Swatche spam: indies, textures, piCture pOlish, etc

L.A Girl Sand Blast in Quicksand – 3 coats, no top coat. I bought this from Cherry Culture, was delivered in a week, pretty good going!

This was my first textured polish that didn’t have glitter, and I’ve been a bit scared of them, to be honest! The light coloured ones look like some kind of fungal infection of the nails, to me 😀

But.. this purple is a gorgeous colour, and I really like the polish!

OPI Liquid Sand in Alcatraz….Rocks!

This was the one polish from the San Francisco collection that I wanted, and I couldn’t find it anywhere, and then I bought it from Beyond Beauty, yay! Postage is so fast too, I bought three from them on one day, they arrived the next. WOW.

This is a purple base with loads of different colour microglitters, I mostly see a more violet toned purple, gold, and blue.

So blingy and pretty, I’m glad I got this!

piCture pOlish o’hara – from my recent PP haul from their website here. They have amazing Everyday Deals too, so I got one of these polishes (denim) for free, and that’s just amazing 😀

o’hara is a pink toned red with piCture pOlish’s famous holographic mini shards – they aren’t glitter, and they don’t stick out, and removing them is as easy as any normal creme polish.

This was a polish I put on when I hit my recent art crisis, it’s times like that it’s nice to be able to put on a good blingy red and just get stuck back in!

The next textured polish I tried was L.A Girl Sandblast in Sandy Beach, the most awesome blue coloured polish.

Only… where is the texture?

This just looks bubbly! But hey, dried fast and with top coat it’s a beautiful blue polish, no harm done 😀

Ninja Polish Eye Candy… a really pretty glitter mix of gold, purple and teal, or is it green and blue? Unsure. PRETTY! I am sure of that 😀

Hows this for blurry sparkle?!

One coat here over Star Kin Ink, with Poshe top coat (accent nail is Ink on it’s own)

So blingy and cool, and actually really easy to remove in this mani!

Ruby Wing Wild Flower

This.. is three coats. This is possibly one of the ugliest polishes I’ve seen in quite some time 😀 I like the green shimmer, but the inside colour looks like the colour my nails go when stained! And it’s sheer. And, just, ew. Maybe I’ll layer it over a nude colour and see if it’s better without the VNL, but I was suffering with this on, and I had to keep it on because there was no sun and it needs sun to change colour ARGH! First world drama llama!

– topped with Mmmm Nails (lost the name, but has lots of yellow daisy glitter and small yellow glitters).

Then, at last, a small ray of sunshine! And I mean small, this would probably change a lot more to the orange if there was more sun. But hey, done, and OFF IT CAME!

And lastly for today in this mega post, is KB Shimmer Spring Training, which I bought through Harlow & Co. I really like that site, postage has gone up a bit but it’s still fairly reasonable, especially compared to other indie stockists, but I have noticed their processing and shipping has slowed down a fair bit, to about 3 weeks. They are still good though!

Ooooh. and AHHHHH.

Two coats, and top coat. SO pretty. I think it’s supposed to be scented but I’ve had mild hayfever, so can’t really tell.

But I do love this polish, so easy to apply, so many small and pretty glitters, such a flattering colour. Love! KB Shimmer people, please send me all your polishes? I would give them such a loving home!

Have a great day

Ami 😀

Nail Mail and Some Swatches and Suchlike :)

Haul from Beyond Beauty… love the textured polishes!

OPI What Wizardry is This, Honey Ryder, and Alcatraz … Rocks.

And this went on straight away!

Accent nail is Honey Ryder, the rest are What Wizardry is This. Three coats, no top coat (obviously).

These do dry quicker than normal nail polish, but still takes time without the fast dry top coat, so I did ding this. Of course 😀 That’s why the bling.. it’s hiding a ding (there’s a poem in there hehehe)

Then I stamped it, which was fun, and showed up quite well! Stamping polish used was my good old trust A-England Excalibur (old version, I have a beady eye on the new version…)

And some shopping plus mail – the Sorbet is a face cleansing bar that really works and softens, and is also good as a shaving aid, not as slippery as many, but a lovely pay-off in terms of smooth skin afterwards 😀

I feel so lucky, I don’t often get the chance to get more polish (which, harkening back to my issues with an abundance of untried is probably a good thing), but I love getting polish in the mail! Look at the gorgeous piCture pOlish (an Ozotic, yay, 505 is MINE!) polishes 😀

Here are two I got from Steph from our polish group, OPI My Pointe Exactly (been wanting this one for ages!) and Color Club Flair, which is a very pretty deep shimmery orange, yay!

And the Zoya Fall Pixie Dust collection! my first collection! And yay, so happy, been wanting the pixie dusts’ for ages, and these look amazing.

and a whole bunch from Cherry Culture’s website, yay, holographic glitters! Shipping was very quick, I think within the week, I am super impressed! Packaging was exceptionally good, too. Yay! I also got a couple of lipsticks, not included in the photo, and they are nice.

and yay, Elevation polishes! Including a very nice unscented cuticle oil, and a ‘scratch and dent’ Marmaloda, which looks pretty darn nice to me!

I also have some of the MoYou nail plates (amazing!) and the Pueen Sumptuous stamping set, but I’ve lost my photos, and energy level to retake them is in the minus figures. Sorry! 😀

 

Have a great day!

 

L.A.Girl Glitter Addict: Flash

Just a quick one today!

This is L.A Girl Glitter Addict in Flash, a coppery glitter in two different sizes med-small hexes and tiny dots – in a clear base. It’s great for layering, here it is over a blue franken of mine  – one coat, except on my index fingernail, where I have two layers.

I do like the L.A Girl Glitter Addict range of glitters, they are simple, easy to use and add sparkle to anything you layer them over, plus, of course, you can layer them over themselves (which is one reason I have so many of their colours). Dry time is reasonable, and they wear well.

Have a great day

Ami 🙂

Random Swatches: Orly, OPI, L.A.Girl, Rimmel, Franken. :)

Just some quick swatches of various nail polishes: most of these are second hand, and have been sitting around for awhile, and I wanted them swatched and out of the way (either recycled for their bottles or recorded for future reference).

First up – Orly Candy Cane Lane mini, 2 coats, no top coat.

Awesome red crelly, nice shine. I do have several like this though, and I was scraping to get this much out of the almost-empty bottle.

Sun:

Then another Orly Mini: Hype. 2 coats, no top coat

Weird colour. Very sheer and quite patchy, though a third coat would have probably evened it up. Kinda too old fashioned a colour for me, but quite flattering in a soft way.

Sun:

And OPI Cajun Shrimp. I really didn’t think I’d like this colour, it’s so obnoxiously bright. 2 coats, no top coat

I loved it. Heh, go figure 😀

Pity the bottle is almost empty … if I find one of these bottles around on sale I’ll buy it though. Great for summer tanned skin!

And L.A Girl Disco Brite… I *think* it’s Hustle. I’m not 100% sure – no name, and being a hard-to-photograph-accurately colour I can’t be sure from online searching.

One thing though, is this one has a strong pink micro glitter in it which I haven’t seen online anywhere. So, either someone mixed in some glitter, or … I don’t know. Strange batch? This is another almost empty bottle but I’m going to try and keep this one alive, it’s a brilliant colour. Maybe mix some base with it and different glitters, make it a jelly glitter. It’s worth the attempt.

Sun:

And this is the first ever polish I bought that wasn’t electric blue or green… this is Rimmel Zeitgeist, and it’s about 14 years old I think. I KNOW.

I’d never seen duochromes before, or really not for another 10 years … and found the yellow shift fairly unappealing, though I loved the other colours.

Two coats, no top coat. I had to pour almost a whole bottle of Seche Restore into this to thin it to workable, and I think I have enough left for a comparison with Orly Space Cadet and maybe even, if I layer it over black, to wear it again.

I love this polish so much more now. Maturity is it’s own reward, in some ways :D. Age, anyway.

Happy sigh. I’m so pleased I could put this on, and get swatches, and take that trip down memory lane 😀

And lastly, this is a true franken – I used a base of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Teal, and added pigments and holo flakes. Two coats, no top coat.

I didn’t think I’d like it, for some reason, but I did.

I like how the ‘holo’ (which isn’t holographic, by the way, but hey) flakes change colour against the periwinkle blue, and also how there is a fine scattered holographic shimmer in the sun.

Yep, this is one of my few frankens that I’d count as a proper win 😀

Have a great day

Ami 🙂

Mayan Zombie Nails! Features Pretty & Polished, Polish Revolution, and more :D

My sister hosted a BBQ on the 21st of December – and themed it the ZomBBQ – just in case the Hollywood scriptwriters were right, and the end of the 13th Mayan Long Count Calendar did mean the end of the world. This time. For some reason, that meant zombies. Or jaguars… or.. good goddess, all sorts. Planets rampaging through our solar system to whallop Earth upside the crust, rains of fire/blood/locusts/water/sultanas… all silliness. All a good excuse to have a family get together involving dressing up as the undead.

I decided to go as a Mayan Priestess – deceased. Though in deference to the 3 children under 5 years old, I referenced being deceased by just putting paler makeup on than normal 😀 I was a chicken priestess, of course. And when I get some photos through from my sister, I’ll show you my outfit! 😀

These were my nails-to-match:

Its really hot and humid here at the moment, and this did bubble – but it wasn’t really visible in real life 🙂

Here we have one lovely coat of L.A Girls Color Addict in Disorder, a gorgeous slate grey with gold shimmer. Added to that was a coat of Polish Revolution in Vegan Zombie (appropriate, I thought! I’d rather meet  a Vegan Zombie than a carnivorous one!) and then one coat of Pretty & Polished Hearts & Daggers, which added the appropriate Mayan theme, I think 😀

I topped it off with Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food, and Misa BREAKneck – which meant it dried pretty fast, and very smooth.

In fact, I am still wearing this mani two days later (I KNOW!) and they have a small amount of tip wear, no chips, and are still smooth to the touch. Polish and top coat win. I love, love, love this mani, and don’t want to take it off (but I have others I’m dead keen to put on (nailpolishaddictsproblems) and actually I’m a bit scared because I don’t have peel-off base coat under it. 😀

P.S – this came off really easily, actually. I just soaked a cotton ball in remover, had that pressed on my nail for about 30 seconds, then it came off pretty quickly. 😀

Have a lovely Boxing Day!

Ami

Kleancolor Retro Green – Swatches and Crackle

One beautiful coat, super amazing formula. Lovely deeeeep green with green/teal shimmer. Stunning.

See? The stainage was from a previous polish which I didn’t quite clean up properly. Sorry about that.

This is a very blackened green, but the shimmer saves it from looking black 🙂

 

Easy removal, no staining, believe it or not!

Whole hand photo to show the effect at a distance – very pretty.

One coat of L.A.Girl Cracked – silver. I put this on with diagonal stripes, so it cracked along that line, rather than the standard straight up-and-down crack. I really like that effect now! I know! Argh heheh 😀  A coat of Kleancolor Fast Dry topcoat and I called it done 😀

Look at the shimmer peeking through 🙂

Have a great day everyone! I am about to do some moving and hauling of the tree that we had to have cut down, yesterday, and escape into town ON MY OWN. Bllliiisssssss 😀 There *may* be nail polish purchased. You know I’ll let you know 😉

Ami 🙂

Day 29: Inspired by The Supernatural

Sister V (on a roll, she was!) suggested something ghostlike – pearls, whites, glowing eyes. I liked that idea!

So, as this was ‘inspired’ by the supernatural I went with ‘ghostly’ rather than ‘ghosts’ – trying to give the colours and suggestion of it, and mutiple eyes. I used CR 58 (white) as the base coat, and over that I layered L.A Girls Cracked in white to give a tattered look. On my pinky I layered two coats of CR instead – not as an accent, but because I grabbed the wrong bottle of white polish. Ah well! Over all that I put on thin coat of China Glaze White Cap, with its glittery prettiness, and randomly placed red microbeads for glowing eyes in the tattered fog. One set of eyes is three eyes not two.. but I think that’s even creepier 😀

Have a great day!

Ami 🙂

 

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet & Layering…

This is Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet: one I passed over getting because I thought it would be very similar to the other two Kleancolor Chunky Holos I have (Poppy and Purple) – but when my sister V got it, I realised it wasn’t an almost colourless base, it was a  red jelly. So I got my hot little hands on another bottle.

This is two easy coats: thick, as Kleancolor glitters tend to be, but certainly not unmanageble. This has the Chunky ‘Holo’ in it – which, don’t be fooled, is actually a colour shifting flat particle. Pretty, yes. Holo, no. Anyway, these particles shift from ruby red to orangey gold. And the base is a scarlet jelly, but as you can see, on the nail it is MUCH lighter in colour.

In the shade..

I’m glad I changed my mind and went and got this! Super pretty, and easy to wear. Dry time was pretty good too, esp for a Kleancolor glitter!

macro! 😀

Then I decided to add a layer of glitter – this is L.A Girls Glitter Addict Celebrate:

Nice, easy! Too easy – lets layer on another coat of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlett and have a proper sandwich..

I feel like I have dirt in my sandwich though. Maybe I’m just not edgy enough. I really did like it, esp the Kleancolor glitter, and when the light sparked off the L.A Girls glitter it was great – I just want more GLITTER from my glitter! I used a PVA base for this, and when I went and mucked one nail up, I ended up reapplying just that one nail with a normal base coat. The PVA based nails I could just peel off, but that one without was actually almost glitter level hard to remove. Very tricky indeed!

Have a wonderful day 🙂

Ami

Day 05: Blue Nails – L.A Girl Obsess

Day five of the 31 Day Nail Polish Challenge: Blue

This is L.A. Girl Colour Addict in – I believe – Obsess (there’s no label on this bottle, so guessing from internet swatches!)

This was a gift from my neighbour – on the day my eldest son started his school visits. (I thought I’d be a cartwheel mum – you know, school, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! She knew better. I was a sad mum).

What a gorgeous colour – a dusty mid teal blue with a very fine gold shimmer.

These are two thin coats, no top coat. The formula was just lovely – very thin but highly pigmented. It did have a slight tendancy to run, but nothing too scary. It dried pretty quickly, and stained quite badly. Wear a base coat, and have tissues on hand to mop up the remover overflow when taking it off, as it runs onto your skin and stays there for awhile 🙂 Wear time was good!

One thing I was concerned about when deciding to do this challenge is that I wouldn’t get a chance to wear my new nail polishes – but see? I can just incorporate them into it! That makes me feel better 🙂

Thanks again, neighbour N! 🙂

Day 02: Orange Nails

Day two of the 31 Day Challenge: Orange Nails! Whoop!

This was sort of a jelly shimwich idea (shimmer sandwich? Get it? Oh, ok, sorry.) The Obsessed has been posting Jelly Sandwiches lately, and they’ve been really appealing. Strange – I’ve been fairly anti those, but well… it seems that almost everything on my nails is now fair game. I can run with that.

This is one layer of China Glaze Orange Marmalade – which is sheer, and has gorgeous gold shimmer in it, but it is also quite jelly-ish. Probably on purpose – marmalade = jam = jelly, right? Then one layer of L. A. Girl Glitter Addict in Flamboyant… could have used two coats, I think. There’s a large bald spot. Ah well!

And here it is topped off with a final coat of China Glaze Orange Marmalade. I didn’t know if it would work, hence the in-between photo, but I liked it like this.

🙂