Rimmel London Rita Ora - Do Not Disturb Nail Polish Review

A couple of weeks ago the Rita Ora collection from Rimmel London was launched in Australia. The collection is comprised of 12 nail polishes and 5 lip crayons. Today I am reviewing one of the nail polishes from the collection, 'Do Not Disturb'. 'Do Not Disturb' is a gorgeous vibrant teal with a cream finish.

The formula of this polish was really good. I did two coats to get complete opaqueness but you could nearly get away with one coat. It wasn't streaky, was easy to apply and dried quickly. It also lasted really well without chipping. To be honest it was a week or two ago that I had this on my nails so I cannot remember precisely how long it lasted...but I remember it lasted longer than most nail polishes. BUT and there is sadly a "but" here...this polish stained my nails really badly. I always wear base coat and have never had a polish stain my nails before. But when I was taking this polish off I discovered that it had stained my nails. Plus, as I was wiping it off it smeared onto my skin and I couldn't get it off. 

So I loved the colour of this polish but without figuring out to stop it from staining my nails I wouldn't want to wear it too often. 

Thanks for reading, cheers :)

Maybelline 'Sea-quins' & Essence 'Miss Universe' NOTD

If you like anything that sparkles and/or the colour teal, then this manicure is for you. Essence's 'Miss Universe' is a black based polish with teal shimmer to make you swoon. Sea-quins which is part of Maybelline's Sequins range is a stunning teal glitter. Together I thought these polishes looked stunning and I add that I am really happy that I only used Sea-quins as an accent because it was a super tricky glitter to remove (silly me forgot the peel-off base coat). 

Sea-quins is a great glitter polish. Over 'Miss Universe' I only needed two coats to get complete density of the glitter and I think you would get pretty much the same result if you didn't have anything under it. A very dense glitter, no doubt about it! 

That's it for now, have a great day :)

Teal Dotticure

I absolutely adore teal and I think it is pretty safe to now say it is my favourite colour! I don't think I've ever really had an absolute favourite colour. Usually, I've been on the fence and named black, blue and red. 

I decided to do a dotticure because I love dotticures and it's a type of nail-art that is usually harder to mess up. Hahaha, I can mess anything up :p 

I used one of my favourite polishes, Jungle Gem from Sally Hansen. Despite my ever-growing collection of polish I have lost count of how many times I have reached for this polish this year. It's a stunning teal colour, one-coater and has a great formula. Need I say more? Probably not! The silver polish is Icy Princess from Essence. 

I was super excited that the sun had came out the day I did this NOTD because it's been overcast, windy and cold for awhile. The fact that it gets dark pretty early too doesn't help my attempts to take semi-decent photos for the blog either! Can't wait for spring to come :)  I think this dotticure worked quite well except for the bit where I got impatient and put my topcoat on too soon, smearing my silver polish everywhere!!! 

Thanks for reading.

Cheers

Nail Art - Teal and gold stamping

Hi guys,
this weekend I finally got around to doing some actual nail art. For the past couple of months I've really only done boring old manicures and swatches and used the striping tape occasionally. With that in mind I pulled out my stamping stuff. I always feel like stamping is a "risk" because if done improperly you can completely stuff up your manicure and have to start all over again...but this time I think it worked out relatively well. Especially when you consider that I haven't stamped for a really long time!

I used a polish from Face of Australia's Barbados limited edition series called 'Let's Go Scuba Diving' which is absolutely gorgeous. Requiring two coats or three thinner coats, this is a really striking teal shimmer polish with heaps of depth. I used 'A Piece of Forever' to stamp.

And now I am finishing with a bit of a random picture (which I hope you enjoy). Whilst I was trecking around the backyard looking for good lighting I snapped this photo of a camellia bush which is about the bloom. It's all furry!!!

Thanks for reading, cheers :)

Miss Universe - a teal lover's dream

Hi guys,
today I have a new polish from essence to show you. I picked this up from Priceline a couple of days ago on an accidental haul. I love teal and this polish is just amazing!!! It is a black-based polish with tons of teal shimmer in it giving you a dark polish which is somehow illuminating. Does that make sense?

The bottle is the standard essence bottle with the cap that 'clicks' on which I think is great! The brush is also the usual wide and easy to use brush typical of the essence polishes from the core range. The formula is relatively easy to use although you do need two coats for complete coverage. I found that the polish looked best when applied quite thickly which of course meant the drying time wasn't amazingly quick. But it was definitely worth the wait :)

By the time my nails had dried the sun had decided to play hide-and-seek behind clouds so I tried my best to get some good photographs of the amazing shimmer but pretty much failed :( I love nail polish and I love blogging, don't get me wrong, but it drives me crazy when I can't get a good picture and especially when it is such an amazingly beautiful polish. This polish has well and truly moved into my top few polishes!!! Easy to apply and beautiful. And it is only $2.75. Don't think I could ask for more.
Cheers,
thanks for reading :)

The Battle Nail Challenge - Holographic vs. Matte

Okay so continuing on with The Battle Nail Challenge today I have for you the battle between holographic polishes and matte nail polishes. I think both holo and matte polishes can look fantastic however I find that both don't tend to last long on my nails :( Holographic polishes are definitely my favourite although I think this love comes more from swatches rather than actually wearing it on my nails - weird I know!

I decided to do a "matte" manicure for this post but if you want to see a holographic post click here to see fishwife by butter london or siw by make up store.

For this manicure I used the following polishes:

• 1 coat of 'Jungle Gem' an indigo teal by Sally Hansen 
• 2-3 coats of Speck-tacular a flakie top coat by Australis
• 1 coat of 'Matte Top Coat' by Chi Chi

I love how flakie top coats look when covered with a matte top coat and same goes for glitters. They still sparkle and have that "light-shift" property but it looks more mysterious. 

I promise I didn't forget about this challenge but somehow ended up starting other challenges and sadly haven't done this for a long time! Bad me!!!! Hopefully I will be able to get back on track now. 

Thanks for reading and take care, 

Cheers

Funky French: Teal/Black

You have probably noticed that there has been an extreme lack of nail posts lately. That would be because all I seem to be doing is epic failures :( I just purchased some striping tape so I have been experimenting with that but with no luck, I still haven't been able to pull of a manicure with it that looks semi-decent. So, when I got a chip near the end of my nail with my NOTD I was exasperated. But then I had a lightbulb moment and thought FUNKY FRENCH!

The polishes I used were 'paradise valley' by MUD, a brand that I believe is exclusive to Woolworths and retails for $2. The black polish is my loyal 'Black Satin' by Ulta3.

So here I was totally thrilled with my manicure but then I took photos and my camera refused to take a single colour-accurate photo. I even snapped a few with my mobile phone camera that too refused to incorporated. So I would like to point out that this polish, 'paradise valley' is a stunningly vibrant teal.

Cheers and thanks for reading

31 day challenge day #6 - favourite colour family

Day 6 of the 31 day challenge, we are 19.4% of the way there! Today's theme is 'your favourite colour family' and unlike most people I couldn't instantly think of my favourite colour....weird? I definitely have favourite colours for different things (clothes, my bedroom, notebooks...etc) and a few years ago I would have said black black black but this last year or two I have emerged from my gothic phase and have become quite friendly with colour. I love coral, teal, purple is obviously another liked colour (especially for nail polish) but yeah....finally, I decided........my favourite colour is teal. See, I told you!!! I am indecisive :)

 So I picked out two of my favourite teal polishes. For summer, Face of Australia's 'Lets go scuba diving' is a magnificient teal polish that blows me away. It is a shimmer that just glows from the inside and the shimmer gives this polish amazing depth.Also, this is a very vibrant teal colour. The only down-side is that the polish is a little difficult to work with - you have to have only a tiny bit on your brush and because it is sheer you need 3-4 coats. But once it's on, it is simply amazing and well worth it!

 

 My favourite teal polish for the winter time is more of a petrol teal called 'in style' by essence. I decided to use 'in style' for an accent nail but I kind of regret it. Don't get me wrong..... 'in style' is a fab polish and so is 'lets go scuba divinng' but they look best when worn on their own.

 What is your favourite colour?

My first holographic polish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Um, okay yeah I am a tad over-excited but OMG OMG OMG OMG I finally have a holographic polish in my collection AND to make today even more awesome I'm going to a concert tomorrow :) Yay!!!!!!

sunlight

sunlight

sunlight

sunlight

Anyway I guess I should apologize for the excessive use of exclamation marks in this post, in advance, and stop rambling. Today I brought Butter London's Fishwife which has been described by others as a teal linear holographic polish. I'm not going to mess with that because it's pretty much spot-on. However, I would add that it's a pretty subtle teal, especially when you are inside and there is no sunlight.

As soon as I got home I painted one of my fingers and was a little disappointed but then once I actually sat down properly and painted all of my colours, experimenting with layering it over another polish too, I was much more happy. And THEN the sun came out and I was one super-excited / happy polish addict. In the sunlight this polish is AMAZING!!!!!!

On my middle finger I layered two coats of Fishwife over Essence's ' In Style' which is a dark teal polish and on my thumb I used one layer of Sportgirl's 'Love Potion' and two or three layers of Fishwife. My other fingers are purely only Fishwife. Three coats seems to eliminate any visible nail line but because this is the most expensive polish I have ever brought ($19.95) I will definitely be layering this over another polish....haven't found the perfect polish to layer it over yet but considering I only got it today I think that's totally fine!

Inside, no flash. 

I really love this polish, the colour is fantastic and the formula is really easy to work with. The formula is pretty thin but drying time is super-quick so it definitely is not an issue :) It is also 3-free which I consider to be very important and the linear holographic effect I would consider to be of moderate strength  however I have no prior experience with holographic polishes apart from admiring pictures on other people's blogs.

Outside, no flash. Sunlight

I took 150 or so photos of this polish and annoyingly a ton of them came out blurry but I did get some good photos!!! Okay so I don't feel like this post does justice to this polish at all. It is just random ramblings!!! But overall, long story cut short: Great holographic polish, formula is easy to work with and it dries quick. 

Cheers, :)

Shattered Emerald Star

Yesterday I was wearing Australis's 'Emerald Star', a beautiful teal coloured shimmer. To jazz it up a bit I thought I would try my OPI silver shatter over it. 

I know that shatter isn't a new trend and a lot of nail bloggers are totally over it! But I don't mind a bit of shatter now and then and occasionally whack it over a tired manicure as it is a brilliant quick fix :) 

My issue with shatter is that it is unpredictable. Sometimes you get an awesome 'shatter' and can't keep starting at your marvellous nails but sometimes I'm less than impressed with the shatter effect. Today is one of those days. Although I must say I do like the colour combo of this one!

Cheers, 

Emerald Star

Today I have on my nails an Australis polish called "Emerald Star" which is a beautiful teal shimmer polish which could probably be called a green, depending on the light. 

I found this in a bargain bin for $2 which is way below cost as they normally retail for around $10. The brush was bent so application was a little tricky but I think I still managed a pretty good job. Apart from the brush the formula was satisfactory and without streaks. 

The colour is a sophisticated teal colour that is leaning toward being a green but sometimes you get an inkling of blue. I really adore this polish and the shimmer in it is really quite beautiful. 

 I thought I would start adding a new feature to my posts, a mini-summary / fact box on each polish I review. Yay or nay?

sheer polish test post 1 of 3

***scheduled post - written awhile ago, sorry!!!!***
Ummmm, okay first I want to apologise for the weird, nonsensical title of this post. I have a very busy fortnight coming up so I am trying to get some scheduled posts done while watching tv and having some rare 'me' time. But I seem to be having trouble multi-tasking between making sense of the tv show and writing this post. Maybe I should just stop rambling!

Basically, with the 'sheer polish test' I have grabbed three random polishes that I don't think have featured on my blog yet and I will be testing to see how sheer they are, after two coats. For me, two coats is the maximum amount of coats I want to apply. Three or more coats it just tedious!!!!!
All photos are hence based on two coats with a clear base-coat and no top-coat.

For this post, #1 of 3, I will be showing you 'Emerald Star' by Australis. I got this for $2 in a sale bin at Target and I think it is really old stock. Also the brush was bent and I'm not sure if the bottle was a bit empty :/ but oh well, what can you do? The bottle also had some other polish dried onto it, but as soon as I saw it was a duochrome I wanted it!

Photographs were taken inside under a bright light because it rained all day! I thought I had cleaned up okay but obviously not as good as I thought I did because some of the photographs are disgusting. Sorry for the horrible photos!!!!! 

'Emerald Star' is a beautiful blue-green duochrome and although I have only seen it under artificial light, inside, because of the terrible weather,  I am already loving this polish and can't wait to see what it looks like under the sun :) I just know it's going to be good. 

So, the important question is, how sheer is this polish? I am happy to report that two coats is definitely all that is required for this polish, yay!!!!

Cheers and thanks for reading :)

31 Day Challenge Day 9 - Rainbow Nails

Hi guys :) I hope you all  have a wonderful weekend.
The theme for day 9 is 'rainbow nails'. For some inspiration I had a look on the internet and found heaps of wonderful people who had drew beautifully curved rainbows onto their nails, complete with cute little fluffy clouds. I didn't think I could pull that off so I went a bit metaphorical with this challenge.

 For middle finger I used sticky tape to create a bold rainbow using:

• Ulta3's blue marlin & mermaid green
• Essence's Meet Me Now 
• Kit's Start Up. 

Finally I used an awesome nail art pen that I just got to do the white stripes (will post more about this pen soon so stay tuned). Sadly by the time I could take photos the lines had smudged a bit so they are not as crisp as I wanted them to be for the photos but oh well, maybe it is even better that they are wonky....could represents clouds or something.

Before I put the white stripes on my nails this is how it looked. Maybe I shouldn't have done the stripes???

Sorry about the lack of clean-up on this nail. My cuticles are really sore at the moment so I decided not to pick and rub them with nail polish remover like a crazy lady to get rid of all the mess. Thank goodness my other fingers look slightly better! Sorry! I know they look terrible :/

For my ring finger I used Essence's 'Meet Me Now' and Revlon's 'Fall Mood' for the tip. I really like how this turned out. Huh? How is this related to rainbows? Well you know how people always say if you go to the end of a rainbow you will find a pot of gold? Well..... the golden bronze tip is suppose to represent that pot of gold and the pink? Well all rainbows have pink in them right? Hahaha yeah I know.... bit out there :)

Finally for my index finger I used a limited edition polish by Face of Australia called 'Lets Go Scuba Diving'. I love this polish and there will be a post about it very soon. BTW - if you are in Oz and still want any of the Barbados polishes I would suggest getting to the shops ASAP. The shelves are quite empty and not a lot of these polishes are around anymore :(I also used the white nail art pen to do some polka dots. Not sure how this relates to rainbows but I really wanted to try out my new pen!

So those are my rainbow nails. What do you think of them?

And as always please check out the other lovely bloggers participating in this challenge!

Sally Morgan

http://nailpron.blogspot.co.uk/

Nikki Muldrew

http://www.cutie-cles.blogspot.ca

Kimberly Rybak

http://www.bleedglitter.com/

Felicia Renee Banuelos

http://fesnails.blogspot.com/

Belén

http://nailpolishlane.blogspot.com.es/

Cristina Santos

http://theclockwisenailpolish.blogspot.pt/

Courtney Mendoza

http://cute-iclechronicles.com

Natalie Elise

www.walkinmyeyeshadow.com

Rebecca Russell

 http://rebeccasramblings-tenderheartr.blogspot.com/

Jessica Beswick

http://rubysnails.blogspot.com/

Raquel Soares

http://9mluniverse.blogspot.pt/

Briana

http://nailacollegedropout.blogspot.com/

Kimberly L

http://to-polish-or-not.blogspot.ca/

Kelly Cooke

http://crazynaillady.blogspot.com

Carina Martins

http://polishitall.blogspot.pt/

 

Laura Carls

http://justagirlandherpolish.blogspot.com/