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