Aussie Nails Monday - Skittles

Today is Monday and it's a good day for me as I have the day off..woohoo for long weekends. It's the only upside of shift work. Today's Aussie Nails Monday's challenge was skittles. I chose to do stamping skittles :) I have had a bit of a cuticle fiasco on my swatching hand so please don't look too closely and I have used my right hand for pics which isn't that easy to position. Oh the first world problems!

For this look I used FNUG Fantastica as a base which is a holo pale green polish which is only slightly tinted green in the pics. I then stamped with Gals Princess Plates Number 34 and using the 4 images on the plate, one on each finger with L-R China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, Essie Jag-u-are, OPI Swimsuit, Nailed It! and China Glaze Harmony.

Photo in the Shade

Full Sun..note, crooked stamping on ring finger on Left Hand

Not crooked stamping Right hand :)

 You can see the pale Green of the Fantastica in the individual pics :)

 The best for last, holo, green and stamping :) 

As you can tell from the lots of photos I took I really loved how this turned out. The base of FNUG Fantastica was lovely as always and the stamping was easy with Gals "The Princess set" plate. I purchased mine from Amazon.com and found the international shipping option which was a little tricky to find. I hope your monday went equally as well!

Check out the other lovely ladies participating in the Aussie Nails Monday Manis :)

Nail Gun XS - Marie’s Manicure Madhouse - Shatter Me Claire - A Polished Prance - Shades of Phoenix - The Epitome of Superficiality - Lacquer Dreams - NananaisNails - Enamoured With Enamel - Adelle1985 - Kelly's Kolors - Polished Peripherals - Every Little Polish - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - Erinzi’s Nails - Lovessweetas - Jas’ Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - Maedaynails - Lili_Bete - The Reluctant Femme - Jibber Jabber - Messy Mansion - Nailovelogy - Ronda - It's All About The Polish - Pretty Polish Please

China Glaze Surreal Appeal

I have a really quick and really late post for you today...China Glaze Surreal Appeal plus stamping plus glitter equals mani fail! Ugh! Just to show you what happens when polish and stamping and glitter gets ugly I wanted to show you the end result. Each polish component on it's own are lovely, together..not so much.

So, this is 2 coats of China Glaze Surreal Appeal, stamping with Ulta3 Pale Dahlia and accent nail with Black Cat Lacquer Just Like Heaven and THEN China Glaze Fairy Dust slapped on top. Pretty good example of more isn't always better, LOL!

 Ooh look, coral mess!

 Erk!

 I don't completely hate this shot..the glitter accent nail looks nice :)

 This combo just doesn't work for me. I don't know if Surreal Appeal just wasn't bright enough or the contrast stamping didn't contrast enough. I just DON'T like it!! Needless to say I took this off pretty damn quickly. I did wear it for a day..but didn't enjoy it. Blerg. Too bad, in my mind the colors went together nicely..my mind was playing tricks on me clearly. Again, let me stress on their own, all these polishes are great..just not thrown together!
What do you think about my mani fail? When have you got it completely wrong?

Glitzology My Viking Boyfriend

Hello All! I am watching the tennis and eliminating my cuticles at the same time..yay for multi-tasking :) Each year it gets to January, and the Australian open, and I watch it on TV with fascination and think to myself  "I should really go to the Tennis next year" and during the year I somehow forget how much I really like  it, and so the cycle continues. After that tangential thought I'll move on to the real purpose of this post..polish!

Today I have for you Glitzology's My Viking Boyfriend, which was sent to me along with polishes I purchased from Stacy's Etsy store. It's a lovely mix of blue and silver holo glitters, dark blue hexes, and holo silver squares and hexes in a clear base. I chose to layer it over a contrasting color rather than complementary to see all those lovely glittahs! This is My Viking Boyfriend over Essie's A Crewed Interest.

Essie A Crewed Interest with Glitzology My Viking Boyfriend

This is one coat of My Viking  Boyfriend, great glitter payoff!

 So sparkly!

My Viking Boyfriend is a lovely blue multi-shaped glitter with some holo bling for added measure. It was on the thicker consistency side (which I must add I do prefer) and I only needed only coat to achieve the above look. I liked the color combo, but didn't love it, which was my fault....so will have to try it again with a different base. For those who like their glitter blue and blingy, this one is for you. You can purchase Glitzology from Glitzology Beauty's etsy store and at the moment Stacy is having a buy 3 and get one free sale! There is something for everyone in her store and her bottle are jammed-packed full of glitter goodness :)

OPI Is it Silva?

Hi all :) Hump day today and I must say I am really feeling it..it's not quite 10.30pm and I am thinking it might be bed time. So tired! I work 10 hour days and some days I feel like I have worked 2 days....with the morning feeling like a distant memory by the afternoon. 

Annnnyways, today I have for you one of the OPI James Bond Magnetic polishes, Is It Silva? I will preface this post with a. I wasn't going to buy any of the magnetic Bond polishes but, its holographic, so how could I not??? and b. I have never used the magnetic polishes despite owning one of the Layla ones for about a year. I have just not been enthralled by the magnetic pattern finish which has trended and gone really..the new Liquid Sand trend..love, have, must have! This is my first attempt at the magnetic finish polish, so be gentle. Each of the 3 polishes came with a different magnet and I tried them on different fingers using Is It Silva? polish.

L-R, Morning Money Penny Magnet on first finger, Bond,James Bond Magnet on middle finger, Is It Silva? Magnet on ring finger and Morning Money Penny Magnet on pinky.

The actual magnet patterns you should be able to achieve

 The holographic loveliness is great in the sunlight

 The effect seems quite dull to me in the shade :(

 Patterns or polish bald patches? Hmm...

 The ring finger is the best pattern result which happens to be the one it came with.

I purchased the magnetic polishes without expecting too much from them. I liked Is It Silva? for the holographic effect and think it will looks pretty good non magnetized as well. The matching magnetic shape that came with the polish appears to work the best but I am going to have to try the other polishes to let you know! I think the polish might need to be a bit thicker, so will adjust for the next go at the magnetic polish effect look, but overall I quite liked it. Even if I am not a super fan of magnetic polish, I will give it another go :)

What are your thoughts on magnetic polish? Is it a trend that will fall by the wayside or will they always have a place in your collection?

Aussie Nails Monday- Fishtail

It's Monday! You know what Monday means..it means Aussie Nails Monday challenge and today it's Fishtails :) Fishtails could be like, here fishy, fishy..but I chose the braided fishtail mani which were quite popular a few months ago. For my take on the braided fishtail mani I did a half nail which started out chevron in shape and evolved it into the braid.

For this mani I used 2 coats of Nail It! Moonlight Sparks which I purchased from Sportsgirl (for those in Australia) and the braid with Moonlight Sparks, China Glaze Millennium and Nail It! Love Potion (a lovely green/blue duo). This polish reminds me of both Butter London Wallis and A-England Beauty Never Fails which I think would be it's darker cousin.  There is a bit of pic spam here because I really loved how this turned out :)

 Dark Green/Gold sparkly flecks! Loooove :)

 All pics were taken in the shade..I image greater blingyness in the sun :)

This was 2 coats of Moonlight Sparks which applied really well. I very much enjoyed this look and really want to replicate it with all nails with the half braided chevron tips again! I also picked up a red version on this polish called Volcanic Sparks to show you later on in the week. What do you like or not like about this look? Hope your week is starting off great :)

Glitzology Diet Cokehead

Happy weekend all! I've been a bit on the quiet side this week, ah well..we can't all be game show happy every day :) Little bit excited about the swatch I have for you today. It's a gorgeous combo that I just couldn't resist from Indie polish maker Glitzology. For a start, it's called Diet Cokehead and I am a sucker for an awesome name and it really is Diet Coke plus the can in a polish! So here is a few pics of Diet Cokehead which I purchased from Gliztology's etsy store for 50% off here and it looks like the sale is still on for a little bit longer. Go have a looksee!

 This is 2 coats of Diet Cokehead by itself on ring and pinkie and 1 coat over China Glaze Millennium on first and middle finger. I did do a top coat of Seche Vite :) Picture in full sun

 Diet Cokehead in shade

 Red hexes, black large hexes with black and red bar glitter and silver/holo and black microglitter throughout. So blingy :)

 Holographic glitter shot!

 Gratuitious holographic glitter blingy shot!

 Up Close, Diet Cokehead 2 coats on it's own

Up Close, Diet Cokehead over China Glaze Millennium 

I really loved this polish and color combo. The silver in the polish is just like the Diet Coke can and the glitters the writing and the actual coke. The one coat of polish over silver was easy glitter coverage and no fishing required and with the polish on it's own only 2 coats was needed for full coverage :) This has bar glitters which I love but I know not everyone is a fan but as you can see it's not overpowering the whole polish. Can I mention just how blingy this polish is? Love it :) I have a few more from Glitzology to show you later on in the week, so hope your weekend is great!

What do you think? Love or love it alot?  :)

Aussie Nails Monday - Rainbow Fish

It's Monday..nuff said about that! If you can't say anything nice, then do an awesome mani!  Today I have joined the Aussie Nails girls with their Monday challenges for the year, woot :) Today mani topic is Animal..and since I had a lovely blue polish on yesterday I wanted to try and incorporate it for today and I decided to do a Rainbow Fish look. I was inspired by the kids book The Rainbow Fish which has such lovely illustrations.

 For this look I used, FNUG Futuristica as a base, then stamped the scales  with OPI Russian Navy.

I then colored in the scales with Ulta3 Flirty Pink Hibiscus, China Glaze Splish Splash, Sinful Colors Fiji, Sinful Colors Savage andUlta3 Twinkle toes..phew!

The sunlight or flash brings out the FNUG bling :)

I just love the light here! Rainbow-ness just like the book below.

Up close and personal.

FNUG is a great base for the Rainbow Fish print, it just give it that something else and OPI Russian Navy stamped really well. I was super happy with how this turned out. 

Hope you liked the look! I was tossing up between doing all my fingers and just the accent nail..what do you guys think? Was the accent nail enough or should I have done them all...

FNUG Psychedelic with Nubar New Years Eve Stamping

Hello, hello..I had the best of intentions with New Years and the whole resolutioning thing with one of the resolutions to post everyday..and I will be working my way up to that...hopefully by the end of the month. I find if I pressure myself too much then I start going the other way and start hiding under my doona cover! From the previous post you could see I had the fabbo FNUG Psychedelic on and to be honest I couldn't part with it for a few more days..so for New Years I stamped that sucker with new years designs from a plate I picked up that I hadn't seen before! The plate is called MM02  from Messy Mansion and it looks like this:

Super cute New Years plate!

Here is my non-proper camera pics of the end results as I would randomly take photos in different lights of this mani with my iphone, hehe.

FNUG Psychedelic with Nubar Pasadena Purple New Years stamping :)

L-R) Party Streamers, Happy New Year text, a Firework and Balloons

 Stamping pic in full shows that FNUG comes through the designs.

 FNUG Psychedelic with stamping with inside lighting.

Rainbow Bubbles in the car!

 Gratuitous shot of the overall look. Love!

As you can tell, I really, really loved this polish, polish combo and stamping. I must say I don't think I am super hard to please sometimes. The FNUG polish held up well after 5 days wear, with some tip/side wear and no chipping as some holo polishes do. The bottom pic is with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat as I stamped and then did another top coat to preserve the stamping and the holo factor is not dulled at all.

The Messy Mansion MM02 plate can be found by clicking the link, and retails for $7. It is currently sold out but will be restocked and they post internationally, so yay! Messy Mansion are also planning a Medieval plate which sounds awesome so I will be checking back for that one :)

I also wanted to leave you with a tease of my nail mail yesterday..I can't wait to swatch them, oh so pretty!