Ah, another week in to the new year!
Here's a little recap of my day: (for those who are not interested, feel free to scroll down to the photos!)
I woke up at 3:30am last night and did not get back to sleep. Three hours in to killing time, I woke my puppy up (a wee bit early for him, half the time he's in his crate til 8:30-9am, lazy mummy) and decided we'd brave the great outdoors for a walk since the forecast was for showers turning to rain in the afternoon.
Now Buster wasn't that excited by the idea. He much preferred licking the cat and coaxing his big brother out of bed for some rough house :)
I finally managed to convince him it was a good idea by 7:30am. Of course it drizzled on and off (I may have needed to wipe my glasses several times so that I could see where we were going), and Busty got quite wet seeing it had rained all night and he has a fondness for laying down in long grass mid walk!! He's a bit of a character :)
I was a bit proud of myself for putting the early morning hours to good use, since my standard excuse for not walking the dog is that the weather is crap; but then the rain never came back, in fact by tea time it was a wee bit sunny out there. So what did I learn? I got wet and blow dried the dog completely unnecessarily.
He did have a massive sleep in the afternoon though, so it gave me a break from the incessant chewing!!! He destroyed two pairs of jandals (thongs or flip flops for foreigners) in the weekend and has been eyeing up my last pair!!! He makes up for his naughtiness by giving 'good cuddle', though!!!!!
So now on to the polish 'bit'...
My darling/awesome/amazing/(insert cool adjectives here) sister in Australia sent me some Essence Colour & Go polishes for xmas! BTW Love that European brands spell the word COLOUR correctly!!!!!!!! All the US brands do my head in spelling-wise. I've started second guessing myself whenever I spell a word that has an US English alternative!
Here are the goodies:
Camouflage is an awesome khaki/olive brown? creme. I just think of it as a military hue. Only two coats, dries super shiny (as you can see) and quick, plus it's not a dead on dupe for OPI A-taupe The Space Needle, yay! Even if it was I wouldn't mind - it's like the mini version you take on holiday!!! It's actually a shade or two darker than the OPI.
Movie Star is a blue based concrete grey creme. It's perfect. I only had maybe two greys in my stash and they were relatively light in comparison. Good one KT Pie!!! Again, 2 coats, great shine & quick dry time.
Viva La Green is Essence's version of the super popular 2011 jade/mint/sea foam green creme. It's brighter and less greyed than the other big ones like OPI's Mermaid Tears. Not sure how it compares to the Orly Ancient Jade as I do not own it. It's a dream to apply, are you tired of me saying 2 coats, super shiny and dries fast, yet?
Break Through deserves two pics because it has a beautiful subtle shimmer you only really see in direct sunlight. It's a pretty bright yet sort of medium/dark red based purple. The shimmer looks sort of golden-ish. This is probably my fav, I'm not too original! This one actually needed 3 coats to look nice at the cuticles, but I suspect that was because the end of the brush was cut sort of diagonally which made application a bit more difficult. BTW the polish didn't bubble, it just looks a bit bumpy because there were bits of cotton fluff stuck to my nails with the base coat I used!!
Luxury Secret is a metallic gunmetal grey. Or is this too light to be a gunmetal? Either way it's very similar to Orly Sea Gurl but not as complex. Two coats and I was good to go!
KT Pie also got me Shiny Goddess, the gold version of Luxury Secret, but I haven't tried it out yet. It's not a yellow gold at all, thank god! Will probably add it to this post when I get a chance.
So I didn't do too bad at Christmas, did I?
My dad's in the US/Canada at the moment and I gave him a list of polish brands to look for at places like Ross, so hopefully he manages to locate some harder to get polishes for me! Though last time I asked him to pick up some OPIs duty free he came home empty handed because it was all a bit difficult for him!
Til next time,
xxx
NPA
Here's a little recap of my day: (for those who are not interested, feel free to scroll down to the photos!)
I woke up at 3:30am last night and did not get back to sleep. Three hours in to killing time, I woke my puppy up (a wee bit early for him, half the time he's in his crate til 8:30-9am, lazy mummy) and decided we'd brave the great outdoors for a walk since the forecast was for showers turning to rain in the afternoon.
Now Buster wasn't that excited by the idea. He much preferred licking the cat and coaxing his big brother out of bed for some rough house :)
I finally managed to convince him it was a good idea by 7:30am. Of course it drizzled on and off (I may have needed to wipe my glasses several times so that I could see where we were going), and Busty got quite wet seeing it had rained all night and he has a fondness for laying down in long grass mid walk!! He's a bit of a character :)
I was a bit proud of myself for putting the early morning hours to good use, since my standard excuse for not walking the dog is that the weather is crap; but then the rain never came back, in fact by tea time it was a wee bit sunny out there. So what did I learn? I got wet and blow dried the dog completely unnecessarily.
He did have a massive sleep in the afternoon though, so it gave me a break from the incessant chewing!!! He destroyed two pairs of jandals (thongs or flip flops for foreigners) in the weekend and has been eyeing up my last pair!!! He makes up for his naughtiness by giving 'good cuddle', though!!!!!
So now on to the polish 'bit'...
My darling/awesome/amazing/(insert cool adjectives here) sister in Australia sent me some Essence Colour & Go polishes for xmas! BTW Love that European brands spell the word COLOUR correctly!!!!!!!! All the US brands do my head in spelling-wise. I've started second guessing myself whenever I spell a word that has an US English alternative!
Here are the goodies:
 |
| Camouflage - 2 coats - lamp |
Camouflage is an awesome khaki/olive brown? creme. I just think of it as a military hue. Only two coats, dries super shiny (as you can see) and quick, plus it's not a dead on dupe for OPI A-taupe The Space Needle, yay! Even if it was I wouldn't mind - it's like the mini version you take on holiday!!! It's actually a shade or two darker than the OPI.
 |
| Movie Star - 2 coats - lamp |
Movie Star is a blue based concrete grey creme. It's perfect. I only had maybe two greys in my stash and they were relatively light in comparison. Good one KT Pie!!! Again, 2 coats, great shine & quick dry time.
 |
| Viva La Green - 2 coats - lamp |
Viva La Green is Essence's version of the super popular 2011 jade/mint/sea foam green creme. It's brighter and less greyed than the other big ones like OPI's Mermaid Tears. Not sure how it compares to the Orly Ancient Jade as I do not own it. It's a dream to apply, are you tired of me saying 2 coats, super shiny and dries fast, yet?
 |
| Break Through - 3 coats - sunlight |
 |
| Break Through - 3 coats - sunlight |
Break Through deserves two pics because it has a beautiful subtle shimmer you only really see in direct sunlight. It's a pretty bright yet sort of medium/dark red based purple. The shimmer looks sort of golden-ish. This is probably my fav, I'm not too original! This one actually needed 3 coats to look nice at the cuticles, but I suspect that was because the end of the brush was cut sort of diagonally which made application a bit more difficult. BTW the polish didn't bubble, it just looks a bit bumpy because there were bits of cotton fluff stuck to my nails with the base coat I used!!
 |
| Luxury Secret - 2 coats - natural light |
Luxury Secret is a metallic gunmetal grey. Or is this too light to be a gunmetal? Either way it's very similar to Orly Sea Gurl but not as complex. Two coats and I was good to go!
KT Pie also got me Shiny Goddess, the gold version of Luxury Secret, but I haven't tried it out yet. It's not a yellow gold at all, thank god! Will probably add it to this post when I get a chance.
So I didn't do too bad at Christmas, did I?
My dad's in the US/Canada at the moment and I gave him a list of polish brands to look for at places like Ross, so hopefully he manages to locate some harder to get polishes for me! Though last time I asked him to pick up some OPIs duty free he came home empty handed because it was all a bit difficult for him!
Til next time,
xxx
NPA
lovely shades they look great on you!
ReplyDeletewhy thank you @Shannara! BTW I absolutely love Nails and Stuff! You're nails are gorgeous
ReplyDeleteYea Im such a good sister, since I started your addiction it was very hard to send them on! I deserve a giveaway, what does everyone else think?
ReplyDeleteJj, have fun in chch xx
Yea Im such a good sister, since I started your addiction it was very hard to send them on! I deserve a giveaway, what does everyone else think?
ReplyDeleteJj, have fun in chch xx
@katie you can have a giveaway anytime you like, we just have to rule out the polishes you already have! Actually I need to get rid of some so I'll see what I can do sis :)
ReplyDelete