China Glaze LOL

Hey guys, i'm really sorry about the lack of updates lately, i've been really busy with uni, various family functions and making the decision to have my first horse put to sleep. Only 3 weeks until all my exams and uni stuff is finished and i'll be able to do my nails on a regular basis and do some makeup swatches i've been meaning to get around to.

I've seen on quite a few blogs that holographic polishes dry SUPER fast, so being time poor and needing something that would cheer me up a little, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try out one of my China Glaze OMG polishes! Going by names alone, are you surprised that I picked LOL?

Please excuse the pooling in my cuticles, I did this at three am during a stretch of essay procrastination and I really didn't feel like cleaning up.

I took stacks of pictures, but all but these two were so washed out that it looked like I was wearing IDK, the lavender lacquer from the same collection. You know what they say about purple and cameras! I also didn't manage to capture the full holo effect because the sun refused to play nice until I had massive chips on my swatch hand. Guess i'll just have to wear it again!!

I don't think i've ever worked with a formula quite like this. It's really thin but extremely pigmented, I only needed two coats for full coverage, but it shows every single imperfection on my nails even after I buffed them.... Also, top coat didn't seem to dull the holo effect, but neither did it extend wear time! I think I might play with a base coat next time.

I absolutely loved the colour of this lacquer, but the wear was absolutely terrible! I took these photos the in the afternoon of the day when I did my nails then jumped in the shower. When I got out and inspected my nails, three had minor chips boo! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted :)

DS Original and Ulta3 Royal Fever

So, starting out on my no buy hit list, I thought i'd try layering one of my new DS polishes because the net is absolutely saturated with pictures of them alone and I wanted to see how they would look over a base colour. Pretty spectacular i'd say!

Also, from the images i've seen, top coat tends to dim the effect of most holographic polishes, so I thought i'd do a comparison.

Top coat on the middle and pinkie.

I think top coat actually makes this one look much glossier, so I went ahead and did the rest of my nails.

Woo! My first holo! Think I might need to wear gloves while i'm driving though, sparkly rainbows are super distracting :P

The week from hell... redeemed :) (pic heavy)

Yay! Blogger's back up and running fairly smoothly, finally :P So here's the recap of my week i've been wanting to post for a few days now.

So the excitement all started on Sunday, when I read Carina from Gilded Nails post about a supply store in Sydney of all places that had some AMAZING htfs and I decided that I had to get over there at some point during the week. Finished an assignment (YAY!!), printed it and then left my laptop on the table. I turned around to retrieve the assignment out of the printer and heard this almighty crash! My laptop fell off the table onto bare floorboards :(

I took the computer to the repair shop, and spent the next two days going at it hammer and tongs to redo the half finished assignment that was on the laptop, due Wednesday..

So here's where the week gets better! As of now, I have a new model Macbook Pro with all my data, sans music and photos.

It was also my birthday! Cosmetics wise, I received two OPIs, a Sally Hansen and all the stuff pictured below. I also had to put my necklace in there, it's multichrome!!

My Zoya package also arrived on my birthday, so stoked with the colours I ordered!

Thank you so much to Sharon from sales who got these out to me :)

So these are Ivanka, Mimi and Charla from the 2010 Sparkle collection. Yes, I know I jumped on the wagon pretty late with these, but that doesn't stop them from being gorgeous!!

If you're in Australia, you can purchase Zoya from selected salons, or Art of Beauty for AU$17 a bottle.

Sadly, I only had time for a one finger swatch on my way out the door to uni, these are three coats each. I haven't played with these properly yet, because I got just a little distracted on Thursday...

Remember that supply store I mentioned?

OMG literally!!!! Thank you Carina!!

I picked up DS Signature and Original, China Glaze Dorothy Who?, C-C-Courage and Watermelon Rind, in addition to my pick of the OMG collection; L8R G8R, BFF, LOL, DV8, QT and OMG.

I spent like an hour in the store, and there were so many more pretties that I wanted, guess i'm going to have to make another trip!

So after returning from my supply store haulage, it was clear that I was not going to fit any more polish into my desk drawer :P So a drawer in my wardrobe got cleaned out...

There we go, much roomier!

On another note, i've officially put myself on a no buy until i've worn all of my untrieds, around 30 bottles, more than half of all the polish I own!... this could take a while :)

Sally Hansen Emerald City + Artform 503 (Silver Green)

As promised, my current mani layered with Artform 503 :)

This is a green multi chrome that is apparently a dead on dupe for the discontinued Ozotic Pro 503! As mentioned in a previous post, I did a one finger swatch of this lacquer over black, but decided it wasn't really my style. But if you'd like to see some epic swatches, check More Nail Polish's blog.

I'm liking this much better over green! It gives the base colour a totally different look.

This image shows off the awesome muli coloured shimmer!

This is one coat of Artform 503 over 3 coats of Sally Hansen Emerald City, sans top coat.

I bought this online from a Perth based company Artform Nails for AU$10.95.

I've got mail! Ulta3

Thank you so much to the lovely Tania from Ulta3 for sending me this package :)

I posted my recent royal wedding mani using Ulta3 Midnight Fever on Ulta3's facebook page on Friday and Ulta3 left a comment asking me to send them my address so they could send me a gift. It was such a lovely surprise to find these three lovelies waiting patiently on my doorstep after a long day at Uni!

Unfortunately I already have Flashback Fuchsia.. great minds think alike! So I think it might find a home in one of the manicure packs I am putting together for my friends Big Morning Tea later this month.

Incidentally, Ulta3 are looking for name suggestions for their upcoming Spring/Summer collection on their facebook page! Click here to add your own. Oh, and did I mention that if your suggestion is picked, Ulta3 will send you their whole collection before it hits the shelves?! Cannot wait to get my hands on it! Need to get my act together now I have 7 unworn Ulta3's to show you :) Stay tuned for pictures of my new pretties!!

Sally Hansen Emerald City

So because the diamantes on my previous mani fell of within a day, resulting in dear mum asking if my nail was broken, I decided to take it off. Bit of a shame it gave me a minor case of the smurf fingers! So I did another mani to cover up my blue tinted nails.

After following Michelle's project over at all lacquered up, I decided to grab one of my untried lacquers. So this is what I had to choose from:

I wore the purple OPI (Purple With a Purpose) as my pedi for year 10 formal and then it got shoved in the drawer and neglected. So seeing as I haven't worn it on my fingers, I classified it as unworn.

But seeing as it's May, I couldn't go past my birthstone shade :) So here's Emerald City!

So shiny!

I can't believe i've never worn this before! It's definitely going into high rotation around Christmas time.So glossy and sparkly.. I might also try the Artform Green multichrome on top if I get bored with this mani as I did a one finger swatch over a black base and didn't like it very much. 

This was 3 coats of Emerald City over a OPI Original Nail Envy base with Revlon Colorstay Top Coat.

So do you guys have the same problem of buying all these beautiful colours, sticking them in a drawer and then forgetting all about them?

I'd love to know if you see anything you'd like me to swatch!!