Barry M - Foil

Barry M - Foil

2 coats

Foil is a gold foil. This is really pigmented, I almost did one coat but the brush strokes are hard to get rid of. The formula was a little thick.

Sorry for the short post. I'm tired. I haven't found time to do my nails in three days!

Read More

Artsy Wednesday - Skittles

The theme for Artsy Wednesday this week is Skittles!

Colours used:

Ulta3 - Blue Marlin

Ulta3 - Frog Prince

Ulta3 - Frangipani

China Glaze - Poinsettia

Spectraflair Top Coat

This one was really easy. I started with a base of each colour on each nail. Then I did a french tip using the colour on the nail next to it. I then used a spectraflair top coat. I should have left that step out because I don't like how it turned out.

Check out the other girls Artsy Wednesday girls:

Michelle - Lab Muffin

Holly - Hooked!

Maria - Maria's Nail Art

Tif - Polished Genius

Lyndsey - Nails by Ms. Lizard

Sofie - Swaafie

Catrine - Unnaked Nails

Melanie - Nail & Polish

Jessica - Beauty Gnome

Read More

Bali Holiday 2012

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I ran out of time. I don't know how you ladies with children can still find the time to blog! It's hard for me to find time for blogging sometimes and I've only got myself, my partner and my dog to look after.

There's no nail polish in this post, so sorry if that's all you're interested in. Here's some pictures of my Bali holiday. 

These first few photos are of the Bali Safari and Marine Park:

Sleepy White Tiger

Sleepy Tiger

Lioness

Elephants in the elephant show holding each other's tails, so cute!


Myself and a giant Ganesha Statue

My partner Braeden and I with a Lion cub. I think he was 6 weeks old!

Me with a cute orangutan!

Can you spot the bird?

We found a really pretty temple in the safari park. We had the feeling we weren't supposed to go down there but it was so pretty!

One of the "guards' of the temple

Myself and Braeden having dinner on the Beach in Jimbaran Bay. We got front row seats for the sunset.

Sunset and puppies!

Braeden and I 

Cocktail, sunset and people in the background ruining my photo.

This is the pond in my favourite restaurant in Kuta - TJ's Mexican. If you ever go to Bali you NEED to go here!

These fish were in our hotel in Kuta. Every time we walked past them they went crazy thinking we were going to feed them. We nicknamed them the Om Nom Fish.

This cute kitty hung out with us while we waited for another boat to Gili Meno.

These were the boats we needed to get to travel between the islands. You can see just how close the islands are. There's Gili Air and Lombok behind it in the background.

Our Villa on Gili Meno

The view from outside our Villa

An old restaurant on Gili Meno

The huge bee/wasp that Braeden got stung by on Gili Meno.

A horse and cart on Gili Trawangan

Braeden and his monkey friends in the Ubud Monkey Forest

Me feeding the fishies. Look at the fish right up in my face!

I hope you enjoyed my photos. :)

Read More

Pretty Serious - Morning Java

Pretty Serious - Morning Java

2 coats

Morning Java is from the Pretty Serious - Hello World collection 2012. It's a bronze gold shimmer with gold glass flecks. The formula was great! It was also really pigmented, I almost got away with one coat. I believe the name Morning Java refers to drinking coffee in the morning. I don't like coffee but I love this polish! I need to have about six spoons of sugar in my coffee for me to be able to drink it. I've got a big sweet tooth! Edit: to the coffee logo for applets run by Java.

Pretty Serious polishes are available from http://www.pretty-serious.com. Pretty Serious Cosmetics ships internationally! Pretty Serious polishes are Vegan, Big 3 free, formaldehyde resin free and cruelty free! 

*The product in this post was provided to me for review. Please see the About page for more information.

Read More

Pretty Serious - Tux

Pretty Serious - Tux

2 coats

Tux is from the Hello World collection 2012. It has a blackened base with subtle green shimmer. In the bottle you can see a purple colour shift. I couldn't see it on my nails but Cathy from More Nail Polish did and she captured it on camera! Have a look at her photos here. The formula was really good. Very smooth and it went exactly where I wanted it to. The name Tux refers to the Linux Mascot which a penguin named Tux.

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that Pretty Serious polishes are Vegan, Big 3 free, formaldehyde resin free and cruelty free! Pretty Serious polishes are available from http://www.pretty-serious.com. Pretty Serious Cosmetics ships internationally!

Read More

Cult Nails "Cult FairyTale Collection" Pre-Sale Event

Cult Nails

Read More

Pretty Serious - BSOD

Pretty Serious - BSOD

2 coats

BSOD is from the Hello World collection 2012. It has blue glitter in a blue base. This is absolutely gorgeous. This instantly became my favourite blue polish of all time! There is so much depth to it.  The formula was a little thick but I think that helped the colour build up easily. 

BSOD stands for Blue Screen Of Death which is a pretty serious (see what I did there?) error message with a blue background that serious PC users would have seen at least once. For April fools one year I put up a fake BSOD on my boss' PC whenever he left his desk. He rebooted about three times before I let him in on the joke. He was about to rebuild his PC, seriously, haha!

Pretty Serious Cosmetics was started by an Aussie nail blogger - Kaz from Pretty Random. You can buy Pretty Serious polishes from http://www.pretty-serious.com. There are also matching lip glosses and eye shadows. I highly recommend BSOD! Get over there and check out the other polishes in the Hello World collection. Pretty Serious Cosmetics ships internationally!

Today is also a Friday and that means Glitter Me Up Friday! I missed the last three Fridays because I was overseas. Sorry if you've been clicking on my link on the other girls posts looking for glitter.

Visit these girls for MOAR GLITTAH!

Shaina - SG Nails

Rebecca - Polished Peripherals

Kelly - Kelly's Kolors

Kaz - Parisian Blue Sky

Mam Glam  - GlamOnTheCheap

Read More

Artsy Wednesday - Inspired By A Celebrity Manicure

The theme for Artsy Wednesday this week is Inspired By A Celebrity Manicure!

Colours used:
Ulta3 - Violet Rumble
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Petal Pusher

Wow my nails are stained. Anyway here's my inspired by a celebrity manicure and this was my inspiration:

This is the manicure that Katy Perry wore to the Grammys earlier this year. I though't I'd give it a Pretty Purple Polish twist and use purple instead of blue. I started with a purple french tip using Violet Rumble then applied one coat of Petal Pusher over the top. Then I stuck on a rhinestone on each nail and added top coat.

Check out the other girls Artsy Wednesday girls:

Michelle - Lab Muffin

Holly - Hooked!

Maria - Maria's Nail Art

Tif - Polished Genius

Lyndsey - Nails by Ms. Lizard

Sofie - Swaafie

Catrine - Unnaked Nails

Melanie - Nail & Polish

Jessica - Beauty Gnome

Read More

Essie - Summer Collection 2012

Bikini So Teeny - A sparkling, cornflower blue.

Cascade Cool - A creamy, sweet dusty pink.

All Tied Up - A rustic bronze with subtle golden shimmer.

Off The Shoulder - A bold, hot pink.

Fear Or Desire - A bright, orange crush.

Mojito Madness - A fun-loving, lime green.

I like the look of Bikini So Teeny and Mojito Madness. All Tied Up sounds interesting too. I'll have to see swatches before I decide on getting any of these.

Read More

Orly - Sapphire Luck

Orly - Sapphire Luck

4 coats

Sapphire Luck is from the Year In The Rocks collection from 2004. This is a really old one! It smells like a pre-3 free formula. It has a sheer grey-blue base with blue shimmer and silver glass flecks. In the bottle it has a purple duo-chome but not so much on the nail.

The back of the bottle says "A fast drying, high gloss nail colour". Well it might have been fast drying in 2004 but it sure isn't now! This took forever to dry, you can see in the picture that it was still wet because I stuck my finger in it. Maybe we were just more patient back then?

Read More

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Petal Pusher

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Petal Pusher

3 coats

Petal Pusher is a sheer light pink jelly. This is not like all the other Insta-Dri polishes I've tried which really opaque and most are one coaters if you are careful with the application. They must have intended this one to be used for a french nail manicure. This was also streaky. It took me three coats to get even coverage.

Do you know of any other Insta-Dri polishes that are sheer like this?

Read More

Guest Post on Nail Diva

Today I've got a guest post over on Nail Diva, featuring my favourite polish!

Ulta3 - Orchid

1 coat

Read More

Sally Hansen Salon Effects - Bling It On

Sally Hansen Salon Effects - Bling It On

Bling It On is pink and orange glitter nail polish strips. These are the first nail polish strips I've used. The application was easy. You choose the strip that best fits your nail shape and then peel of the backing paper and stick it on your nail. Then you press it down over all of your nail and file off the excess at the tip. I didn't have any problems with creases when applying these. The only thing I didn't like about the application was when you file off the excess at the tip it looks like you have tip wear already.

I decided to do a wear test of this manicure while I was in Bali. The package says that it lasts up to 10 days. I didn't use any top coat. The photo above was taken just after application. The photos below were taken with my underwater camera and not so great lighting.

Day 2

As you can see there is quite a lot of tip wear on all nails and chips on my index finger. I actually got a chip on my right hand about two hours after application.

Day 4

The tip wear and chips look about the same two days later but now there are also some chips and outgrowth at the base.

Day 6

The chips and outgrowth on all my fingers are even worse.

Day 10

I don't know what happened to day 8. I thought I photographed it but I can't find it. The outgrowth and chips are really bad on day 10. It does last 10 days but I would have changed it by about day 2.

I think these are great if you are going on holidays and won't be able to do you nails. My nails felt very strong with these on. You can only really get one or two manicures out of the packet so I would keep these for a special occasion because they are expensive. You could buy a bottle of polish for the same price and get a lot more manicures out of it. I do like the no mess dry application though. 

Read More

Bali Mani

Here's the manicure I got in Bali. Sorry about the photo quality I was using my underwater camera. I'm still wearing this manicure now but I can't wait to take it off. The polish is on my cuticles and my nail shape is all over the place. The base colour is Revlon - Emerald City which is a matte polish. The flowers were done using a toothpick. The white is Revlon - White On White and the pink is a by a brand called Blush but I didn't notice a name.

I hate this cold Sydney weather, I keep making typos because I'm shivering!

Read More

I'm Back!

Hey everyone! I'm back, did you miss me? (In case you don't know I was in Bali for the past two weeks.)

I've read all the comments I got while I was away but I've only answered the ones that were questions. I have to tackle my emails now. I feel like I've missed out on so much. I've got about 400 unread posts on BlogLovin'. Has anything happened in the nail polish world since the 1st May that I should know about? I know most of the Ozotic colours are now discontinued but that's about all I've caught up on.

I can't wait to paint my nails! I had a manicure in Bali but it's not the same. They shaped them all wrong, now I need to fix them. Good thing I've got a bit of length to work with. Anyway, I hope to have a blog post up tomorrow so keep your eyes out for that. Talk to you soon!

Read More

Artsy Wednesday - Newsprint

**I'm on holiday and may not respond to comments**

The theme for Artsy Wednesday this week is Newsprint!

Colours used:

Grey franken

So if you couldn't tell my newsprint nails SUCK! I didn't have a light grey polish (can you believe it?) so I frankened one up. It took forever to dry which meant it was still dentable when I was applying the newspaper so I couldn't press very hard and not much ink was transferred. 

Check out the other girls Artsy Wednesday girls for much better Newsprint nails:

Michelle - Lab Muffin

Holly - Hooked!

Maria - Maria's Nail Art

Tif - Polished Genius

Lyndsey - Nails by Ms. Lizard

Sofie - Swaafie

Catrine - Unnaked Nails

Melanie - Nail & Polish

Jessica - Beauty Gnome

Read More