It Would Appear I Have a Lot of Nail Polish...

Now anybody who is currently studying or for that matter has studied at any point in their life will probably understand the study week procrastination. (I am assuming my uni is not the only one with a study break for the week prior to exams with that statement of course).

For me study week becomes a time for getting up to date on television shows (usually start from season 1 episode 1 on shows I've never seen before lol), trying on all the lip sticks I can find in my room (but then scrubbing my face clean should I leave the house), reading romance novels, finding new Pokemon ROMs to play on the computer, organising my pens,pencils,books,papers,nail polishes etc (because that is sort of productive isn't it?) and then on about Friday FREAKING out because after all I've spent the entire week doing nothing and aren't at all ready for any of my exams.

However today is not Friday. Freaking out is days away. I just thought I should put my... I now realise quite extensive... nail polish collection up on this slightly forlorn blog. Apparently I have more than 50 nail polishes! and then a handful of top coat/base coat, a crackle polish and a sparse glitter I use over colours.

Now that looks pretty unimpressive photographed like that... I mean I managed to fit them all in the frame. Maybe I don't have an addiction? And then I lined them up in colour order.

Now I couldn't quite make them line up in a nice neat colour line - I could have stuck the pinks on the end after the white but I felt that was cheating (and even more impossible to fit onto my desk). They seemed to belong better as a deviation off from where the purple met the rainbow.

If you look over the back in this picture you can see my clear/top coat/base coat/nail nutrition clumped together and my crackle/multicolour glitter also separate.

All of my beautiful purple polishes - there's no need to guess what my favourite colour is.

For any true lover of the classics who is now fearing that I don't have a basic true red nail polish never fear I realised afterwards that I had missed my red because it doesn't live in my main collection at the moment.

Now you can probably tell that much of my nail polish is cheap nail polish. The Ulta3 nail polishes cost me between $2-2.50 each. However I only use them on my toes and it lasts the two weeks until I take it off and change colours so that suits me just fine. I've mentioned before I don't have much opportunity to wear nail polish on my fingers (though I do get the 5 nails 5 colours look out at Christmas). They also don't have the strong scent which I know is associated with a lot of cheap nail polish so I consider that to be a bonus. 

There isn't a nail polish in my collection that I'm not particularly fond of. Probably the worst is the shiny silver (third from the end). Not because the colour is terrible or even that its bad nail polish - I just can't master the no lines going which ways from the bristles of the brush. My favourite? Is actually I now realise the intersection polish so its almost impossible to see. It is most red of my purples while still be a true purple (not a burgundy). It has a very blue based pink/purple shine to a more reddy polish which give a dimension to it I absolutely love.

Now I really feel like painting my nails. Which I can't because I painted my toes yesterday and am trying to maximise my finger nail health for the Christmas season at the moment. If you were wondering my toes are currently the more apple of the two green polishes with the black crackle over the top.

Money Bags: I Struck Gold

Now I'm not going to claim aspirations to beauty blogging. That seems to me to be a lot of work and I'm not that good at make-up. Its simply my latest interest (thus why it gets a showing on my patchy, occasional access blog). 

However one of the big things in the make-up world - familiar to everybody who has even a passing interest in it - is Australia is among the most expensive countries in the world for having such a habit. Things that are cheap overseas simply aren't here - double/triple mark-ups are fairly routine. Which is not to say there isn't some cheaper options out there - you just don't hear about them all that much.

Ulta3 has been a long time favourite for nail polish. As a girl who is required by work not to wear nail polish I like to go all the more crazy with my toe nails and the $2.50 bin of nail polishes you can find at Terry White Chemists really help me scratch that itch. Certainly if you browse the interwebs you find many great testimonies to the awesomeness of Ulta3 colour selections. Until now, though, I've generally ignored the fact that that bin was connected to a slightly higher priced (~$7) selection of make-up.

I was looking for a costume to go to a bush dance the other day. For the life of me I couldn't find something good. Did eventually find a shirt which was in the old fashion fine flower patterns (which if the stores are anything to go by are about to be quite popular) but the line at Target was too long for me to get it in the time I had - I suppose that is another story. Before I'd gotten to Target though I was already feeling a bit down on my luck. Thus perhaps a little bit more predisposed to buying make-up than I would be otherwise.

If I couldn't actually have a good outfit - I could at least have good make-up right? This particular eye shadow palette draw my eye. What says Aussie Bush like a deep burnt orange? Hell its practically like picking the earth up and painting on there - you could turn all these colours into Aboriginal body paint or something.

Added bonus is that the palette's name is 'Money Bags'. The bush dance's official theme was Gold Rush so that seemed appropriate.

I am not claiming extensive knowledge of the good and bad of eye shadow but these are some of the nicest I've had the pleasure of working with. The orange of course is my favourite of the bunch - outwise I could probably have talked myself out of another reasonably basic set of light,mid,dark brown (though I admit this brown is also quite red as shows up under flash). If you like warmer shades these ones are really good.

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I just felt like Ulta3 deserved a mention in the great blogosphere even if only on such an obscure blog as my own. I love the quality I've found in this little palette and think people should give Ulta3 a try if you live in Aus.