Hits- Hera and a giveaway by Polish Monster

Back with just a swatch today and an exiting giveaway by Diana over at The Polish Monster. On a related note, I got my very first package from llarowe and they're holos! I've been creeping on their page for months, waiting for Hera from the Hits No Olympo collection to come back into stock. So, naturally, when it finally did I had to grab it, along with Ludurana Aurora Boreal Notavel. I was so exited when I got it I had to swatch right away, and this is the result, I apologize in advance for my picture spam but I just couldn't do this polish justice. 

Hera is an emerald green linear holo, with maybe just a touch of blue. And let me tell you, this holo   glows.

I have a thing for dark green nail polish, I don't know why, but it just calls to me. And, whilst Hera isn't exactly a dark green it more than fits the bill. I used two coats for the photos, but the second was more to even out my mistakes than anything. I also took the photos at night under artificial light, so I really had no chance of catching the holo in it's true glory. 

This was the best photo of the holo effect I could get out of the bottle, but in real life this polish just comes to life. Even in low light you still get little glows and flashes of rainbow. 

The only thing I really had any trouble with was the brush and the shape of the bottle. I was so scared that I was going to knock the long skinny bottle over every time i went to wipe off my brush, although thats more a comment on the packaging than the actual polish. 

Also, as I mentioned at the start of the post, The Polish Monster is having a 50 follower giveaway! She is offering up some amazing polishes, like floam, jawbreaker and bubble tea! I know it would really mean allot to her if you took the time to look at her blog (she does some amazing swatches and art) and give yourself the chance to win those amazing prizes!

Again a big congratulations to Diana, and maybe one day I'll get to do a giveaway (I already have some polishes in mind...) So anyways, as always thanks for taking the time to look at my little corner of the internet, any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated. 

Over The Top?

Ok so the first question I have to ask about this manicure is, too much? 
It seemed like a good idea in theory, but when I see it in person it seems, just well, tacky... 
But like most manicures it's growing on me over time.

I used two coats of China Glaze- Sweet Hook for the base, then I waited a couple of hours before taping off the tips. 

After a quick couple of coats of Hello Kitty- Violet Salome I used Sweet Hook and Maybelline- Onyx Rush for the leopard print. Only problem is I got a little overexcited, and did the rhinestones with a coat of Seche Vite before I cleaned up my cuticles, and didn't want to have to risk them all falling off afterwards. 

Anyways here it is, any comments are appreciated, thanks for looking.

China Glaze- Kinetic Candy

A while ago I got the China Glaze Electropop collection (a little late I know) and I still hadn't swatched any of them. So I finally decided to swatch my favorite of the collection- Kinetic Candy.



I know they're crappy webcam photos but a friend is borrowing my normal camera for a trip, and this is the best I've got for now. These photos don't really do it justice, but Kinetic Candy is a very light dusty blue with a green tinge, almost verging on mint. 


It reminded me of the bluebird eggshells we find in our garden, which is very fitting considering it's part of the spring collection.

I had to play around with the colours and tones a bit to try get the colour right, and in real life its allot lighter than this, although somehow this picture seems to get the colour just right. This is two coats of Kinetic Candy over SV ridge filler and one coat of SV topcoat. I'd been wearing it for three dyas already when I took the photos and so far it's lasted really well other than the tiniest bit of tipwear which you can see on my ring finger. 

 The only other wear I got was a massive chip on my thumbnail, but thats mostly because I have a break starting, and I've been trying to hold off the inevitable with copious amounts of nail polish until my repair kit arrives. This picture is a little more true to life than the last, thanks to some very inventive lighting using the torch app on my phone... Anyways overall good formula, went on a little thin the first coat but evened out by the second. Great wear time for me (my polish doesn't normally last long thanks to the nature of my work) and a very pretty color. 
Anyway, any comments or suggestions always appreciated, and thanks again for reading. 

Feather Nails

Soo today I decided to try the feather nails trend that I've been seeing around, and they were easier than I expected (yay).

I have to say, I am OBSESSED with this look, and whats not to love. It almost looks like a very cool water marble...















I used two coats of Revlon Gold Coin with top coat in between to stop it from streaking as a base. Then I put a thin layer of top coat on, and let it dry for a few seconds until it got tacky, before putting the feathers on and cutting of the ends. I put another layer of top coat over the feathers, and once that was dry I trimmed off the remaining loose ends, and covered them with a second layer of top coat to finish.


Here it is again with flash, and seeing it like this makes me think... how cool would this look if you could buy little tiny peacock feathers? I know there are stamps and a couple of people have hand painted them on, but none can really beat the real thing.

Anyways, thats all for now, comments or suggestions or anything are all much appreciated, thanks for looking at my small corner of the internet.

Black Glitter Gradient

Ok so today I found a hidden gem. I was walking around my local Priceline today and I found this for just $10! Now I know its probably more suiting for a 14th birthday present, and I'm trying to cut down on my polish spending, but I just couldn't help myself...



It comes it 3 polishes, a topcoat, a cuticle tool, a combined nail file/buffer, toe separators, diamontes, 2 glitters, and some manicure ideas that I'll try later.



I started off with the gold polish as a base, I have better gold polishes but this one was there and I figured why not. Its a fine, light gold foil. It goes on easy enough, I used two coats with a coat of top coat in between to try even out the imperfections. However it does go on a little streaky and uneven, but nothing too major.


For the glitter I used the black one that came with the pack. Whilst in the pot it comes across as black with a little shimmer, it translates to the nail a fairly solid, and I'm yet to see a sparkle from it.

So here it is, I used my base coat bottle for the pictures because the gold bottle was too small and it looked better, that and it was just convenient. Sorry for the pic heavy post but I do just love this manicure.









I did two coats of the gold, then put the top coat that came with the pack unevenly over the tips of my nails, and used my fan brush to get the glitter on. Then I did 2 coats of Seche Vite and cleaned up.


And here it is again with flash. The gold in and of itself isn't all that shiny or metallic, but I think that look almost works with the flatness of the glitter. And I do know that my middle finger nail is shorter than all the others, I had a bit of a break that I couldn't save, and since my nails fall apart at the mention of acrylic nails, I decided to just leave it short and let it grow out.










(this is the last pic I swear) Anyways Just thought I'd do a post, as always thoughts and comments are always appreciated, hope you enjoyed, and I'll post again soon. xx

Hello Kitty- Violet Salome

Hi again, sorry it's been a little while since I've posted, I did do myself a skittles manicure in the last few days, but not only did I not have time to blog it, I didn't really like it, a bit to bright with my skin tone... Anyways, Today I swatched a new polish that I got about a week ago. 

Violet Salome comes from a collection of polishes that have shown up at my local pharmacy this week. Whilst the rest of the collection is fairly basic (pinks, yellows, nothing special) this polish really caught my eye. 

On the face of it Violet salome looks like either a very fine purple glitter or a foil, the glitter is just big enough so that it sits somewhere in between. 

The flash does this polish a little more justice as to what it really looks like. Its very bright, and I think i could qualify it as a glitter, just on the shine factor.

What really caught my eye about this polish was how it looks in the bottle, it has this amazing holo-ey effect where it changes from purple to gold to green to blue, and it looks truly AMAZING in the bottle... much to my depression the effect does not translate to the nail nearly as much as I would have liked. 

However that is not to say it does not translate at all, after much (much) photographing at all different angles and lights (I even held a torch in my mouth to try get it right) I finally managed to get some pictures that show the holo effect in the nail. 

Its very subtle, this polish is all purple until suddenly the right light hits it and you see flashes of yellow, I havent really seen any green or blue yet though, which is kinda sad. 
The formula was pretty good, this is two coats over a base. The first coat goes on pretty thin, and it looks like its gonna be a massive multi coater, but bu the second coat it evens out opaque. 


Anyways thats my most for today, any comments or anything are appreciated, hope you enjoyed :)

PS. sorry for the pic-heavy post

Orly- Fifty-four over Maybelline- Onyx Rush

I'll admit it, this polish was really an impulse buy. I had never seen it swatched, it is heinous in the bottle, but who can turn down Orly for $4.99? Despite it looking a cloudy orangy colour in the bottle, sprinkled through with hot pink and a little bit of yellow shimmer, this polish is a hidden gem. At first I thought it was supposed to be used on its own, but when i swatched it on a nail wheel, I realised it was supposed to be a shimmer topcoat, and the cloudy orange doesn't show up outside the bottle. So I decided it would show up over Maybelline- Onyx Rush. 

Front on, it shows up as a black with a slight shimmer, but black and dark colours always seem to show up how pale I am, and I feel like they look good on everyone but me. 

Close up you can see the goldy kind of shimmer mixed in with the pink, where from most angles it shows up either hot pink, or a deep wine colour. 

The flash shows what t looks like most of the time when the light hits it, more of a purple than a pink. 

Anyways, as much as I like this shimmer, I feel like It would look allot better (at least with my skin tone) over a darker pink, or any lighter colour really, suggestions will be appreciated on that but anyways. 

Take a look, I hope this helps or you like the colour, any suggestions for anything you want me to swatch or try do (as long as its not too hard) I'll listen to. I'm hoping to upload a list of my collection (I haven't managed to swatched them all yet, so I don't know what they are all like in person.