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Natio Valentine with Daisies

I received this Natio polish in the colour Valentine in my June Bellabox. I have quite a few red polishes, but to be honest, I rarely wear them. I much prefer pinks or lilacs. Even though it wasn't one of my favourite colours I still tried it out, as new polish is always exciting!

It's quite a sheer polish, nearly a jelly consistency. I applied three coats for this manicure. After I was finished I thought it needed something so got out my dotting tools and made these cute little daisies on my ring finger as an accent nail. I used White On from Sally Hansen with Sunny Days by Rimmel to make the little daisies.

Shocker by Rimmel London with Rockstar by Sally Hansen

When I bought Shocker by Rimmel, I fell in love! It's my go to bright pink. It applies beautifully, has the nice wide paddle brush and even though it's got a bit of a shimmer I haven't had any problem with streaks or brush makes.

It's also super shiny and is one of the 60 second range so dries pretty fast (I always find these polishes take longer than 60 seconds to dry), I usually do two coats but you could probably get away with one.

The accent nail is Rockstar by Sally Hansen. I apply two coats over a base coat of Shocker. As per usual, I followed it all up with Seche Vite. I just love this combination! 

Polish Haul!

Nail polish (and make up) is expensive here in Australia. It's ridiculous. A lot of the cheaper brands will go on sale (which is why I have so many Rimmel London polishes!) but it is really rare that OPI is on sale. A single bottle of OPI is anywhere between $19.95 and $24.95. So when I saw a mixed selection of it at my local Terry White chemist for $9.95 I knew I had to get some.

I was out shopping with my husband, just the usual grocery shopping. Next to our local Woolies is the chemist and I'd heard that Ulta3 had some new glitter polishes out. I really don't have many glitter polishes. For a long time I avoided glitter, but I'm starting to warm up to it. So I ducked in and bought three glitters. Walking out I saw the OPI all mixed together in a stand. I stopped and started looking through them all.

Because my husband was with me, he rolled his eyes and started with the "didn't you just buy three polishes?" "how many do you need?" I didn't buy any. We did the grocery shopping and came home. But it as bugging me. So I went back out and went polish shopping. Alone. With no judgement from the husband.

The end result was this. Top row is - Warm & Fozzie, The World is Not Enough, I'm All Ears, Party in My Cabana, Suzi & The Lifeguard. Bottom row is - Pink Yet Lavander, Divine Swine, Twinkle Toes, Over the Rainbow, A Lister. I also saw a couple of the liquid sand polishes too!

(Plus a pink sinful colours that was still in the Kmart bag when I took this photo).

I also made a quick stop in at Kmart. I've been storing all my nail polishes in a small rolling tote. But it's not working for me. The tote box is far too deep, the polishes are all mixed in together and it drives me crazy trying to search through them all.

I got two of these boxes. I think they're designed for storing hardware like screws or bolts but my bottles fit just fine in them! I haven't tried it with the taller bottles like Revlon, but I've only got one or two of those and to be honest, I hate the formula of Revlon polishes so I'll probably toss them out.

This weekend turned out to be a great nail polish weekend. Now I'm off to remove the ugly yellow polish I'm currently wearing (it was sports day at work on Friday, even the teachers had join in with the spirit of the day!) and play with my new polishes!

OPI Mariah Carey Liquid Sand - Get Your Number

I was a bit unsure of the textured nail polishes that are in at the moment. I'm a bit funny when it comes to textures in nail polish. I can't stand matt polish or matt top coats. Some glitter polishes annoy me because the large glitters stick out a bit (even with the use of top coat) and I can feel the edge of the glitter. 

The name, Liquid Sand, also put me off as I was imagining that the texture would be close to sandpaper. But when I was at David Jones, the swatches weren't as rough as I imagined. They were no worse than a thick glitter polish. But even then the removal worried me. What would the removal be like? For that reason I only picked up the mini set of this collection. 

I swatched all of these polishes on a nail wheel first, just to see what they were to apply. I did two swatches of each colour, one without top coat and one with. For some of them, the polish changes so much with a top coat! The colour that caught my attention first was the blue called Get Your Number.

It is such a pretty colour! Blue is a colour that is lacking in my nail polish collection. My collection is mostly pinks and reds. I really liked how Get Your Number applied. I was sure it was going to be a thick gloopy consistency but it went on nicely and was quite smooth to apply.

I did apply three coats for full opacity, I also left nails without a topcoat. Two coats left me with a light blue, but it was still a little translucent. I could just make out my nail tip, I'm not a huge fan of that. 

Outside in the sunlight

It is an eye catching colour, there's small glitter pieces which catch the light and are very attractive in the sunlight. But even indoors you can still see the sparkle.

I found that after a day or two, the texture wasn't as noticeable  I'm not sure if that was me just getting used to the feel of the textured polish, or if the polish wore down a bit and was smoother. I am quite rough on my hands (as you can tell by my cuticles, they're always a mess!) so I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it. 

Get Your Number also lasted a while on my nails before it started to chip on day four. Most nail polish starts chipping on me around day three so I was impressed! Removal was easy too! It did snag a bit on the cotton round, so I treated it like a glitter polish and held the cotton round on my nail for about a minute before simply wiping it off. 

I'm curious to see what textured polishes are like in other brands. I live in Australia, so unless I buy through online, it usually takes a while before new collections are available here.

Kiss Me on My Tulips and glitter tips

For Christmas my darling husband gave me the OPI Top Ten Mini Collection. I've never really spent a lot of money on nail polish. Until this year, my nail polish collection consisted mostly of Rimmel London polishes, a few supermarket ones and a couple of other cheap polishes I'd picked up here and there on a whim.


Since Christmas I've been slowly trying out these polishes. I still have a few to go but I've already found some new favourites. I grown to love Tickle My Francey, I didn't like it at first, but after a day of wear I loved it. It's the perfect subtle polish for days when I need something subdued but I don't feel like the usual pale pink.

Kiss Me on My Tulips is another fast favourite. I love pink, it's one of my favourite colours and if I can't work out what polish to use, I'll always turn to a pink. And I really love creme pinks. The formula is great, it applies easily and two coats is all it takes to get a nice opaque cover.

My nails do have a lot of ridges, two coats didn't cover the ridges but I think either a thick top coat or a third coat would. I also had a new glitter polish I wanted to test out. In my February Bellabox I'd received a bottle of Sally Hansen, Golden Rule. I'm not a huge fan of glitter polishes, mostly because they're a pain to remove and I especially hate the feeling when the cotton round snags on the glitter. Because of this I thought I'd try glitter on just the tips.

It wasn't as difficult to apply as I thought it'd be. I watched a few tutorials on youtube and then had a go. I wiped nearly all the polish off the brush, then dabbed at the tip of my nail. Then, when the brush was nearly dry, dragged it through the glitter working from the tip of my nail towards the cuticle.

The glitter effect was so pretty! It's more of a pale gold glitter, not a bold gold colour. The glitter is very fine and easy to apply. I did apply it a bit more heavily on some nails than others, but it was my first go at applying glitter tips. It did feel a bit rough and I probably should've applied a top coat, but I'm all out of seche vite which has been my current favourite top coat.

It was a very pretty combination and lasted three days before I got a tiny chip on my right index finger. I am right handed and quite rough on my hands and nails, so I was pleasantly surprised that it lasted that long! I'm sure I could've ignored the chip for another day or two but I wanted to try another new polish.

Removal of the glitter wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I soaked a cotton round in nail polish remover and held it to my nails for two mins before simply wiping the glitter off. In a few places the glitter was more stubborn and caught on the cotton round but it wasn't too bad. Much easier than I'd expected!