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*

Nox Twilight Sugar Plum

A month or so ago I was perusing the OPI stand in DJs when something caught my eye. After a little chuckle, I headed over to the '25% off all twilight merchandise' sign to have a quick look at the cosmetic line just to make sure I wasn't missing out on anything.

The whole nail polish line was still there along with some lip products that featured Cullen and Black staring at you creepily. Just a little heads up, i'm not Twilight's biggest fan ;). I've picked up the holographic 'Disco Darling' a few times, but just couldn't justify the $30 price tag. I wasn't planning on buying anything on this occasion either, but Mum who I was shopping with that day, took the polish up to the counter to see if they were included in the storewide stocktake sale.

Turns out they were selling for $7.50 each! A bargain in Aussie terms, so I rushed back over to the stand and picked up the other polish that had caught my eye, and left with Disco Darling and Sugar Plum.

The bottles feel rather heavy and expensive and hold 16ml.

Sugar plum is a medium pink with strong purple undertones and blue shimmer.

The formula is rather thin and dries very glossy, this is three coats.

These are older pictures as my ring finger nail on my swatch hand is still growing out. Here's hoping that  it's back to normal before the ABBW!

OPI Purple with a Purpose

So I have something a little bit special to show you today.

Back in 2008 after a fair bit of window shopping I found a purple dress that I wanted to wear to my formal. As I was still a nail biter at the time, no mani, but I wanted to find the perfect purple pedi colour. I had absolutely no idea where to start looking! I had never bought nail polish before, I had no need for it, and if I wanted to give myself a quick pedi i'd just borrow one of Mum's Revlons :P

Woo! Spinning in my pretty dress :)

(Incidentally, this picture won me a free lippie in Australis' Shadey Friday competition that they run through their facebook page. Will definitely swatch once my face clears up a bit)

So this led me to my first visit to the OPI section of the local David Jones. I'd never seen so many pretty colours!! After a good half an hour of drooling, I walked away with this polish clutched in my hot little hands.

I apologize for the overly shiny/blurry pictures, but my camera freaks at the mere mention of purple and these were the only two that didn't look horribly washed out.

Purple with a Purpose would be just your average purple polish if it wasn't for the lovely red and blue shimmer that comes out to play in good lighting.

Looking at this colour now in comparison to some of the other colours in my stash, it's a little boring. Don't get me wrong I still love it as a pedi colour to go with a more complex purple mani, but I think i'm a little spolied by for choice with the more outrageous colours in my collection! It is a very nice staple to have.

Zoya Mimi

My first time wearing a Zoya polish... i'm officially a convert!!

I applied this last Thursday and am only just contemplating taking it off as i'm writing this. That's 8 days of wear, including three hair washing sessions, which always give me major tip wear, with zero crazing and I only have minor tip wear and a few little chips on my thumbs which I always have trouble with anyway.

I absolutely love the brush, which is short, wide and moderately flexible, with a comfortably shaped handle. I find it to be the most user friendly brush i've tried so far.

This is three coats.

Isn't she pretty?

I've never seen anything quite like the glitter in the Zoya Sparkle collection, it's almost like tiny flakies! I think my search for the perfect royal purple has reached its end :)

Here's my pretty girl, Cindy, and my Mimi mani

Thank you so much to Sharon from the Australian Zoya Facebook page for going out of her way to get this lovely polish to me!

I'll be swatching the two other Zoyas I purchased, Charla and Ivanka in the next few weeks :)

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 :)