Over the past two weeks a certain nail polish line has been popping up on my facebook a lot and it did not take long before i was infatuated. I'm not sure if theses are even out here in Oz yet but i will be checking next time i head to the city and hopefully pick up at least one of these lovely shades. So without further ado here is the OPI 2014 Brazil collection;
Next Stop…The Bikini Zone: A purple/pewter duo chrome
Don’t Bossa Nova Me Around: A baby pink toned neutral cream
Taupe-less Beach: A slightly rosey taupe cream
I São Paulo Over There: Another taupe this time with chocolate brown tones.
OPI Scores a Goal!: A chocolate/burgundy cream.
AmazON…AmazOFF: An impressive teal with very vivid green and blue tones. A shimmer not a cream.
I Just Can’t Cope-acabana: A bright yellow polish. Nothing hiding in there.
Where Did Suzi’s Man-go?: A orange/yellow mix cream.
Toucan Do It If You Try: A blood orange color, a mix of orange and deep pink.
Kiss Me I’m Brazilian: A slightly cool toned but still vibrant pink.
Live.Love.Carnaval: A seriously vivid "coral" that borders on red.
Red Hot Rio: Can't have a Brazil collection without a a luscious vivid red.
The ones calling my name are; Don't Bossa Nova Me Around, Taupe-less Beach, and Live.Love.Carnava, how about you?
On a recent trip to Priceline I was immediately drawn to the shiny new Revlon Prefumerie Nail Polishes, their unique square bottles and round tops really made this collection stand out. There are 16 scents/polishes all together divided into three sections; fresh, fruits & florals, and sweets & spices. Priceline has an introductory offer of 2 for $20, plus if you spend over $30 on Revlon products you get a gift worth $45. I picked out two that looked particularly interesting; watermint and autumn spice, but based on these two it's going to be hard to resist getting a few more.
Autumn Spice - This one was a super eye catching polish right in the bottle, and the scent sounded was really amazing. It's a shimmery brown based duo chrome with flecks of gold, red, copper and the color shift is somewhere between green and bronze. The scent is a mix of Pumpkin, Cinnamon and Nutmeg. Super yummy. A must have for any collection.
Watermint - This was the first one I spotted and could not put it down, literally could not take my eyes of it. A dupe for Debborah Lippmann's Mermaid Dream, it's a light green-blue base with round sky blue glitter that dries a little gritty but oh gosh does it smell amazing. It's a light sweet mint that's much more spearmint then peppermint. 4 days of wear and I can still smell it faintly and there is not a crack , scratch, or even tip wear. I'm incredibly impressed that without a base coat or top coat it's lasted so long, it's amazing.
These are amazing, and I hope that the price drops down a little so I can get more of these babies.
A polish many of you have no doubt seen many times, but this is the first time I have gotten to wear it since my terrible nailpocalypse which took place over the past few months. So feeling a bit braver i decided i could wait no longer to wear this beauty. So if nail polish isn't your thing or you've been living on the moon this polish "Whimsical" is a dupe of Deborah Lippmann's Glitter in the Air. It was for a long while unavailable here while it's companion polishes "Popular", "Scandalous", "Radiant" and "Stunning" were easily found leading many to think that for whatever reason this one would not be making it';s way to our shores. Luckily this is not the case as it appeared maybe two - three months ago at basically every Revlon stand, happily so.
It's a very sheer blue base with a hint of green and sparse pink and blue hexagonal and round glitters. In the pictures here I'm wearing it over two coats of China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint which is very close if a little more green. This is one that really need a solid base coat underneath as it's so very sheer that it would take about 4-5 layers to get it to show up solid (trust me i tried). The glitter spreads evenly and doesn't clump but does have a bit of a tendency to bubble a bit so use thin layers. Wonderful for layering and a beautiful and delicate polish.
Look how pretty that bottle is! That's why i picked this up you know, the bottle. I didn't care about the finish, i was just mesmerized by all the dark red glitter floating around in the darkness. It makes me think of magic. Plus i really hadn't felt any attraction to the liquid sands until i saw this, honestly i thought they looked a bit icky and i was pretty sure the texture wasn't for me. I'm glad i saw this color as it helped me branch out a little and try something new.
Turns out i don't actually hate the texture, but i do think it is one you need to see in person to decide if you like it. It's one that makes the glitter stand out much more so then a glossy nail polish but yes, personal discretion required. However the texture doesn't bother me when it's on my hands, i was initially worried it would be rough and catch on clothes and things however it's actually a bit soft and not rough against the touch.
Application was a breeze, two coats which actually go on smooth and then after about 40 seconds change texture and roughed up into the gritty sand like texture that is the end result. It also has pretty great staying power compared to regular creams or glitters, i got 5 days wear out of it with only slight wear on the tips and no chipping. I hope this is something the others in this collections can repeat.
I would be interested in trying a few more though probably not the light pinks and blues, however the white shade "Solitaire" from the Bond girls collections is quite intriguing. Have you tried any of the liquid sands?
This combination is China Glaze Smoke and Ashes from their Hunger Games collection and A England's She Walks in Beauty. Both are beautiful on their own and I really like this combination.
China Glaze Smoke and Ashes is a black base with green/silver shimmer it goes on super smooth and didn't chip for about 4 days without top coat (so pretty good). I'm not sure how easy it is to purchase these days as it was, as I mentioned, part of the hunger games districts polishes and I had to order all mine online as I never even so much as heard of them here.
A England's She Walks in Beauty is indeed a thing of beauty, I have nothing like it anywhere in my collection and can't recall seeing a dupe anywhere; it's a clear base with tiny gold micro glitter and larger circle baby pink glitter and then slightly larger hexagonal baby pink glitter. This one comes from the ‘Heavenly Quotes’ collection. You can find a close up swatch over at The Subtle Shimmer.
Sadly A England is having some issues with international shipping as their carrier will no longer send nail polish over seas and although they are still trying to find a way to do so, international orders are no longer the awesome treat they once were. Ah, and i missed out on Moonbeams....
So these are some slightly difficult to get your hands on polishes but I think we can all appreciate how lovley they can be, and I urge you all to look at A England's ‘Heavenly Quotes’ and other collections because they are really amazing.
Hey today i thought i would share one of my favorite China Glaze polishes with you "For Audrey" famously modeled after the Tiffany's jewelery box color. I decided to wear this recently after i finished the season 3 finally of Haven and it seemed appropriate. (The main character is called Audrey). It's a creamy, opaque cream that i would probably describe as Teal and is one of my favorite colors.
I prefer OPI brushes but China Glaze one's are serviceable, the formula leans slightly thick but not anything problematic. It's opaque in a single coat but you probably want another to make the color really pop. Oddly the bottle was a little disappointing when i first got it as it looks a little muted but once on the nail it really shines. Highly recommended.
Ah, to find a good nail polish remover is halfway to victory. Now when it comes to nail polish remover i am not picky, i don't care if it has acetone, actually i prefer it because i know it will work. Having seen and heard some good things about this one i decided to give it a try, and it's...mm well it's alright. It is not the holy grail of polish remover but it isn't the devil either. All in all it's kind of average, though i did find a few things that annoyed me;
1) It's sticky?! What? How can nail polish be sticky? I don't know but it is, i do not like handling the bottle because it always feels like its covered in a layer of honey. Not great
2) The bottle is small, not an issue for most people but my usual nail polish remover is the pink one from Gloss, which is about twice the size of this.
3) It uh..smells sweet. Not like sugary sweet but not a sharp acetone smell either. I guess it should make it better but i find it kind of...off putting i guess. I suspect this is the reason for the stickiness.
4) The bottle design, it has a small hole on the top and it leaks, its not very easy to put onto a cotton pad or napkin, and i find it always seem to leak around the edges of the lid. No thank you.
Maybe it's alright for some people who don't do alot of nail polish removal, if you only pain your nails once a month it's fine. The actual removal of nail polish is fine, not magical but acceptable. Otherwise find a better one. I recommend asking for the pink one at Gloss.
Welcome back everyone, happy new year and all that jazz :) I apologize for my recent absence but a combination of holidays and start of the year laziness as well as just a general slump in my beauty collection led me to being a bit less then zealous in terms of updates. I don't like buying things just to review them if i don't think i might like them so i guess certain times will just be more active then others, in general i was somewhat bored with everything i was seeing. To reflect that I'm going to try some new things this month and maybe branch into showing off some jewelery pieces I've become interested in.
So here is a weird nail polish remover i found at Gloss near the end of December and though it looked worth giving a go, it came in a variety of scents including cucumber and strawberry if i recall correctly, i picked the lemon version. When i first picked it up it was much brighter yellow; this is after about 6 uses.
This is not a new concept, there is a Burjois version in the UK/US which i hear is quite good but i have never seen it here, not have i seen a version from Sally Hansen though no doubt there is one somewhere.
Overall this smells very much like a candy lemon; very sweet and sticky and the nail polish remover soaked into is is similarly very sticky and every time i tried it i found my hands sticking to every little thing and i needed regular remover and a hand wash before i could reapply anything new, so it the end it was a disappointment. Still not a huge loss for $3.
As for effectiveness; well it does work just not as quickly as other polish removers, for a single coat of polish it took about a minute, and up to 5 minutes for anything over one coat, it only began to work better after i dumped the left overs of my previous nail polish remover into it. In addition the clear glass jar which looks quite nice to begin with becomes yucky and gray/black as the nail polish sinks into it over time. So sadly this was a bust.
So keep an eye out and avoid this product! Be seeing more of you soon!
Let me know if you would be interested in jewelry posts and what are your thoughts on products like this? Have you ever found one like this that actually works comparably well to regular polish remover?
So with Christmas (read: Christmas Shoppers) everywhere it's been difficult to get my hands on all the polishes i wanted from the Snow White Essence collection, in the end i have ended up getting all but one that i want (02 The Huntsmen, the shiny gold topper).
I'm not too surprised to see that one gone all over the place as it's so very Christmas-sy. But so is this combination that i wanted; this is Essence Snow White 03 Prince Charming over 02 Grumpy.
02 Grumpy has a nice texture leaning slightly toward the thin side, it required the standard two coats; the first was a little watery and dull but the second really made the color pop. It's a really beautiful blue, almost reminds me of Revlon Royal just without the jelly finish.
03 Prince Charming is a gorgeous top coats; holographic glitters with small blue hexagonal glitter suspended in a clear base. Really Gorgeous i hope everyone can get their hands on it. I had no trouble applying this and it didn't require a lot of effort to get the blue hexagons out of the bottle. 2 Coats of this too.
Well i admit I'm a little late with this one, it's been out about two weeks now but it just didn't get me that excited, so i decided to try some out anyway and here is my preview of this unique collections and some thoughts about how it actually functions.
The color/colour arts edition is a sort of "make your own" edition; it relies on these released pigments (word is there will likely be more coming out in the core collection, not sure if it will be in Australia) . You can use the pigments on their own or mix them however you please with one of the three bases the collection provides;
These are the Nail Base; for mixing up your own nail polish, a lip base for making your own lipstick/gloss, and a eyebase (the most useful of these i have found) for eyeshadows. Here's a little video essence released about how they think their color pigments can me used;
mini-REVIEW
I'm not really the best at using pigments; they tale a lot of extra work and make much more of a mess and honestly most of the time i can't really be bothered. Still, for science, i picked up the two most neutral pigments i could find so i was more likely to use them; smell the Carmel and Strawberry smoothie, and each of the three bases.
I have since getting these tried each of them with the provided bases and....well sadly besides the eye base acting as a wicked primer in terms of longevity there wasn't much there to boast about.
Nail Polish Base; this isn't a suspension base so you can't mix right in the bottle and make your own polish. Instead you have to mix it in a separate container and basically only make enough for one go as i have no idea how you would go about storing it.
This is crazy messy, and the nail polish base dries very quickly so you almost have to do one nail at a time meaning you don't get the same color every time so each nail looks like a different shade of whatever color you were going for (assuming you mix them, which is kinda the point). In addition to this, no matter how long i spent mixing the nail polish still came out in different consistency; super thin or super clumpy.
Nail polish is already a bother waiting for it to dry and not stain anything. Adding these extra steps just makes it not worth bothering with in my opinion. I didn't take photos because it was just too much of a disaster.
Lip Base; this is somewhat better, it's still a bit of work but the pigment seems to dissolve better and the end effects is more like a lipstick tattoo then a gloss. It's not sitting on top of your lip, it's closer to a stain in the regard that is actually colors the skin underneath it. It is very sticky though, however the base itself smells very fruity and sweet but you don't notice it much once it's mixed up. I think id prefer a lipstick or regular gloss.
Smell the Carmel and Strawberry Smoothie mixed together with the lip base.
Eyeshadow Base; This i actually like, it's a great primer; it keeps your eyeshadow on for ages and does a decent job of blending th pigments but i would use this more just as a primer rather then a blending base. It's clear and has a slightly tacky feel to it but it grips onto eyeshadow like no ones business.
Overall not the greatest edition, more like a play set to play around with. Way too much trouble to bother with for anyones regular make up routine but might prove fun for dress up or parties and the like.
Have you tried these? What's you opinion? Too much work or worth the extra effort?
Coming out this week is the new Essence "Snow White" collection, based it appears on the Disney version of the classic rather then the two movies that came out this year (Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsmen) but it's certainly "on trend".
This is primarily a nail polish edition and the only non nail polish things seem to be the nail stickers and nail file. So let's take a better look at the colors;
Snow White is the tall red with the other seven polishes named after dwarves; it's a super cute idea and so very simple yet creative, i love it. I feel like i have most of these colors however Grumpy, Bashful, Sleepy and Sneezy do catch my interest somewhat so I'll take a look when i find them in store and decide then.
Available in 01 Evil Queen, 02 The Huntsmen and 03 Prince Charming these special top coats are a mix of holo, hex and round glitters and look like they could work very nicely. I'd like to try Prince Charming over Grumpy.
Second last is the the nail file, looks pretty enough for a plain cardboard file but it makes a cute addition to any collection so i guess it might be fun but i don't think i really need this, i much perfer crystal nail files. Currently my OPI file is the best I've ever used.
These certainly won';t be for everyone, there's a very specific group that can walk around with dwarf stickers on their nails; those still at school or without long term work. But heck, they look kinda fun and the butterflies are a draw fr me, though I'm not sure what the green things are, grass? Not sure i want to wear tufts of grass on my nails.
A nice collection but probably no must haves here, still some of the colors seem unique and the collection looks super cute. What part of this collection do you like?
So i had a few events going on this past week and next week (graduation and early Christmas parties) and my nails had been looking fairly ragged lately; for whatever reason my nails don't like to bend when they have nail polish on them so they tend to snap underneath the polish. I really did not want to deal with it, so when mum suggested we go get our nails done i figured why not. I'd really never had an proper manicure done or anything else like that so it seemed like a fun thin to try, and maybe give me a break from my nails for a bit.
So i ended up getting a manicure and shellac nails; Shellac is for the most part a acrylic gel polish that is painted straight onto the nail and dries hard like a fake nail under UV lamps. Proper Shellac nails can only be done at a Salon as CMD only licenses the products to Salon and not for individual sale.
It was quite a fun experience; it took about 30-45 minutes (including the manicure) and consisted of two oats of polish, top coat and cuticle oil at the end. Between each set you put your hand under the UV lamps for about 5-8 minutes. There wasn't a huge color choice (about 30 colors) but i went with a shimmery blue called Midnight Swim.
Midnight Swim
As you can see the finish is very shiny, and the texture feels like gel nails but can feel a little wavy on some of my nails, not sure if this is the skill of the nail tech or simply a side effect of the product. It's pretty damn durable and is supposed to last two weeks without issues and i know some people even stretch it out to a month or so before regrowth shows up to ruin it too badly.
I don't think i would do this every month but it's quite good if you need a break from your nails or are having a hectic schedule. The best part is definitely the fact that the moment you leave the salon your nails are rock hard and you don't have to have any worries about smudges or touching anything.
To remove it you either go back to the salon or use acetone based remover like you would on glitter nails; acetone soaked cotton balls wrapped in foil and leave for 5 -10 minutes.
Overall I'm pretty happy but i think i like changing nail polishes too much to stick with a single color for two weeks unless i have a lot of other stuff on my mind. Have you tried it? What did you think?
This little pretty is A Piece of Forever from the new Breaking Dawn 2 trend edition from Essence (reviewed here). From all the polishes in the collection this is probably the one i was both most excited about and most concerned about; metallic nail polishes that aren't glitter or foil are well known to be....finicky. They commonly have a very thin formula and leave brush/streak marks.
As you can see i didn't have much to worry about. The formula was pretty damn good for a metallic finishes, a little thin but not exceedingly so; the photo above is 3 coats but 2 would probably have been enough.
The streak marks are probably the least visible of any metallic I've ever tried. It's a very soft color that's quite reflective, it catches even small bits of light and looks quite glow-y. I think this is a gorgeous color and i think it's so soft you could even get away with it at work.
Hello, still doing crazy school hours for the next month (graduation) so i apologize once more for my sporadic posting schedule. However tomorrow I'm on my way to the city so i should be able to pick up some new Essence stuffs = happy.
To help deal with the massive workload currently assaulting me i have been trying to cut out some distractions from my life for the next month, that in a big way includes my nails; which i love to do all the time even when it's totally not necessary and just wastes time and the repeated use of nail polish almost daily wrecks my nails. It's a circle of distraction really; to combat this i purchased Sally Hansen Salon Effects in "360 Laced Up". This wasn't my first go at this product so i felt pretty safe going in and though that coming up to Christmas maybe some of you might want to cut down on the prep time too.
So these are dry nail polish strips that you attach to your nails and they stay on for longer then your average nail polish; at least 2-3 weeks up to a month or longer if your lucky. Having tried these before i got two weeks easy before i lost patience and wanted new nail polishes on, but when i removed it, it was still in perfect condition.
The pack comes with 16 nail polish strips, instruction pamphlet, a min nail file, and a orange stick. The orange stick is pretty invaluable in the very hassle free process. The process is pretty simple;
1 - pick which strip fits which nail (both sides work depending on cuticle shape)
2 - clean and buff your nails
3- one by one peel of the clear layer on top and the sticky layer on the bottom
4 - place onto nail and press down
5- smooth out with pressure and orange stick
6 - file of excess nail polish
It's easy and requires no heating or gluing; the entire process takes about 20 -30 minutes if your not distracted, took me about 45 minutes because i was playing a game at the time. Doesn't take much concentration. They feel like real nail polish; because it is; you remove it with nail polish remover and smell very faintly of nail polish but it's not overwhelming. And yes, you can put top coat or whatever else you want on top; just treat it like regular long lasting nail polish.
Seriously easy and lots of very pretty designs; plus they are currently on special at Priceline for $11 rather usual $15.Also if your quick you might still find some of the cute halloween ones.
