Picture Polish Geode

Picture Polish Geode

Just a simple mani to share today - a lovely winter glitter........ Picture Polish Geode. This is another shade from Picture Polish's blogger collaboration series - Geode is by Ami at Pretty Sensory.

Picture Polish Geode

Picture Polish Geode is a pretty light blue base with small gold and slightly bigger mid-blue glitter. This mani is three thin coats with Seche Vite; application is pretty much perfect. I've been really impressed with every Picture Polish I've tried, and this one is no exception!

Picture Polish Geode

In the UK you can buy Picture Polishes, including Geode, from Sally Magpies.

Nail Art with Picture Polish Imperial

Picture Polish Imperial with stamping nail art

From the moment I saw it, Picture Polish Imperial (a Picture Polish blogger collaboration polish with Jeanette aka The Swatchaholic - check out her own swatches of this wonderful polish here) was an absolute must have! I don't have a purple anything quite like this. It's sort of jelly with a hint of a blue shimmer and some small coppery gold glitter:

Picture Polish Imperial 

I wore this on its own for a couple of days before I added the stamping (Cheeky Wild at Heart jumbo plate stamped with Nails Inc Uptown Glamour (yes, one of the free ones with Glamour magazine)) and dots. Dots are Bourjois Sunny Sunday and American Apparel Hassid.

Picture Polish Imperial with stamping nail art

Here are some closer shots; my DSLR has turned the colour a bit warmer than it is in real life :(

Picture Polish Imperial with stamping nail art

All products in this post were purchased by me, apart from Nails Inc which was a magazine freebie. Picture Polish Imperial is available from the Picture Polish website, or through their international network of suppliers including Llarowe (worldwide) and Sally Magpies (UK).

Picture Polish Freya's Cats - Gradient and Stamping

Picture Polish Freya's Cats with black gradient and stamping

Picture Polish Freya's Cats is a cobalt jelly with scattered holographic shimmer. It was part of the recent blogger collaboration series released by Picture Polish in August; this one was designed by Nihidra; check out her post about this polish for the story of the name and some wonderful swatches!

I wore Freya's Cats alone for a couple of days, but I'd been planning this mani from the outset. I'm a bit of a number nerd,  I love maths - so when I saw this plate in the new bundle monster set I just had to have the whole set. The plate is BM-311. I added a black sponge gradient to the bases of my nails with American Apparel Hassid and then stamped on my design with Konad Special Polish in black. Although Konad Black is the devil to clean up, it's hands down the best black I've ever tried for stamping, so I always use it and just live with clean up and the fact that it's probably the messiest make up product I've ever owned. Needless to say, I was NOT prepared to use this for a gradient around my cuticles! 

Here are a couple of macro shots to show the lovely sparkle in Freya's Cats!

I purchased Picture Polish Freya's Cats from Sally Magpies, and Bundle Monster BM311 (as part of a set of 25 plates) from Amazon. American Apparel Hassid was a gift and Konad Special Polish in black has been around in my stash since I bought my first stamping plates a few years ago.

Picture Polish Lagoon

Picture Polish Lagoon

Glitzy turquoise sea in the sun!  it says on the bottle............ and this reminds me of one of those perfect summer days on a beach on Mull or Harris when the sea really is this colour. Yes, the sea really is this colour sometimes in some places in the north west of Scotland :D

Lagoon is one the recent blogger collaboration colours from Picture Polish; this one is by Sam at Fashion Polish. I've been reading Sam's blog for a long time, long before I even started thinking about blogging myself, and I've always liked her style, so I 'm not surprised I love the polish she designed. It's a bright teal jelly full of holo microglitter and a few twinkles of aqua glitter too. Here is Sam's own post and pictures of Lagoon. 

Application was very easy, the polish just flows on in spite of it being full of glitter. I used three thin coats for this mani. I was expecting it to need a lot of topcoat, and I had my bottle of Gelous at the ready, but to be honest I could have got away without topcoat altogether. I used a coat of Seche Vite to dry it quickly without smudging, but skipped the Gelous.

Picture Polish Lagoon

The colour reminds me of one of my favourite gemstones, Amazonite!

Picture Polish Lagoon - with Amazonite

And here are a few macros to show the fabulous depth and detail of the finish in Lagoon!

Picture Polish Lagoon

And finally, just for a bit of fun, I added a white stamped design over Lagoon. This is from the Cheeky Wild At Heart 'jumbo' plate - my nails must be growing pretty fast because the jumbo plate is now only just big enough. Looks like I'll be back to double stamping, stamping into gradients or, most likely, not stamping at all soon!

Picture Polish Lagoon stamped with design from Cheeky Wild At Heart plate

I purchased my Picture Polish Lagoon from Sally Magpies in the UK; PIcture polish have a worldwide distributor network including Llarowe, who ships internationally. Llarowe's $ prices when converted to £ are less than Sally's, but when you factor in the shipping they both work out about the same. Both these ladies give brilliant service and I wouldn't hesitate to order from either - I normally buy from whoever has the product in stock.

Picture Polish Denim

Picture Polish Denim is a wonderful periwinkle blue polish packed full of silvery flakies. This is just two coats of Denim with Seche Vite quick drying topcoat. Please excuse the less than perfect edges to this mani; it's one I did whilst on holiday last week on the Isle of Mull last week and I didn't take my clean-up brush!

The day I wore this mani I had one of the nicest tandem bicycle rides ever - about 45 miles around the North  part of Mull. It was a beautiful sunny day (it rained the rest of the week), and although some of the hills were steep and challenging, the views were spectacular. This is a *happy polish* now, I'll remember that day whenever I wear it! Previously it had been a less happy polish - it reminded me of the last time I wore it - on a cold, snowy day in December 2011 when I ended up with borderline hypothermia running a local fell race.

Here's a picture I took looking over Loch Na Keal towards Ben More when we stopped for a banana after the hardest climb of the day

View across Loch Na Keal, Mull, May 2013

I've had this polish for a couple of years, I bought it from a friend who got it sent from Australia but ultimately decided it it didn't suit her after all. Fortunately, Picture Polish products are easy to obtain outside of Australia now and this is still one of their core range - you can buy this polish from Llarowe (she ships worldwide).