The Flaming Fishtail

Happy Saturday, lovely people! Today I have a fishtail mani accent nail featuring China Glaze Hey Sailor, Papaya Punch and Happy Go Lucky! Less talky talkies more picky pickies! ;-)

As you can see I used the three colours for my other fingers. This is one (thickish) coat of each over 2 coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu!. One coat of each! I do so love China Glaze polishes =). A coat of Seche Vite finished it off. Maybe it's because it's almost October and all you lovely Americans have been spreading the Halloween excitement, but there's something really Halloween-y about the orange and yellow to me. It doesn't help that my nails are shaped a little bit like candy corn kernels =P. Maybe I'm just imagining it... Whaddaya think?

It was around 3am when I eventually finished this mani (I took the slow /stupid route and consequently ended up with a LOT of drying time...) so excuse the obvious imperfections ;-). I never said my polishing was perfect, but as with so many of my attempted manis, it's a great effect until you look closely! 

See, it's cooler from further away =P. Do you get into the Halloween spirit (teehee, I made a pun...) or do you think it's all overrated / for kids? How do you celebrate if you do? And what colours do you like most for a tri-colour fishtail mani? I love hearing from you all! =D 

Thank you SOO much for reading, lovelies!! Enjoy your weekend ;-)

Dots on a Stranger Tide

Hello you lovely people! Hope you're having a wonderful day =D Mine was pretty wonderful - I did.... nothing. Absolutely nothing! It was great! Don't cha just love those days? Today's mani features a polish I bought a while ago and lost instantly to my mother's stash. I re-adopted it and found it extremely difficult to take off because I loved it so much! I'm really not a green-polish kinda gal, but OPI Stranger Tides won me over in a heartbeat.

This is two coats over a base coat of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu!. TBH, the base coat really doesn't make a difference to this shade, it's just a precaution because I'm trying to encourage my nails to un-stain themselves ;-). If any of you have at-home tips for nail stain removal, I'd appreciate them! I've already tried the lemon juice and the baking soda ones to no avail. Humph. 

Yummy yummy yummy! This grey-green has enough green in it to make sure it's definitely a green, but lacks enough green to be wearable everyday. My other couple of green polishes get pulled out for Christmas and St Patrick's day, and for the occasional rainbow, but otherwise I steer WELL clear of green polish. Not this baby. We've started a very serious affair ♥♥.

It took me a long time (and a couple of tries) to decide what, if any, design to put over Stranger Tides. I thought black would dampen it too much, stamping would hide too much of the shade, I didn't want to marble with it, I even considered pairing it with a lilac for a while (still a combo that I want to try sometime, whaddaya think?), and finally settled on a tape / dot design with white that amplifies the deliciousness that is this nail polish.

I used a small/medium dotting tool for the polka dots on my middle and pinky fingers, and used this technique on my index and ring fingers, except I taped down the nail on a diagonal instead of across the tip and painted the exposed nail in OPI Alpine Snow, the same polish I dotted with.

I think I'm getting pretty good at my polka dotting, whaddaya reckon?

I really like how this mani turned out, especially as it took me about 3 days to settle on a design I really liked! Yeah, I am extremely indecisive... Anywho, do you like it? What's your favourite polish that you can't bear to cover? Thank you so much for reading!! Hope you enjoy the rest of your week! =)

Pink Wednesday: Strawberry Delight

Hi hi hi! Happy Wednesday! I know, I know, slack blogger is slack, and I'm sorry I've been MIA this week but life's just sort of taken over and blogging's taken a back seat =(. As always, I felt obliged to do a Pink Wednesday post, so enjoy a simple 2 colour water marble with OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Strawberry Margarita!

I started with two coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu as I have done for a while now - I haven't got a base coat at the moment and this sheer white gel polish is perfect to make the colours pop! I think I applied more to my ring finger than to my middle finger - can you see the difference in opacity? I wanted to try a different marbled design to my usual swirls, so I stuck my fingers in the middle of the water pattern instead. What do you think, do you like the side on swirls or these ones?

I smudged my index finger =( I applied a top coat without waiting for it to dry properly... Will I never learn? =P I used Rimmel Lycra Pro Matte Top Coat because I'm still a teensy bit obsessed with matte finishes... Just a teensy bit! I'm almost over it, I think... ;-)

That's all folks =) Thanks SO much for stopping by! Smile lots, and I'll try to post more ;-)

Pink Wednesday: Hot Patootie!

Hiya, lovelies! So I had the idea for today's Pink Wednesday post all ready and set in my head, and then I went and checked the mail and this little baby had turned up! I wasn't expecting her until tomorrow, but as she's pink and arrived on a Wednesday, I decided it must be fate and decided to swatch my newbie instead! So even though you miss out on my kick-ass nail art idea for Pink Wednesday, you know next week's gonna be thought out =P. May I present my newest baby: Sally Hansen Frutti Petutie.

Yummy yum yum!! The 'complete salon manicure' range claims to have a base coat, strengthener, growth treatment, colour and top coat all packed into the bottle. Honestly, I just got this one for the colour =P All of these photos are two coats with no top coat. Shock! I know! For once, my beloved Seche Vite stayed on the shelf!

Even though all the photos were taken in the exact same lighting conditions, you can already see the colour changing nature of this baby. As I sit here at my desk, I think it's red, pink, and coral all at the same time. The finish on this polish has such a jelly look but the formula is an opaque delish creme that glides on like butter. I did have a few little streaky-streaks on layer 1 but they, and my nail line, disappeared with the second coat.

I swear all these photos are the same polish! These last two capture the pink hue best. Just look at that shine! You can defo see that they've put effort into building a 'top coat' finish on this one. I was so excited to get this baby on my tips that I was really sloppy with my application, and that left some colour around my cuticles even after cleaning up with pure acetone. It claims to have a base coat included in the polish, but it's such a strong colour that I'm interested to find out what happens when I try to remove it. I only had one coat of OPI Nail Envy nail strengthener on under the polish, which I have recently discovered does NOT work as a stain-resistant base coat! I guess we'll see... =P

See, it is a pink polish! Because my camera couldn't quite figure out what colour to capture, I decided to get some blue in a shot to get the pink to come out and play. Lovely shot of my coloured cuticles, aye? ;-) Conclusion: YUM! As we're heading into Spring (then Summer, for those of you keeping track...) I feel like this is going to be on my tips a LOT for the next wee while. It's just calling to be wrapped around some iced glass of something on the beach, dont'cha think?

What was the last polish you bought that couldn't decide what colour it wanted to be? Do you stick to the seasons with your manis or just wear whatever you feel like year round? Thanks SO much for stopping by! =D

Dutch Ya Just Love That Shimmer?

Hiya, peoples! Hope your Sundays are all lovely and relaxing and re-energising and stuff. Today's post is a swatch of OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI? from the Holland collection. 

This is a deep plummy purple with a copper shimmer throughout. The shimmer is obvious in the bottle and translates pretty darn well onto the nail, though capturing the little beauty on camera was a bit tricky. A perfect buttery 2 coat application. I wore this one for days - a rarity for me! The purple is just so... Purple. It's deep without being gothic, and it's not particularly blue-purple or red-purple, it's just smack in the middle of purple-purple. The copper shimmer gives off gold flashes, making this baby just royal enough for every polish princess ;-).

An attempt at capturing the copper shimmer.

I added a matte top coat, purely out of curiousity, and this was the look that I wore for days. It sort of fused the purple and the coppery shimmer together - it gives a more all-over copper sheen rather than a burst of copper shimmer where the light hit. Yum yum yum!

See? The copper shimmer is no where near as vivid as with a gloss finish, but it's definitely still present. Doesn't the purple look just so delish in matte? Mmmm...

Another angle to prove that the copper shimmer is still there. Just yum!

Hope you all enjoy what's left of your weekends ;-) and thank you for reading! 

Tutorial: Interlocked Dot Mani

Hiya lovelies! Happy Saturday! Quick little post today - I haven't really been in the blogging mood since Wednesday's post =\ dunno why, maybe I'm low on whatever vitamin sparks the desire to blog? Anywho, I've had a crack at making my first picture tutorial for a mani that I don't really know what to call... It was this one here... I promised the next time I tried it I'd make a step-by-step guide, so that's exactly what I've done =). This time it's with China Glaze Aquadelic and OPI No Room For The Blues. Will shhh now... Enjoy!

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If you give it a go I'd love to see the outcome! Tag me @RFTP_NZ on Twitter or post it to RFTP's Facebook wall =)

Do you prefer photo or video tutorials? Do you often try a mani you've seen around or do you just like seeing how it's done? Enjoy your weekends, lovely people, and thank you for reading! 

Pink Wednesday: Fadin' Gradien'

Weee! It's Wednesday!! As you know On Wednesdays We Wear Pink and today's extra pink mani features a gradient with some stamping thrown in for good measure. 

I started off with two coats of BYS French White, and when that was dry I sponged on a gradient in French White, China Glaze Something Sweet and OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips. I know, I know, KMOMYT again?? I'm sorry! I swear I'll venture into other polishes soon =P.

While I thought this was pretty nifty, it was a bit blah and 'done', so I wanted to add a little sumthin' sumthin' to kick it up to the next level of mani... Enter my Bundle Monster stamping plates!

I waited and waited and waited 'til my gradient was completely dry (without any help from Seche Vite because I've found my stamps don't work well over top of that glossy glass finish!) and stamped in BYS French White with Bundle Monster plate BM322. 

I like how the stamp looks like it's fading out into the white, or the gradient looks like it's fading in, or something... It's a cool effect =P. Can't wait to try this with other colour combos and stamps! Those 2012 Bundle Monster stamping plates are just incredible. Loves 'em! 

Here's a snap of the gradient while I was waiting for it to dry. I really like the texture on these babies. Maybe I'm just bored of ye olde glossy glossy? Meh, I think it's cool ;-).

How do you mix up a mani you've done before? Do you like gradients with a tonne of colours or only a couple? Happy Wednesday, lovelies, thanks for stopping by!! =D

Play Time with OPI

Hiya lovely people! Today's mani is one that I wasn't sure I would ever post, but the response from some lovely ladies who saw it was so positive, I decided to share it here too =). I like to play around with different manis and techniques while watching TV / listening to music if I have down time, and this mani was born while watching Bedlam. Not the most amazing series ever, but I'm totally hooked! Anyway, onto the nails...

I started with two coats of OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips (have you noticed I've been using that a LOT lately? Can't help it, it's pink perfection!) and after applying some magical Seche Vite to speed the drying process along, I taped off the tips of my nails and created a thick french mani with OPI No Room For The Blues. With a medium-sized dotting tool I added dots of NRFTB at even spaces along the bottom edge of the 'french tip', then dotted KMOMTL between the blue dots on the other side... Do you kinda get what I mean? I didn't bother to take step-by-step snaps because I didn't know how it was going to turn out, but if I do this again I'll definitely keep a photo record for ya!

A coat of SV over everything dried and set it all, and took away *most* of the 3D effect of the dotting. Naturally I had to grab my Rimmel Lycra Pro Matte Top Coat for some yummy matte goodness. It's so nice to know that if a mani doesn't look great after applying a matte top coat, you can just apply another shiny top coat and pretend it never happened! ;-)

Whaddya reckon - is this a cool effect you'd want to try yourself, maybe with some colours that don't contrast so much? What does it remind you of? Do you love matte manis as much as I do? (As if that's possible... =P )

Thanks SO much for stopping by, lovelies! 

Boxed In

Hello lovelies! As I was going through the photos I have ready to post, I just wasn't feeling it and thought maybe I just wouldn't post today. Once I gave up, I moved a shoe box (with a new pair of shoes in it, yay shoes!) and thought the pattern on the box would make a nice mani. So I picked out my polishes and tried my first checkered tape mani. Check it out!

This is Miki No. 21 and China Glaze Urban-Night. Once my base colour of two coats of the Miki polish were dry (with a little help from my friend - Seche Vite), I cut some squares of sticky tape and stuck them where you can see the base colour. Then I applied a nice thick layer of Urban-Night and peeled the tape off. I learnt a valuable lesson with this mani - always take the tape off when the polish is wet! You get a much cleaner line and you don't risk peeling the polish off with the tape.  

Here's the shoe box that inspired the mani. Pretty close, no?

A snap with my new little buddy. Isn't he the cutest little owl ring you've ever seen?

Just a quickie today! Hope you're enjoying your Friday! Woo, weekend!! =D 

It's Marbling Time!

Hello hello lovely people! As promised, today's post features a watermarble using pastel polishes. Let's just jump straight in, shall we?

This mani uses Essie Lilacism, China Glaze Aquadelic, OPI No Room For The Blues and Miki No. 25. I started off with two coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu (the white one from OPI NYC Ballet collection) to give the pastel colours something to shine on - I thought they'd be too sheer without some form of white basecoat.  

I double dipped my left ring finger because the first try was so off centre! You can just see one of the original loops peeking out from the swirl closest to the tip of the nail! I kinda like how the middle finger turned out - the yellow gives a little bit of a colourful french mani effect, don'tcha think?

Another double dipped nail! This really shows how sheer those pastels can be. I stuck my thumb right in the middle for this effect, just to try something different. I think maybe my colours were too far apart to give a really cool effect... It's not so bad anyway =P 

Behold the giant gash. Gahh!!! Don't you hate it when you have everything sorted and finished and just *boop*... Destroyed. Sigh. I added a matte top coat because in the wonderful wise words of my mother, "Matte makes everything look yum!". So true. The matte somehow makes the mani look a bit 60's ish, no?

My right hand makes an appearance! Note the night big smudge-y bald spot on my middle finger ;-). Man I'm awesome at bumping my nails when they're wet! The cuticles on my right hand are so dry, sheesh! Looks like I need to use more Lemony Flutter! 

Swirly swirly swirl...

And just a couple of quick piccys to show any of you who haven't tried this before how truly messy it is! Great fun, great effect, but a b**** of a clean up, especially if you forget to tape around your nails!

Hehe mucky pup... So there ya go, pastel water marble! Every time I do a water marble, I think 'I should do this more often'! Then I realise how much polish it uses, and reconsider ;-).

What are your favourite colour combos for water marbles? Have you tried this mani before, or maybe the dry marbling technique? I'd love your feedback, darlings, I love hearing from you! =D Happy almost weekend!