All You Need Is Love

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I got the new Bundle Monster stamping plates and the first design I tried was the Love tattoo! Whoever designed that one, thank you!!!!

It stamps AMAZINGLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I used Essie Brooch The Subject as a base and Konad Special Polish in Black to stamp with.

The 2013 BM Create Your Own collection is available here for US$16.50. You can also buy individual plates from the collection for $1.99 a piece - good move by BM, cos I really want some of those holiday plates. Just not ALL of them.

xxx

NPA

Color Club Halo Hues: Beyond, Cosmic Fate & Cherubic

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The urge to blog has just not been there lately, which is why I've been patchy and MIA with the posts :(
I just don't really have anything to say and I'm loathe to just post swatches without any words. Maybe that'll have to change?

Hope all of you are doing swell though!!! I've got some Color Club holos to show you today.

Color Club Beyond

First off, Beyond is a black linear holo. It's not as grey as the photos betray, but it isn't anything like a jet black either. It is moderately strongly holographic though.

Color Club Cosmic Fate

Cosmic Fate is a copper-peach hued linear holo. Check out the flash photo, seriously prismatic! She might actually be one of the strongest holos I own.

Color Club Cherubic

Cherubic is a nude/beige metallic holographic which is insanely prismatic also. I love these coloured holos, they feel office appropriate, yet I get that giddy feeling wearing them because a rainbow is never far away!

The formula for all of these is fantastic; buttery with absolutely zero dragging or unevenness to deal with. You can get away with one coat if you're in a hurry and I used two for the photos.


xxx
NPA

Zoya PixieDust Godiva

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When all these texture polishes were announced by all the big polish makers, I was so disappointed. I thought the trend was just an excuse to make glitter polishes that dried gritty without any apologies.

Fast forward a few months, I've tried a few and I'm completely SOLD on the texture manicure!
They aren't just gritty drying glitters, they do have a special formulation that allows them to have a fine grit sandpaper finish. (which comes in handy when I have a itch that won't go away, key back of nail scratch!!!!).

Here's my favourite so far:

Zoya PixieDust Godiva

 Godiva is a sand beige with silver glitter. It's got yellow undertones so I don't recommend it to women with cool skin tones, but I adore it! It does have a slightly dirty look to it, but I love nudes!!!! The silver glitter is seriously sparkly and it applied well but needed 3 thin coats for full coverage. It could easily be layered over a matching creme though. I waited until each layer was dry before I added the next and no issues with Godiva drying properly. It wears really well too; 24 hours and no chips or wear.


With top coat:

I like the glossy look too. I used two coats of Aqua Daisy Glitter Gloss and it was perfectly glassy.

Zoya released 12 Pixie Dust polishes; six muted and six brights for summer. Have you got your eyes on any of them?

How do you feel about the texture trend?


xxx
NPA

A Mani feat. Born Pretty Store Striping Tape

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Got a nail art post for you ladies. Thank god for Born Pretty Store sending me nail art supplies for review!!

BPS sent me some white striping tape Item 231 and I put together this simple design:

To create this look I applied 2 coats of Essie Brooch the Subject - my favourite opaque nude/beige - and 1 coat of Seche Vite. The SV just dries it quickly and prevents the striping tape peeling off your base polish later on. I stuck two pieces of tape to each nail creating a french tip, gap and second line. Next I painted 1 thick coat of OPI Roadhouse Blues - my favourite deep indigo/navy creme - over the entire nail.
After I painted each nail blue, I held the tape between my thumb and forefinger and peeled it back, off my nail in a fast and smooth action, similar to waxing!!! That way the polish lines stayed pretty tidy and no polish peeled off that shouldn't have! I finished off with another layer of SV; however I didn't wait quite long enough for the blue to dry and caused some smudging most visible on my ring finger.

The striping tape is pretty awesome! I didn't realise it would have a bit of stretch to it! The stretch allows you to stick the ends closer to the sides of your nail and it also makes placement a bit easier than with regular cellotape.
Striping tape is also incredibly skinny! It's perfect for fine lines, but I do wish they made wider striping tape for fatter lines too.

The next time you buy from Born Pretty Store please use my 10% off coupon code QHL91 and soon BPS will be able to sponsor a giveaway for NPA!!!

Does my tape mani make anyone think, "add one more stripe and we've got adidas" ?


xxx
NPA

China Glaze On Safari Swatches & Review

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Oh my god, I cannot believe it has taken me so long to swatch this collection! Talk about my obsession with indie polishes setting me back!

I chose just 6 of the 12 polishes in China Glaze's On Safari Fall 2012 collection. I tried my hardest to only buy the ones I didn't have anything similar to already. And the only polish from On Safari I'm still lemming is Elephant Walk!

China Glaze Call of the Wild

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 Call of the Wild is a beautifully rich dark brown creme with enough red to make it look like molten chocolate! All my other brown cremes (ok I only have like 2) lean yellow so they look fairly flat, so COTW is my new fav!

China Glaze Exotic Encounters

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China Glaze Kalahari Kiss

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Kalahari Kiss reminds of a desert khaki pith helmet! The best way I can describe it is as a yellowed beige creme. It's certainly one of those fugly colours that very few people will actually want to wear, but I love that China Glaze keeps knocking one of these out each year! I have Classic Camel from 2010, Trendsetter from 2011 and now this one!

China Glaze Jungle Queen

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Jungle Queen is a smoky purple with subtle shimmer. This is the Chanel Paradoxal dupe. The only difference between the two is that JQ is contains less shimmer. It's beautiful and for $3 the price was right!

China Glaze I'm Not Lion

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 I'm Not Lion is a ultra fine mix of light gold and silver holo glitter. I've layered 1 coat over Exotic Encounters, because I haven't seen this layering combination anywhere else. I think with 2-3 layers on its own, INL would be opaque. I topped this off with 1 coat of Glitter Gloss for glass like shine and smoothness!

China Glaze I Herd That

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I Herd That is a mix of ultra fine gold, orange and holo glitter. 'm wearing 1 coat layered over Call of the Wild. It's basically a warm version of INL. Again in 2-3 coats on its own it would be opaque. One coat of Glitter Gloss gave a fabulous finish on this one too. I thought it would be very similar to the Ulta exclusive Fireside Glow (from Christmas 2011), but the glitter in FG is even finer and is very coppery (and when I say coppery, I mean that true pinky copper colour the real metal is).

Formula:

The formulas of the cremes (except COTW) were thick, but FLAWLESS! If you were in a rush, 1 coat would do because they are so pigmented. I used 2 coats myself, and they applied like butter! Do give it a few minutes between coats though, to avoid bubbling.

Call of the Wild was a bit thinner than the other cremes. It was still opaque after 2 coats, but you have to watch out for cuticle drag.

Jungle Queen is a solid 2 coater and application was good, it has a slightly thick consistency.

The glitters applied really nicely. I probably prefer them alone or over like colours though.

My picks from On Safari really did impress me. I love the colours and the top notch formulas make me so happy!!!

It's Sunday yet again, so I wish you luck for the week ahead.

If you are a NZ reader, please enter my giveaway HERE

xxx

NPA

Borghese Almondine swatch and review

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Oh My Good Great God!!!
You have no idea how much nail mail I came home to last night, after 3 weeks holiday!
My flatmate reckoned there were 13 parcels/boxes in total!
No a bad welcome home, right?! It seriously softened the blow of having to leave Buster again and start another semester!

Yeah, so the whole 'No Buy July' so many ladies are partaking in,might become my reality too. And possibly August and September too!!

I don't have any photos for you yet, been too busy unpacking etc, but I will try to snap some today ;p

For now, I will leave you with Borghese Almondine.

 Borghese Almondine

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Almondine was featured on Glitta Gloves back in April and I immediately fell in love! So did a handful of other bloggers who viewed the post, because since then I've seen a few other swatches of Almondine (a discontinued, HTF polish) pop up citing Kirsten's post as their reason for getting Almondine too!!
I jumped on ebay right away and found only 1 listing, and luckily they shipped to NZ!!!

It's a beige creme base (it looks to me as if it leans both yellow and pink, if that's possible!) with a soft pink/purple flash of shimmer (like in Essie's Demure Vixen), some matching flaked shimmer and really grainy looking flat black glitter. Well, I assume it's black glitter but it really looks like speckles of dirt. AND I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!! The photos don't really capture the shimmer, but you see it in person.
I can't get enough of the speckled look that BB Couture introduced me too, so I couldn't not love this neutral.
The one fly in the ointment for me, is that Almondine is pretty sheer. I applied 4 coats for these pics and I can still detect some VNL. It's still a beauty, but that is kind of annoying, because it looks like it ought to be a full coverage polish. I also felt like the brush was a wee bit stiff - it's the transparent plastic looking bristle kind - but it is wide, I just had to press a little lighter to avoid causing some bald patches when I added each coat.

It's now my favourite 'go to' nude!!!

What's yours?

Did you go on a polish binge in May/June too?

xxx
NPA