WOWZERS! Femme Fatale's "Nightsong Grotto"

Oh boy, I am so excited to show you today's polish! But first, I should get the usual stuff out of the way... Hi, how are you all? I hope you're well. I'm o.k- not great, a bit depressed, a bit lonely, but I'm getting through it. I am also waiting on a ridiculous amount of nail polish... damn you, all those facebook nail polish groups that are full of people like me ;)

Alrighty then, now lets get to it. Today I want to show you a simply sublime polish by Femme Fatale Cosmetics called "Nightsong Grotto". This is a teal jelly filled, almost overflowing, with all sorts of glitters. I love the combination of glitters used here, it makes this polish so, so interesting and gives it so much depth. Ohhh, I just love it! *rubs hands gleefully*
So, pictures :D

Isn't it gorgeous? What I love about it is the addition of the hot pink glitter, it makes this polish pop on the nail like nobodies business;

I just cannot convey how amazing this polish looks on the nail. It's so beautiful. And it's a great polish to use as well- the jelly base is the perfect consistency to achieve opacity in three coats whilst still allowing the glitter to show through each layer, giving it a delicious squishy depth that makes jellies so appealing to me.

There was no need to fish for any glitter, in fact I sometimes had to put some back in the bottle, but it all went onto the nail with no dramas. I did do a little bit of glitter placement with my last coat, but that's only because I'm pedantic and like to have everything looking "just so" before I finish up. I then added two coats of Scehe Vite and my nails were good to go. In fact, the jelly base was so easy to work with I had virtually no clean up either, which was awesome!

I love that Nightsong Grotto looks so different depending on the light, and how the various glitters all seem to play off each other and come to life as you move your fingers.
Thankfully Nightsong Grotto is currently available at Femme Fatale Cosmetics, so if I were you I would head over there now and snag a bottle. This really is a stunner and I suspect it will be one of those polishes that people will be trying to track down in the years to come.
Sophie, the gorgeous gal behind this line, is also a sweetheart and the customer service at Femme Fatale is excellent.
Really, I can't say enough about this company. And even better they are an Australian stockist for other indie brands, both Australian and international and they don't just stock nail polish either, they have all sorts of beautiful products to ohhh and ahhh over.

Anyway, that's it for me today. I've had a bit of a rough day, a few tears were shed and I left a couple of facebook groups after feeling like maybe I wasn't the right fit for them. Oh well, live and learn.
I hope you are all well and it makes me feel really good knowing that I have my very own small but dedicated readership who support and stand by me- it means a lot <3

Until next time, love and polish for all!
Em xox

Giving it another go- Femme Fatale's "Sea Pony"

As some of you might remember, I acquired some Femme Fatale Cosmetics polishes awhile ago but was somewhat underwhelmed with them when they arrived- I bought several polishes at the time; a couple of international brands that they stock, and some that they produce themselves.
Now, Femme Fatale's service was excellent and I couldn't ask for more in that sense, but their polishes were quite different from what I was expecting, both visually and they were really quite difficult to apply when I decided to swatch them. It all left me feeling pretty ~sad face~ at the time, as I had high hopes having seen them swatched elsewhere.
Anyway, after some advice from the lovely Tara over at Loki's Lacquer I tried adding some thinner to the two polishes I was having trouble with, and also decided to layer them over  similar coloured undies, and thankfully both polishes look much better on now than they did the first time around.

What you see swatched here are Snapvine on my index and ring finger, and Sea Pony on my middle finger and pinkie. Both are "crelly" polishes- that is, not quite opaque or thick enough to be called a creme, yet not sheer and squishy enough to be classed as a jelly, hence the name crelly. And, as per usual with the nail polishes I chose, there's oodles of glitter in there too.

After adding the thinner and having a play with both polishes over various undies, I decided to do a full mani with Sea Pony, which I have layered here over Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure's "Good to Grape" (which is a great match colour wise).

This is a really pretty, cheerful mani and I only needed one coat of Sea Pony over the base colour for these swatches, which is awesome. The glitter pay off is excellent too- in fact, it can be a little overwhelming. I found the best way to apply this was to use a very thin coat and then dab the glitter around the nail until it's sitting how you want it. I then used three (yes, three!) very generous coats of Seche Vite over the lot to give it a smooth, glossy finish.

I'm definitely glad that I gave this a second shot, and using 4 drops of Seche Restore really did make a huge difference as to how this went on. Truth be told I was at a total loss with what to do with it as it was and thought I might even have to toss it. So I'm stoked that it hasn't gone to waste, and that I have such a cute, usable polish in my collection.
However, although the application was made much easier, I still think this is a tricky polish to use, and here's my thoughts as to why;
Crellies and glitter are a delicate combination- you want the base to be opaque enough that you get decent coverage and nice colour vibrancy, but you need it sheer enough that it won't completely cover up your glitter, and that is a difficult balance to strike.
You also want your glitter to spread out easily and evenly onto the nail, and that wasn't quite the case here. I found the glitter tended to clump together which made getting a little bit of everything- without going overboard- somewhat difficult. I suspect matte glitter probably clumps a little easier, simply by virtue of the surface being matte and not glossy, so that might have been a contributing factor.
But, and this is the reason I have made such an effort with this polish, Sea Pony is soooo pretty! The colours are just lovely and the combination of bright orange and pink against that gorgeous purple is really eye catching. It reminds me of long, languid summer sunsets where the sky is a riot of colours and the clouds are stained deep pink and tangerine.
Sea Pony is also a particularly feminine polish... I'm not sure what it is exactly that makes it feel that way to me, but it does and I like that very much.

Overall I am glad that I bought both Sea Pony and Snapvine, but I do think you will need to fiddle with them to get the application down pat and have it looking good on the nail. However, I also think it's well worth the effort, as they look fabulous on, so there's no regrets here.
Femme Fatale Cosmetics have a wide range of products, including makeup, and they also stock quite a few international  brands which can be hard to get a hold of otherwise (I ordered my two Dance Legend polishes through Femme Fatale). Plus their customer service is excellent.
So, I would definitely recommend having a look at what they have to offer as they have a great range, and you should find something to suit just about anyone.

Anyway, that's it from me for today- I've been so tired, it's kinda ridiculous. I was in bed before 7pm yesterday and didn't wake up until 8.15 this morning... I hate being this tired, it's not a nice feeling and it makes getting things done hard too. I saw a doctor today and I'm seeing my normal GP next week, but I suspect it's just a combination of the blues and this cold, dreary winter weather making me want to hibernate ;)
And it really is wild out there today- trees down all over the place, power outages, howling winds and driving rain... definitely a good day for snuggling on the couch with my kid and my cats, watching Horrible Histories and eating toasted cheese sangas.

Until next time, love and polish for all <3
Em xox

So excite! So dissapoint :(

Hi all,
Well, as you saw yesterday I got my package from Femme Fatale and was super excited with my new polishes.

Femme Fatale and Dance Legend

So last night I wiped off my last mani and decided to have a go with Femme Fatale's Sea Pony

Sea Pony by Femme Fatale

After perusing the Femme Fatale site for days I would up choosing Sea Pony and Snapvine, mainly on the strength of the amazing Nail GunXS's  swatches.
She does the most beautiful job showing off how great a polish can look- I am rather envious of her talent- and her swatches were so gorgeous I thought "I need this polish".
Bec is also the creator of the fabulous Arcane Lacquer, so that should give you an idea of the talent level this woman posses (hint- brilliant).

And this is the point where I shed some sad tears...
Sea Pony is, without a doubt, the most difficult nail polish I have ever used. It is very, very glitter heavy, but they don't spread well on the nail and just clump up all over the place. And the crelly base is so thin that you need to do 3 coats for full coverage, but with each coat you're getting masses of clumping glitter... argh.
I found myself scraping off bits of glitter and trying to dab the crelly on to fill the gaps that that created. It was such a disappointment :(

I suspect I probably built up the polish in my mind, so my expectations were very high. I should have paid more attention to the swatches that didn't make the polish look quite so amazing as the ones over on NailGunXS, as that's more along the lines of what my mani looked like at the end of a very frustrating 3 coats.

Femme Fatale's Sea Pony

 I don't know if I got a bung bottle or if my inexperience with glitter/crelly combos was the reason for the problems I experienced, but I am pretty bummed out.
The polish also ATE up topcoat like crazy- these pics were taken with 4 coats of topcoat- two of Seche Vite and two coats of Skinfood's nail vita crystal pearl top coat. And it's still not smooth :\

I understand that the crelly needs to be sheer enough for the glitters to come through, but the glitter itself has to disperse better over the nail or it just becomes a case of trying to save the mani rather than creating a good one.

*sigh*

Anyway, I am hoping that Snapvine will be easier to work with, and next time I use Sea Pony I will use it as a topper rather than as the main polish- hopefully it will look the way I envisioned it in my mind.

What polishes have you lusted after only to discover it doesn't live up to your expectations?

A quick peak at some stunners

Hey guys, I'm off to see my doctor (and hopefully get back on the morphine for my pain- the cold is not good for my plated hip).
anyway, I will do some proper swatches soon, but here's a couple that I simply had to share.

First up is Nubar's Cactus, a beautiful, rich swampy green that has a gold shimmer to it in certain lighting.
I am in love with this colour and suspect I will double up when I have some spare $...

Nubar's Cactus

This is a devilishly tricky polish to capture on my iphone- it's more "swampy" IRL, this makes it look cooler than it really is. The top pic is probably closest to the true colour.

The polish itself applied really well, 3 thin coats and one swipe of top coat and that was it- the formula wasn't streaky or slow drying, it reached opacity easily and the depth of the colour is fantastic. I can't praise this enough- I'm really, really pleased I went with this colour.

Now, I did my nails with Cactus last night and, of course, this morning this gets delivered;

Can you say gorgeous?

This is my first ever order from Femme Fatale, an Australian company that produces its own indie polishes as well as stocking a great range of other brands, especially indie brands.
What you see pictured is two Dance Legend polishes from their chameleon range- Roz and Sully (far left).
And the other two are by Femme Fatale themselves- we have Snapvine (teal) and Sea Pony (purple).
Unfortunately I don't have time to do a proper mani right now, but I couldn't resist trying the multichrome Roz and I just threw one coat of it over the Nubar polish.
Amazingly, that was enough for the polish to show just how strong its multichrome effect is- I am in awe;

Dance Legend's Roz

Now, this was a very quick play with Roz and my pics don't do it justice (a common refrain, as you may have noticed- that's what using a camera phone gets you).
But even with my quick and somewhat messy application you can see just how strong the colour shift is.
I am honestly blown away- this is by far the strongest multichrome I have ever come across. Just fantastic.

Anyway, my biggest challenge now is deciding on which colour to try next- they're all so lovely and I am sooo indecisive :\

Hope you enjoyed the quick update
Em x