Polish or Perish

Illamasqua Rampage (Jelly Sandwich)

2013-05-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll! Long time.

I haven't been painting my nails much this year (I'm adjusting to my new job, I moved, I got diagnosed with a fairly serious auto-immune disease), but I'm still keeping up with my favorite nail blogs! I'm going on vacation today to South America! Toot toot! I took yesterday off too, so with my extra time I did my nails for funsies. I'll remove the mani before I get on the flight (I'm a big believer in not doing my nails on extended vacations, I'll bring a nail file and some moisturizer and that's it) but it's been a nice 24 hours with this manicure.

(3 coats - 1 coat Rampage, 1 coat AtU Lippmann, 1 coat Rampage)

This is about as glittery and loud as I can imagine myself getting these days. The murky glitter (I love the way it glints below the surface) is a little less visible in person.

Both Rampage and Across the Universe are mega-classics, so I'm sure you guys know the formula on both are lovely for a jelly and glitter respectively.

Purple Use-Up-the-Polish mani number 1

2013-05-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

During my Helmer clean out, I discovered that I have an obscene amount of purple polishes I haven't even tried. Obviously, this needed rectifying, so here's the first of my half/half manis where I jam two purple polishes together and try to make them work in a manicure.

First is Gloss 'n Sparkle Purpetual Darkness paired with OPI DS Original (two coats layered over Models Prefer Beam Me Up). DS Original is the most linear holo I own, but it's really sheer. I really liked this mani - it was interesting enough to last me a couple of days, but not too exciting that they'd become a conversation starter. For some reason I hate when talk centres around my nails, it makes me feel really awkward! Do other nail addicts have this problem?

WINNERS!!!

2013-05-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

And the 3 winners are picked!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'll be emailing y'all soon with the codes! Thank you for participating if you did, and I'll be holding more giveaways soon! It's quite fun, actually :)

I'm a 3L NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YA!!

<3 minnie

GIVEAWAY REMINDER!!

2013-05-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!! Sorry for lack of posts, it's been really rough with finals :( But! Today is the last day to enter in my giveaway!!

GIVEAWAY!!!

I'll be announcing the winners on Thursday! Good luck!!!

<3 minnie

Coco Allure: Jupiter Aurora

2013-05-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

I remember when duochromes first became popular -- Nubar had a number of them out, and I found them intriguing. They don't capture my interest as much as glitter does, so to have the combination of the two is pretty darn awesome.

Coco Allure: Jupiter Aurora is a multichrome glitter topcoat. It shifts from green, to teal, then purple, with some burgundy and hints of copper. I tried to get fancy with striping tape but it may have backfired a little bit. I should have done it the opposite way -- black with the glitter star.

This glitter topcoat is super dense, this really is one coat over black. Gorgeous and I definitely was not bored with it while I wore it.

Coco Allure can be found on their Facebook page here and their Etsy here :)

Don't forget to like our Facebook page and enter in my giveaway for Llarowe GCs!

Loki's Lacquer Omicron Persei 8

2013-04-29T07:00:00.001-07:00

A quick one today: I recently came across this swatch of Loki's Lacquer Omicron Persei 8 again in my files, which I originally posted in my swatchathon of the Futurama collection from Loki's Lacquer. It's probably my favourite swatch of the whole collection, even though the polish in the bottle didn't wow me - but over black, it's a stunner!

Unfortunately Loki's Lacquer isn't widely available outside of Australia, but you can ask nicely and see if there's any way of getting it to you on their Etsy store here.

Zoya: Kennedy + Darling Diva Polish: Sakura

2013-04-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

As is obvious, I love glitter. The world of glitter for nail polish has exploded since the indie scene popped up and flourished and I'm pretty excited that different shapes of glitter are now becoming more prevalent. Square, circle, flower shaped, etc. Darling Diva Polish: Sakura involves each of these shapes in a super cute springtime glitter topcoat.

mattified!

Sakura is a glitter topcoat made up of spring green circle, square and hex glitters, pink circle glitters, hot pink circle glitters, translucent white square glitter, iridescent glitters of various sizes, and pink flower shaped glitter. This is two coats of Darling Diva Polish: Sakura over 2 coats of Zoya: Kennedy. The glitter applied pretty well, I didn't have to fish at all for the flower shaped glitter. Formula was actually really great!

You can find Darling Diva Polish on their Facebook here, Etsy here (on vacation until May 3rd), and on Llarowe!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and to enter in my giveaway for Llarowe gift certificates!

Pretty Serious Mummy Mush

2013-04-24T05:30:00.000-07:00

Another Pretty Serious polish from the Monster Mash Halloween collection today! This is Mummy Mush - a gold chunky shimmer with a greenish blue multichrome glow that really comes out over dark colours. Over the bare nail, like in my 3 coat swatch, it's warm-toned. Given my fear of shiny shiny nails, I won't be wearing this one on its own very often, but I'll be using this in gradients and layering combos!

You can buy Pretty Serious here, and they ship worldwide, so hide your wallets now!

Nails Inc.: Baker St. + Max Factor: Fantasy Fire

2013-04-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

I visited Los Angeles for a few days over spring break and I had a little bit of a hard time trying to figure out a manicure to wear... but then saw this NOTD and felt inspired and so even though it wasn't super glittery, it amused me, especially with the constant sun in California.

I had a hard time capturing the color shift, though. For those that don't know, Max Factor: Fantasy Fire is a weak dupe to Clarins 230 and the other color shifting polishes that are out there nowadays. I do have Clarins 230 but wanted to try out Fantasy Fire, and it was gorgeous. Definitely one of those polishes where you can just... play with your manicure endlessly!

I've had Baker St. forever and it's a gorgeous color -- I need the patience to wear it on its own! Soon...

And I just realized this is a very UK-ish manicure, as both of these polish lines are based in the UK, haha.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and to enter in my giveaway for Llarowe gift certificates!

Nubar Boyfriend Jeans

2013-04-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've been having a love affair with cremes, particularly neutral cremes (yay autumn!) - this is Nubar Boyfriend Jeans, which isn't a neutral, but a muted shade, which hits almost the same spot for me. It's quite work-safe in my opinion, while still being a bit edgy and, dare I say, fashionable. 2 coats, no top coat.

Annoyingly, this isn't great colour accuracy-wise - in person it's a fair bit more greyish, but the lighting was terrible for this swatch!

Elevation Polish: Jengish Chokusu + Hare Polish: Dauphine of Decadence

2013-04-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've said it often but turquoise is one of my favorite nail polish colors. Whenever I see a "what should I wear with this outfit?" post on whichever message board, I always want to suggest something like China Glaze: For Audrey. It's such a pretty and classy color, yet different.

Elevation Polish Jengish Chokusu is a green leaning sea glass creme. It's gorgeous on its own but me being the glitter lover that I am, layered Hare Polish: Dauphine of Decadence over the top. I actually saw Kristi at Happy Hands do this combination in an NOTD of hers and I copied it because they went so well together :)

Hare Polish Dauphine of Decadence is mixture of gold glitter in several sizes of hex & square glitter, with a sprinkling of pale mint green hexes and gold shimmer. This is a complex glitter, as are most of Hare Polish's creations :)

One can find Elevation Polish on her site here and her shop here.
Hare Polish: Facebook // Etsy // Website (with other retailers)

Also remember to enter in my Giveaway here and like our Facebook page here!

Giveaway Reminder!

2013-04-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

I did an oops! I meant to schedule a post for tomorrow for a reminder post of my Giveaway, but I'll just edit it and publish it now. :P

Remember I'm holding a giveaway for 3 $25 gift certificates for Llarowe!

Click here for Minnie's Giveaway

Also, remember to do the additional entries by following us on Facebook and the like!

Please share the giveaway and the Facebook page, I may decide to add an additional winner if we reach a high number of likes on the Facebook page! Thanks!

Sephora by OPI Happy Earth Day to Me

2013-04-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

Sephora by OPI Happy Earth Day to Me

A truly swampy yet kind of shimmeringly alive greenish-brown with gold highlights. Above is three coats; it could've used a fourth.

And because I just wanted to try the SOPI Blasted Glitters already... another ugly mani:

Sephora by OPI Blasted Turquoise Glitter over Happy Earth Day to Me

No, I did not wear this long. The SOPI Blasted series of glitters were just weird. I can see a slight crackle effect but mostly, it looks like unevenly distributed glitter.

Pink and monochrome glitter gradient

2013-04-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

This is a gradient that I recently did to get the neon out of my system before autumn set in here in Australia. I do a lot of metallic glitter gradients, but I've never done one with black and white - I really like the result! (I posted a tutorial a little while ago on my blog, on how to achieve this effect with a cotton bud, without too much of the clear glitter base making the tip of the mani fat.)

The black and white glitter is Peita's Polish Zebration. Coral is my favourite neon shade - I recently swatched my collection and found 12 very similar coral cremes, out of just under 500 in the total collection, which I think is a bit ridiculous! I used Face of Australia Show Off here, and it's possibly the most neon out of the corals (not as neon as some of my neon pinks though).

I always find corals really difficult to photograph, so this isn't entirely colour-accurate. But the formula of this was great, lovely and smooth. I love a good creme formula!

1st Blogaversary! Minnie's Giveaway :)

2013-04-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

Giveaway! To celebrate my 1st year at Polish or Perish and to show my appreciation :) Keeping in mind that I am but a student, the prizes aren't very imaginative, but this is the kind of gift I love the most (where I can personally pick, I love gift cards!) so it goes along with what I'd like either way! First, though, a small announcement:

Polish or Perish now has a Facebook page! Please join us in liking the page!

And now the prizes... there are 3 prizes! Instead of doing one grand prize, I decided to go for 3 equal prizes of $25 from Llarowe. Since Llarowe ships internationally and this is in gift certificate form, this is open both domestically and internationally. I may add more later on, so keep tuned!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

End date to enter the giveaway will be May 16, the last day of my finals, and I will post winners on May 17!

Thank you for your support this past year and I hope to continue for many more :)

<3 minnie

Pahlish: April Showers Duo :)

2013-04-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

Today I have this duo set from Pahlish to show y'all, named the April Showers Duo. It consists of 2 polishes: Through Still and Storm, a creme with shimmer and Ocean Gone Wrong, a glitter topcoat. This duo is a limited edition set that is the first in a series of monthly LE Pahlishes. The color scheme of this duo is right up my alley and I hope my pictures do these polishes justice!


This is Ocean Gone Wrong solo, 1 coat, 2 coats, 3 coats and 4.

Ocean Gone Wrong consists of a mixture of circle, square, and hex blue glitters with some silver/gunmetal hex glitters and a pink shimmer. I love that this has circle glitters in it! As you can see the coverage is sparse and can't quite reach full opacity, but I think the glitters shine better with one coat.

Through Still and Storm

Through Still and Storm is the creme of this duo set. It's a slate blue color with specks of black with a blue shimmer. This is two coats. The consistency was a little bit odd, but two coats of it evened out beautifully.


Ocean Gone Wrong over Through Still and Storm. 1 coat on each finger with 2 coats of Ocean Gone Wrong on the ring finger.

They layer together awesomely! Can't quite see the glitter because of the shininess, but I mattified it and you can see it better:

I personally think it's super gorgeous mattified and you can see all the separate glitters. I love the mixture.

And here's a solo finger macro shot of Ocean Gone Wrong over black:

You can definitely see the pink shimmer, along with the actual glitters.

This Pahlish April Showers Duo goes on sale April 12 at 7 PM CST and can be found on her Etsy here. If you'd like more updates about her other releases, follow her on Facebook here :)

Pretty Serious Poltergeist Puddle

2013-04-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

Pretty Serious are one of my favourite boutique brands - their polishes aren't the standard chunky indie glitterbomb fare, but refined shades with excellent formulas, and the packaging is gorgeous. I've posted some of my favourites here before. Poltergeist Puddle is a new favourite that I've recently tried out from the Monster Mash Halloween collection (I posted the first one, Gargoyle Ganache, here).

It's a cool purple dense shimmer, with pink and blue sparks. I love how vivid this is! One of my top three PS polishes. This was 2 coats on its own.

This collection comes in adorable holographic green themed boxes, and are available along with all the other Pretty Serious products here (with worldwide shipping!). Customer service is awesome, and there are also eyeshadows and lip glosses available (though discontinued) - I recently picked up three eyeshadows, and they're amazing!

Sephora+Pantone Tangerine Tango

2013-04-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

Sephora+Pantone Tangerine Tango

Looks more orange in bottle than on the nail: it dries into an orange-y red. Three coats, very smooth application. I think this was last year's...? (Man, grad school has a way of making you lose track of time.)

Purple/gold gradient

2013-04-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've always done gradients with two cremes, so I decided to mix it up a bit recently and tried a gradient with a creme (OPI Vant to Bite My Neck?) and a foily metallic gold (Hello Darling likeomg).

I really loved this on my nails, and I'm definitely going to try it out more often! I usually hate how foils look on my fingers, but this was spectacular, and my right hand looked awesome, so this is going to be my foil-wearing design of choice.

How do you wear polishes you don't "do"?

World Autism Day nails: Happy Hands I Just Blue Myself

2013-04-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

World Autism Day was yesterday, but I still wanted to share my NOTD -- these were my nails to commemorate :)

I bought this polish a while ago, right when it was being discontinued (sad, right?) because I loved how vibrant it looked. And it's super vibrant. It's blue hexes and squares with a smattering of purple hexes in a blue tinted base. I layered it over a dark blue jelly, although it'd probably have the same effect over black.

This took about 1 regular coat then 2 coats using the dabbing method. I love it, it's super shiny and eye catching.

On the subject of blue, it's bluebonnet season in Texas :) I went last weekend with a couple of friends to try and take some pictures. It was overcast and it's not quite peak in the season yet but I got a couple of good pictures :)

They're so pretty! Especially gorgeous when you see the field as a whole while you're driving down freeways.

One can find Happy Hands at their Facebook here and their Etsy here!

Butter London The Black Knight

2013-04-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

Butter London The Black Knight

I was SO excited for this polish. I don't know what exactly disappointed me about it. It just was somehow less sparkly, less alive than I thought it'd be. Kept on applying coats, trying to make it more awesome. (I think I stopped at four. What? It works with other glitters...) Purple blue and silver glitter in a black base. Slightly gritty. Eats topcoat like a glitter.

piCture pOlish Paradise

2013-03-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

(In case you haven't already seen via Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, I submitted my thesis last week, hurray! :D Now I get to play the waiting-for-examiners game...also the looking-for-a-job game. Oo-er.)

Today I have swatches of one of piCture pOlish's latest blogger collaboration shades, Paradise by Liquid Jelly. In the bottle it's a gorgeous shimmery mix of purple and teal with orange tinged holo glitter in a blue jelly base.

On my nails I find it a little too shiny - as you might know, I'm not too keen on blingy metallic glitters or foils, and this is squarely in both categories. But I know I'm in the minority!

These swatches are one thick coat over W7 Envy, a teal shimmer. Coverage is excellent, and the base colour barely shows through at all, although being jelly based, you'll need more coats to deal with visible nail line.

I love seeing blogger collaboration shades - they're always something a little different! What do you think of them?

Pahlish: Big Red Lobster Man

2013-03-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

I don't wear orange too often, but I like it as a color. Orange glitters are rare, too, which is why I felt compelled to purchase this one from Pahlish when I saw it. I layered over Essie: Vermillionaire.

I really like the combination of glitters over the orange. It's copper, orange and hot orange hex glitters with random yellow square glitter and iridescent square glitters. I wore this when it was cooler out, but it definitely brought a summer vibe to my nails!

One can find Pahlish at her Facebook here, her Etsy here and also on Llarowe :)

Bourjois Tangerine Fatal

2013-03-27T07:50:00.000-07:00

Bourjois Tangerine Fatal

It's not quite a tangerine color. More like a peach. And it occupies that space between jelly and creme, where the glossiness makes it looks squishier than usual. Four coats.

Pahlish: Lonesome Ocean

2013-03-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

I was in the mood for a dark polish, but not black, but not totally dark. In comes Pahlish: Lonesome Ocean.

A dark navy jelly with orange, hot pink, and aqua glitters in varying shapes and sizes. Don't you love this combination?

I layered it over Borghese: Mezzanotte Blue, a dark navy jelly but you can wear it on its own to opacity. The glitter came out evenly and gorgeously :)

One can find Pahlish at her Facebook here, her Etsy here and also on Llarowe :)