Essie Sand of a Beach

Today I have my first Essie to show you!

I went to Adelaide for my sister's birthday a couple of weeks ago and went into one of those fragrance/cosmetic clearance stores (I'm sure it's a chain and they have a name, but I cannot remember it, sorry!). They had a few brands of polish, mostly Revlon, Maybelline and Sally Hansen, then I spied a little bin of Essies right up the back. I got a mini cube set and two full sized bottles, and today I am showing Sand of a Beach.

Sand of a Beach is a fairly neutral, perhaps ever-so-slightly yellow-leaning nude, with a gorgeous pink shimmer/pearl which refuses to show up in my photos :( It's quite subtle, and sort of appears as a flash depending on the viewing angle.

This polish is quite sheer and I used three coats (and top coat) to get it fully opaque, but this would probably work well as a one-coater for a French Manicure. It's a lovely work appropriate polish and the formula was great - smooth, runny but not too watery, and easy to apply. I think I'll have to start hunting down more Essies!

Robyn x

Ulta3 Blossom Fever

Another Ulta3 polish to show you today!

A couple of months ago I bought a bottle of Blossom Fever to use as a work polish. Unfortunately when I got home and opened the bottle, I found this:

D'oh! I've never had this happen with an Ulta3 and I have 30 or so bottles. I posted on the Ulta3 Facebook page and they sent me out a new bottle, which was very nice of them, considering it's only $2.00 I would have just gone out and bought another one :)

Ulta3 recently moved their production from Australia to China, and this means that a lot of the polishes now have a slightly different formulation and look. The bottle I bought was made in China, but the replacement I got was an old made in Australia one. Unfortunately I don't have a comparison yet but will do one when I get a chance. I can see a slight difference in the bottle but am not sure how it will translate on the nail.

Blossom Fever (Aussie version) is a pale, slightly pink-toned nude, with a tiny bit of pink shimmer in it. I think this is three coats plus top coat - it's slightly uneven in application but nothing too tricky. Two thin coats would probably give an even sheer coverage but I prefer the opaque look. This is a perfect work appropriate manicure :)

Robyn x

Color Club Love 'Em Leave 'Em

Hello!

Today, my all-time favourite work appropriate polish, the glorious Color Club Love 'Em Leave 'Em. This is a warm-toned nude/beige with a stunning yet subtle scattered holo effect. Great formula too, smooth and flowy and opaque in two coats. This is two coats topped with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Non Chip Top Coat.

My nails are quite long at the moment - usually I wouldn't let them grow any longer than this because it gets too hard to play guitar and ukulele - but I'm going away for a few days so will let them grow out a bit. My next post will be about base coats and what is my favourite at the moment.

 - Robyn x

Collection By Bloom Saigon

Hello!

Today I have another Collection By Bloom polish to show you. This is Saigon, a pale lavender with icy white/very pale blue pearl. I did these nails quickly during a break at work, so luckily this polish didn't cause any problems, going opaque in two easy coats. Unfortunately even after wrapping my tips with base coat, the first coat of colour and top coat (my standard Sally Hansen), this chipped after only a day. On the plus side this was the easiest polish to remove EVER and came off with a minimum of fuss.

I think this would be really pretty as the base to some stamping in dark purple, so may try that out some time.

 - Robyn x

Work Appropriate Stamping!

Hello,

Today's post is in response to a request from issta from mel my issta, that I post some Konadicures.

For those not in the know, Konad is a brand which makes a whole bunch of nail art stamps. They're a really easy way to get designs and pictures on your nails without having to rely on a steady hand or wicked brush skills. Lacquerized has a fantastic tutorial on how to Konad your nails, so I'll just show you my efforts. :)

For this manicure I needed to do something work appropriate (my work stipulates "neutral colours" and actually prohibits "multi-coloured nail art" but I made it subtle :) ) so I used colours really similar to each other. The base colour I used is China Glaze Dress Me Up from the Hunger Games Collection. It's a mauvey sort of pinkish beige (yes my skills of description are amazing) creme which is opaque in two coats. For the stamped design I used China Glaze Poetic from the Romantique Collection. Poetic is a rosy metallic chrome. Konad does sell polishes for stamping, but a lot of "normal" polishes are good for stamping too - chromes, metallics, dark cremes, and anything which would be opaque in one coat. For this manicure I used a design from plate m73.

Konading takes a bit of practice, but once you've gotten used to it it's actually really easy, and takes way, waaayyyy less time than painting on nail art. Win!

 - Robyn x

Essence Season of Extremes Colour^3 Nail Polish

Woot woot!

I was in Priceline on Bourke Street Mall today (not the one opposite Target, the one above the Pancake Parlour) seeing if they had any specials on...and I spotted an Essence stand!!! I'd only seen Essence in Target before, and usually poorly stocked too, so was pretty darn excited to see a nice new looking stand...then I saw THESE:

OMG. The idea between these polishes is that you can wear either end on their own, or layered on top of each other to create a "third" colour. $5.50 each too - it was a no brainer to grab these!

I can't wait to try the bright ones, but I have work tomorrow, and work only allows nail polish "in neutral colours", so tonight I'm rocking My Nude Best Friends and Me.

The "base" colour in MNBFaM is a taupe creme with subtle silver shimmer. It was a bit of a meh texture and required two thick coats to get opaque. Also because the brushes are in the centre section of each tube, when you're painting you not only have the lid of the brush but also the polish at the other end, which is a bit weird to use. The topper in this duo is an iridescent shimmer in a sheer white base. It looks mostly silvery but on the brush bristles (which are black) I could see tiny flashes of pink/red. I'd be keen to try this over a black base to see the colour flash.

When I first put this on I was pretty underwhelmed...I'm not a huge fan of nude shades to begin with so it was already at a disadvantage! However after seeing it in a few different light conditions I'm actually really beginning to like it. The sheer sparkles over the creme create a depth of colour and shine which is really pretty.

This is two coats of the base colour, one coat of the topper, and one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.

I'm constantly on the lookout for nice polishes to wear at work - anything which is a bit interesting or out of the ordinary whilst sticking to the neutral colour scheme makes me not so sad to be wearing "boring" nails!

Robyn xox