Black & Gold: BPS Stamping Polish Review

G'day, boys and girls! Today I'm happy to be reviewing some Born Pretty Store stamping polish, and I've created this elegant black and gold mani to show it off :)

Quick Shot: Australia Day Sponged Nails

Hiya! No time for a full post, but here's a quick look at my mani for Australia Day!

I used a plain white background, then sponged on shimmery yellow (Color Club Daisy Does It) and green (Zoya Logan) with a kitchen sponge, to get the dense patchy look you see here. Then I added two gold studs from Born Pretty Store to each nail, on one side. Finally, I topcoated with two layers of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

I hope you like this quick but fun mani with the Australian national colours :D have a good one and I'll see you soon for more! xoxo

Gilded Imperial Nails

Hello my lovelies :)

It's been an exciting week over here! We're almost finished with the paperwork needed for me to have permanent residency in Australia *yay* and on Wednesday I went to the piCture pOlish HQ and met Jules East, the company's founder!! It was really awesome to see where the magic happens :D and she (and the rest of the Girls) are so nice! It was also really awesome to buy lots of polishes and not have to pay for shipping ;) Check out my Facebook post if you want to see pics from the PP Headquarters :D

Obviously, I had to have an appropriate manicure for the visit... so I pulled out their Imperial again, and gave it the royal treatment it deserves :)

 

#31DC2014 - Day 1 - RED nails

Hiya everyone! It's the first of September, and that means it's 31-Day Challenge time! Two years ago I started this blog off with this challenge, and now I'm doing it again. This time I'm doing it at the same time many other bloggers do it, and I'm also going to try and keep up the pace. That's right--I'll be doing a new mani every day this month! At least, that's the goal.

Day 1 of the challenge is all about the colour red. I chose a classic, pinup-inspired look, with a bit of a twist.

Outdoors in sun

I've applied French tips with this glorious red we all know and love--China Glaze Ruby Pumps. A deep red jelly with a beautiful glowing shimmer, it's opaque in two coats and looks great on absolutely every skin tone and nail length!

The white dots are done with a dotting tool and white acrylic paint, and the studs on the accent nail are from Born Pretty Store.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

Indoors with flash

It's not too late to join in! The list of prompts is here:

(credit to Chalkboard Nails for the image)

so feel free to follow along! Use the hashtag #31DC2014 to share your manis with us on all your favourite social media sites.

See you tomorrow! xoxo

Snap, Crackle, & Studs

Hello and welcome :)

I went to a party the other day, and wanted a cool nail look to wear. I took inspiration from a great YouTube video by Chic Pretty Nails. Crackle polish, glitter, and studs make for a badass yet chic mani!

Mint Apple Blossoms

Hullo! Today's manicure was partially inspired by the names of one of the polishes... but mostly because I really wanted to paint flowers :)

And I just happen to have a tea towel that matches it perfectly--what are the odds?

Imperial Purple & Gold: piCture pOlish Swatch + Studs

G'day, love! Want to see what my latest nail-mail package contained? :D

Outdoors in sun

Some gorgeous new piCture pOlishes! I got two purples in this box and another coming soon with some LEs. I'll show you the other one next time (hint--it's an easygoing holographic!) but for now, let's focus on this beauty--piCture pOlish Imperial. *fanfare*

Chinese Royalty Inspired Red & Silver Nails

Hello! I hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

I was browsing randomly the other day, with a vague idea for a design in mind but wanting to be inspired. I ended up looking at some beautiful images of the type of fashions worn by ancient Chinese royalty and higher-ups. Bright, rich colours with ornate and intricate details, usually in gold. I ended up using silver for my details instead, but I hope you can still see the link :)

Outdoors in indirect light. Please excuse the slight error in stamping--was hardly noticeable IRL!

The silver nails are two coats of the polish shown above--OPI This Gown Needs A Crown, from the 2013 Miss Universe collection. A beautiful silver that has a matte/satin finish, yet still manages to sparkle and gleam in the most captivating way. It looks so impossibly rich and deep. I want polishes with this finish in every colour imaginable. OPI has really outdone itself with this stunner!!

Over that, I added a row of red metallic studs from Born Pretty Store. Usually I would adhere these with topcoat, but I didn't want to mess up the finish of the silver, so I used dots of nail glue instead. I got it all over one of the studs on the middle nail and it isn't as shiny as the others, and I know nobody else would notice, but it bothers me! However, it did the job and I think it looks very refined.

Outdoors in sun. I love the little crown adornment on the bottle which can be a ring.. too cute! And look at that silver glow. It really is magnificent.

The red base on the other nails is actually one I made myself--I had an old bottle of topcoat that was about 1/4 full, and two red Petites cremes that were nearly identical and about half full each. The small reds were called Rockin' Red and Hot Sauce. I'm a Judas Priest fan. The resulting franken, therefore, was dubbed Hot Rockin'  :D  Here's a quick swatch of it:

Two easy coats, no topcoat (since it was made WITH topcoat, it doesn't need more!) I love that it's mostly a squishy plain red crelly, but has that blue shimmer at certain angles.

I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep to stamp the cascading diamond image from Bundle Monster plate BM-404. This was a plate in their "user created" plate set, and I think it's perfect for this look I was going for! These nails were topcoated with INM Out The Door.

Another in sun, along with the thumb.

My right hand was a reverse of this--the index and middle nails were red with stamping, and the other nails were silver. I didn't have enough studs, though, so I cheated and did red dots with Hot Rockin' in a line instead. I wish I could say "you could barely tell at a distance!" but that isn't true--the metallic, 3D look of the studs is very different to anything I could do with this polish. Oh well, it looked passable anyway, and still pretty.

One more, indoors with flash. I may never take this silver off...

I may be biased, since silver is one of my favourite colours to wear anyway (especially on my nails), but I think This Gown Needs A Crown is a must-have for any polish lover. It's AMAZING.

And now I shall stop gushing and let you go on with your day ;) thanks for stopping by. Have a lovely sparkly day!! xoxo

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

Silver, Yellow, & Black

Hello hello! Today I have a quick post featuring a manicure I wore a couple of weeks ago (before trimming my nails down). It's a colour combination I'd had kicking around in my mind for a while, but I wasn't sure how I wanted to put it all together. Then one day it came to me!

eww, tip wear. Damn you, topcoat.

I knew I wanted to do a silver base with yellow on top. Here, the silver I used is two coats of a no-name from Hot Topic. I don't think they sell this brand anymore, but it's the kind with the bottles like this (image courtesy of Steph's Closet). It's a very cool metallic-foil shade with just the right amount of sparkle. I want a car in this colour!

The small finger is painted with white + two coats of Orly Glowstick. Best neon yellow ever. It's SO BRIGHT and I'm glad it photographed properly here.

I then used yellow acrylic paint and a thin striping brush to paint on the random stripes. I wanted something kind of retro and laser-light-esque. The black was added at the end when I felt it just needed a little something else. The silver star-shaped stud is from this wheel I got at Born Pretty Store. Before applying these, I press them against a pen and wrap it around to gently bend it into a curve that will fit perfectly against my nail. This way they stay longer and aren't catching on everything!

It's all sealed in with Seche Vite, which unfortunately caused quite a bit of shrinkage with that silver.

Sort of a dark awkward pic, because I wanted to show how much that neon yellow pops! It really lives up to the name Glowstick (though it does not actually glow in the dark).

I hope you liked this one! It's going to be a busy weekend, but I hope I can get another post in soon. Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you next time! xoxo

Alphabet Challenge: Y is for... Yellow Skittle-y Nails + Dried Flower

Hey, you! Today is the penultimate Alphabet Challenge prompt, and features the letter Y. I knew since about M what I wanted to do for this one... yellow nails featuring these gorgeous dried flowers from Born Pretty Store!

I never get bored of this kind of manicure :D

Taking a bit of inspiration from Marta and her "skittlette" look,  I used as many yellow polishes as I could fit! Here's the rundown...

Thumb: Orly Androgynie, yellow dried flower adhered with topcoat
Index and Small: Zoya Solange
Middle: Sinful Colors Neon Melon, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, and black Stripe Rite polish
Ring: Orly Androgynie, neon yellow studs also from BPS

Let's talk about Androgynie. I've had this polish for ages and I have no idea why I don't wear it more. It's so interesting! It's sort of a gold/yellow-toned black jelly (if that makes any sense) and filled with gold microglitter and medium hex glitters in orange, yellow, lime, teal, and royal blue! It's such a weirdly awesome combination that I am surprised that Orly made it--but very glad they did. It took three thin coats to get the coverage shown above.

Solange is another beauty... yellow/gold Pixie Dust is SO lush. It looks and feels like I have real gold on my fingertips. I can't stop staring at it and definitely want to wear it again soon!

The flower was not as tricky to get on as I thought it would be. I applied a thick layer of a slow-drying clear polish, then used tweezers to place the flower and gently press the edges of the flower as the polish dried to stick it down. Then I used one thick layer of Maya Smoothing Coat For Glitter (tested, confirmed also works on flowers) followed by a coat of Seche Vite. Sealed in and smooth to the touch!

Before topcoat. Wanted to get a photo first in case the topcoat made it go horribly wrong. I am happy to report it did not!

And one more pic, out in the nice yellow sunlight, for good measure :)

Because sunlight makes the neon really pop! You can also see more of Androgynie's and Solange's true natures here.

Little pop of happy bright yellow to pick you up mid-week. Hope you enjoyed this one. See you next time! xoxo

Alphabet Challenge: Q is for... Quirky Turquoise Queen

Hello, QTs! :D  Before I jump into the post, I want to say thanks to everyone who enjoys my blog and visits regularly--I just hit 10,000 pageviews today!

I may or may not have actually done this dance.

This blog is really just my little hobby, and if I hadn't a single follower I'd still be quite content with it. However, I'm really happy that so many of you like to see what my fingertips are up to! I hope you continue to enjoy it... here's to 10,000 more :D

I also tweaked the layout of the place a little; hope it's more comfortable to read now and the sidebar looks better. ^_^

Right then! On to the next letter and next manicure. The letter is Q, and here's what I came up with:

Well, isn't this quaint?

The only two polishes I have with the letter Q are China Glaze Turned-Up Turquoise (Neon), and OPI Turquoise Shatter. I actually love the combination of the two. In some lights it really stands out, and then in direct light they kind of blend together and look more marbley (see the small finger in this pic, or all fingers in the next). Both have a shimmery finish, the shatter polish slightly more so.

With flash, the contrast is more subtle.

I first laid out the base with white acrylic paint and a small brush, so I could get that cutout-triangle look just right + so the neon base colour would be really bright and fabulous. Two coats of Turned-Up and then when that was extra super dry, I dabbed on the shatter in a sort of thick coat so it would produce the large cracks you see. (Thin coats make for finer, more delicate, weblike lines.)

The neon pink studs and light pink hexagon glitters are both from Born Pretty Store (surprise surprise, right?), and I adhered them along the edge of the cutout with some regular clear polish before sealing it all in with Seche Vite. Placing was a little tricky but well worth it. I haven't worn anything super-funky in a while, so this is great!

And, in the sun is where the sparkling glitters steal the show!

As a final bonus, after I'd had this on for a few days and was about to take it off, my friend said I should have incorporated Freddie from Queen! I think he was joking, but I was like OH DAMN THAT IS A SPECTACULAR IDEA MY FRIEND and busted out the black paint and went for it:

The most fabulous my nails ever have been and ever will be. Inspiration is his classic pose, reference pic is here. Thanks for the great idea, Craig!

Annnnnd then I couldn't bear to take them off for another two days, so I am rocking some serious tipwear, but I don't even care. (You could say I'm not Under Pressure to take them off >.>)

So thus concludes my Q-post and my yay-10,000-views-post :D Stay tuned til next time, sexy people! xoxo

Alphabet Challenge: O is for... Over the Moon, Holos, and Rings, Oh My!

Okay, that is a really silly title. I was reaching...

HELLOOOOOOO ladies and gentlemen! Time for some O inspired nails. I only have a few O polishes, and none of them really went with each other... so I decided to use my favourite of the bunch, and then go a bit literal with the letter prompt. Observe!

DELICIOUS HOLOGRAPHIC GOODNESS

That wonderful sky-blue holo is Color Club Over the Moon. (It's made an appearance here before!) I will tell you, folks, Color Club does holos better than anyone ever. These Halo Hues have an amazingly smooth formula, cover in one coat, and unlike any other holographic polish I own, even has rainbows all over the place when it's wet on the brush and as you paint it! Just magnificent. Here it is alone..

Out in the sun. Love love love. Looks like a sparkling pool :D

And again, because it's just SO BEAUTIFUL!

I decided to go for a literal "O" and use some of the ring-shaped studs from this wheel, available at Born Pretty Store. And hey, looks like it's on sale now! BPS has free shipping worldwide, and great products. I added gold rings to just my middle and index fingers, as you can see.

Look at that rainbow in the bottle :D

I really like how the gold metal looks with the blue holo--I am pleased with the combination. The studs are flat and would have stuck out on both sides, so I gently bent them around the barrel of a pen before adhering them to the nail with topcoat. This is an awkward photo (and taken around day 4, so excuse the tipwear), but you can see how it curves with the shape of my nail and lies flat:

They didn't lift or come off until I was ready to take them off. Fabulous!

Sealed in with two coats of INM Out The Door topcoat. Yes, even I am amused at how many topcoats I own.

Annnd one more pic just 'cuz. :D

Hope you enjoyed today's post. Thanks for stopping by--have a great weekend and I'll see you next time! xoxo

Alphabet Challenge: H is for... Happy Holy Halo

Hallooooo! Today's manicure is based on the letter H. Let's get right to it!

Isn't it just.. heavenly? :D

Hooray for skittle manis :D

I used four polishes for this look, as well as those cool studs. Let's break it down!

Thumb: Two coats of a-england Holy Grail (original formula)

Index finger: Three coats of OPI Happy Anniversary!, a beautiful pearl-white polish. I used to dislike pearl polishes because it's all my grandmother ever wore. My grandmother is lovely, don't get me wrong, but it just got associated with 'old lady' in my mind. However, this is more shimmery and glassflecky rather than frosty, and at certain angles there are subtle flashes of baby blue and pink! It's really nice. Atop that I placed two gold square studs from this wheel from Born Pretty Store. (Can't wait to play more with these studs!)

Middle finger: Two coats of Holy Grail, glitter gradient tip with Orly Halo. More about that one in a minute...

Ring finger: Three coats of Happy Anniversary!, two dots of Halo, and one heart-shaped gold stud from this other BPS wheel. (and a par-triiiiidge in a pear treeeee)

Small finger: Two coats of Halo. Back to this polish! It is a great glitter! It is a dense mix of gold microglitter and small silver hex glitters. By dense, I mean really nicely dense--covers completely in two coats, has a nice thickness about it that isn't too gloppy but is really great for this type of polish. It's very elegant--I could see it being used for formal-event manicures.

Sealing it all in is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri #110 Clearly Quick topcoat.

Out in the sun. Look at them glow! *cue holy angel choir music*

I really love this soft white and gold combination! I think the 'angelic' colour scheme went well with the names of the polishes. Would you wear skittley, studded nails like these? xx