Greetings lovelies!
I'm thrilled to finally be able to present my contribution for piCture pOlish's Blog/ Insta Fest 2014!
Like last year, I heeded the call to participate in this annual event. If you're curious, my mani for last year can be found here. This year, it includes Instagramers as well, so I'm predicting a massive buzz.
For the uninitiated, piCture pOlish is a Australian boutique nail polish brand founded and helmed by 2 Australian girls that produces fast forward colours, unique finishes and durable-wear polishes. Their polishes are 3-Free, and moving on to 5-Free, and are formulated and made in Australia.
This year's 'project' comes in 2 parts; a swatch and review of one of their newest shades launched yesterday, and a nail art project using (for the first time) Nail Vinyls, something they've newly stocked.
But first, allow me to fawn over the bag that everything came in:
Love the hot-stamped baroque print!
Part One: Swatch & Review
EYRE is a metallic blue scatter chrome holo and dries smooth on the nail (contains no glitter). Inspired by a favorite novelist. 5-Free. It is a re-make of the now-discontinued OZOTIC 914, in an 11ml/ 0.37fl.oz size.
Here's 2 coats of Eyre without topcoat:
And with 1 coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl topcoat:
And in a rare ocassion, a shot in the sun:
A Close-up shot:
The formula was good, even though it required 2 coats to get an even finish. The generous amount of holographic particles and flecks give a noticeable scattered holo effect, even without being under sunlight. The description given did say "chrome", so no duochrome effect here but a blackened blurple at the sides of the nails under shadowed lighting.
So how does it compare with the original OZOTIC 914?
Here's a bottle shot comparison:
...and swatch comparison, 2 coats of each shade each, with topcoat:
They are really very, very close, so unless one nitpicks, the differences aren't noticeable.
In the bottles, Eyre seem to have slightly more holo particles than OZOTIC 914. On the nails, OZOTIC seem to be richer in colour, with more blackened blue sides. Formula-wise, they both applied really well, but OZOTIC's consistency was thinner. It was not sheer, streaky or difficult to work with, just thinner.
Now on to the next part...
Part Two: piCture pOlish + Nail Vinyl Nail Art
Nail Vinyls is a one-woman home-based operation from North Carolina, USA. All vinyl stickers are homemade and packed by hand. piCture pOlish is now a proud stockist of Nail Vinyls, a perfect complement to their nail polishes.
Here's what I received in my pack to work with for this project:
The Nail Vinyls: Right Angles
The nail vinyls I received are Right Angles in a 224 count pack. They comes in 4 thickness, which is great to experiment various design ideas.
The basic FAQs are addressed on Nail Vinyls' online store, along with some useful tips on getting successful results with your manicure.
The Polishes
Swagger: A beautiful blue shade, Swagger is a 5-Free milky creme and dries smooth on the nail. It is part of the Bright/ Urban shades.
Mad Magenta: A totally mad and crazy magenta, it is a 5-Free classic creme and dries smooth on the nail. It is part of the Bright shades.
Both in 11ml/ 0.37 fl.oz bottles
The Creation
Using all 4 sizes of vinyls, here's my mani:
I was playing around with multiple vinyls, and one of the trial arrangements reminded me of spider's legs. And the idea morphed into this mani, which has the feel of an 80's arcade game baddie. So, I'm calling this one a gamer mani!
Briefly, here's how I created it:
For easier reference, the sizes are labeled as above.
Tools required:
♥ Sharp tip tweezers
♥ Tiny pair of scissors
1 Cut off the length of one side of each size x 4pcs of vinyl close to the angled corner. Do the same to another 4, but in mirror image.
2 Paint nails with base color. In this case, it was 1 coat of piCture pOlish Mad Magenta (hooray for one-coater!). Wait till completely dry, or use a fast drying topcoat to speed up the process. I used HK Girl topcoat, and waited for 20 - 25mins (just in case).
3 Place the vinyls as below:
4 Paint the inside of the small triangle (only) on the middle and ring fingers. Using a tweezer, remove size 3 vinyl immediately after painting each nail. Do not remove the top vinyl (size 4).
5 Paint the top half of the vinyl and remove immediately.
6 Paint the entire nail of the index finger and remove the vinyls one at a time, carefully and immediately, without waiting for the polish to dry.
7 Apply top coat and voilà!
The nail vinyls were pretty fuss-free, unlike some stripping and sticky tapes I've used. The adhesive was not too sticky to the touch, yet stayed secure on the base polish, even after removing a couple of times to get the position right. They cannot be reused after they've been polished over, though, but it's quite alright. There are lots of pieces on the sheets for 6 - 9 manis, depending on the design of your mani.
Nail Vinyls ship internationally and can be found on the following platforms for more information:
♥ Store - http://www.nailvinyls.com
♥ Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/nailvinyls
♥ Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/teismom
piCture pOlish will be retailing a special exclusive 4-pack 'Nail Vinyls' containing all the vinyls (Chverons, Mini Chevrons, Straight and Right Angles) used by all the participants of Blog/ Insta Fest this year.
To purchase, get more information or updates from piCture pOlish, please follow these links:
♥ Store - http://www.picturepolish.com.au
♥ Every Day Deal - http://www.picturepolish.com.au/everyday-deal
♥ International Stockists - http://www.picturepolish.com.au/network
♥ Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/picturepolish
♥ Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/picturepolish
Have a great start to the week, folks!
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥To Leave a Comment: I've noted that OnSugar's Comment feature has caused a few readers frustration by not accepting their input. While OnSugar works on rectifying it, I did a trial and error and found that comments don't get red-taped if you enter your information in the "Name" field without any space, ie. "ALacqueredAffair" instead of "A Lacquered Affair". I hope this works. As much as I want to, OnSugar doesn't allow the disabling of Captcha.
Disclaimer: The products (except OZOTIC 914) were sent for the purpose of this blog post. However, all opinions expressed are my own, and will always be.
