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

ILNP Ultrachromes: Birefringence and Mutagen

   *Eeeep

   *Squeeee

   *Hyperventilates

   After 3 weeks of stalking my mailbox, waiting and waiting, my ILNP ultrachromes are finally here! I only ordered Birefringence and Mutagen as the others didn't really appeal to me. 

   I have nothing but praise for these polishes! They go on smooth like butter, are opaque in one coat over black, shift like crazy and are just so damn mesmerizing! The pictures speak for themselves!

   First up is Birefringence. Birefringence is a gorgeous multichrome that shifts beautifully from a deep blue, to a bright magenta, with hints of yellow and green from certain angles. I was driving while wearing this today, (and just FYI it was quite sunny so maximum shifting power), my mum had to remind me to look at the road..  I was too preoccupied watching the polish shift colours on my fingertips! =O These polishes should come with a warning label :P haha

Birefringence - in the shade

    Mutagen on the other hand, cascades between vibrant greens, blues, and hints of red and orange. When I first opened the box, I immediately thought Birefringence would be my favourite of the two (I'm a sucker for blues and purples!) But Mutagen was surprisingly pretty damn striking. I didn't capture in these photos exactly how vibrant the green was in the sunlight, but you can watch the Instavideos on my Instagram to see the colour shifts in action! 

Mutagen - in the shade

Unfortunately, my photography equipment (if I can even call my S4 camera that haha) /skills aren't anything too fancy so I had trouble capturing the entire shift of each polish in a regular shot. 

So the following pictures are all shots taken underwater. And I was going to edit out all the air bubbles, and specks of dust in the water (ARGH those were irritating to see pop up on the screen when it came time to edit ><) and I started to I promise, but it would've taken me EONS and eons to clean all that up, so I gave up lol I apologize in advance for the not-so-clean shots, hopefully that doesn't take away from the polish!

Birefringence - underwater

Birefringence - the beautiful gradual shift underwater

Mutagen - underwater

Mutagen - the seamless shift underwater

   Please tell me I'm not the only one going gaga over these. 
   

ALL THE COLOUR SHIFTERS!!

ANMonday: Halloween Decor

   And so I've finally decided to join in on ANMondays !! :D It's just a fun weekly challenge where a bunch of us girls from an Aussie Facebook group coordinate our manis based on a theme every Monday, hence Aussie Nails Monday! 

   This week's theme was Halloween decor, which could include pumpkins, bats, and what I went for, cobwebs and spiders. 

   It's nothing too fancy, and I'm kind of meh about them, but I'm hoping next Monday's will be much more exciting. Though I am kind of digging the red tips.

   To see a list of the other girls who participate in this weekly challenge, click through to here. Some have blogs you can check out, others upload their manis onto Instagram.

   And as a little extra somethin' somethin', here's Sally Hansen Lustre Shine in Lava, 3 coats on its own. It shifts from a glowy red to an iridescent gold yellow, so gorgeous! I'm really starting to love duochromes, even developing a slight obsession... I can't wait for my ILNP ultrachromes to arrive *eeeep !!

Clean, fresh and classy: Gold on White

   Don't y'all just love the look of white nails?! I've always thought they looked nice and clean, and would've loved to wear it as a full mani but were always too boring to wear alone. But then I saw a gold on white mani on IG (Joelene over at @glynnavyre) and was inspired to do some gold on white nails of my own!

   So blingy and bright.. I love it! The most troublesome to do was the middle finger. I didn't have any gold loose glitters so I had to improvise and fish out the larger hex glitters in my Femme Fatale Cosmetics Eventide polish. They're all not the same hue of gold and some are holographic, which works out just fine for me, because it looks even more blingy! It took ages, but I think it was well worth it! It's my favourite nail from this mix n match mani.

   I used 2 coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White as the base, the 2mm gold studs and striping tape are from the BornPrettyStore, and the gold polish is Orly Glitzy. 

   *Eeep I also managed to take a decent non-awkward picture of my cinderella hand :D There was no way I was going to fish out more glitter from Eventide, so I settled for a glitter gradient instead. 

   Sometimes I feel bad for my dominant hand.. it always gets the crappy end of the deal where I'm too lazy and not bothered to make it look as pretty as its other half. Talk about favouritism hahaha

xx Christine

Floral French Tip + Tutorial

   Hey lovelies! How are we all today? :D 

   I've been feeling a little girly recently and really felt like rocking some classic french tips, but I just couldn't keep it plain... just had to add some nail art on top. 

   I REALLY loved how these turned out! Especially with my makeshift rhinestone accent piece :P I also had my dad's SLR camera this weekend so I was able to take nice lightbox pics of these babies. I've been wearing this mani for the past 4 days.. longer than most of my other manis!!

   I also squeezed in time to create a picture tutorial on these today just before work. They're actually quite quick and easy to do! A lot of blobbing and swirling :P

  So I started with 1 coat of a nude/pink jelly Essence Sweet as Candy and topped that off with 1 coat of Ulta3 xoxo. Then, using a small brush (or the brush straight from the bottle) paint on the white french tip following your smile line.

   With a purple (Beauty Attitude Grape Smoothie) and a pink (Revlon Sweet Tart), make a couple of blobs as bases for your roses. With a green (Ulta3 Tahitian Lime) and a black (Sinful Colors Black on Black) fill in the white gaps.

   With darker purples and pinks, draw the squiggly lines for your petals. Then with your original purple and pink, and a white polish, add highlights to your roses and continue swirling the colours until you're happy. Then with a gold polish, I used Orly Glitzy, add highlights onto your black leaves. 

   For the rhinestone accent, dab a bit of topcoat near the base of the nail and attach the crystal flatback rhinestone. Then add the silver caviar beads one by one around the rhinestone. That was probably the hardest part of the design! haha in my case, it was difficult to create the circle around the rhinestone *D'oh*

   A coat of top coat should seal in the design, and et voila! A floral french tip mani that I reallllllly don't want to take off.. and I might actually keep it on for a couple more days :P Though I do feel like trying some heart shaped tips! 

   I encourage you all to give it a try, and I'd love to see your recreations if you do so tag me, or give me a shoutout and ill check it out! 

xx Christine

Blue Swatch-athon

   Mornin' everyone! For today's post, I have lots and lots (and lots!) of pictures to share with y'all! I was so excited to have received my Emily De Molly order and my swap package from Jen on Monday, I got straight into swatching to show you all :D It just so happened that at least half the polishes were blue, so a BLUE swatch-athon it is!

Nail mail makes me happy :D

   First up is a gorgeous, absolutely stunning, blue/ purple duochrome Butter London Scouse.

   The colour shift is a lot stronger in the bottle, and was terribly hard to capture on my nails. But I managed to capture a hint of the purple where the sun was hitting my nails.

You can see the hint of purple peeking through on the edge ^^

   I took at least 80 photos of these outside and wanted to show you all at least 20, but controlled myself and chose the best 4 shots I had. I hope the photos did the polish justice, because I'm absolutely in love with it *swoons*

   Next up is a blue mix-n-match mani using glitter toppers, loose glitter, fine glitter polish and flakies over a bright royal blue Sinful Colors Endless Blue.

   The glitter on the index finger is China Glaze Mosaic Madness from the Glitz-Bitz 'n Pieces Collection; the loose glitter on the middle finger I ordered from the Born Pretty Store online; the ring finger is topped with Revlon Galactic from the Moon Candy collection; and the pinky is one coat of Butter London Scallywag (another new favourite!).

Can you tell I like blue yet? :P 

   Last but not least is a squishy blue jelly jam packed with glitter, Emily De Molly Turbulence.

   This is 2 coats over 1 coat of Revlon Royal. It is absolutely stunning, with so much depth!

It's so squishy and sparkly too, it's actually quite distracting :P

A shot in the daylight

   *Phew. That was a lot of photos. But I hoped y'all enjoyed the swatches as much as I loved staring at them on my nails :P

xx Christine

BAM: GRADIENTS

Then and Now, and All the Manis in Between: Part III

   My top 3 favourite nail art "trends" or "designs" have to be ikats, florals and Gradients! As I've covered ikats and florals already, in today's instalment, we journey through my past gradients and show you just how versatile and fun they are!

   The first ever gradient I attempted was on my sister. I can't remember whose tutorial it was I followed but I started by painting the nail the light blue colour first, then with a sponge, I sponged on the darker colour after. 

Excuse my sister's awkward hand pose.

   Then I tried it for myself. This time, I followed a different tutorial on how to do gradients: I painted each nail white first, then painted the colours directly onto the sponge before sponging it onto my nail. And to this day, it's still the same method that I use to do my gradients.

Not the best picture, so you can't see how patchy the gradient actually was. But for a first attempt, I was pretty stoked!

   Then I started getting fancy :P I watched a tutorial by Candice (from MrCandiipants) for her 'striped gradient' and I fell in love with it straight away! It's basically painting stripe after stripe on the nail, creating a gradient. I remember these took A LOT LONGER than I first thought it would, probably because I decided to paint in really thin lines! D'oh!

   As if painting tiny lines across my nails weren't enough, I went ahead and tried a colour block gradient. Yes these were neon bright, and yes I still wore them to work :P

   Since then, I've experimented with different colour combinations, using more than 2 colours on a sponge, adding glitter to the gradient, using the actual glitter as the gradient, painting designs over the gradient... Gosh the possibilities are endless!!

 

 

   And for today's nails, I decided to go with an autumn themed gradient (brown - red - orange - yellow) topped with a black frame, accents and studs.

I used Revlon Hot For Chocolate, Butter London Pillar Box Red, Ulta3 Tangelo and Honolulu for the gradient, and Sinful Colors Black on Black for the lines.

   Well that's 3 out of 3! I'll have something a little different for the next blog post, but I'm sure these "then and now" posts will be back soon enough (I'm thinking a look at all my past galaxy nails, or tribal nails)!

xx Christine