Chimera Nail Polish Swatching

If you read a lot of nail polish blogs you will know that Australian polish brand Chimera has had problems in the past, bloggers that I respect and consider to be friends were affected and I do not in any way condone what went on. Since then, Chimera have apparently made a lot of internal changes and I believe in second chances so when they asked me to review these polishes I said yes.  I will only be commenting on my opinions and experiences with the actual polishes. The polishes were provided by Chimera and all opinions are 100% honest and mine.’Nuff said.

*EDIT* Ok so it has come to my attention that the problems mentioned above have not stopped. As Chimera continues to engage in behavior like this I cannot recommend their polishes. I do not condone spam. I do not condone underhanded blogging tactics. I believe in second chances but I also believe that those chances need to be used well not squandered. My opinions on the polish stand but I do not support the brand AT ALL. */EDIT*

So let’s talk nail polish!

I received 8 polishes in total so here are the basic details, specific polish details will be with the relevant photos below.

Brand: Chimera

From: Their website

Price: $14.95 per polish

Volume: 15ml

Ingredients: N-Butylacetate, Nitrocellulose, Ethyl Acetate, Isopropyl Alcohol

Bottle: I do like square bottles because it makes them easier to stack and keep tidy. The lid has an odd texture which is kind of grippy.

Brush: Very thin flexible brush.

Drying Time: Pretty much the same for all of them… quite quick.

Colour Name: All of the colours have names on the website but only numbers are printed on the bottles so I can’t remember what the names are >_< This is number 121

Description: Dark grey polish with lots and lots of silver glitter.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Thoughts: Decent coverage with 1 coat, great with two coats. The polish itself looks a little matt so it reminds me a bit of gun metal. I like how dense the glitter is.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Good for: -Industrial style nails -Matte background for designs -Possibly good for Konad as it’s highly concentrated, haven’t tried though.

Bad for: -Glossy nails, would need a good top coat

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Colour Name: 124

Description: Purple with pink tones and a silver shimmer through it.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Thoughts: Very pretty light purple, quite metallic but not in a cold way. This is exactly the kind of blingy colour that I like ^_^ Very opaque too.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Good for: -Cute french tips -Flowery nail art -Possibly Konad because it’s very opaque but I haven’t tried it.

Bad for: -Layering over other colours as it’s very opaque

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Colour Name: 70

Description: A kind of sea blue with gold shimmers.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Thoughts: Opaque in 2 coats, a little streaky but that makes me think of the ocean even more haha!

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Good for: -Ocean themed nail art -Swirly 70’s-ish nail art

Bad for: -Super smooth base coats -Probably wouldn’t be very opaque over dark colours

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Colour Name: 101

Description: Very light pearlescent pink.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Thoughts: Very thin polish, took 3 coats to be really opaque. I suspect it is supposed to be used in natural looking French manicures. It reminds me a lot of the colour my Barbie dolls used to wear XD

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Good for: -Natural French mani’s -Office appropriate nails -Cotton candy themed nail art

Bad for: -Standing out

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Colour Name: 88

Description: Slightly darker than the previous pink, this is a bubble gum-ish pink pearl with gold tones.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Thoughts: Opaque in two coats, the colour you get with one coat is quite cute too. It has quite a pleasant shine to it but is a little thick for my liking.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Good for: -Sweet, girly nails -Nail art on darker colours

Bad for: -Cold colour themed manicure

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Colour Name: 68 (or possibly 89 >_<)

Description: Light purple with a pearl finish, more on the blue side of things.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Thoughts: This polish is a bit of an odd colour, it is quite streaky but it layers in an interesting way. The difference between 1 and 3 coats is quite large. It’s quite opaque in 1 coat but if you continue to layer it becomes quite dark.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Good for: -Odd interesting layered designs -Possibly very good for Konad stamping over matte bases

Bad for: -Super smooth bases

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Colour Name: 64

Description: Very pale plain pink.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Thoughts: Very pink. Nice and smooth, opaque in two coats with quite a high shine factor. This is the sort of colour that is very versatile because it’s understated enough to go with lots and lots of other colours. While all of the pinks I’ve reviewed in this post are very similar I like this one the most because from a nail-art point of view it can be used in so many types of designs.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Good for: -Super cutesy nail art -Natural French manicures -Office friendly manicures -Possibly good with Konad as it’s very opaque

Bad for: -Mmm… can’t think of any!

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Colour Name: 117

Description: Deep chocolaty brown with a shimmery finish.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Thoughts: -Very very opaque creamy brown, it is absolutely spot on the colour of chocolate! The application of this one made me very happy, really smooth and shiny and I couldn’t stop thinking about melted chocolate.

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Good for: -Leopard or animal themed nail art -Chocolate themed nails

Bad for: -Plain manicures

Chimera Nail Polish Swatches

Conclusion:

I was really pleasantly surprised at these polishes. After actually trying them I was really happy with the results and I use some of them very frequently now. While being quite pricey I thought the quality was really good, they went on very smoothly and the finishes were overall very pretty and shiny. They have a very wide range of colours (especially pinks!), the shipping was very fast and the customer service that I experienced was very polite and I got same day answers to everything I asked.

Verdict: If I had the money I would buy a lot of the other colours.

So if you decide to order from Chimera I have a discount code for you…

Enter the code “VIP” to receive 25% off your order.

How To Make Simple Ribbon Bows ^_^

Continuing the series of tutorials on making basic bows today I’ll show you how you can make the perfect bow out of ribbon.

This is what the finished product will look like:

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

You need:

  • Ribbon
  • Scissors
  • Needle and thread
  • Lighter

Firstly decide how big you want your bow to be by mocking it up with you ribbon.

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

Cut the length you decide on and make sure to add 2cm extra for seam allowance. Use your lighter to lightly melt the edges of the ribbon so they don’t fray. BE VERY CAREFUL YOU DON’T BURN YOURSELF.

Fold your ribbon like this with the edges overlapping in the middle…

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

Use you needle and thread to running stitch from the bottom to top. Make sure to tie it in a knot in the beginning so it doesn’t pull through

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

Now pull the thread and your bow will fold up on itself. Tie your thread off securely.

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

Now to add the bottom tail, measure how long you want it by folding like this:

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

Again knot the thread and running stitch up the folded tail like this:

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

Pull the thread tight and tie it off:

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

Sew the tail behind the bow part ^_^

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

Cut another piece of ribbon that is long enough to wrap around the middle of the bow plus 1cm. Fold the sides of the ribbon like this and seal the edges with the lighter.

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

Wrap the piece around the middle of your bow.

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

Stitch it in place ^_^

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

Cut the tails into what ever shape you like, I prefer them with “v”‘s cut out. Seal the ends with the lighter again and you’re finished! You can experiment with all different ribbons, I like to add a darker colour on top like this one:

Ribbon Bow Tutorial

Simple and very quick to make! You can add a bobby pin or brooch back or whatever to the back to attach it to hair/clothes or anything you like. Hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial!

DIY Customised Plain Sneakers!

Morning everyone! After talking about it for quite a while Valerie and I have decided to make Sneaker Sunday a fortnightly thing (every second week for the Americans reading 😉 ) We decided to post about it less so we have more time to come up with awesome tutorials and fun things for you guys!

Let’s make this…

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

From this:

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

Pretty cute right?Well what you need is this:

  • Plain canvas shoes. Mine were $10 from Target
  • Permanent markers, I’m using Sharpies and Copics. Copic markers aren’t permanent but I only have 2 Sharpies so I’ll just avoid puddles in these sneakers XD

So you need to find something that inspires you for the design. I’m using a piece of sticky leopard fabric from The Sticker Monster.

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

So first thing’s first, take the laces out 😀

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

Practice drawing your design on a piece of paper before you do it on the shoes.

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

I’m doing leopard print so I started by drawing the inside blobs in light purple.

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

Make sure to make them odd sizes, if they are all completely even it will look very unnatural. Pastel pink and purple leopard print is of course very natural 😉

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

Add in a pink background around the blobs.

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

Then add a dark purple border around the blobs. The border should be broken up and rough. Like this:

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

Finished the back part 😀 Now the front. I decided to draw a swirly ribbon that ends in a heart. You should draw your picture in the lightest colour you have, I used light pink for the heart and light purple for the ribbon.

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

I then outlined in a darker pink/purple.

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

Lastly I added shading with a very dark colour. Shadows are very important in giving simple designs like this depth ^_^

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

I found a white paint pen laying around so I used it to add a couple of highlights. to the ribbon. I also added some small dots around the ribbon.

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

And you’re done!

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

Nice and simple and it doesn’t take long at all!

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

Close up:

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

I am quite pleased with the end result! I also love the idea that for $10 I can have sneakers that look like anything that I can pull out of my imagination 😀

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

Time to take them for a spin!

Diy White Sneaker Tutorial

I hope you are all having an awesome Sneaker Sunday and if you want to see what Valerie did with her sneakers just head over to her blog and check it out!