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

OPI Katy Perry Collection

Well here I am eating my words. I posted a month ago about Australia never getting the latest polishes and having to wait ages and whinge whinge whinge. Then not only did I get Chanel Riva pretty much around the same time as everyone else in the world, here I am posting about a collection which hasn't quite been released in the US yet. Ok, now I have to admit it is not so hard being a nail polish junkie here in the land Down Under :)

I should mention first up that there must be way more nail polish aficionados around my part of town than I realised, because I did not manage to pick up the Black Shatter polish - it had sold out in both stores I went to within hours. But I wasn't too phased by that, because, to be honest, crackle nail polish isn't really my thing. I did, however, manage to pick up all four colours in the collection.

On to the pics!

First up, Not Like The Movies:

This is 3 coats with no topcoat. This colour is hard to describe - its like a silvery grey with a green and pink duochrome. That doesn't really make any sense, but if you look at the pics you will know what I mean. I didn't think I'd like this colour when I saw it in the bottle, but it is actually very pretty on the nail. The pink flash is particularly attractive in the light, and this colour is pretty unique in my collection. I like it a lot more than I thought I would.

Next up, The One That Got Away:

This is 3 coats with no topcoat. The One That Got Away is a divine berry red with glass fleck shimmer. There is a gold flash in the bottle which doesn't translate onto the nail, but I still LOVE this colour. It is a bit like OPI's Let Me Entertain You from the Burlesque collection, but with more burgundy, berry red 'tude to LMEY's fuchsia fun. Delicious.

Onto the glitters...Firstly, Teenage Dream:

This is 3 coats with no topcoat. This is a sheer pink with tiny silver and holo glitter, and larger holo particles mixed in. It looks quite sweet on its own, but would definitely pack a punch when layered over other colours, perhaps different pinks or reds for full effect.

Lastly, Last Friday Night:

3 coats with no topcoat. Like its pink counterpart, this is very sheer with small silver and holo glitter and larger holo particles throughout. It reminds me a lot of Sinful Colours Hottie, which I have, so I will try to do a comparison at some stage. Looks nice by itself on the nail, but again, would look amazing layered over a range of blues, or even green or black.

So there you have it - apart from the black shatter polish - OPI's Katy Perry collection. I love it, and I'm looking forward to trying these glitters over some bolder colours to see how they look. What do you think?

MCB

Essie Luxedo

After all the reds and greens and bright sparkly bits of Christmas nails, I needed a palate cleanser in the form of a dark, vampy purple. So I decided it was the perfect opportunity to try out Essie Luxedo:

The top pic is two coats with a top coat of Seche Vite. This colour is gorgeous - luscious and dark and super glossy and smooth. Just what I needed!

Of course, I couldn't resist the urge to see what it would look like with some stamping over the top, so I added a stamp from plate BM20 in Konad Purple Princess polish. I love it - all baroque and luxurious but understated and subtle as well.

In other exciting news, I managed to get my hands on all of OPI's new Katy Perry collection yesterday, except for the Black Shatter (crackle polish), so I will swatch those as soon as we get some sun here! Don't get me wrong, I am loving all of this rain, but it is not conducive to nice, colour accurate photos.

MCB

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you're all having/had a wonderful day and shared it with lovely family and friends. It was raining and somewhat cool here, which put me in the very best of moods, because the usual oppressive heat and sun are not my friends!

I thought I'd share my Christmas mani with you. I thought, right up until yesterday, that I would be doing a China Glaze Frosty/Party Hearty/OPI Funny Bunny combo (link to pic here) but at the last minute I decided to go with something different:

Pics are clickable, as always, so you can see the sparkly detail! This is two coats of Cherry Love by Rescue Beauty Lounge topped with one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust and then Seche Vite top coat. The accent finger is one coat of BYS Matte White stamped with the holly stamp from plate BM12 and topped with a little heart gem (which someone I know will call a 'heartmonte' - ha ha) that I got from my lovely friends C and M in a package for my birthday this year (thanks my darlings :)).

As usual, the photos do not do it justice. It is so sparkly and colourful in real life. Very cute.

MCB