New from BYS: 3D Special Effects - All That Glitters

I have a brand new glitter polish from BYS to share with you from their new 3D Special Effects line, released just in time for the Australian summer/party season!

All That Glitters is a girly glitter combo of multi-sized hex glitters in a clear base.  To my eye the glitter is predominantly gold with fuschia pink and blue in the mix making it a perfect party season polish.  I found the coverage of the glitter to be medium so it can be layered over a complimentary base without overpowering it - I applied two coats over Lime Crime's pink-purple pastel Lavendairy and finished with a single coat of top coat to smooth it out a little.  I did think this was quite a feminine mani combo so I wore it to a ladies' lunch with a group of my blogger friends (more about that in another post).  This gold and pink 3D mani went very well with my floral dress! 

I've posted extra-large pics this time for best "3D" effect...

Outdoors - shade

Indoors - natural daylight

Outdoors - sun

BYS 3D Special Effects nail enamels can be purchased online from the Fashion Addict website here.

Until next time

Vita :)

(These products have been provided for my consideration.  All comments and opinions are my own.)

Gifts & freebies! - The November 2012 edition

As you can see November has been a very generous month for beauty bounty!  Looking at the collection of lovely things above you wouldn't believe I've cut back on my beauty spending but I have not bought any of these items - I promise and pinky swear!  It's the 'haul' when you're not actually hauling thanks to generous people who understand my obsession taste (and a few local favourite magazines).

Firstly, and most importantly I'm posting this so I can say a little public 'thank you' for the gifts I've received from my family and friends. I appreciate them all.

From Boo:

Boo very kindly offered to send me Revlon's Just Bitten Kissable balm stain in Honey (such a wonderful colour - I've already worn this a few times!) but she also surprised me with:

• Covergirl BlastFlipstick blendable lip duo - 855 Minx.  I haven't seen these before! Obviously something else we don't have in Australia.  The idea is you can wear either of the two shades alone or blend to your taste. 
• Essence Lipstick - 51 Fifth Avenue.  A very pretty shimmery pink-peach lipstick for summer.
• Eyeshadow pigment samples - Steel Blue and Cheers My Dear
• Fragrance samples - Givenchy Dahlia Noir and Thierry Mugler Alien

 From my 'M-I-L':

 J isn't strictly my Mother-in-Law but she's my Father-in-Law's partner and a lovely, vivacious (and generous) lady.  She brought back this bottle of Wild Florals Organic hand and body lotion from her trip to Western Australia. 

 From Ashley:

 Ashley gave me the iconic Cherry Chapstick as she has a drawer full of them at home - brought back from the US by her boss!

Magazine freebies

 The Australian magazines were also very generously in freebie overdrive this month, so it was a good opportunity to try some new things and reintroduce myself to some of the more familiar...

 

• Lancome Juicy Tubes lip gloss.  I got this mini tube free with the November edition of Australian InStyle magazine
• Mirenesse nail polish - 11 Flapper Pash and 13 Silent Mauvey.  These were free with Australian Woman's Day magazine in a limited deal with Coles supermarkets
• Mirenesse Velvet Lip Lift Moisture Shine Gloss.  The number has already worn off this so I'm not sure of the shade but I got this free with Woman's Day magazine (again) this time in a limited deal with Woolworths supermarkets. 

Please let me know in the comments if there's anything you'd like to see swatched and/or reviewed!

That's all for tonight.

Vita :)

OPI: The Spy Who Loved Me

You didn't think I'd let OPI's Skyfall collection sneak past me, did you?  I was excited by the combination of lavish opulence and gritty, dark attitude in this collection when I saw it on other blogs so it was just a matter of deciding what to buy.  Oh yeah, just in case you were wondering, I'm a Bond fan too!

The Spy Who Loved Me is one of the brighter shades in the collection and one of the shades in OPI's Skyfall mini The Bondettes set.  This cool toned red contains fiery sparkles of gold which inject warmth and lift it into glam.  It was also too much for my poor little camera to handle in the sun!  This is two coats with the obligatory top coat for added gloss:

Full sun

Shade

Until next time.

Vita :)

Bottle spam: Ulta3 2012 Glitter Collection

Hello again!  Two posts in two days, a bit of a rarity from me this month!  I have loads of pictures and post material banking up but so little time - no dramas I promise, I've just been plain busy and less organized than usual. 

This post is to introduce you to Australian brand Ulta3's latest launch of glitter polishes - in case you haven't seen them - just in time for the party season.  The funny thing is, I didn't know about this launch myself until lovely Ina from Slovenian polish blog Hysteria Of Decay contacted me seeking a swap (more about that swap in a later post)!  I went shopping for Ina's selection and ended up buying the rest of collection for myself because I just couldn't help myself AND because these beauties were only $2AUD each.  Now, how festive do these look all lined up!  They really do remind me of tinsel and the holiday season.  How could any self respecting glitter addict pass these up, seriously?

Left to Right:

New Years Eve, Luck of the Irish, Twinkle Toes, 

Over the Rainbow, Disco Fever, Pot of Gold

I took dozens of photos and couldn't decide how I wanted to present them to best effect - so just for fun - here are some more "artistically" placed bottles of polish on my check tablecloth.  My husband thinks I'm completely mad!  In a good way I hope?!?  Now for a bit more glitter/tinselmania!

These polishes are all medium-packed glitters in clear base polish so they are best used as top coats, either with matching 'underwear' or over a completely contrasting shade for some glittery insanity!

Of course I had to include the individual bottle closeups for a better look (and more gratuitous glitter):

Twinkle Toes

(multi-sized silver hex glitter)

Pot of Gold

 (multi-sized yellow-gold hex glitter)

Over the Rainbow

(multi-sized, multi-coloured glitter - this one does look like a 

rainbow in the bottle!)

Luck of the Irish

(multi-sized emerald green hex glitter)

New Years Eve

(multi-sized blue hex glitter)

Disco Fever

(multi-sized red hex glitter)

What's your favourite?

*Ina - You should be receiving Luck of the Irish, New Years Eve and Disco Ball soon!

Until next time.

Vita :)

Lime Crime: Lavendairy

When I first quickly swatched Lime Crime's Lavendairy on tape I thought, "Pretty...compliments my skin...safe...maybe not so interesting."  Well, wow this polish really won me over when I did the full manicure.  So many times I've expected and wanted polish shades to sit right on the lilac/pink border of the colour wheel but they always fall to one side or the other and either translate as a full-on pink or lilac once on the nail.  Lavendairy has managed to hit it smack right in the middle which makes it perfect in my eyes and, damn, damn, damn - this is a pretty one!!!  Seriously, I wish I pocketed a dollar for every compliment I received when wearing this manicure last week - it even prompted comments from strangers.

I had zero issues with the application of this polish:  smooth, not too watery formula, fully opaque in two coats, with no pulling or streaking.  Lavendairy's now officially my favourite polish from Lime Crime's Les Desserts d'Antoinette collection.

Outdoors shade

Full sun

Indoors Daylight

Until next time.

Vita :)

NOTD: Wet n Wild - Ferguson Crest Syrah

A quick Friday night mani post for you lovelies!

Ferguson Crest Syrah from Wet n Wild's recent Fergie collection is a polish with different personalities.  In the bottle this glass fleck burgundy polish has a distinctly warm golden duochrome shift: 

However when I wore it the gold was not as visible and the polish looked a lot more sombre and understated and rather more of a plum than a burgundy.  Was I disappointed?  Perhaps a little because the duochrome did not translate to the nail, but on the other hand the colour that resulted was beautiful in its own right.  Two coats of polish created a deep, classy plum nail with a subtle burgundy fleck which comes to life in strong light.  This polish was durable too and stayed chip free for the working week.  To sum up - this polish is unexpectedly understated but still a stunner. 

All pictures taken in (unfortunately) cloudy conditions:

What do you think?

That's it for tonight.

Vita :)

A little Wet n Wild swatchathon

Wet n Wild is one of those great US drugstore brands Australian girls for the most part read about and wish we had access to as easily and cheaply as our US friends.  I got my first taste of WnW years ago when a friend bought me WnW's 666 lip liner pencil as a souvenir of her US trip and I quickly realised this was the best 99 cents she'd ever spent on me!  Fast forward a few years and US blogger friend Kaki sends me a care package including some WnW items I'd requested - and a few more (see here to refresh your memory).  Naturally another 666 lip liner was on my list!  :)) 

Quite a few of you who commented on the care package post wanted to see swatches of the WnW Color Icon eyeshadow palettes so I'm happily, finally doing it for you now, along with some quick swatches of THE lip liner and the polish I also received from Fergie's line of WnW polishes. 

First up are the eyeshadow palettes.  All photos have been taken indoors in natural daylight and all of the swatches were done on bare, unprimed skin for the truest indication of pigmentation and finish.

Walking on Eggshells

This trio is a great everyday palette, taking all the guessing out of achieving an easy, work-appropriate EOTD.  The shades are warm neutrals so I think they'd be flattering against most skintones and eye colours .

Swatched L - R:

Eyelid, Crease, Browbone

Petal Pusher

Being the unabashed purple lover that I am, this palette is right up my alley.  The eight shades differ in intensity and finish so the options can go all the way from soft and ethereal to dramatic and smokey.  I've swatched these as though they were two palettes - left side and right side - and you can see they have quite different personalities.  The left side is the very soft, romantic and the right is the vamp, after dark.  Of course they can be mixed and matched however you please so there are lots of possibilities with these eight pan palettes.

Left side swatched:

Browbone, Eyelid, Crease, Definer

Right side swatched:

Browbone, Eyelid, Crease, Definer

Comfort Zone

I'd seen so many rave reviews of this palette and it doesn't disappoint.  The pigmentation is more consistently intense than Petal Pusher palette and there are some interesting shades here that step outside my comfort zone and push my colour boundaries in a good way - particularly the duochrome definer on the right side of the palette (which is widely blogged as a dupe of MAC's Club eyeshadow). 

Left side swatched:

Browbone, Eyelid, Crease, Definer

Right side swatched:

Browbone, Eyelid, Crease, Definer

666 Brandy Wine lip liner pencil &

Ferguson Crest Syrah nail colour

666 is my go to lip liner pencil because it's just a little darker than my natural lip but still soft and neutral enough to go with any lip colour without overpowering it or creating that distracting "I'm wearing LIP LINER!" look.  In the bottle Ferguson Crest Syrah appears as a burgundy glass fleck nail polish subtly shot with gold.  I'll post a proper NOTD swatch very soon but have posted a quick tape swatch below.

Swatched L - R:

666, Ferguson Crest Syrah

Until next time!

Vita :)

Lime Crime: Once In a Blue Mousse

My second Lime Crime swatch is the colour I had to have!

Once In a Blue Mousse is described as Tiffany blue and it is most definitely that lovely robin's egg shade of blue.  I loved seeing it in the bottle, and was pretty pleased with the way it looked on the nails too.  The formula was fantastically opaque and application was a lot easier than my first experience with Pastelchio.  This shade looks pretty close to China Glaze's iconic Tiffany blue polish For Audrey although it is a slightly lighter (more pastel) version and you can justify owning both. In any case, if you're a fan of anything Tiffany blue you'll love this polish!

Daylight indoors

Full sun

Until next time.

Vita :)

China Glaze: Electric Beat

I'm slightly - ever so slightly - diverting away from my pastel polish path today!

Electric Beat is a periwinkle blue creme from China Glaze's Electropop collection launched earlier this year for the Northern Spring.  I've said before that periwinkle is one of my favourite blues and I'm slowly and steadily building my collection of these.  I think I have such an attraction because these blues have that leaning towards purple which is another favourite colour of mine. This particular shade came to me courtesy of a care package I received from Kaki of Glitter Obsession last month (see here).

I love how China Glaze polishes apply and this one's no exception:  excellent smooth coverage and dries to that high glazed shine.  All pictures were taken in cloudy conditions:

Yet again I've been busy this week.  I'm looking forward to getting some 'me' time in this weekend!

BTW, if you've missed it, don't forget to check out my thank you giveaway HERE!

Vita :)