No Buy July

Everyone I know is talking about whether they're doing or not doing "Dry July", where they abstain from alcohol for the entire month of July.

Well, I'm going on a "No Buy July".

There, I said it. I am not buying one more nail polish for the whole month of July.

Not one nail polish, nail accessory, not even a nail file. With the exception of cuticle sticks which I'm really running low on.

The past week I have been out of control with my nail polish habit. Granted, I'm relatively new to the nail polish world and since discovering nail blogs a month or so ago, I've gone nuts for different polishes, styles and designs.

But since 26th June, I have bought:

• Cherry Culture - Milani 3D Holographics polishes (the whole set), a couple of Sinful Colours polishes, and a couple of LA Colours polishes
• Coastal Scents - Some glitters and holo pigments to franken with
• OC Nail Art - A biiiig Konad kit
• Beauty Joint - Kleancolour polishes and Cherimoya Crackles
• eBay - Random nail stuff like a dotting tool, brushes, plastic palette for frankening and 50 little pots of glitter

That's enough!!!!! That is it, I'm puting my foot down and July is now NO BUY!!!! When I add up how much I've spent on nails since 26th June, it's approximately $350. Gulp. And I still want to start my OPI, China Glaze and Colour Club collections.

Damn, it's a good thing I have a well paying job now ...

Em

BYS Indian Nights with Konad white swirly stamping

I think I’m in trouble.

I’ve discovered the world of Konad.

For those of you who don’t know, Konad is nail stamping, and it is amazing.

I borrowed my friend Amanda’s Konad image plate, polish, scraped and stamp and have been experimenting with it. This is my first attempt at swirly Konad accent nails:

 

 

This is three coats of BYS Indian Nights and white Konad stamping. There are so many things wrong with this photo:

• The bald spots
• The huge gap on my thumbnail
• The smudged Konad

BUT I do have reasons for them. BYS Indian Nights is a biatch to apply. My bottle is pretty thick so I’m going to have to thin it before I use it again. It doesn’t have great coverage; this is three coats and I still have a few bald spots. And apparently I have an abnormally wide thumbnail, because the whole nail designs are too small for my nail!!! After trying again I’ve managed to get it with minimal gap on the side but this attempt was just a fail!!!

As for the smudged Konad, I blame SV. You’re supposed to use the Konad top coat so it doesn’t smudge.

 

That will be fixed soon

Oh yes, I did it. I bought a Konad kit. And not just a small one either. I blame my partner; he found this one for me and said it was much better value. I had to agree, of course And that is how I already spent a quarter of my net pay this week … But trust me, it will be worth it. I won’t show a photo until I get it, which will hopefully be within two weeks. Today is stupid 4th July in the US so it’s delayed my order I don’t care about the 4th of July, I just want my dang Konad!!!!

 

Do you like Konad-ing?

Em

The Face Shop PK105 + Sally Hansen Accent Nails

I really, really hate it how The Face Shop don’t give their polishes names. It feels so wrong I might give this one a name … how about Raspberry Frosting?

Anyway, even though I hate that about their polishes, I love everything else about them!!! So easy to apply, this one was opaque in two coats and long lasting.

 

See the gorgeous light purple shimmer? It’s hard to see because I suck at taking photos and I didn’t have any sun or natural light, but it’s there!

 

I wore this for all of two hours before I got bored with it … so I decided to try some accent thumbnails!

 

With a stripe of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Celeb City.

 

Celeb City is a gorgeous metallic, glittery silver which, paired with the pink, totally reminds me of a present. Love it So easy to do (scotch tape method) and jazzes up the whole mani!

Do you like accent nails?

Em

BYS White Pearl with BYS Red Cracked

I bought my first BYS Cracked’s the other day! They didn’t have the black at my local store (the only one in the town which sells BYS) so I got red and hot pink.

I started with three coats of BYS White Pearl. And there was still VNL.


What a boring colour. Very thin and runny and so difficult to apply neatly. There was a fair bit of clean up involved in this!!!
So glad I was putting something over this.


With a thick coat of the BYS Red Crackle.

Meh … I don’t know. I didn’t really like it when I first put it on, but it did grow on me a bit. Tis a good thing I wasn’t too attached to it though because less than 12 hours after I applied it, it was chipped like crazy. This polish is not long lasting. And it is a biatch to get off. I had to use the foil method:


This is an awesome way to get stubborn nail polish off super easily. You put some nail polish remover on your nail and wrap some alfoil around it. Then leave it for five minutes and pull the whole thing off, making sure you wipe the nail. The alfoil keeps the polish remover from drying out and your nail polish will all be off Usually there’s a tiny bit around the edges to clean up but not much at all.

Anyway, I’m not sure about the red crackle. Maybe it would look better with black or midnight blue shimmer underneath. What do you guys think?

Em

BYS Flirty Sparkle

This is my all time favourite polish.

 

This is two coats of BYS Flirty Sparkle and a coat of SV.

 

The photos don’t do it justice, seriously. I always get compliments when I wear this on my nails. It’s a beautiful deep pink with a touch of red and a silver glitter shimmer through it. So hard to explain and even harder to capture on film. But so, so gorgeous.

Try it, you won’t be disappointed. It is the easiest polish to apply ever, too. This is the quickest and neatest mani I’ve ever done. It doesn’t wear too well, unfortunately. After a day’s wear I had a couple of small chips. Nothing major, and this polish is great in that you can touch up the chip and don’t need to paint the whole nail because it blends well.

It is soo gorgeous. I never want to take it off my nails when I’m wearing it!!

Em

The TraceFace Philes 500 Follower Giveaway!

The TraceFace Philes is having a 500 follower giveaway!

You could win an awesome collection of Nicole by OPI nail polishes!

Head to her giveaway page to enter now!

Milani 3D Holographic–HD

I truly wish I owned this polish, but it’s another one I borrowed from my nail tech friend. And she got it in Fiji

When I first applied this polish I though “meh, this isn’t going to be very holo … how disappointing!”

But I put on my three coats and then a coat of SV and went outside to take some photos …

 

 

Woah. Woaaaaaaaaah!

Look at all the pretty holo dancing in the sunlight!!!

Here’s a blurry shot to show more of the prettiness.

 

 

Oh how I wish I owned this polish … where do I get Milani polishes from!? I’ve tried ebay and only found one colour I didn’t like. But this one is goooorgeous! It has fuelled my holo addiction even more. Must buy holos! Can’t wait til my first full pay. I think I’m going to go nuts ordering US brands

 

Edit: I just found a website to order Milani’s from!!!! Cherry Culture is a US site that ships to Australia!!!  And their postage is very reasonable … I just ordered 11 polishes and it was US$25.43 postage (7-14 days) including insurance! They had Milani holos on sale for $3.75 – bargain! Sooo I ordered all six colours And a Milani Nail Flash polish in “Photo Flash”. And a couple of LA Colours for $2 each. Aaand a couple of Sinful Colours for $2.50 each. $62 later … not bad for 11 polishes though!

 

Are you in <3 with holos as much as I am???

Em