Cult Nails It's A New Day Collection

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Wow, I've been gone for a while now guys. 

I do not even know when I blogged last... 

First I was uninspired, then I just got busy. Funny how having a full time job makes me more inclined to fall straight in to bed when I get home, rather than set up my light box, pull off a manicure & snap away, hey.

I've sort of missed being out of the loop in the beauty/nail blogging world - even if my wallet has been rather chuffed!!

Tonight, I have the last nail related purchase I made before taking a break from it all:

It's A New Day came out in April (I had to search that on the interwebs because I seriously had no idea when I got these - it feels like a lifetime since a nail polish parcel arrived on my doorstep).

Designed as a spring collection it contains surprise, surprise, some pastel-esque hues.

Cult Nails Evolution

 Evolution is the star of this mini collection. A semi-sheer pale peach crelly - it takes about 4 coats to give full coverage, but the squishy shine is worth that extra dry time! Whenever I wear this dream I get loads of compliments. It is gentle enough to look almost neutral, but the hint of peach still makes it stand out - the best office appropriate compromise!

Cult Nails Falling Hard

Falling Hard did not play nice with my camera. In person, this is a cool, purple leaning light-medium pink; but my camera sucked most of the colour out of it. This is in the wheelhouse of Essie A Splash of Grenadine, which I also have, but it has a creme formula and covers nicely in 2 coats.

Cult Nails New Day

New Day is a pastel sunny lemon creme. It doesn't have as problematic an application as some yellow pastels, but I still felt the need to do 3 coats and add some Seche Vite to smooth out the finish. Considering I purged all my yellows last year, it is quite nice to have one again - just in cases.

Though these are some nice staples for any collection, none of these lacquers are terribly unique. However, the collection came with a stamping plate that I couldn't pass up! It has an argyle pattern!!!!!!!

I have only tried out the handwriting stamp - and I didn't use my Seche to topcoat so it smeared bad - but I know I'll try more in the future.

Let me know if you can figure out what that wee paragraph says - all I can get from the photos is "...joined the" & "... and fell". I think Love might be one of the missing words?

Just so you know, I hope to post a couple of times a week from now on. I still do my nails most nights, I just haven't been getting in to the nail art because it takes too long and I get sooooo sleepy!

I've got some products reviews I ought to have posted a few months back, so stay tuned my pretties!

xxx

NPA

Claire's Mood Polish in Innocent/Daring

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Right now thermal polishes are all the rage again, but I've got one here that came out a few years back...

Claire's Mood Innocent/Daring

Innocent/Daring is a grey to camel/yellow creme. It looks sort of khaki in transition. Like lots of thermals, this guy dries satin matte, but top coat solves that issue and helps to even it out too.

I nabbed this from Leslie's blog sale a while ago.

xxx

NPA

Happy Hands Mayonegg

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Oh Happy Hands, your Arrested Development Collection is the gift that keeps giving!!!!

'Her?'

If you don't get that reference you need to get yourself the series DVD pronto.

Happy Hands Mayonegg

 Mayonegg is a white creme with white shimmer flecks and matte yellow hex glitter. This perfectly embodies Anne's or 'her' favourite snack food: a hard boiled egg squirted with packet mayonnaise!!!!

I'm not a fan of the formula. It's thick and streaky and dries pretty bumpy in 2-3 coats. I smoothed it with a layer of both Glitter Gloss and Seche Vite.

It really felt like I had fried eggs on my nails!!!

Hope your week is going well ladies, take care,

xxx

NPA

Sunday Spam

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You may have seen on Facebook already, but the winner of the 25th B'day Giveaway is Kelly Graham. Congrats Kelly! She has claimed the $25 voucher for Harlow & Co.

Thanks for all the support guys, it was great reading through what you all did for your last b'days! For everyone who had to cook dinner for their family, I sincerely hope that this year your husbands/children put in some effort and either cook for you or take you out for tea!!!!

Got some swatch spam for you today, enjoy.

Happy Hands Banana Stand

Ninja Polish Pinkerbell & Stamping

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I had a 90 minute massage today. Phwoar! By the end of it I admit I'd fallen in love with my masseuse a little. Hot stones baby!!!!

I finally picked up Pinkerbell from Ninja Polish (created by NailVenturous) in December.
I applied 3 coats and 2 layers of Glitter Tamer. Then I stamped it using a plate from Ninja Polish too. It was a really hot day though so, the stamp didn't transfer properly. It's still really cute though.

Konad Special Polish Pastel Pink with OB15 over Ninja Polish Pinkerbell

I'm in love with OB15 Stamping Plate. It has a tribal/80s-90s fluoro vibe to all the full nail patterns. There's also some random cartoon cats on it which are pretty cute, though I'm not sure I'll ever use them...

And here Pinkerbell is on her lonesome.

Ninja Polish Pinkerbell

Pinkerbell is brighter in person. My lightbox just can't seem to photograph floams quite right. This is my favourite floam by far! It's pink, blue, green and a sprinkling of yellow micro matte glitters in a clear base. I used 3 thin coats followed by 2 layers of Glitter Gloss in these pics. I think it'd look best layered over a complimentary pink or some ridgefiller/nude undies to make it look like the coverage is perfect. Application isn't too bad, you just have to wait for each coat to dry before adding the next or the bottom coat's glitter may move, creating bald spots.

Whaddya think?!


xxx
NPA

The BATTLE #4: Neon vs Pastel

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I had some fun with this challenge y'all!

SPLATTER TIME

Splatter Mani with a base of Sinful Colors Unicorn

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To achieve this look I applied 2 coats of Sinful Colors Unicorn, which is a pastel yellow creme. It looked slightly uneven, but I knew the splatter would cover most of it up so I didn't add a 3rd coat.
Next I splattered on China Glaze Blue Sparrow which is a 'neon' blue with ultra fine glitter, using a straw. Once that dried, I splattered on China Glaze Flying Dragon another 'neon' purple with ultra fine glitter. After that one dried I splattered on my final neon, Pool Party also from China Glaze. It's a super neon pink that always photographs more orange, I think because it leans a little red/pink. I finished up with 1 thick coat of NYC GCS which left my nails glossy and even to the touch.

My last splatter mani was a whole year ago when I was doing the 31 Day Challenge, so I felt like the time was right to give it another go. Even though I completely taped off my nails, the clean up was horrendous! It might have just been the fact that I used neons for the splatter... Anyway the acetone didn't do the trick entirely.

An entire pastel splatter mani would've been fun too! Or a spun sugar mani in neons or pastels, yum reminds me of candy! Maybe I can work those in to another challenge.

If it were up to you, would you pick NEONS or PASTELS ?

Don't forget to check all the other participants Challenge #3 posts:
Two Matejas Creating
An Indie Girl's Passion
Lacquered Tips
My Wondrous Marvellous Obsession
Cats n Nails
Jibber Jabber
Life in Color!

Annie Suzie 

Polished Polygot

xxx
NPA

Orly Feel The Vibe Neons Spam

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 It's another edition of Sunday Spam for y'all. I'm hoping this makes up for my absence over the past week. I've got all the neons from Orly Feel The Vibe Summer 2012 Collection for you plus Hottie - a neon pink from the Hot Stuff range. There's also lots of glitter thrown in for good measure!

 Orly Beach Cruiser

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Beach Cruiser is a standard neon pink. It dries more like a creme than a neon though, more shiny than matte. I didn't love the application, it needed 3 coats for good coverage and to even it out.

Chelsea Amethyst Gem over Beach Cruiser

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Amethyst Gem is a fine pink iridescent glitter top coat. Looks like sugar! I'm just wearing 1 coat over Beach Cruiser in this shot and application was perfect.

Orly Melt Your Popsicle

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Melt Your Popsicle is a typical neon orange. Super bright! I'm wearing 3 coats here and there is still a hint of VNL. Application was as troubling as Beach Cruiser. I had to resort to thick coats to give the illusion of evenness.

Claire's unamed Black & Silver Holo Glitter over Melt Your Poopsicle

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The unnamed Claire's black and silver holo glitter gives MYP a very Halloween feel! Application is ok, the hexes like to clump on top of each other and you need to make sure they don't overhang the free edge. This is 1 1/2 coats.

Orly Skinny Dip

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Skinny Dip is the best! It's not a real neon but it's a light and bright blue with a beautiful shimmer. It dries very matte, and the shimmer really glows with some tip coat. It had a chalkier application and this was 3 coats. The top coat really helped to hide the uneven application.

Orly Glowstick

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Glowstick is a blinding neon yellow. Super awesome colour. Super horrendous application. I'm wearing a total of 5 coats and it's still uneven as hell. There was cuticle drag, VNL, seriously uneven streakiness, the works. Perhaps layering it over white would give a better result?

Orly Hottie

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Hottie is a red toned neon pink. My camera despises this neon - it is more in the vein of China Glaze Pool Party. It's got a more sheer formula than the other neons but application is more even so it's a bit of a trade off. I'm wearing 3 coats.

Claire's unnamed Silver Holo Glitter over Hottie

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 I really like this unnamed silver holo glitter from Claire's. It has the same clumping issue as the black & silver, but it'll look good over any polish. I'm wearing 1 coat.


I hope you're making the most of your weekends, I'm trying to rid of  a killer headache, but my flatmate seems to be having a family reunion in the lounge so the noise isn't really helping!!

xxx
NPA

Takko Lacquer Swatches & Review

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Hello ladies!

Guess how I have been spending my Saturday so far? Catching up on SLEEP!
Seriously.

And it has been the best day for swatching ever! The sun was out and everything!!! Oh well, I'll survive.

I went CRAZY when Takko Lacquer opened on Etsy in July; but I held off purchasing for a little over a month, because a) they are $15 a bottle and b) there were no swatches anywhere!
But I talked to Sheryl about placing an order and she was so helpful and let me know that Nails and Noms was working on swatches.
So I waited a little longer and stalked N&N's blog but she was on holiday for ages so I made the gamble and ordered 6/8 Takkos available!
Sheryl was amazing again and gave me a major shipping discount plus threw in my choice of mini polish!

Well, on Tuesday they arrived in my letter box!!!

I had to go to work 10 minutes after the mail man dropped them off and it was so hard for me to walk out the door without them!!! They are truly that amazing. It also helped that N&N posted her review last week as well!!!

So every night I've been working hard at getting them photographed, so I can make you all drool over them!!
All these photos were taken under my lamp and I'll discuss the formula and application at the end of the post this time.

Kaleidoscope Eyes

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Kaleidoscope Eyes is a holographic purple/aqua green duochrome. It's probably considered to be a scattered holo, but the shimmer has a very weak linear look under direct light. And this is not spectraflair!!!

I Love Rock 'n Roll

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I Love Rock 'n Roll is a warm eggplant purple with purple/pink flake shimmer. It applies quite jelly like and those flakes are awesome.

The Electric Apple: NYC

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The Electric Apple: NYC is a medium grey base with golden green shimmer which gives the polish a pronounced sage green tint. Amazingly opaque and unique.

Wanderlust

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Wanderlust is a beautiful greyed lavender/mauve with blue/green shimmer that reminds me of the colour-shifting pigments. It just glows and sparkles like crazy.

Lemon Macaroon

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Lemon Macaroon is a lemon yellow with green and orange shimmer just like Wanderlust. It has a decided green tint in indoor lighting.

Kiss The Sky

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Kiss The Sky is basically an opaque Max Factor Fantasy Fire (without the green duochrome shimmer). A vivid purple jelly base with glowing red shimmer like Wanderlust and Lemon Macaroon. Absolutely jaw-droppingly AMAZING!

The Blue Flamingo

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The Blue Flamingo just would not photograph right. It's a darker, less aqua blue and the pink flake shimmer (you can spot it on the shadowed side of my nail in the macro shot) is always visible. It is crazy sparkly.

Have you ever seen such an epic inaugural collection before?! 

Now on to the formulas and application:

 

These are all advertised as solid two coaters. That is quite true, however I applied them in thin coats and found that Lemon Macaroon & The Blue Flamingo looked better with 3 coats. The only one that had VNL was the Blue Flamingo. In the future I might use an undercoat in a similar shade of blue or just some ridge filler to completely hid my smile line!

The formula for Kiss The Sky, Wanderlust and I Love Rock 'n Roll was jelly like only thicker. Very easy to apply. Wanderlust dried to a satin-matte finish.

The Electric Apple: NYC was more like a thickish creme and I could get away with 1 coat - it is that opaque!

The Blue Flamingo was rather sheer but still on the thicker side.

Lemon Macaroon was sort of unique. It wasn't thick or thin and I could only compare the formula to Nicole by OPI  Kim-pletely In Love, only LM applied more even and was easily.

Kaleidoscope Eyes had a formula just like the Enchanted polish multichrome holos; maybe slightly thinner.

Now the only negative thing I have to say about these polishes is there are bits of pigment in a few of the bottles. You can see them and I'm not really sure how to mix them except for giving the bottles a good shake. You can see the dots of darker pigment on my nails in some of the swatches. 

To be honest, it doesn't really bother me because these polishes are so amazing and you don't notice the pigment unless you look up close. Maybe adding a bit of thinner would help dissolve them?

My favourites are Kiss The Sky, Wanderlust, Lemon Macaroon and The Electric Apple: NYC.

Takko Lacquer is currently on vacation mode, but stalk the s*** out of it because everybody needs these polishes! They are completely worth the $15 price point. Also, these are 100% 3-free, vegan, mineral based lacquers with no animal testing - sounds pretty great, no?

Enjoy your weekends!!

xxx

NPA