piCture pOlish Giveaway - Winner!

We have our winner, and a big gratzies to Guy Polish (Jim) for winning the three piCture pOlish own polishes of the colour of his choice!  

Thankyou to all who entered and for all the lovely comments on the entries, and remember theres always next time :)

Essence Color & Go - Blue Addicted, Deborah Lippman Across the Universe dupe?

Well first things first, sorry about the lack of posts for a while, I have had flu like symptoms, and massive headaches so obviously staring at a PC screen wasn't high on my priorities!  I will admit I did check my emails and facebook, but in general had no drive to do much of anything else, and then there was the disastrous job interview I just had today.  It was so awful it was funny!  Ah well, maybe the next one :)

When I got home I decided that I HAD to paint my nails.  I got the most EPIC nail mail from my lovely friend Kati P in Holland (waves at Kati!) and included in my mail was this little treasure which she had already bought me before I knew I wanted it, how awesome is she.

I layered this over a dark blue base, I used George Indigo Dazzle from Asda.  In its own right it wasn't a bad polish actually, but for this purpose I just wanted a base.  Then I layered Essence Color & Go Blue Addicted over the top.  Blue addicted is small blue glitter, and large blue and emerald hex glitter suspended in a navy blue base.  I used two coats over my dark base, and I think this is about right.  The glitter was really easy to apply, I didn't have to chase the hex glitter around or fiddle with it, and it dried quickly.  I did add OPI rapid dry top coat and it has dried to a wonderful shine and isn't rough or badly bumpy like some of these types of polish can be.

I am told that this polish is a pretty damned good dupe for Deborah Lippmans Across the Universe, so if someone will send me one of those I will happily do a comparison!  As I don't unfortunately have the Deborah Lippman one to compare this to, I have to rely on swatches posted on the net, and I have to say from the pics I have seen they do look pretty close, but you judge for yourselves, heres some pics and I think the polish fully justifies three of them :)  I hope you like, and thanks again Kati for this pretty bottle of polish.

X&D Water Slide Decals

I got sent a pack of these water slide decals from KKcentreHK, the pack contained 10 nail decals, in 5 different sizes for each finger (well der!) and even though it says stickers, they aren't.  They aren't what I would class as the usual water slide decals either though, as they are made of thicker material than the water slide decals I have used previously.  You need to put them in water to remove the backing, and what you are left with are more like a thin polish veneer.  They are shiny, and reminded me of dried gloss paint, you know when you're decorating and have to pick off the drips on smooth surfaces, they are kind of like that.  I had to trim them to fit as I have pretty small hands and nails, but these should suit most people unless you have very large nail beds.  Application was a little fiddly but nothing worse than other nail stickers or decals, and with them being more like a polish veneer I found they were more flexible and I could (carefully!) manipulate and stretch them more than traditional water slide decals I've used in the past.  I did get the odd small little crease here and there, but seriously nothing that was noticeable.  I put on China Glaze Snow as a base coat, and then added these, it took me about an hour including trimming them to fit, and I removed the 'overhang' on the free edge with a Q-Tip dipped in acetone, then finished it off with a couple of coats of standard clear top coat.

I like these, I like the effect and even though they don't feel thick or heavy on the nail, I have a feeling my nails would survive a few knocks with these on (I haven't tested this theory, and have no intention of doing so  if I can help it!)  They are available for purchase from here, they were delivered quickly and have a few different designs, as well as lots of other tempting goodies, and you can also check out their facebook page here.  What do you think, do you like them or are they too fancy for your tastes?  I hope you like them anyway, I know I do :)

(Product sent to me for review)

Ozotic Pro 505 and 528 Elytra

I wasn't ready to take off my gorgeous OPI Wing It but fate transpired that the broken bottle of polish in my nail mail, and the subsequent necessary cleanup, well...it buggered it up!  Oh no, the horror!  Poor little bottle of polish (and my poor pink hands afterwards, cleanup was a pain!)

Still being on my loving multichromes thing, I decided that I would put on a black creme, and then add the ever beautiful Ozotic Pro 505 and add a couple of layers of the wonderful Ozotic Pro Elytra 528.  Yes I know I have posted Elytra before, but not over 505.  Anyway, it warrants another post just because these two bottles are awesome.  Plus I wanted to highlight the currently launching polish network of lovely ladies who are going to be selling piCture pOlish and Ozotic brand polishes, so be on the lookout for those, it all means getting these bottles of liquid wonderment will be easier to achieve.  Sounds like an epic win to me!

I wish there was a way of showing just how gorgeous these polishes are in real life, but I will continue my quest to try to capture the true beauty of these polishes.  The formula is great, and the dry time is good, but the effect is like nothing else!  I just love these polishes sooooo much.  What do you think, are these colour flip lacquers your thing, or can you pass on them?  Here are the pics, and a short video to try to capture the colours, so you can judge for yourselves (I know my video isn't exactly great quality but hopefully it captures the colour flip).

OPI Wing It! - 2 looks for the price of one, WOW I love this polish!

OK I will warn you, I am about to get all breathless and over enthusiastic and start going on about my new crush!  I think I might be in love with this polish, its breathtaking and gorgeous, and I am glad its mine and loves me back.  I had this on 'The List' of wanteds, and I managed to grab it pretty cheap.  It is a bit of a chameleon in colour.  Sometimes it looks like a shiny almost foil like pink, sometimes a coral red, sometimes a murky orange.  It also has the most captivating duo-chrome micro pieces packed in there.  The glitter flashes from magenta to blue to purple, and gives this polish a really interesting and pretty twist.  I will concede this polish does have one drawback and that is it is quite sheer and did need 4 coats to achieve this opacity.  It did however go on perfect and was fairly quick to dry and I think it was very much worth the effort.  Here is a pic, isn't it pretty :)

If you have this polish and you have decided that its fine for me to like it, but its just not doing it for you, then you need to do something for me.  Go grab a bottle of your basic standard black creme polish, and paint your nails with it.  Go one, what have you got to lose?  Alright, done that?  Good.  Next I want you to layer OPI Wing It! over it when its dry.  2-3 layers should do it.  Once that is done, I want you to twirl around watching the colour changes in the micro glitter as your nails dance in the light, and listen as you go 'oooohhh' and 'aahhhhhh' and realise that this polish is in fact, awesome!  See I told you, 2 looks for the price of one, and isn't her dark side just as beautiful as the light.  Here are my pics, and hope you agree with me, if you STILL don't like OPI Wing It! then send her to me where she will be loved!

Last pic, and its a rubbish one BUT it illustrates the colour shift very well. These 3 fingers all have the same polish on, its just my pointer is angled a little different to the others causing the colour to flip.  Very cool huh? :)

Revlon Star - Over Sally Hansen Arabian Night, and a little Franken for good measure :)

Do you remember I said I liked Arabian Night in my last polish post BUT that I had already changed it...well I did and here it is.  I have cheated a little actually I admit, because I put on a coat of a franken polish first over Arabian Night, before adding the Revlon Star top coat.  For those who have to know (people like me then, because I would have to know too!) I made this franken using some colour pigments and some holo glitter in a polish that had a clear base and sparse blue glitter which I already had, but didn't like.  I got the pigments and holo glitter from here and if you are into frankens you should check out his shop.  He is a nice man called Garry, and is very helpful and not overpriced like some I have seen.  Tell him I sent you, you won't get a discount, I just like to say hi!

Right then, on to the next bit, Revlon 'Star'.  Revlon Star is a top coat, and comes from a pair with a base colour polish called 'Rock' but they are available to buy individually.  I just bought the top coat this time because the base colour is one I have dupes of.  I love this top coat, it is a mix of purple-y blue and silver small glitter particles and large hologram hexagonal glitter pieces.  Best of all, it was a bargain at £1.99 including delivery from here.  You have to manipulate the large glitter pieces a little to get the right amount on the brush and of course the nail, but nothing that was too much of a trial and the end result was worth it.  Overall the Revlon topper gave a lovely foil like sheen finish to my nails, and sparkled like crazy in the sun.  I was going to add a matte top coat, but I forgot!  Maybe next time I will though, because I just know it would look awesome.  I hope you like it.

Writing size - Feedback needed please :)

OK I am now editing to say, I have changed my standard font size.  Some thought it was too small, and my next option up was too big.  Thanks to the lovely Stompy Boot who told me how to alter the text size to an inbetween size, I have now changed it to a size that will hopefully be a better size and please most people.  Thanks again Stompy for saving my dumb arse :) and thank you to all who replied giving me the feedback I asked for.  You're all great!

Sally Hansen Salon Nail Lacquer - Arabian Night

Sally Hansen Arabian Night is in the old square type bottle, and had been sat in my untried pile for a while, but since I fancied a bit of purple, then here we have this one.  It is a medium blue based dusty purple with gold shimmer.  The colour looks slightly brighter in the bottle than it does on the nail, but it otherwise translates well from the bottle colour.  The application was as smooth as silk and was easy to work with, and the dry time was good.  Its coming up to Autumn here, and outside the wind is howling and it is raining, and this polish matches the bruised looking sky and is a great colour for fall.  I managed to grab a quick pic in the 0.003 seconds we actually saw any sun here and I could get some decent light, but it shows the colour quite well, and also the gold shimmer.  The dominant colour is the dusty purple but the gold is definite, and not a lovely bottle shimmer that disappears on the nail.  Overall, I like this polish....but having said that, at the time of posting I have already moved on and put other stuff over the top of it!  I will post pics later, but for now I hope you like my choice for a rainy day.

China Glaze - Nova

Well today I went for Blingernails!  China Glaze Nova is a sparkly glitter fest in a bottle.  I love and adore this glitter, it is so over the top, and such a show stopper.  It has tiny squares of silver glitter and larger hexagonal silver holo glitter absolutely packed into a clear base.  This glitter goes on very well, and I have used just two coats for the pics.  You can see some bare nail in between small gaps in the pics, but these weren't evident in reality.  Its just with the pics making my nails look super huge that obviously it has magnified it.  The pictures just don't capture the true full on bling of this polish, when the sunlight hits it, wow!  It is one of those 'don't wear and drive' polishes because you will keep looking at your nails, and in my case giving a big fat grin too, because I love this flamboyant polish., and I hope you do too.  As always, the pics are click-able to see more detail (including the botle pic).

Revlon - Facets of Fuchsia

Today for your delectation I am offering you the lovely Revlon Facets of Fuchsia.  This polish is one of three glitters which is a new release and I was lucky enough to get my hands on one from the lovely Deborah H in one of the facebook polish groups I'm a member of so I HAD to share my good fortune with you all.

It is a multi sized fuchsia purple glitter in a black jelly base.  It has small particles and large hexagrams of glitter and is said to be a pretty good dupe for Deborah Lippmans Bad Romance but I don't have that for comparison so I can't really comment on how close it is, but I do know that it is a stunner!  It went on a lot easier than I expected, because I thought the large hex glitter would need to be manipulated into position, but it went on with no trouble and was opaque in 2 coats, over Funky Fingers Melted Popsicle a a base.  I wasn't actually intending to use this as a base, it was just the timing.  I had put on 1 coat when the postie arrived with this polish and of course I had to try it immediately so that's why its the base!  It worked out well though.  The dry time was OK, and although it was a little rough textured it wasn't as bad as some glitters.  I went and slapped on a good dollop of top coat anyway for good measure.  Here are the pics, isn't it yummy!

Natural light - in the shade

Direct Sunlight

Then I decided after wearing this lovely for a day, I wanted to try and matte-ify it, so I went ahead and added a coat of e.l.f. Matte Finisher.  I have to say I didn't used to be a fan of mattes at all, but I think I may have been missing out because they are growing on me, especially over textured polishes like glitters where they can give a really interesting effect.  What do you think of it, do you like it and do you prefer it matte or shiny?  I like both, I think I may have to get the blue from this collection and give that a try too now :)  (Oh one more thing, please ignore the blue tinge to my pinky finger, I tried layering a blue glitter underneath on that finger!)

Shameless Self Promotion Post and Request

I do have a couple of new posts lined up for you all, but whilst I am sorting those out, I am posting a rare request and asking for votes!  The lovely Ju over at Lacquered Me is having a nail art contest, and I am entry Number 13 with my butterfly wings mani.  I got such lovely comments from you guys it gave me the confidence to enter it, so I did, so its your fault so go vote for me please :)  

You can vote for me by clicking HERE and please follow her blog whilst you are there, because she does some gorgeous manicures (and she is a lovely).  You can also vote for me by visiting her facebook page HERE (or if you have nothing better to do, you could do both, yeah, I would totally do that, just putting it out there).

Please help make my entry lucky number 13, yes thats number 13!  Did I mention its entry number 13?  No...well...it is :) and just in case you need a visual, it looks like this

Thank you for reading my self indulgence, and double thank you if you voted for me :D