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!

Psychedelic, Baby!

Well hello hello lovely people! Hope you're all doing wonderfully XD Today I've got some seriously psychedelic swirls to share - neon psychedelic swirls! Slip back to the swinging sixties with these babies!

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!

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: 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!

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

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

Tutorial: Interlocked Dot Mani

Hiya lovelies! Happy Saturday! Quick little post today - I haven't really been in the blogging mood since Wednesday's post =\ dunno why, maybe I'm low on whatever vitamin sparks the desire to blog? Anywho, I've had a crack at making my first picture tutorial for a mani that I don't really know what to call... It was this one here... I promised the next time I tried it I'd make a step-by-step guide, so that's exactly what I've done =). This time it's with China Glaze Aquadelic and OPI No Room For The Blues. Will shhh now... Enjoy!

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If you give it a go I'd love to see the outcome! Tag me @RFTP_NZ on Twitter or post it to RFTP's Facebook wall =)

Do you prefer photo or video tutorials? Do you often try a mani you've seen around or do you just like seeing how it's done? Enjoy your weekends, lovely people, and thank you for reading! 

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 

Spotted Barefoot

Hello hello, lovely people! It's almost Friday, yay! I have a quick spotty mani for you today. This mani is inspired by some wrapping paper I saw while shopping for a friend's birthday present. You know you're obsessed with nail art when you see random things and think "that would make a great mani"! 

For the base colour I used two coats of OPI Barefoot In Barcelona - the most 'nude' colour in my entire collection. This is my go-to pedi colour but it made its way to my tips for today! Dotted over it is BYS Baby Let's Cruise and China Glaze Something Sweet, which arrived today. I love new polishes!

I used my biggest dotting tool and applied random dots of Baby Let's Cruise first, then added Something Sweet over those dots with the same sized dotting tool. Then I went back with a smaller dotting tool and added more Baby Let's Cruise to fill in any gaps. I like the different layers - it adds to the randomness. 

An attempted Macro shot. I didn't get out while the sun was available today so the photos suffered, sorry! 


Have you ever spotted something while out and about and thought 'that would make a great mani'? Did you get around to recreating it on your tips? If you've got pics, I'd love to see 'em! Post them on RFTP's Facebook page if you wanna share =). Thanks for checking in, babes!

Baby, Let's Cruise!

Happy Sunday!! Sorry I didn't post yesterday, but I was a teensy bit busy with a three hour final exam. One down, one to go! That was English, and I have my Philosophy one next Friday. I'll try and get next Fail Friday's post ready early so I can just click and go, but that will require forward planning, and that is not a strong talent of mine... Anywho, on to the nails! 

Today's polish is one I bought yesterday: BYS Baby Let's Cruise. I know it's plain and boring, but I fell madly in love with this colour on its own. I'm planning on stamping it at some point, but by itself it's like nothing I've ever worn before. The colour is stunning, but the formula is easily the worst I have ever encountered. I had to basically pour it onto my tips to get any sort of colour out of it at all, and what you see in the pics is three thick coats, topped off with Seche Vite. If I didn't have my magic bottle of SV, this polish would simply be unusable, the formula is that bad. Having said that, I do have SV, and the colour is worth the hassle! 

It has a much stronger green tint in real life, but these photos (taken in the shade) get across the clean, bright, solid characteristic of this polish. Whether it's because it requires the wearer to wear SO much of it, I don't know, but this is one of the stronger colours I have. Definitely a polish that you know you are wearing, and that everyone in the vicinity knows you're wearing. There is absolutely nothing 'understated' about this polish!

Aren't my cuticles looking good? That Lemon Flutter cuticle butter from Lush is working miracles on my tips, and it's just so yummy! Oh, oh, oh, I almost forgot - I got a new camera! I don't know how much you can really tell as I used to work so hard to get all my photos up to a decent quality for you lovely people, but my new camera is soooo hassle free and wonderful and magical and I love it! It's just a little 'point and shoot' - not what I started out looking for at all - but it actually has more functions and manipulation abilities than some of the bigger expensive manual cameras I thought I wanted. The picture below is exactly the photo I took with the camera with no photoshopping or anything (except resizing, it was a massive file...). Lookit!

This is the 'toy camera' setting, where it kinda 'instagrams' the photo up a bit by dulling the edges. I know, I'm easily entertained, but I got the camera for the specs and all the random little scene settings were a bonus! It's got fish eye effect, miniaturisation, posterisation - so many bonus features that make me love my new little camera all the more! *end rant*

Although I am seriously disappointed by the formula of this polish, you get what you pay for, and the BYS polishes here are definitely on the cheap side. They're $6.90 per bottle, and to give you some prespective, OPI retails for $27.50 a bottle over here (not including the DS range, or the Nail Envy range which sits around $49.90 p/bottle). So one out of two ain't bad I guess, and I'd rather have colour over formula any day! Great formula with an average colour is less desirable in my book. I managed to grab a tiny bit of sunlight as it was passing today, so you get an 'in direct sunlight' look at this stunning colour too!

Just ignore my chubby little fingers ;-). Conclusion: love the colour, hate the formula. What was the last polish you bought for the shade but were disappointed with the formula? What's the most you've ever spent on a single bottle of nail polish? Enjoy the rest of your weekend, you lovely people, and check in again soon! =D