Ulta3: Summer Siren Selection

Still working through my sample bags from the ABBW, I received a selection of four polishes from Ulta3's Summer Siren collection.

I was given Orchid, Mermaid Green, Sunset Pink and Blue Marlin.

Orchid is my pick of the bunch. It's a beautiful purple shimmer with a slight gold duo-chrome flash which looks way more expensive on the nail than it's $2.25 price tag. It also has a lovely formula that is opaque in two coats.

Mermaid Green is a murky blue green creme which i'm currently wearing on my nails. Seemed to fit with the nasty 'summer' weather we've been experiencing in Sydney lately :P

Sunset Pink is bright! If you're after a cheery, blue based, two coater pink that's cheaper than your morning coffee you'll want to snap this one up.

Blue Marlin was definitely the problem child. It is a lovely bright royal blue however the formula was not so good.

If you look at my swatch of Blue Marlin closely, you will see how patchy the coverage is on my index nail. Also, opening this polish gave me a bit of a shock!

I couldn't get this one back into the bottle without trimming off the bit sticking out the side...

As much as I love the colours of these polishes, I was rather disappointed with the quality. Ulta3 has been my go to brand for cheap and cheerful polish however this experience coupled with some other changes the brand has undertaken recently, have caused me to search for other polish brands.

While Ulta3 have kept the size of their bottles the same, the glass at the base has been thickened,  reducing the amount of polish in their bottles from 13.5ml to 13 ml. They have also moved the manufacture of their polish from Australia to China. Pity, I really liked the idea of buying aussie made and owned polish.

Below I have included a picture of two new style Ulta3 bottles (left) with two old style bottles (right) to show the changes made to the bottles.

*Some products included in this post were provided to me for consideration*

Ulta3 Midnight Fever

Yes another royal mani, I just couldn't help myself with all the lovely royal blue dresses parading across the telly.

Initially I reached for my trusy navy shimmer OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue!, but remembering that I hadn't used this one yet, decided to use it instead. The formula is really exceptional for a polish priced under $3, but I do prefer the OPI as it looks blue in most lights, while this one tends to look black indoors.

Please excuse my messy paint job, i'm currently dabbling in cleanup techniques.

With the cheapie tiara I found in the closet this morning

Showing off the shimmer..

So this is two coats of Midnight Fever which I bought from my local Blooms chemist for AU$2.25 along with Royal (purple creme), Pacific (turquoise shimmer) and Twilight (Chanel Paradoxal dupe), from Ulta3's Autumn 'Floral Fever' collection, all of which I will post about eventually.

In addition to some BYS nail stones that I picked up from Kmart for around AU$3 if I remember correctly, that come in packets of 25 pieces.