Shimmer Polish - Karen

It's been a while since I've worn a Shimmer Polish. I still have a few left to try out and some of the darker glitters I have coming up will be perfect for Fall.

Today I'm wearing "Karen". A purple and pink glitter bomb with some additional scattered orange, blue and silver glitter. I layered one coat of Karen over La Femme Angel which is a vivid pink with purple undertones and compliments the colours in the Shimmer Polish nicely.

Shimmer Polish are very dense glitters and can be worn on their own if you apply 2/3 coats.

You can purchase Shimmer Polish directly from Cindy's Etsy store. There are also lots of beautiful swatches and product information on their website and Facebook page.

*Some of the products featured  in this post were sent to me for review.

  

piCture pOlish - Blogger Glitter Gradient

Today I have another piCture pOlish beauty to show you - Blogger! This one was created by piCture pOlish as a dedication to all bloggers and it's basically a glitter bomb packed with multi coloured glitter in different sizes. A glitter rainbow in a bottle!

You can wear this on it's own with 2-3 coats because the glitter is so dense or you can layer it. I created a glitter gradient over Elf Desert Haze. Next time I will try layering a whole coat of Blogger over white polish, I think that would look really pretty too.

piCture pOlish can be purchased directly from their website - picturepolish.com.au. They do international shipping. You can also purchase it at various etailers throughout the world. Check out their Network page for more info. You can keep updated on any piCture pOlish news via their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

*The product featured  in this post was sent to me for review.

butter LONDON - The Black Knight

From soft and girly colours, I went to the complete opposite side of the spectrum today.
I am off on holiday tomorrow and Butter London The Black Knight is what I chose as my vacation mani. Well, actually my husband chose it. I couldn't decide on a dark, wintry colour so I told him to go to my stash and pick out a polish for me to wear. I'd say he made a good choice!

The Black Knight is a black based polish completely packed with tons of pink, blue, red, purple, green, silver and gold glitters. I applied 2 coats over a coat of Barry M Black for complete coverage. I found the formula to be quite thick but still manageable to work with. It's quite gritty as well so you'll need a thick top coat to smooth everything out. It's like galaxy nails for lazy people, perfect for me then! I serious can't get over how much it sparkles in the sun!

OPI - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (James Bond 007 Skyfall Collection 2012)

Of all the goodies I got at yesterday's Olympia Beauty Show haul, the OPI James Bond Skyfall polishes were the ones I was itching to try first. So as soon as I had a little time to change my mani, I swatched On Her Majesty's Secret Service, part of "The Dangerous" shades.

It's a navy blue/ grey'ish sheer base packed with green, gold and blue shimmer and micro glitter. You can also see red and purple in some lighting. It's an interesting mix of glitters but because of the sheer base, it does need 3 coats for full opacity if not layered over any base colour.

What do you think of On Her Majesty's Secret Service?

Lovely Lacquer - Blue Gem & Fruity Pebbles

Today I have another two indie pretties to show you. These were sent to me by the lovely Lauren, the mastermind behind Lovely Lacquer.

Lets get straight onto the swatches. First up is Blue Gem. The first thing I noticed as soon as I opened the bottle was how dense the colour changing pigments were. One coat of this is all you need to get that blue/ purple duochromeness to show. I am in love with how evident the duochrome is on this one!
Lauren also has other colour shifting polishes for sale in her Etsy store, a pink/ copper called Princess Cut and a green/ gold one called Gold Rush.

Fruity Pebbles (love that name) is a multi glitter topper consisting of large hex and square as well as micro-glitter in different colours. This is one coat over white. The glitters aren't hard to work with at all, they don't curl or stick up nor do you need to fish them out.  I mattified it in the last picture as I was curious to see what it would look like matte.

Both of these and many more Lovely Lacquer polishes can be found in Lauren's Etsy shop. All full sized polishes are $8 and minis are $4.50 (plus shipping).

The product(s) in this post were provided by the manufacturer or their PR for my honest review.

Icebreaker - Polished By KPT

Hi guys!

Today I have a great indie polish from Polished By KPT to share with you! Indie polishes have been everywhere for the last few months and each one is more beautiful and unique than the last!

KP Tran is the mastermind behind Polished By KPT and she was so sweet to send me some of her creations to try out. She sent me Icebreaker, which I will be showing you today and two mini bottles of her own Spectraflair topcoat and Midnight Kiss, a purple based multi glitter.

Without further ado, here is Icebreaker:

I pretty much did the happy dance for half an hour when I opened her package and Icebreaker was in there! It's a white creamy base packed with large purple and blue hex glitters as well as smaller green, blue and holo pieces of glitter and silver micro glitter! Whoa!! White based glitters are my absolute favourite!

You can buy Polished By KPT directly via her site on Big Cartel - here! All her polishes retail at $9.50 apart from the Spectraflair top coat. You can also check out her Facebook page and her Instagram user name is @kptran.

The product(s) in this post were provided by the manufacturer or their PR for my honest review.

Two Long Lost Manis

I was clearing out my external drive yesterday and came across a whole bunch of manis which for some reason I never posted. I was wondering where some of those had gotten to?! There were seriously at least ten different manis in there so here are a couple.

First up is a bright and fun mani I did using Essence Wake Up! and sponged NYX Carnival onto the top half of the nail. My nails were so ridiculously long here that I remember a few people asking me if they were fake.

I really love this glitter. It's a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday, Milani Gems, Wet N' Wild Party of Five Glitters, OPI Rainbow Connection, NOPI Rainbow in The S-Kylie and all those other hex multi-coloured glitters, so we have quite a few options there. It only cost $2.25 from Beauty Joint.

Secondly is a glitter v-gap mani I did using Impala Lover sent to me by Bia! This is such a gorgeous foil type pink packed with gold and silver shimmer. This is just one coat so I thought it covered quite well. I used loose pieces of holographic hex glitter to fill the nude v-gaps.

Hits Speciallita - Moonbow from Phenomena Collection

Today I have a very special polish to show you - Moonbow from Hits Speciallita Phenomena collection.

Bia from Nails by Bia sent me the loveliest package in the mail which included Moonbow and Afterglow from the Phenomena collection, some amazing holo and chrome glitters, Cutie Pie from the Mari Moon collection and a couple of flakies from the Mundo De Dancas collection. Can't wait to share all of these with you, thank you so much Bia!

Hits have done it again! I can't get enough of these polishes! Moonbow is the most multichrome of the collection. Depending on the light, it shifts green, gold, purple, blue and magenta. I had a really hard time trying to capture all the colours as it's been very cloudy here recently and the lighting has been constantly terrible, thus the awkward hand positions!

This is 1 coat of Moonbow over black. Two coats would obviously give a stronger effect but the bottle is so little so I don't want it to finish too quickly! The glitter is coarse which I love so it does require a thick top coat.

Here's a bottle shot of Moonbow and Afterglow. Don't they just look yummy?

Fruit Loop & My Valentine Glitter

*This is s scheduled post, I am currently on holiday*

This is my latest Superdrug purchase (along with a couple more bottles...oops!). Fruit Loop by Collection 200 Hot Looks. Other than Barry M, I've been trying to stay clear of drugstore brands lately because I always either get a dodgy bottle or the formulas are so poor that they all need 4 coats which I can't deal with and always end up disappointed. However, sometimes I can't help it because they have really cute and fresh colours!

I assume Fruit Loop is part of their Spring/ Summer collection and it's a pastel peach which would look absolutely stunning with a tan. I nearly gave up after the first coat because it was so streaky but it eventually evened out after three coats.

I didn't really know what I wanted to do with this mani so I just started stamping and adding random things! Lol! I stamped with Konad m36 and sponged Kleancolor My Valentine onto the tips (I must do another mani with this glitter because it's so gorgeous!).

Candy Shop

When I first saw that there was a dupe to Deborah Lippmann's Candy Shop floating about, I knew I had to get my hands on it! Tyne from Lovebean Girl was such a sweetie and offered to send me a bottle!

I don't own DL's Candy Shop so cannot compare them but I have read from other bloggers that Claire's is a slightly darker pink and has bigger glitter. I am very happy with this polish, it's so fun and girly! I would have tied my hair into pigtails if I could!

As you may know, I've had some problems with glitter popping off my nails recently but I am happy to report that Candy Shop has some real staying power! I wore it for 4 days and there were no chips! The 2 thick coats of SV probably helped! I'm even too lazy to use the foil method to remove glitter but this time I had no choice, it just wouldn't budge :)