Darling Diva Polish: Ms. Monster Esq and MUA 13

Here is my base polish, MUA (Make-Up Academy) 13. Ooh I know. A number. But it’s quite a pretty green shimmer polish, see?

This is two coats, no top coat, and it definitely needs a third. So, sheer, weird little puffy brush, but  it still functions just fine.

And then I added a coat of Darling Diva Polish Ms. Monster Esq.

This was probably the densest glitter I have EVER found, at least that first brush. It got a bit more manageable after that!

This has so many glitters in it, a clear base, purple, green, red and white glitters in different sizes and levels of shine. 😀 And then I added another coat, plus Misa BREAKneck top coat.

Woah, holy glitter overload, Batman! Gotta love it 😀

This dried really fast, and a bit gritty. I’d recommend a thick top coat, eg Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food, if you wanted to wear it for more than a day or so.

Darling Diva Polish can be found at her Etsy store here, or on Llarowes site. I think Ms Monster Esq was last years Halloween polish; I bought this off Lani, but even if you can’t find this polish, check out the DDP range! She makes some amazing polishes. 🙂 MUA polishes and makeup can be found at their website here.

Have a great day

Ami 🙂

Darling Diva Polish Ringer & Mode Glitterati

First up, my base polish, this is Mode Glitterati. What a silly name. What a coool colour 😀

I can NEVER resist purples like this, the photos aren’t the best sorry, but it is a gorgeous deep purple with heaps of shimmer -blue, pink, and flicks of gold. 2 coats here, no top coat.

This one I bought from a Unichem Pharmacy in Palmerston North, for about $5 I believe. Not bad!

Then, I added one coat of Darling Diva Polish Ringer – the Fantasy Fire etc etc dupe.

This… was much prettier than I have hoped for, and these photos just let it down. No top coat here though, that incredible shine is all thanks to Ringer.

The purple jelly base is very sheer, which I had read previously, but means the layering options are amazing. The little particles flick all sorts of colours: green / gold / pink / purple.

And so I had to do photo gymnastics to try and show the shifts, but they were so fast and noticeable in real life.

I want to wear this over all the colours. Actually, although I wont show anyone, I do have it on my toes, which are blue, purple, green, yellow and red (go the rainbow toes) and the shimmer just adds that little bit extra, even at that distance!

LOVE these polishes, and this combo!

Have a great day

Ami

Ozotic 518: Swatches and Layering

I’m feeling so gross right now, really sick and flu-filled, with laryngitis on top of the normal cold/flu symptoms. So what to do when feeling sorry for oneself, when one can’t even take a sick day because one’s small children are there 24/7 (esp now as they both have conjunctivitis)? Why yes, paint ones nails.

This is a gorgeous red holographic polish by Ozotic that I’ve been looking forward to trying out FOREVER. I bought this from piCture pOlish when I heard they were having to discontinue them, so, yeah, sorry – finding this one may be a tad hard. 😦

These photos show two coats, no top coat. The formula was beautiful, and I love, love, love the Ozotic bottle and brush. It’s one of my all time favourites, actually!

And just look at that holographic effect. Those ozotic holographs are just stunning! The rainbow shimmer particles tend to make the base colour pull lighter and greyer than they otherwise would, which gives this particular colour a slightly muted strawberry tone in the shade, and an orange/red cast in the light. The base colour also changes the rainbow to a reddish rainbow. It’s just so pretty.

And then, being me, I layered a glitter over it. In this case, Darling Diva Polish Chrome Job.

One coat of Chrome Job, and China Glaze Fast Forward top coat. These glitters eat top coat though, I really should have used Glitter Food first but yeah, fever and body aches. Not really thinking as well as I normally would try to. 🙂

I am of two minds about this combo! One, I think it would have looked nicer with a matte  glitter layer, the silver sort of competes with the holographic shimmer. On the other hand, it looks a bit tougher for some reason, and I love the silver and gunmetal grey over the red, and it’s SUPER blingy.

Best bit, I’ve had to chop my nails really short, and this combo looks even better with short nails! No photographic evidence yet, but it looks so good 🙂

Stay well, and have a great day

Ami 🙂

Couple of Purple Manis – Face of Australia Mystic Iris, Darling Diva Polish Snowball etc

I was having nooo luck with my manis, so thought I’d track down one of my frankens and use that one. This is my purple one, based off the L.A Girls Disco Brite Polish. That doesnt’t have a name.

These photos show two coats, with China Glaze Fast Forward top coat.

I like how shiny this is, but not how gluggy it is, it definitely needs a thin!

It turned out very pretty and I was happy with it, but then I knocked my hand against something while doing life stuff. Annoying how life gets in the way of nail polish at times. 😉

So, then I dug out a new to me polish, one that my Sister C bought me for my birthday; this is Face of Australia Mystic Iris. Mystic Iris is a pretty, mid toned, slightly red based purple creme. Simple. Gorgeous. Two coats, fast drying, smooth formula. I love Face of Australia products, I wish we could get them here easily! Especially their lipglosses, they are right up there with my favourite glosses ever. And, it appears, they make VERY nice polish too!

So smooth and shiny:

And so good for layering on. I added Darling Diva Polish Snowball, and it wasn’t until after I’d top-coated ( with China Glaze Fast Forward again) that I realised I was probably influenced by my short-lived previous mani. Ah well.

One thing was, I got TWO snowflakes out, completely by accident. BIG change from the first time I used it, when I couldn’t get any out even by spear fishing with a large needle. A very nice change!

I liked this, the iridescent blue glitters changed the base colour … to a much bluer looking purple. It was a bit lumpy looking, but not too bad in real life, this lighting (under yellowish lights in the kitchen) does not do it real justice.

And I managed to happily wear this for almost a full 24 hours until the snowflake stuck out too far from the top coat and I picked it off 😀

Have a great day

Ami

Ozotic Scatter 912 – review, layerings and swatches.

The second of four polishes sent for review, this is Ozotic Scatter 912 – a very pretty purple/gold shifting duochrome with irregular and highly sparkly holographic particles ‘scattered’ throughout.

Did you know, I thought this would be a layering polish? It’s not. This is two coats on it’s own, no top coat.

Formula on this was perfect, and dry time was on the fast side of average.

The colour shift is there, but not in-your-face, just a nice quiet change when you move your hands. The holographic particles are VERY blingy, but lie flat and are very smooth, too.

my fingers are underwater here, to see if the duochrome is more apparent. It isn’t! 😀

I was surprised by how dense this polish was! I did layer it, to see if it would make a difference.  From right to left (index to pinky), I used Kleancolor Black, Boe Beauty Purple Knights, L.A. Colors Cranberry Red, and Kleancolor White.

Could you tell there were different colours underneath?

Me, I can see that my little fingernail is slightly paler in tone – that was the one with the white base. Other then that, I can’t tell! Really, the only reason for layering this would be to save the polish or for doing a tape manicure or similar.

So, back to the original! Here it is again, two lovely coats of 912, and then I added one thin dabbed layer of Darling Diva Polish Chrome Job.

I enjoyed the extra glitz, and the fact that you still get all the holographic sparks and colour shift of 912. Win!

This was topped with a thick layer of Misa BREAKneck, though it needed Glitter Food or similar, as some of the large black hexes in Chrome Job have a curl to them, and I didn’t flick one over the right way and it’s poked at me all day.

Still.. I like this. A lot.

piCture pOlish and Ozotic polishes can be bought from piCture pOlish online, or for us Kiwi’s, try Gracie Lou – and check them both out on Facebook too (piCture pOlish , Gracie Lou): they have specials, swatches, and information there that can’t be found anywhere else.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day! Oh, and if you are Facebook stalking, come say hello on my page – button is on the left hand side there!

Ami 🙂

*Disclosure: the Ozotic polish shown here, Scatter 912, was provided to me for review. All other polishes, bad cleanups, poor photography, overly wordy descriptions, opinions and random hand poses are entirely my own.*

My attempt at Christmas Tree Nails

My nubbins! They are growing, slowly. I can’t wait to be able to do justice to swatching those gorgeous polishes that have been sent to me for review, but in the meantime, I made some pretties – Christmas tree nails!

This is China Glaze Thunderbird, two coats, no top coat.

It has a lovely formula, very easy to apply and moderately quick drying, and one of my all time favourite red shimmer polishes.

Then I added a mountain shaped blob  (for the tree!) of China Glaze Running In Circles, which is just gorgeous. Wow. One thick coat here.

Love that green!

Then I added a thin layer of  Darling Diva Polish Holiday Lights to the ‘tree’ for.. well, lights, and then  Kleancolor Metallic Yellow for tinsel: basically I got rid of all the polish except for what was on the tip of the brush, and used that for the line. Finally I added an iridescent orange star to the top, using nail glue. Topped off with a super thick coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food and Misa BREAKneck.

I had a few comments on these today, which was nice! 🙂

These were lovely and easy, too!

Macro…

Have a fantastic day… one sleep until Christmas, and my birthday! Whoop!

Ami 🙂

Another Week Of Holiday Nubs: heaps of photos!

Week two! My nails are NOT GROWING FAST ENOUGH. Grrr. First World Problems. I have been sent some amazing polishes to review, and I can’t do justice to them with my little broken claws, but in the meantime I am having fun glitzing them up.

This is Darling Diva Polish Cherry Jubilee – three coats, and Misa BREAKneck top coat.

Really super pretty!

Then I mungled two fingernails and repainted those with a really nasty jelly sandwich: I used Nfu Oh 008 as the base (2 coats), then one coat of L.A. Girl Glitter Animate and a green franken, then another coat of Nfu Oh 008: all was going well until the green franken, because it had a green base colour in it and it KILLED this. Green glitter would have been nice. This looks mouldy.

Moving along rapidly, I then layered Cherry Jubilee over Kleancolor White, 2 coats, and 2 coats of Cherry Jubilee.

I prefer this one on it’s own, the white of Cherry Jubilee is perfect and translucent and soft without being see-through

Next mani: This is another franken of mine – which needs thinner and Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food, I think. It was very lumpy, and I fluctuated between hating this, and quite liking the lizard skin look.

The base polish was China Glaze Solar Flare – those gold hexes, in a clear base. I added lilac shimmer, and red and green fine glitter. It really needs a mid-size (between the tiny and the gold) glitter, but I don’t have one.

Next! This is China Glaze Ring in the Red – as Christmassy  a polish as can be easily found. This was really quite hard to apply! Patchiness and balding happened – I recommend leaving quite a bit of time between coats. It was also a bit pinker based than I expected, but I love the glittery-ness. This is three coats. Quite a smooth finish for  a super glitter!

Then, too much of a good thing being never enough, I added one coat of L.A. Glitter Addict  Animate. Mmmm that’s what I wanted. Yes.

You bored yet? Hope not, there’s more! This is three coats of China Glaze Ring in the Red, and Darling Diva Polish Mitochondral Eve. BLINGY! Christmas salad.

I alternated between really adoring the colourfulness, and thinking it was a bit garish… but meh, it’s the silly season. I like being silly.

Then, as a change of pace from the garish I tried this combo, and really liked it! It was rich and festive, without being too over the top. This is two coats of China Glaze Riveter Rouge – a nice rich auburn red with copper and silver mini glitters, with one thin coat of OPI Serving Up Sparkle over the top, finished with Misa BREAKneck (my new favourite top coat)

And last was a series… first up, Nfu Oh 124 – a lovely dark shimmery green which was more sheer than I anticipated. Three coats, no top coat. A bit hard to get the layers even, hence the different tones of green!

Then a coat of Nfu Oh 039, a super cute green-blue shift flaky

And finally, for extra festive fun, a thin coat of Darling Diva Polish Holiday Lights, topped with Misa BREAKneck.

 

Up close and sparkly…

That’s a lot of polish changes in one week. I had loads of fun, and almost all of these had a PVA glue base coat, so I could just peel it off, and start another one. Which I did frequently, as you can tell 😀

Have a great day

Ami

A week of holiday nubs – nail diary :)

My nubby diary for the week… sorry about the mess/bad lighting in a few of the earlier photos, I found it much harder to clean up than normal (less nails, same amount of polish on brush = massive flooding). But, here they are!

A franken of mine – green jelly with multicoloured green glitters. I had it at two coats, then jelly sandwiched it with Darling Diva Polish Vetiver in the middle. Gorgeous green glitter.

sorry for the blurry, and bad lighting! But this is more a diary than a swatch..

Darling Diva Polish A Christmas Story, three coats plus top coat.

oooh messy.

Very, very sparkly and gorgeous in the sunlight! Don’t worry, I’ll re-swatch these properly when my nails grow back in.

Darling Diva Polish Holiday Lights is the glitter topper here, red, green and gold CIRCLE glitters. Squee!  The silver holo is Color Club Harp On It (two coats), and the accent nail is Darling Diva Polish A Christmas Story – three coats. All covered with Misa BREAKneck top coat.

And here is Darling Diva Polish A Christmas Story, layered this time over China Glaze Thunderbird. I definitely preferred this layered, it made it redder. The combo of glitters in A Christmas Story ended up having a brownish tint without the layering – but this was easy, and gorgeous. 2 coats Thunderbird, 2 easy coats A Christmas Story. My accent nail is 2 coats China Glaze Jolly Holly with one coat of D.D.P Holiday Lights. All are topped with Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food and L’Oreal Quick Dry nail polish.

Full hand shot.. look at all my half-grown baby chicks! Well, ok, a very small portion of my baby chicks 😀

Then, this is the exact same mani but I wanted MOAR – so I added a layer of Darling Diva Polish Snowball to my middle finger. Those snowflake glitters are gorgeous – and a little too big for my curvy nails. I had to fish them out with a needle, but there’s an abundance of iridescent and white glitters, this is a super awesome topper. Finished with N.P.B Glitter Food and Misa BREAKneck

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Another photo of the three different polishes!

And finally, one coat of D.D.P Snowball over two coats of Revlon Royal. I might try and wear this all winter (o.k, probably not, I love changing my polishes too much. Still, the thought it there!). Love…

Another  angle, more sunlight, and check out that little munted snowflake. See? They ARE unique! 😀

And Micro Macro…It was interesting that Snowball kind of lifted some of the blue from Royal onto the snowflake. It was dry… maybe a top coat in between next time, huh. Royal is crazy pigmented.

If you’d like, come ‘like’ me on Facebook! (button is just over on the right, at the top – click it, you know you want to!) I put all my posts there, plus extras. O.k, usually funnies, but who doesn’t need a laugh every now and then, right? Be nice to see you, not just a stat! 😀

Have a great day

Ami

China Glaze Cast A Spell: Swatches & Layering with Darling Diva Polish

What a stunning polish. This is China Glaze Cast a Spell, from the 2012 Halloween collection.

This is like my beloved Wagon Trail on steriods – it’s just… more.

This is one coat, believe it or not. One simple, fast drying, easy to apply, self-levelling dream of a coat.

No top coat, just pure beauty. LOOK at that shimmer 😀 I bought this from Head2Toe Beauty 🙂

So, for layering fun, I added another polish of beauty – Darling Diva Polishes Mitochondrial Eve.

Sigh, look at that. What a lovely combo. One coat of Mitochondrial Eve, no top coat.

And then… I matted it with Essie Matte About You.

WOW.

Absolutely LOVE this mani! 😀 It lasted quite some time without chipping, too, which is always nice for a matte’d polish. It was a bit textured to the touch, but the visual effect was so lovely I didn’t mind.

Hah, look at that big wrinkle on my pointer finger! Argh! Now look at the others, shows the polish off nicer 😀

 

Have a great day,
Ami

Darling Diva Polish: Mitochondrial Eve – Swatches and Layering

Another versatile, stunning, glitter polish from Darling Diva Polish – this is Mitochondrial Eve (from her Battlestar Galactica series).

I had two layering ideas for this – it’s a strong emerald green, mostly, with gold, red, purple and blue accents. Sounds like a mess? It’s not – it’s cunning. Here I have layered one coat of Mitochondrial Eve over two coats of China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint, no top coat:

And because I wanted to show you with TWO layers of Mitochondrial Eve over the Re-Fresh Mint, and Kleancolor Fast Dry topcoat:

This didn’t dry in time, but I blame the Kleancolor. Sometimes it dries quickly, sometimes not. Today was a not day, obviously. This polish combo reminded me of a salad! Yum.

The formula of Mitochondrial Eve was lovely, heaps of glitter but not gluggy – it’s a wipe then dab sort of polish. You know, normal polish brushstrokes (wipe, wipe), then rearrange some bits of glitter with the tip of your brush (dab, dab). Pretty good going for these glitters, most are just full dab, but this IS easy.

I went off to play some music, and realised my nails were too long to hold down the strings of the guitar and bass, so I chopped them. Shame, I really liked them the length they were, but functionality comes first. And then the strings munted my still soft polish… but no crying, because it gave me a chance to do this:

Put it over red (this is an un-named but cute red jelly, two coats). This is only one coat of Mitochondrial Eve, and Kleancolor – Average – Dry topcoat.

I had a feeling that this would make a nice Christmas polish, and I really think I’m right. Although.. over a shimmer or sparkle would be nicer, I think! This, while pretty, more reminded me of a garden. 🙂

Have a colourful day!

Ami 🙂