Opallac Thermal Gel Polishes

I recently got sent a whole bunch of gel polishes from Opallac, and although I plan to slowly go through and swatch them all, I wanted to share the thermal colour changing polishes. I'm always a sucker for thermal polishes, but the thing that I find exciting about these is that not only are they really pretty, but for all us Aussie girls, they are available at Priceline! It's so nice to have pretty polishes that I don't have to resort to buying online. 

Each of the swatches I have done 2 coats with a gel to coat. They are beautifully opaque, and they change colour really easily, so even now in the middle of the winter I'm still having fun watching them constantly shift. 

Go check out the full range of colours at the Opallac website

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Strawberries and Cream

Two Faced

Poured in Pink

Addicted to Purple

Nailympia Australia

Seeing as I will be attending the Beauty Expo Australia in Sydney this year, I thought I'd do a quick shout out to their Nailympia nail art competition for any nail technicians who would like to try their hand at it! I'm a long way from being that good, but hey goals right? The entries will be judged by a panel of 15 international and national judges, and the winners will receive coverage in international press along with a series of additional prize opportunities.

There are 10 categories to enter in the 2017 Competitions: 

Team Title Trophy 

Soak Off Gel Polish

Liquid & Powder Acrylic Sculpture & Tips/Overlay 

Salon Nails (one hand)

Stiletto Nail 

Reality Nail Art 

Fantasy Nail Art 

3D (Mixed Media)

Photographic Nail Art, 2017 Theme: Medieval Fantasy. 

Entrant registration closes at 5:00pm, Monday 7 August 2017. For full terms and conditions of entry for each category please visit: http://www.beautyexpoaustralia.com.au/competitions/nailympia/

And here are some images from last years Melbourne Cup themed competition... because hey pretty nails! 

Miniso Water Based Topcoat

I have a quick post today just to share my little exciting find - I was at a Miniso store the other day and noticed in their small polish range that they had some water based polishes, including a top coat. To be honest I've never owned a water based top coat so I had to buy it and try it out. For a grand total of $2.99 it was worth the risk. So now I have done 2 separate manis with foil using it, and there has been no wrinkles of any kind. It is seriously like magic! The first image here I used the top coat on my first and middle fingers, and the ring and pinkie have nothing on them. The second picture I used it then put a normal quick dry top coat over the top for extra protection. Still no wrinkles at all. The ONLY downside is it does take a while to dry, but worth it. This is the holy grail of foil top coats!
Here is the link to Miniso Australia's website - at the moment they only have stores in Sydney and Melbourne.

Not quite Aeropuffing

 If you live on Instagram as much as I do you will have seen the new Russian fad called Aeropuffing. If you want to brave some Russian language and see some videos on the real deal check out their website here. Seeing as it is both quite expensive and a pain to get your hands on, I decided to give it a go using similar tools.  I used these stencils from Twinkled T, and the sponging tool I got from eBay.
I started out using a range of gel polishes assuming that they would work like the gel paste from the Aeropuffing kit. Turns out that they just don't work. You don't get any opacity and not the nice airbrushed look. So in the long run I used all normal stamping polishes from Hit The Bottle. They worked great! Ok I know that you can just paint over stencils with normal polish and that works, but this did give a nice airbrushed effect. So not quite what I wanted and it hasn't changed my want for the original kit, but it was an interesting experiment.
I didn't take any video of actually applying, but if you look up Aeropuffing on Youtube you will find a million tutorials.

Hit the Bottle Holo the Rainbow

I have been eyeing the Holo the Rainbow stamping polishes from Hit the Bottle off for ever! So when I was at the Indie Con I had to pick up the entire collection. 9 polishes of holographic stamping magic! My lighting doesn't show up the holo very well, but they are super holo, and they stamp really well! I was slightly dubious at first as they look a little sheer on the stamping plate but as soon as you transfer to the nail it's voila sparkle magic!

So below are stamping swatches of each of the 9 colours over white and black cardboard. I promise they all stamp a treat so if any look a little smeary it's my stamping skills and trying to take macro images on an iPhone!

Glint of Gold

Holo there Beautiful

Under the Strobe-berry Lights

Musk Have the Holo

Amethyst Sizzle

Prismatic Purple

Hololulu Blue

 

Turquatic

Lucky Spark

 

Holo the Rainbow collection from Hit the Bottle is availble in differing sizes and pricing so you have no excuse not to invest! These are available in Australia from their website here.

AMR Hair and Beauty

A few weeks ago I got sent a package of goodies from AMR Hair and Beauty and I just wanted to share some of them with you. Let me start by saying first of all that I am NOT a professional, I want to be one but I haven't got my certificate yet so please do not judge me too harshly! However if you are a pro, or are like me and are starting out into the world of nail extensions, then these guys have a great range of products.

 In the package they sent me many of the items I needed to apply some tips, so I had to have a play. I have a few different tips in my collection, they are mostly cheapies that I've bought off eBay, so I was pleasantly surprised at how well these tips fitted, not to mention that they are all numbered for sizing which the cheap ones don't do and it can get frustrating.

 

So these are just the tips with clear acrylic applied over the top. As I said please don't judge too harshly, I am VERY new to doing this!

And lastly here is the Orly colour that they sent me, Just Breathe, which was a lovely pastel purple that was very opaque. I am wearing 2 coats here topped with the Won't Chip topcoat. The topcoat I quite like too, it's not as glossy as what I normally use, but it really does dry quickly and I got a few days wear with no chipping!

Aussie Indie Con 2017

 

Last saturday was the very first Aussie Indie Con here in Sydney. This is something that as soon as it was announced I have been peeing myself with excitement. As I have mentioned before I have a nasty chronic illness that normally keeps me at home, but I was determined to go no matter what! Seeing as it was such an exciting day I didn't take many photos, but I thought I would share with you the small amount that I did.  

 

It was held at one of the rooms in the National Maritime Museum - right by the water at Darling Harbour. Super pretty place to be! And with the added bonus that Vivid was still on (although I had gone home by the time the lights were on so no photos, but I'm sure it was pretty!).  

 

There were a bunch of classes and demonstrations throughout the day. I was lucky enough to get myself into the watermarbling class with Cathy from More Nail Polish. I have been reading her blog ever since I first got into nail polish many many years ago and am a big fan, so it was so exciting to be able to meet her and learn from her. We got to use some of the Pastel Pet Names range from Pretty Serious. I still have a long way to go before I master this, but I did learn a few good tips and tricks to help me. I just have a lot of practice so I can become a watermarbling witch.

 

This is my token haul picture - 56 polishes in total, including the ones that came in the VIP bag. I also get my sticky fingers on one of the Pretty Serious tshirts which I was delighted are super soft and nice and long (us busty girls need that!!!). There were quite a few exclusive polishes that were only available on the day, but I think my favourite thing were ll the lucky dips that some brands had that were filled with different sample shades. I got some bottled magic! Now I just need to buy another helmer to fit them all and grow a few extra fingers to wear them. 

  

And last of all here is a picture of everything that came in the VIP bag. I was so amazed at how good it was! A tonne of exclusive polishes (I will start swatching them on IG soon - be sure to follow me @onemorecoat), an adorable pen, shot glass for all this acetone and watermarbling needs (Or just drinking), a nail file, melts, bath bomb, stamper, holo sticker, and a bunch of discount  vouchers to use on the day. This was seriously better than Christmas!

So this was seriously one of the best days of my life. I just hope my health gets better enough to get more involved in the future - hopefully this will happen again next year! If you weren't able to make it, I highly suggest checking out all the indie brands who were there as many are selling the exclusive polsihes online for a short time and you don't want to miss out!