Essence Ballerina Backstage collection

I know this is old news for most of you (even to an extent here in Australia as they almost ready for a new collection) but i thought it was better late than never for these swatches. I only got 3 out of the 5 colours for this collection. I wasn't interested in the purple or pinky red coral. Corals don't suit me and i am not a massive purple fan.

Please excuse my index and middle fingers. I'm trying to see if shaping them this way will help grow them before they get to that certain point and break. I've always had trouble with those two fingers...... But i really love the square look! Let me know which you like better.

Onto the swatches......

Dance the Swan Lake:

One coat - Shade

 One coat - Sunlight

Three coats - Shade

Three coats - Sunlight

Dance the Swan Lake is a sheer pale white with a flash of a pinky-red shimmer, which is more noticeable in the bottle than on the nail. As you can see, even with three coats it's still a bit sheer and you can see some visible nail line but probably sheer enough if you going for that "delicate" look. It looks quite nice at any amount of coats. No top coat. 

Wear Your Little Tutu:

Three coats - Shade

Three coats - Sunlight

Wear Your Little Tutu is similar to DTSL but in pink. It still has that same colour flash of shimmer in it but isn't as noticeable being in a similar coloured base and again it's more noticeable in the bottle than on the nail. I didn't think it looked as nice with only one coat as DTSL did. This was three coats, no topcoat.

Grand-Plie in Black:

Two coats - Shade

Two coats - Sunlight

Grand-Plie in Black is pretty straight forward. It's a black base with small copper-y orange glitter. I like how it's fairly sparse. This was two coats. It's fairly pigmented in the fact you could almost get away with one coat but i found there were one or two baldish spots and thought two coats were better for photos. No topcoat.

Overall, these three from the collection are nice. I really like Dance the Swan Lake and Grand-Plie in Black. I could leave Wear Your Little Tutu though as i didn't think it looked that nice on me. Formula was good, probably a tad runny in the sheerer ones but was manageable. 

See you all next time!

Kel xo

Essence Colour & Go - 77 In Style

Hi all! Just a quick one tonight, i'm about to sit down and change my nails while watching the F1 Monaco Grand Prix!
These are the nails i wore this weekend - Essence In Style from the colour and go range.

In Style is a deep dark teal. This was two coats. One the first coat you could see it had a dark purple black base but was lost in the second coat. I want to say it is a little bit duo chrome-y. If i look at it real hard in some lights, i can see a little bit of purple trying to poke through. Some light it looked teal and some it looked like a dark turquoise and then sometimes it would have both. This is such an awesome colour, i LOVE Teals if you haven't already guessed by now! =) I don't know why i didn't try this colour sooner! As usual this was followed by one coat of Seche Vite quick dry. Sorry about the sheet marks. It didn't happen on my right hand lol

I then decided to further my mani with some stamping. I'm really enjoying getting back into doing more stamping. The first thing i thought of doing over this colour was some sort of fish design but i didn't have any plates with fish on it, so i found a "net" design (bundle monster plate BM-209) and went with that. Mind the index finger stamping, not sure why that happened. I stamped perfectly on every other nail, the image was perfectly clear on the stamp but oh well, the rest are awesome. You get the idea haha.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend! Bring on Mondayitis! =(

Bye for now! Kel xo

Glitter Me Up Friday #2 - China Glaze Marry A Millionaire

Glitter me up friday.... on a Saturday! lol I did wear this and take photos yesterday but i got my braces put on Wednesday and since then my teeth and mouth have been really sore (which is to be expected) but I've got a million ulcers inside my lips and cheeks from the rubbing and the wax does somewhat help but it's painful so once i had gotten home from work, ate dinner (mashed potato) i really didn't feel like doing anything else, so i went to bed. So i bring you yesterdays GMUF post.

I'm not a big fan of 4 or 5 coats of glitter polish to make it opaque. I'm not a big fan of glitter polishes anyway but i do love glitter so the way i like to do it is to layer it over a creme polish.

Base colour is China Glaze Spontaneous. Two coats. Then one thickish coat of China Glaze Marry A Millionaire. One coat of Seche Vite quick dry. I really like how it turned out. I wish i had gotten better photos in the sun.

MAM has small round lavender glitter along with bar glitter, which is most dominant, in blue/green and green/gold. I can't tell if the blue/green is teal or if it a duo chrome type thing going on. Very cool though. =)

Please check out the other girls participating in GMUF!

Shaina from SG Nails
Alanna from Pretty Purple Polish
Kaz from Parisian Blue Sky
Rebecca from Polish Peripherals
Mam Glam from GlamOnTheCheap

Hope you all enjoy your weekend. I'll be having a quiet one i think. I might do some nail stuff today. Weather is pretty crap here though at the moment.
See you next time!
Kel xo

OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know?

Hi all!
Sorry for not posting in the last few days. I haven't really been that busy but i haven't had much to post. I didn't want to post another brown coloured mani after the last few but i have no choice, it's all i have at the moment. I tried to hold off in posting this as there was no sun out the day i wore this so please forgive me. I'm sure i will use it again soon. At least there is stamping!

This is OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know?

(outside, Flash)

WSLTK is a Chocolate Brown (my favourite) with a red-y gold shimmer through it. Again, sorry about the pics, i really wished the sun was out. One coat of SV followed.
It's been a while since i have done any stamping so i cracked open my little case and got to work. I used the Bundle Monster plate BM19 with the leaf design. I thought it was fitting for Autumn (Fall)

I need to get back into stamping again! I loved this look even if a few nails weren't great.

Have an awesome day everyone! Only one more sleep for me until i get my braces put on! Garhh!
I'm planning on a nail art mani for the orthodontist tomorrow so stay tuned. I wonder how it will turn out.
Kel xo

Glitter Me Up Friday - Butter London The Black Knight

Hi everyone!
Not sure if most people noticed but i don't do a lot of glitter mani's on my blog. I can't stand the removal aspect of it most of the time so i steer clear. I do want force myself into doing more glitter so i've decided to join in the Glitter Me Up Friday gang. A fellow Aussie blogger Shaina from SG Nails (please check her out, she's new and awesome!) came up with the idea and there are a few others doing it too. The others had started a few weeks ago but i'm late to the table and this will be my first one. =)

Today's GMUF is Butter London The Black Knight!

The Black Knight has a black base colour with tiny bits of glitter consisting of mainly light blue and pink. There also looks to be a little silver in there too. My bottle was a little on the thick side but still needed three coats for full opacity. One coat of SV quick dry followed. Enough of the talk, enjoy the rest of the pics!

Check out the others bloggers doing Glitter Me Up Friday:

Shaina from SG Nails

Alana from Pretty Purple Polish

Kaz from Parisian Blue Sky

Rebecca from Polished Peripherals 

Mam Glam from Glamonthecheap

Hope you all have a good night and enjoy your weekend!

See you next time! Kel xo

Icing - Retro Girl!

Hi all! Brrrrr! It just got freezing cold! Today was nice and sunny, no rain and was supposedly 18 deg. Now that it's almost 5:30pm and the sun has gone, it's turned cold very quickly! I hate that!

Anyway, Today i have a polish from the brand Icing. It's an american brand and it's first Icing polish i own. I bought this through Kaz's blog sale over at Pretty-random for a couple bux!

Retro Girl is an amazing polish once it's on your nails. It is an awesome mud like brown with shimmers of a red-y purple and a touch of gold. In certain lights the brown turns to an olive green, which i didn't capture because i didn't see it until later in the day and didn't have a camera handy. It is truly amazing. 

This was three coats and one coat of Seche Vite. It applied nicely, my brush was a bit weird but was able to work around that with minimal clean up.

Color Club - Magnetic Electro-Midnight!

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. I'm not a mum but i do have a "fur-kid" which jumped up on my bed this morning to give me lots of licks. lol.

 Today's polish was also from the blog sale of Rachel i bought from last month. I really wanted to try a colour club magnetic. This is the only one i own and i want to add the brown one to my collection too!

This is Electro-midnight.

First of all, sorry the pics suck! I took them when the sun came out and i didn't know how long it was out for. The sun was out for only a few minutes today before i had to go over to the In-laws for lunch so i was a bit rushed. Anyway, Electro-Midnight is a light sapphire blue. I only used one coat when using the magnet and didn't bother with a first coat beforehand. It turned out well. I really like the wavy magnet and i didn't have it prior to this. Wavy magnet gets a tick in my book! I still have to master the star and chevron designs from the China Glaze magnet. The thumb came out the best i reckon and my right hand didn't come out as nice as the left. One coat of Seche Vite was added. Pics are clickable to make large =)

Am i the only one that applies the magnet (with the cuticle thing) so hard that it leaves a small dent in my skin for 20 minutes? lol. 

Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already! =)

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!

See you soon! 

Kel xo

Rivka - Holographic Samantha!

Hi all!
I bought this polish in a blog sale last month from a fellow Aussie blogger Rachel. I have never heard of this brand before but couldn't pass it up being a holo! lol

(shade)

Samantha is a deep dark blue-green teal. In the bottle it looks more green, on the nail and photo's it's more blue. It also has scattered micro holo particles. I love it! It's become one of my favourites at the moment. This was two coats. I could almost get away with one coat but i was a little worried with bald spots as holos are notorious for that. One coat of SV followed.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers tomorrow!

See you soon!

Kel xo

Face of Australia - Barbados Collection - The last two.

Hi guys! Today i bring you, not one but two polishes from the Face of Australia Barbados collection. These are the last two i have to show. I thought i'd do them both in the same post as i thought you'd get a little bored by now. lol. These two are my favourites from the collection and that's why i left them til last (as i do!)


Let's Go Scuba Diving!

Let's Go Scuba Diving! is Teal Green with lots of shimmer! It applied well and was opaque in two coats. Topped off with one coat of SV. Looks how stunning this is! This is definitely one to own if you could only pick one from the collection.

Bright Lights, Pink City.

Bright Lights, Pink City is a light sheer-ish pink with lots of yellow gold shimmer. This was as sheer as Another Daiquiri Please? and needed three coats. Depending on how you like it, you could have used a fourth but thought this was enough for me. You could only see a very small amount of VNL in real life. This was topped off with one coat of SV.

My thoughts: I really liked this collection. It has a bit of everything in there - Sheer Jelly to metallic foils and awesome shimmers. I do think however, this collection was released a bit late. I think these are awesome Summer/Autumn colours. Here in Australia we are out of summer, now into Autumn and Winter is closing in very fast. I picked this collection up mid March (autumn) and it was the first time i had seen the collection with it's very full display, so it hadn't been out for long. Not to worry, these are awesome! 

Which is your favourite colour? and did you pick any up in the Big W sale?

See you soon guys!

kel xo

Face of Australia - Party at the Gap!

Hi all! Sorry, tonight's post is going to be quick.

Here is number six out of eight from the Barbados collection. This is Party at the Gap!

Party at the Gap is a Charcoal Grey with silver shimmer. It applied well just like all the others have so far. One coat of SV followed. Mind the "bald" spot on my index finger, i dinged it =(

Have a great night!

See you tomorrow!

Kel xo

Face of Australia - Another Daiquiri Please?

Hi Ladies!
You guessed it! I have another polish from the Face of Australia Barbados collection to show you.
This is Another Daiquiri Please? (and yes please! Love Daiquiri's!)

Undercover/Inside

ADP is a sheer pinky-red Jelly! The only jelly in the collection. This was three coats and you can still see a little bit of VNL. You wouldn't want any more coats though as it's pretty thick to start with. Might be good for a one coat quick layer on top of another polish to give it a little bit of sparkle. One coat of SV top coat. A nice summery polish but too bad we are now heading into winter. I really think these colours and this collection just came out a tad too late here in Aus! 

Outside, Overcast

Hope you enjoy this swatch. Don't forget to enter my giveaway HERE... you still have plenty of time though. 

See you tomorrow!
Kel xo

Face of Australia - You Blue Me Away!

Hi again!
I'm back with another polish from the Face of Australia Barbados collection. After today's post, we will be half way through, yay! So Today, i bring you......

You Blue Me Away.

You Blue Me Away is a metallic blue foil with lots of silver. More foil than the others. You could get away with one coat of this if you were careful but i did two coats for photo's. Topped with one coat of SV. This would be great for stamping too i would imagine! Application was a breeze! (lol, pun intended)

Again, these were taken the best i can under the crappy overcast weather.

Also, Don't forget to enter my Giveaway HERE, if you haven't already! This polish is in the mix(along with Orange You Glad You Came?) You won't be disappointed! 

See you tomorrow!

Kel xo