piCture pOlish - Orbit

piCture pOlish sure know how to make a good polish and I am yet to be disappointed by any of their polishes.

I chose this gorgeous sparkly blue polish to wear to my family dinner out for my birthday.  I chose it because I love blue, I love glitter and it matched my simple outfit of jeans, lacy black top and sparkly flats.

Orbit has fine silver micro glitter in a dark navy jelly base.  It is really much more stunning in real life and I really need to work on my photography skills.

The picture above is two easy coats with two layers of top coat.

piCture pOlish is available through their website for $10 a bottle - a fantastic price for such a quality product.

x

Birthday Nails!! OPI Absolutely Alice

Let me say first that my crapola pictures do not do this AWESOME polish justice.  This polish is 1,000,000x better in real life.  There are plenty of better bloggers (and photographers) out there that have managed to capture this polishes true beauty, so I highly recommend you google it!

Last Thursday was my 20-something birthday.  To mark the occasion, I wanted to wear something extra special on my nails.  I've acquired a few 'extra special' polishes in the last few weeks, but this one had intrigued me for a while.  I have read about so many people raving about AA for a while now and I was dying to know what all the fuss was about.

Now I know.

OPI Absolutely Alice comprises of bright blue glitters in a clear base with some gold glitter thrown in for good measure.

As I was applying, I was not sure what all the hype was for.  I thought it was pretty okay, but not awesome.  Then I added the top coats (one coat of Essence Gel-Like TC and one coat of HK Girl) and I finally understood.  My nails sparkled like CRAZY.  And I spent the next three days staring at my nails - and showing everyone who looked in my direction how awesome they were!

This polish IS special.  I am so glad to have it in my stash.  I am also very lucky to have spent less than $15 on it.

Absolutely Alice is considered HTF and sells for up to $35 on ebay.

Absolutely Alice was released in 2010 and like it's equally popular but more elusive brother - Mad as a Hatter - are now discontinued (the whole collection was discontinued).  Typical of a polish company to discontinue an extremely popular and awesome polish collection.

To go with the whole birthday theme, here is some of the awesomeness I got from my sister.

I was so spoilt (I also got my very first GHD hair straightener from my parents - yay!)

x

Aussie Nails Monday - Blue

It's no secret that blue is probably my favourite polish colour.  So I was pretty stoked that this week's theme for ANM was BLUE.  At first I was a bit daunted, especially considering I used blue in my ANM manicure from last week.  But being fairly new to nail art and the polish world, I knew there were heaps of different ways I could do my nails that I hadn't tried before and I was excited.

I was originally going to do a blue skittle manicure - dots, stripes, gradient, stamping, etc.  But then I chickened out.  I was worried it would all look great and then I would suck at one part of it (dotting - I can't figure it out... and I failed miserably at the gradient I tried on my sister's nails last week...).  So I decided to do something that I was semi-familiar with, but that also challenged me.

So I bring you my blue geometric nails!

I'm actually pretty happy with how this turned out.  Some of the striping is not as crisp as I would have liked, but it is far better than I imagined it would be.  Clean up was also a bit tricky - I was covered in sparkles from removing my previous manicure, and while blue is notoriously difficult to clean up, I think I was also a bit lazy and tired after doing my nails...

For my base colour (the stripes), I used Essence Sleepy, a gorgeous pale blue with a subtle shimmer.  The other blue polishes I used were:

China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-le

China Glaze Frostbite

China Glaze Dorothy Who?

Sinful Colours Why Not?

Color Club Over the Moon

I started by applying two coats of Essence Sleepy and topping it with a coat of HK Girl and leaving it for an hour to dry.  Then I used striping tape to mark out my 'areas' and used a small nail art brush to apply the blues, one colour at a time.  For my very first nail I did all five colours and then removed the tape, but it took FOREVER and I had to constantly clean my brush for the new colour.  So for all the remaining nails, I applied the same polish to all the nails, then cleaned the brush, then started the next polish, etc and then removed the striping tape right at the end.  I then sealed it all in with two coats of HK Girl TC.

Please check out the awesome manicures of the other ANM participants.  I love seeing what they come up with and they are all awesome nail artists!

Next week's ANM theme is 'Inspired by Clothing'.  I have no idea what I am going to do.  I could be lazy and use my houndstooth SH Nail Strips, but I would much prefer to try some 'art'.  Looks like I'll be scouring google during the week for some inspiration!   

Check out the other awesome girls participating in ANM!

*  Ten Little Nubs *  Nail Gun XS  *  Marie's Manicure Madhouse  *  Shatter Me Claire  *  A Polished Prance  *  Shades of Phoenix  *  The Epitome of Superficiality  *  Lacquer Dreams  *  Kelly's Kolors!  *  Every Little Polish  *  Mel My Issta  *  Walk In My Eye Shadow  *  ErinZi's Nails  *  Jas's Blingtastic Nails  *  The Reluctant Femme  *  Jibber Jabber  *  Messy Mansion  *  Nailovelogy  *  It's All About the Polish  *  Pretty Polish Please  *  Julz Perri Nails  *  Nailed By Jasmine  *  Oh My Gosh! Polish  * 

Crows Toes - I Make the Path

Today's manicure could have gone down as one of my all time faves - if it wasn't for the horrendous bubbling of my top coat!

Oh well, it was still pretty awesome, and I was pretty proud of my layering combination.

Crows Toes I Make the Path is a mix of pastel blue, green and gold glitters in a clear base.  I absolutely LOVED the colours in the glitters and couldn't wait to wear it.

I chose to layer it over OPI Thanks a Windmillion.

I love how delicate and 'girly' this looks and the sparkle factor was through the roof.  I was stopped a few times mid conversation (I talk with my hands...) due to the awesomeness of the sparkle.

As always the OPI applied flawlessly.  This shade has long been a favourite of mine and I look for any opportunity to wear it.

The Crows Toes was a bit more difficult to apply.  There was sooooo much glitter on the brush, that I found myself purposely brushing the glitter off.  Unlike most indie glitters were you need to fish and dab the glitters, I actually felt like I had too much glitter.

Due to the extreme amount of glitter, I decided to use an extra thick coat of Essence Gel-Look TC.  Big Mistake.  It bubbled!  I was pretty devastated as I LOVED this combo and even though I Make the Path caused me some application grief, I LOVED it.

I topped the whole manicure off with a layer of HK Girl TC.

As much as the bubbling annoyed me, I persevered and wore this manicure for two days.  As I think I have mentioned a few times.  I loved the colours and the glitters!

x

Cult Nails - Hypnotize Me

My Cult Nails group buy order arrived on Friday and I already knew which polish I would be using first.

Hypnotize Me is an ice green sheer jelly packed with vibrant blue and green glitter.  In the bottle it is definitely hypnotizing and on the nail it did not disappoint!

I decided to layer Hypnotize Me over Revlon Colour Stay Midnight, a dark blue teal.  I think it matched perfectly, though I'm looking forward to layering Hypnotize Me over a green or purple next time.

This manicure has three layers of top coat, which is why it is SUPER shiny.  I tried one coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast, but found it dried to a rubbery-like finish.  So I tried a second coat of Wicked Fast.  Still  not satisfied with the finish, I decided to layer on top my fave top coat - HK Girl - and I then got the silky smooth finish I was after.

Cult Nails is available through their website for $US12, though they often have sales and you can get their polishes for $US10 quite frequently.

x

Aussie Nails Monday - Ombre

Today's ANM challenge was Ombre nails.

An Ombre manicure is basically skittle nails but with colours from the same colour family - ie all pinks, all greens, etc.  They are typically ordered from lightest-darkest.

I'm sure there are ways to jazz up ombre nails, but I took the easy way out and just did a simple blue ombre.

To be honest, I'm not 100% happy with how it turned out, the colours in the bottles looked slightly different when on the nail, but I still think it looks kinda cute.

The polishes I used are:

Essie Cocktail Bling

Essie Bikini So Teeny

Essie Smooth Sailing

Butter London Blagger

OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue

I think if I could do it again, I would not use Cocktail Bling, it was too grey for the rest of the blues.

Funnily enough, next week's theme is BLUE.  Gee, that one will be tricky... lol.

Check out the other awesome girls participating in ANM!

*  Lissa's Polish Addiction  *  Nail Gun XS  *  Marie's Manicure Madhouse  *  Shatter Me Claire  *  A Polished Prance  *  Shades of Phoenix  *  The Epitome of Superficiality  *  Lacquer Dreams  *  Kelly's Kolors!  *  Every Little Polish  *  Mel My Issta  *  Walk In My Eye Shadow  *  ErinZi's Nails  *  Jas's Blingtastic Nails  *  The Reluctant Femme  *  Jibber Jabber  *  Messy Mansion  *  Nailovelogy  *  It's All About the Polish  *  Pretty Polish Please  *  Julz Perri Nails  *  Nailed By Jasmine  *  Oh My Gosh! Polish  * 

Pretty Serious - Liquid Leprechaun

Quick post today, as this gorgeous polish pretty much speaks for itself!

Liquid Leprechaun has 'multi-sized golden and green glitter particles floating in a radio-active green jelly base' (description taken from the PS website).

I received heaps of compliments on this polish, even from complete strangers.  It definitely is a stunner.  The way it sparkled at all angles was a complete winner in my opinion.

Plus it's green and gold, perfect St Patrick's Day colours!

Liquid Leprechaun is currently sold out, but you can purchase other Pretty Serious pretties from the Pretty Serious Cosmetics website.  Their polishes retail for $9.95 - fantastic value!

* I'm back to photographing my right hand after yet another EPIC break on my left hand ring finger.  I had finally gotten it to the length I wanted after my last epic break.  For some reason, it breaks right at the smile line and it looks ghastly!  Duri worked it's magic last time and it only took about a month to get back to my preferred length, so hopefully I'll be back to 'normal' in approx 4 weeks, lol!

KB Shimmer - Proud Peacock

I'm really into blues lately and actually had to stop myself from doing yet another blue manicure tonight.

But today I have my previous manicure to show you and it is yet again, another gorgeous blue.

Proud Peacock has a teal/aqua jelly base with large royal blue and black hexes, smaller fuschia, teal and silver glitters and small silver bar glitters.

In the bottle it looks absolutely stunning.  On the nail I was a bit undecided.  The shade of blue was great, but I was disappointed how the base colour seemed to blur out the colours in the glitters.  To me it looked a bit murky.

I layered Proud Peacock over my very first Cult Nails.  Manipulative is a gorgeous blue/green with a delicate shimmer that translates well onto the nail.

I was very impressed with my first Cult Nails and am looking forward to my group buy order arriving hopefully very, very soon.

Cult Nails is available from their website, however I did not see Manipulative there (I got it in a grab bag).

KB Shimmer is available from a range of different online stores.  I got mine in a grab bag, but have my eye on quite a few others and hope to add some more to my stash in the not so distant future.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, instead of the blue manicure I wanted to do, I decided to go with a gorgeous glitter bomb green and gold in preparation for St Patrick's Day.  I'll have that post for you over the weekend.

x

Aussie Nails Monday - Stripes

I finally bit the bullet and joined Aussie Nails Monday.  ANM is a weekly nail art challenge and I joined so that I would challenge myself to try more nail art.  I have heaps of nail art tools, but I have been too chicken to try them out on myself.  Not any more!

I have been following the blogs of the awesomely talented ladies that have been doing ANM for ages, and there is some super extreme talent out there.  My nails are no where near that calibre - yet.  We all need to start somewhere.

So today I bring you...


STRIPES


After much googling, I had narrowed it down to two different designs.  I ummed and ahhed for ages and then my sister helped me make the final decision.

The design I have chosen is inspired by a design from The Manicurator.

Just look at that holo awesomeness.  Any excuse to wear one of my Halo Hues!

The polishes I used were:

OPI A Roll in the Hague
OPI Big Apple Red
China Glaze Frostbite
China Glaze Rich & Famous
Sinful Colors Exotic Green
Color Club Harp On It

I used a base coat of Duri and OPI Nail Envy and topped everything off with two coats of HK Girl - yep, another thing I LOVE about the Halo Hues is that they are not dulled by TC, yay!

I painted my nails with the skittle colours on Saturday night and did the striping tape and top colour on Sunday afternoon - I really wanted to make sure that my base colours were dry!

My striping wasn't perfect, with it pulling some of the polish away roughly, but I think that may be because I added too much top colour (to try to build opacity) and holos dry quickly.  Oh well, it's not really noticeable unless you look really close!

All in all, I'm pretty proud of this manicure.

x

Check out the other awesome girls participating in ANM!

*  Lissa's Polish Addiction  *  Nail Gun XS  *  Marie's Manicure Madhouse  *  Shatter Me Claire  *  A Polished Prance  *  Shades of Phoenix  *  The Epitome of Superficiality  *  Lacquer Dreams  *  Kelly's Kolors!  *  Every Little Polish  *  Mel My Issta  *  Walk In My Eye Shadow  *  ErinZi's Nails  *  Jas's Blingtastic Nails  *  The Reluctant Femme  *  Jibber Jabber  *  Messy Mansion  *  Nailovelogy  *  It's All About the Polish  *  Pretty Polish Please  *  Julz Perri Nails  *  Nailed By Jasmine  *  Oh My Gosh! Polish  * 

Shades of Phoenix - Aphrodite

Today I have another stunning polish from Shades of Phoenix.

Aphrodite has a 'base of blue and red and a splash of pearl white with violet, bright pink, garnet and silver glitter throughout'.

As I mentioned above, it is a simply stunning polish.  It is a colour that I imagine would suit most skin tones and it was easily opaque in two coats.  I needed to smooth the edge of my nail a bit with a file due to all the glittery awesomeness, but that was no hassle at all and I'm sure it could be avoided if I had applied it differently/more carefully.

Shades of Phoenix retails for $9 and is available through their etsy store.  Coincidentally, tonight they are releasing two new limited release polishes, and I highly recommend you check them out!



I thought instead of dedicating a whole blog post to this next little titbit, I would squeeze it in here.  After much waiting - well, it felt long, but in reality it was only 2.5 weeks - my Color Club Halo Hues turned up.  I spent a while deciding which collection I wanted and ended up just getting both!

I'm so excited to wear these pretties.  The holo in the bottle is amazing and I have tried two on my mum and my sister and the holo on the nail looks just as great (even with topcoat!).

So keep an eye out for posts on these lovelies - I'm hoping to stretch it out and use them sporadically so as to not ignore my other untrieds.  Also keep an eye out for my first official post for Aussie Nails Monday.  I did the galaxy nails last week unofficially, but have decided to join the challenge officially and our next task is STRIPES.  Yay!

x

China Glaze - 2NITE

Holy holo awesomeness Batman!!

Tonight I finally tried my first holo polish and now I can totally understand what all the fuss is about!

China Glaze 2NITE is from the coveted OMG Collection and along with the rest of the collection is considered VHTF.  It is a bright medium blue holo and it has me in complete and total awe.

The picture taken above was in artificial light as the sun had set by the time I'd painted my nails.

It applied fairly well, however I did experience some weird dragging and balding, probably due to my use of a base coat (apparently a no-no for holos - unless an aqua base coat...).

I also committed the other holo polish sin of using a top coat.  The use of a top coat apparently 'dulls' the holo effect.  It did dull the holo in this polish only slightly, and I was satisfied with the holo-ness after TC and hopefully my manicure will last longer with the top coat - I used HK Girl TC.

I managed to score this pretty in a blog sale for a VERY reasonably price.  I cannot believe how much this polish is selling for on ebay - over $40!  I paid less than $10!  Score!

This gorgeous holo has definitely whetted my appetite for more holo lovelies.  I have another from the OMG collection to try - DV8 - and I am also currently waiting on my order for all 12 of the Color Club Halo Hues to arrive from the US.  So keep your eyes out for some holo spam on my blog!

x

Galaxy Nails!

Well, I finally did it.

I finally attempted nail art on myself.

And I am soooo happy with the results!

The girls in Aussie Nails were talking about their Galaxy Nails for Aussie Nails Monday and I thought I would give it a crack.  It is supposed to be one of the easiest types of nail art to do, and pretty hard to screw up.  They weren't wrong!

I know it's not perfect, but for a first attempt, I'm stoked!  I have been admiring my handiwork all day :)

I started by following a tutorial online and then decided to wing it.

For my base colour I used OPI Light My Sapphire and for my 'nebula' I sponged on China Glaze Passion in the Pacific, China Glaze Gothic Lolita and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue It.  For my stars I used China Glaze Fairy Dust.

I topped it all off with a layer of HK Girl Top Coat.



In other nail news, I finally got some nail mail today.  I managed to score a few pretties in a very generous blog sale and ended up killing a few of my lemmings along the way.

How on earth do I choose which one to wear first?!

x

Max Factor - Fantasy Fire

I know Fantasy Fire is old news, but it is still a bloody spectacular polish!

After much searching towards the end of last year, I finally managed to score myself a bottle - the last bottle in the display, tucked right up the back, knocked over.  But I FINALLY had one!  After that, Fantasy Fire could not be found in the Max Factor displays in Darwin.  I looked EVERY time.  Yes, I was being greedy. I already had one, why did I need more?

Well, I needed more because Fantasy Fire happens to live in the world's SMALLEST polish bottle!

Why is so much awesomeness only available in a teeny, tiny bottle?!

Thankfully, our Priceline restocked their supply about 6 weeks ago, and I bought the only three they had left.  So now I have four bottles and I am sated.  Though I still have to use all my willpower not to buy it every time I see it - funnily enough, our Priceline always seems to have it there now...

The hype with FF was that it was regarded as a very close dupe to the now discontinued and uber expensive on ebay Clarins 230 or Unicorn Pee.

Fantasy Fire is a sheer purple base filled with fiery multichrome shimmers that shift from red to gold to green.  In the bottle it is absolutely stunning and on the nail it is even better.

I apologise for the blurry photo, but I believe it best captures the crazy shimmeriness of this polish.  I also tried to take photos with my Nikon, but strangely enough, my iPhone seemed to capture it better...

When I first wore this polish, I layered it over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue It.  Due to its sheerness, it is not really recommended to use it on its own.  I agree, as it comes in such a small bottle, too much polish would be needed to get it opaque.

This time I layered it over Revlon Royal - the widely accepted partner for FF in blog circles.  Royal is a royal blue jelly, and unfortunately, I didn't really love it like I thought I would.  I have mentioned by hesitation towards jellies, and this polish confirmed why.  I can still see visible nail line, it was quite runny and clean up (and removal) was a bitch.

Around the world, Fantasy Fire is regarded as a HTF.  I don't have too many HTFs in my stash, and for something that is relatively easy to obtain in Australia and the UK for less than $5 a bottle, I find it quite funny that it is considered HTF, but I'm happy for it to claim that title and to have it (them) in my stash.

When I first wore this polish, I was wondering what all the hype was about - this was back when I painted my nails on the lounge room floor with poor lighting.  Then I walked outside the next day and was completely  blown away.  It is quite unexciting in low lighting, but get it in the sun or under a bright light and you will be blinded!

x