First up is Spring Fling.  This is a peachy cream that almost blends with your skin colour, but then you look at it again and it looks like it clashes with your skin.  This is two coats, which applied beautifully and dried fast.








Bottle green

Earth - This was three coats and it had a streaky finish. It's a purply brown shimmer. I had a bit of trouble applying this one cleanly, but that might just be a reflection of my painting skills, not the polish.

I went a little crazy on the weekend doing new swatches of my Ulta3 collection, which is now up to 59 polishes.

Here are the three reds I have.

Just a quick one, because I forgot to post yesterday.

This was China Glaze - It's my turn from my last post, stamped with Ulta3 Chocolate Cake using plate m63.

All these polishes are super fast to dry, which is good, because they all needed at least three coats.  The holo particles in these are much chunkier than the ones in the OMG collection, but they still apply absolutely smooth on the nail.  They also lasted a bit better on my nails than the OMG ones, but still not very long.  But when the polish is this spectacular, it just doesn't matter.

Here are the stamping steps.

Here we have OPI DS Original stamped with Konad special polish in black.

This design uses image plate m73, which has four full nail designs and a heart tip design.  I then painted the plate with Konad special black polish and used the konad scraper.  Then roll the stamp onto the plate, then roll it onto your nail.

My favourite aussie nail polish brand has to be Ulta3. They're easy to find (your local chemist will usually stock them), they have a great range of colours and they are cheap, only $2. Unlike you US gals, we don't get many cheap polishes. I only know of Ulta3 that is $2. I have bought some Totally Beautiful Nail for $2.50 and Satin for $2.50, but I have never seen a big range of colours for them.

The problem with Ulta3 polishes is that it's almost impossible to find out what colours look like online. That's why I'm swatching my Ulta3's.

First up is 'Burgundy', which is a deep burgundy jelly. This was two coats, but the streakiness in the sun shows me I should have done three. Had a glossy finish, the swatch has no top coat.


Next is 'spring shower' which is a pretty pale blue. It dried quickly and took two coats to be opaque. Had a shiny finish, the swatch has no top coat.


'Spring blossom' is a lemon cream. Like other Ulta3's it dried quickly. I had some trouble with application with this one, where I would get bald spots when applying other coats, but it all smoothed out in the end. This is three coats, and it needed it. No top coat.


'Citrus' actually say's nyc brand, but its the same as the Ulta 3 and can be found in the same Ulta 3 bins at the chemist. This is a fluro yellow, or neon. Like most neons, it dries matte, so this swatch has one coat of Seche Vite. I don't own any other brand yellow neon to compare it to, although I would love to try Essie Funky Limelight, but to me this was pretty bright.


'Honolulu' is another yellow cream. This was three coats and you can still see visible nail line (which I hate). This colour was weird, I think it made me look ill. It also seemed to dry a little slower than other Ulta3s.


'Wild berry' doesn't seem berry to me at all. It's more of a dark grey with a slight red tinge. It had a shiny finish and was very quick to dry. This was two coats, no top coat.


'Spring break' is a really bright purple jelly. In sunlight it is very bright, indoors it's much darker. It dries matte. This was two coats with one Seche Vite top. It probably needs three coats so it doesn't look streaky in sunlight.


'Hot spring' is a nice deep bright pink. It was opaque in one coat, but I did two. Dried glossy, so this has no top coat.


'Hollywood' is a bright metallic blue. One of my favourites in the range. This was two coats and it wasn't streaky or anything. Dried glossy, so no top coat here.

OK, everyone has to start somewhere. So be nice!

I did this manicure for Australia Day back in January. My first ever attempt at nail art. It's uneven, chunky, wobbly and poorly finished. I did it free hand using some nail art pens I was given about ten years ago.

Mind you, I did get heaps of comments on my nails, so that made me feel happy.



Of course, it was a few days after Australia Day that I came across the Daily Nail blog, and saw her awesome Australian flags. She posted on 23 Jan. and it wasn't even cause of Aussie day, just a coincidence.

So I have been reading all these great other nail polish blogs and you guys got me hooked. Which blogs am I talking about, well... it all started with The poilsh addict, which linked me to Scrangie, which I think is the best nail polish blog ever. Then I got into Konaddict, Nihrida, Dr Frankenpolish, The manicured manatee and the nailphile.

So I had always been into nail polish and had a small box with maybe 30 polishes. After reading these blogs I went shopping. Three months later I have more than 200 and my husband thinks I've gone mad!

Now other ladies in Australia would know, we just don't have access to all the great polishes available in the US and UK. I'm in Canberra, and its almost impossible to get even the big brand names found overseas. I'm talking OPI and China Glaze here. Sure you can get OPI in David Jones but you will have to fork out $20 a bottle. And I haven't found anywhere in Canberra that has much of the China Glaze range, only a few bottles at the nail salons in the malls.

So ebay became my friend and I went a little polish crazy. The local chemists also see me as a regular rummaging through the Ulta3 bins searching for new colours of my favourite el cheapo brand.

So here I will start sharing my swatches. If anyone is out there, I hope you enjoy!