Ulta3 Cocoa bean

Today I show you Cocoa bean.  I really love this polish.  There is something to be said for a nice smooth cream polish, and I think this is a flattering colour for most people.  This was two coats, no top coat. Great colour pigment and not streaky at all.

The only down side for me is that is it is very similar on the nail to ulta3 Neutral.  Here is a comparison to show.  Index and pinky have Cocoa bean, middle finger has neutral and the ring finger has Earth.

Clearly Earth isn't even close to Cocoa bean or Neutral, but it was another brownish colour so I wanted to include it in the comparison.  Colour wise, Cocoa bean and Neutral are almost identical.  The only differnce is that Neutral has a very fine gold shimmer base, and for me personally I prefer the fine gold shimmer of Neutral. 

Ulta3 Carrot Top

Now for the swatches. Carrot top. Went on great and had good opacity.  It's a really nice bright orange-red.  This was two coats, no top coat. Good glossy finish. (Wow, four months off swatching and you start to loose your technique, sorry about the messy application and dry cuticles)

And now some quick comparisons to other similar ulta3 colours. This swatch shows Carrot top on the index and pinky, Fire on the middle finger and Tahiti on the ring finger.

Tahiti is definitly more orange and fluro and you can clearly see the difference.  The difference between Fire and Carrot top however is almost impossible to see.  Colour wise I think they are dupes when on the nail, although Carrot top does look a tiny bit more orange in the bottle.  The main difference for me was the opacity.  Carrot top had better pigment, but only just marginally.

New Utla3 colours

Where have I been?  Not that I think anyone actually cares (I know the reason your here, and it's to see nail polish swatches) I'll be quick...  We'll I'm now just over seven months pregnant, and the truth is that the idea and smell of nail polish and polish remover has just made me feel like vomiting.  Weird hey!!  Its not effecting me as much anymore, and nothing makes me want to wear polish more than spotting six new Ulta3 colours in the polish bin at my local chemist!!

I'm about a month late in showing you the new ulta3 colours, but here they all are:

Carrot top, Party shoes, Frog prince, Purple pumps, Cocoa bean and Earl Grey.

Some are cool new colours, others are almost dupes of existing Ulta3 colours. 

Swatches coming with comparisons were relevant (and they will be added to my colour guide soon).

Gold holo comparisons

Here I have done a comparison swatch of some of my holographic polishes.  I class these ones as the 'golds', compared to the 'browns' and 'beiges' of future comparison swatches.

This first pic was in the sun and shows from left right:

Index - Art Form - Gold

Middle - China Glaze - GR8

Ring - OPI DS Classic

Pinky - China Glaze - It's my turn

Here are the same indoors.

Art Form Gold is really more a platinum colour and GR8 is the only real yellow gold.  'It's my turn' is slightly more yellow than DS Original which can just be seen in these pics.

I can't pick a favourite amogst these, but I could probably say that my least favourite is GR8, only because I prefer a less yellow gold polish.

Blue metallic foil

I can't believe that it's almost the end of June and I have only posted once this month.  It's just not good enough is it.

I have heaps of colours and polishes swatched, so I think I might do a few posts that are light on with text and just pictures, which is what we are all really here for anyway, the pictures, not to listen to me babble on.

This here was another foil creation.  This was a very shiney metallic blue foil, which when applied to the nail gets this incredible stipe across it as it follows the curve of the nail.

Here is a close up.

I really love foils, and have to say that application does get better with practice.

Till next time.

Ulta3 - Silver glitter and Gold digger

If you read my blog you know that I love Ulta3 polishes.  Their colour range is good, application generally smooth and consistent, wear is long and they are only two Aussie dollars.  But there is one exception to my love of Ulta3 polishes and that is their glitter range.

I like a glitter polish to be opaque, and not require a zillion coats to get there.  All the Ulta3 glitter polishes are very sparse.  They are really only suitable for layering in my opinion.

Anyway, here is the cleverly named "silver glitter".  This was three coats.

The glitter particles in this are actually quite interesting. As you can see they are little rectangles, rather than usual small round standard glitter shape.

'Gold digger' is another meh glitter polish.  This was three coats and the coverage is ordinary.

Up close you can see that gold digger is made up of various size and shape gold glitter particles.  Again this is quite interesting, I just wish that there was 100 times the glitter in the bottle.

I originally said that I wasn't going to bother buying the remainder of the Ulta3 glitter polishes because of my disappointment with the first ones, but as I got sent these from the Heat Group, I just had to try them out. 

I'm really tempted to franken with my gold digger polish by adding a stack of blue glitter to see if I can dupe up an OPI Absolutely Alice. 

MIA and Ulta3 package

The weather has been so cold and overcast here in Canberra recently that I just haven't got any swatching done.  And I have been wearing the same manicure since Sunday night!! OMG can you believe it.  I must say my current mani is pretty cool (I have taken some indoor pics which I will show in another post) The mani I'm wearing is Zoya Mimi with Nfu Oh Flakey layered over the top - the wear has been increadible.

Also, a couple of weeks back I received an amazing package in the mail from the Heat Group in Australia, who are responsbile for Max Factor, Cover Girl, Bourjois, Ulta3 and Elite.  The package contained 40+ regular ulta3 polishes, 11 speed dry Ulta3s and a couple each of Max Factor, Cover Girl and Bourjois polishes.

I haven't had time to swatch the new polishes yet, which is just killing me.  There is one polish with this amazing wide brush that you only need to do one swipe and I can't wait to try it.  Some are new brands for me too, which I always love trying.

Most of the Ulta3 polishes are ones that I already own, so I have been trying to work out the best way to give them away to my readers.  Unfortunately the cost of internatioanl postage for my last giveaway was an absolute killer, around $60, so while I would love to give some to everyone, I just can't afford the postage.  Can you belive that it cost $10 to post a single polish to the USA!!  If you have any good ideas for me to giveaway these 40 polishes (some are dupes), then let me know.