A quick update and some graffiti nails

Hi!!

Just thought I would check in super quickly and say that I am still here and will be back so soon. My dissertation is due in a week! I still have a scary amount to do for it, but as soon as it's in I'll be back with some GORGEOUS polishes!! I can't wait.

I had to add in some nail pics so here's a mani that I did quite a while ago and haven't posted because I have no idea what polishes I used. This was one of those time where I had no plan and just started doing my nails while watching tv one night. I feel like it has a sort of graffiti feel to it. I know that I used the LeaLaC XL-B plate  with Color Club 'Beyond' for the stamping.


Thanks heaps for sticking with me and I can't wait to be done with my dissertation and back to give this blog some love :)

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?

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.

As You Wish - Dollish Polish & a Bit of a Skittlette

Hey hey,

How are you all? Yesterday I received the polishes I ordered from the new Dollish Polish collection based on The Princess Bride. I had to get some of them because of the inspiration alone. What a classic movie. In fact, I watched it again last night. Naturally, the first polish I had to try was 'As You Wish', but as soon as I saw them, I knew that it would need to be paired up with 'Hello, My Name Is Inigo Montoya' (does everyone else say the end of that quote every time they see the name of that polish?). I did a bit of a skittlette with 'As You Wish'. If you don't know what a skittlette mani is, make sure you hop over to ChitChatNails. The wonderful Marta, one of my favourite bloggers, coined the term and her skittlettes are always so beautiful.

This is my first skittlette attempt and I'm digging how it turned out, albeit slightly Australian feeling. I love, love, love the look of 'Hello My Name Is Inigo Montoya' over top of 'As You Wish'. It's just one coat and it gives such a beautiful olive colour. For the stamp, I used a-england 'Saint George' and the LeaLaC XL-B plate. On my index and pinky fingers I have a couple of glequins from Born Pretty Store.

I love 'As You Wish'. Surprised? Nope, not a bit. It's a gorgeous olive leaning gold holo. I find it difficult to wear gold often, but 'As You Wish' is a really soft gold and very wearable. The olive undertones also help with the wearability in my opinion.


'As You Wish' is a little bit sheer, but over all really easy to work with. Shown is 3 coats and in the photos you can see a wee bit of VNL, but it's perfectly fine in real life for me. I didn't use any special base coat for this polish either, just my usual Duri 'Rejuvacote' and Cult Nails 'Get It On' combination (these are my absolute holy grail strengthener and base coat by the way). The photos of 'As You Wish' alone are without top coat.


'As You Wish' and 'Hello, My Name Is Inigo Montoya' are available from Dollish Polish (at least they are available at this very moment). The LeaLaC XL-B plate is available from Llarowe and 'Saint George' is available from a bunch of places (check out the 'Where To Buy' tab on the a-england website).

G'day Matte - piCture pOlish

Hi guys!

I am sad to say that my piCture pOlish review series is coming to a close today! I've really loved all of the polishes that I got to show you. I have a pretty awesome polish to finish on. This is their fairly new matte top coat, 'G'day Matte'. I absolutely love me some matte nails, but I haven't posted many on here because I have trouble making them look good. I have always used Essie 'Matte About You' and have always had a bit of trouble with it, but 'G'day Matte' is a whole different story. I love it.

One more thing, if you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I did a spot of hand modelling on the weekend for the awesome kiwi designer, Saben. We got our nails done by the lovely Leah Light and her team. It was heaps of fun, but they needed us all to have almond shaped nails. As you know, I keep my nails very square usually. I have started to head back that way, but they are very short (especially at the sides) so bear with me while I grow them back to my usual square shape :)

Anyway onto 'G'day Matte'...

So here's the bottom line. 'G'day Matte' is amazing! It is so incredibly forgiving and is so so so easy to use. I don't care how who you are, you will be able to rock this baby! Look how pretty it is over 'Cosmos'. Love it - I don't know what else to say. I used 'LeaLaC XL - B' stamping plate and I used a-england 'Lancelot' and, of course, piCture pOlish 'Cosmos' as the bases.

Déjà vu anybody? When I did my mani with piCture pOlish 'Blogger', I mattified it and, holy moly, it looked cool. I've never ventured into the land of matting glitter before, but I'm thinking this won't be the last time.


So I already said that the formula is amazing. As I said, it is incredibly forgiving. Absolutely zero trouble at al. It levelled out perfectly and as usual with a matte top coat, dried really fast. Speaking of drying really fast, the stamping worked perfectly using 'G'day Matte', but i did work really quickly so it would transfer before drying.


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.

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

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.

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).

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.

Royal - Revlon & a bit o' stamping with Rare and Radiant - China Glaze...

How are you all? Kiwi's - how are exams going? Mine start on Monday and I'm currently in hibernation, only I'm studying all day every day instead of sleeping... I have a quick post today of a mani that I did with a couple of polishes that I received in my AMAZING package from Mimi...

This is Revlon 'Royal' stamped with China Glaze 'Rare and Radiant'. I used my new LeaLaC XL - B stamping plate (which I absolutely love).

This was fairly subtle in lower light but it really popped in the sun. It was so hard to photograph though, especially the multichrome effect of 'Rare and Radiant'.

I absolutely love 'Royal' and I'm so glad that Mimi got it for me. I love the way it looks with 'Rare and Radiant' too. 'Royal' was so easy to use. I can't remember for sure, but I think I used three thin coats. In these pics you can see a tiny bit of VNL, but that really wasn't obvious at all in real life.

The stamping plate is not currently available, as far as I can find, but I got it from Llarowe. Hopefully they'll reappear on the site sometime soon.