Take A Chill Pill - Dollish Polish (with a splash of stamping and a gradient)

Hi!

I have a quick post with some nails that I did a while ago now. I quite like how it came out though so I figured it's about time I posted it. This look is mainly featuring Dollish Polish 'Take A Chill Pill' from her 'That's So 80's' collection.

'Take A Chill Pill' is a polish that I really like, but I'm slightly confused because looking back at pics from when this was released it was bright blue… As you can see my bottle has a very sheer blue-grey jelly base, packed full of all sorts of glitter. Strange - I will investigate further. Oh well, like I said, I love it.
On my ring finger I did a gradient using Color Club 'Wicked Sweet' and China Glaze 'Sun-Kissed' and then stamped on top using Bundle Monster plate BM-422 and Color Club 'Beyond'.

Unfortunately this polish is not currently available, but head on over to Dolly's Big Cartel shop because there is bound to be some other beauties that you'll want instead. Make sure you follow Dollish Polish on her various social media sites to keep up with updates (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).

Aca-Awkward! - Dollish Polish

Hi!!

I have a gorgeous polish to show you today that I absolutely adore. One trouble is that it was limited edition and so isn't easily available anymore - but you never know where it might pop up and if it does GRAB IT! This is Dollish Polish 'Aca-Awkward!'.

I wore this polish a few times in a row because I just loved it so much. It is so pretty but the brightness of the colour and the subtle holo make it so much fun to wear. For this mani, I stamped my middle and ring fingers using Bundle Monster plate BM-423 and Colours by Llarowe 'Refresh…ing'.


'Aca-Awkward!' was surprisingly opaque and 2 coats was more than enough for full opacity. It was also super easy to apply and didn't pull at the cuticles or anything silly like that.


As I mentioned, this polish is not currently available on the Dollish Polish website as it was a limited edition polish. But, keep your eyes out for Dolly's other LE polishes each month and grab them so you don't miss out on polishes like this one! Make sure you follow Dollish Polish on her various social media sites to keep up with updates (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).

Star Kin - Sunny Day Rain & Terracotta Army

How is everyone? Been enjoying the World Cup? We have certainly been. Today I have a post more for my kiwi readers, but of course you others can still enjoy some pretty polish pictures too. This is a brand new to my blog, Star Kin, that is the baby of Ami (from Every Sensory) and her mum, Annette. I'm really proud to support this kiwi team and they really do make absolutely beautiful polishes! Today I have 2, 'Sunny Day Rain' and 'Terracotta Army'…

This is 'Sunny Day Rain'. I have been trying to be on a low-buy for a good while now, but as soon as I saw this on Lani Loves, I knew I'd have to get it (thanks Lani <3). I love the mix of blue glitters in this and against the grey jelly base - perfect. The best part is that this polish is brimming with glitter, absolutely no fishing is necessary. The base is a bit sheer, but 3 coats was plenty for opacity.

For this skittlette mani (see ChitChatNails) I used Zoya 'London' on my pinky and stamped with Revlon 'Royal' and Bundle Monster BM-418. On my ring finger is a gradient using OPI 'Skull & Glossbones', OPI 'No Room for the Blues' and Revlon 'Royal'.

Next up is one of my favourites - 'Terracotta Army'. This is my perfect kind of polish. A most wonderfully saturated, burnt orange holo - what's not to love? I adore the colour of this polish. And to make things even better, this is really easy to apply and opaque - I think I used 2 coats for these photos.

Here's the kicker - NZ Post is really strict when it comes to sending polish out of the country (learnt the hard way here) so these polishes are only available to kiwis at this point. But for all you kiwis, head over to Star Kin on Etsy and show them some love.

Fonteyn - a-england (with Bundle Monster Stamping & a Blog Birthday!)

HI!! Guess what? It's my little blog's birthday today. I can't believe I've been doing this for 2 years already. Time has certainly flown by. Thanks so much to those of you who stick by and read it! I want to do a mani for this occasion, but I haven't had time. I think though, that it is appropriate that I am sharing the last polish from a-england's Ballerina Collection tonight. a-england is by far one of my most favourite brands of polish. Not only is the polish fantastic quality, but the inspiration and passion that the incredibly lovely Adina (and Tristam) put into the polishes make them that much more wonderful. So… on this 2 year anniversary, here is a-england 'Fonteyn' - yet another reminder why a-england is such a favourite.

'Fonteyn' is another polish that fits just so perfectly in this collection. A beautiful subtle lavender hued polish that catches the light so strikingly with the slightly scattered, yet linear holo. Look at that rainbow against the lavender on my index finger in this 2nd picture!

As with the other polishes ('Encore Margot', 'Dancing With Nureyev' and 'Her Rose Adagio'), I wore 'Fonteyn' as a little stamping mani. I used Color Club 'Beyond' and Bundle Monster plate BM-406 for this mani. I then added some Born Pretty Store 1.5mm round studs to finish it all off. I really love how this turned out.


Once again, the formula was really easy to work with. 2 coats for full opacity and again, this one didn't pull or anything. 'Fonteyn' is slightly thick, but in a good, manageable way.

a-england polishes can be purchased from a lot of places around the world. Unfortunately, you can only order direct from them if you are in the UK, but be sure to check out their list of worldwide distributors to find a place close to where you live. You can also follow a-england on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to keep up with the latest news from them.

This product was provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.

For more information, see my disclosure policy.

The Halloween Mani that Isn't...

Hi!

I have a mani on today that was originally going to be very different and was set to be my first Halloween mani of the year. I always try what I'm going to do on my left hand first, but when I stamped over the polishes I used on my left hand it didn't show very well, so I decided to use the same colours with paler polishes... Long story short, it is no longer even remotely Halloween-ish other than the fact that the Dollish Polish glitter is part of a Halloween collection :D

So as you can see, not overly Halloween-inspeired in the end, but oh well. Once I saw how the gradient on my middle finger looked, I knew I had to use a chevron stamp inspired by my biggest nail crush of all time, Lauren of Tales About Nails!

Polishes used... The base for the glitter is Lime Crime 'Peaches <3 Cream' and the glitter is Dollish Polish 'What's This? What's This?' from last year's 'This is Halloween' collection (which has been rereleased in limited quantities this year). On my middle and index fingers is a gradient and water marble using Lime Crime 'Peaches <3 Cream', 'Pastelchio' and 'Lavendairy'. These are both stamped using Color Club 'Beyond' with Bundle Monster plates BM-408 (index) and BM-423 (middle).

As mentioned, Dolly has brought back last year's Halloween collection by popular demand. At the time of writing this post, these are still in stock, so hop over to her shop ASAP and grab them because they are awesome!!

Electric Blue - piCture pOlish (and some new Bundle Monster stampin')

Hi hi!

I have a quick post to show you today of a mani that I loved. First of all, lets look at the base I used, which is the absolutely gorgeous 'Electric Blue' by piCture pOlish.

How beautiful and glowy is 'Electric Blue'? I love navy blue polish a lot and it's polishes like this that remind me why. The base colour is really dark, but the blue shimmer shines through so amazingly.

I love how this turned out. I used the new Bundle Monster plate BM-416 with Color Club 'Miss Bliss' on the pinky and ring fingers and then I added 1.5 layers of Dollish Polish 'Say Hello To My Kitty'. I love how well the Color Club 'Halo Hues' stamp. The holo effect seems to amp up so much. The new Bundle Monster set is fantastic! So many wonderful designs. How great is it that you can get this splatter effect with out much clean-up?!

'Electric Blue' was so easy to work with. I used 3 coats for these photos, but depending on how thick your coats are, I'm sure 2 would be enough. 'Say Hello To My Kitty' needs a good tip upside down before using it, but I didn't need to fish anything out for this look. Some of the larger glitters are a little less willing to come out, but no worries for me.

piCture pOlish is available from a whole bunch of places. Make sure you check out the piCture pOlish website, you can order this polish direct from them for $10 AUD or you can have a look at their list of distributors. Dollish Polishes are available from Dolly's Big Cartel shop for $10.

Some of these products were provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.
For more information, see my disclosure policy.

The Pit of Despair - Dollish Polish

Hi!

So I'm carrying on with showing you the Dollish Polish 'The Princess Bride' collection polishes that I managed to snag when Dolly first released them. I've loved them all so far (see the previous posts here, here and here) and I seem to have done a mini art-y feature nail with each polish so I figured I may as well carry that on. Tonight is 'The Pit of Despair'...

I love how this turned out actually. First of all, I like 'The Pit Of Despair', it has a nice mix of glitter. Mainly the glitter is purple, blue and black, but there is also some flakes in there, little holo glitters and even some shimmer too. 'The Pit Of Despair' is pictured over Lime Crime 'Milky Ways'. I love the way the feature nail fits with this mani. For the gradient I used Essie 'Butler Please', Lime Crime 'Once In A Blue Mousse' and 'Milky Ways', then I stamped with Color Club 'Beyond' with Bundle Monster plate BM-201.


'The Pit Of Despair' was ok formula-wise. There was pretty decent coverage. I used 1 and a half coats. I did have to go on a little fishing expedition for the large hex and a square, but I did get squares on other fingers so they do come out, just not on my swatching hand of course!


At the time of writing this, 'The Pit of Despair' is in stock on Dolly's Big Cartel shop, so hop over there and grab it for $10.

Polish Days: Vintage

It's Polish Days time again! For the first time since I started participating in Polish Days, I really struggled with the theme. This month's theme is Vintage... Hannah suggests that you could take the theme to mean using a vintage polish, or taking a decade or trend or anything really, so long as there is some connection with the past as your inspiration. Seems easy enough right... Wrong! I could not think. I often do stamping that reminds me of old-fashioned wallpaper etc, but I wanted to do something different and as I always use Polish Days as a way to make sure I do some nail art, I didn't want to just swatch a vintage polish. In the end I googled the word vintage and this is what I came up with..,

This totally reminds me of an old-fashioned day at the beach. I actually really like the way this turned out with the stripes and everything.

(source: depositphotos)

This was my inspiration image. As I was scrolling down through google images, I instantly fell in love with this and knew I wanted my mani to come from this.

Here are my nails pre stamping. I love the stripes. Please excuse the fact that only two of my nails are top coated! I'm not sure why I thought it was a good idea to take photos before I did the other two??

Polishes I used were OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' as the base on all nails. I did the stripes using striping tape from Born Pretty Store with OPI 'Steady As She Rose' and China Glaze 'Aquadelic'. My ring finger was stamped using BM-309 with a-england 'Galahad' and BM-09 with Essie 'School of Hard Rocks'.

Thanks Hannah for another great Polish Days! Make sure you check out what all the other lovelies have made of this theme...

Polish Days: Get Back To Nature

It's time for February Polish Days. I love Polish Days as it makes me do something a bit different each month. Trouble is, I always seem to go a little overboard and can't seem to ever just have one idea and a nice simple mani. This month is no different :) The theme this month is all about getting back to nature. I decided to go with the weather theme that Hannah suggested, in particular the four seasons...

I decided to use different techniques on each finger. For Autumn, on my pinkie I tried the saran wrap technique for the first time. I quite like how that turned out actually. I have to say, the seasons aren't particularly appropriate for New Zealand, but oh well (e.g. it doesn't snow in Auckland and it is certainly not Easter in spring). I used quite a few different polishes so I will just list them below...


Autumn:
• Enchanted Polish 'Mean Mr Mustard'
• Takko Lacquer 'Va Va Voom'
• a-england 'Holy Grail'
• OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls'

Winter:
• KB Shimmer 'Witch Way?'
• Stamping - Konad Special White and Bundle Monster plate BM-323
• "Glequins" from Born Pretty Store

Spring:
• Lime Crime 'Lavendairy', 'Once In a Blue Mousse', 'Pastelchio' & 'Crema De Limón'
• Chi Chi 'Disco Diva'

Summer:
• OPI 'No Room For The Blues'
• Studs from Born Pretty Store


Make sure you check out all the other lovely Polish Days manis...

Tristam - a-england, with a Side of Stamping and Dots

Hi!

I have a little mani to show you that I did a fair while ago. If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram (@PinpointPolish), you will have seen this while it was in progress. Basically this is inspired by a book, a recipe book to be exact. Weird I know, it's a long story, but basically it is black with white text on it and a big silver circle. This is a pretty abstract take on it, but I loved how it turned out.

For this mani I used a-england 'Tristam' and 'Bridal Veil' for the bases. For my ring finger I used Konad Special White for the stamp (BM-311) and for the dot gradient I used a-england 'Excalibur' and Rescue Beauty Lounge 'IKB:2012' (over white dots).

I love 'Tristam' so much! I really need to take some proper photos of this bad boy in all it's glory. It's such a gorgeous inky blue verging on blurple. So pretty! This was one of my first a-england loves! It is just the perfect shade of blue to me!


As usual, 'Tristam' and 'Bridal Veil' had that brilliant a-england formula that we have all grown to love. I used two coats of 'Tristam' and just one coat of 'Bridal Veil'.


a-england polishes are available from their website and are £9 with free shipping worldwide.

Princess - Cult Nails + Some Stamping

Hi!

I've had such a nice week at home in Wellington and I'm so sad that it's over, but oh well, back to real life and I have so much coming up at uni! Anyway... I have a little mani to show you tonight that I wore a week or two ago. I'm still trying to do a bit more stamping practice, so I thought I'd try a double stamping. I used Cult Nails 'Princess' as the base colour and stamped with Konad White followed by a-england 'Camelot'. I used Bundle Monster, BM-316.

I think this turned out to be quite a nice subtle mani. I was aiming for a similar-ish position of the stamp each time and that gave a nice bit of variation, but still kept everything sort of uniform. This is actually the first time I've used a polish specifically designed for stamping and it really was so simple to use (how has it taken me this long to try it?).

This is 'Princess' on its own. It's a really gorgeous soft looking polish. It's really flattering for a blue, which is always a bonus. 'Princess' actually has a beautiful pinky shimmer in it. It's not overly obvious but in any sort of direct lighting, it really pops out. I found it incredibly hard to capture, but you can kind of get an idea of it in these photos.


All these photos show no top coat. I almost always have trouble with top coat smudging my stamping - if anyone has some tips for me, please let me know :)
I used two coats of 'Princess' and I have to say that this polish is so close to being opaque in one coat. I always love to wear pale colours, but I HATE their application, so this was a pleasant surprise. It almost had that sort of foamy thickness, but wasn't at all difficult to apply. I already mentioned that Konad White was really easy to use and 'Camelot' stamped perfectly too. I also has no problems at all with the plate, BM-316. I'm so happy with Bundle Monster's third set, I love the designs and they've been brilliant to use so far.

Unfor-Greta-bly Blue - OPI & BM-305

Today I would like to show you the second polish that I got from the OPI Germany collection that has just been released. I am a sucker for blue polish, so naturally, I had to get this polish. This is 'Unfor-Greta-bly Blue'...

This is a super dooper glowing blue with a super dooper amount of ultra-fine teal shimmer! Love, love, love! This is without top coat.

I decided to add a bit of stamping and I somehow ended up with a mani that makes me think of super heroes. I'm so happy with this polish and this stamp! I used Bundle Monster plate BM-305.

'Unfor-Greta-bly Blue' has so many facets. It can look really bright teal blue...

But it can also become sort of blackened around the edges. Ahhh so deliciously pretty.


'Unfor-Greta-bly Blue' was really easy to apply. Like 'Every Month Is Oktoberfest', the first coat gives decent coverage and the second coat just makes everything come together and gives that gorgeous glow. I was worried that it was going to be really brush-strokey, but once it dried, most of that disappeared. You actually can't really see any brush-strokes in real life. BM-305 was also really fantastic. I had absolutely no problem with this at all. I used China Glaze 'Sci-Fi' as my stamping polish.

Every Month Is Oktoberfest - OPI

I managed to get my hands on two amazing polishes from OPI's Germany collection that has just been released, so today I'll be showing you the first of them. 'Every Month Is Oktoberfest' is one that I knew I had to have the minute I saw it popping up on all my favourite blogs. Turns out it is even more beautiful than I could have imagined in real life.

This is just such a delicious vampy shade. MMMMMMMM I love it! It is infact an indigo, purpley blue base with a ridiculous (ridiculously good) amount of shimmer. I think it's all red shimmer, but it seems to shift a little bit to gold in certain lighting. The blue of the base is really obvious on the first coat, but disappears quite a lot on the second coat. Even though it's less obvious, it still gives this polish a perfect little something extra in my opinion, that hint of underlying indigo is what makes this polish jump to the top of my favourite vampy polish list.

This shimmer was so hard to capture in all its glory. These photos show a little taste of the bright red glow that this beauty has. I decided to add a little stamping and so I tried a couple more designs from my new Bundle Monster plates. Both these designs are from plate BM-313. I used Barry M 'Gold Foil' to stamp and I think the gold played well with 'Every Month Is Oktoberfest'.

You can see here that slightly gold shift. The corners of my top two fingers are showing the base colour. I'm not quite sure why this is so obvious here. It must be a slightly thinner bit of application, but I looked and looked and could not see this blue in real life! Strange.

The formula on this was also lovely. One coat gives really good coverage and the second coat just deepens everything and gives the polish that beautiful glow. 'Every Month Is Oktoberfest' is not too thick or thin and has a perfect self-levelling formula, applying like butter. I can't say enough how much I love this polish and it really has to be seen in real life to fully appreciate it. As for the plate, BM-313, no problem at all! Both images picked up and transferred really easily. I am still a bit of a newbie when it comes to stamping, but I figure practice makes perfect and maybe one day I can learn to not panic every time I attempt it - you should see me, as soon as I've picked up the image, my heart starts beating FAST and it's panic station. I have to admit I tried to do my pinky finger one and missed literally 2/3 of my nail with the first stamp!

For the Kiwi's, I got this at Life Pharmacy and there is a buy two, get one free deal at the moment. I think OPI's cost around $25 at pharmacies so they're a bit cheaper than Farmers and made even better by the special deal :)

I also want to say that I have been nominated by two lovely ladies for a Liebster Award. I received one from Nicola from Always Trust The Gene Genie and the second nomination was from GelaNails. They both do some gorgeous nail art! I am absolutely swamped at uni at the moment but I have a mid-semester break in a couple of weeks so I will try and answer the questions etc then :) Thanks again ladies!

Kiwi Olympic Nails

It had to happen. I had to jump on the bandwagon and do some olympic nails at some point right? Well the other night, I was feeling patriotic and I had been called off work so I decided it was time I showed some support via my nails. I wanted to do something silver fern inspired and I was going to just draw some silver ferns on but I tried a few things and this is what I ended up with...

So my pinky finger is silver fern inspired if you use your imagination :) and the others... Well they just sort of happened. I used a-england 'Camelot' and 'Excalibur' and these polishes are truly brilliant. Both one coaters (even I left it at one coat - unheard of). The base colour on each nail is just a single coat of perfectly formulated polish.

For the gradients, I mostly followed Sammy's tutorial and on my middle finger, I just brushed a tiny bit of Dollish Polish '3 Best Friends That Anyone Could Have' to give just a wee dash of colour. On my ring finger, I stuck some Born Pretty Store loose glitter (aka "glequins") on. I made my pinky finger matte with Essie's 'Matte About You' and then stamped (using 'Excalibur') with BM210.

I love the spartkle that '3 Best Friends That Anyone Could Have' gives the gradient and the microglitter in it just seems to carry on the gradient perfectly.



I have loved wearing these nails, they're a bit of fun. Also With the Kiwi's having won three golds in the rowing in the last 2 days, I feel even more patriotic then ever :) Not bad for our little country, I am one proud Kiwi (of all our athletes actually!). Back to the nails... I've already said how brilliant the formula was on 'Excalibur' and 'Camelot'. As far as black polish goes, I don't think it gets much better than 'Camelot' and 'Excalibur' is the perfect silver and stamps like a dream.
Well that's all from me, I need to get in a bit more study before I go back to watching the olympics. Hope you're all enjoying watching the Olympics too. Don't know about you, but I get so inspired when I see all these amazing people doing such amazing things.

As usual, a-england is available from their website and remember they have free worldwide shipping :D

Kismet Elated - Sinful Colors

My Mum is so cute! She sent me a little parcel the other day with a polish in it for me that she's had put away for a little while. It is a Sinful Colors polish called 'Kismet Elated' and the reason this is special for me is because Kismet is actually my middle name. I've gone through most of my life HATING this name with everything I have, until several years ago when I learnt its meaning and I have since loved it. I have always been a believer in fate and basically "if it's meant to be, it will be" and that's essentially what Kismet means :) Anyway, naturally I put the polish straight on so here you go...

'Kismet Elated' is gorgeous. A really pretty pinky purple with an insane amount of rose gold shimmer (reminds me a lot of OPI's 'Rally Pretty Pink' but with fine shimmer instead of coarse glittery shimmer). When I first started applying this pretty, I thought uh-oh frosty looking shimmer, but nope, no such worry!

I love the shimmer! This polish isn't one I'd typically gravitate towards and who would've known I'd enjoy it so much. Thanks Mum!

When I first put this on, all I could think of was grandma colour (in the best possible way - I love me a nana colour every now and then), so what better to add to it than PAISLEY!! I just received the new Bundle Monster plates earlier in the week and I've been dying to give them a go and so far so fantastic. The stamping was really easy (even for a rookie). I used Barry M 'Gold Foil' with BM315 for the stamping. The design on my pinky finger is slightly blurred due to my awesome twisting motion that I've added to the rolling motion - DOH!

The design's pretty detailed but like I said, easy to stamp. Hopefully this is how all the designs on the new plates are going to be :)


'Kismet Elated' is fairly sheer but entirely able to be built up. I actually only used two thin coats and you can see VNL, but the large amount of shimmer made it much less obvious in real life. If you are a stickler for no VNL then I think three coats would be perfect.
Anyway, thanks Mum for finding me this polish! xx

Road House Blues - OPI and another go at stamping!

Oh no! I'm not a happy chappy right now! This often comes as a surprise, even to people who know me really well, but I have a massive love for Formula 1, especially all things Sebastian Vettel. Well, I have just watched him retire from the Valencia Grand Prix and let's just say I am one grumpy lady!

Anyway, on to happier thoughts... Today I've got a simple mani that I have actually loved wearing for the last couple of days.

This is 'Road House Blues' from last years Touring America collection by OPI. 'Road House Blues' is a gorgeous dark indigo crème polish. I love any polish that is at all navy-like and this is certainly one of my favourite crèmes in my whole collection.

You can see in this photo that this polish is certainly not the type that just looks black. I love how inky this colour is. In any sort of bright-ish light, this polish appears very blue.

I decided I wanted to have another little go at stamping but I didn't want to entirely cover up 'Road House Blues', so I thought I'd try the double feature nails that I've seen around a bit lately. I used China Glaze 'Sci-Fi' for the stamping with plate BM 208 (both images are on this plate). I actually just got 'Sci-Fi' recently from Nail Polish Anon's blog sale and it's perfect for stamping, so thanks Michaela!



'Road House Blues' was easy to apply. Two simple coats with no problems at all. As I mentioned earlier 'Sci-Fi' was great for stamping and I like that it's got that purpley tinge to it, giving it a bit of difference from a plain silver polish. I did get pretty impatient and top coated way to quickly so I did smudge everything a bit, but it's really not very noticeable in real life. Overall, I really like how this turned out and I love the double feature. I think I'll definitely be sporting this sort of mani again in the near future.


One more quick thing, I have been awarded an Appreciation Award from the lovely Kelsie from Kelsie's Nail Files! Thank you so much Kelsie!

To be honest, I have no idea what to do with this. I think I'm supposed to pass it on, but I don't think I can choose only a few blogs from the ones that I follow. Basically I love and appreciate every single blog that I follow so that's my choice! I know it's a bit of a cop-out but that's just the truth! Thanks again Kelsie :)