Friday, September 30, 2011

More Spectrafrankens

I did some more messing around with Spectraflair and came up with some awesome Spectrafrankens. The only problem is … which to try first?!

 

Spectrafrankens3

The Legend of Ron Burgundy (that was my partner’s idea. Genius, huh?!), He’s my Lobster, Unicorn Tears.

 

Spectrafrankens4

Albino Smurf (a very light blue with a hint of teal … I asked the boy what to call this and he said “blue?” bwahahha, but then he came up with Albino Smurf and I love it!) and Goblin Snot (an olive green which I love).

 

So many Spectrafrankens, so little nails … I still have Bump in the Night and Janie’s Got a Gun to try, too. Help!!

Em

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Spectrafranken–Blue Lagoon

Brace yourself for some photo spam of one of my new Spectrafrankens: Blue Lagoon

 

BlueLagoon2ct_1

Ohhhhhh yeah.

I don’t really know what else to say. I love this! I’ve been wanting to make a blue holo for the longest time and this is perfect.


Here’s another shot of the rainbow goodness:

BlueLagoon2ct_2

Look at ittttttt!

 

And another (blurred to show more holo goodness):

BlueLagoon2ct_3

Oh yeah, work it baby!

 

More blurry holo goodness:

BlueLagoon2ct_4

 

*Happy sigh*. I am a happy, happy girl right now. I think I might go stand outside for a bit and look at my nails. The photos don’t even do it justice. My crappy camera refuses to believe there could be something so beautiful.

 

Have you made any Spectrafrankens lately?

 

Em

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

BYS Urban Jungle with Konad

What a lovely, lovely colour this is. This is another of the BYS colours I chose in Cat from The Khromazone’s big birthday giveaway.

Urban Jungle:

UrbanJungle2ct

Gorgeous Open-mouthed smile Amazing formula, this is two coats. It could have easily been one but I’m pedantic like that. Unfortunately it didn’t have much staying power and I chipped my little finger the day after I applied it. But even so, gorgeous and well worth adding to your collection.

I bought some cheap cheap image plates off eBay and received them yesterday (they got here so fast)! So I tried a couple of images out:

 

UrbanJungleThumb

A cute flower (Konad Princess Special Polish in Deep Purple and Jungle Green) and butterfly (in Red). Quite cute Open-mouthed smile

These image plates I got are pretty good for the price. I’ve already noticed a couple of images which don’t work too well, but you get what you pay for!

 

I think the best thing about Urban Jungle is that there are so many options for multi coloured Konad-ing. Just about any colour looks good stamped onto it (except maybe hot pink, but you never know, it might work!!)

 

What’s your favourite colour to stamp on top of?

 

Em

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Three gorgeous Spectrafrankens

Hello friends,

I went to the dentist after work today so I’m sitting here feeling a bit sorry for myself, eating mashed potato and waiting for the feeling to return to my face. I got one wisdom tooth out and had a filling on the other side. My poor mouth Sad smile  On the up side, that should be it for dental work for a long while Open-mouthed smile

 

Anyway, I was feeling inspired tonight so I decided to create some Spectrafrankens! I am really, really pleased with how they turned out.

Have a looksee:

Spectrafrankens

I have named them Bump in the Night (black), Blue Lagoon (gorgeous and what I think is very unique blue) and Janie’s Got a Gun (gunmetal grey). You like? Open-mouthed smile 

 

Now here’s where you come in. I need you guys to help me decide which one to try first! What do you think? Will it be Bump in the Night, Blue Lagoon or Janie’s Got a Gun?

 

Em

Monday, September 26, 2011

Revlon Ruby with Ladybug nail art

This is such a cute, summery mani. I love it! I didn’t take photos of my nails before the nail art, so here is the whole enchilada:

 

Ruby2ct

Two coats of Revlon Ruby with ladybug dots painted on using my dotting tool and BYS French White.

The ladybug Konad is from their M30 plate and I painted it on using their Special White Princess Polish.

 

Revlon Ruby is such a gorgeous polish. It is a vampy, deep red, squishy jelly which is almost opaque in one coat. It literally looks like my polish hasn’t dried because it’s so squishy looking. LOVE!

I know that technically ladybug spots are black, but I really wanted to do white to make it stand out more. It still works, don’tcha think?

Em

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Recent nail buys

I realised earlier today that I haven’t been sharing most of my nail goodies lately. I’m not sure why, but it’s time to come clean and share what I’ve bought lately!

 

I got these this morning at the chemist here:

Minis

A cute little mini set of Revlon polishes. Rock Star, Gold Coin and Ruby. They all look amazing. Ruby is the most vampy, delicious red I’ve ever seen. I’m wondering whether Gold Coin will be good to stamp with … only one way to find out!

 

Another couple of Miki’s. I love these polishes so, so much but unfortunately I’ve gotten all the good colours which are available to me at my local chemist Sad smile. Miki, please come out with some more colours!!!

Miki3

These don’t have names, as usual (grrr). So I have taken it upon myself to give them identities. The purple is Fit for a Queen (because Purple is royalty) and the greeny blue is Pacific.

 

Some more NYC Colors:

nyc2

Blue Sparkle and Sprinkles (my mum surprised me with these when I was in Adelaide last weekend Open-mouthed smile), Charcoal and Chocolate.

 

NYC3
Redhead, Gelati, Vintage Pink, Cotton Candy, Pink Cheeks. These are mostly for frankening. The Pink Cheeks is my new favourite french pink though.

 

m30

Konad M30. How. Freakin’. Cute. If you knew me in real life, you’d know straight away why I had to have this plate: the adorable froggy image!!! I have two frogs, Chad and Kroaker (named after Chad Kroeger from Nickelback) and I adore them. I have lots of frog things and I can’t wait to do a froggy mani! The other images are also adorable, although I’m not sure why the dog looks like a Monopoly character and I’m not sure why the rabbit feels the need to advertise what animal it is!?

Anyway, I can definitely see a ladybird mani in the future.

 

I’ve also ordered a bunch of fauxnad image plates from eBay. I’m not sure how good they’ll be but they were cheap so I took the risk!

And just last night I ordered the new Color Club Foiled Collection. I am sooo excited about this collection. The colours are to die for and I’ve heard they’re great for stamping. Can’t wait Open-mouthed smile

 

What have you bought recently?
Em

Friday, September 23, 2011

My first Spectraflair franken

I received my Spectraflair and Colour Morphing Powders from Cathy of the fabulous More Nail Polish on Tuesday.
Let me just say that talking with Cathy about ordering these was so easy, and she shipped them the very next day. I was lucky enough to score the last lot of Colour Morphing Powders, so I was beside myself!

I started with a simple Spectrafranken which I absolutely love:

HotStuff2ct
Hot, right?! I’ve called this one Hot Stuff. It was super easy to make: a whole bottle of Ulta3 Bouquet and approx. 8 tiny spoons of Spectraflair.
I love it. It is so eye catching and the rainbow is so strong.
Spectraflair is so easy to use. I’m hooked!! Even though I’m nowhere near finishing the 2 grams that I have, I want to stock up on more Smile with tongue out
It helps to start with a good base polish. This franken applied like a dream and that’s all down to Ulta3’s fabulous formula. I had minimal clean up work because it just glided on so easily.
This was two coats with a coat of Seche Vite. I had full coverage in one coat but wanted to make sure I had the maximum holo effect ;). And in case you're wondering, the Seche Vite didn’t dull the holo effect at all!

Here’s another photo to show off the gorgeous rainbow a little more:
HotStuff2ct_2
*Happy sigh*. My life is now complete. I am so excited that I can make my own holos in any colour I want. I’m dying to make a dark green holo and I want to have a go at making a red holo.

I will hopefully get my order of 5mL nail polish bottles tomorrow, so I’ll spend the weekend Spectrafrankening up a storm (in between studying, of course!)

I hope you liked my first Spectrafranken as much as I do! Excuse me now, I’m going to go stare at my nails some more.

Em

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Interruptions to regular programming

Hey guys

You’ll have to be patient with me over the next six weeks because I won’t be blogging as much … I’m on the home stretch for my degree and I’ve got a boatload of uni work to do as well as a full time job and a fair few massages too. Massaging has gotten really busy (which is good, it means I’m doing something right!!!) but it means I have far less time after work to sit down and do my nails and blog. I’m currently going into day three of my current mani which is absolutely killing me. I just want to do my nails!
 
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Six weeks and I’m finished my degree. FINISHED!!! Four long years of hard work, late nights and frustrating assignments. I'll be honest, I'm freaking out at the moment because I'm not quite sure where I'll find the time to get my final assignments done, but I know it will get done.

There is so much going on at the moment, and all of them good things. I hope to share them with you in the next couple of weeks because I’m just so excited about the future and what’s to come.
So bear with me please, because I value all of your comments and I’m so pleased that you take the time to read my blog.

Thank you all.
Em

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Rokk96 Silver Screen with Konad

I’m a little bit in love with this polish. It’s one I bought in my massive Adelaide Haul about a month ago and it’s so unique and pretty.

Here is Rokk96 Silver Screen:

SilverScreen2ct

Two coats of deliciousness. I love it! It is SO sparkly and the most gorgeous light blue which has a slight hint of lavender. And of course, it’s packed with silver glittery shimmer. Lurv!

These polishes are $7.95 each or three for $19 at Price Attack. They have some pretty awesome colours!

Here it is with some Konad on top:

SilverScreen2ctKonad

I smudged my Konad-ing (Bundle Monster-ing?) a little, but you get the idea. This is from BM-206 in Konad’s Princess Special Polish in Warm Black.

The smudging is way less obvious in real life, but my new daylight lamp picks up every little flaw Smile with tongue out

 

Have you tried any of these Rokk96 polishes yet?

Em

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

BYS Pretty Pastel Peppermint with Konad

I love that I’m loving most of the polishes I’m trying lately. There’s nothing worse than trying a polish and thinking “yuck, I’ll never wear that again”.

This BYS polish is no exception: I love it!

 

Peppermint3ct

 

Pretty Pastel Peppermint, three coats. I probably could have gotten away with two but I had a couple of bald spots.

It is such a lovely mid mint green. This was my choice for my weekend in Adelaide because I know BYS polishes wear so well and I was going to be wearing it for three days, possibly four.

 

And, how did you guess? I did some Konading!

PeppermintKonad

 

BM-205. Love this pattern. It is just so pretty!  But my, oh my, was it a biatch. It wasn’t done very well, the edges were really sharp so when I cleaned it after each stamp, fuzz from my cotton pads kept getting stuck!! It took me until my second hand (strangely my right hand is way better than my right in this case) to get the hang of it.

 

Have you noticed that EVERY brand of stamping plates is different? Konad is awesome to use (of course) and they require little effort. A no-name Asian made plate I have needs more polish because the images are cut deeper and the Bundle Monster plates need less polish and a much firmer hand because the images are cut a lot shallower. Takes me a while to master each!! So don’t mind the messiness!!!!

Em

Monday, September 19, 2011

NYC Color Bluebird with Konad

I’m loving these NYC Color polishes I got from Woolies when they had their big bin full of them. These polishes were so popular that the bin was almost empty within about three days. I was lucky and got to it not long after they put it out for sale because the bin was piled high when I got to it Open-mouthed smile

 

This is Bluebird:

Bluebird2ct

Two perfect coats. Amazing formula. You cannot go wrong with this. It’s such a lovely bright, pastel blue. My partner hates it, of course, because he hates pastels. Too bad they’re my favourite Winking smile

 

Aaaand some more ‘Nadding with my new Bundle Monster plates:

Bluebird2ctonad

BM-208 in the Konad Princess Special Polish in White.

 

I love this on my little nubby nails. I was getting annoyed with how long my nails were getting and I think pastels look way better on nubs, so I chopped them all down. I love it Open-mouthed smile I much prefer having nubs.

 

What do you think?
Em

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Chemistry 609

Who doesn’t love a good holo? *Sigh* They are just so pretty.

 

I tried my first holo from my Chemistry haul that Shatter Me Claire got me.

 

This is 609, a beautiful silver scattered holo:

609_3cts

Three coats and a coat of SV. It applied pretty well, with a little bit of drag. It was bling-tastic, I tell you!! Absolutely loved it.

 

For some different (hehehe) I decided try try out my new Bundle Monster plates and Konad over the top:

 

609_Konad

BM-210 stamped with Konad Princess Special Polish in Blue Pearl. This is such an awesome electric blue colour. Love!

I think this is preeetty Open-mouthed smile So psychadelic. I think I’d wear something like this if I was going to a 70s party or something!

 

So, I’ve decided to start watermarking my photos.. What does everyone think? I want to get the watermark through the whole area so it can’t be easily cropped out, but I don’t want it to cover the pic too much. Thoughts?

I’m in Adelaide again this weekend. Let’s see what nail goodies I come back with this time? Smile with tongue out

 

Em

Friday, September 16, 2011

China Glaze Blue Sparrow

This is one cool polish, but it was so not what I expected.
I expected a shiny, glittery blue polish, but instead I got this:



China Glaze’s Blue Sparrow, two coats. Still gorgeous, but I was not expecting it to turn out matte!
Because it was matte, it dried super fast. It applied easily but it wore like crap.
I wanted to see what it looked like shiny, so I added a coat of Seche Vite:


Pretty! But you know what? I actually preferred it matte! My partner agreed.
So I put a coat of China Glaze Matte Magic over the top and called it quits.
I did this after dinner one night and had a chip before the end of the night. Ugh, it was so chipped by the end of the next day, I had to take it off. Stupid pretty but undurable mattes!

I like this polish, and I prefer it matte, but to avoid annoying chips I think I’ll have to wear it with a top coat in the future.


What do you think, matte or gloss?

Em

Thursday, September 15, 2011

essie Going Incognito

Man, I love this polish. I can’t even put into words how much I love it.
It is the perfect dark green. It’s more of a Winter colour but eh, who am I to pay attention to the seasons!? I love a good dark green polish. I’m not a huge fan of light greens apart from mints and other pastels though.
Anyway, enough of my babbling and on to the photo:

GoingIncognito2ct
This is two coats. Amazing formula. Seriously, I could not pick one flaw with it. It wore so well too. I really need more essies!! I only have one in my collection left to try, borrowed & blue.

Do you love a good green?

Em

PS This is my 100th post - woohoo!

It’s Almost Friday Funny Video

 

That’s one freaky lookin’ cat.

 

Do you think this is for real!?

 

Happy Thursday!

 

Em

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Chemistry haul

The lovely Shatter Me Claire was kind enough to go shopping for me at the Chemistry warehouse last week. I gave her a budget and told her to go nuts! I love her polish choices so I knew she’d pick some awesome ones. And oh, she did!!!

I was disappointed when I got home and there was nothing in my letter box, but then I walked up to my front door and there, tucked away in the corner, was a box addressed to meee!

I literally squealed when I opened my goodies.

Pretty, pretty polishes.

 

Chem1

601, 609, 618. Goooorgeous scattered holos. I love these!!

 

Chem2

730 & 506. Stunning duo and multichromes.

 

Chem3

Look at itttt!! I may just have to try this one first!!

 

Chem4

216 & 201 Oh my, I looooooooove 201. A blue sparkly with bar glitter. I love it, love it, love it!

Apparently there aren’t any swatches of the 200 series online, so *sigh*, I suppose I can swatch them for you guys. If I have to. Heeheeheee Smile with tongue out

 

Ms Shatter Me made some amazing choices. Thank you so much for doing this for me!!!

Be watching for some swatching Open-mouthed smile Smile with tongue out Okay, that was a terrible rhyme …


Em