Sunday, May 24, 2015

by Kitties26 on Sunday, May 24, 2015 7 comments

Colors by Llarowe - Allons-y Alonzo

Colors by Llarowe Allons-y Alonzo has an aqua tinted sheer base and is filled with red to copper to green flakes, with touch of multi colored flakie. The flakie payout is more scattered, so I used a sponge to get a denser coverage of the flakies.

Because the base colour is so sheer, this can be layered over any polish at all, and then you will see the strong red/copper/green flakie colour shift. I absolutely loved how this one looked in the bottle, and really wanted to try recreate that look. But if I used something too pale for the base colour then the flakies would be hardly noticeable.

I'm really happy with the base I chose, Picture Polish Tingle, as it is a nice matching shade to the base colour of Allons-y Alonzo, but it is a slightly darker shade which means the flakies show up much better.

The stamping images are from Moyou Suki 06 plate and I used black Mundo de Unas polish.

Polish provided for consideration.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

by Kitties26 on Thursday, May 21, 2015 7 comments

Holo + lightening bolt vinyls + gradients

I have a real pretty one for you tonight. I'm very much in love with how this came out.

My base is FNUG Psychedelic. I then used lightening bolt nail vinyls to mark off sections on my nails. I then used a bunch of pastel shades to create two different gradients across my nails.

On the purple, blue and green nails I used China Glaze That's Shore Bright, Ulta3 Blue Heaven and China Glaze Highlight of my Summer. On the pink, apricot and yellow nails I used China Glaze Bottoms up, Sun of a peach and Ulta3 lemon tart.

The only way I could have made this look better is have been able to photograph it in the sunlight.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

by Kitties26 on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 3 comments

Ulta3 Autumn/Winter Textured Metallic Collection

I hadn't really heard much about the Autumn/Winter Collection from Ulta3 and then all of a sudden I saw five new polishes at my local chemist.

In the bottles they looked glittery and gorgeous with ultra fine micro glitters, but what surprised me most was when I applied the first one and found out they were a set of textured polishes.

So, textures really are a bit last year in my opinion, but then again, here in Australia we always get last seasons fashion half a year late, so I guess this is right on time for a regular Australian commercial brand. Of course Aussie indie brands are way more progressive and keep up with the popular trends right as they happen.

So despite me feeling like these have already be done, they are actually really nice. They are all opaque in two coats, aren't thick and gloopy and dry to a sparkly textured finish that isn't too rough and dry time is pretty good for a textured polish.

Although I do worry that there is nothing written on these bottles to explain to nuggles that they are meant to be left textured. I know one lady at work saw my nails wearing one of these polishes and said, 'oh, so you are meant to leave them all rough like that'. I can just see nuggles getting all annoyed at having to apply 3 layers of top coat to get them to look smooth.

Ok, lets get onto the swatches.

24 carat gold. A warm gold textured polish with both silver and gold micor glitters.

Black Quartz - a black textured polish with silver micro glitters.

From the mine. a warm copper textured polish with gold and silver micro glitters.

Galaxy. A grey textured based with gold and silver micro glitters. This one is my favourite of the bunch, a really gorgeous shade and if you only have $2 to spare on one polish, this would be my recommendation.

Moon dust. Silver micro glitter textured polish.

Ulta3 polishes are available Australia wide from various chemists and pharmacy's. You can find your nearest stockist by using the Ulta3 stockist locator.

Polishes provided for consideration.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

by Kitties26 on Tuesday, May 19, 2015 9 comments

Circular gradient with pinwheel stamping

Circular, or radial gradients seem to be everywhere at the moment. I did my first one nearly a year so so ago and it was one of my most popular designs (you can revisit it here) Seeing all the new ones popping up made me want to create another one.

This circular gradient uses three China Glaze shades: That's Shore Bright, Sun of a Peach and Highlight of my Summer.

The pinwheel stamp is from MJ plate XXV and I used Black Mundo de Unas polish to stamp with.

Monday, May 18, 2015

by Kitties26 on Monday, May 18, 2015 1 comment

Cirque - Gaia

I used Cirque Gaia as part of my May the Fourth mani and I loved it so much I needed to wear it again, but on a lot more nails.

Gaia is a black jelly with larger platinum gold metallic flakes. The metallic flakes show through the jelly base nicely and there is a lovely depth to the shade, although I have to say it was a tricky one for me to photograph. That's probably because the polish I paired it with is so shiny.

I paired it up with some Amazeballz extra fine, which I applied one coat over some heart shaped nail vinyls.

This look was so blingly that I thought I would also try out the Cirque Colour Matte top coat. This made it much easier to photograph. The matte top coat provides a nice rubbery finish, especially to this black polish. I think I definitely prefer this mani mattified.

Cirque Gaia and the Matte Top Coat are from the Awakening collection by Cirque. They are available from Cirque Colors and a whole range of stockists, both in bricks and mortar stores and online. For more details, check the Stockists.

Polishes provided for consideration.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

by Kitties26 on Sunday, May 17, 2015 3 comments

SV spring holos in wavy rows

A throw back to when my nails were a little shorter and rounder. I created this look a few months back using the SV by Sparkly Vernis spring holos.

This is Spring in your step (green), Pink Starfish (pink) and Breeze and wave sounds (blue). I originally tried doing this by taping off, then I tried using striping tape and pulling it into curved lines. In the end I just did it freehand and then touched up the white with a stripe brush.

These shades are available now through SV by Sparkly Vernis. If you want to see more swatches, check out SV by Sparkly Vernis on Instagram or Facebook.

Polishes provided for consideration.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

by Kitties26 on Saturday, May 16, 2015 7 comments

Clarins 230 over Revlon Royal

I need to pull together a bit of work, like real world work tonight, so don't have long to chat here on ye old blog. But I do have a beauty for you too look at.

Aaarrrrrhhh, there is no more perfect combination that Revlon Royal topped with Clarins 230, the original unicorn pee, most sort after and highly duplicated polish. I wore this a few weeks back, and if you have these two polish and have never paired them together, then you simply MUST!

Thursday, May 14, 2015

by Kitties26 on Thursday, May 14, 2015 5 comments

Dance Legend - Anna Gorelova Winter

Could I be any slower in posting about this Winter collection from Dance Legend? I could just pretend that I was saving it for our Australian Winter, which feels like it hit with a vengeance over the last few days. It was -5 here in Canberra last night. What's with that, it's only mid May! Anyway, don't let me bore you with weather conversation, lets get to the polishes.

The Anna Gorelova Winter collection is the second collaboration collection done between Russian brand Dance Legend and Ukrainian blogger Anna Gorelova. I previously showed swatches of four polishes from the Summer collection. This time I'm very excited to share with you swatches of all 12 shades. This post is very picture heavy, but it's totally worth it.

The first thing I have to mention about this amazing collection is that every single polish comes with a large circular cabochon ring painted in the appropriate colour. Other than the rings, the collection has a mix of different finishes, from scattered holos, textured, duo chromes, micro and chunky glitters, shimmers, mattes and flakies. That's pretty impressive isn't it.

Snow Maiden - created to look like glistening snow in the sun. This is a white crelly with lots of larger scattered holographic flakies like the ones found in the WOW prisms. This is three coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Wood Goblin - a stunning green to purple glass fleck duochrome. This is two coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Gamayun - Ok, now this is something I've never seen. It's a neutral pinky beige shade that looks like a strong linear holo in the bottle, but then it's a textured polish. Naturally this means that the linear holo appears doesn't show on the nail, but instead you get this incredible mix of micro colours all over the nail in a velvety looking finish. So unique. Notice how linear holo the ring looks.

It's work noting that I did apply top coat to this to see if it would make it a linear holo, but no, the same speckled multicoloured finish remains even with 4 layers of top coat to make it totally smooth. This is two thin coats, no top coat.

Sage - The inspiration behind this one was the night sky, and it's been captured perfectly. The base is black with a blue shimmer and silver holographic mini glitters. This is two coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Jack Frost - The base is icy blue and it has pink and blue shimmer as well as the larger scattered holograpic particles. This is two coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Finist - A cool toned richly pigmented red with a fine golden shimmer. This is two coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Sirin - A metallic shimmer with scattered holo particles. The holo isn't as dense as the WOW prisims, it's more like the Dance Legend Galaxy polishes. At different angles the polish can appear more green or blue. This is two coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Bogeyman - A blacked matte base with red and green shimmer and light gold flakes. This is two coats with no top coat, but I also tried it with Seche Vite, and those photos are below too.

Kolyada - The second textured polish in the collection, this one has fine silver base with small red, blue and green glitters. This is two thin coats with no top coat.

Keeper - a pale sage green with a reddish-golden shimmer and gold flakies. This is two coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Lada - A soft pastel pink with a crelly finish. Plenty of gold shimmer as well as some scattered holo flakies and gold flakes. This is two coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Wraith - A black jelly base with the perfect opacity so as to achieve coverage at two coats but still shows all the glitter with perfect clarity. Contains lots of different sizes and shaped silver holo glitters. This is two coats with Seche Vite top coat.

WOW right, what do you think? Im still strangely facintated by the linear holo textured polish. It seems all kinds of wrong to not show off that amazing holo finsh you see in the bottle, yet the textured look is so completly unique in my collection that I love it.

I really love this collection, there are so many standouts.

Dance Legend Anna Gorelova Winter polishes are $10.00USD and available at dance-legend.com. Dance Legend PR reps have advised that the Dance Legend shop will be back in May - it can't be long now! Llarowe also stocks Dance Legend polishes and ships internationally, although only has one of the Anna Gorelova Winter shades in stock.

You can also follow Dance Legend on Facebook and Instagram.

Polishes provided for consideration.