Gloss n Sparkle - Mirage, Optimus, and Unicorn Droppings

Hi!!

So it's been about 2 weeks since I've posted last, but at least now I can say that I've finished my university exams FOR EVER!!

Today I've got 3 polishes from the amazing indie polish brand Gloss n Sparkle. First up is Mirage, a powder blue creme with small and large silver hexes. I completely love this polish, it reminds me of cartoons like Charlie Brown when they draw snow in the background or something. I think it's perfect for winter and Christmas, I'm pretty sure that this'll be bumped up in the rotation around December haha. I'm pretty sure that this is two coats, but there's still a little bit of VNL so 3 would probably be better.

Bottle shot! 

Indoors

Indoors 

With flash

Next up is Optimus. I couldn't not get this polish, I love the name so much! Plus I'm on a major sheer jelly with glitter kick so I had to get it haha! Optimus is a grey jelly with blue and red large hexes. I love how the jelly partially covers the glitters. This is two coats.

Bottle shot

Indoors

Indoors

Close up

Finally, probably Gloss n Sparkles most well known polish: Unicorn Droppings. If you're only going to buy one of any Gloss n Sparkle polishes, make it this one! Unicorn Droppings is a milky white jelly embedded with holographic shimmer packed with small matte purple, yellow, red, blue, and green (but there's probably more colours then that!) hexes. I think this is going to be one of the polishes that I'll rephotograph when I get my new camera because I don't think that my camera at the moment managed to capture the sheer awesomeness of this polish! This is two (quite thick) coats, but three thin coats would probably give the glitters more depth.

Bottle shot - flash

Bottle shot

Indoors

Indirect sunlight

Close up

Lately I've gotten completely obsessed with nail polish rings, ever since I saw how easy it was to make them, I decided that I don't wear enough jewellery and that I should make my own! These are two rings that I made with Gloss n Sparkle Abyss and Unicorn Droppings. They both look amazing in rings and if you managed to get either of these polishes, I encourage you to make your own rings!

 Bonus pictures - the kitten that we're look after at the moment! We decided to name him Jefferson after the Mad Hatter from Once Upon A Time.

Omg his cute little face! Haha

You can buy Gloss n Sparkle polishes from her Etsy store if you live in Australia. If you live internationally don't worry! Gloss n Sparkle has recently announced that she has gained international distribution through Shoppe Eclecticco, and like Gloss n Sparkle on Facebook to keep up with updates, restocks and new collections!

See you next time!
x

Cirque Kabocha & Neko

Hi!!

It's been wayyyy too long! Uni is so close to being finished I can almost taste it!

Today I've got the two polishes from Cirque's All Hallows Eve collection. I think she's sold out on her website, but definitely try to find somewhere where you can pick them up. I think the best bet would be to go and try and win a giveaway, you can keep up to date with giveaways through Cirque's Facebook.

Kabocha & Neko in front of a few other Cirque polishes

They are such gorgeous colours! Kabocha (Japanese for pumpkin), looks exactly like what it's name says. An amazing pumpkin orange that glows in the dark! I didn't manage to get any pictures of it glowing in the dark because I think all the glowing sediment sunk down to the bottom and I forgot to rest it upside down :(

Indoors

With flash

Neko is a black glitter that's made to be worn with Kabocha or with another polish. I am completely in love with this glitter! They look like little shards of paper or something haha. The amazing thing about Neko and Kabocha together is that you can see the glitter when Kabocha glows in the dark! For this formula, even though it's pretty dense, a dabbing technique would be best to distribute the glitter the way you want it. On my index finger I've dabbed Neko and the rest are just normal.

Indoors

With flash

I highly recommend these polishes to everyone! The formula was amazing for both, Kabocha is a jelly so it's quite sheer (the pictures have three coats and you can still see my nail line a little bit) and the glow sediment makes it dry matte so it dries quite quickly. I've heard that Cirque polishes are supposed to smell like lavender while they're drying? I didn't really notice any different smells, although I wasn't looking out for it that much.

The rest of the Cirque polishes I got will have to be reswatched when I get my good camera I think. My camera at the moment couldn't handle their glitteryness! I've got some pictures of the Australian indie polish lady Gloss 'n Sparkle banked that I will show you this weekend before my exam on Monday!

See you next time!

x

NOTD: Neon Skittle Leopard

Hi guys!

It's been so long since I've posted! Unfortunately uni has been kicking my ass, soooo many assignments! I hate how they have them all due in the same week! Although today I handed in my last assignment FOREVER! Feeling a little nostalgic, but probably not for long because now I've got my exams haha

So to cheer myself up I decided to do a neon leopard skittle! This was using the famous Konad m57 plate, the problem with these is that my nails are too wide! Luckily you can't really tell here that I had to use a small paintbrush and paint the sides. I ordered some Llarowe XL plates which are so much bigger than the Konad plates, so hopefully I'll have more luck with those.

For this I used:
- OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls
- Kleancolor Neon Aqua
- China Glaze Hang Ten Toes
- China Glaze Orange You Hot?
- China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard
- China Glaze Sun-kissed

I just love how fun this look is! The only problem is that in the stamping, the neons came out looking like pastels. At least both neon and pastel are in at the moment, so either are on trend haha

I'm in the process of cropping my massive amount of indie swatches, unfortunately until I get my good camera (yay for a graduation present!), I'm using the camera on my phone. It's oddly better quality then my normal digital camera, but for some of these indies I can't capture how truly awesome they are. So I think I'll either hold off on posting them, or re-swatching them once I get my camera.

See you next time!

x

A-Engand - Galahad - Bar Tested!

Hi!

Today I've Galahad to show you from last week (which I've swatched previously here) Bar Tested!! Galahad actually did pretty well, the problem on my thumb was unrelated, the nail broke :(, and it was tested on a Saturday which is a much busier and longer shift! I think I'll come up with some kind of Bar Tested logo, with a thumbs up/thumbs down haha, thoughts?

Bar tested!!

I also had a weird thing happen to my nail, I've never seen this happen before! I was re-stacking those glass tray things (because the other people at the bar apparently don't know how to stack them), and one of them came down on my nail and I think pulled it a little bit from my finger? 

WARNING! NAKED ICKY NAILS!!

Has anything like this ever happened to you guys? I hope it grows out soon because it's becoming really annoying! It doesn't hurt though which is positive.

Also a development with the fake OPI MAAH! I finnaalllyyyyyy managed to get a real version of Mad As A Hatter! I'll probably edit that post and compare the colours, it's shocking how close the fake is to the real one, the only real difference is that the real OPI has more silver glitter.

See you next time!

Butter London - Pillar Box Red - Bar Tested!

Hi!

Today I've got something exciting for Australian viewers! The InStyle Magazine for this month has a free Butter London on it! There are two colours to choose from: Pillar Box Red & Pink Ribbon. I, of course, chose Pillar Box Red because I'm obsessed with finding the perfect red. So if you can pick up a copy of this, you totally should. In Australia Butter London retails for $22! Which I find pretty shocking, I honestly don't see why I would spend more than I would on an OPI for only 11mL of nail polish, it's so annoying how expensive nail polishes are in Australia!

Pillar Box Red is a gorgeous true red creme, for some reason I think the photos came up leaning a little orange, but it definitely doesn't lean that way in real life. The formula was great and you guys will see that it did quite well on the bar test. The only draw back was that the brush was quite short, but the application was fine.

Free full size sample!

Indoors

With flash

I couldn't pass up the chance to buy this, even though I don't regularly buy InStyle, probably because it makes me want to buy heaps of things and do completely irrational things. For example reading through it, I now really want to dye my hair blonde and get it dip dyed blue or something. I'm pretty sure that would look completely wrong on me, but I can dream!!

Bar Tested!!

It did really well at work! I'm quite impressed on how it did actually, with colours like red you can really tell when it chips and here there are only really a couple of noticeable ones plus some tip wear on my thumb. I'm actually still wearing it right now, but the small chips have lead to massive chips, so I'll have to take it off tomorrow.

Long story short, I gave in and bought some Butter Londons on eBay! British Racing Green (so I can finally have an awesome forest green) and Dark Knight are on their way to me as we speak! So excited!

See you next time!
x

Fake OPI Mad As A Hatter :(

Hi!

Before I get into my Bar Testing again I thought I'd do a little post about fake OPI.

The other day I started looking into potentially getting Mad As A Hatter, since then I've realised that they are waaaay too expensive (someone's selling MAAH & Absolutely Alice for $61!). 

So the first one I got (the one in the pictures), I probably should have foreseen that it would be a fake but I'd never heard of anyone selling fake OPI before! I emailed the seller when I got it, suspecting it to be a fake, and he replied "you should note that I never said 100% authenticity guaranteed" (I imagine him speaking in a really douche-y voice), he said that I could send it back for a refund but honestly I don't want someone else to have to buy a pre-used bottle and one of my friends loves the colour and doesn't mind if it's not fake.

The second one I got thinking that it would be real! Again, I must be the most naive person ever! The listing said that she ran a salon and used these in her store and also that these were factory seconds. It was exactly the same as the first bottle but I didn't have the energy to send it back to her and she stuck to her factory seconds story so I just left it.

At least I can use this to make a little tutorial on how to tell if your OPI is real or fake. I've learned quite a bit through my google-ing and I know for a fact that some of the tutorials say that certain things make an OPI fake that aren't true, so hopefully I can cover everything!

Also I used a Kleenex box as the background because the puppies are cute, at least there's something good in the photos haha!

Compared to OPI Pirouette My Whistle

Off centre label

Lid touches bottle on the fake

Off centre label

Real OPI on the left, different brushes

Real OPI on the left, fake has a thinner lid

Colour shot

Colour shot

All in all this is a pretty good fake, the colour is really similar to the real MAAH although I can't compare to a real one. It even had the OPI engraved onto the brush! The main thing that was different was the smell, it didn't really smell like any of my other OPIs. One of the main things that people comment on for fake MAAHs is that instead of having magenta and teal glitter they have red and green glitter, this one I would say that there is definitely teal glitter, but there's red glitter too.

Main things to look out for in Fake OPIs:

1. Height difference in comparison to real OPIs.
2. Different lid's to OPIs, this can include a lighter lid, thinner lid, no 'cog' like markings on the inside of the lid. If there is no gap between the bottle and the lid, it's most likely a fake.
3. Some cheap fakes don't have OPI engraved on the white part of the brush.
4. Missing a label on the bottom of the bottle (some have just the top label with the 'peel here' part and some have just the label underneath).
5. There are heaps of websites that say that if your OPI doesn't have 4 warning signs on the back then it's a fake, this is WRONG! I have bought OPIs from David Jones, Hairhouse Warehouse, other beauty stores, and TransDesign. None of these have 4 warning signs, actually I think there might be one in my entire collection that has 4 warning signs. The extra one warning sign is to say that there's more information on the bottom of the bottle. So it doesn't mean that your collection is fake if none of them have it.

That's all I've got at the moment. Have you guys ever encountered fake OPIs? What did they look like? I've heard some people say that theirs are laughably fake, like wrong colours etc.

See you next time!

x

Pretty & Polished - Jawbreaker

Hi!

So right now I've gone into some kind of Etsy and Llarowe buying frenzy. Can you believe that when I started this blog, I didn't have any indie polishes, and now I have 32 with more on the way! Today I've got Pretty & Polished's Jawbreaker to show you, a gorgeous white jelly base with different sizes of red, blue and yellow glitter! It also completely looks like a jawbreaker!

Direct sunlight

Direct Sunlight

Indoors

With Flash

Up close

Formula was amazing! This is three coats but you could do it with two, I just wanted to see how much the glitter would peek through.

You can get Jawbreaker from Llarowe for $12 plus shipping when it's in stock.

So I've decided to do a new segment! In marketing we're always taught that you need to have something to differentiate your brand from another. So the other day at work I was looking down at my chipped nails (which I'd painted that day!) and wondering which nail polishes would be able to last at work! Everyone's nails chip in the bar, I think it's the combination of alcohol and having to open so many bottles that does it. So now I introduce to you....THE BAR TEST! 

The rules:
1. All have to have a base coat and a top coat
2. Polish has to be applied that day

Bar tested!!

Sorry for the low quality photos, I take them as soon as I get home (around 5.30am) and there's no light :(. Jawbreaker did pretty well! Especially considering the glitter, glitter always chips like crazy! I feel like it correlates to the amount of days it would wear in normal life, I'd say one night at the bar would be similar to a couple days of day wear.

Have you guys gotten any indie polishes? Any recommendations?

See you next time!
x

A-England - Princess Sabra & Dragon

Hi!

Sadly today we reach the end of the SWATCH-STRAVAGANZA :( Hopefully once I get my hands on some Gothic Beauties, I'll be able to show you more A-England!

These are two amazing holographics from the Legends collection. First up is Princess Sabra, a yellow-bronze (?) holographic. I was sooo close to not buying this, but once I heard the story of how it's supposed to be the same colour as Adina's cat, Tristam's, eyes, I had to have it! They completely remind me of the colour of a cats eyes and I tried to take a photo of this polish next to one of the cats, but they weren't having it! Oh well.

Two coats in all the photos below.

Direct Sunlight

Indoors

Flash

Flash

Plus a picture of one of the kittens that we only looked after for one night before they went to their foster carer. I don't think we even named this little guy, but I think he was part of a litter that we had to give a bath and we separated the ones that loved the water and hated the water into Cray Cray's and Normies. It's so weird when kittens like being bathed especially because it was the first time I'd seen it in real life!

Pretty sure this one was a Cray Cray haha

The final Legend I have for you guys is Dragon! It's a green holographic, similar to Saint George, but Saint George is more of an emerald green/teal while Dragon is lighter and more....Dragon-y. Honestly I don't think you can look at this and not think 'Dragon', it reminds me of all the movies where the dragon flies around and the sun shines off their scales.

Dragon can indeed be a one coater to all people who are in a rush! On my pointer and middle finger I've got 1 coat and on my ring and little finger I've got two. The extra coat makes it sightly darker and makes the holographic stand out a little bit more, but the difference isn't that big.

Direct Sunlight

Indoors

Flash

So no more A-England :( Well until I give in and buy all the Gothic Beauties + Bridal Veil!

You can buy A-England from their website here with free shipping, or you can go to Llarowe where she has some of the Gothic Beauties up already!

Next up I've got all the indie polishes that arrived in the past couple of weeks when I went nuts buying from Llarowe and Etsy haha.

See you next time!

x