SV by Sparkly Vernis in Cotton Candy Sugar

Today I am wearing SV by Sparkly Vernis in Cotton Candy Sugar. I brought this for US$13.99 from www.llarowe.com 

 This is a super holographic polish in a lilac shade.

  

It took just 2 coats, and I loved it on my nails. I used Seche Vite as top coat, which just added to the sparkle. 

 

By the third day, I didn't want to take it off. So I pulled out A-England Crown of Thistles to do some stamping on top. Given that Crown of Thistles is a holographic polish as well, I thought they would go nicely together.

I used MoYou London Fashionista plate number 9. I don't think Crown of Thistles is opaque enough to stamp with, but I did enjoy the end result.

A-England Crown of Thistles

Today I am wearing UK brand A-England in the shade Crown of Thistles. I’m obsessed with this polish! I love purple, it’s my favourite colour, and this polish certainly doesn’t disappoint!

 

This is almost a one coater. I did do 2 coats for this mani.

It’s a lovely purple, with a pink sparkle hidden throughout. Most call it a holographic polish, and in certain lights it does look like it could be. A-England call it “Amethyst hue with a clearly visible and a hybrid defined/ scattered prismatic effect.”

Essie Sssssexy - Magnetic polish

This is Essie Sssssexy, a magnetic polish with a snake skin magnet. The formula is thick but easy to use. It can be used as just a polish, with needing only 1 coat.

Essence L.O.L (138)

A more cheaper cosmetic brand Essence, is a European company which has been making its way into country’s around the world for the last several years. Australia have had Essence in the Priceline and Target stores for years now. Finally in 2014 New Zealand has been able to purchase the cosmetics through random Farmer stores, and the odd random shop around the country.

I have recently brought a few of the Essence Nail polish via a Auckland store through their website - http://pricewisedirect.co.nz  Essence main line of polish is $3.60 NZ (30ish polishes), with their Effect polish being $4.50 NZ. All Essence polishes are 8ml. It also has a 3 year expiry date which is more than some brands which only have 2 years.

Today I am wearing a bold lime green call L.O.L (138). 2 coats and a really good dry time. Good constancy. Brush was nice and easy to use. For being so cheap, you could be forgiven for thinking that like other cheap brands, there would be that classic strong polish smell. But there wasn’t any offense smell with this polish.

 

While I love the polish by it’s self, I’m always looking for ways to give a manicure a little something extra with nail art. Usually I use glitter, water marbling or stamping. Today I chose to use water decals. I choose a water marble decal I brought from the Born Pretty Store which was quite close in colour to the polish. Perhaps too close in colour. Either way, I love how it turned out. The polish needs to be a shade or too lighter for the decal to stand out more, but I’m really happy with the result.

OPI Romantically Involved

I wanted to try some of the new polishes from OPI. I choose OPI Romantically Involved from the Fifty Shades of Grey collection, and Sally Hansen White On. I also wanted to see how they both stamped, so I used MoYou London Princess series Stamp 14.

Romantically Involved is a 2 coater. It’s a deep red, not orange or blue based at all. It was a great polish to stamp with. Way better than Sally Hansen White On was.

SinfulColors Nice Stems

Today I am wearing SinfulColors in Nice Stems.

This is a nice cream formula, and I needed just 2 coats to become opaque. I decided not to do any nail art for this mani.

I would recommend this polish to everyone. It is about $5 in Kmart New Zealand, and even cheaper in other parts of the world. I will have to see how this water marbles, as I feel it maybe great for that as well.

Sally Hansen Bandage

Today I am wearing Sally Hansen Bandage. This is a nude colour nail polish. I used 2 thick coats to get full opacity.

As the colour was a bit too brown for my skin tone, so I decided to add some red hex glitter to the outside edge.

I quite like the combination. I was tossing up on whether to use blue or green glitter, but I’m glad I went with the red glitter instead.

Downside will be when I take it off and the glitter remains behind.:)

China Glaze It's A Trap-eze

Today I am wearing Sally Hansen White On, with China Glaze It's A Trap-eze from the Cirque du Soleil collection.

I decided to use White On as a base as even though the It's A Trap-eze has a white base, it appeared quite gray in the bottle and I wanted the glitter to stand out more.

The polish drys matte, and is very rough due to the touch which I covered with a thick top coat.

I might try this polish over other base colours to see how it looks. Gray would go quite nicely I think.

China Glaze Gold Fusion

Today I am wearing China Glaze Gold Fusion.

This is from their Magnetix line, but I just used this as a normal nail polish today. As it is a lot thicker from their normal formula, you just need the one coat.

To spice the look up, I used a nail foil of gold base with black dots which is a Leopard print. I got this foil from the www.dollarnailart.com for a $1 and the glue for $1.50.

This product is really easy to apply. Once the nail polish is dry, paint a layer of glue on the nail. The glue is iridescent and it dries clear. You place the foil on the nail, and rub until all of the pattern transfers from the plastic onto the nail.

One problem with most nail foils, is that once the pattern in on the nail, you need to top coat the nail to ensure the foil doesn't come off. The top coat, or any nail polish really, a reaction occurs where the foil will crinkle. A trick I've learned, is to place a layer of glue on top of foil as a 'sealant' before top coat. This helps with the crinkling but doesn't eliminate it completely.

 

OPI Suzi’s Hungary Again!

Today I am wearing Suzi’s Hungary Again! from the Euro Centrale collection.

Suzi’s Hungary Again! is a coral pink which is almost a neon pink polish. You can get away with 2 coats if you are careful with the application, but I had to do 3 to make it opaque. The formula is runny, so you do have to watch how much you load onto the brush otherwise it is easy to flood the nail.

For me, this polish was ok to start with, but I really loved it once it had dried on the nail. I thought it was just another pink, but it is so much more than that. I’m loving it!

OPI Moonraker

 Today I am wearing OPI Moonraker from the Skyfall James Bond Collection.

It is a metallic grey with a thin formula. If you have any imperfections in your nails, they will be shown up by the polish. Looking around online, I have found that this is one of those polishes that you either love or hate.. I will have to try to do nail art with it to see how it preforms, and decide if I like it or love it.

When I first swatched it, I thought it could be a dupe for OPI Push and Pull, or OPI My Signature is "DC". However comparing them side by side, I can tell that they are very different.

To add something extra to the look, I placed a single black hex glitter at the base of each nail. Sometimes I think the polish just needs something extra special.

Girly Bits Cosmetics - Conga

Today I have a lovely polish to review. It is from Indi Company called Girly Bits Cosmetics in the shade Conga. You can buy direct from their website, www.girlybitscosmetics.com or from other international sites. I picked mine up from www.harlowandco.org for $11.50 Canadian. I had to wait for 6 weeks for the polishes to arrive to New Zealand, so I’m not sure I would purchase through Harlow again as 6 weeks.

The polish is described as “Conga is an aqua crelly base with neon pink and white squares, lavender and teal hexes, plus aqua and white dots”. I was surprised by how much of the glitter bits I was able to get on the brush, and transfer to the nail. By not having to fish for the glitter bits makes this polish much more enjoyable to apply.

The white round glitter and the large square pink glitter are large, and did stick up off the nail. I used Seche Vite as a top coat, and I applied 2 layers before I was happy with the glitter not being felt on the nail. If you don’t mind the texture of the glitter on the nail, just one layer of top coat will be fine.

One thing I would do differently would be to put a base coat of another polish underneath which closely matches the crelly base colour.  Or even a white polish base would work. This would reduce the amount of layers of Conga you would have to have before you couldn’t see the nail line of your nail.

You get 0.5fl. oz/15ml of polish, which is a good size for a polish. It will defiantly last a while. The polish is also unique enough that you would be hard pressed to find another polish with the same glitters in it.