Apple Nails

I saw this mani on Polish Art Addiction who in turn had taken it from this one by Rebecca Likes Nails. She has a lovely little tutorial up and the whole thing is so adorable, I couldn't resist!

Usually I shy away from any form of freehand nail art or I relegate it to an accent nail only. That way I don't have to worry about doing my dominant hand. However, this looked simple enough that I could do it on all my nails so I went ahead. They're kind of messy but at least they look good from a distance!

Here's what I used...

Left to right: Ulta3 Allure, Essie Red Nouveau, OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys, China Glaze Starboard and Misa Heaven White

Again, I followed the tutorial posted by Rebecca Likes Nails except I left out the large apple accent design. Thanks for stopping by!

Lynnderella Mercurial

Another day, another Lynnderella! Man, I am really enjoying these. I do apologize to any Non Glitter Fanatics out there... maybe one day I'll get sick of all the sparkles....... *coughnevercough* :)

This mani is one coat of Mercurial over two coats of Ulta3 Wild Berry. Perfect combination! Wild Berry is a dark purple/brown/charcoal grey colour. It kind of shifts depending on the light. I wish I took pics before I added Mercurial, but that's okay. Here's a bottle shot instead...

Mercurial didn't wow me in the bottle as much as the others did, but HOLY CRAP did it surprised me when I put it on. I love, love, love it!

Lovely, yes? This was smooth with three layers of top coat - two of Ulta3 Non Chip and one of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. I really should try Glitter Tamer soon but I am too scared that I will become addicted to it and run out completely, LOL.

"Multiple sizes and shades of gunmetal, black, silver and lavender hexagons and squares in a metallic grey base. Application requires moderate patience and skill."

Application was indeed a little unwieldy (more so than the others I've tried). The glitter was kind of... clumpy? Like, it wanted to stick together. Some of the glitter also didn't want to stay flat. Nothing a little manipulation and prodding couldn't fix though.

A truly lovely polish ♥

A Few Miscellaneous Things

I'm sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of days but I've been pretty busy trying to study for my upcoming midyear exams. I say "trying to" because it hasn't been a very successful endeavour... chem just isn't my thing.

SOMEBODY KICK ME FOR CHOOSING TO DO CHEMISTRY


Ok.. now that we got that out of the way, here are a few pics I haven't posted yet.

BYS Ruby Slippers. Red foil. A different take on the usual slurry of "ruby red slipper" type polishes. I think this is the only red foil I've ever seen. Very pretty. My brush is so funky though. Take a look.

It kind of looks like it's been caught in the wind...

Etude House PP904. I really love the mini Etude bottles! They are so curvy and they remind me of mini genie bottles. This is a dark taupey/grey/purple with a gold and subtle pink shimmer running through it. It's really unique and I like it a whole lot more than I was expecting to.

Essence Cool and the Gang. Bright, bright royal blue jelly/creme. This is really vibrant. It looks like it's close to Revlon Royal and it's kind of like Orly Royal Navy without the shimmer. Love!!

Ulta3 Allure. This is the colour I layered LA Girl Uninhibited over. It's a really pale pinky-beige neutral creme. One of my favourite nudes. I don't usually like wearing neutrals but this.. I don't know, I just really like it. It's very clean looking. Fresh. The formula is a little tricky though - sheer and streaky. But then again, it's only two dollah!

Rimmel Forest. This has been my mani the last few days. Dude... Best. Green. Shimmer. Ever. For serious. I can't even begin to imagine what the hell those people at Rimmel were on when they decided to discontinue this. Luckily, there's still some up on eBay for very reasonable prices if you missed out (or if you need more backups like me!). I've actually finished a whole bottle of this already if you can believe it. I love it that much. It's a great pedi colour if you like greens on your toes, which I do!



Now, back to exam prep. *cries*

Credit

Ulta3 Floral Fever Autumn/Winter 2011 Collection

These came out around the start of March but I've only just got them. I didn't know Ulta3 collections had names until I did a quick Google and their media release came up labelling this as the Floral Fever collection which makes sense since all the names have 'fever' in them..

Kinda random colour choices right?

Swatches...

Blossom Fever. Light peachy pink with hidden red shimmer. The shimmer is very subtle - almost invisible. It does at interest to an otherwise pretty "regular" shade. This is three coats. It was a little uneven but ok overall. I don't think this one works with my skin tone very well.

Royal Fever. Dark purple creme. Really nice formula - 2 coats. I have quite a few dark purple cremes. I love them. This one leans more red than most of the others I have.

Pacific Fever. IMO, the star of the collection. Bright turquoise with lots of blue microglitter. So beautiful. This isn't the type of colour you'd usually see in an Autumn/Winter collection but I'm not complaining.This was two coats.

Midnight Fever. Two coats. Really, really dark navy with a bright blue shimmer. This is one of those colours that look pretty much black in most lightings. Under sun or bright light though, the shimmer really comes through. It's deep, dark and dramatic. I like it!

Gold Rush Fever. Ahh... here we have my least favourite. Gold frost. Really frosty frost. I hate frost. Just look at all those brush strokes. Plus, this shade of gold looked decidedly bad with my skin tone. The only saving grace for this polish? It konads really well.

You can probably tell by my the crappy alignment that I rarely pull out the konad (I am excited about the new BM plates though). This is konaded with plate HB24 on The Face Shop BL605 which is a gorgeous blue.

Twilight Fever. Another Paradoxal dupe. Everybody's done one. Still a great colour though. The formula was nice - 2 coats.

Overall a nice collection. I think the colour choices were a little random. They didn't seem to tie in with one another very well. It was like they just threw a bunch of colours together, gave them matching names and called it a collection. I'm a little miffed at the price increase - $2.25 from $2 but that's still really good compared to other cheaper brands such as BYS which now go for around $4-5. Plus, I like bin diving :)
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