Bad, bad blogger + IMATS haul swatches

Hello lovely readers! I am very sorry for my lack of posts lately. 

Despite having the time of my life at the ABBW, the event has left me feeling totally overwhelmed! Writing such a small and specialised blog, meeting 80+ gorgeous beauty bloggers and seeing the quality of their work makes me feel rather inadequate. Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing experience mingling with brand representatives and meeting the ladies behind some of the blogs I love to read but I think it was a little too soon for me to attend an event on that type of scale, being such a newbie to the blogosphere.

However, I am determined to get my little corner of the internet back on track so expect to see a lot more posts as I go into my summer break in about 5 weeks or so!

I didn't buy very much at IMATS but here are swatches of the two nail polishes I came home with.
First thing I did when I got into IMATS was race up the back of the hall to the Illamasqua counter. I've never tried any of their products before so I was definitely walking away with something. I was rather underwhelmed by the small selection of products until I saw the price tags. Two $35 nail polishes for $15?! Count me in!!

It took me a while to work out that the bulky square lids of these polishes actually come off revealing a smaller handle underneath. The brushes themselves are a little thinner that the OPI pro-wide which makes it easier not to make a mess of my tiny nails.

Propaganda is a very dark, almost black, blue jelly polish. I had a bit of trouble getting it even, as you can see in my swatch but it looks fantastic under a holographic top coat (see my next post).

Haha please excuse the massive difference in skintone on this one, I really am white as a vampire. I think I may have unwittingly changed the camera settings.

Victory is a cool toned gold shimmer that has a slightly frosty formula. You need to be careful the keep your brush stokes fairly straight or it will show in your finished mani, as you can see on my middle finger.

I can't really comment on the durability of these polishes just yet, only having played with them today, but I will include that info in my next post :)

The ABBW: A quick overview

So, currently I am sitting on my living room floor feeling slightly overwhelmed after taking photos of all my goodies and cataloguing business cards given to me by the lovely bloggers I met at the Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend. I feel like I now have enough material to write about for several years and I have no idea where to start!
Firstly, a huge thank you to the lovely Jacie and Kimmi from You've Got Nail and The Plastic Diaries for organising the whole weekend. It was absolutely amazing and you ladies deserve all the credit :)

Being my very first blogging event, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. However all the bloggers at the event made me feel extremely welcome and I am looking forward to meeting up with some of them again soon.

This weekend was also my very first trip to the International Make-Up Artist Trade Show! It was brilliant to have so many different brands in the one place and be able to speak with representatives about their products.

Goodness knows I never expected to have to lug this many bags home!

Also thank you to the wonderful sponsors of the ABBW who were so very generous and I just don't know where to start with all of these lovely goodies! 

But as this is a nail polish blog, here is a sneak peek of all the polishes that came home with me.

Excepting the Illamasqua polishes which I purchased from IMATS, these were all provided by the sponsors of the event.

Did anyone else make it to IMATS on the weekend? I'd love to know your thoughts!

We have a winner!!

Thank you to everyone for entering my giveaway hosted by piCture pOlish!
Unfortunately, there is only one prize so without further ado....

Congratulations Em from Nails in the Desert!

 I am looking forward to swatches on your blog :)

My MOO MiniCards

Who else is getting excited for the ABBW? I can't believe it's less than a week away!! I can't wait to meet some of Australia's wonderful beauty bloggers :)

Anyway, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I received my order of MOO MiniCards. I never thought that I would ever need to have business cards for my blog, but as they are strongly advised for next week's meet up I thought I might as well have some made up!

I placed my order for 200 cards on the 20th of August and on the 7th of September I had a small bubble mailer in my grabby little hands. I did pay for rush printing and priority mail as I was a little worried that they wouldn't arrive in time.

So after I ripped open the mailer, these cute little boxes fell out..

Each box holds 100 cards.

Seeing as I ordered a rainbow coloured pack I really couldn't help myself :P

Overall I am really happy with my weeny cards! They are very sturdy and I love the design, they're much nicer than anything I could find locally.

I can't wait to start swapping these with other bloggers!!

Also, I did receive a one off 10% voucher for a new customer, so if anyone is interested let me know!

Revlon Red

For the record, I may or may not have seen You've Got Nail's fabulous post on this lacquer and promptly erm 'borrowed' it, from dear Mum's bathroom cabinet.... I'm not sure that she's ever going to see it again!

I absolutely love this lacquer. This is a classic blue red which every lady needs in her polish arsenal It's also a handy one coater, but I would double up on the basecoat to prevent staining.

Being used to the OPI pro wide brush, I found this one to be a little too thin and a bit floppy, but not unwieldy. Also, as it's super pigmented, the red will go absolutely everywhere when you go to remove it, so try to wipe away from the cuticle. I also found it helpful, once i'd removed the lacquer from the nail, to do a quick swipe with a clean remover pad to get rid of the hot pink fingers.

I'm okay!!

Hey guys, i've got a bit of bad news today. I'm fine but my car is not.

I was driving back from uni this afternoon with one of my friends when I stopped at a traffic light. Next thing I know, there's this massive thud, and we're halfway out on the intersection! Some guy had run up the back of my Toyota Yaris hatchback with his dirty great Nissan Patrol! Wish I had my camera with me! My poor little Rosie (the car :P) now has her tush crushed halfway into the back seat by the other car's massive bull bar. It was very lucky that I didn't have my second friend in the car also that I usually drive home, if she'd been in the back seat she could have been seriously hurt!

Thankfully there was a tow truck about 5 cars back who stopped to help. First thing I did was ring Mum who told me to ring the police. Duh, I should have done that first :P Turns out the guy who ran up the back of me had been drinking -_- The police have assured me that I have nothing to worry about except not having my car for 2-3 weeks. t's the train for me until mid session break. But everyone's okay, and that's the main thing.

If you've read through all of that, sorry I just need to get all of this out of my system. I received my MOO business cards this morning and I will do a review on those. I'm also going to do a mani with Revlon Red as it's the exact shade as my little car :)

PiCture pOlish Giveaway!

*This giveaway is now closed!*

This giveaway is sponsored by the lovely ladies at piCture pOlish who have been generous enough to host giveaways for every blogger who participated in their blog fest!

One lucky winner will receive 3 shades of their choosing from the piCture pOlish line (Ozotic not included unfortunately). You can check out all the colours on the blogger swatch recently generated by the blog fest.

Just like this pretty :)

Just to let you know, the prize will be sent directly from the ladies at piCture pOlish. So I will require a shipping address from the lucky winner, which will then be provided to piCture pOlish.
This giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY and will be open for entries for two weeks, closing on Wednesday the 21st of September at 6:00 pm Sydney time. To enter please leave a comment to this post to enter, with your GFC and an email address you check regularly so I can contact you if you win! Best of luck!! xoxo