Matte Lemons

I know, I know, slack blogger is slack, but I have a legitimate reason for being AWOL, I swear! I've started a new job so I haven't had as much time to prepare posts / do amazing nail art / paint my nails pretty enough to share with you lovelies. Sorry! And on top of that, I'm pretty blimen tired, tbh. With that said, here are some pictures of my fingernails. 

I started with two coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz, then stamped over that with KleanColor White. If I haven't raved enough about my pleasant surprise with KleanColor polishes, please take my word that they're brilliant, and freakin' amazing considering they're so cheap here ($3/bottle, vs OPI $26.90/bottle). I used Bundle Monster plate BM301, and topped everything off with Rimmel Lycra Pro Matte Finish top coat. 

Pretend there are more words here. I has a sleepy.

I double stamped on my middle finger (^ that isn't it, btw), hoping that if the white was glossy, it would contrast with the matte yellow and show up a little more. It didn't. The stamping was barely distinguishable to the naked eye, but I'm glad you can see it in the photos. 

I think I'm going to go and sleep now. Or watch tv. Or something that doesn't require me to be upright / focused / conscious. Zzzzzzzzzzz.... Thanks for stopping by ^_^

Favourite Fuchsia

Hiya!! Phew, it is stinkin' hot here today - it's sooooo nice...! This Summer is definitely gonna be a good one! Speaking of good ones, I officially have a favourite polish. Yes, you heard me, A favourite polish! I ordered some China Glazes from Head2ToeBeauty in the States, and they arrived on my doorstep exactly seven days later. I love quick delivery! And the best part is, their CGs are (mostly) US$3.25 each! Altogether with postage, it cost me just under NZ$35 for four CGs. Sweet or what?? So first up from my new babies is Fuchsia Fanatic!

A 'glamour shot' of the PINK polish =). A while ago some other bloggers and I were chatting about what cameras we use (one of the lovelies was looking at getting a new one and wanted advice) and I'd said I use a little Canon point n' shoot for my blog pics now (PowerShot A4000), but I used to use my big baby (Canon S5) before I got the little one. One of the girls asked if / when I use my big one (who's name is Billy, by the way), and it made me realise poor Billy hasn't had any playtime since I got Johann (the little one). So for today's post, Billy came out to play in the sunshine! Do you notice any difference in the pics? (Apart from being outside in the sun, obviously...). I'd love your feedback!

Now, onto the polish! *drools* This polish... Oh my goodness, this polish...!! I bought it for the colour, of course, but it was the formula that won me over heart and soul. I'm pretty open with formulas - if it's a crappy formula but a great colour, I'll still show it plenty of love. The formula on this baby could not have been any better. I was a little worried when I first opened the bottle - it looked like it was gonna be a sheer jelly à la OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y?, and I admittedly sighed a sigh of disappointment, but from the first brush stroke, it was like heaven to apply. Opaque in one coat with a HIGH gloss jelly-finish, this baby took one coat to look like a perfect shellac / gel nail treatment. Okay, so you know me, I had to apply a second coat (I have VNL insecurities, okay??) but honestly, one would've done. As I was rushing out to go to a show, I applied Cult Nails Wicked Fast top coat, but if you're not in a hurry, there's no need for a TC - the finish is perfect. 

I applied the polish last night and took the photos today, and all pics are 2 coats with Wicked Fast over top. Now that I've finished gushing about the formula, sit back and soak in the delicious pure fuchsia colour! Mmmm...

Seriously, SERIOUSLY impressed with this polish. It's gonna be one of those ones I have to talk myself out of wearing all the time. It truly looks like a shellac / gel salon-applied polish, and I'm just so freakin' impressed with it! I don't wanna take it off, but I have three more brand new CGs to play with! (Lemon Fizz, Glittering Garland, and Grape Pop, in case you were wondering!) Ugh, nail polish addict problems... ;-)

What was the last polish you were seriously impressed with, and why? Do you notice a diference between these photos with Billy, and my usual photos with Johann? (Yep, I'm nuts for naming my electronics, but you knew I was crazy anyway =P) Thank you SO much for stopping by, lovelies! Hope the sun is shining, literally or metaphorically, for you wherever you are!! ♥♥ ^_^

Fail Friday: Sunset Pink

Ugh... Just... Yeah. Before we get into this ridiculous post, please note that none of these photos (or any of the other fourteen billion I took) are anywhere near the actual colour of this polish. This polish downright refused to photograph accurately, and I finally gave up after three separate 'photoshoots' attempting to get the right colour. Gah. Just, yeah. Humph.

*deep calming breaths* Well hi there!! Happy Friday!! Quite some time ago I used to do 'Fail Fridays' showcasing some of my rather plentiful nail-fails, and though I didn't intend on doing one today, it kind of just happened. At the height of my frustration photographing this stupid (not really, I love it, actually) polish, I realised it was Friday, so I could use this as a Fail. 

Today's polish was sent to me by a fellow Kiwi nail blogger Anneke of PinPointPolish. She is wonderfully sweet and super passionate with some amazing photos, so go show her some love!! She found the brand Ulta3 (which is common in the US / Australia but previously unavailable in NZ, as far as I know) at a pharmacy in Auckland and offered to send me a few bottles. Jumping up and down, I went on a Google Images rampage and picked out three, and they arrived safe and sound today in a well packed little box, with some chocolate hiding underneath! Thank you again, Miss Anneke! I love them sooo much!!! Without further ado, may I present the deeply beautiful but unreasonably stubborn Ulta3 Sunset Pink.

See the colour in the bottle? Add two dashes of red-wine shades and a plum or two, and you're a bit closer to the true shade of this baby - a deep berry pink, not a light red as it decided it wanted to be today. This is two easy coats, though the formula was quite a bit thicker than I'm used to. It dries to a rubbery / nearly matte finish, so a glossy top coat is necessary if you want it to shine. I used a coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast top coat.

I was going to write something here, but this is so far away from the colour that I just... *sigh*.

In this photo, my index and middle fingers are sans top coat so you can see the 'original' finish. Again, nowhere near the colour. Honestly, I'm not sure why I bothered posting these photos, except that I'm always so excited about new polish! I absolutely promise with all my heart that it is a beautiful polish that I don't ever wanna take off. Seriously. Even though I messed with my white balance and tried to adjust the shade in photoshop and all that jazz, I could not get an accurate shade without making my fingers bright cyan. So [expletive] it, that'll do. Humph.

That concludes this train wreck. Bah. 

What colours do you find the hardest to photograph? What was the last polish you bought / received? Thanks for checking in loves, and sorry for the entirely useless post! =( 

Edit: This is much closer to the colour that it actually is IRL. Delicious deep berry lipstick-y kinda colour. It's beautiful, I promise. I googled around and couldn't find any particularly accurate photos of the polish, so it's nice to know I'm not alone with this stupid blimen thing!! =P

Happy Weekends! ^_^

Enchanté

Hiya! I wanted to do Pink Wednesday post today since it's Wednesday, and I haven't done a Pink Wednesday post for ages, but since you've just had two pink posts in a row, I thought a third would be pushing my luck! Instead, today I have a 'charming' purple for you! I say 'charming' because, well, it's called Charming, by Cult Nails. This is another one of the beautiful babies my brother sent me for my birthday! Isn't she gooooorgeous??

This smooth buttery polish does best for me in three coats (pictured above), as it starts out pretty darn sheer, but like Deal With It, it builds up nicely with each coat. Again, I could've stopped at two coats, but I still had some VNL (especially on my index finger) so I opted for a third to be sure. All photos are without a topcoat.

In these photos it may look like your same old straight-forward purple polish, but it is soooooo not!! Extra creamy, just shimmery enough and sports a strong pink flash when away from the lamp I use for photo-taking =/. The photo below is much more accurate both in finish and colour - the gorgeous pink glow weirdly decided not to play in the above pics.

This was at two coats, and those streaks you see smoothed out fine when I used a steadier hand for the third coat. I just kinda suck at applying polish is all. I'm great at cleanup, though! That stunning pink glow is present at all times IRL, but like I said, it didn't wanna be caught on camera under my lamp. Humph. This last pic is the only accurate one for the colour, but I wanted to show how this baby builds up. Gorgeous colour, great formula, crap photography ;-).

Do you have a polish that's impossible to photograph accurately? Do you like bold, dark purples or light lilac-y hues? Happy Wednesdays, loves!! ^_^

The Queen's a Charlatan

Hey... Hey you... Yeah, you... Wanna see some magic...? I'm gonna turn a bright red polish into a pink one... Watching...?

Today's quick little post starts with the most delicious creamy true red polish on the planet - Cult Nails Evil Queen.

This is one - yes, ONE - coat with no top coat. Kinda amazing, huh? You ain't seen nothing yet... As amazing and gorgeous as this red is, look what it turns into with one little coat of Cult Nails Charlatan!

See? Magic!! Both these polishes were sent to me for my birthday last month - Evil Queen was sent to me by the amazing Maria of Cult Nails (along with FOUR others! Crazy generous or what??) and Charlatan was sent by my wonderful American-dwelling brother with a collection of other perfect polishes. I am one incredibly spoilt chick, I can tell ya!! I'm gonna shhhh now and let you basque in the beauty of this mani... Yum!

*drools* I just can't get over the magic of Charlatan!! It's one of the Deception Collection toppers from Cult Nails. To see the others in action, check out Marta's swatches. Thanks for popping in, loves! =)

Quickie for Nickie

Hiya!! Hope your Mondays are off to a nice easy start! I've got a super quick post dedicated to one of the most wonderful ladies I've met in the nail-blogging community - Nicole of Young Wild and Polished. She is insanely talented, amazingly sweet and tears-in-your-eyes, rolling-on-the-ground-clutching-your-sides funny! On top of all of that, she's one of the most supportive and understanding ladies I've ever talked to, and she's dealt with more crap than anyone should have to and has come out smiling! 

Nic (and Dot) - this one's for you! ♥

Watermarbling is Nicole's self-confessed "gateway nail art", so I used OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips and Black Onyx for a double nail marbled accent à la Nic. I used the same colours on my pinky and index fingers to re-create a design that she's been playing with since she got her Born Pretty Store nail striping tape. Honestly, doll, I dunno how you do it so neatly - that tape was not cooperating with me!! A coat of Seche Vite topped it all off.

These flowers are absolutely 100% what I associate with Nicole! They are so trademark Young, Wild and Polished that if I ever see them re-created anywhere (not just stolen like on Instagram, grrrr...) I automatically think of her! She's got a quick and easy-to-follow tutorial to let you borrow some of her talent ^_^. I used the same polishes again, and added some light dots throughout in China Glaze Something Sweet. I stole this directly from one of her Instagram photos (obviously I highly recommend following her). 

So there ya go! Go check out Young, Wild and Polished for some gorgeous nail art and some serious lols, or follow her on Twitter and Instagram! Thanks for reading, babes! 

Pretty Pretty Princess

Well hello there! Happy Sunday! Last night while I was trying to decide which of my (many) nail polishes I wanted to play with, I was channel surfing and came across The Princess Diaries. Settled - Princess by Cult Nails it was! I finally felt like my nails had grown out enough to do justice to this beauty-in-a-bottle, so my dream of wearing this special polish finally came true. 

In case you missed this post, my oldest brother who moved to California at the start of the year sent me four absolutely stunning Cult Nails nail polishes for my birthday last month! Princess was in the bunch, and I've been itching to wear it since the day it arrived, but as fate would have it, I'd broken + cut down my nails shortly before their arrival, so I had super-nubbins =(. These polishes are sooo beautiful, they deserve to be worn on healthy, long, loved nails. Now that I (kinda) have them, I'm drowning in CN happiness!! 

This smooth, creamy baby-blue polish has the most subtle golden shimmer which was far too bashful to be caught on camera. The name could not be more appropriate - this is Cinderella in a bottle. Two coats gave full opacity, and I of course used the Cult Nails Wicked Fast fast-dry top coat, though this baby had such a flawless finish that a top coat wasn't necessary - I'm just impatient when it comes to drying time =P. 

Addicted. Totally addicted. Cult Nails has a customer for life. I'm always so impressed with Maria's polishes - there's something really special about them, and you can feel the love that's been put into creating every single one. If you haven't heard the latest, the newest collection Behind Closed Doors is available on pre-sale at the moment - US$40 for the collection of 5 (they usually go for US$10 each). Head over to Chit Chat Nails for Marta's ever-incredible photo review of the collection. Entirely drool worthy, I promise you!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Happy weekends! =D

Her Majesty's Super Sparkle

It's Friday!! Woohoo!!! Hope you're all kicking back and relaxing this weekend! From what I hear from my twitter buddies, the cold weather's starting to settle in up in the Northern parts of the world, but here today, it couldn't have been more beautiful! Well, okay so the wind was a *bit* chilly, but it's excused because I didn't spot a single cloud all day. 'Nuff weather, look at the pretties!! 

Today's spotlight goes to OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service from the new James Bond collection, released in conjunction with the new Skyfall film. The film isn't out until the end of November here, but the stunning polishes are all out, and boy am I glad they are! Totally, TOTALLY drool worthy!! You don't even know. OHMSS is a dark gunmetal green-grey base packed choca full of teeny tiny little multicoloured glitters. To die for. Not kidding.

While it is a deliciously dark polish, it's actually quite sheer. When it first arrived and I tried it out, it took FOUR coats for my nail line to disappear. FOUR. Due to this, and because I freakin' love it so I don't wanna waste it, I started with a coat of KleanColor Retro Green - an almost black grey-green shimmer.

↑ KleanColor Retro Green in direct sunlight ↑

This brilliant one-coater dark polish gave a beautiful colour-match to OHMSS without stealing any of her glory. If I had a dark frosty grey, I probably would've used that, but the green (more teal, actually) added just a hint more dimension... As if this baby needed any more! Click the macro below to basque in the prettiness...

Over Retro Green (which dried in no seconds flat, btw -getting seriously hooked on the surprisingly good formula that KleanColor has) I applied two coats of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. One coat simply wasn't enough glitter for this "ooh! shiny!" kinda gal... 

Aren't my nubbins growing out nicely? ;-P

Delish, delish, delish!! Speaking of which... It's almost Summer here, which means Summer fruits! Yay! Topping my list of faves are strawberries. The early season strawbs here are just sooo sweet and juicy and totally yummy! You can tell just by looking ;-)

I had almost a whole punnet of these bad boys for lunch, chopped up with some banana and pineapple. I sat in the sun and did the crosswords in the paper and took photos of my nails... Perfect afternoon, I reckon!

Do you like your glitters dark and devilish or light and luscious? Have you got a favourite polish from the James Bond collection, or a favourite 007 film? I love hearing from you, lovelies! Thanks for reading, and happy weekend!! 

French Grapes (and some Whine)

Well hello again! I know, I know, slack blogger is slack, and I really have no excuse... But look! A gradient mani! The prettiness makes up for my slackness, yeah? *ahem* Anyway... Today's mani is a gradient mani using BYS French White and OPI A Grape Fit - my current obsession.

There's not really a tonne to say about this mani... I stamped the accent nails using French White and Bundle Monster plate BM310. The stamping on this mani is craptastic, and that's the nicest word I can think of to describe the train-wreck that occurred. I photographed the best nail (yeah, I know, that's how bad it was...) which I had to double stamp because it translated so badly the first time. I tried to line it up, I swear! But it was not to be. *sigh*

At least the gradient is pretty, right??

Ugh. This mani was just NOT working with me today. I didn't even attempt to photograph my right hand because it was twice the disaster of what you've seen. Don't get me wrong, I think it looks really nice here in photo form, but the stamping was horrible, my right hand turned out extra crappy, and overall it was just a total downer for me. You ever have that "This is gonna look sooo great!!" moment in your head, and the execution is just... meh.? Yeah, that's what this was. Humph. 

Sorry to be such a total Debbie Downer on you today, but this is just such a 'could do better' mani that it's left me all meeerghhh... Maybe a nice watermarble will cheer me up... ;-)

What was your last mani-related disappointment? Do you try to touch up what you don't like, or take it all off and start over? Thanks for reading, lovelies, and sorry again for such a pfft reading experience... =P

*Happy Dance*

Hiya! So you know how I have the most awesome and supportive brothers in the world? As if that needed any more proof, today I have just a few snaps of a little parcel my oldest brother sent me for my birthday. Get ready to get jealous.

After my big long ranting rave about how amazing Maria from Cult Nails is, she goes and proves it again by sending me ANOTHER free Wicked Fast top coat!! This birthday just keeps getting better and better! And for those of you who missed my instagram / twitter moment when these arrived, "there ain't no happiness like seeing those Cult Nails burritos"!! Maria's packaging is always so secure and beautiful - it's the little details that I love... Well, aside from the incredibly gorgeous polishes inside!

I had to wait for the sun to shine to get a worthy photo of my most beautiful new babies.

Just look at all that gorgeousness... 

L to R: I Got Distracted, Princess, Charming, and Charlatan.

While I'm still whimpering about my stupid unintentional short stubby nails, I probably won't swatch them because they deserve to be on much more beautiful nails than I have at the moment. It's killing me though, because I just wanna wear them!!! I've tried them all out (Charlatan over an almost-black navy blue, totally delish!) but they're too special to wear on my nubbins at the moment. Silly nubs, grow already! 

Do you have an uber supportive family member that helps your collection grow? What's the most special polish in your stash? Thank you so much for reading, lovelies, and thanks Pete for these mind-blowingly beautiful polishes!!! =D