Ulta3 - Melted Marshmallow

I recently spotted this Ulta3 shade mixed amongst the others in the big polish bin at my local chemist.  It was a shade that I didn't have in my collection, it is made in PRC (which means it's newish) but it was never released as part of any collection.

Melted Marshmallow is your classic very pale pink pearl polish with a fantastically frosty finish.  Urrgghhh, really, I can't believe polish companies still make shades like these.  But I guess someone out there likes them and keeps buying them, otherwise they wouldn't keep making them (well I guess I just bought it too, so maybe I'm perpetuating the demand)

This was three coats of Melted Marshmallow, applied very carefully so as to minimize brush strokes as much as possible.  Just looking at the bottle I knew I wasn't going to like this polish much, and after the first brush stroke I was right.  But, and I can't believe I'm going to say this, at three coats it actually looked ok. 

Do you have any classic frosty shades in your collection?  If so, did you buy them in the 1980's or were they just a buying mistake :)

Aussie Christmas Challenge - BBQ and Ulta3 Citrus

Here are my ugly and sucky BBQ nails for today's Aussie Christmas Challenge.  The base is Kleancolor metallic orange with a glad wrap (saran wrap) design using Pretty Serious Santa's Sunburn, Kleancolour Metallic Yellow and Black.  I then did some black lines stamped (very crookedly!).  It's meant to be the glowing coals under the hot grill!

Yeah, lets just move on to some other swatches shall we? Nothing to see up here!

I figured I would show these swatches today given my shitty effort for the challenge.

These are the Ulta3 Citrus polishes.

Tangello - A bright neon orange creme.  This is three coats with Seche Vite.  The formula on this was pretty good.  A nice bright neon that doesn't need to be layered over white.

Here is a quick comparison with Tangelo from last years Summer collection, close but they are not identical.

Atomic OJ - this would be my favourite from this collection.  Its totally unique amongst all my Ulta3s and in my entire collection.  Imagine this colour more neon and less yello - more the colour of orange juice - atomic oj really is the perfect name.  It's like some crazy radioactive orange juice!

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Fruit Punch - a pink toned red creme.  I did three coats here just to make sure it was smooth and even.  The formula was ok on this, but not great.

There are a few Ulta3 shades that are similar to this one.  Pink Colada is the closest, but personally way better because it's a one coater.  Coral Reef from the recent Candy Cane is also quite similar at three coats.

Fresh Squeezed - I quite honestly really disliked this one.  This is four coats and it was still streaky and transparent when viewed in the sun.

Here is a comparison of my similar Ulta3 shades.  Fresh Squeezed is at four coats, the others are three coats.  Honolulu was the most opaque and the one I like best.

The citrus collection also doubles up on a previously released shade - Tahitian Lime.  Tahitian Lime wasn't much of a favourtie colour last time I wore it, so I didn't want to swatch it again.

Another Ulta3 Nail sticker design

Here is another set of the Ulta3 nail stickers that I tried.  The design has a combination of raised gold droplets together with gold mesh design.  The stickers themselves are translucent, so your base colour shows through the little diamond shapes and around the droplets.  I chose to wear them over a black base.

When I first applied these, they were lovely and smooth, but I decided to add a coat of Seche Vite to seal in the tips and help stop any lifting.  Unfortunately, this caused the tips to wrinkle up a bit, and created some creases in the sides too.  The following day the Seche Vite peeled off in a large sheet off every nail.  It lifted off up to the textured part, where it ripped like perforated paper.

The instructions don't say anything about adding a top coat to the stickers, but I thought, at the time, it was a good idea. In the future though, I wont be adding Seche Vite and I will see what the wear is like and if the tips peel.

This is what the packet looks like.  It comes with 16 stickers, costs $5 and I use the five largest sizes.

Has anyone else tried these Ulta3 nail stickers yet?  What was your experience like.

I still find them rather thick, especially compared to the PERL strips that I reviewed (and have since purchased various other designs.)

Ulta3 Candy Cane - Summer collection Part 1

As many Aussie girls would already know, Ulta3 recently released a candy cane full of new shades.  The candy cane only costs $12.95 and it has 10 polishes in it.  Which is truly unbelievable value for nail polish here in Australia.  If you are looking for a local stockist, check out the Ulta3 Stockist Locator app on their Facebook page.

Today I have part one of my swatches, the top row of five colours.

Photo credit: Not exactly sure, taken from Aussie nails - please let me know if its yours.

Exotic Canary - 4 coats + Seche Vite top coat.  Bright yellow creme, but not neon.  It's definitely tweety bird yellow, so the name certainly suits the polish.  A slightly darker yellow than frangipani.

Tangerine Tango - 3 coats + Seche Vite.  A very bright orange creme. More orange than carrot top.

Peach Paradise - 3 coats + Seche Vite. A salmon pink coral shade.  Quite similar to the made in Australia version of watermelon, but a little lighter.

Coral reef - 3 coats + Seche Vite. Bright yellow toned red creme.  Looks similar to the made in Australia version of Scarlet.  Still some tiny visible nail line at three coats, which means maybe this is a bit jelly like.

Pink Hibiscus - 2 coats + Seche vite. Bright pink creme. There are quite of lot of Ulta3 pinks that are similar to this shade, Party Shoes and Bo Peep would be the closest.

Unlike many of the new made in PRC Ulta3s, these were all quite thin and not really opaque at all.  Most needed three coats and the yellow needed 4 coats. But having said that, this year's candy cane is so much better than last years, simply because it actually contains new shades.  Last years was just a fancy christmas way of selling 10 existing colours.  

Part 2 tomorrow.

Ulta3 Nail Art Nail Stickers

Cheap Aussie nail polish brand Ulta3, recently released these nail art nail stickers.  Despite having never tried full nail strips, stickers or foils before, I just couldn't help myself and I grabbed a few packets.

These ones really took my fancy, it has rainbow droplets that are metallic and textured (textured finishes are so fun, I was rubbing my thumb over my fingers all day)  This design of the stickers are transparent, so your base polish colour shows through.  I liked how these looked in the packet with the white paper backing so I decided to do them over white.  I reckon they would look awesome over black too (in fact I bought two packs of these ones so I will try that one day)

Here is what the packet looks like on the left, and on the right what it's like inside.  What really shocked me is that the colours on the hidden part didn't match the ones that showed.  I had carefully selected these ones because they had a color combo I liked (this design seems to vary packet by packet as to what colours are in the rainbow droplets)

Here is my right hand.  It seemed really strange to have completely different colours on both hands. One hand had warm yellows and reds, and the other had cool blues and purples.

The packet comes with 16 stickers (in this case 8 of each colour). Each sticker is a different size.  I noticed that all the stickers had about a 1mm border of clear sticker with no droplets on it.  I didn't like the idea of having a gap around the sides and cuticle, so I trimmed that extra clear part off.  

From go to whoa, these took me about 30 minutes to apply.

My nail beds are quite long and I wouldn't consider my nails wide, but I did used the five largest stickers from each colour (except on my right hand pinky where I underestimated the width of my nail).  Which leads me to one issue I had.  Because these were all in a sheet where you just lift off each sticker when you want to apply it, I found it difficult to determine the right size sticker to use.  Most of the stickers, foils or strips are in an individual nail shape which is much easier to line up and work out if its the right size. Being a single sheet on opaque white backing paper made it tricky. Once I had worked out which sticker to use, and trimmed the gap off, the application was really easy.  They stuck down well and didn't wrinkle or crease on my very curved nails.

I also found these rather stiff, especially when folding the free edge down to file off. I think I also filed a bit of length off when I was trying to file off the sticker end.  

I applied a coat of Seche Vite and wrapped my tips, although they still felt a little rough on the edges and I could have filed more.

I only wore these for one full day (cause who can wear any nail polish for longer than one day - right?) and they did last very well.  They didn't peel around the cuticle or nail edge but they did start to lift a little in one or two spots on the free edge. When I peeled them off they were super sticky still, and well attached, so I think they would have lasted at least another two or three days. The packet says 'lasts up to six days'  I'm not convinced they would last that long.

These nail stickers are $5 a packet, but you only get one manicure out of them.  The left over strips might be good for feature nails or cut up for nail art, so I will hang on to them.

Ulta3 new 2012 glitter collection

Ulta3 have recently released a couple of new collections.  There is the Greetings from Paradise range that comes in either a set of five minis ($8.95) or a candy cane with 10 full sized bottles ($12.95). I managed to get the candy cane today at my local pharmacy, where I also noticed they have the full 2012 new glitter collection.  Of course when I was looking a couple of weeks back they didn't have them, so with thanks to Alanna from Pretty Purple Polish, I was able to get them sooner.

I love me some matchy-matchy undies, so most of these I have shown with a very similar base colour.  Check out Alanna's blog to see these shades with no base colour.

Disco Fever - two dabbled coats over China Glaze Ruby Pumps.  It looks to me like it contains three different sizes of red hex glitter.

Luck of the Irish - two dabbled coats over China Glaze Emerald Sparkle.  Again, three different sizes of hex glitter, this time in green.

New Years Eve - two dabbled coats over Contrary Polish Bright Night.  Three sizes of hex glitter in aqua blue.  The color of this one is nearly identical to Picture Polish Splash, I hope to be showing all the Picture Polish glitters soon.  This is the only one that is dupy of any of the Picture Polish shades.

Pot of Gold - two dabbled coats over China Glaze Cats Eyes.  Yes that's right, three sizes of hex glitter in what I'm actually going to call metallic yellow.  This is such a yellow gold it is completely unlike anything else in my collection.  I much prefer a cool toned gold like Essence Make it Golden.  I love gold polish, but I don't think I actually like this one very much.

Twinkle Toes - Two dabbled coats over Joe Fresh Gunmetal.  Three sizes of silver hex glitter.

Over the rainbow - The star of the collection.  This is two dabbled coats layered over black.  Contains three sizes of hex glitter in aqua blue, red, yellow and pink.  When I saw the collection down at my local chemist (after I'd already got them from Alanna) I grabbed about another 4 bottle of this.  I think this is the best multi-coloured glitter for the price, hands down EVER!

So now you've see the pretty pictures, now the slightly uglier side.  All of these polishes had some slight reflective curling.  Nothing that sticks up beyond one coat of topcoat, but certainly worth mentioning.

Formula - Lets just say I'm not a fan.  I could only describe the formula on these as gelatinous. It was thick and gloopy and oh so ever stinky!  These smell just like my JQ glitter polishes from China. Peeeyeeewww.  I also thought it interesting that none of these polishes contained balls, so I added two to each of my bottles to help mix them up.  Today when I went to put these on, I tried to shake the ball around, but it just wouldn't budge.  That is how thick and gelatinous these polishes are.

Dry time was slow, I don't think any of these swatches are fully dry.  Sure the top coat is, but they just slid off my nail when taking them off to swatch the next one.

But, they only cost $2.  As far as I'm concerned, you just can't complain about a polish that only costs $2 in Australia.  Yeah, I know you US girls get cheap dollar polishes all the time, but these are the cheapest brand in Australia and I think these are excellent glitter payoff for the price.  At $2 you can't afford not to pick up all six of these.

Aussie girls, have you found these yet, and which ones did you get?