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!

I Lied Again...

Hiya, yeah, so, I kinda lied a little bit. You know how I said I had some awesome glittery nails to share last Friday? I'm sort of still editing the photos... I took a LOT of photos 'cause I loved them so hard. Because I don't have the time / patience to edit it them at the moment, "here's one I prepared earlier!". You can consider this a 'from the vault' because it is a few weeks old. I'm sorry I haven't got the glittery goodness ready for you yet! In the mean time, here's some stud-y matte-y nails for you to enjoy.

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!

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!

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: N

Hidey ho there, reader! I finally got a day off so I thought it was about time I post somethin' new! We're up to the letter 'N', and I (finally) settled on OPI No Room For The Blues. More over the jump!

ABC Challenge: K

K? K! Hiya guys! Today's post is brought to you by the letter 'K'! Our featured polish is China Glaze Kinetic Candy. Onwards!

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: E

Hello, lovely people! Super super quick post today - I didn't even do any nail art for this feature polish because it's SO darn gorgeous on its own! I present to you - OPI Every Month Is Octoberfest!

I used ONE COAT for these photos - how cool is that?? I don't even know how to describe this polish... It's like a deep blue base with red micro glitter, I guess? Which makes it look purple, but it's still blue and red separately at the same time... Yeah... XD

The shimmer in this is crazy beautiful. For me it was visible in all different lighting, which is almost unheard of for shimmer! I didn't use a top coat - all that shiiiiine is just the polish.

It's a bit darker than polishes I like to wear on an every day basis, but as far as one-coat Autumn/Winter shades go, this is hard to beat. Flawless application (even with my terribly lazy unsteady method of slathering it on) and the shimmer really lifts it so it's not *so* dark. Completely wearable if you're a bit bolder than I am!

And a nice close up of that yummy deep red shimmer to finish up. Sorry it's such a plain post tonight - I'll be back into nail-arting for tomorrow's post ^_^. Thanks for stopping by!!

ABC Challenge: D

Hello there, friends! Today's post is gonna be a bit of a guessing game for me, as I did this mani over two months ago (>.<) so I'm having a wee bit of a hard time remembering specifics! Let's see how we go...

Today's featured polish is China Glaze Dance Baby. I'm pretty sure I used two coats for these photos.

 Click through to see how I nail-art-y-ed it up!

ABC Challenge: C

Well hello again, friends! Welcome to day 3 of my ABC Challenge! As mentioned at the end of yesterday's post, I had no idea what I was gonna do for 'C', and since I'm crazy-indecisive, I decided to jam two (and a half) polishes into this post so I didn't have to choose which one to showcase. I'mma make today's one nice and quick - here's OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and Charged Up Cherry!

ABC Challenge: A

Hello all, and happy September! It's the first day of Spring here in the Southern Hemisphere, and although it's been pretty chilly here the last couple of days, the daffodils and magnolia trees are out in full bloom and it's looking brighter and lighter already. Since I've been so slack in posting regularly and keeping you guys entertained, I've decided that I'm going to do a nail challenge - each post I'm gonna feature a polish beginning with a different letter of the alphabet, starting with A, of course, and try and do something nail-arty with it. This could go horribly horribly wrong, but I'm gonna give it a go... It's only 26 posts, how hard could it be...?

Today for the (grand?) initial post, I give you Alcatraz... Rocks - one of the Liquid Sand polishes from the OPI 'San Francisco' collection. As some of you might be aware, I have a brother in San Francisco, so I had to at least grab a couple from the collection (yeah, like I needed an excuse...). This polish is... like... uhm... WOW!!! Photos simply don't do it justice!! 

Click through for more =)

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 ^_^

Bahamian Blues

Hello, hello lovely people! Yeah okay so I've been a touch AWOL for the last few... weeks... and I am sorry I haven't been sharing / updating, but working in retail over Christmas leaves VERY little time for anything else. For example, I finished all of my Christmas cards on the 21st, because it was my only day off before the big day. SO glad to hear the lovely blogging ladies I sent cards to a bit earlier in Dec received them in time ^_^. Anyway, on with the post! 

Today's mani is the first I've done in OVER TWO WEEKS. I know, right? Insanity!! Over the Christmas rush at work I simply didn't have the time or energy to make my nails all pretty, and have been working with nothing but a coat of OPI Nail Envy on my tips. I kept ripping nails at work (if any of you know of or have Pandora bracelets, you'll understand that the clasps are hazardous to even the most basic mani!) so I had to chop 'em all off again. Behold the nubs.*sigh*

Before Christmas I ordered a bunch of nail polishes from Head2ToeBeauty.com, and today's featured polish is one of the 9 China Glazes that arrived on my doorstep. Yes, I bought 9 China Glazes. You already knew I had a problem!! This is one coat of Bahamian Escape, with an accent nail gradient using OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls to mix it up a bit. All nails finished off with Seche Vite fast drying top coat.

The gradient on my left hand sucks, so I photographed my right hand instead =P. A lovely gal on IG asked for tips for doing a sponge gradient, so I thought I'd include some here since it's a wonderfully easy and effective technique once you get the hang of it. For a foolproof method, check out Sammy's tutorial.

1- Always remember that as with any nail art technique, it takes some practice to figure out how it works / what works for you / your own method to get it how you want it. Having said that, I've discovered that some gradient accidents are pretty much universal. 
2- Let the polish on your nail dry before trying to add layers, otherwise sponging over it will lift the underneath polish instead of adding more. This is how you get blotches of missing polish (it took me a while to figure that one out... I'm notoriously impatient!)
3- Make sure you have plenty of polish on the sponge, because if the polish on your nail isn't dry enough and less than what's on the sponge, again you'll just lift off what you've already put down.
4- Be prepared for it to take a few layers before the colour is as opaque as you want it to be. Considering how little polish you're using each time you sponge some on (especially when using polishes that can take a couple coats to be opaque during normal application), it's gonna take some time to build up.
5- PRESS LIGHTLY. Pressing too hard, especially if you don't have much polish on the sponge, will cause bits of the sponge to break off and get stuck on the nail. It's a pain in the [bleep] to sit there picking out bits of sponge with tweezers because you were getting impatient with the colour not going on! Patience and practice are key =).

If you scroll up and look at the first pic of my left hand, you'll see I managed to make all those mistakes =P there are bits of sponge stuck on the nail, bald spots from pressing too hard with too little polish, and lovely big blue dots from being impatient with my sponging. I'm still learning, too! I do love how my right hand turned out though...

I said I got 9 new CGs, so here's the lineup! For US$3.25 each, I had a really hard time controlling my impulse buying LOL. Click click click new polish! It's dangerously easy these days =P

Click on the pic to see 'em bigger =). I bought my very first backup polish (Happy Go Lucky) but all the others are brand spankin' new to my collection! So excited to get creative with these babies! I haven't taken their mugshots yet, but for Christmas my amazing brother Andy got me 4 OPI polishes - all from my wishlist! Either he's psychic or he can tell what I'll like LOL. He got Wocka Wocka, Skyfall (my biggest lemming for the last month!), Wooden Shoe Like To Know?, and Dating A Royal. Are you jealous? Yeah, I know you are. Who's got the best brothers in the world? That would be me! =P 

Have you bought a backup of a nail polish you use a lot, or are afraid of not being able to get in the future? What's the largest number of polishes you've ever bought at once? I hope you've all had amazing holidays wherever you are in the world, and thank you for checking in! Only 2 days left of 2012!! Woohoo!!! ^_^

PS: Did you know that 2013 will be the first year since 1987 that has four different numbers in the date? Random useless fact for the day! Xx

Pretty Pretty Princess

Well hello there! Happy Sunday! Last night while I was trying to decide which of my (many) nail polishes I wanted to play with, I was channel surfing and came across The Princess Diaries. Settled - Princess by Cult Nails it was! I finally felt like my nails had grown out enough to do justice to this beauty-in-a-bottle, so my dream of wearing this special polish finally came true. 

In case you missed this post, my oldest brother who moved to California at the start of the year sent me four absolutely stunning Cult Nails nail polishes for my birthday last month! Princess was in the bunch, and I've been itching to wear it since the day it arrived, but as fate would have it, I'd broken + cut down my nails shortly before their arrival, so I had super-nubbins =(. These polishes are sooo beautiful, they deserve to be worn on healthy, long, loved nails. Now that I (kinda) have them, I'm drowning in CN happiness!! 

This smooth, creamy baby-blue polish has the most subtle golden shimmer which was far too bashful to be caught on camera. The name could not be more appropriate - this is Cinderella in a bottle. Two coats gave full opacity, and I of course used the Cult Nails Wicked Fast fast-dry top coat, though this baby had such a flawless finish that a top coat wasn't necessary - I'm just impatient when it comes to drying time =P. 

Addicted. Totally addicted. Cult Nails has a customer for life. I'm always so impressed with Maria's polishes - there's something really special about them, and you can feel the love that's been put into creating every single one. If you haven't heard the latest, the newest collection Behind Closed Doors is available on pre-sale at the moment - US$40 for the collection of 5 (they usually go for US$10 each). Head over to Chit Chat Nails for Marta's ever-incredible photo review of the collection. Entirely drool worthy, I promise you!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Happy weekends! =D

*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