SM Polish "Precious Gems" and "Farewell Winter-Welcome Spring" Collections Swatches and Reviews - 21 September 2015

Today I have two SMPolish collections to show you, which I have used together in the same manicures because they work perfectly together.  One of the collections, the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection", has already been released and is available at the SMPolish website on Etsy. The other collection, the "Precious Gems Collection", is being released on Friday, 7th October 2015.  I have used the "Precious Gems Collection" on all my fingers, and then added two coats of the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection" to my ring finger nails.

These two collections work extremely well together because the flakies in both polishes match, so it was a no-brainer to decide to use them together when I received them in the mail.  The "Precious Gems Collection", which are crelly glitter polishes with lots of flakies and a textured finish, are unlike any I've seen since I started collecting nail polish and nail art products, and Shakeela has done a wonderful job with them all.  The "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection" flaky glitter polishes are somewhat unique, too, because so far I've only seen flakies used with other shapes and sizes of glitter in any glitter polishes I've come across and/or bought online, or in the stores  And these polishes are a complete glitter bomb, with more than enough glitter to satisfy anyone's needs, I believe.

The "Precious Gems Collection" is a set of six crelly glitter polishes with a textured finish, and the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection" is a set of six flaky glitter polishes with tinted clear bases that may give full cover in three coats, but it is recommended that you use them over a base colour - either a matching colour polish such as I used, or over a black or white base. There are swatches of all the flaky glitter polishes on the SMPolish site here showing them used over both black polish and white polish, so please check them out and see how versatile they are.  However, I personally preferred them used the way I have done, and of course I'm not biased at all.

I used two coats of each of the "Precious Gems Collection" polishes on each nail, with one coat of Grace-full Nail Polish "Base Coat" and "Quick Dry Top Coat".  One coat of the top coat was all I needed to smooth the textured finish of the polishes, and also the flaky glitter polishes.

So, on to the swatches and reviews.  Please forgive my bad clean-ups and application errors.  I was having an extremely busy week, and sunlight was in short supply, so I had to dash out and take photos of some of the swatches before I was really ready to.  Such is life in Tasmania in spring!

The first two polishes I want to show you are "Angelic Amethyst" from the "Precious Gems Collection", and
"Luscious Lilac" from the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".

"Angelic Amethyst" is the most gorgeous soft purple shade, with lots of dark purple flakies and heaps of holographic micro-glitter.  As I mentioned before, it is a crelly glitter polish with a textured finish, and like all of the SMPolish polishes I have used and reviewed previously, it went on like a dream. One thick coat would probably have been enough, but for the photographs I used two, just to be sure.  "Luscious Lilac", the flaky glitter polish on my ring finger, is the most amazing dark purple, and I loved it on top of "Angelic Amethyst".  It also went on really easily, I used two coats, and I hardly had to do any dabbing to get the result shown.  I just know you'll adore these two polishes.  I think they were my favourites of the two collections.  Here are some more photos taken in both shade and sunlight.  As you can see, they are beautiful in any light.

     

The next two polishes I would like to show you are "Glistening Sapphires" from the "Precious Gems Collection", and "Get Lost Jack Frost" from the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".

"Glistening Sapphires" is a gorgeous mid-blue, crelly glitter polish with lots of bright blue and dark blue flakies, and heaps of holographic micro-glitter.  It was sooooo easy to use, and went on beautifully, and has a textured finish, but one coat of top coat smoothed it out beautifully.  "Get Lost Jack Frost" is a beautiful combination of mid and dark blue flaky glitter and holographic micro-glitter, and hardly any dabbing was needed to achieve the coverage shown.  Once again the two polishes go together perfectly, as I knew they would, because they both contain the same coloured flakies.  You really must try these two gorgeous polishes.  Here are some more photos taken in both sun and shade.

    

The third polishes I would like to show you are "Radiant Rubies" from the "Precious Gems Collection" and "Last Fires of Winter" from the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".

"Radiant Rubies" is a silvery red crelly glitter base with loads of red and holographic micro-glitter, and lots of lovely red flakies.  It didn't go on as easily as all the others, and I'm sorry to have to admit that this is my least favourite of all the polishes.  The colour wasn't nearly as pretty as the others in the collection, nor as obvious once on my nails. However, two thin coats gave good coverage, with a textured finish.  "Last Fires of Winter" is a flaky glitter polish with a red-tinted clear base, and went on reasonably well.  Hardly any dabbing was needed to give the coverage shown after two coats.  The polish is loaded with flakies, and the finish can be a bit rough, but one coat of top coat was enough to give a smooth finish over both polishes.  Here are some more photos of these two polishes taken in both sun and shade.

   

 

 The next two polishes I would like to show you are "Sparkling Aquamarine" from the "Precious Gems Collection" and "Last Winter Sky" from the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".

"Sparkling Aquamarine" is a very pretty pale aqua crelly glitter polish, loaded with holographic micro-glitter and lots of lovely aqua flakies.  This polish also went on very easily, and two coats gave really good coverage with a textured finish.  "Last Winter Sky" is a lovely aqua flaky glitter polish in an aqua-tinted clear base.  There are loads of flakies, so virtually no dabbing was needed to get the cover shown.  Once again, just one coat of top coat smoothed out both of these polishes beautifully. I really liked this combination, even though aqua is not normally one of my go-to colours.  For some reason this particular shade goes really well with my skin colour and I was very happy with it.  Once again, here are some more photos taken in both sun and shade.

  

 

The fifth pair of polishes I'd like to show you are "Tourmaline Crystal" from the "Precious Gems Collection", and "Spring Comes Alive" from the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".

 

"Tourmaline Crystal" is a pretty, subtle, silvery-green textured crelly glitter polish, with loads of holographic micro-glitter and lots of emerald green flakies.  This polish went on very easily, two coats were more than enough to give full coverage, and it has a textured finish which just one coat of top coat smoothed out very well.  The colour is quite pretty, but not really one I am enamoured with.  However, "Spring Comes Alive" is very, very pretty, and I just love the colour of the masses of emerald green flakies in the green-tinted sheer base.  I think this polish might get some use for St Patrick's Day next year.  The glitter went on very easily, with virtually no dabbing, and two coats gave the result shown in the photos.  Here are some more photos, taken in sunlight and in shade.

 

Now we come to the last two polishes I'd like to show you today - "Yellow Diamond" from the "Precious Gems Collection", and "Sunshine At Last" from the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".

 

These two polishes were a real surprise because of the colour of the flakies used.  "Yellow Diamond is a shimmery, light yellow crelly glitter polish, loaded with holographic micro-glitter, with lots of gorgeous bright yellow (not gold, but YELLOW) flakies.  This polish is my second favourite of the collection.  It went on very easily, and two coats gave a wonderful textured coverage.  I wasn't sure how this colour would go on my skin colour, but was really surprised when I saw how great it looked.  "Sunshine At Last" is absolutely loaded with yellow (once again, not gold but yellow) flakies in a light yellow-tinted clear base.  The polish went on really easily, and I didn't have to do any dabbing with this one at all.  Just one coat of top coat was enough to smooth out both polishes.  Here are three more photos taken in both sun and shade.

   

     

 

So, that's the latest two collections from SMPolish.  I have to say I was impressed with how easy all but one were to apply to my nails, particularly as the "Precious Gems Collection" is a textured-finish polish.  I don't normally like textured finishes because I find they annoy me, and I usually have to apply at least two thick coats of top coat to smooth them out, and the same thing applies to the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".  With this many flakies of different sizes and shapes I expected them to be very hard to get to sit flat on my nails, and thought I would need two coats of top coat to cover them.  However, one good coat of my Grace-full "Quick Dry Top Coat" did the job perfectly.  

I just love these two collections, and am really looking forward to the release of the "Precious Gems Collection" on Friday, 7th October.  I hope you like them as much as I do.  Please let me know what you think of them if you decide to buy any of either collection.  

I've had a pretty rough couple of weeks for many reasons, and that is why it has been a while since my last posting. I'm still not feeling really great (clinical depression rearing its ugly head), but hopefully things will improve soon.  I feel like I'm in a big dark hole, and I just can't seem to get out of it.  I'm trying art therapy to see if that will help, because it is supposed to be very beneficial to people with my mental health problems.  It certainly is very relaxing, and hopefully I will be able to get back to normal (or what I consider normal) very soon.

I'd love to hear from you with any comments you might have regarding either my blog or the polishes featured here, whether positive or negative, and I hope you'll come back again soon to find out what I have been up to and my latest manicure and/or swatches and reviews.

Have a wonderful day, and may God bless you with an abundance of His mercy and grace.

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope

http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

(I received 5ml sample-size bottles of all the polishes featured here from Shakeela at SMPolish for testing and my honest review.)

KBShimmer "Men Are From Mars-ala" & Powder Perfect "Horse-lords" - 7 August 2015

I am in love once again - this time with KBShimmer "Men Are From Mars-ala", which I have used for this manicure, with Powder Perfect "Horse-lords" used as my feature nail.

I know KBShimmer "Men Are From Mars-ala" has been around for quite some time now, but I was only able to buy a bottle a couple of months ago because it is from a USA Indie Polish maker, which meant it was much more expensive than Aussie Indie polishes, and I've been dying to try it out.  As I'd been so busy last week, I decided to do a simple manicure this week, and while I was looking through my polish collection, trying to work out which ones to use, my eyes lit up when they saw this polish.  Before I purchased it I'd found lots of blogs that absolutely raved about this polish, and I wondered if it would really live up to its hype - and I can assure you it did.  I then looked through my jelly glitter polishes to find one that would go perfectly with this superb marsala shade, and Powder Perfect "Horse-lords" fit the bill exactly.

I started my manicure as usual with a coat of Pretty Serious "Rock On" Nail Strengthener, which is simply the best strengthener I've found anywhere, and I recommend it to everyone.  My nails are never intentionally without it, but after a really busy, rough week, my last mani had lost bits of polish here and there, and when I removed my polish I discovered I had three breaks that had to be patched.  I also had to file down a couple more nails on my left hand, which is usually my go-to hand for photographing, and that is why I've included a photo of my right hand because the nails are a bit longer. Once the strengthener had completely dried, I added a coat of Grace-full Base Coat, which I've found to be fantastic.  Whenever I use it, the polish stays on my fingers a lot longer than with any other base coat I've used to-date, and because I usually want my manicures to last for at least 4 or 5 days, and sometimes even longer, this is exactly what I want.

Then I added two coats of KBShimmer "Men Are From Mars-ala" to every nail except for my ring fingers, although one good coat would have been more than enough if I hadn't been going to photograph it for this blog.  This is one of the most beautiful polishes I've added to my collection since beginning my nail art journey, and since doing my manicure I haven't been able to stop looking at it- literally!  The colour looks amazing on my skin colour, its changes according to the light are wonderful, and the linear holographic shift, especially in sunlight, is unbelievable until you actually see it in person.  It went on smoothly, with no brush marks, and I think I can say, without a doubt, that this has been the easiest polish to apply that I have found since I started doing my nails last October.  The colour is simply beautiful - from a gorgeous, soft marsala shade under indoor lighting, to a simply amazing holographic, shimmery, bright marsala shade in the sun, and all the shades in between depending on what light I happen to be in.  Put quite simply, every facet of this polish blew me away, I'm now completely in love with the marsala colour itself as well, and will definitely be looking for more similar polishes to add to my collection. The only nail polish store I could find who stocked this polish, and would send it to Australia, was the Canadian online store, Harlow & Co., and you will find a link to their site if you click on both the name of the polish and the name of the company.

Next, I added two coats of Powder Perfect "Horse-lords", a rich, maroon jelly with gold & bronze glitter from this wonderful Australian Indie Polish maker.  This went on really easily, and there is heaps of glitter in the bottle, so I didn't have to go fishing for any, or even dab any extra bits of glitter on to fill in any gaps.  Two coats gave just the right amount of glitter, and I'm looking forward to actually trying this polish over a dark base polish, or even over a lighter polish that doesn't particularly please me.  The colour proved to be the perfect foil for "Men Are From Mars-ala", and the overall effect was just beautiful.

To finish off my manicure I applied one coat of Grace-full Nail Polish "Quick Dry Top Coat", which was more than enough to cover even the rough finish of the Powder Perfect "Horse-lords" glitter jelly polish beautifully, and give a smooth, glossy finish.  I love this top coat since buying it, and think it is easily the best one I have at the moment.

Here are some more photos of the finished manicure under different types of lighting so that you can see why I am so in love with this polish.  Unfortunately I was unable to get my camera to catch the full linear holographic effect that you can just see in the bottle in the photo at the top of this post, and also the photo taken in sunlight below, because it caused the camera to flare it was that bright, but I assure you, it is there, and in spades.

 

 

So, what do you think?  Do you agree that the KBShimmer "Men Are From Mars-ala" polish is as wonderful as I do?  And do you love the beautiful jelly glitter polish Powder Perfect "Horse-lords" as much as I do?  Please let me know if you have any comments, good or bad, or perhaps even some suggestions to help me improve my blogging skills, because I would love hear from you.

Well, that's me for another week.  I hope you will come back often to see what I have to share with you, and I can promise you I have some exciting posts coming in the not-to-distant future.

Have a wonderful week, and may God bless you with an abundance of His mercy and grace.

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope
http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

All products used in this post were bought by me, and my opinion is given honestly and freely.

 

Purple Manicure For My Hubby's 75th Birthday Party - 19 July 2015

Hi, and welcome to my blog.  So glad to have you visit!

I wanted my nails to look extra special for my hubby, Trevor's, 75th birthday on Sunday night, so I decided to wear purple.  When my eyes lighted upon these two amazing polishes in my collection, I just knew they were the ones, and that they were crying out to be worn together for this very special occasion.

 

Outside In Sunlight

These two amazing polishes are Shades of Phoenix "Dementor's Kiss" and Grace-full Nail Polish "Twinkling Violets".  "Twinkling Violets" is a Grace-full Nail Polish Fan Facebook Group exclusive polish that I was lucky enough to have the name I suggested chosen for.  If you don't already belong to this fan group, or the Phoenix Flames - Shades of Phoenix Indie Polish Facebook group, I'd really like to suggest that you join.  They are closed groups, but are easy enough to join, and we get the chance to buy exclusive Facebook Group Limited Edition polishes, the chance to choose the names of some of the polishes, chances to win prizes, and sneak previews of all the beautiful polishes these two amazing Aussie Indie Polish makers come up with for all their lucky fanatics. We have heaps of fun, especially when trying to come up with polish names, and oooohing and aaaahing over the previews of the new collections or Limited Edition polishes when they show up on the Facebook pages.  Come on over and check them out - they're awesome.

Now to my manicure.  As usual, I started with one coat of Pretty Serious "Rock On! Nail Strengthener" to all my nails.  Since using this on my nails I've only had one break, and that was my fault because I didn't remove my polish quickly enough when some of it came off, taking the strengthener with it, of course. I banged my nail whilst cooking dinner, and the only bit of the nail that didn't have polish on it broke off - Murphy's Law loves my home!!!!!  That is why you are viewing photos of my non-dominant hand, and also why the clean-up is not as good as usual.  Once again it looked great until I saw the photos -  YAAAGH!!!!  Sorry about that, but you can take it from me, next time my nail polish starts to come off, I'll be removing it and at least applying a coat of "Rock On!" straight away - once bitten, twice shy!!!!

My base coat for this manicure is Shades of Phoenix Base Coat, and I applied one coat of this to all my nails, making sure to wrap it over the ends of my nails for extra protection, as I also did with the "Rock On!".

Then I added one coat of Shades of Phoenix "Dementor's Kiss" to all my nails, and then a second coat to all but my ring fingers.  This polish was a bit patchy with the first coat, but the second coat soon fixed that.  It went on smoothly, and it is absolutely beautiful.  It is a mid-shade purple polish, with lots of holographic ultra-micro glitter throughout, and I was just able to pick that up in my photos, which I was really pleased about.  The photos really don't do it justice, though, which is a real shame.  Teneil, the owner of Shades of Phoenix, has taken maternity leave for the birth of her new baby (born 21 July), so the store is closed at present for a short while, but the Facebook group is still very active, with people sharing their manicures, etc, and now checking out the pictures of our lastest "mini" Phoenix Flames member - she's just beautiful.  It won't be too long, we hope, before Teneil will be back making more of her wonderful Aussie Indie nail polishes.

Next, I added two coats of Grace-full Nail Polish "Twinkling Violets" to my ring fingers, which gave me an amazing jelly effect.  This is a dark purple jelly polish, with blue tones, and so much tiny purple, blue and holographic glitter it really blew me away.  I haven't been able to stop looking at it since I put it on.  I just wish everyone could have bought some of this beautiful polish, but I'm afraid that's not possible.  This polish was a Facebook group only Limited Edition polish, as I said earlier, so there is no more available at all, unless you could possibly pick some up in a destash sale online somewhere.  However, I doubt that would happen, because I can't imagine anyone wanting to remove this polish from their collection.  So, don't forget to check out the Grace-full Nail Polish Fan Facebook Group so you don't miss out on any more amazing Limited Edition polishes, and also to see the photos of all the amazing polishes swatches that members have put up on the site.  I fear if you do you may well become as addicted as I am, and your bank balance will suffer the same as mine.

To finish my manicure I used Shades of Phoenix Top Coat, which went on really well over both polishes.  The Grace-full Nail Polish "Twinkling Violets" had a slightly rough finish, so I added a second coat to my ring fingers, and that smoothed it out beautifully.  I also made sure to wrap my top coat over the tips of my nails to give me even more protection for my polish.  

Here are some more photos of my manicure, including a macro image of Grace-full Nail Polish "Twinkling Violets" which will give you some idea of just how much glitter there is in the polish.

 

Inside Under Artificial Light

 

Outside In The Shade

 

Macro of "Twinkling Violets"

So, that's my manicure for this week.  I hope you like it as much as I do.  If you do, please check out the two amazing Aussie Indie Polish makers at the links given above.  You certainly won't regret it if you are an Indie Polish fan - these are definitely two of the best brands available online.

Thank you so much for visiting, and if you'd like to leave any comments, I would love to know what you think, whether good or bad.  I will be back in a couple of day's time, God willing (and providing Australia Post get their act into gear for a change), with a new collection from a very new Aussie Indie Nail Polish maker, and some really exciting news, but I'll have to make you wait for the information about that until then, and leave you wondering - oh, I'm so mean!! I hope you'll come back often to see what I have to share with you about my nail art journey since my dance with Breast Cancer, chemotherapy and radiotherapy last year (2014).  It's been a rough ride at times, and the last couple of months have been particularly bad health-wise (more about that later, perhaps), but I'm getting there!

God bless you, and have a wonderful week.

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope
http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

Green Skittlette Manicure - 23 June 2015

Finally I've managed to get my manicure for this week done, and it is a green skittlette, featuring two of the polishes I got in the Lyme Disease Awareness Giveaway Prize and another beautiful green polish.  I can't stop looking at my manicure, even though I thought I would never wear green nail polish, because it's never been one of my favourite colours.  Needless to say, I've changed my mind.  Then again, with these three beautiful polishes to use, I think it shouldn't have come as a surprise to me.

The polishes I used are Pretty Serious "VT100", Grace-full Nail Polish "Lyme for a Cure" and Emily de Molly "You're Not That Great".  "Lyme for a Cure" is the Limited Edition polish made only for the Lyme Disease Awareness Giveaway" last month, and "You're Not That Great" was also in the prize package. If you haven't already seen my post about this prize that I won, you can check it out below.  I also used Pretty Serious "Rock On Strengthener" and Grace-full Nail Polish "Quick Dry Top Coat".

Taken in the shade in my sunroom.

I started with one coat of Pretty Serious "Rock On Strengthener" on all my nails, then another coat on a couple that are still very fragile to give them a bit of extra protection.  Then, would you believe I forgot to put on my base coat?  I couldn't believe it myself, but there you go.  It will be interesting to see how "Rock On" performs as a base coat on its own.  I'll let you know when I do my next manicure.

Next I painted my pinkie and my thumb nails with two coats of Pretty Serious "VT 100", which is a beautiful deep-green shimmer polish with micro silver and green glitter, which unfortunately is no longer available.  The polish went on really smoothly, and is almost a one-coat polish, but I used two coats for my manicure.  The colour is gorgeous, and there is an amazing amount of glitter, which unfortunately was very hard to catch in some of my photos, but here is a macro photo of it that will give you some idea of how lovely it is.

Taken in overcast conditions outside.

Then I painted my index and ring fingers with Grace-full Nail Polish "Lyme for a Cure".  This polish is just beautiful to use, and coverage was fantastic with two coats.  I'm so glad I won this prize, because this polish isn't available to others, and the colour is so gorgeous and rich, with so many colours flashing through it I couldn't name them all.  It's a beautiful green holo, but unfortunately I was unable to catch its true beauty with my camera.  Here is a macro of it, however, which does show some of the colour shift.

 

Beautiful, isn't it?  This is one of the polishes that has completely changed my opinion of using green polish on my nails.  I can assure you, I will be using lots more in the future.

The polish I used on my middle nails is Emily de Molly "You're Not That Great", which is a lime green crelly, loaded with holographic lime and turquoise glitter, and blue shimmer.  I used three coats because I wanted to get the jelly effect, and the effect is amazing.  I don't know why it is called "You're No That Great" because it certainly is great!  I found it shifted almost to turquoise on my nails, but still had enough green in it to look great with the other two polishes.  Here is a macro shot of it for you to drool over.  

This polish is still available, so pop on over to Emily de Molly for a look at some more great photos.

I finished my manicure with one coat of Grace-full Nail Polish "Quick Dry Top Coat".  This is the first time I've used this top coat, and I'm very impressed with it.  There was no bubbling on any of the polishes, unlike with the OPI "Natural Nail Top Coat" I used for my last manicure.  The finish is lovely and glossy, and it flowed on beautifully.  I can really recommend it, so pop on over to Grace-full to check it out now.

Now, here are some more photos of my complete manicure, which will show you why I'm so pleased with the result.

  
These photos were taken in the sun on my front porch.

Taken in the shade in my sunroom.

  

Taken inside under artificial light.

Taken in overcast conditions outside.

Well, that's my manicure for yesterday.  I'm really pleased with all the polishes I used, and just love the final result of the combination of these three polishes.  I hope you agree, and I would really appreciate any comments you might have.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you'll come back often to see what I have to share with you.   You can follow me by filling in the boxes at the top right-hand side of the page if you so wish.
 

Have a wonderful day, and may God bless you!

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope

http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

 

I was not paid in any way, shape or form for using any of the items mentioned in this post,
and my honest opinions are given freely and without any bias at all.

Brown And Copper Skittle Manicure - 14 June 2015

Finally, after over a week of major ups and bigger downs in our home and in our lives, here is my latest skittle manicure.  I used five different brown and/or copper colours, and I am amazed at how well they went together.  Here are the products I used:

Now to some photos of my manicure, taken in artificial light at BigW and outside, but with light cloud cover, and just a touch of sunshine.

  

                      Under Artificial Light at BigW                                   Outside In Shade

Outside Under Light Cloud

I started with one coat of Pretty Serious "Rock On" Strengthener on all my nails, and a second coat on a couple that are still very thin and fragile.  Then I put one coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat on them all.

On my pinky fingers I used Model's Prefer "Double Shot" creme polish, which looks like a really dark brown in the bottle, but with two coats on my pinky nails it looks black, so I was a bit disappointed, because I wanted it to be brown to fit with the rest of the colours I used. However, it was very easy to work with, and I had excellent coverage with two coats.

On my ring fingers I used Grace-full Nail Polish "And My Axe", which is a dark red-brown jelly packed with holo, silver, gold, copper and bronze glitter.  In real life, just looking at it on my hands, I seemed to have full coverage with just two coats but, thanks to my hubby buying me a smart phone with such good photographic ability, I realise now that I should have added another coat, and perhaps done a bit of dabbing.  Like all my Grace-full Nail Polish, it looks amazing under any lighting, but especially under artificial light and in the sun.  Unfortunately it was cloudy yesterday, so it was very hard to get any photos in full sunlight.  That's the problem with living in Tasmania in winter.  Unfortunately this polish is no longer available, but there are heaps of other wonderful polishes available.

On my middle fingers I used Pretty Serious Cosmetics "Seasonal Sunset", a rusty, jelly-base colour packed with gold and copper glitter. In real life it is a real glitter bomb, and it was so hard to get a a photo that did it justice.  It goes on like a dream, and I only needed two coats to get fantastic coverage.  I probably could have had enough cover with just one good coat, but I wanted it to look good for the swatch, so I gave it the extra coat. This polish is also no longer available, and was a gift from a dear friend who knew that I wanted a bottle of it and that I hadn't known about Pretty Serious Cosmetics when this colour was available.  Thank you, Therese.  I absolutely love it!

On my index fingers I used Shades of Phoenix "Fred's Courage" from the Shades of Potter Collection, which is a burnt orange, autumn-leaf coloured polish.  It went on really smoothly, with full cover in two coats, but when I put the top coat on it bubbled, and got worse overnight.  I was so disappointed, because the colour is amazing, and I was so looking forward to using it.  I will definitely use it again with a different top coat.  The Shades of Potter Collection is wonderful, and I can't wait to try the other colours in the collection.

Finally, on my thumbs I used one of the new Ulta3 Autumn/Winter Metallic Collection polishes, "from the mine", which is a gorgeous copper, metallic glitter bomb with a textured finish.  I also added just one coat of this polish to my pinky fingers to try and take some of the starkness off the colour on them. I don't normally like rough finishes, but with just one coat of top coat this was not so rough that it catches on things, and I love it. All this collection is beautiful, and I just had to give this one a try.  If you haven't tried these polishes yet, get to your nearest Terry White Pharmacy and find them as soon as you can.  There are five in the set, and every single one of them is just gorgeous. 

I finished off with one coat of OPI Natural Nail Top Coat, which gave everything a lovely glossy finish.  However, as I mentioned earlier, it made the polish on my index fingers bubble, but not any of the other polishes.

So, there you have it for this post.  I'm really pleased with how the colour combination worked out and my nails are growing once again, although they still have a long way to go, thanks to both the Pretty Serious Nail Care treatments I am using, "Rock On Nail Strengthener" and "Cuticle Hero Super Hydrating Cuticle Oil".  They are really great, and I'm so glad that I discovered them, and was blessed with some items from this range by a lovely friend of mine.  Thanks, Chris, you know who you are.

I'll be back again soon to show you my birthday present stash from my hubby, and a couple of other great finds.  Thanks for visiting, and I hope you'll come back soon to see what I have to share with you.

Have a great week, and God bless you!

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope
http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

burnt orange Autumn leaf coloured polish.

My Skittlette Mani On 31-5-2015

YAY!!! Finally I've been able to do a manicure!  I am so over the moon that I could finally paint my nails, and even though my camera showed EVERY flaw on my cuticles and the fact that I couldn't paint over the tips of my nails because they are so short, I'm very pleased with the result.

So, here are the products I used:

 

I decided to do a skittlette manicure so that I could feature several of my new polishes in the one mani, and these three look amazing together.  All these polishes are Aussie Indie Polish from some of the best makers in the world.

I started by putting one coat of Pretty Serious "Rock On" strengthener, and then one coat of Revlon "Quick Dry Base Coat" on all my nails.

Next, I painted two coats of Grace-full Nail Polish "Kate" on my thumb, index and pinkie nails, although one coat would have been enough if I'd used a thicker coat.  This polish went on like a dream, and the colour just blew me away.  It kept changing depending on what angle the light was hitting it from, so it is very hard to describe.  Theresa, the owner and maker of the amazing Grace-full polishes, describes it as a hot pink linear holo, and it is from the "Last Girls Of Summer" collection.  All I can say is, if you don't already have this polish in your stash, you are missing out badly.  I'm going to order another bottle soon before it disappears forever, so that should tell you how much I love it.  Thanks, Theresa, for making such an awesome polish.  You're the best!

On my ring finger I painted Shades of Phoenix "Dobby's Ears" from the "Shades of Potter" Collection.  This polish I found to be very thin, and I needed three coats to get full coverage, but it did go on very easily, and dried quickly, with no streaks at all.  The colour is a bright muted pink, with a pearl/shimmer finish in the shade, and a lovely, soft holographic finish in the sun.  I'm really hard to please with pink nail polish, because so many don't look good on my olive skin, but this one is definitely exception.  I looks great on my nails, and will be used often in the future. This collection of polishes was bought for my by my daughter for Mother's Day, and I'm so glad she did (thanks, Megs). Thanks also to Teneil for producing such wonderful nail polish for her adoring public. They are just soooooo pretty.  There are five polishes in the collection, and they are all completely different, so please check them out.

On my middle finger I then painted three coats of LYZ Cosmetics Fairybread Artisan Nail Lacquer "Flowers For My Love" from the January "Sweet Surprise Box" so that I could get the real crelly effect that I was looking for.  This polish is an absolutely gorgeous, and the only way you can get it is by purchasing the surprise box, which will not be available much longer, and Elizabeth is not doing any more of these boxes in the future, which is a real pity.  She told me that she would be replacing it with something equally as good, though, so I'm keeping an eye out to see what she comes up with, but if you'd like to get this particular polish, you'd better be quick.  It is a beautiful very pale pink crelly, with different sizes of hot pink and gold glitter, and a gorgeous soft shimmer.  It is really hard to describe, but is really pretty.  Here is a macro shot of it.  The crelly effect is amazing!  Thank you so much, Elizabeth, for this beautiful polish, and for all the others that I have purchased from you.

Next I added some gold decals to my ring fingers, and finished off with one coat of Revlon "Quick Dry Top Coat" on all my nails except for my ring fingers, to which I added two coats for extra protection for the decals.

Here are some photos taken in different lighting effects to show the amazing differences I found in all these polishes depending on where I was when I looked at them.

Left hand in the sun

 

Right hand under fluorescent lighting in the doctor's surgery.

Right hand in the kitchen.

Right hand again in the kitchen.

   

On the left is my left hand under light at night; on the right is my right hand in daylight inside.

So, that's my manicure for this week.  Even though I was so out of practice, and made a bit of a mess of it, I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out and, of course, the beautiful polishes made all the difference.  I only wish I could have had longer, better shaped nails so that I could do them full justice, as others have done online.  However, now my nails are starting to grow again, and I'm thrilled to bits with that.  Since starting to use my Pretty Serious "Rock On" Strengthener I haven't had one break, whereas before that I was having them nearly once a week at least, so I love this product, and can definitely recommend it.  I am also using Pretty Serious "Cuticle Hero" Super Hydrating Cuticle Oil, their heavy duty oil, which is only a very new product in their range, and was sent as part of a RAOK by a friend. Unfortunately, yesterday morning I was in such a rush, because I had two doctors' appointments, one in the morning, and then another one early in the afternoon, I forgot to oil my cuticles, which is why they look so dry in the photos.  They have improved immensely since my accident with the nail glue, and I'm really disappointed that I had to use these photos, but we hardly had any sun today, and the light was terrible.

Thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope you'll come back often to see what I have to share with you.  I received three more lots of nail mail today, so will share that with you very soon.  Please let me know what you think about my blog and/or reviews and swatches.  I'd really appreciate your feedback.  You can follow my blog if you go to the top of the page on the right-hand side and fill out the boxes, etc.

Have a wonderful day, and may God bless you.

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope

http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

a bright muted pink

a bright muted pink

a bright muted pink

a bright muted pink

All these products were either bought by me or given to me by family or friends, and I received no reward for these reviews.