Clean Blue Slate - Essie Find Me An Oasis

Light blue polish is not a typical choice for me, but right now it feels like a breath of fresh air. Having a new job and being done with grad school (and actually done DONE - my paper got accepted last week!!!) feels like an actual fresh start. I've wiped the slate clean.

Essie Find Me an Oasis is exactly that - clean. It's a beautiful pale blue that is actually even less blue in reality than the in the above photo. (NB: I swapped out the photo in the original post for a more colour-accurate one!) I happen to think that gold jewelry really sets off the colour. It's funny, in my adult life I've always been a yellow-gold kind of girl - do you have a metal colour you tend to stick to? I'd be curious to know if so, which one, and why!

I hope you're all having a great weekend,

k2k

Renewed green: Essie Maximillian Strasse Her

To those who were kind enough to respond to my pre-interview post - THANK YOU!!! I interviewed and got offered the job the next day. I felt great about it, and accepted! 

For the first time in a long while - years and years - I feel a sense of hope. I feel like everything in changing - in a good way. I feel like maybe all the effort and struggle of my PhD will somehow end up being worth it. How fitting that this comes right at the beginning of springtime, when nature is undergoing its own renewal.

In honour of spring, renewal, and hope (heavy), I feel that it is only fitting that I am wearing a fresh GREEN! This is Essie Maximillian Strasse Her.

While this colour truly feels fresh and modern to me, it brings back memories of times past. As I was looking at it on my nails, I could feel a memory trying to wriggle free in the back of my brain. It took me a while, but it finally hit me - this is the colour of an old school portable Olivetti typewriter! It feels odd to wax poetic about the predecessor of the laptop while typing on a thoroughly modern machine the Olivetti would recognize only as a robot from the future. And in a way, it is.

(link)

I am not alone in re-discovering my love for this colour! I am told by my auto-industry-devoted father that the colour of the Olivetti typewriter was the inspiration and source for the verde chiaro paint colour of the re-imagined Fiat 500. (NB: My mother has this car - albeit in white with red interior - and loves it! I have to admit, it is super adorable.)

(link)

This spring I hope all of you find something old to make new again, and find your own renewed energy - wherever it may come from - even if it's just a nail polish.

k2k

Birthday Grey - Essie Petal Pushers

It is my birthday.

I struggle on my birthday.

I like this polish.

(a birthday haiku)

Essie Petal Pushers is a stormy grey with a strong hint of blue, and in the right light the barest hint of lavender. It is identical in undertone to Essie Cocktail Bling, just a few shades darker.


L-R: Essie Petal Pushers; Essie Cocktail Bling

How are you at dealing with birthdays? I'm obviously terrible at it.

k2k

Lab Muffin's Top 13 Polishes of 2013 Part 1: Mainstream and Boutique Brands

2013 was a big year of swatching for me, and it was the year where I think Australian indie polishes really blossomed. It was very difficult to pick just 13 polishes that I loved, but I certainly tried! I limited myself to one polish per brand only, and to polishes that I discovered in 2013 (though they weren't necessarily released last year). Here we go, with the mainstream and boutique (i.e. small company but not hand-mixed) picks...

First, I obviously have to mention my collaboration shade, piCture pOlish Ultra Violence. The literary amongst you will know that the name is inspired by Anthony Burgess's book A Clockwork Orange. I love the holo iridescent glitter against the rich purple! I've included a bottle of Ultra Violence in my 2nd blogiversary giveaway here.

I blogged about the stunningly pretty Pretty Serious BSOD here earlier. What happened next was that while wearing it, my laptop did actually have a heart-stopping BSOD moment, in the middle of thesis-writing! Luckily I didn't lose anything, but Kaz was too sweet, and in her usual above-and-beyond customer service style, she sent me a few polishes to dull the pain.

OPI Keeping Suzi At Bay is a gorgeous blue creme that is both interesting and elegant. It may be my favourite creme shade ever. I think dark blue is actually quite work safe, but definitely not boring.

ulta3 Triple Threat was a big surprise for me. This is a complex holo glitter jelly that's indie-worthy, but comes at the ridiculously budget-friendly price of $2.

Orly Digital Glitter is one of my top 5 Orly polishes, ever. I usually think of Orly as a brand which does salon-friendly classic polishes well, but whenever they come out with something a bit different it's usually ridiculously cool (Fowl Play! Space Cadet!). I love the unlikely brown/purple/red combination - it's a bit steampunk in my opinion, and makes me think of Neal Stephenson novels. To top it off, the purple shimmer is duochrome.

I will be back soon with some of my indie picks of 2013 - hold onto your wallets!

Beach nail art and a sunscreen PSA

Sorry for the unexpected absence! I don't really have any excuse apart from laziness unfortunately. So all I have is a beach themed mani, with Maybelline Seaquins.

If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, don't forget to put on the sunscreen this summer - here's a handy infographic on how much to use and when:

Alanna Renee It's a Boy!

Alanna Renee, an Aussie indie brand, recently released a collection called Bundle of Joy. I swatched a couple of the collection right before the release date, but after the release, I had to buy one more - It's a Boy! This is a pale blue creme with no yellow tones at all. In the bottle there are little glass flecks, but on the nail they pretty much disappear, but the creme is left looking a lot shinier than usual. Sneaky!

I ended up using this as a base for my Totoro nail art for Artsy Wednesday - it's a perfect complement to the brown tones. I was inordinately proud of that mani!

In case you didn't know, Alanna Renee is made by Alanna of Pretty Purple Polish, one of my first blogging buddies. Naturally you can buy her polish in Australia via her site, but Color4Nails and Shoppe Eclecticco offer international shipping.

BYS Glitter Blue and final thesis hand-in, hurray!

Sorry I've been a bit slack here! I've been posting so many nail things on my own blog that Polish or Perish has been quite neglected, not to mention that I've recently handed in my final, hard-bound emended thesis, so I'll hopefully be in the November graduation round and I'll be Dr Muffin. Hurrah!

So now I get to enter the existential crevasse that is post-doctoral career crisis. I know what I don't want to do, but I have no idea what I actually want to do.. at least my nails are pretty!

Here's BYS Glitter Blue, a pretty silver glitter in a pale blue base that's more refined and elegant than anything else I've seen from BYS. I received it from a lovely fellow Aussie nail addict in a Christmas in July swap. It's sheer, so I layered it over Duri Summer in the City.

I was expecting it to be a thermal polish (the blue sticker on the lid usually indicates that a BYS is a colour change polish) but unfortunately I think they just made a mistake. Boo! It's still very pretty though.

Rainbow gradient

I love gradients - they're easy and impressive, even if clean-up (and the resulting angry dry skin) is a bit of a pain. Here's one I did recently using some Bio Sculpture polishes, which I wore to a meetup with some Sydney nail fanatics:

And here's what it looks like after I covered it with permanent marker, using PVA to stop the marker from streaking (see the tutorial I did here)

I wish I'd thought of it sooner! I'm also quite surprised by how much darker it looks after the markering - I mean, it should be pretty damn obvious since I'm covering 60% of the nail in black, but the contrast between the original and the final is pretty striking to me. Silly irrational human brain!

(You may have noticed that I used the same colours as I did for this gradient Movember mani, because I am clearly somewhat lacking in imagination and if the colours are from the same collection, that's my gradient choices done. But seriously, that Bio Sculpture collection has the prettiest matching gelato colours. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013

By now you've probably seen all the nail art tutorials flooding the internet for piCture pOlish's annual Blog Fest, which this year included over 130 bloggers, including me! Here's the mani I did, using the shades Hope, Dorothy and Ruby Blou:

Hop on over to my blog to see the full tutorial - it's pretty basic nail art, but I loved this mani!

Happy Independence Day! Nails Inc. Baker Street + Girly Bits: Canadian Eh?

Okay, I admit, kind of funny using a name that references another country in the polish, also the fact that Nails Inc. is from the UK... but I felt the combo was too perfect for July 4. :D

I did 2 coats of Girly Bits: Canadian Eh? over Nails Inc. Baker Street. Girly Bits: Canadian Eh? is a glitter topcoat polish consisting red and white glitters of different sizes in both hex and squares. There's also a beautiful microshimmer that really adds awesome depth to it. I didn't realize that it had it until I applied it. AND I LOVE IT! :)

I think Nails Inc. Baker Street is fast becoming one of my most favorite polishes. It takes 2 coats and it's just amazing.

Did you do a patriotic manicure for July 4?

Liquid Sand dotticure

I'm not a massive fan of creme liquid sands - they look kind of lumpy and plastic to me (unlike the shimmers, which I generally love to death). So I've decided to try using them for nail art... and surprisingly, I really like the result. Win!

The base is OPI Keeping Suzi at Bay, a deep dark blue - it's my favourite out of all the cremes from the upcoming San Francisco collection (click for my original swatches). I dotted over it with OPI Wharf! Wharf! Wharf! which is slightly darker. I didn't really enjoy wearing it as a full mani (see the liquid sand swatches here), but this was completely different.

I'm looking forward to trying out a similar thing with OPI It's All San Andreas's Fault, the other creme liquid sand from the collection, in the hopes that it'll also grow on me.

What do you think of creme liquid sands? Yay or nay? Fad or innovation?

Nubar Boyfriend Jeans

I've been having a love affair with cremes, particularly neutral cremes (yay autumn!) - this is Nubar Boyfriend Jeans, which isn't a neutral, but a muted shade, which hits almost the same spot for me. It's quite work-safe in my opinion, while still being a bit edgy and, dare I say, fashionable. 2 coats, no top coat.

Annoyingly, this isn't great colour accuracy-wise - in person it's a fair bit more greyish, but the lighting was terrible for this swatch!

Pahlish: April Showers Duo :)

Today I have this duo set from Pahlish to show y'all, named the April Showers Duo. It consists of 2 polishes: Through Still and Storm, a creme with shimmer and Ocean Gone Wrong, a glitter topcoat. This duo is a limited edition set that is the first in a series of monthly LE Pahlishes. The color scheme of this duo is right up my alley and I hope my pictures do these polishes justice!

This is Ocean Gone Wrong solo, 1 coat, 2 coats, 3 coats and 4.

Ocean Gone Wrong consists of a mixture of circle, square, and hex blue glitters with some silver/gunmetal hex glitters and a pink shimmer. I love that this has circle glitters in it! As you can see the coverage is sparse and can't quite reach full opacity, but I think the glitters shine better with one coat.

Through Still and Storm

Through Still and Storm is the creme of this duo set. It's a slate blue color with specks of black with a blue shimmer. This is two coats. The consistency was a little bit odd, but two coats of it evened out beautifully.

Ocean Gone Wrong over Through Still and Storm. 1 coat on each finger with 2 coats of Ocean Gone Wrong on the ring finger.

They layer together awesomely! Can't quite see the glitter because of the shininess, but I mattified it and you can see it better:

I personally think it's super gorgeous mattified and you can see all the separate glitters. I love the mixture.

And here's a solo finger macro shot of Ocean Gone Wrong over black:

You can definitely see the pink shimmer, along with the actual glitters.

This Pahlish April Showers Duo goes on sale April 12 at 7 PM CST and can be found on her Etsy here. If you'd like more updates about her other releases, follow her on Facebook here :)

World Autism Day nails: Happy Hands I Just Blue Myself

World Autism Day was yesterday, but I still wanted to share my NOTD -- these were my nails to commemorate :)

I bought this polish a while ago, right when it was being discontinued (sad, right?) because I loved how vibrant it looked. And it's super vibrant. It's blue hexes and squares with a smattering of purple hexes in a blue tinted base. I layered it over a dark blue jelly, although it'd probably have the same effect over black.

This took about 1 regular coat then 2 coats using the dabbing method. I love it, it's super shiny and eye catching.

On the subject of blue, it's bluebonnet season in Texas :) I went last weekend with a couple of friends to try and take some pictures. It was overcast and it's not quite peak in the season yet but I got a couple of good pictures :)

They're so pretty! Especially gorgeous when you see the field as a whole while you're driving down freeways.

One can find Happy Hands at their Facebook here and their Etsy here!

Pahlish: Lonesome Ocean

I was in the mood for a dark polish, but not black, but not totally dark. In comes Pahlish: Lonesome Ocean.

A dark navy jelly with orange, hot pink, and aqua glitters in varying shapes and sizes. Don't you love this combination?

I layered it over Borghese: Mezzanotte Blue, a dark navy jelly but you can wear it on its own to opacity. The glitter came out evenly and gorgeously :)

One can find Pahlish at her Facebook here, her Etsy here and also on Llarowe :)

Ciate Power Dressing

Ciate Power Dressing

This color was a bit of a surprise. I applied it inside one evening very low-light conditions and thought it was going to be this lovely dark eggplant-y purple. Then I go outside the next day and realize that it's a rather blue blue. I also realized that four coats wasn't enough to make it opaque. I don't know how many times I have to make this judgment error before I learn to turn on the light when I apply nail polish. Probably before some important job interview when I've accidentally applied a neon yellow thinking it's some mauve color. :P

Shopping My Stash - Blue Creme Layering

It's been a while coming, but I finally got organised and painted my collection onto swatch sticks! This made my February No-Buy a bit easier as I fell in love with my cremes again. Here's a gorgeous blue creme I rediscovered - Face of Australia Ocean Villa. It usually has a matte finish, but I layered Nubar Black Polka Dot on top. But then I got stuck with the accent nail.

First I tried Candeo Smores (kindly gifted by Jen of The Nail Polish Project at the Sydney Aussie Nails meetup) over ulta3 Earl Grey, but that didn't look quite right:

Then I tried China Glaze Some Like It Haute over China Glaze Stone Cold. Much better!

Shopping my own stash has been the best strategy for my No Buy so far - with over 400 bottles in my collection, there are a lot of underappreciated polishes in there!

OPI...Eurso Euro chevron nail art

After I swatched a few polishes from OPI's Euro Centrale collection on my blog here last week, my friend asked to borrow OPI... Eurso Euro. So to make sure I was properly sick of it before sending it off on its little journey (sob) I thought I'd nail art it up a bit, with last year's tangerine (ulta3 Tangerine Tango).

I taped the white chevrons, but then I couldn't be bothered waiting for the white to dry to tape off the orange, so I freehanded it and it looked pretty good - I think my freehand skills have definitely improved!

And then before I took it off, I turned it into ALIEN COWS. Because clearly thesis writing has driven me insane.

I am totally in love with OPI...Eurso Euro - it's such a rich blue! Definitely a keeper.