piCture pOlish - Opulence Range

I was so delighted when the girls at piCture pOlish emailed me and asked me to review their upcoming Opulence Range.  I'm not one to really hang out much on Facebook, in fact I don't even have a personal profile page, so I wasn't really in the loop about the shades until I got their email.  I quickly skedaddled myself over to Facebook to check out the shades and instantly got grabby hands.

Monroe is a blood red jelly polish with fine holographic particles scattered throughout.  I don't own any dark red jelly polishes like this so I think it's just the most lovely shade, and I love that it has the secret holo glow to make it more interesting.  The holo effect in this is subtle, but definitely there. What I love is that it doesn't dilute or 'silver-out' the blood red shade and make it pink.  Anyone that has attempted to make a red holo polish using spectraflair will know exactly what I mean - they always end up pink.

These photos of Monroe are taken in full sun and shows Munroe at three thin layers.

Peacock has emerald green hex glitter and silver rectangles all floating in a purple jelly base.  Looking at the bottle it just looks emerald green, it was only when I put it on my nail that I realized it was in a purple jelly base.  The glitter is quite dense and it is easy to get it opaque on it's own.  This is three coats of peacock topped with Ulta3 non chip and Seche Vite.  It did need two layers of top coat because, like 99% of fine glitter polishes (eg Nubar sparkles and Tony Moly Galaxy's) they dry to a rough finish.  Top coat really makes the glitter shine.

 

My photos are taken in the shade, because I find I get the best photos of glitter when there isn't all that light bouncing of the glitter particles.  But because of that, the green glitter in this polish looks washed out from the light reflection.  These photos make the glitter look teal coloured, but it really is emerald green, which you can see more in the top half of this picture.

This next photo is photo-shopped! I did this to show you what the green glitters actually look like.  See they are emerald, not aqua!

Next I tried layering peacock over a dark purple.  I chose piCture pOlish Aphrodisiac - which is a dark shimmery purple as the base.  One coat of Aphrodisiac and one coat of Peacock.  With the exception of the density of the glitter, it looks almost identical. Love this combo of green glitter with purple polish.

Here is a macro of peacock over aphrodisiac.

 

Mask-a-rade is a clear base with multi chromatic glitter hexes.  In fact it appears to be the identical multi chromatic glitters that are in the three Elytra polishes, but this polish has all three colours in the one bottle together!!  These photos are two coats of mask-a-rade over black creme, with a single coat of Seche Vite topcoat.

The three glitter types that appear to be in this polish are:

• green, through aqua to blue, purple and pink (same as Elytra 528)
• blue, through purple to orange and red (same as Elytra 529)
• pink through orange and yellow (same as Elytra 530)

So not only is this a multi coloured glitter, it also shifts to a multitude of colours too.   If you can't decided which Elytra polish to get, then it's a no brainer, get Picture Polish's mask-a-rade.

Scrangie recently reviewed this collection and commented about them having a difficult formula.  Here's my comments on the formula.

• Monroe - slightly on the thick side, but I didn't have any issues with it.  The brush is soft and smooth and the polish just flowed on for me, although I did need three coats for full colour coverage.
• Peacock - this one is a little thick, but it actually reminds me of the same consistency of polish when I have frankened a glitter polish with lots of fine glitter.  Because I have made lots of polishes like that, I was 100% ok with the formula.  I just think the thickness is a by-product of a polish full of fine glitter.
• Mask-a-rade - the formula was perfect, exactly like the Elytra polishes.

The Opulence range is available now on the Picture Polish website and they cost $13.50AUD a bottle.

Yeah, yeah, I know some of the ladies overseas are going to think that $13.50 is an expensive polish (even Scrangie commented about expecting better formula at $13.50 a bottle).  But what you have to remember is that nail polish is expensive here in Australia.  These polishes are cheaper than Revlon ($14.95), OPI ($19.95), Orly ($15.95) and don't mention Chanel ($39).  We pretty much only have one brand that is less than $3, which is Ulta3. Generally any polish under $10 is considered cheap, but between $10-$15 is a fairly standard price!

Plus it's Australian made.  That's a huge thing for me as an Aussie.  There isn't a lot of stuff that is manufactured in Australia these days,  it's all pretty much made in China.  I know that's not really important for international consumers, but for me, that is a big selling point and very much worth any extra dollars!

Valentine's Day - When I think of romance...

OK, I know this is a little corny, but when I think of romance, I think of a destination like this.  Walking along the beach at sunset with my husband.  It's kind of nothing like my life in reality at the moment.  With a three year old and a one year old racing around, there isn't any opportunities for romantic destinations like this!

For this design I sponged on the blue (Picture Polish Bombshell), then the orange (Picture Polish Citrus), then the yellow (Ulta3 Frangipani).  I had to do a bit of alternating back and forth with colours to try to get it to look ok.  I'm not really that good with sponging and getting a nice blend of colours, but the end look was acceptable.  The sponging on my right had was sooooo much worse, but one never shows their non-dominant painted hand - ok.

Next I applied some homemade decals for the palm trees and the couple walking.  Then I painted a yellow sun using Ulta3 Citrus and finally I painted a freehand black french tip.

I had a huge amount of trouble getting my cuticles clean from sponging with the blue polish.  I'm sorry about that!

Here is a photo I took the next day, after I had been able to clean my cuticles a bit more.

Only one more Valentine's Day nail art to come tomorrow.

Picture Polish Hypnotic flakie cover

Here is the third Picture Polish flakie cover, Hypnotic.

I think the flake colours that are in this are a teal green and orangey red.  Then the teal green colour shifts to blue and the orangey red shifts to yellow/lime green.  The teal green looks more emerald green in real life too, but my camera doesn't show that.

This one seemed to been the least dense of all three, either that or I just couldn't pick up as many flakes on my brush.  The bottle certainly looks just as dense as the other two polishes, just it just didn't translate to the nail.  This is three coats over a black base, with Seche Vite top coat.  It doesn't really need the top coat as it is very glossy and smooth, but I always put on Seche Vite when I'm wearing a full mani.

I don't think this needs to be said, but this is a totally awesome polish.  I also think it is totally unique.  I thought that Finger Paints Asylum might have been similar, but checking swatches of it I think it's much more blue, whereas this is green.

Two words: LOVE IT!

Picture Polish Splendour flakie cover

Today I have another brand new flakie cover from Picture Polish.  This little beauty is called Splendour and it's really gorgeous. 

I think Splendour is made up of orange and green irregular shaped flakes of various sizes, but because it is has a strong duochrome colour shift that shows green, red and yellow, it's really hard to tell what colour the flakes are because it changes all the time.

I found the flakies to be more dense in this polish than Festival, which is awesome. It meant I didn't have to go fishing for the flakes, they came up on the brush easily.  This also had a very smooth finish, you could get away with no top coat as it's super shiny.  These photos show two coats of Splendour over black and one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Colour wise, I thought this may be similar to Nubar 2010 (and Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure) and it's true that the colours are the same. But Splendour seems to have the addition of some green flakes, whereas 2010 really only has the orange flakes that shift to green.  The flakes in 2010 are also smaller.  I actually really love them both, but I think I slightly prefer the larger flakes in Splendour because they sparkle more.

This polish looks like it would be similar to the new Finger Paints 'Flashy' polish, but again I think it only has the red flakes, not the extra green ones.

Here you can see the green shift of both polishes, but also how the green flakes in Splendour go slighly blue toned.

This is another totally awesome polish from the girls a Picture Polish.  Correct me if I'm wrong but I think these are the first flaky polishes from an Australian brand. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie .... Yeah, you go girls!  These polishes are a total winner.  

These cost $11.90 and are available from Picture Polish.  Ladies outside of Australia may think that $11.90 is a bit pricy.  But here in Australia, where OPI retails for $20, Chanel for $39 and Revlon for about $12, this is a comparatively pretty good price still, especially for a flakie that is otherwise only available from Inglot or Nfu Oh for close to $20.

Picture Polish Festival over Aphrodisiac and Bombshell

I'm so very happy to share with you today, Picture Polish's new Festival flakie top coat.  I'm so excited to see them release this polish, as it is something very unique in the Australian market.

Festival flakie cover is a multicoloured flakie polish in a clear base.  Now it's really difficult to tell what colour flakies are actually in this, because a number of them a duochrome flakes and change colour on different angles.  But what I can tell you is the colours I see, and they are green, yellow, orange, blue, teal and an occasional purple/pink.

These pictures are three coats layered over Picture Polish Aphrodisiac.

So I know the first thing you're wondering is how does this compare to Cult Nails Clairvoyant? This next swatch shows three coats of Festival on the left and three coats of Clairvoyant on the right.  I did three coats because I wanted to show the difference in the flakie coverage.  In general terms, they both have the same flake colours, from what I can see.  But clearly Clairvoyant has lots more flakies in it.  This isn't a great swatch of Clairvoyant cause I got a really large flake right in the middle of my nail, an then all the other flakes got stuck on it.  Clairvoyant also has more of the pink/purple flake than Festival does.

The other thing I noticed was Clairvoyant had a rougher finish.  Festival is really very smooth,  these photos have no top coat and Festival has a really beautiful cabochon effect.

I love this photo of the Festival bottle cause it looks so much like a white opal!

Here is Picture Polish Aphrodisiac on it's own.  It's very dark indoors, but in the sun you can see what an amazing rich purple shimmer polish this is.  

I also tried Festival over Picture Polish Bombshell, which I have shown on it's own here.

The outdoor reflection in this is pretty extreme, but I was trying to capture some of the multichrome shift.

Over all, I'm really impressed with this polish.  The flake colours are beautiful, the formula is great and finishes really shiny without the need for a top coat to smooth it out.  The only improvement it could have would be a more dense flakie coverage. That way I wouldn't have to do as many coats.

I'm guessing these Picture Polish flakie covers will be quite similar to the new Finger Paints ones that are officially released in January.  But given that Finger Paints are very difficult to get here, in Australia, I'm so glad I have easy access to these beautiful polishes.  I can't wait to get the other new flakie colours too!

These can be purchased from piCture pOlish for $11.90.

Picture Polish - Bombshell and Jealousy

I have a couple of Picture Polish shades to show you today.

Bombshell is a rich royal blue shimmer. This was two coats and application was smooth and easy.

Jealousy  - This is one great polish.  The glitter is densely packed, but not so thick that the polish is gluggy.  The colour is amazing and the glitter pieces in it are mixed and varied.  I really love this one.  Two coats.  But it needs a good couple of layers of to coat to make it a little less gritty looking, even though it's not rough.

Look at all the glitter.

And now even closer.   There's hexes of all different sizes, squares and mini bars.

I think the Picture Polishes sometimes get a little overlooked on the Picture Polish website because of all the Ozotics they stock, but certainly there are many Picture Polishes are are worth a close look.