Ruby Wing Meadow

Meadow is another polish from the Ruby Wing colour changing collection.  This is the only metallic polish in this collection.

Ruby Wing Meadow - inside

Ruby Wing Meadow - outside

First off, I think they named this polish wrong. Meadow to me means grass and should have been a green polish. 

This is three coats. It applies like a regular metallic polish and is slightly brush strokey.  The colour change in this one is obvious, as it changes from silver in the shade to a mauve-pink metallic in the sun.  

I am not sure if I mentioned this before but these polishes still change colour with a top coat on, and can be a major distraction if you sit near a window at work.

Lots of Love

Lisa

This polish was sent to me for review

Butter London Dodgy Barnett

Yay! After the weather man promising sun for the last three days, we finally had some, and I managed to finish work on time and get home before sunset to capture these pictures of Butter London's Dodgy Barnett.

Dodgy Barnett is from the 2012 Butter London Autumn/Winter collection.  To be honest I am not quite sure why you would include Holographic polishes in a winter collection.  Its spring here at the moment an we barely get any sun, so I cant imagine winter in London having much sun.

Butter London Dodgy Barnett - sunshine

Close up of Butter London Dodgy Barnett

This is three coats. This one as not a one or two coater like a lot of other holographic polishes are these days.  Its quite thin so could actually be used as a holographic top coat over other polishes.  However it does have a significant amount of holo-ness so is totally worth getting.

I haven't spotted this one in New Zealand yet. There are very very few holographic polishes available in New Zealand, so if this one is spotted in Farmers, it may be worth paying the ridiculous retail price of $35 for one of these.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Color Club Platinum Record

I am still sticking to New Zealand themed manis this week.  Today's is silver and Black.
Platinum Record is from the recently released (well recently in New Zealand) Backstage Pass Collection.

Color Club Platinum Record - Sunshine 

Color Club Platinum Record - Shade

This is one coat over a two coats of black creme. The thing that makes this silver glitter different from others is that it is not holographic. It is just plain silver glitter. It has large and medium sized silver glitter in a clear base.  The big pieces of glitter are quite big and do curl because of their size.  This polish is rough once on, so does require a couple of coats to make it smooth to the touch.

I think this polish is better suited as a top coat, and can imagine it may be a challenge to do a whole mani with just this polish (especially because I like the nail to be completely covered in glitter).  As a top coat it is not too hard to remove (being a glitter) but would be as a complete mani.

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI Metallic 4 Life

Metallic 4 Life is from the Recently released Nicki Minaj collection. These are in New Zealand stores now.

OPI Metallic 4 Life - Natural Light

It is a black base with silver glitter. This is three coats. Its a tad difficult to apply because of the glitter and very hard to remove, again because of the glitter. I am a big fan of wearing glitters over black polish, and this just puts both into one polish. It would be cooler if the silver glitter was holographic though.

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI Save Me

Save Me is the new bar glitter polish from OPI released as part of the 2012 Nicki Minaj Collection. This is not out yet in stores in New Zealand, but can be found online (MJ Nail Bank) and on TradeMe.

OPI Save Me - Sunshine

OPI Save Me - Shade

This is three coats. It is a clear base with regular silver glitter and multi coloured bar glitter. The bar glitter is mainly gold and teal coloured, but in the sun looks like a magical holographic rainbow!

The one problem I did have with this polish is that the bar glitter pieces went over the edge of the nail, so you sort of have to trim them once its dry so that they aren't hanging over the edge of your nail. (see my index finger above)

I personally don't think I will be wearing this by itself, I much prefer it over other polishes. I'm glad OPI listened to what people were asking for and made a bar glitter. Hopefully we will see some more in the future.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Color Club Broken Tokens - Silver Fracture

Broken Tokens is Color Club's Silver Fracture polish.

Color Club Broken Tokens over Black - white light

Here it is over plain black. This is a medium coat. Broken Tokens is a shimmery foily silver polish. The polish is quite easy to apply, however the base colour has to be completely dry. I used a coat of Seche Vite to speed up the drying process (Can you believe I don't actually own any quick drying drops?). The crackles in this worked out really well.

I passed on the OPI version of this when it came out about a month ago, but am glad that I got this one. It looks super cute over neon skittles.

Color Club Broken tokens over neon skittles - white light

Here is a thinish-medium coat of Broken Tokens over The Lime Starts Here, Raspberry Rush, Disco Dress and Age of Aquarius (All from Color Club)

These are heading into stores now. Color Clubs fraction collection will be sold in Amazon surf stores, Life pharmacies and online at www.usanailsonline.co.nz. I am pretty sure retail for these is $19.95.

Lots of Love
Lisa

This polish was sent to me for review

Sppotted in New Zealand: OPI Glam Slam + swatches

Yesterday I spotted some of the OPI Glam Slam packs at Life Pharmacy in Johnsonville. These were retailing for $44.90 at Life Pharmacy.

They had the France set which contains spark de triomphe and white shatter.

And also the New English collection, which contains Grape...set...match and Servin' up sparkle.

I had just bought this set off trademe last week and OMG it is AMAZING!!

OPI Grape...set...match - sunshine

This is an amazing purple. It is a glass effect micro shimmer polish that has pink and blue tones and is soooo deep and fascinating - you can stare at it all day long. This is 3 coats. It seems a shame that it comes with a glitter top coat in the same pack, because this beautiful purple shouldn't be covered up.

OPI Servin' up Sparkle over Grape...Set...Match - sunshine

This is two coats of Servin' up Sparkle over Grape...Set...Match. Serving up sparkle is another amazing polish. It is a clear base with little silver bits of glitter and bigger hexagon shaped silver pieces of glitter. They sparkle like little rainbows in the sun.

I have to admit that these two polishes alone could make up for some of the recent disappointments that OPI has put out lately. This is by far my favourite Glam Slam set. I wouldn't pay full retail for them though. Check out www.candygirl.co.nz which has the sets for $37.90 or MJ nail back (on facebook and trademe).

Lots of Love
Lisa

Color Club Untamed Luxury - Grey shades

The snow has stopped :(
The last snow here was yesterday afternoon. We ended up with snow for three days and it was pretty awesome. Because we never have it, I still want it to keep happening.

I thought the following polishes seem pretty appropriate for the weather outside as it is grey and yucky at the moment.

These polishes are the second half of the Color Club Untamed Luxury 7 piece Indulgence collection. You can find the first half of this collection here.

Color Club Pretty in Platinum - white light

This is a frosty white toned silver pearl. Only two coats is needed for this one. It is more shiny than it looks in this picture.

Color Club Positively Posh - white light

This is a taupe brown I can actually kind of stand. It is like a cross between a jelly and a creme polish. This is three coats as it starts of thin like a jelly. You can still see through it after three coats.

Color Club Soft as Cashmere - white light

Another jelly creme cross. This is a greige color (a cross between a grey and a beige) that is also slightly brown toned. This is three coats.

Color Club Wild Orchid - white light

This is a grey shimmer. It leans to the blue side and the shimmer definitely appears blue. This is three coats. This is my favourite of the bunch. I think its classy and great if you work in a serious work environment.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Color Club Worth the Risque + Snow!

OMG! It snowed in Wellington. I have lived my whole life here (25 years) and it has never ever snowed!

It started about 4pm on Sunday afternoon. There was still snow outside my house when I got the bus to work in the morning and then about 11am it started snowing again! It has been snowing on and off all day since.

Here is a picture of my mum and dads house.
Its about 15 minutes from where I live.
They were brave enough to go outside and take pictures.

This is a huge deal in our part of the country. The novelty has not worn off for me yet.

So to celebrate this awesome snow I just finished this mani tonight to wear to work tomorrow. By the way its going to be just as cold any yuck tomorrow....this means more snow.

Color Clubs Worth the Risque is a silver holographic from the 2009 Femme Fatal collection.

Color Club Worth the Risque - crappy indoor night time lighting

Unfortunately because it is 10pm at night you cant see the holo-y goodness that is this polish. This is two coats. Application and dry time were great. Even at night I can see the holo in this polish. It is a linear holographic, where the holo rainbows appear in lines on the nail as opposed to scattered all about.

I topped this off with some snowflakes done using Konad plate m59 and Black konad special polish. Its a shame that I only own two different snowflakes, as you end up repeating the same ones over again.

If your in New Zealand I hope you are enjoying the snow too!

Lots of Love
Lisa

Rubi Shoes Disco Nights

Rubi Shoes and Cotton On in New Zealand and Australia have bought out nail polishes to add to their clothing and shoe lines.

I have only seen about 5 colours in total. In New Zealand and Australia these polishes are retailing for $4.95 (this is pretty much the cheapest polish in the whole country). This one I actually found on sale for $2!!!! It was the only shimmer and the only one they had on sale so I bought a couple of them as extras for swaps aswell.

The bottles are exactly the same size and shape as OPI's bottles, but the label on the back says that these are 18mls. And based on the smell I can pretty much garuntee that they are not B3 Free.

Rubi Shoes Disco Night - Sunshine

Rubi Shoes Disco Night - White Light

This one appears more colour accurate to real life than the photo in the sun, but the photo in the sun shows the texture better. Turns out this polish is a foil. It is a silver that leans towards a pinky/bronzy colour. Two coats is perfect as this polish is almost a one coater with good coverage.

I am going wedding dress shopping tomorrow! I am so excited I can not wait! We have been engaged for a year and a half now so it seems like we are finally getting there being able to finally get the dress! I have no idea what will suit me yet. I have a feeling I am not going to get any sleep at all tonight!

Lots of Love
Lisa

Color Club Snakeskin

Snakeskin is one of 3 charcoal/silver polishes from the 7 piece Diamond set from the Untamed Luxury collection.

Color Club Snakeskin - light box light (I still don't know what to call this)

This one is a charcoal colour with a very fine gold shimmer running through it. This one only needs two coats and has great coverage. I find with each new Color Club collection their formulas are getting better and better. This colour does seem to fit in well with the rest of the Untamed Luxury collection - especially with the gold shimmer.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Milani 3D Holographic Collection

In November I completed my first nail polish swap with the amazing Tina aka smoochiefrog from Manicure Mommas. She very kindly sent me the Nicole Gossip Girl collection and the surprise was the whole entire Milani 3D Holographic collection. This collection consists of 6 holographic colours.

Left to Right: Milani Hi-Res, Digital, 3D, Hi-Tech, Cyberspace and HD

These polishes are AMAZING! the holographic-ness of them is awesome. They don't look that sparkly from the outside of the bottle, but once you put them on they are great! I think they are the best holographic polishes I own at the moment (better than the China Glaze OMG collection! and that is saying a lot)

Milani HD - Shade

Milani HD - Sunshine


Milani 3D - Shade

Milani 3D - Sunshine

Milani Digital - Shade

Milani Digital - Sunshine

Milani Cyberspace - Shade

Milani Cyberspace - Sunshine

Milani Hi-Tech - Shade

Milani Hi-Tech - Sunshine

Milani Hi-Res - Shade

Milani Hi-Res - Sunshine

As you can see from enlarging any of the pictures that are in the sun that these are amazing! They are still pretty in the shade though. All of these were 3 coats (except from HD which was 4 coats). Easy application with a good brush. HD could be used as a holographic topcoat as is quite sheer for the first coat/2coats.

Milani polishes are not sold in New Zealand. Your best options is to swap or buy online to get some of these.

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

Birthday NOTD - China Glaze Nova

Yesterday I turned 24.

I'm not overly excited about this. I don't feel 24. I think it has to do with the fact that I still don't have a job and still go into uni each day (I am doing work for some lecturers). By 24 my mum was married, had a house and I was already born. I don't have any of that. Sorry dont mean to get all depressed on you guys...so here was my birthday manicure.

This is 2 coats of Black, followed by two coats of China Glaze Nova.
Nova is from the China Glaze glitter range. It is in a clear base and has little and bigger bits of silver glitter. I am a fan of silver glitter because in the right light it sparkles a rainbow of colours. I like it. I cant wait to try Nova by itself, I'm just kind of put off by how many coats it may need.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Color Club Teenie Halloweenies

Halloween is not a big thing in New Zealand at all. There may be the odd halloween dress up party but it is more of an excuse for people to get drunk and dress skanky than anything else (I don't think I will be joining in at all this year). There is almost no trick-or-treating or anything like that here.

But color club does have the teenie halloweenies nail polish pack out for those in New Zealand who do want to theme their nails this year.

The pack contains 4 mini polishes. Silver glitter, French tip, orange revenge and black. These are 7mls each. I was quite surprised to see that these have good length brushes inside and not some stupid little mini brush that makes it hard to apply the polish.

Color Club - Silver Glitter, Black, French Tip and Orange Revenge - Sunshine

Theses are all 2 coats. The black is a really good one coater and the silver glitter worked really well with just two coats. All polishes were a good consistency and the white was surprisingly opaque.

The 3 colours topped with silver glitter - sunshine

The silver glitter in this pack is a clear jelly with smallish silver glitter in it. After 2 coats it gives almost complete coverage. I think it works great as a top coat on top of the other three aswell.

Color Club Wham! Pow! and Orange Revenge

Orange revenge is a dupe for Wham! Pow! from the 2010 Poptastic collection.

Unfortunately my camera refused to photograph these well at all and kept making them appear really yellow. The bottle pictures above are much more colour accurate. Both of these polishes are 2 coats and it is impossible to tell the difference between the two of them.

I think this is a great little collection for the New Zealand market. Although we are not getting the newest color club halloween collection like the rest of the world this is a great start for color club who are relatively new to the New Zealand market. These 4 packs are selling for $29.95, which is a good deal as the polishes aren't actually that small and have decent brushes with them.

Lots of Love
Lisa

These polishes were sent to me for review by the awesome people at Color Club New Zealand