Peacock inspired gradient

Here is a mani I wore last week and over the weekend for a record 5 days. What! Yeah 5 whole days in one mani I loved it so much.  

The photos just don't do it justice because what you can't see is that the purple and the green polishes are both holographic customs polishes I made some time last year.

That is all today folks.

Lynnderella - Be Mining for a heart of gold

Be Mining for a heart of gold is a limited edition Lynnderella polish that I was lemming so incredibly hard for.

I have a complete and absolute love affair with gold polish and when I see one in store I just can't help but buy it, even though a disproportionate number of polishes in my stash are gold, I know that the new one will be just that slightest different shade or finish.

Because of this, I will openly admit that this post will be completely bias.  I will love this polish no matter what. If its a PITA to apply, it doesn't matter.  If the glitters curl into tacos, I don't care. If the gold bleeds out into the base, that's fine with me. All because I LOVE SPARKLY GOLD POLISH. (sorry didn't mean to yell) 

Be Mining for a heart of gold contains lots of gold holographic glitter in I think about three or four sizes of hex.  There are also a few holo gold bars and gold hearts in this too, but I didn't manage to get any of them on my nails. There is also a stunning shimmery gold base.

For this mani I layered two coats of Be Mining over China Glaze GR8, the gold holo from the OMG collection.  You can't really see any of that holo showing because this polish is actually nearly opaque on it's own at two coats.  The shimmery gold base has really good coverage, but at the same time it doesn't cover up any of the glitter.

Now, can I please ask real nicely for something?  Please don't steal my photos and use them on your ebay listings to sell nail polish.  Yes, I'm talking to you seller of Boy Girl Party. You have not only stolen my photos, but several other bloggers photos too. You also have the cheek to crop off our watermarks to make the photos look like your own! Come on, it's not hard to take your own photos of a bottle.  People will know how to google for swatches, you don't need to steal ours.

Orly Magnetic FX

Today I have a couple of the Orly Magnetic FX polishes to share with you.  I was very excited when I first saw pictures of the Orly magnetics because the first thing I noticed was they had unique magnets that I had not seen on any other polishes.  I've already expressed on this blog my compelling need to own every style of magnetic design available, which lead me to creating my own magnetic designs.   So when the opportunity arose to try these out, I was waiting with grabby hands.

First is Paint on Electron.  This is a dark metallic gun metal grey.  After the magnet is applied the grey gets darker and sparklier.  As you can see from these photos, Paint on Electron comes with an interesting 'S' design.

Unfortunately, as you can also see from these pictures, there is the straight line at the top of my middle and ring fingers where the magnet stopped.  I'll explain that in a bit more detail below.

I decided to also try out some of my other magnets with this polish which I have detailed both here and here.  The 'grid' design on my index finger (which this time I turned around to make it like the fishnet design).  My 'Aztec' design (which I didn't do very well this time) on the middle finger.  My 'concentric squares' on my ring finger. And my 'Flower' design on the pinky.

The second polish I have to show is called Force Field.  It is a rich pinky purple that goes quite dark and burgundy when the magnet is applied.

The magnet supplied with this polish is slightly curved lines.  This is another unique magnet for me.  I have tons of straight lines and quite a few chevrons, but this one is a gentle smooth curve.

Again I also tried the same lineup of my magnets on this polish.  This polish did seem to show up the designs much better than Paint on Electron. (and can I just say how much I love the fishnet version of the grid magnet)

I've read in other reviews of these Orly Magnetic FX polishes that girls were a little unsure how to position this magnet, specifically relating to the plastic lip or nail guide part  I've seen some photos of it being balanced on the cuticle end of the nail - which really doesn't work because it means the magnet is too far from the nail.

When I saw the magnet design it really reminded me of my L'Oreal Star Magnet.  The little lip (which I have drawn an arrow to), is design to rest the free edge of your nail tip on.  The good this about this is that it positions the nail the exact right distance from the magnet meaning a good design whist not touching it.  The bad side is that you wont be able to wrap your tip as it will get wiped off, and if you have longer nails, it makes it difficult to position the magnet anywhere but at the tip of your finger. For example, I would have liked to position it more in the center of my nail so the gap at the top was less noticeable.

Pros:

• Unique magnet designs not seen elsewhere.
• Polishes colours are nice and seem well magnetised - there is also a blue which I will have to get my hands on.
• Strong magnets pull the designs out quickly, you only need to hold it there for a few seconds.
• Nail guide makes it easy to keep your nail in the right position without moving it.
  

Cons:

• The magnets are very small.  I do admit that I have long nail beds.  My nails aren't that long here, only about 1mm past the tip of my skin, but even at this length the magnet is not long enough to match the length of my nail bed.
• While I considered the nail guide a 'pro' because it helps with positioning the magnet.  I'm also listing it as a con because a) you can't position the magnet exactly where you want it on your nail and b) you can't wrap your tips. 

The magnetic nail polish craze this year has been huge, but I will never tire of  magnetic polishes, I think they are pretty, fun and a little bit nerdy.

These products were sent to me for review.

Avon Sequined Turquoise stamped

Last week I was gifted this Avon polish from my sister in law.  She said she loved the colour but it just didn't look right with her skin tone.  Whoo hoo, SCORE to me!  This really is a stunning glass fleck Avon polish.

This is two coats for Avon Sequined Turquoise stamped with China Glaze 2030 using a swirly dot image from the DRK-B plate.  Something about this mani (and I think it's the combo of the base colour and the dotty stamping) reminds me of an octopus underwater.

 

Here's what Sequined Turquoise looks like on its own. Wow right!  I always gets surprised by Avon polishes, I keep thinking they are going to be granny frost colours.

Thanks so much Al, I love it!

Ozotic 752 duochrome

I thought I had posted about all the Ozotic 700 series duochomes, but then I found pictures of 752 that I have yet to put up .  This one is really one of the best of the Ozotic duochromes.  It has a really strong and obvious colour shift and it looks significantly different depending on how you layer it.

First up is two coats of Ozotic 752 over black.  As you can see in the first photo, the base colour is a shimmery lilac purple and the colour shift starts as an olive green and goes a light aqua green.

Here is is layered over white with two light sources showing off the two colours beautifully.

Over white the polish is much lighter lilac, rather than the purple it becomes over black.

Finally here is just two coats of Ozoitc 752 on its own.  Opacity is achieved easily and it is light, smooth and quite office appropriate.

Without the black base the olive green isn't as in your face, it's much more subtle and means you can get a few very different looks.

This is definitely one of my favorites from the 700 series.

OPI Black Spotted

Thanks to a few amazing ladies from France *waves - hi girls* I have been able to obtain a couple of bottles of OPI Black Spotted.  This polish is a French exclusive and nearly impossible for anyone outside the EU to obtain, which of course means they are being flogged on ebay for prices far above retail.  But a few of my lovely french readers did a custom purchase for me and shipped them all the way down under. Thank you again!

OPI Black Spotted is one really interesting and strange polish.  After seeing Leslies awesome spotted mani over neons over at Polish Art Addiction, I knew exactly what my first spotted mani would be.

Before I put on my neon base for this mani, I tried black spotted over my existing mani.  I didn't take photos of that because it was a complete FAIL!  The bottle says to apply a very thin coat.  I thought I knew what a very thin coat was until I put this on.  My first hand was pretty much just completely black, no spots formed at all.  The next hand got progressively better as I wiped both sides of the brush so there was basically nothing left and then I painted my nail. That seemed to worked much better.

I've not yet been able to get large spots on my nails, only these little small ones after wiping the very empty brush over my nails a few times.  I also found it dried really quickly, but I have read others saying it dried slow enough for them to play around with the polish to get good spots. I definitely need more practice.

Another thing I read was that clean up is a bitch with this polish.  I can understand why given it is so pigmented.  I was very careful in my application of black spotted so I didn't have to clean up my cuticles very much - especially as my dry cuticles soak up pigmented polishes like nobody's business!

This is what my neon nails looked like to start with.

After the base colour I put on Seche Vite and allowed my nails to dry for 30 minutes.  I then applied the black spotted and then topped it with another coat of Seche Vite.

I found that the black spotted chipped of very easily at the free edge, even with top coat applied. But because of the patchiness of the design you don't really notice that its peeling off.

I love this effect over bright base colours and I'm looking forward to trying it over some other brights.  I like shatter polish but I think this is so much more interesting.  Just when you think there isn't any more finishes that can be created for nail polish, out comes this fun and unique effect.  I wonder what else there is that could possibly still be invented for nail polish.

Lynnderella - The Bunny Code

I wore this a few weeks ago, but still haven't got around to posting it.  This is Lynnderella - The Bunny Code, which I think is just the cutest name ever!

The predominant green colour comes from lots of little square green glitters.  Then there are squares and hexes in a number of other colours and sizes.  This is two coats of The Bunny Code over my same green franken  polish that I have worn under each of my green Lynnderella polishes (I did this to best show off the differences in each of the polishes, so that it wasn't the undies that made the difference).

I'm sure I read on one of Lynnderella's ebay listing for this polish that the combination of the different coloured glitters amongst the fine kelly green base was like Easter eggs in grass. When I think back to my Easter mani, and the Easter egg hunt we did, that is such a perfect description for this polish.  It conjures the exact right feeling.  But before I had read that concept, I actually imagined this as different coloured wild flowers in the grass, with little bunnies bouncing around eating the grass and flowers.

Thanks for leaving the drama at the door and enjoying these polishes for what they are.