A Purple Flair - Coco Allure Succulent Lustre, Orly Bubbly Bombshell

I was travelling on Wednesday and forgot my usual Thursday post last week! >_<  I'll try harder to keep to my schedule in the future!

Onwards to shiny stuff now!

[Base: Coco Allure Succulent Lustre
To the tips: Orly Bubbly Bombshell

This gradient glitter starts off with a base using Coco Allure Succulent Lustre (which I have swatched on its own here). Towards the tips, I used Orly Bubbly Bombshell. The result is just a combo of so much lovely shininess!

[Base: Coco Allure Succulent Lustre
To the tips: Orly Bubbly Bombshell]

A blurry shot just so you can see all the different glitter colours in there.

That's enough glitter for this post! :)

Camera-Shy - China Glaze Optical Illusion

A quick mid-week post! This is an old mani using China Glaze Optical Illusion from the Prismatic collection. The entire collection has a very unique look with a mixture of glitter colours and a overarching shimmer that brings each shade together. 

[Bottle to nail: China Glaze Optical Illusion]

With Optical Illusion, the dominant shimmer is a bright teal blue. The glitter is super dense and easy to apply (or so I remember! It's been a while...).

[2-3 coats(?): China Glaze Optical Illusion]

I took this photo to show the different glitter colours present in the mix. However, on the nail, you don't see each shade, it just all comes together into a silvery blue finish.

[2-3 coats(?): China Glaze Optical Illusion]

What's fun about these though, is that the shimmer is duochrome! In this case a teal to purple shift, not very clear in this photo, but you can see it in the bottle shot at the top of the post!

Like many other bloggers, I had the problem where this polish just doesn't photograph well! It looks so much better in person - a very complex and unique collection of polishes!

SquaRED - Nail Art + Born Pretty Square Nail Studs (2mm) Review

I've been experimenting a bit with nail art lately - mostly with the aim of seeing what I can get away with SUPER QUICK while still being a bit fancy. =)

[Shiny Studly Goodness...]

The Plisherrific girls were recently provided with a sample product from Born Pretty to test out and we picked out some 2mm silver square studs to play around with.

[In the bag: Born Pretty 2mm Silver Square Nail Studs]

They arrived super quick, in about 10 days to Australia. The studs were packaged in a tough ziplock bag and you get a fair amount in each bag! It may not look like much at first, but remember, they're tiny and tend to bunch up. I reckon there's upwards of 200 studs (maybe even 300?) per bag.

[Up close: Born Pretty 2mm Silver Square Nail Studs]

They are super shiny on the top, and a duller concave bottom. I think the 2mm size is the most versatile, especially with narrower nails like mine. In addition, the larger the nail stud, the more likely it is to stick out off curved nails and drop off.

So... here's what I did with them! =)

[Bottle to nail: Ulta3 Flashback Fuchsia (1 coat)]

I started with a base of Ulta3 Flashback Fuchsia. This one's a fairly old bottle, made in Australia but the colour is still vibrant and creamy. This was just one coat! +1 to speedy nail art~ =)

[1 coat: Ulta3 Flashback Fuchsia]

I wouldn't really call this fuchsia? It's more of a dusty berry shade to me, but hey, who knows what we're flashbacking too...

[Base: Ulta3 Flashback Fuchsia (1 coat); Stripe: LA Girl Blackout;
Born Pretty 2mm Silver Square Nail Stud]

After the base was dry, I painted a stripe of black just slightly off-centre using LA Girl Blackout, my go-to black creme one-coater. While this was fresh, I used a skewer and gently placed three studs in a row down the wet black polish. They stuck really well too!

[Base: Ulta3 Flashback Fuchsia (1 coat); Stripe: LA Girl Blackout;
Studs: Born Pretty 2mm Silver Square Nail Stud]

I then repeated this with all nails and briefly contemplated leaving it the way it was... but decided, a bit more pizzazz was required!

[Base: Ulta3 Flashback Fuchsia (1 coat); Stripe: LA Girl Blackout, LA Colors 24K Glitter;
Studs: Born Pretty 2mm Silver Square Nail Stud]

So I broke out the nail art striping polish in 24K Glitter by LA Colors Art Deco and painted some gold stripes overlapping the black and red.

[Base: Ulta3 Flashback Fuchsia (1 coat); Stripe: LA Girl Blackout, LA Colors 24K Glitter;
Studs: Born Pretty 2mm Silver Square Nail Stud]

I didn't even bother with topcoat initially and the studs stayed on fairly well as they are small enough to lay close to the nail surface and the edges are slightly rounded off so they don't catch on things as much. It also helps to press them firmly into wet polish so they are slightly embedded in the polish layer for extra grip.

I did end up testing what topcoat would do the the shiny studs and am happy to report that they still remain as shiny (unlike diamantes which lose facets and thus sparkle - curses!).

[GO FORTH AND SHOP... LIKE A BOSS]

These studs were provided to Plisherrific for review by Born Pretty and if you like the look of them, head over there and check them out (they are the 2mm silver square studs)! Born Pretty also stocks tons of nail art supplies and offers free shipping.

In addition, just stick in the code above to get 10% off your purchases! =) BARGAIN!

Hope you enjoyed my mini review + nail art tutorial! I'm hoping to have plenty more coming up in the next month. =)

Galactic Party - Orly Galaxy Girl, Wet n Wild Party of Five Glitters

Here's a layering combo I wore a few months ago combining a duochrome with a glitter topper.

[Base: Orly Galaxy Girl; Glitter: Wet n Wild Party of Five]

This is Orly Galaxy Girl from the Cosmic FX collection, topped with a layer of Wet n Wild Party of Five Glitters.

[Bottle to nail: Orly Galaxy Girl (3 coats)]

All the polishes from the Cosmic FX collection are absolutely gorgeous! Although some may be a bit sheer, they build up really well to opacity in thin even coats.

[3 coats: Orly Galaxy Girl]

Galaxy Girl has a plummy red-brown base with very strong teal shimmer which shifts to a bright pink at an angle. The two photos above compare the shimmer in diffuse and direct lighting.

[3 coats: Orly Galaxy Girl]

Some people have commented that it looks a bit bruise-like! I do like how the blue shimmer brightens up an otherwise dark vampy shade. I also particularly like how it's big particle shimmer (glass-fleck style) as it adds to the bling!

[Base: Orly Galaxy Girl; Glitter: Wet n Wild Party of Five]

Of course, being a bling-addict, I popped on a layer of Wet n Wild Party of Five Glitters which went unexpectedly well with Galaxy Girl! I think this level of glitter density and size variance is just perfect for a topper. =)

Also, compared to NYX Carnival and Milani Gems, WnW Party of Five Glitters is a combination of cooler colours compared to the warmer shades present in Carnival (lots of gold) and Gems (includes gold and orange). I really should get around to swatch comparisons of all the party glitter combinations I have.... =p

FavouRED - Milani Red Sparkle

I don't know if it's particularly noticeable, but over the past few months, my posts have been limited to just my usual weekly Monday post.

However, a couple of weeks ago, I passed an exciting milestone - I handed in my doctoral thesis and am officially on my way to becoming a regular working person! *gasp*

Now that I'm not immersed in writing and data analysis all day, I'm really hoping to get back on the blogging bandwagon which I admit really got dialed back while I was writing up. =)

Just to make this a plish-related post, here's one of my very favourite polishes - Milani One Coat Glitter in Red Sparkle!

[Bottle to nail: Milani Red Sparkle (2 coats)]

This is definitely in my top five, maybe even top three polishes that I own! It's just so simple, but so gorgeous. A perfect red glitter. Deep, but still bright and shiny!

[2 coats: Milani Red Sparkle]

As advertised, it's meant to be a one coat glitter, and it certainly is dense. This is two coats though, to make sure any bare patches were covered up.

[2 coats: Milani Red Sparkle]

The upper image shows Red Sparkle under diffuse light, where it appears like there are two shades of red glitter giving it gorgeous depth. The lower image is under direct light, showing the amazing shine. It tends to dry matte and is a bit of a topcoat eater though, so a generous layer of topcoat is best to show off this one!

[2 coats: Milani Red Sparkle]

I wore this mani a few weeks ago when my hunney treated me to a weekend trip to Melbourne, where lots of walking was done and delicious food was eaten! I haven't been on holiday to Melbourne since 2006, which coincidentally was where we visited on our first holiday together as well. =)

It's already gone in my thesis acknowledgements, but I'll say it here again! So much <3 to him for putting up with my thesis woes and general craziness! (...and also for bearing with the polish fumes that often waft through our house... =p)

...and that's enough for my self-indulgent post! Happy weekend, all!

Bright and Cheery - elianto S02

I was just saying to Ev that I wouldn't be buying anymore nail polish and lo and behold, here we go!

[One thick coat of elianto S02]

I found this Korean store called elianto which sells cosmetics and all sorts of pretty nail polishes! All of the plishes are made in Korea.

elianto S02 is a grassy green creme and I love it. The picture above is under indoor lighting and the colour is a tad more neon in the photo than it is in real life. The nail polish is pretty glossy even without a topcoat (only the last finger has a topcoat in the photo above). I have a neon shimmer in about the same shade and I really dislike it, but it turns out that I just needed the shade in creme. :)

[Base: elianto s02
Tips: unknown blue elianto polish]

As always, when it started chipping at the edges after a couple days, I added French tips in blue. The above picture is under indirect sunlight. The blue nail polish is from elianto too but it is without the sticker with its code! After browsing swatches online, I think it could be elianto Dodger Blue (some of their polishes have names, some have codes), but I can't be sure. :(

Both nail polishes were a little thick, but I suspect a few drops of thinner will solve that. They're rather cheap (after conversion, nearly AUD2) and have fairly nice quality. I would buy more if I had the space for much more!

Happy Birthday Daphne!

It's Daphne's birthday! This gorgeous girl is the mascot for Pretty Serious and it's her first birthday today! Kaz has created an amazing glitter polish to celebrate this but I wasn't able to join in the amazing swatch party happening today for various reasons.

I've admired Kaz's creations for a long time though and wanted to add a little something of my own just to celebrate, combining the pin-up look and a "digital swatch" of Daphne's Birthday Party! =) 

Congratulations on the milestone! Have a super duper great birthday, Daphne!

Fairy Lights - Color Club Sugar Plum Fairy

Another sparkly holographic polish that I wore a few months ago~ =) This is Sugar Plum Fairy from Color Club's Beyond the Mistletoe collection. 

[Bottle to nail: Color Club Sugar Plum Fairy (2 coats)]

Sugar Plum Fairy consists of blingy holographic glitter in a clear base. It is tinted slightly purple so you get a sort of pale lavender tinge to your holo goodness.

[2 coats: Color Club Sugar Plum Fairy]

The glitter particles are fairly large and the polish itself is pretty dense with glitter so coverage is good. The formula is slightly thick as a result but since you don't need more than two coats for maximum bling, I didn't find it a problem. It does dry gritty, and is a crazy topcoat eater!

[2 coats: Color Club Sugar Plum Fairy]

...but it's all worth it for that shiny goodness! Sorry for the tip shrinkage - I always get that the more layers of topcoat I slap on, unfortunately. Definitely a gem in a collection already full of sparkle! =)

Purple Power - Color Club Eternal Beauty, Layla Cloudy Violet

Behold! Feast your eyes on the purple madness below!

[Color Club Eternal Beauty]

Isn't it gorgeous? I'm totally in love. This is Color Club Eternal Beauty (what a terrible yet fitting name) from their Halo Hues collection. It's pure purple with a dense linear holo. The purple colour is still going strong under all that holo! Easily my current top ten nail polishes now. <3 

I also decided to compare it with Layla:

[Left: Layla Cloudy Violet
Right: Color Club Eternal Beauty]

On the left is Layla Cloudy Violet from their Hologram Effect collection (You can find a full swatch here). On the right is Color Club Eternal Beauty. Layla Cloudy Violet still wins in terms of holographic goodness, but as you can see, Color Club Eternal Beauty is not that far behind when it comes to holo density. In terms of actual colour, Cloudy Violet is more of a gray-purple while Eternal Beauty is a medium purple.

The two are different enough that you could get both. Personally, I prefer Eternal Beauty as I think it hit just the right balance of holo density versus colour.

Cherry Chocolate - Cherry O's nail transfer foil

Back when my nails were longer, I went through a phase of using nail transfer foils because it looks so much better the more of a pattern you get on your nails!

[Bottle to nail: Cherry O's nail foil]

This one is Cherry O's from Dollar Nail Art - a bright cherry red metallic foil with holographic circles all over. I won't say too much about application because most of it has already been said in previous posts. =)

[Bottle to nail: Cherry O's nail foil]

As you can tell from the comparison - the circles appear much clearer on the foil before applying to the nail. This was because the topcoat I used did result in some wrinkling in addition to removing the holo effect.

[Nail transfer foil: Cherry O's]

Here's a before and after comparison. In the first picture above, my ring finger was left without topcoat and remains quite obviously holographic. The second picture shows what the foil looks like after topcoat.

[Nail transfer foil: Cherry O's]

Although the holo was lost, I still really liked the result! Especially the slight wrinkling, strangely enough, because it gave my nails the look of foil-wrapped chocolate hearts! You know the ones... those wrapped in bright red foil. =)

I have heard the Picture Polish's new base coat works extremely well over foils without wrinkling... so I might have to pick that one up and give it a whirl sometime!

Stormy Stretch - Revlon Typhoon

In a strange twist, it's actually rather hard to find time to edit photos and post them when you're on a vacation! But I do my best!

[Revlon Typhoon]

Revlon Top Speed Typhoon is an oldie but a goodie. I dug it up in one of those places that sells really old nail polishes for a low price. This nail polish might be 10+ years old but it's still going good. If you look at the left side of the bottle in the photo above, you can see a hint of a purple shimmer. It's more obvious in person, but the purple shimmer doesn't translate at all when the polish is on nails.

[2 coats Revlon Typhoon]

Even without the purple shimmer, I quite like how Typhoon looks. It's not as metallic as the polish in the bottle might suggest, but it's a vibrant mid-blue shimmer that applies rather prettily.

On that note... I do miss how my long nails look in photos. I broke a nail more than a week ago so my nails no longer look like this sadly. :(