My Valentine's Day Nails ♡

Hi guys! Not really sure what happened to this post before... lol I published it a couple of hours ago and then just went on my blog and it wasn't there? Weird.
I hope you had a really nice Valentine's Day yesterday! My boyfriend and I don't do anything super fancy for V Day but we had a good night. :)

This is what I wore on my nails for Valentine's Day!

On all my nails except my ring, the base is Revlon Colorstay Rich Raspberry, stamped with plate QA28 from BornPrettyStore in white, and on my ring is Ulta3 Lily White stamped with the same plate and Rich Raspberry.

I can't believe how well this turned out! Usually I have to redo each nail a few times before the stamping looks good but I didn't have to redo ANY of my nails! :D

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!

Revlon - Whimsical

Hey guys! :) I have a NOTD to show you that I wore a couple weeks ago. :)

If you've followed me for a long time, you'll probably realise from the title of this post that yes, I now own Whimsical. Whimsical by Revlon (Deborah Lippmann Glitter In The Air dupe) was my number one lemming for like 6 months. And then the fabulous Natalie sent it to me in the swap we did! :D It was so exciting for me! And I can't believe it took me such a long time to wear it after receiving it. LOL. I'm a weirdo.

I think everyone and their dog (lol) owns or has at least seen Whimsical so I won't blab too much about it. It's a super sheer blue base (you'd need at least 4 coats and it still wouldn't be fully opaque - but it's meant to be that way) with blue and pink hex glitters, and also some teeny tiny glitters. I love it. So cute! The formula is a bit thin so I did have to sort of place the large glitters with the brush to get them where I wanted.

I did have a bit of bubbling with this mani sadly. :( I think it was because of the base colour, which was Essence You Belong To Me and my bottle is very thick now as I've used up about half of it.

Do you own Whimsical? Or perhaps Glitter In The Air by Deborah Lippmann?! :) Do you have any layering combos you recommend?

Aussie Nails Monday - 3/12 Glad Wrap

Hellooo! This post is going up a bit later than usual because I wasn't as organised as I like to be. :P

Today's Aussie Nails Monday is 'glad wrap' (or saran/cling wrap if you're from another country). This is a technique I've been seeing a lot in the last few months!

This technique is done by applying a base colour, waiting for it to dry completely, then painting another colour over top (usually a contrasting colour) and while it's still wet, dabbing a ball of glad wrap over it.

Here are some examples and tutorials I found on this method:

• http://blognailedit.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/saran-nails-on-going-out-chic.html (includes tutorial)
• http://nailderellanails.blogspot.com/2012/08/saran-wrap-nails-with-illamasqua.html
• http://zabranjeni-grad.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/video-tutorial-saran-wrap-nail-technique.html (includes video tutorial)
• http://thepolishwell.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/nail-ideas-saran-wrap-nails.html

I really liked the colour combination in the first link so I decided to use similar colours. :)

For my base I used Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, and the colour I put over top is Revlon Buttercup! This method is pretty messy, at least it was for me. I'm not super happy with how it turned out but it'll do. :)

I used two coats of Sally Hansen Insta Dri topcoat over the mani because it felt sort of rough/bumpy.

Elissa xx

Check out the blogs/accounts of the gorgeous ladies joining me for Aussie Nails Monday:

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 - Mel My Issta - Walk In My Eyeshadow - JennLojko - The Polish Haven - Nails In The Desert - Erinzi - Strawbrie - Lovessweetas - Jas' Blingtastic Nails - Mckfresh - Jessica

Polyvore Collage Day: Autumn

Hey girlies! Today I read on Lacquer Buzz about the "Polyvore Collage Day" started by The Treasure Chest! :) You can read her main post about it here. I thought I'd join because it sounds like fun!

The first theme for this is 'Autumn'. It's not Autumn here right now, it's Spring but I love Autumn polishes so who cares. :D Like I've said before, I'm feeling very confused about the seasons right now because of all the Autumn colours I'm seeing coming out in new collections and on my friends' nails! :P I feel like wearing vampy dark colours! But hey it's still pretty cold here. ;)

I don't own all of these shades but they're all very trendy for Autumn, or they're just colours I love for the season! :)

Top L-R:

• OPI - Berlin There Done That from the Fall 2012 collection. This polish is a nude-taupe-ish shade. I only want a few from the Germany collection & this is one of them! It's along the lines of OPI - You Don't Know Jacques (another great Autumn colour!) but it's lighter.
• Revlon ColorStay - Midnight. I loooove this polish. I just took it off my nails earlier today actually. It's an awesome dark teal colour. It's basically opaque in one coat and the formula is so nice. I really like the Revlon ColorStay polishes.
• China Glaze - Purrfect Plum. I am looooving dark, vampy plum/berry colours right now. <3 Sooo gorgeous for Autumn. This is from the Fall 2012 Safari collection.
• Butter London - Pillar Box Red. Any red creme polish is a must have for Autumn! I got this Butter London polish free with InStyle magazine a couple weeks ago! :D The prices of everything are inflated crazily here but sometimes we get cool deals. :) This red is probably a bit too bright for Autumn but any red is pretty and classic.
• OPI - Every Month is Oktoberfest, from the Germany collection. You need to Google swatches of this polish. This is my #1 must have from the Germany collection. Well, number one on my wish list. I don't have it yet. :( But I WILL. It is freaking gorgeous. Really vampy and duochrome-ish.

BOTTOM L-R:

• China Glaze - Exotic Encounters, from the Safari collection. Such a lovely muted green shade. Very nice for Autumn!
• Butter London - Wallis. I believe this one came out this time last year. I bought it about 3 months ago (yep... I paid RRP... Don't ask how much that was :P) and haven't worn it. :O How crazy am I!? Haha. I must wear it soon before the weather gets warm. I'd feel weird wearing this one in Summer. But it is soooo nice. Sort of an "ugly/pretty" colour. ;)
• OPI - Russian Navy. Super classic OPI colour from the permanent line. I have a mini bottle of this one and I'm halfway through it! Need to get a full size. :( It's so lovely. A deep navy with blue and purple shimmer.
• Essie - Lady Like from the Fall 2011 collection. This is one of my ALL TIME fave polishes! :D I had a mini and I bought a full size a few months ago because I love it! :) It's a very pretty mauvey-pink colour that can almost look like a nude in low lighting.
• Essie - Mesmerized. Bright royal/cobalt blue! :) Blues like this are super popular and trendy right now! I don't own this particular one but I've seen it on other girls and it looks gorgeous.

So those are my Autumn polish picks! :) Hope you enjoyed. I will hopefully be continuing these Polyvore Collage Day posts. :)

Elissa

31DC2012: Day 23 - Inspired by a Movie

I could think of a bunch of ideas for "Inspired by a Movie"! I will probably make a list of them and maybe do a series or something! :) Let me know if you'd like to see something like that!

I decided to do a mani I've wanted to try for a while now! Actually maybe 5 months! Wow haha. Its not exactly inspired by a movie, but inspired by someone's nails in a movie! Have you guessed yet? :)

Effie Trinket inspired nails from The Hunger Games! Super easy to do and really pretty! I'm loving gradients right now!

I'm gonna be honest. I'm not like 99% of the population; I haven't read any of The Hunger Games books. Even my boyfriend started it (and never finished it)! Haha! But I have seen the movie. And I have to be honest again, and say that it wasn't as good as I expected it would be. Everyone hyped it up so much and it just didn't live up to it! Maybe because I didn't read the book but I don't know...

Anyway Effie Trinket in the movie had some crazy awesome nails and I wanted to try this design for myself!

I used Revlon ColorStay - Rich Raspberry, a gorgeous berry colour, as the name would suggest, for the base. I think in The Hunger Games the base is a darker berry colour but this was the closest colour I had!
I then sponged on MaxFactor - Ivory. I got this polish for only $0.50 when MF was on sale at Big W a few months ago! :D I wouldn't wear a colour like this as a full mani because I'm not into metallics or anything but it looks good for this look! :)
I then used a thin coat of a sparse small gold glitter polish called Disco Diva by NYC, over the whole nail. I think you can also find NYC at Big W and some supermarkets. I'm pretty sure NYC is made by the same people who make Ulta3 because the bottles are the same.

I really like this look a lot! It's gorgeous!
Let me know if you'd be interested in me doing a movie inspired series on my blog in the near future! :)

Elissa

31DC2012: Day 19 - Galaxy

I loooove galaxy nail art! It's so cool! :) And pretty easy to do! I've done galaxy nail art a while back but long before I made my blog. I used a tutorial by MissJenFabulous on YouTube for this the first time I did it and used the same technique the second time. It turned out much better the first time I did it, unfortunately! This time it doesn't look as galaxy-ish.

As my base I used one coat of Ulta3 - Black Satin. I sponged on OPI - Swimsuit... Nailed It, China Glaze - Dance Baby, and China Glaze - Kinetic Candy. I then topped the mani with Lorins - 734A (I believe that's the name..) and Revlon - Belle (I believe it's been renamed to Stunning...? - it's a dupe for China Glaze - Techno).

Super easy way to create pretty nail art! :)

Elissa

31DC2012: Day 10 - Gradient

First of all I want to thank you, I have over 40 followers on my blog now! :) I never even expected to have 10 followers, so it's cool to have 40 people who read my blog! :D Thanks so so much for following me!

As you'll see from the post title, today's 31 Day Challenge theme is gradient. I have been dying to try a gradient manicure for ages! But I didn't think I'd do a good job so I just didn't... until now! :) I showed you a rainbow gradient for yesterday's challenge theme and I have another one today!

For this mani I used the following polishes:

• Revlon - Lily, a pretty pale lilac creme
• OPI - Do You Lilac It, similar to Revlon - Lily, but dustier/darker
• Rimmel - Pompous, a dark purple shimmer

I used many tips from tutorials I've seen for this look. MissJenFabulous (Polish and Pearls is her blog) on youtube has a good gradient tutorial (and many other awesome ones!) and also The Nailasaurus has another great one!

I don't like to wear purples that much but in a gradient I like it a lot more! :) I really like gradients and I'd love to do more of them! I'm really really happy with how it turned out!

I also took these photos before I filed my nails down, which is why they might look longer here than my previous post!

Hope you enjoyed this short, sweet post!

Elissa

MaxFactor Fantasy Fire: A Bottle of Amazing-ness

Hi girls! I have something very exciting to share with you today! :D
Again I have to apologise for not posting for a week. :( I don't wanna throw around excuses but I've only done one or two successful manis this week. So sorry. <3

Artificial Light

Probably nearly two weeks ago, I heard that MaxFactor Fantasy Fire had been spotted in Terri White Chemists here in Australia. And I could've squealed with joy when I read that! I checked my local Terri White a couple of days after but didn't find it. The next day on Instagram, Angela posted that she found Fantasy Fire in Target! I literally jumped out of my chair and basically ran (ok more like power walked) through rain and FREEZING cold weather to go and buy this beautiful bottle of amazingness. I'm not kidding. Within 5 minutes of reading it, I was out the door and halfway to Target! So happy I live a 5 minute walk away from Target! ;)
I saw the MaxFactor display before I even walked into Target and was crossing my fingers that it would be there!
AND IT WAS. I swear I almost started jumping up and down in the store. I probably would've if I had a friend with me. LOL. On my own I would've looked like a lunatic. The display was full and there were even extra bottles of FF on the shelves next to the display! I wish I'd brought more money with me but I only brought enough for one bottle! (They're $5.95AU for a very tiny bottle. - I don't see the exact amount printed on the bottle but I'm guessing about 5ML). Would NOT pay that much for any of the other standard colours in their collection).
From Target I had to go and pick my siblings up from school and walked totally the wrong way because I was so excited! LOL!
So of course I went straight home after that and put this baby on my nails!

For those of you who don't know (but I'm pretty sure 99% of people reading this will!), MaxFactor - Fantasy Fire is a dupe of Clarins - 230, probably one off the most coveted nail polishes ever. I don't know a lot about it but I do know that people have paid CRAZY amounts for that polish on eBay!!

Fantasy Fire is a GORGEOUS, super sheer purple based duochrome shimmer. You mostly see red and green flecks on the nail. It's so hard to describe. In the bottle it's a bit prettier than on the nails but oh my gosh. It's AMAZING. If you can, you need to see this in person. And then clear out the display. ;)
I believe it'd look slightly different layered over certain colours but it looks best layered over purple or blues.
Almost all the swatches/manicures I've seen have been layered over Revlon - Royal so I did this too! Revlon's Royal is a jelly royal (hence the name) blue and Fantasy Fire just looks AMAZING over it!

Artificial Light

Click "Read more" to see more gorgeous photos and info. :)

NOTD: A Franken By Lissa!

Hi guys! I'm sorry I've been lacking some polish posts in the past few days! :( But this has to be one of the most exciting posts for me that I've ever done so far! :) Hope you'll like it too.

Lately I've been loving making franken polishes, which is basically where you mix a bunch of polishes and sometimes glitters to make your own unique polish, or to try to recreate a lemming of a polish you may not be able to get your hands on. ;) I've made a few before but this one is definitely my favourite!

Deborah Lippmamn's Glitter in the Air (or Revlon's Whimsical - a dupe for Glitter in the Air) has been at the top of my wish list for quite a while now! I don't think I'll ever get my hands on the Lippmann but I'd still like to try and get the Revlon dupe!
So, I had an empty mini polish bottle and just randomly decided to make something similar to Glitter in the Air! :D

Click 'read more' to see more pictures and a list of which polishes I used in my franken! :)


I wish I'd taken pictures during the process so I could show you exactly what I did and which polishes I uses to create this franken but I didn't. I can't tell you exactly how much of each polish I added, but here's a list of the polishes I used to make my franken:

• A small amount of Glossyblossom - Bubblegum Baby Blue (Glossyblossom is a brand I've found at Morning Glory stores) to make the base blue
• Revlon - Radiant
• Revlon - Sparkling
• A small amount of BYS - Million Dollar Baby
• And some of a Satin - French White polish (sheer white jelly-ish consistency) to make the base more jelly like and lighter.

I also added in some iridescent blue and pink hex glitters that I got on eBay.

L-R: Glossyblossom - Bubblegum Baby Blue, Revlon - Radiant, Revlon - Sparkling, BYS - Million Dollar Baby, Satin - French White.

As you can see, I've used the Revlon polishes for a few frankens now! I need to stop using them for frankens because I only bought them a couple months ago and Revlon polishes really aren't that cheap here, even though they're a 'drugstore' brand.

Sadly today's weather was HORRIBLE. Raining for most of the day and the sun didn't make an appearance so I was unable to get any photos in the sunlight.

The bottle I used is TINY so I don't think I'd get many uses out of it, so I'm still on the hunt for Whimsical.

The polish I made obviously isn't an exact dupe of Glitter in the Air but it's enough to satisfy my lemming for now! Or until I go through this little mini bottle. ;)
My franken (kinda annoying calling it that over and over. Maybe I should've given it a name...) isn't as sheer as Glitter in the Air but it's not completely opaque either so I'm going to layer it over other baby blues when I choose to wear it. :)

Of course, right after making this franken I HAD to put it right onto my nails! :)
Here I used one coat of China Glaze's Kinetic Candy and one coat of my franken over it!

Macro

All I can say is that I am in love. I'm so happy my franken turned out the way I wanted! I'd definitely recommend frankening! It's so much fun and you can try to make some polishes that you may be lemming! :)

Hope you enjoyed this post and happy frankening!

I'd also like to say sorry for the obnoxious watermarks on my photos. I think it looks really ugly, but there's been SO many bloggers and nail girls having their photos stolen and reposted without credit lately and I want to prevent that from happening to me!

-Elissa

NOTD: Purple Leopard Print Manicure!

I decided to skip days 8 (your favourite nails) and 9 (geometric) of the Winter Challenge and do leopard print nails! I'd seen an AWESOME leopard print tutorial by Sarah at Chalkboard Nails and decided to recreate it! :)

It's super easy and Sarah even included a video tutorial! All you need is three colours of polish, a dotting tool and a fast dry top coat! Well the top coat isn't completely necessary I guess but it makes life easier. ;)

The three colours I chose to use were Revlon Top Speed - Lily for the base, OPI - Do You Lilac It for the dots, and Essence - Break Through for the darker part of the spots. :) So my overall look is purple.

I'm slowly getting more and more into nail art! I just feel like sometimes it can look a little tacky. I guess it just depends on the design. I prefer more subtle nail art so this is quite crazy for me to have on my nails but I think it's cute and in my opinion, looks like it was really hard to do but it's actually super easy and doesn't take as long as it might look like it does!

Click 'Read more' for more photos & other info! :)

Winter Nail Challenge!

I've decided to join in on the winter nail challenge that some other Aussie bloggers are doing! :) Yes it is winter right now. We're about halfway through and I really wish it was summer right now. I like winter but I can't handle three months of it! And spring doesn't get that warm until like October/November here either! :(

Anyway, if you'd like to join the winter challenge then go The Blog for Beautiful Living's blog here to see the list! :) I'm a few days behind but I thought I'd join anyway!


Here's the list for the Winter Nail Challenge!

Yesterday's theme is "blue"! I used to hate blue polish before I got addicted. I thought it was a really unnatural colour to wear on your nails so I only wore pinks and girly colours. Now I own a TON of blues so it was hard for me to choose which blue to wear out of my collection!
I did this manicure yesterday but didn't have time to post last night, so sorry it's a day late! I may post all the manicures for this challenge the day after I do them. I'd like to post them on the day I do them but I don't really have time to do that.

I ended up choosing two untrieds from my collection! :)
I did one coat of Revlon - Royal, a royal blue (as the name would suggest) jelly formula polish (sorry I didn't take a picture of it before I added the next polish!) and one thick coat of Essence - Blue Addicted which I believe is a Deborah Lippmann dupe for Across the Universe and at only $2.55AU ($1US I believe), who would buy the actual Lippmann when you can get this so much cheaper! Essence bottles are very small but you could buy a few of them and it'd still be much cheaper than the Deborah Lippmann polish. :)

Click 'Read more' for more pics & info!

Current Lemmings

Hi girls! (and guys if there's any reading this. I don't know of any guys who read my blog but there could be. So hi!) :) I saw some other bloggers do this and I thought it'd be fun. Also I've seen my sister on "Polyvore" alllll the time lately (where I made this collage) so I wanted to try it. I'm not really sure what the site is actually used for but I think it's mainly to make collages of outfits and things like that.
I used it to make a collage of my current wish list/lemmings that I hope to get my hands on in the near future! :) I thought it would be fun to show you what products I'm wanting at the moment!

Descriptions and more after the jump!

NOTD: Midnight Manicure

I found it funny that I'm typing this at exactly 12:00am (midnight), and the polish I am wearing right now is called 'Midnight'!

I am wearing one of the polishes I picked up in Sydney over the weekend, in a chemist. About a week ago & a half ago I discovered that the Revlon ColorStay polishes had been release in Australia! I don't know how long they've been out in the US but since I only recently started to see them popping up on blogs & YouTube so I thought we wouldn't get them for another 4-6 months but I unexpectedly saw them in Chemist Warehouse and flipped out!

I have worn one other ColorStay but didn't take any pictures on my camera (only my phone-bad quality) so I'll have to swatch it again soon.
I really like the formula of these polishes, they're quite thick and the ones I've tried so far are opaque in one coat (though I always do two). I am not the fondest of the brush, however. The brush is wide and a bit stumpy. I tend to get polish all over my cuticles with these polishes which is really annoying because usually I need to do minimal cleanup! But I still really like this line anyway.

Click for larger image

So the one I am wearing 'Midnight'. It's a dark teal colour (though my photos don't show that so well...). I have been wearing a LOT of blues on my nails lately. I used to think blue/green was a very unusual colour for nail polish but now it's probably one of my favourites!

I then topped the polish with CND 'Crimson Sparkle', a shimmer/micro glitter top coat that flashes red (as the name suggests!) and gold! It's really gorgeous and when I googled swatches I saw it only used over dark colours so I thought this would work! At first I wasn't a fan of my combo but it's growing on me! :) I think this topcoat will also look great over pastels for a more subtle look.

More info & swatches after the jump! :)

Sydney Polish Haul + More! (Pic Heavy!)

Hey guys!
I'm sorry I haven't posted anything for about a week. I've been away in Sydney, NSW for 4 days!

My mum won a competition (she's a competition junkie, it's AWESOME. We've had some amazing opportunities/experiences thanks to my clever mother! :)) for two people to go to The Voice Australia grand final in Sydney! When she told me, I started crying and laughing (I giggle a lot when I'm excited about something) and almost choked on whatever I was eating! All because Delta Goodrem, my favourite singer of all time, my obsession and role model, is one of the coaches! I've been a MASSIVE Delta fan since I was 9 (about 10 years). I don't think I've ever been so excited about something in my entire life.
So of course my mum said I could go on the trip, I think that was the reason she entered, knowing that I LOVE Delta. But she said she couldn't go with me but that I could take my boyfriend with me! This was even more exciting because we'd never been on a holiday or anything together and it was our 5 year anniversary about 3 weeks ago (the day before I found out about the prize actually) so it was really cool. I then found out that the prize included even MORE amazing things, if The Voice grand final wasn't amazing enough! We were staying in a 5 star hotel, having limo transfers to our hotel from the airport (and back to the airport at the end), limo transfers to/from the Voice at Fox Studios, a 2 hour beauty treatment including facials, massages and a body scrub, a 20 minute helicopter ride over Sydney, a $300 dinner and EVEN MORE absolutely amazing stuff. WHAAAAAAAT!!!!! So freakin' awesome!

So I had two and a half weeks before we left to totally freak out and spend every moment thinking about the trip. x)
I found out we would also have some time for shopping while in Sydney so of course I checked out what type of places I could shop at. ;)
About a 5-10 minute walk from our hotel was some amazing shopping areas! Woot! And as you can imagine, I went crazy on nail polish. But not as crazy as I thought I would. I found a really cool nail supply store and bought some polish there, and also at some chemists and other places where I usually get polish at home, but being in a different city and larger malls/shops they did have a little different variety than what we have at home! :)
I think I bought about 16 polishes all together, including some base/top coats and some other goodies. :D I'll include my haul photos in with my other holiday photos below.
Photos all taken from my Instagram profile.