Happy Birthday Daphne!

Hello Lovelies,
First up, today is my 50th blog post! And, what a great post I have in store for the milestone! Today Pretty Serious Cosmetics turns 1 year old. For their first birthday they have released the gorgeous glitterbomb "Daphne's Birthday Party" and asked that everyone who has a bottle posts pictures of their swatches all over the internet! The reward for doing this is an entry into a competition to win every single polish Pretty Serious produce in the next year plus a 20% off voucher for your next Pretty Serious purchase for all entrants... I know right? INSANE! So of course I've jumped on that and here are my pictures of the beautiful Daphne's Birthday Party!

This is such a cool polish! The glitter is completely opaque on the nails after 3 coats and application is fantastic! The good news is that this is not a limited edition polish so if you want to snap it up, head on over to the Pretty Serious website!

Each Pretty Serious polish comes in a box with the gorgeous Daphne on it. She's pretty impressive!

Mmmm glitter! So, Happy Birthday Daphne and Pretty Serious. Congratulations on what I hope has been a wonderful fledgling year for you. I cannot wait to see all the gorgeous polishes that you have coming out in your second year!

Arcane Lacquer

I promised this blog post on IG two days ago so I'm really sorry it took so darn long to get here. I am so busy with exams and I feel like I can't quite keep up with my blogging responsibilities. To make up for it I have an exciting post about a new indie line called Arcane Lacquer! Now if you've been around the blog scene for awhile then it would be near impossible for you not to have stumbled upon the swatches of the fabulous Bec from Nail Gun XS. Well this polish I am showing you today is made by her! Unfortunately the first release of this polish has closed but stay tuned to her blog because she has a new release of gorgeous polishes coming up!

First up lets have a look at all the pretty bottles I ordered! The first release of Arcane has ten different polishes in the collection.

Now for some polish! This is Dreary Days, a gorgeous deep blue with little black and purple hexes, black microglitter and a hint of holo sparkle. I am obsessed with this polish. This is two coats with a top coat of seche vite. I found this polish was really easy to apply but as is always the way with me, not easy to photograph! I can honestly say though that this would be up there in my top favourite polishes!

After I was done with Dreary Days, I opted for this gorgeous polish! This one is called "The Power, The Passion" and it's a deep purple base jam packed with gorgeous micro holographic sparkly glitter. This polish just glimmers in sunlight. I found that I had to use quite a thick coat to get two good coats on ( I was rushing). Three thin coats would have probably worked just as well.

Finally, I have a bit of a guest swatch appearance. This next pic is of my Mum who always gets excited when I get new polish in. Today is Mother's Day here in Australia and honestly, I couldn't be more grateful for my Mum. I love that she and I can bond over my Helmer! So here's a swatch by Mum! Wearing Arcane Lacquer " Willow".

So there are three out of ten amazing polishes that Bec has created! Finally, I have one last picture. Today I went over to the home of the wonderful Cathy who runs the blog More Nail Polish along with the awesome Hayley creator of EmilydeMolly and Sylvia IG: @lilyandjinks. We had a fantastic afternoon pawing over Cathy's incredible nail polish collection and each of these lovely ladies had brought presents for everyone! I feel really lucky that I have found some women in my hometown who share my polish obsession. So here's a picture of our nails combined!

So I think I'm going to take a brief hiatus from official blogging until my uni exams finish. I will however, be posting pics on instagram, so go check out @katersnails and I'll blog again as soon as all this stress is over!

Emily de Molly - Land of Confusion

So this weekend I was lucky enough to go to the home of the fabulous Hayley, also known as the brains behind Aussie indie line, Emily de Molly! Hayley asked me if I would help her package up some of her international orders and in return she offered me polish rewards! A smart tactic because I'm never going to refuse polish! I actually had a really great time, the work was repetitive but not painful, horrible or anything like that. Plus with Hayley's company the time flew by! So thanks so much Hayley, you're pretty awesome!

So of course today's post is an Emily de Molly, or as I've lovingly called Hayley's latest collection, Emily de Molos because it's a line of gorgeous holo shades. Today we have the green Land of Confusion.

I LOVE THIS POLISH. Seriously, it's so pretty. I didn't have anything like it in my collection. These pics show two thin coats which is all it really took for opacity. First up, a shot inside under a lamp,

Like my new watermark? I've started using an iphone app so that rather than uploading to my computer and watermarking, I can do it all on the phone which makes for faster instagram uploads. Now the outdoor shots, which I've realised is going to only get harder because here in Australia we are coming into winter. I couldn't photograph this polish properly until about 1 PM when I was in the work car about to drive somewhere (yes I brought the bottle with me purely to take the photo!)

So much holo goodness! This picture isn't the best but I was a bit time pressured! I wanted to capture the pretty green of this polish so here's one more, classy steering wheel shot! Emily de Molly is available from Hayley's esty store (linked above) and several international stockists (listed on her etsy).

Illamasqua and Emily de Molly

Hey lovelies!

I recently went on a trip to Sydney where I went a little bit crazy at the Illamasqua counter at Myer! So today I have a mani using five of Illa's rubber brights collection which I am obsessed with!

First the five colours I bought, on their own without a topcoat! Each nail is two coats. Application was lovely for all except for the orange which is Illamasqua - Optimist. For this one, I found the formula slightly 'gluggy,' I believe the reason for this may have been that the bottle doesn't close as tightly as the others do in order to fit in their display boxes. But I'm not sure. I think if I had some thinner I would have added it in there but I don't so maybe I'll invest in some and see how that goes. 

 While I loved the rubber look on their own, I had something else I wanted to do with these bright nails so I applied a top coat of Black and White Love Affair by Emily de Molly. You can buy Emily de Molly polish from her etsy store here, from Shoppe Eclectic or from Llarowe.

I love this look. I know I've got a great mani when I get in my car to drive somewhere and I can't stop looking at my nails! Here's an outdoor shot which really shows the colours much better.

Honestly, I am such a top coat addict, I think I would struggle to wear the Illamasqua's on their own without one! But I do enjoy the look and I really love these polishes!

Illamasqua - Serenity

Illamasqua - Prosperity

Illamasqua - Optimist

Illamasqua - Nurture

Illamasqua - Devotee

Emily de Molly - Black and White Love Affair

Striping blue for autism.

Hey guys!
It's almost 1:00 AM but I'm so happy with my mani, I just couldn't wait to share it!! This is my last Paint It Blue mani to raise awareness for autism. Whilst we are on the subject, if you are interested in some exclusive one of polishes from both Australian and US indie polish makers then go and check out this polish auction

http://paintitblue2013.blogspot.com.au/

All funds raised will go to ASPECT Australia, a wonderful organisation who really strive to make a difference for those who have autism and their families.

Anyway onto the nails! This is my first little foray into striping tape and I am HOOKED! I couldn't be happier with how this mani turned out. Although it definitely taught me a lesson in patience after I stuffed up my accent nails twice by not waiting for my under polish to fully dry!

Seriously, how good is China Glaze - First Mate? I only needed ONE COAT over the striping tape to get a good result. Anyway as fun as this mani was, I definitely won't be attempting it so late at night! I'd better head to sleep so that I'm not a complete zombie at university tomorrow!

China Glaze - First Mate
Sally Hansen - Celeb City

Birthday Blues

So last week was my birthday! Im not sure whether I feel older or wiser but I definitely got some nail polish and that's all that matters right? I spent the day at work and then went out for dinner. Pretty quiet but still a good day.

For my birthday mani, I wanted something that sparkled!

This is a new Emily de Molly polish that I was lucky enough to get from her at the Canberra meetup over Easter! It's a gorgeous mix of gold holographic glitter (all different shapes and sizes) in a clear base and it is GORGEOUS! I layered it over Revlon - Gold Coin. This mani was incredible in sunlight. Absolutely sparkled! This polish isn't available yet on Emily de Molly's etsy but to see the rest of her polishes and get information on international stockists then head here!

This week I'm back to blue nails for autism with another Aussie Indie.

This is Femme Fatale - Suspended Starlight layered over Layla - Ocean Rush and topped with NFU Oh 52. I can't fully capture the depth of this mani. Suspended Starlight is absolutely gorgeous, blue base packed with lots of blue holographic glitter, stars and moons. Application was super easy because this polish is PACKED with glitter! Femme Fatale polish is available here!

NFU 52 is a divine flakie top coat. Green flakes in a purple base. If you want to get your hands on this polish then move quickly because NFU are discontinuing their entire flakie line! I got mine from Crush Cosmetics. Shipping was super speedy and orders over 65 dollars get free shipping!!

Color Club - Eternal Beauty

So this week I got my hands on the gorgeous Color Club - Eternal Beauty. Oh. My. Gosh. I love this polish so much. I can't even begin to tell you! First up, Color Club have awesome bottles and the brush was awesome for application. I used my standard three coats and a top coat in these pics. First some taken out of the sunlight and then prepare to be dazzled for the sunlit pictures!

So I've been thinking a lot about my blog recently, following the sad departure of my good friend Julz Perri from the blogosphere. I feel like I'm not really a consistent blogger and that impacts where I would like to be. In addition to this, I have a crazy busy schedule with this being my last year of uni so if I want to continue, I need to find a way to work it all out. I got an iPad Mini as an early birthday present from my family on Friday and so I am hoping to use that as a way to blog quicker because my process at the moment is not efficient. So I'm going to try it out soon, expect to see new watermarks on my pics and maybe a new format for my posts. All I can do is give it a go. I hope you'll all bear with me. Thanks so much for your support so far.

Kater xx