Today's nail: the BB Couture Vampy Varnish collection

Here's the Vampy Varnish collection - a collaboration between BB Couture and Kelly of Vampy Varnish. This collection of six polishes contains some amazing colours, many of which are really unusual and unlike anything else I've seen. These were all swatched without a top coat, and I think in the case of some of the glitters a top coat would do a good job of bringing out the glitter more and giving them a smoother finish - you can see in some of the pictures that a couple of the glitters have a slightly rough finish.

Redwood Forest: Such a hard colour for my camera to capture, I had to fiddle with the colour settings and it's still not quite right. Redwood Forest is more vibrant green than this picture shows, with lots of tiny pinpricks of green glitter. A real stunner, I knew I'd love it when I saw it in the bottle, and on the nail I love it even more again. I went with three coats with this as the thin jelly base was a bit sheer. Gorgeous glossy finish.

Kellys Green: I've never seen another colour like this one and it definitely polarises people - I've had a few friends pick up the bottle and say "yuck", but I love this avocado green. Two coats and lovely application from the thin formula, but the glitter does disappear slightly into the creme formula, giving the slightly rough finish you can see in the pics.

Napa Valley Red: Such a well-named polish - every time I look at it I think that if somebody decided to make a sparkling red wine this is what it would look like. Napa Valley Red is a thin jelly base (that again required three coats to be opaque) of vampy burgundy red with red glitter. It was impossible to capture with the camera the lit-from-within quality of this polish so you'll just have to trust me that it's a stunner.

Union Square: Of the six in the collection this is the only one that doesn't really blow me away - not that it isn't a great colour - it is - but it's not really my kind of colour. That said this bronze metallicy-shimmer has brilliant application and has virtually no brush strokes despite its metallic qualities and was nearly a one-coater, although I went with two.

Mendocino Midnight: A gorgeous dark blue/green  creme (I think it's creme) base with green glitter and a pink shimmer - the pink shimmer isn't as obvious on the nail as it is in the bottle. Lovely application, the two coats went on like butter, and it was very nearly a one-coater. The sky had clouded over and the rain had started by this stage, so my pictures don't quite do it justice.

Vampy Varnish: The eponymously named Vampy Varnish is a dark dark green jelly base with blue and green glitter and is my favourite of the collection. Another thin polish, but although the first coat was very sheer the second covered perfectly. Again you can see the slightly rough texture which a glossy top coat will cover nicely.

Kelly and BB Couture did a great job with this collaboration, and it's awesome to see four greens. As always I bought these from my gal Kim at Overall Beauty, who ships BB Couture internationally.

Today's nail: BB Couture Disco Lady

I recently splurged on the BB Couture Vampy Varnish Collection (swatches to come) and Kim at Overall Beauty, who is always such a sweetie, popped a couple of extra wee treats in with my order including this gorgeous polish:

Disco Lady is part of BB Couture's Disco Ball Collection, and she is one pretty lady.  A blue jelly base with lots of tiny green glitter, the first coat was very sheer and with two I can see a little visible nail line in some lights so I possibly could have gone up to three coats.  The formula is very thin and just a little prone to dragging at the cuticles so careful application is required, but that doesn't matter because this is a gorgeous polish and well worth having if you're a blue lover!

Buy polish, help Haiti

The only thing better than buying pretty stuff is buying pretty stuff and knowing that your money is going to do something good for those who need it. The lovely people at BB Couture have released a collection of six beautiful pastel polishes called "Hands of Hope", and 25% of the sales of these polishes will go the Salvation Army's efforts to help those in need in Haiti.

Left to right: Bassin’s Blue – experience subtle turquoise pools linked by spectacular waterfalls; Cape Haitian – mornings bring a mysterious pale violet haze over the mountains; Paradise – savor the natural beauty of Haiti along the endless sandy beige beaches; Kyona Beach – gaze up at the cloudless baby blue sky while sunning on the beach; Labadie Beach – delight in the delicate pink hues of the setting sun; Tortuga Island - explore the exotic lush green island foliage.

I love the delicate pastels of this range, and what a wonderful way to help people so desperately in need.

Available from Overall Beauty.

Hauls, lots of hauls. And an apology in advance

I've been a bad, bad girl my pretties! Remember when I said that I wasn't buying any more polishes in the lead-up to my Melbourne trip? Yeah, about that ...

First up, here's my haul from the BB Couture sale. Which you already knew about, so it's all good:

Left to right: Top Rock Top Coat, Green Goblin and Laguna Lagoon.

Left to right: Midnight Malibu, Spellbound, Midnight Desire, Maleficent Magenta

Left to right: Moon Over Manhattan, Sea of Cortez, Zuma Wave Rider

I'm not sure I actually realised how many purples I was ordering. It's a good thing I like purple.

Anwyay I was absolutely determined that was going to be it for a while. Determined. But then I stumbled upon the polish purge sale that Grace over at The Kitchen, The Closet and the Laboratory was having, and got a few polishes. Just a few. And hey, it's supporting a fellow blogger so totally justified, yeah? Yeah?

Left to right: O.P.I. Glamour Game, BB Couture Electric Avenue, Essie Barbados Blue

Left to right: China Glaze Watermelon Rind, China Glaze Coconut Kiss

Left to right: Orly Country Club Khaki, Orly Enchanted Forest

Left to right: NailTek Quicken fast dry top coat, NailTek Foundation II ridge-filling nail strengthener

Left to right: Zoya Raven, Zoya Irene, Zoya Midori

My first Zoyas! And there's a whole heap of colours in there I've been coveting for some time, so yay for Grace!

And last - because you just knew there would be more - I was out with 10 Year Old Son today helping him choose a present for 13 Year Old Daughter's upcoming birthday, and accidentally bought these when we were buying her present:



A set of neon minis by mwah!. The colours don't have names, but the set was only NZ$12.00. They're more for 13 Year Old Daughter than me, and I was going to hold off giving them to her until her birthday but couldn't wait. I have no information about mwah! polishes, they tend to be stocked in clothing stores like Jay Jays. I already have a couple of their colours and they're not bad.

Blog posts might be a little thin on the ground for the next couple of weeks. As well as my upcoming Melbourne weekend to prepare for (only a week and a half away - YAY), 13 Year Old Daughter becomes 14 Year Old Daughter this Thursday. How this happened I don't know, it seems like only a couple of years ago she was this little:



I am going to be SO unpopular for posting that! Look at her little Buddha Belly!

So as I was saying, 14th birthday coming up, and a gaggle of teenage girls (actually it should be a giggle of teenage girls) are coming over in the weekend for the Sleepover Party Extraodinaire! Which means lots of organising for me, and apparently lots of painting of nails. So in between running around like the proverbial headless chook over the next couple of weeks I will try to keep up with the posting, but I apologise in advance if I'm absent. I will make up for it when I come back from Melbourne, with lots of "look at the cool stuff I bought" posts, I promise.

The last two Hot Rods

I swatched the last two from the Hot Rod collection today, and I am super-duper impressed with all six of them.

First up, Cherry Baby:




Faithful readers will know by now that it takes a fairly special red to float my boat, not being a huge fan of red polishes. Well this red is special - a gorgeous traffic stopping traffic light red with the lit from within glow you get from a really good glitter. The base is a red jelly-ish creme (or creme-ish jelly), packed with tiny red glitter. Despite the jelly-ish texture this is really pigmented, although there is still some visible nail line after three coats it only shows up in certain lights. Thin formula but in a good way, this was really lovely to apply.

And finally, the colour I was most looking forward to:



Little Deuce Coupe is gorgeous! Another of those colours that makes me hungry, I figured out it reminded me of these:



Normally I hate banana flavoured anything, but I've always loved banana lollies. Mmmmm, banana lollies.

Yellows are possibly one of the most difficult colours application wise. Little Deuce Coupe was a pleasant surprise - it gave me the least trouble of all the yellows I've tried. There was some dragging, and it did require three coats, but it was very nearly a two coater.

So that's it for the Hot Rods. I am so glad I bought the whole collection, every single one of the wowed me.

Some more Hot Rods and another haul

Another visit from the postman today (I love my postman), with my order from Transdesign:



When I've ordered from Transdesign previously I've always forgotten to select a free gift, which they offer with every order. I remembered this time, and ain't he cute! I've had to keep him within my sight all day, a certain 13 Year Old Daughter has fallen in love with him! Stuffed doggies aside, we have some Creative Solar Oil, Misa Dirty Sexy Money, Essie St Barth's Blue, Essie Shelter Island and Essie Huckle Buckle.

Here's my trust colour wheel showing off the four new colours:


Left to right: St Barth's Blue, Dirty Sexy Money, Shelter Island and Huckle Buckle. I liked the look of St Barth's Blue when I saw it swatched on another blog, but looking at it now I suspect that, much like Sag Harbour (which it seems very similar to) it's probably not going to work for my skin tone.

13 Year Old Daughter asked for Shelter Island on her nails:



Gorgeous colour, a beautiful crisp bright sky blue creme. I have to say though, as much as I love Essie's colours I have had application issues with every single one of their polishes, and this was the worst yet. The formula on Shelter Island is incredibly runny, so much so that there was a lot of clean up required, not just of 13 Year Old Daughter's nails but also her hands and the couch because drips kept sliding off the brush as I was trying to apply it, no matter how much I wiped the brush down. The formula is nicely pigmented but so streaky to apply and it pools at the sides of the nail, adding to the clean up required. With three coats I'd managed to get it looking good, and a top coat of Seche Vite levelled out any ridges remaining. I love the colour and I will definitely be wearing it, but only on days when I have the patience to apply it!

Now for three more of the Hot Rod collection. First Hot Spot:




This was the colour I was most undecided about getting. In the advertising pictures it appeared more tomato red. I am so glad I did go ahead and order it though, it's a stunner. Firey deep orange shimmer with just a hint of red, I love it! Two coats and really nice application - yum!

Unfortunately while I was painting 13 Year Old Daughter's nails I managed to get Shelter Island smudged on one of my nails, so Hot Spot came off and Lowrider went on:



Lowrider is a gorgeous grape metallic that reminds me of grape bubblegum. If grape bubblegum were metallic. I'm totally in love with this colour, it's very distinctive and unusual. Application was good, three coats and much less problems with brush strokes than Nitro Injected (the other metallic).

Now I've switched to Cruisin because I'm watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with the Eccentric English Boyfriend, and sitting in front of the TV for a while calls for polish application:




Ooooh, this gorgeous light orange creme reminds me of orange instant pudding. (Is that a New Zealand thing that I'm going to have to explain to my overseas readers?) Anyway, looking at this makes my mouth water, it's delicious. Much better application than I expected, three coats and a bit of dragging but nothing major.

I have two colours left to try in the Hot Rod collection (Cherry Baby and Little Deuce Coupe) and so far I am utterly in love with it.

Vroom vroom: my Hot Rods have arrived

You know the old saying about watched pots never boiling? Well the same is apparently true for postmen. Not that they boil, obviously, but I turned my back for just a while (read: I closed my eyes and fell asleep for several hours) and when I woke up there they were:



Oh hai pretties. Look at you all hiding in there. Won't you come out to play?



Left to right: Cherry Baby, Hot Spot, Cruisin, Little Deuce Coupe, Nitro Injected and Lowrider.

Wow! I loved them in the advertising pictures, in real life I am blown away! Even Cherry Baby and Hot Spot, which I hummed and harred over before deciding I would get them (being as they were limited edition and all) are actually pretty gorgeous. And as always the lovely Kim at Overall Beauty surpassed herself, including a cute little manicure kit (which has already disappeared with 13 Year Old Daughter) and an adorable mini crystal nail file in a tube!

I got to use my colour wheel - best investment ever!



Cherry Baby is packed with tiny tiny red glitter, Hot Spot is a shimmer, Cruisin and Little Deuce Coupe are cremes and Nitro Injected and Lowrider have a metallic finish to them. Application wise Cruisin and Little Deuce Couple seemed like they could be the ones to give some issues with streaking, and Nitro Injected had some problems with very visible brush strokes.

I was going to try Little Deuce Coupe first, as it's the colour I've been most looking forward to, but I was already wearing a yellow so thought I'd go for something else. I let 10 Year Old Boy choose for me, and he went for Nitro Injected:




This is three coats, and I was right about the brush strokes - I spent ages mucking around with it trying to get it to the stage where the brush strokes weren't driving me too nuts. Clean up was required too (as you can see from the picture) which is something I don't find very often. But I love the colour, it reminds me of some foil gift wrap I used to have.

I cannot wait to see the rest of the collection on my nails!

BB Couture Limited Edition Hot Rod Collection

For the first time BB Couture have released a limited edition collection.



Called Hot Rod, the six polish collection is available on Overall Beauty from July 9th, but only 100 bottles of each colour are being produced, so if you want them you better get in there quick.

Inspired by hot rod flame paint jobs, the colours are:

Cherry, Baby! - A sweet candy apple red with high shine and a "begging for a speeding ticket" attitude!
Crusin' - Bright, cream neon orange, smooth and delicious, but never ignored.
Hot Spot - The ghost flames in this nuclear orange are alive with deep red undertones.
Lil' Deuce Coupé - The perfect lemon yellow for hot summer days.
Lowrider - Take a tall drink of grape soda and mix in some pearlescent shine.
Nitro Injected - This sassy blue is all about wide open skies with the top down doing 90mph!

You KNOW I've already put my order in. I'm particularly looking forward to Lil' Deuce Coupe and Hot Spot - what about you?

An apology, some more hauls and a polish review

Hello there my pretties, apologies for the radio silence - our internet has been dead for the last couple of days. It's back up at the moment, so I'm taking advantage while it lasts.

First up, a couple of purchases from TradeMe which arrived in the mail yesterday:


Top row: China Glaze Urban Attitude, Pinnacle Quicksilver (never heard of this brand, anybody have any experience with it?), Color Club Paris White, Color Club Fast Woman, Color Club Queen of Speed. Middle row: Color Club Rev'd Up, Color Club Sugar Rush, Color Club Candy Girl.
Bottom: O.P.I. Bronze gift set, Suzi Says Da! and I Only Drink Champagne plus cosmetic bag (which I'm not particularly fond of, I only got it for the colours which were a bargain).

Next, from today's trip to the mall, a bundle of stuff from Postie Plus. I can never resist popping in to our local Postie Plus - their clothes may be a bit on the 'grandma' side but they always have bins and bins full of cosmetics at super cheap prices. Today's haul:


Nailene Rhinestone Nail Art Kit, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamonds, Max Factor Nailfinity Golden Peach, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Honeymoon Red, Maybelline Wet Shine Diamonds Jewels n' Berries, Max Factor Nailfinity Disco Pink.

And finally (phew) a review of BB Couture Peony Pink.



That is the most gorgeous pink. And I say this as someone who hardly ever wears pink nail polish! It reminds me of candy floss (mmmmmmmm, candy floss). However this was the first of the BB Couture polishes to give me application problems, and to need more than two coats. There was a lot of streaking and bald patches, which mostly disappeared by the third coat although if I'd wanted to be a perfectionist about it I probably would have gone for four coats. On the plus side, like all the BB Couture polishes I've tried it dried super fast. Application problems aside, I love it!

My nail polish collection now numbers 162. And there's several more arriving in the mail in the not-too-distant future. I may have to go to polish-rehab!

Review: BB Couture Blue Suede Shoes

This is the second nail polish from BB Couture that I've tried and I continue to be very impressed. Their formula is fabulous, easy to apply, great coverage in two coats maximum, and they have such a great colour range I'm seriously tempted to get on to Overall Beauty and order some more. Except I've just ordered a haul from Transdesign, and after last night's post about the NARS Vintage colours I ordered a couple (Blue Lagoon and Cha Cha Cha in case you were wondering).

The Eccentric English Boyfriend asked me last night how long it would take me to collect every nail polish colour in existence. I asked him if that was a challenge, because I'd be more than happy to give it a try, and he suddenly backtracked. Go figure. But I think in the interests of proving to him that it's not possible, I should probably go ahead and order some more polishes - makes sense doesn't it?

Anyway on with the review. Here is Blue Suede Shoes:



This is a gorgeous, gorgeous colour. When I applied it last night there were some lavender tones coming through, today in daylight it's a gorgeous dusky blue. Almost bottle colour in one coat, I am absolutely in love!

So is Jessie:


Fred may not be so sure, it's hard to tell under that fringe:

And that's AFTER yesterday's trip to the groomer's, before that he looked like a little sheep!

Review: BB Couture Tangerine Scream

Wow! Just ... wow!



When I first became obsessed with nail polishes a couple of years ago there were two colours I never imagined I'd wear on my nails - green and orange. Since Peppermint Patti piqued my interest my collection of greens has grown quite large and covers all ends of the green spectrum, and today's BB Couture haul from Overall Beauty contained my first ever orange - Tangerine Scream.

Well hawt diggity that is one gorgeous colour. I love how it looks against my skin tone. And it makes me crave mandarins. See?



And the important stuff? Well all the good reviews of BB Couture polishes were right if this one is anything to go by. Nice formula, thin but still nearly bottle colour in one coat and really nice to apply. I did three coats but only because my application was a bit off - I was trying to watch Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture at the same time. The brush is a little on the thin side, but it's not really a big deal. And no clean up, which is a miracle for me!

So BB Couture gets a big thumbs up from me. And I think I'll be looking for some more oranges to add to my collection too.

And now to eat that mandarin - it's not just a prop you know!