ALL The Colours!!

Well hello there, friends! I have something bright and colourful to share with you today to get back into the swing of blogging. I've been MIA from here for a couple of reasons - 1) my nails took a serious beating when I was working on a construction site a few weeks ago, and I've been waiting for them to grow into something paintable, and 2) I got lazy and decided to post everything straight to Instagram instead of writing it up here - sorry! Last night I did the first properly nail-arty mani I've done in ages, and I knew it was time to share. I give you: ALL the colours!!

This one's pretty pic heavy so click through to see more ^_^

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 ^_^

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!! 

Triple Threat

Look who's back, back again... Hey hey hey lovely people! Sooo it's been a wee while since my last post (yes, I'm ridiculously slack) but in my defence I've been a tad ill + it was production week last week for Hairspray here in Wellington NZ, which means the show is OPEN! Well, we close this coming Saturday =( but tonight is one of the two nights we have off, so I thought I'd better bloomin' post something! As the queen of indecisiveness, naturally I couldn't choose what to share with you. Instead of sifting through my reserve piccys (yes, I've been taking pics without posting them, naughty!) I decided to do something fresh and new for you. Well, lots of fresh and new, really. I did three different manis using the same colours in different tones (ie blue on blue, purple on purple...) then added a matte top coat over each completed design to create six snazzy lookin' manis. Wanna see??

Click on the pic for a bigger image. Cute, no? I really haven't decided which look I like the best - I think it's tying between the purple and the blue... Hmmm... Let's break it down =D

I popped into the local Cosmetics Plus in the mall to have a look for some cheap dark jewellery for the show (booth singers [which is what I am] have to wear black as we sit in the orchestra pit in front of the stage, so we can be seen but we're not meant to be!) and in the corner I spotted a Miki mini's stand packed full of goodies! With 2 for $3 pick'n'mix, naturally I pounced on the cute mini nail polishes and even bagged myself a quad-colour eye shadow compact. Score! This Miki mini polish is one of the ones I picked up - Miki No. 21. It's a little sad that they don't name their colours, but they're such yummy shades that I'll get over it ;-). 

A delicious buttery two-coater. This pale lilac-y purple sits just perfectly between a couple of other purples I have, and I'm more than happy to have spent the $1.50 to add this little cutie to my stash! Stamped over it is Bundle Monster plate BM317 in BYS Reign Supreme. This purple refuses to photograph its true shade, but rather prefers to lean toward a navy blue. I swear it's purple!!

The completed look with a coat of Seche Vite. I stamped my middle and ring fingers first, then realised how matchy-matchy the stamp was looking, so tried to mix it up a bit on the others. I'm just going to take a second to say how much I FRICKIN' LOVE THESE BUNDLE MONSTER PLATES!!!! Everyone I know who's got them is absolutely in love with them - they are the easiest stamps I've ever used, and the customer service at Bundle Monster has me itching to go back just because they are so lovely to deal with! I may have mentioned before my massive blonde moment in ordering these plates? I clicked the wrong ones... The lovely people at the site fixed it all for me complete with smiley faces =D. One happy girly right here, I can tells ya!

This is the same look (duh) with a coat of Rimmel Lycra Pro Matte Finish over top of the Seche Vite. I'm still impressed with the ability of this matte top coat to cut through the intense shine of SV every time =P. Going matte is such an easy way to change up a mani just a bit and make it something less everyday-ish... I think so anyway!

Okie dokie, next up we have the blues! The base colour for this mani is a polish I came across in a local Dollar Store. I'd never really looked at this brand because I assumed (like a snobby little girl) that a nail polish that's $3 and stocked next to packets of imitation... everything... with poorly translated Chinese descriptions on the packets maybe wouldn't have such a good formula. However, after (more time than I'll admit) surfing through online auction sites looking for polish, this brand kept popping up over and over in the $10-$15 range. They had some colours I've been hunting for, and I knew they sold them cheaply in the Dollar Store so I took the plunge and bought a couple to check them out. 


I'm in love.

The base colour is Kleancolor Sea Ice - a perfect creamy two coater! I nervously did a swatch immediately after purchasing it and was majorly impressed! Such a great find - this brand is dangerously plentiful in the cheapy shops... The stamp is from Bundle Monster plate BM322 in China Glaze First Mate. The more I look at it, the more I think this is my favourite mani of the 3 (6..) in this post. 

There's something a little bit mod about this one, and as each performance of Hairspray transports everyone back to 1962, I think everyone in the show has been in a bit of a mod mood lately! 

With the matte top coat. I definitely like this one better matte. Whadda ya think?

And finally, go go green! 

The base for this mani is Revlon Posh, a polish I haven't used before today. Farmers (department store) had Revlon polishes for $11 each for about a week (they usually retail around $20-$25 here) so of course I pounced. I was getting a teensy bit tired of painting my nails by this point (I know, blasphemy on a nail blog!) so my strokes were a bit off, meaning I ended up doing three coats when I ordinarily would've needed two. Lazy bum. This polish is aaaaaall shine, even before my beloved Seche Vite was applied.

I stamped in China Glaze Holly Day with Bundle Monster plate BM319. I'm really glad the design shows up in the photos because the contrast was so slim when I first stamped it. I did consider trying to double-stamp, but my aim is so bad that I knew it wasn't worth it! 

Yummy Matte-y goodness... Love this mani in the matte version! With a gloss finish, I honestly don't think I'd wear this mani out, but with the magic matte top coat, it's right up my alley. Funny how the littlest last minute additions can make all the difference, huh?

Do you agree with me, or are ya lovin' the shiney shines? Maybe I'm just obsessed with matte at the moment and it's making me biased =P. 

Phew! That was a long post! I might be making up for missed time... =P 


So what are your favourites? Are you all about the shine or are you crossing over to the matte side? Talk to me, beautiful darlings, I love to hear your feedback! Check in again soon - I have my Pink Wednesday all sorted ;-).