Four Month's Worth of Hauls

My nails and cuticles are in no shape to meet anyone so I'm going to share my recent hauls with you while I try to get them back in order. This seems pretty little for four months but that's what happen when work takes over! :(

As always, I'm starting with the indies. Every time I think I've gotten enough, more just seem to spring out and I can never resist them!



Loving the KBShimmer Spring polishes I got! I swatched them here. As for Bank Geek and Bejeweled, they will have to wait!



This next brand is becoming one of my favourite indie brands. I started taking notice of Hare Polish on tumblr quite a while back and I fell in love with the first few olours ever made - A Positive and Bisbee and I am so glad the brand is more accessible now! I'm still eyeing a couple of the older shades like Archipalego and Tropic of Cancer so I'm sitting tight and hoping they get re-released!





Now for the Australian indies...I swear everytime I see new pictures of the new creations made, my heart flutters and my wallet cries.



HOLO HOLO HOLO! Thee new holo shades from Emily de Molly are stunning!



These are the last of my Lynnderella haul (for now). I've got to start saving for my next haul because damn, they're expensive.



Moving on to the more mainstream brands, I got a friend to CP Lady Sings The Blues for me from BeautyAsia and I bought Ray of Light from the lovely Annette of Shoppe Eclecticco when she did some unearthing and found a spare bottle in her stash.



Here are the China Glazes I purchase recently. Ever since the indie craze, I haven't really bought much mainstream brands but these few still managed to capture my attention. I also got the three Zoyas from BeautyAsia.



Yes yes, I hauled the entires China Glaze Hologlam collection. I had to. I am a holo hoarder so this was such a no brainer. Swatches of the collection as well as comparisons can be found here and here.



I also couldn't resist the Color Club Halo Hues 2013. Seeing how amazing the 2012 ones were, I had to get the six new shades to complete the Halo Hues family!



That's it for my haul! I guess working does not have its perks for my wallet! :)

Cirque Ophelia Jelly Sandwich Gradient

I grabbed three Cirque polishes when Mei Mei was having the introduction sale for Cirque polishes and Ophelia's the last of the three.

Ophelia's a beautiful periwinkle blue glitter polish that contains medium hex and small circular glitters in a clear base. I wanted to try out a jelly sandwich with Ophelia so I started out with four coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu.



Then I topped that off with Ophelia, which I dabbed around, trying to create a glitter gradient.






In the picture below, I layered on another thin coat of Don't Touch My Tutu on my index and middle fingers, finishing off the jelly sandwich. I left my ring finger and pinkie nails as they were though, so you can see the difference between the jelly sandwich and just layering Ophelia on top of Don't Touch My Tutu.



Here, I have one thin coat of Don't Touch My Tutu on top of all my nails.



I love how the extra coat of Don't Touch My Tutu on top made Ophelia more pastel and muted.











Here's two close up shots of Ophelia and you can see that Ophelia actually has a secret iridescent shimmer in it as well! That was a nice surprise!







Here are some shots of the Ophelia jelly sandwich with a top coat.








I hope you can see the iridescent shimmer a little better in this last picture. I think the top coat helped the shimmer to sparkle a little bit more. Also, it helped that Don't Touch My Tutu was sheer enough that it didn't bury the shimmer!



I really love the colour combination of white and periwinkle. It's just so clean cut and classic, kinda reminds me of the china set I have at home. I'm looking forward to wearing Ophelia on top of the boring pink/nude shades I have to wear to work and I'm already thinking of a Bubble Bath and Ophelia combination for another jelly sandwich! :)

As for the lavendar and sage scent present in all Cirque polishes, I've heard loads of rave from fellow polish lovers but it's a little too sweet smelling for my liking. It's just me though. Each to his own right?
If you're interested in grabbing some Cirques, you can buy them directly from Cirque or head on down to Meimeisignature! Meimei ships internationally with the exception of Italy!

Cirque Never Nude

Never Nude is the second of the three Cirques I recently purchased from meimei and from the get go, I was in love with the idea of a nude holo that wouldn't chip as easily as Nfu Oh #62, China Glaze FYI or Layla Coral Glam.

Here's a bottle shot of Never Nude. I love Cirque's embossed logo so so much. The "C" font reminds me of medieval times!



Never Nude is a pale gold holographic polish that resembles the holo effect of Glitter Gal's 3D holo or Ozotic's 500 series holos, just not as strong.

This is three thin coats of Never Nude taken under a table lamp. I'm pretty sure you can get away with two normal coats though.










This last picture was taken indoors and not in any direct or strong light, and it shows you how pale Never Nude is. It's such a pale gold it almost looks silver. When the holographic effect isn't so in yer face, you can see that Never Nude actually has a nice foil finish.



I'm loving how office-friendly Never Nude is but it's not boring either! <3

I experienced quite a good wear time with Never Nude. It's been one full day without a base or top coat and the polish is still perfectly intact. There isn't a hint of tip wear at all. That's impressive by my standards because my polish tends to start experiencing tip wear withint hours. The lavander and sage essential oils scent is also still present, even after a day!

Stay tuned for my review of the last of the Cirque polishes I got!

Cirque Fascination Street (and some bonus comparisons!)

I grabbed three Cirque polishes when Mei Mei was having the introduction sale for Cirque polishes and Fascination Street was one of them.

Before I move onto the polish, I'd like to talk about the brand first. In case some of you don't know, "Cirque is an artisanal line of hand-blended nail polish made in New York.

Cirque nail polish is B3 free, which means it does not contain toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate. Each bottle holds .45 oz / 13.2 ml of product and is hand-mixed by batch using high quality ingredients such as cosmetic-grade pigments and glitter.  Organic lavender and clary sage essential oils have been added to lend your hands a subtle scent after the polish dries." (Taken from Cirque's website)

Fascination Street is a holographic indigo polish that had me at hello. Seriously, how could I not love Fascination Street?

Sexy dark colour? Check.

Holographic? Check.

Good formula? Check.





I used two coats of Fascination Street for my swatches. My bottle was a tiny tiny bit goopy but I didn't have much problems with that. Just use thin coats and you'll be fine.





Oh, just look how the holo particles shine!







My knees are weak. Thank goodness I'm sitting down as I'm typing this.



Now, onto the bonus component as promised, we all know that there are a couple of dark and sexy holographic polishes in the market so I thought I'd show you how some of them compare to Fasination Street.

First up, we have A-England Lady of the Lake (a purple scattered holo) and Tristam (a navy scattered holo).

As you can see in the bottle shot, Fascination Street lies somewhere between these two shades. It's not exactly purple nor navy.



This is two coats of all three polishes.







I'd say Fascination Street is pretty darn close to Tristam in terms of colour but in terms on holo-ness, Tristam has nothing on Fascination Street.

Now, onto a more holographic polish, the extremely holographic DS Glamour, which was high up on my lemmings list until my darling Evillee managed to help me get a bottle. I paid a pretty penny for DS Glamour and up till today, it remains the most expensive polish (per ml) in my collection.



Again, this is two coats of both polish.



DS Glamour's significantly bluer and lighter than Fascination Street as well as a tiny bit more holo. I was extremely in love with DS Glamour but I think I just might leave it for Fascination Street.

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the extremely saturated shade of indigo. Whatever it is, it simply makes my heart flutter <3.

I know I've already completed my Holo Month "challenge" but I couldn't resist doing more holo posts. It only goes to show what my favourite polish finish is huh? :)