Elevation Polish Pics & Bad English

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So I'm watching MTV Classic Top 100 Ultimate Wedding Songs...

Number 16 on the Countdown is Bad English with When I See You Smile.

Tell me how you could possibly have this playing at your wedding without cracking up and possibly wetting your very fancy wedding pants a little?!

The whole time I was thinking, "The 80s must have been a golden era for men's hair stylists". With layering like that and all the maintenance, they must have been making mega bucks, right?!


Just had to share that with you all!

Now for the polish portion of this post!

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns

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Azure Caverns is a shimmery cyan with iridescent hex glitters. It has a real ocean/beach/surf feel to it so perfect for Auckland lately. I'm even rocking a slight tan thanks to walking the dogs during the middle of the day, yikes! They love it though!!!
AC is a bit sheer so I used 3 thin coats to mostly cover my VNL, then topped with some Seche Vite.

Elevation Polish Alphubel

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 Alphubel is the prettiest pale sky blue with a semi-subtle ice blue and possibly pinky-purple shimmer. It's truly stunning, my favourite light blue polish of all time! I didn't love the formula, it's quite thin and streaky. I applied 3-4 thin coats and let each dry completely before adding the next. I might leave the cap off for a short time to thicken it up a little and that should solve it. I finished it off with some SV.

Elevation Polish Mount Yu

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Mount Yu is the reincarnated Yushan from the Kickin' It Ole School Collection. A beautiful pale mint shimmer with yellow undertones. It shares Alphubel's formula issues so you need to apply thin coats and let each one dry well before moving on to the next. I actually layered it over Orly Ridge Filler so I only needed 3 coats and they looked more even. I topped it with SV of course.

Elevation Polish Pic de Sotllo

Wow-weeeeee! Pic de Sotllo is the most beautiful dark blue creme/jelly hybrid. It photographs royal blue but in reality it is a few shades deeper. It is equally gorgeous though! The formula is pleasing and you get decent coverage in 2 medium coats. I did opt for 3 for the photos though, plus 1 layer of SV. I'm not sure how the bubbling came about but it might have been because I used Orly Flash Dry Drops on them. It has caused bubbling in the past...


Sadly Alphubel and Mount Yu are no longer available as they were brought back for November and December restocks only and have gone back in to retirement again! But you can still get Azure Caverns and Pic de Sotllo from the Elevation Polish big cartel store now for $10 and $8 respectively.

I'm just waiting on my I Heart Yeti polish to arrive now :) It's exciting to be waiting on a mystery polish!!!!!


xxx
NPA

Glitter Gradient - My NYE Mani

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Remember how I said I managed to delete photos of my New Year's Eve nails?
Well, I sort of recreated the manicure because it was too pretty not to share with you!


Originally, I had a couple of gold caviar nails too, but I didn't bother with that hassle this time! 

Glitter gradient using Ninja Polish Shattered Star on Paint Box Polish Ice Cap

Shattered Star is a blingy mix of small and fine gold and silver holo glitters in a clear base. It was a holiday release from Ninja Polish and I think they might still have some in stock too! I started with a white base of OPI Alpine Snow topped with Paint Box Polish Ice Cap (a milky/sheer white glass fleck shimmer) and then use a sponge to make the glitter gradient.
The sponging does not come naturally to me! I'm yet to get the hang of it, but I live in hope!

What were your nails sporting when they rang in the New Year?

Shattered Star is available *here* for $9/15mL bottle.


xxx
NPA

Velvet Manicure with Born Pretty Store Flocking Powder - review

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Can you believe this was my first ever velvet manicure?

I loved the look of flocking powder when everyone was trying it out last year, but I never got round to actually buying any because I just thought it was such an impractical form of nail art.

But Born Pretty Store gave me the opportunity to review some and I leapt at the chance!
This is pink www.bornprettystore.com/flocking-powder-manicure-nail-nail-polish-pink-p-4477.html and they carry heaps of other colours too.

For $7.99 you receive approx. 13g in a plastic pottle - enough for up to 10 manis, I think. It's a baby pink
so I paired it with OPI Mod About You.

All you have to do is apply 1 coat of polish, then one by one paint the second of polish on your nail. Over a paper plate, pour the flocking powder over your nail to completely cover it and gently press the powder into the polish to help it adhere. Give your nail a gentle shake off and repeat until all your nails are covered.
After about 10-15 minutes once your nails are fully dry go about your clean-up because the powder hangs around your hands! I used my usual acetone/brush removal method around my cuticles, then gently washed my hands and my nails looked perfect (well once the flocking powder dried they did).
All the excess flocking powder that landed on the paper plate can be returned to the pottle for use next time. That way you avoid wasting it!

Here are the results:

I couldn't believe how simple and basically foolproof this method of nail art is. Again I don't think it's to practical, but I imagine you'd get a day's wear out of it before and bald spots start showing. The baby pink furriness reminds me of Easter time!! I can also see wearing this to a baby shower!!! It's kind of like a terry cloth robe for your nails.


I also got these gorgeous little red bows with pink polka dots to review too. http://www.bornprettystore.com/bowknot-shape-stickers-acrylic-nail-p-4161.html

Source

I will be reviewing them separately too, but I thought they'd look darling with the velvet mani so I added one to my accent nail with a little polish glue.

I'm not the cutesy cutesy type but these bows are sooooooo gorgeous! I want to do a Minnie Mouse or Hello Kitty mani with them!

Born Pretty Store stocks these and HEAPS more nail art accessories and polish and you can use my special reader's coupon to get 10% your order.

What do you think? Have you used flocking powder before?


xxx
NPA

Enchanted Polish - Octopus Garden Swatchfest

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I just have swatches today of Octopus Garden from the Enchanted Polish Beatles Collection.

Enchanted Polish Octopus Garden

 The formula is on the thicker side and applies very nicely in 2 coats. You get a multi-chromatic shift from blue-purple-pink-orange-yellow as well as a scattered/linear holo effect.
I LOVE IT!

You can purchase Enchanted Polish from Llarowe and Harlow & Co, but they always sell out soooooooooooo quickly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


xxx
NPA

Dandy Nails Chilled Down & Cashmere Night

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Buster is a serious ball of energy today! He's actually being a bit naughty barking at me to play with him. But he just wants to be chased around the house and I can't run because I've hurt my knee.
Instead I'm throwing an empty pump bottle for him to fetch. Fetch actually means for him to chew the shit out of until he runs back to me 5 minutes later to wrestle it off of him and repeat!! In case you're wondering why we're doing this with a water bottle, it's because he's destroyed all his other toys and mummy hasn't bought him anymore yet!
What do you get for a dog who is toy size and yet shreds 'heavy duty' chew toys within 20 minutes? He actually manages to decimate the tougher toys faster than the soft animal ones!

Anyway, I pounced on these 2 Dandy Nails polishes from her Holiday Collection as soon as they were up on Ninja Polish.

 Dandy Nails Chilled Down

Chilled Down has a light safari stone base with blue and gold flake glitter. It's so beautiful and different. I have Pahlish Ace of Fours that utilises the same type of glitter flakes and I can tell you I'm really digging them!!!  Application was very nice, I think I only needed 2 coats. I would have liked the base to have been closer to a white because it feels a teensy bit 'dirty', but that is just personal preference.

Dandy Nails Cashmere Night

Cashmere Night is a beautiful matte (ever so slightly smoky) purple with blue flakes and pink/red microshimmer. It applied nicely, with fantastic pigmentation like most mattes. I used 2 coats but you could get away with 1 thick one. I didn't get any photos of it glossy but as you can imagine, the shimmer really comes out to play!

If you live State-side you can get Dandy Nails direct from her Etsy store too! I love Sandy's blue-centric tastes, but she also has some beauties in other colours too.

xxx

NPA