PANZ Week 6 – Jelly!

Week 6 of the weekly Polish Addicts of New Zealand challenges – these are fun. 😀  This one is Jelly – and I thought I’d play with it, in the spirit of that fun 😀

This is mostly based around China Glaze Creative Fantasy, which I picked up in a semi-recent group Head2Toe order. It’s the most gorgeous royal purple jelly! I had two layers of that, then one layer of Nail Pattern Boldness Bitches Brew, then a final layer of Creative Fantasy on most of my nails, and on my accent nails I played with a design of layering painted images on the jelly layers – original manicure can be found here.

And, I didn’t much feel like flowers, so I tried fish. Kinda… sort of missed that one, I feel. I blobbed the fish on with Kleancolor White, and the middle and top layer I also added Ozotic 907 for fishy shimmer and a dot of Kleancolor Black for the eyes. I still think they look a bit like rockets. Or… something else.

Anyway, this was fun! All topped off with Misa BREAKneck.

“ABCD Goldfish?”

“MNO Goldfish.”

“SAR Goldfish, ICDBD I’s!”

Have a great day

Ami 🙂

 

Ozotic Scatter 915

Not feeling very wordy today, but I always have time for a pretty polish: this is Ozotic 915!

in the shade – showing some of the blue shift around the edges 🙂

Photos show two east 2 coats, Misa BREAKneck top coat, and an abstract flower doodle on ring finger (with NPW nail art pen). Originally the flowers weren’t so abstract, but I put the top coat on too soon and it smudged them. Ah well! I also have some small black blingies in the middle of the biggest two ‘flowers’.

Like all Ozotic polishes that I have ever tried, this has a really nice formula, and is easy to apply.

Although I couldn’t capture many of the  colour shifts, it does change between green/blue/gold, with large scattered irregular shaped holographic shimmer which do their rainbow thing beautifully in the sunlight.

Dries fast, removes easily, lasts a long time before chipping.

I bought this polish from Gracie Lou (from memory!), but you can get this from many other places, including piCture pOlish online.

Have a wonderful day

Ami 🙂

Color Club: Abyss, plus Ozotic 509 and Ninja Polish Alexandrite.

This is Color Club Abyss, from the Color Club Kaleidoscope collection, one of two they have recently released with nary a whisper.

Two coats here, no top coat – the formula was pretty good, there was the occasional blob but that was more about user error than the polish. And dry time was quick, too!

Nice and shiny without top coat, as well. I bought this one from Head2Toe beauty, online. It’s nice- a pretty mid green creme, almost emerald hued but with a lovely murky blue tone to it. Not teal, still green, but nodding in Teal’s direction. These photos show this polish as more blue than it is, but in the sunlight (as here), it really does throw a lot more blue.

Then I added one coat of Ozotic 509, a gorgeous silver super-holo which works as a top coat over almost everything as well as a gorgeous silver polish on it’s own.

So pretty!

Rainbows… mmmmm.

And then, one coat of Ninja Polish Alexandrite, topped with Misa BREAKneck top coat.

The shimmery glitters in Alexandrite were sheer enough that the holographic effect of the Ozotic polish was still clearly visible, as was the base colour of Abyss.

I counted this as a layering win, even though I couldn’t really capture the colour shift of Alexandrite (purple to green) as well as I would like, or the strength of the holographic effect of the Ozotic, we had NO sunshine when I was wearing this!

Ah well, shift happens regardless of photographic evidence 😉

Have a wonderful day

Ami 🙂

Playing with Ozotics – 500 series

I was going to swatch all these separately, and then I worried I’d annoy someone. You see, Ozotic have discontinued the holographic 500 series, due to supply issues with some of the components. But, I did buy them when I heard they were on the way out, and I do want to show them. So, instead of serious swatches, I played with them, and I’ll show you what I came up with!

The polishes I used were: 513 (purple), 515 (blue),  and 516 (pink)

sunshine..

Left- right, the first two nails (index and middle) have Ozotic 515 as the base, then dotted with 516 and 513 (the pink and purple holos), the next two had the same base (515), but I put on the 516 and 513 and sort of smooshed it around with lunch wrap to get a textured sort of look – and put a few dots over that.

shade…

And, because I thought this looked vaguely reminiscent of the water lilies paintings in the shade, I added blobs to represent those, using dots of Color Club Angel Kiss and Jade Mystic Gold.

Then, for a change of pace, I tried four of the Ozotic Holographic polishes in a totally different way:

This was over Jessica Cinnamon Kiss as a base, and sections were taped off for the polishes. I used Ozotic 517 (green) as well as the other Ozotic 500 series, from above (515, 513, and 516)

You can probably see the slight disadvantage to doing it all at once, by the time I was finished with the last block of colour the first was a bit too dry, and came off a bit when I removed the striping tape.

Ah well, I still like this! It was finished off with Misa Breakneck top coat, and lasted really well.

I do love these Ozotic holographics, they have a nice formula, go on easily, dry very fast, and are insanely holographic. The lighter colours are sheer enough to wear as a top coat over almost every other colour, but still build well to opaque in 2-3 coats. If you can find them anywhere, and you do like holographic polishes, I highly recommend them! 😀

Have a great day

Ami

China Glaze Strap On Your Moonboots – Swatches & Nail Art

Strap on your Moonboots, from the Hologlam collection, purchased from Head2Toe Beauty. Sister V told me this was the right one (I had it narrowed down to this or When Stars Collide), and she was right, this is pretty!

You may have heard that these polishes are not that holographic. They are not that holographic. These photos show about as strong a holo effect as they got, but I LOVE the colour, and the slight holo rainbow does add a dimension 🙂

A lovely dusty dark denim blue with subtle linear holo. Two coats here, almost a one coater. No top coat!

The thing is… it’s almost a one coater because it is quite thick. It does pull off if you overwork it, so don’t do that. My bottle also had this cute trick: I’d wipe the brush and then go to put the first stripe of polish on, and about half way into the first line a HUGE amount of polish would come screaming down the brush from who-knows-where and go PLOBBB! all over my nails. Annoying, but workable, I just put the brush half way up my nail and used the PLOBBB! to paint with, then I didn’t get the cuticle flooding. 😀

Then for fun, I added dots (with a dotting tool) using Ozotic 515 (almost invisible against the SOYM), and Color Club Blue Heaven, and a fast dry top coat (Misa BREAKneck).

Inside lighting, sorry about the yellow!

Later on I added a couple of large holographic circle glitters…

and a cut-to-size silver flamingo thing (large packet of them for sprinkling around to decorate events? Confetti things?) on my thumb, and lots of top coat to hold it all down. That was fun, and very easy 🙂

Have a great day

Ami 🙂

Quick, fun, manis – St Paddy’s Day & Camo…

My nails for St Patricks Day – which was on Sunday here, but I went on Friday night, as the local watering hole had a live band. It was a lovely night, great music, good friends, fun dancing 😀

So, for quick and easy I went with a skittles of my untried green polishes, and added some little green flower doo-dads on my accent nails. So, right to left; on my thumb I have MUA 13, then Orly It’s Not Rocket Science, Color Club Fly With Me, Nubar Reclaim and then Ozotic Scatter 915.

Three coats of each, top coated with Misa BREAK neck. Nice, sparkly, and quick!

And today’s effort – these are my attempt at camouflage nails!

One coat of China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, then I blobbed on Essie Sew Psyched, China Glaze Budding Romance, Chi Chi Fast Love, and more Kalahari Kiss. Topped off with Misa BREAKneck.

I do quite like this, but I think it would be better if I’d made my blobs more irregular, as it is it almost looks like eggs.. but still. Fun. And I’ll do better next time!

Have a great day

Ami 🙂

Valentine’s Nail Efforts – a belated post! :)

I don’t traditionally ‘do’ Valentine’s Day stuff, it’s the same ol’ toss up between commercial vs real vs ‘but every day should be Valentines Day when you are in a relationship’ waffle… but you know, every day ISN’T Valentines Day, and what the heck, I felt like going for girly colours and hearts. So I did.

This was two coats of Revlon Temptress, topped with my glitter franken (hearts, red, and gold), no top coat here. And I guess it looked ok, but it really wasn’t me.

So I added two dabbed coats of 365 Days of Color Waking Up in Vegas, and matted the whole lot with Essie Matte About You.

Which I liked quite a bit more, I definitely felt I needed the black diamonds to make it a little less princess-y.

The trouble was I thought it had dried, and it hadn’t, not properly… so it all ended up performing a little model of ‘continental drift causing the Himalayan mountain range on my nails, and I had to remove the whole lot. So, start again. With BLUE. Yes, thanks!

And this beauty is Girly Bits Arctic Sunrise, which I adore, and which I class as fully Valentine-appropriate because a) it has pink shimmer and b) I love it. It’s alll about love, isn’t it? 😀

These photos show two lovely easy coats, no top coat.

Just look at that gorgeous shimmer! It’s so pretty.

And then, just because, I added a veerrryyy subtle gradient by applying a thin coat of Ozotic 903 to the tips.

What that meant is I had powder blue nails with pink shimmer closer to my nail beds, and green, blue, and pink shimmer on the tips.

I was quite impressed with that. Sure no one else would ever notice, but I COULD SEE IT. Happy Valentines Day to meeee! 😀

And then, of course, I found a glitter topper. This is All That Glitters – Whole Hearted Remix, two dabbed coats.

I actually like the way it looks like the matte black and white glitters are floating high above the blue polish, it’s quite appealing for some reason.

And see, blurred, you can see the colour in the shimmer change between Arctic Sunrise and 903.

Close up – this was all finished with China Glaze Fast Forward top coat, which needed thinning. So it’s THICK. Ah well!

Then I called my nails finished, and went off to have a lovely day. I hope you all did too, or if not, that your days today are wonderful!

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 🙂

Ozotic 506 and 526 – Wowza.

Here are two gorgeous Ozotic polishes that not only look amazing, but also look even more amazing together. First up, here is Ozotic 526, a stunning holographic black polish. In the shade it’s a lovely inky black colour with silvery appearing shimmer.

But in the sun.. check out that shimmer now!

I’d say this is a linear holographic polish; the rainbow forms a definite line. However, the particles are larger than the intense holographic polishes out there (eg Layla, Jade) – so you can see every shimmer particle as a rainbow floating in the black. Just stunning.

And the best bit? It’s a true black. Not a dark grey. BLACK.

These photos show two coats, no top coat. Dry time is on the faster side of average, and the formula was nice to deal with, not thick at all, a tiny bit runny but not uncontrollable.

I then taped off a diagonal section, and added two thin coats of Ozotic 506 to the tips, finished with China Glaze Fast Forward. And then proceeded to knock my little finger against the chair when going to get my camera.. hence the three fingered photos. Yeah. Whoops 😀

Anyway! 506 is a gorgeous multichrome – blue to purple to a bronze colour that I could only photography on an extreme angle.

That extreme angle showing the bronze shift…

Yep, I fixed my little nail up here – I freehanded the tip, and added some dots. Just because. You can see the blue, which seemed to be the dominant colour, but it is changing to the purple on my index fingernail.

And purple, glorious purple.

And a whole hand photo in the shade (which is normally when the purple peeks out)

And another one using flash – so shiny, pretty! Duochrome over holographic… I really liked this! It did seem a bit chippy to me, not majorly so, but it had some chips by the next day. For these perfect party nails though, it’s all worth it, and someone with less soft nails than I have will get a much longer wear time from it.

You can buy Ozotic polish from the pIcture pOlish website here, or check out their lists of international distributors, like Gracie Lou here in NZ 🙂

Have a great day

Ami

Ozotic Sugar 903: Swatches, Layering and Review

The final of the four piCture pOlish and Ozotic polishes sent for review, this is the spookily pretty Sugar 903.

Why spookily? Well, I just found that this polish, opaque in three coats (shown in these photos with three coats and no top coat) was such a glowing, multi-hued colour that it looked almost glow-in-the-dark – sort of an almost eerie luminescence. It doesn’t glow in the dark, but it really looks like it should. I love the lilac and the light blue sparks in this gorgeous glass fleck polish!

Formula on this was beautiful, slightly more on the runny side than the thick, but it goes where you put it and there is no pulling, or bald spots, even with only a short time left in between coats. Dry time is slightly on the long side, I’d definitely recommend using a quick dry top coat.

Like all piCture pOlish and Ozotics, these have the QR code on the side, scan it and get taken to their website 🙂

And then I layered it, to see what that would look like. I was going to choose Revlon Royal to layer it over, and I will still do that at some stage, but my hand went and chose Kleancolor Cobalt all of it’s own accord.

Two coat of Cobalt, one of Sugar 903, no top coat.

Wow, good choice, hand. I loved this. It was insanely shimmery, in the shade or sun, and just.. just.. ugh. Well, you can see 😀

And whooo boy does it shine and shimmer in the sun, and the duochrome in Sugar 903 is so obvious!

One thing about Sugar 903, like Beam 907, is that removal from your nails is easy. Very easy. Removal from your skin… quite tricky. Oh, there’s no staining or anything drastic, but those teeny gorgeous shimmery glass flecks love to stay on your skin for awhile afterwards. It’s not just Edward who sparkles in the sun, is what I’m saying here. You can probably see it in these photos 😀

Then I thought: Challenge! I want to use ALL FOUR in one manicure. Which four? These! piCture pOlish Splash, Ozotic Sugar 903, Ozotic Beam 907 and Ozotic Scatter 912.

And… I’m quite happy with the outcome, though I can see room for improvement.

I had two coats of Ozotic Scatter 912 to start with, then taped off sections (by forming an off-centered X with the striping tape). On the bottom left side I put Ozotic Sugar 903 (blue), and the top left I put Ozotic Beam 907 (white). Over all of this – after removing the tape – I put Splash.

Then I thought hmmm, I don’t like how thinly I’ve put Sugar 903 on, so I freehanded another little layer over that triangle, in effect making a shimmer sandwich with Splash between the two layers. The whole lot was topped off with Misa BREAKneck.

Considering I used four quite different polishes, this mani was quite subtle. I think that’s due to the softness of Sugar 903 and Beam 907, and the tie in effect of Splash. I really liked it!

What do you think? piCture pOlish and Ozotic are sold through their website here, and also through Gracie Lou here in New Zealand.

Thank you, Jules, for letting me have the chance to play with these gorgeous polishes, I hope my photos have done them justice.

Have a great day

Ami

*Disclosure: the Ozotic polish shown here, Sugar 903, 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.*