Lincoln Park After Dark - OPI

Hi everyone!

We have had a busy weekend with a quick trip home to Wellington for a very important family occasion. I'm so glad that we could go home to be with our family at this time. Anyway, these are the nails that I wore last week. This is again, one of my first polishes that I got and so it always has had a special little place in my heart - 'Lincoln Park After Dark' by OPI.

Just as last week I said I loved wearing red, there is something about wearing really dark polishes too. It took me a long time to get up enough courage to wear dark polish when I was new to nail polish, but now I absolutely love it. 'Lincoln Park After Dark' appears black in lower lighting, but is in fact a super dark purple colour, which I think just takes the edge off to remove the starkness of a pure black.


I used 2 easy coats of 'Lincoln Park After Dark' for this mani. I also used some 2mm square studs from the Born Pretty Store for my accent nail.


Thanks for popping by, and I promise life will settle down and blogging will become more regular soon!!

Eternal Beauty - Color Club

Hello!

Sorry for a slight lack of posts in the last week, life got a bit crazy. Anyway I have a short and sweet post today of what I am currently wearing on my nails…

This is Color Club 'Eternal Beauty'. In case you didn't realise already, these Color Club Halo Hues are some of my most loved polishes in my whole collection and this one is no exception. It is gorgeous and like all the others has a very strong linear holo effect. What I love best about these polishes is how versatile they are. I use them in so many different nail art things - they stamp so well. On top of 'Eternal Beauty', I used some of my new coloured studs on top that I just purchased from Born Pretty Store.


I used 2 coats for these photos, but the 2nd coat was barely needed. These polishes are really easy to work with and beautifully opaque. They don't pull, they dry fast and they don't dull with top coat.

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

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.

Excalibur - Version 2.0 - a-england

Hello!

I have the final polish from a-england's most recent releases to show you this evening. Tonight's polish is 'Excalibur' (version 2.0)...

'Excalibur' (2.0) is a silver foil, but there is certainly a lot of complexity. 'Excalibur' is packed full of bronzey gold particles to give it an almost gilded look. It gives it a slight antique look to me. These photos show 'Excalibur' without top coat.

I decided to do a bit of stamping over 'Excalibur' and this is the final product. I kept the stamping in the family, so to speak, and used a-england 'Bridal Veil' and 'Perceval' to stamp with and LeaLac XL-B stamping plate. Just to finish everything off, I added a couple of studs to each finger.


'Excalibur' was really easy to apply. I used 2 coats here for full opacity. As mentioned, the top photos show 'Excalibur' without top coat and if you were wearing it on its own, I'd certainly recommend top coat (as usual). I really enjoyed the final look and it got a fair few mentions, though people kept asking me if they were stickers ;)

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.

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

For more information, see my disclosure policy.

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.

Valentine's Day Mani

Argh this year I was a bit of a Valentine's grinch to be honest. It was going to be the first time in a lot of years where we both had the night off together, but the night before we found out one of us had to work, so it was another Valentine's alone. Oh well, on to the mani. I always struggle with ideas for Valentine's Day inspired nails. This year was no different and I ended up just putting polish on and adding things until I came to this end product...

As I was doing this mani, I was HATING it!! That's why I just kept adding things to it. In the end, I don't think it turned out too badly though. I tried using saran wrap again and I really liked it. It's such a cool effect.

For this I used Lime Crime 'Parfait Day' and Zoya 'Sooki'. The white I used was Sally Hansen 'White On' and over everything is a layer of Chi Chi 'Disco Diva'. I used studs from the Born Pretty Store.

How was your Valentine's Day? Better than mine hopefully!

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...

Magical Mystery Tour - Enchanted Polish & Triple Black Diamond - CrowsToes (Studded)

I have something to show you today that is so long overdue. I wore this mani to our staff Christmas party last year in mid December. Trouble is my skin and nails were not particularly loving life, moisture-wise, so I have been putting off showing it. You may feel like you've seen this stud design somewhere before... I put a picture on Instagram when I first did it and since then a couple of lovely bloggers have used the stud design, so I felt maybe I should put the pictures up properly myself. So here we go... WARNING, 'Magical Mystery Tour' is amazing so there are a fair few photos!

'Magical Mystery Tour' is one of my favourite polishes. Enchanted Polish just does multichrome polishes so well. There are so many colours in this polish! These 3 photos show the most obvious shifts from blue to purple to pink to red.

Next on the list of shifts is the blackened side of this polish, seen in lower light. You can also see a bit more of the holo goodness in the darker areas too.

'Magical Mystery Tour' shifts to the most beautiful bright green/teal. It was really hard to capture and was even more green toned in real life. The index finger on the first of these photos shows it a little bit.

These last three photos show the more purple side of 'Magical Mystery Tour'. The top photo shows the gorgeous indigo colour that is a bit shy, but so pretty. Then the bright royal purple and finally the shift to pink.


Clearly I am IN LOVE with this polish! I could wear my Enchanted Polish multichromes every day of my life, but I would get nothing done because I spend the phole time staring at them trying to find new colours that I haven't seen before. I actually really liked this whole mani. On my pinky is a coat of CrowsToes 'Triple Black Diamond' and on my ring finger are studs purchased from Born Pretty Store. The formula of 'Magical Mystery Tour' was great too. I used 3 thin coats for full coverage, but I think some people would certainly get away with 2 coats.

Enchanted Polish is available from a few places including Llarowe and Harlow & Co. and CrowsToes is also available from Llarowe.

Polish Days: Bling

It's that time again... Polish Days time. To be honest with you, I thought I had till the 6th (which would be the 7th here in NZ and suddenly I realised that the 4th was the actual date, so late last night I got to it and came up with this...

It's not really at all what I had in mind for this Polish Days, but I think it turned out ok given that it was a bit rushed. I used a-england 'Camelot' as my black base and Sally Hansen 'White On' as the white base. On the pinky finger is a couple of coats of Chi Chi 'Disco Diva' (which does NOT want to sparkle properly on camera!) and on top of that on my index finger is a coat of Cult Nails 'I Got Distracted'. I also used my little gold studs from the Born Pretty Store and some sticky little gem things that I got from the scrap booking section at The Warehouse.


Well, hopefully next time I can be a little better organised for Polish Days. Also, just to finish this little post, I would like to say congratulations to Hannah from Polly Polish and to her Mr who got her the most GORGEOUS ring that could inspire this month's theme.

P.S. this is my 100th post! WOO. Thanks to everyone who reads my little blog :)

Monroe - Picture Polish & Some Studs

I have my first Picture Polish to show you tonight. I've always wanted to try Picture Polish, but the postage from Australia is a bit steep (even though it's just over the ditch). Well to cut a long story short, I ended up ordering 'Monroe' from Ninja Polish when I heard that it was being discontinued in its current incarnation. Picture Polish are reformulating this beauty. I actually wore this while I was in Wellington and there wasn't a whole lot of sun happening, but luckily the one bit of sun happened to be while I was wearing this, so I managed to snap a few pics. Anyway, onto 'Monroe'...

I am so glad that I snaffled this little beauty up. 'Monroe' is a gorgeous burgundy polish with little scattered holo throughout. I added some studs from Born Pretty Store. I used the 2mm gold square studs and 1.5mm gold round studs. I love using these studs, as they really are so easy to work with (plus you get enough in the pack to last a life-time).

I have popped in this slightly blurred pic so you can get a slightly better idea of the holo. It isn't hugely obvious, but there is absolutely no doubt that it's there. I actually quite like the subtlety of it in this polish to be honest.

'Monroe', in different lighting, deepens quite a lot in colour. It becomes much richer and more burgundy. I love the elegance and sophistication that this darker look brings to the polish, along with the edge that the holo gives it.

'Monroe' was slightly sheerer than I expected, but three coats gave me full opacity. Two was very nearly enough and if you use thicker coats, two might be fine. It has an almost jelly like consistency to it giving it a gorgeous squishy, shiny finish. I absolutely love this polish! I think if this is what all Picture Polish polishes are like, I'm going to have to look at getting some more!

Picture Polish can be purchased online from quite a few places including the Picture Polish website, Llarowe, Harlow & Co and Ninja Polish. Keep an eye out for the new 'Monroe'!

Update: Kiwis, Picture Polish and Ozotics can be purchased now from Gracie Lou :D

Gym Tan Laundry - Dollish Polish (& a few studs)

I have been loving this past week so much and am so glad I'm on holiday, mainly because it coincided with Wimbledon! We are currently 11 hours ahead of England, so Wimbledon generally starts here at midnight (hence the joy of being on holiday)! Anyway I'm so much looking forward to tonight between the Silverstone Grand Prix (F1) and the Men's Wimbledon final, it is set to be a good night! :)

Anyway back to the land of polish... I'm also rather happy about showing you this little mani. For one of the recent Dollish Polish restocks (the time before last), it just so happened that the polishes Dolly decided to list were pretty much all ones I didn't have. I leapt at the chance to get a bunch more and 'Gym Tan Laundry' was one of those ones. I originally wasn't going to get it, but I just thought to myself I'm yet to be disappointed by anything Dolly makes so how, really, could I not like it. Well I'm so pleased I got it! It turned out to be the first one of that lot that I tried and here it is...

'Gym Tan Laundry' is gorgeous! It's a pale blue that is jam packed with super fine blue shimmer and also has blue hex glitter and some coppery hex glitter.

I love how obvious the shimmer is. It really makes the polish come alive! I have to say the coppery glitter was what made me think that I didn't really need this polish. I don't know why I ever thought that, because it's what makes this polish so interesting and unique.

I also recently received some studs that I ordered from the Born Pretty Store. I've seen all these manis around with things stuck onto the nail and always thought it's not really my thing. But these studs were super cheap and I'd seen them on Sammy's blog, The Nailasaurus, and they seemed to be pretty small and subtle and most importantly lie quite flat against the nail. They arrived and they were even tinier than I expected and I'm so pleased I got them. They look kinda big here, but in fact they're only 1.5mm across! I love the little extra spice they give a mani and they're really easy to use - BONUS!

I followed Sammy's tutorial for applying rhinestones and it was really simple. And the best part... These little fellas held tight for several work days :) And while you're here, take a closer look at the awesome that is 'Gym Tan Laundry'! I love a glitter polish that acts kind of like a jelly sandwich (minus the jelly part) where some glitters just peek out from a deeper layer.



I used three thin coats of 'GTL' and that gave perfect opacity. The glitter coverage was really good and even. No problems with application at all. As for the studs, I already mentioned that they were simple to work with. I can't wait to use these little studs for many more manis to come!

You can purchase these studs here. I've just seen that there's currently a discount on all studs and a bunch of blogs also have discount codes you can use (for example Chit Chat Nails has a 10% discount code - see the sidebar on Marta's blog). On top of that, Born Pretty Store has free worldwide shipping also :)