Australis Mates Rates

Wow it has been that long since my last post.. almost 5 months!
Time to dust off the cobwebs and revive Nailbytes!


What I have here today is Australis Mates Rates which I believe is only available in Australia. My friend was there for a month and I have asked for nail polish, specifically only made in Australia. Boy, he came back with a bundle! Not only did he manage to get those Australis polish which I painstakingly picked from online reviews, he also managed to get Face of Australia and Bloom! I will post the swatches soon, all in good time :-)

Australis Mates Rates is a deep forest green polish with gold shimmer. The gold overlay gives a dark olive shade. I might have mentioned before that I usually avoid green on my nails because it doesn't suit my skin tone, creating a washed out look. However I suppose it only applies to greens in pastel, jade and dusty shades.. with Mates Rates my nails look fab!

Application is smooth, drying time is fast too. But the brush is left to be desired; a bit hard, kinda rebellious by refusing to obey the directions. Not sure if this is an isolated case, will test out other Australis polish next time!

This green baby is opaque in two coats; you can have it in one and with one you can see a teal underlay:

Under direct sunlight, the gold shimmer is very evident on the nails:

In natural daylight it reflects the blackened green with gold peeking out in certain angles:

There are bubbles on the nails, hmm. I suppose in such weather with constant movements while they're still wet (i was walking to and fro in the house lol) give rise to these bumps. It's pretty on its own but to hide the hideous imperfections I resorted to stamping :-P

I used China Glaze Passion (metallic chrome gold) for the leopard prints. Turned out to be better than expected!

*excuse the dry cuticles! it's been awhile they took the center stage in macro shots!

All above are shown with 2 layers of base coat (to prevent staining). No topcoat.