Tuesday 30 July 2013

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013 Voting

Hey guys, voting for the piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013 is now open! I'd love it if you voted for me, but I know there are a lot of wonderful entries this year! Head on over to the PP website to vote now, there's polish to be won!




Monday 29 July 2013

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013

Hey guys! I still have a heap of backlogged manis to show you (which is probably a good thing because I've just had a devastating break on my swatching hand so I won't be taking photos of my manis for awhile), but today's post is part of piCture pOlish's Blog Fest for 2013. Wooooo!

The theme for this year is the 'Year of the Blogger', celebrating bloggers and what we do (which for me lately hasn't been much! Sorry!). The colours I was provided with for Blog Fest were 'Wisteria', 'Marine', and 'Peaches n' Cream'.

L-R: 'Wisteria', 'Marine', 'Peaches n' Cream'

As part of Blog Fest, we're challenged to come up with some nail art containing the three colours we've been sent. I'm not going to lie, this was one hell of a challenge for me. Although they look fine on screen and they're beautiful on their own, in real life I found that these three colours clashed and I pulled my hair out for about 3 weeks before coming up with this final design, using the black to offset the clash:

Lamp light

Lamp light

I also have a little tutorial for you. Here goes!

Step 1: The night before you do your mani, paint some polish onto sticky tape/baking paper and leave to dry overnight. I used 2 coats of 'Wisteria' and 'Marine' and 3 of 'Peaches n' Cream' for opacity.


Step 2: Carefully peel the strips of dried polish from the sticky tape/baking paper and cut them in to small rectangles. Mine were approximately 8mm by 5mm.


Step 3: Apply a protective base coat and then paint your nails black.


Step 4: Once your black polish has dried, apply a clear coat of polish and use tweezers to position the polish pieces and some studs on your nails. You'll need to work quickly while the polish is still wet.


Step 5: Apply a clear top coat to smooth out the polish pieces and hold the studs in place and your done!

What do you guys think? These are my first piCture pOlish shades, and they won't be my last. They apply smoothly and I love that 'Wisteria' and 'Marine' are opaque in 2 coats.

PiCture pOlish products are available worldwide both via their website and distributors. Check our their shipping and network pages for more info. And don't forget to follow them on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. There will also be 'Blog Fest Awards' where you guys can vote for your favourite design on their Pinterest page so go check that out!

Here's a list of links to some of the others involved in the piCture pOlish Blog Fest:



Disclosure note: The product/s in this post were provided for review. This did not affect my opinion of the product/s.

Monday 22 July 2013

The Teen Queen

I'm a terrible blogger! I'm so sorry! It's been 2 weeks since my last post and life has just been so hectic I've barely had time to think let alone blog. I have a bit of a backlog of manis to post, I'll do my best to get them up as soon as I can. Slow down life!

Today I have yet another of the polishes from HARE Polish's recent Last Queen of France collection for you. This is 'The Teen Queen'.

Lamp light

Lamp light

'The Teen Queen' is a clear based glitter topper with a subtle blue shimmer and baby pink and neon blue hexes. I love the pastel/neon combo in this one. I've layered it over Lime Crime 'Once In A Blue Mousse', OPI 'Mod About You', and China Glaze 'Sweet Hook'. Unfortunately like the others from this collection that I've tried this one cracked after 24 hours too. Surely I can't be the only one having this problem? I've tried both Poshe and Seche Vite top coats and with and without PVA base coat all with the same outcome. This makes me really sad because I would rate the polishes from this collection among some of my favourites in my stash at the moment but I'm hesitant to wear any of them again :(

Bottle shot

Thursday 11 July 2013

Let Them Eat...What?

Hey guys, a quick post today. Let's jump straight to the photos!

Full sunlight

Full sunlight

This is HARE Polish 'Let Them Eat...What?' from their recent Marie Antoinette inspired collection. 'Let Them Eat...What?' is a soft white crelly filled with bright orange, baby pink, white, and gold glitters of different shapes and sizes. The bright orange and baby pink are an unexpected combination that work surprisingly well together, and I love the way the orange pops. My photos show 3 thin coats and I had no problems with application.

Bottle shot

I do have one gripe though, and it seems to be a common issue with all of the 'Last Queen of France' collection (or at least it has been with the 3 polishes that I've tried from the collection so far). The polish is cracking within about 24 hours of application. Normally this wouldn't be much of a problem, but since I use a PVA base coat to make glitter removal easier it means that water is able to get to the PVA when I wash my hands, which causes it to re-moisten and peel off my nails. You can just see on the right hand side of my index nail where it has started to crack and peel. I absolutely love all of the polishes from this collection that I've tried so far, but unfortunately I don't know if I'll wear any of them again because of their short lifespan. And I desperately want to wear them again, they're beautiful! I has a sad :(

Has anyone else had this problem with the 'Last Queen of France' collection? I've been using Seche Vite as a top coat but I might try Poshe next time I wear one from the collection and see if that makes a difference. Let me know if you've had a similar problem and know how to fix it!

Monday 8 July 2013

Holo Hearts

It was my 5 year anniversary with the boy about a fortnight ago, and I wanted to do something fairly simple and neutral because we were going to the ballet. I'd received my very first linear holo polish in the mail a few days earlier (yeah, my first real holo, I dunno why it took me so long to acquire one), and since it had been really sunny I decided that it was the perfect time to try it. WRONG. The day after I put it on the weather was overcast and raining, and I kept the polish on for 5 WHOLE DAYS even though it was severely chipped because I was desperate to see my first holo in the sun. Sadly it never happened, although the day after I took it off the weather cleared up. Go figure. Anyway, this was my anniversary mani:

Lamp light

Lamp light

Lamp light

The holo I used was Butter London 'Fishwife' (3 coats with no top coat) and I paired it with OPI 'Don't Pretzel My Buttons'. I created the heart by cutting the shape out of a piece of tape and using it as a stencil (you can see The Crafty Ninja's tutorial here). All my photos were taken in the lightbox so sadly the holo isn't very strong, but from a couple of glimpses that I caught under the right lights I bet this one packs a punch in the sun. This definitely won't be my last holo!

Saturday 6 July 2013

Fantasy Fire

Sorry sorry sorry! I know, I'm a terrible blogger! Life has been hectic and I had to get a new laptop which doesn't have Photoshop on it yet so I wasn't able to edit any photos for awhile there. I've managed to get photos edited for a few posts though so I'll try and have them up shortly :)

Today I have another photo-heavy post for you. Yep, it's another duo-chrome. Most of you will be familiar with this sought-after polish, 'Fantasy Fire' by Max Factor.

Lamp light

Lamp light - no camera flash

Lamp light - no camera flash

Lamp light - no camera flash

Lamp light 

I very rarely buy drug-store brands (OPI, China Glaze and Essie are NOT considered drug-store brands in Australia), but 'Fantasy Fire' is so widely acclaimed that I had to grab a bottle when Priceline was having 40% off some months back.

'Fantasy Fire' takes about 4 coats to create full opacity on it's own, so I recommend layering it over something. I've layered 2 coats over China Glaze 'Man Hunt'. I'm not entirely sure that I love 'Fantasy Fire' as much as everyone else. In some lights it was stunning, shifting to a purple-red colour. In other lights I thought it was pretty gross, going a strange browny-green shade. Blerk!

Bottle Shot

What do you think? Do you own 'Fantasy Fire'? Love it or hate it?

Monday 1 July 2013

Goodbye, Google Reader!

Quick business post today guys! I know I'm behind in posting nails, I'll try and have a few posts up in the coming days, but for now just a reminder to follow me through a platform other than Google Reader. For those of you who may have missed the news that's been circulating for some months now, Google Reader will be shutting down in less than 24 hours. Here are the other way that you can follow me (links to these can also be found on the left hand side of my page permanently):





I recommend following me on either Bloglovin' or Facebook. Bloglovin' is a feed similar to Google Reader, and I alway share a link to any new blog post I write on Facebook as soon as I've written it. My other platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest sometimes get forgotten for a couple of days (oops!) and at the moment Instagram is glitching and not letting me upload photos anyway. See you on another platform!