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Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Color Club - Get A Clue: Stamped & Mattified

After swatching and wearing all those prismatic nail polishes I was in the mood for something different. The base colour I used for this mani is Color Club - Get A Clue, a beautiful light pink creme. My camera makes pinks like these look more blue-toned than they actually are, this is a true pink. I needed three coats for a smooth and even surface. I added some subtle stamping with bundle monster plate BM-201 and Millennium from China Glaze. To make my nails look (and feel) even softer I applied a layer of matte top coat from Essence. I love mattified metallic stamping!

Thanks for watching! :)

Some Layla Magneffects

Have you jumped on board the magnetic nail polish train yet?  I'm such a sucker for fancy effects in nail polish like these.  I must say that I never really got into the crackle phase, but I am totally getting on board the magnetic phase with gusto!

Here are a couple of the Layla Magneffect polishes that I picked up with my Layla Holo order last week.  These have been around for quite a few months now, but the colour range of the Layla Mageneffects is one of the best I have seen. I think they have 16 colours.

Each bottle of the Layla Magneffects has a small round magnet on the top of the bottle with a line on it.  You can use that magnet to create lines .  For these manis I actaully used other magnets that I had.  The Layla bottle magnet works very well, but it's lines are further apart than these.

Metallic Sky




Purple Galaxy




Sparkling Champagne




Turquoise Wave




The formula on all these was excellent.  Some of these polishes could be one coaters (thick, but it would work) but for all these photos I did one coat without the magnet, then a second coat using the magnet.

The star magnet is most definitely the trickiest to master.  It's very hard to line it up correctly on the nail both vertically and horizontally.   I'm totally getting the China Glaze magnetics as well as the magnet as soon as I can, but what I'm really lemming for is a bottle of one of the Icing magnetic polishes with the wavey design as seen here. Any US readers interested in a swap with me so I can get one of those?

Monday, 30 January 2012

Speciallità Giveaway Winner!

Just a quick post to announce the winner of the Speciallità giveaway. I am highly thankful to Speciallità for sponsoring this giveaway and I'm glad you guys liked the prize, the response was really overwhelming! Thank you all so much for participating and for the lovely comments. My readers rock! 8)

I used random.org to determine the lucky winner. The winner is...


Congratulations Lovebeangirl!! I'll be emailing you shortly for your address. This lady also has a blog, check it out here.

Sunday, 29 January 2012

Layla holo comparisons and group order for Aussies

I spent this morning doing some comparison swatches for the Layla holos.

I will let the photos do the talking, but I'm sure you will agree how impressive these Layla holos are.

Hits Zeus, Layla Flash Black and China Glaze Let's do it in 3D in the shade.


And the same in the sun.




Nfu Oh 61 , Layla Mercury Twilight and Gosh holographic in the shade.


The same in the sun.  This is the original Nfu Oh 61, which is apparently more holo that the lastest versions.  Gosh Holo is near extinct. If your looking for an amazing silver holo, now is your chance.




Mermaid Spell and Nfu Oh 65 in the sun.


The same in the shade.


Nfu Oh 63, Layla Retro Pink, Nfu Oh 64 and Layla Ultra Violet in the shade.


The same in the sun.



Ozotic 515, Layla Ocean Rush, Ozotic 617 and Glitter Gal Marine blue in the shade.


The same in the sun.



Layla Jade Groove and Nfu Oh 66 in the shade.


The same in the sun.


Finally, nudie holos Layla Coral Glam and Nfu Oh 62 in the sun.


The same in the shade.


I am happy to put together a group order for any Aussie girls that want to get some Layla holos. I just need to make sure we get enough polishes to get the free shipping.  

Each polish is $15 Aussie dollars.  

If you want in, just email me by 6:00am on Wednesday 1 Feb.  If we have enough people wanting some then I will place an order on Wednesday or Thursday.. 
 

Please let me know which colours you want and quantities.  I will need paypal payments before I submit the order and you will need to pay for local postage in Australia (which will be between $6-7 for regular post for up about 10 bottles)

Saturday, 28 January 2012

Speciallità - Hefesto & Recap Hits No Olimpo Collection

Let me first show you how magical Hefesto is. Hefesto is the prismatic top coat from Speciallità's Hits No Olimpo collection. I love this one, it's packed with prismatic particles! It's a top coat, so obviously it looks best if you apply it on top of another polish. This time I layered one coat over two coats of China Glaze - Bermuda Breakaway. Ohh, it's magic! ♥ This picture is taken in direct sunlight; in normal daylight Hefesto adds a silvery touch to the base colour.
I wondered how this layering would compare to (one of my all time favourites) OPI DS - Glamour. Here you can see Glamour on my ring finger nail and the layering with Hefesto on the other nails. There are differences, but I think this is pretty cool!

In the photo collage below you can see the entire Hits No Olimpo collection. Clockwise from the upper left corner: Dionísio, Hestia, Atena, Ares, Zeus, Artemis, Deméter, Poseidon, Afrodite, Apolo, Hermes, Hera & Hefesto in the middle.
I think Speciallità did a great job with this collection, look at all those wonderful colours.. Most of them have a super intense prismatic effect. I like! The formula on these was consistently good and so is the wear. I heard some people had problems with wonky and uneven brushes, but all my brushes were fine (other than a surprisingly big one in one bottle). I noticed they take some time to dry, so I recommend using a quick drying top coat. Please note that these nail polishes aren't Big 3 Free, they contain toluene and formaldehyde.

The Hits No Olimpo polishes cost around $4 (for 6 ml) at Speciallità. You can also get them for $10 at Llarowe.

I want to remind you that today is the last day you can enter my Speciallità giveaway! If you want to enter click →here←.

Thanks for watching! :)

*The product(s) in this post was/were sent to me for reviewing purposes.
For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.

Layla Hologram Effect - Part 2

Here is part 2 of the Layla Hologram Effect polishes.

Pictures first, chat chat after.  

Please note that I fought with the sun all day taking these photos, running outside anytime the clouds parted long enough to take some sun shots.  So most of these are actually way more holo than these photos show, because the sun was partly covered with washed out clouds for many of these photos.

Flash Black - charcoal grey seriously linear holo.







Ocean Rush - mid toned blue holo.







Retro Pink - light pink holo.







Ultra Violet - Lavender holo.







Ok ok, so now lets get into the nitty gritty stuff.

Formula.  To start with, I gave these bottles a good shake cause I felt like the holo powder needed a good mix.  The balls in these polishes really rattle and the polish sounds very thin. Looking at the polish, it does seem thin, but it's not runny. You can easily layer a thick coat on and it will dry really fast.

Application.When I applied the polish the holo particles seems to be floating and dancing all over the place in the wet polish, it was strange to watch.  It wasn't streaky but it was definitely weird application for the first coat.  My recommendation is, ignore what it looks like as it's going on, and just paint your nails as usual.  

The second coat went on perfectly.  I was expecting the same balding issues that you get the Nfu Oh and Gosh Holos, but no, this was just perfect on the second coat.

All my swatches show two coats, with no base coat or no top coat.  So sorry, I can't tell you if top coat dulls these.  

Wear. I've been wearing Flash Black for a full 24 hours now, with no base or top coat and I am totally amazed that I don't have chips everywhere.  Nfu Oh and Gosh holo are terrible for wear unless you do a holo sandwich (ie two coats of holo, then top coat, then holo coat, then top coat).  This polish has lasted very well.  I do have some tip wear on the outer edges of the nail, but nothing noticeable, especially as Flash Black is a darkish polish. 

Where to buy.  I purchased these directly from Layla Cosmetics in Milan Italy after an email recommendation from Tuli from Prettify our nails - Thanks Tuli!!  They cost €11.90 each and the site says that international shipping is €30 (or €15 for orders over €80).  I also purchased some Layla Magnetic polishes at the same time, so my order was over €150. But at checkout it said free shipping. SWEET!  

I'm not sure at what value the free international shipping kicks in, but it's worth thinking about if ladies want to do a group order.  And what I discovered is that is wasn't just free regular post, it was DHL tracked. I ordered my polishes on Wednesday night, received tracking information on Thursday and got the polishes delivered on Tuesday.   Less than a week!  I'm super impressed by that service!!

Overall impression. The colours, the holo and the wear on these totally make them worth the €12 (converted to $14.80 AUD) I popped on each bottle.  Yeah, I know that seems expensive, but when in Target today and I was looking at Revlon polishes for $15.95, I feel like these are a total bargain for what you are getting.  I'm tempted to get backups.

So there you go, let me know if you have any questions.