Star Kin Update

Over on the Star Kin blog 😀 New polishes for February, plus if you check my other posts I have the non chosen polishes and a chance to vote for a readers choice polish 😀

Have a great day!

Ami

Small Fyrinnae Haul and Swatches

I bought my first ever cosmetics from Fyrinnae not too long ago! I’ve had them bookmarked for a long time, but never really got around to buying from them, and their little blurb saying how long the wait could be was a little off-putting. But clever Estelle  from Serenity blog told me it was just a worst case scenario, and she was right. I think it took a little over two weeks from order to arrival, from the other side of the planet, traversing oceans, braving our post system, and sidestepping holidays. Go, you good parcel. Go. Or rather, stay, I like you 😀

This is my haul! Pixie Epoxy: the main reason behind the purchases. With the sudden and dramatic increase in the number of amazing eyeshadows I have (thanks, Estelle, you ROCK), and the onset of the summer makeup slide, I really wanted something to hold them in place. And this DOES. It is sort of like sticky aloe vera, then sets like glue. And the eyeshadow stays right where you put it. Nice.

The shadows are, from left to right, Winter, Again – which was a free sample, which is ALWAYS exciting. Middle is Digital Faerie, and the brown is Serendipity. Estelle said Serendipity was worth getting and she, of course, was right 😀

They look pretty in the containers, but on skin (over Pixie Epoxy), they just look amazing. They look like that on the eyelid too, I haven’t taken photos but I wore Serendipity today, with Digital Faerie as a sort of eyeliner, and they are pretty. Serendipity, especially, is the best kind of neutral – one with heaps and heaps of gorgeous shimmer 😀

Winter, Again – Digital Faerie, Serendipity

Have a wonderful day

Ami

Spider decals from KKCenterHK – review

The other review post! These spider water decals were the other things I requested to try from KKCenterHK, and I’m so happy I picked them 😀

They are just AWESOME. Look at them! The squishy round 3D-ness of them. I do like spiders. I think they are fascinating animals. However, I do have a policy where if they do not jump on me, I do not jump on them. Fair’s fair! So, no, I’m not one of those people who like to have spiders on me, but these don’t creep me out at all. They’d be perfect for Hallowe’en, too.

Nails, right 😀 My pinky and index finger have two coats of Star Kin I Love Cookies and Cream, and then on the middle two fingers I have three thin coats of Star Kin Polished.

The water decals are easy to use, I flipped back the  plastic cover and cut out the spiders I wanted to use, then one at a time dropped them in a saucer with a little bit of water in it – enough to cover, but not so much I needed to wring out the carpet if I dropped it (it’s a clumsy time for me, ok? Don’t judge me! hehe)Then I found it easiest to just sort of slide the spider so that an edge was sticking out over the backing paper, which I grabbed with tweezers and placed on my nail where I wanted it. Top coat and done, just that easy 🙂

One of the girls in the facebook polish group I’m part of said they looked badass 😀 I’ve never had that said before, and I kinda like it 😀

My coupon code at KKCenterHK is EVERYSENSORY, which will get 10% off 🙂

*decals sent for honest review*

Have a wonderful day

Ami

Quick Geek Chic Cosmetic Swatches

Quick swatch on my arm of the new makeup I bought from Geek Chic during their recent sale!

swatches in the shade…

From left to right, all applied with a wet brush on bare skin EXCEPT the glitter which is over Glitter Glue (it wouldn’t stick at all, otherwise, be warned!) are:

*House Elf :  gorgeous warm shimmery brown I bought a sample, but I’ll be buying a full size of this when I can!

*You Know Who:  very nice blackened green with green sparkles

*Yellow Jumpsuit: lovely shimmery orange

*Blood Bond: I bought a sample of this last time and went back for the full size, it’s a nice auburn red, and I like them with my skin tone and eye colour.

*Yay! I do like a nice light shimmery pink, seeing as I’m not flash at putting on makeup and often don’t have much time, a quick sweep of a nice neutral is a good way to feel like I’ve made an effort 😀

*Always: pretty dove grey with sparkles, throws a green almost duochrome here!

*Frag: total glitterbomb, may never have the guts to wear this on my eyes, but it’s pretty and a nice mix of silver and gunmetal grey glitters

and the last swatch is a lipgloss called Willful Wyvern, and it is a duochrome, lilac and green. Doesn’t show up that dense on the lips, but adds a pretty sheen and a subtle shimmery gloss, isn’t sticky, smells like cocoa and something else I can’t quite pick, the sheen and colour disappear quickly (as with ALL lipgloss in my experience) but the moisturising effect lingers for quite some time, as a bonus!

sunlight: House Elf, You Know Who, Yellow Jumpsuit, Blood Bond, Yay!, Always, Frag, Willful Wyvern

It did take a long time for these to be sent, the lovely people from Geek Chic did sent out periodic nice and abashed emails, apparently the sale was successful beyond their wildest dreams and they were rushed off their feet. So, hey, they got here! They are pretty! No free samples this time (quickly suppressed pout) but the sale was so good that I still feel like I got FAR more than my money’s worth. I definitely recommend Geek Chic cosmetics!

Have a great day

Ami

Smash Cosmetics – swatches and review

It’s probably not a surprise to anyone if I say I love indie polishes. I mean, I make some. And own lots. And sort of want them all. But I also really like indie makeup… i.e. makeup ranges that are handmade by people, rather than large businesses and machines. Easier to get the cruelty free products in all the pretty colours, and usually for a really decent price too, even including shipping it all the way here!

One night strolling through Etsy I stumbled across a range of indie makeup from Smash Cosmetics, so went looking for reviews, and found a lot of favourable reviews. And thought I’d post my own reviews – the best way to know if they are a good product or not is to Google it, so doing my best to keep that out there! I bought a few full sized products from them, and also a Bloggers Pack – eg a VERY inexpensive sample pack, the reciprocal part being that I am a blogger, and will review their product. But of course, I do that anyway, bought or sent. A review happens. 😀 So, yay, I just asked them to surprise me with the products, and didn’t specify any products 🙂

So, swatches! There are two lipglosses, Vixen and Cranberry. Both are very dense in pigment, and go on nicely. I used a lipbrush, no primer or lip liner for all of these photos.

Vixen is much brighter than I could get it to show.

It looks almost neon pink red in real life! And can I just say that I hate taking selfies, and am really bad at them, and didn’t want to primp, so this is just me, wearing a bit of lipstick. I probably should have waited for a better day. Gah.

Cranberry is a metallic berry red /maroon…

Quite pretty!

Then the lipstick I bought, this is Deptford. It looks nothing like the photos, it is hard and doesn’t transfer the pigment well AT ALL, I think I’d quite like the colour (though shimmer and I don’t get on too well), and I’ll melt this down and add a bit of cocoa butter or similar and repour it, just so I can use it.

It’s also supposed to be Vanilla flavoured… I don’t know about that, it does smell sweet, and like lipstick 😀

Then other lipsticks in the Blogger pacK:

Creamsicle: very strange light peach orange colour, fairly streaky, but very opaque… and, as you can see, doesn’t look good on me. BUT, and here’s the thing, I don’t want these colours because I think I’ll look ‘good’, I just want funky colours. Plus, you know, I LOVE making up costumes and things, and these will come in handy!

Mint: Slightly green teal, a bit more green than the photo shows. Slightly streaky and catches in the lines on my lips, but not as bad as Creamsicle.

Viola: Absolutely gorgeous. Goes on flawlessly, and has a really nice scent, floral and sweet. Also very flattering, which is really strange! I want a full sized lipstick of this one!

Another selfie, argh. I even think they’re worse than the too-close-for-comfort macro, because at least I can pretend they’re not MY lips, until I see them on my face. That’s a bit of a giveaway. Ah well. FOR SCIENCE!  (or at least, for public information) 😀

Head in the Clouds: very blue lipstick, sort of strange texture, like it has too much zinc in it? Slightly sticky, in between a lipgloss and lipstick, but a very funky colour. Again, for costumes probably 😀 Nice scent, too! More sweet, less floral than Viola.

Tweak. For a moment I thought the name was Twerk, but phew! It’s not! Dark teal blue.. this was hard to apply, didn’t want to spread out or warm up, so not as dense as the others, and took more work. Nice colour though, I like it, probably not for school and kindy drop offs though 😀

Now… the clear tube is Glitter Glue, an eye primer for glittery eyeshadows. I bought this one. 🙂 And also included in the Blogger Pack was a cream primer… I swatched the eyeshadows on my arm, and drew a line using both primers.. nothing at the top, then the cream primer, then the glitter glue towards the bottom of my arm, and just bisected those horizontal lines with the vertical primer/nothing lines.  And the verdict is, I LOVE the cream primer. I want a full size of that, too! Wow, just holds everything in place so well, pops all those colours.

Here are the eyeshadows!

From left to right:

*Ultramarine (one I bought) – put on as thickly as I could, it is also on the far right, put on in one thin line. Bit disappointed in the colour payoff, but it builds nicely on the lid 🙂

*Harlot: a nice earthenware type red / brown

*Hell: very red and sparkly

*Pulchritudinous: Although I don’t want to spell that one again, it’s my favourite of the bunch, over the cream primer especially it has an amazing copper shimmer.

*Hippopotomuses: cute name! pretty shimmery lilac/silver shadow

*Frankenstella: nice purple on the boundary of plum. Dense in the best way 🙂

Now, I’ve gone back to find the shop to post links, and everything has disappeared. I am not sure if they have taken a break, or gone forever, but I’m hoping for a break because I want the cream primer and Viola lipstick, and a full size eyeshadow or 3 from them! So, fingers crossed they’ll come back, and I’ll let you all know!

Have a colourful day

Ami 🙂

Star Kin Rainbow Elements Swatches

Hello! Just throwing up a quick link to a collection of polishes I made, that I will be putting on Etsy tonight – one bottle only of each though, so I’m telling everyone in case someone desperately wants something, then beats me up when they find out later 😀

The post is here if you are curious! Our Etsy shop is here.

Have a wonderful day, I’ll be back with plenty more swatches and reviews soooon

Ami

Just a quick Star Kin update…

Over on my other blog, I have a post with some of our new polishes, if anyone was interested 🙂 You can check it out here!

I’ll be back really soon with a review on some pretty, and LARGE star shaped nail studs 😀

Have an awesome day ,

Ami

Indie Spam Post

Some indie spam photos of some gorgeous polishes!

First up is Crazy on You, by Wing Dust Polishes.

Two thin coats of Crazy on You over Kleancolor Black, topped with Misa BREAKneck top coat.

I preferred this layered, it was opaque on it’s own at three coats, but the black makes everything stand out so much more.

Wing Dust Crazy on You

I adored the pink shift! On the angle, the shimmer in the polish really shows pink, instead of blue. 🙂 Some of the pink hexes have a reflective curl (the way the light hits the edges makes it looked curled), but they lie flat on the nail, and this was lovely and smooth after one topcoat layer.

Next we have a cute little polish by Lush Lacquer, called Neon Blast. This was one that my friend Megan from Two Lacquered Girls blog sent me, and I adore it!

Excuse the poor lightbox photos, I’m still working on the lighting in winter issues 🙂

This was one coat of Neon Blast over Pretty & Polished Day Trippin’, and I LOVED this combo!

There’s no real substitute for good sunlight, is there?!

And see? When Day Trippin’ changed colour to the warm pink version (still showing the purple at the tips, I ADORE colour changing polishes), the glitters in Neon Blast still showed up perfectly. I think Neon Blast would be a hard polish to layer wrong – some glitter toppers are a real challenge to get the right base colour, but I think this one is just amazingly versatile.

And Pretty & Polished Candy Coated…

Super cute little polish, candy pink jelly base with purple mini glitters, and a couple of sizes of pink holographic hexes.

Photos show three coats, no top coat. Still some VNL, but not a lot, and just lovely on the super short nails on my other hand, subtle and sparkly and completely disguises the nubbins 😀

This is Ami by Daily Lacquer… which I bought almost as soon as she opened her shop because a) it’s my colours, and b) it has my name on it. Literally 😀

Super pretty, this is two coats over Kleancolor Sea Ice. It can be opaque in 3, but I had some issues with drying time.

I’ve added a thick coat of base coat and then a fast dry top coat on top so it’s lovely and smooth, but probably still having those dry time issues. I love it regardless!

And finally, this is a polish from Mmmm Nails, called Between the Buns, however it appears this shop no longer exists on Etsy!! Argh! It’s taken me so long to try it, but I can say, this is one gorgeous polish.

It’s a strong duochromatic gold, which flicks between gold and pink, with a slight green hue at certain angles.

Photos show two coats, plus top coat, there is still a slight bit of VNL, but that would disappear with three coats. I did two because I was planning on stamping over it, and knew that would distract the eye from the nail line – I am cunning when I am short on time 😀

Dry time was good, wear time has been excellent (two whole days, very slight tip wear, no chips, that’s GREAT on my nails!) and I really, really like it. The best of all the polishes I bought from her! Where did you go, nail polish creator? I want more duochromes from you!

Have a great day,

Ami

SpaRitual Gilded Age, Wing Dust Zambezi Sunset swatches and layering

a couple bad photos of SpaRitual Gilded Age – two coats, no top coat.

Very sheer, pretty but slightly old fashioned deep peach/orange/salmon polish loaded with gold (real gold, too, apparently, though I think most of what is visible is shimmer – there is pink as well as gold in there). Quite nice, I can’t see me reaching for it all that often, but it will be nice as a base against some of the glitter toppers!

I added Wing Dust Collections Zambezi Sunset to this, as I thought it was close to the base colour of Zambezi Sunset. And it was.

Too close.

I don’t know, I guess it’s pretty, but it leaves me very cold. The glitter didn’t really want to come out, possibly because it’s a mini bottle, but I just thought there was a lot of interest in Zambezi Sunset that was lost against the base.

close up of a tiny bottle – see, loads of interesting glitter in there!

So I layered it over Kleancolor Black. (one coat).

I liked this effect much more, the pinks and orange shimmers stood out much more and the holographic glitters really shone.

And, I guess I just tend to prefer more dramatic looking polish 😀

You can get SpaRitual polishes from Gracie Lou here in NZ, and Wing Dust Collection from Llarowe and her Etsy shop.

Have a wonderful day

Ami

Nail’d It: Fall Flowers and Candy Corn – Swatches

Nail’d It – Fall Flowers. Three coats, and fast dry top coat (Misa BREAKneck).

Polish is very sheer, but builds surprisingly well. Surprising in that after the first coat you’d swear there was no way it’d ever be opaque, but in three it very nearly is – and in real life it looks opaque thanks to the shimmer and those cute glitters.

This is a hard to describe polish – sort of a neutral toned beigey-yellow-gold, with heaps of gold shimmer. And the glitters, small green, mid size orange, yellow and red, and large yellow daisy shaped glitters.

Macro:

Shimmer with glitter is hard to do, in a polish. This polish JUST manages to get a good balance, I think because it is so sheer. It’s  not a deep polish, but it is a flattering and almost opulent one! Like a rich gold tapestry on the fingers 😀

Nail’d It – Candy Corn. Three dabbed coats, and Misa BREAKneck topcoat.

This was such an interesting polish, but I wouldn’t try and wear it along like this again, I’d either layer it over a complimentary colour (white, yellow, brown, etc) or a matchy one. I had to dabble the glitters into place like crazy to get any kind of even coverage, but the good thing was that I could do this. I’m not an expert, though I am good at dabbling at most things 😉

But the formula was excellent, and the glitters lay very flat, so I was able to slide the next layer over the first (which dried pretty quickly, another bonus in a dabbley polish!) and into place easily enough. Considering.

It was a gorgeous copper colour with those pops of white, yellow, red and black though. Personally I’d prefer no bar glitter, but it worked visually in the combo, and I certainly enjoyed the glitter factor of this. In the Llarowe photos (I bought this from Llarowe, yes), it looked like it had very large black circle glitters. It doesn’t (sad Panda), but it does have very large black hexes in it, which work really nicely. I just love dot glitter. Ah well, it’s lovely anyway, and I am happy I bought it 🙂

Have a great day

Ami 🙂