The Polish Well assorted swatches

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Got some really pretty polishes to show you today, all made by Mich of the gorgeous nail blog, The Polish Well.
I bought a couple of Mich's creation last year and when she reopened her Etsy store a couple of months ago I made sure to pick up a collection of her new releases.

The Polish Well Lust

 Lust blew me away! It's part of Mich's Seven Deadly Sins Collection. I was expecting more of a tinted glitter top coat, but after three coats it reached an opaque wine/plum jelly sandwich look. It's so rich and juicy looking and definitely lust-worthy! The formula and application were perfect. I just needed one layer of Seche Vite to smooth it out too.

The Polish Well Skinny Dipping

 Skinning Dipping is possibly my favourite. It's a turquoise (yellow undertones) creme with gold and orange/copper fine flakie shimmer. Soooooo beautiful and the warmer undertones make it so wearable on me. I think this was two coats with one layer of Jordana Quick Shine top coat. I used SD as a base for THIS mani.

The Polish Well Pompadour

Pompadour is a fleshy pink speckled creme. I was actually expecting a pinker shimmer, but was still happy with this neutral hue. It is described as a "dusty rose pink with copper and taupe shimmer".  The taupe shimmer comes off looking more like speckles than shimmer, but the copper shimmer is subtle but noticeable. I needed three coats for full coverage and depth, and it is a little thick so you may want to add some thinner. I topped it off with one layer of Jordana Quick Shine.

The Polish Well Spring Kisses

Spring Kisses is a white crelly with purple flake shimmer, a sprinkling of silver holo dust and satin pastel pink hex glitter. It is so cute and perfect for Spring. I used three thin coats and there was still some VNL. The formula is moderately thick but applies nicely. I topped it off with one layer of Jordana Quick Shine top coat. And HERE'S a mani I did with SK as the base colour.

The Polish Well Tea Party

 Tea Party is a purple toned taupe holo. This is another favourite of mine! Again I was expecting a more purple shade, but I loved the finished result anyway. It is described as "dusty mauve lilac" but whatevs... This had a pretty thick formula and I really had to let each coat dry completely before adding another or I'd wipe it off with each stroke, like the China Glaze OMGs; but it's a great office appropriate soft holo so I don't care! I used Seche Vite on top of three thin coats of TP.


So I love every single one of these The Polish Well lacquers. The etsy shop opens the first and last 3 days of each month, so the next restock is about 3 weeks away, mark it in your diaries so you don't forget!!!! They offer international shipping and are based in Singapore.

Which one is your favourite? Do you follow The Polish Well's blog?


xxx
NPA

Cult Nails In The Garden Wax Finish Swatches

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I picked up the In The Garden Collection from Cult Nails during the pre-sale event when it was 20% off. I really only wanted the pink matte (or 'wax') finish lacquers, but I thought I might as well try the lot since it was better value.

Ay, Poppy! is a great glossy orange, but I don't really need another so I'll probably sell/swap it; and You're My Dandy Lion looked horrid next to my skin so I've already sold it LOL!
But the pinks are pretty great; I love the colours. My camera really struggled to focus on these mattes; so the photos aren't great, but please bare with me because you're gonna love these too!

Cult Nails Let's Get Dirty

Let's Get Dirty is a lightly pink toned taupe/putty matte with a soft shimmer. In my opinion, LGD is the best of the three. It applies quite smoothly (after I had a couple drops of thinner), reaching full coverage in two coats. I recommend thin coats and to avoid dragging; allow each layer to dry before adding the next. As a matte, they dry pretty quickly.
The shimmer is soooooooooooooo gorgeous. It just adds that bit of sheen matte finishes benefit from.

Cult Nails Kiss My Rosebush

Kiss My Rosebush is a bit of a saucy name, no?!! It's a pretty muted pink that reminds me of OPI Sparrow Me The Drama. There is a really subtle shimmer to the formula but you really can't see it on the nail. I wish you could!!!! I also found KMR to have the most difficult formula. It's opaque in two coats, but also really thick and streaky/uneven, so I ended up using a heavy fourth coat to try and fix it. I did add some thinner but it didn't change much. Pity, but it doesn't put me off, I just love the wax finish in the dusty pink.

Cult Nails Morning Glory

 Morning Glory is a dark fuchsia matte, verging on red-violet. A beautiful shade. The formula was a little thick too so I added a few drops of Seche Restore then applied three coats. It's opaque in one, but I just couldn't get it even enough for my liking. I immediately thought it was a dupe for Illamasqua Kink, but upon comparing the bottles I was happy to find MG is a few shades lighter! I do wish there was a hint of shimmer in this one too, but ho hum...

Bottle Comparison: Illamasqua Kink vs Cult Nails Morning Glory

These are touted as a 'wax' finish lacquers and I can kind of see that. But they're really just plain matte. They do not look satin-y or rubbery to my eyes.

This review might not seem favourable but I do adore these Cults, despite the formulation flaws - all mattes are a bitch to apply, right? Just buff your nails before you apply them because they really highlight your ridges.


What's your stance on the matte finish? Yay, or nay?


xxx
NPA

Borghese Almondine swatch and review

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Oh My Good Great God!!!
You have no idea how much nail mail I came home to last night, after 3 weeks holiday!
My flatmate reckoned there were 13 parcels/boxes in total!
No a bad welcome home, right?! It seriously softened the blow of having to leave Buster again and start another semester!

Yeah, so the whole 'No Buy July' so many ladies are partaking in,might become my reality too. And possibly August and September too!!

I don't have any photos for you yet, been too busy unpacking etc, but I will try to snap some today ;p

For now, I will leave you with Borghese Almondine.

 Borghese Almondine

sun

shade

sun

macro

Almondine was featured on Glitta Gloves back in April and I immediately fell in love! So did a handful of other bloggers who viewed the post, because since then I've seen a few other swatches of Almondine (a discontinued, HTF polish) pop up citing Kirsten's post as their reason for getting Almondine too!!
I jumped on ebay right away and found only 1 listing, and luckily they shipped to NZ!!!

It's a beige creme base (it looks to me as if it leans both yellow and pink, if that's possible!) with a soft pink/purple flash of shimmer (like in Essie's Demure Vixen), some matching flaked shimmer and really grainy looking flat black glitter. Well, I assume it's black glitter but it really looks like speckles of dirt. AND I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!! The photos don't really capture the shimmer, but you see it in person.
I can't get enough of the speckled look that BB Couture introduced me too, so I couldn't not love this neutral.
The one fly in the ointment for me, is that Almondine is pretty sheer. I applied 4 coats for these pics and I can still detect some VNL. It's still a beauty, but that is kind of annoying, because it looks like it ought to be a full coverage polish. I also felt like the brush was a wee bit stiff - it's the transparent plastic looking bristle kind - but it is wide, I just had to press a little lighter to avoid causing some bald patches when I added each coat.

It's now my favourite 'go to' nude!!!

What's yours?

Did you go on a polish binge in May/June too?

xxx
NPA

Two Birds Franken - Sandcastles in the Sand & a half moon mani

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Hey everyone, how's your Tuesday going?

It is frigid as f*** at my flat! And the wind howled all of last night keeping me up, so I'm not the happiest of chappys today! But I did get some nail mail to soften the blow :)

I have got my hands on the entire Illamasqua Theatre of the Nameless collection, courtesy of My Nail Graffiti's Blog Sale .

I'm not sure how everyone else felt about this collection of 'rubber finish' lacquers, but I'm wearing Taint now and am LOVING IT! It just looks like my nails are wet, definitely a shiny type of matte finish - much nicer than putting matte top coat over non-glitters.

I'll get round to posting the whole set sometime soon and then you can see for yourself!


Now, for the point of this post...
Back in March I snatched up some frankens from sisters Sarah and Sandy's etsy store Two Birds One Store.
Sarah also has a blog See Sarah Swatch you should check out!

In this mini haul I grabbed Sandcastles in the Sand, the follow up to Robin Sparkles! I just love that these polishes are inspired by How I Met Your Mother!!!!

Sandcastles in the Sand

Sandcastles in the Sand is a putty/grey neutral with subtle linear holo effect. It looks grey in some lighting and more beige in others. Maybe it's a light mousey shade? It's got a runny formula but application was pretty good and two coats was enough to hide VNL.
I think the holo is comparable to that of Glitter Gal 3D Holographic in Ballerina.

I just adore this pretty! Every time I see the bottle Sandcastles in the Sand starts playing in my head!

Oh James van der Beek! Who else loves him in The Bitch in Apartment 23?! I always enjoy an actor playing 'themselves'!

It looks like Sandy and Sarah will soon have a permanent line of frankens available on Two Birds by the end of the month so I'll keep an eye out on that and let you know :)

I decided to try out the whole nude and fluoro combo trend so I did a half moon mani with China Glaze Pool Party.

Pool Party & Sandcastles in the Sand

Pool Party's an intense neon pink - almost red tones in - and of course my camera makes it look like a coral/orange, but you get the idea. I jazzed it up a little with some purple gems on my thumb and ring fingers but didn't get any pictures. I was too impatient to try the Illamasquas on!!!


Take care now and stay warm if you're experiencing a nasty winter!

xxx
Michaela

Misa Hip to my Jive Collection Swatches & Review

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I got three of the six polishes from this collection in my last nailsupplies.us order; Bop Til You Drop, Catch A Flick & Pop The Clutch.
I chose those 3 because they looked the most interesting to me/ I wanted to see if CAF was a dupe for OPI Mermaid Tears

Turns out... it is, well kinda. Suffice it to say I do not recommend buying 1 if you already have the other:

Misa Catch A Flick & on middle finger OPI Mermaid Tears

A pastel-like sea-foam green creme; this was 2 coats of CAF on the index, ring & pinky & 2 coats of MT on my middle finger. As you can see Misa's formula is a shade lighter & OPI's might have a touch more blue/grey in it. Certainly not worth having both. I couldn't decide which formula I liked more. But because I have narrow nail beds I prefer the Misa brush. CAF wasn't as pigmented as most Misa's I own but in person the hint of VNL you can see in the photo wasn't obvious. If I knew they were this close I wouldn't have bothered getting it, but if you missed out on MT this one is cheaper!

Misa Pop The Clutch 2 coats

I really like Pop The Clutch. It is pretty much the best pink neutral shimmer I have. Okay I only have like 2 or 3 but I think this is quite flattering on me. Not too stark & the silvery shimmer manages to somehow give this a  yellow tint so it becomes a warm pink. It has a grey quality to it that I like too, it prevents me from feeling like an elderly lady who will only paints her nail 1 colour!

Misa Bop Til You Drop 3 coats - flash

indoor lighting, no flash

I love it! A super bright coral with shimmer that looks orangey-gold, Bop Til You Drop is certainly  a must have pedicure colour!. Excuse the dents in my first two nails, I was lying in bed with tacky nails so of course I munted them a bit!!!! As you can see from the two photos this polish can look quite radically different in different lighting situations - either a very pink coral or that orange coral. It doesn't look as orange as the non-flash photo shows it though, just my camera freaking out as it likes to do when a coral or orange says Howdy! Such a pain in the bumhol-eo. I feel like watching Beavis & Butthead Do America now!!!! Getting back to the subject though - when I first got  BTYD I swatched it on my big toe & in sunlight I was like 'Holy Smoke it's pretty much neon - it can look that bright. Not really a fall colour more of a summer but heck I'll wear it year round!!!!

I have a sneaking suspicion that BTYD is very very similar to OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster. Time will tell as I can't find any comparisons on the interwebs & my Touring America polishes probably won't turn up for another week or 2 :( I wish fast shipping to NZ was cheaper. I can never justify the expense considering I'm never hurting for polish - I have too many draw fulls to need a new one pronto!

I hope these swatches help you - I could only find 1 other blogger who had put this collection up so far. I wonder if that means everyone else has boycotted it? To be fair it kind of looks like Misa checked out everyone's spring & summer collections & made some copies! I forgot to mention formula! They were less pigmented than my other Misa lacquers. Usually I only need 2 coats,while these ones kind of hurt for 3 - or two if you don't mind VNL, and anyone who has read my blog before will know I find ignoring VNL very difficult indeed!

xxx NPA