Welcome to Swatch A Palooza 2013! This is were we are going to celebrate all things bright and colourful. I'll be swatching my entire polish collection by brand, as well as all of the makeup - and yes that includes my entire pro kit as well.

If you guys see something you like, speak up. Let me know if you want more info, a proper review, a comparison with similar brands or shades. I'm here for you guys, so you get to say what you want to see.

Let's kick it off with some OPI shall we?

Into the Night
The Amazing Spiderman Collection - 2012

Glizterland
Swiss Collection - 2010

Skull & Glossbones
Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides Collection - 2011

Grape... Set... Match!
Serena Williams Grand Slam England Collection - 2011

Flower to Flower
Summer Flutter Collection - 2010

And another of Flower to Flower to really see that shimmer through it.

Ok, so that's part one of OPI done. Only a billion more to go!

I'll be back later this week with more OPI swatches and also swatches of all of my OCC Lip Tars, so stay tuned.

So you guys seemed to like my first post on quality lipsticks for less so I thought I'd follow it up with a brand you probably haven't heard of because it's a Brisbane based makeup supply store who started their own line of products. And they are simply AMAZING.

The store and brand is called Makeup & Glow and is the brainchild of one of the best bridal makeup artists I have ever come across, Rachael Parnell. She noticed that there was a huge gap in the market for pro brands to be brought into Australia and made available to professional makeup artists.

So lets talk about the lipsticks. I have ten of them. 5 of the best sellers were provided for review and 5 I bought myself. I can honestly say that the quality of these blow my mind. I'm sure you guys want to know how much these are, and I would still pay for them if they were double or even triple the price. They are $5.95 each. Yes, really. If you don't believe me, go look for yourself.

You get a huge 37mm pan which is about the size of an actual lube of lipstick melted down. I know this because I do it all the time.

So first things first, lets start with the popular shades -

L-R - Bride to Be, Tango Pink, Salmon, Love Heart, Mother of the Bride, Red Brick

Bride to Be is an amazing dusty deep pink, which not surprisingly is a great bridal colour. I love using this colour for weddings because it's so easy to grab a backup pan and give it to the bride along with a disposable lip brush for touch ups during her big day. Opacity is amazing, it's super smooth, super creamy and really quite moisturising.

Salmon is exactly as it is named. A creamy, opaque salmon colour which is more flattering then you would think. I would call this almost a coral shade, but a lot more wearable for more people.

Tango Pink is a brighter version of Bride to Be. Still really wearable and work appropriate. Again, really creamy and opaque.

Love Heart is one of my favourites because I do love a hot pink lippie. It's a seriously fun colour and I love it.

Mother of the Bride is another really popular colour. It's a plum colour and it looks amazing on mature ladies as well as younger women.

Mulbury looks much deeper in the pan then it actually comes out in real life. This one has an almost glossy finish to it and I love using it to mix in to make a red lipstick a little more vampy without going for a solid purple lip. Also, I may have gotten a little excited and used this colour before I took a photo.

Brick Red is a really great colour. It's a deep, almost tomato red, but deeper. Think Campbell's Tomato Soup, that's what it reminds me of.

Now we are getting to the mixing colours.

L-R - White Orchid, Aztec Gold, Little Black Dress

White Orchid is creamy and a solid colour but it does require a little more product then the others to build up opacity, but that is to be expected and really, who wants to wear stark white lipstick? I use this to lighten custom mixed lipsticks all the time, making it one of the most used shades in my kit.

Same goes for Little Black Dress. Great mixing colour, needs a little more product for a solid lip coverage but when darkening a lip colour, a little goes a long way.

My absolute favourite of the collection is surprisingly Aztec Gold. I really didn't expect to love this the way I do. It applies like butter, BUTTER I say! A tiny bit for opacity, so creamy. LOVE!!!

Must haves? Well, I want the whole collection but from what I have here - Bride to be for the everyday look. Mulbery as a vampy colour and . Brick Red because everyone needs a red. Probably you don't NEED Aztec Gold, but you're going to want it really, really badly. And I think everyone should own a black and white lipstick for mixing purposes. It means that the lipsticks you already have can always be customised for your outfit or mood.

The colour longevity on all of these is amazing. I did a shoot this afternoon where I mixed about seven of the colours together to create the perfect shade and it lasted through 4 and a half hours of shooting and I didn't have to touch it up once. It applies evenly and well.

I really cannot say enough good things about these lipsticks other then I NEED ALL OF THEM!!!!

If you feel like you also need some (or all, hey I'm certainly not judging you for it!), the store is open to the public on Saturday mornings and 24/7 online at their website.

I've got pictures of these on the lips coming up shortly. Just as soon as I get some time and some sunlight to actually do it. More product reviews coming up soon as well!

Enjoy what's left of your weekend and be awesome to each other.

Ok, so this is the mani I am currently rocking and I am loving it. It's gotten me a lot of comments from total strangers in the last few days and it's quite interesting to me because it's not a bright colour or a complicated pattern. I think it has more to do with the contrast of colour then anything else.

Ski Teal We Drop was released as part of OPIs Switzerland collection and while I didn't pick this one up first time round, I ended up buying it when I was killing time at the airport before we flew out to Thailand. I have no idea why I didn't get it initially. It's an AMAZING colour.

It's a dark teal creme that is good to go in two coats. As for dupes, it's very close to RBL Teal, but it's slightly lighter. I find it to be a really flattering shade that doesn't seem out of place in a corporate environment for some reason (not that that has ever stopped me before!)

I'll try post my new giveaway this weekend. I am giving away 2 Bloom polishes and 2 Bloom mineral shadows in the coolest shades of emerald and turquoise, so stay tuned.

To all you fabulous people who leave comments on my blog - I love you! I do read them and want to reply, but Blogger is crap and won't let me log in to do it. Very annoying. Might just be time to get my own domain sorted. Any recs from Aussies for some good people who build websites? I'm gonna need to get some professional help to get this up and running. And by help I mean, pay someone to do it for me.

That's it from me today.

Be awesome to each other.

As promised, here is the winner of my Ulta3 giveaway - MINTY! I've sent through an email and if I don't hear back within 48 hours I will redraw.

This is one of my very few Finger Paints polishes - Psychedelic Pop. I got it in a polish sale ages ago from the incredibly awesome Jess over at Polished Lyrics. Do you follow her blog? You totally should - she's a total sweetheart!

This is a bright Barbie pink creme and while I know that bright pink polishes are hardly a rarity, this is still one awesome polish. Two coats and it's opaque, the texture is smooth although it is a little on the thick side, which is not really all that surprising for a creme polish.  Despite this, it's still totally manageable so long as you apply two thin-ish coats as opposed to one thick coat which will work but won't look as good.

That's it for me today.

Be awesome to each other. 

Hi guys. Sorry about the ridiculous slackness of my posting (or non posting) lately. I've just been having a hard time finding motivation since I got back from Thailand, but I cleaned out and rearranged my makeup and polish room and I feel like I'm ready to go again. I have a stash of swatches to show you, EOTDs to share and the winner of my Ulta3 giveaway to announce - which will happen later today. I also have another giveaway to share with you guys which I am totally excited about. I have tons of product reviews to post of things I bought while in Thailand too.

Another thing that I am incredibly excited to share with you is that I finally bit the bullet and enrolled into a Cert 4 in Makeup class and I start in a couple of weeks, so I will be able to share tips and tricks that I learn with you guys as well as posting pictures of what I get up to.

I really need to start working through my swatch library so I thought I would start with Zoya Kelly which perfectly fits the ridiculously cold weather we are having here right now.

It was released as part of the Zoya Wonderful and Wicked Collection Fall 2010. This is the only polish I got from the Wonderful collection. It is a stunning medium to dark grey creme with really strong purple undertones and often looks more purple then grey depending on the light. A perfect colour and possibly my favourite grey polish as it seems to work on just about any skin tone. I think it should be a must have for any collection.

The formula is smooth and the polish goes on almost opaque, I added a second coat to even it out, but could possibly have gotten away with just one.

I'll be back later with another swatch and the winner of my Ulta3 giveaway!

Be awesome to each other.