Tag Archives: China Glaze

The Lazy 15: Favourite Disney Character

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Hullo there. Am running horribly late with my Lazy 15 posts (and manicures!). Work has just been a little too all-absorbing lately. Anyway, enough of the excuses and on with the post. Today’s manicure theme…well, actually it was last Wednesday’s theme (oops)…is Favourite Disney Character.

Now I think my mind must be a little too literal because this one had me stumped. I delayed doing it largely because I decided that it was too hard for my limited abilities. And well, yes it is but it was only after chatting with a dear friend and fellow polish addict on the weekend that I decided that vague up my interpretation a little.

I give you my interpretation of the Cheshire Cat:)

Cheshire Cat Manicure

Sorry in advance for the dry cuticles – not my best. taking my lead from thsee images of the Disney version of the Cheshire Cat: http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/pictures/cheshire-cat-pictures.html I attempted to match polishes to the colours in the images. Holding up a nail art swatch stick to a computer screen wasn’t going to provide a perfect match but it is hopefully close enough.

So I used Illamasqua Jan as a base and that’s the colour on the tips of my nails. I then taped across my nails and applied the mauve stripes which was Illamasqua Velocity. I then applied tape across my tips and applied China Glaze Under the Boardwalk with a fine nail art brush in between the tape and the stripes of Velocity. the freehanding of the hot pink was a bit interesting. I’m amazed at how some people can get the most detailed art work on their nails because I can barely paint in a straight line!:) Anyway, once that was dry enough I applied crescent shapes of white stripping polish and then bordered that with black to depict the Cheshire Cat’s massive, mischievous grin. I then applied Seche Vita to the lot.

xx

Please check out the posts of the other lovely lacquerheads taking part in The Lazy 15.

Polish Us Pink: China Glaze Under the Boardwalk and Illamasqua Stance

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Hullo there. Oopsie daisies, didn’t mean to not post in quite so long. But I’ve discovered the world of Instagram!!! I’m @lacquercarefactor if you happen to be on there:)

The other night on Twitter I happened across a convo as you do and butted on in (again, as you do:)). It was a few of the polish bloggers I follow cooking up the idea of an PinkPolish challenge for October in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness.

Susan’s post on her blog The Subtle Shimmer explains it best. But basically this challenge will involve posting pink polish of some or other variety, be it plain or arty, every Monday in October in promotion of Breast Cancer Awareness and in recognition of those in our lives who have been affected by, or who struggle with, breast cancer or in deed any type of cancer.

Not to take away from the seriousness of the endeavour, but a once a week challenge is my kind of challenge. Pink polish isn’t really my kind of polish but of course, being a collector of sorts, I own a fair few pinks of one description or another, many of them untried. So this challenge gives me a chance to crack them open.

So the first polish I’m posting today is actually one I wore back in May when I first bought it but in my slight (relatively) hiatus from blogging I didn’t get around to posting the pics. Some may say that this polish leans more towards the purple range of the colour spectrum but to my mind it’s very much in the pink camp: China Glaze’s Under the Boardwalk from their Summer 2012 collection.

China Glaze Under the Boardwalk

Like I said I’m not really a pink polish sort but when I started to see the swatches of this polish coming up on blogs, I was more and more drawn to something so bright and glossy looking. And remember, I’m in the Southern Hemisphere so I was hankering this in winter. This was two coats over base coat and topped with Seche Vite. I recall the formula being a little thick but very pigmented. I’d probably thin it down a little before I wear it next but despite the thickness of the formula it dried beautifully and I wore it for several days. It was a lovely antidote to the early days of winter. I also wore it on my toes for quite a long time too. The only other polish I bought from this collection was Ride the Waves which I’m yet to wear but I anticipate that I will enjoy that one just as much.

China Glaze Under the Boardwalk

As you can see I was rocking the nubs back then, as I have been on and off throughout much of winter. But to my mind such bright polish actually really compliments short nails.

Next up I have a manicure I wore a couple of weeks ago whilst on a mini break up in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. This is Illamasqua Stance.

Illamasqua Stance

This is just such a gorgeous polish and was one of the two polishes in Illamasqua’s Human Fundamentalism collection. This is two coats over my standard OPI Matte Envy base coat and topped with Seche Vite. The formula is wonderful and applies really easily.

Illamasqua Stance

And again, whilst I’m not much of a pink polish chick, there is something about strong, vibrant magenta toned pinks that I’m drawn to.

I purchased the China Glaze polish from a seller on eBay because China Glaze isn’t a brand that is stocked in stores here. I bought Stance from Illamasqua’s online store. A girlfriend and I tend to do mini-group buys when Illamasqua have sales or reduce their free shipping limit etc. Once you’ve made three (?) online purchases you qualify for a 10% loyalty bonus each time thereafter, plus they tend to send out cards with your order offering a further 15% off your next purchase so all in all, if you buy at the right time, you can make quite a saving.

For more information about Breast Cancer Awareness in Australia, please refer to the Breast Cancer Awareness Network.


Pretty Serious Tux: seriously gorgeous

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Fancy the look of sleek, smoothest, darkest teal satin on your nails? Then look no further than Pretty Serious Tux.

Pretty Serious Tux

Tux is one of six polishes released by beauty blogger and B-movie fanatic and reviewer, Kaz of Pretty Random as part of her newly launched cosmetic brand, Pretty Serious. Each of the six shades of polish has a corresponding eye shadow and lip gloss.

Now I’m not into make up in a big way at all, as odd as that might sound for someone who loves nail polish. I’m a girl that has her eye lashes tinted and brows shaped once every four weeks so I can pretty much slap on moisturiser in the morning and be ready to face the day. So I didn’t indulge myself by purchasing any of the shadows or glosses. I did, however, end up going the whole hog and bought all six polishes, despite not originally meaning to. Ooops!

Tux though was one of the three colours that I had intended to buy. I’d been on the look out for a really dark, dark green polish for a while. I’d bought a few from China Glaze but they were not dark enough. I’d been eyeing off YSL  Wintergreen but hadn’t found it online to buy. So when I saw Tux my heart leapt. Well, ok maybe not quite ‘leapt’ because after all we’re just talking polish here but you know what I mean. I got that little lacquerhead rush of excitement that demands you grab the debit card and hit the web.

Pretty Serious Tux

Pretty Serious Tux

In terms of formula, Tux is lovely to apply. No issues whatsoever. This is two coats but you could almost get away with one careful coat. I only tend to wear any polish for 2-3 days maximum, and this made it to the third day before I was hankering for something else. But other than some tip wear it did well. It also didn’t stain my nails which I had half expected it might given the darkness of colour. I’ve now worn this one several times, I like it that much, and am still yet to try the other five polishes from Pretty Serious. But I will drag myself away from Tux in the interests of research:)

If you haven’t come across Kaz and her line of cosmetics yet then I urge you to go have a look. From memory the polishes are about AUD$10 but Kaz offers discounts for certain combinations of product purchases, e.g. I got 10% off for purchasing all six polishes which was pretty lovely of her. She ships internationally though I’m not sure of the cost. Domestic Australian shipping was about AUD$7.

So darkest of dark teal/green lemming satisfied and I’m a happy little Tux-wearing Vegemite:)

Have you tried any of Kaz’s products yet? What’s your position on green polish generally?

Pretty Serious Tux

xx

 

Orly Androgynie: the lazy lacquerhead’s galaxy nail

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I was after a glittery black polish for a while. I’d toyed with the idea of Butter London’s The Black Night, I’d read the disappointed posts on China Glaze’s Smoke and Ashes and I’d heard underwhelming views about Orly’s Androgynie. So like the enthusiastic lacquerhead that I am, I went ahead and bought all three. Purely for research purposes you understand.

So today I’ve got Orly’s Androgynie.

Orly Androgynie

This is the first time I’ve worn Androgynie. It’s a black jelly with a mix of fine micro and larger hex glitter in a variety of colours. The concept of Androgynie is wonderful. The colour combination of the glitter in the black strikes me as a cheat’s version of a galaxy nail. But then I have very low standards when it comes to such things since I’ve no clue about nail art.

Orly Androgynie

This is three coats of Androgynie with a base coat and then a top coat of Seche Vita. Drying time was fine. The formula of the jelly base is a little thin so you need to watch your application to avoid the polish pooling in your cuticles.

Orly Androgynie

The difficulty with Androgynie is, aside from the fact that the black jelly base is always going to obscure much of the glitter, getting the larger, multicoloured hex glitter onto your brush and then onto the nail. My little finger ended up with basically no visible hex glitter on it by the second coat, so on the third coat I played around a bit in an effort to dab some hex glitter on that nail close to the surface.

I had read somewhere that the trick is to store the polish upside down so that the glitter particles collect at the neck of the bottle but I’d forgotten to store it that way when I was reorganising my stash recently. I’ve turned it upside down now so I will wear this again soon and report back if there’s any improvement.

Overall though, whilst I understand the disappointment many lacquerheads had with Androgynie I’m still actually pretty happy with it. Yes, a wee bit more glitter on the nail without the slightly dirty coating that the black jelly leaves would be nice but is perhaps an impossible ask. I’ve not tried Butter London The Black Night yet, and have only applied China Glaze’s Smoke and Ashes to my niece’s nails. I think Smoke and Ashes is out of the running because what I’m longing for is a black-based multicoloured glitter polish. But again, I’ll report back once I have done further research:).

Orly Androgynie and Lego Crook Man

The last pic is thanks to my partner who was loitering about whilst I was taking these photos and decided to play the joker as usual:)

Have you tried Orly Androgynie yet? If yes, what did you think of it?

Can you recommend a good black-based multicoloured glitter polish?

Tell me about the joker in your life who mucks about in order to make you laugh and smile:)

xx