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*

piCture pOlish blog fest: Candy

If this posts on time, i'll be on my way to the first day of my second semester at uni! Only nine weeks till mid session break.... but who's counting?

You will most likely be experiencing an influx of piCture pOlish themed blog posts today. This is due to the scheduled piCture pOlish blog fest! Late in May, the ladies at piCture pOlish sent out an email to their e-newsletter subscribers asking for beauty bloggers to apply to swatch one shade from their range. The aim -  to have every piCture pOlish colour reviewed on the same day.

I was lucky enough to be chosen, and received the shade Candy to review, a bright, pastel bubblegum pink.

piCture pOlish is an Australian based company and their shades retail for AU$9.90 each, a steal compared to some other brands distributed in Australia. They come in little square bottles that hold 11ml of product with a nice, easy to hold cap and a medium length brush. If you have tiny nails like I do, you'll want to make sure that you wipe the excess polish off the brush before applying because it holds a lot of product.

This is three thin coats of piCture pOlish Candy over my usual ridge filler, topped with Out the Door fast dry top coat.

The formula was a little streaky and thicker than what i'm used to working with, but evened out nicely after the third coat and top coat. Candy lasted 4 days before I found a single tiny chip and removed the next day after finding a few more. As that's the sort of wear i've come to expect from higher end polishes I was really pleased.

I'm not a pink girl, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Even my dad who usually couldn't care less about polish though it looked really 'fresh'.

After I took the picture of the bottle with all the musk flavoured lollies, during a brief sugar high, I tried my unpracticed hand at a little dodgy nail art. Not sure if I should be sharing, but what the heck :P

Hehe have any tips for me?

If you would like to see swatches of the other 'blog fest' shades, I have been told that pictures will be posted on their facebook site and in the 'blogger swatch' section of the website. piCture pOlish is available at selected retailers and from their website which also stocks Ozotic polishes. Gotta get my hands on a few of those holographics!

Please note: This product was sent to me for the purpose of this review. This has in no way altered my opinion of the product.

OPI DS Signature

As i've said before, i'm not a pink girl. I have nothing against wearing pink, I just don't like the way it looks on my nails. However, shades like this one are slowly changing my mind.

DS Signature is a gorgeous rosy pink loaded with strong holographic shimmer. Although the old black label OPI formula is a little on the nose, it is hands down the best formula I have ever worked with. Like the majority of holographic polishes it is very fast drying, but this polish and the other old DS i've tried, Original, pretty much apply themselves!

It also doesn't hurt that this particular shade of pink works beautifully with my cool skin tone.

Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? Do you have that song stuck in your head now? Hehehe...

I think i'm going to have to hide this one from my sister who loves anything pink, or I won't have any left!

So if you are lucky enough to spot this beauty at a supply store or while dusty hunting, I definitely recommend picking it up!

It's such a shame that gorgeous holographic polishes like this can't be made in the new 3 free formulas.

Wicked Series-OPI The Show Must Go On!

So after posting about a wicked green, I thought it was only fair to showcase an equally special pink. This shade is the sole duochrome from OPI's Burlesque holiday collection 2010 and was almost the one that got away! At the stage this lacquer was released, I was wearing greens exclusively. Walked past it several times thinking i'd never wear a flashy colour like that and by the time I decided I wanted it, it was sold out at my main retailer. I then scouted out a few local salons and snapped up the last bottle at a tiny shop, and i'm so glad I did!

The Show Must Go On! is predominantly a hot pink which flashes bronze in certain lighting. This colour screams, 'Over here! No, down here! Yes! Look at meeee!!' Very Galindaesque if I may say so. Although if you were looking for a cheaper and easier to find obnoxious pink, I would recommend Digital by Sally Hansen (which I will most likely be swatching within the next few weeks) which can be found in Pricelines nation wide.

You can sort of see the bronze flash on the index and ring finger but it's a fairly weak effect. Other bloggers have suggested that this polish is a dupe for Mac's Bad Fairy. Although I don't own both, from comparisons i've seen, I would say they are similar but this polish is a much brighter pink.

I absolutely adore this colour but it wore terribly on me. By the end of the second day, I had major chipping and tip wear on three fingers of my left hand! These pictures were 3 coats of colour with OPI Original Nail Envy as base coat and Revlon Colorstay top coat.