Catherine Arley - 807 - straw gold holographic

In the gift pack I got 2 golds. The other is a warmer, more sunflower yellow. This is the whiter, cooler gold. Application was good and the colour quite opaque. In this picture you can see the one on the left has one coat, and the one on the right has two coats. Can you tell the difference?

In dim light you can't see that it is holographic. But under direct light, wow, just fantastic. This polish didn't disappoint. See the other Catherine Arley post I did for rave reviews on its consistency and colour.

However, I think that the golden colour interrupts the holo visuals. I find it hard to distinguish that it is a holo at all. Comparing the bottle against the toffee coloured CA, you can clearly distinguish the toffee is holo glitter, but the gold looks more like silver glitter.

So sadly I have to report this is not a knockout the way 668 was but I am still pretty pleased with the formulation and how gorgeous it is to paint with.

Many thanks to JJ who sent this over as a gift all the way from USA!!!

** Amendment - I've done this on a nail wheel now and it reminded me of the trouble I had when I was putting it on. It's much more visible on a plain white surface. This gold, suffers the fate of many a frost gold.. It streaks.

Catherine Arley - 668 - toffee holographic

Welcome to my first Catherine Arley post! A while ago you would have seen how I was sent several of these by my friend in the USA. AWESOME! Catherine Arley itself is a brand from Turkey.

This was a fantastic first try. I pored over the colours and finally decided on the demure toffee colour, seeing as I still had to go to work. Application - - OMG, perfect. Perfect consistency, amazing soft brush, nil streaks. After the hassle I experienced with Make Up Store's holographic, I wondered "maybe its this kind of glitter**" but boy was I wrong. Every finger I did I was bowled over by how smooth and even it went on. I mean the bottle itself is no great shakes - it seems to have the most awful, cheap looking handle and the whole thing looks like it came out of a $2 shop.

(**I've since found as well that Sally Hansen holos were quite good - sorry Make Up Store, but your holo sucked in comparison!! The glitter just feels and drags heavy, like sand particles and seems nigh on impossible to get a good looking finish)

I should absolutely add at this point that no cosmetic company has ever given me free product to blog about, so take this as my disclaimer that I so often see on other blogs about being endorsed and whatever. I got no endorsement, no freebies and no family or friends who work in the industry. I buy all my own polishes (well aside from the ones I get for christmas!)

Anyhow! Amazing x 3000. People who saw it commented how awesome it looked. I almost feel embarrassed how effort-free it was to get a good finish. And because it looks so good, I feel the need to add a few different photos. Enjoy it just like I did!

Revlon scented "Grapefruit Fizz"

Now the sad thing is that firstly I bought 2 of these and because I was sooooooo excited (and they smelled sooooo tasty, people must have thought I was nuts as I spent all week sniffing my nails) that I went to look for more.

I found this one (and I really am not much of a princess pink person) and decided I had to get it. The problem was that it was in a discount drugstore for $5 instead of $10 and I wondered... ???

Well, cease wondering, dear friends. The mystery is solved. There was something ***awfully wrong with this one. It totally smelt of formaldehyde or something, so strong that I nearly got flung to the back wall when I opened the bottle. A day later it had faded on the nails somewhat (yes, people, I actually DARED put this stuff on my nails, my poor nails). and there were was very faintest whiff of what might seem like grapefruit, but there was still a strong chemical odour.

Had this been a real and good polish who knows what it may have smelled of.

Colourwise, its a jelly. I went so far as to put on 4 coats. I really love the crystal flaky though, and the whole set of these tropical cocktail polishes have the same flaky. Application is usual. Revlon has gone pretty standard - decent brush, huge bottle that you would never hope to finish, good consistency, good finish.

I got the big lecture from mum - must be a Chinese fake, be careful, they put all sorts of toxic drugs in there instead of quality materials blah blah...

Anyway, enjoy this polish. :)

Layla Magnetic Polish

I found these in Sydney in a Price Attack store! I've seen them in US blogs for a while now. They were $19.95 each. I got 2 for my aunt, the purple one is "Velvet Groove" and the other is "Golden Nugget" (but is not very gold at all).

It did take practice to work the magnet. The idea is that you paint it on (and thickly won't matter, it seems to dry really fast and thoroughly) and then hold the cap over the top which contains the magnet. The iron particles will then separate and form the cool pattern.

All the Layla ones here (12 colours) only have a stripe. As you can see I wasn't too fussed about lining it up properly, so all my lines are going different directions.

I found it works best if you hold it at least 10 seconds. Don't need to move the magnet around much, but turning your nail a little bit to ensure all of it gets to be near the magnet surface is a good idea or you will get bland spots near the edges.

It was a good idea to get two because I found it is easier to use the magnet of a polish with its lid on, than to have to quickly try and screw it back on. I suppose you could just hold the brush up, but I don't like the idea of my polish being exposed to air anymore than I need.

Arezia shimmery green

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Arezia is a 5ml size polish you can get at the Sasa chain stores, which are popular throuhout Asia. They don't bother giving them names but pump out fashion colours at a regular rate. As far as I can see they don't even bother putting code numbers on there.

In the first pic against the kitchen benchtop I've got one coat. In the other photos I've got two coats. I'm not going to bother going on but you can see its quite a sheer thing.

The 2nd photo with the bottle is the most true to life. The other two pics at the bottom are taken indoors.

It's been a few hours now but the surface still feels a bit tacky to touch. What would I call this? Probably a zesty apple geen. It was easy to apply, but had a tendency to dissolve and drag the bottom coat. You need a light touch and a quick application.

Presents from my cuz

She came back from Hong Kong with a few things for me. I tried out the shimmery green polish last night. The others are a concrete grey creme polish, a set of crackle top polishes with an aqua base colour and 2 eyeshadows. Thanks cuz!