2 Year Blogiversary Mani

Hi hi!

As you know (if you saw my last post), my 2 year blogiversary has just been. I posted that day, but I hadn't had time to do anything particular on my nails at that point. I wanted to do a little 2 year anny mani for it, so that's what I am posting today. First up though, I just want to thank all you lovely people again for reading my blog, and commenting etc, and also thanks to the truly wonderful friends that I've made along the way. This blog is my little escape from studies and work and all those things and it is made just that much better by the interaction that I have with fantastic people from all over the world.

I really love how this mani came out. It is using a whole lot of products that I love which is perfect for this 2 year anny mani :) On my index and pinky fingers I used 1 coat of a-england 'Camelot' followed by 2 coats of Emily de Molly 'Dark Forces'. On my middle and ring fingers, I used 2 coats of Cult Nails 'Fetish'. My ring finger has a stud design using studs from Born Pretty Store. My middle finger is stamped with a-england 'Encore Margot' from the Ballerina collection and MoYou plate 05 from the Pro collection.

I won't get into formulas etc as most of these polishes have been reviewed previously on my blog - long story short, all of these polishes are wonderfully opaque, easy to use and they also wear remarkably well (even without top coat on 2 of my fingers).

Make sure you check out all the links to the stores of everything I used as they all make brilliant polish, plates and accessories!

Thanks again lovely readers xx

Charming - Cult Nails

Hello!

How are you? I am one exam down and I can't wait for these babies to be over in a week or so, so I can get back to nails and blogging! I got home from my exam yesterday and the first thing I did was file my nails down. I know I'm crazy busy when my nails get way too long. Anywho… I have a lovely Cult Nails polish to show you today. This is 'Charming'.

I have to say, purple is not a colour that I generally grab to wear on my nails. I am constantly wanting to buy purple polish though. Well I really enjoyed wearing 'Charming' as something different. It is really unique and is an absolute pain to photograph accurately! It is packed with incredibly fine shimmer that appears blue in some lights, but pink in other lights. It has an almost electric feel to it at times while remaining soft and pretty.

'Charming' was really easy to work with. Very smooth and self-leveling. The first couple of coats are very sheer but it is opaque by 3 coats (though there are four on my right hand for photography purposes).

Cult Nails is available from their website and from a few other places. I have just looked on the Cult Nails website and 'Charming' appears not to exist anywhere, but it is currently still available from Nail Polish Canada for $12.

Tempest - Cult Nails & Sweet Hook - China Glaze - Stamped

Hi!

I have a quick little mani to show you today that I did before work yesterday. I feel like it's been forever since I did any stamping so that's what I did...

I felt like something Spring-y and I really am loving this. I know I'm backwards as we are in Autumn at the moment, but I'm always like that, when the weather is getting crap I always feel like happy Spring or Summer colours. My bases were China Glaze 'Sweet Hook' and Cult Nails 'Tempest' and I stamped using Konad White and Lilac (? - there's no name/colour). The stamping plate I used was my most adored LeaLaC XL - B.


Formula-wise, 'Sweet Hook', as I have already told you, is perfect in 2 very easy, thin coats. 'Tempest' took a little getting used to. It's fairly thick and my first 2 nails (the ones you see in these photos) needed 1.5 coats, or one and a little thin one to even it out, but once I got used to it my other nails only needed 1 coat. So yes, I think 'Tempest' lives up to all the anticipation of it being a one coat white, which is amazing - Go Cult Nails! The images picked up perfectly from the plate, as they always do, so that part was good and easy too :)

Cult Nails 'Tempest' is available from the Cult Nails website and you can get the LeaLaC XL - B plate from Llarowe.

Sugar Spun Fetish - Cult Nails (with Sinful Colors & China Glaze)

I decided to do some major study avoidance earlier in the week and the best way to do that was to try the sugar spun technique. I had already been wearing (and loving) Cult Nails 'Fetish' and that seemed like it would work as the perfect base. Let's start with 'Fetish'...

I have always loved the look of matte black polish but have never quite mastered using Essie 'Matte About You'. Lucky for me, Maria from Cult Nails created these wax finish polishes. I love that sort of rubbery waxy look of 'Fetish'. So different and pretty edgy if you ask me.

So here's my attempt at a sugar spun mani... I didn't top coat it because I think the texture of this is a big part of the look of it. Overall it went ok apart from that big old glob on my pinky nail. This was the last nail I did and I was gutted when I did that! Must have been rushing to get it finished. Oh well, I decided just to roll with it. The colours I used were China Glaze 'Splish Splash' and 'Surfin' For Boys' on my index and middle fingers and on my other two fingers I used China Glaze 'I'm With The Lifeguard' and Sinful Colors 'Dream On'.


'Fetish' was so easy to apply. I barely needed the second coat, as it's beautifully opaque. I had been a bit worried about the dry time seeing as you obviously aren't putting a quick dry top coat on top, but I was pleasantly surprised by how fast it dried. For the sugar spun technique I searched a lot of videos on YouTube and if you're wondering how to do it yourself, that's what I'd recommend. There are always lots of good tutorials. I think the main tutorial I used was one by xoxo Alexis Leigh.

Cult Nails polishes are available from the Cult Nails website for $12 USD.

Christmas Mani #2 - with Cult Nails, a-england & CrowsToes

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I have been away for a bit because we went camping in the Hawkes Bay with my brother and his girlfriend. It was kind of nice to be away from all technology for a few days and just enjoy some nature,  good company and a good book. Anyway, my nails have been naked and unfortunately we had a few breakages. That's ok though, my nails have been growing fairly quickly lately.

So today I have my actual Christmas Day mani to show you...

 I already told you in my previous post about how much I LOVE a-england 'Perceval' so naturally I simply had to use it again. And with the perfect red, I had to use the perfect green and in my book, greens don't get much better than Cult Nails 'Deal With It'!!

On top of the water marbled finger is, of course, a layer of Chi Chi 'Disco Diva' and on my middle finger is a coat of CrowsToes 'Maxxed Out'. Déjà vu anybody?

I am so much in love with the amazing golden shimmer in 'Deal With It' and the best part... It's really not shy. The golden shimmer is really quite visible in most lighting.


'Deal With It' had a really lovely formula and for this mani I used 3 thin coats. Again, I used 2 thin coats of 'Perceval' for my pinky finger. I am pretty happy with how this mani turned out and I think I am finally getting the hang of water marbling! Yay because I really love the effect of it.

Hope you are all having safe and happy New Year celebrations! I'm off for another roast dinner tonight! I think I'm going to burst if I keep eating like this!

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.

A bit o' stamping with a-england and Cult Nails...

So I know I hardly ever do nail art on here and really I'd love to do more, but I'm just not so good at it! I know, I know practice makes perfect, so after exams I'm going to try my hand (lol sorry!) at a bunch of different techniques.

Anyway on to the post... What better way to procrastinate from studying than to do some stamping. I'm quite a rookie so this is quite a scary endeavor! And as I show you guys my dominant hand (my right one), it's particularly scary. You all see the work of my VERY unco left hand in my pics :)

I started off with the fabulous 'Elaine' from a-england's The Mythicals collection. 'Elaine' is a gorgeous dark purple that is one of the glorious darks that never becomes too dark so as to appear black. It keeps it's purple tones perfectly!

'Elaine' is a sort of aubergine purple. These two photos show 'Elaine' with no top coat! Yes, she is naturally this shiny. LOVE!

Next up I used another of a-england's beauties 'Princess Tears' to stamp an image from Bundle Monster's plate BM04. I've seen a few people using 'Princess Tears' for stamping recently and I loved the subtle beauty of it, so I thought I'd give it a go. It was very easy to stamp with, giving me no problems at all!

I love how the holo in 'Princess Tears' still manages to shimmer away. So pretty. By the way, if you want to see 'Princess Tears' on her own, have a look here.

A bit of a close up on the design. I've never used this design on myself before, but I tried it out on my Mum back at christmas time when I first got the stamping plates.

Seeing as how I apparently can't leave well enough alone, I just had to apply this beauty that arrived in my mail box that morning...

This is Cult Nails 'Seduction' and it's my first taste of the Cult!! I got Cult Nails base and top coats (more about them at the end) and I couldn't resist getting this too. I think there are going to be MANY more Cult Nails polishes joining my stash in the not so distant future. Anyway... 'Seduction' has a purpley-blue jelly base with a whole lot of gorgeous flakies. They shine so many different colours! Red, orange, copper...

... Green, yellow, blue...

And all at the same time! I love 'Seduction'! It's got just enough pieces to give good coverage without over-powering. I just want to mention that I'm almost entirely blaming loving Marta of Chit Chat Nails who has made me want Cult Nails polishes for a long time and finally I couldn't stand seeing her amazing swatches of them for another moment without trying them for myself. So thanks Marta!

Right, to the formulas... 'Elaine' was nothing short of perfection. Almost opaque at one coat so that the second coat provided perfect coverage and HIGH shine! 'Seduction' was also a pleasure. I used one simple coat and it was easy to get enough flakies and they spread really easily too. I used the other newbies to my stash for this too. I used Cult Nails 'Get It On' base coat and 'Wicked Fast' top coat. I've seen so much hype about these online lately and so I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about. Well let me just say that I took this manicure off this afternoon (about an hour ago) and it had been on for 7 days! I had no chips and barely any tip-wear! I have to say this is probably partly due to the AMAZING wear time that a-england polishes have, but I have given my nails a bit of a thrashing this past week too! I have since put on my next mani with Cult Nails base and top coats and we'll see how it goes this time, but after this first go... I can see why all the raving!

a-england polishes are available for £9 with free worldwide shipping from their website and Cult Nails polishes are available from their website for $10USD. Both are also available from a bunch of e-tailers.