base of the nail.

Which one is your favorite?

X SoozieQ

piCture pOlish - Denim

This is the third colour I'm swatching from my picture polish haul. Denim. Mmmm Mmmmm...

I have never seen a blue like this before. Picture polish categorise this with their 'Glitter Shades'.
It is glittery but because the glitter is in such a nice creamy formula it looks more like a shimmer than obvious glitter on the nail. I really like that.
Only the last photo picked up the purple glitter that's adding a layer of depth to the dazzle.

This is 2 thickly applied coats of Denim.
For the print i used China Glaze - Up all night.
The plate was the second large print plate off Ebay (shown in the last post).

I thought the buckle print would look good over denim. What do you reckon?

X SoozieQ

butter - Dimond Geezer

A trillion micro glitter particles working together to form a glorious chrome.
Very easy to apply, good consitancy, very opaque, I only needed 2 coats.

The first day I got this I wore it to a Gary Numan concert under a black crackle and it looked hot beaming out through those crackle cracks. So i knew this looked good with black and wanted to try out my new large stamp plate.

Photos show 2 coats of Butter Diamond geezer with Konad princess polish on the stamp.

The large stamp plate i purchased from Ebay for $30 AUD with postage.
The butter polish i got from ozsale (same as previous posts).

Stay cool & keep smiling
X SoozieQ

Constance Carol Humbug + Loreal 314 Luminescence

I have never seen or heard of Constance Carol before. I found this bottle in a bargain bin with some Ulta3 for $2.50. It was from the pharmacy in the target center off Burke and Little Burke St in Melbourne.
I really like it, its kind of a creamy bluish grey with shimmer.
It applies very thinly, I had to apply 4 coats to get an opaque coverage but it dried very quickly.
For the stamp I used Loreal 314 Luminescence. I bought this for $3.95 from Ozsale.

I was actually going for something more subdued than this and wanted to tone down the silvery grey. Instead my nails ended up looking pretty fierce. To me it looks like there are purple flames on my nails rather than leaves. It is extremely eye catching.

I asked the chemist if he had more Constance Carol, but he just replied 'oh the girls just put a lot of end of line stuff in there'.
Have you ever seen this brand before?

X SoozieQ

Blue duo&multichrome glitters comparison

My love for these three is equal, yet I love them each in their own special way.
Illamasque - Phallic, I love as a more sophisticated dark blue with depth
LA Girls - Alkaline Blue, I love as a lighter more playful blue
Ozotic - 529, just makes me want to party all the time.

I used a polish I hadn't tried before as a base. I was worried a black base would be to dark to pick up the colours. So grabbed my Blush-Amour #69 (everyone's favorite number).
Blush-Amour is an 'Australian Developed' nail polish which I picked up from a shop called Stuff & Nonsense in Melbourne Central for $3. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it looked on the nail. In the bottle it looked slightly cloudy but it ended up being very bright and shimmery on the nail.

Illamasque I purchased from Myers. They are $35 AUD a bottle, I bought this in a box of 4 for $99AUD.
LA girls I picked up from Groove Accessories in Melbourne central for $5.
Ozotic 529 I purchased online from piCture pOlish for $14.95.

Photos show 1 coat of Blush-amour 69 base & 2 coats of each - no top coat.

In real life I had a hard time seeing the purple on the nail for LA girls Alkaline Blue, but is showed up beautifully in the photos.

I dont think the blue base is doing 529 any favors here as it hides the blue glitter. Other photos look better with a black base.

I could have put up so many more photos, I've actually been quite restrained here. I just love these.
Do you have a favorite?

Stay Cool & Keep Smiling
X SoozieQ

butter - Jelly - Stroppy

I had seen the butter London range for sale in the pharmacy at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. They sell for $22 a bottle. I'd also seen them online at Kleins pharmacy for the same price.
So when i saw them for sale for $14 on Ozsale I jumped a the chance and got 5 of the available colours. I wish I gotten more.

Stroppy looks like quite a dark purple in the bottle but is much lighter on the nail.
I know I should expect a sheer consistancy from a jelly polish but it took me 4 coats to even get near the colour I wanted. I would have gone for a 5th if I'd had the trying time that would have taken. Turns out I hadn't even left enough time for drying 4 before going to bed. The next day my thumbnail polish had been sqwooshed by the sheets, I'd slept in a bit so I didn't have time before work to fix it. I had to hide that mess by tucking my thumb away under my fingers all day.

Having said that, the shimmer in this baby is amazing! It truly reminded me of Clarins 230.
I will have to try layering this over other polishes.

Jellys. What do you think? Love em or layer them?
I cant decide.

Stay cool & Keep smiling
X SoozieQ

NFU OH 18 + Bundle Monster 201

Vivid Nails is having a sale. A ridiculously wonderful sale. Nfu Oh $2!!!!
http://vividnails.com.au/shoppingcart/categories/Nfu.Oh-Enamel-SALE/

The flakies are not on sale : (
But there are many other nice colours to choose from. I ordered around 12 colours and paid online. Two of them ended up being out of stock so they automatically gave me a store credit and sent an email to let me know. I would have rather of had the chance to select some other colours over a credit. But that's ok, that just means I'll have to go back to buy some of those wonderful flakies they have for $14.95.

I really liked this nude polish. In the bottle it looks darker than on the nail. I had to use 3 coats to get a good coverage.
I was inspired by the cute bottle and used bundle monster stamp plate BM-201. Looks like they were made for each other.

Its nice to go nude every now and again.

Stay cool and keep smiling
X SoozieQ

Hidden Treasure vs Nubar 2010

Dupes? Yes indeed.

These two nail polishes had been on my wish list for a long time.
They are exact dupes, except for the fact that the Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure has more flakies packed in.
The photos are taken with one coat of Hidden treasure and two coats of Nubar, no top coat.

I purchased both from Ebay, I've never seen either of these products in Melbourne retail shops.
Nubar I got for $9.95 US with postage, so that's around $9.40 AUD,
Hidden treasures was $24 US + $15  postage.
Yes I could have gotten 4 of the Nubar for the price of one Sally, but I've read that Hidden Treasures is a discontinued product, and i am more than will to pay that price for this bottle of beauty.

The Hidden Treasures brush is perfect for picking up lots of the flakies, it's nice and fat, I only needed two brush strokes per nail to apply.

These both look amazing over a black or dark bases that really make the flakies pop.
However as I work in a corporate office my fingers cant party with their nail polish as often as I'd like them to. Over pink I find it very work appropriate and lots more fun than the China Glaze Encouragement alone.
It looks like I'm wearing pink opals on my nails, I keep staring at them and moving them to catch the light.

My personal preference here is the Hidden Treasures, due to the brush and more flakies, it could also have something to do with me being a sucker for elusive more expensive products.

Do you prefer one over the other?

Stay cool & keep smiling.
X SoozieQ

China Glaze Encouragement

I will wear this on my wedding day. It is the sweetest pink around. People may think I am a sweet virgin bride, ha ha ok maybe not.

China Glaze formula is always lovely to apply and this is no exception. What does stand out though is the amazing shimmer. The shimmer particles in this seem to be small and medium which means that they are still very visible when applied and dried on the nail.
I applied three coats and the picture is shown with no topcoat.
I purchased this little baby from Trans design for $2.99US. Bargain.

piCture pOlish - Tango

I don't normally go for orange as it doesn't suit my skin tone.
However Tango is quite a pastel and creamy and suited my skin quite well I think.
It made me feel very feminine and girly and looked really sweet.
I couldn't resist adding another layer of girlishness with a Konad lace stamp from plate #m57 using the Konad princess white polish.
Unfortunately I used a top coat that streaked the Konad polish, I switched to Seche Vite that seemed to cause less damage when applied very thickly. I'm seriously considering investing in the Konad top coat, it breaks my heart when I ruin a cute mani at the last step. I am quite lazy so I will still wear it around for a day or two before removing it.

Stay Cool and Keep Smiling!
X SoozieQ