Kester Black Fairy Floss

Kester Black Fairy Floss

This nail polish is so much more beautiful than I thought it would be. The third nail polish from my recent haul is Fairy Floss by Kester Black. I never really cared too much about pale pink shades, until I bought Pink Friday by OPI and now I can't get enough of these kinds of colours! Pink Friday and Fairy Floss are nothing alike though.

Fairy Floss is a gorgeous baby pink. It's a really light warm toned pastel pink. It's different from other pale pinks because I feel like they lean more blue toned.

Kester Black Fairy Floss

The application was incredibly easy. This nail polish comes with the thick nail polish brush mentioned in a previous post so I can get away with applying the colour with just one stroke. This way it's a very even streak free application without any chance of getting bald spots. It dries incredibly quick and for the second coat I, again, only applied one brush stroke. The colour is fully opaque in just two coats, which is amazing for such a light pastel colour. I also didn't apply a top coat, it's shiny all on its own.

Kester Black Fairy Floss

I always felt like pale pinks would be too girly and barbie-like but this isn't like that at all. It's pretty but not too girly and it's great for the spring and summer!

Butter London Trout Pout & Snog

Butter London Trout Pout

There is nothing more exciting than going through a friends nail polish collection and trying out new polishes. I tested out two amazing Butter London nail polishes: Trout Pout and Snog. I do own a few Butter London nail polishes myself, but only 1 creme polish, the rest is all glitters! I do like the formula for the creme polishes, but the brand mainly stood out to me for their glitters. Trying some more cremes definitely changed my mind

Butter London Trout Pout

First up is Trout Pout, a beautiful coral. The formula was fantastic, I applied two easy coats of the polish for the swatch. The polish is slightly thick, but that didn't make it difficult to apply. The first coat was slightly streaky, but because of the amazing opacity the second coat evened everything out. It's a stunning and a perfect shade for the spring/summer.

Butter London Snog

The second nail polish is called Snog. It's a much darker berry colour that leans hot pink. It really reminds me of OPI's Koala-beary. The colour is very similar, but the formula is similar too. For the swatch I only used one coat. You can see a slight nail line so I would advise doing two coats, but I wanted to show you how opaque the formula is. It's also super glossy and dried quickly.

I'm so impressed with the two creme polishes from Butter London that I might have to go and buy a few myself!!

OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender

Lucky Lucky Lavender by OPI is the nail polish that started my OPI obsession. I had other OPI's and they were all great, but I hadn't fallen in love with the brand yet. I bought Lucky Lucky Lavender almost a year ago and haven't stopped buying OPI....

This nail polish is a shade in between pink and purple. Although it looks more pink in the photos, when you hold it next to an actual pink it definitely looks purple, but when you hold it next to a purple it looks pink! It's hard to place it in my nail polish collection since I have no shade like it!

The application was flawless. It's a creme polish but was a little sheer on the first coat. The second coat however completely covered it up. For the swatch I used two coats.  There was absolutely no streakiness and I didn't get any bald patches either. It was a dream to apply. I also didn't have to do any clean up.

I didn't add a top coat to the polish. It's super shiny on its own! However, I only wore it for 24 hours and I saw some chipping, so I would advise to add a top coat. It wasn't major chipping and no one would really see it unless they looked closely.

It's a beautiful nail polish for spring, although it's autumn here and I'm wearing it anyway!!

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.