Swatches: Aussie Indie Moonstone Nail Polish

   Helloooo and a (hopefully) Happy Monday to you all! Today's post is somewhat of a PSA - you all remember the Aussie Indie Moonstone Nail Polish I showed you in October of last year, well Caitlin has now released a new collection which goes live TODAY at 7pm (AEDST)! It is the Magic Treats Collection, and draws inspiration from the lollies found in Honeydukes, the magical sweets shop from the fantastical realm of Harry Potter. And so to celebrate, and maybe tempt you a little, I've got swatches for 3 of the 6 polishes to be released.

   First up is Levitating Sherbert Balls, inspired by the sour Fizzing Whizbeez! It's quite a busy polish, bursting with star shaped glitter, pastel yellow dots, pink, white, yellow, and iridescent hexes, as well as a pink/ gold shifting shimmer - this was the first to catch my eye when I opened up the blogger pack, which was unusual because I'm not usually attracted to shape glitter, or shimmer polish. Though after swatching it, I actually quite liked the look of it. This is one dabbed coat over Ulta 3 Citrus. 

Swatches: American Indie Liquid Sky Lacquer

   Hey Guys! Long time no see (talk, post, whatever you want to call it!). I've been exceptionally busy, and have therefore, shamefully, neglected the blog (even Instagram, I know, it's terrible). But I've had a little breather this past week, and so I've been able to whip up this blog post for you all! It'll be an incredibly picture heavy post, but I hope that not only do I do the polishes justice but, also make up for my absence! haha

   Without further ado, I give you all Liquid Sky Lacquer, an American indie polish brand run by Carolyn, who's been generous enough to send me a few of her polishes to swatch and share with you (: Today, I have the polishes she's released for Valentine's Day!

   First up is 24 Karat Rose, it's a gorgeous thermal polish with a gold shimmer that is a beautiful rosy pink when cold, and a delicate nude/gold when warm. When cold, the pink is opaque, but it is incredibly sheer when warm; in the swatch below I've used 5 layers on it's own, and there is clearly still VNL (visible nail line). I myself don't mind it so much, and actually quite like it's subtle and delicate feel, but for those bothered by VNL, I advise using perhaps a nude base polish first.

When Warm

Swatches: Aussie Indie Miss Ashleigh Part III

   Hey guys! It's been a busy week for me, but I've finally finished off the remaining swatches for the Miss Ashleigh Summer Collection! The last 2 have got to be my favourites from the bunch! So without further ado, let's kick it off with And It Was All Yellow.

   This is a retina burning, highlighter yellow, neon creme that is so darn bright it glows. Even under the flash of my camera it glows freakishly bright! I'd love to see it under a blacklight to see it actually glow, but alas I don't own one so I'll settle for this eye searing brightness in daylight instead haha It's perfect with 3 coats on its own, but as with all neons, I've decided to swatch this over 1 coat of white, to help it pop a little more.

   And last, but most definitely not the least, is Let's Clown Around which is a colourful rainbow glitter topper filled with a mix of neon blue, green, pink and yellow hexes and dots. It's all suspended in a clear base, and so can be layered over anything!

   Here, I've layered it over a white to yellow gradient using OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Miss Ashleigh And It Was All Yellow. This is 1 coat, with additional "dabbing" to even out the glitter on each nail.

   Then I went a little colour crazy, and thought I'd use 4 of Miss Ashleigh's shades to create this explosion of brightness:

   Thought that with all these bright colours in the Summer Collection, may as well create a fun Summer inspired gradient mani! :D This is Show Us Your Watermelons, Like A Sunrise and And It Was All Yellow topped with Let's Clown Around. 

   And that brings us to the end of the Miss Ashleigh swatches. I hope you've all enjoyed them as much as I have! To keep up with all the Miss Ashleigh updates, you can follow Ash on her Instagram @missashleigh or on her facebook page, and if I've tempted any of you to purchase any of these shades for yourself, just click on through to her store online http://missashleigh.com.au/ (: (:

Swatches: Aussie Indie Miss Ashleigh Part II

   Hey y'all! Happy Hump Day Wednesday and welcome to Part II of the Miss Ashleigh swatches! :D Today's stars are Like A Sunrise and Show Us Your Watermelons. Both striking neon shades, perfect for Summer :D

   First up is Like A Sunrise which is a vibrant neon pastel orange creme. This is 3 thin coats over a coat of white (after 2 coats, it was still a little patchy for me, but a thin 3rd coat did the trick!). On the accent nail is a pink to yellow sunset gradient using Kleancolor Neon Amethyst, W7 Fuschia, and Ulta3 Honolulu.

   On top of the gradient, I also tried adding 1 coat of Miss Ashleigh Let's Clown Around and it matched perfectly! (Proper swatch of this rainbow glitter topper to come in part III!)

   There are no words to describe exactly how shockingly bright this colour is! It may not be a fancy glitter or a shifting multichrome, but Like A Sunrise holds its own - even indoors, and in the shade, it screams LOOK AT ME.

   Also, funnily enough, my mani matched my training shoes! It was totally coincidental too haha

   Okay, so next up is Show Us Your Watermelons. It's a gorgeous red coral creme reminiscent of the juicy fruits it's named after! This is 3 thin coats over a coat of white (as with Like A Sunrise it was still a bit patchy after 2 coats, but a 3rd evened it out. It would probably be okay with 2 coats on its own, but I like layering bright colours like these over white to help them pop even more :D).

 

   Then I thought I'd actually show you my watermelons...

   Hahaha mind out of the gutter people! These melons look much better from afar! Close up they look a little dodgy haha but I'm happy with them. I had no watermelons in the fridge, and I'm far too lazy to go to Woolworths to buy a watermelon so this is the best it's going to get :P

   I also made a Berry Smoothie Swirl and decided to pose with it :D

   That's part II complete! Stay tuned for the final installation in the next couple of days :D To get yourselves any of these polishes, just head on over to Miss Ashleigh's online store  http://missashleigh.com.au/

Swatches: Aussie Indie Miss Ashleigh Part I

   Hey guys and a happy Monday to you all! Let's start this week off with a smile and hope the weekend comes around again fast :P To help you along the way, I have swatches from Aussie indie brand Miss Ashleigh to share with you ^^ 

   Ash released 6 new polishes on Boxing Day of last year, and they're all very bright, and fun shades - perfect for the Aussie Summer ahead. Though, instead of bombarding you with 100 pictures in one post, I'll split the swatches into parts.

   So first up is (no surprise I picked up the purple first!) The Grape Gatsby. I don't know if it's just me, but I found the name amusing; admittedly, I giggled when I first read it :P It's a gorgeous purple jelly with an explosion of glittery goodness inside. This is 3 coats on its own to show you the depth of the polish and exactly how jam packed with glitter it is!

   I also tried it over a dark purple base (1 generous coat of The Grape Gatsby over Ulta3 Spring Break) and the resulting mani was breathtaking - the glitter just pops! It instantly reminded me of crushed candy - specifically Pop Rocks! Anyone else know what popping candy is?! This is it, crushed up! 

   Also tried some art deco lines over the top, and kind of failed, but thought I'd share it anyway. Maybe gold was the wrong colour to use. And striping tape would have probably helped in making crisper lines..

   Anyway! The next polish in line, is Deja - Blue! Love its name, love its colour, love its holo! There is nothing you can fault this polish on, even its application was smooth like butter *sigh of satisfaction* It's a vibrant cobalt blue creme with a hint of holo that dazzles when the sun (or a camera flash) hits it.This is 3 thin coats on its own, no undies needed. 

   And just a regular outdoor shot of Deja - Blue, though the sun refused to come from behind the clouds so I couldn't get an action shot of the holo ):

   Well that's part 1 done! Do you guys like the colours so far? For me, even though I'm tempted to pick the purple over the blue (loyalty issues :P), I actually loveeee the blue way more than the purple this time around! Stay tuned for the next parts!

   To get yourselves any of these polishes, just head on over to Miss Ashleigh's online store  http://missashleigh.com.au/

COMPARISON: My Cherry Amour, Blaze and Extravagance

   Hey y'all! Wishing everyone a Happy Friday, and *cheers* to the weekend! :D Today I have for you a comparison between 3 polishes I thought were pretty good dupes of each other.

   So the polish that kicked this off was Nicole by OPI My Cherry Amour; I saw it at Target and immediately thought of OPI DS Extravagance, and of course, had to buy it :P 

   It's actually a textured polish - should have known by the "gumdrop" wrapping around the bottle's lid *woops* This is 2 coats over 1 coat of Chi Chi Mother In Law. 

   Unfortunately, I'm not too fond of it as a texture polish, it was too dull and the holo barely shone out. So I topped it with top coat, and et voila: shiny, glossy, holo-y nails :D I definitely like it A WHOLE LOT BETTER with top coat rather than without!

   For some reason, seeing My Cherry Amour in its bottle really reminded me of Extravagance. But looking at the bottle shots below... I was kind of off the mark! Then I remembered Zoya Blaze, and that was a much closer match to MCA!

   On my thumb is Blaze, on my index and middle finger is Extravagance, and on my ring finger and pinky is My Cherry Amour. As you can see, Blaze and MCA are almost exact dupes, just that Blaze is a shade darker and the holo particles are slightly different in each. But I was way off with Extravagance - it's much darker, and more of a plum colour.

   So all in all, although I quite like MCA with top coat, it's too similar to Blaze and the texture isn't enough to sway me, so it's probably headed to the blog sale/ swap pile!

   What are some polishes you fell in love with at first sight in their bottles, but were a little underwhelmed after putting it on?

Review: Bella's Touch Lacquer

   Hey y'all! And a happy Friday arvo to all my Australian readers - it's finally the weekend :D In today's post I'll be sharing swatches/reviews of another wonderful Australian indie brand: Bella's Touch Lacquer by Ellie Roczniak.

   First up is Pinky Promise. It's a dark pink jelly polish filled with tons of blue and purple matte glitters. This is 3 coats on it's own and you can see just how much glitter comes with each coat - it's like I dipped my nails in coloured sprinkles!

   It was a little sheer for me, and I don't particularly like having to do 3 coats for full opacity, so I tried it over a base colour as well. This is 1 coat over Australis #totesamaze (my favourite pink) and just look at that pop! Definitely will be a favourite combo in the future (my mum's already wearing it herself :P)!

   Next up is Beautiful Nightmare. It's a very sheer black jelly (I'd say it's more tinted black than an actual jelly) jam packed with different sized holo hexes. It looked absolutely stunning in the bottle! I tried layering this on its own until full opacity, but that wasn't going to happen without overloading my nails with glitter haha So I layered 2 coats of Beautiful Nightmare over a base coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black, and bam just look at that glitter! I'd actually like to try sandwiching this between a black jelly polish just to tone down the glitter a little - maybe for a post in the near future :D

   Last, but definitely not the least, is Aquamarine. It's an explosion of tiny blue, silver and holo glitters suspended in a sheer blue jelly base. This is 2 coats over Australis Sky's The Limit. And if you're a glitter fiend like I can be at times :P it's perfect for adding that little bit of sparkle to an otherwise plain blue mani. 

   You can find these beautiful polishes over on Ellie's etsy Bella's Touch Lacquer, though her store is currently closed for a make over, but should re-open in a couple of weeks, so keep an eye out! :D She's also on Instagram @bellastouchlacquer so you can check there for updates also.

   So which is your favourite? Mine is definitely Pinky Promise!!

I Creme, You Creme, We all Creme for Ice Creme!

   And a SUNNY hello to you all from Sydney, Australia! *waves* It's technically Spring over here right now, but recently it's been nothing but 30degree heat, and plenty of sun! AND Daylight savings has also started, which basically means that last Sunday we fast forwarded our clocks an hour forward, meaning we have longer days - the sun's still up as late as 7pm! Y'all know what that means... more opportunities to do my nails and take pictures :P

   So for today's blog post, we explore the land of creme nail polish. Recently, I'm loving the look of cremes more than glitter, so I thought I'd show you a few of the cremes that I don't wear often as a full manicure. 

   First up is Face of Australia Would You Like Some Orange Sherbet from the Pretty Pastels collection. This is a gorgeous soft shade of pale orange, and looks great in the bottle. Unfortunately, the reason I've never worn it on its own (this is actually the first time I'm swatching this polish) is because it clashes with my skintone and doesn't look too flattering, I pretty much bought it on impulse *oops* It will probably remain a shade that I'll leave for nail art, or maybe pass it on to someone who will love it more than I.

Two coats Face of Australia Would You Like Some Orange Sherbet over one coat of white

   Next up is a STAPLE in any nail art addict's collection... at least every addict that loves neons! Although it clashes with my skintone, I DONT CARE! :P It's China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy - my all time favourite neon polish (I have 2 back ups)! We all know how hard it is to capture neon polishes in photos, but this is the closest I could get it to be colour accurate.

Two coats China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy over one coat of white

   Third up is Ulta3 Mojito and Ulta3 Orchid topped with Australis Rio Riot on the accent nail. This green was one of the first polishes that I fell in love with. It's a shade of green that I can just pull off, and is great for nail art too, but I'm not really digging it anymore... at least not a colour I'd wear on its own as a full manicure. 
   
   And just as a special mention, I'm loving these Australis glitter toppers that I've seen come out: Rio Riot, Carnivale Chaos, Glitter Strikes Back and Shimmy Shake just to name a few!

Three thin coats of Ulta3 Mojito over white; One coat of Ulta3 Orchid topped 

with two coats of Australis Rio Riot for the accent

   Next is a colour which matches my skintone well, is a dupe for Essie Bikini So Teeny and has a smooth buttery formula it's a squeeze to apply: Essence Forget Me Not from the Blossoms Etc... Collection. It is so damn pretty, and feminine, and soft, and all things nice :P The accent finger is Revlon Silver Screen topped with Australia Shimmy Shake. This combo is one of my faves!!

Two coats of Essence Forget Me Not over one coat of white; One coat of Revlon Silver Screen 

topped with two coats of Australis Shimmy Shake for the accent

   Next is a combo my brother picked out for me. All I said was pick a plain colour and pick a glitter, and this is what he came up with: Ulta3 Tangelo and Femme Fatale Cosmetics Eventide. His reasoning was : "it's Spring and sunny, so I'll choose something eye searing-ly bright!" Somehow, he managed to pick my all time faves! Tangelo, like Mojito, was another one of the first polishes to join my nail polish horde over a year ago now, and the first orange I fell in love with. It appears a lot more red in the photo, but in real life leans more towards a bright neon orange-red. And Eventide, my bottle is half empty ): it's the first indie polish that I'm considering reordering because I love it (and use it) so much!

Two coats of Ulta3 Tangelo over one coat of white; One coat of Orly Glitzy topped with two 

coats of Femme Fatale Cosmetics Eventide for the accent

   Last but not least is a colour combo that you absolutely can't go wrong with AND doesn't clash with my skintone: blue and purple! I used Australis Sky's the Limit for the base, and did the chevron tip + half moon using Sinful Colors Endless Blue. I was lazy (as per usual, that, and I have a love - hate relationship with striping tape) so I just free handed the tips and half moon using a trimmed down paint brush. For the accent I used Emily De Molly Warrior Princess; it's choca-block full of glitter so 2 coats was enough for complete coverage!

Two coats of Australis Sky's The Limit with Sinful Colors Endless Blue for the tips and half moon; 

Two coats of Emily De Molly Warrior Princess for the accent.

   Do any of you have colours you love but unfortunately don't match your skin tone, an if so do you wear them anyway? 

   And the mother of all polish questions (not really but :P) Do you own China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy?! And if not, do you have a polish you think everyone should own? 

   P.S. I hope you all get the title, not sure if it's just a thing in Australia growing up as a kid haha

Rimmel London: Metal Rush Nail Polish

   Saw these Rimmel London Duochrome polishes at Priceline 2 for $10 so I just got all 3 that were available :D

   First up is: Bronze Princess

   Next: Gold Save the Queen

   Last: (but definitely not the least!) Royal Blue

   This one is obviously my favourite, and so I turned it into a mani :P

   SO what do you all think? YAY or NAY? I like them all, but I could easily part with Bronze Princess and Gold Save the Queen, just not Royal Blue :P