Amazon...Amazoff

Disclaimer: the terrible pun title was not my creation for once - OPI's naming team is getting worse! 

Hello hello! Looks like the New Zealand nail addicts have been lucky enough to get our nabby little hands on the OPI Brazil collection a little ahead of quite a few places! I'm one of those annoying customers who comes back every few days "Have you got them in yet??!?" but it kinda wasn't my fault this time, because my local Farmers (department store not unlike Target) put the stands and names up, then left them empty! Ultimate tease! Anywho, last Friday I was on a break at work and popped in, and there they were!! They were so new out the codes wouldn't even scan at the till. I could only afford two at the time so I got a stunning perfect nude called Don't Bossa Nova Me Around which I'm sure I'll feature later on sometime, and this amazing "Jungle Green" (OPI), Amazon...Amazoff. I will be heading back for more, trust me. But today I want to share Amazon...Amazoff. Check it!

ABC Challenge: B

Hi hi! Okay so I lied a little bit, I'm a day late with this post, but I have a legit reason! I know it sounds stupid, but my cat walked across my keyboard while I was editing in Photoshop and kinda reset all my settings, and changed some I didn't even know about. It took some pretty serious Googling to get everything back, but I'm sorted now, so on with the challenge!

Quick n Dirty

Well hello there, strangers. I trust you've all had amazing and relaxing wonderful New Years, Januarys and half Februarys! To crack into the new year of blogging, I've got a couple of quick n' simple silver / grey manis for you. First up: I was feeling musical.

Do you remember how I was in a local production of Hairspray last year? Well the next show is Phantom of the Opera (SO freakin' excited!!!) and yesterday was the presentation for all auditonees to get a snapshot of the new set design / general creative jist of the show. That put me in a super excited musical mood, so I thought I'd share some (poorly) stamped musical nails.

This mani is two coats of China Glaze Pelican Gray, with a coat of OPI Pirouette My Whistle over top. Accent nails are two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls from the Spiderman Collection, stamped in a generic black using fauxnad (Konad knock off) plate m73. All topped off with a coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast.

Yeeeeah so my stamping was terrible at best, but it gets the point across, don'tcha think? I'm obviously out of practice... Will make an effort to improve, promise!

Next up is the mani I'm still wearing. This is China Glaze Glistening Snow. Freakin' gorgeous!!!

This baby is tricky to capture with my lighting setup (ie: my bedside lamp...) because whenever it's in direct unfiltered lamplight, it just looks silver, and it's NOT! It's every colour ever, in a beautiful sparkly, shimmery, dancing mosaic of gorgeousness. Can you tell I like it?

For these photos I used three coats, with a coat of Wicked Fast to set it. I've found with this one the more coats you use, the more intense the sparkle becomes. I'm so madly in love with this polish, you don't even know. It's become my go-to 'happy polish'. I mean, I like all my polishes, but this one always makes me smile.

My mum and I have an ongoing in-joke about owls (long terrible pun-filled story), and I got her this silver owl ornament for Christmas last year, and he goes perfectly with this polish, so I had to include him in the shoot!

So there ya go, quick n' dirty! What's your favourite polish that can always lift your mood? Do you have a favourite musical? Thanks for stopping by - hope to see you again soon!

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

Birthday Treats

Happy Saturday, gorgeous peoples! I have two polishes for you today! Tomorrow is my birthday (woo hoo!) so after class yesterday I decided to treat myself with some eye candy, so I popped into my favourite polish stores. Sitting front and centre in one of the stores - obviously new in - were these two stunning babies! I was only gonna look, but when I saw this purple... Oh it was love at first sight - she took my breath away ♥. Her brother - the blue - was a couple of shelves lower, and I knew she'd be lonely without him, so he came home with me too ;-). May I present BYS Orchid Ice and Rhapsody!

First up is my new baby girl - Orchid Ice. That finish... Oh my gosh, that finish! This is one - yes, ONE - coat over Cult Nails Get It On base coat, with a coat of Seche Vite on top. I have never seen a finish like this in the under $10 category, let alone being able to get two for under $15! I am one happy chickie! 

Ooooh that shimmer... Definitely one of those polishes you know you're wearing! The colour, the formula, the finish, the shine, the application... Perfection in a bottle! Well, aside from the smell... Both of these polishes REEK like you wouldn't believe! However, addict that I am, the almighty stench is SO worth the gorgeousness of this baby! If you're gonna try them, hold your nose ;-).

The amazing duo-chrome fleck shimmer in this polish is just to die for! It's a true purple through and through, but flashes the most beautiful bright fuchsia pink in the light. Yep, this is gonna be a long and loving affair ♥ ;-). You gotta know what's coming next...

Matte! *drools* My gosh, I only added a matte top coat out of curiousity, but I am SO glad I did! Lookit! It's like velvet! All the shimmer and duo-chrome-y yumminess with a velvety matte finish - could this polish get any more delish??

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This pic shows the intense duo chrome effect - the deep purple with the breath taking fuchsia flash shining through =D. Yum yum yum yum yum!!! 

Now for her brother... I'm a sucker for a good polish name, and the fact that this is a blue polish called Rhapsody won me over almost as quickly as the colour did. Look look look! =D

Okay, so this baby leans pretty close to a frosted finish (which I'm pretty sure died with the '90s), but the unbelievable shimmer and totally delicious shade makes up for that, right? Right? Please tell me I'm justified in wearing this near-frosted-finish polish! =P He was also a one-coater, finished off with Seche Vite.

 

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Click this ^ one to see the intense shimmery beauty! *drools*

With the matte top coat. Yup, this baby and his sister are more than welcome in the ever-growing family that is my polish stash! I need more fingers - I really didn't want to take either of these babies off!

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Phew - that was a bit pic heavy - sorry! But worth it, don'tcha think? I had to share these newbies with you because they're still totally stealing my heart! ♥ They're completely unique in my stash - though I wish they'd had a green one too! I'm surprisingly fond of green polishes at the moment. It's all Radha of ThePolishOwl's fault! She's been spoiling me with pics of totally delish greens on Twitter ;-P.

What was the last polish that you fell in love with on the spot? Did you buy it then or are you still in a long-distance relationship? Glitter, shimmers, cremes or jellies? I love to hear from you, lovely people! Thank you so much for reading! =D

Double Trouble

Hello hello, beautiful people! I put up a sneaky peak of the first of today's manis on Instagram and promised clearer pics on today's blog post, but when I got around to editing pics to make them post worthy, I realised how terrible my cuticles were in the photos - very dry, really torn up and obviously recently bleeding in a couple of places! So instead of a) editing til the wee hours to make them presentable or b) subjecting you to the horror that was my un-cared-for cuticles, I touched up a couple of pics (badly, hurriedly) and thought I'd give you two manis instead of one to make up for it =D. First up we have OPI Do You Lilac It?!

I started with Cult Nails Get It On base coat, then applied two coats of OPI Do You Lilac It?. When that was dry, I added accent nails of China Glaze Prism from the (seriously stunning) Prismatic collection, because I needed a bit of glitter in my life =). On my non-accent nails I stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM319 using China Glaze Icicle. I'm reasonably happy with this silver for stamping, but I'm still keeping an eye out for a more opaque silver!

A close up of the shimmery sparkle! Prism has a light purple jelly-ish base with every colour of glitter you could ever want packed into it. The Prismatic collection is packed full of gorgeous glittery bits, but it starts out reasonably sheer and builds to unimaginable glittery goodness! This is one coat of Prism and you can see plenty of Do You Lilac It? peeking through. Gorgeous or what?

The second mani I have for you is one I posted on Instagram yonks ago (yes, I said 'yonks'), but I'm still totally digging it and have had to convince myself out of recreating it many times since I took it off! Presenting a gradient mani in China Glaze Aquadelic and OPI No Room For The Blues!

As always, I used this magical tutorial from the ever brilliant Sammy of The Nailasaurus to create the gradient. When it was dry (and I did a lot of waiting because the stamping doesn't adhere to the quick dry top coats I have #firstworldproblems) I stamped in BYS French White using Bundle Monster plate BM318. 

I did this mani at the start of Spring, though looking at it now it's more of a Summer mani. It reminds me of cool drinks on hot days, sunshine, blue skies, clean water... Yep, okay, I'm keen for Summer now!

Again, my cuticles weren't in the best condition, but the mani kinda makes up for it, no? Aquadelic stained the [expletive] out of my nails and cuticles, partly because gradient manis can get kinda messy but also because I didn't have a base coat yet. Oh, that reminds me, I probably used one layer of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu under the gradient because it was pre-base coat =).

Do you have a favourite opaque silver polish for stamping? How do you look after your cuticles? Thank you SO much for reading, gorgeous! Stop in again soon =D

Stamping The Night Away

Hiya most wonderful peeps!! So I've been a tad MIA in terms of my blogging, and I am sorry for that, but I've just been lacking inspiration lately - you know how it is... I've still been posting on Twitter and Instagram, but I thought it must be time to do a proper post since I haven't blogged since last month! I have a sweet and simple stamped mani for you today =) Enjoy! (And excuse my poor dry cuticles...)

Nothing goes together like pink and blue, so I decided to use OPI I Think In Pink and BYS Sky's The Limit for a pale but clean + bright mani. As you might know I've been using OPI Don't Touch My Tutu as a base coat until I could get my hands on a real one (which I did today, in some VERY exciting circumstances - more in a later post ;-) ), and since I knew how sheer I Think In Pink can be, I doubled up on the white base coat for those nails. This meant I only needed 2 coats of both ITIP and Sky's The Limit for opacity and no VNL (visible nail line). The wonders of white 'underwear'!  

When my yummy yummy base colours were dry, I stamped with BYS French White using Bundle Monster plate BM321. While stamping I managed to bump my middle finger, mostly because I'm yet to do a mani during which nothing goes wrong ;-) but I tidied it up best I could, and apart from a gap in one of the flowers, it wasn't particularly noticeable. My stamping still needs some work, but if I'm careful I can usually get a result I don't hate =P. Guess what's coming next... Go on, you know what it is... 

Matte top coat! Yes, I am still obsessed with all (nail) things matte. It just gives such a nice finish in most cases, though I will admit I've come across a couple of polishes that IMO should NOT be worn anyway but glossy-glossy! For this mani, it definitely worked, don'tcha think? I used Rimmel Lycra Pro Matte Finish Top Coat =). 

The big ol' bump on my middle nail makes an appearance ;-). This pink is just so yummy matte! To be honest I really wasn't madly in love with I Think In Pink when I first tried it on - with a shiny finish it does not work with my skin tone at all, and I was so sadly sure I'd never use it for anything more than nail art-y stuff. Made it matte and BAM! Pure deliciousness! It's amazing what a different finish can do! =)

And a close up, because close ups are great =P. I'm sorry I was away from here for so long, lovelies - I promise to try harder to blog more often! You're all so good to me, you deserve some new content every once in a while ;-).

Do you like pink and blue together or are you totally over the combo? Are you giving the matte finish some lovin' or is that another fad you can't wait to see disappear into the abyss into which Shatter polish has fallen? Thank you SO SO SO much for stopping by, you wonderful peoples! Enjoy your fab Fridays ;-).

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

Pink Wednesday: Hound's Ears

Hello wonderful people! Sorry for the delay on this Pink Wednesday post, but those of you following on Twitter or Facebook know that I've been having some issues with my blog host =(. For the last couple of days it has just not wanted to let me upload any pics! Anyway, I can now, so onwards! This mani is OPI I'm All Ears with BYS Black Satin stamped on top.

To quote a bestie of mine, I "love me some houndstooth"! I've used this stamp a few times now, and it's definitely up the top of my fav design pile. It never really called out to me, but once I tried it... Hooked!

These pics are a little out of focus because a) I had a crappy lighting source that upset my camera and b) I wanted you to see the insane shimmer in I'm All Ears. I've ranted and raved before about this polish so I won't go on too much, but just look at that shimmer!! IRL there was so much depth to this (3 coats of) polish that the stamp looked like it was floating on top. 

Sorry again for the delay, sweets, but it looks like we're all back up and running now. I've got a couple of new arrivals that I can't wait to share with you, so check in soon! =D