I would take a stab and say that they were:

• OPI – You Don’t Know Jacques
• ORLY – Prince Charming
• OPI – Over the Taupe
• Essie – Chinchilly
• Essie – Body Language

Yeah, actually, I think that’s pretty bang on.

OPI – Ski Teal we Drop

A gorgeous teal creme perfect for when you’re in the mood for something dark but don’t want to go all the way with a black or your typical vampy colours. I got a lot of comments and double takes with this one! Must wear again soon.

Although it doesn’t look like it here,  I would say that it turns out a smidge darker than it appears in the bottle

OPI – Pink Flamenco

Barbie pink! I’m not one for pinks but this came in the señoritas minis pack as a part of the coleccion de españa. Guess I was feeling like a bit of fun, it’s certainly a colour to reach for if you’re looking for something to POP against black clothes.

This is more or less what it looks like in real life… if you can picture it without the glare. Sorry, still experimenting with my new set-up!

Speaking of which, I thoguht I would post a few photos of what it looks like for anyone interseted. It’s totally self-contained and comes with two lights, a tripod and a back drop. Totally awesome!

Hehe, the display pic even shows the same camera that I use! This is me, guys, except I use the grey backdrop… and the toy car would be a bottle of nail polish!

And another shot for those lacking in imagination

ulta3 – wild berry

I love ulta3 polishes! At only $2 a pop, who wouldn’t? I got this from Pulse Pharmacy and was even more delighted when it scanned through at only $1.60. I later discovered that they were having a 20% off sale… and I only got one!! What’s going on? I didn’t even go back inside to buy more. Come to think of it, I haven’t really been buying any polish lately which I suppose, is a good thing.

Anyway, this applied nicely enough in two coats and lasted just as long as other brands. I really love the colour, it’s perfect for when black is just too dark (or too done) or when China Glaze – Recycle is just too light. Well done, ulta3!

China Glaze – Oxygen

I loved this when I was wearing it. Sadly, that was a very long time ago because I have been so diligent in updating my blog (har). I think it was good to go in around 3 coats, but I’m pretty sure I applied more for extra measure. These light colours (sheers? neutrals? I dunno, whatever) are a pain in the arse to get opaque and non-streaky but this one is one of the better ones. I have OPI’s Time-less is more as well and tested it out on my pinky – Oxygen definitely had better coverage.

OPI – Barefoot in Barcelona

Man, I remember wanting this so bad when the España collection first came out. WHHYYYYY? I don’t know either. Perhaps I need to be white, like the people I have seen this look good on. Heh.

Excuse the terribly noisy photo, I got lazy and jacked the ISO up to 400 because I was having trouble keeping my hand still. As you can see, OPI PP and OPI CYDI? are very close. PP is slightly warmer/more red if you look closely but they are practically dupes to each other while the Misa (ring finger) was just in a darker, cooler and more blue league of its own.

Here we have (Index to Pinkie): OPI – Pamplona Purple, OPI – Can You Dig It?, Misa – Sorry Just Can’t Help It and OPI – Pamplona Purple.

Rimmel 60 seconds – Blue Me Away

I wore this colour for all of one day, I guess I wasn’t really in the mood for this one. It’s a lovely colour, though, blue with fine purple shimmer that would be highly visible in the sun. Unfortunately there was none of that when I took these pictures. Appearance aside, I noted that Rimmel’s claim to drying in 60 seconds actually affected my application of it – it would start drying before I was done but that’s probably just user-error because I’m still quite slow at painting.

Outdoors – overcast

An Indoor shot. The shimmer is slightly visible here on the index nail but very noticeable in good light in real life.

Essie – St Lucia Lilac

This is St Lucia Lilac which was good in two coats. Of course, it lived up to Essie’s notoriety of being streaky but I was pleased to find that it evened out nicely by the 2nd coat. I absolutely loooooved this colour and am ever so grateful to Michelyne over at Enamel Coated for sending this over to me in a give away she had a while ago. This is the polish that started a light pastel crème craze for me. I had previously steered clear of them in fears that they would turn out too stark against my skin but I loved this every minute I had it on. I still have China Glaze – Sun Showers to swatch which was a condition of entry for the comp but curiosity to try this one first bowled me over. Oops! Sun Showers is coming soon!

Outdoors – overcast

Indoor shot

And another against white paper. Yep, it’s lilac.

This colour was absolute loooooooove! When the mint green craze started I wasn’t sure if I was going to be participating because I had doubts that it would look any good with my skin tone. Memories came rushing back to me from when I was in Year 4 – I wore a similarly coloured polish to school only to have my teacher ask me if I was ill because apparently my nails made me look like I was I’ve always liked pastel green as a colour, it’s quite soothing to look at so I took a chance with MILF and I’m glad I did. You will have noticed that this particular example leans yellow in comparison to other similar polishes, it’s not a clean, crisp mint but I think this is what made it work for me (and my Asian skin). I absolutely love it!

2 obese coats

Again, in the sunshine

Now, let’s talk application. All I’ve heard about Illamaqua polishes thus far is that their formula is to die for. Buttery smooth and well pigmented. This for me, however, wasn’t the case. It was thick and gloopy and a bit difficult to work with. I was really disappointed because I paid a mint (har!) for this but can’t totally fault it because the colour is awesome and because I’m pretty sure there was just something wrong with my bottle (dried out a little, perhaps?). Despite all that, there was evidence of that legendary formula in there somewhere. I’m sure that it will be fantastic after I add a few drops of thinner – I’m just a bit scared of doing this because I’m still unsure about B3F polishes and non-B3F thinner (which is all I have in possession at the moment). Pigmentation was good and it would’ve been opaque in one coat if I had mad skillz.

Now, here’s something I discovered when I first got this. MILF was made in Australia! It pains me to know that I waited weeks for this to ship to me from the UK when it was originally made here. I would have saved a buttload in shipping and carbon emissions if I could have just gotten this here! Poo.

OPI – Apricot-cha Cheating

Next up is Apricot-cha Cheating from the Las Vegas Collection 2003 (sadly, discontinued now). I thought the name for this one was a bit weird and lame (trying a bit too hard to play on ‘apricot’, perhaps?) until I realised what the running theme was. But anyway, it’s an apricot creme and I think it was good in 3 coats. Maybe 2, my memory fails me. It’s what I originally wanted Back to the Beach Peach Pit to be (based on pictures I’ve seen) but I have since made peace with that polish and maybe even like it more than this one For those looking for a dupe, I wore this at the same time I painted Robyn’s nails with Color Club – Coral Cascade and they were virtually identical.

China Glaze – Shower Together

Good in two coats. This colour is gorgeous but I can’t see myself wearing it as often as others which is why it was perfect for the camping trip we went on at the beginning of the year. I don’t even  know how to describe it. Bluey-tealish-aqua? I don’t know. My photo is preee-eetty close to what it looked like in real life, though, I edited the pic which is why my hands look like I have boiled them in hot water. Just ignore that

Misa – Fashionista

I kind of went nuts with these kinds of shroomy/taupey colours after falling in love with Channelesque (below) which led to my fling with Fashionista. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out between us because it didn’t look as good as I had hoped with my skin tone. Sorry, but that’s a deal breaker for me. It’s up for swapsies on MUA now, but it doesn’t seem like anyone wants to swap with an Australian girl considering it’s easily accessible through etailers. Boo. This was good in two coats.

China Glaze – Channelesque

Last but not least, my Holy Grail ‘shroomer’. A wonderful purpley-grey-taupe with killer application. This my friends, is a one coat wonder. It glided on smooth and buttery and I had no troubles with it whatsoever. Unfortunately, this one, I’m pretty sure, is also discontinued. It’s one of only two colours I have a back-up bottle of in my collection, heh!

One coat wonder! (1.5 coats for me because I am not that good with application). Love! Love! Love!

Here we have (Pinky – Thumb): Rimmel – Green with Envy, Jordana – Kiss and Teal, ChG – Watermelon Rind, Cover Girl – Mystic Peacock & ChG – Rodeo Fanatic

Another shot with the bottles in the background. How fascinating that they appear to be in height order as well! Ha!

A bit of a close up…

… and a surprise for you all after the jump…

Oh look! It’s Thien! LOL. I swear, his hands look nicer and girlier than mine (and this is after I had cut and filed his nails down)!  He is indeed, the perfect male hand model.
‘On ya for not giving a toss, dood and letting a couple of girls have fun with some nail polish I can’t stand guys who are all “narh, that’s gay, maaaaan!”… but that being said, it’s not cool if your bf looks prettier than you either!

Here are a few past NOTD’s, including what I wore for Christmas.

Christmas Mani

I thought I would get into the festive spirit this year with the classic green and red combo. I had Illamasqua – Rampage on my ring fingers and OPI – Little Red Wagon on the others. Not the most original but hey, fun nonetheless!

OPI – A Grape Fit!

From the Bright Pair collection, this is a wonderful purple creme. I had the urge to wear a lighter purple (the majority of purples I own are darker like Lourve Me, Lourve Me Not) and was consistently drawn to Parlez Vous OPI (which I have already worn) but was hesitant about it because I have so many untrieds to get through. This was until I remembered I had this little beauty as a part of the mini set for this collection. It was perfect (and virginal)! I would call this PVO’s brighter summery cousin. I loved it so much I went out and got the full size bottle. Weird thing about the minis, I seem to forget they’re a part of my stash and unconsciously leave them off my spreadsheet, heh! I used to love the idea of getting a little sample of colours but I now have this thing about uniformity across my nail racks (it just looks better). Full size China Glaze polishes stick together, as do the Color Clubs and OPIs. Opting for full sized bottles means I can integrate them into my stash in a more visually pleasing manner.

Color Club – Brrr-Red

This picture is soooooooo inaccurate! I don’t even know why I’m posting it. It appears much darker and deeper in real life with a jelly-ish finish to it. I’m still trying to get my head around the concept of jelly finishes. I can see what is meant whilst applying it because it has that glossy, translucent look to it between coats but I wouldn’t be able to tell a ‘jelly’ apart from a creme at full bottle colour. Who knows!

China Glaze – Recycle

A medium grey creme. I got this as a part of China Glaze’s eCollection and have to admit that I was a little unsure about how much I would like it at that time. The thing about having a million untrieds is that it gives colours plenty of time to grow on you before you get around to wearing them. I loved this! I think I have a thing for these ‘chic’,  ‘fashion forward’ taupey, mushroomy and grey cremes. This will definitely be coming out to play more in autumn/winter.

OPI – Miami Beet

Eep! Again, I shouldn’t be posting this because this is much deeper in real life. The name for this one is spot on, it makes your finger tips look like they are covered in slices of beetroot! It’s another one of those colours that play mind games. It’s not quite red. Not quite magenta. I don’t know, but I like them complicated!

China Glaze – Tree Hugger from the ecollection. What a gorgeous colour! I liked it alot but had a few qualms about being able to pull it off. Application was a bit iffy but this might’ve been because I wasn’t used to China Glaze’s brush. I think I may have been spoilt by OPI’s Pro-wide (yes, I am indeed amongst those who actually like it!).

I got bored in between exams so I layered OPI’s “And this Little Piggy…” over it (left). I liked it. It kind of made it look ‘dirtier’ and somewhat more wearable. Not necessarily better than Tree Hugger on its own, just different.

Index comparison. Chinese finger trap, anyone?

And again on the same hand. I did say I had alot of pics.. haha.

China Glaze’s ecollection.
Unplugged, Hybrid and Shower Together.

Tree Hugger, Solar Power and Recycle.
I love this collection as a whole. The colours all look really nice together and I would probably wear most of them if not all. I just have to be feeling a little adventurous to wear Solar Power

OPI – Chapel of Love

I really liked this colour. That wasn’t much of a surprise, though, because it’s quite similar to Back to the Beach Peach – except with a bit of pink shimmer. It didn’t play that mind game BttBP did with me though and tended to stay the one shade of pinky-coral. Since BttBP is discontinued, I would suggest that this is a good alternative. I’m pretty sure it’s a part of OPI’s Classics Collection now.

In the shade

With flash – you can see the shimmer if you look closely

Illamasqua – Rampage

I was so excited to find that Illamasqua were willing to ship internationally. I picked this up along with MILF and paid more than I usually would for a bottle of polish. Once again, Australians chump out at £12.50 which equates to $22.40 AUD at the moment. These can be had by American polish lovers for just $14USD (around $15AUD) on Sephora – too bad they don’t ship internationally! WHY OH WHYYYY must we endure such injustices???!!  This has me so depressed *sigh* If only I had some connections overseas!! Especially some in the US. I’m still dying to add Muse and Lament to my collection.

This really deserves a post of its own… But I can’t be bothered! Oh well, here goes…

My package, eeee! I was so excited to finally have this in my hot little hands! I was pretty anxious, considering it contained two of the most expensive polishes I have ever bought.

The contents! They included some nice brochures as well. That was nice

The precious cargo! Rampage and MILF (which I am yet to wear). My very first bottles of ‘varnish’ as they call it in the UK, heh-eh!

And finally, the swatches…

This was outside in natural light. I’m holding the bottle weirdly because I was trying to hide the shrinkage that occurred. I think it was the Seche Vite’s fault. Or the way I applied it.. or something.

This is it just after I painted my nails. Messy, I know. I don’t know what happened here, I don’t usually make this much of a mess

And yes! I got it on the sides of my fingers, too! This is a comparison of it without top coat (above) and with Seche Vite (below). As you can see it dries kind of satin-y which was weird – I didn’t expect this since it was sooo lovely and glossy as I applied it. But hey, nothing a lick of SV can’t fix.

OPI – Purple-opolis

I have to admit, this colour didn’t really impress me in the bottle. For something that was purple, it certainly looked pink. It was lovely on, though and much closer to what it’s named with some shimmer. Remember Kinky in Helsinki? Purple-opolis is kind of what it looks like when it isn’t reddish indoors. I suck at colour descriptions so I’ll let it speak for itself in the pictures – they’re pretty spot on.

In the shade

In direct sunlight