Lynnderella - Heart Strings

I have a super special Lynnderella to show today.  This is Heart Strings, which was gifted by Lynnderella and made it's way to me thanks to the lovely Kristy from the Polish Haven. Thank you both!

Heart Strings is a light pink jelly base, with both pale pink and red metallic bar glitter and small pale pink hexes.  Bar glitter can be a little tricky to apply, cause it likes to sit sideways and curl upwards.  So I find the best solution is, after you have applied the second coat, wait until it is touch try, but still squishy, then press down any bits that stick up and smoosh them into the soft lacquer.  Also, if there are any string bits that hang past the tip of your nail, either pull then off or push the back so they aren't to close to the tip.

I also noticed a few rouge pieces of glitter on my nail that came out of this bottle, but I don't know if they are part of the polish or just special bits of love that accidentally make their way in.  The ones I'm specifically talking about are the large red square and purple square that are both on my pinky, and the small red square on my ring finger. Hummmmm?!?

This was two coats of Heart Strings layered over one coat of Revlon Rose Chrome (a rather ancient pre-2000 chrome polish).  I used three layers of top coat, just to make sure there were no string bits sitting up.

Here is a bonus picture of Revlon Rose Chrome, one coat on its own.

I don't wear pink polish very often, but this one really caught me by surprise.  The layering combo was perfect for me, I never thought a chrome under the glitter would have looked so awesome.  I'm looking forward to wearing this combo again.

Lynnderella - Bride of Franken

I have a few Lynnderella's lined up for you that I have been wearing this week.  This one is Bride of Franken, which has iridescent blue hexes which shift to purple.  To me, it looks like a blue shimmer in a light purple base and I think the blue shimmer shifts a little purple too.  All the small silver dots are micro holographic glitter.  

This is two coats of Bride of Franken layered over black, and I really love the look, but I wish I knew how I could get it to look like it does in the bottle on my nail.  The bottle is so glowy with a light purple jelly that really does look like its glowing! What other layering combinations have you tried with this polish that look great, cause at the moment I'm not sure what else to try.

Ulta3 Autumn/Winter 2012 Metallic Crush - Part 2

Straight to the nail stuff today, with Part 2 of the Ulta3 Autumn/Winter Metallic Crush collection.

Enchanted - This one is totally different on the nail than it is in the bottle.  In  the bottle it looks to be a metallic olive green shimmer.  But on the nail I was very surprised to see it is actually a dark aubergine purple and the metallic green shimmer seems very light and almost silvery.  A very interesting polish and not what I expected at all, I quite like this one, but god damn it why are they so frosty and streaky!!

Jade - In the bottle this one looks really pretty, but now I think it's an icky light green frosty mess. Maybe if it was a darker shade of green and not a medium pastel shade I wouldn't dislike this one so much. Way too frosty for 2012 chic, it's a 1982 time capsule this one.

Pinot - This one is actually a rather nice colour and perfectly suit's it's name.  It's deep red and shimmery, but certainly not unique.

Shiraz - Hello, what were they thinking doing two almost identical shades, and naming them both after red wines!  Ok, this one is actually a little lighter and pinker, but who other than a nail nut is going to notice that!  Both Shiraz and Pinot also look very similar to past colours Foxy Russset and Brandy Wine.  I'll do a comparison swatch this weekend of those four.

Overall, the colours in this whole collection are ok, a few that I really like, one that I think will be relegated to the 'nail art only pile' and a few that are dupy but ok.  

I was really excited for this collection because I was hoping it was going to be a full collection of metallics like some of the other awesome Ulta3 foil metallics.  Lollypop Lilac, Envy, Precious and Snazzle are just a few that come to mind that are fantastic foil finishes that don't show any brush marks.  Why did these ones have to be frosty and not foily. Damn it. I'm blaming the PRC formula and the stiff and blunt ended brushes.

Ulta3 Autumn/Winter 2012 Metallic Crush - Part 1

I have a quick break my posting my Lynnderellas to bring you some swatches I did on the weekend of the new Ulta3 Autumn/Winter 2012 Metallic Crush collection.

The promo pics of this collection were on the Ulta3 Facebook site in late February.  Since I saw them I started my usual hunt to find these polishes.  I think I ventured into every single chemist in the City, Belconnen and Gungahlin in search of this collection.  Every time I asked, the sales assistance looked at me dumbly and just said 'Oh we just get what we are given, we don't know what will arrive and I don't know anything about a new collection".

I eventually emailed the Heat Group to get a list of all Canberra stockists so I could hunt these down.  Their customer service was great, and they got back to me the next day to tell me that not a single chemist in Canberra had even ordered the new collection yet.  They offered to post me the new collection for review, which I gladly accepted for the first time ever!

I'm guessing the reason that none of the Canberra stockist had ordered anything yet was because their 'bins' were all still full on the old colours.  And now, because Ulta3s are being sold in Coles and BigW and that the dupe NYC colours are in Woolies and BigW, that the polishes in the chemists aren't selling as fast anymore. Thus not clearing stock to make way for the new stuff.

Anyway, enough on my dramas trying to get these polishes, lets just get of with swatches of the first four polishes.

Antique Gold - A warm toned bronze gold metallic polish, that leans a little frosty.  It's not as frosty as Gold Rush Fever from last year, but you still need to be careful and do neat brush strokes because they hang around after the polish has dried.

I've said it before with the last few collections that have been made in the PRC, but I'll say it again.  These brushes feel stiff and crappy.  They really seem to exacerbate the brush stroke problem, because the brush is stiff and really drags through the polish.

Despite the brush stokes, this is a gold polish, which for that reason alone, I'm always going to love.

The above photos were all taken in full sun, in the sun the brush strokes look worse, below you can see it in the shade - pretty.

And the macro to see the lovely shimmer and hideous brush marks.

Burnt Orange - This one is a dark orange with a light silvery pearlesent sheen.  It's not really metallic like the others in the collection, but the crappy brush still makes it show brush strokes.

Above in full sunlight, below in the shade.

Again, macro to see the pearl finish amongst the brush strokes.

Cocoa - A dark, warm chocolatey shimmer. Please disregard the line on my middle finger, I put the top coat on too quickly and it dragged the base colour.  User error!

Copper - A copper toned orange with a lighter pearl sheen.  It does look metallic in the sun, but in the shade it is much more pearly looking.  The brush strokes weren't as bad for this polish.

 

Damn macro, I just said that the brush strokes weren't as bad for this polish and now look what I'm showing you.  Yeah, brush strokes (and wobbly ones at that) are definitely present, although not a strong as the other polishes.

Colour wise, I think this collection is pretty spot on for Autumn/Winter. I actually really love the colours.  Formula wise, it's not great.  I personally can tell a difference between these PRC made ones and the older Aussie made ones.  But I'm not sure if I'm putting blame on the formula because I find the brush crap.

All these swatches were two coats, no base coat and Seche Vite top coat.  

Despite being metallics and having a frosty finish, I don't think any of these would be work for stamping.

I'll be back next time with the other four colours.

Nail art challenge random draw winners - and a franken

I'm starting with nails today, but if you want to skip down straight away to see the random winners, then I understand.

Ok, are you back with me now?  Here is a franken / custom polish called Fiber Optic which I created for Shatter Me Claire's franken comp. If you haven't checked it out already, you should, cause there are some fantastic frankens over there, all with their ingredients listed out.  Plus you can vote for your favourite franken to win some Glitter Gal polishes.

The ingredients for this look like a big long list, but they are all pretty easily available:

• 2x scoops of Adam & Eve glitter (TKB Trading)
• 1x scoop of Indu Rose Moondust (TKB Trading) - this is what gives it the blue/purple duochrome look.
• 1/2 scoop of purple glitter sample (TKB Trading)
• 1/2 scoop of mauve micro glitter (TKB Trading)
• 1/2 scoop of purple micro glitter (TKB Trading)
• 1/2 scoop of lavender micro glitter (TKB Trading)
• 1/2 scoop of iridescent micro glitter (TKB Trading)
• 2x scoops of purple flakes (You Mix Cosmetics)
• 2x scoops of blue to purple colour shifting glitter (You Mix Cosmetics)
• 1x scoops large silver hex glitter (You Mix Cosmetics)
• 2x scoops of Holo blue hex glitter (Bling Flake)
• 5 drops of Ferric ferrocyanide tint - or use a dark blue polish.
• 10 drops of red 7 tint - or a strong red polish
• Untinted lacquer base (suspension base).

Ok, now the random winners of the Nail Art Challenge.  First up - the Aussies.  There were only 29 in the draw cause the overall winner (Ev) was removed from the random drawer after emailing me this morning.

Congratulations Bec! Please email me within 24 hours, or I'm going to randomly select another Aussie winner. 

Now the international ladies..... drum roll please...

Congratulations Jelena!  Please email me within 24 hours, or I'm going to randomly select another international winner.

Once again thank you to all the ladies (and gentlemen) that made the effort to enter, and of course thank you also to the amazing Lynnderella for making the amazing polishes which made the whole nail art challenge so huge for me!