Holy Day! OPI Miss Universe & Stems Collection & Essie Brazilliant

Pin It The polish gods have smiled upon me! Today my ebay orders from all three yet to be released in NZ collections arrived in the mail. Way to turn a crappy day when I'm getting the flu into an amazing one. Yes my back and neck are aching and stiff and I'm getting the chills every hour but OMG THE POLISHES HAVE LANDED

Here's a quick look at the bottles:

L-R Essie Brazilliant Collection Summer 2011 : Brazilliant, Super Bossa Nova & Smooth Sailing

L-R OPI Stems Summer Collection 2011:  I Lily Love You, Play The Peonies & Come To Poppy

L-R OPI Miss Universe Collection 2011: Swimsuit... Nailed It! & It's My Year

I will work away like crazy swatching these bad boys/girls for you all, I will have them up over the next 3 days! So stay tuned!
FYI my nails are non existent cos they started breaking so I might only be swatching middle, ring & pinkie - they're the only average length nails I have left - on both hands funnily enough! Do your thumb and index fingers break more than the rest? I guess it's just because I use them more than other fingers gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

New Day, New Look

Pin It I've been fiddling with my blog's design the last couple of days. I still don't like it but it's ok for now. what do you guys think? It's very boring but seems much easier to read. All the patterns that I liked as backgrounds were too distracting.
Sometimes I wish I was still with my ex, cos he was amazing with computers, then I could make my own design! He was a prick though so maybe NOT, haha. Will have to look into who to make my own unique title. Does anyone know how one goes about that?

A couple of polishes arrived yesterday, yay! I love coming home to a package, perks me up at the end of a long day I tells ya. I haven't had time to swatch them yet, car trouble + Auckland traffic + rain = no time to play with my polish before bed. I'll get a chance tomorrow though so that's something to look forward to. One of the lacquers is OPI At Your Quebec & Call from the Canada Collection (Black Label) and VHTF or maybe just HTF for people in the States. I have coveted it for 4 - 5 months and finally decided to bite the bullet and just pay a bit more than usual in order to add it to my collection. Just gorgeous! So get excited ladies!

Right now though, I am putting up some Barielle shades. Check out their website here to find out about the brand as it isn't available in NZ as far as I'm aware. They have a relatively small colour assortment because I believe they specialise in hand & nail care. But what they do have is pretty neat & some are also UNIQUE. Their new summer collection just came out too, you can check that out over  Let Them Have Polish.

A Bouquet for Ava - A teal blue creme. Similar to OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui but not a dupe. ABFA is greener and brighter. Good formula, if a bit thick but it is also very opaque & the brush is very decent, good fanning! Here I'm wearing 2 coats.

 

Aura Angora - Is such a cool colour! It's a dark mustard yellow that leans quite gold. Definitely a fugly but thats why I wanted it so much. Fugglies make me feel chic for some reason. Same application as ABFA

Blackened Bleu - Is gorgeous!!! A black jelly base filled with this super pretty blueish (IMO teal) super fine glitter. I love it! Needs about 3 coats but very easy formula to work with. When I'm in the sun it sparkles so prettily!

Falling Star - Is fairly special & unique. A dark medium blue creme base (a few shades darker than photo in real life) with copper coloured glitter. I have to say the idea of it was better than the reality for me. Because it is a creme the glitter doesn't stand out much which is ok, except that when you apply a thick or second coat lots of the glitter gets covered completely, so it's kind of like what's the point? Having said that though, I never applied it expertly in the least. I need to try putting it on again using thin layers or maybe 1 really thick layer to see if thagt solves the problem. Even though it's a B to apply I still think everyone needs it in their collection cos its so pretty in the bottle. And a one of a kind.
 

Hidden Hideaway - Is a very dark plum purple shimmer. In low light you don't really notice anything special but in the sun you see reddish, gold & purple shimmer. Quite pretty, but I have better purple shimmers in my stash.

U Concrete Me - A simple concrete grey creme, two coats is perfect. I want to see yellow undertones in this but I think in person it leans more blue. Nice staple to have around.

So that it is all I have for now. I bought these from Wowshop but they don't have any of the new collections so I haven't been back for more since these babies arrived in March.

Hope you like them! Now I have to get back to cuddling my beautiful white fluffball in bed because it's cold and rainy. Charlie says Woof!

Zoya Spam

Pin It Zoya has the most amazing range of colours available! If only it was more readily available in New Zealand! I only have a few because it's a bit pricier than other brands I can buy on ebay, but I'm going to have to get over that!
I found a kiwi website Extend Marketing Ltd that sells Zoya and the other Art of Beauty product lines; QTICA & QTICA Smart Spa. Bottles are $21 each + shipping is around $10. I strongly recommend you check out the collections though because they are gorgeous & almost all the shades are called girls names, which is cute and a bit different from most 3Free polish brands out there.

Here are the Zoyas I have so far:
(top - indoors, bottom - flash)

Burke - A slightly dusty, berry red creme.From the Wonderful Collection. Quite nice, especially in autumn and winter. Two coater.

 Demi - From the Dare Collection. A dupe for OPI Pamploma Purple. Very pretty red based purple creme. Really hot, better on warm toned ladies.

Drew -  Is so pretty and it's also a "mum approved" colour! A deep rose pink with gold shimmer. Very easy to wear, I think it would suit cool and warm skin tones. From the Truth Collection

Envy -  Also from Dare. In the same vein as OPI Here Today ... Aragon Tomorrow. A very dark forest/hunter green with subtle blueish shimmer that is only noticeable in direct light. Gorgeous. ( I need some more adjectives.)

Kelly -  Wonderful Collection. A dark purple/grey creme that is much closer in person to the indoor photo than the flash. Dries darker than in the bottle for me, but I think I used 3 coats because I applied it poorly. It is not quite a dupe for Misa Office Polish-tics, a wee bit more purple leaning.

Shawn - Wonderful Collection. I was a little disappointed with Shawn because it dried much darker than in the bottle. BUT I put on 3 coats again because I rushed the application and got unevenness happening. I think at 2 coats it would have been a bit closer to the bottle colour. This is the most unique green in my collection because it's sort of dirty, kind of reminds me of pond scum - in a good way. I do love the colour. It's also a creme.

Valerie - Wicked Collection. Just unbelievably AWESOME. A real shimmer bomb. Dark reddish purple base loaded with gold & I think pink shimmer. The shimmer has a bit of a duochrome thing going on. My swatches do not do it justice. A must have!!!!

The Bad Part: Not really bad but I find that the dry time is quite long compared to OPIs etc. Do not put a 2nd layer on until the first is dry because you get major cuticle drag on the cremes. But it's just about getting used to using the formula (which can be a bit thick) and the narrower brush. I think I had application issues because the necks of the bottles are ultra long and I wouldn't pick up enough polish on my brush = uneven layers. However, if I took care when applying my Zoyas I would have had picture perfect nails.

The colour range is incredible and so many are wearable so definitely get into Zoya if you can. I can't wait to get my hands on the Intimate Collection, especially Gemma & Danni!!!!

Love to you all,
NPA

More Swatches From My Trans Design Haul

Pin It Hey ladies, today I have some new swatches to show y'all (sometimes I wish I was a Southern Belle/just had an american accent so I could say y'all without people thinking I was mad!!!). Actually I wouldn't mind it if my daddy had a plantation & an awesome antebellum house! Anyways...

On with the polishes:

CG Midnight Mission - the photos are a wee bit average of this one, it was an overcast day so I photographed inside and the camera just wouldn't capture the shimmer. I think it's quite a beautiful polish. dark blue loaded with a silver foil-like fine glitter shimmer, if you know what I me haha. Very pretty, the photo without flash shows what I mean so click to enlarge it guys.

Color Club Love 'em & Leave 'em - This is a gold holographic polish. Not as linear as the CC OMGs, same style to Worth the Risque etc. I like this because it's a wearable gold on my skin tone, quite beige like in appearance - good formula too with super fast dry time.

Color Club Magic Attraction - is a super unique holographic glitter polish in a kind of pinky grey base I guess. Opaque in 3 coats, not sure what it is like layering, but it's definitely got an ooohhh factor.

Orly Royal Navy - a gorgeous royal blue base (that has a jelly like quality due to its translucence) with fine green shimmer which ultimately dries matte, oddly! Just knock out neat. Needs 3 coats and there's still some VNL but only noticeable up close. Could be my favourite blue of all time - right now!

That's it for this post. Tomorrow I shall bring you an AMAZING green. Perfect for christmas, or maybe a midyear xmas party that I hear some companies have, or am I thinking of a mid-winter feast? Either way it's very special!

China Glaze Metro Collection Fall 2011 Preview

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The theme for CG's upcoming collection is more or less New York City. From the press photos I'm not all that impressed, looks a bit like a been there done that collection. But some of the descriptions peak my interest so I will keep a look out for pre-release swatches to see if they are worth purchasing!

They are described as follows:

  

Skyscraper: A sparkling, glitter blue reminiscent of the sky over the city. 

 CG in the City: Glittering dusty purple, bronze and silver multi-tonal glitter, perfect for a pop of edge from West side to East side.

Urban-Night: Exactly what you need for a night on the town – rich purple crème.

Traffic Jam: Stop traffic with a breathtaking, raspberry pink crème.

          City Siren: The perfect deep, red crème to match any outfit

Loft-y Ambitions: Burgundy shimmer and cocktail hour – nothing better.

Brownstone: Burnt terracotta crème mirrors the quaint townhouses of the city.

Midtown Magic: Burgundy base with flecks of gold shimmer captures the latest fashion trend.

                Street Chic: This gorgeous beige crème is the perfect go to shade letting                   clothes do the talking.

Concrete Catwalk: Steel grey crème is amazing for a chic mani.

Westside Warrior: For the trendsetting woman this camo green crème is to die for.

          Trendsetter: Mustard yellow shimmer translates beautifully from hot dogs to nails.

Not sure when these will hit the stores my my gut tells me it'll be around mid August in the States, so I'm sure here in NZ we'll have to wait a little longer.

That's all for today. Will be hitting you with some more photos/reviews soon.