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

Ruby Wing Spring Garden Collection

 

The Ruby Wing Spring Garden was released mid 2013 and is a collection of six colour changing polishes that are also scented. Today I have four of this collection to show you.

Ruby Wing Cut Grass - Inside

Ruby Wing Cut Grass - Sunshine

Cut grass is a pastel green that changes to a darker dustier green in the sunshine.  While it doesn't actually smell like fresh cut glass (which the Ruby Wing website says it does), it does smell nice.  To be honest it smells like my shampoo, it is floral scented, but I cant figure out like what flower, either way it smells nicer than grass. This is two coats and the polish applies like a dream. It is not streaky at all.

Ruby Wing Fresh Linen - Inside

Ruby Wing Fresh Linen - Sunshine

This is three coats. It has the thinnest formula of this collection and unfortunately does leave streaks on the nail. This one smells fruity - a lot like lemon, but a clean flowery lemon scent.  This one changes from a shimmery slightly frosty white into a light yellow colour.

Ruby Wing Poppy - Inside

Ruby Wing Poppy - Sunshine

Poppy is a vibrant pink jelly (although not quite as neon as the above picture suggests) which changes into a deeper burgundy colour in the sun.  This is two coats which apply perfectly for full coverage. This one smells rose scented, although I suspect it is actually poppy scented.

Ruby Wing Sunflower - Inside

Ruby Wing Sunflower - Sunshine

Sunflower is the glittery polish in this collection. It is a clear base packed full of gold micro glitter. This one is interesting because the glitter doesn't change colour in the sun, but the base it is in changes from clear into a bright yellow base, which makes the glitter look yellower and more golden.  This is three coats and I was surprised to see that it did actually provide good coverage in those three coats.  This one also smells flowery and shampoo like, although I am pretty sure its not the same scent that sunflowers have.

All in all I am happy with the four polishes I have from this collection and absolutely love that they combined colour changing polishes with scented polishes.  I was wearing Cut Grass all day today, however didn't really get time to get outside (and it was horrible) weather, so I didn't actually get to see it do its magical colour change.

Lots of Love
Lisa

These polishes were provided to me for review.

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Naughty Night Shift Nurse

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Naughty Night Shift Nurse was a special polish designed for Kirsty from The Polish Haven for her birthday as a gift from her friends and released in June 2013.  Originally 100 bottles were made, and sold like crazy.  Last month though, Pretty Serious released another 100 unnumbered bottles of Naughty Night Shift Nurse. And I managed to get one!

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Naughty Night Shift Nurse - Natural Light

This is three coats. It is quite a thin polish.  It is a duochrome fuchsia with lighter iridescent flakies.
It is purple and red duochrome base with added blue shimmer that also changes to orange in the right light, with pink flakies. This is a pretty complex polish, I mean flakies and duochromatic in one bottle!

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Naughty Night Shift Nurse

This picture was taken underwater to show the colour shifts

The Polish Haven actually swatched this over black, and it makes the polish appear a lot more purple, so I am thinking of trying it out that way.  As it is not really 'me' in this form.

My sister is a nurse and I'm wondering if she would appreciate this one. But I am torn, because it is Limited Edition and I am a nail polish addict, and she is not.

Lots of Love

Lisa

piCture pOlish Mellow Yellow and Ozotic 904

Wow, it has been a while. How are you all doing?
Life has been busy and my nails have been crap, although that did not stop me buying more polishes that I didn't need. My nails were still polished, but it is hard to blog in Winter because I cant take decent pictures and Id rather not blog than show you guys crap.
But it was ok-ish weather over the weekend, so I managed to do some swatching.  My nails still aren't as great as I would like. I am trying Seche Rebuild at the moment, so we will see how that goes.

I am on a massive pastel kick at the moment.  Today I have some pastel yellow polishes to show you.

piCture pOlish Mellow Yellow - Natural Light

piCture pOlish Mellow Yellow - Sunshine

This is three coats of Mellow Yellow, however this is thick enough to easily get away with two coats. It is a nice pastel yellow that applies well, even though it is thick, it doesn't leave dodgy brush marks. I am a fan of piCture pOlishes, however I really dislike their brushes. The fibres in them seem to stick together and not spread over the nail easily (just my opinion).

Ozotic 904 over piCture pOlish Mellow Yellow - Natural Light

Ozotic 904 over piCture pOlish Mellow Yellow - Sunshine

Ozotic 904 is the yellow polish from the 2012 Sugar collection. This is a canary yellow that is full of little glass flecks.  This is one coat over Mellow Yellow. 904 is actually slightly duochromatic switching from yellow to green in the correct light.  Its hard to see over the top of yellow, but layered over black really pops.

Hopefully I can get this blog back on track. Wish me luck.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Can anybody help?

I am the biggest Disney Fan ever!

We don't really get Nicole by OPI polishes in New Zealand and I am in love with the new Tink collection.

Would anyone be able to get me two sets of this collection? I can pay for it and also swap if needed.

Please email me at lnlankshear4@hotmail.com if you can help. Thanks!

Picture from Frazzle and Aniploish

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