Saturday, April 27, 2013

Models Prefer

Well, I'm definitely not a model, but I do prefer . . . Models Prefer Nail Enamel!

Nope, I'm not getting paid, or have been given free products for this, but I should be (hint hint ;-D).

I own nine normal polishes from the current range and five mini polishes from the Special FX Collection.  Here they are:


Tall Poppy


Skinny Dip


Make a Million


Out of Office


Free Style


Midnight Madness


Love to Shop


Skinny Leg Jean


Little Black Dress


Special FX Collection 
 

L-R: Quake & Beam Me Up, Chain Reaction, Disco Ball, Ruby Slippers



There are four main reasons why I like these polishes:
  1. Durable, opaque in one coat formula*.
  2. Great colours.
  3. Dries fast.
  4. The most fantastic brush EVER.  No, really, it is the best nail polish brush out there that you can buy in Australia at the moment.  Really.  It is that good. Seriously!
The polishes usually retail for $5.99, but every so often Priceline will have a sale and clear out old stock, so you can pick them up for less.  Still, $5.99 is a great price for the best brush in the world!

NN


* except for the Make a Million, which needs two coats to be fully opaque

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Goodies from America

I'm so excited to bring you this post!  A friend and colleague, Mish, recently took a trip (heck, let's get the proper lingo going on: "vacation") to Hawaii, and ever so kindly brought back for me some gems, which I will share with you now.

Behold, the Hawaii Holiday Haul:

 
 
First up, Maybelline Colour Show Metallics in Navy Narcissist:


Maybelline Color Show polishes are available in Australia already (check out Priceline's range of colours here),  but Navy Narcissist (NN) and Amethyst Ablaze (AA) (below) which are part of the Metallics range, haven't made it here yet.

NN is a metallic almost royal blue polish with a depth and subtle shimmer.  This colour is dynamic!  The polish formula isn't the best I've encountered.  It can get gluggy, and I think it's best applied when the temperature is cool along with application to cold hands.  It's patchy with one coat, and opaque with two.

Maybelline Colour Show Metallics in Amethyst Ablaze


AA is a similar story to NN above - fantastic, vibrant colour.  Formula and brush:  much room for improvement.

Wet 'n' Wild in Rain Check


Raincheck is a shimmery dove grey/blue polish.  Application was fine and formula was nearly opaque in two coats.  The brush was also reasonable.  What I liked about this polish was it was a shimmery version of the dove grey colour that was so popular last year.  Maybe it's grey, maybe it's blue, but it's work appropriate (for those that are concerned about that sort of thing) and it seemed to wear very well.

Next, the Sephora + Pantone Universe Opulent Lacquer Trio collaboration.  This was a real hit with me, given my love for all things sparkly. The pack comes with a large glitter polish (Tornado) and a smaller glitter polish (Shale), along with a black polish (Anthracite) which presumably you use as a base colour and apply the glitters as a top coat.  In the following photos, I have applied the glitters sans Anthracite, so you can get more of an idea what they look like on their own.

Sephora in Tornado

 
The above picture is Tornado naked (i.e. without a top coat).  You can see, it's a very textured polish, but like all glitters, easy to chip.  The base is more of a charcoal colour, rather than black.



In the above photo, I've added BYS Matte Top Coat to make the finish smoother.  I quite like how it turned out.  The matte polish hasn't taken away any of the visible oomph of the glitter, but it gives it a nice finish, which should last a little longer than if Tornado was applied on its own.

Sephora in Shale
 

Shale is SO pretty.  Similar to Tornado above, it has the usual glitter properties, but there's something about a blue and pink glitter combo against black that I can't resist.  The photo below is a macro shot of the pretty.

 
 
Thanks again to Mish - the superstar/nail polish smuggler for bringing these back for me!  I am spoilt!
 
NN

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Covergirl - Outlast Stay Brilliant & Comparison

In Australia, Covergirl has only sold makeup, until recently.

Introducing Outlast Stay Brilliant in Midnight Magic and Wine to Five.

Wine to Five:



Midnight Magic (MM):



The polish formula for both was ok.  Not bad, but not anything exceptional.  The thing that did bother me, though, was the brush!  Terrible!  It was almost like the brushes weren't shaped properly and it was really difficult to apply the polish to my nails.

I wore MM for a few days, and whilst there was tip wear after the second day, the polish stayed on and didn't chip.  Taking it off demanded a bit more attention, as is usually the case with glitter polishes, but that's nothing new.

I was drawn immediately to MM for some reason, but it took me a little while to work out why.  Then I realised - it reminded me of another polish I had: OPI's On Her Majesty's Secret Service (OHMSS)(click here to see my review).  You don't need to convince me to do a comparison - here it is!



OHMSS on thumb, middle and pinky fingers, MM on the index and ring fingers.

Apologies for the appalling photo.  Lighting is not so good at night!

So there you go.  These polishes look virtually the same, but the differences are:

OPI - OHMSS
  • usually retails in Australia anywhere from $13-$20
  • 15ml bottle
  • manageable brush which makes for easy application
Covergirl - MM
  • retails for $5.95 in most places (and some are even having a buy one get one free sale at the moment)
  • 11ml bottle
  • terrible brush
Take your pick, depending on your budget and skill-level!

NN

Stamping prints

A recent purchase of printed jeans (they were $20 bucks people!) inspired me to do a bit of matchy-match stamping.

Camoflage nails:


Zebra stripes (without the jeans)


Subtle zebra stripes with matt and shiny nails:


NN

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Rimmel - Metal Rush

In a recent Priceline catalogue, I spotted Rimmel Metal Rush polishes, but for the life of me, I couldn't find them in stores anywhere . . . until now.

The link I have attached above lists four polishes in the collection, Gold Save the Queen, Purple Reign, Royale Blue and Pearly Queen, but there is also a fifth - Bronze Princess (BP). 

Now, I'm not entirely sure why BP isn't on the Rimmel site, but I've added some pics below so can get an idea what it looks like.

I purchased three out of the five polishes, Bronze Princess, Royale Blue and Purple Reign.  I decided not to get the other two as when I "researched" them, they just didn't seem to have the same colour-shift properties as the above three.  And god knows, I love my colour-shift properties!  I also have a Sinful Colors polish - Let Me Go which is very similar to Pearly Queen, so I decided that I didn't need the duplicate.

Royale Blue (RB):


Bronze Princess (BP):


Purple Reign (PR):



My verdict on these is that they're very muted duochromes.  Bronze Princess is my favourite as there seems to be more of a colour shift in it compared to the others.  Application and brush useability were ok for RB and BP, but PR was an absolutely terrible formula, and took ages to dry for not much colour-shift.

NN

Sunday, April 7, 2013

And some more stamping

For those who are following my stamping exploits, here's some more!










NN

Arrrrrr . . . Ahoy Me Maties!

My Nephew, Bohdi, recently celebrated his 21st Birthday by throwing a pirate-themed party.

Eager to get into the spirit, I knew the exact nail stamp I would do on my nails:  Konad M28

Then I thought - I have quite a few black polishes - which one should I choose?

Left hand polishes: 




Right hand polishes:



Right hand polishes with Konad M28 Skull & Crossbones:


And then I thought - maybe I should do something else apart from a skull?  This is what I ended up creating . . .

Base colours:


Pirate themed designs:


 And this is what I finally settled on, purely because it matched my bandanna and lippy!


Happy 21st Bohdi!  Mwah!

NN