Obligatory Christmassy Stuff

Well Ho Ho Ho to y'all! I did some Christmas nail art in the few moments I had to myself in the raucous Christmas season! Yeah okay so I'm posting on Boxing Day, but I know a lot of you are still celebrating the Big Day, so I wanted to share. Hope you're ready for a whole lotta green, red and gold!

More after the jump......

I'm Alive!!! Muahahaha....

Well hello, strangers! Bet y'all thought I'd fallen off the edge of the universe, huh? Well you're kinda right, I disappeared into the void of a brand spankin' new job (which has entirely taken over my life for the better!!) but I missed you guys too much, so I'm back. I'm gonna cheat a little bit and use up a bunch of my old un-posted photos, mostly because they deserve to be shared, but also because I still don't really have time to do cool stuff yet. Let's crack on, shall we? 

Triumphant (lolz) return starts with a post I had saved in my Drafts here on Blogger - it's a recreation of an oooold mani with a couple of tweaks. Please enjoy China Glaze Dance Baby with special guest appearance from some BornPrettyStore glequins!

The Polished Kiwi Gets Swatched!

Well hello there, lovely people! I know I've been a bit AWOL but it's for good reason, and to make it up to you I have a HUGE and exciting post for you today - Polished Kiwi Lacquer swatches!! You guys have no idea how excited I am to be doing this!! The beyond kind and wonderful Jade from The Polished Kiwi has started making and selling her very own home-brewed lacquers right here in NZ, and I've managed to snag the immense honour of swatching five of her currently available beauties. It's a bit pic-heavy, but soooo worth it. Click on through to see these yummies in action!

Glittery Buttons of Luxury

Hi hi hi! Super quickie for you tonight - I was just going through the ridiculous backlog of manis that I've got waiting to be posted and thought it was time to shuffle some out into the world. It's already after midnight so I'm not going to be very chatty tonight (woohoo!!) so you can sit back and enjoy the glittery goodness!

Pink Wednesday: Nail Vinyls

Happy Wednesday, lovely people! I haven't done a Pink Wednesday post in forever, so I thought it was about time to reinstate the tradition! I have a couple of manis for you today with similar themes: obviously they're both pink, but they both utilise Nail Vinyls as well. Nail Vinyls are the genius brainchild of @teismom and they are absolutely brilliant. I'll explain a bit more about them further on, but first, enjoy some pics!

Essie x4

Hello, hello! In a recent moment of weakness I bought three new Essie polishes (...and I may or may not have four OPI on their way >.< oops!) and I wanted to share them with you! The three I purchased were Play Date, Lapis Of Luxury, and Turquoise & Caicos. Yeah I know there are four pictured... I already had Cute As A Button from a couple of months back when my local Farmers started stocking the new Essie formulas, and it made sense to 'complete the rainbow' by adding it in as a fourth. Click on through to see swatches and an impromptu watermarble. =)

Simple Stripes: Pastel Edition

Whaaaaaat?? Two posts in two days??? This hasn't happened in months! Woo! Talk about starting off the way you wanna go on XP. Honestly, I just couldn't wait to share this mani - I LOVE how it turned out! Okay, there are still a couple of bumps along the road but this mani was super fun and easy to do, so I had to share straight away! The line-up:

L to R: piCture pOlish Fairy Floss (uh, duh...), Essie Liliacism (new formula, the old one is shite), Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau (haven't I seen that somewhere before...?), and Essie Mint Candy Apple (the one polish in my whole stash I have to stop myself from wearing EVERYDAY cos I luvs it so hard). Click on through to see what I got up to with these bad boys!

New Beginnings

~~Happy New Year!!!~~

I hope you've all had a blast over the course of 2013 and are looking forward to 2014 as much as I am!! 2013 was a bit of a rough one for me, so I'm looking forward to slightly smoother sailing throughout this coming year. In the spirit of new stuff, I've decided to flake out of the ABC challenge (lol, I'm so slack...) and just post whatever I'm inspired by! I found toward the end there that I was resenting *having* to stick to a specific letter when I had so many gorgeous polishes and interesting ideas floating around! Having said that, today's post (first in '14! Woo!) was going to be my 'T' post (obviously...) but I loved it so much that I figured I'd just skip 'S' (which has been in the draft folder for two weeks -.-) and jump ahead with what I really wanted to share. Behold, OPI Tiffany Case and Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau.

ABC Challenge: R

Happy December!! Today's post features China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Running In Circles. Enjoy!

ABC Challenge: P

Hiya! Well we've just had the most beautifully sunny day ever here in Wellington - light cool breeze and endless sun... Mmmm it was gorgeous! And because it's put me in the mood for gorgeous things, I thought I'd share some absolutely gorgeous polishes! There are plenty of photos to look at (five extremely photogenic polishes, and one extra...) so let's get to it!

We Interrupt This Programme...

... to bring you the most intensely pic-heavy post you ever did see. I was completely committed to continuing with the Alphabet Challenge, but then those scheming little devils at OPI went and released a bright shiny new Christmas collection!! Wahh!! 

I picked up six of the 18 available polishes - three of the 'core' shades and three of the Liquid Sands. Click on through, but get your scrolling finger ready - there's a LOT to look at!

ABC Challenge: G and H

Heya lovelies. Sorry for being a bit MIA the last few days. A good family friend passed away and I haven't really been in the polishing / blogging mood. Because of this, today's post is super pic-heavy but really quite boring - I haven't done any nail art with the featured polishes, and I'm being extra lazy and cramming two letters into one post. Two letters, five polishes. Today we've got Sinful Colors Gorgeous, Essie Good As Gold, Maybelline Gold's Night Out, China Glaze Highlight Of My Summer and Born Pretty Store Holo #1. Phew! Click on through to the scrolling extravaganza. 

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!

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! =)

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!! 

*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

Caught and Torn

Well hello there, wonderful people! Today's EXTRA SPARKLY post features OPI Catch Me In Your Net - a stunningly bright and glittery aqua that refused to photograph as anything but bright blue, despite staining my base coat and cuticles bright green. Last night I was having one of those evenings when I just needed some glitter in my life, and this glitter-overload polish satisfied every glittery craving. Behold!

This is two generous coats of Catch Me In Your Net, which I swear isn't a blue polish. I guess that's just the personality it wanted to show off in these pics. Stubborn little thing! Topped off with a coat of Seche Vite - as if it needed any help being over-the-top glossy!

Oh, oh, you can almost see some of the green peeking through in that ^ one!

Yummy yummy macro glittery goodness! 

Now, uhm, moving onto some sad news. About a week ago I tore the nail on my middle finger a little on the edge, right on the nail line, and though I plastered it with polish to keep it strong, the rip grew to about halfway across the nail. On Friday I finally got some nail glue and have been gluing it back on as best I could, and was really quite pleased with my amateur repair job...

... but then last night (the night I ordered 2 of the new OPI James Bond nail polishes, of course), the nail finally gave in and tore off completely while I was removing Catch Me In Your Net. 

My reaction: WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH *sob sob sniff* WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!

Et voilà, the best nails I've ever had in my life were destroyed. Although I'm trying to stay optimistic and think that this is a great opportunity to grow strong, healthy nails almost from scratch, another part of me is screaming "I'VE BEEN GROWING THOSE SINCE JULY, DANG IT!!!". *sigh* C'est la vie n' stuff...

What's the worst broken nail you've ever had? Do you try to grow them out or keep 'em short n' sweet? Thank you so much for reading, lovelies!! See you soon! =D

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