Pretty & Polished - Midnight Masquerade

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Midnight Masquerade is a pretty awesome black jelly glitter.
It has a Mardi Gras feel to it, due to the fuchsia and green glitter! Thre's small and medium sized hex in both colours, very cool.

Midnight Masquerade - 2 coats - sunshine

Midnight Masquerade - 2 coats - shade

Midnight Masquerade - macro

Isn't she awesome? The jelly seems sort of brown-black to me, so it's a little softer than say, OPI Black Onyx, but it's still very dark and at 2 coats it gives full coverage, yay! No more VNL. I do love that in a jelly.

I'm wearing 1 coat of Lacey Lou's Liquid Fusion as a top coat so it's uber glossy! You definitely need a top coat because the hexes can make the finish slightly bumpy if they are stacked on top of each other.

Chelsea is opening up the store on Thursday 31 May (US Time) with like 700 bottles ready to go!!!!  Sadly, it's not available to international ladies due to shipping regulations,but she's working on that front, so hopefully we'll be able to get our hands on more of her pretties soon!

xxx
NPA


P.S. What's your favourite indie polish/brand?

Lynnderella Forget Me Not Layering Requests

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Hi everyone,

After my last post, I got a few comments wondering what Forget Me Not would look like over different coloured bases; so I thought I'd do a quick post with the old nail wheel.

 On all the nails I put 1 coat of FMN over the base polish.

L-R: China Glaze Lemon Fizz, OPI Alpine Snow, Maybelline Colorama Urban Yellow

I'm not sure how keen I am about FMN over yellow. In the photos it doesn't look too bad, but in person it looked quite dirty. The slightly blue tinted base and pink/purple/blue shimmer didn't look too great.

L-R: Maybelline Colorama Urban Yellow, China Glaze Grape Pop, Depend No. 171

I love how the purple and blue look!! And I've decided that the yellowish glitter just seems to take on the pink/purple/blue sparkle of the shimmer over darker colours. I really couldn't distinguish them, so it's either that or they just look clear?

I hope these have satisfied your curiosity, ladies.

If you ever have any requests, please just ask me in the comments or email me, it's fun to oblige (when I'm not feeling lazy!!!!

xxx
NPA

Lynnderella Forget Me Not

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Hey guys,

Is this my first ever Lynnderella post?!

I got 7 Lynn's from Llarowe last month - yes April was a bit of a humongous haul month!!!  And one of them was Forget Me Not! It's also probably my favourite of the bunch, so, so, pretty and it really reminds me of the flower. It just so happens that Forget Me Nots are my favourite wild flower too!!!!

 I layered 1 coat over yesterday's featured polish Revlon Powder Puff. I thought the ice blue shimmer would compliment the periwinkle blue of FMN. And I WAS RIGHT!

Forget Me Not - 1 coat over Powder Puff - white light

Forget Me Not - 1 coat over Powder Puff - white light

Forget Me Not - 1 coat over Powder Puff - white light

Forget Me Not - macro

Forget Me Not is a beautiful periwinkle blue themed glitter polish. There are 3 sizes of periwinkle hex glitter as well as a smattering of opal-ish medium hex glitter (that looks yellow on a light base, but sparkles different colours over darker bases) and pink/purple fleck shimmer. It's all set in a clear base, so there are endless layering combinations to try!

It applied pretty well. I basically brushed 1 coat on, only dabbed a few bald areas. I topped it of with 1 coat of Seche Vite and Viola! Fantastisch und extrem schoen!!!!

I can't get enough of the gorgeous shimmer in the base! And it goes perfect with Powder Puff.

Do you have any layering recommendations for FMN?

xxx
NPA

Revlon Powder Puff Matte Suede

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Happy Weekend Everyone!

It's been quite cold here in Christchurch, which is a pity for a Saturday, but I've had the heat pump blasting and it's oh so cosy!!!!

In honour of Winter being almost upon us, I have Powder Puff to show you. It looks just like fresh snow melting on my fingertips!!!!

First, though I have to tell you that after discovering how amazing Revlon Fire Fox was, I got on Ebay and picked up 2 more from the Matte Suede holiday collection that Revlon put for the 2010/11 Christmas season. I got Emerald City & Powder Puff. Now I just need to get Ruby Ribbon (though I'm not sure I really want it...) and I'll own the entire set.

Do you get that same, girly satisfaction when you own a whole set of something? With me it can be stationary, clothing, china, obviously nail polish and even oddly bath and shower products!!! I even get a kick out of all my cleaning products being the same brand. I fear this is a pre, pre-cursor to OCD... Is it the 30s when it tends to set in? If so, I have some time!

On with the polish!

Powder Puff - 3 coats - white light

Powder Puff - macro

 Powder Puff is a beautiful sheer milky white with ice blue shimmer in a matte suede finish.  actually forgot to take any photos without top coat, so in both the pictures it's glossy.
I think PP looks just like the snow beneath my skis on a sunny day at the mountain!!! The blue sky always seems to reflect off the snow and looks just like this!

Unfortunately, I do not like the formula as much as the colour! It's sheer and uneven so after 3 coats there was still some VNL and I put Seche Vite on to try and make the mani look more even. Up close you could see that some parts of my nail had better coverage than others!!! Still, from a distance you couldn't tell.

I ended up layering a glitter over it, but next time I wear it I might try layering PP over a white creme polish. But I wouldn't want to lose the milkiness it has. Awh, so delicate!!! I felt like such a lady wearing this & it didn't look stark at all!!!

Next time I'll show you what it looks like with Lynderella Forget Me Not!!!!!

xxx
NPA

The Spooky Bones Company - Green of Greece

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Hey everyone,

I've been uninspired and lazy of late when it comes to posting. I think it's just because the uni term is gearing towards exams so I'm busy with essays and stress is setting in...
Plus some family things are bothering me a bit. Divorced parents/families seem to be a lot more difficult to deal with, even though I'm an adult! So I'm a bit down and out but my nails have been sporting some pretty cool polishes lately!!!!

I haven't been taking photos because my blasted nails keep breaking; but I'm wearing Pahlish Sitting in a Tin Can today and ugly hands/nails be damned, I shall get a photo!

So, all things considered, tonight I thought I should put some effort in to this blog.

I bought Green of Greece from Spooky Bones on Etsy way back at the beginning of March. Actually that wasn't so long ago considering it's only the 24th of May, but it feels like forever ago!!!
I feel bad that I haven't really given any blog love to the Spooky Bones line, they just kept being put on the back burner in the 'untrieds' draw!!!

I really like this green, which I believe was inspired by the oxidation of copper - which seems to be used a heck of  lot on medieval buildings all over Europe - especially cathedrals and the like.

Green of Greece - 2 coats - white light

Green of Greece - 2 coats - white light

Green of Greece - 2 coats - macro

Green of Greece is a dirty mint/jade green creme base filled with micro glitter (mainly gold and silver I think, hard to tell) that gives it a sandy quality and then there is some sparse fine blue and purple glitter in there too. I really love the dirty, grainy almost messy look of GOG. It's completely one of a kind! It applied nicely too, I used 2 coats for even, opaque coverage.


I tried to find a glitter to layer on top of GOG and ended up using Bow to the Pharaoh from Dollish Polish

Bow to the Pharaoh over Green of Greece - white light

Bow to the Pharaoh over Green of Greece - white light

I think this is 1 coat of BTTP. It's cute but I think it would have looked better over a blue. It kind of tinted GOG a little yellow in a bad way!!!


What do you think?
Would you like to see more from Spooky Bones?

xxx
NPA

China Glaze Luxe & Lush

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Just another swatch for you today ladies

Luxe & Lush over HIYLOPI - white light

Luxe & Lush over HIYLOPI - white light

Luxe & Lush over HIYLOPI - white light

Luxe & Lush over HIYLOPI - macro

This is Luxe & Lush from the Hunger Games Collection - Capitol Colors. A mylar flake top coat that shifts from copper to green, blue and gold set in a clear base. Here, I'm wearing 1 coat over OPI Honk If You Love OPI.
I'm not wearing a top coat in this pic and the mylar is thick and rough so you definitely need a coat or 2 to even it out.

I'm quite fond of L&L, I'd love to try it over some dark blues!

xxx
NPA

BB Couture - Santa's Sak

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I should probably be posting this at xmas time, but I got it in April and can't wait that long!

Santa's Sak - 2 coats - white light

Santa's Sak - 2 coats - white light

Santa's Sak - 2 coats - white light

Santa's Sak - 2 coats - colour corrected

Santa's Sak - 2 coats - MACRO colour corrected

Santa's Sak is one of the Holiday colours for Men. A cherry red jellyish finish filled with silver and gold glitters as well as holo bar glitter. It goes on surprisingly opaque in 2 coats. I didn't put on any top coat for the pics but you'll need at least 1 coat to smooth the glitter out.

My camera makes all blue toned reds look like orange-reds so I colour corrected the last couple of photos to look more accurate. It is definitely a cool cherry red in person. I was impressed by the formula, very even, which is awesome!

Hope you all had lovely relaxing weekends!

xxx
NPA

Pretty & Polished - Forever Rose

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How long has it been since I've posted a mainstream polish?!
Feels like forever! An today is no different.

Forever Rose is a sheer matte pale pink with mega gold shimmer. It's very pretty, but holy moly does it need more pigment! In the photos I'm wearing 5 coats. Yes 5 coats! And I still have some serious VNL. I just kept layering til there was a decent depth to the colour and gave up on getting it opaque.

macro

All these pics were taken under my daylight lamp.

See how pretty she is? Just wish it was more opaque, but very nice for a subtle mani. Not sure what it looks like with top coat... I like it matte!

xxx
NPA

BB Couture - Anger

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Hey guys,

Another short one, not much in the writing mood.

BB Couture Anger is a beautiful deep dark corn flower blue, leans quite purple. It's full of micro shimmer as well as flaky shimmer like African Queen. I used 2 coats for full coverage, but you can see the cuticle drag. So let it dry in between coats.

Anger - 2 coats - white light

Anger - 2 coats - white light

Anger - 2 coats - white light

Anger - macro

xxx
NPA

Sinful Colors Zeus & Bundle Monster

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Herrow my pretties,

I told you yesterday that I had finally done a stamping job I could be proud of.

Well here she is; feathers from BM plate 214, stamped using A England Princess Tears on a base of Sinful Colors Zeus

I took these photos right after I finished the stamping just to see if I could get any decent ones under the lamp. Then overnight tragedy struck! When I fight my sleeping pills i get real frigidity and anxious which leads to nail biting on a disastrous scale!!! I no longer have a thumb or index nail on my right hand. Well there is a sliver of a white tip but they're crazily shaped so it'll be a couple of weeks before they are ready for photos again.

The point of that ramble was that  I couldn't get any photos in sunlight today so now all I have are these. The upside is they show the stamping fairly accurate.

I chose Princess Tears because I've seen other bloggers stamp with it and it is similar to Zeus with a purple and pink flash thing going on, only much lighter so I figured they'd go well together. And I love how subtle it is, very forgiving and not too loud.

Seems like whenever I stamp with Konad Special Black I feel self conscious because it stands out so much on my stubby fingers!

Really glad this stamping worked out because it's made me realise how much I love to wear nail art - I really don't want to take this mani off, so I'm repainting my index and thumb!!!

Here is Zeus on its own.

Zeus - 2 coats - white light

Zeus - 2 coats - overcast

Zeus - 2 coats - overast

 Zeus is a beautiful darker lavender (I think it looks a couple of shades darker than the photos show) with pink shimmer that isn't exactly subtle, but isn't obvious from a distance either.

I think it's the perfect Spring/Autumn transitional shade, and I know I'll be rocking it this winter too! The formula was pretty flawless. I imagined Zeus would be a watery PITA but was pleasantly surprised that it covered in two coats and self levelled. Some may find it to be a little thick and sticky, but not in a bad way if you can imagine that!!!!

I've had it on for 3 days now and I only have minor tip wear, definitely not too shabby for a cheapy!!! Thank you Ebay or I would not have been able to get my hands on this beauty. I know most people think it's evil, but sometimes it's my guardian angel!

xxx
NPA

Keeping It Brief with BB Couture AFRICAN QUEEN

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It's a short post tonight; but I have to share that I did my most successful stamping tonight. It might have something to do with using a subtle holo as the stamping polish or perhaps my 'rolling' technique is improving...

But, right now I've got African Queen from BB Couture for you.

African Queen - 3 coats - white light

African Queen - macro

 African Queen falls somewhere between  dark jade and grass green. My camera's brought out too much yellow in the first photo and leached the colour from the macro!!! So It's closest to the macro only a couple of shades darker in person. It has that beautiful flaked shimmer that I can never resist - possibly my favourite polish finish!!

BTW 1 YEAR BLOGOVERSARY and 301st POST, not bad.

Appreciate all my readers but now I'm off to bed!!!!!!!


xxx
NPA

Quench-ing my thirst! Cult Nails Quench & Dollish Polish Team Salvatore

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Sunday night! Happy Mother's Day to all the mum's and mums to be out there (even the ones with fur babies!!!).

I know I'd have loved a card/just a smooch with wee Buster - who is now 11 months old, holy crapper-roo! They just grow up so fast, don't they, haha.

Got a bit of a vampire inspired look for you today.

Team Salvatore over Quench - white light

Team Salvatore over Quench - white light

I saw a blogger (can't remember who now sorry) had layered Team Salvatore over a red polish - which I hadn't actually thought of, I thought that the red of the glitter and polish would clash, see I'm a silly billy! Anyway, it looked gorgeous so I followed suit.
And what is more appropriate a base for a Vampire Diaries inspired polish than Quench - a rich red creme from Cult Nails?!
I just used 1 coat of Team Salvatore on top of 2 coats of Quench and didn't have a top coat on in these pics. I quite like the look!

Here's some swatches of Quench on its own:

Quench - 2 coats - shade

Quench - 2 coats - sunlight

Quench - sunlight - closeup

Quench has a really nice 2 coat formula, with an amazingly shiny finish. I had sort of hoped it'd be a bit bloodier but it's a pink leaning red, still very pretty and a bit of a classic.

Enjoy what's left of your weekends!

xxx
NPA

Epic Layering - for a lazy polisher like me!

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A little background to my layering:

My nails have been a fright of late, due to the far too much swatching, peeling off my glitters (yikes!), and skipping the nail balm/cuticle oil routine. So I needed to keep them nails painted to strengthen them, and stop removing the lacquer every 5 seconds!

How did I manage to keep the same polish on for a full 3 days? By layering another polish on top every day!

Here's what they looked like step by step:
 Day 1:

The Dream Girl - 2 coats - white light

The Dream Girl - 2 coats - white light

 The Dream Girl from Spooky Bones - a brand I found on etsy - is a dark muted purple shimmer. In low light it looks a lot like the colour of pencil lead with a purple tinge. The shimmer is really pretty, as you can see in the (crappy) photos, it is green and pink and makes what could be a blah colour come alive!
I had a bit of cuticle drag probably because I didn't wait long enough between coats. I just left it like this because  knew I'd be layering it.

Moonbow over TDG - 1 coat - white light

Moonbow over TDG - 1 coat - macro

Next, I applied 1 thin coat of Specialita Hits Phenomena Moonbow on top and put on 1 layer of top coat. Moonbow is a colour shifting glitter top in a clear base. The colour shift is seriously gorgeous in this one! The dominant colour is the blue & green you can see in the centre of the nails and that shifts to purple & pink. But there is also some gold and orange visible at certain angles which just equals GORGEOUSNESS!

I didn't particularly like how sparse the glitter was, but it was getting late so I left it like that for the first day.

Day 2:

Moonbow over TDG - 2 coats - white light

Moonbow over TDG - 2 coats - white light

Moonbow over TDG - 2 coats - macro

 So, the next day I added another coat of Moonbow and was delighted with the results. It certainly looked better on the base with more glitter. I only regret not getting any photos showing the pink & purple colour shift better! It's a bit difficult to do using my lamp :( 


Can you guess what I did next?

Day 3:

1 coat Hefesto added to the mix

I added a holographic top coat of course!!! Specialita Hits Hefesto arrived a couple of weeks ago and I actually didn't touch it until this manicure. I think I must have been trying to preserve the tiny 6mL bottle it came in!!! And JAYSUS it looks amazing!!! From an average distance it really looked like a dark purple multichrome linear holographic. Then when I looked close I could see the individual glitters peaking through and all the colour shifting and rainbowness of it all blew my mind!

I really couldn't believe I hadn't done more layering in the past. I'm just seriously lazy. And I adhere to the 'take off the last thing you put on' rule when it comes to clothing, makeup and jewellery because whenever I add that 1 extra bit of pizazz to a mani it usually ends up ruining it! Not in this case though!!!!

Now here are a bigillion more pics for you to ogle!

 

 Crazy awesome, right?!

And here's a bottle shot

L-R: The Dream Girl, Moonbow, Hefesto

I've recently bought quite a few layering polishes (like colour morphing top coats) so I really ought to try out more combinations and share the results with you all.

BTW keeping my nails painted for 3 days straight really helped them so I'm going to try to keep on leaving manis on til they grow out and are stronger!

xxx
NPA