My Top 10 of 2010

Happy holidays fellow nail polish addicts! Hope you all had a great Christmas and a gearing up for a great new year.

I thought I would share my top 10 polishes of 2010 with you. I have limited this to polishes released in 2010 and ones that I personally own.

(Please note that in some of the swatches below I am wearing fake nails. This is not my standard practice but is due to sever breakages in my nails from the holiday season and all the gardening I have been doing - when I say gardening I really mean weeding.)

These are in no particular order

1. Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance - This one was bought online as DL is not sold in New Zealand. It costs about NZ$40 but was worth every dollar. A black base with hexagon purple glitter and smaller regular purple glitter. Done in two coats and a great vampy polish.


2. Orly Meet me under the Mistletoe - Recently released as part of Orly's Christmas collection called 'Tis the Season. Luckily these came to New Zealand stores in time for Christmas (all our other Orly collections are 6 months behind). A great glass effect green with golden shimmer. Really pretty and my favourite of all the Christmas polishes this year.


3. BYS Down the Rabbit Hole - One of three Alice in Wonderland themed polishes released in New Zealand and Australia by BYS. These are supper affordable and easy to find in New Zealand. The smell is a bit iffy but apart from that they are great. This is a black jelly base with holographic sparkles.


4. Orly Out of this world - from the 2010 Cosmic FX collection. There was a lot of hype around this whole collection and in my opinion it didn't disappoint. It sort of kicked of the era of 'glass effect' polishes and the start of the duo-chrome phase. This is a great purple (the picture doesnt do it justice). It is hard to describe all the colours you can see in the different lights for this one, even just moving the bottle in your hands is awesome.


5. Nubar Star Sparkle - part of the 2010 Sparkle collection. Another one of my online purchases as these are not sold in New Zealand. This is an awesome silver glitter packed full of sparkle. Some silver glitters are just silver (like Zoya Luna) but this one sparkles a whole rainbow in the sun.


6. OPI Glow up already - this is from the 2010 OPI Holiday collection Burlesque. OPI's Mad as a Hatter started of the glitter craze this year, and OPI actually listened and included 6 more in this collection. My favourite of all the glitters is this one. Its a lime green colour, with a smattering of pink, blue, silver and orange glitter. These glitters are all done in 3 coats, but are a pain in the ass to take off (But worth it for their amazingness).


7. Color Club Wild at Heart - This was part of the Wild at Heart collection which was released in New Zealand for winter 2010. This was the stand out holographic of the season. A dark purple holographic polish, that only needed one/two coats.


8. OPI Let Me Entertain You - also from the OPI Burlesque collection. This was my favourite of the 6 non glitter polishes. I am still a sucker for pinks and fuchsia polishes any day. Again this is a 'glass effect' polish, but it is super pretty.



9. OPI Catch Me in Your Net/Orly Halley's Comet - How could I not include these two in the list. Catch me in your net came first and was released as part of OPIs Summer Flutter mini collection at the start of the year. Orly's Halley's Comet came later on in winter as part of the Cosmic FX collection. Both are dupes and there is also a Zoya dupe (charla) and an essence dupe. This is in my top 10 for 2010 but unfortunately would not make my overall top 10.


10. Color Club Poptastic - The bright neon pink creme from the Color Club Poptastic collection. Released a couple of months ago in New Zealand (and retailing for NZ$16). This collection goes great with summer fashion this year and makes your nails stand out. I also love Peppermint Twist from this collection, but have not yet swatched it)


Honorable mentions also go to the Mac Venomous Villains Collection, China Glaze Jolly Holly, OPI Mad as a Hatter, OPI Show it and Glow it!, Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe and the Milani 3D Holographic Series.

So there it is. My top 2010 polishes. It was a great year polish wise and I cant wait to see what 2011 brings - I'm sure it will be great with the OPI Katy Perry collection due out in January, China Glazes Tronica holographic collection, and the upcoming Pardon my French collection from Color Club (in New Zealand).

Lots of Love
Lisa

P.S please let me know your feelings on the pictures in which I have the fake nails on.

OPI Dazzled by Gold

This is one of the three Ulta Exclusive polishes from last Christmas. I bought this one off ebay ages ago as they are not sold here.

OPI Dazzled by Gold - Sunshine

this is actually quite a sheer polish. This is three coats and I think it would look better with some underwear or more coats. It is a pretty gold though, but has a funny finish. It seems like teeny tiny micro glitter, but I am not sure exactly what it is.

This year OPI released three Ulta Exclusive polishes. Sold separately or in a pack of mini polishes.

Left to Right: All the Berry Best, Gift of Gold, Plum full of cheer.
picture borrowed from manicuremommas

This years gold is meant to be a lot more sparkly than last years - It has more colours in the sparkle. However I think last years purple is better (visions of sugarplum - which is one of my favourite purples ever)

I wont be getting any of this years Ulta Exclusives by OPI. The only way for me to get them is a swap of ebay.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Storage Problem Solved

Here in New Zealand we do not have IKEA. Therefore we do not have helmers and melmers :(
It is really hard to find storage solutions for nail polishes here.

As of a couple of days ago my stash hit the 300 mark and no longer fit under my coffee table where it was all being stored.

I went to the Warehouse last night and found these stackable boxes that were actually high enough to stand nail polishes up in.


They are single units, but I have stacked 5 on top of each other. They are plastic and therefore once full with polish a bit iffy, but hopefully they will do the job in the meantime. I have managed to fit all 300 polishes into these five but will be going back to get a few more soon.

I managed to fit about 60 polishes into each draw.

These were $12.99 each, so not too cheap when you need lots of them. But so far they are the only stackable storage solution I have found in New Zealand that are the right hight for storing polish in.

Woohoo bonus Christmas tree picture :)

Lots of Love
Lisa

China Glaze Jolly Holly + Party Hearty

I managed to get two more of the China Glaze 'Tis the season to be naughty and nice collection. I found a seller in New Zealand with a few polishes so grabbed them as soon as I could. China Glaze is missing out by not selling their polishes in New Zealand. If they could have them cheaper than OPI and Orly they would sell heaps.

China Glaze Jolly Holly - sunshine

I love greens. This is the only dark forest green in my collection so it is unique to me. This is almost a one coater. you could get away with one, but I did 2 to tidy it up. Its a nice shimmery green, with a slight silver shimmer running through it. LOVE.

And then I caved.

I was resisting so hard. I didn't want Party Hearty. At all! I thought it was tacky. I didn't like the sparse different sized glitter in all the pictures I saw. But a new bottle came up for sale on Trade me (the NZ version of ebay) and I bought it. Im still not quite sure what made me do it. I dont want to waste money on polishes just to show you on my blog. I want to actually like them first.

So here it is layered over Jolly Holly:

China Glaze Party Hearty over Jolly Holly

Red, Green and silver glitter. All different sizes. The red is the biggest, then the green and the silver glitter is the smallest. It is all inside a clear base. This is one coat over 2 coats of Jolly Holly.

I am OK with this polish. I don't love it and I don't hate it. I think its nice for Christmas, but not suitable to wear all year around. And I know that next year there will be something different at Christmas and that I may never wear Party Hearty again :(

Lots of Love
Lisa

P.S. I should mention that even with only one coat of Party Hearty this was a B***h to get off. I had used a base coat, 2 coats of Jolly holly, SV, party hearty and then another coat of SV. Took 5 minutes of soaking in acetone, using the foil method to take off. I didn't think it would be so hard to do seeing as it wasn't completely glitter. But I was wrong.

Spotted in NZ: Sally Hansen Hi-Definition Collection

Here in New Zealand we normally just have the Sally Hansen treatment products, but today while out Christmas shopping we (me and Lisa - yay shes back from her holiday) found a full display of the Sally Hansen Hi-Definition collection.

Picture from: www.beautyandfashiontech.com

The Sally Hansen website says:

• The Color: Pure, vivid pigments with multi-dimensional color & vibrance.
• The Technology: Patented formula with Real Liquid Crystals for multi-dimensional color and iridescent shine!
• The Result: Dazzling, Lustrous High-Definition Color.
• Available in 8 Luminous Shades!
• Toluene, DBP, and Formaldehyde free.

I picked up three: Cyber (purple), BLU (blue) and Hi-Def (green). I would have got them all but I couldn't afford them all :(

These are retailing for NZ$19.99 and all 8 colours came with a free bottle of Sally Hansen Double Duty Strengthening Base and top coat. Farmers also has 20% of Sally Hansen products at the moment so get in quick and you will only pay NZ$15.99 a polish.

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI Extra-va-vaganza!

So I only just realised it has been quite a while since I posted anything. Sorry.

I have been wearing lots of red polishes for Christmas at the moment, but for some reason they all appear way to light when I take photos of them on my camera. It is highly frustrating and I don't want to miss-represent colours to you. I think I am going to give up on the reds now. :(

So to try and make it up to you I have another OPI glitter to show you. GLITTER!

OPI Extra-va-vaganza! is the orange glitter from the OPI Burlesque collection. I was a bit worried because oranges are an iffy colour. But this one is good. I thought it might not go with my skin tone but it actually looks good.

OPI Extra-va-vaganza! - sunshine

OPI Extra-va-vaganza! - shade

OPI Extra-va-vaganza! - fuzzy so you can see the glitter.

This is mainly orange and silver glitter but with a little bit of light blue, pink and green glitter. Don't forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them. These pictures are all of three coats. Three coats gives pretty good opaque coverage. Any number of coats is still going to be a pain to remove though. Don't forget to use the foil method to get rid of the glitter.

Lots of Love
Lisa

China Glaze Merry Mint Set

China Glaze Naughty and Nice, Peppermint Cuticle Oil and Mrs. Claus.

Like I said in a previous post, Mary from Body and Soul sent me this three piece pack as part of one of her giveaways. Unfortunately the Peppermint Cuticle Oil didn't make it all the way to New Zealand, so I can not comment on that. But here is the other two polishes from the Merry Mint set:

China Glaze Mrs Claus - Natural Light

This is an odd one. It is pretty but weird. The glitter is in a jelly base, but the jelly is a funny see through goopy red. I like the final result though. This was three coats.

China Glaze Naughty and Nice - Natural Light

This is a perfect creme polish. This was two coats.It glided on so easily and has a perfect finish that is glossy but not too much. It is a very dark dark red colour, and in some lights looks almost black. I ended up adding a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust over the top. I really liked the result in the end. It's vampy but nice and glittery too.

China Glaze Fairy Dust over Naughty and Nice - Natural Light

I am having trouble getting any more of the polishes from this collection. China Glaze is not sold in New Zealand and the sites I usual buy from have run out of the colours I wanted. I might have to resort to ebay :(

Lots of Love
Lisa

Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe + Konad

OMG...........This is beautiful! It has earned a spot in my top 10 for the year. I don't think much needs to be said about this. If you can get it I recommend it before it is too late. (This is available in New Zealand at Farmers)

Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe - Outside in Shade

It has so much depth. In some lights it had yellow/gold glitter appearing and in others its a blue/teal colour. A great polish that only needs two coats.

It is the middle of summer here and we don't have a white Christmas, so just for all my Northern hemisphere readers I added some konad snowflakes from plate m59 using silver konad polish.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Orly Winter Wonderland

I almost didn't buy this polish. I had originally grabbed the plummy colour Rockin' Rocket, but at the last minute changed my mind and picked up Winter Wonderland. I am glad I did.

Orly Winter Wonderland - Shade

This picture was taken in the sun as it is more accurate than in the sun. This is three coats. Each coat makes it more opaque and darker. This is another one of those glass fleck polishes out lately (especially by Orly) and I like it because it looks like snow. It is the prefect polish for Christmas and winter, and the name is very appropriate.

I ended up wearing this on Saturday night to Chris's work Christmas party. The theme was black and white musical. Most people were just going with the black and white theme. My dress was a long black ball dress (sorry no pics), so I wore white nails as I didn't want my nails to be too outlandish and black with all the people he works with (about 150 accountants!!).

Lots of Love
Lisa

Spotted in NZ: Orly 'Tis the Season

I am so glad the Orly is developing a bigger presence in New Zealand and that they released the Christmas collection at the correct time here (unlike their other collections that we get 6 months late). 2 hours ago I discovered the whole entire Orly 'Tis the Season Collection at Farmers - It hadn't even been touched yet.

Left to Right: Candy Cane Lane, Glitz & Glamour, Naughty or Nice, Rockin' Rocket, Winter Wonderland, Meet me under the Mistletoe.

Orly polishes retail for NZ$22.99 each but are on sale at the moment at Farmers for 2 for $24.98!!!! AWESOME. I picked up two of these today: Meet me under the mistletoe and Winter Wonderland. Swatches to come later.

Orly has also released this whole collection as a set of mini polishes. You can get three of these for $24.99 at Farmers at the moment. I'm not 100% sure on the regular price but I think they are about $10 each.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Color Club Jingle Bling

Just like for Halloween, Color Club in New Zealand has released this cute as Christmas pack called Jingle Bling for the Holiday season. This pack retails for NZ$29.95 and contains four 7ml polishes.

Left to right: Cadillac Red, Brrr-red, Ruby Slippers and Silver Glitter.

I think It would have been nice if the polishes had festive names, but I understand they are a collection on polishes from other bigger collections, so to avoid confusion the kept their old names.

Left to Right: Silver Glitter, Ruby Slippers, Brrr-red, Cadillac Red - sunshine

Left to Right: Silver Glitter, Ruby Slippers, Brrr-red, Cadillac Red - shade

In the shade you can more easily see the difference in the two red cremes. These polishes are all two coats. The formulas on the three reds were great (especially the cremes). I am not a fan of Ruby Slippers without a top coat as it dries kind of matte. The polishes do have good sized brushes that make them relatively easy to apply for mini polishes.

Left to Right: Silver Glitter, Ruby Slippers, Brrr-red, Cadillac Red -all with 1 extra coat of silver glitter.

Not as exciting as I was expecting with the silver glitter on top. All three reds look the same. I will be wearing these reds without the silver on top.

Again I think this is a great little collection for the New Zealand market. Although we are not getting the newest color club Christmas collection like the rest of the world this is a great start for color club who are relatively new to the New Zealand market.

Prepare for lots of red polishes coming up in the next month for Christmas!

Lots of Love
Lisa

These polishes were sent to me for review by Color Club New Zealand

Its Christmas time

So today is the first of December and I finally am willing to acknowledge that Christmas is not far away. I am not a fan of shops celebrating Christmas from October onwards. It is just too early in my opinion.

A while back I won second prize in a giveaway run by Mary at Body & Soul. She sent me the Merry Mint gift pack from China Glazes Christmas line.

China Glaze Naughty and Nice, Peppermint Cuticle Oil and Mrs. Claus.

Unfortunately my Peppermint Oil didn't make it all the way over here to New Zealand, but I am glad the nail polishes made it. Thanks Mary (first prize I have ever won!) Swatches to come later.

I am off to find my Christmas tree and put it up tonight - tradition dictates I put it up today :)

Lots of Love
Lisa