Misty Caverns - Dance Legend Ashes to Ashes

I can't believe I haven't posted this before. It's from months ago!

[Dance Legend Ashes to Ashes]

This is Dance Legend Ashes to Ashes, a mid-gray creme polish with flakies and holo microglitter.

[Bottle to nail: Dance Legend Ashes to Ashes (2 coats)]

I've always said I loved their square bottles, makes it so easy to open.

[Dance Legend Ashes to Ashes]

You can see the ghostly flakies clearly and the second one was taken slightly blurry on purpose so you could see the holos better.

Overall, I love it. An interesting colour with many facets to the nail polish!

Cool Summer Dusk - Born Pretty Couture Precieuse

Look at this fancy piece of work, sent to us from Born Pretty.

[Cool Summer Dusk]

This is Born Pretty's Couture Precieuse, from their Cloud Thermal series. (On the box itself, it calls the collection Cloud Mood series but it's called Cloud Thermal on their website.)

It's a thermal nail polish, as evidenced by the series' name, where it is cornflower blue when warm and royal purple when cold. The nail polish is also packed full of gold-green flakies and dries matte (Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat has turned this glossy). I love how it looks!

[Born Pretty's Couture Precieuse]

I've said it before, but I really like this new fancy-ish packaging.

[Born Pretty's Couture Precieuse]

First of all, I'm really impressed by how sensitive the nail polish is to temperature changes. Even with two layers of top coat (because the nail polish was a little thirsty and didn't smoothen out with just one :P ), the colour changes were magnificent. It's summer where I am now, and thermal nail polishes are usually quite hopeless in warm weather. But this one easily maintained a difference in colour between my cool tips and the nails above my warm nail-beds. I love the colours as well and they looked gorgeous with the flakies. I think the flakies really made this thermal nail polish extra special.

The only complaint I would have about this nail polish is the smell. It has a pretty strong chemical-y smell unfortunately.

Otherwise, it's a beauty, that's for sure!

If you're looking for some beautiful colour changing nail polish with flakies, you can check it out here at Born Pretty. The code will give you some discount on full priced items!

Forest Pools - Born Pretty The Rhine

I'm bringing to you flakey fun today!

[Forest Pools]

This is The Rhine from Born Pretty's Emerald Road series. This densely packed bottle of flakies was sent to us from Born Pretty for review.

[Packaging for The Rhine]

[Nail to bottle]

I'm rather liking this fancy packaging. The decorated white box with the little window does make it feel classier. And the bottle itself is pretty snazzy itself, with an elegant matte grip for the brush's handle. I also liked that they named the nail polish collection and all the nail polishes this time, instead of just sticking to a bunch of descriptive words or random numbers. Overall, I'm really digging this new look!

Now, enough on the exterior, onward to the nail polish!

[3 coats of Born Pretty's The Rhine over a black base]

The Rhine is densely packed with multichrome flakies, with a colour shift from blue to brilliant green to bronze to magenta-pink. It's also got holographic microglitter in the mix. They have to be used against a black base for the colours to really stand out. Alas, my camera absolutely refuses to capture the flash of magenta pink, but it's actually very strongly present in person.

The strongest and most obvious colour shift is from green to pink. I wish I could adequately photograph that! The flakies and holo are densely packed enough that with three coats, the base is barely visible, as seen above.

[1 coat of Born Pretty's The Rhine over a black base]

These photos are for one coat of The Rhine over a black base. I have got to say, I think I actually prefer this, where you can still mostly see the base. It provides a sharper contrast to the colour of the flakies.

[3 coats of Born Pretty's The Rhine over a black base]

Here's a shot that managed to capture the holographic glitter, which is especially visible under bright indoor lighting.  All in all, this is a satisfactorily shiny multichrome flakey with holo to jazz it up.

The Rhine can be found here at Born Pretty.

You can use our code to get 10% off full priced items if you feel like shopping at Born Pretty!

Funchsia - Emily de Molly LE89

This is Emily de Molly's LE89, and a gift from Ev!

[Emily de Molly LE89]

I have managed to break nails on both hands, quite badly too, so I'm gonna mainly photograph 3 nails only. I'm not going to cut down the other nails to match the one which had broke because the one that broke is just too short right now. It would hurt to get the others to match.

LE89 is a bright fuchsia with multi-coloured flakies.

[Emily de Molly LE89]

Quality is good; it applied smoothly and easily. All in all, a good nail polish that I think you could wear to work, and still have that edge of fun with the flakies.

Smooth Serpent - Glam Polish Dreamscape

Oh dear, I found these in my files... this mani is already 3 years old!

[Bottle to nail: Glam Polish Dreamscape]

This is Glam Polish Dreamscape, a duochrome flakie polish that shifts from green-to-gold with lots of extra flakie colours scattered throughout. 

[Glam Polish Dreamscape]

Unfortunately it was so long ago that I don't remember too much about formula and finish...

[Glam Polish Dreamscape]

Hope you enjoyed the photos anyway! =p

Juicy Jubes - Maybelline Lux Lobster, Rimmel Peaches & Cream, Australis Bless Thy Socks, pa AA38

Once in a while, my nails get long and I feel like I should probably do something to take advantage of it. 

[Sparkles for spring..]

Which in this case, means gradient time! I decided to go for some juicy fresh shades as the weather is just starting to warm up here in Sydney.

Here are the polishes I used - from left to right, Maybelline Color Show 60 Seconds in Lux Lobster, Rimmel Brit Manicure in Peaches & Cream and Australis Bless Thy Socks. I applied a base layer of Lux Lobster, and then painted stripes of all three onto a little cut-up square of (dishwashing!) sponge and sponged over the base to create a gradient from the darkest to lightest shade.

I then coated the gradient with a layer of that polish there on the right - pa AA38, a polish I picked up in Japan. This ones a translucent orange base with a generous helping of orangey-gold flakies all throughout. The flakies do settle, as you can see in the photo, but are very easy to resuspend. 

[Cuticle to tip: Maybelline Lux Lobster, Rimmel Peaches & Cream,
Australis Bless Thy Socks; Topcoat: pa AA48]

I think the jump from Lux Lobster to Bless Thy Socks was a bit much actually! Maybe just the first two shades would've been enough for a gradient. I know my nails don't seem all that long in these photos, but trust me, when I cut them down, they are totally nubbins!

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!

Rainbow Lights - Born Pretty Magical Series M012 Destiny Fairy, Dance Legend Hell Money

Hello all! Today I have one of the new multichrome flakie polishes from Born Pretty to review.

[Rainbow Lights]

Check it out! This one is from the Magical Series - M012 Destiny Fairy. It's predominantly a green-to-purple shift but you get a hint of bronze at extreme angles, as you can see in the bottle pic.

[Born Pretty Magical Series - M012 Destiny Fairy]

This polish comes packaged in a nice matte cardboard box and a holographic sticker at the bottom with the product name and number.

[Base: LA Girl Blackout (1 coat); Flakie: Born Pretty Destiny Fairy (1 coat)]

As suggested, I used one layer of a plain black creme, and then applied Destiny Fairy over the top. These pics are just one coat over the black base! I was so impressed with the flake density and coverage. I reckon you could just use two coats of the flakie polish and skip the black base. The photos above show the green-purple shift. You can even see a hint of gold in the bottom photo!

[Base: LA Girl Blackout (1 coat); Flakie: Born Pretty Destiny Fairy (1 coat)]

In terms of dry time, this dried quite quick which is always a plus. The brush is also wide which allows you to pick up a decent amount of polish and makes it easy to paint each nail in 2-3 swipes. The flakes lay nicely flat for a smooth sparkly finish. Definitely an easy polish to work with! I'd love to try out their other shades!

[Left: Born Pretty Destiny Fairy; Right: Dance Legend Hell Money]

I noticed that I'm very prone to buying polishes which are veeerrrryyy similar, so when I received this for review, I got this feeling I'd swatched something similar before. So here's Dance Legend Hell Money next to Destiny Fairy. It looks more different here due to the different bottle shapes, but both are green-purple shifters.

[Base: LA Girl Blackout (1 coat); Middle: Dance Legend Hell Money (1 coat);
Index, Ring, Pinky: Born Pretty Destiny Fairy (1 coat)]

Can you tell which is which? I think so! My middle finger is Hell Money, and the others are Destiny Fairy. Basically, the flakes are larger and the shift is more pronounced with Destiny Fairy. Hell Money also leans slightly more to the green shift. Other than that, they are really quite similar! In fact, I'm kinda liking the finish of Destiny Fairy more, purely from a sparkly point of view!

[Base: LA Girl Blackout (1 coat); Flakie: Born Pretty Destiny Fairy (1 coat);
Topcoat: Born Pretty Matte Topcoat (1 coat)]

I ended up topping off the polish with a layer of matte topcoat because flakies always look awesome matte-ified. This photo is under nice diffuse fluorescents at work and is a really great demonstration of the flake size and excellent colour shift-iness.

If you're interested in checking out Destiny Fairy, you can find it here on the Born Pretty site. They have plenty more in the range, including matching multichrome shimmer polishes! As always, you can use our code above for a little extra discount off non-sale items. =)