Thanks to Jacie for tagging me with the "One Lovely Blog" Award!
I tag Michelle and Selina (even though hers isn't exclusively polish, it's still lovely).
I hereby proclaim this week METALLIC WEEK! And I promise to actually keep it to a week this time…
First up is a polish I have a love/hate relationship with. When I purchased Inglot 875 it was because I was buying 3 other Inglot polishes during a “2 for the price of 1″ sale, and at the time I didn’t realise it was a metallic. I think I’ve said this before but Inglot have a HUUUUGE collection of polishes, however the vast majority are pinks, nudes, and reds, so I agonised for ages trying to find a polish that would bring something a bit different to my stash. This is a really soft, buttery gold metallic, and my first gold (I tend to avoid them given my fear of “true gold” shades against my pasty pasty skintone).
Basically, this is a gorgeous colour that does actually compliment my skintone quite well (in my humble opinion…), and shines like nothing else.
The issue is the application. As you can see from the photo, this is bottled brush streaks. Metallics are notoriously brush streaky, however the formula on this is reasonably sheer (this is 3 coats and isn’t quite completely opaque) and has the texture of oil it is so runny. As a result it was incredibly hard to apply, showed up all my little nail imperfections (I’m looking at you, ring finger), and gave me shrinkage and a lovely smudge WELL after applying Seche Vite. When I tried Inglot 152 the application wasn’t great either, but this one takes the crap cake.
So yes, I am torn between a shade I love and woeful application. Maybe I’ll give it another shot in a few weeks with a good ridge-filling base coat and a few spare hours to wrestle with the formula.
Stay tuned later this week for the other metallics in my collection!
Well I had a grand total of three entries in my first giveaway (hey, it’s better than one I guess!). So, thanks to the Random Number Generator, the winner is comment number one – Yuggles!
I have sent an email to Yuggles letting her know, so thanks to everyone who entered for their feedback. I’ll definitely be doing this again in the future!
YOU CAN WIN THIS POLISH PLUS OTHERS IN MY 50 POSTS CELEBRATION GIVEAWAY! GO HERE FOR DETAILS.
I currently have only ONE entry, so everyone get their arse into gear and enter!
Now the polish – Love Me Tender was released in OPI’s Elvis themed “All Shook Up” collection of 2005. This would have been great for my Spring gold shimmer week I did not that long ago, however I only came across it quite recently.
Love Me Tender is a peachy-pink with gold shimmer. It is very similar in shade to ELF Coral, but not as blindingly bright and the gold shimmer in this is more subtle. Those sound like negative comments, but I think this is a really lovely colour, bright enough for a warm sunny day, but not as punchy as the ELF.
Indirect sunlight
Application and wear is where this one gained supremacy over the ELF – it applied a little streaky, but needed 3 thin coats for opacity anyway which evened out the coverage. Wear was pretty excellent – no shrinkage at all, and only a little tipwear and one small chip after a few days of massacring my nails at work doing fiddly things with the shelving.
Unfortunately, this one is discontinued, but you may be able to find it in dusty old salons or make the trek down to Pro Nail Supply where I found it!
So you’ve probably already heard about this through the grapevine, but now we have SWATCHES! Check out Polish Mayhem for swatches of the new colours. Whilst I have not studied photos of the old ones in depth, they look pretty similar to me.
I already own and love Ruby Pumps, and I’m liking all of them except Cowardly Lyin’ (although I won’t get more than 1 or 2 just for the sake of keeping my stash size manageable).
This is possibly the most anticipated collection of next year on the MUA Nail Board, what do you guys think of it?
To congratulate myself on reaching an epic 50 NOTD POSTS (check the category list yourself… see! How exciting is that!?) since starting up Enamel Coated, I have decided to hold a giveaway to reward my loyal readers and non-commenters.
The prize pack is a few polishes I procured on a recent trip to Pro Nail Supply:
Indirect sunlight – imagine that the OPI is less orange and the Essie is more purple…
OPI Love Me Tender – said to be dupe-y to Nars Orgasm and a very pretty Spring colour.
China Glaze Sun Showers – in an interesting old bottle… even the lid is different!.
Essie St. Lucia Lilac – the best colour in the world (purple) in the form of a soft Spring pastel.
All the bottles are unused, and happy to go to a good home (they told me so). HOWEVER, I am going to make the winner WORK for their prize! Because I don’t have my own bottle of the China Glaze, I will ask the winner to review it for me, including taking a photo, which I will then publish as a guest post here on Enamel Coated (n.b: if you are also a blogger I have no qualms about you posting about it on your own blog as well obviously).
To enter, you must live in Australia currently and have the means to take a photo of your NOTD for me. I apologise to my international readers, but as this is my first competition, I thought I’d start local!
Simply leave a comment on this post telling me one thing you like about Enamel Coated, and one thing that could be improved/something I could start doing. The winner will be chosen by the infinitely wise Random Number Generator NEXT WEDNESDAY.
Get entering, and tell your friends – this could be a great way to convert someone you know to the joys of nail polish!
You’re a Doll was released as part of OPI’s 2008 “Christmas in Toyland” Collection, and is a pretty pinky-nude shimmer. The interesting aspect of this polish is the copper/rust coloured shimmer flecks throughout, which are very subtle from a distance, but make for a quite pretty effect close up.
Indirect sunlight
I know some people find these types of nude colours very boring, but I personally love them, and I think they are a nice alternative to the ol’ French mani (which I’ve never been able to properly execute on my own nails) if you’re after safe or work-appropriate nails. The creamy texture and copper flecks in this make me think of Zoya Harley, although they are completely different colours!
Application was good due to the aforementioned creamy texture – it was manageable and opaque in 2-3 coats (I confess that I can’t actually remember how many coats I did for this picture, but it was either 2 or 3). Wear was comparable to most others I’ve been wearing recently, and it didn’t give me any shrinkage (yay!).
So what do you think of this shade? Too boring? Or do you love these slightly unique nudes like I do?
So this is my second post about BYS in a week, but I just had to show you Voodoo Violet, from their new Gliterazzi range.
This one is a medium/dark purple jelly JAM-PACKED with purple and silver glitter, and chunky holographic glitter. This range appears to be Australia’s answer to the new China Glaze glitters – I have posted previously about the China Glaze glitters, but for a comparison, have a look at China Glaze Carnival Lights on Scrangie’s blog, as it has the same “construction” (for want of a better word) of a jelly base filled with different sized glitter.
Artificial light
Artificial light – blurred to show the sparkles!
Application was a little tricky due to the chunky consistency, but it wasn’t too bad, and it took 3 coats to reach opacity. I did get a bit of shrinkage when I topped it with Seche. The area where this one excelled was wear – like most glitters, this one is nigh on indestructible. Seriously, if you are going away and don’t want to do any fix-ups while there, wear a glitter and you’ll be set!
As you can see from the photos, this is a certified blingtastic party polish, so excellent for those upcoming Christmas barbecues – this polish craves sun so it can show off its sparkles! However this is not one I would be recommending for corporate events, job interviews, meeting your BF’s parents for the first time, or anywhere you want to look like a responsible adult. Thankfully (or is it…?) I’m never in situations where that is the case.
This popped into my inbox a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I made the arduous 7 minute drive to my local Gloss store to check out just how much BYS loves nail polish.
And boy have they upped their game! After being a bit scared of their Glam Glitter range, I was amazed to see that the new releases include a collection of dirty Pastels (including a concrete grey and mint green!), some new Neons (although they did have a fair range of neons prior), a Chrome collection, and Glitterazzi, which are polishes in a range of colours with dense, multi-sized glitter in a colour base.
As I’m TRYING to be restrained with my polish buying and avoid dupes, I only bought three from the new ranges (I may have also got 4 others from the pre-existing collection, but that’s beside the point).
Below are the website images, and my own fairly colour-accurate photo of the polishes, which shows that the BYS-supplied images are actually very close to reality.
Baby Boom; Hot to Trot; Voodoo Violet.
Now here is the catch: I haven’t tried these yet, so I don’t know how well they are going to go application and wear wise. The BYS colours I’ve tried in the past have been hit and miss, so watch this space for reviews of these and a plethora of other BYS colours in the next few weeks – too many polishes, and so little time!
EDIT: Nixxy’s Nails has just posted a similar rave about the new colour choices and a couple of swatches for you all to see. Great minds think alike!
There has been a lot of talk on the Vogue Forums recently about the awesomeness of Ulta3 polishes, so today I thought I’d show you all Crystalline – a white jelly packed with gold shimmer.
Although I don’t own it, this colour appears very similar to photos of Zoya Gaia (seen here on All Lacquered Up), which is a very popular white with gold shimmer option.
Artificial light
The jelly consistency lends it a soft, milky translucency which works beautifully with the dense gold shimmer. Application was good – although it took 3 coats to get to this opacity (and there is still a bit of visible nail line), it applied really evenly and not streaky at all. Wear is comparable to most other not-fantastic-but-not-terrible polishes.
At $2 a pop, if you’re after a pretty, soft, all-seasons colour (that’s probably work-appropriate too!) go out and grab one from a pharmacy near you!
So you’ve probably all seen this by now, but I wanted to post it because this is one US Winter collection which is also quite suitable for our Spring/Summer season! Woohoo!
The red, pink and green (sounding Christmassy?) have been swatched by All Lacquered Up.
Although they are pretty colours, the only one that jumps out is Mint Candy Apple, and my pastel green lemming has been recently satiated by Bloom Kitty – Sorry Essie, but no buy this time.
Once again I apologise for the lack of posting recently. Life has been annoyingly up and down recently and I have a great backlog of polishes I’ve photographed but have yet to blog. I’m also plotting some haulage soon, and Enamel Coated is very close to reaching an important milestone which I will be celebrating with you all soon – can anyone guess what it is?
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