September 'What's In-die Box' Swatches pt 2: Lilypad Lacquer, Celestial Cosmetics & Glam Polish

Last week I posted part 1 of my swatches for September's 'Sex and the City' themed What's In-die box, featuring polishes from Peita's Polish and Emily de Molly (click here to see it). So here is part 2! Today I have polishes from Lilypad Lacquer, Glam Polish and Celestial Cosmetics. As I'm not a SATC fan, I can't speak for how well these polishes relate to the theme.

First up is Lilypad Lacquer, "City Lights'. This is such a unique polish! It kind of reminds me of a lizard. It's a scattered holo with greenish/yellowish micro flakes in a dark green/grey base. It also features a slight colour-shift from bluish green to yellowy green.

Lilypad Lacquer 'City Lights', direct sunlight

The formula for this was so nice and it only took 2 coats for full opacity! You could probably layer 1 coat of this over black for a stronger colour-shift.

Lilypad Lacquer 'City Lights', lightbox

 Next is Celestial Cosmetics 'I Miss New York'. This one is a silver foil with small and micro red hexes (some of them flash orange/pink!). I like the concept of this polish and it's something that I would maybe wear at Christmas time but the formula was a real let down.

It has quite a watery consistency and as a result, the larger hexes would constantly slip off the brush, making it really hard to get on the nail. As you can see from the bottle shot, there are plenty of larger hexes in the bottle but hardly any transfer to the nail.

Celestial Cosmetics 'I Miss New York', lightbox

 'I Miss New York' was also really sheer, which is not something I would expect from a foil polish. For my swatches, I used 2 coats over Borghese 'Chroma' on all nails except my ring finger which had 6 coats of 'I Miss New York' on it's own. Even with 6 coats, I still had some visible nail line on my ring finger (this doesn't really show up in the photos though)
.

Celestial Cosmetics 'I Miss New York', lightbox

 Finally, we have one of my favourites from this What's In-die Box, Glam Polish 'Carrie Me Away!'.

'Carrie Me Away!' is a bright blue/aqua crelly filled with micro silver holo glitter and blue shimmer. The formula was a good consistency but it's also a little sheer so I think that next time I wear it, I'll be layering it over a blue creme. This is 4 coats on it's own with topcoat. It looks absolutely amazing in the sun!

Glam Polish, 'Carrie Me Away!', lightbox

Glam Polish, 'Carrie Me Away!', direct sunlight

 What polish from this What's In-die Box was your favourite? For me, it was either Peita's Polish 'Labels or Love' or Glam Polish 'Carrie Me Away!'.

Caitlin, xo

Nail Art: Glitter Gradient

Hey ladies!

Why am I so drawn to pink/purple/blue gradients?! I seem to favour this colour combo every time I do a gradient!

For the base gradient I used Savvy 'Cosmic' and Smooch 'Lazuire'. Cosmic is one of the new Savvy's and it's so beautiful! I love the blue shimmer through it.

The glitter gradient is Revlon 'Heavenly'. I bought the Revlon last week because it was 50% off because I refuse to buy Revlon full price because they all seem to go horrible and gloopy! But I thought that since now I have polish thinner it won't be such a big deal if it does thicken on me (plus it was kinda thick to begin with!). I'll put up with it though because look at those iridescent glitters!

I topped it all off with one coat of Essence 'Gel Look Top Coat' and Seche Vite.

Caitlin, xo

September What's In-die Box Swatches part 1 (Emily de Molly & Peita's Polish)

I got my first What's In-die Box this month! What's In-die box is a monthly polish box for Australian residents and has 5 surprise and sometimes exclusive Aussie indie nail polishes. This month's theme was 'Sex and the City'! I'll admit that I'm not that big of a fan of SATC but I thought that it would inspire some beautiful and glitzy polish and I was right!

L-R -  Emily de Molly 'Neutral Agreement', Glam Polish 'Get Carried Away!', Lilypad Lacquer 'City Lights', Peita's Polish 'Love or Labels', and Celestial Cosmetics 'I Miss New York'

 I'm going to be showing you two of them today! First is Peita's Polish 'Love or Labels'.

'Love or Labels' is a gorgeous dark pink jelly that is packed with glitter! It's full of red and holo silver hearts, and tons of different sized circles, squares and hexes in red, pink and silver. There's so much glitter in this polish that I didn't have to fish at all!

I thought that I would be needing undies for this because it's a jelly but, nope! I got opacity in 3 dabbed coats! The formula was good too, not too thick which is great for a jelly.

You could wear 1-2 coats of this over a dark pink/berry base or even over black for a kind of vampy look.

For my swatches, I used 3 coats on it's own with one coat of Essence Gel Look top coat and one coat of Seche Vite.

direct sunlight

Next is Emily de Molly's 'Neutral Agreement'. 'Neutral Agreement' is a beige/grey tinged creme with holo silver and gold hex in multiple sizes, small bronze hex and a lovely gold shimmer throughout.

I was surprised at how much I loved this one! I don't usually go for neutral colours (I think I have maybe 2-3 in my collection). I just love how beautifully understated it is.

The formula was perfect and applied like butter. For my swatches, I used 3 coats (though you could get away with 2 if you have shorter nails) and then used one coat of Essence Gel Look top coat and one coat of Seche Vite.

outdoor light

Did you get a What's In-die Box this month? Which one was your favourite?

Stay tuned for next week when I post swatches from the rest of the polishes from the Sex and the City box.

Caitlin, xo

Nail Art: Polka Dot Hearts

Hi ladies!

I did this design to enter into an Instagram contest held by @mrslochness and @ethereallacquer. The rules are that your design has to incorporate hearts somehow and you have to say something nice about another person. The inspiration for this design came from a pair of socks I saw in Target!

I used Essence 'Hard to Resist' for the base and for the dots and hearts I used Essie 'Bikini So Teeny', Australis 'Peek-a-boo', and Sally Hansen 'Cherry, Cherry, Bang, Bang!'.

Caitlin, xo

Review: Indee Polish Co. 'Pants on Fire' (with underwater swatches!!)

Today I have a beautiful multichrome layering polish to show you from Indee Polish Co.! Indee Polish Co. is a relatively new Aussie indie polish brand run by Sandi and is based in Sydney. Sandi has produced a ton of gorgeous shades already and 'Pants on Fire' is one of them.

This polish is designed to be worn over the top of other nail colours. As with all colour-shifting polishes, the effect looks best over black. However, you can wear it over any colour! Besides black, I would recommend wearing it over dark pink/purple or navy blue.

For my swatches I used 3 coats of 'Pants on Fire' over black.

'Pants on Fire' shifts from magenta to pink to orange to gold and even to green at some angles but the pink/orange/gold shift is the most prominent.

Outdoor light

Macro shot

Recently, I've seen a few bloggers posting swatches of ILNP Ultrachrome collection underwater to show the full spectrum of the colour shift and I've been wanting to try it myself so here we go!
This polish was lovely to apply, wasn't streaky and dried pretty fast. No issues at all!

Underwater!

Underwater

Please note that this strong colour shift is only visible underwater, the green is not this visible in normal conditions.

All Indee Polish Co. polishes are BIG 5 FREE (no Toluene, Formaldehyde, TSF resin, Camphor or DBP) and are 100% Australian handmade. 'Pants on Fire' can be purchased HERE from Indee Polish Co's Etsy store for $9.00 for a 15mL bottle.

Product provided for my honest review. Read my Disclosure Policy for full details

Caitlin, xo

NOTD: Ruby Wing Colour-Changing Nail Polish

Hey girls!

Just a quick little post today to show you my NOTD. I used Ruby Wing 'Gypsy', topped with Ulta3 'Outtasight' and 'XOXO'. 'Gypsy' is a UV reacting nail polish that changes in the sun. Inside, it's a bluish minty green and outside it turns a bright grassy green.

For the first photo, I held my thumb over my ring finger for a few seconds and then quickly took the photo. Instant accent nail!

Direct sunlight

Lightbox

Direct sunlight

The formula for the Ruby Wing polish was a little streaky but nothing that careful application didnt't fix. Both of the Ulta3's were perfectly easy to apply. 

p.s I have a special post coming on Monday so look forward to that!

Caitlin, xo

Nail Art Tutorial: Pastel Rainbow Gradient

Hey everyone!

So, a while ago (just over 6 months I think) I did a nail design which I guess I would describe as a 'diagonal rainbow gradient' and got a huge positive response from it. I was featured on a few big Instagram fashion/nailart accounts and gained a huge amount of followers from it. Tons of people asked me to do a tutorial for these nails and I've only just gotten around to doing it!

These are the only (filtered to death) photos that I could find of the original design. I'm so proud of how far I've come in terms of the length and shape of my nails as well as my clean up skills.

Here are some photos of my recreation of the original mani...

Slight improvement, right? :P

andddd, now, on to the tutorial! (**PIC HEAVY** click through below to view it)