7th March, 2013
I’m sharing a review on the new Born Pretty Store glitter polishes today! There are 17 shades in total and I have 16 to share with you. They’re by a brand called Jia Yuan. I can’t find a lot of info about this brand but the bottles look pretty amazing! Let’s take a look!
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21st February, 2013
Sorry for my absence during the past few days… I’ve been sick in bed, I still am while writing this. Pretty frustrating since I had so many exciting posts planned! I guess you’ll just have to be patient with me for a little longer! 
Anyway these are some really simple but fun nails I did last week. I used one of the new Born Pretty Store nail polishes from the BK Crystal Sand collection. I ended up wearing this mani for almost a week, it lasted 4 full days on me before it started to chip. Needless to say I was hugely impressed with the wear of this BK polish!
I used two coats of the BK Crystal Sand polish in #17, it was pretty much a one-coater though. Mine did need a bit of polish thinner but that’s not the end of the world. It was nice and opaque which I enjoy in black polishes. It has a beautiful silver shimmer to it, it almost reminded me of stars in the night sky. Very pretty! It has a matte and slightly gritty finish but I added plenty of top coat to make sure it was nice and glossy.
On the accent nail I added a bow using 2mm round studs and gold heart studs. I saw this idea on Liquid Jelly‘s blog and loved it, so I simply had to try it myself! Simple nail art can often be the most effective. I really loved wearing this! I hope you like it as well.
Don’t forget to use my coupon code if you order anything with Born Pretty Store, EMILYW21 gives you a 10% discount on your order.
16th February, 2013
As promised, I’m bringing you my swatches of the OPI Euro Centrale collection! This collection was inspired by the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania, and was released for Spring 2013. I’m always a huge fan of Spring collections, but this one is probably one of my favourite collections of all time. 
When I saw the first previews I knew I had to have all of these, so I asked my friend Alex (aka Algae Veronica!) to hook me up once they came out. She got them for me at her local supplier, and there was an added bonus, my very own OPI Euro Centrale display! I love it so much and I’m so glad she was able to get this for me. Thanks Alex!
Now, let’s take a look at the swatches!
OPI – My Vampire Is Buff: This is a beautiful pale beige nude. I absolutely adore this shade! It’s just the perfect base colour for nail art. I used three coats to get an even coverage.
OPI – Polka.com: This is one coat of Polka.com layered over My Vampire Is Buff. At first I thought there was only two colours in this glitter mix, pink and turquoise blue, but at closer look I can see there’s also lavender hex glitter. This is such a fun and bright glitter!
OPI – OPI… Eurso… Euro: This is a beautiful electric blue. It reminds me of ink almost! It’s so stunning. It reminds me of Revlon Royal but more opaque and perhaps a little brighter. I needed only 2 coats for this.
OPI – Suzi’s Hungary Again: This is a beautiful pink jelly. I’m not usually a fan of jellies so I was a little surprised that some of these had a jelly finish. They’re the type that do allow you to reach an even opacity, so I ended up really loving these! This is was three coats.
OPI – You’re Such A Budapest: This beautiful warm periwinkle also has a jelly finish. I needed three coats for this. I absolutely adore this shade. It’s hard to describe, which almost always instantly means “love” for me!
OPI – Can’t Find My Czechbook: This soft turquoise blue also had a subtle jelly finish, though I felt like this was opaquer. I needed just two coats for this. I’m a sucker for blue shades like this!
OPI – My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours: It’s hard to believe, but this is probably my favourite colour from the entire collection. I am not a fan of red polishes at all, but this is SO amazing! It’s an orange-red that is incredibly bright and opaque. It’s almost like a neon red. A must-have in your collection! This was two coats.
OPI – I Saw… U Saw… We Saw… Warsaw: This is a beautiful midnight blue. The finish is so beautifully shiny! This, along with the rest of the collection, glided on like butter and was so easy to apply. This was 2 coats.
OPI – Vant To Bite My Neck: This is a beautiful deep eggplant shade. I’d call this the sister of I Saw… U saw.. We Saw… Warsaw. Love this colour! This was also 2 coats.
OPI – A Woman’s Prague-Ative: Now, this looks pretty special right? This beautiful shimmery copper looks almost like fire on your nails. It has orange and gold shimmer that just look amazing in the sun. This was three coats.
OPI – Oy-Another Polish Joke!: This is a sheer gold microshimmer that sits in a clear base. At first I didn’t think I would be able to get an opaque finish but with 4 coats I came pretty close. I think this would be perfect for gradients or for layering.
OPI – Hands Off My Kielbasa!: And the last shade of the collection, a beautiful peachy frosty nude. Frosty nude doesn’t sound like a good thing, but I actually really love this one. The frosty finish is subtle and I can definitely overlook that in this case.
Anyway, these were my swatches of the Euro Centrale Spring 2013 collection. It’s hard to pick a favourite since I hugely love each and every single one of these. But if I’d have to pick a top three I would go for My Vampire Is Buff, My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours and OPI Eurso Euro. Have you tried or purchased any of these? Which would you like to add to your collection? Let me know in the comments! Hope you liked my swatches! Thanks for looking!
14th February, 2013
I’ve barely found the time to blog this week, I’ve just been so busy! However, I do have some pretty exciting posts to share on here soon, so make sure to watch this space. In the meantime, here’s a recap of a few things I shared on Instagram the past few weeks. There’s also a question for YOU at the bottom of this post. So make sure to leave me your feedback, I’d love to hear your suggestions!
Follow me on Instagram: veryemily.
Left: When I saw this heart at Action for under $2 I simply had to buy it. It was being sold as a display for greeting cards, but in my head I immediately saw my necklaces dangling from the beautiful little hearts. I’m so glad I picked this up! It’s definitely one of my new favourite items in my room. Score!
Right: It’s been a few years since I bought a new duvet cover and I figured it was time for a change. I’ve wanted a Union Jack duvet cover for a while and when I was googling I found that 3SUISSES had the perfect one. I picked this up during their sale, it came in at around $50 including the four pillow covers. I love how it has a different design on the inside!
On 28 January, I had the most epic nail mail day ever! One of my bestest friends Alex (aka Algae Veronica! Please check out her blog, she’s an amazing nail artist) absolutely spoiled me with the most amazing package filled with goodies. I wish I knew what I did to deserve such kindness! My new piCture pOlish shades for my weekly swatchathon also arrived that day. I was, and still am, overwhelmed with all the beautiful polishes I was blessed with that day!
On 1 February my boyfriend and I celebrated our four year anniversary. I’m so blessed to have such an amazing, supportive and awesome boyfriend. I wouldn’t know what to do without him!
MUA Cosmetics was having a sale on their website not too long ago. All of their products were 50% off, and they were having a free international shipping deal. Given their products are so cheap already, this definitely was too good to pass up! So these are the goodies I picked up during the sale. Would anyone like to see reviews on some of these items? Let me know in the comments!
Left: Last weekend I had a haul at Action and Kruidvat. Action is quickly becoming one of my favourite stores, it’s basically like a Poundland or a Dollar Store. Everything is so cheap and the items they sell are awesome! They have a lot of great make-up products and cosmetics too. As you can tell from the duplicates, these goodies are not all for me! I also picked up some items for a few dear friends of mine.
Right: This is the Essence Popul-Art blush from the Vintage District limited edition. It’s so beautiful! I almost don’t want to use it. The gold is an overspray so I haven’t touched it yet. The effect is too pretty to ruin!
Meet my first ever decoden iPhone case! I got it at Born Pretty Store, it comes in a set with a clear iPhone case, large decoden pieces, rhinestones and pearls, glue and a nifty pencil for picking up rhinestones. I also used some other rhinestones I had lying around. I definitely went a bit overboard with the bling. I love it so much though! Especially the little nail polish charm. It’s just the cutest!
Left: Behold my very own OPI Euro Centrale display! When I saw the first previews of Euro Centrale I knew I had to have the full collection. I’ve never bought a full collection before but I simply had to have it, the shades were SO me! My friend Alex was able to hook me up with this, so a huge thanks to her.
Right: A little sneaky peek of my three favourite shades from the Euro Centrale collection. But more on that in my swatch post which should be going up this week or early next week!
And finally, here’s the new Born Pretty Store glitter polishes! I will be swatching these on my blog very soon! But this is where you come in… As they are mostly layering glitters I’ve been debating which colours I should layer them over. As there’s so many, I will only be able to show one layering combination. Either I can use the same colour for all glitters (white or black?) or I can pick a shade that I think works best with each shade. Please let me know what you’d prefer and what you would like to see me do with these!
Hope you enjoyed this post! Thanks for watching and reading!
6th February, 2013
Today’s manicure is dedicated to someone special! I’m sure you’ll be able to guess who from taking a quick glance at my nails. Who else can it be other than Minnie Mouse herself?!
I was asked to create this adorable “Minnie-cure” for the occasion of the Minnie & You campaign. Disney are putting a special spotlight on Minnie Mouse with the Minnie & You campaign, celebrating her style and fashion sense.
I used two beautiful OPI shades from the Minnie Mouse collection for this “Minnie-cure”. I painted my nails with OPI The Color Of Minnie which is a beautiful red with pink shimmer and OPI Nothin’ Mousie ‘Bout It which is the famous and beautiful heart glitter!
On my middle finger I painted the M of the distinctive Minnie & You logo using nail brushes and a dotting tool for the polka dots. On my ring finger I individually placed some of the heart glitters of OPI Nothin’ Mousie ‘Bout It. This glitter is so adorable! It has beautiful pink and gold flakies, I can’t wait to see what it looks like over black. On my pointer finger and pinkie I used a dotting tool to add a fun polka dot print over OPI The Color Of Minnie.
And finally, I had to add a bow to my thumb! When you think of Minnie, you think of polka dots and of her beautiful bow of course. I find bows so tricky to paint, but I am pretty happy with how this one turned out! I hope I’ve made Minnie proud.
I hope you enjoyed my “Minnie-cure”. I had so much fun creating it! Please let me know what you think in comments below.
2nd February, 2013
As you may have noticed if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, I’ll be continuing with a weekly piCture pOlish swatch-athon! I asked you which one you’d like to see first, and piCture pOlish Gene Doll got most votes, so here it is! Gene Doll is a beautiful purple glitter best suited for layering. Rather than showing you one layering option I’m sharing SIX layering combinations! Yay!
I used one coat of piCture pOlish Gene Doll and no top coat for each of these layering combinations. I paired Gene Doll with a white, black, gold, purple, blue and green. My favourite layering combos are the white and pale blue, they really make the glitter pop! Let’s take a look.
piCture pOlish Gene Doll layered over China Glaze Snow.
piCture pOlish Gene Doll layered over OPI Onyx.
piCture pOlish Gene Doll layered over Barry M Foil Effects in Gold.
piCture pOlish Gene Doll layered over Barry M Bright Purple.
piCture pOlish Gene Doll layered over piCture pOlish Sky.
piCture pOlish Gene Doll layered over China Glaze Def Defying.
As you can see, the layering possibilities are endless! You can go quite subtle if you layer it over black or purple, or you can opt for a bright contrasting combination with white, blue or green. The tagline of this one is “tapping toes like Mr Kelly”, referring to Gene Kelly, the famous actor and dancer.
Which layering combination would you go for? Let me know in the comments!
You can find Gene Doll for AU$9.50 on the piCture pOlish website. Make sure to check out their network page to find an online store near you. If you are in Belgium or the Netherlands, you can take a look at PrettyPolish.nl!
18th January, 2013
Guess what I have for you today? A nail art post!!! Yay! Finally! Sorry for not posting any nail art for so long… It’s taken me a few weeks to get my nail art mojo back but I hope it’s back for good now!
Anyway these are some uber sparkly nails I did! I saw Candice share a picture on Instagram featuring some awesome glitter placement nails she did, and how they helped her to feel better. I figured this was the perfect time to try these! It took me roughly under an hour to do all 10 fingers. They are so mesmerizing! They are so sparkly in person, I admit I did zone out of several conversations because I was staring at my nails. Oops!
The base colour I used is an old Essence limited edition shade from the Denim Wanted collection, it’s called I Love My Jeans. It’s a charcoal black with silver shimmer. Then I used a thin and non-quick drying top coat to make my nails sticky and individually placed the hex glitters using a dotting tool. Finally two coats of ProNails Seco Seco (similar to Seche Vite!) to smooth everything out.
These are the glitters I used for this manicure! They are a set of 12 colours of hex glitter. I got these from Born Pretty Store. This set is just $6.45 for all 12 colours! The box I keep mine in is not included but I also got that from Born Pretty, you can find it on their site here.
I ended up putting one scoop of each colour (except for the translucent white and silver) in an empty jar. This way I could easily grab random colours each time. Btw, how pretty does that glitter look?
Anyway I hope you like these! I had a lot of fun doing them, it was actually less time consuming than I thought so that was good. And these are definitely a good solution to distract your mind, you need a lot of concentration placing each glitter on one by one. Fun fact: I made a rough calculation and it took me around 400 hex glitters to cover all 10 nails!
12th January, 2013
This is the final post of the 5-week piCture pOlish “swatchathon”. I think I saved the best till last with this gorgeous sparkly shade called Orbit. This might not be my last swatchathon, but I can’t give away too many details yet!
Orbit is a beautiful deep blue glitter. I say blue but it’s more of a mix between purple and blue, though it depends on the light setting. I love those “in-between shades”, they’re hard to describe but they are all the more unique! I used two coats for the swatch above but I could have gotten away with just one!
Sadly this was the first piCture pOlish shade where I had some issues with application. My bottle of Orbit was gloopy and harder to apply. The brush was soaked in polish and it was tricky to remove it and get the right amount. In any case I added some thinner which helped straight away to make application a little easier.
Here’s a close-up! Orbit consists of an opaque jelly blue base with fine silver glitters that shift to blue. It has so much depth to it! It’s seriously such a stunning shade. I would easily call this one of my favourite glitter polishes ever!
As always, the final bottle shot! Look at that blurred glitter at the top of the picture! 
Don’t you just love blurred glitter bokeh? All in all, despite some application issues, this was a real stunner of a polish. Flawlessly opaque in just one or two coats and this polish will have you mesmerized for days!
You can find Orbit for AU$9.50 on the piCture pOlish website. Make sure to check out their network page to find an online store near you. If you are in Belgium or the Netherlands, you can take a look at PrettyPolish.nl!
If you’d like to see the previous piCture pOlish swatches I posted, make sure to check out my piCture pOlish tag.
4th January, 2013
Guess what time it is? It’s weekly piCture pOlish swatch time!
Today I am showing you piCture pOlish Ruby Blou. A beautiful glitter mix with large and small silver, blue and red hex glitter. Very patriotic! I layered two coats of Ruby Blou over a black polish. This is an unmissable polish for your 4th of July manicures or other festivities. It was very easy to work with, the glitter spread very nicely across the nail.
Here’s a close-up! Doesn’t it look stunning?! I seriously love this glitter. I wasn’t sure at first but wearing it on my nails, I was instantly sold! I love the layering with black, it really makes the glitter particles pop!
And finally of course the bottle shot! The tagline for this one is “Dazzling red, sparkling blue!”. It’s a beautiful glitter but the formula is flawless which makes this a great polish and a must-have! Ruby Blou dries with a shiny and smooth finish. Drying time was also very good. Overall I have to say I was really impressed with this glitter.
You can find Ruby Blou for AU$9.50 on the piCture pOlish website. Make sure to check out their network page to find an online store near you that stocks piCture pOlish shades. If you are in Belgium or the Netherlands make sure to check out PrettyPolish.nl!
29th November, 2012
A while ago I made a review for the online store Uniqso featuring a gorgeous pair of circle lenses. Today I’ll be talking about the nail polish that Uniqso has available on their site. The brand they have is called Aqmore, and the polishes are very special since they are water based! Let’s take a look at what I received!
I received a topcoat and a creme polish which came in a super pretty blue drawstring bag. The creme polish is called Blue Butterfly and the topcoat is Super Star Silver.
As I mentioned earlier, these polishes are water based. In short this means they are completely harmless for your nails. They don’t contain any bad chemicals, solvents, formaldehyde, toluene or acetone. This also means removal is very convenient. You simply soak your fingers in warm water and it peels off easily.
I expected this water based polish to be pretty sheer. In any case I did not expect it to be as opaque as it is! I only needed two layers for the picture you see above. Awesome right? You could even get away with one thicker coat. Blue Butterfly is a stunning dusty periwinkle blue. It’s bright but still soft. Such a gorgeous shade! You would never be able to tell this is a water based polish just seeing it on the nails.
Water based polish is perfect for those with children. If you worry about the effects of chemicals on your child, this polish is completely harmless and non-toxic. It’s made with edible pigments so it’s definitely a safe choice for your child.
Here is a coat of Super Star Silver over Blue Butterfly. The topcoat is water based too so the glitter tends to sink down as it doesn’t sit in a suspension base. Not a huge issue though, just give the bottle a good shake and this nicely and evenly spreads the glitter. With the larger stars I had to individually apply them on my nails using the brush but this is typical with large glitter pieces. How pretty is this top coat? I really love it!
I had a pretty good experience with these water based polishes. They are definitely not sheer as I thought they would be, they apply very easily and dry quickly. It didn’t wear badly either despite being water-solvent, these lasted a few days on me before chipping. Overall a great product and if you worry about chemicals this is a great choice for you or your child.
You can find Aqmore polishes at Uniqso for $9.90 per bottle. Not the cheapest polishes but they are great quality and completely safe and harmless. They contain 8ml and have a very convenient brush, not too large nor too narrow. If you order with Uniqso make sure to use my coupon code, EMILY10 gets you a 10% discount on your order!
Have you ever tried water based polish? Or would you try this? Let me know in the comment!
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