My Pre-Christmas Haul

My partner flat out refuses to buy me nail polish (for Christmas or my Birthday).
So I have to order them for myself and try not to think about what currently owed on my credit cards.

At the start of December I ordered the Models Own Beetle Juice collection. (I also gave my best friend Lisa a set for Christmas)

Five beautiful duochrome polishes I cant wait to start trying out. This set comes with the Models own 3 in 1 base coat/top coat & Gloss. and because I ordered before Christmas it came in a cute little models own box.

A couple of weeks ago I posted that www.usanailsonline.co.nz was having a sale on their boxed Color Club sets. I picked up both sets of the Back to Boho collection for $69.

Not too sure these fit with whats in the shops at the moment in New Zealand for summer, they seem more like autumn/fall/winter colours to me.

Lastly on Christmas Eve MJ Nail Bank announced on Facebook that they had the Nicki Minaj OPI Polishes in stock. Whoohooo out comes my over used credit card again. (I blame pay pal, its so easy to use and you don't even notice the money is gone until the bill arrives at the end of the month)

Left to Right - Save Me, Fly, Metallic 4 Life

These beauties arrived in the mail today. These are the three I picked up. The shatter is pretty but I don't think I would use it enough so I passed on that.

We have had 5 amazing days of sun here in Wellington, but the weather today and for the next few days is not looking so good. Hopefully I do get some sun at some stage so I can do some swatching.

Please be careful if you are out on the roads this holiday season!

Lots of Love
Lisa

Models Own Peacock Green

This is one of my favourite polishes of 2011. I'm not sure when exactly it was released by Models Own, but I only got it this year.

Models Own Peacock Green - Natural Light

Models Own Peacock Green - Natural Light

Models Own Peacock Green - Sunshine

Models Own Peacock Green - Sunshine

This is three coats. It is a Green/Teal/Blue that will mesmerism you with all the beautiful colours hidden inside it. I couldn't stop staring at my nails all day when I wore this. It looks a little more green in real life (especially in the bottle).

Lots of Love
Lisa

Christmas NOTD - Fresh Frog of Bel Air

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!
Hope you all had/are having a great day!

It is now boxing day here, and we are trying to decide if we brave the malls and visit the boxing day sales or not (for those in the US, boxing day sales here are kind of like your Black Friday sales, but on a smaller scale as we are only a country of 4 million people)

OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air over China Glaze Jolly Holly - Natural Light

OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air over China Glaze Jolly Holly - Sunshine

These two greens are a great match for each other. This is one coat of Fresh Frog of Bel Air over two coats of China Glaze Jolly Holly (from last years Holiday collection). Fresh Frog of Bel Air really does appear to me as a top coat glitter instead of a stand alone polish.

OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air - Natural Light

I am not a fan of this by itself at all. This is three coats. This is the only glitter I got from the OPI Holiday Muppet collection. I think my problem with this is that its not glitter dense enough and the bigger silver bits of glitter don't really appear to me.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Orly Frolic + Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple

I have been on a little bit of an Orly kick lately.

This is Orly Frolic from the 2011 summer Happy Go Lucky collection.

Orly Frolic - Natural Light

This is two coats. Its nice to apply, with a smooth texture. The Happy Go Lucky collection was nice and pigmented so all only needed two coats. This is a great summer nail polish.

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple over Orly Frolic - Natural Light

This is one coat of Chunky Holo Purple over Orly Frolic.

Ok so Im just going to say it. This polish is not holographic, so why did Kleancolor name them so? It is a glitter polish. A iridescent glitter in a light purple base. I just don't get it.

But in saying that its a nice glitter to use on top of other polishes. Kleancolor is not B3F so smell a bit strong. I found this at a Postie Plus store in New Zealand (2 for $8 - super cheap!)

Lots of Love
Lisa

Orly Oui

Orly Oui is a polish I picked up a couple of weeks ago from the Farmers buy one get one free sale (which I am pretty sure is still going)

Oui is from the 2011 Holiday Soireé collection.

Orly Oui- White Light

Orly Oui- White Light

Oui is a light purple glass flecked polish with a gold shimmer running through it. This is three coats. It is actually really pretty, but at the moment polishes are only lasting a day on my nails, as I get bored easily.

7 more work days left till the holidays!!!
Lots of Love
Lisa

Color Club on Sale in New Zealand!

Color Club Nail Polishes on Sale in New Zealand!

You may be interested to know that we are cleaning out our 7 packs pre-Xmas.

All of them are half price on our website www.usanailsonline.co.nz That includes the latest USA ranges that haven’t even released officially in NZ yet.

Prices range from $29 upwards.

The sale starts now, and stocks are limited. First in first served.

Check them out for some great deals. I just ordered both 2 packs from the Back to Boho collection for NZ$69.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Models Own Purple Haze

This is Models Own Purple Haze over two coats of Color Club Disco Dress.

Models Own Purple Haze over Color Club Disco Dress - Natural Light

The is two coats of Purple Haze over Disco Dress. It is a deep purple glitter in a clear base. This is one size of glitter. The application is easy, but removal was still hard. I used some non-acetone nail polish remover to remove this and it sucked the colour off the glitter before it removed it.

Disco Dress is a perfect match for underneath Disco Dress. I haven't yet worn Purple Haze by itself yet. But I am a fan of it worn this way.

Hope you are all having good weekends so close to Christmas.
Lots of Love
Lisa

Orly Bubbly Bombshell

Bubbly Bombshell was my mani to my Fiances Christmas work do on Saturday night.

Orly Bubbly Bombshell - Natural Light

Orly Bubbly Bombshell - Sunshine

This is a bright pink fuchsia glitter in a clear base. There are actually two sizes of glitter in this, a smallish one and then a bigger rounder one. This is three coats, but its still got quite a bit of nail showing through and tips are really hard to wrap with a glitter polish.

Here is some bonus pictures and a comparison.

Look how it matches the shoes I wore!

Orly Bubbly Bombshell over black - Natural light

Nubar Petunia Sparkle - sunshine

Here is a picture of Nubar Petunia Sparkle for comparison. They are almost exact matches for colour, but Petunia Sparkle only has one sized glitter and has a more matte appearance.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Spotted in NZ: Orly Holiday Soireé

I got an email with a picture from Lisa (the other one) exclaiming that Orly were buy one get one free at Farmers and they had the Holiday Soireé collection in stock.

Orly Holiday Soireé display at Farmers

Luckily we were already heading to the mall so I got to see these for myself in real life. I still had a $30 gift card so picked up Androgynie and Oui. They also come with cute little files attached to the bottles.

Orly retail for $24.99 each, so buy one get one free is a pretty good deal. I can totally justify $12.50 on a nail polish, where as I have problems spending $25 on a polish these days.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Color Club Alter Ego - Reveal Your Mystery set

This is the pastel set of polishes from the 2011 Color Club Alter Ego collection. These come in a 7 pack called Reveal Your Mystery which also includes a Milky White Basecoat. All swatches are three coats.

Color Club Get a Clue - Sunshine

Color Club Revealed - Natural Light

Color Club Incognito - Sunshine

Color Club Secret Rendezvous - Natural Light

Color Club Sheer Disguise - Natural Light

Color Club Give Me A Hint - Sunshine

The Alter Ego collection is available in stores in New Zealand now.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Orly Frisky + Comparison

Orly frisky is from the 2011 Happy Go Lucky collection.

Farmers had by one get one free on Orly the other day and I had a $20 voucher so I paid $5 for two Orly polishes :) I love sales and vouchers.

Orly Frisky - Natural Light

The formula on this is great. This is 2 coats, and that it all that is needed. Dries at an average time and wears well.

I did some nail art over the top of Frisky. The Sparkles are Esseence. The first finger is stamped using an Essence plate and China Glaze DV8. Third finger is layered with Color Club Si Vous Please!

Orly Frisky + Nail Art - Sunshine

I ended up wearing Orly Frisky covered in Color Club Si Vous Please! on all fingers to work on Monday.

Orly Frisky and China Glaze For Audrey look pretty close to each other. For Audrey used three coats, compared to Frisky's one coat. For Audrey is slightly lighter and a bit more dustier toned. Frisky is brighter and bluer. I wasn't a fan of For Audrey but I really like Frisky, which is odd considering they are so close to each other.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Models Own Golden Peach + Comparisson

Models own Golden Peach is another polish I picked up from Models own 50% off sale.

Models Own Golden Peach - Sunshine

Models Own Golden Peach - Shade

This is three coats. It is a peach with a lot of golden shimmer running through it. It applies easily and dries at an average speed.

I thought I would do a comparison of some other peach polishes. Here is Models Own Golden Peach, OPI Melon Of Troy and Zoya Elise.

Elise is a lot runnier in consistency and needed 4 coats. The Zoya is more orange, and the golden shimmer in it isn't as visible. Melon of Troy is a march darker pink colour with no golden shimmer running through it. In this case I think I really do like Golden Peach the most. The golden shimmer is more present and makes it feel girly and pretty.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Spotted in NZ: Color Club Mini Poptastic

I spotted these on Monday at Life Pharmacy.


They are totally cute little bottles. They would make great Christmas presents and stocking fillers. And would be great for younger girls.

The Poptastic collection is a great collection of bright creme shades. There were also 4 packs of Starry Temptress (bright glitter shades) and Wicked Sweet (neon fruit scented polishes).

The Poptastic Minis were selling for NZ$9.90 a bottle. I am sorry but I totally did not take note of the prices for the four packs.

I have some little bottles, they are 7mls (so half the size of a regular bottle), but still have a great sized brush that makes application easy.

Lots of Love
Lisa

A England Tristam

A England Tristam doesn't really need many words. It is simply just amazing.

A England Tristam - Sunshine

A England Tristam - Sunshine

Tristam - the courteous knight

The symbol of the knightly virtue, and romantic love. When Tristam and Iseult accidentally consume a love potion, fall helplessly in love. Despite facing numerous trials to test their secret affair their love was never known to fade.

Tristam is a deep dark blue holographic polish. Enlarge the pictures in the sun by clicking on them to see how beautiful this really is. I think its great to see more darker colours being made into holographic polishes.

This is two coats. A England is quickly becoming one of my favourite brands for formula. All only need two coats and apply like a dream.

A England also have great customer service, and sometimes even offer free around the world shipping. It also didn't take them long to get to New Zealand (less than a week, compared to another brand in the UK that took a month to arrive here in NZ)

Lots of Love
Lisa

Models Own Evergreen

I love a green polish and I was looking forward to getting this one from Models own. a green polish is hard to get right, and I'm not sure the completely got this one right.

This is Models Own Evergreen.

Models Own Evergreen - Sunshine

Models Own Evergreen - Natural Light

This is three coats. The formula is great and smooth and dries quickly. Its a pretty medium green shimmer that has a hint of metallicness about it. But the colour doesn't really pop and make me say wow! I think it needs to be slightly darker and more complex. I just feel meh about it. I suppose that is what happens when you order polishes from the other side of the world on the internet.

Lots of Love
Lisa

It's My Birthday Tomorrow! (NOMB)

Nail of my birthday (NOMB) does that make sense? Not really. I dont think it will catch on.

I think I will be too busy too post tomorrow so here is what I have on my nails for my 25th Birthday tomorrow.

This is OPI Designer Series Temptation from 2011.

OPI DS Temptation - natural light

OPI DS Temptation - sunshine

This is 3 coats. when you apply the first coat you can see that the glitter is an ugly dark blue base. However once you build up the layers it is amazing! Its so complex. Its purple mainly but also has pink and blue glitter, with tiny bits of other coloured glitter (green and iridescent) scattered throughout.

Three coats gives perfect coverage. Its a bit rough, so mine is topped off with a top coat in these pictures. But I have a feeling this may be a tad hard to take off, being a glitter.

OPI have stared more and more away from the Designer Series Holographic polishes of years gone by. Quite a shame really as OPI haven't made any holos in a while now. they seem to be focusing more on glitters. Fine by me beacuse here in New Zealand DS polishes retail for around NZ$35, so as you can imagine I look elsewhere for my holo fix.

Unfortunately I don't get tomorrow off work. So not only is it a Monday, but yes I will be at work on my Birthday :(

Lots of Love
Lisa

Spotted in NZ: OPI Muppets Collection

The OPI Muppets collection showed up on trademe and other online websites (beyond beauty, mj nailbank and candygirl) a few weeks ago. But wasn't officially released in New Zealand stores until the start of November.

This collection is now out in Farmers stores in New Zealand, and with that I presume other authorised stockists.

Click on the picture to enlarge it

From the New Zealand suppliers website (Global Beauty):

Get ready to get your Muppet on this holiday season. As a tie-in to the forthcoming movie The Muppets, OPI is launching 12 limited-edition lacquers in time for Christmas. The collection includes six shimmery reds and neutrals, plus six glittery shades — perfect for holiday parties.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Color Club Revealed

Revealed is from the 2011 Alter Ego collection, which is going to be in New Zealand Amazon stores about now, just in time for summer.

Color Club Revealed - Shade

Color Club Revealed - sunshine

This is three coats which applied easily (slightly thin) and dried quickly. Its a nude/peach colour that is pink toned. Its not so visible in the pictures but there is a fine pink shimmer running through this polish. Makes a regular nude colour a little bit more exciting. It matches so perfectly with colours coming out in stores now (like Forever New - I love that store).

Lots of Love
Lisa

China Glaze on NZSale

For those followers in New Zealand, China Glaze is selling polishes on NZSale again.

I thought I would tell you what happened to my last China Glaze order off NZSale.

I ordered 6 polishes. I knew that things from NZSale could take a while to arrive. Also shipping on these is quite expensive. Shipping increases with each polish you add to your cart.

I was excited one night when we went down to the couriers to pick up my parcel. My excitement didnt last long when I recieved my parcel. It was smaller than I expected. No way 6 polishes could fit in there.

I was right. They had only sent me three polishes. But that is not the worst of it. All three sent to me were not colours I had ordered.

I rang NZSale - apparently its not up to them to fix it. Its up to the people who were selling the polishes through their website. And they no longer had any of the polishes I had ordered in stock - WTF?!?!?! Who got my polishes then? They had them in stock when I ordered them.

I did manage to get a full refund for these polishes (and shipping) after returning the 3 the had sent me. But all in all not a good experience.

The other Lisa ordered some too. Last I heard they hadn't arrived (we are talking four months later) and NZSale are blaming it on the courier company. I have my doubts here.

So if you are planning on ordering some China Glaze polishes off NZSale. Be warned. I will not be attempting another order for these. I have given up on NZSale.

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster

I Eat Mainely Lobster is from the 2011 OPI Touring America collection which is out in stores now.
This has to have been the most painful polish ever to get colour accurate photos of. I swatched this three times over a month and nearly gave up. Finally today I managed to get some colour accurate pictures!

OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster - Natural (overcast) light

This is a complex pinky/peachy/coral/orange colour. It is quite pigmented so you can get away with two coats. It has a golden/pink duochrome-ish shimmer running through it.

The first two times I swatched this in sunshine, shade, inside, outside and under white light it would appear orange in the photos. This is not orange. The golden shimmer running through it sort of gives it an orange hint. But I have classified this as a pinky coral colour. It has the same base colour as OPI Shootout at the OK coral.

Lots of Love
Lisa

This polish was sent to me by CandyGirl in New Zealand. Check out the "where to buy" tab at the top of this page to see the range of polishes they have for sale.

All Blacks NOTD

The final of the world cup is on tonight in New Zealand.

Here is my manicure from Friday, where we had a dress in black to support the All Black day.

This is OPI Black Onyx with a fern done free hand using Essence Nail Art Freestyle and tip painter in Silver Surfer. The stars were chris's idea. They are little silver stars.

At work I ended up doing nails like this for a few of the other girls. They mostly ended up with ferns on most of their fingernails and numbers of names on the rest of their nails.

Hope your all having a good weekend.
I am sooooo glad Monday is a public holiday here. I have needed an extra day off work for so long.

Bonus picture of Keera (because shes black)

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI Nicki Minaj Collection

Its official! OPI today confirmed on their Facebook page the existance of the new Nicki Minaj collection, due out next year. And I will gladly admit I am totally excited about this collection - bot because I love Nick Minaj but because the colours look great.


From the OPI Facebook page:

Despite what you've seen online, we wanted to make sure you got accurate information from us. The Nicki Minaj collection consists of a deep shimmering purple Shatter called "Super Bass" and these five Nicki-inspired colors: "Metallic 4 Life", "Save Me", "Fly", "Did It On 'Em" and the bubble gum hue "Pink Friday".

Are you excited about this collection?

Lots of Love
Lisa