Midnight Violet - Pretty Serious Dupe

What I've got here is a pretty shiny, pretty dark nail polish from Pretty Serious.

[Pretty Serious Dupe]

This is Pretty Serious' Dupe. As you can see from the second photo, it has a midnight blue crelly base and is chock-full of glitter. It's got blue, green, purple and magenta glitter, slightly bigger purple and blue glitter, and there's also purple microglitter throughout. The glitter combination makes the nail polish lean purple overall.

Dupe is fully opaque with two coats and to be honest, application isn't very smooth. It goes on pretty thick and gloopy, which makes it dry textured. I guess that's how you get so much glitter in one polish. So the nail polish is pretty thirsty and if you want a smooth finish like the one in my photos, you need to use some kind of top coat.

Here's my tip for getting a smooth finish for thirsty nail polishes without wasting too much of your good quality top coat. Let Dupe semi-dry, and then apply any clear nail polish of any brand on top of Dupe. It can be a base coat or any cheapy clear polish. Then, immediately apply a quick dry top coat. You'll get a smooth, non-bumpy finish. You don't need a special top coat for glitter polishes and you definitely don't need two coats of quick dry.

[Bottle to nail: Two coats of Pretty Serious Dupe]

Looks pretty fancy~

[Pretty Serious Dupe]

I do love the overall look of the nail polish and it's one of the fanciest dark nail polishes that I have.

Oyster Shell - Mother of Pearl Transfer foil

I haven't done a nail transfer foil manicure in ages, even though that was my resolution this year - to master nail transfer foils, and try out all the billions of transfer foils in my collection.

[Foil to nail: Mother of pearl transfer foil]

Well, I've been slowly organising my nail art stash so I got all my transfer foils nicely organised in a box last weekend and celebrated by picking one out to try! Isn't it a beaut!

[Mother of pearl transfer foil]

I used a silvery white base polish (Color Club Pretty in Platinum), before applying a thin layer of foil glue and letting it dry for 5-10 minutes. Using rectangles of the foil which I'd pre-cut earlier, I pressed one rectangle over each nail, smoothing down the edges until the clear plastic layer lifts off easily, leaving the design behind.

[Mother of pearl transfer foil]

These opaque foils are a little bit thicker so can be harder to get to lay flat, especially on curved and/or long nails. However, this finish is so worth it! It still retains its pearly look, and the abstract design helps to hide any patchy bits. I topped this off with Picture Polish Revolution, although I think any old topcoat will do as this is not a metallic/holographic nail foil and doesn't wrinkle with topcoat application.

Unfortunately, transfer foil manis don't last very well on me, particularly as I'm always wearing/changing gloves or washing my hands at work! Ah well, it's a very impressive finish while it lasts~!!

Dusky Lavendar - Miniso Japan Purple

I like to try nail polishes from new brands that I haven't used before, so I decided to give this one a shot.

[Dusky Lavendar]

The Miniso Japan stores are popping open everywhere in Sydney and they have a small nail polish collection too. I decided to give a dusky purple foil a shot. It doesn't seem to have a name, and on the label, all it says is "Product: Purple".
 

[Nails against bottle]

The bottle of nail polish looks kind of retro-ish. The nail polish is opaque in two coats and the colour is rather pretty, a shiny but dusty colour. But honestly? It stinks. It just smells really, really bad. I found it almost unbearable as I used it.

[Miniso Japan Purple]

The two photos shows the nail polish under different lighting.

It looks lovely enough but I don't think I'll be buying anymore nail polishes from Miniso with how badly it smells.

Bugs Life - Maybelline Show Time Pink, Hit the Bottle As Black As Night, Hehe 089

I was so nerdily pleased with this manicure!

[Contamination!]

Bugs bugs bugs! A most appropriate stamping plate gifted to me by Jme! My doctorate was in microbiology and although I don't work in the exact field anymore, it's still a favourite.

[Bottle to nail: Maybelline Color Show Show Time Pink (2 coats)]

My base from last week is Maybelline Color Show in Show Time Pink, a nice basic pink creme.

[Hehe plate 089]

Here's the plate - Hehe plate 089. Isn't it super adorable! I used the design on the left, but the ones on the right are also awesome. I can't wait to try them out as well.

[Base: Maybelline Show Time Pink; Stamping: Hit the Bottle As Black As Night, Hehe 089]

Using a black creme stamping polish (Hit the Bottle As Black As Night), I stamped over the pink with different parts of the design, then topped off with a nice glossy layer of topcoat.

[Base: Maybelline Show Time Pink; Stamping: Hit the Bottle As Black As Night, Hehe 089]

I think my favourite part is the bacilli chains - so good! I should totally look for more science-themed stamping designs!

Terrible Thursday - Revlon Emerald City, Revlon OceanChrome, Revlon Typhoon, Revlon Blue Lagoon

It's time for Terrible Thursday. I used to post my less than successful manis, which are usually created as a result of bad colour choices or just messing up a technique. So here we go.

[Sea Tiles]

It doesn't look tooooo horrible in this picture, but at the same time, it's not great. The colour choices weren't great because three of the shades don't have enough contrast between them (yeah, there are four colours at work here, could you tell??), and the pattern is a little big for my nails and uneven. The mani on the middle finger is so blah. I'll get into other difficulties and potential tips later.

[Left to right: Revlon Emerald City, Revlon OceanChrome, Revlon Typhoon, Revlon Blue Lagoon]

So my colour choices! From left to right:

• Revlon Emerald City - A lovely green polish that dries matte
• Revlon OceanChrome - A teal-ish green chrome polish
• Revlon Typhoon - A mid-blue almost-chrome polish
• Revlon Blue Lagoon - A very light blue polish with a light shimmer

It's a Revlon bonanza! 

I have no idea what I was thinking when I chose to use a matte nail polish for nail polish marbling on my silicone nail art mat. Matte polishes dry fast, so this was a spectacularly bad idea. Then, the chrome polish was just a mess for this type of mani. It didn't create sharp lines, just sort of oozed into the other nail polishes around it.

[Nail patches on Born Pretty's silicone nail art mat]

I did so many nail patches because I wanted to apply them to my toenails as well, like I demonstrated last post. But the results weren't that great this time round, to be honest.

This mani is also when I learned that it would be better if I used a base coat first on the silicone nail art mat, and then marble on top of the clear base coat for each patch. If you don't, you'll find that the nail patches have become very thin after they've dried and might tear when you lift them from the silicone nail art mat. Especially as you've dragged a toothpick through the nail polish when you were doing your marbling, which sometimes leaves lines on your nail patches that are easy to tear. A base coat will help hold it all together.

[Revlon Emerald City, Revlon OceanChrome, Revlon Typhoon, Revlon Blue Lagoon]

That last picture doesn't look too bad, but the second last... boy, the pattern is not even visible on the middle finger. Oh well, lesson learned

Anyway, the chrome nail polish doesn't actually look half bad, but I just need to pick a better combination when I'm doing this in the future.

On Wednesdays - Maybelline Show Time Pink

Whenever I lack inspiration, I always seem to go back to polishes like this - deep bright pink cremes!

[Bottle to nail: Maybelline Color Show Show Time Pink (2 coats)]

This one is Maybelline Show Time Pink from the Color Show range. I have so many similar polishes, it's a bit silly! Just can't go past it...

[2 coats: Maybelline Color Show Show Time Pink]

These photos are a teensy bit warmer than it actually looks. It's a pretty basic shade, formula was excellent - I used two coats and topped off with topcoat.

[2 coats: Maybelline Color Show Show Time Pink]

...and there we go! Quick and easy... and terribly unimaginative! It worked though, I'm slowly getting back into it..