FNUG Psychedelic

First of all, what can I say by holy holo Batman! Fnug is a Scandinavian polish that I was lucky enough to get my grabby little hands on in the last Harlow & Co in the latest restock. I thought I was being silly grabbing all 3 colors and today, but today I have swatches of the amaze-balls Psychedelic, and I am happy I have the other two in my stash. Now, you are meant to use the Aquedelic Base Coat with this, but since I had a super shiny surface from my Gelicious Hybrid Nail Ultra Glaze Top Coat, I painted over it to see if that would do as a base. Overall it worked pretty well! This is 2 coats of FNUG Psychedelic with top coat of Seche Vite...there may be a few pics here..you are warned... so pop on some sunnies, it about to get blingy in here :)

 FNUG Psychedelic Bottle Shot

FNUG in the shade

FNUG in the Sun, such a lovely silver with gorgeous rainbows

LOVE!

 This is so awesome, I can't describe!

The application of this was such that an Aqua basecoat or perhaps the Layla Hologram nail file would be best to prep the nail. I managed patchy coverage on the first coat and with careful application full coverage on the second coat. I did use Seche Vite top coat and initially the finished was dulled but ultimately the holographic effect was not affected as you can see in the pics :) I think this is the strongest linear holographic polish I own and I can't express how much I love, love, love it!  Even with only a bit of light indoors the rainbows come out to play. This will definently be the base for my New Years Eve mani :)

You can purchase FNUG polishes, but only one of each color due to the demand from Harlow & Co for $14.50.

Share with me what your NYE look is going to be, are you going bling or sparkly or subtle? I would love to hear it :)

Gelicious Hybrid Gel Nail Colour- Antique Rose

Hi guys! OMG, 2013 is nearly here and I can see everyone getting their NYE mani's created and blogged about. I have a vague idea of what I am going to do ...I don't have a big night planned but that doesn't mean my mani can't be blinging and rockin'! LOL. Today I have a review of Gelicious Hybrid Gel Nail Colour as a system and the color Antique Rose. 
 I have to credit my interest in Gelicious Hybrid Nail Gel directly to a post on More Nail Polish and the amazingness of the swatch of color of Dip in the Pool. There was also mention that Gelicious might be contributing to nail strengthening and color stain protection. After my lovely Christmassy nails last week and using China Glaze Custom Kicks my nails have a fluro green tinge, gah! So I was particularly interested in getting the Optional Base Coat to try and protect my nails and grow out the staining and see how the Gelicous formula does to prevent breakages as well the shinyness Ultra Glaze Top coat..who doesn't need an Ultra Glaze finish!

So, I bought the Gelicious Kit which came with the Ultra Glaze top Coat and added in the extra Optional Base Coat and Antique Rose from Catch of the Day.

L-R. Gelicious Optional Base Coat, Ultra Glaze Top Coat and Antique Rose

In the kit was also the UV lamp to cure the polishes

So as per the instructions, I removed my old polish, washed my hands and dried them. Then applied the optional base coat, cured it for 1 min under the lamp. I then did 2 coats of Antique Rose color with 1 min curing in between. I topped it with the Ultra Glaze Top coat and cured it for a further 2 mins in the lamp and I was done! 

Quite roomy in there! I am sure my toes will fit :)

The finished look- Antique Rose in sunlight. Coppery metal finish

 Antique Rose, outdoors no sunlight

Antique Rose in Lightbox

 Antique Rose with flash

I bought my Gelicious Kit from CatchoftheDay as Gelicious was and is closed for shipping until Jan 8th. There is intermittent specials around on Catchofday and the Gelicious website and with the Gelicious special on their website I am seriously considering the 4 polishes for $87 special they have at the moment. I can only comment on how the Gelicious Hybrid Gel Colour compares to nailpolish as I have never had Shellac, but I believe it hardens like Shellac does but applies with the ease of polish. 

What I Liked

You can smooth and refine the color application without fear of streaking or hardening due to drying.

The manicure was good to go after the Top Coat curing. No waiting. 

The Ultra Glaze Top Coat was nice and shiny, and easy to polish up some Acetone on a cotton ball.

Very little use of gel, so a little goes a long way.

My Issues

I had issues with the tip wrapping as I tried to wrap my tips as instructed but as you can see in the pics I wasn't so successful, especially on my ring finger, but for first application I was pretty happy. I am calling this one inexperience and will try again.

I also have a slight visible nail line which doesn't worry me but  makes me wonder if I need to apply the color a bit thicker or one extra coat. 

My other non application issue is that Gelicious doesn't have swatches of each color which would be beneficial for people to see how great the colors are, if the polish is meant to be sheer or opaque and what they look like with peoples skin tones.

What are you doing for NYE? Do you have a fab night planned? Tell me all about it.. I wish I had something awesome planned..

Top 12 of most of 2012

Christmas Eve round up of my top 12 for half of 2012 polishes for the year :)  It's strange to me that before this year I didn't have a Helmer full of polish (*cough* I may have a 2nd given to me for Christmas!) I used to bite both my nails and cuticles until they were horrid and I only owned ONE OPI and NO China Glaze, Essie or Indie polishes. I started gathering pretty and shiny polishes at the end of January after going to Fiji and getting a lovely manicure with the little nails I had. When I got home I was searching for the polish they used when I ran into the big wide world of polish and nail art. I started my blog in May this year and it's been a slippery slope since then! A lightbox, some HTF's and quite a few collections later..I can make my own nail polish remover, I have quite a stamping collection and my Indie polishes are equal to my commercial ones!
 So, I still have a lot of untried polishes in my collection... I am sure some would have made it onto my top 12 of 2012 but I like to do a whole mani/with some nail art rather than just swatches..so I have heaps of GlossnSparkle, Femme Fatales and Emilyde Mollys (go Aussies!)..Jindi Nails, Sparkles by Julie, Glitzology and new to me OPIs... but from what I wore and photographed this year..here are my fave polishes/looks in no particular order :)

Zoya Sooki with Femme Fatale Crimson Acolyte gradient and Eventide accent nail

China Glaze Bohemian Collection, L-R Want my Bawdy, Deviantly Daring, No Plain Jane, Rare and Radiant and Swanky Silk.

Pretty & Polished Mannequin Hands

Nail It! Northern Lights

Butter London Slapper with Tart with a Heart

China Glaze Flirty Tankini with Bad Kitty

Nubar Reclaim with Dollish 1 Up

China Glaze Sydney Sand with Zoya Sooki stamping and China Glaze Ruby Pumps dots

Gradient of Essie Dive Bar, Rodeo Fanatic and Swimsuit, Nailed it!

KBShimmer Don't Teal Anyone

Ciate Twilight with Essence A Piece of Forever stamping and accent nail of Essence The Hunstman

China Glaze Custom Kicks with Sinful Colors Ocean Green and stamping in Millennium. Dotting with OPI Goldeneye and The Spy Who Loved Me. 

Well, hope you liked a few of the polishes and looks that I did this year and continue to look in on my blog every now and then. I am going to have a blog giveaway when my followers hit 100 or I hit 20000 page views! So look out for it, it wont be long I hope.. I am looking forward to a more consistent blogging year with more nail art challenges and pretty polishes!

Aussie Nail Christmas Challenge - Gold

Hi all, todays mani is one of the last in the Aussie Nail Challenge. I've still been a bit under the weather, so much so I am not going to my own work Christmas Party tonight :(  I did do a mani for a wedding I went to yesterday so I incorporated the Gold theme for the challenge as well. I wanted to do a simple and not to OTT mani for the occasion and luckily I received my order from Femme Fatale Cosmetics which had a lovely gold glitter that I really wanted to try! So exciting. So for this look I used Zoya Sooki for the base, a gradient of Femme Fatale Crimson Acolyte and an accent nail with Femme Fatale Eventide. The Femme Fatale glitters are just gorgeous..I love this look!

 Femme Fatale Eventide has some pink glitters in it as well as the large square glitter you can see that are holographic. Eventide had me at bar glitter as I am a sucker when it comes to bar glitter! Application was easy with only a bit of dabbing to get the glitter where I wanted it. Crimson Acolyte has the same small pink glitters in it so ties in nicely with Eventide without me really thinking about and I loved the varing degree of blingyness of this mani! :)

Aussie Christmas Nail Challenge- Candy Cane

Can I just preface this with..this is not my best effort when it comes to a mani..sorry, it just didn't turn out how I wanted! I was sick so didn't do the Sunset challenge..and am still not well so maybe this is reflected on how this turned out. I don't like minty Candy Canes.. I don't like mint, full stop. So instead I based this on Blueberry Candy Canes which I would prefer if I felt the need to eat Candy Canes. Ah, give me a Lindt Ball anyday! I used a base of Ulta3 Hydrangea with Sinful Colors Cinderella and started stripe taping with Sinful Colors Why Not  my ring finger as you can see. I like how it turned out but it was time consuming so I stamped some Candy Canes in Why Not  and dotted with Ulta3 Crystellina.

This pic was my inspiration :)

I actually don't mind how it looks, but it's not what I had in mind!

I like the color inspiration, but execution wasn't 100% :) The stripe tape accent nail was fiddly but I really should give it another go. It was excited to use my two new Sinful Color shades which I picked up today (along with a few more at Target). Sinful Colors has finally made it's way to Australia! The rack was full and the price tag was $4.95 which was made even better with %25 off! Loved it. I already had 3 of the Sinful colors in my stash..Hottie, Nail Junkie and Green Ocean. Green Ocean funnily enough was not a color that seemed to be release here as it wasn't on the rack.

Aussie Christmas Nail Challenge- Christmas Tree

Aussie Christmas Nails Challenge today is Christmas Tree! I put up my own tree on December the 1st and I always have a color theme..this year it was silver and purple but my nails..well, they are traditional-ish. For this look I used China Glaze Custom Kicks, a coat of Sinful Color Green Ocean and stamping with China Glaze Millennium  I did some festive dots with Millennium, OPI Goldeneye and OPI The Spy Who Loved Me. Not sure if the dotting was sucessful, but meh!

Left Hand Stamping

 Close up Christmas Tree!

 Right Hand Stamping

 Right Hand Christmas Tree!

I really love the flecks that Sinful Color Ocean Green gives the look and unfortunately the depth of the green doesn't translate :(  It's much more vibrant and rich in real life and sparkly! This is a simple look but I do love it. I got the stamps off ebay seller Messy Mansion who have a great range of Christmas stamping plates that I hadn't seen before and the postage was super quick! I haven't done a drop of Christmas shopping yet..and not terribly fussed to be honest. My family have decided to do no presents..and we are waiting for the Kris Kringle to be announced on my husbands side (although not alot of shopping days left, LOL!). Make sure you have a look at the other lovely Christmas Tree nails!

Holly Jolly Holiday Tag..I'm it!

I've been tagged by Anthea from Nailed Obsession for a Christmas questionairre..yay! Apparently this in idea from YouTube Vloggers that goes around at Christmas. Elissa from Lissa Polish Addiction has morphed it into a blogging world questionairre..for those of us who don't make youtube vlogs, LOL.

So onto the Christmassy questionairre things!


1. Do you start your Christmas shopping on Black Friday or wait until the last minute?
Since my first experience of Black Friday was this year (and I did purchase some polish in the sales!) I would have to say that even without Black Friday I am a super, super, super last minute shopper. I think it's because I find it very hard to choose presents and stress about if the recipient is going to like it or not too much. In the end I am forced to make a decision because I run out of time...Like right now, there is 10 days to go I haven't bought a single present!

2. If you could be in any Christmas movie what would it be?
Okay, so I should be saying a nice or funny Christmas movie..but I think I am going to have to say Die Hard (the original).. set at Christmas time ...its got Bruce, it's got Alan Rickman and a whole bunch of butt kicking.. it's my kinda Christmas movie...LOL.

Just had to share..

LOL!

3. Which do you like better: Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?
Christmas Day! I love waking up knowing I am going to get presents and all the hard work and shopping is done by Christmas Day.

4. When does your family put up your Christmas tree and who decorates it? 
There has never been a firm family tradition as far as I can recall about when the tree goes up, but it has gone up on December the 1st this year and will from now on I have decided. I tend to decorate it..but my mother makes us traditional lolly bonbon decorations make out of white and silver paper each year to hang on them. I think its a European thing!

5. White lights or colored lights?
White!

6. Are you guilty of peeking at your presents or do you like the surprise?
When I was little I would want to know..and now I like the suprise and will happily wait. There are too few surprises in life these days!

7. Would you rather live in a gingerbread house or in Santa's Workshop?
Santa's Workshop of course :)

8. Tell us your Christmas Eve traditions!
I don't think we have any traditions..up until recently it's been tradition for me to work Christmas eve..I'm a nurse and I have no kids so it's nice for others to spend time at home and we usually have a great time at work.

9. If you could be under the mistletoe with anyone who would it be?
Bradley Cooper...or.. Acheron Parthenopaeus..or Jeremy Renner..

10. What tops your tree?
A Silver Star..as blingy as you can get!

11. Can you name the 12 days of Christmas?
Probably up until day 8?!
Partridge, Pear Tree, 2 Turtle Doves, 3 French Hens, 4 Calling Birds, 5 Golden Rings (my fave), 6 Geese Laying...okay..up to day 6...

12. Have you ever gone Christmas caroling?
Naw

13. Do you countdown to Christmas? If so, how many days are left?
Oh yes, I have an advent calendar usually.. this year its my Ciate Mini Advent Calendar and each day is just awesome! I've gotten 2 of the Ciate Caviar bottles so far and some awesome colors..There is 10 days! 

14. What are some foods and treats you can count on having every holiday season?
Usually mother bakes Almond Cresents which are almond meal shortbread things covered in icing sugar...so good! We always have plum pudding and custard..love!

Almond Cresents

15. How has Christmas kept its magic for you as you've grown older?
Not sure it has completely kept it's magic..I have worked around or on Christmas for alot of years now..but putting the tree up early this year with my husband helping decorating and turning the lights on at night has been great. I like giving gifts more than receiving them and seeing how my family likes the presents makes it all the effort worthwhile.

Okay, time to tag..so here are the lucky tagee's

Sarah Claire at Shatter Me Claire
Kelly at Kellys Kolors
Melissa at Passion For Polish
Erin at ErinZi's Nails
Ann at Nailoveolgy

Hope you are having a great lead up to Christmas..Tomorrow is Christmas Tree nails for the challenge..I am so up for this!

Ciate Advent Calender - Update

 Ermagawsh..where has the past 12 days gone?? I have been having an awesome time opening my Ciate advent calendar and participating in the Aussie Christmas Nail Challenge (except Elf.. just couldn't do that..and sleep..and work and the cold going around so was struggling).. So today I have a a mani where I used Day 12 polish from the Ciate calendar with "Twilight". I haven't really tried any of the Ciate polishes yet but Twilight was beckoning to me as it was such a complex and interesting black polish with gold flecks. This is one coat of Twilight with Seche top coat.

Ciate Twilight.. instant love!

 Twilight- more black with gold flecks in this light

 Twilight- more gold with black overtones in this light!

 This looks mattified, but it's not!

I then had an idea to stamp and apply some glitter so my nails look like ornament bauble designs. I used Essence The Huntsman on my ring finger, Essence Breaking Dawn Part 2 A Piece of Forever to stamp with and then did little accent dots with China Glaze I Herd That.

I was very happy with this mani and these photos were after 2 days wear and you can see it held up pretty well! The Ciate polish I found easy to apply if I had enough polish on the brush otherwise it got a bit sticky if it had to apply more polish. The stamping was easy peasy with the Essence A Piece of Forever gold polish and the glitter accents are just to make it look fancy :) I used Essence The Huntsman on my ring finger and China Glaze I Heard That for some bling dots.

I am going to attempt my BBQ pic tomorrow for the Aussie Christmas Nail Challenge after I have a bit sleep to try and shake my virus. Do you want to see the other 11 polishes in bottle form or mani form? Let me know :)