Holo, Is It Me You're Looking For?

Well hello to you! I've got a quick one for you today - I'm in hospital at the moment, but I got some day leave today so I did my nails (of course!) and had a play with some polishes that arrived while I've been away. I HAD to share this one!! It's a polish from the China Glaze 'Holographic' collection, called Infra Red. It's my first proper 'holo' and I could NOT stop staring at this absolutely stunning polish!

Even though it's called Infra Red, it's definitely more of a dark pink, don'tcha think?

Look at that rainbow shimmer!! This is what sets 'holo' polishes apart - that breathtaking, ever-stare-worthy flashing rainbow on your tips. This was bad lighting, rushed photography and I had no idea how to photograph to show off the intense holo-ness, but even from these crappy photos, you still get an idea of the amazingness! Yes, I walked into things because I was staring at my nails - we've all done it, and this polish deserves it!

Mmmmmm rainbowy goodness... I used two coats for these photos, and I used INM Out The Door fast-dry top coat... that was a mistake. The holo finish is much MUCH more obvious without topcoat, but as I said, this was a rush job so I didn't bother to take it off and start again... Sorry! Maybe in the future I'll take better snaps - I just had to share!

Yep, I'm hooked, and can you blame me!? I definitely wanna get my greedy little paws on some more holo polishes. There's nothing like this in my collection, and it's getting lonely there by itself =P. Must be time to save up and do a proper haul...

Have you tried a holo polish yet? Were you pleased or disappointed? I'd love to hear any stories you have - I'm always interested in fellow polish-holic experiences! =)

Hopefully I'll be back in full swing soon so keep checkin' in. Hope you're all smiling your lovely smiles! Thanks for reading ^_^

- Ally xx

Suzi's Flowers

Well hello there, friends! Yes, I know I've been AWOL for a loooong while now but I have plans to make it up to you! Without going into too much detail, I've been battling some pretty serious depression and painting my nails just hasn't been at the top of my priority list. I'm on the way up though, and I have plans for a good solid comeback *rubs hands together while emitting evil laugh*.

Ahem.

On today's menu I have a comparison of two OPI pinks - Flower to Flower and Suzi's Hungary Again! - the latter from the relatively recent 'Euro Centrale' collection. First up I just wanna say that I luh-uh-uh-ove the formula for the Euro Centrale cremes - Suzi's Hungary Again!, You're Such a Budapest, Can't Find My Czech-book and My Paprika is Hotter than Yours! all have totally delish two coat creamy formulas that glide like butter and shine like jelly. If you've been eyeing up any of the collection, those are the ones I'd recommend. The others are lovely, but those 4 cremes are something truly special. 

For these photos I used two coats of Suzi's Hungary Again! with a top coat of Seche Vite because I'm as impatient as... Someone who's impatient, I guess!?

As mentioned above this totally delish two coater glides on like heaven, and without a top coat it's just as glossy. There is a very very subtle pink shimmer in this baby that my camera didn't capture (a tone-matching shimmer that's present in My Paprika is Hotter than Yours! too). This doesn't affect the look of the polish or make it any less creamy (read: dreamy), but apparently it's a little trick to get the polish more even in appearance so even those of us who are useless at applying polish evenly can get away with this one.

As I decided where on my shelves of polishes to make this polish's home, it looked pretty darn similar to OPI Flower to Flower which came out in a Spring collection a couple of years ago. I'll use any excuse to paint my nails some more, so I grabbed FtF off the shelf and did a quickie comparison.

They look more similar in their bottles than they do on the nail, granted, but it must've been dim lighting that day because the differences in these two are huge. As you can see SHA gives off a more neon-orangey glow when next to a pink pink, and FtF has a much more obvious silvery shimmer. I used two coats of FtF but didn't bother putting a top coat on.

Even though they look nothing alike in these photos, I'm still happy I decided to check, if only because it meant I got to play with FtF again. It's such a Barbie pink that I hardly ever use it, and haven't brought myself to wear it out of the house yet. Just not my colour... 

Do you have any favourites from the Euro Centrale collection? Can you get away with the PINK Barbie pinks? Look forward to next time - the comeback will officially commence soon! 

Thanks for checking in, lovelies ^_^

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!

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

My New Jade

Hiya! Happy Tuesday!! It's an extra extra happy Tuesday for me because it's one of the only 2 days I have off between now and Christmas! Gotta love working in retail in December =P. Because I have a tonne of stuff to get done today, this is an extra quicky quick post. Last week's pay wiped out the short term debt I'd been paying off, so I celebrated with two new OPI polishes! I bought DS Temptation (so totally drool-worthy, you don't even know) and the polish featured in today's post: Jade Is The New Black!

Mmmmm oh I do so love OPI polishes - the brush, formula, and colours are just so dreamy! JITNB was no exception - this is two easy coats (one would've been fine if I'd had a steadier hand...) with a coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast over top. I originally planned to add an accent nail of China Glaze Glittering Garland but I haven't had the nerve yet - I've just been enjoying this gorgeous hue all on its own!

Yum yum yum! Such a totally 'wearable' green!

The bottle shot came out a lot bluer than it actually is (the middle photo is most colour-accurate) because I think the green got a little camera shy sitting in front of all that gorgeous greenery in the background. Still drooling over this newbie - it's been on my list for aaaaages! And now it's all mine! Yay!!

What's been sitting on your wishlist for a while? Do you wear green on your nails? I've only recently started (Cult Nails Deal With It totally broke me down...) but I love it!! Thanks for checking in, lovely people ^_^ 14 sleeps til Christmas... ;-)

Golden Glitz

Hiya lovelies!! Happy Friday! ^_^ It's after 9pm, and I have a BIG day tomorrow (going to a friend's wedding, and I'm doing her nails in the morning - eek!!) so I'm a bit too tired and lazy to do proper writings of wonderfully witty snippets of goodness. Instead, you can just enjoy the pics of my latest Christmas mani!

All nails are two coats of OPI Glitzerland, and the accent nails are dotted with OPI Big Apple Red and China Glaze Holly-Day. Everything's topped off with a coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast.

Sorry for the nasty dry cuticles - I've been neglecting them lately =(

That's all, folks! Quick and painless, huh? =P Hope you all have exciting weekends ahead! Thanks for stopping by ^_^