Nubar Night Sparkle

Continuing on with the Nubar Sparkle Collection we have the dark blue Night Sparkle

This one was a little bit of a disappointment (Maybe its just all dark blue glitters are) but just like China Glaze Blue Sparrow it dried matte-ish. So far none of the other Nubar sparkles have done this. Its a dark blue glitter in a medium to dark blue base. Because the base is so dark it takes the sparkle away from the glitter and makes it just look sort of like little bits of grit in the polish.

Outside in Sunshine

This was three coats. However when you went outside the glitter did show up a lot more in the sun.

Night Sparkle Close up

Hope your weekends are going well. We have had a week of non stop rain (with a break today) and it doesn't look too promising for next week either. Its also wayyyyyyy toooo coooolllllddddd now.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Essie and Shellac come to New Zealand

Essie and Shellac have arrived in New Zealand!!

Thread announced a while ago that Essie was coming to New Zealand. They say that Essie is coming to Salons and Department stores (I have been checking in Farmers but haven't seen them there yet). But I have as of this week seen them in New Zealand. Body and Skin in Wellington on Lambton Quay is the first place I spotted Essie. They are selling them for $23.50. I'm not sure of how big the range they are selling is yet.

Shellac has also come to New Zealand.

Image from Creative Nail Design.

I got a pamphlet from The Finishing Touch (Nail spa in Wellington) and they say:

"This revolutionary product is the answer to your nail problems. Shellac applies like a polish, wears flawlessly for 14 days of high gloss shine and is removed in minutes. A true innovation in chip-free extended wear colour."

The Finishing Touch are doing a Shellac Manicure for $55. So far there are 12 colours to choose from but they are aiming for 50 in the future. You can read about the release of Shellac in New Zealand, also on Thread here. And here is a list of Salons in New Zealand that are offering Shellac at the moment.

Check out the Creative Nails Website for New Zealand here.

I am so looking forward to getting shellacked when I have some money. I have to stop buying nail polishes for the next three months while I finish my thesis, otherwise I wont be able to pay my rent!

Lots of Love
Lisa

Orly It's up to Blue

Its my dads birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!
Mum and dad are coming to my house for dinner tonight and were having carrot cake with cream cheese icing for pudding. yummy!!

Today I broke one of my longest nails - from the hand I swatch polishes on. I'm so upset. I have very thin and brittle nails (swatching is probably not the best "profession" for me to be in) and they take ages to grow to a decent length.

The broken nail combined with the appalling weather we are having at the moment - There is a storm over our whole country - so no swatching is been done at the moment. I was actually thinking of putting some fake nails over the top of mine to protect them while they grow a bit.

Outside in Sunshine

This is Orly It's up to Blue, which I managed to swatch on the weekend (on the only sunny day we have had in over two weeks). Its not a very unique colour as there is lots of similar ones out there (OPI - Sea? I told you! - Comparison swatches will be done when the sun and my nails come back). Again its still weird with the thin little brushes that Orly has but apart from that its fine. This was 3 coats and there is still a quite visible nail line. It would have been nice if this was more dense and opaque.

Hope you guys are having a good week.
Lots of Love
Lisa

China Glaze 2NITE

Quick little post today.

The China Glaze OMG! Collection is by far my most favourite collection ever.

China Glaze 2NITE - Outside in sunshine

These polishes are amazing! They apply like a dream. 2 thin coats and they are completely opaque and smooth. They sparkle straight away, they don't even need to be in the sun.

I love all 12 of the polishes in this collection. More from this collection will be posted over time.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Yellow Creme Comparison

Hi all, Hows your weekend going?
Yay the sun came out for a little while today! So I finally have something new to post

Today it is light yellow creme polishes

Left to Right - OPI Fiercly Fiona, Orly Spark, OPI Banana Bandanna, Miki B03510

Orly Spark

This is from the Orly Hot Stuff collection. Spark applied crappy. I think this ended up being 4 coats. The first few were runny and icky and to even it out I had to apply more and then they were going on thickly and I was just getting frustrated. I still didn't have even coverage after the 4 coats. Another thing that bugged me about this polish was how thin the brushes are (It may be because I am so used to the OPI Pro-wide brush) but this made application harder again.

OPI Fiercely Fiona

From the OPI Shrek Forever After Collection. My first review of Fiercely Fiona can be found here. This one only needs three coats for an even finish.

OPI Banana Bandanna

Again this is so much easier to apply thanks to the OPI Pro-wide brush. It gives a much much smoother finish and takes less coats to become even and smooth. This was three coats (I think this is sort of a minimum for light yellow cremes).

Miki B03510

This is a horrible polish to apply (see my first Miki review here). Although after doing all of these yellow polishes I have to say most of them are not application friendly at all.

Left to Right - Miki B03510 (index), OPI Banana Bandanna (Middle), Orly Spark (Ring), OPI Fiercely Fiona (Little)

I was surprised to see that Fiercely Fiona and Spark were the closest to each other. In the bottles Fiercely Fiona looks slightly greener but on the nail they are almost identical.

My favourite though has to be OPI Banana Bandanna - it is the easiest and smoothest to apply.

My poor pussy cat is still feeling lost and confused. The cone on her head has really thrown her. I think she thinks that is the reason she cant get out the cat door - which is really frustrating her (shes actually not allowed outside so that she doesn't catch any kind of infection - but you cant explain that to a cat). She just sits at the cat door meowing and looking sad.

Lots of Love
Lisa

My poor pussy cat

So I got home at 4pm today to see that my cat had a massive gaping cut on her leg.
I completely freaked out. I love her to pieces and was so amazed to see her like that.
She was licking it clean but it looked way to big to me so I rang the vet straight away.
Luckily they had space for me to go there straight away.
She ended up having surgery and a whole thigh full of stitches.
Shes got a cone over her head and shes still wobbly from the anesthetic.

Keera looking all confused

My poor baby!!!!
Shes gone a bit meh and isn't sure what to do and where to sit.
She will be an inside cat again for the next two weeks before she has her stitches out. I don't think she is too happy about this as she keeps trying to get out the cat door.

Sorry this isn't polish related.
Lots of Love
Lisa

Nubar Meadow Sparkle

The good news is that its stopped raining (for the moment) but there is still no sun....... and Ive only got more Nubar polish swatches done so surprise surprise its another sparkle swatch.

This is Nubar Meadow Sparkle

Outside in Sunshine

This polish applies like Petunia Sparkle does. The first coat goes on thin and hardly very glittery but acts as a base coat and the 2nd coat is glitter-taculous. This one was actually three coats as the colour isn't as bright so needed the extra once over.

This colour is no where near as bright as the rest of the collection and it does not seem to fit in. I wish they had have made it darker and brighter (not quite emerald sparkle dark but somewhere in the middle of the two would have been nice)

Close up in sunshine

This one is really just one plain glitter colour. No extra sparkles of another colour (added with the pastel-ness of this colour) so it appears duller than the other colours in this collection.

Kind of a disappointment when all the others in this collection are so sparkly and awesome.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Nubar Fire Sparkle

Nubar Fire Sparkle

This sparkle glitter has a completely different feel from the first Nubar sparkle I tried (Petunia Sparkle). This one is based in a red base with red glitter as opposed to a clear base with lots of glitter. It seemed odd to me that the same collection has two different formulas - coloured base vs clear base.

Outside in Sunshine

This was three coats. And dries slightly matte. You can see because it has a red base the glitter isn't as strong as with a clear base as the colour of the base dulls the glitter down a bit. It also wasn't as thick so took more coats.

It does look a lot better in the sun than it does in the shade. In the sun you can also make out a little bit of gold/yellow/orange glitter.

Close Up - In Sunshine

That's all for today.

We haven't seen sun here in about a week now and its not looking promising either - I'm a bit stumped as to how to keep doing accurate swatches without the sun. Any ideas?

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI Swiss Fall Collection 2010

Yay! The new Fall collection from OPI has been revealed. And it looks great!


Swiss inspired gorgeousness. A few too many reds for my liking but I like the look of all the other colours - and some even appear to be shimmer (I didn't get any of the last Fall collection - Espana - because none of the colours were shimmer finishes).

Also the China Glaze Vintage Vixen Collection is now out. Quick Skittle swatches are visible here at Scrangie.
To be honest I was not overly impressed by this collection. The colours seem rather dull to me and don't appear to sparkle much.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Fake OPI's make me MAD!

Hope everyone's weekends are going well (I'm really sick so mine isn't going too well at all)
And this post is probably going to make you mad - so read it later on in the week if you don't want it to ruin your day now.

About a month ago an investigative show in New Zealand called Close Up did an article on OPI Nail Polish and people and salons selling fake bottles in store.

view video here.

People are placing cheap ($2) nail polish into OPI bottles and then selling it for OPI prices ($25)
They sent samples for testing and found salons were in fact using non OPI Nail Polish and saying it was.

A few weeks ago I walked past a nail salon in the mall that I worked in and I saw saw cool greens in the window in the salon that I had never seen before. CLICK goes my brain. They aren't real OPI polishes either. I didn't go in and see what labels they have on the bottom of them - but for someone who owns a lot of OPI greens - these colours were new to me and this chain of salons is quite new so there is almost no way they had old and discontinued colours as I know how hard they are to get.

The other day while doing my usual OPI search on trademe (New Zealands version of Ebay) I found a whole bunch of bottles for sale by someone - I could clearly tell these weren't real
OPI colours - they were in Designer Series bottles for a start and they appeared to be green glitter - but murky weird glitter colours - clearly not real Designer Series polishes and they claimed all the polishes were all called "Funny Bunny" (Which is a softshade white colour) and they had made up Designer series codes! They were also starting them at $1 reserve (In New Zealand real OPI Designer Series polishes sell for $35-$40.) This makes me really sad as there is no way I can warn people that these aren't real!

This really makes me mad! Infuriated in fact!!!!!
Why do people have to be dicks?

I love OPI and only buy it from department stores that I know are proper OPI retailers. And it is being ruined by gready dickheads!

Sorry but I needed to get that off my chest.

Lots of love
Lisa

Nubar Petunia Sparkle Awesomeness!!!

This is the first Nubar Sparkle Polish I tried. (I have the whole collection yay!). And I had high hopes for this collection.

The collection is called sparkle for crying out loud - you cant get my interest any better or easier than that.

Petunia Sparkle is a vibrant sparkly Fuchsia - (It looks a bit too purple in the photos - its more pink than that).

Outside in Sunshine

I nearly cried after I applied the first coat. It was so thin and I thought I would have to do 4-5 coats to get it looking right - but I was so wrong! The second coat went on amazingly. Thicker and anchored down with the base foundation from the first coat. This second coat was all that was needed. The photos here are only two coats. I went from sad and disappointed to amazed and wowed!

Luckly the other day when I took these photos it was sunny and the sparkle as soon as I stepped outside into the sun was awesome!

This is the sparkle in the sun up close(ish)

My first Nubar experience was great!

Lots of Love
Lisa

Maybelline Pink Shock

Hi Girls,

Quick little post today - I'm still wearing my NOTD from yesterday. It has stood up so well! All my crystals are still stuck on well and everyone I have seen today says it looks great! I cant help admiring and looking at it all the time. Its still gorgeous.

This is Maybelline New York Express Finish 50 second Nail Color in Pink Shock.

Outside in Sunshine

I'm glad to say it does actually dry really fast (although I did not actually time it). This is 2 coats and shimmery. Very cute and summery (I so have to stop using summer colours as its almost winter here!)

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI Flashbulb Fuchsia and Crystals

This is one of my favourite colours of all time. Flashbulb Fuchsia from the OPI Brights collection. Its a bright beautiful shimmer - done in only 2 coats.

Outside in Sunshine

Today was the first time I ever tried using crystals on a NOTD.
I still only have one konad plate (M3) so here again is a picture from that.
I put the clear/silver crystals over the top of the spot in the middle of the flower.


I used OPI top coat as a glue and then sealed it all with another layer of top coat on top.
I really like this. It was so much easier to do than I thought it would be. A great way to make your nails sparkle with bling for very little effort time and money.
Although now I do feel obliged to wear this for a lot longer than I normally wear a polish for and at the moment I have only done one hand - so guess Ill be finishing my other hand now.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Sinful Colors shimmer and disappointment

This was the continuation of my first bunch of Sinful Colors - that have only just arrived in our local pharmacies in New Zealand.

First off I tried out a glittery lilac colour called Purple Diamond.

Outside in sunshine

This was three coats. I thought it was actually really pretty. Its in between a glitter and a shimmer. I think more shimmery than glittery.

Purple Diamond - Close up in the sun

My aim was to swatch this colour and then the other lilac Sinful Color I had brought called Let Me Go. Then I was going to layer Purple Diamond on top of Let Me Go. But as you are about to see I was really disappointed with Let Me Go so gave up and stopped caring. Sorry girls but no layers today.

Let Me Go - Outside in the sun.

This was 4 coats! I gave up after that. Each extra one wasn't really even making it any darker. It is soooooo sheer! Not what I had wanted or expected when I picked it ahead of some of the other shades they had for sale on the shelf. This is not a 'me' polish at all and is going to be banished to the depths of my nail polish collection. (Which by the way is getting seriously out of control!)

Well that was kind of a disheartening post wasn't it?
Sorry about that. I had to get it off my chest. :P

On a good note my followers doubled over night!
Hello to all those who are new and thanks for following.
The more followers I get the closer we get to my first give away!

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI Fiercely Fiona

I hope everyone's weekend is going well.

Fiercely Fiona was the final color I got from the Shrek Forever After Collection.

Outside in the Sun

Creme Yellow. Very Summer! I like it! This was three coats - all of these Shrek polishes needed three coats to be completely even and not patchy.

And again I added a coat of a shimmer polish. This is OPI Megawatt?! over Fiercely Fiona.

Outside in the sun

Another pretty match of shimmer and creme. I feel that Megawatt?! is way too sheer to wear by itself. So this is a good way to wear it.

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI Funky Dunkey

Todays NOTD is OPI Funky Dunkey from the 2010 Shrek forever after collection.

Outside in Sunshine

I'm not completely sure what Funky Dunkey is meant to mean (is it something to do with Donkey?)

I've taken the day off uni today and I'm gonna try and swatch a whole bunch today before our sun completely disappears for winter.

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI What's with the Cattitude?

Well today was my final day at my part time job. I managed not to cry which was good. I worked with an AMAZING bunch of girls and I'm going to miss them so much. I love them all to pieces. But with only 4 months until my thesis is due - I have a lot of work to do and need to focus so much! grrrr! No more new polishes for a while tho because I am officially now a really really poor student (down graded from just poor to very very poor).

I'm sitting here watching the 2nd to last episode of Project Runway (not sure what season we are up to here) and I love it. I can't wait for the final next week at fashion week.

This is my first swatch from the 2010 Shrek forever after collection.

Outside in Sunlight

This is a creme blue called What's with the Cattitude? This was three coats. 2 left it still a bit patchy looking. I really like this sky blue colour. It is very summerery (Not good for us as its almost winter here) But I will be wearing this colour more for sure.

And as you know I don't really like plain creme polishes - so I added a coat of OPI Go On Green! from the Brights collection. Its a pretty perfect match.

Outside in sunlight

And up close

This is soooooooooooooooooooo pretty. I love it soooooo much!!!!!! *squeal*

Lots of Love
Lisa

BYS First Impressions

BYS is an Australian brand, which has been available in New Zealand for ages. I have heaps of their eyeshadows. They are quite cheap but last on your eyes very well and they have lots of pretty shimmer colours.

Jacie from You've Got Nail is located in Australia and swatches quite a few BYS Nail Polishes. I had always avoided them as they are only $6 here (compared to OPI at $25) so seemed quite 'cheap' to me and I wasn't sure of their quality. Jacie said I should give them a go.

I'm glad I did. I bought 3 Polishes.

Envy Me - Outside in sunlight

This is so pretty. I used three coats here. This was the one I picked to wear for a day. I didn't use any top coat or base coat and I think this was a problem. After 3 hours it was already chipped. And we aren't talking a little bit of tip wear here, I mean good sized hunks missing.

However I am sure that if a top coat and base coat were used this pretty colour would last a lot longer.

Emerald Sparkle - Outside in sunshine

This is from the BYS Metallic collection. Its a lot darker than Envy me but they both seem to have the same metallic like finish. Again this is a really pretty colour. (I would love to see a OPI or China Glaze make pretty green shimmer colours like this)

Peacock Metallic - Outside in Sunshine

Another Metallic polish. This one seemed to have a different finish to it - more glittery than metallic. I tried to capture this on camera


I thought all three of these colours were pretty unique. I bought these three for that reason, that I didn't really have anything else like them. They have quite a reasonable size range of colours. The shop I get them from has a huge display always fully stocked up. I will definitely be going back to get some more.

I'm thinking that when I get enough followers that some BYS Nail Polishes will be my first give aways - especially good for those not in New Zealand or Australia.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Fellow Bloggers Give Aways

While I don't have anywhere near enough followers for a give away. Other bloggers do.....

All Lacquered Up is giving away a bottle of Limited Edition OPI Damone Roberts 1968 to anyone who lives outside of the United States. Click here for a link to All Lacquered Ups give away.


Short 'n Chic Sweetest Little Giveaway

Short 'n Chic are giving away 4 Maybelline Sweet Things Polishes. Goody Plum Drop (lilac purple) Pie in the Sky (light blue) Sweetie Pie (light pink) and Minty (light minty green)
Click here to enter Short 'n Chics give away.


Today in the mail I was amazed to see a parcel waiting for me. I ordered this lot from Beverly Beaute on Wednesday last week and today (Tuesday) it arrived. This is good. It normally takes ages for things to arrive in New Zealand as we are so far away.

Included in my order was the entire Nubar Sparkles Collection!!!!
YAY so excited!!! I cant wait to start trying these out. I just have to hope for some sun when I do get around to it.


That's all for today.
Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI I Think in Pink

Hi all,

We just got back from the Wellington Wedding Show - AWESOME!!!
Although we aren't getting married until Feb 2012 I think I have just found a celebrant and photograhper. We have had our venue booked for a while now so that's all sorted. YAY!

Anyway... At the show they had a nail salon exhibit there, with the latest OPI Soft shade colours - which I was already wearing on my fingers.

I think in pink is from the new OPI Softshades for 2010

(Left to Right) Is Not that Precious?, Pink-a-Doodle, I Think in Pink and It’s a Girl.

Im not too keen on soft light creme pinks so I only ordered one of these. But I am glad that I did.

OPI I Think in Pink - Sun - No Flash - 3 coats

I didn't think I would like this but I've been wearing it for 2 days now and Ive actually come to like it a lot. Its actually slightly darker than the picture shows with three coats, but it about this colour with only 2 coats. The third coat makes it a more dense darker pink.

After the 2nd day I added a coat of Princesses Rule!

Princesses Rule! over I Think in Pink - Sun - No Flash

Princesses Rule! over I Think in Pink - Shade - No Flash

Its sooooo pretty!!! I love it!

Lots of Love
Lisa

China Glaze Blue Sparrow

China Glaze Blue Sparrow (Neon)
My first China Glaze disappointment...

I was so excited when this bottle arrived in the mail. It looks so amazing. Glitter! Blue sparkley shimmery glitter. Well that's how it looks inside the bottle........not on the nail though

Its MATTE!!!!!!
When it comes out of its pretty sparkly bottle its matte! I didn't want a matte polish. If I did I would have worn some of my mattes that are designed to be matte. This gave no indication on the bottle of being matte. It does say Neon in brackets next to the name and I know neons are mostly matte but I wanted to cry. Its so amazing in the bottle and disappointing on the nail.

This is it with a top coat.
Slightly better but nowhere near as awesome as it looks in the bottle.

That's all for today.
I tried swatching some of the new OPI Softshades but its raining here and the colours are not showing though well at all in the photos. So I'm hoping for sun tomorrow.

Lots of love for the weekend
Lisa