OPI - I Get A Kick Out Of Gold

I bought this polish AGES ago, probably the beginning of last year, and yesterday I was going through my boxes to find polishes that I hadn't swatched and I found this one.  I can't believe I forgot about it and it got lost amongst my stash.  I didn't even include it in my gold foil comparison.  I'll have to do another one now.

The above photo was taken in the sun, below indoors under artificial light.  OPI - I get a kick out of gold is an older polish, but you can still get it on ebay.  But, given that there are so many gold foil polishes out there that would be almost dupes of this, it's not one that you need to go out and get.  What I like about this gold is that it is a cool tone (like Orly Lux and Jessica Palladium). This was three coats + one Seche Vite.

To mix it up a bit, last night I added two coats of LA Girls Rock Star Double Platinum.  I love this polish but have never been able to get it opaque enough to do a swatch of it on its own.  LA Girls Rock Star Double Platinum is a holographic glitter in a slightly smokey, almost clear base.  Here is the full sun pic from this morning.

Under artificial light last night.

And the obligatory blurry shot to show the glitter.

It makes me smile looking at my nails today, what a shame I have to take it off to put on the green magnetic polish that turned up in the post today!! 

Magnetic polishes - Purple and Rust Red

Here I have two more of my new magnetic polishes from Nail Art and More.  This one is called Purple and its super pretty.  The bottle colour is the same as the pale colour on the nail, then when you use the magnet it brings our the darker purple colour.

These polishes have the most beautiful colours in them.  This one has a blue, pink and purple shimmer which can be seen the pic below.

My application of the magnets is getting much better too.

Here is Rust Red. Again the bottle colour is closer to the pale colour on the nail, then with the magnet the darker rust colour lifts out.

I think I prefer the lines magnet to the star one, maybe because its a little more forgiving with bad alignment. 

If you don't get the star magnet lined up correctly on the nail it looks pretty shoddy.

As promised, here are the magnets and the positioning tool.

The base of the positioning tool has a little target on it so you know where to put your finger. 

You then tread the magnet design you want to use onto the fork and position it at the right height for your nail.  I then paint my nail while its still on the target and immediately place the fork, with the magnet, over my finger and hold for 10 seconds.

There you have it.  I'm now just waiting for my Green polish that was missing to turn up, and then to go shopping on their site again, as they have told me there will be seven new colours on their site in the next couple of weeks.

Orly Cosmic FX Collection - Lunar Eclipse

So here is it, my favourite.  So pretty and sparkly and blue.  Apparently is a dupe of OPI Designer Series Magic and Sally Hansen Ultra HD Laser, but I don't have either of those, so I just love it.  I know it doesn't have the same multi chrome, or even duo chrome thing going on as Space Cadet, but sometimes you just put a polish on and fall in love with it, and that is what happened with this one.

The above shot was taken in full sun, and it was so sparkly that this picture doesn't do it justice.  Below shot was taken indoors, and you can still see the glossy magic of the polish.

Here it is up close.  Just look at all those rich blue sparkly flecks.  It reminds me of the sun reflecting off the rippling water on our pool. I feel like I could just jump in.

So there you have it, the magnificent Orly Cosmic FX collection.  Go now and get it.

Orly Cosmic FX Collection - Space Cadet

WTF I hear you say, are you serious, Space Cadet is only your second favourite polish in this collection?

Well, yeah.  I seriously love this polish, in fact I'm wearing it again right now. Last night I wanted to make sure I was happy to put this is second place so I put on a full mani of it again.  But I'm sure, I'm a sucker for blue polish and I just love Lunar Eclipse more.

This polish is a bright and foily multi chrome polish. My photos of this polish make it look more bronze than it does in real life.  On me, I see much more purple and pink tones.  But there is orange and gold and blue as well. 

Here is the up close shot.

If you don't own this polish then you MUST get it. I can see this becoming hard to find in the not too distant future.  Everyone is raving about it on their blogs, and deservedly so, it is truly unique, there is no other polish like it.

Orly Cosmic FX Collection - Halley's Comet

Ohhhh, isn't it pretty.  This is Halley's Comet and its my third favourite in the collection.

Now I've read on other blogs that this is a dupe of Zoya Charla or OPI Catch Me In Your Net.  But as I don't have either of those, this is totally unique in my collection.

It's a turquoise/aqua base, with the same coloured metallic flecks and a gold duochrome finish.  I think Scrangie said it has that mermaidy feel, and I totally get what she means.  This is exactly what you expect a mermaids scales to look like. Shiny, aquatic looking and reflecting different colours at different angles. Again you can see the gorgeous flecks in the close up pic below.

So I'm getting right down to it now, will it be Space Cadet or Lunar Eclipse that will be my favourite.  You might just be surprised!

Orly Cosmic FX Collection - Out of this World

My fourth favourite from the collection.  And this was a hard call.  Now just because I have it fourth doesn't mean I don't love this polish.  It is spectacular.  It s deep blue toned purple, with purple micro flecks.  There is a tiny gold duo chrome that you can see in the bottle, but I couldn't see it on my nail.

Here is the close up of the amazing micro flecks that create the metallic purple finish of this polish.

Orly Cosmic FX Collection - Galaxy Girl

Galaxy Girl is my fifth favourite, or second least favourite in this collection.  It's an aubergine, purple, bruised red colour with blue and silvery grey duo chrome flecks.  This was three coats.

Above photo in the sun and below indoors.  You can see the duo chrome effect much better indoors, because in the sun, the shine coming off the flecks is so bright that is all you see.

Here is a close up of the fine and smooth micro flecks in this polish.

Orly Cosmic FX Collection - It's not rocket science

I finally got my paws of the Orly Cosmic FX Collection and I and truly in love with it. But of course in every collection there are favourites.  So I'm going to do a count down of the collection from my least favourite to my favourite.

My least favourite out of the six polishes is It's not rocket science.  A warm toned, murky yellow green, sheer base, with yellow/gold sparkly flecks through it.

I can't believe how different this polish looks on me compared to other swatches I've seen.  And these photos are pretty accurate as to how it looked on me.  This was two coats taken in full sun, but I feel I should have done three, because on the ring and pinky I can see a nail line in these photos.

He is a real up close pic and you can see the tiny gold flecks that make up this polish.   Despite the flecks, all these polishes are totally smooth.

Formula was great and I love these large bottles with grippy handles.

Magnetic Nail Polish - SWEET!

Oooh, oooh, oooh, I'm so excited to share with you my new magnetic nail polishes.  I bought these magnetic polishes off an Austrian website - http://www.nailart-und-mehr.de/. The down side is that I bought five of these polishes, but they only sent me four.  I have sent them an email about it so will wait and see if they come through with the goods.

This post shows two of the colours, black and night blue.  I also bought 'russet' which is red, bottle green and purple.  The green is the one they didn't send!

For those of you that don't know about magnetic nail polish, what you do is paint your nail, and then, working very quickly, while the polish is still wet, you position a magnet over the nail and hold it still for about 10 seconds.  When you move the magnet, the polish has set with a fancy pattern in it.

I bought both their magnet designs, which you have to purchase separately.  One creates lines and the other a starburst.  I couldn't decide which to do for this mani, so I did both.

Here is a close up of my index finger.

And close up of the thumb.

I actually wore the blue polish first, and below is my first attempt at doing the magnets, not great, but you get the idea.  I was a little excited and rushed the whole application.

The application of these polishes was great. They dry really quick, which can make it tricky to get the magnet in place quickly enough.  Even without using the magnet these were beautiful colours. A really great nail polish!!

I'll post the other colours when I wear them and will photo the magnets too.

So what do you think, do you just love this idea like me, or are they a bit gimmicky.

Nubar - Wildlife

This is the second polish I bought from the Nubar Going Green Collection.  This is Wildlife and it's such an amazing duo chrome polish.  I really love it.

These pictures really show the colour changing.  The base colour is a warm bronzy brown shimmer. Above colour taken inside.  Below in full sun.

When you move your fingers you start to see the mossy green gold duo chrome.

And even stronger gold, leaning to yellow shimmer.  NICE!

This would have to be the strongest duo chrome polish I have. The colour shift in this is amazing.  And the colours in this are really 'me' colours.  Whats your favourite duo chrome (or multi chrome) polish?

Rokk96 - I'll be frank

This is another beautiful polish from Rokk96 called I'll be frank.  It's a rich burgundy with a strong very fine gold shimmer.

Just like the other Rokk96 polish I recently showed, I re swatched this as it looked a little patchy the first time around.

Two different swatches, both taken in the sun but at different times of day.  I really shows how different lighting can make a polish look very different. 

This was two coats, but it really should have been three. Nice formula and good staying power.

Nubar reclaim

I was going through my swatches the other day and discovered that I hadn't yet photographed Nubar Reclaim. Green Holo, very cool.  I bought two of the polishes from the Going Green collection, way back in about May last year - so I'm well over due in posting them here now.

What a beautiful polish.  This was two coats, with no top coat.  I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it had a decent glossy finish, unlike the Nfu Oh holographic polishes.  I also found that the application on this was much easier than the other holographic polishes I have (Nfu Oh and China Glaze OMG and Kaleidoscope collections).  I didn't get bald patches if I went over the same spot.

Not a crazy in your face holo finish, but it's very pretty and it gives the polish that something special. 

Rokk96 - Hypnotic

Today I have another Rokk96 polish that I got from Price Attack.  Hypnotic is a purple jelly with a bright blue shimmer.  The two swatches below were actually taken about six months apart.  The top one done just this weekend, the other one ages ago.  I wanted to take some more pictures of it because I wasn't happy with the patchiness in the first swatch.

The above picture has three coats of polish on the index finger, and only two coats on all the other fingers.  I did three on the index because I banged it and wanted to cover up the mark.  The below swatch only has two coats on each nail.

Clearly, for the best result you need to do at least three coats (and maybe even four) of this polish to get a finish like the colour in the bottle.  I hate having to do that many coats, but at least this colour is worth it in the end.

Go Crazy franken

I'm so happy with my latest franken.  I have decided to call it Go Crazy.  Like with most glitter polishes, I found it really hard to capture in the photos, but here it is.

So what is it?  An almost full bottle of Ulta3 clear polish with about half a teaspoon of each of the 12 glitter powders I have.  This included the following glitters, red, green, light blue, dark blue, gold, silver, light pink, hot pink, purple, black, holographic and orange.  I was surprised by the brownish finish to this.

Here is a blurry picture as it best shows all the reflective colours in this polish.

And an up close of all that glitter.

And one in the shade.

Because of all the glitter in this, the polish was a little bit gloopy and thick. But the up side of that is that it was almost opaque in one coat.  Of course I did two just to make sure of the coverage.  Down side with this much glitter is that its a bitch to remove.

Neon marbling

Here is my first ever attempt at doing marbled nail design. And when I say that I mean, the first attempt that I am willing to post here.

Holy crap this is difficult to do.  I have watched marbling videos from My Simple Little Pleasures a zillion times, and she makes it look so easy to do.

My main problem was that I wasn't using filtered or bottled water.  Tap water just made the polish all clump up when I tried to run the orange stick through it.  The other thing is that this takes AGES to do.  I'm so slow at doing it.  With the whole taping up your nails thing and the dropping the polish in the water, then dragging through the water, then clean up.. etc etc.  I'm not sure that I'm patient enough to do this very often

I did this marble look using my el cheapo Ulta3 polishes.  I used Lily white as the base then drops of Citrus, Tahiti, Spring Shower, Jelly and Fruit Tingle to create the marble look.

Peachy foils

I reckon I could signal an aeroplane from a deserted island with the sun reflecting off these nails.  How cool do they look!!

Clearly these are some foils. A pinky peach colour, applied over two coats of Ulta3 Romance.  The lines on the nails form naturally because of the type of foil and how it curves around the nail.  I have really curvy nails, so if you nails are flatter, then you wouldn't see as many lines.

Here are the same foils in the shade.

This is the foil that I used.  In the shade you can see that it is a peach coloured holographic metallic.

The foil and my thumb nail in the sun.

This was just awesome, but... I thought I would test out comments that you MUST apply a top coat otherwise these just disappear.  Its true.  You MUST apply a top coat.  I can't stress that enough.  I didn't cause I loved the absolute holoness of the finish, and within three hours this was nothing more that a few metallic flakes on my nails.  Of course you will have to experiment with top coats to find one that wont wrinkle and take the holo finish away. 

So far I have tested Ulta3 top coats and Seche Vite and neither of those work well with foils.  Australis Top and Base coat worked ok.