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!

Painted Plait

Hiya! Today's mani is one I'm actually still wearing - shock horror! It's my first try at a 'fishtail braid' mani, and I only did the design on one finger to make sure it was really special =D. For the plait I used Miki No. 21, China Glaze Aquadelic and Icicle. Somewhat of a successful first attempt, I think...?

Credit where credit is due: This wicked mani idea came from here - I came across it while googling,so I went back and found it again to make sure this extremely talented young lady gets all the credit she deserves! Take a few minutes / hours / days and go through her stuff... Incredible or what??

For my other nine fingers I used 2 coats of OPI My Very First Knockwurst from the Germany collection. The Germany collection was released here in NZ about two and a half weeks before it was released in USA/Canada... Weird. I suspect one of our local stockists (won't say who...) got the shipment and maybe didn't read the info pack that came with it saying when to release them? Whatever it was, they were doing a 'buy two get one free' deal at the time too so naturally my Mum (who matches me for polish obsession) came home with three shades from the collection - My Very First Knockwurst, Don't Pretzel My Buttons and Berlin There, Done That. MVFK is my ultimate nude shade now! I could wear nothing else and be totally happy... For about four days, maybe... ;-)

On one of my many googling-for-inspiration binges, I came across something that looked like this. Only better. I had to figure out how she'd done it, but once I realised it was a straight forward plait, I had to try it! I reckon it's up the top of those 'simple yet effective' manis.

Okay so some of my lines are a bit average. I've already got ideas floating around in my tiny brain for other colour combos and how to improve my technique, so stay tuned! 

Where do you get most of your manispiration from? Have you got a favourite (or two or six...) from the new OPI Germany collection? Thanks for stopping by =D 

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 ;-).

Pink Wednesday: By Request

Happy Wednesday, lovely people! On Wednesdays We Wear Pink, and a couple of Pink Wednesdays ago I got some comments from wonderful ladies saying that they love pink and blue together, and that they should be paired more often. Your wish is my command, loves, so today you get a very simple pink and blue gradient mani! I love the plain-ness of this mani and the fact that you don't need any fancy equipment to do it - just some sponge! This suited me down to the ground as my fancy nail art inspiration is lacking a tad this week. I'll blame the blasé weather! Without further ado...

The clean bubblegum pink is Essie Flawless, with Miki No. 24. sponged over top. I used this tutorial, and I can't believe how ridiculously easy it is to get the colours to blend together properly! Thank you, Sammy, for making such a useful tutorial! I seriously urge all of you to pick out two (or three or four...) of your favourite polishes, pop your feet up for a bit and give this mani a go. So simple for such a wicked look!

Okay well they're not perfect, but I'm truly diggin' this look. Thanks to those lovely ladies who requested the blue and pink - you made this Pink Wednesday so easy =D. 'Scuse my cuticles - they're just screaming "moisturise me, moisturise me!!". Whoops! I must stop neglecting my cuticles. Apparently they're quite key in keeping your nails healthy... Who'd a-thunk it? Below I have a photo of the sponges I use for my gradient manis. I think this bag of 20 was about $6? I can't remember, I just added it to the cart while grocery shopping. See what I mean about not needing any snazzy expert equipment? 

I've given you a couple of close ups of the sponges so you can see how small the pores are. A lot of the ladies who do gradient manis use sponges with big pores, like the sponges in the best tutorial ever, but I figure the smaller the pore, the less polish you use, and the finer the gradient, AND the less times you have to go over and over to get the colours to show. And they're just so fun to squish. I am a simple creature at heart...

I swapped the colours around on my right hand to see which I prefer. I swear I used the same polishes on both hands, but I was apparently much more enthusiastic with the blue on my right hand! The pink is purple, and the blue dominates every nail. Oopsies... 

And, as usual, my right hand is a lot worse than my left... Something else I need to work on ;-).

Here's a comparison of the left and right hands so you can see how ridiculously purple my right nails are! But there's still enough pink in there to qualify for a Pink Wednesday, yeah?

Which do you prefer? Pink fading to blue or blue fading to pink (well, purple..)? Do you like the gradient look or think it's weird / ugly / overdone? Gimme your feedback, lovely people, I always love hearing from you! Thanks for checking in =D.

- Ally xx