My first real post, how exciting!!
Today I have on my blog one of the LA Girl textured polishes, from a collection they've called 'Sand Blast'. If you haven't heard of LA Girl, they're a budget beauty brand from the US, which us Australians can purchase from Cherry Culture or Beauty Joint for between $2.50 and $6 a bottle. The shipping is fairly reasonable from both these sites too. I've never tried any of LA Girl's makeup but I have a whole bunch of their nail polishes and I've been really impressed with them, especially for the price point! I particularly loved their Rock Star and Glitter Addict collections, which are currently on sale at Cherry Culture.
Now, on to this textured polish thing. I am really loving the textured trend at the moment, and LA Girl's take on this is similar to Milani and China Glaze's - that is, a matte textured look, as opposed to the sparkly versions by OPI and Zoya. I am in love with the OPI and Zoya offerings, particularly OPI's Bond Girl collection and Zoya's original Pixie Dust collection, and I wasn't really sold on the matte versions by other brands, as I thought they looked like something a primary school kid would come up with in art class, but I picked up some Milani and LA Girl just to try them and I'm so glad that I did! I'm not sure I could handle China Glaze's super bright summery ones and some of Milani's more in-your-face ones (like bright yellow!), particularly as it's going into winter here, so I picked up the grey, purple and red Milani textured creams and the green, blue, brown/taupe and orange/coral LA Girl Sand Blasts. I'll try and get some reviews/swatches of these up soon, especially of the LA Girl ones, as when I searched for swatches and reviews before I purchased them, I could hardly find anything!
I'm on a real neutral kick lately so my first choice in trying these out was LA Girl Sandstorm - a beautiful neutral tan colour that makes me think of café au lait. In terms of texture, I have found it to be slightly more subtle than the Milani textured creams, in that the size of the grit seems slightly smaller. I only applied two coats for the photo below, which covered well, but when the light hit my nails from underneath you could see some definite patchiness, so you could get away with two coats on short nails like mine, but fuller coverage or longer nails would probably require three. Application was great, you just have to make sure the previous coat has dried completely before applying the next so you don't end up dragging the gritty bits from the previous coat along the nail. I have to admit, one reason why I'm loving this textured nail trend so much is that it's so forgiving! I struggle with applying creams sometimes because I end up with streaks and want to fix them straight away but only end up making them worse but the texture of these polishes hide the minor imperfections that normally drive me crazy! I also love the lack of need for a top coat - just a base coat, a couple of coats of polish and I'm done! It's so fast and easy and I find that skipping on extra layers and topcoat allows the polish to last much longer than it usually does on me because it doesn't start lifting and I'm much less tempted to pick at it. Dry time was also very good with this polish. It lasted two days on me before it chipped, which may not sound like much, but I was abusing my nails terribly during this time and it held up much better than say, a cream polish would.
In short, I absolutely recommend this polish! It's cheap (although not that easily available for us internationals) and is a great way to try out the textured polish trend if you think that you wouldn't be able to pull off the bright or super glittery shades, such as in an office environment.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment if you want to see a review/swatch of any of the other shades I mentioned or just to let me know that someone out there has seen my fledgling blog!
x
Today I have on my blog one of the LA Girl textured polishes, from a collection they've called 'Sand Blast'. If you haven't heard of LA Girl, they're a budget beauty brand from the US, which us Australians can purchase from Cherry Culture or Beauty Joint for between $2.50 and $6 a bottle. The shipping is fairly reasonable from both these sites too. I've never tried any of LA Girl's makeup but I have a whole bunch of their nail polishes and I've been really impressed with them, especially for the price point! I particularly loved their Rock Star and Glitter Addict collections, which are currently on sale at Cherry Culture.
LA Girl Sandstorm (sunlight)
Now, on to this textured polish thing. I am really loving the textured trend at the moment, and LA Girl's take on this is similar to Milani and China Glaze's - that is, a matte textured look, as opposed to the sparkly versions by OPI and Zoya. I am in love with the OPI and Zoya offerings, particularly OPI's Bond Girl collection and Zoya's original Pixie Dust collection, and I wasn't really sold on the matte versions by other brands, as I thought they looked like something a primary school kid would come up with in art class, but I picked up some Milani and LA Girl just to try them and I'm so glad that I did! I'm not sure I could handle China Glaze's super bright summery ones and some of Milani's more in-your-face ones (like bright yellow!), particularly as it's going into winter here, so I picked up the grey, purple and red Milani textured creams and the green, blue, brown/taupe and orange/coral LA Girl Sand Blasts. I'll try and get some reviews/swatches of these up soon, especially of the LA Girl ones, as when I searched for swatches and reviews before I purchased them, I could hardly find anything!
LA Girl Sandstorm - 2 coats (sunlight)
I'm on a real neutral kick lately so my first choice in trying these out was LA Girl Sandstorm - a beautiful neutral tan colour that makes me think of café au lait. In terms of texture, I have found it to be slightly more subtle than the Milani textured creams, in that the size of the grit seems slightly smaller. I only applied two coats for the photo below, which covered well, but when the light hit my nails from underneath you could see some definite patchiness, so you could get away with two coats on short nails like mine, but fuller coverage or longer nails would probably require three. Application was great, you just have to make sure the previous coat has dried completely before applying the next so you don't end up dragging the gritty bits from the previous coat along the nail. I have to admit, one reason why I'm loving this textured nail trend so much is that it's so forgiving! I struggle with applying creams sometimes because I end up with streaks and want to fix them straight away but only end up making them worse but the texture of these polishes hide the minor imperfections that normally drive me crazy! I also love the lack of need for a top coat - just a base coat, a couple of coats of polish and I'm done! It's so fast and easy and I find that skipping on extra layers and topcoat allows the polish to last much longer than it usually does on me because it doesn't start lifting and I'm much less tempted to pick at it. Dry time was also very good with this polish. It lasted two days on me before it chipped, which may not sound like much, but I was abusing my nails terribly during this time and it held up much better than say, a cream polish would.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment if you want to see a review/swatch of any of the other shades I mentioned or just to let me know that someone out there has seen my fledgling blog!
x
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