Vintage Gilded Nails

Hello again! Today I've got a classy, rustic-looking design using two shimmery, microflecked OPI polishes and a dash of striping tape.

(click to enlarge)

Seriously, click to enlarge that. The smaller preview does not do it justice *_*

Click to continue!

Windows 10 Is Here!

Hello! Special post today in honour of Windows 10 launching today! My job involves dealing with the upgrade today in some local electronics shops, so I did a special manicure for the occasion.

Firefly's Frisky Feathers

Hello hello :)

Today's mani is a pretty multichrome with some striping tape and glitter...

Click the jump to see all the ingredients for this gleaming look!

Nina Star Bright & Striping Tape Bow: An Impractical Yet Adorable Mani

Hola, mis dulcitos! :3 Who's ready for a mani that's pink and girly and entirely impractical to wear whilst doing anything, but is super cute?

Matte + Shiny Stripes: Blue for Autism Awareness

Hello! I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend so far.

After my last post, I wanted to play around more with multi-finish looks--I think a combinaton of matte or wax finish & glossy just looks so chic! I also wanted to do a blue manicure to honour Autism Awareness month. So, with those two concepts combined...

 

Baby Pink & Grey Skittle

Aloha, boys and girls :)

The weather here in sunny Oz has started to get just a tiny bit cooler as autumn settles in. I feel like today's manicure sort of captures that idea, and I'll explain why!

Tinsley's Gilded Pearls

Hello, my friends :) welcome back!

Today's design features yet another previously-untried polish in my collection... and now I cannot believe I waited this long to wear this beauty!

Outdoors in shade/indirect light

Indie Polish Swatches, Part 1

G'day, gorgeous!

Today's post will be part 1 of a 2-part swatch-and-review of some polishes I received recently. Indie Polish recently had a discount on international shipping, so I had to get in on that. I picked up one of their grab bags--four mini bottles of polish, chosen randomly. I'll show you my two favourites today as well as a nail art look for each. Next time I'll show you the other two, as well as a few images of the cute packaging it came in!

First up is the most beautiful polish I've seen in a long time. It is called Regal, and it's a stunning warm, medium green with a strong golden shimmer. It's incredible!

This is two lovely coats of Regal (plus topcoat). Oh my, I just have no words. It's SO pretty. The pics don't even do it justice. I had actually intended to swatch all four of these polishes in a row and get the pics up at one time, but I made the mistake of starting with this beauty, and couldn't bear to take it off. Ended up wearing it as a full mani for a day, then adding art and keeping it two more days!

"Hello, even in shade and low light, I am wonderful."

"But I'm even nicer in the sun!"

To accentuate the golden shimmer without covering too much of it, I added some Born Pretty Store gold studs...

An instant favourite in my entire collection, this one. My only regret is that I only have a mini bottle! Might have to pop back over to her shop soon :)

My second favourite of this collection is a simple neon pink. Yes, I have other neon pinks that are very nice. But do I have any others that apply smoothly, cover in two coats, and are brilliant and bright without needing a white base coat underneath? No I do not.

As is so often the case with neons, I couldn't get it to photograph right. It's brighter and more opaque than it appears here, and much more so than it looks in the bottle. Think Lisa Frank, think China Glaze Summer Neons, think "ouch, my retinas". It's wonderful.

Two coats plus topcoat gives you this opacity and shine. Fabulous! It also is the kind of bright funky pink that crosses into edgy, punk territory. And I just bought these cool black star sequins the same day... so...

Black stars and striping tape and they are totally ready for an MXPX concert. (I wish they'd play here!) Striping tape is so finicky to work with, by the way. If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen my mishap the other day. In trying to clip off the end of the tape, I slipped and clipped off a corner of my nail! ARRGHHH! Fortunately, I was able to file it down and it isn't too noticeable here--you can't even tell, can you?--but I can totally tell and it is driving me CRAZY.

My rose-scented reed diffuser thingy came with one reed that has this butterfly on it! Had to pose with it.

And one more with my awesome silver holo handbag from DSW. Look at those rainbows! I'm going to start including this bag as a backdrop in every post ever. Maybe.

So, that's it for now! Part 2 will come next Thursday. I hate to break it up like that, but I ran out of time! Tomorrow morning I fly out for a short holiday. I hope you won't miss me too much ;) I am visiting a friend in Perth, on the west coast. I will probably do a quick post from there, as we're planning a manicure night and I will definitely get pics. I can't wait! So take your vitamins, eat your veggies, drink plenty of water, and I'll see you next week. Take care! xoxo

Be Mine: Pink & Gold Valentine Nails

Hi hi hi! Jeepers, it looks like I escaped just in time. It's a very harsh winter for some parts of the northern hemisphere, isn't it? I hope you're all staying warm and safe :)

Today I have a sugary-sweet pink and gold look for you, inspired by one of Pirate Polish's shades from their Love in a Cold Climate collection released about this time last year!

The polish, as you can see, is called Be Mine. Nice squishy baby pink with gold and holo sparkles! It's a bit gritty, and needs three coats to be opaque, but it's a great one that looks flattering on my skin tone and has just enough sparkle to be different and interesting :)

The hearts are stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM-317, and the Love image from BM-009. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Flashy Fuchsia for this. It's been a while since I stamped, and you can tell--especially on my index finger, which I actually re-did twice and then thought OMG I AM NOT DOING THIS AGAIN, IT'S JUST GOING TO HAVE TO BE WONKY. Luckily I did not have *quite* as much trouble with the other fingers.

To jazz it up I added some pink striping tape and gold heart studs from Born Pretty Store to the accent nail, and the gold glitters on the other nails are from a bottle of Milani Jewel FX Gold. I used an orange stick to pick them out and place a few around the hearts to tie them in with the gold studs.

Finally, two coats of Seche Vite smoothed everything out :)

Nice shot of the bottle, with all the glitter showing off in the sun.

In the shade they look softer and squishier! This is also what they look like indoors, mostly, so I didn't bother with another photo.

I hope you liked these! Are you sick of the Valentiney designs yet? I'll be honest, I sooooort of am... but we have one more to go before moving on. And, well, I'm not always the most overly girly person, so all the pink and sweetness has been a fun change.

Have a great day, and I'll see you next time! xoxo

Halloween 2013 Mani #3: Glittery Tips & Kitty Skull

Hello my dears. Short and sweet post today to show you my Halloween Day nails :)

Click to enlarge :)

I think these are so cute :) I wanted something blingy, and I was inspired by this mani from Edith aka YummyNails... so I painted French tips with OPI A Woman's Prague-ative (the orange shimmery polish shown in the photo above) and then added some orange hex glitters from Born Pretty Store over them. This took quite a while to do--each piece was placed individually--but I think the result is worth it. They're so sparkly!

I then added a piece each of white and black striping tape (also from BPS) diagonally, as you see. Finally I added a cute cat-skull sticker to each middle finger. I don't know where these are from or what's the brand--I've had these laying around for aaaaggggesssss--but I really thought it would look cute in this design. I think the little skull design would be fairly simple to paint with a dotting tool, a small brush, and a bit of patience.

Topcoated with Seche Vite.

Meow!

I really love how they almost glow in this kind of lighting situation. :)

Hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween. I'm off to Green Bay this weekend to see the Packers play the Bears at Lambeau Field. I'm so excited! I will post a pic of my mani for the occasion when I return on Tuesday. Have a lovely weekend, and I'll see you then! xoxo

Alphabet Challenge: V is for... Vampy Victorian Vixen

Hello, lovely people! Back to the Alphabet Challenge, and today I will be showcasing the letter V.

Click for full view on these :)

This has quickly become one of my favourite manicures I've ever done. It feels so elegant and Victorian-era, which is kind of what I was going for.

To create this look, I painted my index and middle fingers with two coats of Dollicious Polish Violet Vixen (part of the Dollicious by Fredericks of Hollywood line--I covered three of these here!), a nice metallic/foily lavender. I then used striping tape to create the criss-cross pattern over it. This takes some patience, getting the small strips cut and placed just perfectly, which made me glad I decided to only do this as a double-accent on each hand and not a full manicure!

Anyway, after that was masked off, I painted all the nails with piCture pOlish Vampire, an awesome vampy red! I did two coats over the first two nails, and three coats on the others to reach this opacity. (It still wasn't totally solid at the base of my ring and small fingers, but I didn't want to do a fourth coat--and anyway, I like this look.) When the polish was still wet I used tweezers to carefully peel off the striping tape and reveal the criss-cross pattern. And of course, after that dried, I dotted topcoat onto the joins and added some baby pearls from dollarnailart.com. Sealed in with Seche Vite, and voilà!

avec flash!

Très belle, non? :) So lovely. One more pic, because I thought it would look neat in black and white...

and I was right, yeah?

Well, now I must be off to have tea and crumpets with the queen, and discuss the finer points of... whatever it is that royalty discusses. It must be something fancy with nails like these ;)

Have a great weekend, and I'll see you next time! xoxo