Holiday Blue - Revlon Tidal Wave

Doing some tidying and found these old photos from 2012! Oh dear... So I thought I'd throw them up here so I can move them to my 'posted' folder.

[2 coats: Revlon Tidal Wave]

This is Revlon Tidal Wave - such a nice glowy shade! Unfortunately there are some streak marks in the photo but I'm fairly sure it wouldn't be very visible on the nail.

[2 coats: Revlon Tidal Wave]

Who knows how many coats I used! Since it's an old-ish Revlon shimmer and fairly pigmented, I would guess two coats with decent but not superfast dry time.

Stamp To The Beat - Ya Qin An #17, Born Pretty BP-L027, Essie Butler Please

Woohoo! You're looking at my first successful attempt at stamping!

[Stamped Pattern: Ya Qin An #17
Base coat: Essie Butler Please]

So previously, I was using some crappy stamping kit I got off the interwebs, complete with crappy stamping polish. It did not go well. I gave up on stamping for a good long while, but now I've decided to try again!

I have here a few stamping tools for review now. Everything in the picture below is from Born Pretty, except for the Essie nail polish.

The pattern I chose is the rightmost pattern on the first row of Born Pretty's stamping plate BP-L027. If you click on the picture to see it in full size, you can sort of make out the pattern. I love the patterns on the stamping plate and the plate comes in such pretty packaging too.

Now, aesthetics aside, on to the stamping!

[Essie Butler Please]

I used Essie's Butler Please for the base coat. It's a beautiful mid cornflower blue shade.

[Stamped Pattern: Ya Qin An #17
Base coat: Essie Butler Please]

And here's the stamped nail art again, using Ya Qin An #17 stamping nail polish. Not bad, hey?? I really like how neat it turned out! Using a good stamping nail polish and a good stamping plate really makes a difference.

The clear jelly stamper from Born Pretty is a pretty smart piece of work too. I forgot to take photos when I was stamping so I did a quick fake stamp now so you can see how it looks:

[Clear jelly stamper]

It's not the best stamps because I was in a rush, but I think you get the gist of how the stamper works. The stamper's stem is hollow all the way through, and the usual rubber on the end is a clear silicone. When you stamp, you can see where to position the design on your nails from the back of the clear jelly stamper. The stamper made life a lot easier and it transferred patterns well. My one gripe with it is that the clear jelly rubber keeps falling out of the stamper's stem when I clean it. I think I'll use a little bit of glue to solve that. Oh, and Ya Qin An's stamping nail polish works a treat too!

Okay, now for some honesty. The above isn't really my first successful stamping attempt. This is:

[Stamped Pattern: Ya Qin An #17
Base coat: Essie Butler Please]

I stamped my left hand first and I was still struggling to work out the details like do I need to scrape the pattern multiple times and how quickly I should be stamping it and how to roll the stamper on my nails. As you can see, there's a lot of mistakes here! And I obviously tried more than one pattern. It's a mess but I needed to go through that to figure out what works so it was worth it. You have now seen my shame!

Overall, I really loved the results. I just need to figure out how to contain the mess, but I'm guessing practice will help with that. You're probably going to see more stamping posts from me!

You can buy the stamping plate here (it's on sale now!), the clear jelly stamper and scraper here, and the stamping nail polish here, using our 10% discount code above! :D

Mystic Glade - Dance Legend Invocation

I'm on a short break from work this week before everything starts to implode in the second half of the year! (Just kidding, sort of, maybe...). But anyway! I thought of doing a nice fuss-free plain swatch because I just have no brain for nail art at the moment..

[Bottle to nail: Dance Legend Invocation (2 coats, direct light)]

This is the amazing Invocation from Dance Legend, a full coverage foil flakie. I'm doing something a bit different here where the photos are in pairs, with the first in direct lighting for full shining (shimmering, splendiddd...!) effect...

[Bottle to nail: Dance Legend Invocation (2 coats, indirect light)]

...followed by the second photo showing indirect lighting which gives a better idea of the shades as well as a preview of what it may look like with a matte topcoat.

[2 coats: Dance Legend Invocation (direct light)]

[2 coats: Dance Legend Invocation (indirect light)]

As you can see, Invocation is a predominantly green shade but on close examination contains blue, gold, green and even a small dash of magenta foil flakes. I believe there are duochrome flakies in the mix, most obvious being the blue-green colour shift.

[2 coats: Dance Legend Invocation (direct light)]

[2 coats: Dance Legend Invocation (indirect light)]

I was really happy with this polish! The colour is gorgeous, I got full coverage in two coats and it dried quickly with a smooth finish. If it makes it through the weekend with minimal chipping, I might even stamp over it!

Alternative - OPI Russian Navy (matte), Dance Legend Fireworks

With glitter polishes, sometimes just layering them over a dark base gives a completely different look to using them alone. Here's one polish that looks completely different!

[Twinkle lights]

You probably wouldn't guess it was the same one! This is Dance Legend Fireworks which you can see in Jme's post here where alone, it looks like a purple jelly just full of gold glitter and blue-green iridescent squares.

[Bottle to nail: OPI Russian Navy matte (base polish)]

Instead, I've used a base of OPI Russian Navy matte - no real reason for the matte except that I wanted a fast drying polish in a complementary blue shade. It did end up such a deep shade that it's practically black though!

[Bottle to nail: Dance Legend Fireworks (topper)]

I then did one layer of Dance Legend Fireworks over the top and that's what you get! A nice sparkly night scene.

[Base: OPI Russian Navy (2 coats); Topper: Dance Legend Fireworks (1 coat)]

The formula was consistent with the other polishes from the City Lights collection - a bit on the thick side but not tooo long on drying time and dense with glitter so no issues with having to fish.

[Base: OPI Russian Navy (2 coats); Topper: Dance Legend Fireworks (1 coat)]

After seeing Jme's post though, I'd really like to try wearing this one on it's own!

Mark XLVI - Lacquistry Rediculous, Essence Make It Golden, More Nail Polish Coinage, Color Style 36

Soooooooooooooo, who's watched Captain America: Civil War? :D :D :D

If anyone know me at all, then you would know I'm Team Iron Man! I did an Iron Man themed nail polish when  I went to watch CA: CW this week, so here it is.

[Accent nail - Base: More Nail Polish Coinage, Tips: Color Style 36
Other nails - Base: Lacquistry Rediculous, Tips: Essence Make It Golden]

The base is Lacquistry's Rediculous, a shiny red foil-like nail polish. I used Essence's Make It Golden, a gold hex glitter with gold microglitter, for the gradient-ish tips. On the accent nail, I used my favourite gold glitter, which is More Nail Polish's Coinage. Such a gorgeous polish, packed full of various gold, holo and red glitter. The tips on the accent nail is Color Style 36, a solid red flakie.

It's not terribly creative but it's hotrod red and gold, which are Iron Man colours, and it's obviously very low profile as J.A.R.V.I.S. says. :P  I got a surprising number of lovely comments on this. My plans to subconsciously promote Iron Man is working, mwahaha.

Triangulate This - Rimmel It's Lush, Born Pretty BP-L010, Hit the Bottle Spun Gold

Today I'm reviewing the second of the two stamping plates I received from Born Pretty for review - this is plate BP-L010.

[All angles]

...and here's the design I used from it! 

[Bottle to nail: Rimmel It's Lush (2 coats)]

I started with a base of Rimmel It's Lush from their Salon Pro line. This is a green creme with lots and lots of silver shimmer. It's quite similar to Sinful Colors Mint Apple which I also have - I think Mint Apple may have just the slightest bit of blue to it in comparison. 

[2 coats: Rimmel It's Lush]

This was a great shade, very easy to use formula and opaque in two coats. Quick drying and shiny, but I topped it off with topcoat as usual.

[Born Pretty BP-L010]

Now here's plate BP-L010. As usual, it comes is a pretty cardboard sleeve and with a blue protector film.

[Born Pretty BP-L010]

Here are the designs, with the film removed. Look at all the pretty tribal-inspired patterns! There's even a floral swirl, one that could double for a Fair Isle type sweater design and even some arcane(??) designs, just to mix it up! 

[Plate to nail: Born Pretty BP-L010]

The design I picked was the one on the top row, second to last from left. I wanted something fairly dense as my nails weren't very long.

[Bottle to nail: Hit The Bottle Spun Gold; Base: Rimmel It's Lush (2 coats)]

I stamped this with Hit The Bottle Spun Gold - a pale gold stamping polish that worked really well against the green.

[Base: Rimmel It's Lush (2 coats);
Stamping: Hit The Bottle Spun Gold, Born Pretty BP-L010 ]

Not the most unique colour combination, but I like how it turned out! I've seen some lovely stamping manicures done over gradients using this plate so I'd love to try that out in future.

Here's a quick trial of some of the patterns from the plate - excuse my wonky stamping, squishy stampers are squishy! I just had to try the animal ones, as well as the swirlies~

You can purchase this plate at Born Pretty here, and don't forget to use our 10% off discount code above!

Afternoon Tea - LA Girl Indulge, China Glaze Ahoy!, Born Pretty BP-L023

Stamping over a gradient is always a winner in my book! Here's what I did over last week's gradient..

[Yum yum]

Mmm, coffee, ice cream, caaaaake! This one's specially dedicated to my friend C, who not only gave me the polishes used here, but also loves her caffeine and desserts! =)

[Base: La Girl Color Addict Indulge (2 coats); Tips: China Glaze Ahoy!]

Quick reminder of last week - A base of LA Girl Color Addict Indulge with a sponged on gradient of China Glaze Ahoy!

[Born Pretty BP-L023]

We were generously provided with some plates for review from Born Pretty and this is one of them. Plate BP-L023 - check it out here! Isn't it just scrumptious! Like all Born Pretty plates, this one arrived with a gorgeous cardboard sleeve for storage and was covered in a protective blue film.

[Born Pretty BP-L023]

Here it is with the film removed. There's all sorts of adorable patterns on here that I'm really looking forward to testing out - the pineapple and citrus slice ones in particular are great summer designs! For my manicure today, I tested out the coffee-dessert one in the second row from top, fifth from the left.

[Base: La Girl Color Addict Indulge (2 coats); Tips: China Glaze Ahoy!;
Stamping: Hit The Bottle As Black As Night, Born Pretty BP-L023]

..and here it is! I was really impressed by how clearly the designs were picked up - even the steam rising off the coffee mug came through really nicely. I used a plain black creme stamping polish from Hit The Bottle: As Black As Night for this stamping.

[Base: La Girl Color Addict Indulge (2 coats); Tips: China Glaze Ahoy!;
Stamping: Hit The Bottle As Black As Night, Born Pretty BP-L023]

All up, I was really pleased with the way this turned out and the quality of the plate - can't wait to try out the other designs!

I got so excited, I actually did a quick test of some of the other full nail designs. I'm so impressed by the quality of transfer, just look at that! Some are lacking polish at the top of the design not due to the plate, but because I just did one quick swipe of polish along the bottom before scraping so it wasn't enough to fill the plate - especially those with so much space to fill. But seriously, check out those teacups!

Once again, this plate is available from Born Pretty here, along with heaps of other cool nail art stuff at very reasonable prices with free shipping. As if that's not good enough, just use our code above for an extra 10% off, wooooo!