Friday mail day + Miki goodies

Wheeee! Friday was mail day. Love it

But on Thursday I was getting impatient waiting for my China Glaze, Color Club, OPI, Essie, SpaRitual, Nubar and BYS polishes to arrive. Sooo I strolled down to the chemist and what did I see?

 

 

Cute little mini Miki’s!

They do not have names so I shall name them! The left polish is actually a beautiful dark green with a gold shimmer through it, so I’ve named it Forever Green. The red also has a gorgeous gold shimmer and I called it Fire in Her Eyes.

 

This Little Piggy, Rainclouds, Spring Sky, Faded Frog.

 

Two for $5!!! Tell me, does that count for breaking my No Buy August?  

These just screamed out at me… such pretty, spring colours! Do you like my names for them?

 

So first up in my Friday mail was a bottle of Seche Restore:

Waaay back in June I ordered some off ebay. The seller never sent it, I had to lodge a dispute through PayPal (thank God for PayPal!!!) and I eventually got my money back. I had to reorder it from somewhere else and I finally have it! Yay I have a few polishes I want to thin and my SV bottle is almost at the stage where I need to thin it.

 

Backups of SV (you can never have too many ) and China Glaze Matte Magic top coat (awesome photo, Emma, face the label AWAY from people )

 

Hopefully my COLOUR polish hauls will be here soon!!

Em

The Face Shop Bling Bling

The other day I painted my nails with a Face Shop polish I’ve only tried once before.

I love Face Shop polishes. They have so many gorgeous colours and if you buy 4, you get the 5th free! Definitely going to be taking advantage of that when I go to Adelaide on the weekend!

 

Anyway, this is GL111, but I shall call it “Bling Bling”:

 

Two coats of awesomeness, perfect formula. It was very smooth so only needed one coat of Seche Vite just for staying power. It certainly didn’t need any more shine!

I did not realise just how much glitter was packed into this polish! I got quite a few comments on my nails at work – people loved the bling!

 

Do you have any Face Shop polishes? From what I understand, the prices and styles of bottles vary from state to state (in Adelaide they are $4.90 for the basic colours and $12.90 for ones like these with glitter. I read on another blog (Ree?) that they were only $3 in Melbourne!!! Jealous!

 

Em

BYS Matte Deep Purple with spotties!

This is one of my favourite BYS colours, Matte Deep Purple.

 

This is two coats with a coat of SV for shinies. It applies beautifully and is a gorgeous purple. Not sure I’d call it dark purple but more of a mid-purple.

 

And of course, I had to practice my Konad-ing!

This is the full nail polka dot design from my new large nail design plate from APM Express. I stamped it in the yellow Konad Princess Special Polish.

Not my best attempt, but not too bad! It’s a fun, bright mani anyway and will hopefully get me in the mood for summer!

What’s your favourite colour combo with polka dots? I have to say, anything with white dotties is my favourite, especially red base with white dots!

 

Em

k.k. Purple w/ Konad

This is definitely a WIN! This would have to be my favourite manicure in a long, long time.

 

Nawww, look at my cute lil nails. I had to chop them because I was getting some tears I don’t like my nails too long, anyway.

So this is two coats of k.k. unnamed Purple. It is sooooo pretty. Can you see the gorgeous light blue flash through it? Simply stunning! It applied like a dream (like the other k.k. polishes I’ve swatched! I really like this brand!!!) and I wore it for three days with only one tiny chip. Just as well it wore so well, I became sick last week and it hit me like a tonne of bricks. I spent last Friday in bed for most of the day and I was a total wreck!!!

Aaand then I practiced some Konad-ing:

 

Gorgeous whole nail dot/flower design in Konad Psyche Pink Princess Special Polish. I love, love, love this. I cannot tell you how much I love this and I didn’t want to take it off my nails!

I went to the chemist on Thursday night to get some cold and flu tablets and throat lozenges and she asked me if I did nails as a job As you can imagine, I was chuffed!

I love the combination of the hot pink with the purple. The purple tones down the pink a fair bit and, while the pink is still very visible, it blends really well with the purple. Definitely going to try this colour combo again soon.

 

What do you think?

Em

The Face Shop BL602 Glitter Fade FAIL!

Ah, you can’t win ‘em all.

There are days where I’m on fire with nails. Days where my manis are so, so quick and perfect.

Aaaaand then there are days like this:

 

I took this off as soon as I’d taken the photo.

This was two coats (+ touch ups) of The Face Shop BL602 (a bright blue) and then I tried to do a glitter fade with Kleancolor Chunky Holo Bluebell. I liked the effect, but it was just so thick that it wouldn’t dry. I kept smudging the crap out of it (see middle and  ring fingers, urgh) and it was all bumpy).

*sigh*

I really wanted it to work, but it just wasn’t meant to be!

Had any fails lately???
Em

BYS Blue Hawaii w/ Konad

How have I overlooked this colour for so long!?

I bought BYS Blue Hawaii months ago. I reckon it would have been in December last year. Yet I have never used it until now.

 

Beautiful Apart from the fuzzies  which somehow became attached to my nail there!

This is two coats, with a coat of SV, Konad stamping in Psyche Pink and then a coat of the Konad Special Top Coat.

 

A close up of the Konad-ing. Not my best work, but I only planned on wearing the mani for a day so I wasn’t too devastated!

 

This is such an easy colour to apply and clean up. It was streak-free and dried quickly. LOVE!

I’m so into the blues (and greens!) lately. Wait til you see the hauls I’m getting in the next week or so

Em

Confession time

I have a confession to make.
I broke my No Buy July.
Totally failed it.

I started off with a big stamping plate that I stumbled across on ebay and just had to have (of course!)
Then I made the mistake of visiting the new (and much easier to navigate) Transdesign website, Nailsupplies.co. I bought $55 worth (including shipping) of China Glaze, Essie, Color Club and OPI.
Then I got some Seche Restore, Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat and China Glaze Matte Magic top coat on eBay. Aaaand then I topped it off with the SpaRituals Earth Day pack of two gorgeous greens (I blame you, steffels!!!!) and a Nubar flakie.

*hangs head* for shame, Emma, for shame.

I almost made about three other orders too but managed to stop myself in the nick of time. See, I can show a little self restraint, it's just that most of the time I don't want to :P

I'm thinking of doing another no buy... but need some support. Whose with me!?

Em

Milani holos & The Face Shop with Konad

Last Saturday my partner’s sister and Mum flew in from Adelaide to spend the day with us for my partner’s birthday.
We had a lovely lunch and I did their nails
Here’s what they chose:


The Face Shop PP403 (two coats) with some Konad stars stamped on in the eggplant colour Princess Special Polish.


This turned out great, although the image on the Konad plate was a little hard to use … I had to try multiple times before the entire image transferred onto the stamp. Pretty, though.

His sister requested Milani 3D Holographic in Digital, a pretty pink which is transformed in the sunlight (which was apparently lacking in my photos).


Three coats of Digital with some cute leaves and flowers stamped on with the Konad Princess Special Polish in purple. Excuse the bit on the index finger, she accidentally bumped it right before I took the shot!!


Close up of the flowers on the thumb. Pretty, huh? She loved it!
I love doing people’s nails

Em

BYS Plum Crazy with Konad stamping

This was my partner’s request, and I think he chose the colours well!

 

This is two coats of BYS Plum Crazy. It’s a very, very dark purple, almost black. Absolutely stunning.

 

I’m trying to capture the slight shimmer through it but it is so hard.  You’ll just have to take my word for it!

 

This colour makes me feel really feminine without being girly. It feels like such a mature colour without being boring. Am I making any sense?!

Then, of course, I tried out my new Konad kit. Honestly, did you not see that coming?!

 

Wooooop!

My partner requested that I use silver Konad Princess Special Polish and I chose the designs. I did the simple flower design on my fingers and on my thumb I combined 3 different designs from the same plate. There’s a butterfly, two vines and what I think is a dandelion. It turned out so, so pretty.

My right hand, not so much.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve gotten way better at Konad-ing, but my right hand still feels whacked out when I do it!

The Konad Top Coat rocks too, by the way, no smudging whatsoever! I was thinking I’d have to wait forever for it to dry but it’s not too bad!

 

What do you think of this design?
Em

BYS Raspberry Sorbet

Wait, hold the presses!

 

A mani without glitter or Konad-ing!!

It happened, people. But who knows when it will happen again? Especially now that I have my Konad kit .

 

Anyway, this is BYS Raspberry Sorbet, 2 coats. Gorgeous colour! The photo shows off more of the brown than burgundy. It’s quite dark in real life, a very very dark browny red. A delicious colour! And so easy to apply. Loved it  

It’s pretty unique, I don’t have another like it in my collection, so I’m pretty happy to own this beauty. A good Winter colour, too!

 

Whatcha think?
Em

Milani Photo Flash with Konad Plaid stamping

I give you … Milani Photo Flash.

One of the prettiest colours I own!

Oh wow, sorry about the messy and dry cuticles there. I did not notice that when I was taking the photo. How embarassing!

 

This is a gorgeous deep berry red, with a slight red glittery shimmer through it. Stunning! Opaque in two coats (you could probably get away with one in a rush!) and wears awesomely.

But I couldn’t leave it alone, could I?

 

Konad plaid stamping using the Konad Special Polish in white. Don’t mind the wonky thumb and little finger.  My Konad skills are still being refined

 

This looked sooooo pretty though. The red and white just looked amazing!

 

What do you think of the whole nail Konad stamping? I LOVE it!

 

Em

LA Colors Aqua Crystals with Cherimoya 2012 Cracked in Apocalypse and Typhoon

These Cherimoya 2012 Crackles are cool.

I layered it over my LA Colors Aqua Crystals mani because I didn’t want to take the Aqua Crystals off

These are oil based polishes, so they smell a little funky. But they start cracking literally the second you stop painting and dry super fast.

 

Cherimoya Apocalypse (no top coat).

 

They also dry matte, which I really like, because you can choose if you want to leave them matte or apply a top coat to get the shine.

 

Cherimoya Typhoon is awesome matte. It’s such a pretty blue. Don’t mind my funky coloured fingers. I took this under a very yellow lamp and had to tweak the colours in Photoshop to get the blue right. In the process, my hands look really weird.

 

This is Typhoon with a coat of SV. Looks so different, right? I can’t decide which I like more!

Again, excuse the freaky hands.

 

I really like these crackles. I love how quick they are and they apply really easily and neatly. They also don’t flake if you apply them over a top coat, like the BYS Cracked’s do, so it’s such a good way to liven up a tired mani.

 

Can’t wait to try Judgement Day (purple) and Eternity (blue). Why didn’t I get the dark green?!?!?!

 

Em