China Glaze Atlantis & Peita's Polish Under the Sea

Today I bring you my last NOTDs for a short while.  This is because my nails have copped quite a battering lately and quite a few of them broke all the way, so I have filed them all down and have decided to go... naked *gasp!* for at least two weeks wearing only rejuvacote and nail envy.  I am quite sad at this, but it needs to be done.

So I bring you my last couple of manicures.

First up I have CG Atlantis.  This beauty had been on my wishlist for a while and I finally scored this sparkly wonder in a grab bag!  Yay!!!  It was a great pick-me-up after a failed attempt at a fishtail braid manicure.

And now I have my latest manicure.  Peita's Polish had a birthday sale a couple of weeks ago and I finally bought all of her polishes that had been sitting in my etsy cart (plus a few extra).  I was absolutely gobsmacked by how freakin' sparkly the polishes were.  All of them.  Super sparkle.

The first one I wore was the the sparkliest of the bunch - Under the Sea. Under the Sea contains teal holo hexes, tiny teal glitter and silver holo glitter.  Wow.  I layered it over a England Galahad.

x

I Pimped my Helmers!

A nice quick one today.  I had seen a few prettied up helmers online and when I finally got my helmers - a bit of a saga to get them here since Darwin does not have an IKEA, but Adelaide IKEA is fantastic and posted them to me with minimal fuss - I couldn't wait to do mine up too!

I already knew I would use scrapbooking card stock for my drawers, but I had originally planned on gluing the card stock to the drawers.  But I am very reluctant to commit (to anything, lol) and I was worried I would ruin my helmers by gluing the card stock on and not being able to change it.  So I decided to attach the card stock using MAGNETS!  I bought magnet tape and it's perfect!  I measured up the drawers, cut the card stock to size and used the magnet tape to attach.  Easy!  Some of my cutting leaves a lot to be desired, but that's okay, because I can always remove the dodgy ones and replace them with better cut ones.  Or I can change the style/colour scheme to match my nail room/mood.

I love it!

My very first (successful) gradient and leopard print

I know today is supposed to be AN Monday.  But I have not been too inspired lately to join in with AN Monday.

So today, I have some new to me nail art instead.

First I want to show you my first successful-ish gradient.  I had tried gradients twice before and ended up scrapping it due to the big globs of sponge left behind on my nail.  Those first couple of tries I had been painting the polish straight onto a dry make-up sponge.  After some research, I ended up cutting off a sliver of the make-up sponge so that it was so smooth, dampening the sponge ever so slightly and mixing the polish on a piece of baking paper and then dabbing the sponge into the polish.  SUCCESS!!

Now, I know my gradient isn't as smooth and seamless as it could be, but I am working on it and I can only get better with practice, right?!

I used Sally Hansen Complete Manicure Barely Bluebell and Purple Posy and of course I put a layer of CG Fairy Dust on top.  I was pretty chuffed with these!!

A couple of weeks later, I tried it again.  This time using ulta3 polishes.  This time the gradient was much more subtle as the ulta3 polishes I used were quite watery.  I still liked it though.

I used ulta3 Corsican Rose and Lilac Bloom with yet another layer of CG Fairy Dust on top.  Maybe one day I will wear a manicure WITHOUT sparkles... lol.

Another new nail art trend I attempted was leopard print.  Again, far from perfect - the black polish got a bit stringy - but I am confident to give it another whirl with a different colour palette.

All the polishes I used (except the black) are from the CG On Safari Collection.

So now that I've broken my gradient and leopard cherries, I look forward to using these more in the future.

x

Shades of Phoenix Zeus & Loki's Lacquer Ed! This is Serious!

Today I have two pretties to show you.  I am showing two separate polishes, because for some reason, I didn't take many photos of the finished manicures - I think my camera batteries went flat and I was too lazy to charge them...

First up I have the super popular Zeus from Shades of Phoenix.  Zeus is a clear based topper with lavender matte glitter, white matte hex glitters and tiny silver hexes.  I decided to layer it over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  I'm not sure if my layering combo is the best for Zeus though...

I got a bit carried away and ended up layering two coats of Zeus over the base colour.  I think one coat would have been plenty.

Next up I have my another instalment of 'My Sister's Nails'.  My sister is a huge Shawn of the Dead fan and when I alerted her to Loki's Lacquer polishes inspired by the movie, she ended up buying a few of them for herself.  Yep, she bought them.  Not me.  I think my polish addiction is well and truly rubbing off on her!

Ed! This is Serious! is a black base with several different sized red glitter and green flecks.  It is really quite stunning.  We layered it over black, however it could reach opacity in 2-3 coats quite easily.

I have always been super impressed with the polishes from Loki's Lacquer.  Their creator has a fantastic creative imagination and the polishes are always of top notch quality.  I already have my eye on her soon to be released LE Willy Wonka inspired collection!

x

Peita's Polish Hello! I'm Trixie

Today I have another polish from the June What's Indie Box.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  We Aussies have the best indie polish creators in the world!

Hello! I'm Trixie is the first Peita's Polish I have used and was the first Peita's Polish I owned.  I have now rectified that by placing a largish order just last week.

Hello! I'm Trixie is a light milky blue with lavender hex glitters, purple square glitters, teeny purple glitters and an absolutely hypnotising purple shimmer.  Wow.

I apologise in advance for the crapfest that is the quality of my photos.  My IG photo is actually okay, but my other photos leave a lot to be desired...

x

Lilypad Lacquer Stretch for the Stars

This polish has crept up to be one of my top 5 faves.  I also think my IG photo of this manicure is my FAVOURITE manicure photo of my nails - I hope that makes sense.

Lilypad Lacquer Stretch for the Stars was one of the awesome polishes included in the very first 'What's Indie Box'.  The theme was Toy Story and as soon as I saw this beauty I knew it would be the first from the box that I would wear.

Stretch for the Stars is a cornflower blue holo.  I don't know what sorcery Nicole from Lilypad Lacquer is conjuring, but she has a super talent for creating the BEST indie holos I have ever seen.

I love how my nails look in this polish.  I am also happy with their length here too, unfortunately, my nails have copped a battering lately and are no where near to this standard right now :(

And here is my fave IG photo of my own nails.

x

Contrary Polish Better Together & Love Thy Polish Rhiannon

Gee, I am the world's worst blogger!!!  I wish I had an excuse for my shocking lack of posts, but I don't.  I've actually been on school holidays for the last three weeks...

If you follow me on IG, you would know that I am still doing my nails and I now have a huuuge backlog of manicures to show you all.

My next few posts will be short on words as I will let the pictures do the talking.

Today I have Contrary Polish Better Together to show you.  Contrary Polish prides themselves on their awesome shimmer, and they should be proud.  The shimmer in this polish was gorgeous.

Better Together is a a dark blue-grey with a turquoise shimmer.  Stunning.

Contrary Polish is available to Aussie gals through Femme Fatale Cosmetics.


And here's a quickie of one of the polishes from the Love Thy Polish Dreams collection.  I'm not sure why I only took an IG pic of this, but trust me, it's stunning and literally GLOWS!

Love Thy Polish - Rhiannon

Thanks for sticking around!

x