OPI Just Spotted the Lizard

Warning, lots of duochromey pics!
This had to be the polish I tried first from the massive polish haul from the beauty supply store of yesterday. It sat in front of me with all the others and just glowed and screamed to be picked out. How could I refuse? As most will know OPI have a range of polishes to coincide with the new Spiderman movie. Just Spotted the Lizard was an obvious one for me as it was blingy and I don't have the Chanel polish which it is apparently quite a dupe for. I am not a massive OPI fan of the past (not the colors, but the retail prices!) and I am slowly gathering a few here and there.

Anyways, onto the photos! This mani is with  Ulta3 base coat, with 2 coats of OPI Spotted the Lizard and 1 coat of Seche Vite top coat.

OPI bottle shot

                                  

                                           Without Flash                                With Flash

 Next is far too many pics of an awesome polish!

You can click on the photos for extreme close ups.

All are taken with flash

The Gold!

The Gold-Sparkly!

The Gold to Green Shift

                                   

Green Sparkly!

 Full Green Shift

This shot captures the shift across all fingers...gold to green :)

I can't stop looking down at how lovely this polish is!

  Application was relatively easy, the first coat looks a little streaky and brush strokey. I had to be quick and not re-go over any patches on the second coat or it would clump a bit. I topped with Seche Vite and again, I had to be careful that it didn't add any further brush strokes to the surface. I like it so much that I am not going to stamp on it until tomorrow..and am going to do my toes too :)

I really love this polish, I hope you do too...let me know what you think :)

China Glaze and OPI haul

Evening all...well I did make that trip to the beauty supply store with the best of intention of getting "just a few" must-have polishes that have been making it onto my wish list..and I might have gone a little nuts. I am very happy but poor now, LOL!

   The Haulage

So what is there?? I am sure you can make out a few obvious ones..but here is the list

Orly After Party (So hard to photo, so referenced The Polish Aholics) 

OPI DS Extravagance and Magic

These are my first DS's :)

         OPI Number One Nemesis & Just Spotted the Lizzard    

These are Chanel dupes I believe :)                  

OPI Last Friday Night & Not Like the Movies  

OPI Suedes  We'll Always Have Paris, Lincoln Park After Dark, Ink, Suzi Skis the Pyrenees

I've heard how awesome the Suedes are, so couldn't resist!

China Glaze FYI

China Glaze Light As Air, Anklets of Amethyst and Spontaneous

China Glaze Sci-Fi, Awaken and Frostbite

Frostbite looks more awesome in real life :)

China Glaze Below Deck and  Sea Spray

China Glaze Bad Kitty, Bad Landing B-Girlz and Fly

This one was 50cents from Coles!

 I am very excited to try some looks with all my shiny new polishes...especially some of the OPIs.. I think no buy July is going to have to come into effect. That still leave June though! :)

Mode Vicious Venom

Evening all, just a quick swatchie swatch of one of the Mode colors I hauled the other day, this one is Vicious Venom. It's a green glittery, shiny monster that is not for layering on top of other polishes (as I found out after I tried to put it over a blue polish! It is glittering and blinging to the max by itself or it would be really great with a nice creme polish or dark black stamped over it (hmm..an idea fore later)

So here it in regular light (oh did I mention it's hard to photograph and I have no skillz!)

You can see it's very reflective :)

With the flash gives it a true green-er color

 I really like this color but I don't think I would wear it just by itself, it does really scream "look at me". I think dear Vicious Venom you asking for designs of black pretty stamping nail art on you! 

That's my quickie for tonight. I think I will be seeking out a few more Mode colors..I will swatch Chillax tomorrow..it's more than just a blue! Oh, and I *might* be going to the nail supply store tomorrow...just to see what's new. I am sure I will just window shop...*cough cough* 

Green and Blue Gradient with Stamping

I think that is all anyone has been saying on the nail polish blogs! I must admit the bandwagon was very tempting, so I took the leap and attempted my first Gradient Manicure tonight. I had read all about how to do it on the tutorial on The Nailasaurus Blog and had a look for a sponge that matched what she used. Unfortunately I didn't have any :( I did have some brand new round make up sponges that you put foundation on with, so thats what I used!

The colors I chose to gradient were Ulta3 Mojito, China Glaze Custom Kicks and China Glaze Towel Boy Toy.

Here is the obligatory bottle pics!

As per the Nailasaurus tutorial I put on 2 coats of the lightest color, Mojito, after Ulta3 Base Coat. I thought this would be easy to apply but it's was difficult as it dragged and caused bald spots if I wasn't careful. It turned out nicely though  and dried pretty quickly. I might put some thinner in for next use though!

Then I tried to mix the 3 colors on a piece of baking paper and swirl with a toothpick as per the tutorial. This so didn't work for me with the sponge I had. So I cut my sponge in half and dampened the sponge to stop the polish bleeding through too quickly. Here is the sponge I had. I used the middle thin edge to stamp.

I then applied Mojito, Custom Kicks and Towel Boy Toy directly to the sponge in small stripes and just dabbed onto my nail with Mojito at the cuticle and the Towel Boy Toy at the end of my nail. I dabbed up and down and side to side until I was happy. I then cleaned my cuticles and applied Seche Vite as my top coat. Here is how it turned out:

With Flash to show the creme to shimmer effect of the gradient

I am pretty chuffed at how it turned out for my first effort :) So of course I couldn't leave it as just the plain gradient manicure...stamping mayhem ensued and this was the end result:

 Left Hand Stamp-o-rama using Color Club Worth the Risque

Left Thumb Stamp                                                                                        Right Thumb Stamp

Right hand stamping (excuse dodgy cuticles I did housework all day!)

I used a mixture of OB plates, Fun 2 plate and Bundle Monster plates. I finished off with Seche Vite top coat to seal in the stamping...and I can see from the photo of my right hand I really need to slather on the Lush Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter. As a reformed nail/cuticle biter I am still trying to get my cuticles in much better shape!

Hope you liked my take on the gradient mani..turned out pretty well I think :)

Ulta3 and Mode haul

Just a quick post on what I hauled yesterday at the local shopping centre. I went to Coles to try and find some Ulta3's..and they didn't have any :(  My Terry White Chemist had just ordered a whole bunch in though :) I dived the bargain bin until I came out with a few colors that look awesome! The same chemist also had a Mode stand that was a bit tired, but I picked out 2 colors that seem lovely. First the Ulta3.

Ulta3

   I don't have to give you a run down of their names as they are conveniently on the front of the bottle :)
I think Envy will do well with nail stamping, as with Lily White. Allure called to me as I only have one other nude, and I'm trying to find one that goes nicely with pale as skin (ie mine).  Purples draw me always, the Twilight Fever I would have overlook if I hadn't seen it swatched out on the More Nail Polish blog. I am slowly collecting a few more reds with the English Rose and Pepper Pot..and the Mohita and Hollywood are just irresistible as they are out there and a challenge to work into a regular mani! There are a few Ulta3's I am lemming after....Blue Marlin, Spring Shower, Blue Heaven, Mermaid Green, Blossom Fever, Sweet Violet and Fire Truck. I am sure I will gather them all eventually.

 Now onto the Modes

This one is called Chillax, it's a medium blue with a light blue super shimmer to it. I just love the name...Chillax! LOL.

This one is called Vishous Venom (thanks Rebecca) and has a vibrant green sparkle to it. The right hand pic shows how a truer color.

So that's all I have for tonight, hope you have some of the Ulta3 and if not, start seeing them as the great polish they are!

Pirate Thursday!

Today is Pirate Thursday, in case you didn't know. Okay, well, it's Thursday...and my manicure/nail art design this week is pirates therefore Pirate Thursday! Usually you have a black and white theme when you see pirate skulls on flags but dag namit I am going to present you with a red pirate theme mani..with bling of course!

So, to start off I tried a Nubar base coat and decided to apply Kleancolor Red Heart (74) to all but my ring finger, and to my ring fingers I applied Kleancolor White (4).  Over the Kleancolor White I did a thin layer of China Glaze Rainbow which gives a blueish tinge in a certain light.

I then decided that the red needed some blinging up and put a layer of Kleancolor Red Hot (189) over the top.

The picture on the left was how lovely it came out last night. I thought I would let it dry over night after the Kleancolor layering/melting off fiasco of last week and then this morning....the picture on the right is a big fat sheet imprinted mess on all the Kleancolor Red Hot layered nails. Bugger! :(

After a coat of Seche Vite though...things look much better! It filled in all the bedsheet imprints nicely. Yay!

Then onto stammmmmmmmpppppping..Pirate theme ahoy!

 (Gratuitous Artistic Instagram shot, shows how vibrant the red truly is.) 

                                        The Left Hand                                                       Left Thumb Design

                                           Right Hand                                                 Right Thumb Design

I used a mixture of plates, Bundle Monster, Fun Plate 2, MJ plate (both from Fab Ur Nails) and the OB plate I received the other day. I stamped with Kleancolor White and Sally Hansen White On quick dry. The Kleancolor was more opaque but harder to work with.

The 2 ring fingers (below) were stamped with Kleancolor Red Heart..it doesn't tend to stamp as cleanly as some and you have to be careful with the topcoat or there is bleeding. Wait for an hour or two for it to dry before the top coat! The blurriness you see is the stamp not the pic.

I finished the manicure off with INM Out the Door top coat. The glitter in the red hot layer really makes the polish look dynamic in the light...but not sure what to do about the layering/drying issue!

Hope you like my Pirate Thursday mani..it was challenging to get all the designs to stamp correctly with the new plates but I think I have the hang of it. Let me know your thoughts. Tomorrow Ulta3/Mode haul! :)