Pretty Toxic - Pahlish Chemical Swirl

Not the best of pictures, but I really like Pahlish's Chemical Swirl too much not to show them on my previously long nails! So here are some photos, taken on my phone while standing in the sun obviously.

[3 thin coats of Pahlish Chemical Swirl]

Isn't it lovely? Oh, I wish I had better photos to show off this nail polish. This is Chemical Swirl on its own, no base, and no need to fish for glitter. The base is a purple creme and there's this insane assortment of glitter. I can't even describe them all because I could be here all day listing them. There are also holo-ish glitter in the mix, which adds to the pretty.

[3 thin coats of Pahlish Chemical Swirl]

This last picture doesn't capture the base colour accurately. It looks like a dark jelly glitter, when the base is more creme-like (while still not covering the glitter completely). But you can see a little of the fine silver-blue holo glitter in the base, adding a little bit of a shimmer (though the microglitter is a bit big and not dense enough to be a real shimmer).

All in all, if you're a purple lover and a glitter lover, I think you'll want this one in your collection!

Teal Spin - Sally Hansen The Real Teal, Milani One Coat Glitter Teal

Just a simple mani today featuring a teal-themed glitter gradient. =)

[Base: Sally Hansen The Real Teal; Glitter: Milani One Coat Glitter in Teal]

I started with a base of Sally Hansen The Real Teal, which is a teal(!!) creme/shimmer. Formula was great, I can't quite remember how many coats I used, but definitely not more than two, most likely just one. A good consistency and opacity as well.

[Base: Sally Hansen The Real Teal; Glitter: Milani One Coat Glitter in Teal]

I then swiped a coat of Milani One Coat Glitter in Teal (wow, imaginative!) from the cuticle side, about halfway down the nail. This is one of my favourite glitter polishes to play around with and consists of a mix of large green, blue and silver holo hexes, with lots of tiny blue glitter pieces.

Don't really have that much to say about this mani! I think it would have been nice with a matte topcoat as well!

Glittering Green - J.Cat Beauty Kiwi Sparkle

This isn't a new brand but it's the first time I've seen J.Cat Beauty being sold in Sydney (at Haymarket) and I want to buy so many of their colours, ahaha!

[J.Cat Beauty Kiwi Sparkle]

Isn't the bottle pretty? I quite like its shape, and how it's different enough that you can distinguish it from the other brands. Plus, it feels solid. I like the little cat logo in its name as well.

Some of the colours they have are very similar to Sinful Colors' range so I was wondering if they were sister companies of sorts, but looking at both their websites, there seems to be no connection.

[3 coats: J.Cat Beauty Kiwi Sparkle]

Here's the first colour I tried out from them. This is called Kiwi Sparkle, and it's glitter bomb consisting of green and gold glitter. I didn't use any coloured base coat, so I was impressed that I could reach full opacity in three thin coats. I did miss a little of my tips in some areas, but considering the length of my nails and that the bald spots are barely visible, I think that's pretty good.

The polish itself is a little thick, but it wasn't hard to handle. All in all, it delivered in glitter and I quite like this new, affordable brand to add to my collection. :)

Candy Yum Yum - Femme Fatale Cosmetics Sweet Surprise

Femme Fatale Cosmetics Sweet Surprise is one of the best jelly and glitter combinations I've ever had the pleasure of owning! I love everything about it - the jelly consistency, the glitter shape and colour combinations.

[Bottle to nail: Femme Fatale Sweet Surprise (2 coats)]

Sweet Surprise was one from the Valentine's day trio if I remember correctly. It's definitely a sweeeet polish - a pale cool pink with several colours, shapes and sizes of glitter. My favourite part is the neon coral (?) bar glitter! That, in combination with the purple hexes just adds that something extra to this polish.

[2 coats: Femme Fatale Sweet Surprise]

I think this is 2 thick coats for opacity, but you could probably do three thin ones if you prefer. I'm always very impressed when the jelly base is thin enough to show the glitter underneath, while allowing for opacity. It looks a bit like the bar glitter is sticking out in this photo, but I had no problem getting a smooth finish with one thick layer of topcoat.

[2 coats: Femme Fatale Sweet Surprise]

I have so far been generally quite impressed with all the Femme Fatale polishes I own. In terms of density, complexity, interesting colour and shape mixes, these polishes are up there. There have been one or two disappointments where I found a teensy bit of curling (taco glitter) happening, but generally I adore them!

Toastie Toes - Pedi-Sox Ultra Baby Leopard

You might have seen reviews of Pedi-Sox floating around and I'm going to add my two cents to the pool! What you'll see here is Ultra Pedi-Sox in Baby Leopard.

AND FEET! WARNING, YOU WILL SEE FEET OMG! Well, mostly toes, but you get my drift. It's not something you often see on this blog so I thought I should include a warning. :P

It comes in rather nifty packaging.

The website describes Ultra Pedi-Sox as:

Luxuriate....."Extend the Pleasure of the Pedicure Experience"™. Rich caressing luxury stylish & contemporary yarns are Ultra Thick  for cozy goodness.... Ultra Soft for comfy pleasure.....and Ultra Massaging to soften skin deliciously.  Ultra Pedi-Sox™ Ultra Luxury.

Why, yes, I do have pajamas pants that match the socks! :P  It was a real lovely and amusing coincidence that I was wearing this pair during this review, I promise you.

Now, it's winter here in Australia right now and it's c-c-c-cooold. I'm very precious about having literal cold feet so I don't often do a pedicure during winter. I can't tell you if wearing Ultra Pedi-Sox after moisturising my feet has helped soften my skin, since it's been too short a time since I started using this to really tell. But it has done wonders to keep my feet warm!

When I paint my toenails during winter, I usually just suffer with cold feet until my nail polish dries. A few times, I have jumped into sock/slippers anyway before my painted toenails completely dried and ended up with a ruined pedi. After the first 15 minutes of wear, Pedi-Sox does keep your feet warm despite the exposed toes. My little toes are strangely short so they look almost hidden here but the socks are actually just right to paint all the nails no problem.

Because it's rather tightly elasticised, there's no slippage when wearing the Pedi-Sox and walking around with them on. I had these on for a few hours with no issues.

The nail polish I'm wearing is by indie seller Shimmer and it's called Karen. It is super, super shiny and pretty on the toenails! I'll review it properly one day. :)

Stay tuned as we'll do a giveaway of Pedi-Sox soon!

And thank you to Pedi-Sox for sending this to me for review!

Blast Off - Color Club Wish List Red, LA Girl Animate

There's nothing quite like a bright red polish to brighten up your paws, I reckon! Here's a glitter layering combination I used a few months ago~ =)

[Like rubies on your fingers...]

All the twinkly glowy brightness! I had to use direct rather than diffuse light because the soft light took all the sparkly goodness away...

[Bottle to nail: Color Club Wish List Red (2 coats)]

The base was Color Club Wish List Red, a super bright red jelly with matching microglitter, much along the lines of China Glaze Ruby Pumps, but much much bolder. Perfect formula, this was two coats.

[Bottle to nail: LA Girl Animate (1 coat) over Color Club Wish List Red]

I then put a layer of LA Girl Glitter Addict in Animate over the top. Animate is a combination of large and tiny red hex glitter. I find the LA Girl Glitter Addict collection perfect for layering over matching colours. They're definitely meant as a topper though!

[Base: Color Club Wish List Red (2 coats); Glitter: LA Girl Animate (1 coat)]

You can see the glitter particles much clearer under diffuse lighting.

[Base: Color Club Wish List Red (2 coats); Glitter: LA Girl Animate (1 coat)]

But generally, it's just a super cheerful party happening on your nails. A simple fail-safe combination, in my books!

Sweet Summer Shades - Alanna Renee Mardi

I rarely wear pink, but I quite like this pink mani! The title is rather funny to me, considering that it's winter here in Australia right now, but the nail polish really does seem like a summerish polish.

[Alanna Renee Mardi]

This is Alanna Renee Mardi. It's shiny and it glides onto the nails. Seriously, I love the application. It has a pink base, fine gold glitter and bright pink hex glitter. When the pink and gold glitter really catches the light, it's such a pretty mesh of shininess.

You can see below that at three coats, you can still see a little VNL, but it's not obvious really unless you stare at it in person.

[Three coats: Alanna Renee Mardi]

 Conclusion? I rather like it and wish I had more AR polishes!

Molten Bronze - OPI DS Glow

This gorgeous polish here is OPI DS Glow, a polish that was part of my birthday loot from last year! It's extra blingy and I've got a heap of photos with both diffuse and direct lighting to show this beauty off~ =)

[Bottle to nail: OPI Designer Series Glow in diffuse (top) and direct (bottom) light]

Glow is a mix of gold, bronze and copper large-particle flecks which gives it a really pretty brushed metal look under diffuse lighting, and extremely sparkly finish under direct light.

[2 coats: OPI DS Glow in diffuse (top) and direct (bottom) light]

Great formula, these photos were all two coats. The polish applies in thin even coats and dries smooth as well. Hassle-free application, A++ would use again... =p

[2 coats: OPI DS Glow]

Sorry, I can't really think of what else to say about it! It's really pretty and I love the metallic finish. The same sort of large smooth particles as in the polishes used in my gradient here (OPI Warm and Fozzie, CoverGirl Midnight Magic). Removal can leave lots of shiny bits, but is pretty easy compared to glitter polishes!

Shiny Sweaters - Born Pretty GN Feather #8

My fuzziness has arrived from Born Pretty! The brand is GN and this is #8 from their feather glitter collection.

[GN Feather #13]

GN Feather #8 might look like a blue and purple feather polish, but that's not quite right. GN #8 consists of tiny matte pale silver-pink bar glitter and medium-sized purple and holo hex glitter. With the light catching on the hex glitter, the nail polish looks like it's blue and purple overall.

[Base: Kleancolor Metallic Black
Top: GN Feather #13]

The holo glitter shifts mostly between blue, green, gold and red. The hex glitter is an interesting addition to the feathered polish look. The bar and hex glitter is quite dense, and it needs about three thin coats or two normal coats to get to the density on the nail as seen above. The bar glitter is very fine and they lay flat against the nail, no curling.

[Base: Kleancolor Metallic Black
Top: GN Feather #13]

I tried to capture how pretty the hex glitter is. The bar glitter is matte in comparison, but it really stands out against a black base. The overall look is quite interesting! It's like having shiny sequins on a fuzzy sweater!

Of course, be careful what you use as your base colour. For some reason, I thought neon green would be interesting as a base for this. Noooooot really!

For reading to the end of this post, you get a discount code if you decide to spend a little at Born Pretty!

Enjoy! :D

CORRECTION: The nail polish being reviewed is #8. We've been advised that the numbers on the site might not match the label on the bottle, but #8 is what we are reviewing. :)