a-England Tristam and Lady of the Lake

Today I have two amazing lacquers from a new company on the scene - a-England. Let me put it this way - I want to marry these two polishes and have their little polish babies. They are absolutely stunning, and I can't wait to buy more of these goodies. Oh, and the customer service and delivery time? Perfect.

On to the pics. First up, Tristam:

And here is Lady of the Lake:

These polishes are divine. Luscious, rich, and with some scattered holo thrown in - what more could you ask for? This is two coats here, but if you were careful you could probably get away with one thick one. And this is with no top coat - look at the shine! I highly recommend you pick up these two medieval beauties - I am definitely going to be ordering some more of the a-England pretties!

MCB

OPI SoftShades 2011 - Femme De Cirque

Today I have the lovely Femme De Cirque from OPI collection. After all the wild and crazy designs I love to wear on my nails, its nice to sometimes have what I call a 'palate cleanser' on hand - a soft, relatively natural, neutral colour that makes my nails look like nails, instead of little congregations of craziness on my fingertips.

OPI's Femme De Cirque collection fits that bill perfectly. Here are the pics:

First up, In the Spot-Light Pink:

First pic is in the sun, the second is in the shade. This was the sheerest of the bunch, so I loaded up four coats here, but you could definitely do less if you wanted a sheerer look. I love the squishy, jelly look of this polish - yum.

Next up, So Many Clowns...So Little Time:

This is two coats here. A gorgeous neutral that I thought would make my nails look like death warmed up, but which, when I had it on, was surprisingly flattering. Plus I quite like the name - cute.

Next we have Step Right Up:

This is two coats. This one was my favourite of the bunch - a divine soft pink which is light without being stark. My new go-to neutral.

Finally, there is I Juggle...Men:

Ummm, yeah...photo skillz FAIL. This is supposed to be a top coat. Its a clear base with a suspension of pinky purply bluey glitter that glistens and flashes as it catches the light. And it really is impossible to capture in a photo.  I tried to show it over (from left to right) Step Right Up, Calypso Blue, Mellow Yellow and Racey Rouge (all by Sally Hansen) and you really can't see anything. But trust me when I tell you that this is beautiful - delicate and delightful and definitely worth picking up.

MCB

I Succumbed to Crack...OPI Black Shatter

Hi Guys,

Well, I really thought it would never happen. I have watched the crackle polish revolution going on in the nail polish community and felt so far removed from it all. Here in my impregnable crack-free fortress I was merrily going about my nail polishing business and then BAM!

It sounds so silly, but I bought it because it had been sold out for weeks and weeks here in Aus, and around the world, and when I saw that lone little bottle of OPI Black Shatter sitting on the shelf the collector in me couldn't just walk past it.

Then I did a mani with it - this is over OPI Not Like the Movies:

And just like that...I was in love with the crack. For me, the reason I like it is that it is SO easy to do and the end result is like edgy nail art but without you having tried. Konading is fun, but I just couldn't be bothered sometimes, whereas this allows you to have something different without the effort. OPI is also bringing out a whole range of colours in their shatter polish, and China Glaze has a crackle line as well. All the other polish companies will be following suit soon, no doubt.

Its a bit of fun, and I have to say, don't knock it until you've tried it. The crack is the shizz.

MCB

St Patricks Day

Hi Everyone,

I often find motivation for my manicures from certain times of year. When you have a ridiculously large collection of nail polish (as I willingly admit I do!) it actually gets really hard to pick what to wear next, as the choice can overwhelm you. So my mani for tomorrow is inspired by St Patrick's day:

The first pic is more colour accurate - the second one I just took under direct light to show the detail.

For this I used two coats of Essie Going Incognito, then stamped with China Glaze Metallic Muse with my Bundle Monster plates. A St Patrick's Day mani isn't complete without a bit of Emerald Sparkle (by China Glaze), so I put two coats of this on my ring finger and stamped again with Metallic Muse. I topped it all off with one coat of Seche Vite.

Overall this didn't actually turn out as well as I'd hoped. I had so many ideas, and once this one went on it just didn't really seem as creative as how I had thought of it in my head...if that makes any sense whatsoever. Anyway, its certainly enough to put me in the Irish spirit for tomorrow, and hey, its green, so it works for me :)

I would also like to mention that today is my best friend B's birthday. Happy birthday!!! We have been friends for forever, and she is the most wonderful, supportive, amazing person, and I'm so lucky to know her and have her friendship! She is also very supportive of my nail polish 'habit' and was my very first follower on this blog. So here's to another amazing year, and we'll bring it in in style on Friday!

MCB

OPI Texas Collection

When I first saw the promo pics for this collection, I breathed a sigh of relief. A collection full of reds/pinks/oranges and a few others I couldn't care less about. Not interested.

But then I made the mistake of ordering one of the 'sorbet' finish polishes. I was making an order and had room for one more in the package, and chucked in Houston We Have a Purple at the last minute. And when I put it on my nails, I was sold on this collection.

Instead of having none, I now have six. Dammit.

Here are the pics:

Guy Meets Galveston. A bright coral with OPI's sorbet finish. This is three coats without top coat. You can still see a little bit of visible nail line, as this was the sheerest of the sorbets. Perhaps a tiny bit too 'orange' for my liking, but I know lots of people are loving this one, and it is a perfect pedi shade for summer.

Too Hot Pink to Hold Em. This looks more red than hot pink to me, but nonetheless it is yummy! This is two coats without top coat.

Do You Think I'm Texy. Slightly deeper and pinker - this is two coats without top coat.

Houston We Have a Purple. Deep berry and the most opaque of the sorbets. This is two coats without top coat.

Those are the four I bought from this collection with the new 'sorbet' finish. I absolutely LOVE this finish. It really is a 'jelly' finish, which has been around for longer than OPI would have you believe, so it is in no way 'new', but these lacquers apply smoother and more evenly than any other jelly I own. They are deliciously squishy and juicy, and the shine is unbelievable. They look wet and freshly applied for at least a few days, and I am loving them. Perfect for summer.

My only gripe would be that they are all so similar. I don't understand having six (I only got four, but there are six) of these sorbets which only vary by such small degrees in their base colouring. Having said that, I still bought four of them, so they must be different enough!

Next up, two of the shimmers from the collection:

This is Totally Fort Worth It. A grey with pink shimmer. The pink flash is very hard to capture in photos, but it is there. This one is a little bit frosty, so the brushstrokes are quite visible and you need to be quite careful with your application. It is also very sheer - this is four coats. This one is nice enough, but a little too much effort for not enough result.

Finally, Austin-tatious Turquoise:

This is a gorgeous turquoise shimmer with this amazing pink flash which is visible on the bottle, but not so visible on the nail. This one was quite sheer as well - this is three coats. I like this one, but I have to say it is the sorbets I am more enamoured with in this collection. The others I could take or leave.

MCB

Zoya Intimate Collection

All these amazing Spring collections coming out are making me happy...and broke. There just seems to be one 'must-have' colour after another, and frankly, I want it to stop for a while. Come on polish companies, please just churn out some crappy stuff that I can pass up so that I can take a breather from buying for a while! Nah, I don't mean that...really.

Here is a case in point: Zoya's Intimate Collection for Spring. I had to severely restrain myself to getting four out of the six. A girl's got to have her limits, after all.

First up is Dove:

This is two coats without top coat. A beautiful smooth grey creme, which applied easily. Yum. I love grey cremes, and this is no exception.

Next up, Marley:

I adore this one. This is two coats without top coat, and Marley is an amazing lilac. She's a devious little trickster though - although she gives the impression of being a straight up creme, there is a hidden pearlised shimmer (which is difficult to see in these pics cos the sun runs away when it sees me with my camera these days).

Third, we have Caitlin:

This is two coats without top coat. A divine purple/grey/blue, which pulls a lot bluer on me than some swatches I've seen. Love, love, love this colour - so different from your usual but still demure enough to fit in with the low key theme of this collection.

Lastly, Danni:

This is two coats without top coat. A gorgeous purple with gold shimmer running throughout. Sparkly yet still somehow subtle...if you can call purple nail polish subtle. Which I absolutely can, considering what I have sported on my nails over the years.

Overall I love this collection. The formula was nice, and all were two coaters and easy to work with. I do love me a bit of Zoya, and this collection is no exception.

MCB

Dior Nirvana

Hi Guys,

Today I have a stunner for you from Dior. I was just walking around the shops the other day and this one caught my eye and had to be mine! I hadn't heard much about this new collection, and when I googled it there wasn't much info out there about it. But its in Aus stores now, so if you can, hunt it down and make it yours!

Ok, this is Nirvana:

An amazing teal which morphs from more blue based to more green based depending on the light. It applied like an absolute dream - this is two coats plus some Revlon top coat (I didn't have my beloved Seche Vite with me at the time). I love, love, LOVE the Dior brush for application - some of you with smaller nail beds might find it a bit unwieldy, but for me it is perfection. Its huge and kind of curved at the end, and the above pics are with no clean up whatsoever - the brush makes it easy for me to get it really neat first time.

So what do you think of Nirvana? I'm so in love I bought a back up. And I'm eyeing off some of the other colours I saw too. Pity Dior is $35 here...

MCB

Quick Update!

Hi Guys,

Sorry for going AWOL - I've been having problems with the lighting for my pics, and I have also had Shellac on for a few weeks, hence no painting of nails/pics, which is kind of the point of this blog!

I'm off to Bali tomorrow for a week (WOOHOO!!!) but when I return I will be back to posting as usual.

Til next week :) I'll leave you with pics of my little cherub:

MCB

Brisbane Floods

Hi all,

Not sure if my overseas peeps have heard, but here in my little city it is chaos. I live in Brisbane, Queensland, and as of a couple of days ago, over 75% of the state was declared a national disaster zone because of flooding. That's an area over 5x the size of the UK!

I have been very lucky, as my place is up on a hill, and we have been largely unaffected in our little pocket of Brisbane. My mum, however, is marooned on a little 'island' in the western suburbs. Although her house is intact, they are trapped in an area enclosed by water, with no electricity and no access to basic supplies.

The good news is that the flood waters are receding. Bit by bit the water is creeping back, leaving mess and muck and devastation in its wake. And the clean up will begin.

My mani today (even though it doesn't seem important in the grand scheme of things, this is a nail blog after all, and sometimes the simplest things can remove us from reality for a moment and bring comfort) is the colour of the Brisbane River - brown, muddy and messy:

This is two coats of Chanel Particuliere topped with one coat of Seche Vite. Application was lovely and smooth.

My thoughts go out to everyone who is affected by the floods - stay safe everyone.

MCB

Milani Rockstar Heavy Glitter

This is a mani I did while I was playing around with ideas for New Years Eve. I didn't end up going with this one, but I did take some pics:

And a blurry one to show the sparkle:

This was 2 coats of Purple Gleam with 2 coats of Blue Flash on the ring finger. I then stamped with China Glaze 2030 and covered it all with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. The Milani glitters decided to eat through top coat, so I ended up having to do 2 coats of CND Shiney top coat in between 2 coats of Seche Vite! All in all this ended up being 7 coats of polish, not counting the stamping! It was an absolute nightmare to get off, even using the foil method.

That being said, it was so much fun, and a sparkl-o-rama on my nails! The Milani glitters are so blingy in real life - it was hard to truly capture it in pictures. They applied easily and were opaque in only 2 coats. I ordered these online from Cherry Culture, which ships internationally (thank you Cherry Culture!).

MCB

Revlon Perplex

Chanel Paradoxal was one of my favourite polishes of 2010, so when I heard that Revlon Perplex was similar, I knew I had to try it! 

I was lucky enough to participate in a polish swap with my nail-friend Ali from Ali's Nail News. If you haven't already, you should check out her blog - its awesome! Doing the swap was so much fun, and Ali's package to me was so so sweet and generous. We plan on doing it again some time, and I'm looking forward to that. If you're reading, Ali, thanks again - you're the best nail polish buddy ever!!! :)

Anyway, Perplex isn't out here in Aus yet, so this was one of the polishes I asked Ali to swap with me. Despite the fact it was hard to find at the time, she found it straight away and it made its way across the world into my waiting arms. Or waiting nails, I should say.

Here is the result of the union:

This is 2 coats plus Seche Vite topcoat. The formula was pretty nice to work with - no major problems.

I absolutely love this colour - all versions of it. I have Chanel Paradoxal, Revlon Perplex and Sportsgirl Supernatural (an Aussie brand) and in my massive stash, these get the most wear. It is hard to describe the colour - my beautiful friend J asked me if it was purple, grey or brown and I answered that it was a purply greyie brown with purple shimmer :) Whatever it is, its gorgeous in all its permutations, and I can't get enough of it.

Are you feeling the love for this colour?

MCB

Essie Sew Psyched

Continuing with my use of palate cleansing cremes, here is another polish I thought I would never buy, but ended up loving. Its not everyone's cup of tea, but I have grown to love Sew Psyched. It looks quite different in different lighting, and has this amazing hidden shimmer that only reveals itself either in the sun or in certain low light situations.

Here are the pics:

This is two coats with Seche Vite top coat. Sew Psyched is a murky khaki green with a hidden silver shimmer. In the shade it pulls a little more blue, but in the sun it is unashamedly snot green :) Its reputed to be a dupe for the more expensive Rescue Beauty Lounge Diddy Mow, but I don't have that one to compare it to. Me likey.

MCB