Diagon Alley - OPI Embrace the Grey, Born Pretty M016 Lovely Princess

Hello hello! Today I have another gorgeous polish to review.

[Swish and flick]

Look at all the colours - multichrome heaven!

[Born Pretty Magical Series M016 Lovely Princess]

This polish is M016 Lovely Princess, kindly provided by Born Pretty for review. Lovely Princess is from their Magical Series range and is a multichrome flakie that shifts predominantly from green-gold-pink. At extreme angles, you get an amazing flash of blue, which you can see in the photos coming up!

[Bottle to nail: OPI Embrace the Grey (2 coats)]

My base shade from last week is OPI Embrace the Grey, a medium grey creme opaque in two coats. All ready for some flashy bling!

[Bottle to nail: Born Pretty M016 Lovely Princess;
Base: OPI Embrace the Grey (2 coats)]

Here you can see the strong greeny-gold shades at an angel, while straight on, the magenta-pink shift is very obvious. The shift is actually better in person than in the photos!

[Base: OPI Embrace the Grey (2 coats); Flakie: Born Pretty M016 Lovely Princess]

Basically, I taped off each nail diagonally and then applied Lovely Princess in the untaped portion. This is just one dabbed coat on each nail! Really dense flakies and great coverage! The flakes all laid nicely flat and I didn't have a problem topcoating. In the top photo here, you can see the blue coming through right at the edges.

[Base: OPI Embrace the Grey (2 coats); Flakie: Born Pretty M016 Lovely Princess]

Definitely a lovely strong colour shift with excellent flakie density - what more could you ask for! I have also previously reviewed M012 Destiny Fairy, a green-purple flakie from the same collection.

[Left: Born Pretty M016 Lovely Princess; Right: Emily de Molly Insipid]

I thought the colour shift was familiar, so I looked through my collection and found Insipid from Emily de Molly. Turns out that while the base shade is similar, EdM Insipid appears to have some blue flakes, whereas Lovely Princess has larger flake sizes.

Anyhoo, if you would like to check out the Magical Series collection, you can find it here at Born Pretty. As always, our code above can be used for a bit of extra discounting off full priced products! Happy shopping!

Gift Time - Orly Au Champagne, striping tape

It's a day late, but here's my Christmassy mani! I decided to go for a wrapped present look. :D

[Orly Au Champagne with striping tape]

The base is Orly's Au Champagne, my favourite white nail polish. It's this soft, pearly white that dries semi-matte and looks like snow. I have used striping tape before but more to tape off the base as I put a topcoat over, like this gradient, striping tape mani I did awhile back. This time, I thought I would use the striping tape and seal the tape in. I quite like the result!

[Orly Au Champagne with striping tape]

The tape is actually quite shiny, which I wanted to show with this last pic.

I love the straight lines. The mani looks so neat and clean while Christmassy! The only downside is the mani doesn't last long, because the striping tape starts curling up a little bit at the edges after a day or two and well, it's far too fun to pick at. But otherwise, it's a cute mani. :)

Abstract Patriot - Sally Hansen Blue It, Tropez White Hot, Color Club Wish List Red, LA Girl Celebrate

Happy Australia Day! Time for beeer, beaaach and barbequeeee~ =D

[Oyyyyyy~]

I wanted to do something for the occasion and decided to stick to the classic red, white and blue of the flag - so really, it could do for a whooooollle lot of other countries too!

[Bottle to nail: Sally Hansen Blue It (2 coats)]

I started with this gorgeous shade, definitely a "true blue", hehe.... This is Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Blue It. It seems like just a plain ole shimmer at  first glance but it has this gorgeous glowyness. It looks super sleek - like a racing shade!

[2 coats: Sally Hansen Blue It]

This one seems like just a plain ole shimmer at  first glance but it has this gorgeous glowyness. It looks super sleek - like a racing shade!

[2 coats: Sally Hansen Blue It]

Formula was great. It does take two coats to fully level out, but the results are beautifully smooth!

[Tape manicure: Sally Hansen Blue It, Tropez White Hot, Color Club Wish List Red]

After topcoating the blue base, I taped off half the nail diagonally and added the white using Tropez White Hot, a plain white creme.

[Tape manicure: Sally Hansen Blue It, Tropez White Hot, Color Club Wish List Red]

After the white was dry, I taped again and added the red using Color Club Wish List Red - a bright red jelly with red glitter. This one really popped with the white underneath!

[Gradient manicure: Sally Hansen Blue It, LA Girl Celebrate]

I also did an experimental gradient with LA Girl Glitter Addict in Celebrate, a mix of small and large hexes in red, white, medium blue and magenta. However, I didn't quite like the results as much... Not showy enough for my tastes! =p

Anyway, hope y'all have a great long weekend!