Purple Use-Up-the-Polish mani number 2

Here's my second mani to try to get through a few untrieds - China Glaze Marry a Millionaire and Nubar Peacock Feathers. I didn't think I wanted Marry a Millionaire based on swatches I saw online, but when I went to the mythical Pro Nail Supply in Sydney and saw it glowing in the corner, I had to have it! The green bits of bar glitter look stunning against the grey tinged purple (grurple?).

Peacock Feathers was a lemming of mine, and while it's not the most stunning multichrome, I love all the colours it contains.

I'm not sure if these shades really work together - they're both not really on the same spectrum of purple. But it was a very visually interesting mani to wear!

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Illamasqua Rampage (Jelly Sandwich)

Hey ya'll! Long time.

I haven't been painting my nails much this year (I'm adjusting to my new job, I moved, I got diagnosed with a fairly serious auto-immune disease), but I'm still keeping up with my favorite nail blogs! I'm going on vacation today to South America! Toot toot! I took yesterday off too, so with my extra time I did my nails for funsies. I'll remove the mani before I get on the flight (I'm a big believer in not doing my nails on extended vacations, I'll bring a nail file and some moisturizer and that's it) but it's been a nice 24 hours with this manicure.

 


(3 coats - 1 coat Rampage, 1 coat AtU Lippmann, 1 coat Rampage)

This is about as glittery and loud as I can imagine myself getting these days.  The murky glitter (I love the way it glints below the surface) is a little less visible in person.

Both Rampage and Across the Universe are mega-classics, so I'm sure you guys know the formula on both are lovely for a jelly and glitter respectively.

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Purple Use-Up-the-Polish mani number 1

During my Helmer clean out, I discovered that I have an obscene amount of purple polishes I haven't even tried. Obviously, this needed rectifying, so here's the first of my half/half manis where I jam two purple polishes together and try to make them work in a manicure.

First is Gloss 'n Sparkle Purpetual Darkness paired with OPI DS Original (two coats layered over Models Prefer Beam Me Up). DS Original is the most linear holo I own, but it's really sheer. I really liked this mani - it was interesting enough to last me a couple of days, but not too exciting that they'd become a conversation starter. For some reason I hate when talk centres around my nails, it makes me feel really awkward! Do other nail addicts have this problem?

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WINNERS!!!

And the 3 winners are picked!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'll be emailing y'all soon with the codes! Thank you for participating if you did, and I'll be holding more giveaways soon! It's quite fun, actually :)

I'm a 3L NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YA!!

<3 minnie 

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GIVEAWAY REMINDER!!

Hey guys!! Sorry for lack of posts, it's been really rough with finals :( But! Today is the last day to enter in my giveaway!!

GIVEAWAY!!!

I'll be announcing the winners on Thursday! Good luck!!!

<3 minnie

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Coco Allure: Jupiter Aurora

I remember when duochromes first became popular -- Nubar had a number of them out, and I found them intriguing. They don't capture my interest as much as glitter does, so to have the combination of the two is pretty darn awesome.

Coco Allure: Jupiter Aurora is a multichrome glitter topcoat. It shifts from green, to teal, then purple, with some burgundy and hints of copper. I tried to get fancy with striping tape but it may have backfired a little bit. I should have done it the opposite way -- black with the glitter star.

This glitter topcoat is super dense, this really is one coat over black. Gorgeous and I definitely was not bored with it while I wore it.

Coco Allure can be found on their Facebook page here and their Etsy here :)

Don't forget to like our Facebook page and enter in my giveaway for Llarowe GCs!


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Loki's Lacquer Omicron Persei 8

A quick one today: I recently came across this swatch of Loki's Lacquer Omicron Persei 8 again in my files, which I originally posted in my swatchathon of the Futurama collection from Loki's Lacquer. It's probably my favourite swatch of the whole collection, even though the polish in the bottle didn't wow me - but over black, it's a stunner!

Unfortunately Loki's Lacquer isn't widely available outside of Australia, but you can ask nicely and see if there's any way of getting it to you on their Etsy store here.

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Zoya: Kennedy + Darling Diva Polish: Sakura

As is obvious, I love glitter. The world of glitter for nail polish has exploded since the indie scene popped up and flourished and I'm pretty excited that different shapes of glitter are now becoming more prevalent. Square, circle, flower shaped, etc. Darling Diva Polish: Sakura involves each of these shapes in a super cute springtime glitter topcoat.

mattified!

Sakura is a glitter topcoat made up of spring green circle, square and hex glitters, pink circle glitters, hot pink circle glitters, translucent white square glitter, iridescent glitters of various sizes, and pink flower shaped glitter. This is two coats of Darling Diva Polish: Sakura over 2 coats of Zoya: Kennedy. The glitter applied pretty well, I didn't have to fish at all for the flower shaped glitter. Formula was actually really great!

You can find Darling Diva Polish on their Facebook here, Etsy here (on vacation until May 3rd), and on Llarowe!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and to enter in my giveaway for Llarowe gift certificates! 



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Pretty Serious Mummy Mush

Another Pretty Serious polish from the Monster Mash Halloween collection today! This is Mummy Mush - a gold chunky shimmer with a greenish blue multichrome glow that really comes out over dark colours. Over the bare nail, like in my 3 coat swatch, it's warm-toned. Given my fear of shiny shiny nails, I won't be wearing this one on its own very often, but I'll be using this in gradients and layering combos!

You can buy Pretty Serious here, and they ship worldwide, so hide your wallets now!

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Nails Inc.: Baker St. + Max Factor: Fantasy Fire

I visited Los Angeles for a few days over spring break and I had a little bit of a hard time trying to figure out a manicure to wear... but then saw this NOTD and felt inspired and so even though it wasn't super glittery, it amused me, especially with the constant sun in California.

I had a hard time capturing the color shift, though. For those that don't know, Max Factor: Fantasy Fire is a weak dupe to Clarins 230 and the other color shifting polishes that are out there nowadays. I do have Clarins 230 but wanted to try out Fantasy Fire, and it was gorgeous. Definitely one of those polishes where you can just... play with your manicure endlessly!

I've had Baker St. forever and it's a gorgeous color -- I need the patience to wear it on its own! Soon...

And I just realized this is a very UK-ish manicure, as both of these polish lines are based in the UK, haha.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and to enter in my giveaway for Llarowe gift certificates!

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Nubar Boyfriend Jeans

I've been having a love affair with cremes, particularly neutral cremes (yay autumn!) - this is Nubar Boyfriend Jeans, which isn't a neutral, but a muted shade, which hits almost the same spot for me. It's quite work-safe in my opinion, while still being a bit edgy and, dare I say, fashionable. 2 coats, no top coat.

Annoyingly, this isn't great colour accuracy-wise - in person it's a fair bit more greyish, but the lighting was terrible for this swatch!

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Elevation Polish: Jengish Chokusu + Hare Polish: Dauphine of Decadence

I've said it often but turquoise is one of my favorite nail polish colors. Whenever I see a "what should I wear with this outfit?" post on whichever message board, I always want to suggest something like China Glaze: For Audrey. It's such a pretty and classy color, yet different.

Elevation Polish Jengish Chokusu is a green leaning sea glass creme. It's gorgeous on its own but me being the glitter lover that I am, layered Hare Polish: Dauphine of Decadence over the top. I actually saw Kristi at Happy Hands do this combination in an NOTD of hers and I copied it because they went so well together :)

Hare Polish Dauphine of Decadence is mixture of gold glitter in several sizes of hex & square glitter, with a sprinkling of pale mint green hexes and gold shimmer. This is a complex glitter, as are most of Hare Polish's creations :)

One can find Elevation Polish on her site here and her shop here.
Hare Polish: Facebook // Etsy // Website (with other retailers)

Also remember to enter in my Giveaway here and like our Facebook page here!

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Giveaway Reminder!

I did an oops! I meant to schedule a post for tomorrow for a reminder post of my Giveaway, but I'll just edit it and publish it now. :P

Remember I'm holding a giveaway for 3 $25 gift certificates for Llarowe!

Click here for Minnie's Giveaway

Also, remember to do the additional entries by following us on Facebook and the like!

Please share the giveaway and the Facebook page, I may decide to add an additional winner if we reach a high number of likes on the Facebook page! Thanks!

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Sephora by OPI Happy Earth Day to Me

Sephora by OPI Happy Earth Day to Me

A truly swampy yet kind of shimmeringly alive greenish-brown with gold highlights. Above is three coats; it could've used a fourth.

And because I just wanted to try the SOPI Blasted Glitters already... another ugly mani:

Sephora by OPI Blasted Turquoise Glitter over Happy Earth Day to Me 

No, I did not wear this long. The SOPI Blasted series of glitters were just weird. I can see a slight crackle effect but mostly, it looks like unevenly distributed glitter.

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Pink and monochrome glitter gradient

This is a gradient that I recently did to get the neon out of my system before autumn set in here in Australia. I do a lot of metallic glitter gradients, but I've never done one with black and white - I really like the result! (I posted a tutorial a little while ago on my blog, on how to achieve this effect with a cotton bud, without too much of the clear glitter base making the tip of the mani fat.)

The black and white glitter is Peita's Polish Zebration. Coral is my favourite neon shade - I recently swatched my collection and found 12 very similar coral cremes, out of just under 500 in the total collection, which I think is a bit ridiculous! I used Face of Australia Show Off here, and it's possibly the most neon out of the corals (not as neon as some of my neon pinks though).

I always find corals really difficult to photograph, so this isn't entirely colour-accurate. But the formula of this was great, lovely and smooth. I love a good creme formula!

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