Here's some Pretty Serious polish for your viewing pleasure

Hi guys, how are you today? The sun is out where I am and it's so lovely after such a cold, wet winter. Of course, I know that we still have plenty of cold and rainy days ahead, but the tree in our front yard is covered with blossom, flowers are starting to poke their heads up, the birds are singing and you can just feel that winter is at an end. Hooray!

Anyway, I just bought a couple of polishes from Pretty Serious Cosmetics the other day as they were having a sale and just had to take a bunch of pics too, so here's some of them, from me to you, with love.

The beauty on show today is Haddonfield, named after the Halloween movies and part of Pretty Serious's "Killer Fangirls" trio which also includes "Crystal Lake" inspired by Friday the 13th and Elm Street inspired by, obviously, A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Haddonfield is a fabulous orange jelly filled with gold shimmer, orange microglitter, larger holographic hexes and random shaped black shards...it's the most divine colour- a deep, rich orange that reminds me of ripe tangelos.
I reckon this would make the perfect Halloween polish if you celebrate that sort of thing (I don't as it's not a holiday we celebrate here) but I also think it would look amazing with a little black dress, as it has a certain luxe feel. IMHO it's definitely beautiful enough to be a "special night out" polish.
Oh and you get a very cool collectors card (each of the Killer Fangirls trio comes with its own card that gives a cute nod to the polishes namesake). Here's a pic of the Haddonfield card;

 

And now onto the polish itself. Application wise I only needed two coats, no dabbing required, easy peasy application and two coats of Seche Vite to smooth and seal it all.

Haddonfield

I can't praise this polish highly enough, I love it. I think the colour is incredibly wearable, especially for an orange. The depth, the unusual black shards, the gold shimmer... it all adds up to a really eye catching, glamorous nail polish that I would encourage anyone to try, even if you don't normally do orange. I think you might be pleasantly surprised :)

Haddonfield

So, what do you think? Haddonfield, Crystal Lake, Elm Street and oh so many other goodies are all available at the Pretty Serious Cosmetics online store. Oh, and Kaz has a new range coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

Until next time ~love and polish for all~

Em xox

Lets all give a warm welcome to another new aussie indie, Resinail Lacquer

Howdy folks, hope you're all doing well (or at least not doing terribly anyway). I'm still battling the black dog of depression and I'm very tired and over it as it's been months and months of feeling awful and, even worse in a way, not feeling anything at all.

Anyway, that's me in a nutshell at this point in time, but you didn't some here to read about how depressed I am, or the ins and outs of living with mental illness (although I do want to write a post about how nail polish helps me cope). So onto the polish.

Today I want to share with you a lovely new line of polishes by Resinail Lacquer, another Aussie indie fresh on the scene.
Michelle (the brains behind the brand) kindly asked me to swatch and review several of her polishes, and I am delighted to say that each and every one was lovely, the formulas were all very consistent and easy to use and the colours are fantastic. I now have around 4 or 5 Resinail Lacquers on my ever expanding "buy" list.

O.K, first up is the beautiful Fuchsia Fade, a thermal polish that changes from a pale, pearly pink when warm to a bright fuchsia when cold. This is my first ever thermal polish that actually works, and I am thrilled with how it looks. I definitely want to buy more thermals now that I know how amazing they can be.

Fuchsia Fade

These pics show the colour range from cold (the top photo) to warm (bottom). I used three thin coats and one of seche vite to top it all off. A very smooth, easy formula to use.
And these next pics are just for the sake of it because they're so pretty :)

Fuchsia Fade

Next up is a very pretty silver holographic polish called Urban Glitz. This is probably best suited as a topper as it is at the moment, so I used it over a China Glaze silver polish on my index and ring fingers and alone on my middle and little fingers.
I only used two coats over the China Glaze, but needed four generous coats to achieve opacity on my other fingers. Again I used a good coat of Seche Vite to seal the polish in and add a lovely shine.
Urban Glitz is a combination of silver holo, slightly larger holographic microglitter and silver holographic hex glitter. In the shade it's a very pretty silver polish, but when the right light hits it look out, it's rainbow city :)

Urban Glitz

As you can see, Urban Glitz is warmer when worn alone and is cooler in colour when worn over the silver undie. Either way I think it's a very pretty polish.

Urban Glitz

And finally, tied with Fuchsia Fade as my favourite is Flamingo Flakes, a gorgeous pink jelly polish filled with holographic microglitter. It's so eye-catching and is, like most of my faves, a definite driving hazard as it's hard to keep your eyes on the road when this beauty starts shining and flashing with rainbows and sparkle.

Flamingo Flakes

 It's hard to get the sparkles but here's some more pics, just because :)

Flamingo Flakes

So, that's my first, but definitely not last, review of Resinail Lacquer. At the moment shipping is only in Australia, but that may change so keep an eye out if you require international postage.
I am really pleased to have been asked to review these polishes and I am absolutely stoked with the quality and beauty of all three lacquers. I have no reservations in encouraging you to go check out Michelle's other products, and I am really looking forward to seeing what else Resinail Lacquer come up with next.
Also, check out Bab's Nails who has done a wonderful review of Resinail and has some gorgeous swatches to ohhh and ahhh over too.

And, as you can see on my disclosure page, my reviews are always honest and in no way biased in favour of, or against, the products I have been sent to review.

Welp, that's it for me today and I look forward to catching up again soon.

Until next time, as always, ~love and glitter for all~

Em xox

Introducing an exciting new Aussie indie, Lyz Cosmetics (lots of pics)

Hi everyone, hope you're all doing well.
Today is an exciting day for me, as I have been asked to swatch and review a brand new indie cosmetics company called Lyz Cosmetics made right here in Melbourne by the very sweet Elizabeth.
She asked if anyone would be interested in swatching some of her polishes and, after having a quick peak at what she had on offer, I put my hand up and was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to help showcase her wares, along with another couple of awesome gals. Also, have a squizz at that adorable presentation :)

The polishes I have to share with you today have been provided to me for my honest appraisal, and you know me and know that's what you're going to get. The first three are all currently available on the Liz Cosmetics etsy store, and the final two polishes are due to be released soon.
Elizabeth also enclosed some "nail rings" and some nail studs, which you can see in the swatches of Gilding Twilight, and they will also be available in her store soon.
Warning, this is picture heavy.
So, lets get to it shall we?

First up is an astonishing polish, called Swashbuckling.
Elizabeth describes it as "a fluorescent orange nail lacquer infused with fine, tiny gold glitters with a fast, two coat application".
I describe it as the brightest, most intense, most cheerful and just plain outrageous polish I have ever worn. Seriously. My camera phone could hardly deal with the colour of this polish, so I've had to take a variety of shots, including in shadow, which for some reason allowed me to best capture the fluorescent nature of this particular lacquer.

Swashbuckling

While this is a really intense polish I think it's very wearable as it has a pink shimmer that softens the orange somewhat, making almost a fluorescent coral under certain light. It really is quite complex and shows a lot of different aspects depending on the light source. I also think this polish would be amazing for accent nails and nail art.
Application wise it was extremely easy to work with, with two coats providing ample coverage. It does dry to a slightly satin/semi matte finish (which I really like) but you can add top coat for a glossy finish (most of my pics are shown with a top coat).

The second polish I have to share with you is Captivating Coral, described as "a radiant, pearly bronze nail lacquer infused with rainbow shimmer."

Captivating Coral

 Again, two coats was more than enough for great coverage, although I found that this polish dried very quickly, so if you tend to rework your polish you'll need to be quick.
The colour is a really feminine dusky rose with a coppery/bronze finish. It's very pigmented and almost a one coater, application was easy and it dried to a semi matte finish.

The third polish given to me to review is called Gliding Twilight, and oh boy is this pretty. I adore this purple, it is soft yet vibrant, almost luminous with a soft pink, rainbow shimmer.

Captivating Twilight and some of the lovely rings on offer

Again application was so easy and again, I only required two thin coats.
Captivating Twilight did dry to a satin/semi matte finish like the other two polishes, but when I popped a coat of seche vite over it it became so reflective it almost glowed on my nails.
This will definitely be a polish I am going to miss when I run out.

The fourth polish is an unreleased is Nirvana, a "murky purple base containing many reflective silver butterflies, yellow and silver glitter hexes and tiny pink holographic glitter."

Nirvana

While this isn't listed as a glitter topper I think that it would probably work best as one, as the formula is quite sheer. There's plenty of glitter to keep you happy, although like most glitter polishes some fishing is required for the larger pieces and it applies fairly easily, although it is thinner than the other polishes.
Personally I felt that the colour was more of a dusty mauve, which is a colour that my skin tone really struggles with. I also found that I needed 4 good coats to achieve opacity with this one, but it did look fantastic over Captivating Coral- I think they really compliment each other. For these swatches I used the polish alone on my index and middle fingers and layered it over Captivating Coral on my ring and little fingers.

And finally there's the as yet unreleased Cerulean Dusk "a glitter infused lacquer packed with lots of tiny teal and silver glitter."I also suspect there's some holographic glitter in there too, as it has a strong scattered holo effect (it reminds me a bit of Dance Legend wow prisms if they were a topper). Bonus!
Elizabeth states that this is meant as a glitter topper but I think it could easily be worn as is in three coats. For these swatches I have layered it over a teal creme, except for my ring finger, which I kept undie free (and as you can see, coverage is pretty good). I only needed two dabbed coats for these pics. It's very, very pretty and would suit anyone who loves teal and glitter ;)

Cerulean Dusk

All in all I have to say I am very impressed with with what Elizabeth has managed to create as a new polish maker. I am also really pleased to be able to show off her wares and be involved so early on in the life of Lyz Cosmetics and if this is what she's coming up with now, I can only assume the future's looking as bright as Swashbuckling is on my nails ;)

I hope you enjoyed my first ever full on, multi polish review and, as it says on my disclosure page, all my opinions are my honest appraisal of the products at hand, so you know I won't talk up something just for the sake of it.

Also, as an added bonus LYZ Cosmetics are offering 10% off on orders over $30 until 31/08/14 Use the code LYZ10 when checking out :)

If you want to see more of their polishes head on over to Bab's Nails for a great review.

Anyway, until next time, as always ~love and polish for all~

Em xox