Swatch: Stay Behind, Catch a Wave by Elevation Polish

Today a long awaited parcel from Llarowe arrived bringing with it 7 glorious new polishes, and then my roommate surprised me with the OPI Euro Centrale mini collection (I love OPI mini collections so much!) so I have a zillion polishes I wanted to try and post today.

Instead I decided it was about time I tried the last of the lovely Elevation Polish colours I bought last month- Stay Behind, Catch a Wave. It's a glitter topper, so I spent a long time trying out different combinations of base colours- the obvious blues or whites or blacks, the lovely but predictable pinks, then some eye popping oranges, until I finally decided it would look great over the only yellow creme polish in my collection- OPI's Fiercely Fiona (also from a mini set!)

Elevation Polish Stay Behind, Catch a Wave over OPI Fiercely Fiona 

Swatches: Different Dimension

In a sad moment this morning, I cut my nails back- both because of a broken nail and because next week labs start up again and long nails certainly won't last long in that environment!

So I looked through my 'Yet to Post' folder, and found a couple of swatches from a week or so back, when my nails were longer. I swatched these as soon as I got them, and was in the process of trying out different angles/ways to photograph, so they're a bit random, and I'll hopefully get the chance to post about these again.

First up is Doppleganger, and is also the only one I ended up taking a picture of with the bottle. Doppleganger has pink and white glitters in a grey jelly base. This photo shows three layers, and I think it's wonderfully subtle, while still giving a nice burst of glitter. I also think it'd work well over a grey (naturally) or even a blue base.

Swatch: Ginza (Elevation Polish) & Guinevere (A-England)

I've had a very good and lucky week, polish wise, and it's only Tuesday! Not only did I score a bargain on two Butter London polishes on Monday (I would have bought as many as possible, but at $20 a pop they're still pretty expensive, even if that's 30% off!), but at lunchtime, on my way back from picking up sushi, I spotted a 1/2 price OPI sign at a pharmacy, and managed to snag Going Gonzo, which I've wanted for ages, and one more polish. Hopefully this is a sign that my two long delayed polish parcels will arrive this week.

For today's polish swatch, I've actually moved my schedule around a little, because one of these polishes is going to stop being sold this week, and I wanted to say, while I have the chance, how pretty it is.

Elevation Polish Ginza, over A-England Guinevere

Swatch: Elevation Polish Daisen over A-England Lancelot

For my second V-day week nails, I decided to wear one of the Elevation Polishes that had arrived the previous week. This was my first time trying Elevation Polish, and so far, I'm impressed!

Daisen is a gorgeous glitter topper- and the reason I wanted it was because of the circle glitter! I can't get enough of circle glitters, and this polish contains pink and copper dots in two sizes, as well as a sparkle of multicoloured microglitters, for this gorgeous blue to green to orange flash of colour. The base is mostly clear, with just a hint of pink.

V-day nails: Different Dimension Aorta Miss You over A-England Lady of the Lake

When my Different Dimension polish order arrived last week, I was overjoyed. Not just because I now own 8 more gorgeous polishes from a brand I hadn't tried before, but because one of the polishes I wanted to wear for Valentine's Day week had arrived! As soon as I saw 'Aorta Miss You But I Don't' on the Different Dimension shop, I loved it for its colours, but also because I knew it'd be perfect for this week. 

Different Dimension Aorta Miss You But I Don't, over A-England Lady of the Lake.

Aorta Miss You is a gorgeous polish, and unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of the bottle. It's packed with fuchsia and garnet coloured hexes, purple hearts and a sprinkling of holographic microglitter for maximum sparkle. Gotta say, I love the name too- I teach Anatomy so puns like this are right up my street!

Swatches: Emily de Molly Harmony, Jindie Tried and True and Gloss n Sparkle Unicorn Droppings

There's nothing quite like finding a stack of parcels in your mailbox, and it's even more exciting to find most of them are holding nail polish!

Yesterday, the Different Dimension polishes I ordered last week arrived, super quickly which was very impressive, and I can't wait to give them a try. This morning I woke up excited, because I knew there were several more packages that should be arriving soon (about six, I think which is both marvellous and horrifying, as I'm sure my bank balance won't be happy with me!) and some of them are a bit overdue. Alas, there were none, so we went about our errands for the morning, sure there would be more when we got home. At 1pm, there was still nothing, but later in the afternoon I glanced out the window and saw a flash of white envelope. I ran out in glee and skipped back, clutching the stack of parcels.

My very first Elevation Polishes, from the end of January restock were in one of the parcels, and my roommate's Llarowe package had somehow managed to beat mine to our house.

Immediately we opened them, and I tried to figure out which ones to try first. My roommate's polishes won out. I should hasten to add that we share our collection (a great way to get twice as many polishes without having to spend all of the money) so I didn't steal them away from her. Both polishes she received were glitters in white cream/jelly bases, and it reminded me I didn't get around to posting my Emily de Molly Harmony swatches. So here are all three!

L-R: Emily de Molly Harmony, Jindie Nails Tried and True, Gloss n Sparkle Unicorn Droppings

Nail Art: Splatter nails with Zoya and Chi Chi

I've been wanting to try splatter nails for a long time, but hadn't gotten around to it until now. I had a great time deciding what colours I wanted to include, and ended up going for black & white, and neon pink, on a grey base. And I love it!

I think the colours work really well together- I like how the black and white mutes the brightness of the pink a little. This is definitely the manicure that most people have commented on, and I've only worn it for two days so far! 

Swatch & Review: A-England Tristam, plus bonus galaxy nail art!

I love when I'm wrong about a polish. I'd looked at A-England polishes several times, on several websites, and thought 'eh, nothing special there'. Now I have some in my hot little hands (and on them!) I know I couldn't have been more wrong.

I guess that it was mostly that I have a finite amount of money to spend on polish, and others I wanted much more than this brand. But when someone posted a comment on a facebook page (which I probably spend far too much time looking at during work hours) about there being an awesome promo, well- I couldn't resist.

Polishes were being sold in duos, trios and on their own for great prices. And I had so much trouble choosing, that I decided that I had to at least get all the trios, to really try them out. And then I added a duo, and then a few singles and...this happened:

Oops? In my defence, it was a great deal, and to go to the trouble of ordering from the other side of the world, it seemed only sensible to get, um, fourteen gorgeous polishes. The great thing is that because of ordering the trios, I have some polishes that I didn't think much of when I looked at pictures on the internet, but now that I have them, I can't wait to wear them.

Which is what happened with Tristam. I love blue polish, but didn't love it until I held it in my hand. And I knew I had to put it on straight away. And after I wore it for a day, I ended up using it as a base for my first attempt at galaxy nail art.

Look at that bottle shimmer!