it's-a meee, Mario!

Yesterday, I asked you to share your Nail Art ideas for a Rainbow Base, and the response was incredible! You all have some fantastic imaginations, I tell you, and I struggled to pick one design - until I saw Ngelic's suggestion. Girl, you had me at "Rainbow Road". Clearly a geeky girl after my own nerdy heart, she suggested a design inspired by the "Rainbow Road" level in the MarioKart Nintendo Games.

New Years Eve, this year, was a really great one for me, a small group of close friends came over to my gaff, we played hilarious board games, set off some Sky Lanterns and played drunken MarioKart to see in 2011. Now, I love a party, but I wouldn't have had this any other way (seen as last year I had an asthma attack, and the year before that I rubbed cat on my face, drunkenly forgetting that I am horrifically allergic!) So, with my love for beating the virtual shit out of my friends, for lungs that work, and for Italian Plumbers, you won the vote, Ngelic!

I hope this is along the lines of what you had in mind :)

 Ring Finger, Middle and Thumb are the stars that give Mario invincibility - I freehanded in the star-shape with Claire's Black Nail Art Pen striper, then filled in the black, adding a coat of Technic Bonanza - a blue glitter in a black jelly base.
For the Pinky, I used thin strips of Scotch Tape to make the crazy race track pattern from the game, then painted over it in black, and then Technic Bonanza. I removed the Tape Strips before the polish was dry so the edges were neat.
I couldn't resist adding Mario to the Index Finger. I started with the peach face shade, freehanded in the moustache and hat, then outlined using Claire's Black Nail Art Pen. If you would like to know what particular shade is, just ask me in the comments - there's a lot to list here!
I topped the whole thing off with 2 coats of Seche Vite topcoat, to smooth it all out.

Ngelic, I hope you like it! Thanks for the inspiration! Ngelic has a beauty blog of her own and it's fantastic, letting us know about all the latest trends, new products and the offers going on at the moment. Get following!! :D I have added 10 entries to my Giveaway (WHICH ENDS TOMORROW) for you, as a wee prize :)

I hope you enjoyed the Royal Wedding if you managed to catch it. In my opinion, Pippa Middleton stole the show in her stunning Bridesmaid dress, the queen looked like a giant (bored) Easter Bonnet, and Prince Harry - what a loveable Twat.

Weekly Blog Round-Up!

I hope you've all managed to catch a bit of the Royal Wedding - I have far more important, pressing matters to attend to, so OF COURSE I am watching it!

Every week, a group of us get together and share our favourite posts from this week, and create a collective post - here is this weeks:-

Stacie went Rockabilly http://kawaiinailart.blogspot.com/2011/04/rockabilly-nails.htmlover at Kawaii Nail Art

The Nail Addict created some beautiful butterfly nailswhich look like damask silk http://thenailaddict.blogspot.com/2011/04/you-give-me-butterflies.html

Claire at TopTwenty Nails road tested some CDN Shellac http://toptwentynails.blogspot.com/2011/04/shellacs-rock-royalty-great-purple-long.html

Sharon mixed 2 blues to create a gorgeous effect http://polishinfatuated.blogspot.com/2011/04/beautiful-squishy-jelly.html

Linda was inspired by tokidoki and Sanrio http://wuliaonails.blogspot.com/2011/04/tokidoki-for-sanrio.html

Emily decorated her nails perfectly for Easter http://emilysnailfiles.blogspot.com/2011/04/easter-manicure.html

Grace showed her patriotic side with these cool Britannianails http://ooooohpretty.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-royal-wedding-nails.html

Gradient or Holo? Jen went for both http://moondancerjen.blogspot.com/2011/04/purple-holo-gradient.html

Lena stamped with bundle monster on Essie Bermuda shorts http://thestudentsguidetonailpolish.blogspot.com/2011/04/essie-bermuda-shorts-preview.html

  

My personal favourite post from around the Blogisphere this week is Prettyfulz post on the New BundleMonster plates - she took a photo of each one so we can have a real good look at the new designs! I was really grateful! click HERE to see them!

If you would like to be involved in future round upscontact Stacie at http://kawaiinailart.blogspot.com

New Spring and Summer From Deborah Lippmann

 

Girls Just Want To Have Fun – A smooth, vintage coral that everyone can wear because it’s bold yet velvety – a sort of carefree, creamy coral.

I Know What Boys Like – A creamy periwinkle that credits to both the 80’s and my clients. Several of my clients have asked for interesting blues. This one is a blend of blue and purple with a creamy finish, which gives it a slightly retro look that is so playful and hip.

Lara’s Theme was created with supermodel Lara Stone is Deborah Lippmann’s newest celebrity collaboration. It’s a dare to wear shade of hot-hot orange.

Yellow Brick Road, a sheer mellow yellow with a jelly finish. The proof that it wears beautifully on all skin tones: it complements me and Lady GaGa, who wore it first for her “Born This Way” performance at the 2011 Grammy Awards

Price: $16

Where to find: Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and online at http://www.deborahlippmann.com/

For insider information on all things Deborah Lippmann, follower her on Twitter @deborahlippmann

provided by pr


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

Zoya - Phoebe + first time tape!

New collections from Zoya always get me very excited, for this summer the brand came out with three (!) new collections (Sunshine, Summertime & Mod Matte). Right now I'm wearing a polish from the Mod Matte collection, Phoebe. This is how Zoya describes this nail polish: 

Bright azure with fine electric blue and violet shimmer with a velvety matte finish. The matte finish amplifies the bright color; this is a matte that positively glows.

I have a hard time finding the violet shimmer, but other than that: perfect description.  Phoebe reminds me of the sea - oh, I mean the Caribbean Sea, the sea around here has an awful colour. It's a very pretty polish, matte polishes can look dull, but not Phoebe, I love the velvety finish. The first picture shows how it looks shiny and matte (ring fingernail).

The formula wasn't that great, thick, gloopy and not very pigmented. So you have to be careful (to avoid streaks) and fast (it dries very quickly because it's a matte) at the same time when you're applying Phoebe. I got the most even result with thicker layers, I used three coats I believe.

As you can see I also had some fun with tape. :) I used two China Glaze polishes, Kiwi Cool-Ada and Millennium. These colours are awesome together, but I think it looks better without the silver stripes, they cover to much of that gorgeous neon green. But it was fun to do and I like the neat result you get with tape! What do you think?

Thanks for watching!

My Rainbow Manicure NEEDS YOU!

Last night I painted my my nails Rainbow Stripes, and, while I wasn't exactly stuck for ideas for what to do with it, it got me wondering how YOU lovely lot would finish off the design!
So here is the plan: For today (and maybe tomorrow), leave your comments below, suggesting what else you would do to the design, were it on your own nails - would you add a glitter topcoat? Freehand in some Rain-clouds? Add Black Crackle? Shooting stars? Add some Bling? I want you to decide the next step in this Manicure!
After a period of 24hrs or so, I will choose my favourite suggestion and bring it to life - the winner gets an extra TEN ENTRIES in my Giveaway (if you haven't already entered then I will enter you :D) and, of course, all credit and linkage will go to you! Here is what you have to work with, and to get your creative juices flowing!

All colours over white, using a striping brush.

Here is a list of what I own so you can make sure your design is possible, with the equipment I own, before you suggest something involving unicorn tears, or phoenix feathers:

• Freehand - ANYTHING GOES - I love a challenge, and have nail art brushes and pens/polishes in every colour, so go wild - anything from your favourite cartoon to a polished reconstruction of your life story is coool with me.
• Scotch tape - would you tape a section (or sections) off, and change the colours around? Any colour goes!
• Glitter topcoat in any colour, including holographic and big hex glitter
• Loose glitter in silver, purple, pink
• Crackle Topcoat in black (Barry M)
• French tips
• Fimo cane ( the usuals: fruit, teddy bears, butterflies, flowers etc) see this post for a selection
• Rhinestones in clear, pink, yellow, lilac, green, mint green, gold, little red stars.
• All of the FIRST Bundle Monster set, for stamped designs
• Konad M57, M79, M73, M29
• Born Pretty Store Hello Kitty plate
• Matt topcoat
• Sponges for a gradient effect
• Kiss White Daisy Nail Stickers

Kitty Kreations - Lufee Nails

This is Lufee

AKA: Foof, foofy, foofy pants, purry pants.

No idea what sort of breed she is, but I would guess at Himalayan-ish.  She is pale cream/white all over, with cream points and bright blue eyes.  She is also TINY, the smallest full grown adult cat I have ever seen.  She easily sits on just one knee, and can pretty much sit in my husbands hand!!

The story as to how we ended up with Foof is an interesting one.  An acquaintance of my mum was down at the local lake and found her. There is no residential area near the lake and she didn't know what to do with her. She had dogs at home, but knew my mum had cats, so she put her in the car and bought her over. 

We all thought she was a gorgeous kitten, and then I noticed the tattoo on the inside of her ear, a mark that shows shes been desexed.  We took her to the vet and had her scanned for a microchip.  They found one, and looked up the owner.  We were so happy to know that we were about to return this kitty to its home.  I know how upset we would be if we were missing a kitty.

Anyway, the vet called the owner and told them we found their cat.  Their reply was "oh, that cat, she ran away about a year ago.  We've got another cat now and don't really want her."   We couldn't believe it, first that this tiny kitty was a couple of years old and second, that they didn't want her back. So we scooped her up and took her home and never let her out again (except into our awesome cat runs).

So here are my Lufee nails.

I started with a white base, and sponged on OPI Samoan Sands to the tips.  I then added a franken blue fleck shimmer which represented her bright blue eyes.

Because the white was kinda thick and then I had to sponge a lot of Samoan Sands on to get a good colour, the tips ended up chunky and had massive shrinkage.  The blue shimmer also ended up looking really frosty. 

The top photo was outside in the sun, and the below indoors.  You can see the shimmer/frostiness of it clearly belown. It certainly was a different mani, and definitely represented my little Foofy, but I don't think I would wear it again.

Rocking My Pink On Wednesday With Nubar Pink Lily/Dewdrop

It's Hump day! Good Morning,

It's been a busy week for me.  These pictures are a few weeks old .  My nails have grown and are much longer now.  Pink Lily and Dewdrop are from the Nubar Spring Garden Collection. A gorgeous pastel pink that I love.  Dewdrop makes them look sugar coated.  I did a little funky french nailart with dots on thumb nail using konad white special polish and Pink Lily .

Are you rocking a pink today?  Please tell me what are you wearing?

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

Blog Lovin'

 Hi folks!

I'm now on Blog Lovin' - another way to follow my blog, especially easy if you don't have one of your own :D Get email updates on the blogs you follow :D


Follow my blog with bloglovin

Christening nails

Today I have my nails from my baby girls Christening on the weekend.  I couldn't go last Ulta3's baby pink for this mani.  I added some flower embellishments that I bought from a kisok in our local Westfield last year.  They work really well, but I was lazy and didn't find the tweezers to apply them and that's why they aren't lined up nicely.

Here is the cake I made for her.

And the inside. White Chocolate mud cake, aarrgggghhhhh (wipes drool from side of mouth)

And my dolly dressed up ready to go.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Drum roll please...

How I spent three hours last night:

• It started with 399 entries.
• Duplicate entries were removed.
• I individually determined how many entries each entrant received, they ranged from two all the way up to eleven. 
• My spreadsheet had follower names listed from line 1 to line 2914. 
• I got random.org to picked a unique number, 2727, which belonged to...

Lisa Mc

 

Congratulations, you are the winner of my holographic polish giveaway.

 

I've sent you an email.

Easter Manicure

I wanted to quickly show you what I was sporting on Easter Sunday, but first - I have reached 500 followers today! How cool is that?! Thank you so much to everyone who reads! If the 100 follower Giveaway wasn't already running, I would do something to celebrate - I'll rack my brains for something after it's ended!


For this Manicure I used a base of Models Own BlooBoo for all but the ring finger (Rimmel Lemon Drop)  and thumb (American Apparel  Coney Island). I then used Claire's Nail Art Pens and a dotting tool to create the nail art. If you have any questions about any colours, just pop it in the comments and I will let you know - there are too many to name!

 So we have an Easter Chick and an Easter Bunny, who has dropped some eggs off in the grass :D

I love Pastels and Creams, so this was a nice Mani for me to have on! I hope you all had a lovely day and you're not getting as fat as me from over indulgence!

Sorry for the rather sporadic posts, after this MASSIVE piece of work is handed in to Uni, I will be back on form :D

If you haven't already, enter my International 100 Follower Giveaway - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE pop your details in the Google Docs form! I can't accept entries that are added to the comments! Good Luuuuck!

Zoya Nail Polish at the Royal Wedding!

Zoya Nail Polish and Qtica celebrate the wedding of the century!

Happily Ever After! We know how hard it is to find that perfect match! That is why Zoya has over 300 beautiful nail polish colors to choose from. Making it easy for every bride to find the perfect color for her big day and every day after that! With the royal wedding of the century only days away (and still no word on just who's making Kate Middleton's wedding dress) we created a wedding video for our perfect match - Zoya Nail Polish and Qtica! Check out the Zoya Royal Wedding video below! Even if you haven't found the "one" yet - you can feel and look your best with Zoya Nail Polish and Qtica! Check out our bridal suggestions here!

Teeez - Smooth

Today I'm showing you Smooth, the third (and sadly also the last) prismatic nail polish from the brand Teeez. A pink-fuchsia coloured polish with prismatic particles. It looks fantastic in bright light, but indoors it's a pretty too! Let me think... do I have something similar? I guess I don't. And that's cool, 'cause it's a fabulous shade. And hey, everything that has something rainbow-y going on is a total win for me! The formula was very nice, I could've stopped after applying two coats, but after three coats the colour looked more intense, which I like, so you're looking at three coats without a top coat.

You like? In case you've missed it, I'm giving away Smooth's purty purple sister and her blowing-you-away blue brother (among others), so if you want to enter my giveaway click → here ←!

Thanks for watching. :)

Illamasqua Bacterium and Gamma Swatches/Review

Good Morning,

Illamasqua has some of the most brilliant nail varnishes that you want to own. The colors are rich and the formula is spectacular.  I have a few to show you from the  "Toxic Nature Collection" Spring 2011

Bacterium:  Pearlescent Ash Ochre, I describe it as a frosty duochrome toffee brown with a flash of purple.  Two coats were used.

Bacterium is a unique color.  It's the first of it's kind in my collection.

Gamma:  Neon Orange,  a bright creme orange that dries matte. Two coats were used.

With Topcoat

What I like about these polishes is the formula.  No problems while applying them.  I would wear Bacterium on a job interview it's a safe color. I can't wait to wear Gamma on my toes.

These 2 and others from this collection is available here

These were sent to me for review

 

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

ANZAC nails

Today, here in Australia we are celebrating an additional public holiday for ANZAC day, which was actually yesterday. You've gotta love Aussies for getting another holiday just because two holiday's coincide.

Here are my ANZAC tribute nails. In case your wondering, the middle finger is the rising sun badge.

ANZAC (which stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

Peeping Toms

So this weekend was a weekend full of Yesterdog, Adult Grilled Cheese sandwiches from Marie Catrib's, eggrolls, a brilliant haircut, and lots of other miscellaneous awesomeness. (like seeing friends and family) I didn't actually go home because it was Easter, I went home because it was my good friend Adam's wedding! :) It was also a great opportunity for my man friend to (finally) meet my parents! (not to worry, he survived) Even though going home wasn't to celebrate Easter, I still decided to celebrate Easter on my fingernails, using the iconic yellow marshmallow treats we all manage to gag down during the Easter holidays... Peeps!

Fun game with Peeps that I learned this weekend- Peeps jousting- take 2 Peeps, stick a toothpick in the chest of each one, microwave them, and whoever gets poked first from expanding loses. lol

Anyway.

I used Orly Lemonade as a base, then mixed with CND Bicycle Yellow, and later AAmerican Apparel Raccoon to shade. American Apparel Raccoon was also used for the eyes, and Pure Ice French Kiss was used for the Peeps logo. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Zoya Nail Polish Summer Colors Reviewed on YouTube

Nail Polish lovers are loving Zoya on YouTube this month - take a peak at the following video reviews of the the new Zoya Nail Polish color collections if you are trying to decide on your perfect Zoya...  We just love YouTube video beauty gurus!

LaFemme5278

simplyglamourxoxo Love the bloopers :)

Birthday Nails

The weekend really got away from me.  I did hope to post sooner than this, but the crazy Easter weekend just took over.

Here are the nails that I wore for Bayden's birthday.  He thought they were so wonderful and kept wanting to look at them.  Yes, he turned three, and yes he loves Elmo.

I used Orly's Lunar Eclipse as the base, then did a white splodge on the elmo nails, so that the red would show through nicely.  I used Ulta 3 Fire Truck for the red and Carrot top for the nose.  I then used a black nail art brush for the dots and smile.  For the '3's' I first did them in white, then I painted over them in Ulta3 Citrus  Putting the white underneath really made the yellow pop. Apologies for the tip wear, this was at the end of the day at Monkey Mania.

And here is there little man's birthday cake.  He really loved it!!

Finally, for shits and giggles, here is my right hand.  OMG I really suck trying to do neat nail art with my left hand.  But from a distance they still matched, and when people asked to see my nails I just showed my left hand.

I still have my mani on from Saturday at the moment.  So no Easter nails, however I'm still planing to do ANZAC nails today.

China Glaze - Kiwi Cool-Ada

Aah, I can't believe how nice the weather is here, flip flop weather, I like! I love to wear neons right now, so I could of course show you Flip Flop Fantasy from China Glaze, matching the flip flops and all, but that's for another post. Today I'm showing you Kiwi Cool-Ada, from the same China Glaze collection. What a crazy colour, it's freakin' awesome! My pictures don't show all the awesomeness, in real life the colour is more intense and darker, but also brighter! This glowy green reminds me of kryptonite. You just have to see this nail polish in person, it'll knock your socks off. :D 

Kiwi Cool-Ada is a neon, so it dries up matte. I wanted to see how it looks shiny so I added a layer of top coat, but I actually like it better with the matte finish. The application was not the easiest, this is three coats and four on some nails to get rid of bald spots. As you can see I also added some stamping, I used an image from imageplate M64 and China Glaze - Millennium as the stamping polish.

Thanks for watching and have a great Easter weekend!

*The product(s) in this post was/were sent to me for reviewing purposes.

For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.