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