Orly Pacific Coast Highway Collection - Swatches & Review

Orly have recently released their Summer 2016 collection and naturally I just had to grab it.  I mean it's bright, is full of pinks and purples - it's definitely my sort of collection.  I am such a big fan of Orly's neon/bright polishes and this collection lives up to my expectations.  Before I start babbling too much, let's just get straight into the swatches and my thoughts on each polish shall we?

Life's A Beach is a bright red-orange creme.  Now this polish is more orange toned that it looks in my picture but as you can probably tell this baby is bright and freaked my poor camera out a little.  The formula is great, it applies evenly and dries quickly.  I used two coats for my swatch.

Paradise Cove is described as a crimson fuchsia shimmer.  Super pretty colour with a great formula.  You can see the shimmer in this in person but it is quite subtle. My swatch shows two coats.

Put The Top Down is described as a pink and peach creme.  Definitely a pretty and bright pink.  The formula is great and is opaque in two coats.

Road Trippin' is a bright yellow creme.  I love this one.  The formula is easy to work with but it does apply unevenly.  I needed three coats to even it out.

Scenic Route is a bright lavender creme.  Stunning colour (I receive a lot of compliments while wearing this one).  The formula is fantastic and only needs two coats to be opaque.

Summer Sunset is described as a pumpkin shimmer.  This one definitely isn't a favorite of mine.  I'm not a fan of this colour.  The formula is easy to use however it is slightly on the sheer side.  I needed three coats to get rid of the visible nail line.

Overall, I love this collection.  With the exception of Summer Sunset I really like these colours, including Life's A Beach which was quite a surprise for me.  I normally don't like red polishes, but this has enough orange for me to like it.  My personal favorites from the collection are Road Trippin' and Scenic Route.

I am in the process of doing some comparison swatches of some of these polishes so let me know if there are any you would like to see.

Emily de Molly February 2016 Releases - Swatches & Review

April is approaching ridiculously quickly and it occurred to me that I still haven't posted the Emily de Molly polishes that were released in late February.  I think I keep getting side tracked by new things and well life in general.  Plus this crazy weather!  One second we have sun, next thing you know the sun has completely disappeared again.  Melbourne needs to go back to having some proper seasons thanks.  It makes swatching a lot easier.  Anyway, enough babbling about the weather, let's get into these pretty polishes!

Carve My Initials is a teal green jelly base with green to purple multichrome flakies with fuchsia and green micro glitter.  Such a pretty polish with a great and easy to use formula.  My swatch shows two coats.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in light box

Not This Day is a light greeny gold that shifts to a dusty purple foil.  This is quite a pretty polish.  It's easy to work with, however it is a little on the sheer side.  I used three coats for my swatch.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in direct sunlight

Only An Echo is a steel blue crelly with black and teal mirco glitter, blue to purple shifting shimmer, iridescent flakes and silver holo glitter.  This is such a unique polish.  It's easy to use and is opaque in two coats.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in direct sunlight

Picture taken in light box

Shadow On The Moon is a medium grey creme subtle holo with pink to gold colour shifting shimmer and silver holo micro glitter.  I love this one.  I'm not usually a grey fan but this polish is so stunning.  I actually think it's my favorite grey polish ever.  Pictures just don't do it justice.  The formula is fantastic and it is opaque in two coats.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in direct sunlight

Picture taken in direct sunlight

Picture taken in light box

Spell Check is a dark purple holo with a strong pink to gold colour shifting shimmer.  Really pretty.  Like with all other EdM polishes, it's really easy to use and is opaque in two coats.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in direct sunlight

Picture taken in direct sunlight

Wrong Side Of Heaven is a true red holo.  Now this one comes with a warning on the site saying that it is highly pigmented and can causing staining.  A good base coat is recommended.  I personally didn't have any staining on my nails however I did find this polish difficult to clean up.  The formula is amazing and is opaque in two coats.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in direct sun

I'm loving February's releases from Emily de Molly.  There is such a good mix of things.  My personal favorite is Shadow On The Moon.  It's seriously stunning.  I'll definitely be wearing it again soon.

All of the February releases are available from Emily de Molly.  For my international readers make sure you check out the stockists to see what is available for you.

China Glaze Lite Brites Collection - Comparisons

Happy Easter everyone!  I hope the Easter Bunny has been a left at least a couple of little chocolate goodies behind for you all.  He has definitely been here.  Now as a little Easter treat from me to you, I have some swatch comparisons as well as some bottle shots of the new China Glaze Lite Brites Collection.  Why bottle shots you may be wondering?  I know I normally do full swatch comparisons for these types of posts, however time has not been my friend this week, and I have been sick so nails has taken a little back seat.  That all being said, the bottle shots I have done are of polishes that people requested that aren't actually that close in colour.

China Glaze Bite Me vs Color Club Peace, Love & Polish

Now these two aren't dupes but they are definitely close enough that I don't think you need to own both.  The shimmer in Bite Me isn't as strong or as visible on the nail as it is in the Color Club (hopefully you can see what I mean in the second picture - there was no sun when I did this comparison so I had to use my flash).  The colour is slightly different between these two polishes.  Both polishes show two coats.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in light box with flash

China Glaze Lip Smackin' Good vs China Glaze Shocking Pink

No dupes here  Lip Smackin' Good applies more evenly, is darker in colour and also has a sheen in it.  Shocking Pink does dry quicker and is a brighter pink.  My picture shows two coats of each polish.

Picture taken in light box

China Glaze None Of Your Risky Business vs China Glaze Home Sweet House Music

No dupes with these two.  They do actually look more similar in the bottles than they do on the nails.  None Of Your Risky Business has a better formula and is bright in colour.  I used two coats of it vs three coats of Home Sweet House Music.

Picture taken in light box

China Glaze I'll Pink To That vs Orly Risky Behavior vs China Glaze Purple Panic

Again, no dupes with these ones.  My camera didn't like photographing these polishes accurately. They are more blue toned than they look in my picture, and there is definitely a bigger colour difference in person than what it looks like here.  I'll Pink To That is much lighter than the other two polishes, and Purple Panic also has a subtle shimmer in it.  The formulas are great on all three polishes and only need two coats to be opaque.

Picture taken in light box

Next up I have a few bottle shots.  As I mentioned before these are of polishes that have been requested (there was definitely a lot of interest in a comparison between this collection and last years Electric Nights collection) but they are quite different in person.  Some of these do look a little closer in the pictures than they do in person, but I promise they are definitely not dupes.

China Glaze Lip Smackin' Good vs China Glaze Bite Me vs China Glaze Glow With The Flow vs China Glaze I'll Pink To That

As you can see there are no dupes with these four polishes.

China Glaze Hot Flash vs China Glaze Red-y To Rave
No dupes.

China Glaze Grass Is Lime Greener vs China Glass Lime After Lime vs China Glaze Treble Maker
No dupes.  In fact, these would make a pretty nice gradient together.

China Glaze UV Meant To Be vs China Glaze What I Like About Blue vs China Glaze DJ Blue My Mind
Now I know UV Meant To Be does look similar to What I Like About Blue in my picture but they are different different blues and What I Like About Blue also has a shimmer in it.

China Glaze Givers Theme vs China Glaze We Got The Beet vs China Glaze Violet-Vibes
Definitely not dupes because We Got The Beet also has gold glitter but I thought I would include these polishes to give you more of an idea of the base colour in We Got The Beet.

Apart from Bite Me, I really don't have anything in my collection that is a dupe for something in the Lite Brites collection.   Hopefully you have found this post helpful in making your decision of which polishes to buy.

Let me know how you feel about seeing bottle shot comparisons.  Do you like it?  Or do you prefer all swatch comparisons?

3 Year Instagram Anniversary - Most Used Polishes

I am sure the years just go by quicker and quicker.  Today is officially three years since I made my very first post on Instagram.  I honestly can't believe it.  In the past three years I have collected more polishes and nail art supplies than I care to count, I have meet so many amazing people and people that I can honestly say that I will be friends with for life, I have work with so many awesome brands and one of the things I am most proud of I have grown and improved with my nail art.  I mean I am far from perfect but if you are bored and feel like scrolling through about 1800 posts then you'll see the improvement over the time.  Anyway, last year I did a post with my favorite nail art that I had posted over my first two years (you can see that post here if you are interested), but I thought today I would share with you my most used polishes over the last three years.  I have included a mix of both older and newer manis so you can see how I have used the various polishes.  Apologies in advance as this will be a reasonably long post.

Blacks & Whites - Without a doubt black and white polishes (both regular and stamping polishes) are my most used polishes ever.  You can pretty much guarantee that if I have a used a white polish it is OPI Alpine Snow.  I have gone through more of this polish than any other polish ever!  I use it for my base for gradients, dry brush, a lot of vinyls, lead lighting etc.  For black polish I used to use OPI Black Onyx but in more recent times I use Celestial Cosmetics Apocalypse (it's a perfect one coater).  As for stamping polishes it's usually Konad Special Polish in Black & White.

Blacks & Whites

China Glaze Sunsational (part) Collection - There are five to six polishes (That's Shore Bright, Sun Of A Peach, Bottoms Up, Highlight Of My Summer, Too Yacht To Handle and Neon & On & On) in this collection that you guys will have seen time and time again on my Instagram.  They are some of my go to neons.  I use them so much that I have nearly emptied all of the bottles.  Never fear, I do have backups and will soon be getting back ups of the back ups.

China Glaze Sunsational cremes

China Glaze Electric Nights cremes: These are some of the other neon polishes that I grab for a lot.  Looking back through my posts apparently I particularly like these polishes when doing anything with a rainbow.  Lol.  The polishes I mainly use are Red-y To Rave, Home Sweet House Music, Daisy Know My Name, Treble Maker, UV Meant To Be, Plur-ple and Glow With The Flow.  I do have swatches and a review of this collection here if you are interested, and also a comparison post here.

China Glaze Electric Nights creme

Color Club Pastel Neons: Look at that a collection that isn't China Glaze. These pastel neons are something that I do grab for a fair bit.  The polishes I mainly use are Diggin' The Dancin' Queen, Disco's Not Dead, Hot-Hot-Hot Pants, and Feathered Hair Out To There.  If you want to see my swatches and review of this collection you can find that here, and if you would like to see some comparisons you can find that post here.

Color Club Pastel Neon

Pinks & Purples:  These are definitely my go to colours, although I do try to mix it up a bit.  The polishes I have used over and over again are OPI Mod About You, OPI Pink Friday, China Glaze Spring In My Step, China Glaze Feel The Breeze, China Glaze In A Lily Bit, China Glaze Lotus Begin, and OPI Do You Lilac It?

Pinks & Purples

Blues & Greens: The main polishes that I tend to grab are China Glaze At Vase Value, China Glaze Grass Is Lime Greener, China Glaze Capacity To See Beyond and OPI What's With The Cattitude?

Blues & Greens

Oranges & Yellows:  These ones are mainly neons that I grab for.  Not sure why but there is just something about the brightness of these that I love, especially Orly Glowstick.  There is a very high chance that if I have used the China Glaze Sunsationals that I mentioned earlier, then I have Orly Glowstick with it.  The others I used are China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy (mainly the original version but I do use the new version a lot as well), China Glaze Thistle Do Nicely, China Glaze More To Explore, Color Club East Austin and OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana.

Oranges & Yellows

Metallics & Nudes:  Hands down my most used metallics are Essie No Place Like Chrome, Essie Good As Gold, Essie Penny Talk and China Glaze I'd Melt For You.  They apply so well and they stamp perfectly!  I also use OPI Love Angel Music Baby and OPI This Gown Needs A Grown a lot as well.  For nudes my go to polishes are OPI My Vampire Is Buff (especially if I am doing nail art that involves a face), OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons and OPI Don't Bossa Nova Me Around. 

Metallics & Nudes

Glitters: Glitters are the one type of polish that I tend to mix up a lot more than anything else.  I switch between indies and mainstream.  But looking through my Instagram feed I found lots of manis using China Glaze Glistening Snow, OPI Crown Me Already, OPI Metallic 4 Life and China Glaze I'm Not Lion.

Glitters

Wow!  This post is a lot longer than I originally planned but it was really hard to narrow down my most used polishes over the space of three years.  I hope you have found this post interesting.  I know I found it interesting looking back and really looking at the polishes I have used.  Apparently I use China Glaze polishes A LOT!  I honestly didn't realize how much I used them.  I'll have to try and switch it up some more.

What are some of your most used polishes?

Femme Fatale Cosmetics Rainbow Connection Exclusives - Swatches & Review

Happy Easter weekend everyone!  What have you guys got planned?  Today my family and I are off to the Melbourne Easter Show (it will be my daughters first Easter Egg hunt that isn't at home after the Easter bunny has been) with some friends.  It should be a really fun day and a great start to the long weekend.  Anyway, today I have three store exclusives for Rainbow Connection by Femme Fatale Cosmetics.  I have actually owned one of these polishes for years now (I would be guessing at least two years) and haven't worn it until now.  Have I mentioned I have a lot of untrieds in my collection?  Oops.  I can now cross these three polishes off the untried list.

Prim & Copper has a purple base with a gold overlay and a scattering of golden holo glitters.  The formula is easy to work with however I found it was a little sheer.  I used three coats for my swatch.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in direct sunlight

Picture taken in direct sunlight

Time Lapse is a dark purple jelly with lavender shards, iridescence and shimmer.  Such a stunning polish.  I wish Femme Fatale would do more of these types of polishes again (and I still wish they used these old square bottles -  they are so much nicer than the rectangle ones in my option).  The formula was easy to work with after the initial coat.  The first coat I found clumped together and was better slightly dabbed on.  I should point out that I have had this polish for at least two years so the formula of my bottle may have changed over time.  I used three coats for my swatch.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in light box

Wine & Dandy is a dark purple polish full of multicolour metallic and holographic glitters.  I really like this one in the bottles but I don't love it as much on the nails.  It's a lot darker and the glitters are somewhat hidden.  The formula is easy to use.  I used two coats for my swatch, however I did notice that there is a slight visible nail line in certain lights so next time I would use three coats.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in direct sunlight

Picture taken in light box

While these polishes aren't a favorite of mine I do like them all.  My personal favorite is definitely Time Lapse.

These Femme Fatale Cosmetics polishes are only available from Rainbow Connection.