Pretty Serious: Happy Birthday, Daphne!

I have been so excited to share this nail polish with you and the day is finally here!  It's time to wish Daphne a very Happy Birthday!

'Daphne's Birthday Party' is a fantastic polish from Pretty Serious Cosmetics.  If you don't already own one of their polishes, certainly check them out.  They're beautiful!  I recently had a NotD with two PS polishes, which you can find here.

Daphne sure is celebrating with style.  I've been a fan of rainbow glitter polishes for some time now (after missing out on OPI Rainbow Connection), but for once, I feel content.  I don't feel like I need to own that one.  'Daphne's Birthday Party' has filled that gaping hole in my heart collection.

The glitter is all uniform in size, which I love!  It adds a dazzling shine and twinkle to your nails.  I celebrated my birthday last week and I wore this the entire time.  And I received so many compliments (from teenagers to adults a like).

I layered it over a fuchsia Ulta polish, but I don't really think I needed it.  Above is three coats and they held up extremely well over the week!  I absolutely love this polish!  Party well, Daphne!  You deserve it!

NotD: Starry Night

In my recent haul post, I mentioned that I purchased several bottles from Pretty Serious.  Let me say, I adore this brand!  The polishes are beautiful and apply so well.  Not to mention that they're gorgeous.  I am so glad that I received a bottle of polish in my Lust Have It Eco box; otherwise, it would have taken even longer to try these out.

<3

The nail look I'm sharing today is comprised of BSOD and Twinkling Lights.  How freaking beautiful is BSOD?  Twinkling Lights looks stunning over it.  Twinkling Lights is quite sheer, so it really needs to be layered over another polish.  I will enjoy trying it over other blue polishes I have.

L: BSOD; R: Twinkling Lights

I still haven't tried Viscous Vampire yet, but no doubt I will soon.  Have you tried any of the Pretty Serious polishes?  If so, which is your favourite?

NotD: Purple Shine and Sparkle

I wanted to share my love for Australis Glitter Strikes Back top coat. I have paired it with purple hues because it looks so fantastic, but also because it reminds me of the sold out 'Look to the Western Sky' by Smitten Polish.

I chose Revlon Royal Cloak, which is a very nice purple. To be honest, I don't like purples that much, but I really like this one. I put Max Factory Fantasy Fire over the top to give it some added depth (and because I don't use it nearly enough).

Are there any combinations you are loving at the moment? Seriously, this is one of my favourite combos.

NotD: Revisiting Old Favourites

Just a quick nail of the day using some of my favourite nail polishes: OPI 'Fly', China Glaze 'For Audrey', and Femme Fatale 'Winter Hyacinth'.  My first experience with 'Winter Hyacinth' wasn't easy, but I loved how it looked.  To make the application easier, I layered it on top of similar-ish shades so I wouldn't need as many applications.

I used two coats of each colour, so each nail had four coats of each colour.  I used a Sally Hansen topcoat to finish off the look.  I'm really happy with how they turned out.

NotD: Flyin' High to the Milky Way

Again, this is an oldie, but I still wanted to share after finding it.  As seen in my blue ombre post, I really like China Glaze Flyin' High and it looks bright, vibrant and creamy here.  I cannot recommend it enough.

As for the other polish, I was really excited when I saw Australis Milky Way.  I love white/milky bases with lots of colourful glitter.  The first bottle of this I bought broke in the bag before I got home.  When I tried to exchange it, I found out how bizarre stores are in Australia.  Being American, I'm used to being able to exchange/return items to any store in the chain.  However, I bought my nail polish at a Priceline in the CBD and couldn't return it to any other one.  So lame.

This looks pretty nice.  Much better than I remember it looking.  In my opinion, it didn't apply very smoothly.  The base isn't sheer enough, so you lose sight of a lot of the glitter, which is a shame.  I honestly, don't think I'd have the patience to deal with it on all ten nails.

L to R: China Glaze 'Flyin' High,' Face of Australia 'Once in a Blue Moon,' and Australis 'Milky Way'

I chose to use FOA nail polish in 'Once in a Blue Moon' as a base for my feature in hopes that I'd only have to use one coat of Milky Way.  That wasn't too successful and I didn't like that polish that much either.  Perhaps, my expectations are too high, especially since I love Flyin' High so much.

NotD: Attempt at Nail Art

These nails were from a while ago.  I just never got around posting about them, but when I stumbled over the photo, I wanted to share them because I really liked them!

This was my first attempt at nail art and I don't think it went too badly.  I used the dotting pens that so many of you either own or have seen.  I really wanted to use the bellapierre nail polishes that I had ordered late last year from OzSale.

I adore the colour.  It's a bit more rose than the first image shows it to be.  The bottom image is more true to life.  I paired it with OPI Ski Teal We Drop simply because I like the contrast.  The glitter bellapierre polish ('Glitter Surprise') looks beautiful on top of the deep teal.  The three colours work really well to create a layered look on my feature nail.

L to R: bellapierre 'Chic Pink,' OPI 'Ski Teal We Drop,' and bellapierre 'Glitter Surprise'

The formula of all three is really nice.  I'm a big fan of OPI, so no surprise there.  I didn't know what to expect from bellapierre, but I can easily say that these polishes are definitely two of my favourites.  They're different from others I own and they apply so easily!

Have you tried any polishes from bellapierre?  I'd love to add some more to my collection.

NotD: Blue Ombré Look

For work, I needed to be dressed in blue.  So of course, my nails had to be blue as well.  I couldn't choose between which blue nail polish I wanted to use, so I decided to do an ombre look with them.  I used six nail polishes.  The one not pictured is Rimmel Disco Ball, which I used to add some sparkle to my feature nail.

The look:

The nails looked much better at the start of the day before all the festivities!


The products:

Thumb to Pinky: Ulta3 Soft Hydrangea, Revlon Blue Lagoon, China Glaze Flyin' High, Ulta3 Calypso Holiday, OPI Ski Teal We Drop

I really like all these polishes, some more than others.  My faves are Ski Teal We Drop (absolutely love the colour) and Flyin' High (absolutely love the formula and colour).  The disappointment is Blue Lagoon.  It looks really pretty in the bottle, but falls a bit flat on the nail.  It also looked (and felt) a bit gritty.  Maybe it was just my nail...this was my first time using it.

NotD: Audrey Meets Whimsy

For Christmas my mom sent me Revlon 'Whimsical' nail polish and I bought myself China Glaze 'For Audrey' during a BeautyJoint sale.   I decided to combine these two beautiful polishes and I love the combination.  It does appear that I really love similar looks if you look at my other recent NotD :)

L: Revlon Whimsical R: China Glaze For Audrey

Each nail has two coats of 'For Audrey' and two coats of 'Whimsical'.  This photograph was taken after three days of wear and I didn't use a top coat (forgot!)  They're holding up extremely well!

Do you have any favourite combinations or recommendations using Whimsical?  I'd love to branch out a little!

Don't forget out my mini-giveaway if you haven't already entered!

NotD: Mint and Sparkles

I have a NotD for you all today. I used L'oreal's Color Riche in 602 Perle de Jade (see rave here). I truly do love this nail polish and recommend it to all. To add some sparkle, I used Rimmel's Disco Ball. I adore this combination.

What do you think?

NOTD: Mirenesse Bullet Proof Nail Laquer

As most of you are aware, Mirenesse had teamed with Woman's Day to bring us some sweet GWPs. I picked up some nail polish in Blood Red (after failing to find the silver one).

I used it a few days ago and it is holding up quite well. The formula is really smooth and two coats was all I needed. I would pick up a couple more if they weren't that expensive.

I paired it with an OPI 'I have a herring problem' accent nail.

For those of you who have tried the Mirenesse nail polish, what did you think?

A Rave and a NOTD- Wedding Colours

I am getting married next year and this week marks the day I got engaged a year ago. In honour of that, my partner suggested my nail combo this week....our wedding colours (a blue mint colour and yellow).

L to R: L'oreal 602, OPI Save Me, OPI Candlelight

Most of you know the wonder of OPI, but I also wanted to make sure you knew about the brilliance of L'oreal Colour Riche nail polish. It has a built in top coat which is actually really good. The formula is really smooth and I found it opaque in two coats. It does hold up really well. I have two colours; the one for my NOTD is 602 Perle de Jade.

I paired it with OPI Save Me ( which I love) and Candlelight from the So So Skullicious Collection.

The final product

NOTD: Fly and Lights

I am loving OPI The Living Daylights so much that I kept it as my feature nail.  I have exchanged Rimmel's Wine Not with OPI Fly (from the Nicki Minaj collection).

Fly is a vibrant teal and I adore it!  The formula definitely requires at least two coats, but the colour is beautiful.

Are you loving a particular nail polish/colour at the moment?

NOTD: Wine and Sparkle

I bought OPI The Living Daylights from the new Skyfall collection and I've been dying to try it out.  It's an amazing glitter polish that immediately caught my eye.  I've received several compliments on it (and I've only been wearing it for a day and a half).

I used it for my feature nail.  I was really happy with the formula.  It applied really smoothly, much better than Australis Fairy Bread which I tried out a while ago (review here).

On my other nails I used Rimmel's Wine Not.  I wasn't as happy with this polish.  It was far too runny for my liking and it was messy to apply.  The colour is nice though...

Each nail has two coats of polish with a top coat.

I am tempted to try some other polishes in the Skyfall collection.  Any suggestions?

NOTD: Purple and Glitter

In preparation for the Rotary Ramble (a super awesome scavenger hunt/amazing race style event) held in Perth, I have painted my nails a beautiful purple colour.  As I have mentioned, purple is not one of my favourite colours; however, Amy Pond has purple nails in 'Flesh and Stone.'  I adore Doctor Who and decided to dress as Amy for the Ramble.  I will have a post with my outfit later this week.

Anyway, back to the nails (sorry that the photos are a bit dark):

L: Australis- Fairy Bread  R: Face of Australia-

 

Feature nail as always

I was really happy with the Face of Australia nail polish.  The above picture has one coat of nail polish on with a top coat.  It's a really nice formula.

I am getting into the glitter craze.  Fairy Bread was more difficult to deal with than others I have played around with, but I think it's mainly due to the size of the glitter.  There are some really big hexagon pieces.  I really want OPI Rainbow Connections, so this is my way of coping until I get it.  Someday.

Have you tried any other colours by these two brands?  Any recommendations?