Ulta3 Autumn/Winter 2012 Metallic Crush - Part 2

Straight to the nail stuff today, with Part 2 of the Ulta3 Autumn/Winter Metallic Crush collection.

Enchanted - This one is totally different on the nail than it is in the bottle.  In  the bottle it looks to be a metallic olive green shimmer.  But on the nail I was very surprised to see it is actually a dark aubergine purple and the metallic green shimmer seems very light and almost silvery.  A very interesting polish and not what I expected at all, I quite like this one, but god damn it why are they so frosty and streaky!!

Jade - In the bottle this one looks really pretty, but now I think it's an icky light green frosty mess. Maybe if it was a darker shade of green and not a medium pastel shade I wouldn't dislike this one so much. Way too frosty for 2012 chic, it's a 1982 time capsule this one.

Pinot - This one is actually a rather nice colour and perfectly suit's it's name.  It's deep red and shimmery, but certainly not unique.

Shiraz - Hello, what were they thinking doing two almost identical shades, and naming them both after red wines!  Ok, this one is actually a little lighter and pinker, but who other than a nail nut is going to notice that!  Both Shiraz and Pinot also look very similar to past colours Foxy Russset and Brandy Wine.  I'll do a comparison swatch this weekend of those four.

Overall, the colours in this whole collection are ok, a few that I really like, one that I think will be relegated to the 'nail art only pile' and a few that are dupy but ok.  

I was really excited for this collection because I was hoping it was going to be a full collection of metallics like some of the other awesome Ulta3 foil metallics.  Lollypop Lilac, Envy, Precious and Snazzle are just a few that come to mind that are fantastic foil finishes that don't show any brush marks.  Why did these ones have to be frosty and not foily. Damn it. I'm blaming the PRC formula and the stiff and blunt ended brushes.

Valentine's Day - When I think of romance...

OK, I know this is a little corny, but when I think of romance, I think of a destination like this.  Walking along the beach at sunset with my husband.  It's kind of nothing like my life in reality at the moment.  With a three year old and a one year old racing around, there isn't any opportunities for romantic destinations like this!

For this design I sponged on the blue (Picture Polish Bombshell), then the orange (Picture Polish Citrus), then the yellow (Ulta3 Frangipani).  I had to do a bit of alternating back and forth with colours to try to get it to look ok.  I'm not really that good with sponging and getting a nice blend of colours, but the end look was acceptable.  The sponging on my right had was sooooo much worse, but one never shows their non-dominant painted hand - ok.

Next I applied some homemade decals for the palm trees and the couple walking.  Then I painted a yellow sun using Ulta3 Citrus and finally I painted a freehand black french tip.

I had a huge amount of trouble getting my cuticles clean from sponging with the blue polish.  I'm sorry about that!

Here is a photo I took the next day, after I had been able to clean my cuticles a bit more.

Only one more Valentine's Day nail art to come tomorrow.

Ulta3 summer gelato collection

Here is the latest collection from Ulta3.  Canberra girls, I grabbed mine from the chemist next to Coles in the Gungahlin town centre.  I was surprised to see another Ulta3 release this summer, given they released eight polishes in spring. Usually they only do two collections a year, maybe they are going to up that to one every season.  I sure hope so.

The Ulta3 gelato collection is a set of six creme polishes.  They are not brights and they are not pastels, they are somewhere in between.

First up is Violet Crumble.  Arrrgggghhhh Violet Crumble *wipes drool from mouth* I can't remember the last time I had one of those. And now, damn I wish this polish was that metallic purpley blue from the Violet Crumble wrapper, that would have been totally awesome. Sadly it's not, instead it's dusty violet colour which is still pretty, just not awesome.  This was three coats (and it needed all three!) with no top coat.

Blue Heaven.  Oh yeah baby, this really is blue heaven.  I totally love this one. There was a serious lack of decent blue cremes in the Ulta3 range, so this one fills a big hole in my opinion.  This was three coats and a coat of Seche Vite top coat, again two coats were a bit streaky.

Kiwi Kaos - I'm surprised to see a green in this collection, given that they did three greens in the last collection.  This is a toned down green that is quite wearable, unlike the rather hideous Frog Prince. This was three coats with no top coat.  I really shouldn't have been lazy on this swatch and added the top coat, cause it would have looked so much better with it.

Lemon Tart - Very pretty light yellow.  Streaky and horrible to apply.  This was four coats with SV top coat, but once it dried it was great and very nice on the nail.  This is the last one I swatched and I wore it as a full mani.

Mango Mayham - rich orange creme, but not neon or ultra bright like tangelo or tahiti.  A unique colour in the Ulta3 range. With a name that includes the word Mango, I was expecting something more yellow, like mango flesh, mmmmmmm I have one on the bench I might go eat now! This was three coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Strawberry Sundae - A medium bright pink creme.  Ulta 3 have a stack of pink cremes so I'm sure it's similar to something they have already released, I'm just not sure which one yet.  I'm not a huge pink lover, but I'm really feeling this one at the moment.

The formula on all these was only OK.  Very much like the last collection.  Runny, but thick at the same time.  I had a lot of trouble with the brushes from these polishes.  The Ulta3 brushes used to be delicate and smooth, but I found these rather stiff.  So much so that the brush left drag mark ridges through the polish as I wiped it over the nail.  I had this same problem with the spring collection.  I'm guessing they are probably using a lower quality brush now that the polishes are made in China, rather than made in Australia like all the previous polishes.

Despite the weird formula and crappy brushes, I totally love the colours.  I also love collections like these that just go together and look like a set.  They almost did this with the Spring collection from 2009 which were almost a set of pastels, except with Hot Spring and Spring Break. 

Over all, yep they are totally worth their $2.25AUD price tag and are a great addition to my nearly complete set of Ulta3 polishes.

If anyone wants comparisons swatches just let me know what you want to see.

Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas everyone.  It's the end of Christmas day here and the kids are exhausted from 100% play all day. We've had a lovely day at home with the family, and will be off tomorrow to visit the rest of the family. 

Here is my Christmas day mani.  The gold base is Orly Luxe, I then painted holly leaves using a fine brush and the dark green holo polish I showed here.  I highlighted the leaved with China Glaze L8R G8R and black and then added red gems for the berries.  The accent finger is a pimped up bottle of Ulta3 English Rose, which I added a little extra red and gold micro glitter to.  It's such a totally awesome red polish now.

I love how the red gems glowed golden orange in the light.

I totally loved this mani, and because I pressed the gems into the outer edge of each nail I hardly even fiddled with them, which means they lasted well.

I hope you had a great day, or if your Christmas day is just beginning, I hope it is wonderful.

Ulta3 = NYC and a Ulta3 yellow comparison

Aussie ladies may have recently noticed large tubs of NYC polishes in their local Woolworths.  After seeing the colours I instantly new they were exact dupes of the Ulta3 polishes, but with different names and labels.  They are both distributed by the Heat Group.

One evening after work, I decided to do something totally mindless and match up the NYC colors to their dupe in the Ulta3 range.  Not every Ulta3 colour is an NYC, clearly as there are more Ulta3 colours than NYCs.

For polishes I didn't see in person, I used the list of NYC polishes on the Crush Cosmetics site. I know I may not have got them all matched perfectly, especially all the shades of pinks and magenta's, but I think this is pretty close.  If you know of any errors, please let me know. 

NYC	Ulta3
Angel	Crystallina
Appleberry	Footloose fuchsia
Apricot	Jazzle
Aqua	Jelly bean
Aubergine	Gooseberry
Baby Blue	Little boy blue
Banana Split	Honolulu
Berry Fuchsia	Flashback Fuchsia
Berrylicious	Mulberry
Blue Bird	Spring shower
Blue Sparkle	Blue glitter
Bronzed	Sunkissed
Broomstick	Delight
Cabernet	Burgundy
Casper	Lily white
Charcoal	Wild berry
Chilli	Sizzling red
Chocolate	Chocolate cake
Clear	Clear
Copper Penny	Antique gold
Cotton Candy	Bon bon
Coral	Watermelon
Deep Berry	Waterlily
Disco Diva	Gold Digger
Dusty Pink	Beesting
Feather boa	Silver pink
Femme Fatale	Foxy russett
Fire Hydrant	Fire
Frappe	Yummy mauve
Fuchsia	Bouquet
Gelati	Tahiti
Gerbera	Pink colada
Glow worm	Citris
Gobin	Jelly
Gold coin	Precious
Goldfish	Crazy
Grape Juice	Pearly grape
Green Sparkle	Charmed
Hazard	Carrot top
Hot stud	Hot Spring
Icy pole	Pink supreme
In the navy	Midnight
Lavender	Sweet violet
Lemon	Spring blossom
Lolly pop	Lolly pop lilac
Luv lime	Lagoon
Magenta	Bo peep
Manicure pink	French pink
Mauving on up	Elegant mauve
Mushroom	Allure
Musk stick	Baby pink
Natural	Natural
Night	Black satin
Non chip	Non chip
Peachy keen	Spring fling
Petticoat	Star dust
Pink cheeks	Natural spring
Pink princess	French blush
Platinum	Envy
Polka dot	Purple passion
Pretty pink	Poppy
Professor plum	Black plum
Purple monkey	Spring break
Rag doll	Freesia
Raspberry	Plum violet
Redhead	Scarlet
Red slippers	English rose
Red sparkle	Red glitter
Rhythm n blues	Hollywood
Ruby shoes	Brandy wine
Shocking pink	Eighties fuchsia
Show off	Fruit tingle
Silver bullet	Snazzle
Silver sparkle	Silver glitter
Slate	Silver grey
Sprinkles	Confetti
Sun goddess	Tropez
Tin roof	Metal
Top coat	Top coat
Vintage pink	Dusty rose

Now after that very long and boring list of polishes, I thought I should do a quick nail picture to make the post more interesting.  Although I'm sure that long and boring list will become a useful resource over time.

Here is a comparison picture of the four yellows in the Ulta3 range.  The two middle ones, the new release Frangipani and Honolulu are very similar, but Frangipani is a smidgen brighter .  Doesn't Citrus look amazing here!