The Great Aussie Polish Challenge Day2: Ulta3 - Waterlily

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

G'day mate! Myself and a few other Aussies are taking part in The Great Aussie Polish Challenge. The challenge will last a week and started yesterday with most of us posting the new piCture pOlish shades. For day two I've got a gorgeous Ulta3 shade to show you all. Ulta3 is my favourite Australian polish brand. They are only $2.25 each and are easily available in most chemists and now grocery stores. My shopping list now goes, Milk, Bread, Polish etc.

Ulta3 - Waterlily

2 coats

Waterlily is a red toned purple shimmer. The brush strokes quite noticeable when applying but they fade as it dries. Production of Ulta3 has moved to China but this bottle is an Australian made one.

I just want to mention one thing to all my international readers, the correct way to pronounce Aussie is "Ozzie", as in Ozzy Osbourne. 

The Epitome Of Superficiality

Kelly's Kolors

Shatter Me Claire

All Things Charmed

Lab Muffin

Polished Peripherals

The Polish Haven

Osiri and Loki Paint Their Nails

Lacquer Dreams

Jas's Blingtastic Nail Blog

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piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2012

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

Today is an exciting day for polish lovers! Today myself and about 80 other bloggers will be showing you swatches of new piCture pOlish shades! piCture pOlish is one of my favourite brands and I'm proud to say that they are Australian owned and made! I think the Blog Fest is a great way to show off piCture pOlish shades by flooding the nail blogging world with swatches.

I love piCture pOlish bottles! Rectangular bottles with round lids are the way to go. They line up perfectly and fit neatly in my Alex storage unit. The two shades I was given to review are Amethyst and Tease.

piCture pOlish - Tease

2 coats

Tease is a new Mesh shade. It's silver glitter in a pink jelly base. The formula was really nice. I don't normally choose pinks but I really liked how this looked on me. This is a little gritty so you'll need top coat. I used to foil method for removal.

Tease is now available for purchase from piCture pOlish on-line and all the piCture pOlish Network Members.

piCture pOlish - Amethyst

3 coats

Amethyst is gorgeous, there's so much going on in this bottle! It has a purple jelly base, with blue shimmer and translucent flakes. It's like a purple version of Denim which I also love! The formula was a little thick but was easy to apply.

Amethyst is part of the new Collaboration collection and was jointly created by Susan from Star Trinkets. She's the piCture pOlish Network Member for Singapore. Amethyst is exclusive to piCture pOlish on-line and Star Trinkets.

Each piCture pOlish shade now comes with a QR label on the bottle. You can scan the label and it will take you straight to piCture pOlish on-line or a piCture pOlish Network Member depending on where the shade was purchased.

Both Amethyst and Tease are available for purchase today along with all the other Blog Fest shades, I've already got a list of the ones I want to buy. I'm really liking Orbit, Warning and Kryptonite. Keep an eye on the piCture pOlish Blog Fest Pinterest board for more swatches.

Like piCture pOlish on Facebook - piCture pOlish - a week on your tips never on your hips!

Follow piCture pOlish on Twitter - piCture pOlish

Pin on - Pinterest

The products in this post were provided for review.

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Born Pretty Store Stamping Polish, Plastic Scraper, Stamper and Image Plate m78

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

I recently received some stamping polishes and a plastic stamper and scraper from Born Pretty Store. Metal scrapers tend to scratch stamping plates so I was looking forward to trying out the plastic scraper. 

I found the plastic scraper did a good job of scraping the polish off without disturbing the design. When I tried to pick up the design with the stamper I could only get a partial image. I tried different polishes and plates but it's always the same problem. I tried using a metal scraper and that fixed the problem. You can see the improvement below after using the metal scraper.

Sorry about my dry cuticles in this picture!

The stamping polishes worked really well except for the white. I could pick up images on the stamper perfectly but I couldn't get them to transfer onto my nail. I also tried other stampers but had no improvement. Here's the best stamp I could get with the white polish:

I used Born Pretty Store image plate number m78 for the stamps. Here's the rest of the images on the plate:

I lost my photo of the plate before it was used, you can see how much a metal scraper scratches  plates.

Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate m78

Index: Born Pretty Store Stamping Polish in Blue stamped over China Glaze - For Audrey

Middle: Ulta3 - Lily White stamped over China Glaze - Dress Me Up

Ring: Born Pretty Store Stamping Polish in Black stamped over Ulta3 - Black Satin

Pinky: Born Pretty Store Stamping Polish in Red stamped over China Glaze - Harmony

The stamps turned out great although the animal print one on my ring finger is a little patchy.

  

These products are available from Born Pretty Store. Use my coupon for 10% off your order. Born Pretty Store has free shipping!

• Plastic Scraper and Stamper:  http://www.bornprettystore.com/stamping-nail-stamper-with-plastic-scraper-p-3868.html 
• Stamping Polishes:  http://www.bornprettystore.com/specialize-nail-polish-image-stamp-varnish-paint-p-1323.html
• Image Plate m78:  http://www.bornprettystore.com/butterfly-nail-stamp-template-p-1075.html 

The products in this post were provided for review.

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GMU Friday: piCture pOlish - Mask-a-rade

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

piCture pOlish - Mask-a-rade

2 coats (layered over a black base)

Mask-a-rade is from the Opulence range that was released earlier this year. Mask-a-rade has multichrome hex glitters in a clear base. The colour shift goes yellow, orange, red, pink, green, blue then purple. The multichrome glitters look the same as the ones in the Ozotic Elytra collection. It's like all the Elytra polishes in one bottle.

This polish is now a limited edition but there are still bottles available for purchase on piCture pOlish on-line so if you like this one get it while you still can.

Visit these blogs for MOAR GLITTAH!

Shaina - SG Nails

Rebecca - Polished Peripherals

Kelly - Kelly's Kolors

Kaz - Parisian Blue Sky

Mam Glam  - GlamOnTheCheap

piCture pOlish polishes are available from:

• piCture pOlish
• piCture pOlish International Network Members

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BM-303 Butterfly Stamp

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

BM-303

The base is China Glaze - He's Going In Circles and I stamped using Ulta3 - Black Satin. I had a little trouble getting the feelers to stamp properly.

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Artsy Wednesday: Inspired By Music

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

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

Colours used:

Ulta3 - Lily White

Ulta3 - Black Satin

Ulta3 - Orchid

Stamping Plate used:

Bundle Monster BM-207

I used Lily White for the base and stamped the piano design from BM-207 using Black Satin. I thought the top looked too plain so I used a dotting tool and a striping brush with Orchid to add in some music notes.

Visit the other Artsy Wednesday blogs for more music inspired manicures:

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 

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China Glaze - He's Going In Circles

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

China Glaze - He's Going In Circles

3 coats

He's Going In Circles is from the Kaleidoscope collection. Does anyone know what year this collection was released? This is a seafoam green scattered holographic polish. The holographic particles are not as fine as in the OMG collection but it still gives off a rainbow effect. In the shade this polish looks like silvery seafoam green which I still thought was pretty.

Sadly this collection is discontinued and very hard to find. I managed to find two from this collection and most of the OMG collection for $6 each in a beauty supply store earlier this year, I couldn't believe it!

Sorry about not posting yesterday, I had some technical difficulties. My PC hard drive is on it's last legs and is complaining very loudly, sounds kind of like a jet engine. I spent most of last night moving files off it. I thought I had lost my Bali photos and swatch photos, luckily they were saved!

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BM-302 Mushroom Stamp

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

BM-302

The base is O.P.I - Tickle MY France-y and the stamp is China Glaze - Poinsettia. Not one of my favourite manicures but I'm glad I tried it.

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O.P.I - Tickle My France-y

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

O.P.I - Tickle My France-y

3 coats

Tickle My France-y is from the La Collection De France collection 2008. It's a nude creme polish. No I don't have giant fingers, I'm holding a mini bottle in this picture. I'm not much of a nude polish fan but it was a good base for the stamp in tomorrow's post.

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GMU Friday: BYS - Adventures of Alice

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

BYS - Adventures of Alice

3 coats

Adventures of Alice is from the Wonderland collection. It has small purple, gold, green and silver hex glitter with gold and silver micro glitter in a sheer green base. The formula is thick and takes a long time to dry. I would have used four coats but it was starting to push all the polish to the tips rather than spreading out evenly. I gave up waiting for this to dry and used my O.P.I Drip Dry Drops then Seche Vite. This also has a strong smell.

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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BM-301 Key Stamp

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

BM-301

The base is Essie - Lilacism and the stamp is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Silver Sweep. I stuffed up the angle of the keys after two fingers. This makes me think of princess themed wall paper. I'm not sure what keys have to do with princesses so it must be the colour combination.

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Artsy Wednesday: Dotting Tools

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

The theme for Artsy Wednesday this week is Dotting Tools!

Colours used:
Barry M - Indigo
Barry M - Mint Green
Ulta3 - Lily White
Ulta3 - Mermaid Green
China Glaze - Holly-Day

The challenge for this week was to only use dotting tools with the exception of painting a base colour with a polish brush normally. I used Indigo for the base colour. Then I used all the other colours to do large and small dots. I love dot manis like this!

I think dotting tools are a great staple for nail fanatics to own. You can find these online fairly cheap. I bought mine on eBay.

Visit the other Artsy Wednesday blogs for more dotting tool manicures:

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 

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Essie - Lilacism

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

Essie - Lilacism

3 coats

Lilacism is from the Art Of Spring collection 2010. It's a pale lilac creme polish. It had a slightly watery formula but I was able to mange it. I bought this from Myer. Essie normally retails at $18.95 but I got this really cheap. Myer sent me a $10 gift voucher because I had not shopped there in a while so I thought I'd use it to buy one polish. The Essie polishes were also 30% Off so I only had to fork out $3.26 for this. Bargain!

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BM-301 Vampire Bat Stamp

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

BM-301

The base is Wet n Wild - Hypnotic Red and the Stamp is Ulta3 - Black Satin. This stamp was much easier to pick up then the other stamps on this plate. Half of the images on my plate aren't etched deep enough.

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Wet n Wild - Hypnotic Red

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway and Nail Art Competition! There's three Born Pretty Store gift vouchers to be won. Entries close 5th August 2012.

Wet n Wild - Hypnotic Red

3 coats

Hypnotic Red is a red jelly polish. There is still a bit of visible nail line after three coats. Not much else to say about this one so I've decided to do two posts today.

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1 Year Blogiversary Giveway and Nail Art Competition!

This giveaway is now closed!

Exactly one year ago today I started Pretty Purple Polish. If you are interested in seeing my first swatch photos here they are (you might want to shield your eyes). I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep this up for a year but I'm so glad I have. I'd like to thank everyone for their comments and interactions on social media. If it wasn't for you I probably wouldn't stopped blogging by now. So to celebrate my first blogiversary I'm going to hold a giveaway and a nail art competition.

There are three (3) prizes in total. The prizes are gift vouchers for Born Pretty Store. These vouchers were purchased with my own money. Born pretty store has a range of polish related things such as:
Nail polish
Stamping polish
Stamping plates
Nail glitter
Studs and rhinestones
Fimo canes
Striping tape
And more! Born Pretty Store has free shipping so if you win you can use the whole voucher amount on goodies! I also have a 10% off Born Pretty Store code that anyone can use:

Follower Giveaway:

This is a giveaway for my followers, to enter use the Rafflecopter widget below (you might need to wait for it to load). If you were a follower before this giveaway was announced  you get extra entries. Don't pretend to be a pre-giveaway follower. I've taken a screen shot of my followers list and I will be checking. The winner will randomly selected using Rafflecopter.

Prize:

$10 Born Pretty Store gift voucher.

Rules:

1. Open internationally.
2. The giveaway ends 12:01am 5th August 2012 EST.
3. You must enter using the Rafflecopter widget.  Please don't leave a comment on this post saying "enter me" because I won't enter you. If you are a follower and want to enter the giveaway you have to use the Raffle Copter widget, end of story!
4. You must be a public follower via Google Friend Connect.
5. You must include your email address. This will only be used to contact you if you are the winner.
6. You can get extra entries for following me on Facebook and Twitter.
7. You can get extra entries for sharing the giveaway on Facebook and Twitter. You can do this once per day.
8. You can get extra entries if you were a follower before this giveaway was announced. Please don't lie, I will be checking this.
9. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email. If the winner fails to respond within that time a new winner will be chosen.
10. By entering this giveaway you agree to the above rules.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nail Art Competition:

We all know my favourite colour is purple so I want to see some purple nail art! To enter the nail art competition create some nail art that includes the colour purple. You can do an all purple design or use different colours as long as there is some purple in there somewhere.

There will be two (2) winners. I will choose ten (10) of my favourite designs and randomly select one (1) entry to win a $30 Born Pretty Store gift voucher. I will randomly select one (1) entry from all of the remaining entries to win a $20 Born Pretty Store gift voucher. The $20 gift voucher draw will include the nine (9) entries that missed out on the $30 gift voucher. If you win the $30 gift voucher you will be excluded from the draw to win the $20 gift voucher.

Prizes:
$30 Born Pretty Store gift voucher.
$20 Born Pretty Store gift voucher.

Rules:

1. Open internationally.
2. Nail art design must include the colour purple.
3. All types of nail art will be accepted. Stamping, freehand, 3D, tape, tattoo, rhinestones, studs, water marbling, stickers, sponging, dotting, striping, etc.
4. Minimum nail art area is four (4) nails.
5. Nail art must be photographed on your nails. You can use false nails as long as they are applied to your nails and photographed. No nail wheel or nail stick photos.
6. The nail art design must be new and not previously shown on your blog, social media account, photo account or anywhere else online. After submitting your entry you may share your design online but do you really want everyone to see your design before the competition is over?
7. Only one (1) nail art design may be submitted per person.
8. Only one (1) photo may be submitted for your entry.
9. Email your photo to prettypurplepolish@gmail.com. I will send you a confirmation email so that you know I have received it. The email address you submit your entry from will be used to contact you if you win.
10. You must email your photo to me by 11:59pm on Sunday 5 August 2012. If your email is recieved before 11:59pm on Sunday 5 August 2012 anywhere in the world I will accept it.
11. If you are happy for your name and/or blog link to appear next to the photo include that in the email.
12. All entries will be posted on my blog for you to look at after the competition closes.
13. There will be no public voting. Entries will by judged by myself.
14. I have permission to use your photo on my blog. Watermarked photos are fine.
15. The winners will have 48 hours to respond to my email. If the winner/s fails to respond within that time a new winner/s will be chosen.
16. By entering this competition you agree to the above rules.

Extra info:

Yes, you can enter both the follower giveaway and the nail art competition.

If you have any questions use the comment section below. 

Good luck everyone!

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Orly Naughty Or Nice Holiday 2012 Collection

Now this is a collection I am looking forward to! I like the look of Halo, Angel Eyes, Miss Conduct and Torrid. Can't wait to see swatches of these! I've also got some pictures of the gift sets to share:

Images source: Chic Profile

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BM-301 Gradient Stamp

BM-301

The base is BYS - Deep Purple, a purple to pink colour change polish. Because my nails are short I didn't get the nice gradient effect with this colour change polish. I decided to make the gradient myself using one of the stamps from BM-301. I stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Pronto Purple. Because my plate isn't etched deep enough I had to stamp each nail a few times but I think the gradient effect looks better that way.

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Orly Fired Up Collection Fall 2012

Flare | Flickr | Glow

Ignite | Rapture | Smolder

This collection is due out in early Fall 2012. They are nice fall colours but none of them interest me. What do you think? 

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GMU Friday: piCture pOlish - Peacock

Yay Friday! I'm always excited for Friday but today more than most because my best friend came back from a 6 week Europe trip today! :)

piCture pOlish - Peacock

3 coats

Peacock is from the Opulence collection that was released earlier this year. It has small green hex glitter and very short green bar glitter with green shimmer in a purple base. Most of the swatches I saw of this were layered over a dark purple but it does build up on it's own.

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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Orly - Electronica Collection

Image source: Orly

Preamp - iridescent pink

Shockwave - matte blue

Synchro - iridescent burgundy red

Decoded - matte grey blue

I found this while browsing around. Only Shockwave and Synchro interest me but I still don't think I will get them. I'll just admire swatches. See anything you like?

This collection is available online now.

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BYS - Deep Purple

BYS - Deep Purple

3 coats

Deep Purple is a purple to pink colour change polish. On my short nails it's all pink but if you had long nails you would get a nice purple gradient at the tips. I've been meaning to try this polish for a long time but my nails just never grew to grow long enough. If I ever manage to grow long nails I'll try this polish again, along with all the Bundle Monster tip stamps that just look ridiculous on me.

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