Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Enchanted Polish Ballerina Sprinkles Swatches and Review

I feel like this blog post can't do justice to Enchanted Polish Ballerina Sprinkles. I had to underexpose all of these photos to show the beauty of this polish, and I still couldn't capture it as it looks in person. It's a light blue base with a delicate holo and pink micro-fleck shimmer.

I'm not feeling very wordy today unfortunately, so I'll leave you to drool over these photos. This is 3 coats with a perfect formula.




Word on the grapevine is for Australian ladies, Enchanted Polish will soon be available to purchase at Femme Fatale Cosmetics. Like their facebook page for updates!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Butter London Scouse vs OPI DS Magic

Today I have a really special polish to show you. I fell in love with Butter London Scouse as soon as I saw swatches, but I thought I'd never get my hands on it as it's a Dillard's exclusive within the US. I even asked Butter London if I could purchase it from their website but they don't offer shipping to Australia. So I despaired until I spotted this, along with the other supposed US-exclusives on BrandsExclusive! Now it shows up on there and Ozsale regularly.

Scouse is a shimmery blue-purple duochrome filled with blue, purple and pink micro flecks. When it catches the light it's amazingly sparkly! The formula seemed very sheer on the first coat but it had perfect application, and was completely opaque in three coats.




In the bottle, Scouse looks exactly the same as OPI DS Magic. In the photo below DS Magic looks more duochromey but it's just the curve of the bottle. On the nail DS Magic is the tiniest bit darker than Scouse, but only if you're looking really closely. I declare these dupes.


L-R: DS Magic, BL Scouse, DS Magic, BL Scouse

L-R: DS Magic, BL Scouse, DS Magic, BL Scouse
I love the names of all Butter London polishes, they're so uniquely British. According to Urban Dictionary, scouse is a term for "people originating in Liverpool or their accent/dialect." It goes on to say that it can be positive, neutral or derogatory depending on the speaker's prejudices against the city, which seems to be a bit confusing. I've been trying to think of an Australian equivalent, like westie, bogan or yobbo, but they're all derogatory terms. The closest thing I can think of is calling someone an "Aussie", which could mean anything depending on the context! 

I think it's kind of ironic that Butter London is actually an American company (the founder is British). Once you know that it kind of takes away some its charm, doesn't it?

Butter London polishes are available in Australia at selected pharmacies nationwide - you can find some of them on the Lacquerheads of Oz polish stores map. If you know of any more locations, submit them so they can be added to the map!
Saturday, February 16, 2013

OPI Mad as a Hatter & Absolutely Alice

So as if it wasn't obvious enough already, I've come to the conclusion that I'm a true hoarder. Or maybe collector would be a more flattering word? I cannot resist anything limited edition or HTF (hard to find). If there's the slightest bit of buzz around a polish, I have to have it, whether I actually like it or not. I always have the urge to own complete collections even if I know I will only actually wear half the polishes in it.

A perfect example is the OPI Alice in Wonderland Collection. I've posted about one of the polishes in it, Absolutely Alice, before. There are four polishes in total in this collection, two glitters and two reds. The reds are the usual run of the mill OPI colours but the glitters really got the polish world talking. OPI promptly discontinued this collection and the two glitters, Absolutely Alice and Mad as a Hatter, became HTF. I was lucky enough to get my hands on Mad as a Hatter in a blog sale recently. I paid an obscene amount of money for it even though it didn't really catch my eye in swatches. But because of my whole "own all the HTFs" obsession, I had to have it.

So here is my Alice in Wonderland mani - 3 coats of Mad as a Hatter with top coat, and 3 coats of Absolutely Alice with top coat as an accent nail.




To be completely honest, MaaH still isn't really doing it for me but at least I can look at that bottle in my collection and feel a sense of contentment. Do you ever feel the same way about nail polish, or any other obsessions?
Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Hare Polish Amethystos - Swatches & Review

I've been lemming this polish for so long, I'm so happy to finally own it! Purple (apart from blue) is my favourite colour, and the Amethyst is my birth stone. So clearly Hare Amethystos is meant to be in my collection.

Amethystos is from the Finders Keepers Fall 2012 collection, my favourite Hare collection. It's a combination of silver, pink and gold hex and square glitter, as well as iridescent blue and gold flecks, in a purple jelly base. It has extremely good glitter coverage - a little bit too good, if anything! It's smooth and easy to apply on the first coat but requires 3 coats for opacity. Once you get up to 3 coats, like all glitters, it gets a bit too thick on the nail. I would recommend using undies for this one, although I do like that depth the layers give.



Hare Polish is available from Llarowe and Shoppe Eclecticco with worldwide shipping.
Saturday, February 9, 2013

Aussie Nails Monday - Food

Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Food. I didn't have the time (or skill) to do some actual nail art so I'm getting around it by using polishes with food names. This is Ulta3 Wild Berry, Watermelon and Wasabi. Grossest food combo ever! But I think the colours work pretty well together.


Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:



Chinese New Year Mani

Happy Chinese New Year!

The traditional Chinese New Year colours are red and gold so obviously I had to use them in this mani. I started with a base of Cult Nails Annalicious, topped with a coat of Orly Sugar. For the gradient, I used Cult Nails Captivated and Essence Make It Golden. I finished it off with a coat of Seche Vite. That's seven layers, right there. But surprisingly, it's not thick or lumpy at all.






KOH Bronzation 149, Home 184 & Green Stardust 201 - Swatches and Review

Oops, I fell off the blogging wagon for a bit there. I've had a hectic few weeks with the launch of Lacquerheads of Oz (I'm part of the admin team!) which has been very exciting, but now the initial setup has calmed down I have a bit more time to do swatches and reviews.

My dad bought me a macro lens for Christmas and I only just got around to playing around with it. I'm so happy with it! And as soon as I saw these KOH polishes I just knew they would be perfect for my first post using this lens.

I swapped for these three nail polishes by Dutch brand KOH at the Aussie Nails Sydney meetup. Duochrome and flakies, be still my beating heart! A fight almost broke out over these but I was lucky enough to snag them. Good thing too, because they are gorgeous.

Home 184 is a shimmering russet brown with  flakies that shift from red to green, and sparse silver shimmer. I used three coats and a top coat to smooth it out.

(Click on the pictures to enlarge them!)





Green Stardust 201 is a dark forest green base with silver and copper micro glitter, and blue-green colour shifting flakies. Again, this needed 3 coats for full opacity, and a top coat for a glossy finish. These all dry a bit matte and bumpy because of the flakies in them.




And here is my favourite... Bronzation 149 is a shimmering antique gold base with multicolour shifting flakies and tiny green-blue-purple iridescent glitter. I love all of them but this one is just so stunning and interesting! I used 3 coats with top coat here.




My only complaint about these is that the base colours tend to cover up the flakies. This may be a good thing for some people, as it tones them down. But in my opinion, the more flakies the better! Either way, the formulas were quick drying and extremely smooth to apply.

Because I swapped for these I'm not sure where the best place to buy them is, but Witoxicity has written a fantastic post about all the different stockists. They're quite pricey but I think they're well worth it!

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