Star Kin Deliciousness

Literally. My parcel had lollies in it.

 

My collection of Star Kin polish is growing, though slower than I'd like. My latest order just arrived-Softly, and With Grape Delight.

Of Softly, Star Kin says-"Softly is a soft green polish with holographic shimmer, a subtle (but present in the sunlight!) purple shimmer and interference (seems to float over the top of the polish), and a dose of purple micro flakes."

In direct total-cloud-cover-and-rain light.

Not in direct (as above) light.

Sunshine!

Jeebus, my fingers look awful. Plus-nubbins. I have had a rough nail week, so had to cut them all.
And no, I do not know why I couldn't manage to capture the shimmer on my nails. This is 2 coats, + top coat.

And With Grape Delight. I saw this on the 28th of May. Ami had made it for herself, Serra saw, loved and got some-which is how I saw it (over on Serra's blog Peacock Pie). I needed it. Ami was pretty busy with all kinds of stuff, and the polishes got made at the end of June. I had forgotten, by that point. THEN I was incredibly broke. I finally paid for them this week. So it's been a long time coming. With Grape Delight-oh, cheesy biscuit. I did not remember how beautiful it was.
Star Kin says "A holographic, dark, grape-purple jelly polish"
LOOK!

Direct bla-bla light

Not direct etc, etc.

Sunshine!

I love this polish. These photos are ONE coat, with top coat.

Star Kin nail polishes are NZ-made. Only available in NZ for the moment, thanks to post restrictions. All polishes are 5 free, and never tested on animals. Check out the Etsy store here,  Facebook page, and Every Sensory blog.

Update...finally!

Yep. It has been a long while. I am actually a terrible blogger!
So, a catch up.
As I have said a couple times, I am part of the NZ Rat Rescue. April and May were completely insane, right around the country. Over 100 rats came in, including litters and a few pregnant girls. Nelson is particularly over-run.
Right now, I have 25 rats here. 2 of those are my personal pets. I also have a few spread around Christchurch, and Timaru. Yay for fosters! The rats are keeping me busy-plus the rabbits, dogs, and cat. And the fish, to a much lesser extent.
I have a (semi) new nephew-he is now 3mths old, and gorgeously squishy. I touched on him in my last post, but did not say that I was there when he was born. Holy crow, best day EVER. Most amazing thing I have ever seen; cried a lot, then lost it completely when I saw him come out. You can't see, but I am getting all teary and hand-flappy again. I want to see ALL the babies being born, ever.
That was in March, though. Aside from all that, I have pretty much just been working, and reading.
I don't actually have any photos to share right now. I have a new laptop, and I am having issues with transferring.
I will get there! I am currently doing my nails nude for a PANZ challenge, and I will have a photo-inclusive post for you-hopefully soon.

Finally! An actual post. Nail Juice!

Hi! About bloody time I did another post. I have hope that there is someone out there, still reading. Even after so long.
I could give you a list of excuses a mile long-working lots, new nephew, lots and lots of rats being surrendered to NZRR. All of which happened, but ultimately, I just couldn't really be bothered. Good thing I don't do this for a job!

It has been suggested (by Serra at Peacock Pie) that May should be NZ Indie polish month. It is also the birthday of Star Kin.
A lot of (decent, proper, good-at-what-they-do) bloggers have jumped into this with both feet. I am a little behind.

I present to you-Nail Juice!

First up is Light Of The Night. Nail Juice describes this as "A darkened gold filled with golden flakes and copper glitter."
And it is gorgeous! 

These photos, of my horrible, nubbiny, hands, show ONE COAT. ONE. Formula is fab, very easy to apply, and I got good wear out of it. And did I mention, this is one coat?

Next up, Pansy. Nail Juice says "A gorgeous glossy lavender jelly."

 On my right hand, I did 2 coats, 3 on the left. This is a very pretty polish. Glossy, as promised, and great application. 

I purchased both these polishes from Steph, and I don't do the whole bullshit thing.
Great polished, lovely formula. 
Chack out the facebook page here, and the blog over here.

Review: Sally Hansen Triple Shine

I am a fan of Sally Hansen on Facebook. Every so often, they ask for people to test upcoming products.
I've tried 3 or 4 times, and never been selected...until a few days ago!
I may have gotten a touch excited.
The sample was for a nail polish from their new colour range-Triple Shine. Press from the Sally Hansen website:
"Water to workout, day in and day out, nothing will dull these nails. The gloss is protected with the Ultimate Shield Complex, exclusive to Sally Hansen, designed to help polish withstand the wear and tear of everyday living for non-stop shine. Outshine 'em all* with our 29 shades!

*When used with the Sally Hansen Triple Shine Top Coat."

I received my sample within 2 days of being selected. Full-size bottle, which surprised me. I expected a mini.

This is Red Snapper.

I applied base coat, and away I went.

As you can see, in some lights (unnatural), it can look orange. The red pics are much more true to the colour.

I absolutely recommend using base coat-I left one nail without it, and it did stain. While the stain was very light, I feel it's worth mentioning.

Overall: great brush! Flat, rectangular in design, it makes application super easy. The formula is lovely, and goes on very smoothly with no streaking at all. I only wore the polish for about 24hrs, but in that time there were no visible signs of wear & tear.

Sadly, this is not the right shade of red for my skin tone. Bit of a bugger, but that can't be blamed on the polish! 

Head over to the Sally Hansen website, check out the whole range. There are some gorgeous colours in it!

This product was given to me for honest review.

Polish Haul!

I had an excellent couple of polish days. I am usually pretty broke, so buying polish doesn't happen as often as I'd like, and, normally, I would only get 2-3 bottles at one time.
This week, I had some extra cash, so I shopped.
The Brand Outlet was having a cosmetics sale, starting Waitangi Day. I headed in on Thursday. Nail polish-wise, it wasn't that great. The sale mostly revolved around fragrances this time. However, I scored a few lovelies. Oh! Before I tell you what they are-they had Sinful Colors priced at $8. I was shocked; this sells for $5-6 in chemists.
Anyway, my purchases.

OOoOOOOooOOoOooo. Pretty.

OPI 'A Woman's Prague-ative' & OPI 'Midnight In Moscow'.

Loréal 'The Queen's Ambition' & Loréal 'Drop Dead Gorgeous'. I think DDG will be leaving; I have an SC that is fairly similar.

Rimmel 'English Rose'. Beautiful colour.

Borghese 'Carnevale Grape' & Borghese 'Espresso Brown'. This brand is entirely new to me. Formula seems good, and the brush is a flat, square brush, fairly similar to Rimmel brushes.

THEN I went to the chemist with my sister last night, and got a couple more.

If ANYONE can tell me the brand and colour name of the grey polish on the left there, I would be very grateful. I have been unsuccessful in locating the stupid receipt, and the bottle is BARE.

LA Girl Magnetics- 'Electrostatic' & 'Magnetic Field'. I bought these for the colour, more than the magnetic effect. MF is just a couple lines, not too impressive. I do like the magnet-a-fied (that is too a word) look of Electrostatic.

The mystery dark grey.

Sinful Colors 'Frenzy", a gorgeous glitter topper. Swatch on the left is 2 coats, on the right is 5 coats.

AND THEN I went to the chemist today. It was partially an accident.

Jordana top and base coats are from one of those dollar store thingees.

My chemist accident. SC 'Thimbleberry' & 'Mint Apple'. I have wanted MA for quite some time, and finally have it. Thimble is far too coral for my skin tone, and I do believe that will move on as well.

All-in-all, a very-polish couple days!

Random Mani, Planned By Children.

As some of you may know, I am a nanny. The family I am working for at present has 3 kids; J-8yrs, L-5yrs, and A-3yrs. They told me what I should do on my nails next. Miss A had it all planned. Pink nails, with a boat, umbrella, beach ball, and-somewhat randomly-a blue jacket. I have full awareness of my (lack of) abilities, and asked if blue togs would be ok. She considered it, and gave her permission.
Here is the A hand.

Colours used-base is Aqua brand-I got this free when I bought vodka one time. Drawings are all done with dotting tools and wee brushes, and are Maybelline Electric Blue, Miki black, Sinful Colors Nirvana, a couple of my JulieGs. Thumb has a coat of SC Hottie.

Miss J and Mr L came together for the plan for my left hand-a tree, a book (heehee, I was thinking. Nice and simple)...and ducks swimming in a river. EXCUSE ME?! My god, they started out so friendly, and rapidly descended into little balls of devilish horror. I said I could try. TRY.
In the end, I wasn't all that unhappy. Here they are.

Base is Maybelline Party Blue. I had never used it properly before this mani, and I like it.
I really loved the book, and have plans to do some nail art involving books soon.
The kids were all super impressed with my nails (one of the many reasons I love children), and raved about them. Awww, warm fuzzies!
I'm sure I'll have more child-directed manicures in the future. My sister has just moved in with her family-including 4 kids, aged 6, 5, 2, & 1. Total madhouse, very loud, and extremely amusing.

Vampy polishes.

As mentioned in my last (so long ago) post, I realised I had no 'vampy' polishes. At all. How the heck did that happen?!
I set about remedying this, immediately.
I got given a Farmers voucher for Christmas, so off I went. I came out with OPI Honk If You Love OPI; OPI Ink; Rimmel Reality Chic; and Orly Ruby.

This is Rimmel Reality Chic. For who knows what reason, it was all bubbly, and I have no idea why. I had base coat, 2 cats of polish, and top coat.
Last night, I tried it again.

Much better! I used the same base and top coats. I am not hugely in love with the colour though, so it may move on.

Excuse the lack of clean up here. I am SO in love with this colour; I needed pics immediately. And then I forgot to get post-clean up pics.
It is so rich and red; absolutely stunning. I used 2 coats here.

OPI Honk If You Love OPI. I really like this purple. I alternated top coat and matte top coat, but I prefer the shine! 2 coats, and it looks almost black in some lights.

And finally, OPI Ink. This isn't technically a 'vamp' colour but I saw it and needed it.

I tried to get all the colour shifts, but it was difficult. It goes from purple, to blue, to pink, and you get the odd flash of gold.
I'm having issues improving the state of my cuticles. I think 25yrs of nail chewing really screwed them over.

I just took delivery of a destash parcel, which contains another vampy colour. I'll share that in a couple blogs time.

Have a good Sunday!