The Neverending Pile Challenge: Had To Have It, Still Haven't Worn It

About a year and a half ago, Tasha let me try her Warm & Fozzie polish from the Muppets Collection by OPI and I fell in love instantly. I looked for it in a lot of  places but they seemed to be sold out and I didn't want to pay $20 for a bottle of polish at the department store. Eventually, I found it at a particular shop (that I will not mention because the bottle turned out to be a fake OPI!!!) and paid $17 (yes, $17 for a fake!!!) for one of the most beautiful polishes I had seen until then. And it sat in storage for a while, then more bottles came into the stash and Warm & Fozzie stayed in its place, almost forgotten.

When it came to today's prompt, I had to think which one fitted the category the best since I have a lot of polishes that I bought because I really wanted them but I'd  worn them on at least a finger for a day. Warm & Fozzie didn't even get that kinda treatment so I figured today would be the best day to bring it out and wear. 

I love all the tiny bronze, rose gold and gold shimmer particles of this polish, how they glisten in the sun and how reflective they are. My camera was freaking out a bit at the sight of all the reflected light so I brought the camera inside and used the light box. It's still very pretty. How did I go so long without using it?!!!

And because I can never leave good things alone, I decided to bring out an unused stamping plate to go with the polish. I even had to peel off the blue plastic film off the plate for this mani, I can say it was satisfying. 

I used the tribal pattern from BM-402 and Penny Talk, Blue Rhapsody and Good As Gold all from Essie's Metallic Mirrors collection (which have been used previously). 

I realise this looks kinda Easter-eggy down to the crinkling of the metallic polish over Warm & Fozzie but I was going for a tribal look.

I'm still quite pleased with the way this turned out and I'm glad to be back on the challenge.

Till next time, 

Lautra

Attempting to Curb My Thermal Lemming

I've loved the look of thermal polishes ever since looking at the beautiful photos from this post but wherever I looked they were sold out or about $15 per 10 ml bottle. It took a few months, a heap of unused/unblogged polishes and a low budget to realise that I would have to settle with a simple gradient to recreate that glittering polish. In December last year I acquired some most of the L.A. Girl 3D Effects polishes that are all jellies with scattered holo flakies, perfect for duplicate the look of the thermal polish I had seen.

Ok, maybe it's not an exact copy but it's inspired. I started with two coats of Dazzling Pink, a very sheer bright pink, and let that dry and then sponged on three coats of Dazzling Pink and Sparkle Ruby. I finished it all off with one coat of HK Girl top coat.

The sun was nice to show the holo but it was too bright to show the gradient properly. It looks a little too dark on these pictures.

The  gradient is a little  more visible on the photos below. Kind of... I didn't take photos in the lightbox before stamping over it but it still is noticeable, right?

I used Essie's Penny Talk to stamp what-I-think-may-be a vine motif from Moyou's Fairytale 02 plate. I like how the negative space of the stamping almost reflects the pattern in gold. It's the little things...

Did this mani fully satisfy my lemming? Yes, for a while. I'm still planning to get my hands in some thermals when the right time comes.

Till next time, 

Laura

33 Day Challenge: 3 Favourite Polishes

It's the third last day of the 33 Day Challenge and I'm gonna make this super quick because I am tired but didn't want to miss another prompt from this challenge that is about to finish. Here we go...

Narrowing down the stash to bring out my three favourite polishes wasn't an easy task, they are all so pretty and each has its own qualities. I decided on the ones that were my first favourites of a certain type and that I still love. I started with a coat of Essence's Snow White (my first and only jelly), let it dry and stamped Essie's Penny Talk (my first one coater metallic that has been featured in this blog plenty of times) using the plate BM-417 and then created a french tip gradient with Snow White and B Collection by Bloom in Dubai (the first polish that lasted about 10 days on me with top coat and had an awesome formula, no longer on sale but I have three bottles of it :) ). Topped it all off with one coat of Seche Vite to smooth out the gradient. 

These nails were super hard to photograph because of how shiny they were and my camera was freaking out when I was trying to take photos in the sunlight. I brought the nails into the light box but the shine was still too much and I couldn't figure out what settings would work. 

Anyway, this is what I came up with and I'm in love with this stamped jelly sandwich. It's shiny, the colours work well and I came to realise I hadn't done something similar before.

Quick note, this is how the jelly sandwich looked like in the sun. Yep, I cropped the only half decent photo I took but it shows some of the pretty light that was reflected from my nails.

Don't forget to check out the other particpants' manis for today's prompt.

33 Day Challenge: Mani with Three Patterns

I'm back on the challenge after neglecting it for the last week. It's not that I haven't wanted to do it, my inspiration just went out the window and I haven't been able to catch it back. Anyway, I didn't want to miss another prompt that I would have to do later so I gave myself a deadline for today's prompt of a mani with three patterns. I wanted to do some free-handed nail art but I knew it was not gonna happen within my time limit and that frustration would be likely to get the better of me so I opted for stamping. 

So here it is, my three patterned mani. I used three coats of Butter London's Disco Biscuit and a coat of Seche Vite as a base. I actually wore this beautiful pink jelly for a whole day by itself before I added the nail art. I tried taking photos of the scattered holo glitter it contains but my camera's battery died as I was pressing the shutter button. :( While the battery was charging, I went on with the mani and taped up sections of my fingers and started stamping chevron, brick and triangle patters from the BM-422 and BM-423 plates with Essie's Penny Talk.

I had a lot of trouble getting the brick pattern to stick to the pink base and had to redo it A LOT of times, however, I didn't have to redo the base because I discovered that I could use fresh sticky tape to remove the half done job of the base. I would just put the sticky side on the nail and it would remove the stamping polish in no time and no acetone. Phew! I don't think it would work with all polishes but it's a handy thing to know...

When I finally managed to get the patterns on my nails (almost) wholly, I used my trustworthy Topshop black stripper and to frame the nails and create lines along the edge of the patterns. They weren't very clear to begin with and I thought the line would make it look better. I'm undecided on that one. I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Overall, I'm not blown away by my nail art but this is the first time I have successfully managed to frame my nails with a striper. I'm aware the lines on the inside of the frames are uneven but I know practice would help me out with that one. Maybe if I had a different picture to frame, I would be happier. :)

Check out the other ladies' manis for today's prompt.

If you've been on this blog before, you may notice I have different background and a slightly different layout. The thing that bother me the most with my last background I used was the lack of continuity on mobile devices, like tablets, and bigger, higher resolution  computer screens. I also wanted to add social media buttons to the side bar and the free icons (found here) looked better with the multicoloured chevron pattern. :) I'm not web designer but I'm trying to learn to learn little bits as I go, including what looks good and what doesn't. I really like feedback or suggestions so if you have any thoughts on my layout, please let me know!!!

Till next time, 

Laura

33 Day Challenge: Chinese

It's day 13 of The Crumpet's 33 Day Challenge and here I am, still sticking to it. For today's prompt, Chinese, I was inspired by so many things but unfortunately I had no time to execute any of them so I went for something simple that stuck to the theme. I also want to start using my ever growing collection of nail art supplies. I've stalled my polish shopping lately but now I've moved on shopping on eBay and Born Pretty Store for anything that can be stuck to my nails.

To tackle the challenge and start using some of these supplies, I came up with this mani. 

Which was roughly based on this vase. I googled Chinese vases and this one screamed out at me. I'm not sure of the authenticity of the claim that this is Chinese but it seemed to look like other Chinese pottery I have seen.

Source

I started with two coats of Essence in Grumpy over a base coat and once dry, I stamped over it with Essie's Penny Talk using one of the new Bundle Monster Plates, BM-404. I got some eBay-bought flower water decals ready and started layering them on the blue and gold base but they were too see-through to show up on the darker blue base. I quickly painted my ring finger an thumb with two coats of Sally Hansen in White On and applied a coat of Seche Vite on all my fingers. I could just have applied it on my ring finger to get the white drying quicker but I thought I might as well do them all at that time.

Once that was all dry, I started overlapping the flowers and leaves on the white base and applied one final coat of Seche Vite to seal in the decals.

I really like how my thumb turned out but I didn't want to show another awkward thumb photo, so I tried two thumb poses. I like this one better...

... but this shows a lot more detail. I think. What do guys reckon?

 

You can sort of see the blue base on my ring finger under the white. I also managed to bump it on something so the blue flower looks  somewhat shapeless. 

Considering my past experiences with water decals, none of which have been documented in this blog... thankfully, I'm pretty happy with the way this mani came out. It makes me wanna play with all the new sheets I have just received. Stay tuned.

Check out the other talented ladies' manicures.

Till next time, 

Laura

Pastel Dry Marble Skittle

Most of the manis I've done in the last two weeks or so have involved lots and lots of coats of nail polish and Seche Vite. I enjoyed doing them very much but they took a long time to create and the layers started to peel from how thick they were together. I decided to create something a little simpler and quicker for today's manicure. 

What's the best way to create nail art with lots of colour but none of the thickness or the effort? A dry marble skittle manicure! 

Index finger: Two coats of Essie in Penny Talk

Pinky: CoverGirl Outlast in Everbloom 

Middle and ring fingers: The two polishes above and CoverGirl in Mint Mojito on a Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On base. I created the dry marble using this technique. The marble was really shiny without top coat but it was really uneven, so I topped all off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Yeah, I know, my clean up was shocking but the detail of the contrasting green and rose gold looks really good, doesn't it?

I think I met my goal of creating a simple mani even though it wasn't that well executed. I may need to change my clean up brush and be a little more patient when it comes to removing little bits of polish stuck in the cuticles. 

Hey guys! It's...

Source

Have a good one!

Till next time, 

Laura

CoverGirl's Wine Stain

I have vowed to myself to only buy new polish if I have worked extra hours and the desired bottle has a shade I have nothing close to. Saying that, I still like going into Target and look around at the stands and see what's new. In my last trip, I came across CoverGirl's new range of nail polish which 'Dares to go topless with our new nail polish formula that combines a base coat, high gloss color, and a chip-resistant top coat in one simple step'. I must say their range of colours is not completely unique but there are a lot of pretty shades in the bunch of 45 options.

Since they were half price, $3.47 per bottle to be precise, I decided maybe I should go through the bin the polishes were in and get one or two. I ended up with three. So here's the first of the bunch. I present to you, CoverGirl's Wine Stain. Two coats and no topcoat. 

With a stamp, since this is how I wore it out. 

I don't think any other name could have described it any better. I love the deep colour it holds but that's not where it stops. This polish has an amazing formula that applies like butter and, could you please look at how shiny it is without topcoat? You could almost say it's a jelly but it's highly pigmented, not a lot of light goes through this polish, it just shines!

One other thing this polish promises is that you don't need to use a base coat, which in my case, I use to avoid nail staining since my nails are painted 99.99% of the time. As I was trying to clean up, I noticed this maybe a slight stainer. Ooops! I guess I'll have red bed nails for a while.

 Lastly, it should create a chip-resistant manicure. As I use my hands for manual work, I noticed a tiny little chip on my index finger after a day, but the rest lasted three days before I got bored and had to move on. Not bad either way. I also noticed this polish, even after a day, had a very squishy texture. This meant that there were small dents on the polish that weren't greatly noticeable but dulled the shine a little bit. Not an issue, but I hadn't come across this before, not even with actual jellies.

Overall, Wine Stain is a stunner. After a quick Google search on CoverGirl polishes, I found a lot of lacqueristas telling horror stories of previous polish releases by this brand. I must say I am extremely happy with this polish and would highly recommend it. As previously mentioned, they are ridiculously cheap at Target for $3.47 for 11ml or you can get them 2 for the price of 1 at Priceline. I don't think they've changed the stands to fit these polishes, so you'll find them in bins.

One last thing. I also love the shape of the bottle. It looks a lot like the Chanel bottles and I can tell you I have had a better experience with this.

Bottle shots for comparison.

Till next time,

Laura

Happy Easter!

Whatever you were doing today, I hope you guys had a good break. Personally, I spent my day trying to come up with an Easter mani that didn't look too bad. 

Enjoy!

I used three coats of Face of Australia in After Dinner Mint and followed the leather technique to give it texture. Not that you can really make out what the motif is, but I used the bunny on an Easter egg  from the BM-302 stamping plate. I used Essie's Penny Talk, which dried extremely quickly on the stamper and had to attempt this a few times.

Till next time, 

Laura

Mimco At Your Fingertips

As you guys may be aware, the Australian brand Mimco came out with a line of cosmetics (think lipstick, bronzers and nail polish) in September last year. Yes, I know I'm late for the party but better late than never, right?

Mimco's description of their polishes, as it is on their website:

Glamour at the tip of your fingers, our Mimco Nail Polish is high performance and high coverage. A superior neon pink gloss finish with a quick drying time and a smooth self-levelling formula will have them eating out of the palm of your hands. Free from Formaldehyde, Toluene, Camphor & Dibutyl Phthalate. 

Not bad, so I just wanna show you a few swatches of the three polishes I acquired from this beautiful brand. 

Jade. A bluish dark green creme, not the most original colour, but it has one of the best formulas I've tried. The polish stays where you've put it, it does it so well I didn't need any clean up on the mani below, plus it dries QUICKLY. Another benefit is that it is almost a one-coater, if carefully applied. However, it is shown below with two coats and no top coat. Can you see how shiny it is? I also find that polishes of this particular shade tend to stain my bed nails. Not this one though. It is amazing! Big tick for this one.

Bright Coral. It is bright but I wouldn't call it a coral. I would say it is more of a tangerine,  but I'm sure like Jade above, there was a reason for the name. This also has an amazing, quick-drying formula, though it is rather sheer, still a creme, just a sheer, shiny creme. If you look at the bottle you can sort of see how sheer it is. The swatch below was done with three thin coats and no clean up. Really shiny without top coat too. Another big tick for Mimco.

Riviera Blue. A very pretty baby blue with the tiny, tiny silver shimmer. If you look at the bottle below, you can see the shimmer just above the second M. Can you see it? Unfortunately, it doesn't show in the nail so I was left with just a plain creme. The formula was a little harder to work with than the two above but still pretty good for a light colour. I used two medium coats had to clean up around the cuticles a little. 

After all the swatching (very rare thing for me), I couldn't just leave Riviera Blue by itself and double stamped each nail with Essie's Penny Talk and Bundle Monster's BM-218 plate. The mani reminded me of Cinderella and her pumpkin carriage. Is that just me?

I bought this polishes just before Christmas for about $11 each at a retail shop when they had a $25% off sale. They are now retailing on Mimco's website for either $5, $9 and $15.95 + postage, depending on the colour and, as far as I've seen, they are still in stock at the shops for $15.95 each. Ooh, I forgot to mention, these polishes are Australian made!!!

Just in case, you are wondering what they look like, I've included a photo below. And in true Mimco fashion, they were given to me in a little black, satin pouch. I am impressed. Apart from the not-so-original colours, I'd put these Mimco up there with the luxury brands. Ok, I don't own a lot of the luxury brands but I could compare it to Illamasqua formulas. Yes, I went there.

So, if you are looking for a little luxury from the renowned brand without blowing the budget (who wants to pay $30 for a hairpin?), I would highly recommend these polishes. 

Til next time, 

Laura

Christmas Has Come Early For Me

Actually, I need to be honest about the early Christmas I'm about to show you and say it came a week ago when I went to see Tasha. The mailman came at the right time and Tasha gifted me this beautiful little Essie bottle last Tuesday.

I present to you my four-month-old lemming, Essie's Penny Talk from their Mirror Metallics Collection. The expression 'Woohoo!!!' cannot express the excitement I feel when I'm holding this beautiful shade of rose gold. Not trying to get too deep here, but this polish has stopped me looking at other polishes. It has completed my collection. I love it that much. I don't want any other. I would marry it if it was a person (am I showing my excitement yet?)

I'm gonna stop drooling over it and show you my swatches.

This polish is a bit strange. In some lights, it looks like a gold loaded with lots of fine silver shimmer, sometimes it shows beautiful rose gold shade. Even when Tasha opened her bottle we were both confused as to whether it was the right colour or not. It was, it just changes a bit depending on light.

Now onto the formula, it is streaky, voiding the mirror effect of the collection name.It also drags if you aren't quick enough with the application. Quick meaning a couple of seconds. In the swatch above I used two thick-ish coats where I applied too much polish and then removed the excess with the brush. They are still not perfect but they are the best I could do. I didn't add any top coat either. I wanna see how long it will last on my fingers.

I usually don't buy Essie bottles because of their Australian $18.95 price tag, delay-of-season availability and thin brushes but this colour is fairly unique at the moment. This collection reminds me a lot of colours used on in the late 90's, early 00's. I remember catching the bus to school when I was twelve and I saw this girl, she must have been a couple of years older than me, wearing bright blue metallic lipstick and matching nails. At the time, I thought she was the epitome of coolness. Fourteen years later, I'm still loving the metallics.

A little while back, Tasha asked me what my favourite polish was. I had a couple but I couldn't really just select one. Now, I would say Penny Talk is the favourite, hands down.

Could you pick one out of your collection to be named favourite? Have you had a long time lemming that you've recently satisfied?

Til next time, 

Laura