Empties: August 2012

Last month I had so many products I used up I was actually expecting to skip a month! But I used up three things and so that was enough for a monthly empties post.

Soap and Glory - Face Soap

Got this in the Big Splendor kit for Christmas last year. I may repurchase this at some point but I would like to try out the Soap and Glory Scrub Your Nose In It first. Review of this will be coming in the next month or so.

Lush - Smitten Hand Cream

I think this is the third or forth pot I have had of this. It was discontinued a while back, if I can get this in an online sale then I will be repurchasing this. At the moment I have enough other ones to be using up but this is my favourite hand cream ever.

John Frieda - Full Repair Conditioner

Not something I will repurchase, I have now used two of these and while they are nice enough they don't match up to my holy grail, Aussie.

Summer Nail Challenge: Mermaid

This photo doesn't do it justice! It is a fishtail sort of a nail.

Swatch: Franken - Angels Delight

This is the first ever franken I made, its a sheer baby pink colour. I made it because I was doing some sort of nail art and I needed a base colour like this and I didn't have one. 

"Necessity is the mother of invention" - As someone once said, and I totally agree with that.

Summer Nail Challenge: Glitter Sandwich

Challenge for today is a summer glitter sandwich...

Color Club - Screaming Fuchsia

Coverband - Sticks and Stones

Tutorial: Seaside Nails

This tutorial was requested by Samantha I did these nails originally as part of 'Summer 2012 Nail Challenge' and that being seaside and shells. How are they done? Its quite easy really and I think the slapdash nature of it makes for a better beach.

What will you need?

Start off with a nice beige polish base, this will make it easier for the rest of the polish to adhere to and fill in any blank spaces you might end up with. Once that is fully dry you then can use the sponge and add a little yellow / orange gradient for the sky. If you are wondering how to do a gradient check out Sammy's tutorial.

Moving on to the sponged sea. Make sure to build up a full opacity over the length of the nail.

Using the nail art pen, or a paintbrush in white polish draw a few squiggles over the sea part of the nail.

Add a couple of 'M' shapes for seagulls.

Paint on a topcoat and clean up any mess around the nails you have made, and that is it done.

Summer Nail Challenge: Flip Flops

Flip flops, why is it one always disappears?!

Review: Stamping Plate - M73

Stamping plate M73, not to be confused with Konad M7 which has musical sheet writing on.

This stamping plate is from KKcenterHk, and it came very well packaged. All bubble wrapped and in a brown envelope. Both the stamping plate and the stamper and scraper came in individual packaging which was nice.

The plate itself was not lined on the back so you do have to be careful not to accidently cut yourself as some of the edges can be sharp. There is nine different images on it five are floral and then there are some feet, cherries, a frog and a wasp.

The stamper itself is nice and soft which is great for full nail images, and of course works perfectly with the single images.

Scraper included in this set is made fully of plastic, which is good as I prefer plastic because then it doesn't scratch the image plate.

Do the images transfer?

As you can see yes they do. Only one I had a slight problem with was the bottom right flower and I think that was just my technique. And why didn't I stamp the cherries? Lets look at some nails I wore recently.

Some of the stamping leaves a little to be desired but again that is down to me not quite having mastered the art of stamping in two different colours!

The white background set the cherries off well, but I do need to try again with a different colour.

Stamping Plate - M73 - $5.05
Stamper and Scraper - $4.50

[product provided for review purposes, this doesn't effect my honest opinion]

Summer Nail Challenge: BBQ

Burgers, chicken legs, burgers and beers.

Summer Nail Challenge: Orange and Green

Not sure if the rule is orange and green should never be seen, or maybe its something else? Anyhow this is what I came up with today.

Base: ELF - Fire Coral
Stamping Polish: Kleancolor - Metallic Green
Stamping Plate: Bundle Monster 323

Summer Nail Challenge: Candyfloss

Colorclub - Poptastic!
Cotton wool balls

Comparison: Gosh Holographic V's Gosh Holographic Hero

Is it a exact copy of the previous GOSH Holographic?

I managed to find a bottle of the new polish and along with the old version thought it would be useful to do a comparison of the two.

Bottle comparison shot

 

Bottles look relatively similar, both containing 8ml

Indoors under a LED light?

 

 

Direct sunlight?

 

 

I do think there is a difference, GOSH holographic seems to have smaller holographic flare and gives a better holographic effect than the newer one. But the difference is slight and to the non-lacquer head unnoticeable. If you already have the original then you don't need the new holographic hero, other than for a back up! 

Holographic Hero is nice enough with a good holographic effect, however not as good as the original.

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*edit* 24th August 2012

GOSH - "Dear EnigmaticRambles: It is the same colours. We chose to relaunch Holographic. :) GOSH Cosmetics"

From what they are saying I think they are implying that it is the same polish just relaunched. I personally see a slight difference, but perhaps I got a dodgy bottle?

Summer Nail Challenge: Surfin' USA

The surfer looks like a lemming, anyone else remember the game 'Lemmings'?

52 Week Challenge: Inspired by Artwork

This nail art is inspired by pointillism...

Nails: Monkey See, Monkey Do - Mondrian

These Mondrian nails are inspired by GretalRabbitWrites and some nail art she did for the 52 week challenge which I am also taking part in. My inspired by artwork nails post will be coming soon.

Barry M - Matt White

Models Own - True Blue

Eyeko - Saucy Polish

Collection 2000 - Sherbet Lemon

Models Own - Nail Art Pen in Black

Summer Nail Challenge: Bumblebee

Summer Nail Challenge: Fruit Salad

52 Week Challenge: French

French manicures can be quite boring, but nothing a little glitter can spruce up. I first did the colour contrast French part but wasn't quite good enough for a challenge nail attempt so I used the glitter to fix that. 

Nail Tips: ELF - Black

Color Club - Fuchsia

Glitter: Barry M - Jewel Britannia 

Swatch: Kleancolor - Metallic Sapphire (165)

I got this for stamping with and it does work quite well. It will however stain anything and everything within about a 50 mile radius! It is also a PITA to remove when worn like this.

Opacity: One coater
Finish: Metallic
How Much? 15ml
Brush Type: Standard
Anything Else? Smells BAD

Summer Nail Challenge: Sunflowers

Base: A England - St. George
Flowers are freehand with acrylic paint

15 Day Nail Challenge - Day 15 - Anything

This short challenge is being ran by Fee from Makeup Savvy