Born Pretty Store Review | Sparkling Flower Gems

Hello my dears! I haven't posted in nearly two weeks! I am so sorry... I have been working a lot lately, and I broke one of my nails D: it's all patched up and I have some pretty, sunny-looking nails for you today featuring these beautiful flower gemstones from Born Pretty Store!

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Click the jump to see more!

Purple & Yellow Drag Marble

Hello! I didn't do a specific Easter manicure this year, but this purple and yellow drag marble reminds me of a Cadbury Creme Egg wrapper!

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This was a quite simple one to do... I painted on one coat of Orly Charged Up, the purple creme, as my base, and let it dry. Then I applied a second, thick coat of it, and added some blobs of Zoya Darcy, the yellow creme (although it has a veeerryy slight shimmer, I say it's a creme). I used a thin striping brush to gently drag the polish around, swirling it for this marbled look. You have to be careful using opposite colours like this--too much swirling and it just gets muddy brown. I actually had to re-do one nail because I got too drag-happy, but I like the end result a lot.

Seche Vite on top for shine and longevity, as usual :)

I love when I can get a complicated-looking, eye-catching design in 10 minutes! What do you think of this one?

Thanks for reading today--see you next time! xoxo

Australia Day 2016: Chevron Vinyls

Hello! Back again (after some travelling and some illness) just in time for some Australia Day nails :D

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To achieve these, I used my chevron striping tape from Born Pretty Store, along with a couple of polishes! Read on...

Spring Pastels | Lemon Yellow & Pink Butterflies

Hello! Yep, I'm still here. There are so many things happening in my life right now--I know I'm not updating very frequently--but I haven't given up :)

It's quite a warm spring here in sunny Queensland, so I did these bright, cheerful nails to match!

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Born Pretty Store Review | Black Iridescent Gems

Hola! I'm back with another review--these pretty black gems from Born Pretty Store!

Darcy & Solange Are Totes BFFs

Hello! Back with a simple yet striking look--something I've had on my idea list for a while; a French tip look with similar colours in different finishes. I went with bright cheery yellow and reached for two Zoyas!

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!

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

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!

The Classic Christmas Lights Mani

Happy weekend, everyone! I hope yours is going wonderfully so far :D It's been rainy here the past couple of days, but I don't mind--I rather like the rain, plus it's a welcome reprieve from the hot summer weather.

For today's nails, the title says it all. Painting Christmas lights on your nails is not a unique idea, but it's one I really wanted to do. I did add my own unique touch, though--I used a matte base and lots of clear coat to make the bulbs really stand out and look like glass! Check it out:

Glowsticks & Glitter

Hello! It's getting warmer here, and with spring comes hay fever. I've been feeling under the weather, so sorry for the long time between posts. But in celebration of the sunshine, and to cheer myself up, I've been wearing neon nails, plus my new Born Pretty Store bows!

Outdoors in sunlight

So simple, yet so fun! Click the jump for the details!

Shimmery Marble-Accent Mani

Hallooooo :)

Before I get started--I want to quickly leave a link to a recent post on my Facebook page. If you're interested in any of the products I use and would like to get them for a very low price, or if you have any feedback for me, go check out that post! I'd love to hear your nail art requests, or other ideas for what you'd like to see on the site.

Now then, on to today's nails! I was recently inspired by this video on YouTube, and wanted to do a colourful design with water-marbled accent nails. But some things happened, and it ended up more random and skittley than I'd planned. I'll explain! ;)

Outdoors in sun

If you watched the video above, you have the basic idea of what I was trying to do: marble with three colours on the ring finger and thumb, then paint each of the other nails solidly with one of the shades in the marble. I wanted a nice shimmery design, so I chose China Glaze Blue Year's Eve (blue), Zoya Ivanka (green), and Color Club Daisy Does It (yellow), and the marbling itself went well!

But, as I was cleaning the excess polish off the water surface, preparing to take my marbled nails out of the cup, I accidentally touched the cotton swab I was using for this to my yellow middle nail, and a swirly blue and green blob was left behind. At first, I got all annoyed and thought I'd have to redo it... but then I realised that blue and green blob was pretty, so I swirled it around a little, and dabbed more splotches over the rest of the nail to make a speckly look. Cool, right?

Once that was done, I had to jazz up the other plain nails, so I pulled out coordinating blue, green, and yellow Born Pretty Store glitters and applied them to the areas you see. Finally, I topcoated with Seche Vite.

Indoors with flash

Outdoors in shade

The marble on the thumbs. Righty, y u so short for? I used a pale yellow creme as a base for the marble, so that's why the blue looks turquoise on the right hand. I used more drops of Blue Year's Eve when I got to the left hand so the colour would be more saturated :)

Outdoors in shade. And with a towel.

Speaking of Born Pretty Store, now is probably a good time to share some news! I'll be doing some product reviews for you soon, and I have been given a special code so that YOU can receive 10% off any order! They sell not only oodles of nail art supplies, but hair, makeup, and other beauty products too. The prices are great, and they even ship worldwide for free! Check them out at http://www.bornprettystore.com/ and use code CITYG10 for your discount sitewide! 

I hope you liked these. See you next time! xoxo

#31DC2014 - Day 28 - Inspired by a FLAG

Hi hi! Today is day 28 of the 31-Day Challenge. Only three more to go! Today's prompt is "inspired by a flag", and I have known for a while that I wanted to honour the Australian Aboriginal Flag.

Outdoors in shade

I first saw this flag flying next to the Australian national flag (which I have also painted before) in front of a building in Melbourne, and thought it would be a nice nail design. But in order to honour and not cheapen or disrespect the meaning of the flag (as I am not from here), I did a bit of research. From the AIATSIS website,

The Aboriginal flag was designed by Harold Thomas, a Luritja man from Central Australia. It was created as a symbol of unity and national identity for Aboriginal people during the land rights movement of the early 1970s. 

It was first flown in 1971, and in 1995 it was proclaimed an official flag of Australia. As it should be. :) I like the symbolism of the colours as well--the black represents the Aboriginal people, and the red represents the earth as well as the colour of ochre, which has ceremonial significance. The yellow circle in the middle represents the sun, the protector and giver of life.

I used Soulstice Spa Buenos Aires (red, and as close a match to the official Pantone 179 as I have) and Gotham (black) for the striped tips, and Zoya Darcy for the yellow circle. Topcoated with Seche Vite.

Indoors with flash. Hello, nail staining that's totally not visible in real life at all >.>

Outdoors in the yellow circle--I mean, in sun :)

So there you have it! I know many of you will not have known any Australian flags outside of the national one, so now you can learn a little bit just as I did. :D

Check back tomorrow for day 29's nails! xoxo

#31DC2014 - Day 27 - Inspired by ARTWORK

Yo, what's up? Day 27, and for my "artwork" prompt I took inspiration from street art!

Outdoors in cloudy overcasty light. I know it's spring, but I'm still not impressed, Sunshine State.

My perspective on graffiti has quite changed over the years. I used to consider it all vandalism and, while acknowledging that some of it takes talent, I just couldn't appreciate it. As an artist, I look back now and just think this perspective is silly. Some cities actually encourage it in some areas (hello, Hosier Lane!) to improve the look of plain walls or just as an attraction. Obviously, just 'tagging' does not take much thought or creativity, but well-crafted street art can be such a pleasure to see!

I don't feel like I'm very good at the style, but I had to give it a try. The base for this manicure is China Glaze Stone Cold, a dark matte-shimmer polish that looks very much like tarmac when dry. The white and black accents in this design are acrylic paint, and the colours are China Glaze Shocking Pink (Neon),  China Glaze Pool Party (the more orangey one), Sinful Colors Neon Melon (green), and Orly Glowstick (yellow). I did my initials on the middle two nails, and then some random designs on the others--and a shooting star on the thumb, because yay stars.

I first topcoated with Seche Vite, and all shiny it looked like this:

But to return Stone Cold to its original appearance, and more realistically portray this type of art, I added Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love to finish it off.

As usual, my camera had no idea how to handle these neons. In real life, these colours are eye-searingly bright and awesome :D

What do you think about street art? xoxo

#31DC2014 - Day 25 - Inspired by FASHION

Bonjour! Day 25 of the challenge is "inspired by fashion". Here's my nail look!

I think I am fairly stylish in my own way, but I am not trendy or fashionable, and I do not care about designers and brands and such. So I did a simple Google image search for "fashion", and found inspiration on the very first page of results!

(image found on trendingtrendsnow.com)

This image is from Tumblr. I do not know how to Tumblr. I looked everywhere trying to find a source, but there is no artist name here and I couldn't even see who uploaded it. A Google image search was also fruitless. I am more than happy to give credit to the artist if I can figure out who it is! Any help from you lovely people on this topic would be very much appreciated! (Update: didn't find an artist, but traced most instances of it to the URL above, so I'm sticking with that!)

Anyway, I very much fell in love with the look on the far right, so I did half moons with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, and painted the rest of the nail white with Orly Pointe Blanche. Then I added vertical stripes with my black Stripe Rite polish. Finally, some pretty half-pearls along the line, and Seche Vite to top it all off.

Indoors with flash

Outdoors in sun (it's finally sunny again!)

I wore these out for cocktails with a friend (hi Suzy!) and, by total coincidence, my nails matched the decor in the place! I'd never been there before, but look at the pattern on the seats...

Grainy phone pic, but I couldn't NOT take one

So you know, maybe it was the strawberry-basil martini talking, but I felt pretty sophisticated. ;)

I hope you like these--I sure do! See you next time xoxo

#31DC2014 - Day 23 - Inspired by a MOVIE

Hiya! Day 23 of the challenge calls for nails inspired by a movie. I am not a big movie person, but I work with someone who really likes the minions from Despicable Me (hi Sam!), and while it's not the most original idea (I'm aware that everyone and their grandmother has done minion nails), I really wanted to paint them. So I did!

Indoors with flash

 I used Zoya Darcy (yellow) and Cover Girl Vio-last (purple) for the bodies. The denim coveralls are done with--what else?--Denim Dash by Maybelline. China Glaze Icicle is the silver for the goggles, and Layla Hologram Effect #16 Coffee Love is the brown for the eyes. (I thought this holo brown was perfect for capturing the multifaceted look of an eye, and I was right!) The rest is acrylic paint and a bit of patience ;) Topped with KBShimmer Clearly On Top, and then, for the above photo, I drew on the hair with Sharpies!

We haven't had a lot of sun lately, so these overcasty photos will have to do.

I hope you liked these! I really had fun with them, especially the derpy purple one and his wonky teeth :D See you soon for more! xoxo

#31DC2014 - Day 3 - YELLOW nails

G'day! Today's manicure is for day 3 of the challenge: inspired by the colour yellow!

Suns in the sun :)

I started with a nice sky blue holo: Absolute by Nubar. It's beautiful, but very sheer. I like the look for the purpose of this design, but normally I would layer this over a creme in a similar colour. This is five coats--FIVE!-- and there's still some nail line showing. I know, I know... but once I got started painting layers, I was kinda committed. Anyway, it sort of works for this one since most of the nail line is covered by the suns.

I painted those with yellow acrylic paint and a detail brush. I had the idea in mind to use striping tape to mark off some narrow triangles for the rays, but it ended up being so fussy to get the strips in the right places, I just gave up and freehanded it. I think it came out pretty well! As usual, I used a moistened orange stick once the paint was dry to gently scrape away mistakes and make a relatively crisp edge. I blended a tiny bit of red into the yellow to make a slight gradient to a darker yellow towards the tips of the rays. Finally, some black and white acrylic paint to make the cute little sunglasses and smiling mouth :)

Topped with two coats of Seche Vite.

Indoors with flash

I'm still wearing these, and they make me smile each time I look at them! They're some of the happiest nails I've ever had.

As usual, check out all the day 3 creations by searching the hashtag #31DC2014, and join me tomorrow for more fun! xoxo

Acid Zebra Vacation Nails

Hello, beautiful!

I just spent an incredible weekend in Melbourne! I hadn't been there before, but I'm absolutely addicted to travelling and seeing new places. It was great! I saw Little Penguins, and went to the top of the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, and went to cute little bars and cafes to my heart's content. I might move there next! It's brilliant.

Naturally, I wanted some cute nails for my trip.

You guys know I love rainbows :D so here's my take on the Acid Zebra look!

Skittle with Cult Nails: It's A New Day Collection

Hello my dears!

Back in April, I pre-ordered the It's A New Day collection from Cult Nails. It's a beautiful spring-themed set of three creme/jelly polishes, plus a special stamping plate co-designed with Marta from ChitChatNails. How cool is that? Marta is the reason I know of Cult Nails, and I know I'm not the only one! Her love for this brand has created lots of new Culties, so I think it's only fitting she got to collaborate with Maria on this.

Why am I only just reviewing these? Well, long story. Basically I had the polishes shipped to my best friend in the US, because it was much cheaper, and he was sending a box here to Australia for my birthday anyway, so we decided he could just pop this in as well. But he got really sick and was in the hospital and wasn't able to send me the package for a while. It finally arrived the other day, just in time for spring down under! (And he's doing just fine now--way better news!) Thank you, Jeff :)

Anyway, without further ado, my It's A New Day manicure:

World Cup Shoes

Good day, loves!

There have been so many great World Cup nail designs this year :D I love seeing all the manis inspired by the game or by the different countries. But what I kept noticing in all the games was the players' shoes! Not because I'm a big shoe person, but because a lot of them are bright neon colours: yellow, pink, orange, blue... I couldn't find many pics of the pink ones, but the yellow is here:

image from http://worldcup2014places.com

Anyway, I decided to paint some World Cup inspired nails, with the shoes as my inspiration :D