Mode - Jaded

Here is my final Mode costmetics polish.  This one is called Jaded.

Like the others, it applied smoothly and thinly.  This is a beautiful teal shimmer.  I can still see tiny brush strokes, but they certainly don't take away from this lovely colour.

This looks very similar to Revlon Aqua Blast.  I will have to do a comparison swatch to see.

I'm planning to do a whole week of holo posts cause I just got my Nfu Oh holographics in the mail, as well as some more of the OPI Designer Series holographic polishes.

Mode - Blue steel

Here the second of the three Mode cosmetics polishes.

This is Blue Steel *sucks in cheeks and stares intensely at camera*

Despite not being able to get images of Derek Zoolander out of my head now, I want to express what a lovely polish this is.

It really does match the blue steel name very well, because it's a blue metal colour, with a light blue shimmer. It reminds me of that blue crusher dust that you compact down with a whacker before laying pavers. 

It applied very smoothly with no brush lines. This was two coats.  YAY fore Mode polish again.

Mode - Glitterati

Just look at this little beauty!  This is 'Glitterati' by Mode Cosmetics.  I picked this (and a few others) up from Price Attack - which is actually a hair salon / supplies shop, but they also have a few great brands of polish. 

Glitterati is a rich purple jelly, with tiny irregular shaped micro flecks throughout.  It applies totally smooth, not rough like a glitter and had a super glossy finish.  The colour pigment was good, especially for a jelly polish.  This was three coats.

This pic shows a close up of the beautiful sparkly flecks in this polish.

Fabulous polish, awesome finish and a really beautiful purple colour. 

I love it when you find a really fantastic polish unexpectedly. YAY!

Holy holo foils Batman

This here is my first ever attempt at doing foils.  It almost classes as a fail, as it was really bodgy job. Let me explain.

First I put on one coat of Ulta3 Snazzle.  This gave me a shiny base on which to put my foil, and if I had gaps in the foil, hopefully they wouldn't be too noticeable.

I cut up all my little foil pieces and then applied some glue to each finger on the left hand.  I let it dry and then applied to foils, starting with the pinky.  I pretty much managed to everything that I read online that you should try to avoid.  Eg

• don't touch the glue on the nail (I bumped mine umpteen times),
• let it totally dry before applying foil (I'm not that patient),
• don't apply glue too thick (I read this one after doing my nails, wondering what I did wrong, I thought the more glue the better and in some cases it just stayed wet.)
• peel the foil backing off the nail quickly (I read this after the fact too, I peeled mine soooo slowly)

In the end I had a lot of gaps showing my polish beneath.  BUT the effect was still good. 

Super super shiny and metallic, with awesome holo madness.

I tilted my nails here to show the holo pattern of the foil.  I think this pattern was very forgiving too, it hid a lot of the flaws in my application.

I also read online not to apply a quick dry top coat, as it crinkles up the foil.  I listened to this and applied a generic brand top coat I had.  I let that dry for about 10 mins and then put on Seche Vite.  I saw a little crinkling at first, but it relaxed out as it dried.

I bought a sample pack of 25 foil designs, so I will see if my application gets any better with practice.

Has anyone else tried foils? Got any more tips for me to get better adhesion?

BYS - metallic angel

I've said it once and I'll say it again. I love metallic polishes.  This beautiful polish is BYS Metallic angel. This polish is made up of tiny irregular shaped metallic flecks that are silver and tan in colour.  The light reflection on this looks pink, but it's really more of a tan/neutral coloured metallic.

It was great to apply, very smooth and even and no streaks.  In sunlight this polish is spectacular.

Indoors this polish is much more subtle and you can really see the different coloured metallic particles.  It was a little sheer, this was three coats, however it dried very fast so many coats is not a problem.  Indoors you can still see a slight visible nail line, but in sunlight you can't see anything because of the blinding reflection.

This was my first BYS polish - which is another Australian polish brand.  These retail for $4, which is very reasonable for polish here in Australia (where a bottle of OPI costs $20). Very happy with this polish, I actually wore it for about three days! I can see it staying in my regular rotation.

OMG I found it

When I posted my other Ulta3 flakey I said that I used to have an orange one which I thought I threw out. Well..... my mum came visiting with an awesome little baggie with some old Ulta3 polishes in it.  Included amongst them was Crazy.  I think I went a little crazy when I saw it.  It was a little thick so I added some Seche Restore and BAM, it's like new again.

This is two coats of crazy over two coats of Ulta3 Chocolate cake, then two coats of Seche Vite.

Most of the time the flecks are orange, but there is a lot of green highlights amongst them too.

Let me say that this polish is a real pain in the bum to apply.  I really had to fish out the flakey bits and try to get them positioned on the nail.  It's also really hard to get a smooth finish because the little flakey bits don't lay flat. I had to use a tooth pick to press edges down into the polish.

And a close up.

I really wish Ulta3 had a dark green creme.  I think this flakey would look awesome over green.  Unfortunately I don't own any dark green cremes, I think I better work on that!

Here are some bottle pictures of the two 'old school' Ulta3 flakey polishes.

Sorry, I know these aren't available anymore and its mean to share polishes that are discontinued, but I just had to share, cause I live in hope that Ulta3 will make them again.

Ulta3 Giveaway

Giveaway now closed

Everyone has heard me going on and on about Ulta3 polishes, one of my favourite Aussie polish brands. So, in celebration of all my awesome followers, and that I have launched my Ulta3 colour guide, I thought it was time for a giveaway. YAY!

I'm going to give away four prizes, because I want to share the love as far as my pocket will allow.

First name drawn will get 10 brand new Ulta3 polishes.
Spring shower, hollywood, sweet violet, snazzle, antique copper, envy, precious, lollypop lilac, bo peep and fruit tingle. Check out swatches on my Ulta3 colour guide.

Second name drawn will get three brand new Ulta3 polishes - and they are awesome metallic ones that I love. Snazzle, precious and lolypop lilac.

Third name drawn will get two brand new popular shades of Ulta3 polish.

Purple passion and watermelon.

Fourth name drawn will get a brand new bottle of one of my custom Ulta3 frankenpolishes  Violet.

A swatch of violet can be seen here.

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Rules

1. You must be a follower using Google Friend Connect (1 entry)

2. You must post a comment as your entry.

You can get additional entries if you have a blog and

1. add me to your blog roll (1 additional)

2. post about my giveaway on your blog (1 additional)

just let me know in the comments. 

I will post the winners names here, and the winners must contact me within one week so I can arrange to send the polishes.  If the winner doesn't contact me in a week, I'll redraw.

Open internationally.

Entries open for 10 days only. Ends 5.00pm Australian Eastern Standard Time - Wednesday 5 May 2010.

All over the place

Today I have been flat out preparing food for Bayden's birthday party tomorrow. I finished about 5.30 with the last thing, his cake. We are having an animal party where everyone is dressing as animals.  Bayden has a white tiger costume, so I made him a matching cake.

During the course of the day I have managed to break two nails :-( My right index finger and my left thumb.  At least they are not nails that I photo!  And that was after I trimmed my nails down yesterday to a more manageable length.

Today I share with you my trimmed naked nails.  I try to at least have one night were I don't wear polish to bed, it's my way of letting me nails breath.

Finally, the last thing I want to share is that I have put together my Ulta3 colour guide. My guide groups all my swatches together in similar colour groupings.  I hope you Aussie girls find it useful.

Ulta3 - French polishes

Stand by for some icky polish swatches in 10, 9...

Today I share three french polish colours from Ulta3.  Let me start by saying, I know my nails are way to long to do a french polish on, but I wanted to swatch these with a white tip, so apologies for that (actually had a trim and file today and took off about 2mm of nail).

French nude, is a yellow toned sheer nude colour.  I found this so hard to look good.  I swatched this twice, thinking it must have just been my application. First time around I found the first coat really streaky, so I then put on a second coat.  The second coat was also really streaky, but it also was very opaque, and I could hardly see the white tip anymore.  Second time around I thought I would just try and do one even coat.  On the index finger I did one thick coat, then the middle finger, one regular coat.  The picture actually makes this look heaps better that it looked on the nail.  Can you see the streakiness in the photo?  I also didn't like the yellowness of this polish, it made my nails look stained.

French blush - is a sheer pale pink with a frost.  Again this looked bloody awful.  It was really hideous. Lumpy and gloopy, streaky gross chunky nails, although I prefered the colour more on this one.  Again the streaks didn't disappear as it dried.  One coat too streaky, second coat too opaque. Just looking at this swatch again - yuck *I think I just threw up a little in my mouth*

French pink - Thankfully, this polish redeemed my faith in Ulta3 polishes.  It's a sheer pale pink french.  This one leveled nicely, and any streaks from application disappeared as it dried.  Again I wasn't sure how many coats to do.  I did one coat on all nails and thought it looked good, then I added another coat to my ring finger.  You can see how much pinker the ring finger is.

I don't know if I got a bad couple of bottles with french blush and french nude, but if you want to get one of the french colous, I would go with french pink. 

Ulta3 Old verses New

Today I have swatches for you of the 'new' verses 'old' Ulta3 polishes that I have found.  I have said this before, but when I say 'old', I say that because the writing on the back of these bottles don't match all the current bottles. However, I have purchased all of these 'old' versions within the last month.

I have already swatched most of these with their description, so I won't go into details.

Precious - Old on the left, New on the right.  I prefer the old version.  Actually, I would love to have the colour of the old, with the foil finish and sparkles of the new.

Romance - New on the left, old on the right.  They are both similar tones, but the new version has a strong crystal shimmer and the other has more a subtle red shimmer.  So I guess it depends if you like sparkly or subtle.  I like sparkly, so the new one for me. Both three coats.

Pink colada - No comparison here.  It's not even worth picking a favourite because they are not even the same animal.  Old on the left, new on the right.  Three coats of the old one, only one coat of the new one.  I can't believe that Ulta3 can release a polish with the same name, but make it sooooo different.

Neutral - Again, not even the same animal here. I like them both. Old on the left, new on the right.

Little boy blue - New on the left, old on the right.  Hard to pick my favourite between these two, but I think I have to go with the old version.  It's more opaque (2 coats verses 3 coats for the new one) and it has a much better foil finish.

Has anyone else seen different versions of ones I don't have listed here?  I'm sure there must be others other there.

Ulta3 - More Pinks

First - Happy Birthday to Bayden! My little man turns two today. My husband and I both took the day off work and we have had a very busy and exciting day. In fact I'm ready to collapse on the sofa with a glass (or bottle) of wine.

Now onto my latest lot of Ulta3 swatches.

Bouquet - This one reminds me of a pink version of pearly grape.  The shimmer in this is a real fuchsia colour, bordering purple, and it's in a bright pink base.  It has a slight duochrome effect, with the edges being quite red and the shimmer much pinker. This was three coats. A real flashy colour. Very nice.

Plum violet - don't know where they get the violet in this one.  It's a blue toned pink creme. To me it's a tiny bit lighter and slightly bluer than eighties fuchsia. This was two coats.

Poppy - is a frosty hot pink. This was two coats and it had good coverage.  A tiny bit streaky even after it dried, but nothing too noticeable.

Delight - is a pink frost.  It's a dusty pink, but much pinker than dusty rose.  It's the same tones a beesting, but is pinker and more opaque.  This was two coats.  Pic taken outside, but sun behind a cloud.

Freesia - is a pretty shimmery blue toned pale pink.  It's a pinker version of yummy mauve.  It too was a little streaky, but nothing too bad.  In fact the streakiness is probably more related to my sloppy application. This was two coats.

Dusty rose - is such a pretty neutral pale shimmery pink.  It matches my skin colour very well and looks just like an extension of my fingers, but with pretty shiny tips.  This was two coats.

Bon bon - I love this, its sooo pretty.  It's a real girly colour, pale pink frost. But the frost is super smooth with no streaks.  It looked very delicate on.  This was three coats, and it's still not totally opaque.

Baby pink - is a pale pink which is similar to natural spring.  Most of the time it looks like a creme, but catch some light on it and is has a beautiful blurple shimmer.  Very cool.  This was three coats, so it's rather sheer.

I actually had a disagreement with the sales assistant about this one, she wanted to charge me $2.50, but after showing her the bin of polishes, and the fact that nowhere was any polish listed for $2.50, only $2.00, she had no option but to give it to me at the advertised price (it's not the 50c, it's the principle).

There are a huge range of pinks in the Ulta3 collection. Out of this group, my favourites are bouquet, bon bon and dusty rose.  But picking a favourite really depends on the day and my mood.

I'm almost ready to launch my Ulta3 colour guide, and I think I will have to have a fabulous Ulta3 giveaway after all this work, so stay tuned.

*pop* oooh was that the opening of the bottle of wine...

Ulta3 - More Blues

I only have two more blues to share, and one is a 'new' version of one already posted.

Little boy blue - This is my new version of this polish.  This one is a shimmer and it is more of a greeny blue than my other version.  My other one is much more like a foil.  This was three coats, so it is much sheerer than the old version too.  I'll do up a comparison swatch to show the difference.

Midnight - Looking at the bottle I thought this was actually a black polish.  And with the name midnight, I just assumed it was.  This was only one coat, so it had great coverage.  I actually think the pigment in this is better than the black satin.  As you can see this is a deep inky blue creme.  It was perfect under my Ulta3 'Wild' flakey too.

Toodles.

Ulta3 - Neutrals and Corals

Lets get straight into it.

Allure is a pale pinky, mushroom, bone, off white polish.  I feel like the Twelfth man describing Richie Benaud's jackets with this one. This was three coats, and if you look hard you can still see the nail line.  It's a nice colour on its own, something different to a straight white polish and a nice alternative to a french polish.

Neutral - This is another one of the 'old' version polishes that I got a week or so ago.  It's nothing like the other brown version of neutral that I have, this one really is much more neutral on the nail, and hence a better match for the name.  Here I go again with the bone, ivory, cream descriptions of this polish, but this one actually has a beautiful silver shimmer to it.  This was three coats.

Bamboo - I think one may fall into the ugly awesome category.  I think it's a rusty brown creme.  Sort of a creme version of Tropez.  It's a unique colour, a bit icky, I'm not sure if I like it or not.  This was two coats.

Romance is a pale coral with a strong crystal shimmer. It looks very pretty on the nails, and is very sparkly in real life.  This was three coats, so if you want opacity then this one doesn't quite cut the mustard.  There is also an old version of this around too, but I didn't swatch it separately, only in a comparison swatch.

Pink colada - This version is the 'old' one, bought a few weeks ago.  Again, it's nothing like the other version of pink colada, which is basically a bright red.  This is a sheer coral pink with almost a greeny gold shimmer to it.  It applied very smoothly for a shimmer and didn't have any streaks.  This was three coats.

Til next time.

Ulta3 - More metallics

I love metallic polishes, I just can't get enough of them.  I especially like foil finishes, so I was very happy when I finally found a bottle lollypop lilac.

Lollypop lilac is a mauve foil with excellent opacity.  This was two coats, but it was pretty good with just one.  It's in the same group of foils as Envy, Snazzle and Precious, and I think they make a great collection. The sun was behind a cloud for this pic, which is lucky, otherwise you would be blinded by its dazzling awesomeness. Love it!

Next we have Precious, hang one didn't I already swatch Precious. Well yes I did, but this is the other version I found, and I like this one a lot better.  It's not as foil like as the 'new' version, but it also is much less yellow, less brassy.  This is more of a champagne colour.  This was three coats.

When I refer to this as the 'old' version, I'm only say that because the bottle doesn't have the same writing on the back as the new ones, but I only purchased this in the last few weeks, so they are still out there - you just might have to bin dive a few more places.

Sweet n natural has a bronze tone, it's paler and pinker than Antique Copper, but still has a metallic feel about it.  It pic doesn't really do it justice, as the sun went behind the cloud again (you know we don't usually get this much cloudy weather here in Canberra - weird). This was three coats, as this polish is a little sheer.  Sweet n natural is a perfect name for this, as it is very natural looking on the nail, but just with that something extra.

Silver grey - I really wasn't looking forward to swatching this one, as I knew it was going to be nothing like snazzle, which I just love.  But you know how it always is; you wait and wait, then finally put it on and wonder why you waited so long.  I really was pleasantly surprised by this.  It applies rather thinly, but three coats gives opacity.  It's a tiny bit streaky, but not really that bad.  The finished look it very much like a chrome polish. Very nice.

Crystallina - This is a cool polish.  It's a transparent white with a strong gold shimmer.  I think it's really designed for layering, but it still looks pretty on its own.  This was three coats and there is still a good visible nail line, but with this polish it didn't bother me.

Well there you have the last of the metallic polishes. I think the metallic in the Ulta3 collection are outstanding for $2 and the wear on them is pretty good too.  Even though I don't usually wear a polish for more than a couple of days, these lasted well with a coat of Seche Vite.

Ulta3 - More Reds

I spent a few hours swatching last weekend and managed to swatch all my Ulta3s.  I believe I finally have every colour! Here are the remainders of the red Ulta3 polishes.

Fire is a really bright yellow toned red creme. It's so bright you could nearly call it a neon.  It was a little sheer but nice and smooth, not gluggy  This was three coats and taken in full sunlight.

Scarlet is quite similar to fire, it's still a yellow toned red, but this is redder than fire.  This was also more opaque than fire, only needing two coats below. Taken in full sunlight.

Foxy russset - I love the name, and yes that's three 's's. This is a deep burgundy red with a gold shimmer.  Opacity for this was much better than fire. This was two coats and taken in full sunlight.

Pepper pot - colour wise this is pretty much a creme version of foxy russset.  This was two coats.  Pic taken outside, but the sun was behind the clouds.

Sizzling red to me is your classic red polish. It's probably more on the blue side than the yellow side of the spectrum and that is how it differs from Scarlet, its bluer.  It's a really lovely polish that just glides on.  This was two coats and taken in full sunlight.

I just had to show a comparison here of sizzling red next to pink colada.  They are very similar, with pink colada just having a few more drops of blue in it than sizzling red.  This pic shows sizzling red on the index and ring finger and pink colada on the index and pinky.

Over all, I think there is a very good range of red colours in the Ulta3 collection. 

I'm thinking of putting together a full colour guide of all the Ulta3 colours I have (currently 92, which includes a few 'same name, different polish' versions).  That way you can see all the colours in one colour group all next to each other.  Yes, I think I will do that, after I have posted them all here.