Sally Hansen Triple Shine Sparks Fly

Sparks Fly is part of the new-ish Triple Shine range. I've never been a big fan of sally hansen, but this range has come out with some beautiful glitters. I, again, have never really liked chunky glitter polishes but I'm actually starting to like them more and more.

I saw this beautiful nail polish in the store a while ago and bought it immediately. It looks like this gorgeous blue/silver chunky glitter in a clear base. Well… I was wrong. It's a silver chunky glitter in a very very sheer blue base. I painted my nails with a white base so the blue chunky glitter would really pop, my whole nail was covered in a blue jelly! So much for white nails, which are a pain to get streak free!!

After the initial shock of it all, I continued the application. The swatch looks really nice. It's a gorgeous light blue with larger silver hexagon bits of glitter and teeny tiny silver ones.

I'm not really too sure about the polish. It looked great in the bottle, and I do think it looks good in the swatch, but it's not what I expected at all! I'm looking for a chunky glitter that can be layered over any colour, whereas this is pretty limited to blues and whites (which turn blue anyway!). It also can't be used on it's own as the blue jelly is so sheer you'll never get it fully opaque and looking good.

Finally I wasn't a huge fan of the packaging and application of it. The bottles look nice, but you're not getting much. This bottle has 10ml, and the OPI next to it has 15ml. The cap of the Sally Hansen is similar to a Butter London cap, where you pull it off and then see a twist top.

The brush is a very thick brush. I'm a big fan of brushes like that since it's makes application super easy. It nicely spread along my nail. However the brush holder is just as thick as the opening of the nail polish bottle, which makes it pretty difficult to slide polish off the brush.

I also didn't have any problem with the glitter density, no was no glitter placement whatsoever. I just dragged the brush along my nail and tons of the small glitter came onto it. I didn't get as much of the larger glitters, but I did have a few on each nail. The jelly itself was a little more difficult. The first coat ended up being a bit uneven and streaky - which was enhanced because of the white base - so I ended up with two coats of it. A total of 1 base coat, 2 white coats and 2 glitter coats. Not an excessive amount of nail polish, but after waiting a full 30 minutes, the polish still wasn't completely dry and I could easily make dents in it. As a triple shine formula I assumed you didn't need another top coat over it….

Anyway, overall it's OK. It looks really pretty, but isn't versatile. I unfortunately don't like it enough to keep it so it'll go in my unwanted pile. I'm not sure whether that's just gonna get thrown out or whether I'll have a giveaway.

OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! Ok Fine!

Next up from my OPI Hauls is Nein! Nein! Nein! Ok Fine. This nail polish came out in the Germany Collection in the Autumn of 2012. I am a huge fan of the Germany collection and own several of them.

This is a very unique shade. In the bottle it looks like a very dark grey, on my nails it looks black, however in the photos it looks like a dark forest green. I slightly edited the photos to get them more true to colour, but wanted to keep a hint of the green in to show you how it photographs completely different.

The formula was OK. It was pretty streaky and I had a little trouble with evening it out. With careful application 2 coats is more than enough. It's a creme finish so has great opacity.

This photo indicates the true colour. It's a very dark nail polish that almost looks black on my nails. That being said it, it looks stunning and is an amazing autumn shade. These photos are without a topcoat.

OPI I Love Applause

First up from my eBay OPI haul is I Love Applause. I was a little apprehensive about this colour since it is a sheer formula, and I looove my cremes. This colour is from the new Muppets Most Wanted collection. It consists of eight polishes: 3 glitters, 3 sheer polishes and 2 metallics. I honestly wasn't too thrilled with the collection, I have a love hate relationship with metallic and glitter polishes and never liked sheer ones! Anyway, I loved this colour so thought I'd just give it a go. I saw a lot of swatches where people used 3 coats and it was completely opaque.

Well… I LOVE it. When I applied the first coat, I got super worried. It was incredibly sheer and a little streaky. How could this possible become opaque in 3 coats?!? The second coat made a huge difference and finally the third coat made it perfect. It's such a beautiful elegant light pink shade. You can slightly see my nail line, but I think that actually adds to the polish. This literally opens up a whole new world of nail polish…. uh oh….

Don't Bossa Nova Me Around, I Love Applause, My Very First Knockwurst

I do have a few other light pink shades so I thought I'd do a quick comparison. First up is Bossa Nova Me Around, from the new Brazil collection and My Very First Knockwurst from the Germany collection. First off, I Love Applause is a sheer nail polish whereas the other two are creme finishes. Secondly I would classify I Love Applause as a pink, but the other two nude pinks. Don't Bossa Nova Me Around is a lot more creme coloured, definitely more nude. My Very First Knockwurst is the same shade of pink, but the creme finish makes a huge difference on the overall look of the nail polish.

Pink Friday, I Love Applause

This second comparison is with Pink Friday from the Nicki Minaj Collection. Again, Pink Friday is a creme finish so a lot more opaque. It's also a much darker barbie bubblegum type of pink and a lot brighter.

Click to Enlarge

The photo shows the four nail polishes on my nails. Sorry for the slightly messy application, it's on my right hand (I'm right handed) and I wasn't very patient. I used three coats for Pink Friday  (normally you can get away with just two but using my non dominant hand is pretty difficult) and I Love Applause. Two coats for My Very First Knockwurst and Don't Bossa Nova Me Around. As you can see, DBNMA is the closest match, but still very very different.

OPI Haul

OPI is my favourite brand (tied with Kester Black). I first started getting into OPI last year when I found out they had a Holland collection. Seeing as I'm Dutch I had to get my hands on the whole collection… obviously. Every since then, I fell in love. Now OPI is the brand I have the most nail polishes of.

Living in Australia is pretty expensive, regular retail price for OPI here is $20. I know if I convert that back to pounds, it'll be the same as what they're sold for in the UK, but $20 for ONE nail polish is a bit excessive! Another thing you need to know about me, I rarely pay full price for anything. I will do anything and everything to find discounts, so that's exactly what I do for OPI's. I found a stole in Melbourne that sells OPIs for $10! Score! Most of them are from older collections, and they don't have a huge selection to choose from, but I have found some amazing colours there including Just Spotted The Lizard, Pink Friday and My Very First Knockwurst. 

Anyway this post isn't about that haul, this is about a haul from eBay. Buying OPI's from eBay can be a bit risky, there are a lot of fakes online so in the UK I always steered clear of that, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I did a lot of research on how to spot a fake OPI (which I'll blog about later), but I found a few sellers that sell the real deal: Alwaysyouthful, Jojammy1 and becc1874. 

My recent order is from Alwaysyouthful. The nail polishes retail for around $11.50 and shipping is $6.95 and stays that price no matter how much you order. I ordered the following nail polishes: 

Koala Bear-y, I Saw…U Saw… We Saw… Warsaw, Nein! Nein! Nein! Ok Fine!, I Love Applause, Baby Please Come Home 

The OPI names seem to be getting longer and longer! I will be reviewing each nail polish individually and will compare them with similar colours. 

Kester Black Architecture in Helsinki 2

This is part two of the Kester Black limited addition nail polish where I'll be showing you 4EVA. The collection is a collaboration with the band Architecture in Helsinki. Their new CD is called NOW & 4EVA, and that's what the two limited addition nail polishes are called. If you want to see swatches of NOW, click here.

4EVA is a beautiful bright pink colour, not quite neon, but almost there. Like I mentioned in the previous post, the new Kester Black nail polishes have a new wide brush, which makes application very easy. However, the formula of this nail polish wasn't as fantastic as NOW. With NOW I could easily get away with just applying one coat. It had great opacity and wasn't streaky at all. For 4EVA I ended up applying three coats, and even though the nail polish was very smooth and even, it wasn't as opaque. After three coats I could still see my nail line, which was slightly disappointing. It wasn't very obvious, and the super easy application kind of makes up for it.

The colour isn't as unique as NOW either, the photo above compares it to Kester Blacks Dragonfruit. They look identical. Sometimes I feel like Dragonfruit looks slightly darker, but that could just be me trying so hard to see a difference I just make something up. The brush is different though. Dragonfruit has the original brush, and 4EVA has the new thick brush.

Kester Black Architecture in Helsinki 1

Kester Black is my favourite brand (tied with OPI). The unique thing about Kester Black nail polishes is that they're 100% Australian made! Not only that but they are also 5 free, cruelty free and vegan. All in all an amazing brand. They retail for $17 each and are definitely worth the price. All the polishes I have tried - I own 16 - are extremely opaque and have great colour pay off.

In this post I will be discussing the first new limited addition polishes for Architecture In Helsinki. This collection contains two nail polishes: NOW and 4EVA, the title of Architecture In Helsinki's new cd. They're an Australian indie pop band, and the only band my boyfriend and I BOTH like. That doesn't happen too often!

NOW is a vibrant medium sky blue. It's such a beautiful colour and very unique in my collection. The only similar looking colour I own is OPI No Room For The Blues but that's a little darker and much more muted true blue, whereas NOW leans more towards cyan. The photo doesn't show the difference is colour as well as I'd like.

The new Kester Black nail polishes have a new type of brush. It's a thick flat brush so it makes application very easy. For the swatch to the right I used two coats. As I applied the first coat I noticed quite a bit of streakiness, but as it dried that evened out nicely. With careful application you can easily get away with applying one coat, I decided to add a second coat anyway. The result is beautiful, I took the photo when the nail polish was completely dry and didn't use a top coat. You can see how shiny it is!!

I would say this is more of a spring/summer colour and seeing as it's autumn in Australia right now I won't wear it as often. That being said, I am super excited about this colour and because of the easily application it'll be a great colour for my travels!