Manicure Monday - OPI Just Spotted The Lizard

Sorry for the lack of manicure monday last week guys, I was off seeing Fall Out Boy and totally forgot...then the week slipped by me (insert lame excuses here).

HOWEVER! I have a doozy for you today, this is one of those polishes I purchased due to the hype of it being a dupe for Chanel Peridot and honestly when I bought this I threw into my helmer and have never worn it. I don't even know why I picked it this week... being easter I was actually leaning towards a light blue and this is completely different.

OPI Just Spotted The Lizard is a green/yellow/gold duochrome so it flecks a different colour depending on the light, hand position etc. This baby is a bit of a confidence booster too because I have had so many compliments and comments wearing this polish!

Wear time has been phenomenal! I painted this on my fingers on Thursday night and just took the swatch photo today (Monday!). I do find though any metallic finish polish always last longer on my digits.

OPI can be purchased in Australia from David Jones, Myer & Adore Beauty for a RRP $19.95AUD. This shade is from the Spiderman collection but can still be sourced.

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NYE Manicure feat. Models Own

Hi 2013!

The other night was New Years Eve and while I don't make a big deal of it anymore (i'm ollllllld!) I still like any excuse to get the glitters out :)

I decided to give my Models Own polishes a go, and I wouldn't have these if it wasn't for the amazing Chelle! She gave me the Aqua Violet shade and she organized a Models Own order before Christmas so I got the Mirror Ball Collection.

Models Own isn't available in Australia but you can purchase them online at http://www.modelsownit.com and the shipping is quite reasonable and not to mention quick!

For this look I did 2 coats of Models Own Aqua Violet and topped it off with 1 coat of Models Own Freak Out! The colour reflects in Aqua Violet were similar to the glitters in Freak Out! So I thought they made a good combo!

One thing I will mention is the glitter polish was a real pain in the ass to remove so the foil method was the only way I could get the glitter off and remain sane!

What nails did you rock on NYE?

Product Disclosure: Aqua Violet was gifted to me by my friend and I purchased Freak Out! with my own money.

Gloss Cosmetics Parramatta Store Launch - Manicams Galore!

This is a sponsored post for Gloss Cosmetics.

On Saturday I attended the grand opening of the new Gloss Cosmetics store in Parramatta Westfield (Shop 2154, Level 2, Westfield Parramatta).

If you love beauty and accessories, and let's face it if your reading this blog you probably do! This store is a mecca for both, coming in at at least 4 times the size of the previous Gloss Cosmetics store it's bright, colourful and full of shiny pretty things. The store is full of affordable brands with something for all budgets. If your a fan of BYS you will find the entire collection here including a whole aisle dedicated to their nail polishes!

One of the amazing new additions to this store is the Gloss Nail Nation nail art they are offering for customers. This will cost you $25 or FREE! If you spend over $50 in store, which really isn't too difficult....for me anyway. You get to pick any of the 10 designs below which suit all styles and trends at the moment.

The store has an amazing range of gift packs at the moment for Christmas, so why not buy a few pressies and get a manicure while your there? It's a win win situation for all really :).

 I was lucky enough that at the store opening they were offering a free nail art design by the team from I Scream Nails in Melbourne check out their Twitter, Instagram & Facebook. Diana did my nails (who you can see below) and is one of the permanent nail artists at the Parramatta store and she was absolutely lovely! Check me out below getting mah nails did! 

What design do you think I went for? It was a tough choice and since there wasn't a choice of skulls or studs I went with the cute Watermelon design! My nails look so summery!

One of the other fun things they had at the opening was the first ever Manicam! This was a concept thought up by the Gloss team. Basically your nails walked the red carpet... such a cute idea and so much fun! I had flashbacks of those Yellow Pages ads (let your fingers do the walking). I must say my chubby fingers need a bit of runway practice; but I managed to get a little video of their debut on the red carpet. 

This was only for the launch (sorry guys!) but the lovely people at Gloss did say that it could be touring other stores. I will let you know if I hear anything about that.

I also made a small purchase in store. While I was waiting in line they asked if I could remove my nail polish ready for the nail artist and handed me some nail polish wipes to do it. I was wearing the polish in my last review (China Glaze Ruby Pumps) which is a glitter. The nail polish remover wipes took the colour off, smelt amazing and kind of moisturised my cuticles! The little gem is from Be Yourself (or BYS) and comes in a variety of scents. You get 50 nail polish remover pads for $2.95... getting my own pack was a no brainer! 

So if your around Parramatta Westfield be sure to check out the new Gloss Cosmetics store and have a fun nail art manicure!

If you'd like to read more about Gloss Cosmetics or just stay in touch with them check out the following places - Gloss Cosmetics Website, Twitter & Instagram

Thanks Gloss Cosmetics for inviting me to be a part of this fun event!

Christmas Manicure - China Glaze Ruby Pumps

 Just a quick one today, with the festive season approaching my manicures are getting more and more Christmasy so I thought i'd show you guys what festive manicures i'm sporting this year.

First up is one of my favourite polishes of all time (BIG CALL!). Not only is it a gorgeous sparkly red colour for really anytime of the year but I also think it's the perfect Christmas red, it kind of looks like the red sparkly ornaments you might put all over your Christmas tree.

China Glaze Ruby Pumps was part of the Wizard of Oz collection from a few years back, but I believe it was so popular it's now a permanent shade. If your in Australia you can purchase it from Crush Cosmetics (i've sent the link directly to the page, you're welcome)and it will set you back $10.95AUD from there. 2 coats, dream application yadda yadda yadda... I freakin love it!

Enough talk, let's look at the prettiness!



Are your nails getting in the festive spirit? If you've done any rad Christmas manicures leave a comment, I'd love to check them out!



Product Disclosure: Purchased with my own moola, and I would buy it again..and again..and again

Face of Australia Pastels Collection

I wanted to start this post off by saying a resounding YOU ARE AMAZING! to all the nail bloggers out there that swatch entire collections. I only swatched 4 polishes in one sitting and that was enough for me!

Face of Australia you've done it again! The brand new nail polish collection entitled "Pastels" is just that, pastel goodness! I've always been a fan of pastel nail polishes and was scouting out my local Priceline until I saw these babies, then it was deciding which to buy? I consulted my lovely nail blogger friend Cosmetic Cupcake to let me know what the "must haves" were. I could have bought the whole collection but I thought getting 4 of the collection would do me for now.

Shades: Have Your Cupcake And Eat It Too, After Dinner Mint, Once In A Blue Moon, Boys 'n Berries

Have Your Cupcake And Eat It Too - This was a hard colour to photograph, it's a light baby pink with a kind of violet colour to it. Strangely enough this is the exact shade I was after a few weeks ago it's odd how it's pastel but yet it still seems bright. This was an absolute dream to apply, 2 coat wonder for me (could have possibly even gotten away with 1 coat to be honest). This is my favourite of the 4 I purchased but mainly because it was a colour lemming fulfilled!

After Dinner Mint - I am a sucker for a good mint shade and this doesn't disappoint! It looks a little streaky in my pictures but that was more my bad application. I wore this last week and it lasted chip free for 4 days which for me is an absolute lifetime. This is another two coat wonder and such a gorgeous shade for spring or summer.

Once In A Blue Moon - There is always one that doesn't perform spectacularly and in this case it's Once In A Blue moon, don't get me wrong I adore the colour but the actual polish was very thin and a bit of a pain to apply. You need 3 good coats of this one to get to the opaque stage. Such a shame as the blue is so pretty.

Boys 'N' Berries - Cute name, great colour and one of the best lavender pastels i've tried. I have quite a few in my collection particularly from Essie (they seem to do a lavender with every collection). This is opaque with 2 coats and is a dream to apply. This is for sure my new go-to lavender shade.

As with most Face of Australia collections, these are limited edition! They only retail for $4.95AUD a pop so certainly not a bank breaker.

You can purchase Face of Australia from various department stores, Priceline, Fashion Addict & Makeup Express

Please note all products were purchased with my own money, all opinions are my own. Link to the Fashion Addict website is an affiliate link, if this is an issue for you just google the address. Funds from affiliate links go into the running and maintaining of this blog.

Nailin' It - Recent Nail Looks

This could be the blogger in me, but I obsessively take photos of my nails when I do them. I guess for the reason that I may eventually blog about them but I have so many un-blogged nail pictures I thought i'd start posting them.

These looks are fairly recent (oldest being 2 weeks ago in fact) but I will also dig through the archives that is my photo album on my iphone to bring you some historic nail looks i've sported.

Before I get into my nail pictures, you must see this amazing little contraption I purchased solely for the use of painting my nails. I was visiting my nan a few months ago and she had one which she uses for drawing, I borrowed it to paint my nails and was so impressed I had to find one myself.

Hello Stable Table! This isn't a regular Stable Table though, it's pimped out! It has a light and a cup holder, which I refer to as the nail polish holder! It generally holds 3-4 bottles of polish and the light is awesome for making sure your nail polish application isn't shit. This is a dodgy picture but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.

I got mine from Homeart and I believe it's on sale this week for $9.95!

(P.S. I am not endorsed by Homeart, in fact i'd never been to a Homeart store until I was told of this amazing table!)

My first nail look is a simple accent glittered nail, I wanted something subtle and pastel but a little bit fun so I used Essie Lilacism (RRP $18.95AUD) on all nails and put on China Glaze Dollhouse (RRP $10.95AUD) on the accent nail for a bit of bling.

The next mani is a gradient glittler mani, using one of my favourite polishes of all time OPI Lincoln Park After Dark - RRP $19.95AUD  with a splash of Nails Inc Bloomsbury Square - RRP $18.95AUD as the gradient. (sorry I don't know stockists in Australia yet so i've had to link to Beauty Bay.) A little tip for doing glitter gradient nails, wipe one side of the brush in the polish bottle and use that for the top part of the gradient, the other side of the brush with the most polish on it use that for the tip where you want the most polish to go.

As always my topcoat of choice is Seche Vite (RRP $14.95AUD)

Here is a little preview of a nail look i'm going to be attempting to do a video tutorial of this weekend. This is a mistake turned out cool in my opinion :) Stay tuned for Tie Dye Nails!! (I've mucked around with the picture a bit because it's only a sneak peek). Ignore the shitty clean up, this was just taken to show some friends before I tidied it up properly.

Disclosure Policy - All products were purchased by me, honesty as always!



REVIEW: Nails Inc. Special Effects Sprinkle Polish - Topping Lane

I'm slowly working my way through my Sydney International Beauty & Spa Expo haul! 

Today i'm going to show you one of the polishes I picked up from the Nails Inc. stand, Nails Inc. have been a brand on my radar for awhile now and I was super excited to find out they were going to be stocked in Australia! So when I heard they were at the Expo I knew i'd have to make a purchase.

It's pretty easy to see the inspiration behind this small collection from Nails Inc. 

Source - http://pinterest.com/labotteghilla/ via http://www.hawaiikawaii.net/2011/pink-frosting-cupcake-kawaii-cupcakes/

The Sprinkles collection contains 4 polishes but I only purchased the one that i'm going to show you, however! Being the nice blogger I am here are some great blogs that have swatches (much better then mine as well) of the full collection. Check out A Polish Addict & OMG! Polish Em!

I picked up the colour I thought most looked like a cupcake - Topping Lane, which also almost sounds like Penny Lane (my dogs name!)

It's basically a whole lotta pink, blue & silver sparkles suspended in a light candy pink polish. This is a 2 coat wonder and the sparkles spread around the nail evenly. With a topcoat on I didn't find it too gritty like some glitter polishes can be but I have read other peoples reviews that say otherwise. Each to their own I say!

Now be warned, being a glitter, and a dense glitter at that! This is quite a bitch to get off. I'd recommend the foil method to remove this little bugger.

I liked the colour, but I didn't love it. I know I love a polish when I can't stop looking at my nails for the days i'm wearing the polish and I didn't have that reaction with this one :(

Anyway have a looksie! Now i'm not sure where they are going to stock Nails Inc but I believe the RRP is going to be around $18.95AUD (which seems to be a stock standard for higher end polishes these days)

Geez I need a manicure something bad!

Full Disclosure - I purchased this polish myself at the Sydney International Spa & Beauty Expo

Neon Nails! with Orly Glowstick (Warning! You might need sunglasses)

Oh Hai!

I'm really loving the trend of little pops of neon at the moment, either a little neon accessory or a pop of neon colour in your makeup... That old trend of FULL ON NEON a few years ago was icky but this is kinda fun!

On Sunday I was lucky enough to attend the Sydney International Spa & Beauty Expo with my homies Chelle & Angela. I was unfortunately unlucky in my quest of finding a dotting tool but found lots of other goodies.

You can check out my haul video below, I haven't hauled like this in awhile and will need to go on a ban until IMATS at least :)

I've also been loving doing YouTube videos sick again, mainly because I finally got some decent lighting sorted, so i've been doing a few videos this week! Subscribe Here! I've got a few ideas up my sleeve, including my very first celebrity inspired tutorial...any guesses for who? I'll give you a hint it's one of my beauty/fashion icons! 

I should really get into what this post is all about, my crazy neon nails! I bought a few polishes at the expo but this is by far my favourite buy and the one I was most excited to try out. Sadly I had to wait until the weekend because I don't think these nails are too work appropriate.

The colour I purchased is from the new Orly collection called Feel The Vibe (I don't think this is actually available yet as it doesn't appear on the Orly Australia website). The range features 4 hot neon colours and a white shimmer & black shimmer (to be worn alone or layered under the polishes) The other colours were pretty, but nothing like the one I picked up "Glowstick" which is an obscene neon yellow....amazing!

Now I can't give this a completely glowing review... ha ha glowing! It was a bit of a pain to apply. Under the advice of Chelle I actually put a white underneath (Ulta3 Lily White) I did one coat of the white then tried to put 2 coats of Glowstick over that, it was a streaky mess so I tried again with 2 coats of white and 1 coat of Glowstick. Much Better! It's still a tad streaky but not overly noticeable.

WARNING.... YOU MIGHT NEED SUNGLASSES FOR THESE PICTURES!

Orly polishes RRP are $18.95AUD and you can check out stockists and order online on the Orly Australia website

Disclosure & Shizz - I was invited by Symbol PR to attend the Sydney International Spa & Beauty Expo as media. All products mentioned in this post and the video were purchased by me with my own money and I'd better not buy any more for awhile!

NOTD - Princess Nails

I think this look might be slightly inspired by my new blog layout, not quite galaxy nails (although i'm going to attempt those soon, results good or bad will be documented!) but kinda pink galaxy nails, I think they look princessey (hence the name i've given them). I'm only showing 3 nails because if you can see i've hidden major chipage on the index finger! Whoops! Oh well just means another NOTD to come soon :P

You can find Orly polishes for RRP $18.95, OPI for RRP $19.95 and Seche Vite...i'm unsure but I buy it from a beauty supply store for $10.00.... also the internet is a wonderful place to find discounted (for us anyway!) Nail Polishes.

Manicure Monday - Australis Nail Colour in Flip Flops - Ltd Edition

Thank you Sydney for giving me a finally nice sunny summer weekend! Although it's Sunday night as i'm writing this (yes I know it's Manicure "Monday") and it's just started raining...

Because of the great weather I decided to have a fun nail weekend and decided to try out the new Australis Nail Colour that I got sent in the shade Flip Flops... it's blue, it's sparkly, it's awesome! It's also limited edition so get thee booty to Priceline or the like and pick one up.. it'll only set you back a RRP of $7.95AUD.

The formula is lovely, I could have gone with 1 coat and been out the door but i'm a stickler for putting 2 coats of polish on and a top coat (Seche Vite).

The royal blue with a gorgeous lighter blue shimmer is perfect for those warm days, or perhaps you want to channel your inner Beyonce and honour the birth of Blue Ivy like Beyonce recently did on her first public appearance since giving birth.



A bit of a close up to see the glitter a bit better, ignore my crappy application of the polish. I was in a rush to take these before I went out for the day.



 

This product was sent to me for my consideration, all opinions are honest and my own. For further information please read my disclosure policy.

 

Girl On Film! Latest Videos!

Here are my latest Youtube videos! I don't always post them on here as I do them so I thought either a weekly or fortnightly round up post of them might work out better.

1. January Bellabox - See me opening the BellaBox beauty subscription box, The video cut out at the end (for some reason this ALWAYS happens on my BellaBox videos? weird!) I didn't realize until after it was uploaded and didn't really have time to fix it up. Sorry! You still get to see all the contents of the box though. My thoughts on it this month were a bit mixed, I thought there were too many sachet product samples and I was really confused by the perfume I was given. I also think the lip balm provided while it's nice it's a full size, the actually price of the product is an absolute rip off!

 



 

2. My Nail Polish Obsession Tag - This is a tag video! I haven't done one in ages and they are loads of fun, let me know if you find any fun ones that I can do in the future :)

 


I have also been doing weekly vlog videos focusing on my health and fitness journey! I'm probably not going to post these on here but if you want to check them out feel free to subscribe to me on youtube or just go watch them. My direct youtube link is - http://www.youtube.com/user/vulcanellaxo

 

Manicure Monday - It's Festival Season!! Feat. Picture Polish Festival Flakie

Don't you love when January hits it generally means all the great Music Festivals are starting, well this nail polish besides being called Festival is perfect for those summer days seeing music you love all the while admiring your gorgeous nails in the sunlight (am I the only one that does that with glitters & flakies?)

Festival by Picture Polish is there foray into flakie polishes, when I saw Festival a multi coloured flakie in my inbox and a pre-order was available I was all over it.

I've only just had a chance to get it on my nails after receiving it a few weeks ago and decided to do a swatcheroo with a few different base polishes to see which handles it the best.  So in true festival tradition...

The support acts -

China Glaze - Shocking Pink, China Glaze - For Audrey, Illamasqua - Boosh, OPI - Skull & Glossbones

I must apologize for my crap-tacular swatching you are about to see, The clouds were looming and it was about to storm but i'd already painted up my hands so had to take the picture... Seriously go Here, Here and Here for better swatches of this polish then mine.

 

Here is the headliner!





 I only have 1 other flakie (Nubar 2010) in my collection to compare this to but I found the colour was amazing especially over black there are so many different facets of colour, so this will definitely be one to go over my darker polishes. The actual flakies were quite spaced out so I had to do 2 coats and the formula is quite thick so this can become quite a time consumer especially when it comes to drying time. Even with my beloved Seche Vite on top it took ages to dry. I do love the effect though and look forward to wearing it more!

You can purchase Festival from the Picture Polish website for $11.90AUD and there are also 2 other flakies in the collection and I believe more to come!

I also recommend signing up to the Picture Polish mailing list as you get advised of new colours coming out (like I did with this one) and they also do free shipping deals sometimes!

This product was purchased by moi!  

 

 

Manicure Monday! Summer is Here! (almost)

Only a few days are left of Spring and then it's Summer (haha that could be a new Rebecca Black song, it was worded so well...)

This is a mani I did yonks ago and posted on instagram (follow me! vulcanella is my username) it was inspired by a warm sydney day and i'm pretty sure it matched my outfit on the day too.

What I used -

OPI - What's With The Cattitude (Main Colour) - RRP $19.95AUD (It was from the Shrek collection and is sometimes still found at OPI stockists)

Picture Polish - Coral Reef (Accent Nail) - $RRP 9.90AUD from their website

Manicure Monday! Ulta3 Frangipani

It's back! No I don't mean the Chicken Dijon at the Coronation Club (tee hee how I love inside jokes..)

Here's another Manicure Monday after somewhat a slack undertaking to keep it going by myself... I take pictures and forget to post them then they become irrelevent to me.

So onto this colour, this is from the new summer collection that Ulta3 have bought out. I don't know why but I felt like something different on my nails and thought i'd give it a whirl. While I think the colour is pretty rad, the formula ain't! It was streaky, messy and plain blah. In all honesty I was rushing doing my nails this morning when I put this on but even still it was a big ol' mess. Plus after 2 coats theres a VNL (visible nail line) which I'm not a fan of.

Oh well a brand can't be perfect everytime can they? So overall... Colour = Winner.. Formula = Loser

The Details! Ulta3 can be found at various pharmacies around Australia for a RRP $2.50AUD





This product was provided to me as part of The ABBW, please read my disclosure policy for more details.

Revlon Top Speed Nail Polishes & Glam Vans!

 

I was recently invited to attend a fashion show and sit front row (wowza!) as part of 30 Days of Fashion & Beauty. The show presented by Revlon Top Speed was all about the springs hottest upcoming trend, colour blocking! Now i'm no fashion blogger and still don't think i deserve front row at a fashion show but I do know one thing. The colour blocking trend is hot! Not so sure I could pull it off myself but see below for my own personal way of colour blocking...kind of :)

Now I did my blogger duty and took photos at the fashion show but guess what, my camera had a bitch fit and i've lost the photos :(

Instead I have my own version of colour blocking and some pretty rad coloured polishes from Revlon to show you instead.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="588" caption="Revlon Top Speed Nail Enamels in - Sheer Cotton, Chili, Electric, Royal & Jelly"][/caption]

I found these polishes did live up to the name and were a quick dry polish, great news for girls on the go! I found the formula to Sheer Cotton needs a few coats to build up but if you enjoy sheer polishes it would be fine for you, I also found this one was a little streaky whereas all the other applied really smoothly and easily for me. Faves are definitely Chili & Jelly and Electric is a bit of fun!

Now ready for my colour block/skittle mani!





Now you can get your hands (haha get it?) on a free manicure and possibly a free bottle of nail polish! FREE!!

The Revlon Top Speed Glam Vans are making their way around Sydney see below for details! If you do manage to get along i'd love to see your mani, maybe they'll do a skittle mani for you :)

The Revlon Top Speed Glam Vans will appear in 4 popular Sydney locations and will be offering free mini manis-  as well as giving away full size nail polishes to everyone who ‘checks in’ via Facebook!

 

The Revlon Glam Vans will be located at:

 

Customs House Forecourt, Alfred Street - Friday 16 September 4:00- 8:00pm

 

Bondi Pavilion Forecourt - Sunday 18 September, 12:00- 4:00pm

 

Cockle Bay Wharf - Friday 23 September, 5:00- 9:00pm

 

Cockle Bay Wharf - Friday 30 September, 5:00- 9:00pm

Items were provided for my consideration and I was invited to the show as a guest of Revlon. Please read my disclosure policy for more information.

Nail Polish Haul!

Today I did another nail polish haul at Pro Nail Supply on Bankstown and here are the goodies I picked up.

China Glaze - Ahoy!, China Glaze - Pure Torture, Orly - La Vida Loca, Essie - St. Barths Blue, Orly - On The List, Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil, Precision - Twilight Zone, China Glaze - Nova, China Glaze - Secret Peri-Winkle, OPI - Lucerne-Tainley Look Marvelous

Looking forward to trying out the Precision color as it's a brand i've never tried before and the colour is beautiful (deep purple with rainbow holo glitters)

You'll surely be seeing these colours in upcoming NOTD posts.

In other exciting nail news! I got a Helmer!!!! Waiting for the boyfriend to put it together for me tomorrow and then I can begin sorting out my nail polish collection... Yippeeeeeeee!

Manicure Monday - I'm Blue Da Ba Di Dab Ah Dah

Here we are at Monday again and I have a killer manicure for you, I apologize if I got that song stuck in your head but it was my intention (hehe).

I'm loving rocking a accent nail on each hand at the moment and I find it a good way to try out some of the polishes I haven't gotten around to swatching plus it also is fun when someone notices "ohhh that finger is a little different".

So what did I use!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="588" caption="Sally Hansen - Blue Me Away, OPI - Last Friday Night, Seche Vite"][/caption]

The Sally Hansen polish applied like a dream, I did do two coats but easily could have gotten away with 1. The little variants of blue glitter in the OPI Last Friday Night polish (from the Katy Perry collection) has one blue that is a pretty spot on match for Blue Me Away. Match made in heaven? Yeh I kinda think so! I loved this mani and wished I could have rocked it all week but I had to change it up and go a little more demure for work (you'll see that one next week!)