Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!! It may still be Christmas Eve where you live but here down under its Christmas Day! I hope you all have a lovely day. I know I will! I'm getting lots of nail polish this year and if you follow me on Twitter I'll tweet pictures of what I get. Who else is getting nail polish? I bet all you other nail polish addicts are getting at least one nail related thing.

I didn't plan my posts very well so I don't have any Christmas nails to post today, instead, here's a picture of my dog Hazel:

I've do actually have something nail related to post. A comparison of piCture pOlish - Razzle Dazzle and Ulta3 - Confetti

They are both identical except for the coverage. This is one coat of each over piCture pOlish - Watermelon. In terms of price there is a big difference, Razzle Dazzle is $9.90 and Confetti is $2.25. If you have one you don't need the other.

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Reindeer Mani

Here's my attempt at reindeer nails. Sorry about the messy cuticles. I forgot to clean them and didn't notice until editing the photos. I used 2 coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Brisk Blue for the base with 1 coat of Ozotic Mish Mash 533 (which I haven't swatched yet) over the top. I used BYS - GI Jane for the reindeer, China Glaze - Poinsettia for the red nose and a cheap no name $2 shop black polish for the other noses. I used a Sharpie pen to outline the reindeer. I used 2 coats of Seche-Vite top coat. I think this will be my Christmas day manicure. If you want to see a really cute reindeer mani check out Nicole's blog!

I spent about 2 hours trying to create a dark brown nail polish with my franken polish supplies but in the end I had to give up. I thought brown was the easiest colour to mix? Supposedly you mix red, yellow and blue together and you get brown. I just kept getting greyish purple colours even when I adjusted how much of each colour. 

What will your Christmas day mani be?

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Red and Green Christmas Mani

This is a really simple Christmas manicure. If you can paint your nails you can do this. I used two coats of China Glaze - Poinsettia for the base and one coat of Orly - Bubbly Bombshell over the top. I used Seche-Vite top coat.

I took these photos in a home made light box. I got the instructions from here. I didn't have any white material or white clothes so I just used white tissues. I think the photos turned out ok. I didn't use a daylight bulb or full spectrum bulb, I only had those energy saving swirly ones.

Only 3.5 hours left of work for this year! I'm going to attempt one last Christmas manicure this afternoon when I get home, wish me luck.

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Christmas Holly Nails

Here's my first Christmas mani! I used my 3 China Glaze nail polishes from the Let It Snow Collection. I used 3 coats of Twinkle Lights for the base, Holly-Day for the holly leaves and Poinsettia for the berries. I had originally planned to use a Bundle Monster plate for the holly but the stamp wasn't clear enough against Twinkle Lights. I ended up free handing the holly. I used a small straight edged nail art brush and splodged on the leaves. I know they don't look much like holly leaves but you get the point. Then I used a dotting tool for the berries. 


So what do you think of my first ever Christmas manicure? I've got another one planned and hopefully I find some time on Friday afternoon to do it. I have to clean my room first because my Aunt is coming to stay and she's getting my room. I'm going to camp outside in a tent, I'm actually quite excited. I only have to work 3.5 hours on Friday and then I get 2 weeks holiday, I can't wait!

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China Glaze - Twinkle Lights

Please excuse my nails, I've got two broken ones and need to grow them out so I can shape them properly. I could also use a bit of cuticle cream...

China Glaze - Twinkle Lights

2 Coats

Top Coat: Poshe

Twinkle Lights is part of the Let It Snow - Holiday 2011 Collection. It's red, gold and green hex glitter in a clear base. I could have used 3 coats but the coverage looked OK inside. Next time I wear it I'll wear 3 coats.This is very stubborn to remove. I forgot to take a photo of it in the shade but it looks much better in the sun anyway.

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piCture pOlish Flakie Covers Available Now!

Just a quick post to say the other piCture pOlish Flakie Covers are available now. I just ordered both and can't wait to get them I hope they arrive before Christmas!

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China Glaze - Poinsettia

Please excuse my nails, I've got two broken ones and need to grow them out so I can shape them properly. I could also use a bit of cuticle cream...

China Glaze - Poinsettia

  2 Coats

Top Coat: Seche

Poinsettia is from the Let It Snow - Holiday 2011 Collection. It's a bright red creme. The most colour accurate photo is the shade photo above. The formula of Poinsettia was also runny but it's not as opaque as Holly-Day. If you have longer nails you might need 3 coats for full opacity. You can see a little bit of staining around my cuticles from Holly-Day. I wasn't sure what Poinsettia actually was so I googled it. I recognised it after I saw the picture but I had no idea that's what it was called. For those of you who might not know either this is Poinsettia:

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Butter London Sale

Butter London is on sale until tomorrow 9am (Tuesday 20th Dec 2011) on Oz Sale. They are $13.50 each. I've had a look around and this is the cheapest I've been able to find them. I'm going to get The Black Knight and maybe a few others to get more for my money. Postage is only about $9.

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China Glaze - Holly Day

Please excuse my nails, I've got two broken ones and need to grow them out so I can shape them properly. I could also use a bit of cuticle cream...

China Glaze - Holly-Day

2 Coats

Top Coat: Poshe

Holly-Day is from the Let It Snow - Holiday 2011 Collection. It is a dark green creme. The most colour accurate photo is the sunlight photo (the one directly above). The formula of Holly-Day was runny but still opaque. It was a little difficult to work with so If you be careful to avoid your cuticles it wont pool in them. I wore this for one day and found that it stained my cuticles when removing it. 

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Orly - Space Cadet

Did anyone else south of Sydney notice the bright red sky around 5am this morning? I woke up because my boyfriend was going to work and saw it. Crazy! It sort of matches today's post.

Orly - Space Cadet

4 Coats

Top Coat: Seche

Space Cadet is from the Cosmic FX Fall 2010 Collection. It's red/orange/yellow colour shift glitter flecks in a blue/grey base. This one seemed to be the most talked about colour from the collection but I don't prefer it over Halley's Comet or Lunar Eclipse. The colour shift is more noticeable on the nail with Space Cadet. It's coming off a little purple in my pictures but I think it's just something to do with the base being blue. I just painted one of my nails to check and I'm not seeing the purple.

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Orly - Lunar Eclipse

 

Orly - Lunar Eclipse

3 Coats

Top Coat: Seche

Lunar Eclipse is from the Cosmic FX Fall 2010 Collection. It's blue and purple colour shift glitter flakes in a blue base. You can't see the purple in the pictures above but you can see it in the macro below. This is my favourite one out of the collection, it's so pretty! I'm wearing this on my toes at the moment. I forgot to mention in the other Cosmic FX posts but did you notice that's my right hand in the pictures? I usually swatch on my left hand but I had a nail break so I used my right. Then I broke two nails on my right hand so my nails are even shorter! I hope you don't mind looking at my stubs for a while in future posts.

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piCture pOlish - Festival

I managed to get home early from work after the Christmas party so I had time to swatch Festival. There was barely any sun left in my backyard and it kept disappearing behind the clouds so some photos aren't in the best light. Please excuse the state of my nails, two of them are broken and I need to grow them out so I can shape them properly.

I

Festival over Black

2 Coats

Festival is a multicoloured flakie polish. It has orange, yellow, green and blue flakes. This is gorgeous! I used two coats because one coat wasn't enough. The formula was thick but I think that's because it's a suspension nail polish base. If your going to wear top coat over this either make sure it's dry, or wipe off your brush after each nail, otherwise you will get some stray flakes in your top coat.  The black I'm wearing is just a no name $2 shop black nail polish, the brand is "e". This is still available from piCture pOlish, I got mine during the pre-sale.  piCture pOlish is bringing out more flakies next year! You can see previews on their website. Here's the  macro shot:

Here's Festival over other colours, you can see the sun light slowly decreasing in each photo. I ran out of sunlight while doing Denim but I included it anyway.

Festival over piCture pOlish - Bombshell

Festival over piCture pOlish - Wisteria

Festival over Sally Hansen - Pronto Purple

Festival over piCture pOlish - Watermelon

Festival over piCture pOlish  - Denim

So what do you think of piCture pOlish's first flakie? I love it! I can't wait for the others. One looks like it's a blue/aqua/red flakie and the other looks similar to Nubar 2010 a red/orange/green flakie.

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Orly - Out Of This World

I was about to go to sleep last night and I realised I hadn't scheduled a post for today. It was too late for me to post last night so I'm writing this one on the train to work. I did a Christmas nail art last night for my work Christmas party today. I took some photos last night but I'm not sure if they are any good. I'm still learning the best settings to use for nail photos, if you have any tips feel free to let me know.

I got some exciting nail mail yesterday! If I get home early after the Christmas party and if it's still sunny I will try to swatch some of them.

 

Orly - Out Of This World

3 Coats

Top Coat: Seche

Out of this world is from the Cosmic FX Fall 2010 Collection. It's a purple and orange colour shift glitter flecks in a blue/black purple toned base. The black base really comes out in the sun. The macro shot below shows the colour shift the best. Sometimes the glitter looks a bit pink. You can see that in the bottle picture above. I think this was actually the first one from this collection I wore. 

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Orly - Halley's Comet

Orly - Halley's Comet

4 Coats

Top Coat: Seche

Halley's Comet is from the Cosmic FX Fall 2010 Collection. It is green and gold glitter flecks in an aqua base. It looks blue in my pictures but I'm wearing it at the moment and in this light it looks very green. I'm wearing it inside at night so I don't trust this light to show to right colour. The gold glitter makes it look like there is some light green in the bottle too but I don't think there actually is. This is very pretty, I like this one a lot. Macro shot below.

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Orly - Galaxy Girl

Orly - Galaxy Girl

4 Coats

Top Coat: Seche

Galaxy Girl is from the Cosmic FX Collection Fall 2010. Galaxy Girl is green glitter flakes in a bruise coloured purple base. I like this one but it's not one of my favourites from the collection because of the base colour, it just reminds me of bruises. I forgot to mention yesterday that these are a little difficult to remove because of the glitter flakes. You might notice I have glitter specks on my cuticles from swatching. Sorry about the messy cuticle on my middle finger, it sort of looks like it's bleeding, whoops!

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