Manicure Monday - Illamasqua UV Nail Varnish in Seance

UV??? Yep that's right this polish will glow in the dark! I wish I had a UV light to show the effect & i'm a little old now for the UV lights at a club (totally not my scene anyway!) so for now you'll just have to trust me. It glows!

Other then that the colour is pretty unique. Well to my collection anyway! Kind of a bright violet shade but with a slight silver shimmer running through. Let's just say this was a bi-atch to photograph but to apply it was a dream. One coat would have been sufficient but i'm a two coat gal and that's what you're seeing here.

The finish is actually rather matte, if you can see (again shitty photography aside). I've popped a top coat on the first 2 nails and left the other 2 without it. I actually like this polish both ways! It almost looks as if it is textured without having that weird growth look that textured nail polishes seem to have (anyone else agree?).

The Paranormal collection is on shelves now at selected Myer stores with an Illamasqua counter and this polish retails for RRP $22.50AUD.

*This product was provided for my consideration, please see my disclosure policy for further details.

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Manicure Monday - Maybelline Color Show Nail Lacquer in Audacious Ashphalt

I got this polish on sale at the Chemist Warehouse 1/2 price sale, it retails for $5.95AUD but I paid a measly $2.97. Woo Woo. This is my first polish from the Maybelline Color Show range and from the selection they had was the only colour I was really interested in trying out.

I kept thinking to myself that I was sure I already owned a Maybelline product called Audacious Asphalt and I found that was the name of the grey Maybelline Color Tattoo I own... come on Maybelline surely your marketing team could have come up with a different name? 

Anyway enough about the name, let's talk about the actual polish! This applied okay... The first coat was quite streaky but it evened itself out by the 2nd coat and a slick of Seche Vite also helped along any streaking issues I may have had. The shade Audacious Asphalt is a light cool grey which I think brings out the redness in my skin but is nonetheless quite pretty. I wear quite a lot of grey clothes to work and I think this colour while being a little "different" is also work appropriate.

I'm glad I picked up this colour, and for a discount! I think if there are other colours that are released that are unique I would get them, but I don't think I'd go and buy every shade available. My pick for best drugstore nail polish is still the Covergirl Outlast Nail Lacquers which I have previously reviewed & looooooooooove!

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Manicure Monday - YouTube made me do it edition

I purchased this nail polish after seeing Vivianna Does Makeup feature it on her YouTube & Blog. 

I'd never tried any Rimmel polishes before so the formula's are completely foreign to me! The Rimmel 60 Second Nail Polish RRP $7.95AUD boasts a quick dry time of 60 seconds which is a bit of a selling point for someone like me who paints their nails and can't sit still long enough for them to dry.

Sun Downer is a red which leans very orange and I think it's quite beautiful. Application... this is where it gets a little hairy. The first time I applied this I was about ready to throw it in the bin, to be fair to the polish I was applying it in low light and in a rush as usual. The formula is quite thin so when I first applied it I found it a streaky sheer mess (this is after 2 coats). I also don't believe that it dried in 60 seconds...sorry!

However! With a little more patience when I did these swatch photos I made this work a little better for me. On close inspection there is still VNL (visible nail line) but it's not too much of a bother for me. I also used my holy grail topcoat Seche Vite this time around and it made such a difference, smoothed and evened out the colour on the nail.

Something else I originally loathed but now kinda like is the large brush. You see I have small fingernails (I used to always get giggles from the girls in the nail salon when I had acrylics). So I find some big brushes a bit difficult to work with on my small nail beds. Again with a bit of time and care this worked out well and I only needed 1 swipe on my pinky nail (yep, they're that small!)

I want to try out the other Rimmel London polish formulas because I have heard great things, if you have any rec's of colours i'd love to know!

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Manicure Monday - Nude & Bronze with OPI & Orly

This is the manicure I wore to match a dress but silly me forgot to take a photo of the manicure with the dress like I was planning... my forgetfulness aside this is a great combo!

I initially tried the Orly Watch It Glitter* shade over Covergirl Outlast Nail Polish Always Naked but I found Always Naked leaned a little more to the brown side of nude, so out came my new unsung hero OPI Samoan Sand because I feel it leans a little more pink so works so much better with the Bronze almost Rose Gold in Orly Watch It Glitter.

I decided to do a gradient from the top of the nail towards the tip, this certainly isn't a great version of a gradient but at the end of the day it makes taking off glitter that teensy bit easier.

Wear on this look was great! I got almost a week out of it with just tip wear.

How beautiful is Watch It Glitter! 

You can purchase OPI from Ry & Adore Beauty for RRP $19.95AUD & Orly from their Online Store for RRP $18.95AUD

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*This product was provided for my consideration, please read my disclosure policy for more information.

Manicure Monday: Swatching Illamasqua Rubber Brights in Nurture & Serenity

Something slightly different for this weeks Manicure Monday, I'm showing you some swatches of some new polishes recently released by one of my favourite makeup brands Illamasqua.

The Rubber Brights range is a new addition with the finish being a matte rubber like finish which is inspired by the dominatrix rubber boot girls of the 1920's. I first saw this finish in the Theatre of the Nameless collection which I previously reviewed.

If you know me and know my blog, you will know that I loooove brights, be it nails or lips i'm all over it! So I was super excited to see that I had received the shades Nurture (bright green) & Serenity (turquoise blue). These shades are so up my alley.

I've swatched them below without a topcoat and with a topcoat so you can see the difference, I actually like them both ways and think you could do some fun nail art by just playing with a top coat on these polishes.

Maybe not the best colours going into the cooler months, but I kind of like rocking a bright nail in the colder months.

You can purchase Illamasqua from major Myer centres in Australia or online and these polishes will set you back RRP $21.00AUD (Thanks again for the amazing price drop Illamasqua!).

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Disclosure Policy: These products were provided for my consideration, honesty as always.  For further information please read my full disclosure policy.

Manicure Monday: Covergirl Outlast Nail Gloss in Mint Mojito

I have been so excited about the release of the Covergirl Outlast Stay Brilliant Nail Gloss (Polishes). I blame EleventhGorgeous!

When I saw on Instagram that Priceline were selling these this week for $6.95 with a BOGO (Buy One Get One Free) deal I knew i'd be looking for these on the weekend. Lucky for me I found them at the first Priceline I visited. 

Along with Mint Mojito I purchased Out Of The Blue which I am OBSESSED with already (I haven't even worn it). I think you'll be seeing it on a Manicure Monday or another post on here soon enough!

So Mint Mojito, I personally wouldn't really call this mint.. maybe seafoam? It leans a little blue. 

The formula on this.... OH...MY...GOD. I could have probably gone 1 coat but I was applying it pretty haphazardly so added a 2nd coat to make it look more "polished". I've also done something unheard of.... I'm not wearing a top coat. Apparently this polish has a top coat in built so even though it was hard to not put a coat of Seche Vite on top, I resisted. It's still shiny and didn't even take too long to dry.

I think I'll be picking up a few more of these!

You can pick up these amazing new nail polishes from all the regular outlets that sell Covergirl, and if your quick there are quite a few deals on these babies. The RRP is $6.95AUD.

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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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Manicure Monday - Essie Lilacism

Apologies in advance for this crappy post but I've been sick the past few days and haven't really been in a "wow nails!" mood.

I did however do my nails for this week, nothing overly exciting I just wanted a nice lavender so went to one of my 5 million lavenders I seem to have from Essie and picked Lilacism (probably my fave from the bunch). Essie do really do lovely lavenders though.

 

Essie can be purchased from Myer & adorebeauty.com.au for RRP $18.95AUD

Product Disclosure: this was purchased by me.. I have a problem hoarding lavender nail polishes

Manicure Monday - Oz The Great & Powerful inspired - OPI Jade is the new Black -

Hehehehehehehehe my pretties!

Over the weekend we (friends & boy) decided to kick it old school and check out the local Drive In, there is only one left in Sydney and it's become a regular social spot for us. We do things a little differently and take inspiration from the many outdoor cinemas that charge you a bucketload; by taking camping chairs, snacks and sitting outside our cars so we can be sociable. It's a cheap night out and a whole lot of fun! Tonights showing was Oz: The Great & Powerful followed by Wreck It Ralph.

I ain't no Margaret & David so won't get into a film review but I thoroughly enjoyed both films.

Oz lead to the inspiration for this weeks Manicure Monday. Can you guess what inspired this colour? 

Keeping it quite simple as this is just a beautiful colour and doesn't need glitz (okay anything could really use glitz but I decided to keep it simple for once). I've had this bottle of OPI Jade is the new Black for a few good years now and as you can see it's gone kinda funky looking in the bottle but the actual polish seems fine (phew!).

Have you seen Oz? What did you think?

OPI is available from David Jones, Myer & Adore Beauty for RRP $19.95AUD

Disclaimer: Purchased by moi

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Manicure Monday - Face of Australia Ocean Villa

I've been craving bright blue nails all week, I have no idea why but i'm strange like that.

I haven't picked up this Face Of Australia nail colour in Ocean Villa for awhile and it is the most beautiful bright almost cobalt blue, and guess what? It's now part of Face of Australias permanent range! The bottle is in the normal FOA nail polish bottles, my version is from the Luxe collection.

I could have left it with just this gorgeous colour but I decided to add a bit of sparkle to my ring finger on each hand and for this I used OPI Last Friday Night from the Katy Perry collection. It doesn't really show up because I only did a very light coat but oh well it's a tiny bit of sparkle :).

OPI retails for $19.95AUD in Australia and this colour is still available to purchase from Adore Beauty.

Face of Australia is available at department stores and Priceline and nail polish retails for $6.95AUD you can also purchase these online from Fashion Addict & Makeup Express.

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Manicure Monday - Neutral Neon (Soundwave 2013 Edition!)

Yesterday was one of my favourite days of the year, Soundwave! Soundwave is a music festival I attend around this time every year. It's my favourite music festival to attend and I've been going for the past 5 or so years. I won't go into any detail because I have a blog post coming up about that with pictures from the day and my FOTD, OOTD etc etc.

Onto the nails! I wanted to go with something fun and bright so I knew it had to be fluro! I ended up deciding on a base of OPI Samoan Sand with a pop of Orly Glowstick. For this look I just freehanded and it looks "rustic" (my way of saying messy).

This look can really be achieved with a variety of colours and is quite easy, even if you aren't good at nail art (ahem! poster child for not great nail art right here).

Product Disclosure: Both polishes were bought by me

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Manicure Monday - Australis Space Jam

This is totally my dads influence, he is a total astronomy nerd but I love all things nebula/space print. Hence my logo and my love of my Black Milk Galaxy Tights even my background on my laptop is a seahorse nebula. 

So when I saw this new Australis nail polish in Space Jam had a nebula/galaxy/space feel to it, I knew I had to own it. 

I finally found it over the weekend for a total price of $7.95AUD (barrrrrrgain!).

In the bottle this is beautiful, a dark plummy base with tiny pink micro glitter and various sized blue circular and hexagonal glitters. I was so excited that I had to get it on my nails straight away.

First application of this I decided to just do 2 coats of the polish on it's own and since i'm all about honesty on my blog I have to say, this formula is shit. 2 coats of it made it clumpy & gluggy. It chipped on my nails almost instantly and the little glitters kept lifting and getting caught on things all day (even with the addition of a top coat). Just really terrible.

Not being one to give up on a polish and discard it right away, I took it off this afternoon (painful in itself, even the foil method was lost and I had to chip off the remaining larger pieces of glitter). I decided to try putting a base colour and just 1 coat of this polish on top and let me just say while it's still not a perfect formula it's vastly improved. 

Below is my redo of the nails with a base of Illamasqua Phallic (odd name but one of my favourite blue nail polishes). Scuse the messy application but I wanted to show the redo tonight :).

Australis Cosmetics are available from Kmart, Big W & Priceline and this particular polish has a RRP of $7.95AUD.

This product was purchased by me. kthxbai.

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Manicure Monday - Valentines Day Edition

I decided to try and use my dotting tool again, this time I wanted to create a simple and easy look for Valentines Day.

All you need to do is use the dotting tool (or bobby pin, toothpick, plastic fork...in joke right there) whatever you have on hand really. You need to create two dots side by side and then pull down to form the bottom of the heart.

To say I didn't struggle would be a complete and utter lie, I did my right hand 3 times to get it right and they both still aren't perfect. I will never be a nail art girl, let's face it!.

I used OPI You Red My Fortune Cookie for the heart feature & OPI Skull & Glossbones for the base colour on each nail. A little unconventional using a grey/greige but I think these colours work beautifully together and again i'm showcasing a couple of favourite shades from my polish collection.

Now for the result!

So not perfect but i'm happy with them. I actually stuffed up and put my top coat on a bit early on one hand and the result was what I like to call the bleeding heart effect, something you could actually do! I tidied it up but thought I would show it here anyway (crappy iphone photo, made better by me playing with my photo editing website lol!).

I hope everyone has a lovely Valentines Day, remember it's just another day really but the heart shit is kinda cute :)

<3

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Manicure Monday - OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster

This is a pretty boring Manicure Monday but I want to show you even my boring manicures. This is OPI I Eat Mainley Lobster. 

I don't even know why I reached for this colour, it's pretty... yes. Not one of my absolute favourites.

Pictures below, sorry not much writing for this one.. I'm pooped from work!

You can purchase OPI from Myer, David Jones & Adore Beauty for RRP $19.95AUD

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Manicure Monday - Glitter Gradient...again

It's no lie i'm a fan of the glitter gradient, sometimes you want a bit of sparkle but not an entire nail and thats when gradients are perfect.

This time i've gone a bit different from my normal gradient and worked it from the cuticle downwards...oooooooooooo

For this look I used OPI Samoan Sand and Essence The Huntsman (from the new Snow White & The Seven Dwarves collection). The Huntsman is absolutely beautiful, with different sized gold & bronze glitters and flakies which sometimes flash as green in different lighting. So beautiful! 

OPI Nail Polish retails for RRP $19.95AUD from various department stores and can also be purchased online from Adore Beauty.

Essence is available from Target & Priceline stores nationally. The Huntsman is a limited edition nail polish and retails for RRP $3.95AUD.

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Manicure Monday - China Glaze It's A Trap-Eze & OPI What's With The Cattitude

Welcome to another Manicure Monday (on Tuesday...oops)

I wanted something a little fun on my nails this week so decided to finally use my China Glaze It's A Trap-Eze polish. This is a multi coloured glitter suspended in a milky white base...AH-MAYZING. I'd never used this before so wasn't sure if it would work on it's own, I think with 2 coats it would go pretty opaque but just to be certain I paired it with one of my favourite baby blues OPI What's With The Cattitude.

OPI is sold at David Jones, Myer & selected stores across Australia. You can also purchase OPI from Adore Beauty - RRP $19.95AUD. This colour is now discontinued but can be found on various e-tailers websites.

China Glaze is available from Crush Cosmetics for RRP $10.95AUD. It's A Trap-Eze isn't currently on the website and I do believe it is quite hard to find, so again e-tailers might be your best bet.

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Manicure Monday - OPI My Private Jet & Ulta3 Over The Rainbow

This is my manicure for this week, well it was until it failed miserably and chipped within a day... see evidence after the pretty pictures!

I decided I wanted to try out my new Ulta3 Over The Rainbow polish which is a multi coloured glitter which everyone and their dog has bought a version out of over the past few months. I only used 1 coat over 2 coats of OPI My Private Jet.

For Ulta3 you can pay anywhere between RRP $2-$3AUD and check out their facebook page to see a list of stockists.

OPI is available for RRP $19.95AUD from the usual stockists and online at Adore Beauty

Ulta3 Over The Rainbow - Is a densely packed multi sized, multi coloured glitter. These are becoming quite common amongst nail brands but I like this because you get great coverage with just 1 coat (as I used). The brush isn't the greatest but for around $2.50 a pop who would complain.

OPI My Private Jet - A favourite colour of Kim Kardashian, and mine. We do have something in common it seems! This gorgeous dark brownish grey has tiny silver flecks throughout and it's also slightly holographic. A strange combination but one of OPI's most stunning colours in my opinion. 

Of course as always the top coat used was my Seche Vite (which i'm running dangerously low on!).

Usually I find OPI My Private Jet is a well wearing polish but for some reason it went to chip city within 24 hours of application... disappointing :( See the results for yourself.. MEH! -

Manicure Monday - Innisfree Glitter!

Just a quick Manicure Monday post, this polish was gifted to me by my lovely friend Michelle. She recently went on a trip to Hong Kong and very kindly bought back a few pressies, including this amazing glitter....she knows me all too well!

Innisfree isn't a polish brand i've ever heard of and they don't really name their polishes, this is just numbered 106. However it has the most amazing multi coloured glitter embedded in it with the main focus colour being orange. The application is amazing, you get a really good coverage of glitter over the nail. You could use this on it's own but I layered it over my favourite black Illamasqua Scorn. 

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! 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.