China Glaze High Roller

This polish came from a friend who was clearing out her collection. The label appears to have been completely rubbed off at some stage (you can just see a couple of specks on the bottle where it was).

High Roller is from the 2004 Monte Carlo collection. A sheer-ish jelly, I applied three coats but looking at it later I probably should have gone for four as there was still a noticeable nail line.

I'm not usually a fan of red polishes, but this one is pretty awesome; a vibrant orange red so bright as to be almost neon. Love it.

China Glaze Rainstorm

Gorgeous dusky mid-blue with tiny blue glitter. But this level of opacity took six coats, and it’s still not 100% opaque.As much as I love the colour, this won’t be a keeper.

Today's nails: China Glaze Tinsel and 5 Golden Rings

Since it was Guy Fawkes yesterday (and firemen around Auckland breathed a sigh of relief when it poured with rain) I thought I'd do something a little sparkly on my nails. I went with a two colour mani in Tinsel and 5 Golden Rings, another two from the China Glaze Loves You Snow Much Collection. (Emerald Sparkle is here, and I won't bother reviewing Ruby Pumps since I've already covered it here and here).

Here they are in natural light:


And inside with flash:


These were both three coats (or it may have been four, but I'm pretty sure it was three), and you can see they're very sheer - there's still a lot of visible nail line. They are jam packed with itsy bitsy glitter though, so much so that I can't actually tell whether the polish base of both is clear or the same colour as the glitter.

I really like both of these, even though the VNL bugs me somewhat. Tinsel is a lovely silver that reminds me of glitter dusted Christmas tree decorations, while 5 Golden Rings is a shade of gold I can live with - not too pale and not too orange. I've not liked many of the gold polishes I've tried in the past, so this one's a keeper.

China Glaze Wizard of Ooh Ahz Returns

If you're on Facebook, check out China Glaze's page for pics of the Wizard of Ooh Ahz Returns collection, including swatches.

Here's the whole collection (which apparently ships this month) to get you started:
Left to right: Ruby Pumps, Cowardly Lyin, The Ten Man, Dorothy Who?, C-C-Courage and Good Witch.

Will you be getting this my pretties? I think I will, although I will then have three bottles of Ruby Pumps! Worth it I think, because I'm coveting Dorothy Who?, C-C-Courage, The Ten Man and Cowardly Lyin.

Today's nail: China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

This gorgeous colour from the China Glaze Loves You Snow Much collection has featured on virtually every nail polish blog I read, but it was too gorgeous for me not to post for you my pretties:






Emerald green jelly base packed with green glitter - lovely. The photos don't do justice to the sparkliness of this baby.

Three coats to opaque, the very thin formula was a bit streaky on the first two coats but evened out nicely on the third. This will definitely be part of my Christmas Day mani!

Poor little courier man

Our poor courier man, we may have the two friendliest dogs in the whole world but when people come to the door they make a lot of noise. Enough noise that even when he has a 'sign for' parcel he simply drops it on the doorstep and runs. Surely though, if you're going to choose a career as a courier driver, you'd want to not be scared of dogs? Just saying.

Anyway, here's the contents of my parcel from TransDesign:


China Glaze Loves You Snow Much collection. Ruby Pumps, 5 Golden Rings, Tinsel and Emerald Sparkle. Mmmmmm, Emerald Sparkle. Photo doesn't do it justice, the pictures I've seen on other blogs are stunning - can't wait to put it on.


O.P.I. Tattoo Ta-Boo! minis set. Witch Arm?, Glow-ink in the Dark, Tattoo You Want Candy?, I Love Mummy. And super cute Halloween tattoos, those bats are adorable.


Orly La Petite French mani minis set. Orly Bonder base coat, Je T'aime, Sheer Nude and White Out. Not my colours obviously, but I'm doing nails for my little brother's wedding in December and the bride (hehe, I just typed that as 'bridge') has requested french manicures for herself and the bridesmaids so I thought I should have some appropriate shades. The inclusion of a mini Bonder is a bonus, because I've seen it recommended often and wanted to try it out.


Finally a bottle of my trusty CND Stickey base coat, a bottle of CND Air Dry, and a bottle of Poshe. I always like to try out new top coats when I see them recommended. I'm especially interested in trying Poshe, polish lovers seem to fall into two camps - those who love Poshe and those who love Seche Vite. I wonder which side I'll end up on?

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.

Hauls, hauls and more hauls

It's been a busy few days for our courier dude, what with all the pretties that keep turning up on my doorstep.

First some Creative polishes bought from TradeMe (in three separate lots):



Look at that rainbow of colours, so pretty. Left to righ: Make a Wish, Kumquat Dahlia (best name ever, even if it doesn't make any sense), Porcelain Doll, Replenish, Rejoice, Aqua Jet, Blue Nirvana and Blue Blood.

Next some polishes from Transdesign:



Left to right: China Glaze LOL, China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out, Orly Tiki Time minis (Teeny Bikini, Calypso Breeze, Sol Cabana, Mint Mojito), China Glaze Lubu Heels and Entity Blue.

And finally, a parcel from Eyeko, which yet again had problems with a leaky polish bottle but I didn't lose too much of the polish this time thank goodness:



At back: Saucy Red Polish (for naughty nails), Punk Polish (for neon nails, and the leaky one!) and Pretty Polish (for neat nails). Middle: Minty Fat Balm, Strawberry Fat Balm and Raspberry Fat Balm. Front: Touch Up & Go Concealer and Touch Up & Go Highlighter.

I am such a fan of Eyeko's stuff, the products are adorable and reasonably priced AND international delivery is FREE! So I can totally justify ordering stuff now instead of waiting till we go to England next year. I was so impressed with the Strawberry Fat Balm I bought last time that I ordered another tube (along with the other two colours) for 13 Year Old Daughter. Like me she now carries it around with her everywhere. The Raspberry Fat Balm is a little darker than I was expecting, but I read in one of Eyeko's recent Tweets that they've just changed it and the colour is now a little more subtle (pic here). Which of course means that I'll have to order that too, but that's fine because they also Tweeted that they have a new range of polishes coming out soon in Cosmic, Vintage, Lilac, Coral, Purple and Nude, so obviously I'll be ordering those anyway!

A small TradeMe haul and some more Ruby Pumps

Here's a couple of things from TradeMe: China Glaze Custom Kicks and O.P.I. Tangerini Bikini, plus a couple of colour wheels, so now I can quickly swatch polishes if I don't have the time to try them on!



As proof that the world (and New Zealand in particular) is a very small place the polishes were bought from the lovely Steph from Nail Juice, who very kindly threw in Custom Kicks for me because she was delayed in sending Tangerini Bikini - what a sweetie!

Apologies for the lack of swatches the last couple of days, I've been so busy actually trying polish on that I haven't gotten round to blogging about it. I've pretty much depleted my untried pile, the postman is looking more and more nervous because I know I have a couple of orders that should be arriving any day now!

My gorgeous friend Zeb came over yesterday for a manicure and was patient enough to let me swatch several colours on her. She is but a wide-eyed newcomer to the wonderful world of nail polish and getting her to try colours outside of her comfort zone was fun. She ended up wearing China Glaze Ruby Pumps which looked absolutely stunning against her dark skin. I've swatched it before on myself, but here it is on her:




We went out to lunch after, which was most amusing as every few minutes she would look at her nails and squeal! Ruby Pumps is one of those hard to photograph polishes, it's almost impossible to do justice to the super-blingy glitteriness of it. Look out for more pictures of Zeb's nails to come as I think we swatched about five colours on her, and in the meantime go visit her site for loads of anime/manga and stitching stuff.

Today's nails in black

Today I decided to swatch the two black polishes I've had sitting in my untried box. First up Color Club Where's the Soiree:



The thing about black polishes is they are very unforgiving, and very easy to apply badly. A very steady hand is required to get a black polish on neatly and you can see in the picture where I mucked up a bit.

Where's the Soiree is thickly pigmented and opaque in two coats. The finish on this one is gorgeous, it's not a glossy cream but rather has a satin-like lustre that I'm really quite charmed by. Normally my photos are taken after a top coat of Seche Vite but I left it off this time because I loved the finish of the polish. The downside is that you'll need a really good ridge-filling base coat first because every little imperfection shows up.

Next is China Glaze Urban Attitude:



This is more of a standard glossy black, with a very nice depth of colour to it. Application was a little trickier on this one with heaps of streaking and dragging, although by the third coat it had evened out nicely.

Both polishes are excellent blacks. Of the two I would pick Where's the Soiree as my favourite because of the gorgeous finish on it, but next time I'll be using a couple of coats of ridge filler underneath.

A potpourri of swatching

Lots of swatches today. 13 Year Old Daughter, her friend and I watched Bride Wars and I swatched while I watched. (Hehehe, nice rhyme Selina!)

First, a find from one of the local dollar stores. I think the brand is Winniax (Winwax? Wineax?). All the writing on the back is Asian so no idea what the colour is called.



Look at the moist doggy nose!

Nice colour, palest mint green that reminds me of the little knitted booties all my great aunties made when I was pregnant and we didn't know what sex the baby was! But: Worst. Application. Ever. Streaking and dragging and bald spots in all four coats and then it took forever to dry even with a top coat of Seche Vite. As cute as the colour is it doesn't wow me enough to put up with the application, so this one's going in the bin (it was only NZ$3.00 after all).

Next, China Glaze Solar Power:



Not bad application for a yellow. Some streaking on the first couple of coats, but the third coat fixed it up nicely. Quite a nice warm yellow shimmer, but I do not like this on my skin tone at all.

So on to Max Factor Nailfinity Disco Pink:



Yes I am aware there's only one finger in that photo! Just when I was about to take the pictures a nice man came to the door trying to sell me tree felling services. When I got rid of him I'd forgotten what I was doing and started to take the polish off before taking the photos. My bad!

Anyway, lovely application. This is super-pigmented and almost opaque in one coat. No streaking or dragging, nice formula. 13 Year Old Daughter loved the colour - it was a bit too pink for me (not being a lover of pink polishes) so off it came.

And last, a Cuinong polish (no name, number 285). Now a note about Cuinong polishes: I picked this one up from the local dollar store for NZ$3.00. I've seen the same polishes being sold on TradeMe for upwards of NZ$5.00, which means that by the time you've added postage on you could be tripling (if not more) the actual cost of the polish. Shop around!

Anyhoo, here's the swatch:



The colour is more green than in the photo - astro turf green. It reminds me of my favourite shirt from 1984. Promise not to laugh?



It had a tie people! Back in 1984 it didn't get much cooler!

Anyway, not bad application (the polish, not the shirt), three coats but for some reason the polish is more transparent at the tips of my nails than on the rest of the nail. The colour looks plasticky and artificial and I quite like it!

And that's all my swatches for today. You're still laughing about the photo aren't you? Sheesh.

Today's nail: China Glaze For Audrey

Here it is at last, the coveted For Audrey that I spent so long hunting down. And I am so glad I did, it is one beautiful colour:



So very feminine and pretty. More of a blue/grey tone to it than the photo shows. Beautifully pigmented, it could have been a one-coater if not for the application issues. I'd read elsewhere that For Audrey was a problem child, and it is. Lots of dragging and streaking which took three coats to even out (a coat of Seche Vite to finish did a nice job of correcting the last of the streaking) and also one of those annoying polishes that becomes tacky very quickly so correcting any application mistakes can be problematic and often ends up making it worse. However, who cares about application problems when the finished result looks like that!

We have lift-off

So the Telecom men have been. They promise me they have fixed the problem, but just in case it happens again they've very conveniently blamed it on damp under the house. Because then it's not Telecom's fault, obviously.

Anyhoo, to stop myself from going completely bonkers I have painted my nails. A lot. So I have lots of swatches for you. And also a dog. Just because.

First up, Color Club Rev'd Up:



I'm impressed with the Color Club polishes - good application and super-fast drying time. I think this was three coats, I can't remember (there's been so many polishes people, so very many). It's a nice colour, it doesn't blow me away probably because there's a lot of sparkly purply/pinks out there similar, but it's pretty.

Speaking of pretty, look at the paw!



Next, Max Factor Nailfinity Golden Peach:



Quite sheer, could have gone for four coats with this, but three was ok. Good application but like a few metallics I've used it reacted with Seche Vite top coat (just on one nail) and went gluggy. A very pretty muted gold colour but I'm not sure it suits my skin colour, and it's a little 'safe' for my liking.

13 Year Old Daughter asked for white nails with black polka dots, so I got to try out my new dotting tool.



That's Color Club Paris White with dots in China Glaze Urban Attitude. Yet another fabulous Color Club polish, Paris White applied really well which I didn't expect after past experience with whites. It's a really lovely pure white that reminds me of house paint (in a good way). Three coats because there was a little bit of streaking but again dried super fast.

This was my first time using the dotting tool, and I'm quite pleased with the result. Best tip, which I read on a blog whose name I have now forgotten, make a little dish out of tinfoil and pour just a small amount of polish into it (I actually dropped it off the brush rather than pouring), then dip your dotting tool into that. Also, don't load the dotting tool with too much nail polish (that one comes from my own experience!).

Then I decided to do a little nail art on myself, so I broke out the painter's tape.



The polishes were Color Club Paris White, China Glaze Nail Art Ink and Pinnacle Quicksilver.



I started with a base of Pinnacle Quicksilver - nice application, a lot of brushstrokes though but a very nice bluish-silver. Then I taped off a diagonal across my tips and used Color Club Paris White, and finished with the China Glaze Ink. I'm quite pleased with the result given it's the first time I've attempted anything with a nail art brush. Another tip, from another blog I can't remember the name of: when painting a straight line with a nail art brush place the brush on the nail and then move the nail under the brush rather than the brush over the nail. I had a few thin lines and a few thick lines but that's just practice.

And finally, I've saved the best for last. O.P.I. Suzi Says Da!:




Brown polish can be hit or miss, it's so often either too 'old lady' or just plain unattractive. But this one. OH. MY. GOD! Seriously, while I was applying it I had to stop myself from sticking out my tongue and licking it. Two words: Melted. Chocolate. I cannot stop staring at my nails, this colour is so very beautiful, and what a gorgeous smooth shiny finish. This was three coats, and looking at the pictures it could have been four because I can see some semi-bald patches near my cuticles but that's no biggie when the colour is this beautiful. This one goes in my favourites list, I love it!

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!