Dior Addict 570

I was given a set of two Dior polishes from mum. They were from sample bags. This is a dusty dark rose with beautiful pink microglitter. Sadly the formula left something to be desired and it was quite an effort to try and get what was a gluggy and sluggish application even on the nails. Even after 3 hours of careful typing, I woke up the next morning with sheet marks and a gouge on the third finger. I really like the colour though!

I know I have been major slack on updating this blog. I've got about 4 waiting to blog but its been so busy lately I haven't had much spare time. Stay tuned!! I'm still polishing. :-)

Eleanor and Face of Australia Molten Metallics

Claire's Mood - excited bored

Paints well with a very nice brush. I've got 3 of the Claire's mood polishes. This one probably worked the best for me. Today it was clearly visible with the two colours, but maybe cold weather helps as well as the part of the nail not on the nail bed really has the chance to get cold.

This colour is a salmony pink with the cold colour being the dark coral. It is a matte shade and it chipped like hell without a top coat. So while the matte look is very pretty, if you intend to last the day you will need to cover it up. Top coating doesn't alter it's mood abilities at all.

It goes on very sheer and stripy alas, so take a lot of care putting it on. I needed 5 coats just to get all the patches non visible. It also tends to accentuate nail unevenness, so maybe try a ridge filler.

Catherine Arley - 672

Mmmmm, most mauve. :-) A while back JJ sent me 2 boxes of Catherine Arley hologram polishes, bless is little mammalic heart. I've already reviewed a few so pop into the polishes by maker bookmarks to see them.

672 is a delicious pale mauve. It paints B E A U T I F U L L Y. It is a dream to paint and a dream to behold and it looks amazing on black cardboard since I was busy making a bird at GoMA at the time. (our modern gallery has activities for children, but adults can do so too. Current adventure is "Fly Away Home" where you are given a blank bird cutout of different colour cardboards, and you decorate it with a variety of things they give you).

This is a really lovely colour to have on for me. Went with everything. the holographic sparkles glitter in the sunshine, winking at everything and everyone.

Face of Australia - Call Me

I decided to wear this one for a job interview because it was a nice, muted rose with a hint of silvery shimmer. Fair formula that glided on smoothly and a reasonable brush. A little bit of trouble getting thorough coverage. Face of Australia is available in Big W and Priceline.

This was a bit more pink than I expected after it was on. I preferred Mavala's "Velvet" better however that is a creme and no shimmer.

Revlon - Popular

This is the colour of strawberry milkshake. It's milky. It's pink. And its semi sheer. It would have looked really nice on only 2 coats but I had mishaps with the brushing and so I had to cover it up with one more. What I don't like about this is that I can't get the glitter to sit on top, so instead of being silver and shimmery, most of them are covered in polish.

The polish is nice, the formula is nice. But... but I think it wasn't sheer enough. It should build up to look like a resin sculpture with bits trapped in there but instead most of the glitter looks white at first glance.

Mavala - Velvet

Mavala seem to have quite a nice formulation. It painted on thin, but evened up with the next coat. Dried well. This colour is so gorgeous, a dusty rose. But again the tiny bottle is a pain, trying to hold the cap steady to apply.

Mavala is from Switzerland and I've seen them in a handful of chemists.

Pure creme colour, with a soft gloss.

Orly (mini) - Rage

I love foils. This one was so thick with pigments, so grainy. It picked up every unevenness on my nail! Be sure to buff or use a ridge filler first.

I am not so fond of these mini bottles now. The caps are just hard to hold when they are that short and stumpy.

Rage is a beautiful, soft rose gold. It went on well and even with 1 coat it was fairly decent. The second coat makes it really brilliant.

B Collection "Osaka" vs Bloom "Elise"

B Collection is the poor cousin of Bloom, so while you buy Bloom at Myer, you can get many versions of the same colours in the cheaper B which is stocked in Target.

Now who knows what I was thinking on the day but I came home with Elise and realised I already had Osaka. So what can I do but have a play off.

So on the 2nd and 4th nails are Osaka. On all the rest are Elise. Can you tell the difference? I can't. But I can say that the brush for Osaka was actually much nicer, resulting in a more accurate and enjoyable painting experience, and the formula of Osaka was really nice too.

Both were a four coat job. The first coat you could tell was streaky and patchy. The 2nd coat still had bald patches. The polish was a bit dull too, so over the top with some Mega Shine.

Well, they are both an electric magenta, lovely raspberry jewel tone with heavy amounts of deliciously fine glitter, also magenta.

At the moment Target have B on special for $10. I think they are actually trying to get rid off all their B stuff. Sad times, but we all gotta shine and fade away.

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. :)

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Pink Rose Diamond

Lucky me - I found 3 of the Nail Prisms in a discount basket in a
pharmacy. They have holographic glitter in them, so love love love!!!
I've only done one coat in this pic, but added another coat today. The
polish is a bit soft - a bit of problem getting it dry. I put it down
to age. Afterall, these came out ages ago. The holographic effect is
top grade though. Even better than the one I paid $20 for!!

Missha Crystal - HVL01

Well I can barely tell how many colour flecks there are. I prefer the term crystal over glass fleck. Missha is a Korean brand with its own stores, one in Sydney. www.missha.net

It's not a smooth finish, if you like super smooth you need a top coat. It was very pretty thought, even though even here I had used about 4 coats and you can still see transluscence. I'm not overly convinced, it looks much better in the bottle. I'll use it for layering. The bottle however is beautiful. A warped elongated heart, with graduated pink lid.

The brush however, I love this brush - medium length bristles, nice 2mm thick brush (flat) and the slightest curve. I find this to be a better curve brush than the Cutex.

Bourjois - Soiree a Versailles #61

I totally love these tiny bottles. I don't know much about them except that a few Priceline stores had them in a box. No particular labelling or signs. I didn't even see a price sticker for them. This one is a soft powder pink with a gold shimmer through it. When on the nail it was an absolute pastel manicure. The shimmer was almost impercetible after a top coat though.

The formulation was ok, but got a bit chunky later on - my fault, did not let last coat dry enough.

I saw a dark purple, cherry red and black in the same range. Wore ok, so what can I say...? Not too disappointed by Bourjois products at all. :-)

Maybelline Mini Colorama - Baby Doll

Gotta love when there's a run out on fashion colours. Picked up some Coloramas for $1 each. This is a fairly standard shade, the musky pink with shot of blue. In fact, the first time I was a flowergirl in the 80s, all our nails were done in this shade in Cutex. Blast from the past.

I had several comments from people who thought I was wearing nothing but caught a flash of the blue in the light. Invariably they would hold my fingers just to check!

Formula, ok. Colour, a bit too transparent - did about 4 coats with this one. Scratched easily even days later. Hotness of colour was subdued with a top coat. Dontcha hate that. You have good looking colour and it is ruined by a top coat.

I would not have run out to buy this... but it was in the bargain box. And I suppose I would wear this any time I was not supposed to have colour on the nails.

Rimmel - Euphoria

I'm never a big fan of these quick stroke polishes. I like to take my time. However, it seemed quite good with this one, and pale colours are very forgiving if you cross the line. The fat brush... well I have to say I am not a fan of big fat brushes but I guess this one was not too hard to control. I think my favourite big brush is probably still the Bourjois.

These little stumpy Rimmel handles are a bit of a bother too.

So Euphoria. Well, in the shop I was much more excited. It seemed at once, pearly, pink and purple but at home, it really kinda turned out to be rather a boring frosty pink. But I have to say that it wore like a dream. LIKE A DREAM. 8 days later it was still on duty. But sadly dented on 3 fingers because the advertising lies. This bloody thing too AAAGES to dry out and inadvertently I put dents in the paintwork, totally unknowingly. I don't even know how it happened, maybe while I was typing??

It was a sweet little colour although someone called it dull pink. Actually, it even is a little bit grey in certain light.

B collection - Oslo

So what is this colour? Well, against a white plate there's a hint of pink. Nude? Buff? Porcelain dolly?

Amsterdam was the other neutral, but is yellow toned buff. Dairy cream. Makes sense, Holland has plenty of cows and a cheese industry.

It was a bit streaky to apply, so the second coat I applied more heavily. It's a creme so even more difficult to deflect uneven application. Boo.. Still, I'm enchanted by the delicate colour after all the darks I'e been wearing in the last few posts.