Then And Now NOTD: Square Skittles vs Clawed Skittles

   Hello hello hello and a happy Tuesday to you all! Today's NOTD is this glitzy mix and match mani, complete with leopard print and studs :D For those who follow me on Instagram, this will look reallllly familiar, probably because it's a recreation of a mani I did just over a year ago :P But back then I had square nubs and only my phone camera to snap it.

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

I Creme, You Creme, We all Creme for Ice Creme!

   And a SUNNY hello to you all from Sydney, Australia! *waves* It's technically Spring over here right now, but recently it's been nothing but 30degree heat, and plenty of sun! AND Daylight savings has also started, which basically means that last Sunday we fast forwarded our clocks an hour forward, meaning we have longer days - the sun's still up as late as 7pm! Y'all know what that means... more opportunities to do my nails and take pictures :P

   So for today's blog post, we explore the land of creme nail polish. Recently, I'm loving the look of cremes more than glitter, so I thought I'd show you a few of the cremes that I don't wear often as a full manicure. 

   First up is Face of Australia Would You Like Some Orange Sherbet from the Pretty Pastels collection. This is a gorgeous soft shade of pale orange, and looks great in the bottle. Unfortunately, the reason I've never worn it on its own (this is actually the first time I'm swatching this polish) is because it clashes with my skintone and doesn't look too flattering, I pretty much bought it on impulse *oops* It will probably remain a shade that I'll leave for nail art, or maybe pass it on to someone who will love it more than I.

Two coats Face of Australia Would You Like Some Orange Sherbet over one coat of white

   Next up is a STAPLE in any nail art addict's collection... at least every addict that loves neons! Although it clashes with my skintone, I DONT CARE! :P It's China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy - my all time favourite neon polish (I have 2 back ups)! We all know how hard it is to capture neon polishes in photos, but this is the closest I could get it to be colour accurate.

Two coats China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy over one coat of white

   Third up is Ulta3 Mojito and Ulta3 Orchid topped with Australis Rio Riot on the accent nail. This green was one of the first polishes that I fell in love with. It's a shade of green that I can just pull off, and is great for nail art too, but I'm not really digging it anymore... at least not a colour I'd wear on its own as a full manicure. 
   
   And just as a special mention, I'm loving these Australis glitter toppers that I've seen come out: Rio Riot, Carnivale Chaos, Glitter Strikes Back and Shimmy Shake just to name a few!

Three thin coats of Ulta3 Mojito over white; One coat of Ulta3 Orchid topped 

with two coats of Australis Rio Riot for the accent

   Next is a colour which matches my skintone well, is a dupe for Essie Bikini So Teeny and has a smooth buttery formula it's a squeeze to apply: Essence Forget Me Not from the Blossoms Etc... Collection. It is so damn pretty, and feminine, and soft, and all things nice :P The accent finger is Revlon Silver Screen topped with Australia Shimmy Shake. This combo is one of my faves!!

Two coats of Essence Forget Me Not over one coat of white; One coat of Revlon Silver Screen 

topped with two coats of Australis Shimmy Shake for the accent

   Next is a combo my brother picked out for me. All I said was pick a plain colour and pick a glitter, and this is what he came up with: Ulta3 Tangelo and Femme Fatale Cosmetics Eventide. His reasoning was : "it's Spring and sunny, so I'll choose something eye searing-ly bright!" Somehow, he managed to pick my all time faves! Tangelo, like Mojito, was another one of the first polishes to join my nail polish horde over a year ago now, and the first orange I fell in love with. It appears a lot more red in the photo, but in real life leans more towards a bright neon orange-red. And Eventide, my bottle is half empty ): it's the first indie polish that I'm considering reordering because I love it (and use it) so much!

Two coats of Ulta3 Tangelo over one coat of white; One coat of Orly Glitzy topped with two 

coats of Femme Fatale Cosmetics Eventide for the accent

   Last but not least is a colour combo that you absolutely can't go wrong with AND doesn't clash with my skintone: blue and purple! I used Australis Sky's the Limit for the base, and did the chevron tip + half moon using Sinful Colors Endless Blue. I was lazy (as per usual, that, and I have a love - hate relationship with striping tape) so I just free handed the tips and half moon using a trimmed down paint brush. For the accent I used Emily De Molly Warrior Princess; it's choca-block full of glitter so 2 coats was enough for complete coverage!

Two coats of Australis Sky's The Limit with Sinful Colors Endless Blue for the tips and half moon; 

Two coats of Emily De Molly Warrior Princess for the accent.

   Do any of you have colours you love but unfortunately don't match your skin tone, an if so do you wear them anyway? 

   And the mother of all polish questions (not really but :P) Do you own China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy?! And if not, do you have a polish you think everyone should own? 

   P.S. I hope you all get the title, not sure if it's just a thing in Australia growing up as a kid haha

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*)

Neon Tribal

   China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy is the bomb diggity. That's all I gotta say.

   Seriously, it's so hard capturing the true brightness of FFF, it's blinding neon-ness is lost in the picture ): 

   So, an update on this polish obsessed life of mine, I've found another outlet of relaxation. I signed up to the gym a couple of weeks ago, and surprisingly I quite enjoy going. The goal is to reach a healthy weight within my BMI and get fit! Progress so far is good, hopefully I can keep it up. AND I need to really start pulling my weight with the blog and tumblr. I WILL try to put more effort into posting at least 3-4 times a week instead of once a week!

   Hopefully, I'll see y'all again in a couple of days :D

Christmas Craze

   First and foremost: 

I want to wish everyone a Merry and Blessed Christmas!!

   Apologies for being MIA this past week, but Christmas in retail is one busy BUSY season! I was stuck at work until 6pm Christmas Eve with shoppers still wandering the store looking for VERY late minute presents! haha (I laugh now, but back then, I was ready to chase those people out of the store so I could finally leave and go home grrr)

   I have a couple of manis for you lovely people today (: First of which is a design I did for a guest post on Katy's blog: Nailed It. She has kindly obliged by allowing me to write up a guest post while she's on vacation. If you aren't already following this creative young lady, then I kindly urge you to take a peek at her nails and see for yourself. 

Guest post on Nailed It

   Second, is a festive glitter gradient I wore to work during the week. 

   I used 2 coats of China Glaze Twinkle Lights for the base, OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air and BYS Dazzling for the green gradient on top. 

   I LOVED THESE. So bright, sparkly and fun! Don't they just scream Christmas to you?!

   Finally, today's mani: something really quick and random. I'm still on the fence with these. May even take them off tonight and attempt something else :/

   Until then I hope everyone has a safe and blessed Christmas break! I promise my next post won't take as long as this did! 

   P.S. I would share with you all what I got for Christmas, but it's kind of hard when I didn't get anything. hahaha This year my brother and I spoiled my parents and younger siblings instead with gifts. Though I did buy myself a purple macaron patterned onesie from Target :P 

Ikat Love Heart Lovin'

   As you all well know, the ikat pattern is one of my favourite nail art designs! I seriously can't get enough of them! ALSO at the moment, I can't get enough of bright, vibrant, neon colours. SO I've combined the two, and created this eye sore of a mani!!

   By eye sore I mean a mani that hurts my eyes ...but ina good way! hahahaa It's so bright and eye catching, I find myself stealing quick glances at it during the day :P

   It is all done using just nail polish: China Glaze Pool Party, China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, Chi Chi OMG, BC Co. Shade 13, and a regular black polish for the ikat heart.

   I did a similar ikat design a few weeks back using different colours (here), including a tutorial (here), but a fellow IG'er requested a tutorial on these, so I happily obliged. 

Here's a quick and dirty pictorial I did on the spot straight after my mani:

   These actually turned out a lot better than I had anticipated. The ikat chevrons on their own really didn't do much for me in terms of appeal and overall "wow" factor, especially since they're all pretty much in the same colour range, and looked like a hot smudged mess. BUT once I painted the black ikat heart, it brought the whole design together and I'm absolutely in love with the end result. I'm also currently obsessed with CG Flip Flop Fantasy ...just sayin' :P

   I even wore these to work :P I'm so lucky Target's not strict with nail colour, or hair colour for that matter (I dyed my hair a vibrant red a few weeks ago). 

   Okay so a couple more pictures for y'all! And until the next instalment, here's to hoping you're all not sick of the bright nails yet! :D

Little bit of this, little bit of that.

   I promised you all cherries didn't I? So here they are:

   This is two coats of China Glaze It's a Trap-eze! over Revlon Lily, with the thumb Cherries accent nail. Pretty darn random but the awesomeness of the CG makes up for it! If unicorns existed and it were to puke on my nails.. this is what it would look like... absolutely stunning! 

A little later in the day, I took my cherry nail off and replaced it with the CG and topped it with Pochacco and Choppy! (Even after painting my nails, I still wanted to re-paint my nails.. haha you think I have a problem?) 

   I have another treat for you guys! And no I didn't repaint my nails a third time! Any other night and I would've been painting my nails right about now, but it's such a waste to wear such a lovely polish for only a few hours, so instead I preoccupied myself with finishing my first nail art wheel!

  This is just an amalgamation of all my past designs, the top half being the most recent designs. My second wheel will be more focused on gradients, ikat and floral designs. It's about a quarter way done, but I'll be sure to post it soon as well :D

  I have more news! Christmas came early this year.. I got amazing nail mail the other day!

   The top half is from my secret santa Natalia (from cats-n-nails) and the bottom half is my nail swap with Tina from California! Such awesome pretty polishesssss ^_^ the highlights include OPI Nothin' Mousie Bout It (it has pink glitter hearts in it OMG!), China Glaze It's a Trap-eze! and the Color Club Holos Cherubic and Angel Kiss. So excited to try them all!