Aussie Nails Monday: Green

Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Green. I've only recently started exploring this great, untapped colour range, and I'm pleased to say that I'm really liking it.

I started with a base of American Apparel Army Jacket, a nice military green. I topped this with a gradient of Pretty Serious Liquid Leprechaun. I used the cotton bud method, but I think the base of Liquid Leprechaun is a bit too pigmented, so you can see it's a bit splotchy and not a smooth gradient. I finished it with a coat of OPI Matte Top Coat.

Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Shatter Me Claire

 A Polished Prance - Shades of Phoenix - The Epitome of Superficiality - Lacquer Dreams

 Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Adelle1985 - Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - Erinzi

Lovessweetas - Jas' Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - DamoJess - Lili_Bete

The Reluctant Femme - Jibber Jabber - Messy Mansion - Nailovelogy

Aussie Nails Monday: Polka Dots

Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Polka Dots. Okay, I messed up a bit here because I thought it was just "Dots" until I actually went and checked. So I did a good old reliable dotting gradient, which isn't strictly polka dots. Sorry!

I used OPI Berlin There, Done That as the base, and Butter London Macbeth for the dots. The combination ended up looking a bit like chicken pox, so I added a sparkly layer of Winmax Light Colour No. 147. These Winmax nail polishes can be found at Daiso for $2.80, bargain!

Delicious, delicious macro

Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Shatter Me Claire

 A Polished Prance - Shades of Phoenix - The Epitome of Superficiality - Lacquer Dreams

 Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Adelle1985 - Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - Erinzi

Lovessweetas - Jas' Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - DamoJess - Lili_Bete

The Reluctant Femme - Jibber Jabber - Messy Mansion - Nailovelogy

 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Aussie Nails Monday: Candy

Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Candy. I swapped for Lime Crime Milky Ways at the Aussie Nails meetup yesterday, from the Les Desserts d'Antoinette collection. Desserts, sweet, candy... Get it? I don't have the rest of the collection so I just used Milky Ways as a base, and did an abstract watercolour design with the Face of Australia pastels.

I was really impressed with Milky Ways, it's an off white with a really easy formula. Most whites are streaky but this one levelled out nicely. I really want the rest of the Lime Crime pastels now.


Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Shatter Me Claire

 A Polished Prance - Shades of Phoenix - The Epitome of Superficiality - Lacquer Dreams

 Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Adelle1985 - Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - Erinzi

Lovessweetas - Jas' Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - DamoJess - Lili_Bete

The Reluctant Femme - Jibber Jabber - Messy Mansion - Nailovelogy

Aussie Nails Monday: Inspired by Clothing

Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Inspired by Clothing. I chose one of my favourite tops by Bettina Liano. It's a sheer tank top with a purple, black and white print and charcoal square bead embellishments around the neckline.

To mimic the pattern I did a splatter design using black, white and b by Bloom New York. The purple doesn't stand out very much so next time I might use white as the base. Jen from The Nail Polish Project actually did a similar design a few days ago with a white base and it looks great!

I used a tiny funnel that I usually use for frankening, but it was quite difficult to get the distance and aim right with such a short length. Most of the polish ended up on my fingers or on the table! Next time I'll probably use a small juice popper or Up & Go straw.

This is my first time doing rhinestone placement and it's quite tricky, at least with the ones I used! I bought these from the craft section of Spotlight because I didn't have time to order proper nail art ones from ebay. They're self-adhesive so that might have contributed to them being really difficult to pick up and place on the nail. I also don't like the bumpy feeling of them so I end up picking them off. Needless to say, this mani came off pretty quickly.

Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Ten Little Nubs - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Shatter Me Claire

 A Polished Prance - Shades of Phoenix - The Epitome of Superficiality - Lacquer Dreams

 Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Adelle1985 - Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - Erinzi

Lovessweetas - Jas' Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - DamoJess - Lili_Bete

The Reluctant Femme - Jibber Jabber - Messy Mansion - Nailovelogy

Aussie Nails Monday: Blue & March Nail Art Challenge: Sparkles

This week's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Blue. Blue is my favourite (nail polish) colour so I was spoilt for choice with this theme! However, I wasn't spoilt for time, so I had to choose a quick and simple design. Today's March Nail Art Challenge theme just happens to be Sparkles, so what better way to combine the two than with a glitter gradient?

I used Essie Bikini So Teeny and Nails Inc Upper Brook Street as the undies. The glitter is Nails Inc Royal Arcade. The blue is pretty similar to Ulta3 New Years Eve, but it has a lot more different sizes, and it's extremely dense. I actually had trouble spreading it out enough to make a gradient!

Side note: How awesome is that crystal cap on Upper Brook Street??

And of course I had to mattify it. I love the look of glitter under a matte top coat.

Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Shatter Me Claire

 A Polished Prance - Shades of Phoenix - The Epitome of Superficiality - Lacquer Dreams

 Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Adelle1985 - Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - Erinzi

Lovessweetas - Jas' Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - DamoJess - Lili_Bete

The Reluctant Femme - Jibber Jabber - Messy Mansion - Nailovelogy

Aussie Nails Monday: Ombre & Lotsatuplet Nails

Good morning! Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Ombre. After doing my Bestie Twin Nails with Labmuffin, a bunch of us decided to do mass matching nails. We call them "Lotsatuplet Nails"!

It was tricky to figure out how we were going to co-ordinate a theme amongst so many of us, so we decided to go with bouncing ombre dots as an overall theme (as most of us were doing Aussie Nails Monday anyway), and then we'd pair up to match colours on contrasting undies. I chose blue, and my colour twin was Bec from Nail Gun XS. Aren't her nails just perfect??

This was actually really time consuming to do, especially with the ombre dots going in the opposite direction on the accent nail. I used Ulta3 Spring Shower and China Glaze Man Hunt, and mixed them together in varying amounts to create all the in between shades. The most time consuming thing was waiting for each row of dots to dry before applying the next shade.

I really like this effect. It reminds me of blue patterned china:

(Source: www.123rf.com)

Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Shatter Me Claire

 A Polished Prance - Shades of Phoenix - The Epitome of Superficiality - Lacquer Dreams

 Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Adelle1985 - Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - Erinzi

Lovessweetas - Jas' Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - DamoJess - Lili_Bete

The Reluctant Femme - Jibber Jabber - Messy Mansion - Nailovelogy

March Nail Art Challenge: Gradient & Aussie Nails Monday: Stripes

I'm late for both of these so I combined them into one mani. I've seen this design doing the rounds on Instagram lately, originally inspired by @sparrownails and @nailsofjessiek. I was planning on doing a different colour combo so as not to completely copy them, but I just love blues so much! So I ended up using OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It for the base, Ulta3 Spring Shower, OPI Fly and China Glaze Man Hunt for the gradient.

Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Shatter Me Claire

 A Polished Prance - Shades of Phoenix - The Epitome of Superficiality - Lacquer Dreams

 Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Adelle1985 - Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - Erinzi

Lovessweetas - Jas' Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - DamoJess - Lili_Bete

The Reluctant Femme - Jibber Jabber - Messy Mansion - Nailovelogy

In "things I have wasted my money on recently" news, I impulse bought these Black Milk Black Triangle Leggings and Blue Galaxy Swimsuit. I regret nothing. I never actually understood the hype about Black Milk, and leggings in general, until I tried these. The swimsuit is so flattering, and the leggings make my legs look a million miles long. I don't care if people say that leggings are not pants, I will wear these as pants and look kickass!

Aussie Nails Monday: Galaxy Nails

Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Galaxy. I've seen galaxy nails done heaps of times but they always looked too difficult for me to try myself... Turns out they're actually pretty easy! I started with a black base, and sponged on Picture Polish Tiffany, China Glaze Frostbite, Ulta3 Purple Passion and Ulta3 Lily White (in that order). I painted the gaps with China Glaze Fairy Dust, added the little white dots to represent stars, and dabbled a coat of Alanna Renee Milky Way over the top. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out!

Please excuse the terrible cleanup (or lack thereof), the lighting in my living room isn't very good and I didn't realise I hadn't cleaned up properly until I loaded the photos onto the computer.

Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Shatter Me Claire

 A Polished Prance - Shades of Phoenix - The Epitome of Superficiality - Lacquer Dreams

 Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Adelle1985 - Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - Erinzi

Lovessweetas - Jas' Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - DamoJess - Lili_Bete

The Reluctant Femme - Jibber Jabber - Messy Mansion - Nailovelogy

In other nail polish related news, I received these beautiful colours as an extremely generous birthday present from my grad project supervisor, who I will also be working with at my new job in a couple of weeks! She has such great taste in nail polish. We often share news about Illamasqua sales with each other. I'm so excited to try the Chanels, both Blue Rebel and Paradoxal have been lemmings of mine for a long time. And aren't those Estee Lauder bottles amazing?

L-R: Chanel Blue Rebel, Chanel Paradoxal, Illamasqua Scarab, Illamasqua Swinger, Estee Lauder Smashed, Estee Lauder Blue Blood

Aussie Nails Monday - Skittles

Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Skittles. I've wanted to do a dotted gradient for ages. It's not perfect but I'm happy with how it turned out! In keeping with the Aussie week theme, I've used Australian nail polishes for this mani. The base is Ulta3 Black Satin, the best one coater black I've ever used, and the Face of Australia pastels. Left to right is Have Your Cupcake & Eat It Too, Once In A Blue Moon, Would You Like Some Orange Sherbert?, and Boys 'n' Berries.

Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Shatter Me Claire

 A Polished Prance - Shades of Phoenix - The Epitome of Superficiality - Lacquer Dreams

 Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Adelle1985 - Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - Erinzi

Lovessweetas - Jas' Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - DamoJess - Lili_Bete

The Reluctant Femme - Jibber Jabber - Messy Mansion - Nailovelogy

Aussie Nails Monday - Fishtail

Happy Monday! Yesterday my boyfriend and I made some cash at the markets so we splurged by going to see The Hobbit in 3D and high frame rate. It was incredibly realistic - the high frame rate and 3D really suited the action scenes but during some of the more slow moving scenes I suddenly felt like it was too realistic, and it was just a bunch of actors with prosthetics. But I still thought it was a fantastic movie. The major downside was that the movie tickets were $24! Now that's insane.

Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Fishtail. I've gone with a fishtail braid pattern. A fishtail braid is one of my favourite ever hairstyles, mainly because I can't do my own hair in a french braid, and a fishtail is the best style for a side plait. I had this plan to do a fishtail braid with my own hair and use it has the prop for these mani photos, because it looks amazing with the red and black streaks intertwined. But I had to dye my hair brown to get a job so that was the end of that idea.

I used China Glaze Dorothy Who? as a base colour. I don't care what anyone else says, it is definitely not a substitute for OPI Absolutely Alice. They're completely different. Dorothy Who? is a blue jelly with silver glitter. I love how the jelly gives it a layered effect. I used three coats to achieve the most opacity and depth.

For the fishtail accent, I used Essie Bikini So Teeny, China Glaze Frostbite and Ulta3 Metal. The trick is to use contrasting colours. The colours were too similar in my first attempt, plus I was super messy so it was a massive fail. I'm very happy with this version! It could be neater but I reckon it's not bad for a second attempt.

Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Shatter Me Claire

 A Polished Prance - Shades of Phoenix - The Epitome of Superficiality - Lacquer Dreams

 Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Adelle1985 - Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - Erinzi

Lovessweetas - Jas' Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - DamoJess - Lili_Bete

The Reluctant Femme - Jibber Jabber - Messy Mansion - Nailovelogy

Aussie Nails Monday - Animal

Welcome to 2013! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Years. I went down to Melbourne to visit the boyfriend's family and get a handful of that famous Melbourne shopping. Surprisingly, I didn't buy anything in the boxing day sales! But I got a couple of cool Christmas presents - Jamie Oliver's 15 minute and 30 minute meals, The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling, the new Harry Potter Book of Spells PS3 game and a new camera lens. I can't wait to use them all! Did you get anything awesome for Christmas or in the boxing day sales?

Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Animal. I was planning on doing a leopard print mani but I completely forgot until this afternoon. So I present to you... Pawlish by OPI Doghouse Blues. This is a colour from an old range that OPI released targeted at the pet market. It's supposed to be "quick-dry, one-coat nail colour for pets", according to the blurb on the bottle.

I can't say whether it's more quick-drying than any other OPI polishes, but on my nails it definitely isn't a one-coater. This is three coats. The colour is a nice bright sky blue with a bit of foily sparkle in the sun, but it's pretty streaky.

Sun

Sun

Indoors, natural light

I was going to test it out on my cat's nails but it reeks of chemicals and has a black label, so I wasn't entirely sure that it's actually non-toxic. Also, I have a job interview tomorrow and I don't really fancy turning up with scratches all over my arms, so I decided not to risk it.

Sadly, the Pawlish by OPI line is discontinued, but luckily there is a dupe for us humans - OPI Teal the Cows Come Home. It's the same colour but less streaky, and 3 Free!

L-R: Teal the Cows Come Home, Doghouse Blues, Teal the Cows Come Home, Doghouse Blues

L-R: Teal the Cows Come Home, Doghouse Blues, Teal the Cows Come Home, Doghouse Blues

 And because it is animal week after all, here is a photo of my cat who made my photo area his new bed.

Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Tales from the Makeup Bag

Shatter Me Claire - A Polished Prance - Tee Bee's Nails - The Epitome of Superficiality

Lacquer Dreams - Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Pretty Polish Please - Adelle1985

Kelly's Kolors - Polished Peripherals - Nicki - All Things Charmed - Mel My Issta

Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - The Polish Haven - Nails In The Desert - Erinzi

Aussie Nails Monday - Delicate

Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Delicate. I chose to do a subtle gradient (possibly a little too subtle!) using two of the most delicate polishes I own - OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It and Cult Nails Princess. First I applied five coats of It's Totally Fort Worth It. Yes, five! And I still had VNL! Then I sponged it in a gradient with Princess over the top.

I totally didn't notice this at the time, but these two polishes have the same delicate pink shimmer running through them. You can sort of see it in this super underexposed photo - isn't it pretty?

Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Tales from the Makeup Bag

Shatter Me Claire - A Polished Prance - Tee Bee's Nails - The Epitome of Superficiality

Lacquer Dreams - Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Pretty Polish Please - Adelle1985

Kelly's Kolors - Polished Peripherals - Nicki - All Things Charmed - Mel My Issta

Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - The Polish Haven - Nails In The Desert - Erinzi

Aussie Nails Monday - Glad Wrap

Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Glad Wrap (also known as cling or saran wrap). It's a super easy way to make polish a bit more interesting, so I don't know why it's taken me so long to try it. It took me a couple of goes to get the hang of it, but I really like the delicate marble effect. I used Ulta3 Wild Berry, a dark concrete grey (random name, I know) as undies, and Butter London Slapper, a rich green-leaning teal, on top.

Here are the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Tales from the Makeup Bag

Shatter Me Claire - A Polished Prance - Tee Bee's Nails - The Epitome of Superficiality

Lacquer Dreams - Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Pretty Polish Please - Adelle1985

Kelly's Kolors - Polished Peripherals - Nicki - All Things Charmed - Mel My Issta

Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - The Polish Haven - Nails In The Desert - Erinzi

Aussie Nails Monday - Weather - Sephora by OPI Spark-tacular!

Today's Aussie Nails Monday theme is Weather. I was thinking about doing a clouds nail art mani but I unfortunately ran out of time. So I decided to go with a polish that matches the current weather in Sydney. The weather is so ridiculously hot and sunny right now, so I went for an over-cheerful polish, Sephora by OPI Spark-tacular! Even the name exudes desperate enthusiasm.

Spark-tacular! is a bright multi-coloured glitter top coat. It is predominantly silver with multi-sized green, pink, yellow, orange and light blue glitters. It has really good glitter payoff, but some of the glitters needed a bit of placement. This is one coat over Eclipse 135 with one coat of Seche Vite.

Sun

Shade

Check out the manis of the other girls participating in Aussie Nails Monday:

Lissa's Polish Addiction - Nail Gun XS - Marie's Manicure Madhouse - Tales from the Makeup Bag

Shatter Me Claire - A Polished Prance - Tee Bee's Nails - The Epitome of Superficiality

Lacquer Dreams - Nananais Nails - Enamoured with Enamel - Pretty Polish Please - Adelle1985

Kelly's Kolors - Polished Peripherals - Nicki - All Things Charmed - Mel My Issta

Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - The Polish Haven - Nails In The Desert - Erinzi