NOTD: Neon and Triangles

   Hey you guys :D Now I know the past few manis from last week were all neon based.. not to worry though, this is the last of them (for now :P). 

   For this mani, I used Chi Chi OTT and OMG (Chi Chi really like their acronyms haha) and Australis Peek-a-boo, as well as a couple triangle studs from the Born Pretty Store (don't forget to use XFSQ10 at checkout to get 10% off your order!).

   Is it just me, or is there something about neons and triangles that just really work well together?! 

NOTD: Ikat Turned Tie Dye

   Hey there y'all! Hope all is well, and that everyone had an amazing weekend! This weekend was a busy one for me - a weekend I wasn't actually overrun with work, and had time to go out, have a few drinks, play some bowling, eat some waffles.. you get the gist of it :P. And to add to all the excitement, I came home last night to 10k followers on Instagram! YAYY *dances* and for those of you who follow me on Instagram (@xtinemayyy): THANKS & BIG HUGS :D

   And so, at just past 4am Monday morning, I've found some down time to write up this post. Following through with the neon swing that I seem to be on, this is my version of a bright, neon IKAT design. Though it looked much better in my head, I still kind of dig it - sort of like a tie dye effect!

NOTD: Neon Mix 'n' Match + #mynailsmysmoothie

   Hey guys! So here in Australia, we've begun our descent into Autumn: last week brought a couple of cold, rainy days, the sky looming with clouds. Perfect weather to be skipping gym, staying cozy in bed, and reading a good ol' book (Game of Thrones saga.. anyone else addicted?!). But there are also nails to be painted! And who's to say I can't bring out the neons as the weather cools? 

   For this mani, I used Chi Chi OTT which I was quite intrigued by, because unlike most highlighter yellow neon polishes, it leans slightly more towards a green than a yellow. 

   Little anecdote - with my friend at the shops: 

      Friend: It's the same colour as the one you have already!

      Me: No it's not. This one is slightly more green than the highlighter yellow polish I have at home.

      Friend: But it's similar right? So you don't need this one?

      Me: Don't be ridiculous, of course I do. 

   Anyone else had a similar experience? haha SIMILAR DOES NOT MEAN SAME.

   Okay, so back to the mani, I used 4 coats of OTT. Which is a lot I know. But I didn't use a white base, and this polish was more of a jelly-like consistency instead of a creme. For the accent nail I used 1 coat of Butter London Fairy Cake and 2 coats of Australis Shimmy Shake. The lines were painted on using my ever trusty Sinful Colors Black on Black, and a small detail brush. 

Born Pretty Store Review: Triangle Nail Art Studs

   Hey y'all! Hope you've been well :D Today, I have another Born Pretty Store review to share ^^ This time it's triangular nail art studs, that are super easy to use, and can spruce up your mani in minutes. The studs are 3mm and come in gold or silver. Each pack contains approximately 200 pieces, so there's plenty to play around with. I chose to go with the silver triangular studs in this super girly - but edgy - Valentine's day inspired mani.

Packet of Triangular Nail Art Studs

   I was aiming for a heart shape at first, using the studs, but ended up with two floral shapes instead, which works out just as fine :P The studs don't need anything special to stick to the nail, I just use regular top coat to stick them on, and another coat of top coat on top to seal them in. Though, if you reallllly wanted to make sure they didn't come off too easily, you could always use nail glue to cement them in place (: 

   For the mani's base, I used Chi Chi Don't You Know Who I Am?, and topped it off with a reverse glitter gradient using Shades Of Phoenix Zeus. 

"Inspired By" NOTD: Hot Pink Aztec Cut Out Nails

   Hey hey hey y'all! So, I was on Instagram q couple of days ago when I was tagged by @hollysagemini in her nail art pic that was inspired by a mani I did a few weeks back. It was such a cool twist to my mani, that I just had to recreate her recreation! :P

My mani from a few weeks back

Holly's recreation of it

And my recreation of her recreation!

   I decided to stick with the pink theme of Holly's nails and used Chi Chi OMG for the base and Sinful Colors Black on Black for the black accents. Seriously though, cut outs are the bomb diggity :P

   And so if anyone else has been/is ever inspired by a mani of mine, let me know and share! I love seeing them :D Either tag me on Instagram @xtinemayyy - or better yet, hashtag #xtinemayyy I'm more likely to see it that way since sometimes, my feed moves too fast and I don't see all my notifications ): Or share them on the FB page www.facebook.com/NailsAtTwoAm

AN Monday: Snowflakes

   Hey hey hey... it's Monday today! And I'm on time with my AN Monday mani this week :D So obviously, judging from the title of this post, and the fact that there are huge snowflakes on my nails, the theme was snow! (Or snowmen lol) 

   I reallllly wanted a pale pink polish that wasn't too sheer (Sally Hansen Shall We Dance is my usual soft pink go-to but this time I wanted something a little more opaque) but the closest I could get was Ulta3 Pale Dahlia. Although it's got a pearl shimmer finish to it - and I'm not fond of shimmers/ pearly polishes at all - I was going to be covering it up with a holo glitter gradient and snowflakes anyway, so it wasn't too big a deal. For the glitter gradient, I used Chi Chi Celebrity Melt Down (which I feel like I've been using a lot lately) and Essence Black is Back for the snowflakes.

   Before painting on the snowflakes, I fell in love with just the holo gradient over the pink! I was this close *motions with fingers exactly how close* to leaving it like that and just pretending it was an abstract representation of snow falling :P But I cheated last week with the scribble Christmas tree, so thought I may as well practice my free hand drawing skills this week.

   And by golly gosh are snowflakes finicky little turds! I had to practice multiple times on a piece of paper before being confident enough to try it on my nails. And whenever two spikes touched, I'd quickly go between them with acetone and redraw them straight again. 

   They're actually pretty basic compared to all the other snowflake manis I've seen floating around, but this is the best mine are going to get this year :P I have no intentions of revisiting this little monster until at least next Christmas haha

   To see all the other snowy manis by the other AN Monday girls, just click on through to the Aussie Nails Monday page of the blog (:

Let's Play ...catch up.

[ PICTURE HEAVY POST ]

   But on the plus side, lots to look at. AMIRIGHT? :D

   I got my Emily De Molly order last week and went on a swatching frenzy. 

EdM Cosmic Forces

EdM Flurocious

EdM Block Party

EdM Monet's Garden

EdM Dark Depths

Next are manis that didn't make the cut for tumblr, and were just posted on IG 

Rainbow gradient skittle (too many colours to name /lazy)

Topped with simple tribal pattern

Essence Passion for Fashion topped with Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Max Factor Desert Sand is the squishiest nude evarr! Topped with simple geometric design

Butter London The Black Knight and Jack The Lad gradient

Polka dots using Chi Chi Plastic Fantastic as the base - so minty green!

Simple stripes using Max Factor Opal and Lilac Lace and Essence Passion for Fashion

   Any favourites? Or any requests? (:

Watercolour Floral

   Feeling a tad girly today, so thought I'd do some floral nail art ..that, and I haven't done a floral design in ages and I miss it! :P This design was inspired by Jenn from Jenn's Nails on tumblr. I am absolutely in love with her nails, and her nail art!

   So basically, my take on the mani is using a 'watercolour' method where I've thinned down the nail polish colours with some thinner (acetone works just as well). I used Chi Chi Plastic Fantastic (fast becoming a minty favourite!), Ulta3 Tahitian Lime and BC Co. Shade 21 for the background. It's pretty much painting the polish on in short strokes (like in an ikat design) one colour at a time until the entire nail is covered. For the flowers (I didn't water them down too much, so that they would stand out from the background) I used Sally Hansen I Pink I Can, Sinful Colors Snow Me White and Black on Black. Topped it off with a quick dry top coat to even things out, et voila!

   I was planning on doing some ikat chevron nails this week, but this sort of counts as ikat too right (short strokes)? :P Instead, if any of y'all have suggestions or requests, I'de love to hear them, and see what I can do! 

Pretty Pastels

   Hey y'all! Sooooo... here we are again, another day, another mani. Though, if you're anything like me, then that means playtime! :P With Easter right around the corner, I've had an urge to play with pastels, and since I haven't attempted a watermarble and/or gradient in a while, thought I'd mash the two together for a pretty pastel mani.

   I started off with two coats of Sinful Colors Easy Going (this is such a pretty delicate pink shade, so bummed I didn't take a shot of it on my nails *sob*). Then with Chi Chi Plastic Fantastic, BC Co. Shade 21, Essence Bloom-A-Loom and Sinful Colors Easy Going, I did a simple watermarble pattern for the accents. Using those same colours, I sponged on the gradient for the rest of the nails.

   I know that there are different methods people use to do gradients, but what works best for me is painting my base coat of colour first and letting it dry, then painting on the strips of colour directly onto the sponge and dabbing it onto the nail in sort of an up (towards the cuticle) and down (towards the free edge) motion (i am terrible at explaining, I hope that made sense).

   And just because I felt like a little sparkle :P I topped everything off with Bloom Cosmetics Aspen (sort of like an extremely fine version of CG Fairy Dust).

Though I really do like the end result, it still feels incomplete... so maybe a design on top tomorrow? We'll see :P

Nothin' But Neons

   LONG TIME NO SEE GUYS! And I do apologize for that! So first things first, belated HAPPY 2013! Hope the new year has started off great for you all :D I've been so busy with work, friends, and the holidays that I've slacked off in my posting... but I intend to make up for the week and a half I've missed with this post ^^ And as you have all probably noticed, my nails are mega super short now ): The nail on my middle finger broke after New Year's and it was too awkward not to file all the other nails down to the same length. Here's to hoping they grow back fast! *crosses fingers*

   I bought a set of ChiChi neon polishes the other week for only $19.95 (considering their full sized bottles are $12 each, I'd say that's a bargain!) and have been itching to try them. So today's nails of the day are a neon gradient topped with a black geometric pattern. There were 8 polishes in total: 6 neons and a black and white crackle polish. For this mani, I just used the green, blue and purple.

   I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but my gradient's not too smooth. I was too lazy to use a sponge, so I just started with a white base, then painted the gradient straight on with the brush from the bottle, blending the colours as I go. Needless to say, by the end of it all, I felt like my nails were wearing 10 layers of polish!

   Oh and do you guys remember these nails?

   Remember how I said I'd try adding black accents on them? Well, before I took them off I did. And here's the outcome (phone quality photo sorry!):

   More news! Though I haven't been painting my nails too often during the week, I have been painting... my nail polish rack!

   I'd love to take the credit for building this masterpiece, but its construction is all thanks to my dad. I just painted it :P It's 120cm x 90cm so it's pretty darn huge and takes up most of the wall in my room. I'm itching to fill it! haha

   And last but not least, I did have an awesome mani for new years that I absolutely loved, but I never got around to taking proper photos of it ): All I have is a phone camera picture I took at work (I worked New Year's Eve and Day!) I also bought this awesome Doctor Who T-shirt from target. EXTERMINATE!

Chi.. Chi.. Cherries!

   Hey y'all! Hope you all had a lovely weekend! I know I did :D spent the weekend away from suburbia and in good ol' country Australia. We visited Young, the cherry capital of Australia, a week before the National Cherry Festival to avoid peak season and take our pick of the cherries before everyone else! 

   They were big, red and plump! Part of the "pick your own" cherry experience is being able to eat and taste the cherries as you pick. I would have probably eaten several handfuls of cherries by the end of it haha They were so deliciously juicy!

  We ended up bagging 10kg of cherries (4kg were for my dad's workmates) and at $7 a kilo, it's not a bad deal + the experience and cherry buffet while you pick! ahah On a side note, I don't think the country air agrees with me, because for the whole trip my hayfever was going crazy! I probably hold the record for most consecutive sneezes! 

   Okay. So back to nail business! For the trip I wore the cherry blossoms from my last post, and for this post I was meant to have actual cherry nails for you but I decided to swatch my ChiChi glitter polishes first. I've been itching to try these babies since I first got my hands on them and I can say now that I have 2 clear favourites in the set of 8! 

  The problem with these polishes is that they're unnamed! So please bare with me. Starting from the top left corner:

1) This is filled with medium sized gold hexes with gold micro glitter in a clear base. This is 1 coat over 2 coats of black. The consistency is pretty smooth and fluid, not gloopy, and a decent amount of glitter comes out with every stroke.

2) This is my favourite out of all of them! It's jam packed filled with different coloured, different sized glitters in a clear base. So much colour I decided to swatch them on different colour bases! L-R Australis Sky's the Limit, Australis Bombshell, Australis Peek-a-boo, Ulta3 lily white. This also had a good formula and plenty of glitter with each brush stroke.

3) This would be my third favourite. It's very similar to polish (2) but this time without the micro glitter and instead in a pink jelly base. This is 1 coat over Sally Hansen I Pink I Can. Although the glitters are great, the consistency was horrible and thick, glitter placement was a must.

4) This polish has fuchsia pink medium and micro sized glitters in a clear base. It's formula is nice and smooth but not as densely packed with glitter. This is 1 coat over Australis Bombshell. 

5) This is filled with medium sized purple hexes and micro glitter in a clear base. Although I usually love purple, this is probably my least favourite of the 8. It's just so boring in my opinion haha, so I thought to swatch it in a jelly. This is 1 coat in between The Face Shop PP404.

6) This is my second favourite in the set! It's filled with silver hexes and blue micro glitter in a blue jelly base. This is 1 coat over Ulta 3 Blue Marlin. The consistency was great and fluid, it also picks up plenty of glitter with every dip into the polish.

7) This is filled with silver hex glitters in a grey-blue jelly base. It's kind of thick but plenty of glitter comes out with every stroke. A little glitter placement is required though. This is 1 coat over black.

8) Last but not least, this polish is filled with blue, green and yellow hexes and tons of green micro glitters in a clear base. It's not thick, it spread quite evenly and the colour are perfect for Australia day next year! Green and Gold!! This is 1 coat over Sinful Colors Irish Green. The ring finger is actually a jelly sandwich, just wanted to try it out :P

   So there you have it, for $20 that's a pack of 8 glitters (with single bottles that usually retail for $13) that are pretty decent. I think it was worth it just because they're all so pretty to look at haha But the blue and multi coloured glitters were my faves! Which are yours?

   P.S. Please excuse the non square tip of my middle finger ): My nail broke at work and I wasn't prepared to file all of the down, so I kept the slanted edge.