Great Barrier Beige

Hi Guys! My days off have been super busy with a few things. Trying to sort out an America adventure next year with a few girl friends. It's so hard when everyone has different ideas of what they want to see and trying to make things fit! It hasn't quite come together yet. I was also helping my sister move house and had to fit in an optometrist appointment as I thought I had something in my eye which was so annoying. Turns out its a "floatie" which nothing can be done about BUT I got a cool photo out of it, LOL.

Polish wise, I missed yesterdays post, so here is a 2 for one.  I had on a nice holo polish today but didn't get a photo of it before it chipped...instead today I have for you Great Barrier Beige from the Down Under collection. This makes me think that beige is under rated! I love this color! It works so well with my skin tone with a pinky undertone. I also have Sparkles by Julie Sugah! to show you :)

China Glaze Great Barrier Beige, 2 coats, no top coat

 Great Barrier Beige

To add a bit of bling I thought I would add some Sparkles by Julie Sugah! Sugah is a white mixed glitter with holo glitter in it. It's just gorgeous. The glitters do settle a bit, but come up with a good shake.

 Sparkles by Julie Sugah!

Sugah! You can see the holo glitter on the first finger.

 Sugah! Up close and personal. Love the bar glitter :) No top coat.

As you all know..the Great Barrier Reef, is well..a Reef and when you say "Great Barrier" I think of the ocean and colorful reefs. So to me beige doesn't really say Great Barrier. LOL. Having said that, I love this beige, it does wonders for my skin tone. Sparkles by Julie Sugah! Is so lovely. I love the bar glitter. It's amazing how bar glitter divides polish people. They either love it or hate it. A polish with bar glitter always sucks me in :) SparklesbyJulie can be found on her etsy store, Julie is lovely and so are her polishes. I have a few more to show you at a later date!

Hope you liked the post for tonight, and that your week is goind well :)

Butter London Slapper!

Super quick post tonight..so late, sorry! Worked today and time just got away from me. So, no ado nor chitty chatness. Facts: Mani with Butter London's Slapper and Tart with a Heart (woot!). Does it go on like Butter, yes! Is Slapper Awesome? Yes! Is Tart with a Heart super special..probably not, but I don't have any gold holo glitter topcoat. Where did I get them? At a Health food shop in Melbourne! Is that weird? Kinda! Did I use a peel off base coat? Yes, Essence Ready for Boarding one. Did it try to peel off today without me trying to, yes! Why? I waited like half an hour for it to dry due to distraction and I've learn you shouldn't. The polish didn't bond to the peel off very well. Apply polish as soon as the peel off base coat goes clear. Am I happy with me pictures? No! The vibrancy really didn't translate. Photos? Yes..below :)

 Tee hee, my fingers look so loooooong!

Sorry for the different toned skin..I was playing with tuning the colors to try and get a more color true representation of the polish..kinda fail! LOL. You can see especially on my ring finger that the base coat is really wanting to lift to peel off. It didn't totally let go, but I wouldn't get another day out this mani!

Also a shout out to Pretty Serious cosmetics. They are having a %50 off sale on makeup and polish for the Hello World Collection! Awesome :) Go grab yourself a bargain on gorgeous Aussie polish! (note: I am in no way associated with or have been sent any of these products, I just think they look amazing! LOL)

Do you have any Butter Londons? What's your thoughts? Now go nab a bargain at Pretty Serious cosmetics :)

Down Under Dusk Stamping

I loved Australian Alabaster, but it was just begging to be stamped on! Had to do it :)  To keep it in the family I chose Down Under Dusk, wasn't sure if it was going to stamp but did like a dream. As the name implies it is a lovely dusky pink with a gold shimmer.  I also used my new XL stamper I purchased from Llarowe. It has a a lovely squishy stamper rubber which is huge. It's so squishy that your nail just smushes into the pad without having to roll. The overall effect was like printed wall paper. I chose to do the thumb and ring fingers in a different stamp and the left and right hands were different.This was my first use also of the new Cheeky stamping plates! I had no troubles using the plates but felt like my right hand was better than my left :)

Right Hand stamping

 Right hand stamping, Paisley like isn't it!

 My left hand is so unco!

And final shot it China Glaze Down Under Dusk bottle!

You'll have to excuse the nail tip wear, I had this mani on for 3 days before I photographed it. I wasn't sure it was photo worth actually as it's not super flashy or anything. Definitely falls in the subtle stamping category! I loved the new XL stamper it was super easy to transfer the stamps onto the nails. The only issue I had was it picked up fluff an hair quite easily, LOL. 

Which hand do you prefer or is this look not really your thing?

B is for Braid Manicure!

Tonight I am showing you my mani for the Alphabet Challenge I am currently doing at the moment! Today's letter is  "B"  and I thought I would do a "Braid" Manicure which I haven't tried before but thought I would give it whirl! For this particular look I used A England Order of the Garter, China Glaze Millennium and China Glaze For Audrey. Not completely sure they meshed color palette wise but it was still pretty striking :) 

Braid Manicure!

Wierd angle shot! LOL

This wasn't bad for my first go at the braid manicure, I think I need a bit steadier hand..but otherwise I was pretty happy with it. I didn't top coat it but maybe I should have to even out the braid lines abit. Order of the Garter is just so lovely, I haven't worn it in ages and I really love it each time I put it on as the shimmer is so awesome :)

On another note, happy Speak like a Pirate day! Arrrr me mateys, on with the polishin' and rum :)

Models Own Indian Ocean

Evening all, this is going to be a quick one as I feel like my eyes are hanging out of my head! So tired, I'd forgotten how 10 hour shifts feel after 3 weeks holidays, bleh..

Today I have a swatch of Models Own Indian Ocean. It's blue, it's sheer, it has a pink shimmer. It's lovely! Reminds me of scales on a rainbow fish :) Models Own can be bought from Harlow and Co and it can be bought with a baby blue polish, so when I had Ulta3 Soft Hydrangea I popped Indian Ocean over the top.

Models Own Indian Ocean

 2 Coats of Indian Ocean over Ulta3 Soft Hydrangea

 So shimmery!

Indian Ocean is really so pretty and one of those polishes that you can't stop looking at on your nails! The formula was great, but as I said it's sheer. I like how it looks over the blue polish but in the pics the bottle color looks completely different with a more purple/grey darker color. I think I might have to try it again just on it's own.

Do you have any of the Models own polishes? What do you think? :)

China Glaze Australian Alabaster

Tonight I have a post for you with China Glaze Australian Alabaster from the Down Under Collection. Since becoming seriously involved with polish this year, and also China Glaze,  I was browsing the previous collections and when I saw there was an Australian themed collection and I HAD to have it. Wouldn't you know it, all the online stores that stocked the Down Under Collection would not ship it to Australia...so sad. It was with the kindness of a lovely lady in America who purchased the collection and sent the polishes to me that I have them in my hot little hands today! Thanks Austin :)

China Glaze Australian Alabaster

This is 3 coats of Australian Alabaster with Seche Top Coat

 Odd bottle shot!

 The color reminds me of this kind of Alabaster :)

It took 3 coats of Australian Alabaster to become mostly opaque, I could still see a VNL if I looked hard. I want to call this color cream and not Alabaster, especially after a quick search..Australia doesn't have any Alabaster deposits as far as I can see! I saw alot of Alabaster in Egypt and it sure is lovely :) This to me is quite interesting as I don't own anything like it  and I much prefer it to stark white as a base for some stamping as it's nice and warm against your skin tone. I had no problems with brush or formula for such an old polish (it's from 2005!) and it didn't require any thinner.

I will be showing all 6 of the Down Under Collection, they are all fairly earthy muted tones but I don't seem to have anything like most of them in my collection and it's a fairly large collection now! What do you think of Australian Alabaster, love or leave?

Back on the Wagon!

It's strange when you haven't blogged for a while you feel like you have fallen off the wagon. Blogging is very much a love/love but with pressure relationship for me. At first when I started blogging...I was just playing with polish! I love my polish even more now than when I started, but I just haven't got my perfect set up at home to share with others in an efficient way and I am my own worst critic when it comes to things. So, I am doing some swatches today for this week as I am back at work where there is no creativity allowed, especially with nail polish ie.should have none :( Feeling pretty suffocated on that front. I am wondering if a change of career is needed or maybe I need a whole life overhaul! Onto the polish I say..

This is Ulta3's new pastel collection, Soft Hydrangea. I have gathered a few more pastels since starting collecting polish and for $2 a bottle I couldn't go past this range. Soft Hydrangea is a egg shell/baby blue which is opaque in 2 coats. The brush is horrid, hard to apply accurately and the formula was a bit jelly like, maybe a few drops of thinner will be needed :) The color is cute though!

Yes! It does appear lighter than in the bottle.

 Gratuitous odd bottle shot!

This was Soft Hydreangea with Seche top coat and after 2 days wear. You can see some tip wear and not long after it chipped. Hmmm..maybe it needs a slightly different top coat. I really like this color and despite the dodgy brush and slightly gloppy formula it applied pretty well :) Keep an eye out for these, I found mine at a Terry White Chemist. There is 6 of in the collection with 2 pinks, an orange, this blue, a lavender and a mint green.

I will see y'all tomorrow for my next post now that I have got my sh*t organized!

Tuesdays NOTD!

Quick and dirty post for today ie, iphone pics cos I being lazy on holidays, hehe...I felt like putting on some brighter colors now that the sun seems to be coming out more, thank goodness. What's brighter than China Glaze Japanese Koi? Not much! I felt like my nails matched the workmens high-vis vests or witches hats (traffic cones)..what do you think? I did an accent nail with Inglot 205 which was kinda like fish food flakies and I love it! Going to gradient and stamp it tonight..can't wait :)

China Glaze Japanese Koi..4 coats!

Bottle pics, without and with flash..the flash shows the neon-ness!

 Dark neon orange in this light

 Traffic cone neon!

 Lighter neon orange in this light!

 Even with 4 coats you can see a bit of visible nail line. The coats did dry very quickly though!

 What I got in the mail yesterday!

Loving the neon orange more than I thought I would as I was going to stamp over it immediately but glad I didn't! The inglot flakie worked perfectly to look like glowey fish food flake, LOL.

The last pic is my Cheeky stamping plates which came in the mail yesterday. I can't wait to try out some of the larger plate designs tonight! 

Do you like the neon orange? Have you got your Cheeky Stamping plates yet??