Christmas #1 with a-england and CrowsToes

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I had such a nice Christmas Day yesterday. It was 29˚C in Wellington which is basically unheard of. Anyway, this is one of the Christmas manis I did before Christmas...

I loved wearing this mani. It felt so festive. a-england 'Perceval' is one of my most favourite polishes in my entire collection and I have been grabbing for it more and more lately. It seems such a perfect red for Christmas.

For the water marbling on my index and middle fingers, I used OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' and 'Perceval' with a coat of Chi Chi 'Disco Diva' on top (apparently I can't do anything without it these days). On my ring finger is a coat of CrowsToes 'Maxxed Out' (BEST CHRISTMAS GLITTER EVAH!!) and on my pinky is a coat of CrowsToes 'Hell Hath No Fury'.

As far as formula goes, 'Perceval' is about as good as it gets. For this mani, I did use 2 coats, but I have many times in the past worn it as one coat.The glitters were both great as well. I love the glitter payoff you get with all CrowsToes polishes.

Hope you are all having a safe and happy Christmas/Boxing Day. I'm off to have another family feast tonight :D

Guest Post Over on Makeup Withdrawal

Just in case you haven't already seen it, my nails are currently visiting Makeup Withdrawal. Pop on over and have a look at my guest post, my sunset gradient mani and my inspiration...

If you don't follow Mimi already, you really should be! She does fantastic makeup and nail polish posts. Plus she's just plain awesome overall :)

Blushing Nude - Takko Lacquer

OOOOhhhhhh YEA! I have finished work for the year and that means I can give my nails a much needed holiday without banging them up every day.

Today I have another GORGEOUS Takko Lacquer polish to show you. I have quite a big love for nude polishes, add some of that brilliant Takko Lacquer shimmer and this was always going to be love at first sight. This is Takko Lacquer 'Blushing Nude'...

MMMMMMMhhhhmmmmmm. I love this polish. So incredibly sophisticated and that pink shimmer gives it a perfect edge.

Polishes like this are so flattering. I feel like my fingers and nails look so elegant with this on them. The shimmer in 'Blushing Nude' is just like the other Takko Lacquer shimmers (e.g. 'Wanderlust' or 'The Electric Apple: NYC') in that it is not at all shy. The pink flash is visible in all light.



Again, like the other Takko Lacquer polishes 'Blushing Nude' was really opaque, barely needing 2 coats. It also dried really fast and slightly satiny. I found the nude colour of 'Blushing Nude' was very wearable even on my pale skin. Excuse my red cuticles (I had just pushed them back and they did NOT like that!), it is not the tone of the polish making my skin appear like a little piggy!

Takko Lacquer polishes are all vegan, 3-free and not tested on animals. They are available through Sheryl's Etsy store. Keep an eye on her blog for updates.

This product was provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.
For more information, see my disclosure policy.

A Greyscale (-ish) Christmas Mani

I have my first christmas inspired mani to show you today. It's not your usual festive red and green mani, but rather a simple greyscale(-ish) mani...

This is a bit of a representation of Christmas around the world. I wanted to do snowflakes, but as it's summer here I figured I'd better bring a bit of Kiwi Christmas into it somehow, hence the jandals. Also when I did this mani last night, there were in fact 8 days till christmas here and right now as it's still Monday in America there are still 8 days till christmas for you guys! :)
P.S. please excuse the bleeding hearts on my pinky finger. I did more than one stroke of top coat in the same place on this tiny little nail and then wrapped it like an idiot after that. Will I ever learn?

Here's a pic of 'Grey Matters' on its own. I recently bought this from Steph from Nail Juice. I really like this polish. I love the little black shimmer in it. It gives the polish a look of felt to me.


For the stamping, I used Konad Special Red and White polishes and Ulta 'Black Satin'. I also used a coat of Chi Chi 'Disco Diva' on my pinky and a coat of that and China Glaze 'Snow Globe' on my middle finger.

'Grey Matters' had a really nice formula to work with and only needed 2 easy coats for full opacity.

Guinevere - a-england

And so the war with my nails rages on... I took off another corner of my nail at work and I didn't even realize till I got home. I am at such a loss as to why they're so unhealthy at the moment. Oh well, on with my moisturising and hopefully a nice christmas break soon will do them some good. Today I have a lovely a-england polish to show you. This is 'Guinevere'...

'Guinevere' is such a wonderfully elegant dusty purple. This is such a perfect shade that has a dusty quality that sets it apart from your average mauve polish. I found that 'Guinevere' was really flattering, I really didn't want to take it off.


This polish has such an amazing formula for this pastel-ish sort of colour. One coat gave almost full coverage and I just used a second coat to even everything out a bit.

'Guinevere' can be purchased from the a-england website for £9 with free worldwide shipping.

Another look at Candeo Colors Deep Space

Hi folks.

My nails are right in the midst of their biggest fight with me EVER!! Peeling, breaking, etc and my cuticles... UGH I am moisturizing like there is no tomorrow and it's barely helping! HELP me friendly readers!

Anyway, moral of the story is that I am not loving any of my photos right now, so I thought I'd show you an update of Candeo Colors 'Deep Space' (some of you might have seen these floating about already). In my original post, I was in Wellington and all I had for lighting was the overcast sky. So I recently took some more pictures and managed to catch a glimpse of the glorious shift in 'Deep Space'...

This is one coat over a-england 'Camelot'.

I mentioned also that I thought 'Deep Space' would look good over colours other than black. So here we go...
Pinky to index = a-england 'Avalon', 'Order of the Garter', 'Saint George' and 'Holy Grail' (new version). I love 'Deep Space' over all of these. I especially like how the little blue glitters pop more over certain colours like 'Holy Grail'.

So there you go. I think this shows much more of the true potential of 'Deep Space'. This can be purchased direct from Candeo Colors or through Llarowe.

I'm off to moisturize and hope that my nails grow already!!!

Parfait Day - Lime Crime & Putting On The Ritzzz! - Dollish Polish

I have another Lime Crime for you today. I have to say, the more I wear these Lime Crime polishes, the more I am so pleased that I got the set of them. I love them so much. They are fast becoming some of my most favourite polishes. Today's Lime Crime is 'Parfait Day' with a bit of Dollish Polish 'Putting On The Ritzzz!' for good measure.

This polish is so bright and as usual with the Lime Crime polishes that I've shown you, it is pastel, but also verging on neon. The thing I love about 'Parfait Day' is that there's actually a slightly dusty feel about the pink which is unusual when it's so close to leaning neon.

This photo shows a bit more of the neon side of this cotton candy pink. I think 'Putting On The Ritzzz!' worked really well with 'Parfait Day'. I got so many comments on this combination while I was wearing it earlier in the week.


'Partfait Day' applied just like the other Lime Crime polishes that I've shown you, it dries satiny and very fast. Like them, it was also really beautifully opaque, requiring barely two coats for perfect coverage. 'Putting On The Ritzzz!' was a bit of a tricky little bugger to apply, but nothing that a good mix and a bit of patience won't help. The first coat I applied of 'Putting On The Ritzzz!' didn't give very good coverage, but as you can see, with two not very thick coats, the coverage is good in the end.


Lime Crime's are available from Harlow & Co. (and remember they have free shipping with orders over $50USD) and 'Putting On The Ritzzz!' can be purchased from Dolly's Big Cartel shop. (keep an eye on her shop updates to see what will be in the upcoming restocks and when they'll be happening).

Polish Days: Bling

It's that time again... Polish Days time. To be honest with you, I thought I had till the 6th (which would be the 7th here in NZ and suddenly I realised that the 4th was the actual date, so late last night I got to it and came up with this...

It's not really at all what I had in mind for this Polish Days, but I think it turned out ok given that it was a bit rushed. I used a-england 'Camelot' as my black base and Sally Hansen 'White On' as the white base. On the pinky finger is a couple of coats of Chi Chi 'Disco Diva' (which does NOT want to sparkle properly on camera!) and on top of that on my index finger is a coat of Cult Nails 'I Got Distracted'. I also used my little gold studs from the Born Pretty Store and some sticky little gem things that I got from the scrap booking section at The Warehouse.


Well, hopefully next time I can be a little better organised for Polish Days. Also, just to finish this little post, I would like to say congratulations to Hannah from Polly Polish and to her Mr who got her the most GORGEOUS ring that could inspire this month's theme.

P.S. this is my 100th post! WOO. Thanks to everyone who reads my little blog :)

Cinderella - Sinful Colors + Stamping

I have another installment from Mimi's last box o' treats. This time it's Sinful Colors 'Cinderella'. I have to say I was so excited to see this little lady in the box! I've been wanting 'Cinderella' ever since I first starting seeing pics of it and I am so pleased I own it now, so thanks again Mimi!!

I didn't get a pic of 'Cinderella' alone because I was in a desperate hurry to get this all finished before dinner, but you can still get a good idea of it (plus there are around 1000 photos out there already). But seriously look at that flecky, flakey, shimmery goodness would you! It's so pretty.

I found it so hard to capture the pink of the shimmer, but it actually gets amplified by the purple of the stamp. I used Ulta3 'Orchid' with LeaLaC XL - B. Not my best work, but like I said I was in a major hurry. I do like the way the purple and blue look together. I did feel a little like a princess ;)



I have heard some things about 'Cinderella', formula-wise, that weren't entirely good, but I didn't really have any trouble. It is sort of thick in that slightly foamy sort of way, but it wasn't really hard to manage at all. It's reasonably sheer and I think this was 3 thick-ish coats, worth it though! 'Orchid' stamped nicely, which I am really happy about considering it cost me $4.50 (NZD). Which reminds me, for any kiwis that don't already know, we are finally able to get our mitts on Ulta3 polish! There are a few stockists in Auckland I think, though I got mine from Quay St Pharmacy (in the Countdown).

Merman - Chi Chi & Pixie Dust - Dollish Polish

I have something that has been buried so far at the bottom of the vault that I had all but forgotten about it. Truth is, it's a gorgeous polish (two actually) that deserve to be shown off, so here we go...

First up, I am so surprised by how long my nails used to be! I never realised at the time. Weird!! (which reminds me, I hope you guys don't mind the lengths being all over the place in my photos at the moment).
Anyway... Chi chi is one of the "cheaper" brands in NZ (and by cheaper I mean ~$10-15 (I can't quite remember)). It's an Australian brand and I've never really even looked at their polishes, until I saw this little fella winking at me in Farmers one day. 'Merman' is a wonderful teal coloured polish, and as for the name, well the Zoolander lover in me kinda had to have it for this reason too...

On my middle and ring fingers, I decided to put a layer of Dollish Polish 'Pixie Dust'. I knew this would be really subtle and I was right, but I kinda like that it gives 'Merman' just the slightest shift in colour to blue at certain angles and it gives it a certain textured look that I actually quite liked. Kinda like mermaids' (mermen's??) scales.


Speaking of texture, 'Pixie Dust' is certainly not lacking in this department! She was a gritty little bugger! Luckily that doesn't really bother me too much and I just put an extra layer of top coat over it. These pictures show 3easy, thin coats of 'Merman' and one coat of 'Pixie Dust'.

I bought 'Merman' from Farmers a wee while ago, but I imagine it's still available there. I got 'Pixie Dust' from Llarowe for $11USD, but I've just looked and it doesn't appear to be available there at the moment. It's part of the Mythical Creatures set that Dolly will be restocking in her Big Cartel shop on the 5th of November though :)