Chanel Paradoxal vs Ulta3 Twilight Fever

Hey everyone! Hope you are having a great week! I have been ridiculously busy at work the past three days trying to tie up lose ends before I start my new job and before I go to Hong Kong on the weekend. Only two more days and I'm out of here!!

The other day after work I quickly popped into the chemist near my office to rummage through the Ulta3 bin to see if I could find any cheap gems. I instantly spotted a dark taupe colour with purple shimmer and thought it looked really familiar! Had I just found an almost exact dupe of Chanel's Paradoxal!?! To me, the base colour of Twilight Fever looked more brown/less purple than Paradoxal's base colour, so I wasn't convinced it was an actual dupe....

But here are the pics of the two together on my nails and if you can see the difference, you have better eyes than me! I honestly could not tell the difference and in fact, I got confused after a while about which brand was on each nail! I have taken photos in multiple lighting conditions to show that it isn't just the lighting that makes them seem identical!

Left to Right: Twilight Fever, Paradoxal, Twilight Fever, Paradoxal

So what do you guys think? Even if there is a slight difference, for $2.25AUD (compared to $39AUD!) it's a bargain dupe! I would suggest all my Aussie readers get their butts down to their local chemist and grab three or four bottles!

Borghese Stellar Notte

Today I have some swatches of Borghese Stellar Notte which I received from the lovely Carli aka Konad-licious in a recent swap.

I hate swatching a nail polish when my nails aren't perfect (according to my standards anyway!) but I hate not posting on here even more! So, on to the swatches!

Stellar Notte is a really complex and unique polish. It's a little hard to describe as well! The base is definitely blue/green and it is packed with purple, green and blue shimmer. 

Of course, such a complex colour was a total PITA to photograph! So I have included a stack of photos in different lighting to give you an idea of how gorgeous it is!

Check out the pics after the jump!

NARS Pokerface

I'M BACKKKK! 

Hey everyone! I'm finally back to blogging after a very hectic couple of weeks! My sister's wedding was last Sunday and it was beautiful! I can't believe my little sister is a married woman now! She looked absolutely stunning, and despite some mega bridezilla moments on her behalf, the day went really smoothly! I don't have any photos yet, but as soon as I do, I'll put a couple up.... :)

I was so busy with wedding preparations and then spending time with family after the wedding that I barely changed my nail polish. I wore OPI's Dulce de Leche with a coat of Coney Island Cotton Candy for the wedding and kept that on until yesterday! The horror! :P

Today, however, I am wearing Pokerface which is one of the colours released with NARS' Holiday 2010 collection.

Pokerface is a medium lilac with silvery lilac shimmer. Application was a little difficult. I found it to be on the thicker side and so it went on a little gluggy, but a second coat and then one coat of Poshe seemed to smooth it out fairly well.

Pokerface isn't particularly unique, but the shimmer gives it a little special something. It's a really feminine lilac and I personally love the way it looks on me.

In other news, my Rescue Beauty Lounge Giveaway has now closed. I will be drawing the winner for that as well as my Lippmann Giveaway tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who entered! x

Zoya Flame

Hi all! Sorry for the lack of posts over the weekend. I've had a lot going on, but I won't bore you with the details! I also realise I haven't posted the winner of my 50 Follower Giveaway yet! I'm sorry guys! I promise I will do that in the next day or two :D

Today I have some more colours from the Zoya Flame collection. All were three coaters, except for Valerie which only needed two coats. Despite the need for the extra coats, all these polishes applied really well.

Gloria - Rosy pink with gold, pink and red shimmer. Not a colour I would usually go for, but I did like the way this looked on my nails. Some people have suggested this is a dupe for MAC's Bad Fairy. I gifted my bottle of Bad Fairy to Jacie at You've Got Nail, so I can't compare the two, but from what I can remember, Bad Fairy had a far more distinct duochrome effect that Gloria. Gloria has a metallic/shimmery finish. So I'd say they aren't dupes...

Valerie - Dark purple with pink, red and gold sparkle. This one has a distinct duochrome effect in the bottle, but it is lost a little on the nail. However, that doesn't make this polish any less spectacular. This is definitely my favourite from the collection!

Tiffany - Pink/peach with golden foil flakes. This colour is spectacular in the bottle, but a total fail with my skin colour - it looked really dated... Like something my grandmother would wear... :P

And to round off the post, I included another photo of Crystal....  Second time wearing Crystal and I still don't love this polish! haha!

I think I will probably give Crystal, Gloria and Tiffany away in a swap or should I do another giveaway?! Or should I keep them? What do you think? x

Eyeko - Rain Polish (And a swap with Konad-licious!)

Last week I organised to do a swap with the lovely Carli from Konad-licious for three of the new Eyeko polishes that I had been lemming for ages! I was so stoked simply about the fact that she was sending them to me! So, you can imagine how excited I was when I opened the box and found not only the three Eyekos, but all these other amazing goodies as well!!!!

There are so many gorgeous polishes I wanted to try (Milani holo! *drool*) but I was instantly drawn to Eyeko's Rain Polish, so that is what I'm wearing now.

Rain Polish is a light blue grey creme with a subtle shimmer. The shimmer almost disappears on the nail but it provides just enough dimension to the polish that you don't feel like it is just another flat creme. 

Application was a dream. Two thins coats was plenty and it dried in a flash! Not a bad word to be said about this polish!

You may have also noticed that I shortened my nails and changed the shape. I wasn't feeling the super square look anymore, so I went with the trusty squoval shape. What do you think?

Hope you are all having a fab day! Be sure to check out Konad-licious!  x

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Housewives of Tudor England

Hey everyone! Yesterday I finished my exams! After we were done, my friends and I went to a local bar and ended up staying there a little too long.... :( So I was like a bear with a sore head today! Even though I wasn't feeling 100%, it was sooooo good to be able to spend the day resting and watching TV instead of studying!

Today I have the most recent collection from Rescue Beauty Lounge, Housewives of Tudor England. The collection consists of four colours named after some of the wives of King Henry VIII. 

Check out swatches after the jump! 

Milani - Dress Maker

So my Models Own order didn't show up.... *stomps around like a 5 year old*  Hopefully it shows up soon! I'm starting to get worried it will never arrive :( Its ok though, because I have been meaning to try Milani Dress Maker which I got over a month ago now. 

Check out the swatches after the jump!

Butter London - Fash Pack

I walked into the newsagent near my work this morning and saw a stack of Harpers Bazaar magazines with little bottles of polish attached to them. Initially, I was like "meh, its probably going to be some crappy brand and some even crappier colour".... Magazines giveaways are always sh** in my opinion, so I wasn't expecting much...  And then I saw a flash of taupey goodness staring back at me with a shiny black lid..... And I realised at that moment, it was none other than Butter London's Fash Pack... 

This polish has constantly eluded me. I saw it on some blog that I can't even remember the name of, about what feels like 200 years ago, and knew it had to be mine.  I tried to order it from Lehved here in Australia, tried to find it online, even resorted to evilBay, but it was always sold out, or overpriced or shipping was outrageous. So I really don't know how to explain how content I feel having this polish in my Helmer now.... :p

Fash Pack is like China Glaze Ingrid's meeker, more taupe little sister. It definitely leans brown and has a fine gold shimmer in it, which is more apparent in the bottle than on the nail. However, it isn't nearly as dark or as brown as Ingrid. As a result, I found it to be much more wearable than Ingrid. 

Application was a little streaky on the first coat but it evened out perfectly with the second coat. I used a quick coat of Seche QD and voilà!

Diffused Lighting
 

With Flash
 

Hope you are all having a great night! Don't forget to enter my BYS Giveaway, and we are almost half way there for my 50 Follower Giveaway! x