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?

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...

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.

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.

Polish Days: MAN-icure

My first Polish Days! I'm very excited to have finally joined up with this awesome idea. This months theme is MAN-icure in tribute to Movember. I instantly knew what my MAN-i would have to be, as it is something that I get teased about loving, due to its manly nature (according to my friends). One of my big loves in life is Formula 1, namely Sebastian Vettel.

For those of you that don't know, Vettel is the current world champion, having won the championship for the last two years in a row, so he is car number 1. The 1 on my ring finger is the one on his RB8 (car) this season. The water marble is taken from the Red Bull colours (his team).

This is a quick snap of my Red Bull cap. Unfortunately I got this before Vettel won the championship the first time so it has number 5 on it. Anyway you can see the colours of the team there nicely.

The final MAN-i that you have just seen was actually attempt number two... I originally wanted the bright yellow from the nose cone of the RB8 in the water marble, but it didn't quite work as I had wanted...

As you can see, the colours all sort of muddied together. Much as I don't hate this, I am glad I redid the two nails. I love how the F turned out in the top one anyway.


I used a whole lot of polishes for this MAN-i...
a-england - 'Excalibur' & 'Camelot'
OPI - 'Red Lights Ahead... Where', 'I'm Not Really A Waitress', 'Yoga-Ta Get This Blue', 'No Room For The Blues', 'The 'It' Color'
Nicole by OPI - 'Listen To Your Momager'
Sally Hansen - 'White On'
Konad - Special White

If you have any questions about what I used where, please leave a comment and I'd be happy to tell you more :)

For the middle finger I used LeaLaC XL - B stamping plate and for my ring and pinky finger I used striping tape to get all the lines nice and straight.

I had lots of fun doing this MAN-i and it actually served as the perfect distraction to take my mind of the pain in my tummy while I was sick :)

If you want to sign up for the next Polish Days, hop over to Polly Polish for information.

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.

Valentine's Day Mani

Happy Valentine's Day!

So I thought now that I have a blog, I might get into the holiday spirit a bit more and so I decided do a bit of a Valentine's day theme for the weekend.

I started off with 3 coats of OPI's 'Mod About You' from the 2006 brights collection 'Brighter By The Dozen', though 'Mod About You' is now one of OPI's classic Brights By OPI colours.

'Mod About You' is a whited-out pink shade that just makes me feel like a walking, talking Barbie! Not necessarily in an entirely bad way either :) It's just fairly in-your-face considering it's a pastel pink.

In indirect light, 'Mod About You' becomes a little warmer and slightly pinker, which is really pretty.

Next, I stamped hearts using Konad plate m3. I used OPI's 'Manicurist Of Seville' as my stamping polish. I have to say that it's one of my all time favourite polishes and it stamped pretty well! I found it impossible to get the filled in hearts to be actually filled in, as you can see, but I didn't really mind. It reminded me of when I used to draw balloons (or hearts) over all my school books as a kid and I always had to add the little line for where the light hit the balloon (or the heart). I felt like, at this point, my nails looked pretty boring and were clearly missing something... Enter Essie 'Shine Of The Times'...

In direct light (see my ring finger), 'Shine Of The Times' appears to give a slightly purple tinged texture rather than a full rainbow effect. When light hits it from more of an angle (see my index finger), you get the full glory of 'Shine Of the Times' and this is just what I thought was missing from this manicure.

         

All of the colours seen in 'Shine Of The Times' were so incredibly hard to photograph! The photo on the right is about as good as it gets in showing you the elusive bright red/copper that appears every now and again. To see more of this absolute beauty of a polish, have a look at my previous post of it.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how my Valentine's nails came out. This manicure is so unlike me in so many ways, but I've really enjoyed wearing it. But now to the business side of things... The formula. 'Mod About You' is certainly not my favourite polish to apply, though it's not the worst. You just have to be a little patient and take a little more care than usual. Typical pale polish application - beware of streaks and bald patches. I had to use 3 coats in order to get full opacity and get rid of streaks. The photos of 'Mod about You', on its own and with just the stamps on, are without top coat and as you can see, a top coat would add a bit of much needed shine to this polish. 'Manicurist Of Seville', as I stated earlier, was a fairly successful stamping polish. It's beautifully opaque and I think it has just the right amount of red to sit nicely with 'Mod About You'. I used a fairly thick single coat of 'Shine Of The Times' and that was easy to apply and spread evenly. Underneath all of this, I used Essie 'Millionails' and on top I used Sally Hansen's 'Insta-Dri'. 'Shine Of The Times' can be prone to eating up top coat, leaving a gritty texture, so I decided to go with this slightly thicker top coat and it still has a slight texture to the touch - though I'm not too worried. Hope you are all having a lovely Valentine's Day! I actually celebrated yesterday as I'm working tonight :)

a-england - Lady Of The Lake

Today I bring to you my first swatches from my most favourite brand a-england. This is a relatively new brand by Adina Bodana. These polishes have soared instantly to cult status and are easily my favourites from my whole collection! The first collection by a-england is 'The Mythicals' and that is where this polish hails from...

'Lady Of The Lake'...

'Lady Of The Lake' is a deep royal purple that is brimming with holographic splendour. In natural light, you can see how fine the holographic shimmer is, making it subtle and oh so elegant.


Adina tells of the Lady Of The Lake on her site...

"

LADY OF THE LAKE

the iconic hand with sword

(Foster mother of Lancelot) a woman of great magical power. She resided in the murky water of a lake, an otherworld. She presented the mythical sword Excalibur to King Arthur with her hand emerging from the water."

One of the things Adina seems to do so well, is to capture the story behind the names of her polishes. This polish personifies the magic of this woman, not to mention the glint of the sword that emerges form the murky depths of the lake in which she resides.

The macro shot really speaks for itself!

On my ring finger you can see my maiden attempt at Konading!! I used plate m3 that I received as part of the starter kit that I purchased. The polish I used for stamping was another of the a-england 'The Mythicals' - 'Excalibur' (King Arthur's magic sword). This polish is typical of a-england's fantastic formula! It is a wonder polish for stamping as it is easily opaque in one coat.

A close-up of the two designs that I did on my ring fingers. Not a bad attempt for my first go.

Need I say more about the magical Excalibur...

For a final look in shaded indoor light. 'Lady Of The Lake' seems to recede back into the depths a little, making this shade a little more mysterious but still magnificent.

As I hinted at earlier, a-england polishes are always a pleasure to apply. The formula is just right - thin enough to spread easily without being too thin and 'Lady Of The Lake' is a perfect two-coater. I had a couple of fingers pull slightly around the cuticle area but I am fairly sure this is due to my haste in wanting to put this on before my base coat had even thought about drying. I have never had this problem with this before and when I stopped to let things dry for a moment everything went back to normal. I used Essie 'Millionails' as my base and Essie 'Good To Go' as my top coat.

On a side note, Adina has recently released her brand new 'The Legend' collection based on the story of St George and the dragon. Three out of seven of these polishes are currently en route to me and you can be sure I will be wearing one as soon as they arrive so stay tuned... To see this collection, I would recommend you visit Eugenia at http://ommorphiabeautybar.com/ to get some serious eye-candy! The polishes in this collection are quite simply breath-taking! I can't wait!