piCture pOlish - Opulence Range

I was so delighted when the girls at piCture pOlish emailed me and asked me to review their upcoming Opulence Range.  I'm not one to really hang out much on Facebook, in fact I don't even have a personal profile page, so I wasn't really in the loop about the shades until I got their email.  I quickly skedaddled myself over to Facebook to check out the shades and instantly got grabby hands.

Monroe is a blood red jelly polish with fine holographic particles scattered throughout.  I don't own any dark red jelly polishes like this so I think it's just the most lovely shade, and I love that it has the secret holo glow to make it more interesting.  The holo effect in this is subtle, but definitely there. What I love is that it doesn't dilute or 'silver-out' the blood red shade and make it pink.  Anyone that has attempted to make a red holo polish using spectraflair will know exactly what I mean - they always end up pink.

These photos of Monroe are taken in full sun and shows Munroe at three thin layers.

Peacock has emerald green hex glitter and silver rectangles all floating in a purple jelly base.  Looking at the bottle it just looks emerald green, it was only when I put it on my nail that I realized it was in a purple jelly base.  The glitter is quite dense and it is easy to get it opaque on it's own.  This is three coats of peacock topped with Ulta3 non chip and Seche Vite.  It did need two layers of top coat because, like 99% of fine glitter polishes (eg Nubar sparkles and Tony Moly Galaxy's) they dry to a rough finish.  Top coat really makes the glitter shine.

 

My photos are taken in the shade, because I find I get the best photos of glitter when there isn't all that light bouncing of the glitter particles.  But because of that, the green glitter in this polish looks washed out from the light reflection.  These photos make the glitter look teal coloured, but it really is emerald green, which you can see more in the top half of this picture.

This next photo is photo-shopped! I did this to show you what the green glitters actually look like.  See they are emerald, not aqua!

Next I tried layering peacock over a dark purple.  I chose piCture pOlish Aphrodisiac - which is a dark shimmery purple as the base.  One coat of Aphrodisiac and one coat of Peacock.  With the exception of the density of the glitter, it looks almost identical. Love this combo of green glitter with purple polish.

Here is a macro of peacock over aphrodisiac.

 

Mask-a-rade is a clear base with multi chromatic glitter hexes.  In fact it appears to be the identical multi chromatic glitters that are in the three Elytra polishes, but this polish has all three colours in the one bottle together!!  These photos are two coats of mask-a-rade over black creme, with a single coat of Seche Vite topcoat.

The three glitter types that appear to be in this polish are:

• green, through aqua to blue, purple and pink (same as Elytra 528)
• blue, through purple to orange and red (same as Elytra 529)
• pink through orange and yellow (same as Elytra 530)

So not only is this a multi coloured glitter, it also shifts to a multitude of colours too.   If you can't decided which Elytra polish to get, then it's a no brainer, get Picture Polish's mask-a-rade.

Scrangie recently reviewed this collection and commented about them having a difficult formula.  Here's my comments on the formula.

• Monroe - slightly on the thick side, but I didn't have any issues with it.  The brush is soft and smooth and the polish just flowed on for me, although I did need three coats for full colour coverage.
• Peacock - this one is a little thick, but it actually reminds me of the same consistency of polish when I have frankened a glitter polish with lots of fine glitter.  Because I have made lots of polishes like that, I was 100% ok with the formula.  I just think the thickness is a by-product of a polish full of fine glitter.
• Mask-a-rade - the formula was perfect, exactly like the Elytra polishes.

The Opulence range is available now on the Picture Polish website and they cost $13.50AUD a bottle.

Yeah, yeah, I know some of the ladies overseas are going to think that $13.50 is an expensive polish (even Scrangie commented about expecting better formula at $13.50 a bottle).  But what you have to remember is that nail polish is expensive here in Australia.  These polishes are cheaper than Revlon ($14.95), OPI ($19.95), Orly ($15.95) and don't mention Chanel ($39).  We pretty much only have one brand that is less than $3, which is Ulta3. Generally any polish under $10 is considered cheap, but between $10-$15 is a fairly standard price!

Plus it's Australian made.  That's a huge thing for me as an Aussie.  There isn't a lot of stuff that is manufactured in Australia these days,  it's all pretty much made in China.  I know that's not really important for international consumers, but for me, that is a big selling point and very much worth any extra dollars!

Lynnderella - Love, Lace and Lilacs

Do you remember me telling you about my dark green franken that I called "Perfect green undies" which I wore under Lynnderella's Funny Money, Green of Hearts and I Can Afford It?  Have I told you yet that that polish and I are no longer on speaking terms!  That dirty hoe polish stained my lovely pinky coloured nails a horrible shade of yellow.  I didn't have stained nails at all, but after I took that polish off I was horrified.  I have a good basecoat on but I'm guessing my mix is just too pigmented!  It's really only the top half of my nails, and I've tried scrubbing the peroxide and baking powder but it hasn't made a difference.  Does anyone have whitening ideas that actually work??

I shared that story because you can see the yellow tinge to my nails in the shots of the very delicate and pretty Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs.  Here I am wearing Nail Tek Foundation II base coat, two coats of Bourjois Rose Lounge (yes again, it's my go to sheer pink nude) and two coats of Love, Lace and Lilacs.  Rose Lounge on the base did a good job of hiding the yellow, but I can still see it.

I loved this look because it almost looked like it was LLL just on it's own, but Rose Lounge made it not look naked!

Love, Lace and Lilacs has various sized opaque white hexes and translucent white hexes, as well as opaque white bar glitter.  There is also a micro fine silver shimmer in this that is similar to the shimmer that is in Connect the Dots.

Taking inspiration from the polish name, I decided to wear this polish as a lace mani.

I started this mani with stamping a lace design across my nail.  Then I painted my index finger on both sides of the lace stamp with Love, Lace and Lilacs.  Then I did my middle finger on the bottom corner, and then as I twisted my hand around to do the top corner, I somehow painted the next finger.  Of course then I realised that I really loved just the half nail look, so I had to work out how to finish the design using some full lace and some half lace nails.  I totally loved this mani, I was so happy with the final look.  I can't believe how much like real lace this polish looks like. 

Lynnderella - Sweet to the Sweet

Today I have Lynnderella Sweet to the Sweet.  I've layered this over two coats of Bourjois Rose Lounge, which it a very sheer pale pink.  I then layered two coats of Sweet to the Sweets, then layered on my three standard top coats for Lynnderella's, Ulta3 non-chip, Glitter Tamer and Seche Vite.  

I was trying to finish this mani off before going to bed, so I was a little rushed applying the top coats, as a result I got a little bit of wrinkling , nothing too bad, but I could have avoided it if I had waited longer between coats.  It also finished a littler thicker on my nail that usual, but considering it was a total of eight layers, it's ok.

I notice that my bottle of Sweet tot he Sweet is rather cool toned, in that it mostly has blue and purple glitters.  There are a few fuchsia, pink and red glitters in there and of course lots of iridescent white glitter, but I don't seem to have any yellow or green like I have seen in other swatches.

Does you bottle have yellow and green glitter? 

Lynnderella - Mercurial

I'm into my home stretch of Lynnderella polishes now.  Less than a weeks worth left to show.  I'm a bit sad that I have almost worn all of them, although I know I will be wearing each again many times with different layering combinations (or the same in some cases).  I've received a few new polishes in the last month that I'm really looking forward to putting on those too. Oh and I'm on day three of the Lansinoh cuticle treatment. I can definitely see a difference, but wonder if I need gloves on when I sleep, I think I get it all rubbed off within 30 minutes.

Onto today's Lynnderella, Mercurial. This one has multiple sizes and shades of gunmetal, black and silver hexes and squares in a metallic grey base. The little special surprise is that is also contains lavender hexes, but my favourite glitter pieces have to be those huge silver hexes.  They are a little tricky to get to lay flat, but they are like metal armor for your nails.

I layered two coats of Mercurial of one coat of Ulta3 Metal, which is nearly an exact match for the metallic grey base to this polish.  Finished with a coat of Ulta3 non-chip and Seche Vite.

Lynnderella - Shape Shifter

I've just spent the last hour going back through my recent posts and replying to all the lovely comments I have received.  I'm sorry I didn't reply to people earlier, it's rather piss poor form on my behalf.  I love reading everyone's comments, it gives me such a buzz knowing that people actually think enough of something to write a comment. I know you hear it from bloggers all the time, but it really is so true. Thank you all! *end corny and mushy crap*

Here is way too many photos of Lynnderella's Shape Shifter.  I couldn't just pick my regular few photos because each photo shows something so cool in this glitter polish.  This is two coats of Shape Shifter over one coat of Orly Shine. Topped with Ulta3 non-chip, glitter tamer and Seche Vite.

As you can see, this polish contains silver holographic glitter, there is micro squares, small hexes, medium hexes and large hexes, but it's the shape shifting part so fun with this polish.  

Shall we play a game?  I'll tell you a glitter shape and you have to find it in the next picture. OK.  Lets start easy...Medium Hex... too easy? Ok.

Huge square... Medium square... Flower shape... Bar glitter... Crescent moon.

This is my thumb, and the colours were so amazing I had to include this.  

Huge square... Flower... Bar... Hexes.

Tricky ones now - Butterfly... Heart

Crescent moon

Look, there is the heart on the pinky finger, really shining in this photo.  One last tricky one... Diamond.

In case you missed them, the two little butterflies were  flying on my ring finger.

I think that was all the shapes, did you find them all?  

What a seriously freaking awesome polish with all those fun shapes, some of which I have seriously NEVER seen in a bottle of polish before.  I can't believe this polish hasn't reached the same cult status as Connect the Dots.  I personally think this is such a unique polish and it totally deserves any Lynnderella hype that may surround it!

Lynnderella - She Lived in a Swamp

Who wants to live in a swamp? *hand goes up* Pick me! Pick me!  I want to live in a glittery swamp like this!

This is Lynnderella's She Lived in a Swamp and it's a combination of chartreuse, lime, gold and green glitters of all shapes and sizes.  Amazing final effect, but let me tell you there are some lime stringy bits that were a beeotch for me.  Those little bits curled upwards, inwards, backwards and sidewards, you name it, a number of them were grabbed by their short and curlies with my tweezers and told to get the hell out of there!  A few stayed on there and I poked at them until they lay flat.

I wore China Glaze L8R G8R as the undies for this and it was the perfect match, but after two dabbled coats of She Lived in a Swamp, I could hardly see my undies anyway. One coat of Ulta3 non chip, one of glitter tamer and one of Seche Vite to it this glassy smooth.

I've been wearing glitter polishes non stop for a few weeks now and removing them either each night, or every other night using the foil method (with a cotton square soaked in acetone and wrapped in foil).  The method is the ONLY way to remove glitters like this, but after a few solid weeks of it my cuticles are starting to yell back at me.  I've read on the boards that Lansinoh lanolin cream rubbed into the cuticles at night is a miracle worker.  As a mum of a (not so) little bub, I do have some of that cream just lying around, so I will see how it goes for my poor dried out cuticles.

Lynnderella - Nosegay

Here is another Lynnderella that I wore last week during the nail art challenge voting.  This is Nosegay and it is layered over a violet coloured franken I made using a TKB pigment. It was actually one of my very first franken polishes and I made it nearly two years ago.

I love the undies colour match for this, but I actually think it was a little bit to dark.  With two coats of Nosegay, I was able to see very slight milky streaks, although I don't think they look too noticeable in the photos.  

I've seen this layered over much lighter colours and I think I prefer it that way. But then again, that is what I love about Lynnderella's polishes, they are all generally layering polishes, which means you can get a totally different look each time you wear it just by layering it over a different colour.

This was actually one of the polishes from the Lovely is as Lovely Does collection that I wasn't going to get.  I'm so glad I got the opportunity to snap this up at the last minute cause it's so much prettier that I thought it would be from the original bottle shots.