31/10 Go Pink Wednesday

Today is the last day of Go Pink Wednesday!

If you haven't seen any of my other GPW posts, me and some other bloggers are doing a series in October for Breast Cancer Awareness. The series was started by Andrea from Finger Painting Fingers and if you'd like to join us you can read about it here.

For today's manicure I used OPI Too Hot Pink to Hold 'Em from the Texas Collection. I was going to just leave the mani at two coats of that, but I couldn't resist using it for a "jelly sandwich". ;)
OPI Too Hot Pink to Hold Em is a jelly finish (OPI calls it a sorbet finish) hot pink! I loooove it. Jelly polishes are a little sheer and have a "squishy" look to them. They also dry very shiny.
I know I said I wasn't going to show any more indies for GPW but...I added a coat of Dollish Polish Putting on the Ritzzz. I just looove me some black and white glitter. <3 The formula on this was a little thin for my liking so I had to move the white hex glitters around a little but that wasn't really a problem.
Over the glitter, I added another coat of Too Hot Pink to Hold Em, therefore "sandwich-ing" the glitter in between the jelly polish. :)
I topped this mani off with Essie Good to Go top coat. :)

NOTE: This photo was taken on a different camera to the other 3 photos, hence the colour difference

If you'd like more information about Breast Cancer and how you can help, go to: The National Breast Cancer Foundation Australia website.

Elissa

This is Halloween: 31/10 Recreate Your Fave

Happy Halloween! :)
I've said it before but I don't celebrate Halloween (I think 90% of Aussies don't, really, but it's becoming more popular each year), though I am into all of the cute Halloween novelties and especially Halloween polishes!

For the last day of the This is Halloween challenge, we're supposed to recreate our favourite from another blogger (or just anyone) who participated in the challenge! :)

I decided to recreate Plisherrific's super cute Bat nail art! :D (She got her idea from Nail Craze with Dayze)
I thought it was SO cute so I had to recreate it. I'm so into cute designs like this rather than anything gory or spooky.

For my base colour I used Essie Fear or Desire (I used up about half of my mini bottle during this challenge!) and then added Essie Shine of the Times. For the bats I used my BYS Black striper, and my BYS White striper (which I really need to replace, it's very gummy and stringy). I also used Ulta3 Black Satin and Lily White for the eyes. :)

Damn the smudged pinky finger. :(

Hope you've enjoyed the This is Halloween Challenge! I had so much fun doing it! Thanks Bec for starting this challenge, I think everyone loved it just as much as me. :)

Essence Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 TE Preview

Essence is bringing out a new TE (Trend Edition - it's like their version of saying something is "Limited Edition") this November, inspired by the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2!

I don't know about you, but I like Twilight! I started reading the books before the movies came out! I was more into Twilight a few years ago but I still enjoy it. :)

Essence says...

"As  an official  promotional partner collaborating with  Summit Entertainment, LLC, a 

LIONSGATE® company, the cosmetics brand  essence is launching a special, limited

edition make-up collection  just in time for the  Australian premiere of the  highly 

anticipated  THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN  – PART 2 on  the  15th of 

November, 2012.

...

Team Edward and Team Jacob take note – the time has finally arrived! The big finale of 

the popular Twilight Saga is coming to theatres soon as vampires and werewolves unite

one last time to fight against a common enemy. Just in time for the release of the movie,

essence presents  a stunning make-up collection  inspired by THE TWILIGHT SAGA: 

BREAKING DAWN  – PART 2. With the mysterious colors of dawn, fantastic shimmer 

pigments as well as dark, dramatic effects and blood-red products for your lips and 

cheeks, essence is offering true vampire power for all girls – until the break of dawn…"

This collection will include loads of makeup and of course - nail polish! :D

L-R: Alice Had A Vision - Again, Jacob's Protection, Edward's Love, A Piece of Forever

I know a lot of you may think the names are a little silly/lame. I'll admit they do make me laugh a bit but the colours look too pretty for me to care!

This TE is available exclusively in Target, and will be available in November & December 2012! Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 is released on November 15th in Australia!

Sooo, will you be seeing the new Twilight movie, or buying any of the products from this new TE? :) I sure will!

You can see all of the other products that this collection will feature, and more about the new Twilight movie on Essence's site HERE!

For stockists in your area, please contact: 1800181040 (Australia only).

This is Halloween: 30/10 Trick or Treat

Hey hey!

So I have to admit that today I'm slacking off for the challenge again... >:) Hehe!
I chose to go with another polish because of the name! This is the second Halloween themed indie polish I bought this month! :D

This is Femme Fatale Cosmetics' Tricky Treat! So it's obvious why I chose this polish. ;)
Tricky Treat is a clear base, with a slight orange shimmer, small and medium orange glitters, red square glitter, purple square glitter, orange bar glitter, and some orange hearts too! I only managed to get one heart on a nail though.
I layered one quite thick coat of Tricky Treat over 2 coats of Essence Black is Back, a plain black creme. :)

Sorry about the awkward hand pose! I hate holding mini bottles! 

This glitter wasn't hard to apply whatsoever! It wasn't hard to get the glitter spread evenly over the nail or anything!

I also matte-ified this mani with my Rimmel matte top coat the next day...
Apparently I need to work on getting the top coat closer to the cuticle. ;)

I've got to stop wearing so much glitter! My cuticles are dying from using the foil method to remove my polish! I think I've worn ONLY glitter polish for the past 2 weeks! :O

Tomorrow's the last day of the Halloween challenge! :( How sad! Come back tomorrow to see my last mani for Halloween!

Elissa


TRICK OR TREAT

This is Halloween: 29/10 Graveyard

This is the second last day of the This is Halloween Challenge! :( How sad! Today's theme is Graveyard, and I did a pretty simple and predictable mani, hehe.

Tombstones, of course!

For the actual tombstone, I freehand-ed it with the regular polish brush and I used BYS Matte Grey (sorry about the messy bottle lol). Then Essie Mojito Madness for the grass. I wrote 'RIP' on each tombstone with a BYS Black striper. I topped it all off with Sally Hansen Insta Dri top coat.

SUPER simple and easy nail art! :)

Tomorrow is the LAST day of the Halloween challenge! :( I'm gonna be stuck for post ideas! Hahah, let me know if you have any requests!

Elissa

QOTW 5: Favourite Nail Polish Brand

Hey girls! :) How are we all? Hope you're having a good weekend!

Today's QOTW is...
What is your favourite nail polish brand?

To be honest I don't know if I can pin point one favourite brand. I like a lot of brands and I have things that I like and dislike about every brand! I can definitely choose a few that are up there though. :)

O.P.I
OPI is definitely one of my favourite brands if I had to choose. The formula on every OPI I've tried is great and I love their wide brushes. I think OPI nail polishes were the ones that got me addicted to polish. I didn't even know that OPI was sold in Australia until a bit over a year ago. I was super disappointed when I discovered that they retail for $19.95 here. :( I'll admit I paid full price for maybe half my OPIs in my collection. My first OPI polish was Do You Lilac It and I absolutely loved it. I've used half the bottle which rarely happens! I love OPI because they frequently release new collections (about 8 a year I believe...?) and there's always at least a few from each collection that I feel like I must own! :) If OPI weren't so expensive here (though I can buy it cheaper online), it would be my favourite. I think I own about 10 full size OPIs now, and a whole lot of minis! I will say that I hate the brushes on their mini bottles.

China Glaze
China Glaze is definitely another brand that is totally up there for me! I can find them for a pretty good price in salons here so that's great too. China Glaze doesn't release quite as many collections as OPI does throughout the year but their collections are also quite nice! :) I haven't had any problems with the China Glaze formula at all! I think I have the same amount of China Glaze in my collection as I do OPI. :)

Essence
Essence is definitey one of my all time favourite brands. Their formula is awesome and the price tag is even better! Essence is so freakin' cheap and I just love it. They release TE (trend edition) collections really frequently and they have a lot of awesome unique polishes in their collections! :) I own a lot of Essence and I will definitely continue to buy them! Essence has just recently changed the formula and colours of their core line polishes which is both exciting and disappointing for me. I had to stock up on some of my faves before they got discontinued. ;)

Ulta3
Ulta3 is an Australian brand that can be found in pharmacies, Target and some supermarkets. You kind of have to 'bin dive' for colours and you don't really know what you're going to find. Haha. I find the whole bin diving thing kind of annoying when I'm looking for a certain colour. Ulta3 is super cheap at only $2 and their formula is pretty good for the price tag. :) They don't always have super unique colours, but for $2 I like to buy all my basic colours from Ulta3. :) I also find myself buying them when I didn't even mean to go out for polish. :P

So those are just a few of my favourite brands and a little about them. :)
What are your favourite brands and why? If you can, let me know your favourite polishes from within those brands. :D

Elissa

Gloss n Sparkle - Mirage

Hey ladies. :)

Today I have another mani to show you that I wore a week ago! This is another Gloss n Sparkle polish that I ordered a couple weeks ago! And I'm in love.

Mirage is a baby blue base with a really gorgeous iridescent shimmer (it looks pink most of the time though), silver small glitters and large silver iridescent glitters!

I'm wearing 3 coats with one coat of Essence Gel Look top coat and one coat of Seche Vite. I could've done with 2 coats but I did a third to get more glitter on my nail! :) And it didn't really need the two top coats, it dried smooth.

Shade

I only had one problem with this polish, sadly. :( The large glitters had sunk to the bottom of my bottle. :( I'm not sure if it's just me that this happened to because in every other swatch I've seen, there's lots of large glitters on the nail so that sucks.
I absolutely love Gloss n Sparkle polishes and Angela is awesome and sweet so I actually feel bad having to say something negative about this polish. But I'm really not sure if it's only my bottle or only one batch that this happened to.
I tried putting the polish upside down for a while, stirring it and shaking it but the glitters still didn't want to come back up to the top which was sad. :( I was able to get a few of the large glitters onto my nail after stirring the polish but I think I only got two on my left hand and three on my right.
BUT! I will not give up and I will definitely try it again! Plus, it's gorgeous even without the large glitters on the nail. :) I am a total sucker for baby blues as well. ;)

UPDATE! Angela has contacted me and told me that it was a bad batch, and that anyone who bought a bottle of Mirage between the 12th-25th of October, that has the same problem as mine did (sinking glitter), to contact her and she'll either send you a replacement, give you a refund for Mirage, or give you store credit for another polish. She really wants to fix the problem so if your bottle has the sinking glitter, make sure to let Ange know! (She may have already messaged you, so check your Etsy account)

You can purchase Gloss n Sparkle polishes on Etsy for $9(AUD). Currently there's only Australian shipping available but Angela is working on sorting out international shipping!

Elissa

Color Club - Fashion Addict

Hey guys!
Hope you're having a great week(end) so far! :) I hope I am! (I'm scheduling this post, hehe).

I have a polish to show you that I wore last weekend. Yeah, I'm a little behind on showing you my NOTDs!
This polish was sent to me by Jeannette from Instagram! It was on my wish list for a long time and I finally have it! :) Thanks Jeannette!

Color Club Fashion Addict is a muted light pink/purple holographic! The holo effect is subtle, at least my bottle is anyway. This polish is more holographic than my photos would capture but it's not a crazy holo like you might get with a Jade or Layla polish. It's subtle but it's there! :)

 I'm wearing two coats with base and top coat. I'm not sure how it would've looked if I hadn't used a base and top coat... But I did my mani late at night so I wanted to use a fast dry top coat. Fashion Addict was much thicker than I'd expected it to be! Every other holographic polish I've used is quite thin in formula and sheer but this only required 2 coats to be opaque!

A blurry shot to show the holo a bit better

I have a couple other holographics by Color Club that I can't wait to try!

Have a great day!

Elissa

This is Halloween: 26/10 Witches

Hello ladies! TGIF! ;)

I kinda took the easy way out for today's This is Halloween challenge... >:)

This is Witches Britches, a limited edition for Halloween polish by Gloss n Sparkle! :) Now obviously, I chose it for today because of the name!

Witches Britches is a purple base with large and medium orange, large, medium and small green, and large, medium and small black hex glitters! I think some of the smaller glitters are squares too. :)
I have two cameras and they BOTH suck at photographing colours like this! :( It always makes them look too blue. I edited it to look more acurate as much as I could but it's not 100% accurate.

I've been SO into Halloween polishes like this lately so I just HAD to buy this when I ordered from Gloss n Sparkle! But even though I've been really into Halloween indies, I actually only bought two. I'd have loved more but since I'll only ever wear Halloween colours in October, I didn't think it was worth buying every Halloween polish I set my eyes on. ;)

Only three more days left of the This is Halloween Challenge! :( I won't know what to do with myself when it's over! I'll have to get my act together with some things to post next month! I've acquired a lot of polish lately so I'm sure I won't have a shortage of stuff to swatch for you. ;)

Elissa

A Custom Polish by Emily de Molly

Hey hey!
I have some GORGEOUSNESS to show you today! :) I am so excited about it!

This month I bought my first order from Hayley, the owner of Emily de Molly! :) She's an awesome girl and has really pretty swatches on IG (@emilydemolly). I showed you the other EDM polish I ordered in my Go Pink Wednesday post yesterday!

This is a custom polish that Hayley made. She's not offering this one on her Etsy store, sorry! I love this SO much. It's a clear base, with loads of different sized blue hex glitters, tiny holographic glitters (they mostly look pink though) and holographic stars and moons! The glitters weren't hard to get onto the nail, but I did have to fish a little for the moons and stars but that didn't bother me at all!
And awesomely, this was smooth with one coat of Seche Vite! Well not completely smooth, but a little grittiness doesn't bother me.

I layered the glitter over over China Glaze Dorothy Who which made it extra sparkly! :D 
I wouldn't say this was easy to remove, but it definitely wasn't as difficult to remove as I'd anticipated which is great. But as usual I would definitely recommend the foil method for removal, or the use of a peel off base coat.

Bottle shot <3

I couldn't stop staring at my nails in the sunlight when I wore this! It was extremely sparkly and gorgeous! I'm sad I couldn't get any shots in the sun though! :(

I am absolutely loving indies (and just glitter in general) right now if you can't tell! ;) Especially ones made by my fellow Aussie friends! :)

Elissa

Ulta3 Holiday Glitters Press Release

Hey ladies!

Ulta3 have some AWESOME new glitters out for the party and holiday season! I am super excited about these! :)
They now have larger pieces in their glitters which have been really popular with a lot of brands in recent years, rather than the smaller glitters! I LOVE chunky glitters and I know most of you do too. ;) And as you know, Ulta3 is one of my favourite brands! What's not to be excited about?

Ulta3 says...

"Are you ready to celebrate the party season? Get your glam on with new ulta3 Glitter nail colours! The new and improved formula has both large and small glitter flecks perfect for going from a day look to a night look with just a sweep of glitter! Wear the glitter alone or layer it on top of your existing nail colour for the ultimate fashion statement.

ulta3 is Australia’s number one nail polish brand, selling 5.3million units*. The extensive range, containing classics through to key trends, has something for everyone. Set at a price suitable for all, the salon quality, long lasting enamels are a must have in any beauty bag. ulta3 is an ever-growing, well established, full category cosmetic brand operating within the impulse market."

Here are the new glitter shades! They all come in a clear base and are packed with lots of glitter!

L-R: Over the Rainbow, Pot of Gold, New Years Eve, Disco Fever, Luck of the Irish, Twinkle Toes

I can't wait to grab all of these glitters! I am a total sucker for glitter all year round but they're especially fun around Christmas and New Year!

These polishes are out Australia wide NOW, and will only cost you $2! I love Ulta3's low price tag!
To find stockists around you, please call 1800 181 040.

24/10 Go Pink Wednesday

Woohoo, it's Wednesday again! I love Go Pink Wednesday!

If you haven't seen any of my other GPW posts, me and some other bloggers are doing a series in October for Breast Cancer Awareness. The series was started by Andrea from Finger Painting Fingers and if you'd like to join us you can read about it here.

I just realised that I've worn an indie polish every week for Go Pink Wednesday. Woops! ;) I'm just obsessed with indies right now! :D

Let me start off by saying that I have been obsessed with black and white glitter polishes ever since I first heard of indie polishes (I also just figured out this week why they're called indies. *facepalm*, I'm an idiot)! Every time I saw someone wear a black and white glitter, I swooned. I don't know what it is, I just freaking love the look of black and white glitter! But I didn't own any indies until a month or two ago. And now I am obsessed with indies!

This week I received two polishes I ordered from Emily de Molly! Hayley is the owner of EDM and I've been following her on Instagram since even before she started creating polishes! She does really nice swatches too! :)
I knew that since I was ordering from Emily de Molly, I HAD to buy her black and white glitter. There was no if's, but's or maybe's about it. I had to have it. ;)

This is A Black and White Love Affair by Emily de Molly. It's a clear base with large and small black and white hex glitters, with some bar glitters and square glitters too. Some people hate bar glitter but I don't mind it if it's mixed in with other shapes. :) I used a dabbing sort of method to apply this polish since the base is a bit thin but that didn't bother me. :) I can see myself going through this entire bottle quickly!

I layered ABAWLA over Face of Australia Have Your Cupcake and Eat it Too from the new Pretty Pastels collection. :) A pastel blue toned pink that I actually only bought two days ago! Have Your Cupcake and Eat it Too was opaque in two coats and was a really nice consistency  Not too thick and not too thin. Just right. :)

I am IN LOVE with this mani. Absolutely in love. I'm wearing it as I type this and I can't stop staring at my hands! <3

If you'd like more information about Breast Cancer and how you can help, go to: The National Breast Cancer Foundation Australia website.

Elissa

Blog Sale Update

Hi ladies!

I forgot to let you know that I have updated the blog sale again! :)

BLOG SALE

I have reduced the prices on a lot of the items and added some more polishes and other stuff too!
Please email me if you'd like to purchase something, and then put a comment on either the blog sale page, or this blog post to let me know you emailed, as sometimes the emails go to my junk folder.

Thanks!

Elissa

Urban Outfitters - Sea Dust

Hey there!

Today I'll be showing you a polish I wore at the start of last week. :) This one was sent to me by the lovely Felice! Thank you again Felice!

This is one of the polishes I've wanted most recently and I'm very happy to add it to my collection! Felice sent me a few Urban Outfitters polishes and so far I'm loving them!

This polish, Sea Dust, is not an EXACT dupe, but is pretty close to Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream! :) I'd say it'd be close enough to squash that lemming for a lot of people. This polish isn't typically my "style" and when I first put it on at night, I wasn't crazily in love with it but the next morning when I saw it outside in the sun, I loved it! So gorgeous! I don't know if I love this enough to splurge on the Deborah Lippmann version though.
Sea Dust is a foil-y metallic green base with lots of small blue glitters throughout it. I don't typically like to wear metallics (or foils really) - the ones I own I only use for stamping or nail art. I don't think I'll ever wear a metallic on its own/without something over the top of it like glitter! ;)
This polish was a little gloopy but not hard to work with. It was patchy on the first coat but a thick second coat made it perfect. :)

Removal for this was sadly, not pretty. I used the foil method with non-acetone remover but I will definitely be using acetone next time because this was really difficult to remove.

Hope you're having a great day/night. :)
Do you own any Urban Outfitters or Deborah Lippmann polishes? If so, which ones do you own? (Or maybe, which are your favourites, if you own too many to name. ;))

Elissa

This is Halloween: 22/10 Gradient

Hey guys! :)

I have not had a good day and I am sooo tired so this post will probably be kept short.

For the Gradient theme of the This is Halloween challenge, I knew from the start I'd want to do a 'candy corn' inspired gradient! :) I think the colours on candy corn look so fun and bright and festive. But I do not like candy corn. :| My sister bought a packet of them from Jelly Belly last year and I was NOT expecting them to taste the way they did. I thought they'd be like gummy lollies or something but they weren't! In Australia I've only ever seen candy corn in the shops once and then the time when my sister brought them home.

Disclaimer! I didn't realise until I was about to take photos of this mani that I realised I'd put the colours in the wrong order. :( BOOOO. If you're not familiar with candy corn, I should've put the orange and yellow the other way around. I have not done very many successful manis for this challenge have I. :( Oh well, my boyfriend said it still reminded me of it.
Please also excuse the oily cuticles. I really need to make sure the pictures are fine before I remove my mani...

I used a base of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, and then did a gradient with a makeup sponge and Face of Australia Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy, and Essie Fear or Desire. :)

On the plus side, my nubbins don't look too bad here! Yay! :)

Thanks for looking! Have a great week!

Elissa

QOTW 4: Favourite Cuticle Care Products

Hello there! Another QOTW for you. :D

This week's question is...
What are your favourite cuticle care products?

Most of us know that the cuticles are super important for the overall health/look of our nails! I'm not gonna get into all the science-y stuff behind it but the cuticles are really important if you want to have nice nails!

When I used to have acrylic nails, I was so cruel to my poor cuticles. They'd always be dry or cut or bleeding. :(
I used to cut my cuticles with cuticle nippers. I would NOT recommend this at all. All you need to do is push your cuticles back once or twice a week, and keep them moisturised! I occasionally use my cuticle nipper to cut hang nails or any bits of dead skin around my fingers/nails. Do not cut live cuticle skin!

I am ALL about moisturising my cuticles. I love it! It makes your manicures look so so so much nicer when your cuticles have been moisturised! :)
I moisturise my cuticles whenever I get a spare moment.
My favourite products for moisturising my cuticles are:

• Lush - Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter! My faaaavourite cuticle butter! It smells AMAZING, and does awesome things for my cuticles. :) I use this one before I go to bed because it is a bit greasy and takes a while to absorb. It's also on the pricey side but it lasts forever. You can also use this butter on any other dry parts of your body like elbows, knees etc. :) This one can be found in Lush stores, or the Lush website. You can also go into a Lush store and ask for a sample before you buy it.
• Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme. This one is more of a waxy balm than a creme. But it's very nice for on-the-go because it's not greasy and it is moisturising. It also smells really lovely. Not as strong as Lush Lemony Flutter but I really like the smell of both of them. I'm not sure how much this one costs because it was given to me as a gift, but I'd say it's cheaper than the Lush one and will also last you a long time.
• CND Solar Oil. I bought a mini bottle of CND Solar Oil cuticle oil when I was in Sydney a few months ago and at first I was not a fan. I'm not a fan of the smell... I can't explain what it smells like but I know that some people do like the smell. I wish I'd bought a full size bottle because this oil is super moisturising and it also absorbs quickly for an oil! :) I've used it all up now and I wish I had more!
• Revitanail Cuticle Oil. I got this cuticle oil as a gift for my birthday about 8 months ago and I still haven't used it all up! It's another nice cuticle oil. It doesn't really have any noticeable scent to me. I like to use this one also before I go to bed.
• OPI Avoplex Cuticle Oil On the Go. This cuticle oil comes in a super convenient squeezy tube! This was also given to me as a birthday gift this year. The scent on this one is also a little strange but not unpleasant. :) I mostly like it because of the convenience of the tube.

So I do use a lot of products on my cuticles and it may seem really high maintenance but it's really not that hard to just rub oils/cremes/balms into your cuticles a couple times a day. :)

I also use a thick hand cream before bed, any one will do. :)

You can also just use a regular oil like olive oil if you don't want to buy an oil! Clean out an empty nail polish bottle with acetone and then pour in some olive oil and slather that on your cuticles before bed. :)

So, what are your favourites?! If you don't currently use a cuticle oil or creme, I'd definitely recommend it! You will notice a huge difference in your cuticles and nails. :) Keeping your cuticles moisturised can also help with nail growth so maybe if you are having trouble growing your nails, give an oil a try!

Elissa

Urban Outfitters - Lollipop

Hey hey! :)

I have a NOTD to show you that I wore a week or so ago. I 'm a little behind on showing NOTDs  so I'm gonna show you them while I have super nubbins while they grow out a little. ;)

This is another Urban Outfitters polish I got from Felice in our swap! :) Thank you again Felice!
This is Lollipop! A pink jelly base with LOADS of glitter. It's mostly primary coloured glitter (red, blue and gold/yellow) and some green too. I wish it had some pink mixed in there too!
A lot of people thought this may be a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Candy Shop, but it's definitely not. The glitter in Lollipop is MUCH more dense than in Candy Shop and Candy Shop also has more colours of glitter in the mix.

These Urban Outfitters polishes are really awkward to hold in photos! Haha.

I enjoyed wearing this polish BUT the removal was not so fun. I used the foil method with pure acetone and it was still hard to remove! :/

This polish was pretty thick but not as thick as I'd expected from reading other people's reviews. I used two coats.

This is a nice polish but not something I see myself wearing all the time just because of how hard it was to remove! Being so glittery, it also chipped pretty quickly and I only wore it for about 24 hours!

There is a polish by Claire's in the US that I believe is a better dupe if you're looking for something close to Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop. And I think it's about the same price as UO polishes! So if you want a dupe for Candy Shop, I'd suggest looking at Claire's. Or if you're not from the US, try eBay. :)

Oh, you probably have also noticed that I changed my blog layout! I think this one will be only temporary. I'm working on creating my own layout from scratch! :) It may take me a while though so look out for that!

Elissa

Face of Australia Boys 'n' Berries and Gloss n Sparkle Sour Candy

Hello hello! Happy Saturday ladies! :D
I have to apologise for my nails before I start. As I said in a previous post, I broke the corner off my middle nail on the weekend. I patched it with the teabag method but it couldn't hold on any longer and it broke off. 
After I removed this mani I filed all of my nails down and the broken corner is much less noticeable but I have SUPER nubs so I think the next post you see will probably be featuring some nubbins. :(

So, today I have a NOTD to show you! I picked up some polishes from the Face of Australia Pastels collection which I am very excited about! I am a huge sucker for pastels! I also received my order from Gloss n Sparkle on last weekend so I am super excited to show you my first Gloss n Sparkle polish!

I used Face of Australia Boys 'n' Berries from the new Pastels collection as my base colour. At first I thought it was a periwinkle colour but I think it's just a very blue based purple, not quite periwinkle. I wanted to swatch Boys 'n' Berries on its own but I had some boo-boos and just decided to go ahead and put the glitter on top. I'll probably swatch my picks from the collection soon. :)

Gloss n Sparkle Sour Candy is really pretty! It has small white matte square, small blue shiny hex, and small and large pink shiny hex glitters in a clear base. I wasn't sure what to layer it over at first but I am so glad I chose to layer it over Boys 'n' Berries! It looks so cute! This glitter wasn't hard to apply at all! I did have to wiggle the brush a little to move the large glitters around because they seemed to bunch up a bit, but that's not a big deal for me. I absolutely LOVE both of these polishes! :D

I topped this mani with two coats of Seche Vite which completely smoothed it out. I usually only do one coat but for some reason today the slightly gritty feeling was getting to me a bit.

I would definitely recommend BOTH of these polishes! And they make a really nice combo together!

You can purchase Sour Candy here for AU$9 and see the rest of Gloss n Sparkle's colours on Etsy here. :) She just released some new colours this week! 
Gloss n Sparkle only ships within Australia at the moment but she's working on having international shipping.
The Face of Australia Pastels collection is sold in Priceline, Big W and Kmart stores Australia wide for AU$4.95. If you can't find them, I'd suggest calling customer service for any of the above shops or your local store to see if they have it yet!

This is Halloween: 19/10 Bats

Hey guys! :D

I am excited about the nail art I'm showing you today for the This is Halloween challenge! This one wasn't a fail. Can you believe it!? ;)
I'm so happy I can finally show you a mani for this challenge that I'm really happy with! :)

This nail art was inspired by CutePolish on YouTube. I didn't watch the video, just looked at her picture but she does have a tutorial.

I sponged on China Glaze Peachy Keen with a normal kitchen sponge. I usually prefer to do sponging with cosmetic sponges but I ran out! I haven't worn Peachy Keen as a full mani yet but I really like it here! I will have to try it out as a full mani soon. :)
I then added Essence Space Queen, this was my first time using this polish too! And I've had it forever! It's a pretty small iridescent glitter in a clear base.
Then I used Ulta3 Black Satin, a very opaque black creme for the bats. I used a dotting tool and a striping brush.

I think this mani turned out really cute! Yay! :)
Hope you had a great week and enjoy your weekend!

Elissa

17/10 Go Pink Wednesday

Hello ladies!

It's Wednesday again! Which means that I'm going pink for Go Pink Wednesday. ;)
If you didn't see last week's post, I'm joining some other bloggers who are doing a series for the month of October for Breast Cancer Awareness. This series was started by Andrea from Finger Painting Fingers so if you'd like to join, you can read all about it here! :) 

This week I'm showing another Dollish Polish! I just got this one in the mail yesterday! I was waiting til I received it to do my Go Pink Wednesday mani! ;) I bought this one from Tara's blog sale! I bought 7 polishes from her sale and I am so excited about each and every one!

This is Dollish Polish A Peachy Princess (1 coat) over OPI Pink Friday (2 coats)! I'm not a huge "gamer" but I LOVE Mario! I have a Nintendo 3DS and I only ever play MarioKart on there! My favourite game! I love playing as Princess Peach, so I was very excited about this polish! :) I don't have any others from the collection but if they're in stock soon, I will probably be buying more. :D

A Peachy Princess is a very sheer pink base (I've seen swatches where it took 4-5 coats to look decent, but not opaque) with loads of pink glitter! I see small matte squares, small holographic hex glitters, bigger hot pink holographic glitters and larger square matte glitters! SO MUCH PINK!

This glitter wasn't hard to apply at all! I got a few of the large squares on my nails but if you wanted a lot of them, you'd have to fish around for them.

OPI Pink Friday is one of my favourite pink cremes! It's from the Nicki Minaj collection released earlier this year. Pink Friday is very opaque! It does need 2 coats, but it's pretty opaque in one, apart from a bit of patchiness!

I am loving indie polishes if you can't tell! They're so unique! I'm loving matte glitters! You never find matte glitters in store bought polishes!

If you'd like more information about Breast Cancer and how you can help, go to: The National Breast Cancer Foundation Australia website.

Elissa 

This is Halloween: 15/10 Zombies

Hey girlies!
Sorry I have to keep this post short and sweet! Kinda busy and don't have a lot to say anyway. :P

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am not a fan of anything creepy, scary, gross, gore-y or anything of the sort. I can't stand it!
So of course, my zombie nails today are NOT scary or gross. Though I can appreciate some of the zombie nails I've been seeing. They're quite gross but very well done!

I have to apologise for the photo(s) I'm showing for today's post. I took them on my iPhone (and edited it there too... :/) because I was getting so frustrated with the mani that I just snapped a pic and removed my polish right away. I'm also only showing you three nails because I screwed up my pinky nail. :(

And to add to it, I can't even remember what polishes I used for this! :( Ugh I'm so sorry!

I thought I'd do a Plants vs Zombies mani because the game looks so cute. To be honest, I've never actually played it but maybe I will now!
My boyfriend said that the zombie head doesn't look like the one in the game. Psh whatever. :P
I followed a tutorial by IHaveACupcake on YouTube.

Please excuse the crappy photo. :(

Have a great week! :)

Elissa

QOTW 3: Favourite Top And Base Coats

Hey hey! Another week, another question! :)

This week's question is...
What are your favourite top and base coats?

I try a lot of different base and top coats. Fast drying is the main quality I like in both a base and top coat. I hate waiting for a base coat to dry! And a fast drying top coat is a MUST for me because I usually paint my nails late at night.

My favourite base coats are:
• Duri Rejuvacote - I don't think Rejuvacote is meant to be used as a base coat but I do. It's extremely fast drying, super strengthening and it also promotes growth! It's also very good for girls who are trying to get their nails healthy and strong after wearing acrylic or artificial nails.
• CND Stickey - CND Stickey base coat is just what it sounds like. It dries fast, and I a "Stickey" (yeah their spelling of "sticky" is annoying) finish so that your polish can adhere better!

And my favourite top coats are...
• Seche Vite - Very original I know. Seche Vite is AMAZING though. The fastest drying top coat I have ever tried! And it dries all your layers of polish too! So your whole mani is dry so freaking fast! It is very thick in formula however and once you get about halfway through the bottle you need to thin it out a lot. The shine you get from SV is also amazing. Some people don't like it though because it is NOT 3 Free. I love that I can do my nails, slap on Seche Vite and go to bed in 20 mins and not worry about messing up my nails!
• Essie Good to Go - Good to Go is very similar to SV in my opinion, but less thick. The bottle lasts longer before it needs to be thinned also. Maybe a fraction slower drying time but so nice.
• Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat - Revlon's top coat is not as good as the Seche and Essie top coats but it is pretty good for a "drugstore" top coat. It doesn't dry as fast as Seche & Essie but I'll still use it, if I'm doing my nails in the day time. I'd wait at least an hour before going to bed after using this top coat.
• Sally Hansen Insta Dri - Insta Dri is awesome. A little slower dry time than Seche & Essie but its faster than the Revlon. It's thick but not as thick as Seche. It's super shiny! It also gets thick once you've used a bit of the bottle though.
• Sally Hansen Mega Shine - Mega Shine is pretty similar to Seche Vite for me! Again, a fraction slower dry time but in all other ways, super similar! :)

I'm always looking for new base and top coats to try!
Let me know what your favourites are and what you like about them!

Elissa

Ulta3 Pretty Pastels Collection Swatches and Review

Hi there! Hope you're enjoying your weekend so far! :) I have something exciting to show you today! Well I'm very excited about it; I hope you are too! :D

I have my swatches and review of the Ulta3 Pretty Pastels collection for spring and summer 2012 to share with you! :) I LOVE pastels so I am super excited about this! If you read my blog regularly you'll know that I am a huge fan of Ulta3 polishes! They have an awesome formula and at $2, how can you NOT love Ulta3?!

Ulta3 says...

"Impulse cosmetics brand ulta3 delivers on trend nail collections each season. Inspired by the

runways of Paris and New York ulta3 brings you 6 new shades in the Spring/Summer 2012

Pretty Pastels collection.

Pastel hues, from sweet pale pinks to sky blues, make nails look feminine, clean and fun, and

they perfectly complement a glowing spring tan.

Update your nail wardrobe with the prettiest of pastels! The versatile new nail shades are the

ultimate fashion accessory this spring and summer."

Corsican Rose* is a gorgeous mint green with a very subtle silver shimmer. You have to look hard to see the shimmer in the bottle and it's not super noticeable on the nails either, so if you're not a fan of shimmers, I'd say this is still "creme" enough for you to enjoy! This one needed 3 coats for opacity and because there was a little bit of streaky-ness. The formula was a little thick but not hard to work with. It was a good kind of thick. :) I own a lot of mint greens but this one seems unique to my collection.

Shade

Lilac Bloom* is a gorgeous lilac creme. This one doesn't have the subtle shimmer like some of the others in the collection do. Pastel lilacs are definitely one of my favourite polish colours! I have a lot, and this one is definitely my favourite of them all! The brush on my bottle was a little weird with a bristle sticking out but it was easy to fix. Lilac Bloom* was also on the thicker side but it was still really nice to apply. This one needed 2 coats for opacity but I did 3 to cover some bald spots.

Shade

Orange Blossom* is a sheer jelly formula orange! I love jelly formula polishes! They dry super shiny and have this squishy-ness to them that I love. This was lovely to work with and just the perfect thickness. Jelly formula polishes can tend to be runny but this was nice. I used 3 coats but if you wanted to completely cover any VNL (visible nail line) you'd want to use 4. Orange Blossom* would be a great one to use for jelly sandwich manicures which are popular right now. This is where you paint 1-2 coats of your jelly formula polish, then a coat of a glitter polish, and then top that with another coat of your jelly polish! I'll definitely be trying a jelly sandwich with this polish soon! 

Shade

Pale Dahlia* is a really pretty pastel pink. Pink is a colour I own a lot of, but this one is another unique one to my collection! This one also has the subtle silver shimmer that Corsican Rose* has. It's less subtle in this polish though, as you can see in my photos! :) It's very pretty! I used 3 coats for opacity, but I unfortunately had a couple of bald spots still. I think that may have been my fault though, not waiting long enough between coats. :P The formula on this one was again, thick but easy to work with!

Shade

Pink Peony* is a gorgeous hot pink! Not really "pastel", but I still love it. I actually don't own many hot pink polishes because they're all so similar. I don't need like 20 hot pink polishes in my collection. But this one is quite unique compared to the ones I already own! :) AGAIN, this one was thick but easy to work with. I used 2 coats, but I probably could've gone through with a third to even everything out a bit more. Pink Peony* is gorgeous and I definitely see myself wearing it loads this spring/summer. :)

Shade

Soft Hydrangea is totally gorgeous. A bright baby blue, that's also pastel at the same time! Very hard to explain but I absolutely love it. This one also has the super subtle silver shimmer in the bottle but I don't see it on the nails. This was the most opaque of the whole collection! I needed 2 coats for opacity and it had no bald spots or streaking. :) And once again, it was on the thicker side but super easy to apply. Definitely one of my faves!

Shade

Overall I absolutely LOVE the Ulta3 Pretty Pastels collection! I am a big fan of pastels and these do not disappoint! :) The formula on all of them was great and I will be sporting these on my nails a lot this spring and summer! My number one favourite from the whole collection is probably Soft Hydrangea, but I love them all so much! I DEFINITELY recommend all of these shades! They'll be a great addition to your polish collection!

The Pretty Pastels collection also comes with a gift with purchase! When you spend $10 or more on the collection you get a cute, colourful, FREE tote bag which was designed exclusively by Neryl Walker for Ulta3!

The Ulta3 Pretty Pastels collection is available in Australia from September 2012 for RRP $2.00.
For stockists please call 1800 181 040.
http://facebook.com/ulta3

*Products marked with an asterisk were provided to me for review but this does not influence my opinion in any way. My reviews are 100% my honest opinion. For more information please see my Disclosure Policy.