Obligatory Christmassy Stuff

Well Ho Ho Ho to y'all! I did some Christmas nail art in the few moments I had to myself in the raucous Christmas season! Yeah okay so I'm posting on Boxing Day, but I know a lot of you are still celebrating the Big Day, so I wanted to share. Hope you're ready for a whole lotta green, red and gold!

More after the jump......

I'm Alive!!! Muahahaha....

Well hello, strangers! Bet y'all thought I'd fallen off the edge of the universe, huh? Well you're kinda right, I disappeared into the void of a brand spankin' new job (which has entirely taken over my life for the better!!) but I missed you guys too much, so I'm back. I'm gonna cheat a little bit and use up a bunch of my old un-posted photos, mostly because they deserve to be shared, but also because I still don't really have time to do cool stuff yet. Let's crack on, shall we? 

Triumphant (lolz) return starts with a post I had saved in my Drafts here on Blogger - it's a recreation of an oooold mani with a couple of tweaks. Please enjoy China Glaze Dance Baby with special guest appearance from some BornPrettyStore glequins!

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: R

Happy December!! Today's post features China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Running In Circles. Enjoy!

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: 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. 

Quick n Dirty

Well hello there, strangers. I trust you've all had amazing and relaxing wonderful New Years, Januarys and half Februarys! To crack into the new year of blogging, I've got a couple of quick n' simple silver / grey manis for you. First up: I was feeling musical.

Do you remember how I was in a local production of Hairspray last year? Well the next show is Phantom of the Opera (SO freakin' excited!!!) and yesterday was the presentation for all auditonees to get a snapshot of the new set design / general creative jist of the show. That put me in a super excited musical mood, so I thought I'd share some (poorly) stamped musical nails.

This mani is two coats of China Glaze Pelican Gray, with a coat of OPI Pirouette My Whistle over top. Accent nails are two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls from the Spiderman Collection, stamped in a generic black using fauxnad (Konad knock off) plate m73. All topped off with a coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast.

Yeeeeah so my stamping was terrible at best, but it gets the point across, don'tcha think? I'm obviously out of practice... Will make an effort to improve, promise!

Next up is the mani I'm still wearing. This is China Glaze Glistening Snow. Freakin' gorgeous!!!

This baby is tricky to capture with my lighting setup (ie: my bedside lamp...) because whenever it's in direct unfiltered lamplight, it just looks silver, and it's NOT! It's every colour ever, in a beautiful sparkly, shimmery, dancing mosaic of gorgeousness. Can you tell I like it?

For these photos I used three coats, with a coat of Wicked Fast to set it. I've found with this one the more coats you use, the more intense the sparkle becomes. I'm so madly in love with this polish, you don't even know. It's become my go-to 'happy polish'. I mean, I like all my polishes, but this one always makes me smile.

My mum and I have an ongoing in-joke about owls (long terrible pun-filled story), and I got her this silver owl ornament for Christmas last year, and he goes perfectly with this polish, so I had to include him in the shoot!

So there ya go, quick n' dirty! What's your favourite polish that can always lift your mood? Do you have a favourite musical? Thanks for stopping by - hope to see you again soon!

Sparkly Sweet Heart

Hello lovelies! Hope the sun is shining wherever you are - it sure is here!! Today's mani wasn't going to make it to the blog but because it got such positive feedback on Instagram I decided to post it after all! After rocking some pretty dark / bright colours for a few days, I needed a delicate palette cleanser - OPI Sweet Heart and Pirouette My Whistle hit the spot!

This is two coats of OPI Sweet Heart over Cult Nails Get It On base coat. I was craving the pretty delicateness of Barre My Soul from the NYC Ballet Collection, but I didn't want to use sixteen hundred coats of polish to see my nail line finally fade, so I opted for Sweet Heart instead - similar shade in a much more opaque formula. Naturally, I had to add some sparkle... ;-)

I added a coat of Pirouette My Whistle over Sweet Heart - delicious shimmer delicate girly goodness! The almost grey base of this gorgeous glittery baby adds even more of that delish silver to the polish. If you haven't tried this over My Pointe Exactly (the grey from the NYC Ballet Collection) - do it! I did quite a while ago and can't wait to do it again with my new nail shape! The whole collection is simply dreamy!

Sparkle sparkle sparkle... =)

As you can see the micro flecks in Pirouette My Whistle are silver, but the large hexes are sheer white which prevents the glitter from being too heavy - everything adds to that delicate deliciousness! 

To wrap up I thought I'd share this little guy with you! My step-dad found him on our front lawn - thankfully before our cats could get to him!  

We think his Momma pushed him outta the nest a bit too early because he wasn't able to fly, try as he might! Loud little guy too! We know that mother birds won't feed their young after they've been evicted (pushed out of their nest...) so I mushed up some bread in milk and he went absolutely nuts for it! We noticed his leg was sticking out at a funny angle, so we took him down to the local vet where they informed us that he'd perforated his abdomen when he landed on the lawn, and he wasn't going to make it =(. At least we know he had a nice afternoon in the sun, plenty of noms, and was put to rest in the most humane way possible. Poor little guy! Still, it was nice to meet him! =)

Thanks sooo much for stopping by, you wonderful people! Hope the rest of your week is as bright and sunshine-y as a Summer afternoon =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

Pink Wednesday: Simple Sparkles

Happy Wednesday, wonderful people! On Wednesdays We Wear Pink and today's Pink Wednesday mani is a little bit simple, a little bit sparkly and a whole lotta pink. 

I used two coats of Essie Flawless for my pink polish, and applied two coats of China Glaze Icicle to my accent nails. I love how silver goes with everything! On Icicle I dotted on three pink rhinestones from the BornPrettyStore - the ultimate online store for all things nail art (and they ship internationally for free!!). A coat of Seche Vite on all nails keeps everything secure.

My camera can't even handle all that sparkle!

So there's today's quick, simple and PINK mani! What are your favourite colours to pair with a glittery silver? Do you wear rhinestones on your nails or think they get in the way? Happy Wednesdays, loves! 2 days to the weekend, woo! 

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 

Pink Wednesday: Black Roses Pink

Hiya! It's Wednesday again, and as you know On Wednesdays We Wear Pink so today I have a yummy pink jelly mani using OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y?. Let's just jump in, shall we?

I started with three coats of Do You Think I'm Tex-y, then stamped it with BPS [Born Pretty Store] stamp m65 in my go-to black BYS Black Satin. 

I added some nail tape in silver to the tip just to give it a little something more, and I think it helps it to look 'finished'. It's a little bit more special than just a straight stamp, don'tcha think?

I absolutely lo-o-o-ove Do You Think I'm Tex-y? -it's such a yummy true jelly polish. No creme in sight here! Depending on the light, it does tend to lean more toward red than any other colour, but in daylight it is a deep dark delicious pink. Here in NZ we have these ice creams called 'Jelly Tips', and the finish on this polish is exactly what the frozen tip of jelly is like! Mmm I just love this polish! 

Spot the great big chunk of missing polish on my middle finger? When all was said and done last night, my Seche Vite top coat was all but dry, and Dog was snoozing on my computer chair. I went to stroke him and he jumped up, banging my finger on the corner of my desk. Bye-bye perfect polish finish. That's what I get for showing a little love!

A close up of the gorgeous stamp design. I had a heck of a time trying to get the tape to stay down at the edges! I top-coated the *bleep* out of my nails, and a few of them still peeled up at the corners over night! I ended up applying new pieces of tape to some of my nails right before I took the photos, and even then they just didn't want to stay down. There must be a knack to it - I'll figure it out some day!

THIS STUFF!! Oh my goodness, this stuff. Lemon Flutter cuticle butter by Lush. Since our local Lush store opened up before Christmas last year (my gosh they were busy!) I have been itching to get my paws on some of this most delicious cuticle butter. I had recently resolved to stop putting it off and grab a tub on my next pay day, and lo and behold my incredible Mum came home with it today, along with a couple of other tubs of pure deliciousness! This stuff is just magic for your fingers, and I know I look crazy sniffing my cuticles but I don't care! If you could smell this stuff, you wouldn't stop sniffing either! 

Thanks for stopping by, lovely people! =D 

Urbanite Icicles

Hello, lovely people! My wonderful Mummy recently got a few China Glaze polishes off a website, and snuck one in for me! Urban-Night is a lovely deep purple that turned out quite a bit darker than how it looks in the bottle. In artificial light it was almost black, but out in natural light it's quite a vamp-y red-toned purple. It's definitely red-toned because it stained my cuticles orange! Sorry about the fur in the first pic... The kitties are just so helpful.

These photos were taken without a top coat, which gives you an idea of how incredibly glossy the finish on this polish is. It's a true crelly (creme-jelly) with that delicious China Glaze formula I'm becoming addicted to. Just look at that shine!!

You can even see my camera reflected in this one! 'Scuse the couple of nicks on the index and middle fingers - I seem to be particularly clumsy today and bumped a couple of nails while painting the others. This one took two coats to be opaque which I was a little surprised at as I've become accustomed to the CG formula only needing one. I probably would've done two coats anyway because I'm just that kinda gal! Over Urban-Night I used one of my smaller dotting tools to add some little polka dots in China Glaze Icicle. I have no idea why, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. Kinda cute though, no? 

The silver polka dots add a little bit of a younger, more playful edge to this particularly 'mature' polish. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! Behold, another label shot:

No top coat in any of these photos either. I knew I was going to be taking this mani off straight away so I didn't bother, but as far as the shine finish goes, it seriously wasn't necessary. Can you see the reflection of my camera lens in this pic?

Have to say, Urban-Night isn't right at the top of my favourite polishes, but it is a truly delicious colour and such an easy formula to work with. I'm not sure what it is, maybe it's just my mood today or the fact that I have so many purple polishes in my 'favourite pile' already, but this doesn't really spark anything magic in me. That's weird, because it has all the necessary elements. Hmm. Oh well! It's still pretty darn gorgeous ;-).


Polka dots - for or against? Do you like the purple / silver pairing or think that perhaps purple and gold belong together? What's the last polish you got that failed to spark as much excitement as you'd hoped? I know I'm nagging, but I wanna know! I love hearing from you lovely people. Pop your feet up and forget that it's Monday tomorrow... ;-)


- Ally xx

Beth's Birthday Nails

Happy Saturday!! Extra extra quick post today - I'm running so late. I have a close friend's 21st party tonight, I thought it was at 7 but it's at 5 (in 3 hours) and I haven't got anything except my nails sorted!! Typical ;-) Here they are...

This is two coats of BYS Reign Supreme on index, middle and little finger with a design from plate m73 in China Glaze Icicle stamped over top. Got a new stamping silver, and it's perfect, yay! Thumbs and ring fingers are 2 coats of Icicle with flowers from plate m60 stamped in Reign Supreme with rhinestone accents. Topped off as always with Seche Vite. Click the pics to see them up close!

 

This is just something a little bit special to celebrate my wonderful friend Bethany's birthday.

That's all for now. Enjoy your weekend, babes!


- Ally xx