GMU Friday: Icing - Signature Runway

Sorry this is late again, I ran out of time to edit photos after I got home last night.

Icing  - Signature Runway

3 coats

Signature Runway has small square red glitter in a black base. I thought I could get away with only two coats but I noticed some bald patches so I used three coats. Icing is a brand that I wish was available here in Australia! I bought this polish from a blog sale.

Visit these blogs for MOAR GLITTAH!

Shaina - SG Nails

Rebecca - Polished Peripherals

Kelly - Kelly's Kolors

Kaz - Parisian Blue Sky

Mam Glam  - GlamOnTheCheap

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China Glaze - Midnight Ride

China Glaze - Midnight Ride

2 coats

Midnight Ride is from the Rodeo Diva collection from 2008. This is a deep eggplant base with a purple shimmer that's only visible in bright light. Most of the time this looks almost black. Not sure whats going on with m hand, major lobster fingers! I only just realised that I own three polishes from this collection, and all of them were bought at different times. The other I have are Gussied Up Green and Cowgirl Up. Maybe I need to pick the rest too!

P.S. I can return my computer monitor even when I don't have the receipt. The shop can print off a new one! So happy!! :D

P.P.S. My 2012 Bundle Monster plates came today, I can't wait to use them!

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Artsy Wednesday: Ombre

The theme for Artsy Wednesday this week is Ombre!

An Ombre manicure is shading from nail to nail using five nail polishes from the same colour family. I left out my thumb from this manicure. Here's the colours that I used:

Index: Essie - Lilacism
Middle: Ulta3 - Violet Rumble
Ring: Ulta3 - Royal Fever
Pinky: Ulta3 - Gooseberry

See what the other Artsy Wednesday girls did this week:

Michelle - Lab Muffin

Holly - Hooked!

Maria - Maria's Nail Art

Tif - Polished Genius

Lyndsey - Nails by Ms. Lizard

Catrine - Unnaked Nails

Melanie - Nail & Polish

Jessica - Beauty Gnome
Kamen - KAKA Beauty Blog 

In other news I'm really annoyed! My computer monitor just broke. One second it was working and then the next it's dead. I've only had it for two weeks! Also I can't find the receipt and I've already thrown out the box. My boyfriend brought me a big bowl of ice cream to make it better. It helped a little. I was able to think of a plan...What if I go back to the store and buy another monitor, exactly the same model. Then the next day use that receipt to return the broken one? Do you think that would that work? Have you done that before?

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O.P.I - Sea? I Told You!

O.P.I - Sea? I Told You!
3 coats

Sea? I Told You! is from the Sunbelievable collection from 2009. It's a blue shimmer with metallic blue micro flakes. There is also a very subtle purple/pink flash. I wore this on a cloudy day so maybe it's more visible in sunlight. I noticed it in the bottle under artificial light. You can see a little bit of purple on the edge of my index finger. I've been told this is now discontinued which is a shame because it's such a pretty colour! I found this on on a blog sale. I can't really comment on the formula as I didn't buy this brand new but it was a little sheer. It was opaque in three coats although there's still a little visible nail line.

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VOV - Blue Night

VOV - Blue Night

3 coats

Blue Night is a gorgeous blue and purple duo-chrome glass fleck shimmer. As with most duo-chrome polishes most of the duo-chrome doesn't show up on the nail. LabMuffin recently layer a polish over black which brought out the duo-chrome so I thought I'd try it but unfortunately it didn't help this polish.

I found this polish whilst holidaying in Bali. VOV is a Korean Brand, I tried to navigate their website as best as I could with Google translate but couldn't find any stores outside Korea selling their polishes.

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GMU Friday: Wet n Wild - Night Prowl

Wet n Wild - Night Prowl
2 coats

Night Prowl has pink glitter in a black jelly base. The formula was really nice, perfect in two coats. I'm not sure how old this polish is or what collection it was from because I bought it from a blog sale.

I had the day off today and was able to make a significant dent in my latest project; swatching all my polishes on swatch sticks. I had them all swatched on wheels but was never a fan of the system because I couldn't regroup the colours if I changed my mind on which group a colour should be in. I hope I can get them all done this weekend, I've got swatch sticks all over my desk drying.

Visit these blogs for MOAR GLITTAH!

Shaina - SG Nails

Rebecca - Polished Peripherals

Kelly - Kelly's Kolors

Kaz - Parisian Blue Sky

Mam Glam  - GlamOnTheCheap

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Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate M66

Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate m66

Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate m66 is a dupe of Konad plate m66. The scratches on the plate are from me, I forgot to take a photo of it before using it. The plate comes with clear plastic covering the front and no backing paper. I didn't realise there was plastic over the front of the plate at first. The plastic is so thin that you can easily feel the designs underneath. It was only when I took a closer look at it that I realised it was there. I've tried all the designs and I had no problems.

The base colour is Ulta3 - Lily White. I stamped using China Glaze - Heli-Yum. The smudges on this design are user error, the stamp slipped. I stamped again on paper and the design was fine.

The base is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Lightening with Ulta3 - Frog Prince sponged over the top. I stamped using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Lightening again.

Index: The base is Color Club - Holiday Splendor, the stamp is Ulta3 - Black Satin.

Middle: The base is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Blue It. The red flowers are Ulta3 - Pinot. I tried to do a white stamp under the lily pads so the green would show up better but I didn't line them up very well. The white is Ulta3 - Lily White and the green is Essie - Trophy Wife. The butterfly is Barry M - Foil.

Ring: The base is China Glaze - Cowgirl Up and the stamp is Barry M - Foil.

Pinky: The base is O.P.I - Thanks a WindMillion and the stamp is China Glaze - Holly-day.

You can get this plate from Born Pretty Store for $2.99 with free worldwide shipping! If you want to get 10% off your order use my coupon code: 

Born Pretty Store is holding a nail art contest for June. The theme is studs, flower, star, leopard and butterfly. There are three winners. Visit the Born Pretty Store Blog for more information.

The product in this post was provided for review.

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Artsy Wednesday: Inspired By Nature

The theme for Artsy Wednesday this week is Inspired By Nature!

The nature that inspired me was a tree in our backyard that I assumed was just a plain tree. When winter hit Sydney it started flowering like crazy!

Colours used:
Pretty Serious - Morning Java
China Glaze - Holly-day
Ulta3 - Lily White

Stamping Plates used:
Bundle Monster BM05
Bundle Monster BM14

I started with a base of Morning Java then stamped the leaf design a on BM05 a couple of times using Holly-day. Then I stamped the flower from Bundle Monster plate BM14 in Lily White.

See what the other Artsy Wednesday girls did this week:

Michelle - Lab Muffin

Holly - Hooked!

Maria - Maria's Nail Art

Tif - Polished Genius

Lyndsey - Nails by Ms. Lizard

Catrine - Unnaked Nails

Melanie - Nail & Polish

Jessica - Beauty Gnome

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Liang QiEr - L-014

Liang QiEr - L-014

2 coats

I was impressed by the Liang QiEr magnetic polish I reviewed last time so I wanted to try another one. This time I chose a green shimmer. It's formula was easy to control but the smell was a bit strong. The magnet worked well, I held it next to my nail for about 20 seconds. I was actually able to do a wear test because I haven't had time to do my nails lately. I wore this polish for three days with minimal tip wear and no chips.

You can get this polish from Born Pretty Store for $6.38 with free worldwide shipping! If you want to get 10% off your order use my coupon code: 

The product in this post was provided for review.

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May/June Haul

I didn't do a May haul so this is May and June combined. I don't plan on buying any more polishes this month (hopefully).

I picked up these polishes from Kaz's Blog Sale. I might have gone a little crazy, but in my defence they were cheap, pretty and some shaped like ice cream!

unknown - unnamed blue shimmer

unknown - unnamed green shimmer

Wet N Wild - Night Prowl

L.A. Girl - Dark Purple

O.P.I - See? I Told You!

China Glaze - Midnight Ride

Icing - Signature Runway

Icing - unnamed blackened purple glitter

Sinful Colors - Frenzy

Wet N Wild - Mystic Blue

Wet N Wild - Blue Jitters

Wet N Wild - Night Owl

Wet N Wild - Prowler

Wet N Wild - Black Fog

Wet N Wild - Dark Shadow

Wet N Wild - Hypnotic Red

Wet N Wild - Sleepwalker

I got some Layla polishes in the Aussie group order that Cathy from More Nail Polish organised. 

Layla - Metal Chrome

Layla - Titanium Sky

Layla - Purple Diva

Layla - Flash Black

Layla - CE52

This is the lone polish I picked up in Bali. They sold O.P.I and Revlon over there too but I can get O.P.I cheaper online and the Revlons were all boring colours.

VOV - Blue Night

Aussie owned (and made) Pretty Serious Cosmetics launched and I picked up a few pretties! The wonderful Kaz snuck Morning Java into my order for review. I've already swatched these so I've linked to the reviews.

Pretty Serious - BSOD

Pretty Serious - Tux

Pretty Serious - Morning Java

Most of the Ozotic polishes are now discontinued and there's not many left worldwide, I bought these from piCture pOlish. I also picked up two from their Opulance collection. Mask-a-rade is now discontinued but is still available online.

piCture pOlish - Peacock

piCture pOlish - Mask-a-rade

Ozotic - 513

Ozotic - 526

Born Pretty Store sent me some things to review. I've reviewed one already and the others will be up this week. 

Liang QiEr - L-005

Liang QiEr - L-014

Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate - m66

If there are any polishes in this haul that you would like to see swatched soon let me know and I'll get to those first. Otherwise they will just sit in my untried pile with all the others. If you're interested to know what else is in my untried pile check the My Collection page. Anything without a link is untried, feel free to request some of those too.

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Revlon - Royal

Revlon - Royal

2 coats

Royal is gorgeous blue jelly polish. It's a popular base for Max Factor - Fantasy Fire and that's actually the reason I bought this (also it was on sale). The formula was fine except it had a weird smell to it. After being around nail polish for a while I've become used to the way both the 3-free and pre-3-free formulas smell but I've never smelt one like this before. It smelled like the polish had gone off or something, can that even happen? I smelled on different days in case the fumes had started messing with my head but it still smelt weird the next time. Has anyone else noticed this one smells funny or is it just my bottle?

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GMU Friday: China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle

Yeah I know, it's Saturday but I still wanted to post this.

China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle

2 coats

Emerald Sparkle is from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection from 2001 Edit: Sorry guys, I got my info mixed up with this one. This is actually from the Love You Snow Much collection from 2009. It has small emerald green glitter in a deep green jelly base. This had great coverage. 

Visit these blogs for MOAR GLITTAH!

Shaina - SG Nails

Rebecca - Polished Peripherals

Kelly - Kelly's Kolors

Kaz - Parisian Blue Sky

Mam Glam  - GlamOnTheCheap

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Artsy Wednesday: 3D

The theme for Artsy Wednesday this week is 3D!

The 3D theme just meant sticking stuff on your nails and for some reason this was the first thing that came to mind. I had this manicure planned for a while now, so I was excited for this week to finally come. I painted one nail at a time with top coat and then dipped it in a bowl of sand. I didn't put any top coat over the top and it dried like sand paper. Think glitter x 10. I think this would look cool with really fine white sand. What do you think?

Check out the other girls Artsy Wednesday girls:

Michelle - Lab Muffin

Holly - Hooked!

Maria - Maria's Nail Art

Tif - Polished Genius

Lyndsey - Nails by Ms. Lizard

Sofie - Swaafie

Catrine - Unnaked Nails

Melanie - Nail & Polish

Jessica - Beauty Gnome

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Ulta3 - Magnetic Collection

A while ago (might have been last year) I had a dream that I went to my local chemist and found Ulta3 magnetic polishes! I was so disappointed when I woke up and realised it was only a dream. Then last month Ulta3 announced their new magnetic polishes. It was a dream come true haha! I found the collection last Thursday but didn't realise that there were five different magnet designs so I only picked up three. Also I'll be nubbin' it for a while, I broke a nail.

There's not a great colour variety in this collection. Mostly greys and pinky-red colours. This was a little disappointing. Each bottle including the magnet is $5.

These were the two extra magnets that I picked up. I've heard one of the other additional magnets is very similar to the diagonal magnet that each bottle comes with. The separate magnets are $3 each.

Ulta3 - Allure

2 coats

Allure is silvery brown shimmer. I thought I could see a little bit of green shimmer in this one when I looked closely. EDIT: The name Allure has been used previously by Ulta3.

Ulta3 - Enchanted

2 coats

Enchanted has silver glitter in a silver shimmer base. When the magnet is applied it brings out a dark grey and the silver glitter is more prominent. This name was used in Ulta3's last collection released a few months prior. I don't like it when companies reuse names. If they can't think of new names why not ask the fans for suggestions.

Ulta3 - Spellbound

2 coats

Spellbound is a dark grey shimmer with silver glitter, I'm also seeing very subtle green and pink glitter in the bottle but maybe my eyes are just playing tricks on me. I had trouble getting the magnetic design to show up on Spellbound. I tried four times on my ring finger to get the star pattern to work but that was the best I could do.

Ulta3 - Bewitched

2 coats

Bewitched is a magenta shimmer. When the magnet is applied it brings out a dark colour.  I think the magnet worked best with this one, which is probably why it's my favorite from the collection.

Ulta3 - Seductive

2 coats

Seductive is a purple and silver shimmer. I really liked the colour of this one but then when you apply the magnet it brings out this murky brown colour. If I wear this one again I won't be using the magnet.

Ulta3 - Hypnotic

2 coats

Hypnotic is a pink/coppery colour with purple shimmer. The magnetic design wasn't very strong on this one either.

This is what the magnets look like. They have a place for you to put your finger and then you lower the magnet over the top. I couldn't see how close the magnet was getting to my nail so I ended up using them like this:

I would rest the end of the magnet on my cuticle and get as close as I could without touching my nail to the magnet. I held it in place for about 20 seconds while blowing on my nail to help it dry.

I found the formula to be better then some of the PRC made bottles and I noticed that the bottles in this collection were made in Taiwan. I wonder if production has now moved to Taiwan permanently? 

Overall i'm happy with the collection. There wasn't much colour variety but I'm proud of Ulta3 giving the magnetic trend a go! I hope that if they release more magnetics they choose a variety of colours.

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