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!

Pink Thur(Wednes)Day: XOXO

Hmmmmmk so I meant to post these yesterday but I didn't get around to it... Whoops... So even though I'm a day late, Happy Pink Wednesday ("On Wednesdays we wear pink!")! I got a bit busy with some glitter placement nails that I'm aiming to have up for V-Day, so stay tuned! They're super pretty! 

Today's post was for the February "Totally Doable 'I Have A Life' Nail Art Challenge" prompt 07: XOXO. If you don't follow, this particular monthly nail art challenge is hosted by @californails and consists of prompts every few days to inspire nail artists to get creative! Click on through for deets.

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.

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: M

Hiya! Two posts in two days? Woah!! I know, I'm shocked too XD. Let's get on with it! I've got a double whammy for you today - M is for OPI My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours and My Chihuahua Bites!

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: J

Hiya! We're up to J! I wasn't really feeling the nail-art wonder for this shade, so you'll have to put up with some simple (and pretty bad) stamping. Behold! It's Zoya Jana!

ABC Challenge: F

Hello! Happy Sunday! It is so bright and sunny and beautiful here today - it really feels like Spring is here! In the spirit of things looking lighter, today's polish is a nice bright minty green: Essie First Timer!

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: B

Hi hi! Okay so I lied a little bit, I'm a day late with this post, but I have a legit reason! I know it sounds stupid, but my cat walked across my keyboard while I was editing in Photoshop and kinda reset all my settings, and changed some I didn't even know about. It took some pretty serious Googling to get everything back, but I'm sorted now, so on with the challenge!

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

Matte Lemons

I know, I know, slack blogger is slack, but I have a legitimate reason for being AWOL, I swear! I've started a new job so I haven't had as much time to prepare posts / do amazing nail art / paint my nails pretty enough to share with you lovelies. Sorry! And on top of that, I'm pretty blimen tired, tbh. With that said, here are some pictures of my fingernails. 

I started with two coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz, then stamped over that with KleanColor White. If I haven't raved enough about my pleasant surprise with KleanColor polishes, please take my word that they're brilliant, and freakin' amazing considering they're so cheap here ($3/bottle, vs OPI $26.90/bottle). I used Bundle Monster plate BM301, and topped everything off with Rimmel Lycra Pro Matte Finish top coat. 

Pretend there are more words here. I has a sleepy.

I double stamped on my middle finger (^ that isn't it, btw), hoping that if the white was glossy, it would contrast with the matte yellow and show up a little more. It didn't. The stamping was barely distinguishable to the naked eye, but I'm glad you can see it in the photos. 

I think I'm going to go and sleep now. Or watch tv. Or something that doesn't require me to be upright / focused / conscious. Zzzzzzzzzzz.... Thanks for stopping by ^_^

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

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