Fadin' Daze

Well a very Happy New Year to all of you lovelies! I posted today's post on Instagram back when I did it like 11 months ago, intending to create the matching blog post immediately afterward, but you guys know how ridiculously slack I am! So it's been the better part of a full year and I'm just getting round to it now. Big slaps on the wrist for me! I still wanted to do this post though, in the hopes that it serves as evidence and/or inspiration for anyone starting out with nail stuff. Yeah it's another before-and-after, but this time it's Gradient Style! Check it!

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!

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.

It's So Fluffy!

Happy Thursday, y'all! I recently invested in a UV nail lamp and some gel polishes because I have a horrible habit of chipping my nail polish while I'm at work. This means I'm not going to be changing my polish as often (it was a serious challenge choosing shades I thought I could wear for over a week without getting bored!) so I've created a huge backlog of mani photos to share with you! I spent a few days creating different designs and playing with some wonderful polishes so that I'll have a decent arsenal while I'm all gelled up XD. Having said that, it means I have an abundance of choice in what to post - for a Libran who can't make decisions to save her life, this is a tricky task for me! For today I've chosen to share a completely different kind of mani - my first 'flocking powder' experience! It's definitely a novelty having fuzzy nails... I loved it!

Click on through for the details =)

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!

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: 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: I

Hello! Yes, I've been slack again, my bad! We suddenly lost two full-timers at work so I've been covering a LOT of hours (yay more money for polish!!) so I just haven't had the time to polish / post! I've got a few posts lined up now so we should be good for a wee while =P.

Right - we're up to 'I', and I chose OPI In The Cable Car-Pool Lane from the San Francisco collection. This is definitely a Fall / Winter colour, but I'm rocking it in Spring, 'cause I can XD click through to see how I made it more Spring-friendly ^_^

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!

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 ^_^

Grape Gradient

Hiya! Happy December!! Continuing with my 'slack blogger is slack' theme, I have zip zero no energy, so just enjoy the pics... =)

The dark purple is two coats of China Glaze Grape Pop, and the accent nail is a gradient using Grape Pop and OPI A Grape Fit. All nails topped off with a coat of Seche Vite (two coats on the accent nails). ^_^

Here's the method I use for gradients, laid out by the most amazing Sammy.

The nail on the middle finger of my left hand (the hand I photograph) currently has a great big tear in it *sniff* - almost down to the quick but not quite. I've glued it back together and so far so good, but because of this I'm trying to limit how often I paint my nails (waaaah!!!) so that removing the polish is at a minimum, and I won't annoy the nail / soften the glue holding it all together. That one nail is insanely weak since the last time it ripped (couple of months ago) because I buffed it to within an inch of its life trying to get it smooth enough after repairs to hide the rip. I'm currently slathering copious amounts of Sally Hansen Continuous Treatment - Strength on it in the hopes that it'll stand up to polishing and typing and working and such, long enough for the tear to grow out. I guess I'll be able to review the Sally Hansen treatment in a wee while! So far so good - I put two coats on before I went to sleep the other night, and in the morning the nail was rock solid! It does tend to peel off if I put too much on, but for the most part it's working like magic at the moment. If nothing else, the rest of my nails should be stronger after this ordeal! 

Do you fix rips in your nails or just cut 'em all off? Have you tried the teabag method? Sorry about this lame post, but at least it has some pretty pictures in it! Thanks for stopping by, lovelies! ^_^

Edit: 

See that little red line? That's the rip >.< I know it looks tiny, but that shape in that position means if I trimmed my nail back to it, it'd be a super nub once again, and I'm just not having it! The red is because I was wearing OPI Big Apple Red when the rip occurred, and trying to remove the polish without damaging the nail more = stained layers of nail. Wah! Wish me luck keeping this baby in one piece...

Enchanté

Hiya! I wanted to do Pink Wednesday post today since it's Wednesday, and I haven't done a Pink Wednesday post for ages, but since you've just had two pink posts in a row, I thought a third would be pushing my luck! Instead, today I have a 'charming' purple for you! I say 'charming' because, well, it's called Charming, by Cult Nails. This is another one of the beautiful babies my brother sent me for my birthday! Isn't she gooooorgeous??

This smooth buttery polish does best for me in three coats (pictured above), as it starts out pretty darn sheer, but like Deal With It, it builds up nicely with each coat. Again, I could've stopped at two coats, but I still had some VNL (especially on my index finger) so I opted for a third to be sure. All photos are without a topcoat.

In these photos it may look like your same old straight-forward purple polish, but it is soooooo not!! Extra creamy, just shimmery enough and sports a strong pink flash when away from the lamp I use for photo-taking =/. The photo below is much more accurate both in finish and colour - the gorgeous pink glow weirdly decided not to play in the above pics.

This was at two coats, and those streaks you see smoothed out fine when I used a steadier hand for the third coat. I just kinda suck at applying polish is all. I'm great at cleanup, though! That stunning pink glow is present at all times IRL, but like I said, it didn't wanna be caught on camera under my lamp. Humph. This last pic is the only accurate one for the colour, but I wanted to show how this baby builds up. Gorgeous colour, great formula, crap photography ;-).

Do you have a polish that's impossible to photograph accurately? Do you like bold, dark purples or light lilac-y hues? Happy Wednesdays, loves!! ^_^

French Grapes (and some Whine)

Well hello again! I know, I know, slack blogger is slack, and I really have no excuse... But look! A gradient mani! The prettiness makes up for my slackness, yeah? *ahem* Anyway... Today's mani is a gradient mani using BYS French White and OPI A Grape Fit - my current obsession.

There's not really a tonne to say about this mani... I stamped the accent nails using French White and Bundle Monster plate BM310. The stamping on this mani is craptastic, and that's the nicest word I can think of to describe the train-wreck that occurred. I photographed the best nail (yeah, I know, that's how bad it was...) which I had to double stamp because it translated so badly the first time. I tried to line it up, I swear! But it was not to be. *sigh*

At least the gradient is pretty, right??

Ugh. This mani was just NOT working with me today. I didn't even attempt to photograph my right hand because it was twice the disaster of what you've seen. Don't get me wrong, I think it looks really nice here in photo form, but the stamping was horrible, my right hand turned out extra crappy, and overall it was just a total downer for me. You ever have that "This is gonna look sooo great!!" moment in your head, and the execution is just... meh.? Yeah, that's what this was. Humph. 

Sorry to be such a total Debbie Downer on you today, but this is just such a 'could do better' mani that it's left me all meeerghhh... Maybe a nice watermarble will cheer me up... ;-)

What was your last mani-related disappointment? Do you try to touch up what you don't like, or take it all off and start over? Thanks for reading, lovelies, and sorry again for such a pfft reading experience... =P

*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

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

Dutch Ya Just Love That Shimmer?

Hiya, peoples! Hope your Sundays are all lovely and relaxing and re-energising and stuff. Today's post is a swatch of OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI? from the Holland collection. 

This is a deep plummy purple with a copper shimmer throughout. The shimmer is obvious in the bottle and translates pretty darn well onto the nail, though capturing the little beauty on camera was a bit tricky. A perfect buttery 2 coat application. I wore this one for days - a rarity for me! The purple is just so... Purple. It's deep without being gothic, and it's not particularly blue-purple or red-purple, it's just smack in the middle of purple-purple. The copper shimmer gives off gold flashes, making this baby just royal enough for every polish princess ;-).

An attempt at capturing the copper shimmer.

I added a matte top coat, purely out of curiousity, and this was the look that I wore for days. It sort of fused the purple and the coppery shimmer together - it gives a more all-over copper sheen rather than a burst of copper shimmer where the light hit. Yum yum yum!

See? The copper shimmer is no where near as vivid as with a gloss finish, but it's definitely still present. Doesn't the purple look just so delish in matte? Mmmm...

Another angle to prove that the copper shimmer is still there. Just yum!

Hope you all enjoy what's left of your weekends ;-) and thank you for reading! 

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