Ulta 3 - Orchid

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Ulta3 - Orchid

2 coats

Poshe top coat

Orchid is from the Summer Siren Collection - 2011. The photos above aren't exactly colour accurate. Purples are sometimes hard to photograph and this is one of those times. It's more blue toned than the lightbox picture but more red toned than the sun and shade pictures. This was very opaque. I almost did one coat but it wasn't dry when tried to put top coat on and it pulled of the nail a bit and looked patchy. The formula of this one was fine. This would probably be good for stamping. I love this colour so much! It's like the perfect purple! If you like purple, get this! Even if you don't like purple, get this!

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My Top 5 of 2011

I got addicted to nail polish about halfway through this year and most of the nail polishes I bought since then have been from pre 2011 collections. So after looking through my stash for 2011 released nail polishes I decided on my top 5, these are not in any particular order.

From left to right:

China Glaze - Black Mesh

Ulta3 - Orchid

Ulta3 - Twilight Fever

Ulta3 - Pacific Fever

piCture pOlish - Festival

China Glaze - Black Mesh

Whoa! Check out my freaky skin. It almost looks like one of those fake hands. I remember editing this photo heavily and I guess this was the result. This is one of my earlier swatches so sorry about the quality. I have very unevenly shaped nails but at least they are mostly the same length. You can see some of my very shocking swatches if you look at my first few posts. Anyway, Black Mesh, cracks fast and is opaque. It's my only black crackle but it's perfect for me.

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Ulta3 - Twilight Fever

Picture quality is slowly getting better. I loved this one as soon as I bought it. I tried it out in the shop just after paying. It's a gorgeous brown creme with purple shimmer. I recommend this one even if you aren't into Twilight, I'm not!

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Ulta3 - Pacific Fever

I didn't love this one at first. But when I swatched it I realised how beautiful it was. It's a shimmer but I think it's also glass fleck. I haven't been around nail polish long enough to accurately pick the finishes. Maybe someone else who owns this can clarify the finish for me.

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Ulta3 - Orchid

I bumped this one up in the order that I'm posting the Summer Siren collection in so this wouldn't be the first time you see it. If you missed the other post from today of Orchid click the link under the picture to read it. This was another one I didn't love until I swatched it. It's more red toned in real life.

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piCture pOlish - Festival

piCture pOlish recently released three flakie polishes. I thought that Hypnotic was my favourite but after looking at Festival again I changed my mind. There's so many different colours in this one; orange, green, red, blue and yellow. The flakes aren't as dense as i'd like them to be but I can always do extra coats.

So, what were your favourites from 2011?

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Ulta3 - Tahitian Lime

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Ulta3 - Tahitian Lime

3 coats

Poshe top coat

Tahitian Lime is a bright, almost fluro green creme. The most colour accurate photos are the bottle picture and the sun picture above. The formula was fine. Just like normal Australian made Ulta3's. Tahitian lime had probably the best formula out of the collection. The brushes are different now too. They are clear bristles rather than black. I haven't noticed anything other than the colour being different but I haven't compared them side by side yet.

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Ulta3 - Summer Siren Collection 2011

It's about time I posted the Ulta 3 Summer Collection. It's been Summer for a month now and it feels like it's barely begun. We have had some hot days but overall it's been a very mild Summer this year.

The Summer Siren Collection consists of seven cremes and one shimmer. Just in case one green wasn't enough they've given us three! I'm not complaining, I like the greens. This is the first collection released since the production sadly moved to China. I was quite proud that Ulta3 was Australian made. I know a few other girls aren't happy about it either but I guess they will be making a bigger profit now and hopefully using that to release more frequent collections. I have noticed that a few of the Australian made colours that are now being made in China are slightly different shades to the original. I noticed a significant change in the formula of this collection and you can read about each one in future posts.

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piCture pOlish - Hypnotic

Because of the boring posts over the last few days I decided to give you two interesting posts in the same day to try to make up for it. If you didn't see my other post for today I'll link to it here after I wake up because I'm not sure if I can link to a scheduled post before it's posted.

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piCture pOlish - Hypnotic

2 coats over black 

Poshe top coat 

Hypnotic is on of the three new piCture pOlish flakie covers. Hypnotic is a Green/Blue/Red flakie polish in a milky base. I wish this one was more pigmented too but at least it doesn't put the cloudy haze over the base as bad as Splendour does.The saying on the bottle is "flake out it's a state of mind!". I think I may have flaked out when I got these in the mail yesterday.

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So now that you've seen all three of the piCture polish flakie covers you might be wondering what it looks like if you combine them:

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piCture pOlish - Festival + Splendour + Hypnotic

1 coat of each over black

Poshe top coat

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piCture pOlish - Splendour

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piCture pOlish - Splendour

2 coats over black

Poshe top coat

Splendour is one of the 3 flakie covers recently released by piCture pOlish. I didn't think we would see Splendour and Hypnotic until next year but they are available now. Splendour is a yellow/orange/red/green flakie polish. The little saying on the bottle is "magnificent, brilliant flakie finery" and I have to agree but just like Festival I wish these were a little more pigmented. Two coats is just enough coverage for me but it starts to put a cloudy haze over the base colour.

Splendour looked similar to Nubar - 2010 so I've compared the two below:

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I used one coat of Nubar and two coats of Splendour for the picture above so you can see how much more pigmented 2010 is. Splendour has more irregular shaped flakes than 2010. Other than that they seem to be almost identical.

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My Christmas Nail Polish Haul

I went to my draft posts to see what I can post for tomorrow and discovered that I've used them all! It's too late to do anything now so all have is a picture of the nail polishes I got for Christmas. This was taken on my iPhone, if you follow me on Twitter you will have already seen it.

I can't remember the names but I've got some O.P.I minis, Ulta3, Klean Color, Sally Hansen, Essie, BYS, Revlon, Scandal and the ones in the tube, I think they were Earth? You can expect to see some of these on my blog soon. If you want to see some sooner than the others just let me know and I'll move it up my to swatch list. I've also got about another 20 nail polishes in my  to swatch box, they are all listed on the My Collection page. 

Sorry about the boring post today. If the sun comes out I will swatch like crazy tomorrow. I just checked the weather and they say it will be partly cloudy and 23 degrees. I've got my fingers crossed for sunshine!

What nail polish did you get for Christmas?

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Essie - Matte About You

Yesterday, you saw a preview of Essie - Matte About You. Here's some more pictures but this time with all my nails painted and different bases. 

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Orly - Space Cadet

 

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 Orly - Lunar Eclipse

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 Orly - Out Of This World

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Orly - Halley's Comet

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 BYS - In Grape Shape

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BYS - Baby Pink

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 Sally Hansen - Blu

 

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Sally Hansen - Pixel Pretty

Did you notice I switched between my left and right hand in the photos? These were taken on different days so my nails are different lengths, and I had to use my right hand one week because I broke a nail on my left hand.

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BYS - Matte & Essie - Matte About You Comparison

BYS is a brand that has a go at everything; crackle, colour change, an Alice in wonderland themed collection and Matte nail polish. Maybe they will try magnetic next! I haven't tried any of the others I listed but I hope they do a better job of them than their Matte nail polish. Here is BYS - Matte Top Coat compared against Amour - High Gloss Top Coat over BYS - GI Jane.

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It's only slightly more matte than the top coat. For me this is not matte enough, it just dulls the shine. Essie does a really great Matte top coat so I've compared it below to Essie - Matte About You:

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 You can see how well Essie works, BYS looks just like a regular top coat now. Below is BYS and Essie over Sally Hansen - Pixel Pretty:

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My recommendation is to spend the extra money on a good quality matte top coat like Essie - Matte About You. I've bought a BYS colour change nail polish to see how well that works and I've also got the BYS Alice In Wonderland collection. I don't have another colour change or the O.P.I. Alice In Wonderland collection to compare against but you can still see their quality when I post them.

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