Aussie Nails Monday - 31/12 Party

It's the last day of 2012! Happy new year! :)
Today is Monday, Aussie Nails Monday! And being New Years, the theme is "Party"!
I've never been one to do anything exciting for New Years. I usually just hang out at home with my family and my boyfriend! I'm definitely not one to go to parties or anything like that! But that doesn't mean my nails won't fit the occasion! :)

I recreated a manicure I saw on So Nailicious a few days ago! I loved this when I saw it and knew I would do it on my own nails really soon!

With flash

Shade

The blue I used is Essence Grumpy from the Snow White collection. If you didn't get your hands on this one, Nails Inc Baker Street is very similar, and so is Sally Hansen Pacific Blue! If you're from Australia, you could also try Ulta3 Blue Marlin for only $2! :)
The silver and blue glitter is Sally Hansen Showgirl Chic from the Gem Crush line. If you can't find this one, China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara is a dupe for this, and so is Sinful Colors' Ice Dream and Savvy by DB (found at Priceline in bins for $2.99) have a similar polish too! So it's not really a unique one, and you can find something like this in many brands! :)

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Sunlight

Happy new year! I wish you all the best in 2013. :) Stay safe and be responsible in your New Year celebrations okay?!
Thanks for following my blog in 2012! :)

Nail Gun XS - Marie’s Manicure Madhouse - Tales From The Makeup Bag - Shatter Me Claire - A Polished Prance - Tee Bee’s Nails - The Epitome of Superficiality - Lacquer Dreams - NananaisNails - Enamoured With Enamel - Pretty Polish Please - Adelle1985 - Kelly's Kolors - Polished Peripherals - Nicki - Every Little Polish - All Things Charmed - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - The Polish Haven - Nails In The Desert - Erinzi - Strawbrie - Lovessweetas - Jas' Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - Jessica - Lili_bete - Cassandra

China Glaze - It's A Trap-eze!

Hey guys! Another Christmas present to show you today, hehe. :)

This is China Glaze It's A Trap-eze! from the Cirque De Soleil collection! This is the only one I have from the collection so far but I do have another one on its way to me. :D
It's A Trap-eze! is a milky white base (it sort of looks slightly purple sometimes though) with lots of multicoloured glitters in it. I'm obessed with milky glitter polishes! This one reminds me of icing and sprinkles! :D

Sunlight

The formula on this was slightly hard to work with because it is PACKED with glitter!! It's hard not to get too many glitters on the brush! If you're not used to using chunky glitter polish, you may find this quite hard to apply.
I didn't love this one as much as I thought I would, sadly. :( I think if there was slightly less glitter in it, I would've liked it more.

With Flash

Close up

I did two coats of It's A Trap-eze followed by two coats of Seche Vite topcoat and it was still a little bumpy after that. I've heard others say they only needed one coat of topcoat so I don't know what I did wrong lol.

Sinful Colors - Nail Junkie

Hey there! :)
If you didn't know already, Sinful Colors nail polishes are now available in Australia! Even though it seems like a brand that is thought to be "not that great" in the US, I got so excited when I found out that I'd be able to buy them here! :D They're $2 in the US I believe, and $4.95 here but I don't think $4.95 is too much to pay, honestly! And they might be on sale from time to time! I bought a bunch before Christmas when they were $3.70 at Target! They don't have all of the colours, I believe they have approximately 40 colours though, which is awesome! :D
Most Target stores will carry Sinful Colors, and selected Priceline stores. :)

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So anyway, this one I'm showing you today is Nail Junkie! I think there are two versions of this, the first one was much sheerer than this one. I found a comparison HERE if you're interested.
Nail Junkie is a teal-ish jelly base with micro and slightly larger (but still small) iridescent glitters. It's super sparkly and eye catching!
But the formula unfortunately left something to be desired. It's sheer, as jelly polishes are, but also quite thick and goopy at the same time. I did one thin coat, followed by another thick coat, trying not to do too many brush strokes because it would drag the first coat around.
But really, for a cheap polish, I'm willing to work with a "meh" polish in the formula department.
I then topped it with 2 coats of Seche Vite topcoat to smooth out the glitters and make the goopy-ness go down! Haha.

Shade

Sun

LOOK AT THE SPARKLIES

Hope you enjoyed! Have you picked up any Sinful Colors yet?! :)

Models Own - Pinky Brown

Hey guys! I have a swatch to show you that I actually did a few months ago but I didn't really like it and didn't bother to upload it. I actually contemplated selling this one!
A couple weeks ago, our wifi wasn't working (tragedy, I know ;)) and I was bored, so I went through my folders and edited photos I hadn't bothered putting on the blog. As soon as I saw these photos, I was like "WHYYYYYYY didn't I like this?!!?!?!"

This is Model's Own Pinky Brown from the Beetlejuice Collection. I'm usually not the hugest fan of duochromes, most of them I have seen look frosty or brushstroke-y. And also, sometimes I feel like the colours that are put together in duochromes are kinda ugly. o.O Take Essence's Where Is The Party for example. I hate that one so much.
Pinky Brown is as the name would suggest, a pink to brown duochrome! I think this actually looks better in my photos than it did in real life! This is a glass-fleck-like shimmer, sort of. I can't even describe it. It's so beautiful.
This is also not a dupe, but similar to MAC Bad Fairy which I believe is from a discontinued collection about 2 years ago.

What are your favourite duochromes? :)

OPI - Goldeneye

Hi guys! :) Today I'll be showing you what I wore on my nails for Christmas Day! And this is also the first post you'll be seeing with photos taken using my new camera! :D As soon as I opened this gift on Christmas morning, I read the user manual and went outside to take photos of my nails! I had been borrowing my mum's camera for months to take my nail photos! Now I have my own! Woohoo! :) Bare with me while I learn to use it properly.

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This is OPI "Goldeneye", which was also a Christmas gift! :) This is from OPI's Holiday 2012 collection which is based on the newest James Bond movie, Skyfall! I haven't seen the movie yet actually. Better get on that soon!
"Goldeneye" is a polish made up of gorgeous gold flakes. It feels really special and luxurious, like you have liquid gold on your nails! I can't even explain it, it's AMAZING.
I used 2 coats but in the sunlight photo you can see I probably should've used a third because there are bald spots. It wasn't noticeable at all in person though.

I'm still wearing it while typing this (but by the time I publish this, it'll be gone haha) but apparently its kinda hard to remove so the foil method is recommended for this one!

Shade

Sunlight

Close up

Orly - Miss Conduct

Hello there! I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and spent it with your loved ones! Or are having an amazing Christmas - it might still be Christmas in some areas when this goes up! :) Or if you don't celebrate, I hope you had a great day anyway! :D
Today is Boxing Day here, and honestly I don't even know what Boxing Day is. I just know that it's a public holiday the day after Christmas and when I was little I always spent it playing with my new gifts! Haha. As far as I know, Australia isn't the only place that has Boxing Day. If you wanna know what Boxing Day is, go here. I didn't bother reading it but you can LOL.
I'm usually pretty bored the week or so after Christmas because everything is either closed, or too packed out so I can't really go anywhere. :( Oh well, more time to play with polish right?!

The polish I have to show you today is GORGEOUS. Totally gorgeous.

This is Orly's Miss Conduct from their Holiday 2012 Naughty Or Nice collection. I first saw this way back in August when Jen aka The PolishAholic posted her swatches of half of the collection, and I immediately added Miss Conduct to my MUST GET list. :)

Miss Conduct is a beautiful magenta scattered holographic! It is just beautiful. It's apparently a lighter, more pink version of OPI's DS Extravagance so if you like that one, you'll definitely like this too! :) They aren't dupes!
My only complaint is that the brush on my bottle was a bit weird and not great to work with. I ended up getting a lot of polish on the cuticles and because the formula is also a little runny, I flooded my cuticles on at least 4 out of 10 nails and that rarely happens! But the gorgeous colour makes up for the unfortunate brush.
These photos show 2 coats of Miss Conduct with Essie Good to Go topcoat.

Sorry my photos of this polish kinda suck lol. :(

Have a great day! :) Let me know what gifts you got for Christmas in the comments if you want! I would loove to know! :D

Aussie Christmas - 25/12 Your Choice!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY! :D I hope you have an amazing and safe Christmas and spend it with the people you love!!

I ended up skipping the challenge on the 23rd 'Santa's Swimsuit' because I tried a few designs and they just turned out horrible so I gave up. :( lol. Sorry! I skipped my own challenge LOL.

Today's post is a scheduled one because I obviously don't have time to blog on Christmas Day! lol. I have seen so so so many cute Christmas manis this year so my head has had so many ideas swimming around and not enough time to create them all!

I decided to recreate this design by Michelle at Cosmetic Cupcake! It's one of the cutest Christmas manis I've seen!

On my pointer I used 2 coats of Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar which is a perfect Christmas red, and topped that with 1 coat of Ulta3 Luck Of The Irish* and 1 coat of Disco Fever*.

My middle finger is 2 coats of Butter London Pillar Box Red and 1 coat of Femme Fatale Cosmetics Shimmering Snowcap which reminds me of snow! :)

On my ring finger the base is 2 coats of Butter London Pillar Box Red, Ulta3 Lily White for the white fur on Santa's suit, Ulta3 Black Satin for his belt, and Essence A Piece Of Forever* for the belt buckle. :)

My pinky is 2 coats of Butter London Pillar Box Red, 1 coat of China Glaze Ruby Pumps and 1 coat of Ulta3 Disco Fever*. This combo is so perfect for Christmas time!

I also found a really awesome Australian Christmas Tag going around so I thought I'd put that at the end of today's post! :D I'm not sure who created this, sorry!

The Australian Christmas TAG!

1. What is your favourite thing about Christmas?
I love being with my family and THE FOOD. Omg we always have the most amazing food. Mmmm. <3 I also absolutely LOVE Christmas lights. <3 They're amazing.

2. Seafood or traditional Christmas?
Traditional definitely. :)

3. Christmas Carols, love or loathe them?
I like the newer, modern ones but the old stuff is boring to me LOL.

4. If you like them what is your favourite?
Idk if this even counts as 'carols'.. but I like the Christmas songs 'Last Christmas' especially by Taylor Swift and the Glee version too. I like all of the Glee Christmas songs actually.

5. Do you wish it snowed here at Christmas or do you like it hot?
I'd love to experience a winter Christmas once in my life but I do love my hot Aussie Christmases! :)

6. What nail polish do you plan on wearing on Christmas day?
Well when this goes up I'll be already wearing something but right now as I'm typing this, I have no idea!

7. Do you put the tree up on December 1st?
Well usually we put it up early in December, but we only just put ours up last weekend actually LOL.

8. What is your favourite Christmas memory?
My brother and I used to make a "plan" on Christmas Eve for what we'd do on Christmas morning. Because we'd usually wake up at like 6am and get in trouble from our parents because we were too noisy LOL.
And one Christmas morning before we went to my auntie's house for lunch, my brother said something to my sister and she threw her cereal bowl at him. HAHAH. I'll always remember that. I don't even know why I find it so funny!

9. Do you have any Christmas traditions?
Hmm.. Not so much anymore. :( I used to go with my dad and siblings at night on Christmas Eve to see Christmas lights but for the last 4 or so years, I've been at church. But I now go to see Christmas lights with my boyfriend around Christmas time. :) We went like 4 times this year lol!

10. What is on your wish list this year?
My number one gift on my list is a new camera for blogging! The one I've been using for the last few months belongs to my mum and we usually want to use it at the same time lol. So I'd really like one of my own!

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you all! :) Thank you all for following my blog and all your nice comments, it means soo much to me. :)

*Products marked with an asterisk were provided to me for review but this does not influence my opinion in any way. My reviews are 100% my honest opinion. For more information please see my Disclosure Policy.

Aussie Nails Monday - 24/12 Holidays

Merry Christmas Eve lovelies! :) I hope you're not too stressed out with shopping, cooking and whatnot! Haha.

Today for Aussie Nails Monday, the theme is Holidays! I ended up not being able to decide on a design for today until the last minute haha. I spent HOURS looking up Christmas nail art for inspiration but could NOT decide on anything! So I ended up just doing something simple. :) A glitter gradient!

I used two coats of OPI I'm Not A Waitress for my base. It's a really gorgeous shimmery red that's perfect for Christmas! It's in OPI's core line so it should be easy to find if you don't already own it!
I then used Essence Make It Golden for the glitter gradient, and then for a bit more glitter I added some of Milani Jewel FX Gold. I really love this! So sparkly and festive! My tips did end up kinda thick because I went a bit overboard on the glitter. :P
I actually wore this yesterday for a church Christmas dinner thing. :)

Merry Christmas! If you're going away for Christmas, stay safe! I hope you all have a great Christmas with the ones you love. :)
See you tomorrow with my last post for the Aussie Christmas Challenge! It's a scheduled one because I don't have time to blog on Christmas Day haha. :P

12 Favourites Of 2012

Hi guys! :) Merry Christmas Eve Eve! ;) LOL. Today I have my 12 favourite polishes/manicures of 2012 to show you, instead of the "Santa's Swimsuit" mani for the Aussie Christmas Challenge. I know, I failed at my own challenge. LOL. I tried a few designs and it just failed miserably so sorry about that! This post is 100x better anyway. ;)
I wasn't going to do this because I didn't think I really had many favourites but I was tagged on Instagram to do the #myfavemanis2012 tag and I did have a fair few favourites so I decided to share them with you here too. :)

2012 was the year of nail polish for me. :P I've been into nails for probably almost 2 years now but I used to be more into artificial nails. I started "collecting" polish in February and I now have about 250 polishes is my guess. (Although my guesses are usually WAAAAAAY off so it's probably more like 300 :P)
Beware: You'll see a whole lot of different nail lengths/shapes in this post!
Oh, and these are in no particular order! :)

1. China Glaze "Ruby Pumps"
I've had this polish for about 4-ish months and wore it for the first time at the start of December! I don't really see myself wearing it other than around Christmas and maybe in winter, but it sure is a gorgeous one. I absolutely fell in love with it. "Ruby Pumps" is probably in the top 3 best selling China Glaze polishes. <3

2. MaxFactor "Fantasy Fire"
The elusive "Fantasy Fire" was released in Australia this year! I went crazy for it. When I found out about it, I literally ran to the shops in freezing cold weather just to get it. LOL. It's dupey of Clarins "230" which is why it's so popular. The picture says it all. (Worn over Revlon "Royal")

3. Gloss n Sparkle "Mirage"

"Mirage" by Gloss n Sparkle is just gorgeous. I'm a sucker for pastels and this one has glitter in it so of course I fell head over heels for it. ;) Beautiful beautiful beautiful.

4. OPI "Warm and Fozzie"

This polish was probably one of my first blog posts! :) If you read that post, you'll know I had some issues with it. Mainly because I paid full price for it (OPI's ridiculously expensive here) and then dropped the bag on a tile floor and it smashed. Luckily I was able to save some of it! I have one mini bottle full of it now, plus half another mini bottle and then I managed to pick up an extra mini of it from a blog sale! :D "Warm and Fozzie" is just gorgeous. A bit duochrome-y, a bit glass-fleck-y, ahh I love it.

5. Christmassy Half Moon Manicure

This mani was from the start of December and I loved it so much! I got a lot of compliments when I wore it! :) The polishes I used were Ulta3 "Antique Copper" and "Black Plum", with Milani's "Gold" placed glitter around the half moon.

6. Navy Holo
OPI "Russian Navy" with Gloss n Sparkle's Spectraflair topcoat over it! Please excuse the slightly messy cuticles. This mani was from about June or July-ish, and I hadn't mastered cleanup yet lol. :) I totally loved this mani.

7. Chevron Manicure
Look at these claws! Haha. I remember absolutely loving this mani. I love the colour combo! The blue is China Glaze "For Audrey" which is also a favourite in itself! A great colour and everyone needs it (or one like it)! I can't believe I haven't done this chevron pattern mani since this one because I really loved it and so did a lot of people I showed!

8. OPI "Man With The Golden Gun"

I don't think I could do a favourites post without including this. OPI's "Man With The Golden Gun" is an 18k gold flake topcoat and I'm sure you've all heard about it, or perhaps the other gold flake topcoats going around. I've worn it once so far, over OPI "DS Mystery".

9. OPI "Just Spotted The Lizard"
I'm typically not a huge duochrome fan. I think most people know that about me. But this was one that I totally fell in love with! It's a dupe for Chanel's "Peridot" and it's amazing. I think this is also my boyfriend's favourite polish of mine haha.

10. Nails Inc "Sweets Way"

This was on my wishlist for ages before I finally bought it. I'm a sucker for glitter in a milky base and this one stole my heart! :) <3 It's adorable.

11. Emily De Molly "Blue Moon"
This is a custom polish that Hayley of Emily De Molly made and sold to some Aussie girls. I don't think she makes this anymore though, sorry. :( I absolutely adore this, it is so sparkly! Pictured over China Glaze "Dorothy Who".

12. Essie "Shine Of The Times"

"Shine Of The Times" took me almost a year to get! Haha! It's a beautiful orange to green shifting flakie that looks most amazing over black. <3

So those are some of my favourites! :D It was hard to narrow it down haha. Let me know what some of your favourites of 2012 were. I'd love to know!

Aussie Christmas 21/12 - Gold

Hey hey! 4 sleeps till Christmas! :D I am so excited! Usually I don't do anything Christmas-y until the night of Christmas Eve when I'd usually go to church but this year I'm doing Christmas-y things every day starting Sunday (possibly Saturday..?) which will be awesome! :)

For my "Gold" nails I decided to do some stamping! I'm obviously not great at stamping, and I only own 5 or so plates but I love the look of it.

My base colour is Essence Walk On The Wild Side, a nice dark green with a lighter green shimmer. I then stamped over it with Essence A Piece Of Forever from the Breaking Dawn pt 2 collection. It's a warm metallic gold. I would never wear it on its own but I heard it was nice for stamping so I kept it for that purpose. :) I used Fauxnad plate M57 from Born Pretty Store.
Now I know that my stamping is not very good! But I actually also think it may be the quality of the plate I used. Please also excuse my index finger. I screwed it up a few times. :( I still need a lot of practice with stamping I think!

I can't remember if I mentioned it, I don't think I did, but I'm probably not going to post any "new" nail posts for a week or so after I finish the Aussie Christmas Challenge because I am just not liking my nails right now. :( I'm never happy with the shape or length. This doesn't mean I won't be posting  anything, it'll just be NOTDs I never got around to posting, etc. :)