Sation Love Is In The Heir might be the prettiest pale blue shimmer ever!

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Sation brought out a beautiful mix of soft sheers and bold lacquers in their Miss Antoinette Collection (they really know how to put out great concept collections). My favourite by far is Love Is In The Heir!

I think the swatches will tell you just how crazy I am about finding the perfect warm, pale blue.

Sation Love Is In The Heir

Love Is In The Heir is a dusty pale blue (with grey undertones) buildable sheer, with white micro-flake shimmer. Do you realise how hard it is to find a warm toned blue? What I wouldn't give to suit cool shades!! I can't pretend the formula is stellar... I applied three thin coats and it was still a bit uneven coverage wise, but some Jordana Quick Shine Topcoat helped to disguise that. It looks a bit like Illamasqua Raindrops' baby brother with the greyish blue and the fine glass fleck shimmer, don't you think?

And to think sheers used to be the 'devil'!!! Now I really do love them; they make for fantastic work manis or palate cleansers and I always end up wearing them for a lot longer than other polishes last on my nails.

How about you?


xxx
NPA

N. Nail Circle Glitter from KKCenterHk

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Press Sample

I have a true love for nudes, beige and neutrals. There's something classic about these tones on me and I always feel chic when I wear them.

So when KKCenterHk asked if I'd like to review some of their new circle glitter I chose the shade 'bisque'.

N.NAIL 2.5mm Circle Glitter-Pink Bisque

I really love the shade, but the glitter has a non-sparkly finish so I do not think it is the best choice for nail art.  You can judge for yourself though :)

I didn't really know what to do with the circles! I do not pretend to be a nail artist so the best way I knew to show off the glitter, was to just cover my nails in it!!! I started with a base of OPI Glints of Glinda then placed the circles in horizontal lines covering my ring and pinkie nails. The pinkie looks good but I thought the ring nail was a bit patchy so added a couple of glitters to the right side (out of line) and that made it look crowded and messy :(
I finished the mani off with some holo stamping on my middle and index finger nails. I used Color Club Cosmic Fate and the NC02 plate from Nailz Craze

The pieces of glitter were really easy to stick on. I used a nail art pencil to place each one into a tacky coat of my base colour. They felt pretty secure, so I doubt they'd fall off easily.

There are like 36 colours to choose from. Lots are sparkly and have that iridescent coating on them so you get a multi-coloured effect. For USD$8 you get a small, deep pottle of glitter.

For 10% off your next order from KKCenterHk use my readers coupon code NPA10.

NPA10

You can always find the code on my left hand side bar too.


Are you in to the circle glitter craze that swept the indie polish maker's market this year?


xxx
NPA

Candeo Colors Prenses Ros & Strea Cende

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Greetings readers/nail aficionados!!

Yesterday was ANZAC Day (originally the commemorative day for all the Aussie & Kiwi soldiers who perished at Gallipoli in WWI, and now a day for paying tribute to all our armed service war veterans).
I was shockingly bad this year, I didn't go to a Dawn Service (ok I haven't been to one since I was a kid and the whole family got up and went to the Central Hamilton one for my Nana, who was a WAC in WWII. She fed all the soldiers who were training at the Papakura Army Camp; go Nan!!!! She's a bloody mean baker :) ) or watch any documentaries on TV.
But my excuse is that my sister came back from Melbourne for the first time since July last year, so we cleaned and baked in the morning and spent the rest of the day with her.

Funnily enough, it doesn't feel like 9 months since I've seen her - just like when I catch up with old school friends! And the dogs are in seventh heaven. Especially Charlie - not sure Buster remembers her :)

My eldest sister also arrives back in NZ today from Saudi Arabia. I haven't seen her since July last year either (my Nana's 90th Birthday, was the last time everyone came home), so it's a busy few days for me. Thank God I'm on holiday!!!

Now on to the POLISH:
These semi-sheers from the Candeo Aruba Collection are my new 'go to' soft shades. I finally took some photos to share with you!

Candeo Colors Prenses Ros

Prenses Ros is a semi-sheer soft candy pink with silver holo hex glitter. This one starts out very sheer, but after four coats the pink really deepens and my VNL wasn't too obvious. It isn't loaded with glitter, but once you get a couple of coats down it's a glitter sandwich in one lacquer. I found the formula to be a bit streaky after one or two coats, but application is fairly nice. I just love the outcome Prenses Ros has. You don't expect the pink to pop so much and the holo glitter glows in all light!

Candeo Colors Strea Cende



Strea Cende is a semi-sheer warm nude with gold holo glitter, light copper glitter and golden shimmer. She's a beaut!!!! Maybe it pulls a tad orange on me, but who knows, that might just be my horribly stained nails' doing!!! In fact my tips could have used some whitening, they look pretty manky in these photos! The formula was again easy to apply and I didn't have any issue with streakiness. I used three coats and there is a little VNL, but it looks right with a sheer shade, you know? I did top it with some some sort of top coat which is why there are a few air bubbles, my bad.

You can find these pretties and many more on Candeo Colors' website for US$9 a piece. They offer international shipping and Llarowe stocks them too.

Do you have any Candeo lacquers? I'm still lemming Jellybean, even if I never end up wearing yellow polish. It just looks so fun! Would've been a great Easter manicure, darn it!


xxx
NPA

More Different Dimensions Polish Swatches

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I placed a large Different Dimensions order just before xmas and it arrived very quickly (which I was not expecting). Amongst the order were polishes from the Pretty Little Liars  and regular line. I'd been lemming them for some time now and they lived up to my expectations! All photos were taken in my light box unless otherwise stated.

Different Dimensions Hanna

Hanna has a pastel purple milky base with matte periwinkle and white and metallic fuchsia micro-glitter. The formula is a bit heavy on the glitter but you can apply it rather easily in 3 thin coats for full coverage. I added 1 coat of SV and it was pretty smooth.

Different Dimensions Emily

  

Emily (also from the Pretty Little Liars Collection) is a mix of white, light blue and pastel pistachio matte glitter in a sort of cloudy base. I can't figure out whether it is actually tinted light blue or just plain clear... It's really similar to Hanna but the coverage isn't as good. Emily applies much like the Floam polishes. I'm wearing 3 thin coats and 2 top coats.

Different Dimensions Doppleganger

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Doppelganger has a sheer grey base with small pink holo glitter and various sizes of matte baby pink hex glitters, plus large matte white glitter hexes. I wore it alone with 2-3 layers and it's obviously sheer still, so I recommend layering it over a grey base.The formula was nice, I did place a few glitters to avoid doing an extra coat. I needed 2 layers of top coat to smooth it.

Different Dimensions Warm Fuzzies

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Warm Fuzzies is a brown scattered holographic which has a weak linear effect in direct light. The brown transforms from a coolish taupe in the shade to a warmer golden brown in the sun. It's much more holographic than I expected (the photos play down the holo effect) but it also looks like a great work appropriate shade indoors! Application was easy, I used 2 buttery coats.

 It's so cruel having an addiction to Missi's polishes because she's constantly  coming up with new amazing shades!
 I'm saving up for her 80s themed fluoro holos now. They're sold out but should be back in store in a couple of weeks.
Different Dimensions is on Etsy, check them out NOW!

Wing Dust Collections - Save A Life

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Super short post today guys.

Wing Dust Collections Save A Life

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Save A Life is a milky sheer pastel purple with varying sizes of purple, silver, white and iridescent glitter. I layered it over Essie She's Picture Perfect because I didn't like my chances at getting in opaque, on its own. I applied 2 coats of SAL and the glitter is relatively sparse. It's pretty and delicate, but not exactly mind-blowing.

Funnily enough, I like it a lot more looking at these photos than I did at the time I swatched it!

Wing Dust polish is available on Etsy and Stephanie just released some gorgeous new colours that I have my eye on.

xxx
NPA

The Hungry Asian Belle

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Hands up if you had a very LAZY Sunday!
Um, me...

I might have slept half the day. I promise I didn't mean to, but I got to bed so late and when I woke up in the morning I laid in bed too long and fell asleep again :)
That meant that I missed a great opportunity to swatch - all of Saturday was stormy, so today was sunny and gorgeous!

I'm meaning to get the Color Club A Winter Affair Holiday Collection photographed, but am taking my sweet time as usual! There's some nice colours in the collection including a concentrated Nubar 2010/Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure dupe. It's in stock at Head2Toe Beauty if you want a gander. Hopefully the fine weather will hold up and I can get some swatches in during my study breaks.

I've got another Hungry Asian for you tonight with a beautiful name - Belle. Beauty and the Beast was my favourite Disney Princess film as a kid so anything that reminds me of it is a must have!

The Hungry Asian Belle

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Belle is a semi-sheer white base with small pink and medium brown hex glitter. I thought the colours were an interesting mix and I'm drawn to all white based glitter mixes, so Belle had to find a home in my collection. I applied 3 coats in these photos but the formula is a bit sticky and uneven so in the future I'll be layering it over a white creme. It took some time to dry too.

Problems aside, I still love it!

You can get Belle and other Hungry Asian lacquers from The Hungry Asian  for $9.25/15mL.

I've got some grab bags going for $20/6 polishes + shipping - for info click on the Blog SALE tab

xxx

NPA

Cry Me A River... cry, cry, cry, cry... (and KB Shimmer Berry Patch)

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Two big things happened today.
One amazing. One horrible.

Which do you want to hear about first?

The AMAZING one?

Well, the Sparkly Vernis and I are doing a swap and her package turned up super, duper speedy! My flatmate left this huge bubble mailer outside my door this morning. I thought it must be an Etsy order I'm waiting on, but lo and behold, Sparkly's package had flown all the way from Cali to Chch within a week!!!!!!

And she spoiled me rotten! I'm more rotten than ever before. It's like my birthday and Christmas and a wedding and an anniversary worth of awesomeness! So yeah, there are now stink waves radiating off me, jealous????

Dude surprised me with a CG Boundless Color flakie!!!! That sh**'s insane! I should really take a photo of all this stuff tomorrow, so you can see how crazy it is.

This is my first swap and I'm so stoked with the whole experience.

Now, for the bad news:
Drum roll please? Brrrrrrbrbrrrrrrbrrrrrrbrrrr (drum roll sounds?? use your imagination a little)...

I erased 4GB worth of swatches (and a few personal pics - mainly of my dog :) ) from my SD card while trying to transfer them onto my computer.

WTF?!  FML and other acronyms involving curse words.

I had about 20 brand new polishes swatched on that bad boy, that I spent the last week ruining my nails for!!! You have no idea how p-o'd I am.

So yeah, I'm crying myself a river upon which to row down. Maybe I'll widdle the row boat and oars out of the huge tree by my driveway that keeps scratching my car?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Ok, I just looked over at my Sparkly stash, so there's a smile on my dial again :)

For surviving all that, I have for you - fresh off my nails:

KB Shimmer Berry Patch

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 Berry Patch is a milky semi-sheer pale pink with red, rose, fuchsia, holo silver and blue glitter.

I especially like the teeny tiny red glitter! And it really does look berry-licious! I applied 3 coats of BP and 1 coat of Aqua Daisy Glitter Gloss. The formula is a little thin, so the bigger blue glitters tend to drip off  the brush before you get it out of the neck of the bottle! I stopped wiping the excess off the brush in the end and used thicker coats to get a better glitter pay-off.

BP is a really pretty polish, fun and girly and I think I'll be reaching for it in Spring/Summer for sure!

I hope you have a great weekend. I might just be spending tomorrow with my head down swatching like the wind!!!!!

xxx
NPA

Sassy Lacquer Sea Glass

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Hey there,

I've got yet another Sassy to show you today!

Sea Glass is another one from the 'Inspirational Blogger' collection. This one was developed with the help of Sara from My Life In Polish.

Sassy Lacquer Sea Glass

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Sea Glass is a sheer seafoam jelly (it's a bit milky) with fine turquoise square and hex glitter. This is 4 coats. Surprisingly it doesn't get too thick or gluggy and still dries kind of fast so that makes up for the sheerness.

In person, SG is more vibrant, unfortunately we're in the midst of constant rain and overcast skies, so my camera really struggles to capture the true colour!

The formula is on the thinner side and is easy to apply.

I think SG would be a good glitter sammy topper too!

Do you like it?

Sassy Lacquer is available HERE and they just released a new collection.

Last year when I really got into polish, I hated the sheer look. Any VNL and I was a grumpy bum :) I bought just one OPI Texas 'sorbet' finish lacquers and was pretty annoyed that it required 4 coats to hide my tips.

Now, I freaking love sheers. There's so many layering possibilities and they are so nice as palate cleansers or for Spring and Summer :) 

Who can't get on board with sheer/jelly nail polish? Why?

xxx

NPA

xxx

NPA

Is it Haul time again?!

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Yes! My trans design package arrived today - thank god for Priority Shipment; only 2 weeks of waiting. And a Milani Holo showed up from ebay as well hooray!

Here are the goodies:

Essie Carry On Collection for Fall 2011 Mini Cube L-R: Power Clutch, Very Structured, Carry On, Lady Like

L-R: CND Perfectly Bare Duo (Colour & Effect), Essie Your Hut or Mine, Milani 3D Holographic Hi-Res

Misa Hip To My Jive Fall Collection 2011 L-R: Pop the Clutch, Bop til you Drop, Catch a Flick

The pics were taken in a poorly lit room & were more colour accurate without the flash (except for the Milani shot) so sorry if they aren't tip top clarity wise. I'm pretty excited to swatch these guys and do some comparisons because I have a feeling there is a dead on dupe or two in this bunch. I'm praying that when my OPI Touring America polishes turn up that Bop til you Drop isn't the same as I Eat Mainely Lobster - that would make me very sad!!!! BTYD has a gorgeous subtle coral/gold sparkly shimmer in it that you can't really see in these photos. I'm such a sucker for corals!!!!
My only regret is how little product you get in the Essie minis. Seriously, an eighth of an ounce?! I'm sure they'd still make a killing if they put .25 oz in them :( Still, the brush seems to be the same (or very close to) as a full size bottle so application is better than Orly minis (which I kind of loathe - then again the only minis I have are the pastels Lemonade & Go-go; so perhaps it's the formula not the brush).

I needed a palate cleansing nude/sheer manicure after the bright/dark colours I've been wearing lately - and a mani I left on for at least 2 days! This was exacerbated by the fact that my right index finger nail broke leaving a lonely & tres tres ugly stub in its place. I decided that camouflage was my only option. What colour would draw the least amount of attention to my sad, oddly shaped nubbin? Enter OPI Hawaiian Orchid... A perfectly nice colour & therefore it is on the end of my POLISH OR PERISH list (FYI POP is actually the name of a nail blog if you want to check it out - think it's in my blog roll :) ) So here's what's on my nails right now... (not for long ahahahaha, witch cackle, witch cackle :) ) - Oooohhh that made me think of Roald Dahl's The Witches. That movie adaptation was the most terrifying film I ever saw... until I watched The Shining as an 11 year old. I never will forgive Victoria Taylor for convincing me I'd like it. NEVER. I had nightmares for months & I didn't even watch the whole thing, I freaked out way before the "Here's Johnny" part. I might have only made it to the twins scene. Woops getting on with it...

OPI Hawaiian Orchid + White SP BM 222 - artificial light, no flash

OPI Hawaiian Orchid + White SP BM 222 - with flash (and my poor NUBBIN nail!!!)

 This is actually the nail polish my mum bought to match her MOB dress for my sister's wedding in January. But she lets it live with my stash!!! Isn't she lovely? Plus, I'm convinced "she'll" get lonely away from her polish family :) It is a sheer pink with a kind of purple-pink flash in it. I think it's meant to be a 2 coater but it was too uneven looking for my liking so I added 1 more for vanity's sake! Next time I'll just use ridge filler first. It kind of has a dirty leaning to it (which is most obvious under standard indoor lighting - ie yellow light) which you can see in the first photo. But most of the time it leans cool. Really wearable. I added the stamping because I felt too conservative/ just couldn't leave my nails alone for more than 24 hours. I wanted to stamp the whole lot with a french tip design from my monster plates but they're really thick & my nails just aren't long enough - especially the nubbin!!!! So I settled for accent nails with a full design. Cute pattern but I really need to practise the stamping technique - so much doesn't transfer from the stamp to the nail!!!!! I don't think I'm rolling it properly. Ho hum pig's bum, she'll be right.

Look out for swatches of my haul over the next week or so. I'll try to do the new collection polishes ASAP.

xxxx NPA