The Queen's a Charlatan

Hey... Hey you... Yeah, you... Wanna see some magic...? I'm gonna turn a bright red polish into a pink one... Watching...?

Today's quick little post starts with the most delicious creamy true red polish on the planet - Cult Nails Evil Queen.

This is one - yes, ONE - coat with no top coat. Kinda amazing, huh? You ain't seen nothing yet... As amazing and gorgeous as this red is, look what it turns into with one little coat of Cult Nails Charlatan!

See? Magic!! Both these polishes were sent to me for my birthday last month - Evil Queen was sent to me by the amazing Maria of Cult Nails (along with FOUR others! Crazy generous or what??) and Charlatan was sent by my wonderful American-dwelling brother with a collection of other perfect polishes. I am one incredibly spoilt chick, I can tell ya!! I'm gonna shhhh now and let you basque in the beauty of this mani... Yum!

*drools* I just can't get over the magic of Charlatan!! It's one of the Deception Collection toppers from Cult Nails. To see the others in action, check out Marta's swatches. Thanks for popping in, loves! =)

Quickie for Nickie

Hiya!! Hope your Mondays are off to a nice easy start! I've got a super quick post dedicated to one of the most wonderful ladies I've met in the nail-blogging community - Nicole of Young Wild and Polished. She is insanely talented, amazingly sweet and tears-in-your-eyes, rolling-on-the-ground-clutching-your-sides funny! On top of all of that, she's one of the most supportive and understanding ladies I've ever talked to, and she's dealt with more crap than anyone should have to and has come out smiling! 

Nic (and Dot) - this one's for you! ♥

Watermarbling is Nicole's self-confessed "gateway nail art", so I used OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips and Black Onyx for a double nail marbled accent à la Nic. I used the same colours on my pinky and index fingers to re-create a design that she's been playing with since she got her Born Pretty Store nail striping tape. Honestly, doll, I dunno how you do it so neatly - that tape was not cooperating with me!! A coat of Seche Vite topped it all off.

These flowers are absolutely 100% what I associate with Nicole! They are so trademark Young, Wild and Polished that if I ever see them re-created anywhere (not just stolen like on Instagram, grrrr...) I automatically think of her! She's got a quick and easy-to-follow tutorial to let you borrow some of her talent ^_^. I used the same polishes again, and added some light dots throughout in China Glaze Something Sweet. I stole this directly from one of her Instagram photos (obviously I highly recommend following her). 

So there ya go! Go check out Young, Wild and Polished for some gorgeous nail art and some serious lols, or follow her on Twitter and Instagram! Thanks for reading, babes! 

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

Her Majesty's Super Sparkle

It's Friday!! Woohoo!!! Hope you're all kicking back and relaxing this weekend! From what I hear from my twitter buddies, the cold weather's starting to settle in up in the Northern parts of the world, but here today, it couldn't have been more beautiful! Well, okay so the wind was a *bit* chilly, but it's excused because I didn't spot a single cloud all day. 'Nuff weather, look at the pretties!! 

Today's spotlight goes to OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service from the new James Bond collection, released in conjunction with the new Skyfall film. The film isn't out until the end of November here, but the stunning polishes are all out, and boy am I glad they are! Totally, TOTALLY drool worthy!! You don't even know. OHMSS is a dark gunmetal green-grey base packed choca full of teeny tiny little multicoloured glitters. To die for. Not kidding.

While it is a deliciously dark polish, it's actually quite sheer. When it first arrived and I tried it out, it took FOUR coats for my nail line to disappear. FOUR. Due to this, and because I freakin' love it so I don't wanna waste it, I started with a coat of KleanColor Retro Green - an almost black grey-green shimmer.

↑ KleanColor Retro Green in direct sunlight ↑

This brilliant one-coater dark polish gave a beautiful colour-match to OHMSS without stealing any of her glory. If I had a dark frosty grey, I probably would've used that, but the green (more teal, actually) added just a hint more dimension... As if this baby needed any more! Click the macro below to basque in the prettiness...

Over Retro Green (which dried in no seconds flat, btw -getting seriously hooked on the surprisingly good formula that KleanColor has) I applied two coats of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. One coat simply wasn't enough glitter for this "ooh! shiny!" kinda gal... 

Aren't my nubbins growing out nicely? ;-P

Delish, delish, delish!! Speaking of which... It's almost Summer here, which means Summer fruits! Yay! Topping my list of faves are strawberries. The early season strawbs here are just sooo sweet and juicy and totally yummy! You can tell just by looking ;-)

I had almost a whole punnet of these bad boys for lunch, chopped up with some banana and pineapple. I sat in the sun and did the crosswords in the paper and took photos of my nails... Perfect afternoon, I reckon!

Do you like your glitters dark and devilish or light and luscious? Have you got a favourite polish from the James Bond collection, or a favourite 007 film? I love hearing from you, lovelies! Thanks for reading, and happy weekend!! 

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