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).

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.

I'll tumble For Ya - Dollish Polish (+ Gradient)

Hello!!

I'm half way through my exams! WOOHOO. Today I have a little mani to show you that I wore for about the last week. I haven't worn a glitter for ages (I don't have time for the removal process), but I was really feeling like wearing one. So naturally I had to look in my Dollish Polish drawer in my helmer. I came out with 'I'll Tumble For Ya' and thought I might do a gradient inspired by the glitters like I did for some of my last few Dollish Polish posts (here, here and here). So here you go…

I love 'I'll Tumble For Ya' so much. There's something about white polish that is just so clean. The glitter colours in this polish are just so perfect together too. For the gradient I used Avon 'Strawberry', OPI 'No Room For the Blues' and OPI Greenwich Village'.


I used 3 coats of 'I'll Tumble For Ya'. As you can see in the bottle there are stars and bigger glitters, these didn't wanna come out and play too much and I couldn't be bothered fishing too much so I just made do with exactly what came out on my brush - I don't mind that it's slightly more subtle. The formula was really easy to work with though and really opaque too.


Head on over to Dolly's Big Cartel shop because I've just checked and this polish is in stock right now. Make sure you follow Dollish Polish on her various social media sites to keep up with updates (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram)


Hope you are all doing well and I will see you on the other side of my exams next week :D

a-england Stamped Gradient

Hi!

Again, apologies. I have been good and sick and spending any time at home in bed. Anywho, I am on the mend and hopefully I have a bit more energy to paint my nails and to blog. So this is a mani I did a couple of weeks ago featuring a-england polishes…

For this look, I first did a gradient using all a-england polishes - 'Briarwood', 'Rose Bower' and 'Her Rose Adagio'. I then stamped using Konad Special White and LeaLaC XL-B plate. I love how this turned out and I ended up wearing this mani for quite a while. I really like doing gradients with holos like these, as they seem to blend much more easily.

a-england polishes are available from many places around the world. Have a look at a-england's website if you are in the UK, or have a look at their Where To Buy page for worldwide shipping options. The LeaLac stamping plate is from Llarowe.

What are your favourite polishes or colours to use for gradients?

Ther-marbling and Gradients with Polished by KPT

Hello!

I have been wanting to play with my Polished by KPT thermals more for a bit and I have had this mani in my brain for ages and I finally got around to doing it. And... I freaking love it and don't want to take it off and now I just want ALL THE THERMALS!

'Being In The Pink' and 'Kelvin Bleu' are both so yummy and gorgeous and so fun and easy to work with. They were so easy to marble with and I'm pretty happy with the way this marble turned out. I love the way this mani looks in between hot (bottom picture) and cold (top picture) - as it is in the middle picture. I also love how the gradient isn't very obvious when cold and then everything becomes so obvious when it heats up.


For swatches of these polishes on their own, check out my posts here and here. Polished By KPT polishes are available direct from Katherine's Big Cartel shop if you're in the USA. For us international people, check out this 'where to buy' tab.

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!!

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.

Anybody Want A Peanut - Dollish Polish

Hey hey!

Quick post today to show you a mani I wore for a freakishly long time last week. I actually wore it twice in a row because I didn't take photos the first time round, but I liked it so much I redid it (though ever so slightly different) and wore it over again. This is another polish from the reasonably recent 'The Princess Bride' collection from Dollish Polish. Every one of the polishes I bought from that collection has been brilliant by the way (see here and here)!

'Anybody Want A Peanut' has a really pretty nude crelly (crème/jelly) base with brown, copper and gold glitters through it. I love the mix of glitters in this. It's such a nice subtle glitter. It looks yummy and always makes me hungry when I look at it! Does that make sense to anyone else? No? Moving on then...
For the accent finger I did a gradient using OPI 'Tickle My France-y' and 'You Don't Know Jacques' and then stamped over it using Barry M 'Gold Foil' and LeaLaC XL-B stamping plate.


'Anybody Want A Peanut' was easy to work with, though naturally it was a little sheer (expected from a crelly base). In saying that, I only used 3 (thick-ish) coats for full opacity, which is very reasonable in my opinion. Overall this is another big win from Dolly for me.

At the time of writing this, 'Anybody Want A Peanut' is still in stock on Dolly's Big Cartel shop, so hop over there and grab it for $10.

Have Fun Storming The Castle - Dollish Polish (+ a Gradient)

Hi folks!

I have a little post for you today featuring another of the Dollish Polish Princess Bride polishes. Today, I have 'Have Fun Storming The Castle' to show you...

I love 'Have Fun Storming The Castle', it's quite unique in my fairly extensive indie collection. I like the grey/beige milky base. Can you believe that this is my first polish with large circles in though? I decided to pair this polish with a bit of a gradient to go with the burgundy hexes that are in it. For the gradient I used OPI 'Manicurist of Seville' and 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' with Lime Crime 'Lavendairy'.


The formula of 'Have Fun Storming The Castle' was easy to work with and this is showing 3 coats over a white base. I don't think you need a base because it actually builds up quite easily. The only issue is that the larger glitter pieces didn't come out too readily. I did have to fish for my one large circle on my index finger. This doesn't bother me, but I know it might bother some people. Overall I love the mix of colours and shapes of glitter.


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

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013 - Celebrating the Year of the Blogger!

Hi everyone!

I'm really excited to to be a part of piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013! The brief was to create some nail art using 3 shades supplied to us by the lovelies at piCture pOlish. It's doubly exciting because there are 3 awards available, with the prizes being the opportunity to make a collaboration shade with piCture pOlish. The 3 prizes are chosen by 1) the fans and friends of piCture pOlish, 2) the participants of blogfest and 3) the girls of piCture pOlish (Jules and Megs). You can vote on your favourite nail art creation by hopping over to piCture pOlish on Pinterest and voting. Update: You can go to the piCture pOlish website to vote. But hurry, because it only runs till the end of tonight (NZ time).

The 3 shades I got were 'Atomic' (a collaboration shade with the super talented Sarah from Samarium's swatches), 'Denim' and 'Electric Blue'. This is the look I came up with...

As soon as I saw 'Atomic', 'Denim' and 'Electric Blue' together, they absolutely screamed gradient. They work so beautifully together.

Right, let's get on with how I went about getting this look...

 

First, I painted my nails with strengthener and base coat, followed by one coat of 'Atomic'. Once dry, I taped off my cuticles in order to make clean up a little easier later on.

 

Next, I painted a generous line of 'Denim', 'Atomic' and 'Electric Blue' on some wax paper. Using a tooth pick I swirled the adjacent colours together just a little bit, mixing 'Denim' out slightly to each side. I dipped the sponge into the polish, tapped it lightly on the wax paper, then sponged on to my nail moving up and down my nail with very small motions to ensure a smooth gradient.

I have to thank Sammy from The Nailasaurus for this particular technique! You can check out her original tutorial here. 

 

I repeated the sponging steps 3 times, ensuring the previous coat was completely dry each time. After that, I cut the tape off and cleaned up around my cuticles using an angled brush and pure acetone.

This is the cleaned up gradient and at this point it doesn't look very smooth. I slapped on a coat of quick-dry top coat and then once dry I used a coat of piCture pOlish 'G'day Matte' (matte top coat) on all but my ring finger. On my ring finger, I used a second coat of my regular top coat.

 

I waited until my nails were entirely dry and set before I went near the taping part. In fact, I did the taping part the next day. Using Magic Tape, I masked off the lines to taper near the cuticle end. You could use striping tape here, but as I show you my dominant hand (I have to do all this with my left hand), I used full tape so I wouldn't go over the edges.

Wait for the previous stripe to dry and set COMPLETELY before taping off the next one. I can't stress this enough, because they will pull off with the tape otherwise and you don't want to have to do the whole gradient over again. Paint the stripes (I used 2 thin coats for 'Denim' and 'Atomic') and carefully pull the tape off - preferably while the stripe polish is still wet. I repeated this whole process, with lots of drying time in between, to get 3 stripes on each nail.

 

To finish up, I added some studs to my feature nail, just sticking them on by dipping a tooth pick into top coat, dabbing it on my nail and then using the tacky toothpick to pick up and place each stud. I spaced them in a way that mirrored the gradient effect on my nails.

Phew, so this is it. I quite liked the way the gradient looked once matte, with the shiny stripes on top. What do you think?

You can check out everyone else's manis by checking out #ppblogfest2013 on twitter and instagram. Also make sure you are following piCture pOlish. They can be found in lots of different places - Facebook     Twitter     Pinterest     Instagram    You Tube    Google +.

piCture pOlish polishes can be purchased directly from Australia (check out their Everyday Deals page too), or visit their network page so you can find a distributor closer to where you live.

These products were provided for blog fest 2013.

For more information, see my disclosure policy.

It's A Me, Mario & Go Luigi! - Dollish Polish + Neon Gradient

It's definitely becoming more spring like here in Auckland and with the sun, comes a will to wear bright colours (actually who am I kidding, I never follow seasons). Anyway that sound like a good excuse to try something more with the China Glaze Summer Neons.

I started with a bit of a gradient with 'I'm With The Lifeguard' (green) and 'Splish Splash' (blue). 'Splish Splash' isn't quite as opaque, so you can see the the green is showing through quite a bit under it on my middle finger. That's ok though, you'll see why in a moment. This is without any top coat, hence the funny texture from the sponge. As usual, I followed Sammy's gradient technique.

Seeing as it appears no manicure is complete, these days, without a lick of glitter, I dipped into my vastly expanding collection of wonderful creations by Dolly and had to get out 'It's A Me, Mario!' with an accent of 'Go Luigi!' on my middle finger.

I loved wearing this so much! So bright, fun and slightly obnoxious, just the way I like it. I couldn't decide originally what I wanted to wear 'It's A Me, Mario!' over, so I think it's good that I got to see it over both green and blue here. I also like the way that it's not immediately obvious that there's anything different about any of the nails, then you realise that one of them has green instead of red glitter. 'It's A Me, Mario!' and 'Go Luigi!' work so perfectly together.

The China Glaze neons, 'I'm With The Lifeguard' and 'Splish Splash', both are pretty effortless to apply. They are ever so slightly sheer and so I had to apply 3 thin coats, but it's worth it. Both glitters could have done with a little more shaking, but I was a bit too excited and so application wasn't quite as easy as it could have been. At the end of the day, just regular glitter application really though. I fished for one of the stars and got slightly over-zealous sticking it down - with the skewer that I used to mix the colours for the gradient! So the star on my middle finger is covered in green, but I promise you this is entirely my own fault and there is no bleeding of colour, or anything like that, with the polish.

China Glaze polishes can be purchased from Candy Girl (for the Kiwi's out there) and the Dollish Polish Mario collection can be purchased from the usual places - Dolly's Big Cartel Shop as well as Llarowe (and I've just now checked and they're in stock, so go quick!!).

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

Gradient Nails

So I have my first attempt at proper gradient nails to show you today :) I've always loved the look of gradient nails but I haven't really ever thought I could pull them off. I have dabbled in sponging a bit of glitter on my tips but that's about as far as I've gone. Until....... Sammy from The Nailasaurus posted this amazingly easy to follow tutorial... As un-creative as I think I am, I actually figured maybe I could manage this. So here we go, this is my take on gradient nails...

I wanted to use colours that were very different and do something nice and bright. What better than neon pink and navy. The pink I used is Color Club's 'Warhol' and for the navy, I used OPI's 'Yoga-Ta Get This Blue' (one of my favourites!!).

As usual, the neon was near impossible to capture colour-corectly, but this photo is pretty close. 'Warhol' is a super bright, saturated pink. I love the shimmer in 'Yoga-Ta Get This Blue' too.

While I was wearing this mani, I got some SWEET nail mail from Ninja Polish. I ordered Nail-Venturous 'Floam' and 'A Dash of Princess'. Naturally as soon as they arrived, I had to try one of them and surprisingly it was 'A Dash of Princess' that really piqued my interest. Well, I gotta say, I LOVE this polish!

'A Dash of Princess' is absolutely packed with a mix of large and medium hex glitters in pink, white and some sort of pearly ones (see my ring finger tip), as well as little wee pink hex glitters. Love, love, love! I don't know what else to say but just that, I love it!


I'm not even going to start to tell you how I did this because if you haven't already, you should all head straight over to Sammy's blog because she explains it all brilliantly. And while you're there, check out the rest of her blog, she is basically freaking awesome at all things nails, especially when it comes to nail art.
As to the formulas, 'Warhol' is pretty easy to work with. I used two coats and it was ever so slightly see-through at the tip, but that was OK because the navy was going on top. 'Warhol' does dry matte (usual for neons) so top coat is definitely necessary, but to be honest, you'll be needing top coat to smooth out the sponging anyway. 'A Dash of Princess' was also really easy to use. Sometimes these sort of glitters can be a pain, but this is so dense that you get heaps on the brush and it's pretty easy to place the pieces where you want them.
I absolutely loved sporting this look and I definitely will be trying this again. I got so many comments on it too :) Most of all, thanks Sammy for making that tutorial. I love that you've created such a monster with it. Gradient nails are taking over since that post and I love it!