China Glaze You Drive Me Coconuts

Out of all the neon polishes Mum and I bought, this was Mum's favourite. China Glaze's You Drive Me Coconuts! A beautiful bright pink neon with a squishy appearance. I am wearing two coats here. The formula was very smooth and was very easy to use.

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China Glaze Beach Cruise-r

Phew! Nail Juice is on a neon kick! Today I have China Glaze's Beach Cruise-r to show you. A very bright purple-pink with faint blue shimmer. This is two coats shown here. The formula is on the thin side, but look at that fabulous colour! This colour reminds me of an old China Glaze, Purple Panic.

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China Glaze Hang Ten-toes

Welcome to China Glaze's Hang Ten-toes! This is very similar in regards to formula as Life's a Beach. The formula has fantastic opacity and is very smooth overall. I'm wearing two coats here.

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China Glaze Shell-o

Today I have China Glaze's Shell-o to show you! This is very similar to Heat Index, which is a blue toned pink, in regards to formula and finish. They are both very thin jellies. Although the formula is quite thin and watery, it's still quite usable. I really like the look of these jelly neons! I think I need more...

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China Glaze Life's A Beach

And here is China Glaze's Life's A Beach! I love the name on this one. This is a really nice and opaque formula for a neon. Very smooth and very shiny! It dries matte as you can see in the pictures. As this one was tricky for the camera to capture, the shade photo shows the colour more correctly.

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China Glaze Heat Index

Today we have China Glaze's Heat Index! I am really interested in this shade because most neons tend to be quite chalky or stark looking, yet Heat Index is a jelly neon. I love it! This is two coats here, so you can see that it is definitely thin in it's formula and opacity. Great for layering and creating jelly sandwiches though! There is another polish, Shell-o, from the same collection but is more mango in appearance. That'll be up on the blog shortly.

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China Glaze Fortune Teller

Today I have China Glaze's Fortune Teller to show you. It was released in a Halloween collection alongside Spellbound in 2009. I really loved this polish, but I loved it so much that I never wore it! That is no life for a pretty polish. One coat shown over a black creme here. Formula is great!

Comparison: Trendsetter vs. Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window

 

I know it's a bit of a stretch to compare these two, but I feel like I need to get rid of one of them. 


Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window is from OPI's latest fall collection, Touring America (2011). Trendsetter is also from China Glaze's latest fall collection, Metro (2011). So both are fairly easy to come across.

Formula wise the OPI is quite watery and at the other end of the scale is thick-goopy Trendsetter. I have added thinner to it before but the next time I went to use Trend, it was just as thick as before.

I appreciate Trend's different-ness and Uh-Oh to me is a collection staple. Although it isn't as bold as Trend, it certainly looks nice, clean, subtle and will match a lot of outfits.

I just don't know what to do! What would you do? Are you in the same position but with other colours?

China Glaze Ruby Pumps

If you don't own a bottle of Ruby Pumps, why not? Seriously this polish can do no wrong.

In all my polish obsessed years (four) I am only just starting to get into reds now. Ruby Pumps up until now was the only red I would ever wear and be happy with it. Definitely an all time favourite.

Ruby just glows in sunlight or artificial light. So pretty anywhere. This is two coats here.

Oh yeah, 

Merry Christmas!

Purging: Which ones to keep?

I think we all have that time in our nail polish lives where we feel that we own just a little bit much. As I am moving out of home again for university next year, I really want to trim my stash down! Today I am only showing you a little bit of the stash.

Purging is a hard thing to do... usually I am very strict on myself with the polishes that I keep. Usually it's ones that I don't have a doppelganger of, or I wear it more than a few times a year and most importantly it has to suit my skin tone.

These are my reds. To be honest, the only red I am crazy about is Ruby Pumps. I sort of only own the others because I don't have something like them and fear I will need them at some stage to match an outfit. Now that I think about it, I don't actually wear any red outfits, only ever red lipstick. Hmmm...

Left to right: Glitter Gal Not Another Red, OPI Guy Meets Gal-Veston, China Glaze Dress to Kill, China Glaze Ruby Pumps

These are some of my favourite polishes. Quirky, pale, sweet shades. I love every one of these to pieces. I can't trim down this area any more.

Left to right: OPI It's a Girl, OPI Steady as She Rose, OPI Skull and Glossbones, OPI Time-less is More

Browns, oranges and rose golds have only started to grow in the stash this year.

Left to right: Australis Citrus, OPI Pros and Bronze, OPI Ginger Bells, OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys

I could not trim down my navys any lower than this. I think I had about eight. They are the largest colour group found in my stash. I feel safe with these ones as I have one in almost every finish if I ever did need it. That is some weak justification if I ever did hear!

Left to right: OPI Russian Navy Suede, OPI Roadhouse Blues, OPI Play Til Midnight, OPI Ink

Lucky last, the greens. I'm still not completely sold on all of these shades. I do however love wearing Uh-Oh and Trendsetter.

Left to right: China Glaze Electric Pineapple, OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, China Glaze Trendsetter, OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window

Do you have any shades you just can't get rid of?

China Glaze Trendsetter

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend so far! My family is hosting the annual Summer Driveway BBQ so we have been doing a lot of cleaning and cooking today. But today I have China Glaze's Trendsetter to show you!

This seems to be a shade that you either love or hate. I was interested in Trendsetter from the word go. I really love wearing it. I don't know if it suits my skin tone all that well but I appreciate the weirdness Trendsetter has to offer.

Trendsetter, when applied looks a little more khaki and turns slightly more yellowy when it dries. I really like the golden shimmer too, so fine. The formula is nice, mine tends to run on the thicker side of things but nothing a little bit of thinner can't fix! Great coverage.

I've read a lot of what people associate Trendsetter, mostly being poo or fungus. But I mean, if you think about it, you could associate just about any nail polish with a negative connotation. You can change that connotation with something more desirable and positive, something that you like. 

Just now thinking about why I like Trendsetter, it's might be because I am a huge lover of mustard and that's what comes to my mind first. I asked my sister what she thinks of it and she says it reminds her of clay. She loves to make things out of clay. Mum says it reminds her of curry powder, my Mum loves making different curries.

How do you feel about Trendsetter? What do you associate with this colour?

Nail Art: The Importance of Grid

I'm slowly getting back into nail art. It's sort of like a bug, you get it in bursts. Anyway, about the title. At university we've been working on a brief for creating our own wallpaper and we've all been learning about how important a grid is in setting up a recurring pattern.

I'm not sure if you remember this dress from another post or not, but it's what I wanted to wear for my final presentation along with some pretty nails.

I wanted to mimic the pattern and colour from the dress so I quickly painted up a few ideas I had. The colours used here are OPI Roadhouse Blues (navy), OPI Skull and Glossbones (grey) and China Glaze Dress to Kill (red, love that name btw).

I really loved how graphic the first nail looked with the navy flowers on the grey base. The second nail I also loved, the third was ok but wasn't as strong or bold as the first two. The last nail was pretty blah. I decided to go with both the first and second nails!

Here is where the grid comes in! Keep in mind that I did do my left hand first and didn't use a grid. Total mess. I do recommend getting some practice in before going straight into this lol. I really liked how the design looked at this stage. I may just have to have this as a mani on it's own one day.

Now Roadhouse Blues gets covered in Skull and Glossbones. I was a bit iffy about this because the grey looks quite a bit softer over the navy. I'll have to make that bit work better I think.

All finished! I think this was before I put top coat on. Because after I did it sort of smudged bits of the navy out and streaked. It wasn't major or overly obvious, but I knew it was there! >:( I used Essie 3-way Glaze for the top coat. Usually it serves me well, but not today...

An "in the shade" pic just for good measure. 


To do all of this I just used the flat end of a dressmakers pin. I desperately searched my apartment for a dotting tool and only found toothpicks. I've had bad experiences when using toothpicks for nail art and I found a rogue pin in my couch so I decided to use that.

Here is also a picture of my cat.