... Easter Collection - Loki's Lacquer ...

Why shouldn't you tell an Easter Egg a joke?

It might crack up!!

Bad jokes aside, today I'm showing the limited edition Easter polishes from Loki's Lacquer.  So grab your easter baskets and get ready for some egg-cellent photos.

Now I've never tried anything from Loki's Lacquer so I'm very curious to see how they measure up. All these shots are 3 coats plus a top coat unless mentioned.

Hey Chicky - Now this polish seriously intrigued me from the start as it's so bright in the bottle and it borders on that yellow/green and honestly I couldn't wait to see what it looked like on my nails.

It's a sparkly yellow gold and while it doesn't look green anymore out of the bottle it definitely is still on the bright side of life [do do ... do do do do do do!]

As a hidden surprise there is some scattered holo action going on. If you are like me and want super smooth nails then you will need to add a top coat. I'd highly suggest the Essence Gel Look top coat - that baby makes anything smooth [and if it doesn't, shove that polish into your swap box!!]

Spring has sprung - While I'll admit I've never had an Easter in the springtime I can see how it relates. I'll admit I found it hard to photo the colour shift in this but it is clearly visible [especially at night] without a dark base colour.

And like Hey Chicky, there is some slight scattered holo action going on. It definitely looks green in the sunlight!

Buddy - The description describes a "pink-silver-green" shift so I'm really really interested so see how this turns out.  The bottle appears more of a purple so lets dive in!

While the shift didn't appear without a base I wanted to show this anyway as I really like the colour - a pale pink.

This is 3 coats over Ulta3 Black Satin and there is definitely pink, green and silver all going on there. Wowsers Batman. My camera decided that it wasn't going to show the scattered holo but it's there in that soft look.

Bluebell - This is an extremely pretty blue. I originally thought it may be a metallic but it's definitely a shimmer. It's not opaque after 3 coats but it's got that old school streaky goodness going on! Oh yeah!

If you look closely you can see little bronze flecks. These are definitely more noticable in real life.

Easter Egg Hunt - I've layered this over Bluebells and I quite like the look. This glitter has multi sizes of hex and squares in all sorts of pastel colours.

Actually it really reminds me of those speckled Cadbury Mini Eggs .. hmmmmm. Om Nom Nom Nom Nom

Photo from Nori's Findings - found via Google Images.

So there you go. Out of these 5 I think "Buddy" would be my top runner as I love that shade of pink. All of these polishes could be layered and the possibilities are endless. You just need to find the best combo for yourself!

Loki's Lacquer is an Australian indie and you can find them on Etsy! The link is -  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Lokislacquer.  Again these polishes are limited edition so if you want any you'd better be quick!

Polishes were provided for review but all opinions, Aussie humour and dodgy photography are my own!

... Aussie Nails Monday - "Stripes" featuring piCture pOlish Marine, Mad Magenta and Black ...

Wayhey! Happy Monday! Todays Aussie Nails Monday is "Stripes" and here is my take on it! I was quite please with how it worked out to be honest.

Firstly I sponged piCture pOlish Marine and Mad Magenta and then stamped on top using piCture pOlish Black and the Konad S6 plate.

I always love how Mad Magenta changes from a pink to a purple and I love where these 2 colours meet - it's like a funky indigo going on there!

Want to read more Aussie Nail Monday posts?? Check these blogs out!

Lissa’s Polish Addiction

Nail Gun XS

Marie’s Manicure Madhouse

Shatter Me Claire

A Polished Prance

Shades of Phoenix

The Epitome of Superficiality

Lacquer Dreams

NananaisNails

Enamoured With Enamel

Adelle1985 (Instagram)

Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals

Every Little Polish

Mel My Issta

Walk In My Eyeshadow

JennLojko (Instagram)

Erinzi’s Nails

Lovessweetas (Instagram)

Jas’ Blingtastic Nails

Mckfresh (Instagram)

Maedaynails (instagram)

Lili_Bete (Instagram)

The Reluctant Femme

Jibber Jabber

Messy Mansion

Nailovelogy

Ronda

It's All About The Polish

Pretty Polish Please

.... 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!

... We have a Winner!!! Pretty Serious Cosmetics Giveaway...

Hurrah!!! Thank you to everyone who entered the Pretty Serious giveaway I was holding combined with Nails in the Desert and The Polish Haven.

So congratulations to the winner Athanasia- she now has the choice of picking out some prettys from the fantastic range over at Pretty Serious Cosmetics! Hurrah!!

... Aussie Nails Monday - Favourite Brand featuring Pretty Serious Golden Ticket ...

And another Monday rolls on around! Todays theme is favourite brand. Yeah right - like I can narrow it down to one!!! Pffttt!

So I've simply gone for my favourite Australian Indie ... which is still a tough choice but there is only one brand that I've loved every polish that's come my way and that's Pretty Serious.

Recently this pretty came to visit my place ...

OMG!!!!!!! GOLDEN TICKET!!!!!!! *inserts squeals of delight here*

The beautiful Kristy over at The Polish Haven kindly let me do a mani from her precious super dooper limited bottle and I thank her so much as it really is gorgeous.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not a huge glitter fan. I've tried to like it but have found that there are only a few that I love ... this is one of them! How can you not love that pretty gold colour!!

One of my big pet peeves with glitter polishes generally is making them smooth. I'm a picker and if my polish isn't smooth then I'll be there picking at it - I know it's naughty but can't help it!! Golden Ticket is not one of those at all. I was really quite impressed!

I dunno what to say that hasn't already been said - this polish simply is divine and I'd be encouraging you to buy if it was in stores! To those lucky 10 people who have original bottles! I'm totally jealous of you!

Also - speaking of Pretty Serious ... have you entered the Pretty Serious giveaway?? Just click on the pic on the right hand side to enter via rafflecopter!! ENDS THIS WEEK!!!! 

Want to read more Aussie Nail Monday posts?? Check these blogs out!

Lissa’s Polish Addiction

Nail Gun XS

Marie’s Manicure Madhouse

Shatter Me Claire

A Polished Prance

Shades of Phoenix

The Epitome of Superficiality

Lacquer Dreams

NananaisNails

Enamoured With Enamel

Adelle1985 (Instagram)

Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals

Every Little Polish

Mel My Issta

Walk In My Eyeshadow

JennLojko (Instagram)

Erinzi’s Nails

Lovessweetas (Instagram)

Jas’ Blingtastic Nails

Mckfresh (Instagram)

Maedaynails (instagram)

Lili_Bete (Instagram)

The Reluctant Femme

Jibber Jabber

Messy Mansion

Nailovelogy

Ronda

It's All About The Polish

Pretty Polish Please

... Nyan Cat Nails ...

I meant to showcase this for Aussie Nails Monday but rain out of time! I still wanted to show it though as I'm quite pleased with how it turned out!!

Queue music that's guaranteed to get stuck in your head ...

I found this pretty easy which is odd considering I have zero nail art skills. I mainly used a dotting tool for the rainbow, cat body, feet and head and a fine brush for the face.

The base coat is piCture pOlish Cosmos, the cat is Ulta3 Plum Violet and Face of Australia Titanium and the Rainbow is entirely Jade Diamond polishes, Scarlet, Joy, Galaxy, Twist and Velvet.

And I'll leave this as a note to myself. My gels came off super easy and while I wasn't planning to shorten by such a lot, I broke numerous nails within 24 hours of them coming off. I think I got used to the super strength the gels gave me!! Oh well ... it happens and I'm still sold by the gel system!

... 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!

... 7 days 7 ways - Day 6 ... Flakies ...

Woohoo!!  Again really quick post time - I've been off celebrating my wedding anniversary this weekend so blogging has been at a minimum!! While I changed my polish I forgot to bring my camera so you'll just have to handle something different :)

 Now we are on the home stretch!! Day 6 is again something simple and I thought it worked quiet well.  Everyone loves happy Flakies!!!

I've used 2 coats of the always beautiful Essie Shine of the Times over my gels today and while they were soft compared to layering over black I still thought it was gorgeous. Subtle but colourful!

Now I'll be honest - removing these flakes was the hardest thing polish type I've removed all week ... but it was still the same removal time as regular polish. Everything else has simply wiped off with non-acetone remover in a single stroke - it's been fantastic.

See you tomorrow for the final day!!

... 7 days 7 ways - Day 5 ... Striping Tape

So Day 5 has rolled around and it's a really quick one today for you. I've done an accent nail using striping tape today and like other nail art that I've struggled with again this was super quick and easy!! If you make a mistake it's one wipe and start again! Easy!!!

It's not perfect but it beats my previous designs of pulling up the base colour!

And how are the gels holding up ... well I have some lifting on my pinky edge from where my nail meets my skin and my pointer finger on my right hand has had some slight chipping after a hard day swiping on the iPhone but apart from that we are holding up really well!

... 7 days 7 ways - Day 4 ... Layering

So Day 4 has appeared ... and we are still looking great!! Today I'm layering China Glaze Atlantis on top ... holy wowsers Batman! This is my best day to date in this challenge.

I'm loving this so much! Pretty pretty pretty!!

Just worked out the be the perfect colour combo and the sparkle holo just makes it all the better! 

Day 5 tomorrow ... hopefully we can pull something fantastic out the bag as these nails don't seem to stop giving!!