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Models Own Purple Rain: otherwise known as my new favourite nail polish

December 8th, 2011

I confess I hate the name of this polish, because I immediately start singing the Prince song of the same name. I hate that song. With a fiery passion that burns brighter than the sun. Or something. Ok maybe not that much, but I don’t like the song, alright?

Lucky for this polish its awesomeness more than makes up for the earworm.

Stunning – a gorgeous dark purple creme. In low light it looks almost navy, in sunlight it leans less blue than the photos show.  Application was fabulous, two coats to opaque and it went on like a dream.

Models Own nail polishes are available from the Models Own website for £5.00 each.

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Color Club Wicked Sweet Collection – smell my nails

July 9th, 2011

Don’t scented nail polishes make you feel like a kid?  There’s just something so deliciously childlike about the idea, and while it’s not a concept that appeals to every nail polish lover I really love them.

There are a few brands who have introduced scented polishes to their lines (Revlon springs to mind) – and now Color Club have introduced theirs in the form of the Wicked Sweet Collection.

 

Seven shades of neons and brights and all with candy scents to match. Color Club NZ kindly sent me out some to review, which I will do shortly, but right at the moment my nubbinses are more nubbiney than normal, and I don’t think short nails do much justice to polishes on camera. Having had a quick swatch though I can confirm that The Lime Starts Here does smell like lime candy – om nom nom.

The Wicked Sweet Collection is available from the usual Color Club stockists throughout New Zealand, or online from usanailsonline for $11.90. Just be warned that it’s apparently not considered polite to wave your fingers under strangers’ noses and shout “smell my nails”. I try these things so you don’t have to.

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Posted in nails, Selina

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Today’s nail: O.P.I. Stranger Tides

June 6th, 2011

I very rarely buy O.P.I. polish in New Zealand stores, because I strongly believe we pay far too much for it compared to overseas prices. Generally I’ll either buy it online or wait for in-store specials.

Sometimes however I can get sucked in by a counter display – in the same way that small children are attracted to lollies at the supermarket checkout -and this is exactly what happened at the pharmacy the other day. Waiting for the lady to ring up my purchases (eyelash curlers, Batiste dry shampoo, Cetaphil cleanser and throat lozenges; since you asked) my eyes fell upon the O.P.I. Pirates of the Caribbean display and like a naughty toddler my grabby hands were all over it.

I did manage to restrict myself to one particular polish that I’ve been lusting after though, and this is it:

Stranger Tides is what I think of as an “Ugly Pretty” colour. The grey/green colour reminds me of that guacamole dip which comes in a jar and contains not a trace of avocado.

Unfortunately the weather is a bit on the cloudy side today so my photos don’t quite bring out the green – in real life there’s more of a green tinge to it. Application was better than I expected for what is really a pastel colour (pastels are a notoriously finnicky lot to apply) – two coats for opaque coverage; the formula was a little on the gloopy side and not self-levelling but my top coat levelled it out nicely so you won’t hear me complaining.

I love Stranger Tides, and there’s a couple of other colours in the Pirates of the Caribbean collection I wouldn’t mind getting my paws on. What about you lot? Have you splurged on any from this collection and what did you think of them?

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My name is Selina and I’m addicted to nail polish

May 29th, 2011

Hi all, I’m Selina and I’m thrilled to join the team at Pretty Pretty Pretty. Some of you may have followed me here from my other blog Pretty Clever, where I blog about pretty things (shameless plug: go check it out). I’ve previously shared my reviews and photos of nail polish and beauty items over at Pretty Clever, but when Joanna approached me and asked me to write for Pretty Pretty Pretty it seemed an opportune time to change the focus of Pretty Clever to the fashion side of things. So from now on you’ll be able to read about my adventures with nail polish and all things beauty here.

You may have already gathered I’m a nail polish addict. In fact I’m a makeup addict, but nail polish is my drug of choice and I have a large collection. I mean large. We’re talking in the hundreds here. So my first post for Pretty Pretty Pretty is, of course, about nail polish.

Color Club has long been one of my favourite brands of polish – for their quality, color range and price – and when they became available in New Zealand a couple of years ago I literally jumped for joy. There may have been some hand clapping and sqealing too. The lovely people at Color Club NZ were kind enough to send me out some polishes for review, and the two I have for you today are from the Pardon My French Collection.

Pardon My French is a collection of polishes designed for layering and comprises four sheer cremes and three glittery topcoats. It was released in the Northern Hemisphere for Spring 2010.

In the photo below you can see Oh Naturale, with Turn the Other Chic layered over it on two nails.

 

Now as I said, these polishes are designed to be layered, so the creme bases on their own can be a bit of a pain if you prefer your polish not to be sheer. What you see in the photo is four coats of Oh Naturale – it took that many to get it fully opaque and streak-free. Oh its own Oh Naturale is a lovely peachy orange, but it totally comes into its own when Turn the Other Chic is applied over the top.

Turn the Other Chic is a orange jelly base jam-packed full of glittery goodness. The consistency of the jelly polishes in the Pardon My French collection is like no other jelly polish I’ve ever encountered – it’s super thick and reminds me of jelly that’s been left to half set. Application is more a matter of ‘spreading’ it over the nail rather than brushing it on, so it can take a bit to get used to but it’s so worth it for the end result.

I have a couple more Pardon My French combos to show you soon, but in the meantime have any of you tried the polishes from this collection, and what did you think of them?

Color Club polishes are available in chemists throughout New Zealand, and a few other stores too. Online in New Zealand they can be purchased from USA Nails Online.

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Shellac – the nails, not the band.

May 9th, 2011

Another guest review from Vanessa, yay!
Chelly's sister's shellaced nailsIn this post, we go from the wildness of Katy Perry to a more grown-up kind of manicure – Shellac. I’ve been hearing buzz about this for some time, but being on the economical kind of nail enthusiast (read: cheap), I only gave it a go when an opportunity showed up on Grab One for $25.

Shellac is a unique treatment in that it is a polish, applied on top of your natural nails, which is cured with UV light to make it dry super-fast and super-strong. The company which produces it (CND) claims a 14 day life with no chips or cracks.

Thus, on an overcast Wednesday afternoon I arrived at The Nail Studio in Newmarket, Auckland. I was promptly received and shown through to the treatment room, where, with some embarrassment, I explained to the technician that yes, this is only my second manicure, yes, I cut my cuticles off with a pocket knife, and no, that odd yellowing is due to a nail strengthener, not cigarettes. (Anyone else have this problem?)

We began with some filing, the nasty yellow staining being buffed off, and my cuticles being pushed back (all fairly standard, I understand, but rather new to me). From there, a base coat was applied (followed by ten seconds under UV light), two coats of the colour (followed by two minutes each under UV light), and a top coat (more UV light). I went with a pale pink colour, as I had a job interview later that day. Following this, isopropyl alcohol was applied to remove any stickiness from the nail, and some oil to moisturise the nail bed. And a mere half hour later, we were done!

I’ve been pretty impressed with the finish so far. I found myself wincing slightly as I delved into my handbag for my keys, but, reassured by the vigorous way the technician had buffed my nails afterwards, I went for it, and all was well. The lack of drying time once you leave the salon is a huge advantage, and if the finish lasts for the 14 days promised, well, in the immortal words of Arnie, “I’ll be back”. It’s been almost a week so far, and I only have one minuscule chip incurred – very impressive. The shine has lasted well, too – the polish still looks like it has just been applied.

With regards to the removal of the polish: the nail technician said that, while it is recommended to get it professionally taken off, the Shellac can be removed at home by soaking your nails in pure acetone for five minutes.

Shellac is available at a number of salons, and typically costs $50-$65 a treatment.

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Black Shatter – a guest review

April 28th, 2011

Thanks Vanessa who accosted me on the street and asked to do a guest post!

black shatter nailpolish and bottleAs a lifelong devourer of nails, it came as a surprise to me a few months ago that I could kick the habit in a couple of short weeks. My secret? Making them look sufficiently pretty that I wouldn’t want to tear them to pieces. And since then (aided by a surplus of time, due to looking for work) I have been rapidly advancing through Nails 101. Words like ‘jelly’, ‘cream’, and ‘matte’ have become a second language to me. (Although, to be fair, I’m not entirely sure what a jelly is, even though I do use the word).

I started keeping up with nail polish blogs, checking reviews on the polishes I had my eye on before buying them. And it was there I first started hearing murmurings of a mythical ‘shatter’ polish, a fluid of such beauty and novelty it seemed almost too good to be true. Until, one day, I came across a display in Farmers, and lo and behold, there it was. Or should have been, if it wasn’t sold out. A quick word with a salesperson confirmed that this had been the case almost immediately.

Since then, I have checked OPI stands across the country (well, in Auckland and Wellington) for the OPI Black Shatter, part of the Katy Perry collection. And it was in the Queen Street Farmers last week where it finally came to pass that I held one of my own in my hands.

As a connoisseur of cheaper nail polishes (amongst my favourites, Chi Chi’s $8 mini range) this is the most expensive polish I’ve ever bought, but man, was it fun. You need to use it with a coloured base coat – in my case, it was two coats of Chi Chi’s Cyberella (a metallic silver).

The polish itself is very thick and dries extremely quickly – so much that it gathers around the mouth of the bottle in a rather alarming fashion. Application is both tricky and non-demanding – swiping from the cuticle to the end of your nail often results in an uneven distribution of colour, with there never being enough on the brush to reach the end of the nail in an even fashion.

But that’s where the non-demanding part comes in – as the polish begins to crack and fragment, the evenness of the application begins to matter less. In general, I’d say if you’re looking for chunkier pieces of black, put it on thicker, but for a finer, more shattered look, a thin application is best. My application is on the chunkier side (and my apologies for the state of my nails; they’re recovering from years of neglect).

The look? When you’re not directly looking at it, it reminds me of animal print. Which is odd, because I’m not really down with the leopard skin. I’ve really enjoyed having it on my nails – it cheers me up every time I see it, and it is such a joy to apply.

If I ran out, would I buy it again? Possibly, but in a different colour, to mix things up a bit. I understand it is available in other colours overseas, but I haven’t seen it here yet.

OPI polishes are sold in a range of outlets, and Black Shatter retails for $26.90.

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Dry is good!

February 8th, 2011
A guest post from the wonderful Hilaire.

insta-dryI’ve been wanting to write something for PPP for a little while now, but everything I seem to get excited about has already been well and truly covered by the community.
Until I found Sally Hansen Insta-Dry nail colour.
Oh baby is it fast! I put it on less than a minute ago (yes that’s right less than 60 seconds) and I’m already confidently bashing away at the keyboard, no petite taps for this lady – Sally lets me get on with my business, pronto!
The bottle is pretty comfortably for holding, it’s right-angle triangle shaped, but with the corners curved or planed off.
The brush is shaped a little different from what I’m used too, it’s a lot flatter and slightly tapered at the corners giving more coverage over the nail per stroke. But it does the job well.
The polish itself is a great consistency and it covers fairly evenly. I didn’t have to go back and fill in gluggy or patchy spots. As I am a busy lady, sometimes I don’t take as much care in application as I should. So the bits which I have got on my skin have dried and seem easy to peel off with my fingernails, but the actual polish on the nail wants to stay right there where it should be. I like that a lot.
I got mine from Amcal Pharamcy on Cuba for $16.99. They had an amazing range of colours, including a brilliant banana yellow. I went for the Jumpin’ Jade which pretty much matches the online swatch – it’s just a tad darker than a British racing green. (sorry my digi is broken so no actual photos)
I’ve yet to see how long it lasts and how chip proof it is, but for me it gets four keyboard love hearts <3 <3 <3 <3. Right, GTG it’s a busy life being fabulous!

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These are a few of my favourite things…

December 14th, 2010

I think every lady has an arsenal of key items which they fall back on whenever they need to feel just a touch prettier. They run the gamut from cosmetics (expected) to websites dedicated to an adorable Scottish Fold cat (for your inner happiness, see: http://sisinmaru.blog17.fc2.com/). After all, nothing says pretty like a girl with a smile on her face.

So, apart from the adorable Maru, these are a few of the things I am finding myself loving.

Lucas’ Papaw Ointment. This stuff is the bomb-diggetty. Never have I had lips so chapped that this stuff couldn’t heal them, which is grand because in the past chapped lips have led to a resurgence in my eczema. It is like some kind of hippie magic, which I love, because sometimes you decide that tomorrow you want to wear bright red lipstick but you know that your lips are waaaay too chapped for that action – enter Lucas (who is Lucas? Is he single?) and his fresh fermented papaya. Buy from health shops.

Lindauer Limited Edition Summer “champagne”. This will come as a surprise to all who know and love me, because I swore off all Lindauer products after a wee incident in my first year at University involving tequila and a bottle of Lindauer. Turns out, they aren’t a good combo. However, the other day I got some jolly good news and my good friend and all-round bad influence Kerina suggested we drink to my success. Enter Lindauer at $10 a bottle. This is no good for the ladies who love the dry wines but its cheerful label and deliciously drinkable taste has added it to my arsenal. There’s just something about a glass of something sparkly (with the mandatory strawberry soaking for later) that makes the world seem brighter.

Butter nailpolish in “Chancer”, Orly nailpolish in “Glitz”. Both of which I have worn to work. Potentially metallic gold fingernails are a touch inappropriate for a lawyer, but watch my face and see if I care. I am deeply into metallic or glittery nailpolishes at the moment; they are tough to remove but they look so pretty in our summer sun! Thanks to Farmers Beauty Club for giving me a voucher at just the right time – at $30 each the Butter polishes are a bit of a sting to the wallet. The Orly polishes come in the convenient mini size for just $10.

Any song by Katy Perry. That girl knows how to sing an uplifting summer anthem. It’s all very well to love some little-known band who only play in basements and sing about global terrorism, but come summer you want to blast some sweet saccharine pop about how you’re great (baby you’re a fiiiiiiirework!) and walk around in the sunshine feeling uplifted. I only wish I had a jeep like Cher from Clueless so I could spread the Katy Perry joy everywhere I go.

Chanel Chance fragrance. So, in winter I wear Chanel Coco. Every day. And I was getting a bit sick of this and thought “why don’t I ever wear Chance?” Well, in winter it felt…wrong. It wasn’t musky and heavy enough for my winter feelings (i.e. everything I am around or touch needs to be warm). But then the miracle of summer happened, for approximately one day, and it was just enough to get me back on the Chance wagon.

Hydrating face masque. I am planning to write a whole bit about this, comparing a high end and a low end product. For now I will just say that air-conditioning is a cruel mistress and a hydrating face masque, slapped on while I paint my toenails and listen to my girl Katy, cures all ills. I wear as little make up as humanly possible in summer – which I know technically is no makeup at all, but that’s a topic for another day – so I may as well make sure my skin looks good.

Summer fruit and veges. Oh yes, after a long winter of f’ing apples and pears, we are finally at nectarines, strawberries, apricots, watermelon et al. I am going to eat my own body weight in strawberries by Christmas: believe it. In addition, it’s the season of fresh salads, avocado on toast with ripe sun-sweetened tomato and a whisper of cracked pepper, crunchy cobs of corn and capsicum grilled on the barbecue. All of this is good for the body and the mind. Shove as much of this down your gullet as you can before we’re back to pies and comforting pastas.

Shorts, skirts, breezy dresses. I am so sick of my jeans. If I wear another pair of leggings ever again it will be too soon. My white legs want to get amongst it and (controversially) really want a bit of tan. So, right after I slap on a layer of Piz Buin (the fake tan favoured by all women in my family) I will be getting out my denim shorts and I will be putting on a white shirt and I will be marching myself down to the beach to read a book. If the wind stays away I might wear that really cute white dress I bought two years ago and have only had the opportunity to wear twice.

So, that’s my list of cheeriness for this time of year. Naturally it would be totally different in winter – pies would be getting a lot of screen time for starters. I’d love to know what everyone else is enjoying at the moment (maybe we can all steal from each other!) – the more happiness the merrier. And Christmas is the season of merriment after all!

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Posted in body products, clothes, grooming, Megan, nails, Uncategorized

MIKI Minis

November 19th, 2010

I decided that having promised MIKI swatches I should do them straight away or else they would never get done. They’re not the greatest photos, but hopefully they give an indication of what this range is like. The polishes cost $2.95 or 2 for $5 and can be found at random pharmacies.

So, 4 polishes, 4 nails, 2 coats, no base coat, no top coat.

In the bottles:

MIKI Bottles

On the nails:

MIKI on Nails
Unfortunately these don’t have shade names, only batch numbers printed on the bottom of the bottles, which for 3 out of the 4 polishes are illegible.

The dark green I think is probably the standout shade. I’m not a shimmer fan, but after admiring this in the shop a couple of times I decided to give it a go. The first time I applied it I was sitting in a pool of sunlight and when it hit my nails, wow. The base of this is a dark blue-leaning green and it’s packed with fine gold, green, and bronze shimmer. Like a crazy awesome beetle.

The photo on my nail really doesn’t do it justice. I’ll try to remember to take a picture when I’m wearing this on a sunny day. I even scored a spontaneous, “Wow, your nails look awesome!” from my boyfriend as we waited at a red light one day.

Dark Green in Bottle

I love my greys, and have worn this one over and over again. I applied two coats here, but I usually just go with one. It’s also excellent under OPI’s all too sheer “Brand New Skates”.

The mint green is very springish. And not too starkly pastel. You can see my ridgey nail poking through in the picture so it probably really needs 3 coats.

The pink is a warm peachy leaning shade. The consistency is fairly thick, but not difficult to apply. I’m not really a pink kind of girl, so I’ve only worn this once. I eventually managed to find it under the bed when I decided to do these swatches, so at least it has found a use as a toy for the cat.

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Nail Polish: Who, What, Where

November 19th, 2010

So I totally hit up the mall yesterday you guys. Queensgate. And as I wandered, the delicate fragrance of Impulse wafted gently through the climate controlled air. Nah, I’m making that up. We’re all mouth breathers out here in the Hutt. It’s safer that way.

It occurred to me while I was there that things have changed a fair bit in the nail polish world over the past few months. There has been an influx of brands hitherto unavailable–which I guess means local retailers have finally caught on to the current thingness of nail products.

I thought maybe it would be useful to mention which brands are stocked, and where, in case you’re on the look out for something.

First up, Farmers. They’re now selling Butter London. Yay! For $29.95 a bottle. Boo! They have some beautiful looking colours though. They’re also stocking Sally Hansen polishes, a few different ranges. The only price I could find was for the Hard as Nails(?) polishes which were selling for $9.95. There were lots of gaps where polishes had sold and not been restocked so it was hard to tell what the selection was like. Rimmel is also new, with an entire make up range, polishes included. Ditto lots of gaps. Is it just my local Farmers that is shit at keeping products stocked?

OPI seems to have disappeared from the shelves there (I’ve just been in to Farmers again, and I could not be more wrong. OPI has moved to a flash new stand and the range has increased) , as has Bloom, but Orly is still making an appearance. Not nail polish related, but Farmers have also expanded their Burt’s Bees offerings beyond lip products.

The Life Pharmacy here has added Essie ($25.50) and Colour Club ($17ish?) and expanded their selection of OPI polishes (still $24.95) including a handful of the Designer series. The OPI Burlesque holiday range has landed if you’re into shimmery glitterbombs.

Upstairs, Cosmetics Plus has a huge range of BYS polishes, including mattes, UV polishes, crackling polishes, and a range of nail art pens. Since my last rather disparaging review of a BYS polish, I’ve bought a couple of the matte shades which are much better quality and I really like. I also notice some of the ordinary colours have “Improved formula” stickers on the bottles, so maybe they’re worth having a look at. On display for Christmas were some MIKI gift sets, though not at the 2 for $5 price point I can get them for at my local pharmacy.

I have 4 MIKI polishes now and they are seriously good. The bottles are 7.57ml, half the size of an OPI, and excellent quality. Swatches to follow at some point!

Finally, to finish, a disclaimer. My glasses are broken so I went to the Mall in my natural “blind as a bat” state. My prices could be completely wrong and I may have missed brands lurking in full view. Hope that helps!

Update: I found Mavala mini polishes and treatment products at the Ian Schofer Pharmacy on HIgh Street.

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