Hey all, just a quick update

Hey guys, I'm really sorry for the radio silence with regards to this blog.

Unfortunately I am one of the many people who live with mental illness and I have been pretty freaking depressed for quite a few months now.

I know I have good reasons to feel down- my mum's pointless and drawn out death, being the only one with her when she passed away (and it was not peaceful in any way, shape or form), the 3 major surgeries that have left me scarred and with pain and mobility issues, losing my little house painting business as I can no longer climb ladders etc, trying to get back into school and being unable to afford it and having my beautiful Big Cat getting hit by a car and dying shortly after my mum did... there's been a LOT of awful events since 2012 and I think it's really taken a toll.

So, unfortunately, I have been incredibly apathetic and completely unmotivated. Hence no blog entries.

But I am still around and I do care about this blog, so I am going to try really hard to start blogging again, even if I do so simply to break up the monotony of my day, which currently consists of dragging myself out of bed 10 minutes before I need to get my daughter to school, returning home and lying on the couch watching Buffy reruns and then picking up my kid from school, lying down again, maybe getting it together enough to cook dinner and off to bed at 8.30 to sleep 12 hours. 

Fun right? 

I feel like I am trying to move through some thick, viscous syrup whenever I walk, I can hardly talk let alone keep up a conversation and I only leave the house on school runs and to buy food.

NEGL, it's pretty bad. My GP is concerned, my family is concerned, hell, even I'm concerned. This is not living, it's simply existing and it's pretty damn bleak.
So yeah, maybe making myself write about polish and show off my swatches will be a way of giving my days a little more structure while I try to get better.

And I am grateful to any of you who still read this blog and I'm sorry for not taking care of it like I should.

I hope all of you are faring much better than I am and I promise to blog in the very near future... I have so many amazing polishes to share and I'm even getting into stamping and getting much better.

Anyway, until next time ~love and polish for all~ 
Em xox

Today's post; Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, by Grace-Full nail polish

Hi everyone, how's life treating you? Are you looking forward to xmas?  Personally I'm just scowling my way through the so called festive season, waiting for it all to be over for another year.
Yeah, I kinda hate Xmas.
But, I do have some goodies to share that would make for some fantabulous xmas pressies, so that's gotta be good, right?

A few posts ago I was very excited to be able to introduce you to a new polish on the Aussie indie scene, Grace-Full Nail Polish.
Theresa, the brains behind the brand, runs a well known blog called It's All About the Polish and, with her obvious love of polish combined with knowing what makes a really good polish, it came as no surprise that she eventually started dabbling with her very own creations. And so Grace-Full polish was born.

I really love the Grace-Full lacquers that I have tried so far, so imagine my excitement when I was asked to review polishes from Grace-Full's newest collection, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

As the name implies, this is a bright and cheerful collection, full of bold cremes, mega holo glitter and gorgeous shimmers. There is something for everyone here, with colours ranging from soft purple creme to bright lime shimmer to deep magenta glitter and I have 5 to share with you today.

Lets start with the two crelly shimmers. The shimmers do contain a lot of flakie/shimmer goodness, but even so the formula was very easy to work with, although you should wait a little between coats. I used 3 thin coats and, because of the sheer amount of flakies, the polish does dry slightly matte but a coat of Poshe gave it a great glossy finish.

First up is Hayley, a super vivid blue filled with blue flakies that gives it a fantastic reflective shimmer;

Hayley

Now, I make no secret of the fact that I just don't really like blues. I like turquoise and aqua and teal, but true blues really just leave me cold (lol get it- blue? cold? I am a comedic genius I tells ya!) but I have worn Hayley twice in the last week, so that should give you an idea of how fabulous I think it is.
This blue just grabs you by the eyeballs and demands that you show it some respect. It is so bright and shimmery and gorgeous. Really top work.

But not to be outdone, lime green queen Karen saunters onto the scene and ups the ah-mazing factor even more;

Karen

I mean, really. Such a stunner of a colour. Needless to say, I adore Karen. This baby is packed with green flakies that give it a luminous gold glow that is so beautiful- if you have a thing for vibrant greens you need this one. For real.

All up there are a total of 5 bright, bold, shimmery crelly flakie lacquers available in the collection at $9.50 each or $42.75 for all 5.

Next up we have the cremes.
Now, these aren't thick cremes like some, they're almost like a creme/crelly hybrid- when I applied my first coat I thought I might need 3 generous coats to build up opacity because of the crelly-like feel to them, but surprisingly I only needed 2 thin coats. 
I also found them to be pretty glossy as they are, but for that extra shiny look and to minimise wear and tear I still applied a coat of Poshe anyway (top coat is a must really).

Here we have Jessica, a very pretty medium purple with a slightly dusky feel;

Jessica

And Michele, a beautiful Jade green;

Michele

I must say, Theresa really does know how to make a good green- I have nothing quite like this colour and I really like how it manages to be subdued yet bold at the same time.

As with the shimmers, there are a total of 5 cremes in the collection. The cremes are priced at $8 each and are also available as a set with the addition of a complimentary topper called Maggie, full of matte orange, blue, fuchsia, white, and green glitters, in dots, triangles, diamonds and hex shapes, for $45 (Maggie is available individually for $9.50 too).

Finally we have Jayne, a holo microglitter jelly. Now, this is packed with microglitter but it never gets too thick to work with and I was able to apply 3 thin coats with no drama. Again, because of the microglitter, the polish dried to a texture finish so I just topped it with a generous coat of Poshe. 

I will add that this contains the most sparkly holographic microglitter I have ever seen. Seriously, my iphone didn't know what to do, poor thing.

Jayne

I really love the colour of this polish and the level of sparkle is just out of this world. Plus it's a surprisingly easy formula to work with when you consider just how much holo microglitter is in there. Indeed, the formulas of every Grace-Full polish I have tried have been fantastic so far. 

As with the other styles in this collection there are 5 glitter polishes, ranging from microglitters to crelly glitters, available individually for $9.50 each.

And that's it! What do you think? I love how the polishes really seem to epitomise the whole Girls Just Wanna Have Fun theme- I think Theresa has nailed it (again).

The whole range is currently available through the Grace-Full Nail Polish site, as well as some very cute Xmas mini's (ideal for stocking stuffers), and the Nail That Accent core collection, which consists of glitter polish specifically designed to be worn over a base colour as an accent polish (although they can be worn as is and are super pretty).

Oh, and I may have treated myself to some Grace-Full stocking stuffers myself (I have been eyeing the Nail That Accent range ever since I first saw it, and I needed some of the other crelly shimmers and cremes from this collection too... uh oh!) so no doubt you'll be seeing some more of Grace-Full products in the very near future.

I hope that Xmas isn't driving you all to distraction like it is me, and I look forward to posting again real soon.

So until next time, ~love and polish for all~
Em x

PS;
Please see my "product disclosure" page regarding my reviews. Needless to say, I don't back a product unless I think it deserves it, regardless of whether I paid for it myself or if it was provided to me for my honest appraisal.
Em x

From Powder Perfect- Love Angeline and Aliquid

Hi guys, how are you all? Well, as I mentioned in my last post, Jacinta from the gorgeous Powder Perfect has sent me some nail polishes to review, so let's get to it.

Love! Angeline is a US based indie polish maker and the two lacquers I have been sent to review are from her blogger collaboration;
Stargazing Monster, a blackened purple jelly filled with small holo glitter and a warm mutlicoloured shimmer, created with the help of blogger MrsLochness!, inspired by the colors in the sky at twilight and Let Me Fly, a beautiful teal holo filled with a green-blue shimmer and blue and green iridescent glitters, created with LacquerLoon, in a homage to the delightful colours found in the plumage of peacocks.

First up is Stargazing Monsters. The formula for this was great, I used three thin coats for these swatches and topped it off with a coat of Poshe. I like the way the shimmer gives this polish a nice complexity, so it's not completely reliant on the holo glitter for that special something...

Stargazing Monsters

The polish looks quite black under certain lighting, yet in the sunlight you can really see how this is actually a blackened purple base. The shimmer is strong regardless of lighting which I really like, and the holo glitter really gives it a lovely sparkle too.

Up next is let Me Fly. I must say I found the formula on this one to be a little bit harder to work with. There is a lot of glitter and so on in the polish, so it gets quite thick on the brush by the time you're up to the third nail.
I only needed two coats here and again topped it off with Poshe for a nice glassy smooth finish. I didn't really see the holo effect with this one, but the shimmer and the lovely colours of the glitter makes this a really beautiful polish to look at, regardless.

Let Me Fly

The second lot of polish Jacinta sent me are by Aliquid Lacquer, from their Silmarillion collection, based on the writings of the same title by Tolkien.
 
This is Hidden City, a stunning forest green holographic polish finished with shimmery gold flakes. 
The formula is great, two easy coats and oh wow, what a colour... I love this one. I topped it with Poshe and didn't experience any dulling of the linear holo effect either.

Hidden City

I really like this polish, and I don't own any greens quite like this. The formula was a breeze to work with, not at all temperamental the way some holographic polishes can be and, even though it's a dark colour, there was still a lovely holo flame on the nail without any dulling of the green. And in the shade the golden flakes give the polish a lovely depth that keeps it interesting.

Finally we have Day Shall Come Again, a rusty burgundy with a strong gold to bronzey-green shift. 
Again the formula was excellent. I used three thin coats for these swatches and one coat of Poshe. This is a really interesting colour, quite delicate with a fabulous shifting property that is almost strong enough to call a duochrome.

Day Shall Come Again

Both Love! Angeline and Aliquid Lacquer are available through Powder Perfect here in Australia, along with some other fantastic polish brands.

Powder Perfect also make their own stunning polishes, and they have a grogeous Xmas range out at the moment that you really should check out... I have Merry Xmas ya Filthy Animals and it's soooo lush :) 
Powder Perfect's customer service and range is lovely and it was a pleasure to review these polishes for Jacinta, plus there's plenty on their site to keep any polish lover happy, including nail vinyls and fab nail polish-based resin jewelry.

I hope you enjoyed these reviews and, as you know, I always give an honest appraisal of the polishes, whether I buy them myself or if they are sent to me for review.

Anyway, I have some more gorgeous new polishes I just have to swatch, so until next time
~love and polish for all~

Em xox

My first ever attempt at painting over nail stamping, called leadlighting

Hey guys, this is a really quick post. I just wanted to share my current mani that I did yesterday using the leadlighting technique, whereby you paint your nails a light colour, stamp an image over that and then fill in the image with sheer nail polish tints.
I am so pleased with how it turned out, especially for a first go. The only downside to that is that I have absolutely no desire to change my nails and I have some gorgeous new Glams to try haha

I used the Loreal Gellie range and they gave the images a nice, water colour feel to the whole thing.

Anyway, that's it for today. Told you it was going to be a quick one ;)

I have some lovely polishes to share that were given to me to review by Jacinta of Powder Perfect, so keep your eyes peeled for that post (it will be up in the next day or so).

Until then, ~love and polish for all~

Em xox