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

Aussie Christmas Challenge 19/12 - Candy Cane

Hey guys! To start off, yes, I know this theme isn't very "Aussie", but I think almost every country that celebrates Christmas would have candy canes and I had to put at least a few "traditional" Christmas themes in the challenge! ;) Oh. And I changed my nail shape again. Ha! I didn't do a very good job as I'm now seeing in my photos though...

The mani I'm showing you today for the Aussie Christmas Challenge was not what I had originally planned on doing. :( I had planned a really cool-looking water marble and of course, being a water marble, it didn't go to plan at all. I spent 3-4 hours on it before I gave up and decided to do something else!
The mani I decided to do in the end, was inspired by THIS MANI by Chloe's Nails, which I have been seeing all over Pinterest and the rest of the internet! I think her stripes look absolutely flawless and perfecto!

I started off with two coats of Ulta3 Lily White and then taped off my nail using regular tape for the stripes, and painted over the nail with China Glaze Ruby Pumps, which is now one of my all time favourite polishes! After pulling off the tape I had a few mistakes but they were easily fixed up with a white striper. :)
As you can see though, I did have a little smudgey problem on my index finger because of my topcoat. :( I tend to stroke with the brush too many times.

Less than a week until Christmas! Woohoo! Have you done all your Christmas shopping? I don't really wanna go anywhere near the shops until the new year now. It's too hectic at this time of the year!

Aussie Christmas 15/12 - Christmas Tree

Hey guys! :) Today's challenge prompt is "Christmas Tree"! A coincidence because today we put up our Christmas Tree! :) Well, actually, I didn't even know my siblings were putting it up so I didn't help. :(
I'm annoyed I didn't get this up by midnight. :( Haha.

For my mani I used three coats of Sally Hansen Brick Wall on my pointer, middle and pinky, topped with 2 coats of Rimmel Ruby Crush. You could use ANY red user this Rimmel glitter because it almost fully covers the base colour!

On my thumb and ring finger I used 2 coats of OPI Designer De Better (Am I the only one who thinks that's a weird name..? Or maybe I'm just slow and don't get it hahah). Then for the Christmas tree I used a striper to paint it, with Essie Mojito Madness. For the baubles and star I used Ulta3 Blue Marlin, Frangipani and Butter London Pillar Box Red. I also dabbed some of Ulta3 Luck Of The Irish all over the place. Haha.

Hope you're having a great weekend! :)

Holly Jolly Holiday TAG!

Hi guys! So I'm a big YouTube fan/watcher, you might already know that since a lot of nail art that I do is inspired by girls who do nail art on YouTube. I also like to watch makeup/beauty videos on YouTube as well!
Two girls that I watch are Beautybaby44 (Lindsey) and StrawberryElectric48 (Kristie)! Last year they created a 'Holly Jolly Holiday Tag', where they created some Christmas/holiday related questions and tagged some other YouTubers to do the tag. This year, they created a 'part 2' of the Holly Jolly Holiday tag (I'll call it HJH from now on LOL)! I've been watching a lot of the HJH tag videos going around and it just seems like a lot of fun. I don't make YouTube videos but I thought it'd be fun to do a post on it! :) I just love Christmas time (and questionnaires!), especially when it gets down to the last 10 or so days until Christmas! :D
I'll also tag some other bloggers to do this tag if they'd like to on their own blogs. :)

1. Do you start your Christmas shopping on Black Friday or wait until the last minute?
We don't have Black Friday here in Australia. But I usually do Christmas shopping at the beginning of December. My bf and I like to get our gifts bought at least two weeks before Christmas because the shops are just too crazy and packed! You can't even get a car park easily!

2. If you could be in any Christmas movie what would it be?
Oooooh probably ELF! Elf is probably my favourite Christmas movie and I want to meet Buddy The Elf! LOL!

3. Which do you like better: Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?
Christmas Eve is really exciting and everybody's anxiously waiting for it to be Christmas. Usually once Christmas Day is half over, you're sad it's ending! I am, anyway. Haha.

4. When does your family put up your Christmas tree and who decorates it?
Well usually we've put the tree up the first weekend in December ever since I can remember. But it's now less than 2 weeks til Christmas and our tree is still not up... :/ I'm not sure if it will actually get put up at all this year which is a bit sad. :(

5. White lights or colored lights?
Coloured all the way! :)

6. Are you guilty of peeking at your presents or do you like the surprise?
I used to try and look for them when I was little but my mum was too good at hiding them! :)

7. Would you rather live in a gingerbread house or in Santa's Workshop?
Santa's Workshop! How fun! :)

8. Tell us your Christmas Eve traditions!
Up until I was maybe 13 or 14, my brother and I used to make a "game plan" on Christmas Eve for what we'd do on Christmas morning. ie. We'd bring our presents into the play room and open them together (SUPER early, mind you :P We'd usually get in trouble for getting up so early) or the lounge room. We'd also do loads of activities to pass time on Christmas Eve like drawing pictures, playing on the swing set singing Christmas carols, etc but really it didn't make the time go much faster. :( Lol! Now every year since I was 14 or 15, my siblings (16 y/o brother, 13 y/o brother and sister, and 7 y/o brother) and I go hang out at my Auntie's house with her and our little cousin. Mainly to get my siblings out of my mum's hair! Haha! She goes to the shops and buys some last minute gifts and then spends most of the afternoon wrapping gifts. I guess it's just easier for her that way so she doesn't have to stay up all night wrapping!
I also remember making my brother watch Mean Girls with me when I was 11 or 12. LMAO! He would've only been 8 or 9 then. HAHA.

9. If you could be under the mistletoe with anyone who would it be?
My boyfie ;) LOL. :P

10. What tops your tree?
Usually a gold star. :)

11. Can you name the 12 days of Christmas?
Oh jeez umm...

12. Have you ever gone Christmas caroling?
I think once as a dare..? Haha.

13. Do you countdown to Christmas? If so, how many days are left?
Oh I sure do. ;) I even have an iPhone app! As of right now when I'm typing this (Thursday at 2:51pm) there is 11 days, 9 hours and 8 minutes until Christmas!

14. What are some foods and treats you can count on having every holiday season?
My Auntie used to make this amazing ice cream cake sort of thing when I was younger, it had M&Ms and some mashed up berries in it I think... But it was SOOOO yummy. It makes me sound like a total fatty but I seriously look forward to Christmas every year because of the food... LOL. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my roast Christmas dinner. <3

15. How has Christmas kept its magic for you as you've grown older?
I just love spending time with my family! :) I'll be honest, I do still get excited about the gifts... Lol though I obviously know that's not what Christmas is about and I'd still have fun even if I got no gifts.

So that's the HJH tag! :D That was fun and got me thinking about a lot of old Christmas traditions with my siblings. :)
And just for fun, here's some Santa photos of me and my brother!

 

Here are the ladies I tag! If you don't want to make a blog post, you could just leave your answers in the comments! :)
Teneil from Shades of Phoenix
Anthea from Nailed Obsession
Bec from Nailgunxs
Rebecca from Polished Peripherals
Mihaela from LacquerBuzz
Holly from MissHollyBerries
...and EVERYONE ELSE. You, reading this! If you want to do this, either leave a comment or make your own blog post! You may link it in the comments if you do the tag. :)

Merry Christmas!

Aussie Christmas 11/12 - Elf

Hi! :) I have my 'Elf' mani for the Aussie Christmas Challenge for you today! :) I was so excited about this one because elves are so cute, and one of my favourite Christmas movies is "Elf"! :D

I actually used a tutorial for this one, a Halloween tutorial! But I tweaked the colours to make it a Christmas mani!

Sorry the photo isn't the best. :(

Colours used:
Butter London Pillar Box Red
Essence Bashful
Ulta3 Black Satin
Ulta3 Antique Copper
Essence Make It Golden

So if you couldn't already tell, they're elf shoes! :D I am so happy with the way this turned out! I love it!

Here is the video tutorial I used! It's by PackAPunchPolish on YouTube! She also has a blog and Instagram so make sure you go follow her, she's amazing!

Hope you enjoyed today's Aussie Christmas Challenge! :)

Aussie Christmas - 9/12 Green

Hey hey guys. :) Hope your weekend's going well so far!

Today's Aussie Christmas Challenge prompt is 'green'. Pretty easy after all the difficult ones the past week.. I'm sorry to all the ladies doing the challenge! I underestimated how difficult some of the prompts are! :P Oh well, it's meant to be a 'challenge' right? ;)

I'm kinda loving gradients. For today's nail art I did another gradient! For the french base I used 2 coats of Essence Sweet As Candy. It was still a bit streaky at 2 coats, I probably could've done a third.
I then sponged on Piper Polish Peace, Love and Rainbows* a little more than halfway up my nail, concentrating it most on the tip. I then did another layer of sponging, only on the tip. It looked a bit less gradient-ish than I wanted it to but I still like it.
Then I topped the whole mani with Ulta3's Luck Of The Irish, a really pretty green glitter! :) I did one coat over the whole nail, and then added a bit more glitter closer to the tips.

Holding China Glaze Ruby Pumps - so Christmas-y :)

Have a great day! :)

Aussie Christmas - 7/12 Summer Sunset

Today's Aussie Christmas Challenge mani is gonna be kinda similar to my 'Pool Party' one... Sorry! I didn't really think about it enough. x)
I think almost all of us will do really similar manis for today's challenge prompt. :P

Before I show you the mani, I wanted to say that yes, I'm experimenting with a new nail shape. I have a more rounded shape now. I think it's a bit more flattering on my hands but I'm not totally sure how I feel about it just yet. My nails grow fairly fast anyway so if I end up hating it, it won't be long before I can file them square again. :)

So anyway, I chose to do a sunset-esque gradient accent nail! I don't think I did a super good job of it looking like a sunset but oh well, I still think it's pretty. :)
The polishes I used were Essence Break Through, Cotton On Neon Orchid and Ulta3 Frangipani with a regular kitchen sponge for the gradient. It actually worked a lot better with the kitchen sponge than previous gradients I've done, which I've used a cosmetic sponge for.

Have a great weekend! :)

Oh also - a reminder! My HTF China Glaze "OMG" auction ends tomorrow night at 11:59pm South Australia time! Go HERE to bid on it!

Christmas Wish List!

Hey guys! :) First off, how do you like the new look of my blog? :) I spent a while last night working on it! I really like it! It's very scrapbook-esque which I loooove since I'm a crafty girl! :D Let me know what you think.

Now, onto today's post! I've seen that some other bloggers have done a 'Christmas Wishlist' posts and I thought I'd do one too! :D

Just a disclaimer - I obviously know that Christmas is not all about getting gifts, or even giving gifts and I don't even expect to get these things I want, it's just a wish list. :)

The thing I want most this Christmas is a new camera! :) The one I use now actually isn't my own, haha. I borrow it from my mum. I want a bit better quality and to have a camera of my own. This one pictured is a Nikon L310 which can be purchased from Ted's Cameras for $179.95 (2/12/12).

OPI Skyfall collection is also on my wishlist! And I actually know that I'm getting this hehe. Well, I think 8 or 9 of them because I didn't really want the others. I may still buy them though.

I really want an 'Helmer' from Ikea to store my stash in! :D I store my polishes in two of my desk drawers right now but they're pretty much full, and I'm also wanting to get rid of my desk so I need a new and better way to store my polishes. I don't think I have much chance of getting a Helmer for Christmas though, they're pretty expensive lol so it may be something to ask for for my birthday or save up for.

Helmers can be bought from Ikea.

Another thing on my wishlist is BundleMonster 2012 set stamping plates! I only own a few stamping plates because the ones I do have are cheapies (except one Konad plate) and they don't work well. But the BundleMonster set is a really good deal and are apparently good quality.

Can be purchased from Amazon or BundleMonster.

And the last thing on my wishlist is Butter London Fiddlesticks from their holiday collection. I only own 3 or 4 Butter London polishes but I really love the ones I own! :) Fiddlesticks is a gorgeous raspberry pink jelly with glitters and I must have it! I'm in love with polishes like this at the moment. I also really want Essie Leading Lady (not pictured).

Butter London Fiddlesticks can be purchased from Amazon (not sure where else for us Aussie ladies).

Soooo yep, that's what I want for Christmas! :D I'll include what I get for Christmas in my December Haul at the end of the month, probably so we'll find out then! ;)

If you've done a Christmas Wishlist post, let me know and I'll go check it out! Or just leave me a comment and tell me what's on your wishlist because I'd love to know!

Elissa xx

Aussie Christmas - 3/12 Six White Boomers

Today's Aussie Christmas Nail Challenge is a bit of a fail. I thought it was clever as a theme but then I actually thought about it and I was like ... wait how am I supposed to do that on my nails!??! LOL.
I'm so sorry to all the ladies doing the challenge because it's so difficult hahaha.

If you don't know what a 'boomer' is, it's slang for a kangaroo, I guess. Haha. And Six White Boomers is a song by Rolf Harris.
Videos here (Blogger won't let me embed a video for some reason) if you're interested: YouTube Search: Six White Boomers.

If you're not Aussie (or maybe even if you are) you'll probably think it's really strange. :P I guess we can be a strange bunch.

This is the picture I used for inspiration.

... No, it didn't turn out much like my inspiration. LOL.

I did two coats of China Glaze Dorothy Who for my base. It's a freakin' beautiful blue jelly with blue and silver microglitters.

Then I painted six white... boomers (more like blobs!) and Santa in a sleigh, and some stars on my pinky.

Hahahahaha I think it looks ridiculous. Don't judge.

I promise my nails for the other days will be better. :P

Elissa xx

Aussie Christmas - 1/12 Red

Hey guys! Happy December! :D

Today is the first day of the Aussie Christmas Nail Challenge! Woohoo! I had hoped to get it up on here earlier today but I was busy all afternoon!

I wanted to create this challenge because the other challenges out there are all related to winter and it's definitely not winter here haha! We don't really celebrate Christmas that much different than people in other countries though. It's just hot here! I'd love to experience a cold Christmas someday but I really love my summer Christmas. :D

So the theme for today is red. I chose to keep at least a few of the days in this challenge a bit vague so you could go for some really intricate nail art, or something more simple like what I chose to do today. :)

Today's nail art, if you can even call it that, is one of those that is gonna be pretty simple because I didn't have a lot of time to think about it haha.

I started with a base of Ulta3 Antique Copper. It's a frosty metallic coppery gold with what looks like orange microglitter/flecks.
I then used Ulta3 Black Plum and freehanded the half moon. This is why it doesn't look exactly the same on each nail. :P I don't have any of those circle stickers that everyone uses to create this look. I realise that it's not exactly 'red'... It looked more red in the bottle I swear. It's a deep purple-ish red with a whole lotta shimmer!
I wasn't super happy with the way this looked, because they were a little messy. So I put a little bit of Milani Jewel FX in Gold on a piece of paper and used a dotting tool to place the glitters on my nail which sort of covers up the unevenness. :)

This was relatively easy to create and I'd love to try this again with some different colours! :) If you have any suggestions for colour combinations let me know! I'll probably try to pick up some circle stickers I can do this a bit better next time.

Elissa xx

Ulta3 Holiday Glitters Press Release

Hey ladies!

Ulta3 have some AWESOME new glitters out for the party and holiday season! I am super excited about these! :)
They now have larger pieces in their glitters which have been really popular with a lot of brands in recent years, rather than the smaller glitters! I LOVE chunky glitters and I know most of you do too. ;) And as you know, Ulta3 is one of my favourite brands! What's not to be excited about?

Ulta3 says...

"Are you ready to celebrate the party season? Get your glam on with new ulta3 Glitter nail colours! The new and improved formula has both large and small glitter flecks perfect for going from a day look to a night look with just a sweep of glitter! Wear the glitter alone or layer it on top of your existing nail colour for the ultimate fashion statement.

ulta3 is Australia’s number one nail polish brand, selling 5.3million units*. The extensive range, containing classics through to key trends, has something for everyone. Set at a price suitable for all, the salon quality, long lasting enamels are a must have in any beauty bag. ulta3 is an ever-growing, well established, full category cosmetic brand operating within the impulse market."

Here are the new glitter shades! They all come in a clear base and are packed with lots of glitter!

L-R: Over the Rainbow, Pot of Gold, New Years Eve, Disco Fever, Luck of the Irish, Twinkle Toes

I can't wait to grab all of these glitters! I am a total sucker for glitter all year round but they're especially fun around Christmas and New Year!

These polishes are out Australia wide NOW, and will only cost you $2! I love Ulta3's low price tag!
To find stockists around you, please call 1800 181 040.