... piCture pOlish - Abstract Nails ...

Something a bit different from me today. I'm not sure exactly what to call it so I'm just going to go with "abstract"! (If anyone else has a different word that describes them better I'd love to hear it!)

I've used a combo of piCture pOlish polishes for the base including Mellow Yellow, Bright White, Candy, Jade and Mad Magenta.

I kind of dabbed them on in patches of colour which made an interesting effect.  Then on top I've used black polish and the MoYou Artist Collection 03 plate for the design. If you haven't jumped on the MoYou train then I'd highly suggest getting your hands on some! It's worth the wait and definitely worth the money!

The stamping design is a bit of everything. Dots, stripes, patterns and I think it doesn't look too bad against the colourful backdrop of the 5 base colours. It's not something I usually put on my nails but I'm really glad I did as I got quite a few comments on this manicure as it was so striking!

I think I need to use a lot more of these happy summer colours this year. I really liked how they looked against my skin when combined.

... Aussie Nail Monday - Free Choice ...

Free Choice Aussie Nail Monday today! I thought this would be a great idea but then I sat forever trying to work out actually what to do?

In the end I've gone for a simple splatter mani that I think works quite well with the Halloween theme of this month!

The red splatter is NYC Color Fire Hydrant over OPI Alpine White in GelColor. As always, I recommend the tiny straws from kids fruit boxes/juice boxes for these! They seem to work 10000% better than anything else.

I'd forgotten how much fun these are to make. Nothing like making a pretty mess in the name of art! I'll definitely be splattering again in the near future!

Wanna see more Aussie Nails? Check out these links!

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

.... Sarah Claire - Cat Owner ...

Recently we had a new addition to our little family. The purring machine, Mr Fizzy has joined us and while it's been a huge exciting time, I've forgotten how many scratches you can accumulate from a kitten! It's been a long time since we've had a cat in our lives and so far the kiddiewinks are enjoying the experience aswell.

Why yes, I will pose for photos!

Although photos tend to show him as black and white, he's definitely grey and not black. I wanted to try and match his colouring so here are my "Fizzy Cat" nails. I didn't realise that my collection only holds a few greys. I must remedy that! So here is what I came up with to colour match to him.

I've used Ulta3 Lily White for the base and sponged with Face of Australia Party at the Gap from the Barbados collection.

I actually think it worked really well! I didn't want standard gradient lines as his fur isn't defined by straight lines but I liked it and thought I matched pretty well! YAY!

... 7 days 7 ways - Day 7 ... Stamping

Final Day! Hoorah!!! I realise that I already did stamping but I forgot and this turned out so pretty it seemed a shame to waste it.

These designs are from the Konad m59 plate and I flipped the image on the pointer finger using the konad double stamper [I removed the rubber from one side and picked up the image and then transferred that to the remaining rubber side and then straight onto my nail. Ooh tricky! Well not really!]

And after 7 days [or really more like 10 days as I was showing these off for a few days before I started the series] since I got my gels put on we have come to an end. I have some obvious regrowth but apart from that  the colour is still strong and I have minimal tip wear and only one nail has a chip [my right hand pointer finger that always suffers when I have excess iProduct time!!]. Honestly I'm quite impressed and I can see myself investing in a kit/lamp in the near future as this has really helped with my nail art time and this week I didn't find myself getting frustrated or impatient as everything was so easy.


I hope this helps those considering gels [or even regular polish] some ideas to change a normal gel base to something totally different!

... Ulta 3 - Flower Nail Art ...

While being on my stamping kick lately I wanted to try some black and white designs. As you can see ... patience is still not on my side. I cannot put a top coat on without smudging which is annoying but something I'm determined to overcome!

This is Ulta3 Lily White stamped with Ulta3 Black Satin using the Lilic's plate A03. In all it's smudged glory! Woo!!

But I couldn't leave that alone! So I grabbed some colours and my fave nail art brush and got to work!

So basically I've coloured it in using Ulta3 Jelly, Ulta3 Bouquet, Ulta3 Mango Mayhem and NYC Color Lemon.  I actually didn't think it looked too bad on - especially from a distance but close up shots are harsh *sad*

Anyway I really like the concept and I'm sure I'll revist this again in the future for better results!!

... Pretty Serious - Claris ...

Pretty Serious - Claris

Available from Pretty Serious Cosmetics - $9.95AUD

Howdy readers! The sun is shining bright and how can you resist throwing on a pretty pink and showing the world? This is Pretty Serious Claris and she's a real beauty.

Claris is from the PS "In the Night" collection and it's well worth getting for your collection if you are a pink fan like me or if you just want a softer shade. 

It's a pretty soft pink with a hidden surprise with the golden sparkle appearing. This is 3 coats and it's fast drying and no lumps or bumps.

At the moment I very much love to stamp ... STAMP ALL THE THINGS!!! Here it is with some pretty stamping over the top.

This is the Konad m78 plate with Ulta3 Lily White. I really like this a lot!! Simple yet fancy!

Have you entered the Pretty Serious Giveaway yet?? No? What you waiting for!!! Myself, The Polish Haven and Nails in the Desert have combined to bring you this awesomeness. You could win pretties like Claris!! Enter here ---> CLICK ME TO WIN!!!

... Aussie Christmas Nail Challenge - Elf ...

By now I'm sure regular readers would have realised my sense of humour ... todays theme is "Elf" and while I could go for the traditional green and white colours - all I could think of in my head is this below.

SANTA!!!!! I KNOW HIM!!!!

So here are my Santa nails - really easy to do and I think they look ok considering it's been awhile since I've done any tape manis and I'm really in a lot of pain at the moment after visiting the dentist. Super sensitive teeth = ouch ouch ouch :(

Colours used are Butter London - Pillar Box Red, Ulta 3 - Lily White, Ulta3 - Black Satin and Gosh - Holographic Hero

I should have used a gold for the belt buckle but that's a lesson for next time!!

... Aussie Nails Monday - Delicate ...

And around rolls another Monday ... todays theme is delicate. I honestly had no idea on what to do for this, so I figured a girly soft colour and I figured stamping makes everything better!

I've chosen Bourjois 26 from the 10 day no chip range as my base. It's a pretty pink and while I've never been lucky enough to get a full 10 days out of this range, it's worth trying if you don't have time to change your polish lately. It's one of the few that survived my "pool test" when I was doing them.

I've stamped on it using Ulta3 white and used the BM 206 plate for my design. It's not the largest design but I found it double stamped quite well.

So there you go - hopefully I'll be back onto Christmas blogging tomorrow.

** Other Aussie Nail Monday Blogs to Visit **

Lissas Polish Addiction

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

... Aussie Nails Monday - Weather ...

And it's Monday yet again ... I swear it comes around too quick!! Todays Aussie Nails Monday is about weather!

If I'd thought about it I would have just done a holo and proclaimed it to be "rainbow"! But instead I've gone for clouds - kinda like the background of a Mario game!

I've chosen Joe Fresh - Cobalt for the base and the clouds are from the Mash plate Mash37 and stamped in Ulta3 Lily White.

Simple yet I think it's rather effective!! The only downfall I had was using the Joe Fresh polish *sad* At some point it had a spill and it's now not extremely friendly to use. I think it was worth the effort though.

** Other Aussie Nail Monday Blogs to Visit **

Lissas Polish Addiction

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

... Aussie Nails Monday - Birthday ...

Right-o ... I signed up for a series in hope that I will get motivated. I really enjoy having a set plan of what to blog about otherwise I just procrastinate my blogging time away on Pinterest!

Today "Aussie Nails Monday" is Birthdays!! And this was great timing as my youngest "Mr I-just-turned-6" had a birthday party on the weekend [pics about that will be coming soon as I've been asked a bit about it!!]

He wanted a dress up party and his friends to come as their favourite movie characters.  I ended up just going as someone from Josie and the Pussycats as it's easy to find some cat ears and a long tail.

So here are my nails that I made up to match my "ears" - as you can tell I took these after the party which is why they are looking pretty ragged and feral.

I painted with Ulta 3 Lily white stamped with Face of Australia Molten Metallics in Bronze and as I was pressed for time I used the Bundle Monster BM221 plate for the design.

I tried to double stamp the middle finger but yeah - lesson learnt there. Still looked ok though.

Oh and here is me - one super tired mumma with super bloated puffy face thanks to wisdom teeth!

** Other Aussie Nail Monday Blogs to Visit **

Lissas Polish Addiction

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

... This is Halloween Nail Art - Gradient ...

I'm unsure what gradients have to do with Halloween but I really wanted to steer clear of traditional colours.

My beautiful friend Mandy sent me a big bag of Candy Corn which I was so super excited about. Candy Corn is a rarity in Australia and I didn't know until this year that there were many flavours!!

I have been trying to improve my gradients lately and I'm quite impressed with how I'm getting with them.

For this I chose to use Ulta3 Lily White with Cult Nails Deal with It and I've topped with the Essence gel coat with a coat of quick dry polish on top. Super smooth!!

Not the perfect gradient but if you flick back to previous attempts they are fantastic!! Anyway I thought they matched the delicious candycorn perfectly!

Note to self ... don't grab fingers when they look yummy [and ewwww - red wrinkly hand!]

** Now clicky on these links to see more Gradient art. As for me ... I'm now hungry!! **

... "This is Halloween" Nail Art - Watermarbling ...

I'm not exactly sure what watermarbling actually has to do with Halloween ... well apart from making a big Horror Movie of you own trying to make it!!!

I chose to use these 3 colours -  piCture pOlish Violet Femme, ChiChi Walkin On Sunshine and NYC Color Casper.

Now ...  I thought I'd steer away of the obvious Halloween colours and I went with a white base with yellow and purple to try and make some sort of night colours with the moon shining on through.

So after many many many many attempts this is what I came out with. I'm not really happy with it but whatever.

I think it's safe to say that watermarbling and I are still not friends ... but I'm glad I tried [not so glad that I wasted so much polish on this look though]

** Other Challenge Blogs to Check Out **

... "This is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge - Horror Movies ...

Howdy people! I'm back after a well deserved break! :D I'll go into more detail on what I've been up too in a later post!

While Halloween isn't big at all in Australia even though more and more stores seem to be pushing it out in recent years. I thought I needed a challenge so let's go!!

*sings loudly and offkey*

♫ Watch Horror Movie right there on my TV ♫

♫ Horror Movie right there on my TV ♫

♫ Horror Movie right there on my TV ♫

♫ Shocking me right out of my brain ♫

♫ Shocking me right out of my brain ♫

Skip the horror movies ...  some of those old 70s music video clips are pretty freaky!! I mean has anyone else seen the clip for that song?? My brain is still suffering from the horror!!

I've been very much off my swatching game lately so I've done some really basic nail art for this ... so presenting "Scream".

Really simple - and dodgy!! I need to work on my nail art although I do love my new brushes!! The black used is Coral Colors in Black Sateen and the white is Ulta3 Lily White.

** Other Challenge Blogs to Check Out **