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

Chanel Riva

Remember that post I did on China Glaze Moody Blue? And I whinged about how we never get the popular, awesome polishes down here in Australia, and they always take ten years to get here and by the time they get here everyone's forgotten about them anyway?

Yes. Well. I have to take that back in Chanel's case...because I have, in my hot little hands, a little bottle of Riva.

All is not forgiven though, because there was still an impossibly long waiting list for this polish, and it was only through a lucky twist of fate and some pretty awesome customer service that I obtained this beauty. Also, I paid $39. $39!!! For one little incy wincy bottle. Ugh. And that didn't even include shipping.

Anyway, here are the pics:

This is 4 coats of Riva and one coat of Seche Vite.

I have to say straight up that I don't like this as much as I thought I would. It has more of a grey tinge than I was imagining, and was a little streaky and difficult to apply. Nothing too troublesome, but for the amount I paid for it I expected perfect application, and this was not that.

A lot of reviewers/bloggers have said that the shimmer disappears on the nail, and this is definitely true in the shade and low light, but in the sun I have to say that the shimmer showed up beautifully (albeit subtly) and it was gorgeous. If you look at the sunlight pics above you can definitely see the little crystals of blue microshimmer peeping out of the jelly-ish base.

So although I don't like this as much as I thought I would, I still like it. It is a nice colour, and the shimmer makes it unique in my collection. However, unless you are completely in love with it, I would have to say that China Glaze Moody Blue or Hard Candy Sky will satisfy your lemming, even though they are not exact dupes.

MCB