Ulta3 Earl Grey

One little gem of a brand that we have here in Australia is Ulta3. These little bottles of goodness are only $2.50 a pop, but the quality of the colours and application is usually good. Occasionally you'll find a scary frost or blobby mess, but on the whole its a fun and cheap brand.

Here is one from their new colour range - Earl Grey:

A yummy neutral taupe creme. Classic and on trend, and a nice palate cleanser when the blues and greens and incessant konading gets too much. This is two coats with Seche Vite on top, and it applied well if you work a little faster than usual.

MCB

Zoya Gaia

Today I've got a polish for you from the amazing Zoya. I only recently started purchasing Zoyas, and I have no idea why I waited so long - every single one that I try is gorgeous!

Here is Gaia:

Gaia is a gorgeous soft white with a luminous gold microshimmer. Its stunning. This is two coats with one coat of Seche Vite on top.

And then I went and ruined it by doing this:

Ew. Konad fail. Looking back on it, pretty much any other colour would have worked except this. Oops.

Lesson learned - if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it :)

MCB.

China Glaze Holiday Collection 2010

China Glaze are fantabulous. They consistently release interesting, high quality polishes with on-trend colours and unique finishes. And this year's holiday collection is no different.

Of the 16 (!) shades released this year, I decided to pick up 3 little beauties...still resisting the temptation to add to this number...

First up, Sugar Plums:

This one has sparse holo glitter suspended in a burgundy red creme base. This one is really pretty, but I found that the base was a bit dense for the glitters, and as a result some of the glitter was covered up by the base resulting in less visible holo glitter + weird lumpy bits. But its not as bad as it sounds, and it definitely looks better in real life than in the pics, which emphasise the lumpiness. I still like this polish and I'm glad I bought it!

Next up, Frosty:

A gorgeous sparkly white with silvery white microshimmer. I love this colour - I adore whites on my nails, and this one has a kind of softness to it so it doesn't end up looking like White-Out. Sparkly, snowy, icy goodness. Perfect for pretending it isn't going to be 40 degrees celsius on Christmas Day here in Oz. Ew. This is 2 coats with Seche Vite on top. LOVE!!

Lastly I picked up Party Hearty. This one is kind of weird on its own, and is best for layering, so here it is layered over Frosty:

This one is so much fun! Small green glitter and larger red hex glitter suspended in a clear base. This is two coats, so I think you'd have to layer it pretty thick to get it opaque. Its just perfect for making any mani look Christmassy! Very unique in my collection as well.

I got the idea of layering a sheer white polish OVER Party Hearty from the amazing Polish Hoarder Disorder blog. Here is the above combo (2 coats Frosty, 2 coats Party Hearty) with one coat of OPI's Funny Bunny layered over the top:

I love this look - all soft candy sweetness and muted Christmas spirit. I think this just might be my actual Christmas day mani this year...but we'll see. So many choices!!

MCB

Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie

I love this polish. Yes, I know I say that about a lot of polishes, but I really love this one. I am a huge fan of Scrangie's blog (check out my blogroll if you want a link to it), and she created this polish in collaboration with RBL founder, Ji Baek.

Less words, more pics:

Scrangie herself describes it as "a medium blue-based purple with green iridescence and green microshimmer". It is totally stunning! From some angles the purple is really prominent and from others the shimmer is more obvious. It changes all the time depending on the light.

It's available online from Rescue Beauty Lounge. This is three coats plus Seche Vite topcoat. If you love purples or duochromes, then this polish needs to be in your collection!

MCB

Konad Time

Hi All,

I've got another quick Konad design here - only one pic because that's all it needs. Sometimes the simplest designs and colours work really well, particularly after lots of fancy, sparkly, bright polishes.

Here is my latest 'palate cleanser':

One coat of BYS Black Satin on all fingers except my ring finger, stamped with Konad Special White Polish and a Bundle Monster Pattern from BM20. Ring finger is BYS Matte White stamped with Konad Special Black. I'm itching to bling it up a bit with a sparkly top coat like China Glaze Fairy Dust or something...but I'm resisting for now.

MCB

Some Goodies From The OPI Burlesque Collection

This collection has been raved about throughout the nail polish community, and for good reason. Each and every colour has something special about it, and it is so unique and different from other things released this year. And OPI managed to do a collection that didn't comprise of mostly red cremes - yay!! Nah, they're not that bad, but this is one of their best...

A warning - this post is long and pic heavy!!

First up, The Show Must Go On:

I have already posted a comparison of this previously with MAC's Bad Fairy, but here it is on its own in all its glory. The Show Must Go On is an amazing foily duochrome which alternates between shades of bright red and orange and gold. Its beautiful and sparkly and bright and I absolutely love it. Even though oranges aren't usually my new thing ("Whoever said orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed..." - Legally Blonde), this one has enough variety and enough deeper tones to lure me in!

This is three coats plus one coat of Seche Vite. Two coats would probably have been enough if I was more careful with my application, but I did three here.

Next up, Let Me Entertain You:

I LOVE this colour! Deliciously juicy fuchsia jelly with glass fleck glittery bits. Thirst-quenchingly luscious...this is two coats with Seche Vite on top. This is my favourite of this whole collection - if I didn't know that it was a chemical cocktail of potentially lethal ingredients, I would be drinking it by the pool this summer.

Next up, two of the glitters. First we have Show It and Glow It:

Blingy multicoloured glitter suspended in a clear base. The majority of the glitter is this pinky purple colour, and there is a lot of silver in there too. These types of polishes are so hard to capture on camera - it just doesn't seem to reflect the amazingly sparkly nature of this polish. You really need to see this in person to appreciate its blingtastic goodness! This is three coats with Seche Vite on top.

Last but not least, Sparkle-icious:

Another multicoloured glitter. This one is composed of lots of blue, pink and gold glitter, and there is a slight predominance of gold on the nail. As for the previous glitter, the photos do not reflect the amazingly blingy nature of these polishes!

Just a word of warning on the glitters before you coat your nails in their dazzling goodness - if you have not heard of the foil method of removal, google it and memorise it before you attempt to remove these beauties. Otherwise you will be sitting there for half an hour scrubbing the glitter off your poor tortured fingers. Acetone and foil are your friend...

Well that's the selection I got from the Burlesque Collection. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!!

MCB

Things You Shouldn't Do When You're Old Enough To Know Better...

There are certain things you shouldn't do when you're old enough to know better. For example: eating peanut M&Ms for breakfast...buying a car you can't afford then having to sell it because you can't afford it...and wearing ridiculously over-the-top manicures with too many design elements that would look silly on someone half your age.

And yet, I have done all three. In fact, I do two of them on a regular basis and would probably do the third again if it hadn't been so painful watching my beautiful car driving off into the sunset with someone who could afford it behind the wheel. Sigh.

So here is photographic evidence of too much colour, too many dots and bows, too much glitter, and just...too much!

This started off, innocently enough, with two coats of OPI's Dim Sum Plum from the Hong Kong collection. I then added some Konading from the M56 (the bows) and M79 (the dots) plates in Konad Special White Polish. And because I was already being so ridiculous, I added OPI Show It and Glow It from the Burlesque Collection to my ring finger for a blingy accent. Don't let these pictures fool you - the glitter is outrageously sparkly :)

Too much? Yes. Will that stop me doing something like this again? Nope. I might do my next mani over my peanut M&Ms at breakfast tomorrow :)

MCB