Formula X for Sephora - The Celestials

These polishes look super pretty in the bottle, and in the store I had no idea that they were textured polishes - which I am not a fan of - So because they looked pretty I bought three of them.

All swatches are two coats without a topcoat, and then the same polish with a coat of Gelous and another coat of Seche Vite.  All three of these polishes look a lot more complex in the bottle with different coloured shimmer, however on the nail they fall flat and the prettiness in the bottle does not translate onto the nail.

Formula X for Sephora Vortex - Sunshine (no topcoat)

Formula X for Sephora Vortex - Shade (no topcoat)

Formula X for Sephora Vortex - White Light (no topcoat)

 

Formula X for Sephora Vortex - Sunshine (with topcoat)

Formula X for Sephora Vortex - Shade (with topcoat)

Formula X for Sephora Celestial - Sunshine (no topcoat)

Formula X for Sephora Celestial - Shade (no topcoat)

 

Formula X for Sephora Celestial - White Light (no topcoat)

Formula X for Sephora Celestial - Sunshine (with topcoat)

Formula X for Sephora Celestial - Shade (with topcoat)

Formula X for Sephora Nova - Sunshine (no topcoat)

 

Formula X for Sephora Nova - Shade (no topcoat)

 

Formula X for Sephora Nova - White light (no topcoat)

 

Formula X for Sephora Nova - Sunshine (with topcoat)

Formula X for Sephora Nova - Shade (with topcoat)

Lots of Love
Lisa

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid Collection

Earlier this year my Mum and Dad took a trip to America. I only asked for 5 things. The Sephora Disney Jasmine nail polish set and the 4 new Deborah Lippmann Mermaid polishes.  Luckily these weren't too hard for my parents to find in New York.

On to the swatches!

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream - Sunshine

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream - Shade

Mermaid's Dream is the original Mermaid Polish, released before the other four, back in 2012.  I picked this up while on holiday last October in America.  It matched the dress I wore to my brother-in-law's wedding, which was in Toronto last October.  This swatch is three coats, which apply easily. It is a teal green glitter packed polish, with golden micro-shimmer.  It looks like it is gritty and bumpy, but with one thick coat of top coat, is as smooth as a regular polish.

The next four polishes were released as the summer 2013 Mermaid's collection.

Deborah Lippmann Do the Mermaid - Shade

Deborah Lippmann Do the Mermaid - Sunshine

This is a lilac version of Mermaid's Dream.  A light lilac base, with darker purple glitter and golden micro shimmer.  Again this is 3 coats.

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Kiss - Sunshine

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Eyes - Shade

Mermaid's  Kiss is the pink version in this collection. The gold shimmer in this one is a lot more obvious, and actually looks like bigger bits of glitter instead of the shimmer in the other polishes.  It still has a rose pink base, with darker pink glitter.  This is three coats.

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Eyes - Sunshine

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Eyes - Shade

Mermaid's Eyes is the odd one out from this collection.  The base and the glitter colour are a lot closer in colour, with the base colour being darker than the other polishes in this collection.  It still contains the darker glitter pieces and the golden micro shimmer, but they don't show up as much on the nail. 

Deborah Lippmann Million Dollar Mermaid - Shade

Fortunately the sun decided to disappear when I was swatching the last polish in this set.  Million Dollar Mermaid is the orange/peach version in this collection.  The base on this one is quite light and the golden shimmer is quite present (although not as much as in Mermaid's Kiss).  This is three coats.

I love this collection. Even 6 months later it is still unique in my collection.  The biggest problem is that Deborah Lippmann polishes are not sold in New Zealand.  However this website does ship them to New Zealand, and has regular sales.

Lots of Love

Lisa

CND Vinylux Review

Vinylux is the latest product released by CND (the brand behind Shellac).  I picked up three of these polishes and a top coat at the recent New Zealand Beauty Expo.

"Vinylux is a breakthrough polish that endures a week of fashion perfection... without a base coat"

Here is a quick over view of Vinylux:

• This polish is a cross between a regular polish and a gel polish that cures under a lamp.  
• It is designed to last three times what a 'normal' polish would last.  
• A base coat is not needed.
• Currently there are 62 colours available
• Use 2 coats of Vinylux and then one coat of Vinylux top coat
• Polish dries under natural light (and no UV lamp is needed)

The first one I tried out was Azure wish. It is a light blue polish. In the bottle it looks like it has shimmer in it, however on the nail the shimmer is not visible.

CND Vinylux Azure Wish - White light

I used three thin coats here. The recommendation is two coats, however the polish was not opaque enough and I felt it needed three to even out the polish on the nail.

This polish cures under natural light. I polished my nails late at night and they dried fine under a regular house light.  I was surprised with how quickly this polish dried, as it was no longer than a regular polish (if not quicker because the coats were quite thin).

The formula was good on this polish.  It was smooth and easy to apply thin coats. The brush is pretty standard and was easy to get a neat finish with.

I wore this polish for four days.  It did chip after two days, but I stuck it out to write this review. Unfortunately the condition it was in after the four days meant that it did not last the stated three times longer than a regular polish, as I can get a great two days out of a regular polish (usually after that I am sick of the colour and want to change it). So it lasted longer than a regular polish, just not three times longer.

Removal was very easy. Vinylux was very easily removed with acetone based nail polish remover.  

I am currently putting on Black Pool, which is the Black creme Vinylux polish. I will be trying this out with a glitter layer in between the polish and the Vinylux top coat.

Lots of Love

Lisa

OPI Euro Centrale Collection

I finally finished swatching the 11 of the 12 OPI Euro Centrale Collection polishes that I own.  This is my all time favourite OPI collection. I love the cremes and the shimmers, as well as the glitter. The whole collection is perfect for summer and even though it is winter here I have been getting a lot of wear out of them. I have often been wearing these polishes as bases for glitter top coats (indie ones - as you can see in some of my previous posts).

OPI A Woman's Prague-ative 

 

OPI Can't Find My Czechbook

OPI - OPI...Eurso Euro 

OPI My Vampire is Buff

OPI Oy - Another Polish Joke

OPI Vant to Bite My Neck?

OPI You're Such a Budapest

OPI Suzi's Hungary Again

OPI I Saw... U Saw... We Saw... Warsaw

OPI Polka.com 

(over OPI I Saw... U Saw... We Saw... Warsaw)

OPI My Paprika is Hotter than Yours!

Lots of Love
Lisa

Color Club Over the Moon + Comparisons

WE HAD SOME SUN TODAY!!!!!!

Its almost winter here, and pretty unusual for us to have a sunny weekend day at the moment. (Although it is pouring with rain now).  So I figured it was time to swatch some holographic polishes.

Color Club Over the Moon - Sunshine

Color Club Over the Moon - Shade

Over the Moon is the blue holographic polish from the 2013 release of the Color Club Halo Hues. This newer set of 6 polishes, were darker than the first set released.  This is three coats, although two would be fine - I just am obsessive compulsive about doing three coats.  The formula on these are on the thin side, but are easy to apply and dry quickly.  The above photos clearly show the difference that sunlight makes to the appearance of this polish.  In the sunlight it is an awesomely strong holographic rainbow.  

Below is a comparison with some of my other blue holographic polishes. 

All swatches are three coats. 

You can see that in the sunlight the two Color Club holos give the most coverage and are the most opaque of the polishes. Over the Moon is unique amoungst my 100 holographic polishes.

Color Club Halo Hues are available in New Zealand now.

Lots of Love

Lisa

This polish was sent to me for review.

OPI...Eurso Euro with Lush Lacquer Bubble Yummy

OPI...Eurso Euro - sunshine

OPI...Eurso Euro is The dark blue crelly (creme/jelly) from the OPI Euro Centrale collection.  This is two coats and I found application very easy.  This is a great formula that glides on smoothly and gives great coverage.   This polish looks quite a bit darker inside in the shade.

This polish is a great base colour for quite a few of my polishes. I am thinking of trying Max Factor Fantasy Fire on top next.  But for the last two days I have been wearing Lush Lacquer Bubble Yummy over the top.

Lush Lacquer Bubble Yummy (over OPI...Eurso Euro)

Lush Lacquer Bubble Yummy (over OPI...Eurso Euro)

Lush Lacquer Bubble Yummy is a blue toned purple shimmer with small silver holographic glitter and larger hexagon shaped teal/cyan coloured glitter.  This is one coat over OPI...Eurso Euro.  I did have a few application issues with this. In my bottle the bigger teal bits of glitter have all sunk to the bottom of the bottle, and no matter how much I shake it, I cant seem to get the glitter spread evenly throughout the polish. This mean I did have to go fishing for the bigger bits of glitter. I think this problem may be solved by adding some more stainless steal balls to my bottle.

Lots of Love

Lisa

Darling Diva Polish Blanche

Blanche was one of the Darling Diva Polishes I received with my 5 for $25 deal.  

Darling Diva Polish Blanche (over OPI Tomorrow Never Dies)- Shade

 

Darling Diva Polish Blanche (over OPI Tomorrow Never Dies)- Sunshine

Blanche is made up of a tinted navy/purple base and contains extra large red hexagon glitter, larger light purple square glitter, medium yellow holographic hexagon glitter, medium light purple hexagon glitter, smaller blue hexagon glitter and little purple hexagon glitter. 

The big pieces of glitter in this are not too hard to fish out of the bottle. I ended up with a red piece of glitter on every nail. The big red pieces, along with all the other glitter lie flat on the nail. There is no curling glitter here. 

To be honest, the colours and glitter in this are not me. I wore this manicure for over two days, but unfortunately I did not warm up to Blanche. Formula wise this is a great indie polish though and I would recommend it, if you like the mix of glitter colours and sizes.

Here is a bonus picture of OPI Tomorrow Never Dies from the 2012 Holiday James Bond Collection.  It is slightly more purple than it appears in this photo.

OPI Tomorrow Never Dies - Sunshine

Lots of Love
Lisa

Glitzology Bun In The Oven

Glitzology Bun In The Oven - Sunshine

Glitzology Bun In The Oven - Shade

This polish is super glitter! The swatches are only two coats.  Glitzology creator Stacy says that this polish was inspired by "traditional" boy and girl baby colours. It features pink and baby blue holo glitter, with pastel pink, blue and white squares and hexes in various sizes in a clear base.  The glitter all lies flat and can be smoothed out with a top coat.  I was really surprised by how full of glitter this polish was, and the fact that it was still easy to apply and get even coverage.

Glitzology polishes are available on Etsy here and at the moment if you use the code SINGLEANDHAPPY you can get 50% off your order (until Friday 22 Feb).

Lots of Love
Lisa

Ruby Wing Moonstone

Ruby Wing Moonstone - shade

Ruby Wing Moonstone - sunshine

Ruby Wing Moonstone is a light blue creme that changes to a pink tones purple in the sunshine.  This is three coats, but you could easily get away with two coats because the formula on this pretty much perfect, not to thick and certainly not runny.

Lots of Love

Lisa

Icing Radio Superstar

When I was in Canada and America I took the opportunity to extend the range of brands in my collection. Icing was one of the brands I picked up some polishes from. 

Icing Radio Superstar (over Color Club Take me to Your Chateau) - Shade

Icing Radio Superstar (over Color Club Take me to Your Chateau) - Sunshine

This is two coats of Icing Radio Superstar over Color Club Take me to Your Chateau.  It has small blue glitter, big fuchsia glitter and silver stars in a clear base.  I really like this polish and it looks totally cute over the light blue. The only problem was that the stars were hard to fish out and place on the nails as they seem to sink to the bottom of the bottle.

Lots of Love
Lisa