NOTD - Sally Hansen Gunmetal Nail Polish Review

On my nails today is Sally Hansen's 'Gunmetal' nail polish from their Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear range. This is the first nail polish I have brought from this particular range however I am already a huge fan of Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure range of polishes. 'Gunmetal' is a combination of a denim blue colour and a grey gunmetal colour. This polish is very shimmery. I absolutely adore this colour.

The formula of 'Gunmetal' is quite thin. Two coats were necessary for opaque colour. I'm notoriously bad at applying nail polishes with thin formulas as I find my coats are way too thick. Nonetheless drying time was reasonable. Despite the thin formula the polish applied relatively easily. For a shimmer polish I didn't find the formula to be too streaky. I applied Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri as a top coat.

Depending on the light (as always) this polish can look really blue and then when the sun is hiding you can see more of the gunmetal grey colour. My new favourite polish?!

The Boy Next Door - Essence

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Essence has made yet another stunning nail polish but I always find it staggering that they can make such high quality polishes for such a bargain price...only $2.75! No kidding, their polishes often surpass other polishes that are ten times more expensive. So anyway I guess I better get onto the actual polish...

'The Boy Next Door' is a stunning electric blue shimmer polish. It's opaque in one coat but I used two thick coats for these photos. Next time I will just use one coat as I found it took awhile to dry with my two super thick coats. This isn't the polishes fault though! The formula, as it always is with essence polishes, was great. No streaks or brushstrokes. I love how the bottles click when you close them and their brushes are definitely some of the best out there. Also, I should probably point out that I used a coat of top coat over the polish, in these photos, for extra shine, however the polish is pretty shiny alone. 

I absolutely love this polish and can definitely see myself reaching for it all the time. 

Cheers :)

ABC Challenge: B is for...blue nails!

Hi guys! I've got another installment of the ABC Challenge for you. B is for...blue nails using my fave blue polish. If you want to join in on this challenge please feel free, there is no strict schedule but I'm personally trying to get one post done a week. The inlinkz is below...blah blah blah.

'Endless Blue' from Sinful Colors is an amazing blue polish and I absolutely love it! It's a one-coater, dries quickly and applies effortlessly. And because it was Friday afternoon and because, well I just felt like it...I added some holographic glitter on top! This was only one coat of 'Diamond Glitter Crystal' from BYS and boy is it sparkly!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was kind of ridiculous how many photographs I took of this NOTD. Generally you would think that the better the lighting the better the photgraph...yeah? But I found, after lots of frustration, it nearly turned out better when I was in darker room. What the heck? So I want to assure you this was seriously sparkly ( and therefore, awesome) but my camera fails to show you how it really looks :( Any tips for photographing holographic glitter?

And to finish on a happy note here is a picture of my dog looking at me while I was photographing my nails...she probably thinks "humans" do really weird things. Hahaha

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Revlon Beguile Review

Hi guys, today I have Revlon's Beguile to show you. It is the first polish I have ever tried from their 'Brilliant Strength' series however I must confess that I did still use my usual base coat and top coat in these photos. Normally I don't put a topcoat on my nails before taking photos but you have to change things up sometimes, don't you?

Beguile is a beautiful navy blue nail polish with an absolutely stunning teal and blue shimmer to it that makes it seem like it glows from within. 

The first coat of polish was a little streaky but after two thin coats this polish is ready to go. Drying time is reasonable and the formula is easy to work with however it is important to make sure you don't have too much on the brush. If you do you could end up with a massive blob landing on your nail (talking from experience here...).

I wore Revlon's quick drying top coat over this which added depth to the polish and made it even shinier. I'm kind of like a pigeon, I love shiny polish! It lasted around two days before it started to chip from the tips however that could be because my nails are peeling and quite weak at the moment. 

I absolutely love the shimmer in this polish, it is really stunning especially how in some lights there is a shift of teal in shimmer. It is a very wearable colour and the way that it glows from within makes this polish a polish I definitely recommend buying. This polish was annoyingly difficult to photograph, especially on an overcast and rainy day. I'll give it another shot when the sun decided to shine...Maybe try clicking on the images to enlarge them? GAH!!!

Formula score: 8/10

Colour score: 9.5/10 

Overall score: 9/10

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day :)

Revlon Heavenly & Blue Slate combo

Hi guys,
just a quick swatch to show you tonight because it is getting late and I only recently brought this polish so I haven't had time to review it fully. Heavenly was buzzing around in the blogosphere awhile ago and I have been eagerly awaiting it's arrival in Australia so the other weekend I had to grab it when I saw it at Priceline...

For this swatch I layered it over 'Blue Slate' which is a magnificent denim blue creme by Revlon that I love wearing. I found Heavenly a bit chunky and thick which made application a little messy.......as you can probably see from these photographs. It is very iridescent though which is always a good thing! I think next time I will go with the 'less is more' idea and see if I get a better result.

Thanks for reading and enjoy :)

Rimmel London Metal Rush Collection - Royal Blue

Hi guys :)
I have just discovered Rimmel's 'Metal Rush' collection of polishes at Priceline and Target today. I have also seen this collection at Terry White Chemists (a few weeks ago now). This is a collection of duochromes and is quite a unique collection in Australian stores at the moment. I was really excited to find these and think they're great!

 As soon as I got home from the shops with these in my greedy hands I rushed outside and applied 'Royal Blue'. It was a lovely sunny days so you should consider yourself lucky to get these photos because literally 20 minutes later it was overcast, grey and raining dogs and cats :/ Well I guess I was complaining about the extreme heat wave so I'm not going to complain now! It's nice feeling a little cool for a change :)

Here are my first impressions of this collection, more reviews of 'Gold Save the Queen' and 'Purple Reign' are in your near future.

Review of 'Royal Blue' from the Metal Rush collection Rimmel London

Packaging and Brush

Each bottle is 8ml and retails for $7.95 however at the moment Priceline has a buy 3 get 1 free deal.
The brush is wide and is easy to use. The handle I feel is a tad shorter than usual but it's nothing to worry about.

Formula and application 

Being a duochrome 'Royal Blue' is leaning towards a sheer polish. I used three thin-ish coats but you might be able to get away with two. I've only applied this polish once since I only brought it today but overall I would say the formula and application are pleasing. Drying time isn't super quick because you do need a few coats.

Colour and effect

This polish has a strong duochrome effect and the dominant colours in 'Royal Blue' are blu-ish grey, teal and purple. I know I didn't capture it perfectly in my photos but the duochrome effect is really strong in this polish :) yay!!!

Overall impression
Overall I am really glad these babies came home with me today and I think that 'Royal Blue' is a seriously stunning duochrome - the duochrome effect is strong and easy to see. Application was super easy (no clean-up required) and the formula was good.

You are probably aware that google friend connect and google reader will no longer work in a couple of months. This is quite annoying but oh well, what can we do? I haven't quite decided what other platforms I will be using but I have made a bloglovin' account and would really appreciate it if you followed me via bloglovin' if you enjoy my blog. Ofcourse you don't have to follow me, I don't want you to think I'm a bully or anything!!! :p Are there any other sites you would like to me to join? Feel free to let me know what you think and if you want me to follow your blog please leave your link below. 

Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend :)

31 day challenge - inspired by a blogger

Today I wanted to bring to your attention the awesomeness of Scrangie, who has the most amazing swatches ever! If you haven't checked out her blog you seriously should click here and pay her a visit! Amazing, I tell you!

So in honour of Scrangie's consistently awesome swatches I decided to have a go at doing a perfect swatch (using my new camera which I'm still figuring out how to use ). I used two coats of Sinful Color's 'Endless Blue'. This polish applies brilliantly, dries quickly and has a lovely shiny and creamy finish. All Sinful Colors polishes are 3-free which I love!

Not perfect but passable? I hope! 

Thanks for reading and take care :)

31 day challenge - day 27 - inspired by you

Hi guys!!! Today the prompt for the 31 day challenge was "inspired by you". Now I don't particularly like skittle mani's and crackle polish isn't my favourite type of polish but this manicure which is suppose to represent me includes both! Weird huh? 

Anyway who am I? I am a student studying to be a clinical neuropsychologist, I love nail polish, handbags, shoes, books, interior decorating and I am a TV junkie. I consider myself to be a bit quirky, a bit unique, very  conscientiousness, fun ....and a bit random! And perhaps most importantly, I don't care what people think, I am who I am :) I don't believe in following trends and having to think what everybody else thinks!

 Oh and did I mention I was indecisive? I couldn't even decide what type of mani I wanted to do today!!!! I ended up doing a skittle with the following colours (and then adding OPI's 'silver shatter' ontop): Unamed polish by Solace, Timbleberry by Sinful Colors, Endless Blue by Sinful Colors and Be Happy by Sinful Colors.

These photographs are of my rarely seen right hand so apologies for the weird photos. I find it so difficult to hold the camera in my left hand!

I am really in love with how this crackle turned out. Crackle, I find, can be quite unpredictable but this crackle turned out quite awesome I think. 

Thanks for reading, take care :)

P.S --> sorry for the wonky formatting on this post. My computer just won't behave! GAH!!!!

31 day challenge - merge or melt - day 21

Okay I'm going to be honest I had to be do a bit of research for the "merge or melt" prompt and I'm still not 100% sure that this is technically correct but oh well. Here is my attempt,

I started with two thin coats of Revlon's Midnight Affair and then using a wooden cuticle stick dabbed on Blue Marlin by Ulta3.

Cheers

31 day challenge day #16 - colour opposites

Hi guys, today is the 16th day of the 31 day challenge, yay!!! And the theme is "colour opposites". I decided to go for orange and blue as they are colour opposites on the colour wheel (I think....it has been awhile since my last 'art' class).

I was literally out all day and just got home so this is a pretty basic tape mani but oh well. I love how these two polishes go together and think I might do some stamping with them in the near future.

The polishes I used were:

• Endless Blue - Sinful Colors
• Doc - Essence Snow White Collection

Both of these polishes apply like a dream and dry super quick. I did one coat of each and think this mani took less than ten minutes. Polish it more blue than it is appearing on my computer monitor. Why is it that purple polishes look blue and vice a versa on computers? Today it got to 42 degrees Celsius so was too tired to do anything amazing! But the result is still cool I think. What do you think?

Thanks for reading and have a great day! :)

31 day challenge - day#10 - geometric

Hi guys, hope this finds you all well and happy!
Today I have a nail-art fail for you :( In my head this looked awesome, but it didn't pan out quite how I thought it would.....Maybe my black lines are too thick?
The one redeeming quality of this manicure (in my opinion) are the colours, most of these polishes were literally brought at the shops less than hour before I did this manicure. I just couldn't wait to try these lovelies.

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

• Endless Blue - Sinful Colors
• Timbleberry - Sinful Colors
• Black Satin - Ulta3
• Emerald - Revlon

Endless Blue and Timleberry are the lastest additions to my ever-growing collection. I also grabbed Australis' Spek-tacular and Ulta3's Lagoon. 

This manicure was inspired by a piece of artwork by Piet Mondrian. 

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day! 

Cheers :)

31 day challenge #7 - pacman nails!

Today for the 31 day challenge we had the option of doing either ombre or skittle nails. I attempted sponging ombre nails but failed miserably. I cannot sponge to save my life! I've lost count of the number of times I have attempted it. So it had to be skittle nails.....I have admired all of the 'pac man' inspired nails that are floating around the internet and decided to have a stab at them myself. So today I present to you PAC MAN NAILS!!!!

The polishes I used for this design were:

• Sinful Colors - Be Happy {minty blue}
• Essence Snow White Collection - Doc {orange}
• Essence - Meet Me Now! {fuchsia}
• Ulta3 - Black Satin {black}
• Konad white stamping polish {white for the eyes}

I am really really really happy with how these turned out and while they are not perfect I still think they look pretty damn fine for my first attempt, especially considering my lack of skill in regards to nail-art! 

Thanks for reading and please do not forget to check out the other bloggers' designs :) Cheers

Sinful Colors - Be Happy!

The Sinful Colors nail polish stand only landed in my Target a few days before Christmas and I have already fallen in love with their polishes Their range is fantastic, their price is amazing and they are 3-free which is something very important to me. As an additional plus they have also been 25% off so I am one happy nail-obsessed blogger! (I have also seen them at Priceline. Run don't walk!) Anyway, I picked up 'Be Happy' yesterday and have a swatch to show you.

When I sat down to write this post I would describe this polish as a minty (kinda pastel-y) green polish with a lovely creme finish however looking at it in different lights and after looking at some swatches of it online I have decided that either a) I'm going colour blind, or b) it's one of 'those' polishes with an identity crisis that can't decide if it is blue or green. Know what I'm talking about? Also in the photos it looks more blue than green.....

***in the shade

Anyway, the colour is super fun. The formula was a little tricky. First coat applied streaky, second coat was a little better but I had difficulty with one of my nails so had to do three coats on one nail because the streaky-ness wouldn't go away. After drying it didn't look super shiny and was a tiny little bit streaky so I think it would benefit from a top coat...Drying time was great. Photo's show two (+ 3 coats on one nail) with no top coat. I've go no idea what colour it's going to look like on your computer because when I logged onto my blog from another computer I found that MaxFactor's 'purple haze' which is a bright purple looked totally blue......silly silly silly computers :p 

Cheers :)

Do you have this polish / do you want this polish?
	Yes, I have this polish and love it!
	Yes, I have this polish but it's only okay...
	Yes, I have this polish but I'm not very fond of it.
	No, I don't have this colour but wouldn't mind it.
	No, I don't have this colour but desperately want it.
	No, I don't have this colour and boy am I happy I don't!!!
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Prince Charming + Tokyo Pearl

Prince Charming.....don't we all want to find our guy? Well while I am still waiting I will review the 'Prince Charming' special effect topper from the Snow White Collection by Essence. In a clear base we have small silver holographic glitters and larger hexagon-shaped blue glitters.

I have been waiting and waiting for these special effect toppers and when I finally found the Snow White Collection they had all gone but luckily I kept persevering and found the display to be re-stocked. Yay!!!! 

Also, Sinful Colors have just arrived at my local Target (I'll tell you the story later but lets just say I was SUPER EXCITED)......and when I saw 'Tokyo Pearl' I instantly knew I had to do this manicure :) So I present to you Two coats of Tokyo Pearl by Sinful Colors and a coat of Prince Charming by Essence. 

This is what Tokyo Pearl looks like on it's own.

You don't get heaps of the larger blue glitters on your nail if you apply Prince Charming normally but I actually don't really care. How I applied this polish was to swipe my nail first which got all the awesome smaller holo glitters in place and then by wiping my brush on the edge of bottle I could locate the larger glitters and place them where I wanted them. This might sound tedious but it isn't!!! And trust me....I'm no glitter over-my-head lover. 

I wanted this manicure to look like it was "snowing" the larger blue glitters and overall I must say I am rather pleased with myself *big grin*. Please feel free to let me know what you think by commenting below and/or voting in the poll. Cheers and take care.

What do you think of this manicure?
	Love it!
	Like it.
	It's okay.
	Don't really like it.
	Horrible!
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