OPI - I Get A Kick Out Of Gold

I bought this polish AGES ago, probably the beginning of last year, and yesterday I was going through my boxes to find polishes that I hadn't swatched and I found this one.  I can't believe I forgot about it and it got lost amongst my stash.  I didn't even include it in my gold foil comparison.  I'll have to do another one now.

The above photo was taken in the sun, below indoors under artificial light.  OPI - I get a kick out of gold is an older polish, but you can still get it on ebay.  But, given that there are so many gold foil polishes out there that would be almost dupes of this, it's not one that you need to go out and get.  What I like about this gold is that it is a cool tone (like Orly Lux and Jessica Palladium). This was three coats + one Seche Vite.

To mix it up a bit, last night I added two coats of LA Girls Rock Star Double Platinum.  I love this polish but have never been able to get it opaque enough to do a swatch of it on its own.  LA Girls Rock Star Double Platinum is a holographic glitter in a slightly smokey, almost clear base.  Here is the full sun pic from this morning.

Under artificial light last night.

And the obligatory blurry shot to show the glitter.

It makes me smile looking at my nails today, what a shame I have to take it off to put on the green magnetic polish that turned up in the post today!! 

Zoya Nail Polish :NYFW Fall 2011, Peter Som

Zoya Nail Polish : NYFW Fall 2011, Peter Som  
Zoya Nail Polish
New York Fashion Week (NYFW)
Fall 2011 Recap: Peter Som
Zoya Nail Polish: Zoya Sally

Peter Som runway was a perfect blend of ready-to-wear and haute coture. Peter Som looked to the The Zoya Nail Polish Team to manicure models nails in the delicate pink shimmer of Zoya Sally which complimented the shows looks.

Each nail was cleaned and prepped with Zoya Remove + from the Zoya Color Lock System, prior to applying a base coat of Zoya Anchor, two coats of Zoya Sally and an ultra glossy top coat of Zoya Armor. Everything dried quickly with a few drops of Zoya Hurry Up.

Watch live streaming video from petersom at livestream.com

Video courtesy of live stream (livestream.com/petersom)

Roses, Butterflies and KILLER SHOES

It's the year of 21st Birthdays for me. All of my best friends are reaching that milestone (before me may I add- I'm a summer baby!), and you know what that means - plenty of fabulous parties to attend! This weekend was the turn of a close family friend, she had a great gathering at this kitsch little pub on the river, and my parents and brother came as well, which is always hilarious, as none of them can dance, but in their own unique, arm-flailing way!

One thing you should know about me is that I CANNOT cope in heeled shoes. This is not a choice. I would love nothing more than to be able to wear to-die-for heels - I'm a great admirer - but I just can't do it. I don't know if I have weak ankles or bad posture, but I look like Bambi on the ice rink! I can't walk, and I've lost count of the times I've left the house for a night out and returned twenty seconds later to change into flats because I can't even get down my road to the bus stop. 

For this reason, I bought my flat black pumps back from Uni with me to wear to the party, and my mother was utterly disgusted. She refused to let me "not make an effort" for one of our closest friend's birthday, and I had to explain that I would love to make the effort, but that I just can't find a pair of heels that I can walk ten metres in!! Being the brilliant woman that my Mum is, she forcibly dragged me to the shops and I tried on every pair of heels I could find until I found a shoe I could wear! I decided on a wedge strategy - more support for my stupid feet - and this way I could add them to my (very girly) dress with black tights and my leather jacket to make it more edgy.

I have to say it was a success, I lasted all night on the dancefloor until I had to walk half a mile back to the car - I made my brother piggyback me!! and I'm HEAVY - bless him! Here they are:-

eeeeee shoes I can walk in! From New Look :D

On to the Butterflies and Roses. I wanted a manicure to match my dress:

Dress from Miss Selfridge

I used the image on the left for inspiration, and, using my newly acquired BundleMonster plates BM06 and BM14, came up with this:-

I only had time for one quick picture before the party - I'm rubbish at getting ready on time!

As you can see, it's pretty shoddily stamped, as I was in a hurry, but I think you get the idea of what i was trying to do! I think considering it was my first times stamping, I did alright ha!

The polishes I used are:-

• Barry M basecoat and topcoat
• Bloom Flamingo Sands
• Stamped white roses with Rimmel French Manicure White
• Stamped dark coral roses in Barry M Coral
• Stamped purple roses in MUA 04
• Stamped butterfly in Barry M 293, Charcoal Grey.

I'll have to swatch Flamingo Sands by herself for you soon, its a gorgeous polish, but so hard to photograph as it can look completely different colours depending on the light!

Zoya Nail Polish, NYFW Fall 2011: Joy Cioci

Zoya Nail Polish: NYFW Fall 2011, Joy Cioci

Fall 2011 Recap: Joy Cioci

Date: 02/16/2011 

Zoya Nail Polish: Zoya Caitlin and Zoya Dove

Haven Spa for Zoya 

The Joy Cioci presentation was full of soft light looks that were effortlessly beautiful! Joy Cioci looked to the Haven for Zoya Nail Polish team to manicure models nails in the custom nail design using Zoya Caitlin tipped with the soft grey Zoya Dove which complimented the shows looks. 

Each nail was cleaned and prepped with Zoya Remove + from the Zoya Color Lock System, prior to applying a base coat of Zoya Anchor, two coats of Zoya Caitlin and then tipped with one coat of Zoya Dove and an ultra glossy top coat of Zoya Armor. Everything dried quickly with a few drops of Zoya Fast Drops.

Video courtesy of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week

Red Carpet Red - Zoya has your perfect nail polish color!

One big trend emerging from the 2011 Academy Awards was Red! Red hair, red dresses and red nails. With hundreds of reds to choose from in both cream and metallic options, Zoya Nail Polish has you covered for your next Red Carpet walk!

Not sure on your shade - order a Zoya Color Spoon to try it before you buy it.

What's a Zoya Color Spoon?

Zoya Color Spoons are clear plastic, spoon shaped devices with actual nail polish poured in the nail shaped tip. Before you order a bottle of a color you are not sure of, order a color spoon of that color instead. You can order as many (or as few) colors as you would like. When you receive the Zoya Color Spoons, simply hold them up to your nails and see what the actual color will look like on your nails as though you applied 2 coats and a clear top coat. You never have to worry about ordering the wrong color again.

Ok here is the best part: Zoya Color Spoons SHIP FREE (Economy Ground). That's Right, weather you buy 1 or 200 spoons you do not have to pay for shipping unless you want to upgrade to faster shipping.

So how much are the Zoya Color Spoons? Well they are basically FREE. When you place an order for Zoya Color Spoons you are charged $0.50 per spoon, but as soon as your order is invoiced and ships you will receive an email with a personalized promo code for a discount in the amount equal to the amount you spent on spoons to be taken against you next order.You can use your coupon code towards the purchase of the real color you want to buy or any merchandise on our websites. You can even use it to buy additional color spoons. read more ...

Zoya Nail Polish, NYFW Fall 2011: Victor de Souza

Zoya Nail Polish: NYFW Fall 2011, Victor de Souza

Fall 2011 Recap: Victor De Souza

Date: 02/10/2011 

Zoya Nail Polish: Zoya Dove

Nail Taxi for Zoya 

Victor de Souza runway was structured futuristic femininity. De Souza looked to the Nail Taxi for Zoya Nail Polish team to manicure models nails in the creamy grey Zoya Dove which complimented the shows looks.

Each nail was cleaned and prepped with Zoya Remove + from the Zoya Color Lock System, prior to applying a base coat of Zoya Anchor, two coats of Dove and an ultra glossy top coat of Zoya Armor. Everything dried quickly with a few drops of Zoya Fast Drops.

 

Cinnamon Bowser of Nail Taxi uses Zoya Armor on Cynthia Bailey of  The Real Housewives of Atlanta!  

Video courtesy of FashionTV

Layering Mani

Good Morning,  I didn't have time to change my mani so today will be skipping Blue Monday.  Next Monday will be back to regular programming. Lol!  Today I put on a layering polish SH Nail Prims Lavendar Pearl over FingerPaints Did You Ast-Her Out? from the Palette of Petals Collection.  If you want to see it by itself click here  My pictures doesn't give the layering it's true beauty.  In real life it has a green cast to it.  The lavender shows in the bottle but not on the nail maybe due to the base color.  Lavendar Pearl is quite thin so there is no other way to use this polish except for layering.  Now I'm curious to how it would look on other colors. 

You can also see the duochrome effect from the bottle.

I love Sally Hansen Nail Prisms.  I wish she bring them back.  I found some at Dollar Tree Stores and the famous Ebay.   

I have been having so much trouble with blogger lately.  Spell check wasn't working for me this morning.  Have you been having trouble too?


Until next time please have a great nail polish day. (✿◠‿◠)

Models Own - Purple Ash

Today I have a Models Own polish for you, Purple Ash, which I bought as a part of the 'Autumn/Winter Collection'-set (it's the 3rd one from the right). The lovely Ulmiel asked for a swatch and a comparison with other polishes, well, it's all here, enjoy! :O

Purple Ash is a muted red toned purple creme, but describing it as a dark dusty rose seems fitting too. It looks like Models Own also put a drop of brown in it.. It's a gorgeous, unique colour. I have nothing like it! The application was very good, it was opaque in two coats. I also used a topcoat.

I was searching through my stash for polishes that are close to Purple Ash and these are the ones I found (I told you I had nothing like it, lol). As you can see Purple Ash is more red toned than the other two, but I think they dó look nice next to each other, don't they? :) I totally forgot I had P2 Gracious, it's so pretty with its subtle shimmer (which isn't visible in this picture). I should definitely make a special post on that one! And China Glaze's Channelesque... well, it's Channelesque. :L (I just noticed I misspelled it in the picture, #fail).

Thanks for watching!

Gleek and Gypsy Nights.

 So my housemate is fantastic. As you know, I went home for the weekend and returned this evening to 2 lovely presents from Sophie, one of my favourite people with giant hair. One was a “glee” Easter egg, complete with Mug – which I’m thrilled about, one of our favourite things to do together is drink copious amounts of tea, eat copious amounts of chocolate, and spend a copious amount of time talking about Everything and Nothing. The other present was a “knit your own boyfriend” kit....which I'm not as thrilled about....hahaha!

Rubbish phone pic...but look at the size of that mug! Cheers, Sofa!!!

 On to the Manicure!! I recently acquired an interesting polish from Topshop called “Gypsy Nights” which is quite a sheer black with holographic glitter and flakies! I snapped it up; you don’t see flakies very often over here in the polish middle ages (UK!). I applied two coats of it over two coats of Claire’s Black polish, and then added a silver stripe at the very tip of my tips with Claire’s Silver Nail Art Pen. Topped it off with Barry M topcoat, and here are the results, as best as I could capture the glitter effects! 

Shiny shinnnnyyy

 You can't see the holo glitter tooo much here, but if you look at the pinkie, you can see the iridescence of the flakies in it.

I've seen some exciting effects created with flakies by adding a matte topcoat, so i decided to matte it up with Claire's Matt topcoat (which should be spelled "matte" - really bugs me haahah - I'm a fiendish English student/grammar Nazi!). Here we are:

With Claire's matte topcoat.

I liked the effect of the matte topcoat, it did, however, dull the holographic glitter, but I like that it's a bit different. i decided to keep it like this for a couple of days before I was boooorrreeeddd!!! I went to a 21st birthday party over the weekend for one of my best friends, I've known her since she was a tiny babba, and it was lovely to see in this milestone together - love you Rachie poops. I'll post my party manicure tomorrow!

Another exciting installment - my bundlemonster plates arrived! WOO HOOOOO now I can start this Konading business properly!! Look out!!!

Magnetic polishes - Purple and Rust Red

Here I have two more of my new magnetic polishes from Nail Art and More.  This one is called Purple and its super pretty.  The bottle colour is the same as the pale colour on the nail, then when you use the magnet it brings our the darker purple colour.

These polishes have the most beautiful colours in them.  This one has a blue, pink and purple shimmer which can be seen the pic below.

My application of the magnets is getting much better too.

Here is Rust Red. Again the bottle colour is closer to the pale colour on the nail, then with the magnet the darker rust colour lifts out.

I think I prefer the lines magnet to the star one, maybe because its a little more forgiving with bad alignment. 

If you don't get the star magnet lined up correctly on the nail it looks pretty shoddy.

As promised, here are the magnets and the positioning tool.

The base of the positioning tool has a little target on it so you know where to put your finger. 

You then tread the magnet design you want to use onto the fork and position it at the right height for your nail.  I then paint my nail while its still on the target and immediately place the fork, with the magnet, over my finger and hold for 10 seconds.

There you have it.  I'm now just waiting for my Green polish that was missing to turn up, and then to go shopping on their site again, as they have told me there will be seven new colours on their site in the next couple of weeks.

A Super Generous Giveaway!

First of all, sorry for the lack of post these last few days , I am currently back at home in Nottingham and away from my Laptop and Camera! I do have some lovely things in store for you, so stay tuuuuned!
One of my lovely new Followers Hayley has a FABULOUS giveaway over at her totally inspiring blog:-
http://xminidivax-minidiva.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-first-blog-giveaway.html
She also must be telepathic, because its all my favies! HELLO SOAP&GLORY!!!!
Get over and check it out, she's also super lovely and been very supportive of me and my new baby blog on the comments!

peace out bros, more manis and ramblings from me after le weekend!
<3

Olive You, Leopard!

I love weird leopard print color combinations, and this one is no exception. Its colors remind me of green olives with the pimentos in them, sitting in the jar waiting to accompany some poor schmuck's gin. 

I can't take credit for this color combination, to be honest, I saw a rug that had the pattern, and I adored it (I wish I had bought it!) so I snapped a picture knowing that it would find its way onto my nails at some point.  I love the 'gradient' (ok not so much a gradient as a color change) from the tip of the nail to the cuticle edge.  The color of the orange shows up really red in the pictures, but its more of a burnt orangey red in real life. I think someone needs to develop one of them so I don't have to mix it. (think Essie Alligator purse, but more orange than red)

Anyway, on to the nails- for now all I have are pictures from the iPhone, because my camera is MIA right now. Hopefully I find it tonight, so I can take a picture of them with a real camera before they get destroyed by acetone. :)  

I used American Apparel California Trooper> as a base, with American Apparel MacArthur Park for the green, and a mix of Essie Alligator Purse and China Glaze Life Preserver for the orange. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Orly Cosmic FX Collection - Lunar Eclipse

So here is it, my favourite.  So pretty and sparkly and blue.  Apparently is a dupe of OPI Designer Series Magic and Sally Hansen Ultra HD Laser, but I don't have either of those, so I just love it.  I know it doesn't have the same multi chrome, or even duo chrome thing going on as Space Cadet, but sometimes you just put a polish on and fall in love with it, and that is what happened with this one.

The above shot was taken in full sun, and it was so sparkly that this picture doesn't do it justice.  Below shot was taken indoors, and you can still see the glossy magic of the polish.

Here it is up close.  Just look at all those rich blue sparkly flecks.  It reminds me of the sun reflecting off the rippling water on our pool. I feel like I could just jump in.

So there you have it, the magnificent Orly Cosmic FX collection.  Go now and get it.

Go Green Friday! Loreal Paris Jade 31F

                         (Live Green, Love Green, Think Green)

It's Go Green Friday! Hope you have a good one.  I found an awesome green polish at dollar tree.  You know the ones in the double packs. It's an oldie but a goodie.  Loreal Paris Jade a blue tone green with gold shimmer. I love this unusual green. The brush is a mile long. Lol!  No application issues being this is an old polish.  That goes to show you nail polish last forever!  If it starts to dry out simple add nail polish thinner.   Used 2 coats.

I really love the gold shimmer in it.  So sparkly out in the sun.

Going Green Tip: Re-use plastic grocery bags remove (ahem!) catbox waste THEN tie bag in knot and THEN pitch; keeps the garbage guys from "fallout" (ick!) and we don't have to buy any bags for that purpose.

Source: The Daily Green


Until next time please have a great nail polish day. (✿◠‿◠)