Ozotic 757 duochrome

Here is a candy pink duo-chrome polish to warm up your cold winter's day.  Or for you ladies in the northern hemisphere enjoying summer, a nice bright summery duo-chrome.

Ozotic 757 is a bright pink polish with a gorgeous golden duo-chrome shift.  It has good opacity at two coats and covers the nail perfectly.  It's not frosty but has a really pretty bright silvery blue shimmer.  It's the blue shimmer that shifts to gold.

While it is opaque on it's own at two coats, it's still can be worn over black to bring out a darker pink shimmer and stronger gold shift.  This is two coats over black.

Layered over white, this pink polish nearly becomes a neon.  I love a verstile polish that can be worn multiple ways. Glitter polishes are like that, but I love it when you can find a shimmer polish that can look very different depending on what you layer it over.

I'm not a huge pink polish fan, but this is a fun colour and will definitely make a comeback for me in spring.  I can just imagine stamping on this already.

Some recent NOTDs with stamping

Here are a couple of recent NOTD.

Jessica, Palladium - most definitely my most favourite sparkley platinum gold polish ever!  I did have only about half of a tiny 5ml bottle of this left, until I saw a full sized bottle on blog sale at Vintage Musing of a Modern Pinup, and then Carly gifted it to me!  Thank you so much!  I had to wear it as soon as I got it, and here it is stamped with Ulta3 Orchid with a swirly design from the DRK-A plate.

This next mani was a lucky dip.  I put my hand into my untried drawer and was going to put on whatever polish I pulled out.  I pulled out Color Club Jingle Jangle from their Beyond the Mistletoe collection of 2011.

I stamped this with a flower design from DRK-A plate using Layla Mirror Effect in Metal Chrome.  I had much better luck using the Layla polish for stamping this time.  Maybe the DRK-A plate is deeper than the other plates I was previously using and therefore the polish didn't dry too quickly, but I had no issues with picking up or transferring the polish at all this time.

Thanks for coming by.

Ozotic 751 duochrome

Today I have another of the Ozotic 700 series that was sent to me by the girls at piCture pOlish. To be honest, when I first saw Ozotic 751 in the bottle I was worried it was going to be a frosty hot mess.  I was so pleasantly surprised when I wore this.  The frostiness didn't freak me out at all and I was strangely attracted to it's angel like ethereal appearance.

Ozotic 751 is a very pale ice blue polish that is make up of a somewhat frosty micro shimmer.  The duochrome shift in this, is that the ice blue shimmer bits shift to a pinky mauve.  This is two coats of 751 on its own, with Seche Vite top coat.  For such a light and shimmery polish, it covers relatively well in just two coats.

On the edges of my fingers you can start to see the pink glow.

Ok, over black I don't think I'm as much of a fan.  At one coat is was a little too streaky, and and two coats it really hid the black base.  And I think the black base brings out more frostiness in this polish.

Of course the black base also brings out more of the pink colour shift too.

Finally over white.  It's not that different to it on its own, except that you really don't have any visible nail line.

Over white you don't see the streaks so much, and it is very shimmery and shiny in the sun. Again I was very surprised how much I really liked this look.  I think this polish may just have convinced me that not all frosty polishes are horrible, some - like this one- are really very beautiful.  The formula on this was great too.  No lumps or bubbles like you often see with frosty polishes.

This was two coats over a white base with Seche Vite on top.

So do you hate frosty polishes with the wrath of a thousand suns?  I thought I did, but apparently I don't.

Lynnderella - Lovey Dovey

I'm not going to go into any of the details that have occurred during the last week with regards to Lynnderella polishes, there are plenty of other places where you can read and comment on it.  

I choose to make my blog about my love of lacquers, and for me, when I talk about my love of lacquer, the simple fact is that I really do love Lynnderella nail polishes.  Regardless of where I may sit in the debate, looking at and wearing these glitter polishes makes me feel happy.

Lovely Dovey is a dusty purple glitter polish, it has smokey purple hexes and squares of various sizes with a light sprinkling of gunmetal grey squares and hexes.

This is two dabbled coats layered over Layla Deep Violet Magneffect polish.  I chose the Magneffect polish purely because the colour match was perfect, and I just didn't use the magnet on it.

This dried relatively smooth and I just added one coat of Ulta3 Non-Chip and a coat of Seche Vite.

Lynnderella nail polishes are no longer available through Llarowe wish lists.  Currently, the only avenue to purchase these is through Lynnderella's ebay store.  Unfortunately for international ladies, they only ship to the USA, which is a sad day for all non-US living Lynnderella lacquer lovers.  Lynnderella's blog is also now open for those seeking more information, including swatches of her upcoming collection.

Ozotic 746 - pink and blue in one bottle

The Ozotic 500 series are nearly all but gone, but here is another from the 700 duo-chrome series.  The 700 series are not nearly as spectacular as the multi-chrome goodness that was the 500s, but they are pretty and special in their own right.

Ozotic 746 is a bright pink polish that looks a little frosty a first glace.  But that frosty sheen is actually an amazingly strong blue shimmer.

This is two coats of 746 on it's own.

If  you want to bring out that blue shimmer, you just need to layer it over black.  Here is two coats over black and it looks like a totally different polish.  The general appearance is a blue polish, but with a pink shimmer, almost like the polish reversed itself.

Finally, over white, two coats. The pink base becomes even more candy coloured and the blue shimmer looks more silver.

I'm generally not a fan of pink polishes, but I really love blue polishes. This polish is a win for me!  I can see me wearing this as a blue polish quite a bit.  Very pretty.

Salon Express Nail Art Stamping Kit - with giveaway

I was recently contacted the the PR company for Salon Express Nail Art Stamping Kit and asking if I would like to review the kit.  These kits have been available in the USA for about 6 months, but they are soon to be available in Australia, in Target to be exact.  This kit is one of those "As seen on TV" products, but I've never seen these on TV - although I would love to see a 30 minute infomercial about a nail stamping kit (instead of the Magic Bullet) - that would be so cool! Has anyone else see these advertised on TV.

So here is the kit, it's all sealed around edges so at least you know someone can't open it in store and swap out plates.

The kit includes five plates, a plate holder, a scraper and a double sided stamper.  My first impression of the plates is that the single images are quite sweet, and there seems to be a few stamps with a similar theme, such as the butterflies and dragonflies, underwater creatures (turtle, seahorse and starfish) and flowers.

  

There is one image plate with six full nail designs and they all look very small and may not provide full nail coverage (which quite bizarrely is how they are shown stamped on the models hand on the packaging - WTF does anyone actually stamp a full nail design like that?) 

The plate holder seems a little redundant, I did use it, but it didn't make the process any harder or easier, nor did it make the stamping process it any cleaner or dirtier. 

The first time I tried using the supplied scraper I found it didn't do a very good job and left the polish on top of the plate all streaky.  It seemed to touch the plate where I drew the arrows below, but left a gap on the plate in the middle.

So what I did was grab a piece of A4 paper and fold it up a few times to get some thickness, then I just scrapped over the paper, over and over again.  I also gave it a very light file (using my nail file) along the edge of the metal. This seemed to condition my scraper and leveled the edge of it for smooth scraping.  I know a lot of girls don't like using a metal scraper because it scratches you plate - instead they use an old credit card.  I've personally never had a good experience with a credit card as the scraper, and the scratches on my plates don't bother me at all.  So after this scraper had been "broken in" it was great.

To test out the plate, scraper and stamper, I chose to use red Konad Special polish, cause I new it would show up nicely for the photos.  Konad special polishes are great, but they are also expensive.  If you are looking for some good stamping polishes, I recommend you get yourself Ulta3 Black Satin and Lily White (you can grab them in Target for $2).  Both those polishes are excellent for stamping.  There are also a few other Ulta3 polishes that are good for stamping, Orchid and Gold Rush are two that come to mind.

After just one swipe, most of the polish scraped away cleanly, leaving a good solid imprint in the plate.  The plates seem to be deeply engraved, which is exactly what you need, because that way the polish doesn't dry too quickly and it is easier to pick up.

Now to the stamper.  This is a great double sided stamper with one smaller and and one larger end.  I normally use the konad double sided stamper and this one is just as good.  The stamp ends are nice and squishy, which makes it easier to roll the design both off the plate and onto your nails.  I had no issues with the stamp picking up the polish, although they do say you can lightly buff the ends of the stamper if you have trouble with it not picking up your design.

For my mani, I tried out a few different designs, all stamped using Konad special polish in white.  I also tried out one of the full nail designs.  To my surprise, as long as I was very careful placing the design, it was just large enough to cover my nail.  If you have long or wide nails, these full nail designs would be too small.  They are definitely too small for my thumb nails.

My interpretation of this design is the butterflies and dragonflies, flying in the blue sky with the rays of sunshine represented on my ring finger.  I Googled some designs made using the Salon Express Nail Art kit, and there are some good ones out there, such as this sweet palm tree one, this zebra print one and this nail polish ring stamped with the sea horse, to mention just a few.

The Salon Express Nail Art Stamping Kit will be available in Target for $20.  I think this kit is fantastic for anyone who wants to try out stamping and doesn't really know where to start.  I wish these were around when I starting my stamping.  I know I paid more than this to get some konad plates and the stamper.

Now for the giveaway part.  I was also lucky enough to receive three additional Salon Express Nail Art Stamping Kits to giveaway to my readers.  As this is a new product in Australia and provided by an Australian PR company I feel its right to just open this one to my Aussie readers.

To win, please leave an answer this sentence in the comments section below.

"If I could design my very on nail art stamping image plate, I would put on it ...."

The prizes will go to the three ideas for a nail plate that inspire me the most.  Get creative gals!

• Entries close on 30 June.  
• I will post winners commenting name on an upcoming blog post.
• Winners must email me within two days, otherwise I will select another winner.
• Australian entries only.

Lynnderella - LavenDear

I have another gorgeous Lynnderella polish from the Lovely is as Lovely Does collection today.  I didn't get this when I got my first batch of Lynderella polishes because I didn't think I needed it.  Seriously, I must have been on some trippy drugs or something, because look at this! How did I think I didn't need it?

LavenDear has lavender hex and square glitter in a number of different sizes. It also has the lightest smattering of fine holographic glitter, which you can't see at all in these photos, but it's just enough to throw a few multi-coloured sparkles at you when you least expect it. Gorgeous!

I really love wearing my Lynnderella with matching undies and a good solid layering of glitter.  This is two thickly dabbled coats of LavenDear over BYS Thank God It's Friday.

Did you know that Lynnderella was releasing her new collection within the next week?  I am so excited to she what she has created this time.  

If you would like to join the orderly queue to get Lynnderella's, they will be available through the Llarowe wish list system, which will be opened up again for new wishlists soon.  You just need to join up to receive email alerts from the bottom left of the home page at http://shop.llarowe.com/