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

Spotlight On: Paris Sparkles Part II

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Happy Sunday!!!

Now why am I so happy, considering Sunday is usually bitter-sweet? TRUE BLOOD is back baby!
I only have to wait another half a day til I see what's going on in Bon Temps for season 5!!!!!!!!!!!
You better believe I'll be stalking the torrent sites!

I managed to get another 4 Paris sparkles swatched over the weekend, so I thought why not continue the Spotlight On: series?

 Black Licorice

Black Licorice - 2 coats - sunlight

Black Licorice - 2 coats - overcast

Black Licorice - macro

 Black Licorice is a black based jelly filled with silver holo hex, black glitter and a smattering of green hex glitter too! You can see the green hex on my middle finger in the first photo. It's a 2 coater glitter - fab! Application was easy with the formula being on the thicker side. You'll need a couple of layers of Seche Vite to make it super smooth and shiny.

Bubble Gum

Bubble Gum - 2 coats over pink - sunshine

Bubble Gum - 2 coats over pink -white light

Bubble Gum - macro

 Bubble Gum is in the same style of Wintermint. A sheer bubblegum pink riddled with iridescent glitter, the odd piece of giant pink hex glitter and some small pink hex glitter. I've layered 2 coats over Claire's Mood Polish in Silly/Awesome - one of my favourite colour changing polishes! Sorry about the messy macro - must have missed the bit of polish during clean up! I love Bubble Gum just as much as Wintermint, it's like having pink sugar coated nails!!! You need a couple coats of top coat to make it smooth and shiny too.

 Red Ruby

Red Ruby - 2 coats - sunshine

Red Ruby - 2 coats - white light

Red Ruby - macro

 Red Ruby is very similar to Blaze but it is a deeper orange, approaching red and has small, medium and large orange hex glitter as well as fine holo glitter. It's not ultra blingy but it is always glowing like embers in a fire!!!! I really love it! I have a feeling my batch might be a little off, colour-wise though, because judging by the etsy listing this is supposed to be a red polish. I don't mind at all though, because I have so many red glitters and this deep tangerine/blood orange is right on trend!!

Sweet Coraline

Sweet Coraline - 2 coats - shade

Sweet Coraline - 2 coats - white light

Sweet Coraline - macro

 Sweet Coraline is a salmon coral with fine silver square, hex and small hex holo glitters and medium silver bar and hex glitter.  The base is of the milky creamy variety and just gorgeous!!! You will need a couple layers of top coat for Coraline too because the bar glitter sticks out a bit.

I still have 2 other Paris Sparkles to photograph for you, yay! 

A fellow kiwi nail-phile GiMiKd Girl has just posted some more of Stacy's gorgeous colours including her newer cream based glitters! So be sure to check them out HERE 

You can find these polishes and many more at the Paris Sparkles store on etsy. They are $7-8 US a bottle.

xxx

NPA

Spotlight On: Paris Sparkles

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Hello ladies,

I'm a bit sick of posting 1 polish per post. I started doing that as the norm, when I was running low on photos to post. But I've got a backlog again and I enjoy posting multiples of a specific brand or theme in one go so I'm going to show you some of the other Paris Sparkles glitter polishes I have.

I bought the Baker's Dozen from their Etsy store because it was bloody good value for money ($75 for 13 15mL bottles?!!!) and I'd been eyeing up Stacy's creations for months!
She's based in Arizona and has 60+ different glitter polishes on the go at the moment. I'm pretty sure that's a huge number for any indie brand!

Also, quality wise, I have been rather impressed.Most of the formulas are on the thick side and very spreadable - my favourite consistency in lacquer!!! A few are gritty, while others dry almost smooth! All look great with a layer or two of top coat for ultra shine.

Yesterday, I showed you Blaze; a gorgeous deep orange jelly packed with holo glitters. Right now I have a mix of different finishes for you to ogle.

Firefly - 2 coats - white light

Firefly - macro

 Firefly I admit, I bought mainly for the name! I only recently discovered the Joss Whedon series :) Once I saw the coral peach/pink/gold duochrome-ness I had to add it to the etsy cart!

Firefly is sheer peachy pink with amazing golden glowy almost flakie like shimmer. It's so pretty and I have nothing else with this type of shimmer. It also gives the impression of a duochrome but in reality it's just the shimmer/glitter coming to life. There's also silver chunky bar glitter and fine glitter too.

This was 2-3 coats for full opacity and I used an normal topcoat so it still looks bumpy. With some Seche Vite it looks great though.

Oil Slick - 3 coats - overcast

Oil Slick - 3 coats - overcast

Oil Slick - macro

Oil Slick is a pink/purple to green duochrome with small, square, holo glitter. There's also the odd bit of small hex glitter in Oil Slick too. The holo is much stronger than the photos show, alas it was overcast!!

This one is fairly sheer so it needed 3 thin coats and dries quite bumpy due to the square glitter. I recommend a couple layers of top coat to even it out.

Golden Touch - 3 coats - white light

Golden Touch - 3 coats - white light

Golden Touch - macro

Golden Touch is an intensely holographic gold glitter polish!!! It's made up of small square and small and medium sized hexagon gold holo glitter in clear base. Three coats gives great coverage. It didn't require any shaking which I love!!! This is a yellow leaning gold so probably nicer on neutral and warm skin tones. I thought it might be similar to Color Club Gingerbread, but it's warmer and way more blingy!!!!

Wintermint - 2 coats - white light

Wintermint - 2 coats - white light

Wintermint - macro

Wintermint might just be a new favourite!!! It's a minty blue green glitter with tons of iridescent glitter and blue flashing glitter dominates overall. The clear base is tinted mint also. I  layered 2 coats over Essence Colour & Go Viva La Green. It darkened the base a shade or two and looked so good!!!!

It's got a pretty thick formula but dries with only minimum texture. I used 2 coats of Seche Vite in the photos though, because it wasn't drying fast enough for my liking. I can't wait to try this over some dark colours now!!!

How are you liking these Paris Sparkles?

You can find these 4 and more for $7-8 a bottle on the Paris Sparkles Etsy store HERE.

The mail hasn't been delivered since it snowed and I'm seriously Jonesing for all the nail mail that was coming my way!!! I'm hoping today the postman rings twice!!!!!

xxx
NPA

Snow Day feat. Paris Sparkles BLAZE

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It's snowing baby!!!! YEAH!

I know that's probably not a big deal for a lot of you, but it only snows to sea level in Christchurch every 2 or 3 years so I'm pretty stoked!

I woke up this morning - 7.45am (pretty impressive for me!!) - to little more than a dusting and it's been snowing non stop since, so now everything is blanketed in lovely, if rather wet, snow!

Those are the pics I took around 8am. Now you can't tell the driveway from the lawn, oh yeah! Maybe we'll manage to scrap together a snowman before it all melts!

Since it's so wintry today, I feel like cosy-ing up on the couch with blankets and a fire and watching dvds, but our fire is still a no go til they put in a new chimney (it got busted in the earthquake), so I have to settle for a firey looking mani!

Ta daaaaaaa

Blaze - 2 coats - white light

Blaze - 2 coats -overcast

Blaze - 2 coats -white light

Blaze - white light - macro

Blaze - overcast - macro

Blaze is an awesome orange jelly base chocka-block with gold and orange holo hex glitter in small, medium and large! The formula is amazing!!! I didn't actually need to shake this up and the formula is thick, spreads well and dries quick. The brush is pretty wide so you may need to turn it side on for narrow nails. She dries very gritty so I think I used 1 layer of Poshe quick dry base coat and at least 2 coats of NYC in a new york minute top coat.

Don't mind the slightly munted tips!! It's not from shrinkage, there's a bit of receding going on because I was trying to do too may things at once while the nails were drying, so they took a knock or two!

I can't tell you how much I love Blaze. Even looking at these photos is warming me up! Plus I've got soup on the stove, mmmmmmmm!!!

You can purchase Paris Sparkles glitter polishes from their etsy store for  $7-8 a bottle.

xxx
NPA

Pahlish - Lovesong Writer

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Damn, LOVESONG WRITER is a HOT ruby glitter bomb!!!

Set in a ruby red base is small pink hex, micro fuchsia hex, ultra fine silver and red bar, hex and square glitters! That's a heck of a lot of glitter and it all goes perfectly together!!

Lovesong Writer - 2 coats - sun

Lovesong Writer - sunlight - macro

Lovesong Writer - 2 coats - white light

Lovesong Writer - macro

 Isn't it fabulous?!

I have a bit of tip wear in the sunlight pictures because I took those on the 2nd day of wear (and didn't wrap my tips).
Application was really easy! The formula is pretty thick, spreads out easily and the glitter doesn't need to be placed!!!! I only needed 2 coats for full coverage!

I managed to snag a couple more Pahlish's  from her Friday restock and I cannot wait til they arrive! Fire in the Taco Bell looks amazeballs.
I have a bunch of other Pahlish lacquers I need to get some decent pics of too. So many polishes and not enough time to swatch them all!!!

xxx
NPA