Czech Out These Birds!

Good day! I hope your week has started off well. Mine has been a little stressful, so I decided to do a relaxing, calming nail design. :)

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I just love birds! I think they're beautiful, and can be so cute, and I've always been jealous of their ability to fly and go anywhere they want. I don't believe in reincarnation, but if it is a thing, I'd really like to be a bird next time around.
Click the jump to see how I did these :)

Mocha Swirl Marble Nails

Water marbling! Some people hate it. I love it.

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I used three Zoya polishes--Purity (white), Chanelle (light brown), and Emilia (dark brown)--as well as OPI My Vampire Is Buff for this swirly marble. The latter polish doesn't even really show up, and if I could go back I'd probably skip it. But still, this came out so pretty! I was going for the latte-art look, but the dark brown made it look chocolatey, so I decided "mocha swirl" was a good compromise.

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These are such creamy, smooth polishes. It was really effortless to marble them--they behaved well in the water and the colours go beautifully together. I bought these polishes last year and only just got around to using them!

Do you like this water marble design? It makes me want a cappuccino...

Thanks for stopping by today! See you next time for more :) xoxo

(Almost) Monochrome Dotticure

Well, it's been far too long since I posted! Have had zero motivation to edit pics and write posts lately D: but I've still been painting my nails and getting photos! I'll get caught up... one day...

Today I have a dotticure for you, inspired by Simply Nailogical on YouTube. Specifically, a comment left on this video by Nat the Otaku (hehe, love the username) suggesting an alternate colour combination. I don't think Cristine will ever do this one since she doesn't like plain creme polishes much--so I did it instead!

I started with plain nails, wearing only a base coat, and just used a dotting tool to cover these with five polishes: Zoya Purity (white), Soulstice Spa Manchester (light grey), Essence Movie Star (dark grey), China Glaze Liquid Leather (black), and Revlon #480 Revlon Red (red... obvs).

A little time-consuming, but easy-peasy! Once the nails were pretty much totally covered, I let them dry and then topped with Seche Vite for their protection. I intentionally left little bits of naked nail peeking out here and there--I like how it looks when the light shines through them from behind.

I know these aren't the greatest photos--by the time I looked at them full-size and realised this, the design had already chipped too much to re-take, so... oh well. They look great IRL :D

Thanks for the inspiration, random YouTube commenter! This would look really cool in rainbow colours, too... or glitter placement... or contrasting finishes...

See you next time! xoxo

Ingress Skittle Mani | Enlightened Nails

Hey hey hey! Any of you out there play Ingress? If so, you'll get today's nails... and either love or hate them ;)

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Christmas Day 2015 | Born Pretty Store Decals :)

Merry Christmas, everyone :)

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I've had this idea all month! The tips are done with a white base (OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls), red acrylic paint for the stripes, and a gold glitter striper for the frame around it. This part took ages, and the stripes aren't perfect, but considering how curved my nails are I think it came out pretty nicely. They look much better at a real-life size and normal distance :)

The stickers are from--you guessed it--Born Pretty Store! They aren't actually made of metal, as the description on the site suggests. They are, however, nice-quality stickers with pretty metallic gold accents and details. And they're the perfect size for this, even on my tiny nails! Someone with normal sized hands would have some breathing room around the cuticle ;)

This is all sealed in with Seche Vite for shine and protection.

I hope you have/had a lovely Christmas day if you celebrate it, and if not, that you've enjoyed some time off work and a lovely holiday season with family and friends.
(And of course, if you want to pick up these or any other great nail or beauty supplies at Born Pretty Store, don't forget to use my discount code CITYG10 to get 10% off your order, which ships free anywhere in the world!)

See you next time for some pretty New Years nails! :D xoxo

Born Pretty Store Review | Silver Snowflake Stickers

Hello! Today I have some wintery, snowy nails today featuring these lovely silver stickers from Born Pretty Store! More snowflakes? YES.

Orange Shimmer & Stars

Good day, good day :)

Spring is here! It's getting warm and lovely outside, and while I really don't ever stop wearing neons (being confined to seasonal trends is sooo not my style), it seems extra fitting to wear them now! So I've created this bright yet simple mani with neon orange, glitter, and stamped stars!

Born Pretty Store Review | Stamped Stars

Hi everyone! Man, I cannot seem to keep myself out of trouble. No sooner had I recovered from the flu then I sprained my ankle. It's minor, but still enough to hurt a lot and make work that much more draining. AND I broke a nail :(  it's the middle one on my swatching hand!

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

Fortunately it's just a small break on the side, and I was able to patch it up. It's behaving for now...

I got this stamping plate from Born Pretty Store and wanted to use that big star image in the middle, so that's what I did!

Matching Nails & Dress: Red, White, and Black

Hello! I'm finally getting better, woo! I'm always amazed (in a horrified kind of way) how much mucous one head can produce...

On a less gross note, I went to a wedding recently and wore a new dress, and decided to do a set of matching nails to go with it :)

I really love how these look, especially with the outfit! Read on to see :)

Zebra Stripes & Bows

Hello! The last two weeks have been insane on my end! But I found some time for nail art, and did this relatively simple design I've had on my mind :)

The base is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, topped with a coat of OPI Happy Anniversary! for some pretty shimmer. The stripes are painted on with my black Stripe Rite striper, and then the little bow is from Born Pretty Store :)

I hope you like this one! I'm really enjoying it.

Thanks for reading today! My schedule has calmed down now, so I should be able to post with a little more regularity. See you next time! xoxo

I Love London! | Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate Review

Good day! I have one more BPS stamping plate to show you today. It's all British-themed, so I used some appropriate colours and as many images from it as I could to create this cute mani!

Born Pretty Store Review | Colour-Changing Polish & Floral Stamping

Good day :) Today I'm excited to be sharing more Born Pretty Store goodies with you--and for my 300th post! Thanks to all of you who have been reading over the years, and of course to my newer followers too. Here's to always improving and experimenting! 

Righteo, lots of pics today! Click the jump to read more about this colour-changing polish and cool stamp :)

Indie Polish Swatch Time | 38

Hello everyone!

I'm going to make this post quick, because 1) I'm sick, boo; and 2) there's a cyclone coming this way! It shouldn't hit my area directly--it's mostly north of here--but we're already getting lots of rain, and it's just going to get worse over the next day or two. Floods might mean power outages or worse, so I want to get this up now!

I recently swatched a few Indie Polish goodies for you (here and here), but I have one more to show you today!

Valentine's Day 2015 - Gradient Glittery Tips & Bows

Hello! Today, of course, I have my Valentine nails :)

This design is heavily inspired by one of my favourite YouTube artists--her channel is now called ArcadiaNailArt, but her old channel is IndigoNova1, and this video is beautiful. I used the same idea, but in seasonal colours, plus some handpainted bows!

Valentine Cupcake Nails

Hiya!

Let the Valentine manis commence! Today I have some girly, sweet nails for you. That last bit being on the literal side :D

Packers Football Nails--FigTreeJewellery Custom Plate Review

Hiya!

If you follow me on social media, you may have seen a glimpse of the nails I wore the other day for the NFL Divisional Playoff games! Living in Australia means I had to get up at 4am to watch my Packers play. Worth it! It was a great game, and I was prepared, thanks to my new green stamping polish from Born Pretty Store, and my custom-made plate by the lovely Cassandra of FigTreeJewellery!

My Take on the 2015 Colour Of The Year -- Marsala

Hello and welcome! To start off 2015 I've been giving my nails a wee bit of a break. I can't leave 'em alone for too long, but I've been trying to take extra care of them the past few days with oil and such rather than doing lots of painting.

However, I decided it was time I jumped on the Pantone Colour Of The Year bandwagon, which is something I've never paid much attention to in the past. I like exploring different nail shades and art styles without much consideration for the current trends or seasons. But the colour they have chosen for 2015 is Marsala, which I can best describe as an earthy, muted wine/taupe hybrid. It's not the type of shade I normally wear, and as such, I don't have any polishes that are an exact match. A chance to go for something outside my usual? Right on! So I went with the closest option in my stash--OPI Lost On Lombard--and did a chevron-tip look :)

Blingy Tree on Crackle

Merry Christmas, everyone! (Or Christmas Eve for some of you.) My second-to-last holiday mani features a tree made of rhinestones on a sparkly-crackle background!

The base is Ulta Snow White, topped with China Glaze Luxe And Lush, a big chunky iridescent flakie from their first Hunger Games collection. I think it makes a white base look all wintery and snowy :D

Once that dried, I added a coat of OPI Red Shatter, then Seche Vite topcoat. While that topcoat was wet, I made the little tree out of green rhinestones, then added a star glitter on top and a brown square stone below for the trunk. Cute, right? :D One more topcoat sealed that off and I'm good to go.

I'm still stuffed from a big Christmas lunch. What are you doing for festivities this year?

I'll squeeze in one more holiday mani before the day is totally over, so check back soon for that one. And have a wonderful day! xoxo

Holiday Water Marble

Hi hi! Wow, Christmas is coming up fast! I suppose it's the hot weather here, but it still doesn't feel like Christmas to me. Maybe that's why I find myself running out of time! I'll have to post every day for the next few days to get all my holiday manicures up in time :)

Today I have a festive water marble topped with a very special seasonal polish from piCture pOlish called Holiday!

Freya's Cats' (Toys)

Good day, lovely! Let the Christmas manis continue :D

I've done some baubles/garland over another one of my newest piCture pOlishes--Freya's Cats!

(And, if you've ever had cats, you know that pretty hanging Christmas decorations are there to be played with and destroyed, hence the title of this post!)

Onwards!