Antique Gold - Milani Antique + Essence Make It Golden

Hello hello! Today I have another glitter topcoat mani - my current phase seems to be dusty/pale colours with some sparkle thrown in for extra pizzazz....

[Combining glitters and pastels? Oh my!]

This is Milani Antique with a layer of Essence Make It Golden over the top.

[Milani Antique: 3 coats]

Milani Antique is a strange colour - a dusty pale grey-blue jelly with hidden shimmer. A lot of the hits I come up with on Google Images appear a lot brighter/more vibrant than the colour actually is. Antique is quite dusty and all the more interesting for it!

[Base: Milani Antique (3 coats); Accent: Essence Make It Golden]

I popped a coat of Essence Make It Golden over the top for an accent finger and liked the effect so I added it to all the other fingers as well.

[Base: Milani Antique (3 coats); Glitter: Essence Make It Golden]

I really like combining muted colours with glitter these days! I always go for strong colours so I'm making the most of my current taste for muted colours while it lasts...

[Base: Milani Antique (3 coats); Glitter: Essence Make It Golden]

At an angle to show off the shine from the glitter - I thought it was an interesting photo!

[Base: Milani Antique (3 coats); Glitter: Essence Make It Golden]

My cuticles have been so raggedy recently and hangnails abound... not sure if it's the cold/dry weather or because of stress, argh. I'm trying to moisturise as much as possible but it won't stop peeling! Time to break out the Gardeners Therapy, I reckon...

Changeling - Hits Mari Moon Chameleon

I'm sad. Why did I decide on this post when the photos do Hits Mari Moon's Chameleon absolutely no justice? :(  It's too late now, because I have run out of time to prepare a new post for my Thursday entry! You'll have to use your imagination I think...

[Base: Ulta3 Black Satin
Duochrome: Hits Mari Moon Chameleon]

Like with most duo/multichromes, they need to be used as a topcoat over a dark colour to really bring out the colour shift. In this case, I have Ulta3 Black Satin as my base, which is a black creme polish, and one coat of  Hits Mari Moon's Chameleon over it.

In the bottle Chameleon looks like green oil slick. But on the nails, Chameleon is a duochrome that shifts from light grey-brown to a deep green. The change in colour is startling and the contrast is gorgeous. You can see a hint of the grey-brown in the middle of the nails here. It's lighter and more obvious in person.

[Base: Ulta3 Black Satin
Duochrome: Hits Mari Moon Chameleon]

The colour difference exists almost all the time, but more of either colour will show depending on how you angle your nails. My camera is really old, and it does tend to pick up brighter colours better, so it's really bringing out the green, but not the brown.

[Base: Ulta3 Black Satin
Duochrome: Hits Mari Moon Chameleon]

Now you can see a little of the brown at the tips of the nails. Really, this is such a gorgeous polish colour, I wish I had better photographic proof!

[Base: Ulta3 Black Satin
Duochrome: Hits Mari Moon Chameleon]

Indoors, the colour shift is actually more spectacular. I think the lower lighting really brings out the green, and makes it impressively vibrant. When I first put this on, I looked at it and only saw the brown. And I was disappointed until I moved my fingers and I was blown away by how bright the green was.

That second impression is obviously the lasting one, from how much I'm gushing. :P  I will now aim to pick up the other Hits Mari Moon shades! The only thing is that their bottles are only slightly bigger than mini bottles, which makes them a little pricy when you consider that.

Stars and Embers - Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet + OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It + NYX Girls Dreamy Glitter

I'm being more hardworking and posting a mani that's actually ON MY NAILS at the moment! =p Please bear with my spamming of photos this time around - I've been quite annoyed by the quality of my photos so far and have been playing around using some baking paper to diffuse my desklamp... Let's take a look!

[Mmmmm... jelly sammich... get on mah nails!]

Today I've got a delicious glittery jelly sandwich using OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It sandwiched between Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet. I also accented my ring finger with a topcoat of NYX Girls Dreamy Glitter. Read on for the breakdown!

[Bottle to nail: Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet (1 coat)]

I started with a layer of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet - yep, this is ONE LAYER, folks!

In the bottle, it looks like a blackened jelly base but on the nail it's the brightest, reddest, squishiest jelly ever! Add to that the duochrome glitter in the Chunky Holo series - this one is a bit less duochrome-y, mostly a red to gold shift. The heavy gold shimmer tints it very warm but in indirect lighting, it's really a true red.

[1 coat: Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet]

My photos look somewhat matte due to the diffuse light but trust me, it's a glossy jelly. It also dries fairly quick and applies in a thin, even layer. Absolutely no complaints about this polish.

[1 coat: Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet]

 Here's a picture sans baking paper to show the high gloss finish. Yes, it actually is that bright....

[Bottle to nail: OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It (1 coat over Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet)]

I then popped on a layer of OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It from the Muppets collection. This polish consists of small red glitter and larger red and silver hex glitter. The large hexes are somewhat sparse and you may need to pick and choose what goes on the nail.

[1 coat: OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It (over Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet)]

I made sure there was at least a couple of the silver hexes on each nail! I can see this being an issue if you're using this as a glitter topcoat but in this case, I wasn't too worried because....

[Jelly sandwich: OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It (1 coat) between Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet]

...I sandwiched it with another layer of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet. What this does is adds a red tint to the silver hexes, making them reddish as well and giving the illusion of depth! I know, I know... sometimes I think too much about nail polish...

[In the bottle: NYX Girls Dreamy Glitter]

How much glitter is too much glitter? There can never be too much, you say??? Well, that's what I thought... so I pulled out NYX Girls Dreamy Glitter for an accent nail.

I always find it hard to describe this type of glitter... it's usually a pale translucent purple-ish colour, but changes to bright blue or teal when the light hits it right. Dreamy Glitter also contains fine green-gold glitter (possibly colour-shift?) and pale pink stars. The stars are opaque while the other two are translucent. All this is in a clear pale pink which swatches colourless.

Gosh, long description, much? ;D

[Jelly sandwich: OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It (over Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet)
Accent nail: Extra coat NYX Girls Dreamy Glitter]

It works so well over red, I was so impressed that I was barely able to stop myself from slopping it all over the other nails too! The glitter is dense so there's no problem picking up glitter and it dries relatively fast. A good thick layer of topcoat sealed it all in for delicious squishy jelly goodness!

[Jelly sandwich: OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It (over Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet)
Accent nail: Extra coat NYX Girls Dreamy Glitter]

A couple of glossy full-light photos....

[Close-up: OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It (over Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet)
Accent nail: Extra coat NYX Girls Dreamy Glitter]

Here's a closeup to show the delicious depth you get with layering multiple glitter polishes!

[Sammich in the office...]

Like I always do, here's a not-too-crappy phone camera photo that I took while in the office. I've been pretty pleased with how bright and cheery it looks on my nails. Please note that this last pic is slightly cool, and all my others are slightly warm - the final mani to the eye is more cabaret or Dorothy's slippers!

Hope y'all enjoyed that! =D

Robotic Rain - NYX Girls Robotic + LA Splash Midnight Rain

I should really be posting more - I have sooo many manis to put up and the untrieds keep rolling in! Before I go on... don't forget to join our first giveaway here if you haven't already! We're super excited for it and have been enjoying the responses to the questions~ =)

Alright... today I have a gorgeous gorgeous polish for y'alls. Jme has actually posted it before but in combination with Nubar 2010 so I wanted to show you the loveliness of it on its own... Behold!

[LA Splash: Midnight Rain]

Isn't this just beautiful! LA Splash Midnight Rain - constantly out of stock and a pain to acquire. When it came up instock all of a sudden online, Jme and I jumped on the opportunity like you wouldn't believe! It was definitely worth it!

[2 coats: NYX Girls Robotic]

I started with a base of NYX Girls in Robotic for a nice dark base. I think this was 2 coats. It's a lovely blackened jelly with deep blue (leaning green) shimmer through it.
 

[2 coats: NYX Girls Robotic]

In lowlight it does look mostly black, but the blue sparks light up when the light hits it. Very nice as is... but wait, there's more!

[Base: NYX Girls Robotic (2 coats); Glitter: LA Splash Midnight Rain (1 coat)]

One! Yes, one! Layer of Midnight Rain, a combination of blue and red glitter. Who knew the two went so well together! (I'm feeling very infomercial-like at the moment, hehe...)

[Base: NYX Girls Robotic (2 coats); Glitter: LA Splash Midnight Rain (1 coat)]

Fair warning, it dries gritty and eats topcoat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So slop on at least two thick layers of of topcoat to keep this looking nice and glossy.

[Base: NYX Girls Robotic (2 coats); Glitter: LA Splash Midnight Rain (1 coat)]

So worth it though! I'm totally pic-spamming here.... ;)

[Base: NYX Girls Robotic (2 coats); Glitter: LA Splash Midnight Rain (1 coat)]

A great glittery combination that is eye-catching but not TOO bright. Definitely one for the collection! What other amazing glitter combinations have you come across? =)

Friday Favourites - China Glaze Yell-O-Neil

Friday Favourites will be where we post our favourite nail polish in regards to colour/type/anything! We won't post every Friday, just on the Fridays we want to fangirl over a favourite. :D

I'm going to start with my favourite yellow nail polish. I have given away too many yellow nail polishes out of displeasure. They are notoriously streaky or just plain meh. But this one is definitely a keeper. 

[China Glaze Yell-O-Neil]

China Glaze Yell-O-Neil is briiiiight yellow, and its formula is pretty much perfect. It's smooth and easy to apply. In its bottle, Yell-O-Neil has very fine pink and green microglitter. They're so small that they're hardly visible in the bottle, and indistinguishable on the nail.

[China Glaze Yell-O-Neil]

You can sort of see a shimmer in the polish when on the nail, but you can't make out the colours. At two coats, there's still visible nail line. It's more visible in photos than in person, but I don't think it detracts from the pretty anyhow.

[China Glaze Yell-O-Neil]

It's just as bright and lovely indoors!

I only managed to wear this shade for two days, because right now, it's cold and winter-like in Sydney. I felt too gloomy to wear this bright, cheery shade. 

So this is my favourite yellow nail polish. What's yours?

Got The Blues - China Glaze Blue Sparrow + Shooting Stars

I wanted a real bright blue nail polish, and Ev recommended China Glaze's Blue Sparrow while we were out shopping. It is gorgeouusssss...

[China Glaze Blue Sparrow (Neon)]

I love it, but I think it needs a glossy top coat to be truly appreciated. Blue Sparrow is a true neon shade, so it's bright but dries matte. The moment I layered a gloss top coat over Blue Sparrow, the blue microglitter in the polish really sparkled. The nail polish is so lovely!

[Base: China Glaze Blue Sparrow
Tips: China Glaze Shooting Stars]

As I mentioned in my past post, I have a chip on one of my nails, so I'll be doing gradient manis and French tips for the next few weeks to reinforce the nail and keep it from breaking. For this mani, I used China Glaze's Shooting Stars as a sort of gradient-French mani. (Is there a correct name for this?)

[Base: China Glaze Blue Sparrow
Tips: China Glaze Shooting Stars]

I love China Glaze's Shooting Stars. It's a dense, fine silver holo glitter, with the holo leaning towards an orange and green shade. It also has pastel-coloured holo hex glitter. The hex glitter catches the light in a soft, captivating way. Layering it over Blue Sparrow provides a nice contrast, and it's just shiny prettiness everywhere.

I only have one outdoor photo (as seen above) because the others just turned out weird. :(

[Base: China Glaze Blue Sparrow
Tips: China Glaze Shooting Stars]

[Base: China Glaze Blue Sparrow
Tips: China Glaze Shooting Stars]

Blurry iPhone photo so that you can see the pretty holo! It really is a strangely soft holo, hard to describe, but immensely pretty.

I'm so happy with these China Glaze hauls! :D