Guest Nails :: Madvoice :: Star Crushed Minerals Royal Blue and Femme Fatale Glinting Lodestone

Unfortunately time prevented me from getting my last Halloween Challenge nails in on time, so stay tuned tomorrow for my last spooktacular mani.Luckily, my occasional Guest Nails contributor, Ruth (aka @madvoice of IG), is back today with a review of new US indie polish from Star Crushed Minerals and Aussie Indie polish from Femme Fatale Cosmetics.  I hope you enjoy.  ~Relle

Drowsy Sloth Paints Her Nails

I’ve had
a run on nail procrastination lately. Not so much the painting but
more the actual reviewing. I put it down to trying to play catch up
with my TAFE assessments (working on a Business Certificate) and
doing way too much sleeping (this hotter weather turns me into a
drowsy sloth). The good news is that I’ve managed to maintain
decent growth on my fingernails except for my thumb on my swatch hand
which was a casualty of war with a particularly stubborn cardboard
box on my last night fill shift. I guess the maintenance of growth
can be over the past few weeks can be attributed to my rather
fastidious application of my Essence Studio Nails Ultra Strong Nail
Hardener. For something so cheap it’s so very effective.

 

Star Crushed Lacquers Review :: Royal Blue Swatch

Because
I’m a bowerbird and go excessively Bogarty over blue, I decided it
was high time that I had a play with my Star Crushed Minerals Royal
Blue. The main reason for using it was as an undercoat for my
glittery blue Glinting Lodestone by Femme Fatale (which I believe
I’ve swatched and reviewed in the past – if my memory serves me
correctly).

 

 

While
the colour of Star Crushed Minerals’ polish was absolutely divine
it did take me 4 coats to reach opacity. There appeared to be some
settling of pigment and I had to give it a good stir with a toothpick
plus a decent shake to get consistency of colour. It might be due to
the fact that I’ve had it sitting for a while not doing anything
(thanks to my procrastination overload).  While that was a minor issue the end result of the colour is just beautiful.

Femme Fatale Cosmetics :: Glinting Lodestone

I put Femme Fatale Cosmetic’s Glinting Lodestone over the top of it ended up being pretty spectacular and lasted almost an entire week before chipping. I attribute the staying power to a combination of the polish and Star Crushed Minerals Top Coat which is very consistent with smoothing out glitters and preventing chips. I’m just a sad panda that I’m almost out of my trial bottle and the full sized one hasn’t come in yet 😦

Ruth

Shop links

Star Crushed Minerals

Femme Fatale Cosmetics

Rainbow Honey Swatch :: Apple Kid and Glittering Rapture via Femme Fatale Cosmetics

Rainbow Honey was one of the first brands I took notice of when I accidentally stumbled across the world of glittery indie polish.  I was looking for a unique Christmas present for a friend at the time, and RH made the short list of where to buy from.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t work out how to get the polishes to me in time from all the way across the pond, so I had to go with another option.

 

I’m happy to say that this is no longer a problem as Aussie stockist, Femme Fatale Cosmetics, has a big range of Rainbow Honey polishes, as well as a plethora of other brands available for purchase.  Femme Fatale have kindly provided me with Apple Kid and Glittering Rapture for review.

 

Apple Kid

 

Apple Kid is from the Summary of 199X Collection, and is one of 10 colours inspired by Earthbound, a 1995 SNES game.  It is a bright, almost dusky hot pink/rose creme with enough pink to goldish shimmer to make it almost opaque with one coat.  I applied two thin coats and found the formula and brush was great.  I received a mini bottle for this review, and as you can see from the first pictures in this post, Rainbow Honey uses a tall thin bottle for their mini.  I popped the bottle between my fingers so I wouldn’t knock it over while using it, as it felt a little unsecure just sitting on my desk.  I also noticed that the mixing ball bearing only easily moves from the base of the bottle up to the edge of the brush stem.  My bearing had stuck high up in the bottle between the glass and the brush, so I made sure to stir it with the brush a bit before shaking it.

With flash

Natural light

 

I really liked Apple Kid, and while it appears similar to my photos of Pretty Serious Cosmetics’ “The Pink One”, I assure you it is different.  Unfortunately, my camera suffers from the inability to properly capture slap you in the face pinks.

 

100% Kitteh approved

Glittering Rapture

Glittering Rapture is a super glitter bomb, containing generous amounts of various gold and red glitters and flakes.  GR was released as part of Rainbow Honey’s 2012 Holiday collection, although you wouldn’t know it was an Xmas polish because of the complex mix of glitters, and possibly the “special effect pigment” which Rainbow Honey lists in the description of this polish on their website.  This polish is definitely not just “another red and gold Xmas mix”.

With flash

With flash, but sadly without Seche Vite as I’ve run out

 

Using the previously applied Apple Kid as undies, I applied one thin coat of Glittering Rapture to three of my fingers, and two thick coats to my ring finger which turned out to be a good test for opacity!  On my thumb, I did a freehand (no sponge) glitter gradient.  Sparkly and versatile!

Natural Light

 

With flash, glitter gradient

For those of us with a limited polish budget, Femme Fatale is a godsend.  With one set of postage, you can buy polish many different indie brands (currently 26), and only pay one lot of postage!  FFC have recently started up international sales too, however they suggest it might be more beneficial for people doing “group buys” due to the fees charged by the international carrier.

xxxo Relle

Love Thy Polish Swatch :: Space Ghost Reloaded via Femme Fatale Cosmetics

If you haven’t heard of Femme Fatale Cosmetics, then you’ve probably been living under a rock, or hanging out with Thaddeus Bach somewhere in an alternate universe.  Operating out of Brisbane since 2011, Femme Fatale offer a huge range of unique handcrafted mineral cosmetics and awesome nail polish. Now, usually great pigments and nailpolish is exciting enough on it’s own, but earlier this year Femme Fatale expanded their business to become stockists of both Australian and International indie polish labels, and have recently started international shipping.

Femme Fatale have kindly given me the opportunity to review three polishes from their range, and today I bring you the gorgeous Space Ghost Reloaded by Aussie indie Love Thy Polish.

 

Space Ghost Reloaded is from the Animation Celebration collection which Love Thy Polish released in early July 2013. This white crelly/creme has a deliciously unique mix of different sized rainbow glitters. I wouldn’t say it’s a traditional rainbow as it is heavy on orange/red/pink tones, and doesn’t just stick to the standard primary/secondary colours.  This makes it a little unique in my opinion in the white/rainbow polish range, and has earned a place in my top 10.  I had actually ordered this polish a couple of days before the parcel from Femme Fatale arrived, so I already have a back up on it’s way!!

 

 

The white base is quite thin which lends well to multiple layers (and ghostly jellied glitter sandwiches).  I did three normal coats with no undies, and while this does leave a very faint VNL, it’s barely noticeable.  I did have to fish for the larger glitters, but I have a feeling that will get easier the further down into the bottle I get.

 

The Chief Polish Inspector came along as I was finishing up the shots for this, so I have to share the cute kitteh photobombing.

 

I am a HUGE Space Ghost Coast to Coast fan, and watched it religiously on Adult Swim, although my favourite character was Zorak not Space Ghost.  Zorak was a 7 foot tall giant mantis who referred to himself as The Lone Locust of the Apocalypse.  Zorak was grumpy and sarcastic, with a black sense of humour, which is no doubt why I love him so much.  As soon as I put this polish I started humming a song from one of the episodes and it hasn’t left me since.

 

 

I just had to show Zorak some love while wearing SG Reloaded, so I painted him with acrylic paint on my ring finger as a feature nail.

 

Love Thy Polish’s Space Ghost Reloaded is available from Femme Fatale for $10 for 12ml.

 

xxxo Relle

July Nails :: 10 Day Art Comp :: Pastel Galaxy Day 8

I promised today that I would share my favourite mani of the contest so far.  I say so far, because I still have one more mani to do and then it’s done.  I just had dinner however, so I’m letting that settle a bit before I start soaking with acetone.

Day 8 gave us the very broad “Nail Art” theme.  Oh no! Unlimited choice!  I find the best part about themed contests is that you at least have a starting point for what to do.  Some themes are technique based, some subject matter, but when faced with a wild card I tend to have too many ideas rush at me and it bottlenecks my creativity.

Not so this time, I’m glad to say.  I’ve been wanting to try a galaxy mani for a while now, but I always had some reason for not knuckling down and “gittin ‘er done”.  I also wanted to try and use some of my favourite Aussie Indie polishes in a different way.  Cue interstellar travel!

 

 

The colours I used were Face of Australia’s Cool Cotton as my white base, then I sponged on Femme Fatale’s Twilight Meteorite and Winter Hyacinth, Peita’s Polish LE Hello! I’m Trixie (from the June What’s In-Die Box), and Emily de Molly’s Golden Ratio (a fundraising polish) and Harmony (my first ever Indie polish!).

I tried to keep my mani “Aussie made” but I did have to suck it up and use an off-shore polish, Savina’s Neon Yellow, as the Aussie yellows I have were too dark.  I added a few more dots of FOA’s Cotton on and handpainted a large flared ‘star’ on my ring finger. After a few photos, I topped with Essie’s Matte About You and I think I may have drooled a little.

I really loved wearing this mani, and it was also a hit at work.  I also used off-cuts from a sponge I had used previously for a gradient so it was quite a low cost mani, once you take account of how little polish is actually used for colour.   If you haven’t tried galaxy nails yet – either normal or pastel – I suggest you give it a burl!  It’s easy, and you can just keep sponging colour on slowly until you are happy with it.  Have a booboo?  Sponge back over with your base to mask the booboo.  I’m having the incredibly strong urge to go steal a picanic basket right now.

xxxo Relle

Paint It Blue :: Guest Nails :: Femme Fatale Glinting Lodestone Swatch

What a mammoth month for blue nailpolish!  Facebook posts, blogs, instagram and twitter were lit up all month with blue shiny goodness.

The auctions for custom polishes is over, and $3,575 has been raised for Aspect Australia.  What a fantastic effort from the bidders, the custom polish makers, and Tara from Loki’s Lacquer who organised it all.

We have guest nails from Ruth (IG @Madvoice) who was my Blues Sister this month.  She’s normally quite a blue-ophile in any event but I think even she is burnt out this month.  But what a great reason – raising awareness of Autism, and encouraging people to take the time to understand more about it!

Ruth used Femme Fatale’s Glinting Lodestone over L’Oreal Magic Croisette.  Glinting Lodestone was one of the polishes that I selected for her when she threw money at me to buy her some mystery polishes.  When she gets around to using the other two, she will share them with us as well.

 

 

 

xxxo Relle

If you’re interested in showing your support for Paint it Blue, you can join the Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/PaintItBlue/ or simply tag your Instagram/Twitter posts with the hashtag #bluenailsforautism and #lightitupbluenails.

For more information about Autism, and Light It Up Blue, click on the links below:

http://www.autismspectrum.org.au/

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Femme Fatale Swatch :: Winter Hyacinth

I recently got my hands on some gorgeous Femme Fatale polishes.  A friend threw some money at me to buy her some miscellaneous polishes as well, which she’ll review for us in due course.

My first instalment is Winter Hyacinth.  I fell in love with this polish quite a few months ago after seeing it on It’s All About The Polish.  It’s been on my wishlist ever since, and I am so happy to have it now.

This applied like a dream, all pictures are two coats then topcoat.  It has a creamy turquoise base with different pink and white glitters, and a whole lot of awesome.  I had OPI liquid sand Can’t Let Go as a feature nail (leftovers from the previous mani).  I then wore it the next day with topcoat over the OPI, then the next day I snuck another Femme Fatale polish, Twighlight Meteorite

 

 

 

 Winter Hyacinth has become one of my all time favourite polishes!!

xxxo Relle