OPI Oz The Great and Powerful Collection Swatches

It's not often I buy entire OPI collections and half of these are really these are minis but I thought I'd swatch them since they are so pretty! Excuse the broken nail on the middle finger, I love it how I can go a whole week with perfect nails then break one an hour before I plan to do swatches.

All swatches are two coats except for the skittle mani bottom left above which simply had one coat of Lights of Emerald City.

First we have I Theodora You, a light cream pink that is somewhat streaky to apply and needs a little extra care when painting.

Next we have Don't Burst My Bubble, a pale cream pink that is beautiful to apply and wear. I'm getting married this time next year and I'm seriously considering a full size of Don't Burst My Bubble as my wedding mani. Serious contender here. It's like having a subtle french mani without having tried hard.

Third we have Glints of Glinda a light tan cream which is easy to apply.

Last of the minis we have What Wizardry Is This? This is a liquid sand polish in a blackened gold. It's not as bumpy and annoying as I imagined it would be and it applies wonderfully.

The first glitter polish I'm showing is When Monkeys Fly! over What Wizardry is This? Huge gold glitter chunks with two smaller sized glitter pieces. It's gorgeousness speaks for itself.

Second glitter polish is Which is Witch? Small holographic silver glitter chunks with little shards of the same. Very pretty over the creams. This is shown over I Theodora You.

The last glitter polish is Lights of Emerald City which I bought last as it was sold out originally. Unique white chunks of glitter which will obviously be a royal pain to remove like all glitters but lovely over the other polishes:

My personal faves are Lights of Emerald City over I Theodora You and Don't Burst My Bubble. One mani from last week (from instagram):

Well I'm all swatched out. Hope you enjoyed the swatches and I'll see you next time :-)

St Patrick's Day Nail Art - Pot of Gold

Hi everyone, long time no post :-) Happy St Patrick's Day! I wasn't planning on doing any nail art, I was just painting my nails with OPI Mermaid's Tears. Later I felt like getting into the St Patty's spirit...

I don't own a lot of greens that I'm prepared to wear on my nails for fear of staining but I know OPI is a pretty safe brand to use. I chose Mermaid's Tears from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection to wear this weekend.

I also wanted a chance to use When Monkeys Fly from the latest Oz collection and although the glitter chunks were a bit too big for my lil pots of gold, they were still good when mixed with Sephora By OPI's Only Gold For Me top coat:

I really wanted to do shamrocks this year as well but I decided to go with all pots of gold. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the nail art and I'll see you next time :-)

Christmas Eve Candy Cane Nail Art

Hi everyone, I've been away but I couldn't let Christmas pass by without a Christmas nail art mani :-)

I've not worn nail polish in a very long time. My nails grew to unsightly lengths with rugged edges and I just said 'Enough! I need to be pretty!', and this was the result.

I started with butter London Knees Up which a beautiful metallic red. I don't have many reds so it was an easy choice. I then sparklified it with OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It from the OPI Muppets collection of 2011. I originally stopped there, then the bf smudged my thumb nail so after I repainted it, I decided it needed more...

So armed with my $3 colour changing Christmas tree and Marshmallow Fireside from Bath & Body Works (which I ordered from eBay, I wanted a full size of the mini sampler I picked up overseas last year) I got to work. It didn't take me that long actually, I have done candy canes twice before (Advent 2010 and China Glaze Holiday 2010)! I just love the look.

No progress shots as I was motoring speedy gonzales style (so much cooking to do Christmas morning tomorrow!) but I have a couple of left/right hand shots:

My ambidexterity is a work in progress.

No SLR shots either but I tried to make them pretty in a few iPhone apps: picframe, picfx, bokehful and snapseed if you're interested. Loving my new iPhone 5 and you can really do a lot with those apps. So much fun to use too!

That's the Christmas table setup I've been working on. Most courtesy of Target except the place mats, candle holders and the Christmas coasters! How I'm going to fit the food on there tomorrow, I have no idea. Anyway hope you enjoyed the post, and have a wonderful Christmas. Happy Holidays everyone!

Easy Lady Beetle Nail Art!

Hi everyone! I have a cute little design that's super easy to do - lady beetles!

So in Australia at the moment InStyle magazine is giving away two different butter London polishes with their latest issue and I picked up a gorgeous red called 'Pillar Box Red':

*Lady beetle not included :-) I found that little lady beetle when I was clearing out a box the other day and I thought it would make a super cute nail design. Anyway, we pay at least $20 to buy butter London polishes from authorised retailers! And for $8.95 to get a butter London polish included is an awesome deal. I don't own many reds so this makes a nice addition to my collection:

This polish is simply gorgeous. It's a little runny to apply so be careful around the edges but I only needed one coat!

As usual not much is needed - I prep with Sally Hansen Vitamin E Nail & Cuticle oil and use the Double Duty Base & Top Coat. I used three nail art tools - a hard wide brush to clean around the edges of my nails with Acetone, a small nail art brush to paint the lines and face, a dotting tool and two more colours, an opaque black and white polish.

So this design doesn't take that long to do I promise! The hardest part is probably trying to get a straight line down the nail in step 2 shown above. The curved head in step 3 is simply outlined with the nail art brush then filled with the polish brush (a mini bottle helps with smaller areas). Step 4 alternated between the large and small ends of the dotting tool. You can also apply less polish or gently dot to get a variety of sizes.

The last two steps are super easy - step 5 is a little tricky if you use a nail art brush to get that oval shape but I think you could also use the dotting tool and drag the colour around to make a bigger circle. Step 6 simply uses the dotting tool to dot the two eyes on each nail and hey presto you're done!

Kudos to the bf for taking this last picture and patiently listening to my Hipstamatic app instructions ;-) I have been running around the house like a crazy girl with my hands extended going 'lady beetle power raaaaaaaaaaaah!' Too much nail polish fumes perhaps :-P I really like this design but since I was copying my little beetle decoration I thought of different things I could have done afterwards - perhaps there needs to be a lady beetles part 2 down the track here! Anyway I hope you enjoyed this look and try it out for yourself. See you next time!

Minnie Mouse Bow Nail Art!

Hello everyone! *insert face of shame*. Well. Apparently I needed a break and perhaps I'm still on one but I couldn't resist sharing today's efforts. I picked up the OPI Vintage Minnie Minis from David Jones a few weeks ago and while I've made a few posts on Instagram (my latest obsession) I did my first nail art in months today.

All photos were taken and edited on my phone (I have an old crappy iPhone 3GS but I love it to bits) so excuse the quality.

This is the original colouring / no filter version. Unfortunately there was no "anti-aging/anti-winter cracked fingers filter" :-(

The Minnie minis set contains 3 Minnie polishes and a mini top coat. Yep, a RapiDry instead of the gorgeous glitter polish with heart glitter that I had to go buy separately. Poor form OPI. I purchased a full size of the glitter and the pink used in the second photo:

Left to right we have The Color of Minnie (a shimmery red used in the bows for this nail art), If You Moust You Moust (opaque bubblegum pink also used as a base for my nails), I'm All Ears (a pink/red shimmer) and a RapiDry. I have full sized If You Moust You Moust and Nothin' Mousie 'Bout It (pale pink glitter with heart confetti). While I'm on the subject of the heart confetti, I *knew* it would be a pain to work with from my experience with the Nicole by OPI version, but it was pink and pretty so I had to have it.

So today I felt like sponging and this is what I was working with. A dotting tool, two nail art brushes (the bigger one for cleaning up the nails and fingers), a makeup sponge, 3 OPI colours (The Color Of Minnie, Alpine Snow and If You Moust You Moust), acetone and a make up remover pad.

I started with the thumb before I changed my design - originally I sponged The Colour of Minnie at the bottom of my nail but I decided I liked the white contrast better. I always draw the outlines of my bows first. Even though it takes so long I always do them the same - outline then fill, then fill again! I'm not very good at sponging but I'm determined to practise!

By about step 7 I'm shaky and cranky but it's all worth it in the end!

I couldn't resist a creepy Minnie shot ;-) I picked her up in Disneyland last year and had no idea she would be so useful for nail art! Anyway I hope you enjoyed the nail art, and I hope you all have a lovely week!

P.S. If anyone is interested, the iPhone apps that I used to make this blogpost were Hipstamatic, PicFrame, Picfx and A+ Signature. I took SLR photos but I really am lazy so they are still on my camera...

Easter Bunny Nail Art 2012!

Happy Easter everyone! I realised I did this post last year but I really wanted to try my Chanel May polish. So I did bunnies again :-)

I fell in love with Chanel May as soon as I saw it. Maybe the April polish would have been more appropriate but this pink was too gorgeous to pass up. Here it is more true to colour:

It's a warmer pink which suits me better and I believe that is about 3 coats.

We also got a new photography toy. This is the Remote Release Cord and it makes self portraits a little easier but it also helps with hand/nail art photos. I like it.

So to do the bunnies I used a few of my minis - Essie Splash of Grenadine for the nose, OPI Pink Friday for the ears and an OPI black and white (from the Halloween mini sets).

I really like this colour, so glad I got it. I really like June too but I don't know if I would wear an orange as much :-)

Our choccy stash this year! Ahh hopefully I can give some of it away otherwise I will be getting VERY big :-S

Anyway this morning we decided to make heart shaped pancakes with our heart shaped egg rings! They turned out pretty well!

Anyway that's all I have for today! I hope you are all having a fantastic long weekend and are enjoying a choccy egg or ten :-D See you next time!

St Patrick's Day nails!

Happy belated St Patrick's day everyone :-P It was yesterday for us here in Australia but I wanted to quickly show my nails before I get back to cleaning my house for an upcoming inspection :-\

That's the hipstamatic version :-) The green base used was Sally Hansen Green With Envy and the four leaf clovers were Illamasqua Smash. I painted Green With Envy over a white base to make it a bit brighter but it was pretty opaque already. A version a bit more true to colour:

I used two gold polishes for the pot of gold: OPI Glizterland and Sephora by OPI Only Gold For Me top coat (has big glitter chunks).

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the look and I am loving all the other St Patty's posts I have been seeing today! Check out paint that nail, aly loves lacquer and nevorpurify's to see their awesomeness! That is all I have today, better get back to cleaning! See you next time :-)