25.11.13

Mckfresh Nail Attire Retrosweat 80's Collection - Swatch & Review

*products in this post provided for my honest review. Read my Disclosure Policy here.

Hi again!
Yesterday I showed you some polishes from Mckfresh Nail Attire's Christmas Collection. Today I have polishes from another collection that was released at the same time: The Retrosweat Collection!

This 80's inspired collection has been created in collaboration with Retrosweat; an 80's themed aerobics class in Sydney. This fitness group is all about accessorising yourself in full on 80's gear and Mckfresh has created some nail polish to match!

The collection consists of five cremes/crellys and I've got three to show you today!

First is Fonda Peach, a pastel peach/apricot creme with a subtle silver shimmer. This went on a little streaky at first but with careful application and 3 coats, it evens out pretty nicely because the formula is self-levelling.





Next is Electric Blue which is a bright medium blue creme/crelly with a holographic sparkle that is halfway between linear and scattered. The holo sparkle in this one is pretty strong considering its creme base. Unfortunately, it was raining all week when I swatched this one so I don't have sunlight shot to show off the holo goodness :( I will edit this post at a later date when I've reswatched and captured a sun shot :)
The formula for this one was really nice and easy to get an even coat. My swatches show three thin coats (although you could get away with two) with topcoat.






Lastly is Flick Kick, a pastel pink creme with a strong blue shimmer, although the shimmer didn't show up too well on my camera. This one had a nice formula and wasn't too thick (as some pastels tend to be). The lovely blue shimmer is really eye catching! I used three coats with top coat but it does dry to a glossy finish on its own :)





The Mckfresh Nail Attire Retrosweat Collection is available now from the Mckfresh etsy store. Full size 12ml bottles are $10.00ea. You can also check out Retrosweat here on Facebook.

Caitlin, xo


24.11.13

Mckfresh Nail Attire 'So This is Christmas' Collection - Swatch & Review

*products in this post provided for review. Read my Disclosure Policy here.


Hello again! Three posts in one week?? This is unheard of! ;) 

Today I have a third and final Australian Indie Christmas Collection to show you all! This one is from Mckfresh Nail Attire. These are the first Mckfresh polishes that I've tried and I'm really impressed with the quality of them.

I've been sent 3 polishes from the So This is Christmas Collection. There are 5 polishes in this collection and they are all glitter toppers with an effect shimmer, designed to be layered over a base colour.

These polishes all have a similar concept; they have a shimmer/glass fleck glitter throughout the base with some assorted smaller glitter and a few different large glitters. They all applied the same way so I'll talk about that first. Because of the glass fleck base, you need to start with one 'normally' painted layer to get an even coat of the shimmer. Then you can go back and dab on more of the larger glitters if you didn't get enough from the first layer.There are a lot of the large glitters in the bottle so it wasn't too difficult to get them out. I would recommend wearing them over a darker colour to let the glass fleck base really shine :)

So first is Naughty & Nice. It has a pink to gold glass fleck shimmer with a ton of different glitters - there is so much going on in this one! It has dots, squares, bars, shards, hex, diamonds, and stars. The colour scheme of this one is predominately pink with some gold and silver scattered throughout. My swatches show two coats (one regular & one dabbed) over Sally Hansen 'Cherry, Cherry, Bang, Bang!' with topcoat.






Next is Under the Christmas Tree and it is SO Christmas-sy! It has a green to red glass fleck shimmer with large circles, hex, squares, bars, and stars. The colour scheme for this one is mostly green with red, gold, and silver. I'll definitely be wearing this one at Christmas time. My swatches show two coats (one regular & one dabbed) over Australis 'Here Today, Gone Tomorrow' with topcoat.







and lastly we have Twinkle Twinkle a predominately gold glitter topper with a gold shimmer base with hex, squares, dots, stars. It also has some silver and iridescent glitter thrown in with the gold. This one reminds me of sparkly Christmas wrapping paper for some reason! My swatches show two coats (one regular & one dabbed) over Essence 'Hard to Resist' with topcoat.





This is probably the most versatile polish of the ones that I swatched because you could wear it almost any colour! Another awesome thing about it is that if you purposely leave out the large glitters, it makes a beautiful subtle gold glitter! I tried it over Essence 'Give Me Nude, Baby!'


There are two other polishes from this collection (a purple/silver and a blue/aqua), you can check those out at the Mckfresh Nail Attire Etsy store. This stunning collection is available now for $10.00ea for full size 12ml bottles. Stay tuned for tomorrow because I'll have three more Mckfresh polishes to show off! They will be from the Retrosweat Collection which was also released today.

Mckfresh Nail Attire Etsy store
Mckfresh Nail Attire Facebook Page

Caitlin, xo


23.11.13

Shades of Phoenix Creepy Christmas Collection - Swatches & Review

*Products in this post provided for review. Read my disclosure policy here.
Hello lovely ladies, 

Today I have another Aussie Indie Christmas Collection to show you! This one is from my talented friend Teneil, aka the brains behind the amazing Shades of Phoenix brand. Teneil has come up with something very different to the usual Christmas inspired polishes that you see emerge this time of year. This collection, dubbed the Creepy Christmas Collection, is inspired by Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas! This theme has inspired some truly unique polishes and I feel very lucky that I'm one of the first people to have the pleasure of trying them.



First up is one of my favourites from this collection, You're head of the team, Zero. This is a beautiful glitter topper filled with iridescent shards, flakes, hex, squares, and bars. I absolutely love iridescent glitter and this is one of the best iridescent glitter toppers that I've tried. Application was perfect, one easy coat is all you need with no pushing/dabbing required. I used one coat over black but the beauty of this polish is that you can use it over any colour!


outdoors in sunlight



Next is How Horrible Our Christmas Will Be, a black jelly that is chock full of glitter. It has holo silver, red, and aqua hex with the occasional red circle glitter. Because this is so glitter heavy, it does dry a little gritty so you'll need a good top coat to smooth it out. I used two coats but you could get almost the same look if you layered it over black.




direct sunlight



This next one is based on the main character of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack Skellington and is named as such. Skellington is a glitter topper is full of tiny gold and iridescent hex, huge holo gold circles, and black and white skull glitter.



This is my first experience with skull shaped glitter and they are just as tricky as the large circles can be; no matter how many glitters are put into the polish, they can still be a pain to get out of the bottle. Because I don't have the patience to fish for these glitters, I just did one regular coat (which did result in getting a few of the large glitters out), then I used orange stick to get the glitters out of the bottle then I placed them on the nail individually. I think this method is good when you're dealing with large glitter because you can control exactly where you want them to be placed on your nail.

My swatches show one coat plus some individually placed glitter over Smooch 'Lazuire'.


outdoors in sunlight





...and Absolutely No One's Dead is another one of my favourites from the collection. It's a white crelly full of hex, squares and circles in silver, blue, aqua and iridescent glitter. Application for this one was a pleasure, needing 3 coats to reach opacity. This does have a lot of glitter in it so if you were wanting a simpler look, you could layer one coat over white and get a really nice effect.







I Had a Terrible Vision is another character inspired polish. This one is based on Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's one of the most unique indies I've ever tried and I love it! Teneil has done a great job at capturing the character of Sally.



The base is a lavender crelly and it's full of different glitters.  It has periwinkle, lime, marigold, watermelon, and pastel pink hex; black shards; and short dark purple bars. Although the base appears quite sheer at first, it builds up easily and gives you good coverage from the large amount of glitter. My swatches show 3 easy coats. I used Seche Vite as a topcoat but it would look fantastic mattified!





I am the Shadow on the Moon at Night is a special effect top coat that glows in the dark! It has a very lightly tinted green base with a subtle shimmer that can be worn over any creme but the shimmer effect will be more prominent if worn over a darker colour. I chose to wear it over a pastel green (China Glaze 'Refresh Mint') that matched the colour of the I am the Shadow... in the bottle. This one has a great consistency and gives even, self-leveling coverage. I used two coats to get a strong, even glow.

The glow in the dark effect lasted about 2 minutes after charging it for 20 seconds under a UV light. Apologies for the terrible glow in the dark photos but my camera just wasn't cooperating with me!




over black

in the dark

Next is Kidnap Mr Sandy Claws?, a red (pinkish toned) jelly filled with red, green, blue, lavender and pink glitters in hex and square. I was shocked to discover that I only needed two coats without undies to achieve opacity with this jelly! You could totally do three coats to create more depth but I thought it was perfect with just two.





direct sunlight

outside in shade

And finally, the last and most Christmas-sy polish of the collection, What's This? What's This? This looks like Teneil's version of the 'Christmas tree in a bottle' concept polishes. It's an emerald green jelly with green, pink, orange, gold, and pink hex as well as some green squares. This is a fairly sheer jelly so I would recommend wearing it over undies. I used two coats over dark green (Australis 'Here Today, Gone Tomorrow'). You should only need one coat over undies but I'm a huge glitter fiend!





outside in shade

Overall, I'm super impressed with this collection, Teneil has totally outdone herself! I love that none of them are overly Christmas-sy so they can all be worn at any time during the year.

These babies are available now from the Shades of Phoenix store. You can purchase the whole set (8x12ml bottles) for $70, two different quad sets (4x12ml bottles) for $35 or individually for $9.50ea.

Also, if you're a fan of Shades of Phoenix, you should join the Facebook fan group. This is where you can share your photos, reviews, do swaps and group buys as well as have exclusive access to all things Shades Of Phoenix including sales and discount codes.

Caitlin, xo