NOTD: Femme Fatale Cosmetics Custom 'Runeweaver'

   *waves* Hey y'all! Hope all's been well (: With the Christmas rush dying down I've been able to do my nails a lot more frequently again. For today's NOTD post, I have another Femme Fatale Cosmetics custom polish to share with you all ^^ This time it's a deep purple holo named Runeweaver. 

Bottle shot of Runeweaver

NOTD: Femme Fatale Cosmetics Custom 'Lucky'

   Morning y'all! Hoping everyone's enjoying the holidays - mine's been filled with food comas, drinks, and fun and games (with a side dish of work, which was somewhat more pleasant than last year's Christmas rush in retail, so that's a plus). 

    Today's post will be show casing this gorgeous custom Lucky I ordered from Sophie over at Femme Fatale Cosmetics. 

Bottle Shot of Lucky

Top 5 Polish: Most Used

   Mornin' all! Today's post is something a little different.. I pose to you all a question: have you ever finished a bottle of nail polish? Of course I don't mean top and base coats, or black and white polishes used for nail art! :P 

   Why I ask this? Well recently, I've realised that I'm actually running low on a few bottles of polish, and that I need to buy a second bottle of all of them! Shocking isn't it?! 

This post reveals my 5 most used polishes!

   First up is Butter London Pillar Box Red. It's my go to 'classic' red and still glides on as smoothly as it did the first day I got it - so much love for this polish seriously ♥ It's only got about 1/4 of the bottle left... I'm absolutely dreading the day I can no longer scrape the remaining dregs of polish from the bottom of the bottle *sobs in the corner* Unfortunately, BL isn't available in stores here in Australia, so my only option is to buy them online, or through someone in the US willing to ship it to me here (even then, the shipping will kill me now that postage has been hiked up again!) 

Butter London 'Pillar Box Red' topped with Shades of Phoenix 'Chaos'

Next is Sally Hansen Cafe Au Lait. And this bottle is completely and utterly empty!! The first ever bottle of polish that I've finished, and my most favourite nude shade! It's been with me through my nubbins and claws, and I've bought two back ups already, so I won't be running out any time soon :P

Sally Hansen 'Cafe Au Lait' with lace accent using Ulta3 'Black Satin'

   Third up is Australis #totesamaze and I took advantage of the recent 40% off priceline sale to grab me another bottle, because, like Cafe Au Lait, it's also empty! It's the perfect shade of pink - nice and bright without being neon, but not too dark a hot pink that it looks almost red on my skin - love love love it... and its name, as cheesy as it is :P

Australis '#totesamaze' tribal mix n match

   Next up is Sinful Colors Endless Blue. Since I couldn't get my hands on Essie Butler Please or Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, Endless Blue was what I settled for, and now I can't get enough of it! It's a gorgeous vibrant blue, and is pretty much my go-to blue when doing nail art. There's about 1/3 of the bottle left.. may have to take advantage of the 2 for $6 Sinful Colors sale at Target this week :P

Sinful Colors 'Endless Blue' topped with Katt Claws 'Community Pool'

   Last, but definitely not the least, is Femme Fatale Cosmetics Eventide. Yes, it's an indie polish, and yes it's almost finished! This is the only 'top 5 most used polishes' that also holds a spot in my 'top 5 favourite polishes of all time' - I love it that much! But alas, it's been discontinued and I wasn't fast enough at grabbing back ups, so now I'll be using it sparingly!

2 generous coats of 'Eventide'  on its own as accents on the index and pinky

   And there you have it - my 5 most used polishes! Have you ever actually finished a bottle of polish? I thought it was impossible, until now :P

Review: Femme Fatale Cosmetics Press Kit 2

      Second instalment of the Femme Fatale Cosmetics Press Kit... GO!

   First up is Delush Polish Cirque Fantastique (felt so fancy saying that out loud :P). A mix of super fine glitter and an array of teal, yellow and pink square glitters suspended in a milky white base - this polish screams candy and all things nice.

   What I have on is 1 coat of white, and 2 coats of Cirque Fantastique. With a little shake of the bottle, each stroke brought out tons of glittery goodness, and applied quite evenly on the nail. It reminded me of ice cream dipped in colourful candy sprinkles.. or cupcake icing topped with hundreds and thousands!

   And hence, this: a cupcake mani, complete with blueberry drips and sprinkles! :D

   Last, but definitely not the least, is Rainbow Honey Magic Cake. Oh how I've been lemming a neon glitter topper for ages, and lo and behold Sophie sends me one to review... now I think I need a full sized bottle of this baby!

   Magic Cake is a glitter topper packed to the rim with super fine glitter mixed with blue, green and pink multi-sized multi-shaped glitters in a clear base. It's every neon lover's dream!

   This is 2 "dabbed" coats - just to evenly distribute the larger pink hexes - over 1 coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black (great 1 coater!). I was initially going to layer this over a pastel to white gradient, but couldn't find my make up sponges anywhere, so decided to do it over white instead ...but on a whim, I tried it over a black base. And boy did the colours pop!

   The colour scheme of this glitter is so funky I might just have to make an entire mani based around it. But for now, a little tribal nail art for the accent nail will suffice :D

   And that brings us to the end of the Press Kit. As with the other two polishes in the last blog post you can purchase these beautiful concoctions at the Femme Fatale Cosmetics website. 

   So which one's your favourite?

 

*The item/s mentioned in this post were sent to me for my 100% honest review. This in no way affects my opinion of them. For more information, please read the Contact and Policy page of the blog*

Review: Femme Fatale Cosmetics Press Kit

   Morning all :D So this month, I thought I'd give applying for a Femme Fatale Cosmetics Press Kit a go, and fortunately I was selected in this month's batch of applicants.

   Femme Fatale Cosmetics carries a wide range of Australian and International indie polish brands, as well as their own Femme Fatale Cosmetics range of beauty products. It has grown to become pretty much a one stop shop for all Australian nail polish lovers - though Sophie now offers international shipping so international customers can now order polish through the site!

   Now, onto the polish! In the kit, Sophie included 4 mini bottles from 4 different brands she carries on the website for me to swatch and review. I've decided to split the review in half and do the first two today, and the next two tomorrow. So first up is Love Thy Polish Shangri-La.

Taken in the light box using a flash on the SLR Camera

   Shangri-La is a peachy - pink linear holo that really surprised me! I'm not one for holos because the two that I have from the first Color Club Halo Hues collection looked washed out under normal light and only bedazzled (I like that word :P) me when in direct sunlight or under a flash. But Shangri-La was super holo just sitting in my room!

Under normal light taken with my camera phone

   It's coming off really pink in the above photo, but leans halfway between a nude peach and a dusty rose in person. It's such a unique shade, and is so soft and subtle on the nail, makes me feel so feminine :P I had no problems applying it, though the formula is a little sheer, but easily buildable. In all the swatch pictures, I'm wearing 3 thin coats with 1 coat of top coat. 

Taken outside of the light box, with direct flash from the SLR camera

   And of course I couldn't resist doing a bit of nail art on top :P My first successful watermarble of this style! Despite the bubbles (anyone have tips on how to NOT get them?!) I think it turned out pretty neat :D

   Next up, Femme Fatale Cosmetics Edge of the Cosmos. 

   It's a dark purple - almost black - jelly base jam packed full of glitter! It's incredible how much glitter a little bottle can hold! This is 3 "dabbed" coats over black, and as you can see, plenty of sparkle! Mixed in with the fine holographic particles are different coloured holo stars, moons and large dot glitters, as well as medium sized holo hex glitters. It's a feast for the eyes. 

   The only minor hurdle I came across when applying the polish (as with a lot of shape glitter polishes) was even placing of all the shape glitter. But it wasn't nothing a little dabbing and glitter placement couldn't fix! Not a biggie at all - easy as pie (: 

   Sophie writes in her description for this polish: 

            "To make this a little more interesting we vary batches slightly, replacing one or two glitters with another of same size and shape but different colour. We wanted to embody the ever-changing beauty of the universe with our mini version in a bottle ;)"

   And so, I decided to match it up with some colourful galaxy nail art that I've been meaning to try for ages. Didn't turn out too shabby :P

   These first two polishes get a big thumbs up - smiley face - YAY from me! You can purchase both of them (and a bunch of fabulous others) from the Femme Fatale Cosmetics website. 

Love Thy Polish Shangri-La

Femme Fatale Cosmetics Edge of the Cosmos

   So two down, two to go! Stay tuned for the other half :D

*The item/s mentioned in this post were sent to me for my 100% honest review. This in no way affects my opinion of them. For more information, please read the Contact and Policy page of the blog*

Clean, fresh and classy: Gold on White

   Don't y'all just love the look of white nails?! I've always thought they looked nice and clean, and would've loved to wear it as a full mani but were always too boring to wear alone. But then I saw a gold on white mani on IG (Joelene over at @glynnavyre) and was inspired to do some gold on white nails of my own!

   So blingy and bright.. I love it! The most troublesome to do was the middle finger. I didn't have any gold loose glitters so I had to improvise and fish out the larger hex glitters in my Femme Fatale Cosmetics Eventide polish. They're all not the same hue of gold and some are holographic, which works out just fine for me, because it looks even more blingy! It took ages, but I think it was well worth it! It's my favourite nail from this mix n match mani.

   I used 2 coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White as the base, the 2mm gold studs and striping tape are from the BornPrettyStore, and the gold polish is Orly Glitzy. 

   *Eeep I also managed to take a decent non-awkward picture of my cinderella hand :D There was no way I was going to fish out more glitter from Eventide, so I settled for a glitter gradient instead. 

   Sometimes I feel bad for my dominant hand.. it always gets the crappy end of the deal where I'm too lazy and not bothered to make it look as pretty as its other half. Talk about favouritism hahaha

xx Christine

BAM: FLORALS

   Welcome to the second instalment of my "then and now, and all the manis in between" series! And today's theme is florals! :D

   Just before we start, y'all know how the first picture in the post is what's used as the blog post thumbnail? (Unless I'm just a noob that doesn't know how to pick a thumbnail??) Well, I didn't really want my first ever floral nails to show as the thumbnail, so I'll show you a sneak peak of my most recent floral design first :P

   And here is where I started with floral nails:

We all gotta start somewhere right? I took pretty horrible photos too, 

and thought a border would make it look better! :p

   From there I just tried different representations of flower:

 

From roses to rose bushes and trees...

To more abstract floral designs.

I tried realistic looking flowers...

As well as floral patterns based off of clothes.

   More recently, I remembered one of my earlier floral designs and decided to recreate it.

Another horrible photo, but GOSH do I love this design!

   And my recreation:

Mini red roses over a blue to teal gradient, with Femme Fatale 

Cosmetics Winter Hyacinth on the index and pinky nails.

   I used Australis Aqua and Essence BBC Splash Refresh for the gradient; Butter London Pillar Box Red, Sally Hansen I Pink I Can, Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Ulta3 Tahitian Lime and Frog Prince for the roses and leaves; and 2 coats of Rubi Call Me Maybe as undies  for the glitter.

   I am absolutely in love with Femme Fatale Cosmetics Winter Hyacinth, it matches the roses so well! You can purchase this from their website Femme Fatale Cosmetics or from one of their international stockists. 

   Do any of you purchase indie polishes, and if so do you have a favourite? I'm all up for finding new indies to look at and try :P

And one final photo in the sun!

   And one more thing before you go. Ever wondered where I get the studs and glitter I use in my manis? I purchase them all online (along with my brushes, thinner and other nail art knick knacks) at www.bornprettystore.com and they've now given me a discount code to share with my readers! 

   Just type in XFSQ10 at check out for 10% off your entire purchase! And that's all for now, stay tuned for the next theme: GRADIENTS!

xx Christine

Femme Fatale Cosmetics: Eventide inspired Floral

BAM.

BAM.

And an outdoor photo for good measure. BAM.

   Sorry (not really :P) for the dramatic opening,  but I LOVE how these turned out. I've had Femme Fatale Cosmetics' Eventide sitting on my shelf for a couple of weeks now, so thought I'd better hurry up and use it. 

   I drew inspiration from the flecks of pink glitter in the polish and created this simple floral design. I was going for a glitzy elegant look, but I couldn't resist adding studs to make it a little less girly, and a little more 'edgy' :P

Excuse the wonky studs *gasp* I did these at 4am 

(I'd been in a nailart rut so I was determined to get something done!)

   I used 3 coats of Eventide on the index and pinky, and Sinful Colors Black on Black for the rest. The flowers were done just with a regular light pink, red, and white polish; mint, green, and gold for the leaves. 

   I was contemplating whether to add Eventide onto my thumb or go with black and golden studs, but went with the same design as my ring finger instead. What do y'all think? 

   And another outdoor picture (how awesome does this gold polish look in its bottle?! *dazzled*: