Hello lovelies,

The next letter in the ABC Challenge is K and since I didn't have a manicure ready that would be associated with something begining with K, I kind of butchered the word 'colour' and made it a 'kolour'! I hope you'll forgive me :D

In the previous post I showed you swatches of Sienna Byron Bay polishes in Grace and Blush and today I'll combine both into a simple and elegant nail art.

I chose these two colour deliberately because I thought they would look gorgeous together and I don't think I was wrong! I've created a very simple negative space design that is wearable for all ages. Let's check out the final look:

Here's how you can recreate this design:

Step 1 - Start with clean and dry nails. You can leave out the base coat like I did and just apply a straight nail vinyl to where you'd like your negative space to be. I'm using nail vinyls from What's Up Nails. You can use base coat but you'll need let it dry properly.

Step 2 - Paint the cuticle area of the nail with Sienna Byron Bay in Grace. leave the nail vinyl in place.

Step 3 - Paint the rest of the nail with thin coat of Sienna Byron Bay in Blush. Wait about 30 seconds to a minute and then paint second thin coat. Remove the nail vinyl.

Step 4 - Clean up lines and glue. Now is the time to do any clean up around cuticles and in the negative space eg. if the polish leaked into the negative space or if the nail vinyl left a glue residue. I've used flat angled brush and acetone to clean the lines.

Step 5 - Apply a coat of Sienna Byron Bay Lightning Top Coat. If you don't want and uneven surface on the nail, firstly apply the topc coat only into the negative space to fill the void and let it dry. The apply top coat over the whole nail.

So those are my new nails - what do you think? I really enjoyed working with Sienna Byron Bay polishes, even the top coat is nice and you should definitely check this brand out. And the beautiful rings I'm wearing are from Luna Pyxis (just received my order of loads more!) - I'm wearing X Criss Cross Ring which is an adjustable ring with lots of crystals. The other one is Rectangle Cubic midi ring in rose gold colour and it features one big crystal.

Sienna Byron Bay nail polish range is 7 Free (No Formaldehyde, No Toluene, No DBP, No Synthetic Camphor, No Formaldehyde Resin, No Xylene and No Tosylamide), vegan and cruelty free - that's quite impressive. They can be purchased on their website and at international stocklists.

Have a lovely day! Lucie x

Hello lovelies,

A new Australian brand of nail polish has come on my radar and it's called Sienna Byron Bay! There has been quite a bit of buzz on social media which you might have noticed yourself. The distinctive bottle shape and wooden caps caught my attention straight away and I couldn't say no to couple of bottles.

Sienna Byron Bay nail polish range is 7 Free (No Formaldehyde, No Toluene, No DBP, No Synthetic Camphor, No Formaldehyde Resin, No Xylene and No Tosylamide), vegan and cruelty free - that's quite impressive. Their whole eco-friendly and local philosophy really appeals to me, here's a short excerpt from their ABOUT page:

"Everything we do is aimed towards creating a cleaner alternative. Not just as a product but as an overall lifestyle. We’re as local as can be, vegan & cruelty free, we use 100% renewable soy, and we source sustainable non-native timbers from our own backyard."

I realised that everything about this brand is well-thought through right after I unpacked the products. The packaging is made out of recycled paper with an embossed mandala. A nice smell of eucalyptus (or perhaps tea tree oil) hit me straight away, I suspect it's the treatment for the wooden caps - it's little things like this that make a brand stand out to me. My favourite are the wooden caps. I really like the texture of the wood, the patterns on each cap (every cap is different of course) and of course they smell lovely. Here's how they source the wood for the caps:

"If you’ve ever been to the Byron shire you would have seen the thick scrub everywhere… We have a major weed that’s overgrown in this area; it inhibits the growth of our natural rainforest. We source this timber to make our sustainable timber caps, keeping in Harmony with our environment."

Then there's the pretty vintage-style 10ml bottle, the only thing sourced from outside of Australia (sourced from Europe) - I haven't seen this bottle shape before again, that's another thing that instantly differentiates this polish from others. Some bottles have gold and some black printing on them (I obviously like the gold one more ;). The brush is thin and easy to work with.

First polish I've tried is Blush, a mauve purple with warm undertones. My camera was playing up so really the first picture is most true to the colour of Blush. The formula was really good which surprised me (I don't have overly high expectations from new brands) - it applied so easily and smooth and the polish was fully opaque in two coats. Drying time was good as well and I've used the Sienna Byron Bay Lightning Top Coat that I was sent as well.

My second polish was Grace, metallic rose gold with foil-like finish. It has a mixture of metallic rose gold and copper particles. I chose Grace because it looks beautiful when paired up with Blush (yes, there will be nail art!) but it's a gorgeous colour just on its own. It took two easy coats for full coverage and the formula was great again. I've applied the Sienna Byron Bay Lightning Top Coat that.

I'd also like to tell you a bit about the Lightning Top Coat. I've tested it over some other brands and nail art manicures. It is quite nice topcoat - it is not thick like Seche Vite but rather watery but it dries fast. Generally, allow at least 20 minutes for it to dry enough for you to start doing things (carefully) it of course depends on how thick your nail polish underneath is. It can smear nail art a bit if you're heavy handed but if you can float the brush like with Seche Vite, then you'll be fine. It's a nice topcoat and I'll use it all up for sure. 

Overall, I'm very impressed by these polishes, brand philosophy, packaging, just everything. Polishes are little bit on the pricier side with $22.73 per bottle but that's in AUD and you can be sure that they weren't made in some asian country and that it supports local economy. They also offer free shipping in Australia on orders over $50. If you want a treat, try Sienna Byron Bay polishes. They can be purchased on their website and at the following international stocklists:

New Zealand: Collect Living   Flo & Frankie   The Rock Box

Europe: Sanikai Ethical Vegan Store

USA & Canada: The Green Jungle Beauty Shop

Scandinavia: Ovidia Bay Drobak   Clean Living

Have you tried Sienna Byron Brand yet? What's your impression of this brand? let me know in the comments and for now, have a lovely day! Lucie x

*PR samples