Super quick post- a little bit of dead easy "nail art" using Glam Polish's Tinker Bell

Heya again- I know this comes close on the heels of my last post, but it's a quickie ;)

And yes, it does feature another Glam Polish- what can I say? I really dig them.
Anyway, this is Tinker Bell, a bright lime green with a sweet gold shimmer running throughout.
It's such a happy colour, so bright and cheerful, but me being me I had to tweak things just a bit...

Tinker Bell

How cute is this colour? So pretty :)

 

After wearing it "as is" for most of the day I decided to make use of some of the nail vinyls I have and add a little attitude to my mani...the black is just a simple $2.00 Mud polish, which I tend to use for all my black nail art needs as it has great opacity and is easy to use.
Anyway, I love the black and green together, it really makes the green pop and it's very eye catching. I even did the same on my other hand, with straight lines on the thumb, diagonal on the middle finger and chevrons/zigzags on my pinkie, just to mix things up a bit.

All up I think it's a great mani, easy-peasy and cute to boot (woah, epic rhyming abilities there, bow down before the master folks haha). I love easy nail art ideas, so please let me know if you have any tips or tricks to making your mani pop :)

Until next time ~love and polish for all~

Em xox

My best ever gradient (that I am so proud of)

Hey all, how are we today? Hope everything is fine and dandy.
Today is something a little different, I'm going to share with you one of my best ever gradients.
I love gradients, they're my go-to nail art favourite. I also love dotticures, but for some reason gradients are my favourite and I can't seem to help myself from whacking on more polish if I get the chance. And this one is by far the prettiest I have ever done, it's like a tropical sunset or a deep space supernova. Something bright and gorgeous anyway ;)
So, without any further ado here it is;

The polishes I used were Mud's Pink a Lot and Dark Room, Pretty Serious Cosmetics' My Darling Clementine, Arcane Lacquer's Funhouse and The Power, The Passion and finally Miss Ashleigh's Too Hot to be Blue. All but Mud are Australian indie polishes and they're fabulous too.

I can't begin to express just how stoked I was with how this turned out, it really is my best gradient to date and I think I'll be hard pressed to top it.

What do you think? Do you like gradients? What's your favourite go-to nail polish trick (if you have any) that you use to jazz up your mani with?
I'm going to be doing another gradient today as I'm going to a family do tomorrow and want my nails to be really bright, so if it looks as good as I'm hoping it will I'll post some pics of that soon.

Until next time ~love and polish for all~
Em xox

A quickie post- Shades of Phoenix Thank You Mam, my newest bestest red glitterbomb :D

Hi all, I know I only did a review the other day but I just had to post about this polish because... well, you'll see why in a minute.
Like most of the polishes I feature here, Shades of Phoenix is an Aussie indie polish maker who makes some great lacquers, and I have reviewed a couple of their polishes here in the past, with Poseidon being one of my all time faves (just check the tags for Shades of Phoenix if you're interested).
Well, I can say without hesitation that these new ones have also really impressed me with both their quality and beauty. I think SoP are definitely stretching their creative wings, so to speak, and it's wonderful to see such great results- I feel like they are really coming into their own, which is just awesome.
The first photo here shows my recent purchase, and they are (from left to right) Spinach, Wham Bam and Thank You Mam. They're all amazingly blingy glitter polishes, but I simply couldn't resist Thank You Mam, so that's what I'm going to showcase today...

Thank You Mam is part of a special release duo, the other one being Wham Bam, which is a aqua glitterbomb whose sparkliness is beyond my ability to describe adequately... I can't wait to swatch it for you to see!
Thank You Mam is also amazingly glittery, but it appears to be in a slightly tinted jelly base which makes it more opaque than Wham Bam, which is in a clear base. I am wearing Thank You Mam over an undie (Ulta3's Chili) in these pics, but there is no doubt that this polish would be opaque in one or two coats by itself.
I love how this has flashes of gold and hot pink amongst the red glitter, it adds a little something extra to your average red glitterbomb in my oh so humble opinion (and, while there's a lot going on, it's not in the slightest bit too much). Mind you, there's really nothing average about this polish at all... it's freaking fabulous, seriously!

I mean, this polish grabs you by the lapels and shakes you until you give in and surrender to the awesomeness that is glitter. Honestly, it's so ridiculously sparkly in any and all light... Dorothy and The Wizard of Oz could have used it as a stand in for those famous ruby slippers.

O.K, down to the nuts and bolts of the review- Thank You Mam is an easy polish to use, there were absolutely no issues with application and dry time was good too. Just make sure you have a nice top coat on hand as it is very glitter dense (obviously) so it does dry somewhat gritty, but it's easily fixed with some Poshe or Seche or similar.
Because it is soooo intensely glittery you may find that you have to dab here and there, but I found using a red undie meant that I was able to apply is just as you would a creme. It also leveled really well and coverage was spot on- as I said earlier, I don't think undies are even necessary with this one and I'll probably try it without next time I wear it.

Pretty bloomin' gorgeous hey? I just keep staring at my nails, it's honestly that awesome.
To be frank, I think this might be the best red glitter bomb I own thus far, and that's saying a lot, especially considering just how many full coverage red glitter polishes I own. So Teneil, I tip my hat to you, you've really done a fantastic job.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm going to go and watch The Princess Bride with my daughter then hop into bed- it's freezing and pouring with rain, so what a great night for movies and snuggles with the kid and cats :)

Shades of Phoenix  is available through their website and is also trialing overseas shipping, so you fans from somewhere else are in luck and can get your paws on this polish and its mate, Wham Bam, right now if you're up for it... and why wouldn't you be? Look at it and try to resist, I dare ya! hehe

I'll be back with Wham Bam next, and I hope you've got your sunnies ready because goddamn is it sparkly! Woohoo!

Until then ~love and polish for all~

Em xox

Sorry I've been MIA but I'm making up for my absence with 3 AMAZING polishes by Glam Polish, so you've gotta forgive me ;)

Hey there, I'm really sorry for being so sporadic in my blog posting recently- I am struggling a bit with feeling down, which always leads to crazy levels of apathy and 16 hour sleeps.
But I'm still around, still buying, and playing with, nail polish and the odd bit of nail art. I just haven't really been taking many photos, and those that I have just haven't interested me enough to warrant uploading and colour adjusting and blah blah blah.
But I have to say that I am absolutely falling in love with two particular indie polishes at the moment- Two Birds Lacquer (which you may have surmised from the last couple of posts) and Glam Polish.
Glam Polish is another Aussie company that makes exceptionally beautiful polishes, and their formulas are consistently fantastic too. Oh man, the colours! The depth, the intensity, the sparkle and, well, glamorous-ness of their products... seriously, you need to try these babies out to experience the glory first hand.

I'm going to post a couple of different polishes of theirs, and hopefully you'll see what I'm on about.
First up is Coven, from their "Cast a Spell" collection (of which I have now ordered the rest, because reasons!), a bright red beauty with holo, glass fleck, shimmer... there's so much in there, yet it's all done so well that nothing outshines the other, and it all balances perfectly. I also say that about every polish of theirs that I currently own (and yes, I"m about to own a lot more haha).
I don't know quite how to describe their bases tbqh; they're sheer enough that you get to see the glitter and shimmer, but they're also very pigmented, so opacity is achievable in only a couple of coats and they are thin enough that they're super easy to work with. I suppose a tinted, jelly-like base is the best description, but they don't have that syrupy feel to them that a lot of jellies tend to have, which makes them super easy to apply. But that's my best description, so that's what I'm going to go with. If you have a better descriptive term please let me know ;)

I mean, this polish is simply stunning- it glows from within and is so sparkly and rich... ahh, heaven!

And that's no exaggeration either. Just look at that inner fire!

And for a little bit of fun I also did a gradient using Glam's "Maleficent", which is a rich, red leaning purple polish with glassfleck, holo and shimmer and also red glitter running throughout, which helped to tie it together with the red of "Coven".

Isn't is gorgeous?

And now onto the third Glam Polish beauty that I want to show you tonight- the amazingly vibrant "Evanora". This was soooo hard to photograph as it's so shimmery and glowy that my iphone kinda freaked out over it.

Evonara in direct sunlight- my iphone couldn't handle the amazingness

I can't fangirl enough over this polish. It was like I had some supernatural force glowing on the tips of my fingers. And there's these awesome little iridescent diamond pieces in the polish that added such an interesting twist to the depth and dimension already on show. And of course, it's green, and a fabulous green at that. It's neither too blue or too yellow, so I think it would look great on any skin tone (and hey, who cares anyway? you wear it, you rock it!).

Formula wise this was slightly thinner than Meleficent and Coven, but it was in no way difficult to apply. This was three thin coats and one coat of Poshe (I'm trying Poshe to see if I get less tip wear- I think Seche might be shrinking back from the tips a bit- alas and alack as it's a brilliant top coat).

Dry time between coats was minimal and it was really easy to achieve opacity. I did try to place the little diamond shaped glitters as I really wanted them to pop, but the rest was easy, standard application, no dabbing required.

I'm sure you can see what I mean by magical- it's so luminous, it's amazing. And I love that regardless of whether you're out in direct sunlight on indoors at night under dim lighting the polish still looks fabulous, picking up whatever light is available and twinkling away. It's definitely a "keep your eyes on the road" polish hazard!

 

Glam Polish is available through their website for Australian buyers and also sells to the States. There's also a list of other stockists on its website.
I would wholeheartedly recommend Glam Polish as I think their wares are stunning and of excellent quality.
What more can I say- I think the photos, even coming from such a humble source as my iphone, speak for themselves.

And needless to say, I will have plenty more of their polishes to review in the coming month or so... I kinda went a little overboard on their site, but it was all so sparkly and pretty! It hypnotized me, I had ~no choice~ Hmmm, would that stand up in court I wonder? JK ;)

Anyway, I promise not to take so long between posts again- I'm trying to get on top of the shitty mood I've been in for the last couple of months, but unfortunately it's not always as easy as just "snapping out of it". I'm sure any of you who have dealt with long term depression can understand that one :\

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

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