Revlon: Chroma Chameleon - Cobalt (plus Hearts of Gold FX)

Now for a belated post on my NYE manicure...

 

For some reason deep blue seems to represent New Year's celebrations to me because I think of it as an equally glamorous, slightly edgier party alternative to vampy red so I chose Revlon's Cobalt as my base manicure.  Cobalt is a deep indigo blue with a very subtle violet duochrome shimmer and one of two shades I recently bought from Revlon's Chroma Chameleon range.  The Chroma Chameleon polishes are all duochrome metallic and from this first impression promise much more duochrome in the bottle than deliver on the nail - one of my pet peeves when it comes to nail polish. I applied three coats to get good coverage because this was a little sheer - the other issue was brushstrokes although I largely camouflaged this with a sweep of topcoat. 

 

On my accent nail I topped Cobalt with three coats of Hearts of Gold FX, another Revlon polish from their Top Speed line.  HOGFX is a glitter topper comprising superfine gold glitter with rather large holographic hearts.  It takes a little fishing with the brush to scoop up the hearts and some deliberate placement on the nail but overall I was happy with the result. 

 

All pictures taken in indirect daylight:

 

 

 

Not really a duochrome but the wonderful shade of blue almost makes up for that disappointment.

 

Until next time.



OPI: Yokohama Twilight

Happy Hump Day!

Completely lacking any idea of what nail polish to wear (Really? How could that be?) I did a random dive into my polish collection and came up with an older Limited Edition OPI shade, the unusual lavender-blue duochrome Yokohama Twilight. The Yokohama collection was apparently originally released as an Asia exclusive back in the late noughties.  I'm wondering how I scored this polish in Melbourne but I'm pretty sure I got this in local department David Jones.  Oh well, I digress.

I applied three coats of this semi-sheer polish for full coverage.  Although this isn't the kind of colour I'd normally select I did admire the very subtle duochrome effect.  It's an ethereal sort of colour and very understatedly pretty.

Indirect daylight

Sunlight

Random tidbit:  I'm planning to go back to Japan next year. 



Catrice: Iron Mermaiden

I received my first ever Catrice polishes in a swap some time ago with the lovely Ina (see here) and I was lucky enough to score the cool toned duo-chrome Iron Mermaiden.

I actually think this is more multi-chrome as the metallic silver switches from pink to green-toned depending on the way it catches the light.  It was a little sheer in application so I needed three good coats to get full opacity but the result was worth it.  I loved the cold metallic, almost mirror finish and found myself checking out my nails more than once, tilting them this way and that to catch the flashes of colour.  These polishes are always a challenge to photograph and inevitably they look more eye-catching in real life but anyway here are LOTS of pictures...

Indirect daylight

Direct daylight

That's it for tonight!

China Glaze: Swanky Silk

Hello :)

I hope you like the changes around here - my little self made blog was long overdue for a facelift and finally I have a blog layout I love thanks to the very talented Sharnee!  The colour scheme is completely opposite to what I had before but it reflects my taste a lot more closely and most importantly it's renewed my love for posting. So let that be the segue to this first post in my 'new' blog...

Swanky Silk is the sole shade I have from China Glaze's stunning duochrome New Bohemian collection released last year. It's a shade I find myself drawn to:  rose gold with the slightest green duochrome.  I did find the formula a tad streaky but I'll forgive it because I adored the colour. As it always is with duochromes the effect is more subtle on the nail than in the bottle - Still a very pretty rose gold though and a very versatile shade.

Shade

 

Sun

That's it for now!

Gosh Rainbow take 2...

The last time I tried the perfectly named Rainbow flakie polish by European beauty brand Gosh I didn't do it justice at all (see my flake fail post here). 

This time I applied Rainbow over the dark blue Alkaline Blue and I was much happier with the result.  I know it would look even better over a high gloss black base but these pictures aren't too bad.  The flakie did soak up my top coat and for a perfect glassy finish one or two more layers of top coat would be needed to tame the texture.  Well, here's my second offering.  All pictures were taken in cloudy conditions so the effect is a little subdued...

That's all for now.

Vita :)

A duochrome beauty & some underwater magic: LA Girl Metal - Alkaline Blue

A little warning upfront:  this post is going to be a bit picture heavy because I need to show you this polish in all its different dimensions.  I'm going to try for less words, more pics to give you the full idea.

Just to quickly introduce this polish Alkaline Blue is one of the polish shades in LA Girl's Metal range, released in 2010 I think. Interestingly I don't think the version I have is the same as that released in 2010.  Older swatches and reviews refer to a metallic blue foil but the version I have is somewhat different and I'm not complaining at all...

At first glance Alkaline Blue is a sparkly, deep blue polish:

But start tilting and the pink/purple sparkle appears:

The bottle reveals the duochrome to its fullest effect...

 

...but I've also discovered another way to reveal the hidden magic of this polish.  Underwater!  I saw this on Nihrida's blog a while ago and I had to share the amazing effect with you...

You can see I'm obviously pretty besotted with this little gem.  What do you think?

Thanks for looking!

Vita :)

Layering: Nicole by OPI - Count on Me

When I noticed my bottle of NOPI's Count on Me sitting next to Revlon's Modern Grace in my Helmer the other day it looked like the proverbial perfect match.  It must have been a sign I needed to wear these together so I just had to go with it! 

Count on Me is one of those ridiculously, excessively pretty polishes.  The Nicole by OPI website describes this sheer polish as:  "A pearlessence of lilac and pink blended".  It's an accurate description although I can also see a strong blue shift in this polish.  In my mind I could see how these would compliment the grey/blue/lavender creme base of Modern Grace and, yep, it turned out as I expected.  I applied two coats to really transform this look from creme to duochrome and dreamy...

Sun

Indoors

I'll definitely be wearing Count on Me in further combos.  Any suggestions?

Vita :)

I heart duochrome (Nail It - Lucky Star)

I was going to save this for after my monthly empties review post but I've just got to share it now with all you purple lovers out there!

This attention grabbing polish is from Sportgirl's Nail It! line.  Lucky Star is a grape-toned purple with a very strong shimmery blue colour shift.  As with all Sportsgirl polishes this was perfection on application.  It actually dried down to a semi-matte finish but I added topcoat to give it lustre.  I just <3 this colour!!  Purple duochrome = love in a bottle for me!  I'd better not gush anymore.  I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves...

Sun

Shade

 

Until next time.

Vita :)

An oldie but goodie: OPI - Movin' Out (Pic heavy)

 Hi again!

When I was digging through my stash for Christmas holiday polishes last month I found a lovely old multichrome polish from OPI.  Movin' Out is from OPI's 2003 Holiday on Broadway collection and is a sheer sparkly purple multichrome which leans towards gold, green and purple as it moves in the light.

I didn't get around to wearing Movin' Out in December but after wearing the purple creme Wow! for a few days I decided it would be the perfect base to try it out and I wasn't disappointed at all.  This is two coats. 

All pictures taken in natural daylight.  I've posted lots of pictures to capture the colour shift:

 It looks like an oil slick in the bottle:

 

And in direct sunlight it looks like a sparkly purple....

This polish deserves more love from me for sure - Shame on me for leaving it neglected in my Helmer!  Next time I'll wear it over black.

Until next time.

Vita :)