Orly - Passion Fruit

I googled images of this polish before I ordered it online, so I was a little surprised that I hadn't read anywhere that it had a jelly formula. I also found it wasn't as red as others had made it out to be, so hopefully I have a legit bottle! Anyway, in good light this is bright coral that leaned pink. In the bottle, it does look more pink than it paints on. Whilst I'm not the biggest fan of jelly polishes, I didn't mind this one so much so I stopped after 2 coats. It was such a lovely colour to bring me out of my winter funk, if only for a day! :)

2 coats, 1 coat Dior gel.

direct sunlight

direct sunlight

artificial light

Skylark by Elle & Blair - Dream Catcher

Sorry guys, I've had such a busy few days that I've been neglecting this blog! However, I have been photographing my nails every day so expect me to spam your readers sometime soon! (probably not tonight though, I'm so tired >.<)

I've been a huge fan of Elle & Blair Fowler for years. I first stumbled upon Blair's youtube about 2 or 3 months after she'd uploaded her first video, and Elle a couple of days after that. Since Skylark is only sold through blush.com, and Blush don't ship nail polish to Australia, I skipped on their first nail polish set for winter. But something about Wild & Free just really appealed to me, so I fumbled my way through alternative shipping to get these in my hands.

The great news is that I couldn't find a single dupe in my stash of Dream Catcher. Everything was either too pink, not pink enough or too milky and not dusty enough. Wear time was also pretty decent and lasted a full day at work with minor tip wear (which is great for me with any brand!) The not as good news was that the formula was a little difficult to work with. The polish had a tendency to drag so my first 2 coats were thin and I had to wait until it was completely dry before starting the next coat, and my third coat was thick in order to cover some streakiness. It was also pricey with the mini bottles and the shipping costs. That being said, I am glad I got this set because I enjoy supporting people I've been following for a while, and the colours are right up my alley.

3 coats, 1 coat Dior gel coat.

artificial light

artificial light

artificial light

direct sunlight

It turns pink-ier in direct sunlight, but the lilac colour was what I saw most of the time I was wearing it.

OPI - Road House Blues

I let my nails rest for the last couple of days, so it was quite refreshing to have paint on my nails again! Today I chose Road House Blues, a recent acquisition but it was released 2 years ago. The polish was great in formula and my only issue was that the brush had a few bristles sticking out which slightly hindered application (no biggie though). The colour, however, I was in two minds about. In artificial light (and I assume sunlight though I've yet to see any in a week!), this is a gorgeous navy blue with a slight purple tint to it. In cloudy / shaded / low light weather it's a very dark navy blue with no purple tint (if you're lucky; most people today assumed I was wearing black polish). But it was flattering, so I'm happy I picked it up!

2 coats, 1 coat Dior gel coat.

artificial lighting

artificial lighting

more "realistic" daylight lighting (sorry for the slight blurriness)

I didn't bother posting a low lighting photo, it just looked black.

Hope you had a good day today :)

Deborah Lippmann - Million Dollar Mermaid (matte)

Out of all the Mermaid collection, Million Dollar Mermaid was the one I was most excited for. And then I painted it on my nails. This was one of the least flattering colours I've tried to wear in a while, and I think that was due to it being such a pale orange shade with strong gold shimmer (I'm too pale to pull that off). I thought putting a matte coat over top would make it more flattering, and whilst it did to an extent, it was still a polish I won't be reaching for again. I've gotta say though, formula and application was perfect!
2 coats, 1 coat Essie matte about you top coat.

artificial light (colour accurate)

artificial light (slightly too pale)

artificial light

Dior - Princess

Thursday's NOTD was also my birthday NOTD. I really wanted to be one of those people that do a special design or pick a special polish for their birthday but a) I had to work so it couldn't be too extreme, and b) I just couldn't get into my birthday this year. Nonetheless, I picked a pretty good one with Dior's Princess. I thought this would be my least favourite of the collection, but I really ended up liking it (enough that I ended up wearing it for 2 days). Formula was excellent, wear time was average.

2 coats, 1 coat gel coat. It's been such bad weather lately so these photos were taken in dreary and cloudy daylight.

Essie - Under Where? + mini comparison

Wednesday's NOTD was Essie's Under Where? from this year's resort collection. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll notice I wear a lot of purples (particularly pastel). This was no disappointment! Not quite pale enough to be classed pastel, this medium-light purple can be bright in certain lights, and be duller in others. As you'll see in my last photo, it's very similar to other colours I own, but I love it anyway! Winter has well and truly set in this week, so please look past my dry and damaged cuticles!
2 coats, 1 coat Dior gel coat.

artificial light

artificial light

artificial light

Now, I'm still working on painting my nail sticks, and I've still got the majority of my collection to go (OPI, China Glaze, Revlon, etc) but here is a small comparison between the shades I have swatched so far. Also, I'd love some feedback on my swatch sticks. Should I topcoat it? They're getting a tad battered as you can see in the close ups, but I'm not sure how much that bothers people.
As I've said before, I'm still trying to set up artificial lighting and a background for them, so this is a work in progress. I've tried to photograph it as accurately as possible but I'm still new at this, and I have no idea how to edit/use photoshop ;)

Left to Right: Essie Go Ginza! / Essie Bond With Whomever / Butter London Molly-Coddled / Essie Under Where? / Color Club Sweetpea / Essie Splash of Grenadine / Essie Play Date. All 2 coats.

As you can see Molly-coddled (3rd) is the closest in colour, but it's a touch brighter and Under Where? is a touch more red based (warmer). Bond With Whomever (2nd) is also close, but much more cool toned.

What do you think of these comparison posts? Hopefully they'll be much more in depth when I've got all my polishes swatched!

OPI - OPI Loves David Jones

I've never really shopped at David Jones since I don't have one anywhere near me, but for some reason I needed to have this polish. It's a milky, almost jelly, pink which is nothing particularly unique but still subtle, flattering and elegant. I'm sure Essie does something very similar, but this had a pretty decent formula for a semi-sheer colour (I used 3 coats, but 2 thicker coats would probably be sufficient).
3 coats, 1 coat Dior gel coat.

direct sunlight

shade

shade

MAC - Bleu Velvet

Yay for 3 day weekends! Today's notd is from a recent MAC collection and whilst MAC polishes have become absurdly overpriced, for some reason I just couldn't pass up this colour. It did take 3 coats to get perfectly opaque and smooth, but I really enjoyed the colour anyway. I also apologise if you enlarge these photos, I couldn't be bothered finishing clean up ;)

I'm also STILL working on my swatch sticks so I can't compare this to any other shades just yet, but I'm getting there! It should be done this month sometime :)

3 coats, 1 coat Dior gel coat.

direct sunlight

direct sunlight

shade

I'm also trying to get through more of my untrieds this month, so hopefully that'll mean more regular posts from me!

Deborah Lippman - Sweet Dreams

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, my nails have been a little shorter than I like (oops) and I've been re-wearing polishes I've already blogged about. Sweet Dreams is a polish I've been wearing for the last 2 days, and it's a medium bright pink with tons of flakies in it. This polish was on my wishlist ever since it was released, and I'm so glad I finally bought it. I know flakies were very last year, but I still absolutely love them :)

2 coats, 1 coat Dior gel coat.

artificial daylight

artificial daylight

China Glaze - Gussied Up Green

Today's nail is an oldie from China Glaze. I say oldie because it hasn't come out in the last year, but I don't actually know how old it is. Gussied Up Green is a shimmery dark green, but in certain lights you can see a teal-ish blue flashback which adds dimension to the polish. I definitely preferred this one to Zoya's Ray, which I wore a few weeks ago. 

2 coats, 1 coat top coat.

May Nail Polish Haul

After suffering through tonsillitis for the first time this last week, I am finally back with a monthly haul. I was supposed to have more photos this month, but long story short I lost them somehow :( Anyway, this month I binged in nail polish more then I should have, and by the end of the month I was feeling quite terrible/guilty over how many polishes I owned. A few days later I was back to admiring all the pretty colours, but don't you hate it when you feel guilty about something you love?

OPI L-R: Done Out In Deco / Do You Lilac It? / A Grape Fit!