Browsing Category:

Holographic

Holographic, Nail Polish, Swatch

A-England ‘To Emily Bronte’ Collection Swatches and a Giveaway!

6th October 2015

38 Comments

A-England To Emily Bronte Collection Swatches

A-England’s latest collection is dedicated to Emily Brontë, author of the world famous novel, Wuthering Heights. I’ve never read the book but have been picking up on references to Cathy and Heathcliff since I was little thanks to the Kate Bush song of the same name. We used to watch a lot of Top of the Pops 2 in my house!

I have swatches of the whole collection today and you will have already seen some of the shades popping up in my nail art recently. Of the five polishes, we have 2 bold holos (Let Me In and Spirit of the Moors), 2 creamy holos (Cathy and Wuthering Heights) and a multi-glitter in jelly (Heathcliff). All of them apply like a dream and are such regal colours which exactly what I’ve come to expect from A-England.

A-England have kindly donated the whole collection for one lucky to reader to win. Make sure to fill out the form at the end of this post to enter! Read more

Holographic, Nail Polish, Swatch

A-England | Proserpine and Incense Burner Swatches

25th May 2015

19 Comments

A-England Incense Burner and Proserpine

A-England are back with another jaw-dropping collection of inspired shades in the Rossetti’s Goddess collection. I have two polishes from the collection to share with you today: Proserpine and Incense Burner.

A-England Proserpine

Two Coats + Top Coat
Proserpine is a rich, turquoise-y teal holographic polish. A-England really have a knack for taking deep shades like this and turning them in to perfect holographics. If you like this one, you also need to check out Saint George from ‘The Legend’ collection (see my swatch here)

Shop // Proserpine £9.00 rrp

A-England Incense Burner

Two Coats + Top Coat
Incense Burner is a shifter. In the shade, it looks like a scattered plum holo, but catch it under the right light and you’ll see hints of bronze and green. This is the kind of effect I’d expect to see with a flakie or duochrome topper (applied over a creme) but with Incense Burner, you get the same effect in just two coats.

Shop // Incense Burner £9.00 rrp

Glitter, Holographic, Nail Art

Chevron Nail Art with piCture pOlish

21st April 2015

11 Comments

piCture pOlish is coming out with so many new shades this season that it’s getting hard to keep up! Have you seen the Limited Edition Vampy Chameleons? They are to die for! Anyway, that’s a story for another day. Today I’m focusing on Cherish – a nude scattered holo, Karma – the deep plum scattered holo, and Splash – dat sparkly multi sized blue glitter.

I created this nail art by painting on two coats of piCture pOlish Cherish followed by a thin coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl to dry it fast.

Next up, I applied 3 Thin Single Chevron Stencils from She Sells Seashells near the base of a few nails (which reminds me that I need to go on a bit of a spree since it looks like they’ve got a lot of new bits in since I last stopped by!)

I painted from the cuticle up to the third chevron stencil with piCture pOlish Karma and swiftly removed the stencils.

For the blue glitter chevrons, I applied a chevron stencil, then used the corner of a makeup sponge to apply piCture pOlish Splash so that I got complete coverage. I removed the stencils and outlined the chevron using Karma and a nail art brush.

Finally, I topped it all off with a thick layer of HK Girl.

Glitter, Holographic, Review, Swatch

Il Etait Un Vernis: Once Upon a Time Collection Swatches

6th April 2015

16 Comments

Once Upon a Time Nail Polish Collection

Once Upon A Time is the debut collection from Il Etait Un Vernis, the indie brand launched by two fabulous french nail bloggers – Vernis en Folie and De tout et de Rien. The brand launched in late 2014 and has gone from strength to strength with 2 further colour collections and a nail care range added to the roster since. What really draws me to this brand is the fascinating finishes and ‘something for everyone’ approach to each collection.

Every polish from Il Etait Un Vernis is 5-free and vegan. Designed in France and manufactured in Australia, I can safely say this is one of the most stunning collections I’ve ever seen. All 5 of these shades took my breath away when I first laid eyes on them. There are 4 scattered holographic polishes plus a sparkling gold (also holographic) glitter. The holos all have a jelly-like consistency which makes them incredibly glossy and smooth to apply while the glitter is dense enough to provide full coverage or perfect worn over another shade as a topper. Let’s take a closer look…

Beyond Words

– 3 Coats + Top Coat
Let’s dive straight in with the show-stopper! Beyond Words is a devastatingly gorgeous fuchsia shade packed with holographic particles and bright pink flecks. The super-shine is strong with this one but I always add a top coat for durability. Straight up my favourite pink in a long time and my pick from the collection.

Crush on Blue

– 3 Coats + Top Coat
If you’re looking for a royal blue with a twist, look no further than Crush on Blue. Smooth application in 3 coats.

Light Box

– 3 Coats + Top Coat
Light Box has a slightly thicker formula than the others but it was smooth enough to apply without any issues. There’s something very luxurious about a black holographic and the blue flecks are a genius touch.

Live, Love, Laugh

– 3 Thin Coats Over Bare Nails + Top Coat
With three coats of Live, Love, Laugh on my naked nails, there are still a few spots where you can see through but only if you look very closely. With all that light bouncing around, the naked spots are invisible to the naked eye and it looks just like you dipped your nails in glitter!

No Comment

– 3 Coats + Top Coat
No Comment is a very summery shade and one of those in-between shades that’s hard to describe so I’ll just let the pictures do most of the talking. I wouldn’t quite class this as a coral but perhaps a bright red with orange tendencies!

Where to Buy Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time is available for a limited time from Il Etait Un Vernis Shop (in France) and their International Stockists (for everywhere else in the world). RRP €12.90 (~$14.25 / £9.50).

Bonus: Nail Polish Pourn

Nail Polish #Pourn with @iletaitunvernis Once Upon a Time Collection. Obsessed doesn’t even cover it… I spent hooours making this video but it was totally worth it! Full swatches are up on thenailasaurus.com 🎶 The song is Bodyache by Purity Ring

A video posted by Sammy (@thesammersaurus) on Apr 6, 2015 at 8:45am PDT

Glitter, Gradient, Holographic, Nail Art, Studs

Just a Refresher

7th January 2015

28 Comments

Green Gradient Nail Art

It’s a few weeks since I was in normal blogging mode and I must admit, I’m a bit rusty but slowly easing back in to the routine. I recently had another big sort out of my polishes and downsized my collection a fair bit. Whilst looking through I discovered a few hidden gems which I had forgotten were in there so I’ve brought them out to see the light of day and hop back to summer with my brights. I think the colour combination is very refreshing – it makes me think of ice cold cocktails somewhere sunny! Read more

Holographic, Nail Art

Militarised

10th December 2014

8 Comments

Chevron Nail Art with piCture pOlish LakodDom and Moscow

I got a few of the new piCture pOlish collaboration shades over the weekend and you’ve already seen LakoDom in my latest tutorial post. Today it features again, joined by Moscow which is a beautiful berry holo shade. LakoDom is just the perfect shade for Winter so I’m sure you’ll be seeing it here a few more times before the season is over. It’s a slightly grey tinted white with subtle holo shimmer – just as beautiful on its own as topped with nail art.

For these nails, I used piCture pOlish LakoDom as my base colour. Next, I applied some chevron nail stencils from Nail Mail and applied piCture pOlish Moscow over the top. It’s finished off with a coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl.

Holographic, Nail Art, Swatch, Uncategorised

ILNP Fall Collection: My Picks

24th September 2014

12 Comments

Press Sample

ILNP Fall Collection Swatches // The Nailasaurus

ILNP’s fall collection touched down a few weeks ago and you probably shouldn’t go and look at it because you will only end up spending all your money! The collection consists of 11 polishes – some are multichromes re-imagined with a holographic twist and the others are straight up holos including a silver to rival the best of them.

All swatches are 3 coats with 1 top coat. The polishes work well with two coats but I was amazed at the difference a third coat made to the final look. You’ll notice when you apply them that the third coat just adds a hint of magic and a whole new dimension to these holo shades.

The softest of my selection, Champagne Blush, is a light pink holographic with just a hint of peach. A very girly but gorwn-up shade. The holo effect is really noticeable in this one but you only need to look at the pictures to see that.

This beaaaautiful teal is Fall Semester. It comes in at a close second for my favourite of the picks because it’s pretty much the perfect teal. Bold, beautiful and it didn’t stain my nails one little bit.

Black Orchid is my favourite of this selection which shouldn’t come as a surprise as I’m a sucker for deep, luxurious shades like this one – it’s a dark plum shade with holo. I love that there’s a strong hint of blue within the holo of this one.

Peace (H) is the holographic incarnation of the multichrome, Peace. It shifts from indigo to denim blue with a subtle scattered holo. It takes a really special multichrome to get me excited and this one really gets me going. With its purple to blue shift, I didn’t stand a chance!

Where to buy ILNP

ILNP’s fall collection is available from ilnp.com with worldwide shipping