I am back from Holiday - with a Haul picture

I just spent 2 weeks with the husband in Hawaii and it was pretty amazing.  I love the Big Island of Hawaii, and the shopping in Waikiki.

We did all the touristy things including helicopter rides, Pearl Harbour, The Dole Pineapple plantation, Snorkelling and lots of shopping.

I even got to swim with dolphins!

(I can not for the life of me figure out why blogger is turning my pictures sideways)

We don't have a Sephora in New Zealand, so I spent quite a bit of time in there (my husband hates it, but does appreciate the free wifi the stores have). I bought 14 of the new Formula X for Sephora  polishes to try out.

All up my total polish haul was 56 bottles, which for me is very restrained. This included 7 Deborah Lippmanns (and the Wicked set - which I saw three weeks ago in Auckland), 8 Butter Londons and 10 China Glazes.

Unfortunately my nails didnt survive the holiday very well. I am now trying out NailTek II - intensive therapy in a bid to try and save them.  Fingers crossed this treatment works.

Lots of love

Lisa

I'm Back!!

Hi everyone, long time no see.

Me and my Husband got back yesterday from our 5 week holiday around Canada and America.  We had an amazing time and saw and did a lot of things.  I will post some pictures once I have uploaded them (my computer has died, and I don't like the husbands one).

Here however is a picture of all the nail polishes I bought back with me.  My 9 month 'no buy' ended at the start of the holiday, and according to my husband another year long one just started.  There is about 140 nail polishes here.  We had these spread across four suitcases as they weigh a lot all together.

My nails took a bit of a battering on holiday. I have had a gel manicure for the last 11 days, but taking it off didn't go to well and I now have very soft nails to try and repair.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Nail Polish Presents

My best friend Lisa just got back from America and Canada and bought me back some goodies!

Sally Hansen Gem Crush Collection - Razzle Dazzler, Glitz Gal, Big Money, Cha-Ching, Showgirl Chic, Be-jeweled and Bling-tastic (7 out of 8 of this collection)

Sepohora by OPI - Spark-tacular!, G-listen To Your Heart, Looks Like Rain, Dear, Sugar Plum Fairies Gone Wild

Nails Inc Connaught Square and Fitzroy Square, Wet n Wild It's All in the Cut and Give me a Price Quote, Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air and Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie

These are a combination of my birthday present, Christmas present and what she managed to get for me with some money I gave her! AWESOME!
I have so much swatching to catch up on. Lots and lots of glitter!

Lots of Love
Lisa

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

I love getting nail mail

Friday was a great nail mail day for me.

My models own order finally made it to New Zealand.

Top row: Purple Mystique, Golden Peach, Magenta Divine, Evergreen
Bottom row: Blue Med, Purple Haze, Lilac dream, Bluebelle, Peacock Green

These are the polishes I ordered from the 50% of sale. There were a few extra I wanted but they were sold out. Models own polishes are usually £5 each. International shipping is £9.95. All up my order with the 50% discount only ended up costing $65.99, which is only $7.33 a polish. I cant wait to try these out.

I am a huge Disney fan. It sucks because we don't have any Disney stores at all in New Zealand. I saw these on Ebay and had to have them.

Top row: Jasmine, Rupunzel, Pocahontas, Belle, Mulan
Bottom row: Snow White, Cinderella, Tiana, Aurora, Ariel

These are small only 6mls each. The packet says that they are adult cosmetics, so I am hoping they are decent quality. Although based on the smell I assume that they are not B3F. These came from Hawaii and did end up costing a bit. I paid US$55 for the polishes alone. But as I said, I am a huge Disney fan, and when it is combined with nail polish, I couldn't say no.

Hope your all having a good weekend. Its raining here and I need to clean the whole house.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Nail Mail Brightens my Mondays

Woohoo for mail arriving on Mondays and making my crappy first day back at work better :)

Alas my no buy is well and truly over.

My 7 piece Untamed Luxury Diamond Collection arrived today from www.usanailsonline.co.nz
This cost me NZ$59 and $3.90 for shipping. Without shipping it works out to $8.40ish a polish.
Pretty good bargain.

Swatches to come later once I have some time and hopefully some sun. If you only want a few of these polishes they are being sold in pharmacies and salons all over New Zealand for around $15 a polish.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Deborah Lippmann Haul

Deborah Lippmann is not available in New Zealand and is quite hard to find, but one of my nice followers in Wellington (Lani) told me about Beauty Bridge. They ship Deborah Lippmann to New Zealand!!!!!! (but in saying that the postage is not cheap!)

Deborah Lippmann - Across the Universe and Bad Romance

Me and my best friend both got a bottle of Across the Universe and Bad Romance each. Which shipping we ended up paying NZ$29.25 a bottle. This isn't too bad when you think that Orly, Color Club, Essie and OPI all sell for NZ$23-$25 each a bottle.

Today I am wearing Bad Romance and it is amazing! My nails are looking crappy, short and funny shaped at the moment so there is no pictures for today - Once I am happier with my nails there will be pictures :)

Don't forget to enter my 100 followers give away! Only 2 days left to enter. Especially if you have been following from the start! This giveaway is for you people!

Back to work and still looking for a full time job....

Lots of Love
Lisa

Orly Haul

Ohh look what arrived in the mail yesterday............

Left to right: Space Cadet, It's not Rocket Science, Out of this world, Halley's Comet, Lunar Eclipse, Galaxy Girl

The whole entire Orly Cosmic FX collection. I havent seen this in stores yet in New Zealand, but it is available on trade me and beyond beauty for shipping in New Zealand. YAY!
Swatches to come soon.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Burlesque Haul

Wohoo my first ever TransDesign order arrived. And it is full of glitter! I am not one to complain about numbers filed of or gorged out of the cap because these beauties work out to be only NZ$10 each compared to the recommended retail that we normally pay of $25 in New Zealand. I don't think people in America appreciate how cheap their nail polishes are.

I managed to narrow the Burlesque collection down to 8 must haves.

Left to Right: Let Me Entertain You, The Show Must Go On!, Glow Up Already!, Sparkle-icious, Simmer & Shimmer, Bring on the Bling, Extra-va-vaganza!, Show It and Glow It!

Swatches to come soon :)

Lots of Love
Lisa

Recent Hauls

Is it still called a Haul if some one else gives it to you?

My bestie went to Australia for a conference and bought me back these polishes from Oz.

Left to Right: Poppy, Lagoon, Sweet Violet, Hollywood and Pearly grape.

Ultra 3 is like a cheaper drug store brand in Australia. These polishes are 13.5mls and I think they are about AU$2 a polish.

Thanks to the awesome people at Color Club New Zealand I now have the who Electro Candy Collection.

Left to Right: Ultra Violet, Electro Candy, Tangerine Scream, Volt of Light, What a shock! and Pure Energy.

*squee* I am so in love with these polishes. I am currently rocking Electro candy (the pink one) on my nails now, so will post that tomorrow. I also love how these polishes look with a simple konad design done in black over the top.

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI Swiss Haul

My partner has been spending a lot of weeks away for work lately and as he was unable to find me any presents where he was he said he would get me some nail polish instead - I think it is true love :)

He let me get the three polishes I wanted from the OPI Fall/Winter Swiss collection and the latest OPI suede I was hunkering after.

Left to right: Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow Suede, Diva of Geneva, The Color to Watch, Cuckoo for this Color

Swatches to come later on :)
Lots of Love
Lisa

Sephora OPI Haul

So Sephora does not ship to New Zealand. Luckily my mum and dad just got back from a 3 week trip to America. I thought these would be easy enough polishes for them to get because all they had to do was find a Sephora store. Turns out it was easy, they fouond a Sephora store straight away and managed to get 4 of the 5 polishes I had asked for.

Left to Right: Go with the Flow-er, Leaf him at the Altar, It's Bouquet with me, Sparkle me silver top coat.

These four polishes are all quite sheer and see through, so im thinking of using them for layering.
Sparkle me silver is a top coat of long silver glitter pieces - I havent had a polish like this since I was about 10. And It's Bouquet with me is silver and purple glitter in a clear base and is definitely designed for layering in my opinion.

I know that these sell for US$9 each and that this is considered rather on the expensive side in America (Although to us here it is a bargain). How do you feel about Sephora OPI? And the fact that some of their polishes are online only (ARGH I SO WANT Midnight Mambo!!!!). I also noticed that they are now selling mini polishes in packs for the newer collections (seems like a good idea, the regular sized polishes seem quite large - but I think thats just because they are so tall).

At the moment I am spending all day and night at uni trying to finish my thesis, and my nails are pretty short and crappy at the moment. I cant wait to get a job and finish uni and have some spare time and money to take care of my nails properly.

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

Sinful Colors

Sinful Colors have come to New Zealand!!

This is the first time I saw them about a week ago in a local life pharmacy, but I had to wait to go back without my boyfriend before I could buy any- hes not really happy about my nail polish addiction.

These are selling for only $9 (compared to OPI at $25 and Color Club at $15 - in the same life pharmacy)

I restrained myself and only got 4! Yay for self control!

(Left to right) Let me go, Show me the way, Love Nails, Purple Diamond

Swatches to come later when I have some time.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Miki Nail Polish

Hope everyone had a good Easter holiday. I really appreciated my four days off - and I didn't have to work because the shops were shut on Friday - yay for me!

I was at the pharmacy today buying some sticky plasters and on the counter they had a display of little polishes. At fist I was like 'No' I don't need any and they cant be that good for that price. But then I was talking to the lady and she said they were new in and for only $2.99 each - I relented. I got 5! And I may be going back for more. They had some neons I was quite keen on getting.

I have never heard of Miki before and googleing didn't help. There was nothing on there. The bottle says they are made in Australia.
These are mini polishes, only 7mls which is 0.23fl.oz.

Anyways this is what I got:

As far as I can tell they don't have names - just numbers on the bottom of the bottle.

BO4620 was a medium shimmer blue. I thought it was just kind of average.

This one has the flash on

BO4110 was a coral glitter. Jelly based with matching glitter. This was 2 coats, but I think it would be better as a top coat.


BO4250 is my favourite of the bunch. Its a pastel aqua-green. Here is three coats. It has a slight shimmer to it.


BO3510 yellow creme. Horrible application. It was thick and gluggy and ohhhh so streaky. Here is three coats. It was quite opaque after 2 but still very visible streaks. This polish made the brand seem cheaper to me. Although it did give good coverage for a yellow.


BO4370 this was a medium blue jelly glitter. This is pretty. Again you still have visible nail line, but this would make a nice top coat. I like it by itself, as a not out-landish, look-at-me, over-the-top blue glitter.

I've changed my mind - I think i like this colour best!

Overall the two glitter polishes had a good application, they were a good consistency and went on easily, starting to redeemed this brand in my opinion a bit after the terrible yellow.

The bottles are small and the big silver square handle is hard to use, but they have a regular size brush, which I like. Drying time on these polishes was quite quick (except for the yellow).

Its getting really cold and yucky here now. Almost no sun at all. Today its overcast and freezing and pictures are getting harder to take without the natural light. Sorry :( I'm still learning.

Lots of Love
Lisa

China Glaze Tantalize Me

Yay a parcel arrived for me in the mail this morning!
It was full of China Glaze.

From left to right: Tantalize me, Fly, Carnival Lights, Preppy Pink.

And again with the camera Flash on.

Carnival lights and Preppy pink are from the Glitter collection and look really amazing in the bottles, But..........
Tantalize me was the one I was most excited about when I ordered these. Its a light purple/lilac Shimmer, which shimmers blue in the right light.

This is in the sun outside - the shimmer in this polish comes up more blue than these photos show.

This is with the flash.

Formula on this was quite runny - so trickier to apply in thin coats. This here is three thin coats and is completely opaque here (it wasn't completely after 2). I love China Glaze polishes but always find them harder to apply than OPI.

Lots of Love
Lisa