ShopCall: Essie Bargains

As you haven't already guessed or are a first time reader (...welcome!), I am a nail polish junkie! From bright summer corals and pastel lilacs, to wintery deep purples and greys, I love nail polish. This is a slight problem when you live in Australia and lust after brands such as OPI, essie and chinaglaze as they are very hard to get a hold of. However, you will never believe my excitement when I stumbled across beautybay.com - the answer to getting reasonably priced nail polish delivered free straight to my doorstep-YAY! After filling my basket high with nail polishes for every season I began to narrow it down. I decided I would wait to place the order, and I am very glad I did! The other day I was shopping and came across a store called: Cosmetics Fragrance Direct, I had never seen this store before so of course I had to go in. BEST DECISION EVER! The company has shops in QLD, NSW, ACT, VIC and SA and guarantee 100% authenticity of their products, with all products being dramatically reduced! That was when I spotted the essie bowl... (cue 'dun dun duuunnn'!) There was not hundreds of colours to choose from but there was a wide variety of shades to suit everyone's style, and the best of all, the sets! 

The nail polishes retail at $6.00 - half the price of the $12.00 beauty bay ones! 
And the sets retail at the bargain price of $5.00! for 4 nail polishes - dirt cheap compared to the  $16.90 beauty bay ones!

Granted, these shades are not the newest ones, but all the shades I picked up can be purchased from beauty bay, so obviously they are still going strong!
The shades I picked up were:

Individuals:

Braziliant 15ml: A hot orange with a touch of shimmer.

Miss Matched 15ml: A sheer pinky lilac.

Set:

Fair Game 5ml: A metallic, gunmetal blue

Your Hut Or Mine 5ml: A shimmering soft coral red.

Da Bush 5ml: A pale, sage green.

Lion Around 5ml: A lovely soft peach pink with a subtle shimmer finish.

*all descriptions of the colours are taken from beautybay.com

Nail Polishes Perfect For Spring

From Right to Left: Tidal Wave, Bubble, (No Name*),
(No Name*), Misty Jade, Hottie.

Pastels, pastels, pastels! They are everywhere you look this season, from jeans and tops to nail polish, you cannot go shopping without spying the light colour selection in at least a few shop windows! I love pastel nail polish as it is a lot more toned down than other coloured nail polishes (fluro yellow anyone?) and goes hand in hand with the pastel jeans trend.

 However, even though pastel nail polishes may be easy to wear, not all of them are easy to apply. Being  light colours you can often find pastel shades come out watery and take A LOT of coats to reach opacity but the Rimmel Misty Jade colour and the shades I picked up only take 2-3 coats which is great.

In spring I also love having bright colours on my nails (fingers and toes!), to brighten up any spring day which may be missing a few warm rays of sun. I love Revlon's Tidal Wave and Bubble for this. Tidal wave is a beautiful teal colour, with green duochromes in it, a definate eye catcher! And bubble is just a hot blue-toned pink, no frills on this one but gorgeous nonetheless!

In Spring I love wearing nail-polish on my nails to give a perfectly polished look to any outfit! 
What are your favourite colours to paint your nails with in the Spring?  

*No name on the bottles but available from Seed

Winter Warmers - Nails

During the colder months painting your nails can make the grey-dreary weather seem a little brighter. I like to wear nail polishes that reflect the season whilst also following the current trends. Below are some of my favourite nail polishes to wear in the winter because of the way they add to warm winter outfits or the way the brighten up any rainy day.

From Left to Right: Revlon 'Grape', Orly 'Luxe' and
 Mecca Cosmetica 'Mariah'

Revlon Top Speed 'Grape'

I find that this colour even though it looks dark and like any other deep purple it really adds some shimmer to a outfit with out being to obvious. Yes it is a dark colour, but the shimmer which it contains adds a little sparkle to your nails and it is a dream to apply as you can easily get away with just applying one coat. And the colour nearly goes with everything!

Orly 'Luxe'

You may have seen this nail polish used in my DIY: Splatter Nails post and that is because I love it! It is a amazing gold colour, perfect to wear with any winter outfit and a show-stopping polish overall. You need at least two coats of this polish to reach full opacity and it does have the difficultly of removing (just like any glitter nail polish) but I can assure you its worth it. With a decent top-coat this polish can last all week, perfect if you hate messing around doing your nails during the week. And can be used in a variety of different ways just to add some sparkle, I love using it as a accent nail (by just painting my ring finger) or splattering on your nails do add some sparkle.

Mecca Cosmetica 'Mariah'

I wear this polish all year round but especially love the way the neutral, nude shades contrast against dark winter clothes. This nail polish looks great with a glitter nail polish over the top if you are looking to glam it up or on its own for a practical, neutral shade that will go with everything in your wardrobe. You need two coat of this nail polish to reach full opacity but it is a very long wearing polish lasting around 8-10 days with a top coat on. And can be used as a great base colour for any nail art or designs because of its neutral colour.

NOTD: Galaxy Nails

I have been loving the 'Galaxy Nail Trend' lately so decided to try it out for myself! I watched a very easy and informative tutorial and saw that creating this look was not as hard as it seemed! 

This was the finished product:

Overall I am very happy with the final look, I think it is the perfect way to jazz up plain nail polish while not being to 'in your face'. I think next time I will try and focus on adding a pink instead of a purple, because I like the contrast between the pink and the blues with were used in the tutorial. 
Nail Polishes I used:
- OPI (I don't know what the name is as it is a mini and has no-name on the bottom...)
- OPI 'What's with the Cattitude?'
- Revlon 'Tidal Wave'
- Orly 'Hype'
- Satin '35'
If you would like to know how to create this look here is a wonderful tutorial!

DIY: Splatter Nails

The other day I was getting bored with my plain nail polish and decided to give the splatter nail polish trend a whirl. I had seen two YouTube tutorials on this look (both linked below) so I decided it looked simple enough to try. You can have a look at the tutorials and the post if you fancy giving this look a try, as I believe they all explain the steps very well. So here is a look at how my nails turned out!

 Before...

And After...

This design was super-simple and perfect to glam up any plain nail polish! I cant wait to try it with a different selection of nail polishes!

I used: 

-Mecca Cosmetica 'Mariah' (Base Colour)

- Revlon Top Speed 'Grape'

- Orly "Luxe'

How to do it:
A wonderful tutorial using neutrals and a pop of colour
Another tutorial using summery neon shades