NOTD: OPI - DS Temptation

Let me just say... WOW. Why hadn't I seen this colour before? Accidently stumbling across it, I am SO glad I purchased this. . it is unbelievably beautiful. I always knew OPI made excellent designer series colours, but this one tops them all! A magnificant purple with shimmers of blue and silver. I needed 3 coats for this colour to be fully opaque and then I applied 1 coat of OPI's Insta Dry top coat. Blissful!

Prepare for many pictures!

Purposely blurred to show the beautiful glitter colours

LOVE this colour! I feel happy when I look down at my nails :-D

Stay tuned for an AMAZING gold bling combo coming up! Looks so good!

Thanks for reading! Leave your thoughts and opinions :-)

Love Mel.

Nail Mail!!

Today I received my order from Trans Design (finally!!) It contained basic colours I had wanted for a while but never got around to buying them and some absolute beauties as well! I will show you a picture of the bottles and a swatch of each colour so keep reading!! I also received OPI's Avoplex cuticle oil when I purchased two OPI colours at David Jones. It is really good and it smells so yummy! Really helps nourish cuticles.

I'll have to take photos of the colour individually instead of 1 on each nail. But this is just an idea of the colours i've received lately :-)

I love each and every one of them so much!!!! So many pretty colours and great formulas! Magnificant! What do you think of these? Do you have a favourite from this lot??

Milani's 3D Holographic - Hi-Res

I have a holo to show you all!! Prepare to be AMAZED with this colour! 2 blissful coats of this miraculous formula was all that was needed and it dried relatively quick. This beautiful dark pink/lavender colour has the perfect mix of rainbow holographic elements and shimmer. I decided not to apply a top coat as it dimmed the holo effect slightly (as seen by the little pinky finger in these photos)

Be ready for some epic holoness!

normal light inside

camera flash

camera flash

natural light outside

natural light outside

artificial light inside

artificial light inside

I am happy with how well I managed to capture the holo goodness. Click the photos to enlarge them!
I am so happy with this purchase, and it was only $3.99, a bargain in my books! Let me know what you think! I have 17 Kleancolor holo's and chunky holo's on their way to me. I can't wait to start swatching them as well!

Love Mel.

China Glaze - Watermelon Rind + China Glaze - Midnight Kiss + Milani Special FX - Gold

Hello hello!! It's only Tuesday but this week has been very positive for me! Trying new colours and experimenting with designs! Today I have for you a colour, which is now one of my favourite colours i own! China Glaze's - Watermelon Rind is a dark emerald green with a hint of teal shimmer. . it is absolutely incredible, and even so in person!

Please excuse my lack of cuticle cream I was too excited waiting for this polish to dry so I just went and took some photos. The last two photos are outside but it was a little cloudy :-( This is my 2nd China Glaze i've ever owned and so far I am extremely happy!!!! The application is great and at first I wasn't used to the long thin brush, but am now finding it very easy to use! I used two coats of Watermelon Rind over one coat of Revlon's Quick Dry Base Coat followed by one coat of OPI's InstaDry Top Coat. Let me know what you think!

**UPDATED**
I got a little bored and wanted to try out two gold colours I just  received. The first base colour I used was China Glaze's - Midnight kiss, followed by Milani's Jewel FX - Gold over the top, with 1 coat of OPI's InstaDry Top coat to keep the glitter in place. It looks really pretty and am glad I bought these two gold colours!!

Love Mel.

Valentine's Day Inspired Nails

Well hello there! Valentines day is approaching fast so I decided to create a manicure specifically for the day! This design was inspired from the creator of cute polish http://cutepolish.blogspot.com.au/
The colours I used were China Glaze's - Strawberry Fields for the pink half nail and China Glaze's - Blonde bombshell for the gold stripe. I then used China Glaze's - Strawberry fields to make the love hearts with a dotting tool :-) All finished off with 1 coat of OPI's InstaDry Top Coat. What do you think of these? Aren't they adorable!

Excuse my little nails I had to cut them because they broke at work :-( What are your valentines day inspirations? I'd love to see your designs!

Thanks for reading! Love Mel.

Milani 3D Holographic - Cyberspace

Hello there lovelies!!! Today I received a package filled with goodies from beautyjoint.com!
Today I will be showing you Milani 3D Holographic Cyberspace! A beautiful light blue colour with glints of sparkles and shimmer all in one! I was suprised with the brush type of Milani. It was very thin and long but I actually found it very easy to apply and the formula was quite nice! It seems that capturing holographic nail polishes on camera is quite difficult so imagine these photos i've taken with a subtle rainbow sparkle x 100! Amazing how much beauty can be transferred into one tiny bottle! For the application I used 1 coat of Revlon's White on White and then 2 coats of Milani Cyberspace to really make the colour bright and opaque. It is quite a sheer colour so I recommend using a white nail polish as your base. Then I used 1 coat of OPI's InstaDry Top coat for the finish!!

Click on the photos to enlarge them! It's hard to see how holographic this colour is but it is somewhat shown through these photos. What is your opinion on this colour? Love it or hate it? I deffinitely LOVE IT!! :-)

Love Mel.

Nicki Minaj - Fly with Essie's Luxeffects - Shine Of The Times

Today I have a swatch of Nicki Minaj Fly and it is a beautiful teal colour and very vibrant with only two effortless coats needed. I'm surprised at how blue it looks on the camera but it really is much more green than this!

With the flash on

Here is Essie's Luxeffects Shine of the Times over Fly. It just gives it some absolutely amazing depth and the colours are so beautiful when you catch it on different angles.

I felt the need to put lots of photos because they look absolutely stunning and I love this combination!! I also applied 1 coat of OPI's RapiDry Top Coat to seal the colour.

Thanks for reading!

Love Mel.

Brush Types - A General Overview

Hello there! Today I will be showing you a post on the different types of nail polish brushes I own. Now, I am aware that I don't have ALL the popular brands (my first China Glaze polishes are on their way!) BUT, I do have a typical sample collection to show you! Enjoy :)

The real stand outs for me personally are brushes that are thick, E.g BK, KIKO, OPI and Estee Lauder. These brushes are the easiest for me to work with as I naturally have long nails and find it great at applying colour evenly.

The hardest brushes for me to use are Revlon and Bloom. They leave my nails looking streaky and can't cover the nail quickly enough before the polish begins to dry.

All in all, I generally don't have too much trouble with application. It really depends on how i'm feeling that day and if i have a steady hand.

What's your opinion? Anyone else having similar issues and success??

Thanks for reading!

Love Mel.

Essie Luxeffects - Set In Stones

So today i've decided to use my new Essie Luxeffects Set In Stones polish over a really bright colour for great contrast! I've used OPI's In My Back Pocket and layered Essie's Set In Stones over the top. I used two coats of In My Back Pocket and it is a beautiful peachy-orange colour. Then I applied one coat of Set In Stones and followed with OPI's RapiDry Top Coat. Set In Stones was an effortless application and had a great formula which made it spread evenly over the nail. Take a look, what do you think of these two colours?

This photo makes me think of a God's hand from up above the sky passing down this colour to be worn and loved!

I think against the orange it really pops and almost gives it a shattered glass effect! This colour by Essie is really good and I can't wait to try it over a nice teal colour!

Here is OPI's In My Back Pocket, a vibrant orange and applies very easily!

Thanks for reading!

Love Mel.