Polish Elf Nail Haul :D

I recently joined a Facebook group which was created for NZ Nail Polish Addicts. Not all of us are bloggers, but all of as ARE addicts. And enablers as it turns out – which is just wonderful. We also started a Polish Elf system – like a Secret Santa, basically. We posted stash lists (eek!) and wish lists, and went shopping for our designated elflettes!

And this is what my Polish Elf, Danielle of Domestic Minxes, sent me.

In order, L – R: Jordana Pink Hearts, Jordana Red Hearts, Dollish Polish Spank You Very Much, Up Colours Azul Disco, and Jordana Red of Hearts

Look at the pretties! Love….

I had asked for any of the Jordana hearts polishes, she sent them all.

from L-R: All the colours, Red of Hearts, Lilac Hearts, Pink Hearts

And all of the heart colours on one nail.. the base colour is L.A. Girl Disco in Groovy – awesome polish but sadly so thick and old it was pretty unworkable.  No top coat on these!

And the other two are Dollish Polish Spank You Very Much (love the name! hehe!) and Up Colors Holographic Azul Disco.

Here is two coats of Spank You Very Much over bare nail.. it actually looked less bare than I thought it would, though the camera is picking up the patches. But this will be a lovely layering polish, in fact I have already done one accent layer with it, which I’ll show later.

It’s a gorgeous mix of turquoise and purple, which are two of my favourite colours 😀 Thank you, Danielle!

I haven’t shown you Azul Disco, because there was no sunlight, and I have no intention of just doing a quick swatch with this. This puppy is going on and STAYING on for awhile.  There’ll be photos when that happens, of course 🙂

I thoroughly enjoyed the Polish Elf experience… the nervousness of buying polishes for someone else, the anxious ‘will they like it’ wait, and, of course, getting nail mail! Just brilliant 😀

Jordana Yellow Dazzle: Swatches, Layering, Sandwiches ALL THE THINGS!

I picked up this Jordana polish from a Coin Save in Otaki – it’s the only place I’ve seen them, and it’s not really local. But hey. Look at this pretty deep yellow glittery polish!

The glitter is small and bar holographic silver, and its pretty – although needs a darn good twirl/rotate/roll/shake the living crap out of before you apply it, as it mostly sits at the bottom. Plus, it’s a jelly. Why are all these yellows jellies? I like them, but I want them OPAQUE! Ok, ok, yes I’ll try it over white next time and stop my whinging. But this time, I sandwiched it.

Shown above is two coats, no top coat. FAST dry time.

Then I thought to myself MORE BAR GLITTER! Ok, no I didn’t really, because bar glitter and I…. well, like crackle and I, we’re re-exploring our relationship and taking things slowly. But here I had, waiting, Kleancolor Grand Finale.

 

I had to thin this prior to using, it was like clear blingy hairgel.

And wow, that’s holographic and hairy, alright. Trying to tone it down a bit, I decided to create a sandwich with the Jordana over the top (mostly to hide to blingy hair!). This is one extra coat of Jordana Yellow Dazzle, and Orly In A Snap top coat.

Mmmm.

Attractive.

Not so much. Ah well, I’ll try something new next time! 😀

Have a great day, with better combinations!

Ami  🙂

Swamp thing manicures!

Neither of these were really intended as Swamp Thing manicures, but I’m really pleased they turned out the way they did.

The first, a week or so ago, was a jelly sandwich of Mode Say Cheese (deep yellow jelly) with an in between layer of BYS Dazzling and finished with a last coat of Say Cheese.

I loved this look!

Radioactive swamp snot hehehe. A whole hand shot…

And todays: this is Jordana Green Glitz: A very pretty grass-ish green with holographic glitters and bar glitters.

These photos are 3 coats, it’s fairly sheer but not streaky, and dries super fast. Without top coat it’s a bit matte and a fair bit lumpy, but still very pretty.

Then, I used CR 16 yellow crackle, applied diagonally, and Kleancolor Fast Dry top coat.

Hehehe, look! Reptile nails!

Even Mr Husband Man liked these, he thought they were crocodile nails, which is awesome. Any mani he likes I make sure I brag about 😀

This dried fast and strong, no danger of chipping these quickly. I hope it doesn’t stain, because I didn’t use a base coat.. whoops. You’d have thought I’d have learnt after the Kleancolor Metallic Green incident, but you’d have thought wrroongg… (p.s. it didn’t stain!)

Have a lovely day!

Ami 🙂

Kleancolor Metallic Red and Jordana Silver Jewel

A recent purchase from Beauty Joint, this is Kleancolor Metallic Red:

And it is really pretty! This is one coat over a PVA glue base coat, and it could probably use another to even up the colour depth a little, but there are certainly no issues with opacity. It’s a lovely burgandy red with fine silver shimmer, and dries pretty quickly indeed.

Why is it darker on my little fingernail? I just put more on, I guess! Whoops 😀

I dinged the base coat by mistake,and that shows through on my index finger. So here are the other three….

And today there was a suprise in the mail box – Danielle (or Del!)- fellow Kiwi nail blogger – sent me Jordana Silver Jewel, and I thought that would look nice over the Metallic Red.

And it did. Love it when a plan comes together 😀 Silver Jewel is small silver hexagonal glitter in a clear base – and it’s quite fun to work with! There’s always some glitter on the brush, but sometimes there’s a little, and sometimes a LOT. I quite like the effect though, sporadic bling.

This is one coat – dabbed, but not painstakingly so -over the Metallic Red – another coat would have added more blingies, but I liked the effect as it was. Disco balls on my nails!

Thanks so much, Danielle!

Have an awesome day

Ami

Todays Amazing Nail Mail..

Look what turned up today! Four polishes from Darling Diva Polish, and a gorgeous Jordana polish from Del from Domestic Minxes (check out their blog!). So exciting – I *may* already have tried the Jordana on… watch this space for a quick swatch!

From left to right… DDP Bitches Have Birthdays, DDP Chrome Job, DDP The Opera House, DDP Mitochondrial Eve, and Jordana Silver Jewel.

Have a wonderful day

Ami 🙂

Jordana: Coral Spark – Swatch and Review

This is a red/coral version of the Jordana Blue Flash I bought and reviewed here. In spite of Blue Flash being quite a disappointment, I bought this one as it appeared to have a lot more glitter in it. And I was right… ish.

Here it is in most of it’s glory – it’s a rainy day here so some of the glitter isn’t showing up. This is three coats, and it dries suprisingly fast. Rough, though – you’ll need a thick topcoat for this. It is a red/pink coral – in the shade it looks orange/pink and in the sun it looks red/pink.

Inside / shade - see, much more orange!

Each subsequent layer covers the glitter of the first layers, but luckily there is enough so that you get some of that holographic bar glitter and small glitter peeking through to add interest.

dim sunlight..

So, overall I am much happier with this colour then with the Blue, and happy to add this to my collection.

Jordana: Blue Flash Swatch and Review

This polish (Jordana – Blue Flash) is DBP, Toulene & Formaldahyde Free, and very cheap ($4 I think, from a ‘Dollar’ shop in Otaki!). I can’t find it on either of Peta’s does or does not test on animals lists – so will have to assume that they do. To be honest, I saw a affordable blue polish with holographic glitter and just went ‘Yus!’ and bought it. Whoops!I mean, look at it. Wouldn’t you?

 

Pretty! Blue! Sparkly! I sure did.

But… here it is, in the sunlight. Two coats, top coat. The coverage is very good, and dry time is pretty fast: it seems resistant to chipping although it wears away at the tips pretty quickly. But… but…all the holographic bar glitter sinks in, and leaves a textured, gritty, non-sparkly mess.

 

Jordana Blue Fl. Well, it's not really a flash, is it?

See, in the shade it’s even clearer.

 

Sad...

It’s not quite as bad as it looks here, there is a touch of small glitter that shines so you’re not completely without sparkle, but it is disappointing. I don’t have any blue quite this colour though, so I’m still glad I have it, but it would be an absolutely gorgeous polish without the amazing disappearing glitter.