Picture Polish Illusionist

Hello Ladies!  Well it's a little late, but here's the final instalment from the Picture Polish LE multi-chrome set - the fabulous "Illusionist". (previous posts on its collection mates: Aurora, Borealis, Gravity, Altered State, Solar Flare).  To think I almost didn't buy this one! I thought it would be too similar to Aurora but for me, its different enough to justify having them both.  I've put some comparisons in this post, in a similar vein to the ones I did for Borealis and Altered State.  But first, here's some pure swatch porn...

Picture Polish "Illusionist" - artificial light

Illusionist is a Teal Green-Purple-Magneta multi-chrome polish with silver scatterchrome particles.  This is a similar colour shift range to Aurora (see below), the dominant colour is a lovely teal green and under shallow angles this shifts to purple, and magenta at large angles.  The scatterchrome particles give this a gorgeous silvery shimmer, and 'dusty' look.

Picture Polish "Illusionist" - artificial light

Pictured here I'm wearing a couple of coats on top of a single coat of black 'undies' with NE base coat and HK girl topcoat to sandwich it all together.  As with the other polishes in this collection, the formula is as smooth as melted butter. Its very sheer, so you definitely need undies with this, but you don't need to use black....I had a major lemming for this beauty ever since I saw these swatches from Emma at Imagination in Colour where she layered this over paler colours to great effect.  I'll definitely be trying this next.

Picture Polish "Illusionist" - artificial light

Here is a comparison to Aurora...as you can see the colour range is identical, its the finish that is different.  Aurora has a densely glittered finish and is packed with multichrome glitter particles.  This intensifies the colour shift (see below, upper right).  The silvery finish of Illusionist, from the scatterchrome particles, is a more subtle muted effect but really sophisticated.  Its basically identical to the relationship between Borealis and Altered State(comparison on Borealis page).

Picture Polish "Illusionist" vs. "Aurora" - artificial light

I picked up my bottle of Illusionist from the lovely Sally at Sally Magpies (link in the suppliers page) for £13.50.  I highly recommend it, especially if you missed out on Aurora. 

I did notice that the new Dance Legend Galaxy series look a lot like the PP Limited Edition series! So there might be an option out there if you missed out on these.  The link above is to a blog that's in Russian, heaven knows what it says, but I'm guessing its something along the lines of 'bloody hell look at these stonkingly awesome polishes'....if anyone has any of these I'd love to hear what you think of them!

Ozotic 617

Hello ladies! I have a fabulous polish to share with you today...the enigmatically titled '617' by the Ozotic. 

Ozotic 617  - artificial light

617 is a sky blue scattered holo polish that is jam packed with sparkle.  This reminds me of sparkling tropical oceans and bright sunny sky. It's stunningly gorgeous, and one of those eye catching polishes that you just can't stop staring at.  Too often I find polishes give you that 'wow' factor only when you first put them on, after that you stop noticing them....well not with this one!  I'm wearing my customary two coats here, with NE base and SV top.  This polish was pretty glossy all on its own, so the SV was just to extend weartime.  Formula was smooth like melted chocolate and the brush is excellent.  It's nicely opaque in one coat, but I use two more out of habit than anything.  No complaints on the quality front.

Ozotic 617 - artificial light

Sadly Ozotic seem to have disappeared as a brand.  Certainly the word on the blogosphere is that the 500 and 600 series are not completely gone due to lack of raw ingredients.  Australian brand Picture Polish were 'representing' the Ozotic brand, and announced recently that they will no longer be doing so to concentrate their efforts on the Picture Polish brand.  On their FB page PP say that PP and Ozotic are owned by the same company, and Ozotic is no longer listed on their website.  This news makes me a very sad nail junkie.  Ozotic made, hands down, some of the most mindboggling polishes I've ever seen.  I only own 4, because I thought they were too spendy.  Now I'm kicking myself for not stocking up while I could.  Sigh.

There are still some places out there selling off the last of their Ozotic stock, and there's always EBay.  Also, Picture Polish have announced that they will be re-releasing some of the 600 series under the PP brand, with new names.  See this post at More Nail Polish for details.

Ozotic 617

I apologise if I've just given you a lemming for a HTF polish.  It's not intentional, it's just a sign of how much of a time delay there is in me taking pictures and actually writing blog posts....Halloween releases get blogged in January and apparently now brands go out of business before I get round to telling you about them....oops!

Picture Polish Solar Flare

Hello Ladies! I've got something very special to share with you today..."Solar Flare" by Picture Polish.  This is one of the recent Limited Editions that Picture Polish released in a frenzy of smart marketing. They generated so much hype in the build up to their release that these sold out almost immediately.  Luckily I managed to get my hands on most of them so I'll be sharing them with you over the next few posts...

Picture Polish Solar Flare - artificial light

Solar Flare is a Russet-Gold duochrome polish with a dusty holo finish and scattered shards of sparkly holo particles.  It's astonishingly beautiful. As a duochrome the shift is quite subtle, the polish does have a dramatic colour range, from a russet brown through to an olive gold, but the colours don't appear on the nail simultaneously - it looks one colour all of the time, but that colour changes.  Most of the time the dominant colour is the russet brown seen in the top left picture above.  Each of the three colours are absolutely gorgeous and the scatter holo and dusty finish is stunning. 



Solar Flare - this russet brown shade is the dominant colour on nail 

In these pictures I'm wearing two coats of Solar Flare on top of two coats of 'Just Black' by No7.  Using a black undercoat on any duochrome polish really makes the colour shift pop.  I also have NE base and HK Girl topcoat to finish this off.


Solar Flare - the gold shade pops at more extreme angles relative to the light source

I'm absolutely in love with this polish.  Application is flawless, and the finish is just incredible.  It dries naturally as glossy looking as the HK topcoat you see here, but I added topcoat to extend the wear time.

The finish really reminds me of an A-England polish with extra scatter holo shards I did a quick in-bottle comparison of Solar Flare with a couple of my favourite A-England polishes; Briar Rose and Briarwood.



top (l-r): A-England Briar Rose, Picture Polish Solar Flare, A-England Briarwood
bottom (l-r): Picture Polish Solar Flare, A-England Briarwood

The dominant shade in the Solar Flare looks to me like a cross between Briar Rose and Briarwood, although of the two I think it's most similar to Briarwood.  The A-Englands are two of my favourite polishes, so having Solar Flare embody them both, PLUS be a duochrome, PLUS have the big sparkly scatter chrome particles is almost too much excitement for me to handle.

This polish is utter amazeballs.  I can't recommend it highly enough.  And if you think this is swatch porn just wait till you see collection-mate Aurora....

I bought my bottle of Solar Flare from the lovely Sally Magpies for £13.50 (link to the shop is on my suppliers page).  These shades should be getting a restock soon, so keep an eye out.....


A-England Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty

A-England Briar Rose - Full Sunlight

Today's review is of another stunning polish from A-England's Burne-Jones Dream collection (previous review of Rose Bower). According to the A-England website this collection is inspired by the four paintings of The Briar Rose series created by Sir Edward Burne-Jones depicting the fairy tale of the Sleeping Beauty.  Briar Rose is the namesake of Burne-Jones' collection and is an enchanting dusted Rose colour packed with A-England's signature scattered holo particles.

As with all A-England polishes the application and formula are flawless, with excellent opacity.  This could easily be a one-coater, although I'm a habitual two-coater and pictured here I'm wearing a single coat each of my usual Nail Envy base and beloved seche.  Briar Rose dries to a lovely glossy finish, so in this case the Seche is for maximising wear time rather than shine.

A-England Briar Rose - Indirect Sunlight

Briar Rose is an elegant and sophisticated shade.  Rose is a classic shade but this incarnation looks totally modern on the nail and the holo finish as ever gives A-England polishes that added edge of glamour that makes each of them so special. 

Miss Conduct

Miss Conduct by Orly - Indirect Natural Light

Today's NOTD is an incredible pink holo by Orly, that's amusingly called 'Miss Conduct'.   This was from the Naughty or Nice Holiday 2012 collection and I picked up a set of three in TK Maxx for the bargain-alicious price of £15.  Holo polishes are perfect for summer although ironically the sun wasn't shining when I took these swatches so you've got indirect natural light and artificial light.

Miss Conduct by Orly - Artificial Light

This was my first experience of an Orly polish and I'm really impressed - formula was fantastic, smooth as butter and great opacity.  Pictured here with two coats, plus nail envy for undies and SV to top.  This had a really smooth glossy finish all on it's own, but I always use Seche regardless because of the extra wear time it gives me and the quick dry so I can get on with stuff after I paint my nails.

Miss Conduct by Orly - Artificial Light

On a nail nerdy point, I think Orly have the most perfect bottle/brush combo I've come across.  The big rubber grip top is genius and really easy to handle (Chanel, with your stupid fiddly short handles, I'm lookin' at choo!).  Now if they would just adopt the OPI pro-wide bristles it would be a match made in heaven.

I absolutely love this polish.  It's the perfect shade of pink - a sort of crushed raspberry - that is really sophisticated.  There's always a danger with pink sparkly polish of looking tacky - as a rule of thumb, if Barbie would wear it then I avoid it like the plague.  This is jam packed with scattered holo goodness; darker yummy raspberry particles and bright rainbow coloured bursts of sparkle from teeny holo particles.  In the sun this is like a pink disco on your nails.

This polish is all kinds of awesome, highly recommended.