Chanel Provocation

Partner in Crime's birthday is coming up. And for her birthday, we had been looking at various Chanel colours. I gave the list of possible colours to our Mum, and she found number 1 on the list. Now because Mum was BUSTING to give Partner in Crime this present, she got it early. And these are the results.

I believe this is one coat of Strong Adhesion Base Coat, two of Provocation, and one or two of Patent Leather Top Coat (China Glaze). The brush was very small, which seemed a bit weird for a $39 bottle of nail polish, but perhaps we've been spoiled by OPI in that respect. There is also some slight bubbling on some of the nails, this may have been due to Partner in Crime's eagerness to play with her new Chanel-y goodness. But all in all, the verdict is good. Partner in Crime loves the colour, and relays that the application is even, even considering the brush.

The first Chanel. OMG DOOD!

Mont Bleu Nail Files

Partner in Crime and I have been reading lots of blogs talking about the Mont Bleu Crystal Nail Files. So, we decided to order some.

We ordered 10 nail files of various types. They arrived in ten working days, and it has to be said that these photos really don't do the sparkley goodness justice.

 They have a number of different ranges, and lots of options within those ranges. Here we have one of the 3D designs at the top and on the left below. These are a cheaper option, but still very cute.

The two on the right in the above photo and all of those in the photo to the left are from the Crystal range. They are full size nail files at 13.5 cm. And as you may have guessed, from the Crystal range, all of those little sparkles are genuine Swarovski Crystals. You can get the file itself in clear, black, a block colour or in a graduated colour.

These are from the Hand painted Nail Files range. They are also slightly less expensive than the Crystal range, but well worth a look.









All of these files were purchased from http://www.design-glassware.com/. The service was wonderful. The files were shipped the same day and arrived in two weeks. There is also a discount code that worked when we purchased, which was 'blog'.

These are fabulous nail files even without considering how pretty they are. But the sparkles just make then that much more worth it.

China Glaze Swatches

It's been a long week already. But it's only going to get longer. So, to make the time pass in a much happier way, I've done some swatching. HUZZAH!

These are four polishes from the recently arrived box o' prettiness.

This is China Glaze Oxygen - one coat of China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat, three of Oxygen, and one of Seche Vite. I really like the final colour of this polish. I found that the coats I used to get to this colour were perhaps a bit thicker than I would usually do. But I think it could easily be toned back and used as a nice colour to wear when you don't want too much colour. 

This is China Glaze Sea Spray - one coat of Strong Adhesion Base Coat, two of Sea Spray, and one of Seche Vite. I really loved this colour from start to finish. It's a cross between blue, green, and grey. But the thing that really makes it great is the silver shimmer through the polish that you probably can't see in this photo. 

This is China Glaze For Audrey - one coat of Strong Adhesion Base Coat, three of For Audrey, and one of Seche Vite. I actually wore this colour for two days after doing this swatch. And I loved it. It's easy to see why it's a favourite. I used thin coats, and that's probably why I had to do three coats to get the finish I wanted. Easily one of the prettiest colours in my collection so far.

                                          Inside with flash

                                          Inside without flash

This is China Glaze Cowgirl Up - one coat of Strong Adhesion Base Coat, two of Cowgirl Up, and one of Seche Vite. This is a beautiful satiny burgundy. It goes on smoothly. It has a gorgeous shimmer. I love it. It's that simple. LOVE. I'll be wearing this one a lot I'm thinking.

All of these colours are great. But even among great colours, there are always favourites. 

All of these colours were bought from www.crushcosmetics.com.au. They have free shipping for orders over $65, which is easy to do when you see the range of colours. 

Today's experiment

I was given a gentle reminder this morning that went something like, "Today's a good day for blogging." And to be honest, that's entirely true. It's been dreary and miserable outside for most of the day with bouts of intense sun to make up for it.

So today, I blog.

I decided yesterday that I would try one of the new polishes from the box of prettiness. I was not disappointed with this one.

                                         Inside with flash.

                                          Outside.

This is China Glaze Drastic. Here is a base coat of China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat, three coats of colour, and one coat of Seche Vite. I love the colour variation that this shows in different lights. My boyfriend was convinced that it was brown until he saw it under a strong light. This polish is great to apply - it seems to self level a fair bit, and it has a nice opacity to it even though it seems almost sheer in the first coat. The third coat of colour was unnecessary here, but I just couldn't stop myself, I had to see if it would go even darker with another coat.

But this is not the experiment. Lately, Partner in Crime and I have been investing a lot of time and money into the stamping idea. The plates, the polish, the stamper, the acetone, and so on and so forth. So today, I decided to give it a real try for an effect that I have been thinking about for a while.

I started with the same colour I put on yesterday.

I decided I would use a Messy Mansion plate - MM05.

And the other various tools of stamping.

I've been eyeing off that crown and the cross whole nail pattern for a while. So those are the patterns I used for this one. I also decided not to use Seche Vite for the top coat over the stamping because it causes shrinkage and I also noticed that the stamping polish smears with Seche Vite sometimes.

This is the finished result. The cross pattern is not quite as crisp as I would like, but I used Revlon Silver Dollar to stamp that on instead of a proper Konad stamping polish. Overall though, I'm quite happy with the finished result. 

And I leave you with a picture that I just had to take.

Isn't she PRETTY?!

The polishes of the week so far

Today, I got a wonderful package of China Glaze-y goodness. But, I can't try them all on at once, so I'll show you the polishes I've had on this week, and the polish that Partner in Crime picked out of the list for me to try first.

The first polish for this week was another China Glaze beauty that I've worn before. But even though I've seen it before I can't help but stare at it. 

China Glaze Ruby Pumps. This is a jelly base with a serious dose of glittery magic thrown in there for good measure. For a jelly, it gives great coverage. This is three coats with two coats of Seche Vite top coat. 

I will say this though, taking this off made me curse the inventor of glitter. I shredded so many cotton wool pads that it felt like Christmas. 

The second polish is one that I haven't worn before but has been in my box of goodies for a while now. It's a Revlon Colorstay called Amethyst. 

This is opaque on the first coat. I could have gotten away with just one coat, but I'm a creature of habit. It went on REALLY nicely. The brush in this bottle is a great size and shape. So, this is two coats with one coat of Seche Vite. I noticed this afternoon that as well as the general sheen of the polish there is also a very pretty blue shimmer through this polish when in direct sunlight. It was unfortunate that I noticed it while I was driving though - very distracting.

And the polish that arrived today and is the first to be tried from the box o' prettiness.

This one is China Glaze Blue Sparrow. Now... in the bottle, this looks like it should be a blue version of Ruby Pumps. Here's where I run into issues. It's a matte polish. Matte polish is not my friend. I found that the coverage was... patchy at best. The formula was a bit thin, and because of the matte factor, it dried within seconds and left a NASTY finish on the first coat. The first coat was difficult, the second coat was easier but still in danger of taking the first coat with it, and the third coat was easier again with no removal of previous coats. As I said, I really didn't like the matte finish that this polish had, so I covered it over with two coats of Seche Vite. The second coat was necessary to even out some of the imperfections in the polish. With the Seche Vite, the polish has a really great glittery look. But even after three coats of colour, it's still slightly transparent and you can see the nail line. 

I will wear this again, but it won't be the first one I reach for.

All of these polishes were used with China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat. The China Glaze Ruby Pumps also had Cutex Whitener underneath the Strong Adhesion Base Coat, and after seeing what Blue Sparrow did to my fingers, I'm wishing I'd done the same thing today.

I'm hoping that I have a better experience with Flying Dragon which seems to be another matte polish in the box o' pretties.

Any suggestions for better ways to deal with matte polishes?

First time for everything

This in my first ever blog.

My sister (who shall from here on be known as 'Partner in crime') and I have recently become obsessively interested in nail polish and all things associated with it.

Yesterday, Partner-in-crime and myself had what we now call 'play dates'. For our play date, we tried out stamping for the first time. The results were less than awesome, but our belief is that this is a result of not having the right polish. During our play date, Partner-in-crime mentioned that we should try out taping. My other half went out to a play date of his own today, and I thought "Bugger it, I'm gonna test it out."

I started with yesterday's paint, which was a base of China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat, my base coat of choice at the moment. I then used two coats of OPI Dutch Ya' Just Love OPI? with two coats of China Glaze Patent Leather Top Coat. I loved the finish on this. It's smooth and shiny, and the glimmer from the OPI is very distracting in full sun.

Today I used Covergirl Outlast Stay Brilliant Midnight Magic as the topper for my taping experiment.

I then taped some geometric patterns on my ring finger and thumb. Something that Partner-in-crime told me yesterday was that you can't remove all the tape at once, you have to remove it piece by piece in the reverse order to how you put the tape on. Excellent advice, I have to say.

The final result was quite good. Covergirl Midnight Magic was a great choice for this experiment, because it goes on quite evenly and is opaque with a slightly thicker than usual coat - no need for two coats. Although, I must say that I would probably use colours that contrast more for my next effort. Glitter is most probably going to be part of the next taping experiment as well.

Now for the unveiling.

                                          Outside in natural light.

                                          Inside under a reading lamp.
I should also mention that I used Revlon Colorstay Top Coat over the top of the taped nails. I find that the finish with the China Glaze Patent Leather Top Coat is shinier and less prone to cracking than the Revlon. But I went with the Revlon because I had already put two coats of China Glaze over the top of my original manicure and I hate to waste my favourite top coat on something I will remove the next day anyway.

What do you think of my first taping experiment? Any suggestions?