Mare Of The Moon

Hey guys, sorry I've been so MIA, I've had a million uni assignments due at once. This is just a quick post tonight, but hopefully I'll have another post up around Wednesday once things calm down a little (who am I kidding, things won't actually calm down until after my final exam on the 12th). Anyway, this is another blue mani that I did as part of Autism Awareness Month in April, Rainbow Honey 'Mare Of The Moon'.

Full sunlight

Full sunlight

Shade

'Mare Of The Moon' is a beautiful navy blue polish with a purple duochrome shift filled with holo silver hexes and moon shaped glitters. I know that a lot of people have complained about not being able to get the moon glitters out of the bottle. I didn't have any problems getting them out, but I have to say, I think I would have liked this polish better without them. Application was smooth, except for the moon glitters. Maybe it was just my bottle, but the polish was actually stuck in clumps to the moons. I can't quite explain that one. Anyway, I used a small brush dipped in some remover to get rid of the clumps, which is why the polish coverage on some of the moons looks a little dodgy.

Bottle shot

You can purchase Rainbow Honey polishes from the Rainbow Honey website if you live in the USA and Canada, otherwise there's a list of international retailers here. If you're in Australia Femme Fatale Cosmetics also stock Rainbow Honey, but they don't seem to be on the stockist list for some reason.

Spring Fling

I was recently lucky enough to have Femme Fatale Cosmetics provide me with a couple of polishes for review, one of which I'm going to show you today. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Femme Fatale Cosmetics (NOT to be confused with Femme Fatale Lacquer) are an Australian indie company who make not only nail polish, but other cosmetics including blush and eyeshadow. They are also the only stockist for international indie polishes in Australia. The polish I have for you today is one of Femme Fatale Cosmetics' own polishes, 'Spring Fling'.

Full sunlight

Full sunlight

Bottle shot

'Spring Fling' was released as part of the Easter Trio for 2013, and is a medium opacity creme polish in a fresh minty green colour. It contains a whole array of glitters including white diamonds and hexes, metallic fuchsia dots and hexes, pastel green hexes, tiny lime green hexes, and blue iridescent glitters. In my swatches I've applied 3 coats, and had no issues with application. I recommend a thick top coat to smooth it out though, as it can be a tad bumpy without it.

'Spring Fling' has been likened to another Femme Fatale Cosmetics polish, 'Winter Hyacinth'. Some of you may remember that I reviewed 'Winter Hyacinth' back in November last year, but I'll pop a photo up here so that you can see the differences.

Winter Hyacinth - 2 coats over China Glaze 'For Audrey' (see my original post here)

I'll admit that at first glance they do appear to be quite similar as those fuchsia dots and white diamonds are so striking. I promise you though that that's where the similarities end. In addition to the fuchsia dots and white diamonds, 'Winter Hyacinth' has rose glitters, holographic fuchsia hexes, large white hexes, and a teal base. 'Spring Fling' has pastel green hexes, white hexes (which are smaller than those in 'Winter Hyacinth') and tiny lime and iridescent blue glitters in a minty base. If you own 'Winter Hyacinth' and love it, I suggest you get 'Spring Fling' too, they're each beautiful in their own right.

L - R: 'Spring Fling' and 'Winter Hyacinth'

Femme Fatale Cosmetics polishes can be purchased for $9.85 for a 12ml bottle through their website for those of you living in Australia. For those of you who live internationally, a full list of stockists can be found here.

Disclosure note: The product/s in this post were provided for review. This did not affect my opinion of the product/s.

Rococo Grandeur

Sorry guys, I'm a little behind with blogging, but I'm finally catching up with some of the blue manis that I did in April as part of Paint It Blue (for Autism) that I didn't get to show you at the time. Today I have one of HARE Polish's newest creations from the Last Queen of France Collection to show you. This is 'Rococo Grandeur'.

Full sunlight

Full sunlight

Full sunlight

Being a lover of all things pastel, I adore 'Rococo Grandeur'. It consists of a baby blue jelly base (which could almost be classed as a crelly), with baby pink and gold glitters. There's also a subtle blue shimmer which was incredibly hard to photograph, but you can just see it peeking through in my third photo above. I used 1 thickish coat followed by a second thin coat. Alternatively you could use 3 thin coats to reach opacity, but from memory I was feeling impatient when I did this mani. Application was smooth and I didn't need to fish for glitters at all.

Bottle shot

HARE Polishes can be purchased through their etsy store, or through Shoppe Eclecticco (use code NO2PC at checkout for a discount), Femme Fatale Cosmetics (will be re-stocking in a week or so), and Llarowe.

Daphne's Birthday Party

Today I have a brand to show you that has yet to make an appearance on my blog due to my enormous pile of untried polishes, but I think this is a fitting debut post. Many of you will be familiar with Australian brand Pretty Serious Cosmetics, who launched exactly a year ago today. To celebrate, a polish named 'Daphne's Birthday Party' has been released in honour of the brand's mascot, Daphne, and the idea is for everyone who owns a bottle to wear and share it today so that Daphne can TAKE OVER THE WORLD! (Ok so I may have exaggerated slightly, but I wouldn't have any problems with her taking over. What a minx).

Getting 'Daphne's Birthday Party' onto my nails was no easy task. I hurt my back yesterday morning and couldn't bend down to get to my bottle. I considered throwing myself at the floor and crawling to the draw it was in, but then realised that I wouldn't be able to get back up and didn't think Daphne would be too impressed with dust bunnies getting stuck in her birthday polish if I had decided to paint my nails while still lying on the floor. Finally it was suggested to me that I use my toes to pick up the bottle (well duh) so I managed to join the party after all!

'Daphne's Birthday Party' consists of 5 different coloured glitters (blue, gold, green, red, and purple) of the same size in a clear base. In my photos below I've layered 2 coats of  'Daphne's Birthday Party' over OPI 'Barre My Soul', not that you can see it through all that glitter! I was really hoping to do some nail art with this one, but considering the fact that I could barely pick up the bottle to use it I think this was a pretty solid effort.

Lamp light

Lamp light

Bottle shot

A big congratulations to Daphne and Pretty Serious for turning 1, and of course to Kaz and Ben for the success that the brand has achieved over the past year. Pretty Serious products are available internationally from the Pretty Serious website. There will be plently of Pretty Serious polishes to come in my future posts so stay tuned.

Alanna Renee: Magical World Collection

Today I have 3 polishes from Alanna Renee’s newest collection ‘Magical World’ to show you. The collection of 12 polishes is inspired by the much loved Harry Potter series, and covers everything from Butterbeer and Chocolate Frogs to Dementors and Patronuses. Fans had better guard their wallets closely!

The Magical World Collection (photo from the Alanna Renee website)

‘Draught of Peace’

‘Draught of Peace’ is inspired by one of the potions Harry had to brew in Potions class. Professor Snape, the Potions Master, gave Harry a zero for forgetting to add syrup of hellebore because he misread the instructions. When brewed correctly, Draught of Peace relieves anxiety and agitation.

The colour of Alanna Renee’s ‘Draught of Peace’ is very fitting when you consider the purpose of the potion. This blue is so calming! ‘Draught of Peace’ is a shimmery turquoise blue creme polish with small silver glitters and white flakes (which are quite subtle). This one applied smoothly and I used 3 coats in my photos.

Lamp light

Lamp light

Bottle shot

'Horcrux'

 

'Horcrux' is inspired by the fragment of soul that a dark wizard or witch hides inside a powerful object for the purpose of immortality. A Horcrux gives one the ability to resurrect oneself if the body is destroyed.

Once again, a polish very fitting of its inspiration. This polish was my favourite of the 3 polishes in this post, and I love the effect the flakes have (although I may be biased as they're something that I've been experimenting with myself). They look like what I imagine the fragments of a dark soul would look like. 'Horcrux' contains flakes which from what I can tell colour-shift between green and navy blue, and sterling silver flakes in a black base. Like 'Draught of Peace' this one applied smoothly and my photos show 3 coats. I recommend enlarging the photos to really see the flakes in more detail, they're stunning.

Lamp light

Lamp light

Bottle shot

'Patronus'

'Patronus' is inspired by the form produced by the Patronus Charm. A Patronus is a positive energy force which takes the shape of the animal with whom you share the deepest affinity. A Patronus can be used for defence against Dementors.

'Patronus' has a mix of white and baby blue flakes in a shimmery white creme base. Once again Alanna has hit the nail on the head, this polish is very reminiscent of the Patronuses produced in the movies.  As with the other 2 polishes the formula was smooth and I used 3 coats. 

Lamp light

Lamp light

Bottle shot

Alanna Renee polishes can be purchased from the website for those of you in Australia. For those of you living internationally polishes are available at both Color4Nails and Shoppe Eclecticco. Remember to use the code NO2PC at checkout when shopping at Shoppe Eclecticco for a discount on every order!

Disclosure note: The product/s in this post were provided for review. This did not affect my opinion of the product/s.

Mckfresh Nail Attire: Part 2

Today I have 2 more polishes from Mckfresh Nail Attire's Labyrinth-inspired collection to show you. If you missed part 1 you can read it here.

'The Fireys'

The Fireys are the main reason I said that I'm glad that I never saw this movie as a child. Even seeing it as an adult was disturbing. For anyone who hasn't seen the movie, the only way that you'll truly understand the creepiness of these muppets is to watch the scene in which they appear in the movie. Just wait until they start dismembering themselves (in a 'child-friendly' manner of course)...

Mckresh's 'The Fireys' stays true to character (without the dismemberment of course), consisting of a pastel orange base with gold, red and white glitters of different shapes and sizes. This one will reach opacity on it's own, but you know how I love to layer things so I've layered two coats of 'The Fireys' over OPI 'Are We There Yet?'. Application was smooth with no fishing or glitter placement required.

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

'Sir Didymus'

In the movie, Sir Didymus is a fox (from what I can gather anyway) who believes he is a great and chivalrous knight. He rides a sheepdog named Ambrosius, and has the job of guarding the bridge that crosses over The Bog of Eternal Stench (and yes, Mckfresh also has polishes for Ambrosius and TBOES).

Sir Didymus

The 'Sir Didymus' polish captures his colourful character perfectly. It consists of small rainbow glitters and small white squares representing the emblems on his vest, and white bar glitters to represent his moustache in a clear base. The obvious layering option for this one is black, and while I played around with different combinations it really does look best over a darker colour. Instead of going for a straight black I've layered one coat over OPI 'Light My Sapphire', which is a shimmery almost-black navy. As you can see, this one is absolutely packed with glitter, and while I struggled a bit with glitter placement due to the mini brush (I really recommend buying a full size bottle of this one) it was workable and the bar glitters were very well behaved.

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Mckfresh polishes are available from their etsy store for $5.50 for a 6ml mini bottle, or $10 for a full sized 12ml bottle. Unfortunately due to strict shipping laws Mckfresh polishes are only available within Australia at this time (sorry international ladies!). To stay up to date you can follow the facebook page.

Disclosure note: The product/s in this post were provided for review. This did not affect my opinion of the product/s.