Flower Power Nails for Spring

Ok it's not spring yet and it's still summer here in Australia - although I would question that as I can count the number of days I've had over 30 degrees on one hand. Since I don't feel like it's summer I decided to play with my Orly Dotter Duo and create some flower nails:

Isn't it pretty! I'm more impressed with the colours than the actual flowers, they work so well together. This nail art look combines Orly Limelite, Essie Turquoise & Caicos, Essie Haute as Hello and Essie Splash of Grenadine. The Essie Polishes are from the Summer and Resort 2010 collections. And it was a bit of effort to get there but let's go:

You will need nail polish! I chose the four mentioned above. You could skip the glitter over Essie's Turquoise & Caicos but I love shimmer and the blue-green of limelite adds a lovely shimmer.

You will also need a dotter tool - above is the Orly Dotter Duo which has two different sized 'dotters'. I used the bigger one on the left only.

So first I added 3 coats of Essie Turquoise & Caicos. Beautiful cream finish isn't it. Then I added a layer of Orly Limelite to give it a bit of sparkle:

Then I applied a layer of Seche Vite and left my nails to dry. You want them to be completely dry when you use the metal dotter because it can very easily dent wet nails.

I then used the dotter to first create the center of the flower with Essie's Haute as Hello. Then I wiped the dotter clean and carefully placed dots around the centre dot with Essie's Splash of Grenadine. When it was dry I added a final coat of Seche Vite.

Well I hope you enjoy the look and try it out yourself. Until next time...

Currently listening to: Dirty Talk (Laidback Luke Remix - Wynter Gordon LOVE this version!

NARS Purple Rain for the well... rain

It's been raining all week (and sadly flooding back home in QLD) and my NARS Orgasm mani only last 3 days... washing the dishes bare hands will do that... Anyway, in keeping with the theme of NARS this week I present to you Purple Rain:

I picked this up along with the Orgasm polish because I was just dying for it. Then I left it in the closet for 7 months and forgot about it (mega sigh). This is a very dark purple polish and looks much darker in natural light:

Very dark and very purple. But it has a faint blue shimmer as you can see in the first flash shot and a little bit here:

And what a coincidence, the Glee version of Umbrella/Singing in the Rain just started in my iTunes. Well there you go.

Isn't the purple swirl in the bottle just gorgeous? I don't know how anyone could have resisted picking this up at the time (I believe it came out Spring 2010). Oh I'm a year late (sigh). Whooooops.

Well I haven't been around much this week. Too busy worrying about my friends and family in Brissy dealing with the floods. So far they are all good and have found higher ground. I just can't believe how nasty the wet season has been to QLD these last 5-6 years. If it's not floods, it's cyclones.

Anyway, I want to leave you on a lighter and happier note (well not happy for me, I was not impressed). Snails ate my darn mail:

I really hope this mail isn't important. FFS is all I can say...

NARS Orgasm Nail Polish for back to work nails ;-)

I'm going back to work tomorrow (sigh) and decided to try out the NARS orgasm nail polish. It looks very pretty in the bottle which translates beautifully onto the nails:

Flash shot above. Omg this polish is gorgeous! I used three coats and you can see it's still a bit sheer but that gorgeous peachy shimmer is just stunning. I don't know whether or not this lives up to the blush version but this colour is still something special. Natural (fading) light show below:

I don't believe this polish is available (easily) in Australia - while Mecca stocks NARS, they don't offer the nail polishes which quite frankly sucks. I picked mine up at Sephora last year, along with one of their spring polishes.

The NARS nail polish comes in a square bottle with 15mL or 0.5Fl Oz which is pretty much standard (same as OPI, Sephora by OPI, Essie, Illamasqua...) so more than MAC (10mL) and Chanel (13mL) but less than Orly (18mL). It retails for $16USD so quite a hefty price tag for USD but hey, if it was in Australia we'd probably be paying something like Chanel prices :-/ So while the dollar is close to parity, buy online and be happy :-D

On a side note, I'm really longing for kittens. I'm not allowed kittens yet but when the time is right, I'm getting two ragdolls pretties, much like these:

Aren't they just adorable.

Illamasqua Boosh with a touch of winter...

I recently purchased Illamasqua Boosh and while the black is just stunning on its own, I decided to play with some craft punches to make a snowflake stencil. This is the result:

The snowflake has Orly Cosmic Kiss as a base which was used to capture the MAC pearl glitter (from the MAC A Tartan Tale thrillseekers cool pigments/glitter set).

These were all the products I used (missing the cotton tips and scotch/sticky tape):

The snowflakes came out surprisingly well for a first go! Here's a close up of the snowflake with and without flash:

So in love with this glitter art right now :-)

If you're interested in recreating this look and have some small scrapbook punches lying about, just follow these few steps:

1. Apply 2-3 coats of nail polish then set with Seche Vite
2. Take a piece of tape and very carefully punch it with a craft punch of your choice. Make sure it isn't too big for all your nails - the snowflake barely fit on my other nails!
3. When you're sure the base polish has set, stick the tape stencil to your nail
4. Take a clear/sheer polish and 'fill in' the stencil shape
5. While the polish is still wet, quickly use a cotton tip and dip into the glitter and tap over the wet stencil
6. Layer on as much as you like and brush off any excess.
7. Very carefully peel the tape off - you might want to start from one side, stop at the middle then start from the other side.
8. Finally when the stencil is off, add another layer of Seche Vite to set the glitter.
9. You may be able to reuse a stencil for another nail but it's just as easy to stamp a new one for each nail.

Note - the final top coat will dull the glitter significantly, so you might want to try an alternative glitter base and/or add more glitter before the top coat.

Well I hope you enjoy this look and while it isn't winter here in Australia, we haven't had much of a summer with all the rain... so this dark look suits me well :-) Until next time...

Oh Mr Postman! Merry Christmas to me :-D

Ah no I won't start quoting B*Witched lyrics. Am I the only one that had their first album? Anyway this is what happens when you go away for two weeks and don't check your mail. The post office people know me by name and it was a little funny going in to pick up 6 packages :-P Some were for the bf though but this is what I scored:

As soon as Benefit's new blush Bella Bamba came out, I ordered it, along with a few other goodies as you can see. The box powder is different to earlier versions as the lid no longer detaches and there is a little mirror inside. Pretty shiny reflective box:

And inside... described as a 3D watermelon blush so it'll be interesting to see how it compares to their standard blushes.

I also picked up the Illamasqua nail duo boosh and harsh:

I can't wait to try boosh. I don't have a black so this is exciting for me :-) I also ordered two Philosophy shower gels, firstly Rainbow Sherbet:

This smells fresh and fruity and is great for summer. But I couldn't resist also picking up cookies and cream:

It does smell oh so sweet so probably doesn't appeal to all. I don't mind it given my recent candle haulage.

And I just had a lush bath to finish off the second Pretty Little Liars book. I'm DYING to see episode 11 so hopefully I can watch that tomorrow. But I'll probably start getting the book and tv show mixed up so I better finish off the books quick smart!

TMI time but I'll show you what a 'halloween' Lush bath bomb Calavera looks like when dissolved. Oh looks pretty and pink in ballistic form:

Read the fine print and it says '... turn bathtimes (and halloween) into a real celebration!' Well if by celebration you mean creature from the black lagoon style then yes:

When you combine blue and yellow and orange flower petals you get creepy green bath with bits! Luckily it still smelt nice. Honestly it was no way visually appealing or inviting but it smelt like lush so it's all goooooood.

P.S. You all need to reminisce and get on the b*witched :-)

Sephora by OPI I'm with Brad revamped with MAC glitter!

I recently did a hopshopgo order and while I purchased a LOT of bath and body works, I also picked up the MAC Holiday A Tartan Tale thrillseeker pigments/glitters sets in Smoky and Cool. Today I used the Blackened Red MAC glitter from the smoky set to revamp a well loved polish - I'm With Brad:

When I saw the name blackened red, I was instantly reminded of I'm With Brad as it's a very dark shimmery red. I thought it would be nice to spice it up a little with the MAC glitter and so I dipped a cotton tip in the glitter jar and tapped it onto wet nails (and finished with a top coat of Seche Vite). This was the result:

When you add the top coat it dulls the glitter a little but you could add as little or as much as you want. I went for the subtle look ;-)

The Smoky set comes with 4 small jars of pigments (and one glitter) in this cute little tartan tin:

You could reuse the container for something else but the lid doesn't fully detach unfortunately. The other smoky pigments are gorgeous by the way:

Left to right they are Blue Brown, Dark Soul, Blackened Red, Jigs & Jive and lastly, Naked. I didn't pick up the other pigment/glitter set, I think two sets is enough for one year! And if you're curious this was my Bath and Body Works haul:

Ok I didn't quite realise how BIG 14oz was... that 3 wick Slatkin & Co Frosted Cupcake candle over there almost sent me broke in shipping weight :-| 14 sounded so small... I should have checked it in grams haha. It smells so sweet and divine by the way. That's if you like sweet smells. The leaves candle was for the bf. I think I could be the only person that doesn't like cinnamon, or anything remotely spicy smelling? I swear it gives me a migraine! The bf loves it though. Homemade cookies is sweet, similar to frosted cupcake. Oh and I got one more thing:

Isn't he cute! It's a battery operated snow globe / tealight! And this is the result when you turn it on:

Weeeee! Ok let's be honest. This is what sent me broke in shipping. I had no idea it was this big... (sigh)

Anyway, I hope your new year is off to a fantastic start - I have a few more days off work so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. I won't be on holidays again until August!

Katy Perry OPI swatches and Happy New Year!

Happy 2011 everyone! Hope everyone had a fun and safe new years - I was a bit sick with a chest infection *woohoo* :-| Trying to sneak in a blog post before the bf realises I'm not in bed resting as I should be. I really wanted to try out these Katy Perry OPI shades:

I thought the release date was January but I found these in David Jones just before Christmas. The full size glitters were sold out but it's all about the minis nowadays ;-)

Left to right we have The One That Got Away, Teenage Dream, Last Friday Night and Not Like The Movies, all named after songs on Katy Perry's latest album Teenage Dream. Catchy album but am saddened there's no 'peacock' shade ;-)

Let's start with the glitters. All swatches were done with three coats and the glitters needed it if you wanted to wear them on their own. I think they would also be nice layered as well. Teenage Dream has a pale pink base with microscopic glitter as well as large 'chunky' glitter. I like this one but I am a fan of glitters :-D

Teenage dream again in natural light. Pretty much how it looks in the bottle but you do need three coats.

Last friday night in flash. I was probably most excited about this one so was a little bit disappointed when I saw how sheer the blue base was. Would have been lovely if it actually came out a bit more blue...

I would say that you could only wear this on top of something else. Natural light shot above.

The one that got away. Beautiful shimmery cherry pink, reminds me of the pink Burlesque shimmers. Flash shot above.

Natural light shot above. This should only require two coats but I did three to be consistent.

Not like the movies is a bit like the MAC Venomous Villains polishes in that it has a duochrome effect, it goes from purple/pink to green but mostly just ends up looking grey. It was hard to capture the colour change as it's quite a subtle shade:

That's it for now! I actually got some OPI for Christmas this year (not colour, thank gosh I don't need more) but some lovely skin quenchers:

There are 3 on each side and they smell goooooooooood :-D Well I better go back to bed, hope you enjoyed the swatches! And happy new year :-)