Australian Series: Glitter Gal - Black Holographic

Hi everyone~ One of my biggest lemming since discovering holographic nail polish is to find a black shade. I have since learned that the original OPI My private jet is a black holo but is unfortunately sold at insanely inflated prices. Color Club Revvvolution is a pretty charcoal holo which remains to be my favourite holographic polish. However, it's not black and darn it, I want black! And finally, I received Glitter Gal Black in the mail. It's such a beautiful sunny day that I finally decided to wear the pretty that is Black.

I took too many photos and couldn't decide which ones to post so there's a light spammage of black holo goodness! :) All were taken under direct sunlight unless otherwise stated.

I applied two coats of Black onto my nails and finished with a top coat. The polish was slightly thick and is really opaque. If you're careful, you can definitely get away with one and save on the precious polish.

Blurry shot to really show off the scattered holographic effect.

Indoors, under natural light. It's not much when it's not directly under the sun, but I still love it :) And oops, my top coat is so glossy that my nails reflected my top :P I didn't realise this until I uploaded the photo!

And back under the sun. Oh Black, how I adore thee. It's black, it's holographic and just look at the rainbow of colours ♥

Glitter Gal 3D Holographic nail polishes retail for $11.95. Each bottle contains 9mL of polish, which may not seem like a lot for the price - however, true holographic particles are used in their formula. Kerry from Glitter Gal sent me the below information to explain this.

We use “true” holographic particles in our formulation. This one ingredient is 30 times more expensive than any other nail polish ingredient. Thus making our holographic nail polish the highest quality possible. You will notice the smoothness to the finish of polish, and reflective effects are amazing. They are also the “Big 3 Free”.

Many other companies have tried create holographics, but use the more affordable ingredients, which don’t give the polishes the same effect, we didnt want to compromise on quality and wanted to deliver to our customers a true holographic formulation. I hope this helps.

Glitter Gal nail polishes are available online at www.glittergal.com.au and they ship internationally! :) Australian stores such as The Perfume Connection also stock the brand. For more information of stockists both internationally and within Australia, check out the stockist page.

What do you think of Glitter Gal nail polishes? Do share if you've tried them before :)

Australian Series: BYS Colour Change nail polish

Hi everyone :) I'm really excited to share with you my experience with mood polishes - or as BYS calls them, colour change nail polish. The most awesome Director Dave over at Fashion Addict was kind enough to provide the Colour Change collection for a review. However, as my nails can only stand so much nail polish remover, I have decided to split this into two posts. Part 2 will hopefully be up shortly!

As it is winter here right now, my hands were seriously freezing when I swatched this; hence I had to run them under warm water to get the colour change. So, first photo shows the cold shade and the following will show the warm shade and/or changing back to cold. I applied two coats in all photos. Also, all the polishes dried to a satin finish so they all have a top coat over them.

The first polish I have for you is Salmon. This was a surprise for me. I didn't think I would like it from the bottle but I really loved the look of it on my tips!

Royal Blue was a stunner. Love it, love it, love it! Blues are seriously growing on me so much. Why ever did I not like them before?! :O

My index and middle finger show the warmer shade while the other two show the cooler and darker shade.

Blue was definitely a polish which requires three coats. It's not as obvious in real life, but you can see how patchy it is at two coats, especially when it's changed to the warmer and lighter colour in the second photo.

Bright purple. Ahhh, what a stunner. It's beautiful, gorgeous, magnificent and look at that shimmer! So, so pretty <3

Love the gradation effect on this the best! The colours go so well together :)

As you can see, it's helpful to have longer nails when wearing these polishes to see the full and grand effect of the colour change. They provide such a fun and easy alternative to gradation nails :). BYS Colour Change nail polishes are available online at www.fashionaddict.com.au for only $4.95 a bottle. Fashion Addict ships internationally - how awesome is that? Now all nail polish fanatics are able to get their hands on these polishes.

What do you think of mood/colour change nail polishes? Do you have any favourites from the BYS collection?

Sweet peacock

Hi everyone ^^ Today I have the prettiest blue polish I have come across, maybe only coming second just a tad behind Zoya Crystal :P Another blue polish which has changed my view of my tips in blue - I love it! Orly Sweet Peacock is from the Birds of a Feather collection and is a bright blue polish which covered exceptionally well. I was surprised since this is a foil polish, but it was wonderfully opaque in one coat! I did two below though, only because I'm used to applying two.

I love the silver flecks peeking through the vibrant blue shade - it's definitely not something I own already in my stash!

The entire Birds of a Feather collection is now available in Australia and can be purchased from selected salons and pharmacies, or online at http://www.orlybeauty.com.au/. Orly nail polishes retail for $18.95 in Australia.

Weekly Nail Blog Round Up

Hello :) Here's the round up for this week!

I got my hands on a cool Orly flaky http://polishinfatuated.blogspot.com/2011/07/orly-fowl-play.html

The Nail Addict was feeling lovey dovey this week http://thenailaddict.blogspot.com/2011/07/love-nails.html

Claire’s got twinkly fingers this week http://toptwentynails.blogspot.com/2011/07/opis-good-mandarin-is-hard-to-find-with.html

Sarah used her plates to create this celtic knot manicure http://spellbindingnails.blogspot.com/2011/07/big-sdp-f-golden-celtic-design.html

Jen got her party nails sorted with a holographic from Claire’s http://moondancerjen.blogspot.com/2011/07/party-nails.html

Lady Luck missed you http://ladyluckbeauty.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-miss-you-pink-radiance.html

Grace showed us some of the new OPI nice Stems collection http://ooooohpretty.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-opi-summer-colours.html

Stacie freehanded some roses http://kawaiinailart.blogspot.com/2011/07/pink-roses-on-baby-blue-nail-art.html

Have an awesome weekend - I know I'm looking forward to mine for some much needed rest!
~Sharon

Australian Series: A bit of drag marbling

Hi everyone~ This mani was initially meant to be a water marble but the nail polish refused to work together and so after spending ages finishing one hand, I gave up and decided to drag marble instead. I don't know why I didn't do this in the first place, it's so much easier and the polish shades worked really well together! Below I have two thick coats of Australis Peek-a-boo, a beautiful blue-toned pastel purple. I then added three dots of Ulta3 gold rush fever to drag marble with. I love how well the purple and gold shades came together ♥

Peek-a-boo is slightly thicker than other polishes but since it's so opaque, you can really get away with one coat if you're careful with application. Gold rush fever isn't a gold I would normally wear on its own, only because it'll clash horribly with my skin tone. Marbled with purple though, it looks amazing. I never knew gold and purple would look so well together. I'm definitely going to try more combinations of them in the future! :)

Australis nail polish retail for $7.95 and can be purchased at Big W, Kmart, Priceline and Target. Ulta3 nail polish are available at Terry White Chemists, Blooms the Chemist, Good Price Pharmacy and other selected pharmacies.

Ahh, I love how much simpler drag marbling is compared to water marbling. What do you think of it? Have you tried it before?

~Sharon

Products provided for review. For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Orly - Fowl play

Hello~ From Orly's Birds of a Feather collection, I bring to you Fowl play. This is a delicious red based purple with lots of small flakey particles suspended in it. Flakey!!!! :D Shown below is two coats. I found the polish thick and harder to work with, but the end result definitely makes up for it. Be sure to wait between coats when applying as this will prevent dragging and bald patches. I'm sad we didn't have any sunlight to photograph this lovely in, I'll be sure to sport this when the sun makes an appearance again :)

As you may have noticed, Fowl play looks suspiciously similar to OPI Merry midnight, which was released in 2009 as part of their holiday collection. It has since become a HTF polish - sad, because I've had such major lemmings for it. I don't own Merry midnight so I can't say with 100% confidence that Fowl play is a dupe for it, but they definitely look very, very similar!

I think my lemming's satiated anyhow. Who cannot love this baby - purple and flakey? I'm officially in love ♥

Fowl play and the rest of the polishes from the Birds of a Feather collection are now available in Australia. You can purchase them from selected salons and pharmacies, or online at http://www.orlybeauty.com.au/. Orly nail polish retail for $18.95 in Australia.

What do you think of this beauty?

~Sharon

Product sent for review. For more information, view my disclosure policy.

My nail polish stash - take #2!

Hey everyone~! I went out to buy a new container to hold my nail polishes in since my old one was overfilling - I actually had to keep nail polish on my desk because I couldn't fit any more into it :P I thought it'd be nice to share my stash again (you can view my first one here) - I think my polish collection has grown by around 60 bottles. It's not much by blogger standards, but considering I never meant to become a hoarder (I like being picky, it's better for my wallet :P), I think it's grown considerably. Especially since it's been just a little under 6 months only!

Here's all my nail polish together in a heap. I've always wanted to do that, haha :D It was totally coincidental, but I love how the Arezia polish is right at the top of the pile - it's the polish that started this infatuation ♥

As usual, all my photos are clickable to be viewed in higher definition. I purposely left some of them larger this time :)

Now they're all grouped by brand; see the Australian-European-Asian polish army versus the US ones? :P (Ahh, I didn't realise I had placed the Essence nail polish on the wrong side - traitors!)

Breaking it down~

If you want to know the names of the polish, just let me know! Or, you can check out my spreadsheet here, which I've updated :)

China Glaze

Zoya

Orly

Color Club

OPI

Essie, Finger Paints, Misa, Nicole by OPI, Nubar
I totally need two bottles of Nubar 2010 - I was lucky enough to win one from a giveaway after I had just bought one. Normally I hate having two of the same polishes but I love my flakies so, so much <3

Claires, Jordana, L.A. Colors, Sinful Colors

Maybelline, Revlon, Rimmel

Essence, Sally Hansen

Alessandro, Arezia, Eclipse, Golden Rose

Ulta3
By far, the most number of polishes I have in a brand. I keep harping on about this, but really, Ulta3 polishes are the cheapest you can find in Australia. Seriously, $2.25 a bottle? *dies* And I love bin diving :)

Australis, Face of Australia

Le Beauty, Mode Cosmetics, Sportsgirl

Chi Chi, DB by Savvy, Glitter Gal, mwah, TBN

BYS

And finally sorted into the new container. Look at how much free space there is! :D Need to fill it all up now, hehe. Left = polishes purchased in Australia/Hong Kong. Right = polishes purchased online - ie. not readily available for me :(

Before & After~ I had already taken some polishes out of the first container cos they just wouldn't fit :P

Phew, that was a whole lotta photos - all 184 bottles in my stash. Hope I didn't kill your bandwidth :P

~Sharon