Pink Delicious - Dance Legend Velvet Mini #11

Super quick post for today! We have a gorgeous polish gifted to me by Jme for my birthday this year. One of many stunners!

[Bottle to nail: Dance Legend Velvet Mini #11 (2 coats)]

This is Dance Legend Velvet Mini #11. I love this range - they dry with a faintly textured matte suede finish which is where the 'velvet' in the collection name comes from, I guess!

[2 coats: Dance Legend Velvet Mini #11]

#11 is a bright pink, almost barbie-like in some lights, but it's warmed up by the tons and tons of gold shimmer in the polish. Excellent quick-drying formula and dries with a matte suede finish as I mentioned above.

[2 coats: Dance Legend Velvet Mini #11]

Such an easy no-fuss polish for a quick sparkly manicure. I used two coats here with no topcoat to preserve the finish.

Pebble in a Pond - Revlon Zealous, Hit the Bottle A bolt from the Blue, Stamping plate A by Cheeky

[Ripple Effect!]

For this ripple effect, I have used Revlon's Zealous as the base, which is a light lime green colour with a gold-ish shimmer. The shimmer isn't really visible on the nails versus in the bottle. The pattern was stamped on using Hit the Bottle's A bolt from the Blue, which is starting to become my favourite stamping polish from Hit the Bottle. A bolt from the Blue is this vibrant cobalt blue with a foil-like finish and is beautifully opaque which makes it perfect for stamping.

[Bottle to nail: Hit the Bottle A bolt from the Blue]

The stamping plate I used is stamping plate A by Cheeky. I have only included some of the patterns from the stamping plate below, but I have used this stamping plate before so if you want to see the full image with all the patterns, you can check it out in this other post here. The ripple-like pattern that I used for this mani is in the dark pink square below.

[Stamping plate A by Cheeky]

[Base: Revlon Zealous
Stamping: Hit the Bottle A bolt from the Blue, Stamping plate A by Cheeky]

While the Cheeky stamping plates pack so many patterns together into each plate, it does make each pattern a little bit small for long nails. As you can see, the blue ripples above don't quiiiiiite make it to the end of my nail bed. I think it's interesting that you can see that I scraped off more nail polish for the pattern on my thumb, making the ripples a lot thinner compared to the others. What a difference it makes if you scrape off excess nail polish twice, instead of just once.

Overall, I love this pattern. I think the colour combination works well too. The effect is just such a stand-out and loved how it looked so jazzed up.

Juiced Up - BK Glow-in-the-dark polish #16, Hit the Bottle As Black As Night, Born Pretty BP-L040

I thought stamping in black over the bright neon orange from last week would be a winner, but I'm not so sure!

[Maze of confusion]

I think I was having an off day..!

[3 coats: BK Glow-in-the-dark polish #16]

Anyway, here's my deliciously juicy base shade - BK glow-in-the-dark polish #16 in a bright orange.

[Born Pretty BP-L040]

I was generously provided this plate from Born Pretty - BP-L040 which has some super awesome geometric patterns.

[Plate to nail: Born Pretty BP-L040]

The one I chose is on the top row, second from right! I stamped with a plain black creme stamping polish from Hit the Bottle called As Black As Night.

[Base: BK Glow-in-the-dark #16 (3 coats);
Stamping: Hit the Bottle As Black As Night, Born Pretty BP-L040]

Eeeh, it could be better...?? I don't think I did justice to such a great plate! I'll have to try again, especially with so many great designs to choose from!

I tried stamping a selection of designs that caught my eye but I was in quite a rush (it was getting pretty late at night) and you can clearly see that here! =p

Anyway, I'm sure you guys can do much better than I have, so check this plate out here, or see what else Born Pretty has to offer with our 10% off discount code above. Happy stamping!!

Gothic Filigree - Sally Hansen Taupe Pearl Chrome, Australis Pinot-Dah, Stamping Plate BP-L049

I come bearing stamping on old nail polishes!

[Filigree!]

This is Australis' Pinot-Dah stamped on Sally Hansen's Taupe Pearl Chrome. The pattern is from Born Pretty's stamping plate BP-L049, which was sent to us for review and is as photographed below. Pinot-Dah is a dusky red colour while Taupe Pearl Chrome, a discontinued chrome colour and a gift from Ev, seems more like a rose gold to me than taupe. Taupe Pearl Chrome is a lovely colour with a gorgeous chrome finish, but I don't think my camera picked up the colour very well.

[Born Pretty Stamping Plate BP-L049]

I really like this stamping plate because it's got such lovely, distinct patterns on it and I think the stamping result is pretty good too. Now, if only someone can teach me how to photograph shiny new stamping plates because all I get is reflection some days. :(

[Base: Sally Hansen Taupe Pearl Chrome
Stamping: Australis Pinot-Dah, Stamping Plate BP-L049]

Quite nice, isn't it? The patterns aren't stamped on straight, which was a choice I made. It looked too uniform when I did them all straight and aligned the same way on my left hand, so I tried to change it up on my right hand. Pinot-Dah stamped quite nicely, in my opinion, and the patterns came off the stamping plate real easily.

[Patterns from Stamping Plate BP-L049]

I stamped a few other patterns from the same plate on paper just to show you how they turn out. Forgive the messy excess of nail polish in some places, and missing bits in others. I'm loving all of this and I want to do complete manis of all of them!

I got the stamping plate from here, and it's on quite a discount right now. If you wanted to buy something else from the store, you can get 10% off by using the code above.

Night Light - BK Glow-in-the-dark polish #16

I wanted something bright for the warm weather and this shade certainly fit the bill...

[Bottle to nail: BK Glow-in-the-dark polish #16 (3 coats)]

This polish is BK glow-in-the-dark polish in shade #16 which is a bright neon orange. As with most neons, photos do no justice! I think the second photo (below) most accurately depicts it's eye-searing glory! I think these nails were really distracting to everyone at work...

[3 coats: BK Glow-in-the-dark polish #16]

I tried two ways of applying this - on my ring finger, I applied three coats of BK#16 polish; on every other nail I used one coat of Revlon Powder Puff (a iridescent white matte polish) and two coats of BK#16. I reckon they look pretty similar but perhaps the ring finger had a slightly richer more jelly-like appearance - I'd probably stick with three coats of BK#16 alone in future.

[3 coats: BK Glow-in-the-dark polish #16]

Formula-wise, this was pretty good - average dry time. Now the lovely thing about this polish though is that unlike many neons which dry semi-matte, this one has a more jelly texture so remains deliciously glossy. I did seal with top coat for these photos though.

[In the dark: BK Glow-in-the-dark polish #16 (3 coats)]

And finally! Does it glow?! As you can tell from the somewhat creepy photo above, it does! However it does need some intense charging up before you turn the lights out, otherwise, no I didn't really notice it too much just going from ambient to darkness. Still such a fun bright colour to usher in our summer months here down under!

Green Geometry - Hit the Bottle's Absinthe Minded, Stamping Plate B from Cheeky, Sally Hansen's Blue Me Away

I'm losing track of my manis, and hopefully I haven't posted this one yet before!

[Base: Sally Hansen's Blue Me Away
Stamping: Hit the Bottle's Absinthe Minded, Stamping Plate B from Cheeky]

What I've got here is Sally Hansen's Blue Me Away! as the base, which is a blue creme. I've stamped on top of that with Hit the Bottle's Absinthe Minded, which is a green chrome, as photographed. I love the name Absinthe Minded too. :P  And I've used Stamping Plate B from Cheeky, with the specific pattern lined in dark pink below:

[Stamping Plate B by Cheeky]

[Base: Sally Hansen's Blue Me Away
Stamping: Hit the Bottle's Absinthe Minded, Stamping Plate B from Cheeky]

I do like the look. I just wish I used a stamping polish colour that contrasted more with the base in this particular case. Absinthe Minded stamped beautifully with crisp lines as always.