March Haul 2013

Pretty Serious  - Elliot

Pretty Serious - Martian Sea

Pretty Serious - The Pink One

Bought from Pretty Serious

I've managed to be the first one to place an order for the latest Pretty Serious collection a few times now so this time Kaz and Ben decided I deserved a medal! Thanks so much! It was a great surprise! 

Emily de Molly - Stuck On Blue

Emily de Molly - Split Personality

Emily de Molly - Cosmic Forces

Emily de Molly - Simplicity

Emily de Molly - Ego Friendly

Emily de Molly - A Certain Shade Of Green

Emily de Molly - Serenity

Emily de Molly - Majestic Flight

Emily de Molly - coming soon

Emily de Molly - coming soon

Emily de Molly - coming soon

I was in Canberra last weekend and met up with a few local polish ladies, one of them was Hayley, the creator of Emily de Molly. I was able to knock all my EdMs off my wish list. Hayley was nice enough to give us all three of her polishes that will be coming soon. I also got the polishes below from some of the other ladies.

Witchery - Violet

Nfu-Oh - #90

BYS - Blue

Love Thy Polish - Peppermint Patty

Love Thy Polish - Royalty

Love Thy Polish - The Golden Flame

I bought these from Love Thy Polish. I haven't had a chance to try these yet but I'm really looking forward to wearing Royalty!

ulta3 - lotsa fun

ulta3 - get teal

ulta3 - lucky bamboo

ulta3 - rustic red

ulta3 -cherrylicious

ulta3 - chinchilly

All swatched here

 I bought these from Soul Pattinson Chemist in Sydney.

I also picked up the ulta3 heart me mini set, none of these have names.

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BM-303 - Heart Stamp

I found this hanging out in my drafts. I still plan on going through all my Bundle Monster plates but I've lost my motivation. I'll try to get back into it after a break.

BM-303

The base is BYS - Adventures of Alice, the stamp is Ulta3 - Black Satin. I had trouble with this stamp. The left side of the heart is supposed to be completely filled in. Each time I scraped the polish off if would scrape polish out of that side of the heart. I tried scraping in different directions with different pressure and amounts of polish but the best I could get was the stamp on my pinky.

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GMU Friday & The Great Australian Polish Challenge Day 5: BYS - Voodoo Violet

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 - Voodoo Violet

4 coats

Voodoo Violet has small irregular shaped glitter and large holo hex glitter in a purple jelly base. The formula was thick. I find most BYS polishes are thick. I used four coats, I didn't wait for this one to dry because I was just swatching but I imagine it would take a long time.

BYS polishes are available from Kmart for $4.00, also Gloss, Go-Lo and  The Reject Shop. You can purchase them online from FashionAddict.com.au (they do not ship internationally).

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

I've been finding it hard to keep up every week so I've decided this will be my last Glitter Me Up Friday Post. I'll still be posting glitter swatches but not every Friday. 

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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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 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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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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BYS - Phantom

BYS - Phantom

3 coats

Phantom is a magenta jelly polish with pink and blue shimmer and square silver glitter. This had a really nice formula. It applied smoothly. Most of the other BYS polishes I've tried have been thick so I was a little surprised. 

I actually picked this up by accident. It was in on of those plastic boxes for the Wonderland collection and I didn't realise I had the wrong one until I got home. I didn't like how this on looked in the bottle and it sat in my untried pile for ages. When I swatched it I realised I liked it on the nail much more than in the bottle. I wasn't planning on wearing it as a full mani but that's what ended up happening.

Have you been pleasantly surprised by an ugly bottle of polish?

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50 Follower Giveaway!!!

I never though that 50 people would ever read my blog. I remember getting so excited when someone from France looked at one of my blog posts because it was the first time someone from the Internet who didn't know me had visited my blog. I am very thankful for all my followers, especially those of you that were here before this post! You aren't here because of a giveaway, you're here because you genuinely want to read my blog. So if you were a follower before this post then you get an extra entry!

I'm giving away Australian brand nail polishes. Most of these are also made in Australia! 
I couldn't think of a better day to announce my Australian nail polish Giveaway than Australia Day!

Prizes: 

1 x Australis - Speck-tacular (Flakie)
1 x Ozotic Pro 505
1 x piCture pOlish - Denim
1 x BYS - Diamond Glitter Amethyst 
1 x Ulta3 - Purple Pumps
1 x Ulta3 - Blue Heaven

I haven't linked to all of them because my swatches are horrible and I don't actually own Diamond Amethyst. The Ozotic Pro - 505 that the winner will receive will be in the new square bottle. I've ordered it but it hasn't arrived yet. I just used my bottle for the picture. Purple Pumps is very hard to photograph colour accurately. It a darker neon purple. More like the purple you see in the Ozotic bottle above.

Rules:
This Giveaway is open internationally.
You must be over 18 years or have your parents permission to enter.
Giveaway ends Tuesday 9th February 2012 12:01am Eastern Standard Time (NOT Australian Eastern Standard Time - Raffecopter only has one time zone)
The winner will be chosen at random via Rafflecopter.
The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email otherwise a new winner will be chosen.


Click the read more button to enter via the Rafflecopter widget below, you might need to wait for it to load. Good luck everyone and thanks for your support!

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Australia Day Mani

I hope all my Australian followers are having a great Australia Day! I was actually surprised at how well this turned out. I planned it in my head and was sure it wouldn't turn out at all. I know my pointer finger isn't perfect but that was so fiddly. 

The first thing I did was paint my pointer finger with two coats of BYS - Rebel Red. I painted my other fingers with two coats of piCture pOlish - Bombshell.

Next I taped off sections on my pointer finger and painted over that with a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Whirlwind White:

Once that had dried I taped off the same sections with slightly wider bits of tape so the white wouldn't get covered. I then painted over that with two coats of piCture pOlish - Bombshell:

Then I stamped the stars using Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri - Whirlwind White and Bundle Monster plate number BM14 (first set) on my middle, ring and pinky fingers. For the Star on my thumb I used the star from Bundle Monster plate number BM-206 (second set) and then filled in the sections with a small nail art brush and more Whirlwind White. I topped it all off with a coat of Sech Vite.

Just in case you don't recognise it yet this is supposed to be the Australian flag. The stars on my pointer, middle and ring fingers are in the formation of the Southern Cross going sideways. Here is a picture of the Australian flag for comparison:

Image Source: www.australian-flag.org

There will be one more post today, so stay tuned!

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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.

Sun

Shade

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:

Sun

Shade

 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:

Sun

Shade

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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BYS - GI Jane

BYS - GI Jane

2 Coats

Top Coat: Amour

GI Jane is a light brown creme. The formula was thick so it needs some nail polish thinner. I've noticed that a couple of my BYS creme nail polishes are thick so maybe their creme formula is just thicker in general.

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BYS - In Grape Shape

BYS - In Grape Shape

2 Coats

Top Coat: Amour

In Grape Shape is frosty metallic pink. You have to use neat brush strokes because they will still be visible after drying. The formula in my bottle was thick and sticky and would benefit from some nail polish thinner. I usually don't like frost finishes but this one is ok. 

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BYS - Rebel Red

BYS - Rebel Red

3 Coats

Top Coat - Amour

Rebel Red is a bright red jelly colour. I was expecting this to be more of a creme than a jelly. I bought this from Gloss for $3.75. Basic colours are $3.75 all other finishes are $4.50 - $4.95 so I buy the other finishes from Kmart as everything is $4.00.

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BYS - Baby Pink

BYS - Baby Pink

3 Coats

As the name suggests this is a baby pink creme. BYS nail polishes are available in K-Mart for $4.

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