Hey There, Wait A Minute Mr Postman - Fiji Finds

Yes, I am relentless.  Even whilst I was in Fiji, I was constantly on the hunt for new lacquers.

And this is what I found.

On the left is a brand I've not heard of before: Debbilia.

I found this in a chemist in Suva. The cremes they had on display were all separated and crusty looking, but these glitters looked gorgeous and so I snapped them up for $5FJD, which is around $3AUD.  Aren't they the blingest?

The LA Splash's are... well... LA Splash lacquers.  The lacquers are nothing special.  The reason why I bought these is the location.  We visited the town of Sigatoka and, in a damp and dark hallway lined with sari shops and hawkers, I spotted these.  I have a nose for these things.  So these are memorable, if only for the location.  Who knew that, a world away from LA, I'd find these little beauties.

GOSH - Bright Passion 585

When I saw that Leanne had sent me GOSH's Bright Passion 585, I did a little happy dance.  This looked amazing in the bottle.

However, I was not so thrilled with how this looked on the nail.  Whilst the glitter is gorgeous and stunning (it's like a million mini glow sticks are dancing on my nails), the base is a really dirty grey.  It reminds me of the nails that hairdressers have after handling hair dye all day.

So disappointing.  Especially since the formula itself is exquisite.  Although the glitter is quite large and stringy, it dries very smooth on the nail.  And over hang was minimal.  In other words, the perfect glitter.  But a not so perfect base.

But I wasn't prepared to give up that easily on this.  So I tried it over Boots 17's Risky Red, which I trialled earlier this week.

Now, that's more like it.

Once I layered this over Risky Red, I realised that, whilst this doesn't work (for me anyway) as a lacquer on its own, it's pretty close to perfection as a layering lacquer.

This mutes the red somewhat, making it even bluer.  The glitter, too, seems more vibrant and interesting with the red backdrop.  More colourful.

Have you ever had a lacquer that looked like it was heading for a Titanic-esque end, but which you then found an alternate use for?  Let me know in the comments.

Hey There, Wait A Minute Mr Postman - Essie

This might be a boring haul for some of you, but I'm pretty excited about these little beauties.

I picked these up at a beauty salon last week.  I was just walking past when I saw a jar full of Essies.

Now, for many of you, this would not be an exciting development.   But Essies are hard to find in Australia so, when I saw this winking at me from the foothpath, I practically ran into the salon.

From left to right we have: Pearly White, Pink is Powerful, Pink is the Link and Wife Goes On.

These colours are great for wearing on their own, as an accompaniment to a French manicure, or as a Konad stamping colour.  And they just look so cute in my lacquer collection.  Like little bullets of pastel prettiness.

Barry M - Racing Green

When I saw Barry M's Racing Green, I literally squealed with delight.  In the bottle, this looked glorious.

This is a very deep green with hints of gold - yes, gold, you don't see that overly often - shimmer.  If you look closely at my ring finger, you'll see the shimmer coming through.

They key with this lacquer is patience.  The first coat looks like dirty green tea.  I nearly cried at the thought that this lacquer, so beautiful in the bottle, might look catastrophic on the nail.

All was forgiven with the second coat, although the swatch on the right is three coats because I had a smudge incident and needed to go over the nails one more time.

This was my first Barry M and what a revelation.  The formula is lovely, the colour is sublime and the quality is exceptional.  Leanne, I send you a thousand virtual kisses for picking this colour for me.  I love it.

Hey There, Wait A Minute Mr Postman - I come from the Land Down Under

As you all know, I love promoting Australian lacquers.  The only thing I love more than promoting them, is actually buying them and wearing them!

Here are three Aussie treats from my recent Haulage-palooza.

The first lot is from a brand called Ulta3.

These are legendary in Australia for a number of reasons - they're cheap ($2 for a whopping 13.5mls), the colour range is huge and they wear well.

I picked up five that really grabbed me..  I won't give away too much but... oh what the heck, you guys will get a chance to win one of these in a few weeks.  I'd be so useless in a war - I can never keep secrets.

The second lot of haulage is from a brand that I have never heard of: Totally Beautiful Nails.

Bought in the same place as the Ulta3 lacquers (for those of you in Melbourne, you can get the Ulta3 and TBN lacquers from Creelman's Pharmacy in the Target Centre), these caught my eye immediately.

For a start, they are shaped like Chanel.  Except that they're around double the size.  And the colours seem super similar to Chanel.  The first lacquer on the left seems to be a Vendetta dupe.  I have no idea how these will perform on the nail but, for a crazy $2 each, I'm willing to give them a go.

The final haulage is from my old favourite kit Cosmetics. 

I'm really starting to have a full on love affair with blues, hence when I saw these at the kit counter, I was all over them.  I'm pretty sure the shop assistant was somewhat scared when I blathered to her how beautiful these were, and how much I loved them already, and..... you get the idea.

So, what do you guys think?  Any early favourites?