... It's back!!! ... 7 days 7 ways!

In the past 3 years, I've dabbled in a few series and segments on the blog and this one, by far, is the one that I'm asked about the most. I've only attempted it a few times but due to mainly being time poor I haven't made it a permanent feature but while I'm celebrating ... it's back!!

So it's 7 days - 7 ways!! For those who aren't long term readers, I use 1 polish for a full week and try to make the most out of it with various combos and techniques. I originally made this series after being asked by friends on how to make the most out of their small polish collection (and by small, I mean like under 10 polishes small, not small as 1 helmer small!)

I've chosen this time around to use Wisteria by piCture pOlish which is available online worldwide. This is the new "reborn" shade that is currently available. Sadly I don't own the original but if anyone has it in a blogsale I'd love to own both!

 
So as always, day 1 is just wearing the polish as is! No gimmicks. Just 3 coats of gorgeous plus a top coat. Easy peasy! I think it's a really pretty purple. It's bright and warm enough to chase those winter blues away! I'm already looking forward to wearing this colour every day this week!

So I'll be here tomorrow with another suggestion on how to wear this polish. If you have a suggestion on how you want me to use it, then leave a blog comment or a message on the Shatter me Claire Facebook wall and I'll add it to the list!

... Aussie Nail Monday - Super Heroes and Villians

Hiya! Welcome to another episode of Aussie Nail Monday. Todays theme is Super Heroes and Villians which is quite exciting! It also gave me an excuse to grab the stamping plates!

I've chosen Iron Man and I've used Essie Bordeaux, Essence A Piece of Forever and piCture pOlish Nude. While I think that the colours work really well together if I had to do this mani again I wouldn't use the Essie. Being a jelly it was just too thin and runny for what I wanted to do. Also I found it really hard to match the opacity on each nail.

Iron Man is reversed stamped from the FUN 11 plate and I think he looks quite good considering the issues I had with Bordeaux.

Wanna see more Aussie Nails? Check out these links or check out #anmonday on Instagram!

Lily Jinks - @lilyandjinks

Ann - Nailovelogy

Tracy - @oliviajade19

Holly - @nails_by_holly

Naomi - @nadeekay and Nananaisnails

Erin Wu -  @erinzi and Erin Zi’s Nails

Elissa -@tenlittlenubs and Ten Little Nubs

Kate - Pimped Out Nails

Astrid - @lovessweetas

Sarah Claire - @shattermeclaire or Shatter me Claire

Julia - Fancy Nails and Cups of Tea

Sylvie - @smudgedpolish

Relle - @lazylacquerista or Lazy Lacquerista

Tammy - @ohmygoshpolish

Christinemay - @xtinemayyy or Nails at 2am

Tash Birch - @tashisdead

Nicki - @celestialcosmetics

Briana -

Loz - Polish Patterns

Kelly - @kellyskolors and Kelly's Kolors!

Tara - @lokislacquer or  Osiris and Loki paint their nails

... Too Fancy Lacquer - This Love Is Smokin' Hot ...

A bit of a milestone today! Apart from the fact that I've managed to blog daily for half a month, this is the most I've blogged in a month since October 2012!! WOW!!!

A month or so ago I left a memory card at my husbands work and I've only just rediscovered it. It had this beautiful gem on it which I had to show.

This is "This Love Is Smokin' Hot" by Too Fancy Lacquer and being a big fan of pink polishes, I was in love from the time I pulled it out the mailbox! All these swatches are 3 coats with the HK girl top coat.

So bright and so pretty! Sunshine is sadly lacking here at the moment so I'm so glad that I got a chance to wear this when the sun was out as it looks like it'll be awhile before I see blue skies again in my neighbourhood.

I give it bonus points as it still looked a pretty pink inside. YAY! It's definitely most brightest in full sunlight but the shade that it gives indoors is still adorable for any pink fan.

And I couldn't leave it alone so I stamped over it! Now if someone knows what plate this is from I'd be ever so grateful! I can't seem to find it again and I really want to use it as I love how this looks.

.... Mckfresh Charity Duo - Coral Kisses & Bubble Toes ...

Something super special today! During the past week I received some fantastic mail in the post.

(photo from instagram)

I was very lucky to be a winner in the Charity Raffle over at MeiMeis Signatures that was full of one of a kind polishes! I received a beautiful duo from Aussie indie brand Mckfresh Nail Attire.

There is a fantasic coral polish named Coral Kisses and also a glitter combo in a white base named Bubble Toes. I was so excited to be a winner and it's not often that I'm organised enough to have swatches straight away but here goes!!

Coral Kisses seems to have a bit of everything. Apart from the divine colour, there is a soft scattered holo throughout and on top of that there is beautiful golden red shimmer going on as a bonus.

 

So pretty! I've forgotten how much I love coral polishes. And I'm so excited that this one made it's way into my life!

Onto the second polish ... Bubble toes consists of various sized and shaped glitter in black, purple and shades of pink, all in a milky white base.

Now I'm not the biggest glitter fan out there but I really liked this. I love the colours and most of all I love that it dries smooth without having to smother it in top coat. I've put a coat of Seche Vite on top of this anyway but I love any glitters that are smooth. If there is a hint of bumps or lumps, I will pick at it and that's a nervous habit that I try to avoid.

If you want to see more polishes at their new homes, check out the tag #meimeicharityraffle
on Instagram!

... Zoya Maya and Zoya Chloe ...

Hiya readers.

I'm been lucky enough to contract bronchitis in the last few days but I'm hoping to keep putting along with daily posts for you.

It's a real short one today but I found this while looking through my memory card and while it's a bit of a nail fail, I wanted to show it anyway as a lesson to myself that you just can't always tell what the camera is picking up.  I only took a small amount of pictures of this combo before I decided it wasn't worth the effort as the replays weren't looking anything like the original colour but when I looked at it today on the PC, it's closer than I thought it would be.

The camera doesn't always tell you the truth.

 

This is the extremely gorgeous Zoya Maya and I used Zoya Chloe on White for an accent nail. Chloe is a beautiful fleck polish in a pink tinted base but it didn't work for me here. I should have just layered it by itself or on a nude instead of on white.

So the lessons here are a) to keep on practicing and b) that your instincts aren't always right.

... AIPAS - Animal Side ...

This weeks AIPAS (Australian Indie Polish Appreciation Society) theme is Animal Side! Manis that are inspired by animals!

I chose this oldie because a) I really like it and b) it's up there with the first Aussie indies that I ever owned.

This is "Aussie Bee" by Peita's Polish which is a beautiful bright sheer yellow with an assortment of different sized black hexes. I've layered this over white (OPI Alpine Snow) just to show off it's superb colour!

The bees are from the QA2 plate which is a Winnie the Pooh themed octagonal shaped stamping plate that I brought from eBay many years ago.

 

I think Aussie Bee is a fantastic yellow polish. It will always hold many memories for me so I'm glad to get the chance to feature it this month!

... Guest Post with Jenny from Lavish Layerings ...

Hi everyone! This is Jenny from Lavish Layerings and I am so excited to be doing a guest post today for Sarah Claire to celebrate 3 years of blogging! I have known her for a few years now, and she is a wonderful friend. She has always been there to give me encouragement when I'm having some "blah" blogging days and she has such a bright and bubbly personality that you can't help but smile when you talk with her. When she asked me about doing a guest post, I knew I had to do something pink since she loves pink so much. I thought about it, and what polish could be more appropriate than her very own collaboration polish with piCture pOlish, Shocked.

For my mani, I decided to do a "stamp sandwich". I started out with 2 coats of piCture pOlish Shocked and allowed it to dry completely. Next, I stamped on some flowers using Mundo de Unas White and the Cheeky XL Top of the Class plate. I then painted on 1 final coat of Shocked. For the flower centers, I used a dotting tool and dotted on Dance Legend Just Another Star (purple) and Inhale (green) from the Wow Prisms line. I loved this mani so much that I didn't want to take it off! The colors are so bright and fun!

Thanks so much for asking me to guest post sweet Sarah Claire! Congrats on 3 wonderful years of blogging and I wish you the best of luck in the future!

... Celestial Cosmetics LE June 2014 & Giveaway Post ...

Bit of a double post today people but bare with me! Firstly, I want to share with you the beauty from over at Celestial Cosmetics.

This LE June 2014 and obviously from it's name, it is the monthly limited edition polish! There have been some stunners from the Celestial LE range in the past and this is no exception.

I'm always on the lookout for beautiful holos that fall into the nude/light pink category. Apart from being super pretty, they are fantastic for events and occasions where I want to wear something that's gorgeous but not overpowering or distracting.

 

Sunshine seems to be rather very limited here at the moment but I managed to get a few quick shots in! Enjoy!! Also Celestial is currently having a sale on until the end of June so why not head over and grab this beauty along with a few bargains!

And now I couldn't turn the big 3 without having some sort of giveaway!! So here it is! YAY!! The lucky winners will win this prize pack of lots of things that I love!!! Holos, Flakies, Pink Polish, Fantastic Cuticle Balms, Awesome Nail Files and Chocolate Biscuits!! What's not to love!!!

YES!! THIS IS OPEN INTERNATIONALLY!!! 

(but please check out the fine print below!!)

** FIRST PRIZE **
Celestial Cosmetics - LE May 2014

Celestial Cosmetics - LE June 2014

Love Thy Polish - A Beautiful Mistake *

Love Thy Polish - Shangri-La

piCture pOlish - Shocked by Shatter me Claire

Australis - Speck-tacular

Help Me Ronda cuticle balm - Limited Edition Coco Love

Czech Glass Nail File in a hard plastic case

Treat Pack of Tim Tams (om nom nom)

** SECOND PRIZE **

Help Me Ronda cuticle balm - Limited Edition Coco Love

Caramello Koala


** Ugh - It's the Fine Print!!! Please read before entering!!!! **
Open Internationally
All items are brand spanking new
Items with a * were donated for this giveaway. All the rest were purchased by myself.
Shatter me Claire is not responsible for any lost post or opened parcels.
Any customs duties need to be paid for by the winner.
Multiple entries may be removed
Giveaway will end 1st July (Australian Central Time)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

... AN Monday - Welcome to the world! ...

Hiya! Welcome to another episode of Aussie Nail Monday. We've had a few newly baked additions arrive recently so today theme is "Welcome to the World" for baby Ella and Asher. YAY!

I've chosen to do a pink and blue mani. The pink is Lollipop from Cate Ruby and I've stamped over the top using the turquoise stamping polish from Mundo de Unas.

The stamping design is from the Cici & Sisi 05 plate which I really liked. I can't believe I've had these plates for awhile and never used! They are fantastic.

Wanna see more Aussie Nails? Check out these links or check out #anmonday on Instagram!

Lily Jinks - @lilyandjinks

Ann - Nailovelogy

Tracy - @oliviajade19

Holly - @nails_by_holly

Naomi - @nadeekay and Nananaisnails

Erin Wu -  @erinzi and Erin Zi’s Nails

Elissa -@tenlittlenubs and Ten Little Nubs

Kate - Pimped Out Nails

Astrid - @lovessweetas

Sarah Claire - @shattermeclaire or Shatter me Claire

Julia - Fancy Nails and Cups of Tea

Sylvie - @smudgedpolish

Relle - @lazylacquerista or Lazy Lacquerista

Tammy - @ohmygoshpolish

Christinemay - @xtinemayyy or Nails at 2am

Tash Birch - @tashisdead

Nicki - @celestialcosmetics

Briana -

Loz - Polish Patterns

Kelly - @kellyskolors and Kelly's Kolors!

Tara - @lokislacquer or  Osiris and Loki paint their nails

.... Guest Post by Sparkly Vernis ...

Todays super awesome guest post is written by the beautiful lady behind the blog Sparkly Vernis. I am so lucky that I have been able to meet awesome people online like her. I have enjoyed her fantastic swatches for a long time so I hope that you love them too! If you like what you see, swing on by her blog and check it out! It's worth the look :)

*** *** ***

Claire and I started blogging around the same time, and we know each other from a bit before that.  I am really happy to have been invited here, to celebrate these three years with her.

I chose an Emily de Molly lacquer, because if I recall correctly, this was one of the first, if not the very first, Aussie Indie maker that quickly gained popularity in the US.  I remember when it all started, I used to ask Claire to send me chunky EdM glitters and other goodies from her beautiful country.  Thanks to her, I have a really nice collection of Aussie nail polish.  I am very lucky to have her as a friend, and I wish her many more years of blogging <3

Layering Order:

2 coats Emily de Molly Head over Heals

no basecoat or topcoat in these pictures

... Lego Wyldstyle Nails ...

I recently went to a birthday party with my youngest son and wore nails featuring Wyldstyle from The Lego Movie. There is a reason why I flunked art in high school and it's because I make things look like a 2 year old with a crayon has been past but I've been trying extremely hard lately so I hope that I can continue improving this year!

I've used my favourite yellow for the base which is ChiChi "Walkin on sunshine" (woahhhhhhhh-ohhhh) and I've used Zoya "Jewell" for the lips and the pink hair, Nails Inc "Baker Street" for the blue hair and the rest is acrylic paint.

It was looking really good actually until I smudged it with topcoat *sad face* I'm still not used to using the acrylic paint and forget to make sure it's super dry. Just pretend it's her mascara after she gets sad cos Batman leaves her hanging.

Smudges and all I think it looks fab. I'm definitely getting better drawing in minature and honestly, if my kids (and all those at this party) could work out who it was then it's a plus in my book! I'll definitely give other lego characters a go in the future as I very much enjoyed these!

... Mani Swap with Natalia from @Cats_n_nails - Part 2 ...

Yesterday I featured my part of my Mani Swap with Natalia from @cats_n_nails on Instagram and Cats-n-nails on Blogger. Now it's her part!

She chose to recreate a manicure I did last year which featured stamping over a gradient. I think she's done a fantastic job capturing this. It looks awesome!

Definitely looking better than the originals from way back then! I really do like this design though! I'll have to whip it out again in the future!

I'll leave you with both comparison shots. I really had a lot of fun attempting a Mani Swap for the first time. I had been wanting to do something like this for a long time but had been putting it off. I can definitely say I'll be giving it another go in the future and if you get the chance, give it a go! 

... Mani Swap with Natalia from @Cats_n_nails ...

I've always wanted to do a Mani Swap and this month really seemed like a great time to have one! I've teamed up with Natalia from over at @cats_n_nails on Instagram and Cats-n-nails on blogger, and we are each doing our own take on a mani that each of us has done in the past. I've chosen to try and recreate this pretty mani while she has chosen to recreate one that I've previously done.

Dots, dots and more dots! Now, frequent visitors to Shatter me Claire will have realised that dots and myself have only recently decided to be friends. Before that it was failures of epic propotions. So I was really looking forward to being challenged!

So I've done dots in Illamasqua colours, Jo'mina, Devotee Optimist and Collide over OPI Alpine Snow. Really I should have found a darker orange/light red to match closer but I think it worked out ok. The main point is that I had a lot of fun doing it!

'

Again I was really pleased with how the dots turned out. I'm so happy that I finally can say that I can dot! YAY! Possibly the only thing that I wasn't happy with is the fact that the orange decided to bled slightly but that's my fault for not testing out the polish before hand.

Tomorrow I'll post up what magic Natalia created as her part in the mani swap. In the meantime if you want to see more maniswaps, head to instagram and look for the hashtag #maniswap

... Glam Polish - Dancing In The Moonlight ...

Todays pretty is from the April edition of the Aussie polish subscription box "What's In-Die Box". It's called "Dancing in the Moonlight" and it's from Glam Polish.

 

This is a gorgeous polish that has a lot going on. I definitely don't think my photos give it enough credit but it's seriously pretty.  Firstly it's a shade of blurple but there is also pinky purple and blue shimmer going on in the background which is a pleasant surprise.

This was the "hint"  photo given for this shade and I think it really capture the colour quite well. Unlike some of the other polish boxes out there, What's In-Die Box is super secret until you get your box in the mail. It's always nice to get a surprise and I honestly haven't been disappointed with the boxes that I've received.

Sadly I had zero natural sunlight come my way while the camera was out to showcase it's beauty in the light.

If you want to find out more about What's In-Die Box, check out it's Facebook page here and you can find more beautiful Glam Polish polishes here!