NOTD: Pretty Pink Florals

   Hey y'all! Happy Friday (yes, it's a thing!) to everyone who's living where it's already Friday! And advance happy Friday to those who aren't! :P Darn that's a lot of exclamation marks in the first few sentences haha

   Anyhows, there's not much to report today, so I've only got my recent NOTD pictures to share. First up is a pretty pink floral mani that is so pink I felt so girly prancing around the gym haha. I used Australis #totesamaze layered with Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter on the pointer and pinky nails. For the two floral accent nails, I used Australis #totesamaze and W7 Fuchsia for the roses, and Rimmel Sky High and Orly Glitzy for the leaves. I really wanted the roses to be tiny delicate flowers and the leaves to not be so ginormous haha but I guess I'll keep that in mind for next time.

   And of course, a couple days later, I switched my pink nails for something a little vampier and simple. This is 3 coats of Ulta3 Spring Break (looks like a dupe for China Glaze Creative Fantasy!) and on the accent is Face of Australia Midnight Fireworks - which is a gold glitter texture polish that is absolutely gorgeous, I'd go as far as wearing it as an entire mani one time ♥_♥

   And that's it for now, though I've got plenty more posts to come throughout the month! So stay tuned for that, there are a number of pretties to be seen :P

"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

Throwback Thursday NOTD: White and Silver

   Hey y'all! So everyone on Instagram knows what #tbt or #throwbackthursday is, so let's bring that over here and do a #tbt of our own!

   A few months ago, I did this gold and white mani which I absolutely loved. It was so clean and simple, but oh so blingy too!

   Although I already did a white and silver remake of this design last week, I wasn't too keen on it, so in the spirit of #tbt I thought I'd try another white and silver recreation, and I gotta admit, I may like this version more :P 

   I used my ever faithful Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Revlon Silver Screen, Chi Chi Celebrity Meltdown, and an assortment of loose glitters and studs from the Born Pretty Store online.

   It actually came together pretty well, and is the sort of mani I would wear on my own wedding day: clean, classy, and complete with cut outs and studs!

   I mean, I'd love to wear something fun, bright and neon but deep down I know I want that fairytale white dress to walk down the aisle in, so these would be a perfect match. Not too splashy, but not too subdued either :P

AN Monday: Christmas Tree

   *Oops* Another AN Monday mani a couple days late :P So this week's theme was Christmas trees, and I was cheeky and took the easy way out (;

   I used Sinful Colors San Francisco, Ulta3 Luck of the Irish and China Glaze Twinkle Lights for the gradient, and a simple gold on black Christmas tree scribble for an accent (Orly Glitzy over Sinful Colors Black on Black). Though it's terribly simple, I still love how it turned out! They sparkle so bright in the sun, they're quite the attention seekers :P

   To check out all the other girls participating in AN Monday, check out the AN Monday page on my blog :D

Top 5 Polish: Most Used

   Mornin' all! Today's post is something a little different.. I pose to you all a question: have you ever finished a bottle of nail polish? Of course I don't mean top and base coats, or black and white polishes used for nail art! :P 

   Why I ask this? Well recently, I've realised that I'm actually running low on a few bottles of polish, and that I need to buy a second bottle of all of them! Shocking isn't it?! 

This post reveals my 5 most used polishes!

   First up is Butter London Pillar Box Red. It's my go to 'classic' red and still glides on as smoothly as it did the first day I got it - so much love for this polish seriously ♥ It's only got about 1/4 of the bottle left... I'm absolutely dreading the day I can no longer scrape the remaining dregs of polish from the bottom of the bottle *sobs in the corner* Unfortunately, BL isn't available in stores here in Australia, so my only option is to buy them online, or through someone in the US willing to ship it to me here (even then, the shipping will kill me now that postage has been hiked up again!) 

Butter London 'Pillar Box Red' topped with Shades of Phoenix 'Chaos'

Next is Sally Hansen Cafe Au Lait. And this bottle is completely and utterly empty!! The first ever bottle of polish that I've finished, and my most favourite nude shade! It's been with me through my nubbins and claws, and I've bought two back ups already, so I won't be running out any time soon :P

Sally Hansen 'Cafe Au Lait' with lace accent using Ulta3 'Black Satin'

   Third up is Australis #totesamaze and I took advantage of the recent 40% off priceline sale to grab me another bottle, because, like Cafe Au Lait, it's also empty! It's the perfect shade of pink - nice and bright without being neon, but not too dark a hot pink that it looks almost red on my skin - love love love it... and its name, as cheesy as it is :P

Australis '#totesamaze' tribal mix n match

   Next up is Sinful Colors Endless Blue. Since I couldn't get my hands on Essie Butler Please or Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, Endless Blue was what I settled for, and now I can't get enough of it! It's a gorgeous vibrant blue, and is pretty much my go-to blue when doing nail art. There's about 1/3 of the bottle left.. may have to take advantage of the 2 for $6 Sinful Colors sale at Target this week :P

Sinful Colors 'Endless Blue' topped with Katt Claws 'Community Pool'

   Last, but definitely not the least, is Femme Fatale Cosmetics Eventide. Yes, it's an indie polish, and yes it's almost finished! This is the only 'top 5 most used polishes' that also holds a spot in my 'top 5 favourite polishes of all time' - I love it that much! But alas, it's been discontinued and I wasn't fast enough at grabbing back ups, so now I'll be using it sparingly!

2 generous coats of 'Eventide'  on its own as accents on the index and pinky

   And there you have it - my 5 most used polishes! Have you ever actually finished a bottle of polish? I thought it was impossible, until now :P

NOTD: *shrugs*

   Hello there lovelies ^^ Hope everyone's had a great start to November! My goal for November is to continue this flow of blog posts that I've successfully upheld throughout October - hopefully another 2 month hiatus is never going to happen again or at least far from the horizon! 

   And of course to think of other ways to engage with you guys, I know NOTD posts get a tad repetitive, so I'll try push out more than just that this month :D I was also thinking of starting up a facebook page, would any of you be willing to follow my posts on there as well?? 

   So, back to the reason we're here... NOTD: I have no idea what to call these. Yes, that's what I've called them, unless y'all have something a little more creative? :P

   I used Sinful Colors Endless Blue (I think I've used this in the last 3 or 4 manis!! It really is my go-to-blue), and Ulta3 Citrus for the coloured panels, and Sinful Colors Black on Black for the outline and triangle accents. My lines are kind of wonky, but the studs take the attention away from my shaky handwork :P 

This design actually makes my nails look more rounded than almond/ stiletto shaped. Makes them look heaps shorter too =S They're also a little underwhelming, so I didn't really wear them for very long (took them off an hour later :P) but that just means... more nail art to look forward to tomorrow!

NOTD: Ikat Hearts

   HI GUYS! A PINCH AND A PUNCH FOR THE FIRST DAY OF THE MONTH! *pinches* *punches* :D Now that that's out of the way... NAILS!

   Oh how I've missed doing an ikat pattern - I just love how it can look messy, but look good looking messy! The ikat heart is one my most fave designs, I could never grow tired of it.

   I bought Essie Mint Candy Apple a couple weeks back, and had yet to find a mani to use it in, until now. Thought the baby blue would be the perfect background for some cutesy ikat hearts :P For the actual hearts themselves, I used W7 Fuschia (my new favourite neon pink!), Ulta3 Spring Break (my new favourite purple!) and my ever faithful Sinful Colors Endless Blue. 

   The golden heart stud and the black round studs are from here on the BornPrettyStore website. You get 3 wheels of various shaped/ coloured studs, and therefore are open to a bunch of new combinations when doing nail art. I'm slowly hoarding all the studs! :P I have a 10% discount code if you do end up purchasing anything on their website - just type in XFSQ10 at checkout!

NOTD: Neon Aztec Print

   Hey y'all! *waves* And a Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it! :P Halloween's come and gone here in Australia, without much festivity unfortunately. So instead of rockin' a gruesomely awesome costume at a party and eating halloween-y foods and dancin' til the sun comes up, I'm here at home doing my nail thang - but that I'm complaining.. too much :P haha

   ANYWAYS. Bright. Neon. Aztec nails for you all today! Ever since I swatched Rainbow Honey Magic Cake, and did the aztec accent nail, I've been itching to make a whole mani out of it... and now I have :D *woop woop*

   I based the colour scheme on the neon glitters used in Rainbow Cake which were so fun and worked well together. I used Sinful Colors Endless Blue, W7 Fuschia and BYS Steal The Limelight for the coloured panels, and outlined everything using Sinful Colors Black on Black. 

   I loved these so much, I kept them on for 3 days :P Everyone at work thought they were stickers and that my nails were fake haha. But I do have to admit, IM PRETTY DAMN PROUD that I've kept my nails at this length for this long! *knock on wood* Last time I had long nails like this was last year, and since then they'd just kept breaking. It might be the strengthener I'm using, might be my nail care routine, might be the fact I have polish on 24/7... or I've just been lucky :P

*Tumbleweed Rolls Past*

It's been way too quiet.

*slowly walks out of hiding spot*

You guys suck at hide and seek! ... Oh, were we not playing a game of hide and seek? 
*awkward*



--
   OMG BOY HAVE I MISSED YOU GUYS. HOW HAVE YOU ALL BEEN?! 
The past few weeks have been a mixture of laziness and then busy-ness (probably not a real word) and responsibility, so minus the past week or so, my nails have been bare since my last post on here ....shocking right?!

   I feel so out of the loop (OF COURSE YOU ARE DOOFUS!) but uni exams are right around the corner, so after that I'll have a month off to get back on track *cheer*

   ALSO, I don't have access to my usual SLR camera for photos at the moment, so all my photos are currently taken in the sun or under a lamp indoors with my phone. Can't wait to get the camera back!


   So off we start with the random tidbits:

Sinful Colors Blue By You topped with Hottie

OPI Polka.com sandwiched between Sinful Colors Cinderella

Revlon Moon Candy Orbit 

Revlon Moon Candy Galactic layered over Orbit

Kleancolor Neon Amethyst over a neon pink Coral Colours I lost the label for ):

Kleancolor Neon Amethyst, Covergirl Vio-last and Sally Hansen Scarab

   And for tonight's mani, I give you all two polishes from the Face Of Australia "Glitterati" collection. On the pointer and pinky is FOA Heart of Glass and on the two middle fingers is FOA Boogie Wonderland. 

   Heart of Glass was a downright pain in my ass to apply! The glitter is so sparse that I had to do very thin layers and place glitter evenly on the nail to avoid a gloopy mess that would probably never dry. Boogie Wonderland on the other hand was much easier to apply, although I could do without the green and white bar glitter *blergh* not a fan of bar glitter. 

   These remind me of cupcakes, or of sweet things, so I'll either be playing with a cupcake design or chocolate drips on these babies tonight, better pictures in the sun tomorrow hopefully *fingers crossed*

Flirty Floral Print Anyone? :P

   My nails feel so pretty! I was in the mood for some cute lookin' nails and this was the outcome. I was worried that adding the itty bitty blue flowers would make the mani feel too 'crowded', but they actually pair pretty nicely with the larger red roses, so MEH I'm digging it like crazy :P

   I was going to do a cute neon geometric design using China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, but used it for the roses instead. I added highlights using Bloom Tuscany, added leaves with Ulta3 Tahitian Lime, and outlined the entire rose using Sinful Colors Black on Black. For the blue flowers I used a tiny dotting tool and BC Co Shade 21, and Ulta3  Honolulu for the centre. Topped everything off with a quick dry top coat, et voila! I don't ever want to take these off :P (I say that about almost every mani haha #firstworldproblems of a nail art addict)

    This reminds me, I have a half finished nail art wheel of floral prints laying around. I may actually get around to finishing it this week. *fingers crossed* I'd love to show it to you all when it's done :D

    But until then, more picture spam! (I love it when my camera cooperates and captures the mani perfectly *cheer*)

Femme Fatale Cosmetics: Eventide inspired Floral

BAM.

BAM.

And an outdoor photo for good measure. BAM.

   Sorry (not really :P) for the dramatic opening,  but I LOVE how these turned out. I've had Femme Fatale Cosmetics' Eventide sitting on my shelf for a couple of weeks now, so thought I'd better hurry up and use it. 

   I drew inspiration from the flecks of pink glitter in the polish and created this simple floral design. I was going for a glitzy elegant look, but I couldn't resist adding studs to make it a little less girly, and a little more 'edgy' :P

Excuse the wonky studs *gasp* I did these at 4am 

(I'd been in a nailart rut so I was determined to get something done!)

   I used 3 coats of Eventide on the index and pinky, and Sinful Colors Black on Black for the rest. The flowers were done just with a regular light pink, red, and white polish; mint, green, and gold for the leaves. 

   I was contemplating whether to add Eventide onto my thumb or go with black and golden studs, but went with the same design as my ring finger instead. What do y'all think? 

   And another outdoor picture (how awesome does this gold polish look in its bottle?! *dazzled*:

Pastel Leopard Print over Essence 'Sweet as Candy'

   First and foremost, I LOVE THIS ESSENCE POLISH (Sweet as Candy)! It is very sheer, and takes about 4-5 coats to even be remotely opaque, but it is so darn pretty and delicate, I can't help but love it!

   This photo's just from my mobile (regretted not taking a proper photo of it after *sigh), it looks pretty similar to the OPI Don't Burst My Bubble swatches I've been seeing lately. It felt like such a shame to cover this beauty with nail art.

   I used Essence Bloom-a-loom, Ulta3 Corsican Rose and Soft Hydrangea, and Sinful Colors Black on Black for the leopard print. For the two accent fingers, I just used 2-3 thin coats of Australis Shimmy Shake.

   Annnnnd, just because I feel the need to sulk:

   Not even 24 hours after top coating this mani, disaster struck. My index finger nail broke at work ): ...I thought this was bad, but a week passes and I'm back at work again, then BAM another break ARGHHHH

   Look at my poor poor index finger ): now I have such uneven nail lengths ): I am seriously a stickler for even nail lengths, but my right hand takes ages (and I mean AGES) to grow so I thought I'd wait it out until they're somewhat longer before I even them all out again *exasperatedsigh