Revlon Pink Quartz Review - Pink Duochrome

Hi guys!
Today I have a stunning and unique duochrome polish to show you. I love duochrome polishes, the way they colour shift and come in a multitude of fascinating colour combinations often leaves me staring at my nails, like a crazy lady, in different lights.But this polish goes a step further...it is a pink duochrome polish. I haven't seen many (or any?) polishes with a strong pink duochrome effect and let me tell you, I am in love!

The polish in question is Pink Quartz from the Chroma Chameleon Collection by Revlon. They are now available in Australia :) Pink Quartz shifts predominantly between pink and a golden bronze. You also sometimes get a peachy colour. The duochrome effect from this polish is magnificent, I often find that both the pink colour and either the gold or bronze colour is on my nail at the same time, which looks amazing.

The formula is good, two thick coats gives you opacity. The formula is streak-free. Wear time was good. With the Revlon Quick Dry top coat this lasted well on me and I'm tough with my hands and nails. After a couple of days of wearing this I put another layer of topcoat on and I found it nearly lasted a week which I was very happy about because I adore this polish.

So to sum it all up...a stunning pink/gold/bronze duochrome polish with a good formula that I have fallen head over heels in love with.

Cheers :)

Rimmel London Purple Reign - purple / red duochrome

Hi guys!!! Hope this finds you all well and enjoying your Sunday afternoon. Today I have a purple duochrome to show you from Rimmel London's metal rush collection. I really loved this collection of polishes and I often find myself reaching for them on the days when I get overwhelmed by all the nail polish I have and can't decide...plus the formula is really good which means I won't get grumpy! You don't want to see me when I'm grumpy!!! Anyway I hadn't got around to swatching this even though I've had it for a couple of months so here goes.............

Purple Reign is a predominantly purple duochrome with red flashes. In daylight you have a vibrant purple but depending on the light and etc you get flashes of a darker purple and the occasional red flash.

The formula of purple reign is really easy to use and you could get away with two coats although I usually use three coats. It dries streak-free. The brush isn't my favorite but doesn't pose any major problems.

Overall, the predominant purple colour is sometimes a fair bit brighter and more purple-ish than these photographs show it to be...

Overall score: 9/10
Colour score: 8/10
Formula score 8.5/10
Brush score: 7.5/10

Thanks for reading,
cheers :)

Rimmel Gold Save The Queen Metal Rush Collection Review

Okay so obviously I am nail polish obsessed and I try out a lot of polishes.... if you haven't noticed, hahaha!!! But it's not that often I fall in love with polishes. Despite my love for polish a polish really does have to be special for me to love it and claim it as a favourite. I expect not only a stunning colour but a formula that applies easily, lasts well and dries quickly. I don't have time to wait decades for my polish to dry!

 So, enough rambling, let me present to you from Rimmel's new Metal Rush collection 'Gold Save The Queen' - a gold/copper duochrome which is absolutely delightful. I have to admit I was rather surprised at how brilliant this polish is. I seriously wasn't expecting this polish to be this amazing. Silly me!!!!

Gold Save The Queen only requires two coats and is a very vibrant duochrome - it shifts between a warm copper shade and a very vibrant yellow-based gold.

I LOVE this polish and think that it is quite classy but still interesting. It's formula was brilliant and easy to apply. I used two thick-ish coats and unlike some duochromes the formula was streak-free. I can't comment on how well it wears because I only applies it last night.

Overall Score: 8.5/10
Formula Score: 8.5/10
Colour Score: 9/10
Repurchase? YES!!!!!! Tempted to get a back-up :)

Thanks for reading and take care :)

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 - favourite polish

Today for the 31 day challenge I had the very difficult task of deciding what my favourite polish is. If you don't know already, I am a very indecisive person so picking favourites is something dread! I couldn't pick one favourite polish but instead separated my polish into colours and "special effect" polishes....it made it slightly easier for me to decide that from my "special effect" polishes I love MaxFactor's 'Fantasy Fire'.

'Fantasty Fire' caused quite a buzz when it was first released but for some reason I haven't worn it much. BUT when I wear it I find it captivating. 

 Alone 'Fantasy Fire' it sheer so I usually layer it over another polish. Previously I have layered it over 'Purple Haze' a purple creme by MaxFactor but for today's challenge I decided to layer it over 'Orchid' a darker purple metallic polish by Ulta3. It gave 'Orchid' a beautiful depth and shimmered like crazy. But I just couldn't capture the flashes of colour or the 'depth' today. And to be honest I don't think I will layer it over 'Orchid' again, but still it is an amazing polish and when you witness the colour flashes you can't help but be amazed. Over 'Orchid' you get mostly a bronze-y purple shimmer and inside you get green and the bronze-y red shimmer.

If you want this polish (of course you do!) I saw it at Priceline recently for $5.95. It is a small bottle and a TINY brush but well worth it. 

I have decided to include a photo of 'Fantasy Fire' layered over 'Purple Haze' too because I think you can see it more clearly?

Layered over 'purple haze'

 GAH why do the most amazing polishes ALWAYS have to be the most difficult to capture on camera? Actually....that reminds me! I have investigating buying a new camera - mostly because of this blog. I have just been using my camera phone because my that is just what is closest to me. Do you think my photos need improvement? Please do let me know! Also, I have heard that colourful camera (e.g. purple, pink, red camera) reflect onto your nails and mess up the colour of the photos. Is this really true? 

Cheers and please check out the other participant's favourite polishes!

31 day challenge day #8 - Duochrome

Today we had the choice of duochrome, holo or flakie for the 31 day challenge. Today's not a particularly sunny day so I ruled out holo, and I actually don't have a flakie! I have been meaning to pick-up the Australis flakie but haven't go around to it. There are not really any other flakies on the market (that I'm aware of) so today I have a duochrome for you. This is my dear old friend by Essence called "Where Is The Party?" An amazing duochrome or should I say multichrome with flashes of olive green, teal and grey with a base of rich purple/mauve. Heavenly!

I took 128 photgraphs of this polish and doubt that any of them show the polish properly. I really hate photographing duochromes. Any suggestions? Also, I must apologise for the dents in my nails. Not quite sure how that happened :/

I really adore this polish and think it is one of the best duochromes out there!!!!!!! So pretty.......

 

Thanks for reading, cheers :)

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 :)

Product vs. Product - cheap nail polish

I'm back!!!! sorry I haven't posted all week, I  had 4 assignments and essays to write these past two weeks and have been swamped. But now all I have to do is study for exams, hahaha!

Ok so if you read my blog you will know that every week (usually every thursday) I put two products in battle against each other. This week it is ulta3 polish vs. essence polish. Both retail for between $2-$3 and are found at places like Target, Big W, Priceline....I have even seen ulta3 at Woolworths!

 To try and make sure it was a fair battle I have used two similar colours/finishes from each brand.

From Ulta3 we have:
Mermaid green - a creme
Orchid - a chromey purple

From Essence we have:
Meet Me Now! - a creme
Where Is The Party? - a duochrome

Please ignore the terrible photos. I know, I DID NOT clean-up but that was because I was taking photos after every coat of polish and was in a hurry.

After applying a first coat of each this is what I noticed:

Mermaid Green - did not apply opaque in first coat and was streaky but dried very quickly.
Meet Me Now - didn't apply opaque in the first coat (but was more opaque than Mermaid Green) and was not streaky. Dried quickly.
Orchid - applied opaque in first coat, easily and without any streaks.A dream to work with.
Where Is The Party? - was very sheer.

You can see that other one coat Mermaid green an d where is the party is are still sheer.

First coat of Meet Me Now!

Second coat notes:
Orchid - didn't apply a second coat and it was not needed.
Mermaid Green - second coat applied very easily with no streaks. Fully opaque. A dream to work with.
Meet Me Now - technically it was opaque but I went back for a third coat. Applied easily with no streaks.
Where Is The Party?- second coat still not opaque. Photographs fail to show this but you could still see my nail line.

Two coats

Two coats

Two coats - Where Is The Party? Is still sheer although it is hard to see in this photo!

After two coats it is kind of opaque. 

Third coat notes -
Mermaid green & Orchid - no third coat required.
Meet Me Now - third coat was the final coat applied.
Where Is The Party- polish now opaque - yay!

Yay it is opaque and beautiful with its duochrome.

Overall:
The results are not exactly clear cut here and I'm trying really hard not to be biased, so I am going to break it into categories.

Price:
Ulta3 - $2 for 13ml
Essence - $2.55 (not sure if this is correct) for 5ml
Winner in the price category: Ulta3

Application:
Ulta3- brushes are a good size and polish applies easily
Essence - brushes are fine and the polish applies easily
BUT the winner is Ulta3 in the application based on my experience only!

Product availability
Ulta3- polishes are sold in large bins and from what I have noted stock-turnover is low, but this is just my opinion and other shops that I don't go to might get more stock more frequently.
Essence - Target and just recently, Priceline, stock essence make-up and both have a reliable stock of the normal range however differ in their availability of the 'limited edition trends'. Some Targets put them out onto the shelf super quickly whereas at other Targets they still have not appeared. It would be awesome if we actually got the products a) when they were released in Europe b) we got all the ranges c)the individual Target and Priceline stores put them out onto the shelves ASAP.
The winner - essence  because they have a neatly organised shelf and easy to find price tags!

Range:
Ulta3- have a large range of different polishes however it's more pot luck in regards to what catches your eye in the bin display.
Essence - always so many pretty polishes on display from their "normal" range and the limited edition polishes are usually swoon worthy, although the application of the limited edition polishes are not as good as the non-limited-edition polishes.
The winner for this category: Essence

Overall I prefer essence polishes but there is no winner for this battle because essence polishes can be difficult to apply whereas my experience of applying ulta3 is that they have a great formula. Essence is a very fun brand to buy. Both brands are great quality and a great price!


Result of battle: No winner, both great polishes