... AN Monday - Disney ...

Hmmmm ... *insert excuses for not blogging here* ... Well that definitely wasn't the way I was hoping May would turn out but hey! Live and learn :)

Guess what ... It's AN Monday!! Todays theme is "Disney" and with the exception of the Pixar movies, there are only a handful of Disney movies/characters that I seem to like but my favourite of all time is Tigger!!

T-I-DOUBLE GRR-ERRRR!  I gave this my own twist from the many Tigger inspired french manis on google images (I'm crediting the first one I saw which was here). I've used piCture pOlish beige for the base and then have used piCture pOlish mellow yellow, candy and popsicle for tigger himself. The image is reverse stamped from the FUN11 plate! LOVE!

It's been so long since I used Popsicle and I'd forgotten how much it shimmers! Divine! Even though I painted Tiggers tummy the wrong colour (doh!) I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. Simple yet effective! I can see I need to work on my french manicures but practice makes perfect. I'd love to revisit this another day.

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

... Untried May ** Celestial Cosmetics - Sun Kissed ...

I have this gorgeous beauty to show you today. The weather here has definitely turned to gloomy autumn now and I really got lucky taking these shots in the one bit of sun that managed to shine on through!

This is Sun Kissed by Celestial Cosmetics and it's a real beauty. I'm so glad that I pulled this one out of the box to try first. This is 2 coats of pure holo droolness! It's a fantastic colour that I thought worked really well with my skintone. There needs to be more orange in the world!

The holo in Sun Kissed is what I've come to expect from Celestial. Instant! BAM! All these shots are taken in full natural sunlight which is always the way to go but you definitely won't be disappointed in the shade. It's a gorgeous colour.

Sadly I only own 5 orange holo polishes (note to self - remedy that!) and Sun Kissed is nowhere near the same shade as any of the others. While the Celestial website doesn't ship worldwide, if you drop the owner Nicki a line I'm sure she will be able to help you acquire these pretties via her stockists.

Also I'm trying something different and devoting the whole month to untrieds in my pile, and pile is probably putting it midly. After realising that probably close to 50% of my stash and overflow collection is untried, things have to change!! So I've started something called "Untried May" both here on blogger and on IG. I know that I'm not the only one in this boat and let's face it, I love inspiration and motivation from others. So jump on board! There is plenty of room and hopefully we can all make a dent into our pile!

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An InLinkz Link-up

... Tour Down Under Nails ...

Every year around Australia Day there is a massive bike race in the areas surrounding Adelaide called the Tour Down Under.  It makes an appearance in my part of SA at least once in the week and it depends on your views on cycling to whether it's a great thing or annoying!  Most of the towns put on a show and make it a carnival atmosphere which does make it a good day out even though if you blink, the cyclists have already past you and are heading along the road. Also if you are planning to be somewhere you need to keep an eye on the rolling road closures as they really can muck up your plans!

I've chosen to use the beautiful Lilypad Lacquer Sweet as a Peach for the base for today. One because it's a holographic and who can resist (!!) and two because the leader of this race is given a "Ochre" coloured jersey instead of a yellow one.

I've stamped the bikes using the Cheeky Jumbo Plate 7 "Home Sweet Home" using China Glaze Frostbite. I know they don't use Pennyfarthings in a professional cycling race but hey! It was as close as I could get.

And here's an inside shot to show that this polish is really pretty even indoors. I promise I'll upload some unstamped swatches in the future with a proper review so you can see the true beauty!

Now if you want to see more Australia nails in time for Australia Day! Check out the links below or #anausday on Instagram

... 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!!

.. Tip Top Nail Chic ...

Tip Top Nail Chic polishes

Available from Tip Top Nails

When I say South Africa what do you think of?? Personally I think of cricket! HA HA HA! With summer in full swing it's an perfectly acceptable Aussie response!

But how about South African nail polish??? I had no idea there were South African brands until these pretties arrived in the mail!!

These are from the company Tip Top [no not the bread place fellow Aussies! Good on ya mum!] and I've quite enjoyed playing with them. They are quick drying and they have a beautiful brush and they apply fantastically!!

The set came with the Tip Top Top and Base Coat - I found this really easy to use and while the top coat wasn't a fast dry, it still dried reasonably quickly!

Let's get too the colours ... This beautiful green is "We have An Green-Mint". I love amusing polish names. They make me smile.

I wasn't sold on this in the bottle but on the nails ... woah!! Loving it so much!!  The world needs more green polishes! The colour reminded me of Granny Smith Apples ... om nom nom nom!

The blue is called "Blue my Whistle" - there is a super pretty blue shimmer that appears in the bottle for this colour but I couldn't get it to replicate on my nails. Shame but it's still a super pretty blue.

Next time I need a sky blue I'm heading straight to this one! Stunning!

The orange is "Orange you lovely" ... and it's a gorgeous shade of orange. It's such a summer colour aswell!

These photos don't justify how vibrant and bright this shade is! You might need to locate your sunnies!

And finally this is Chiffon Squares which is a silver and contrasts the other 3 polishes nicely.

While it's not entirely opaque at 3 coats it's still a stunner and it still looks great by itself or as an accent nail for the other colours!

And I'll finish off with some assorted nail art!

Dotty Dotty Dot!

Big thick stripes!

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

... Aussie Christmas Nail Challenge - Summer Sunset ...

I'm actually really pleased how this one worked out! This is my summer sunset! I've chosen to go for a gradient of oranges, red and a purple and then stamp on the top!

Colours used are ...
B Collection by Bloom - St Tropez
Essie - Meet me at sunset [appropriate!]
Maybelline Colorama - 15 Candy Apple
Maybelline Colorama - 67 Wonder Violet

I've stamped over the top using Ulta3 Black Satin and I've used the stamping plate from Lilic's A04

Wanna see more Aussie Christmas Nails?? Check out the links below!!

... piCture pOlish - Ariel's Tale ...

piCture pOlish - Ariel's Tale

Available from piCture pOlish - $9.50 AUD

G'day! I've got this super pretty glitter to show you today from piCture pOlish - it's called Ariel's Tale and it's a beautiful mix of shiny green glitters both small and large.

Now I'll say this for the non-bloggers - the key to this polish is to layer it!! If you wear it by itself you will be disappointed because it doesn't look like the magnificence of the bottle but if you add it as a top coat to another polish then ... WOW!!

Here's a skittle assortment of other piCture pOlish colours that I thought worked with Ariel's Tale! Thumb is Peaches n' cream, then Monroe [original], Popsicle, Mad Magenta and Attitude. 

I've purposely tried to keep the holo out of the Monroe and Attitude in these photos just because I wanted to show off the glitter not gorgeous holos ;) But I think it really works on all fingers ... I especially love Mad Magenta with it!

But my favourite layering combination would have to be this ... over piCture pOlish Peacock. Seriously pretty.

I think it looks fantastic and the dark glittery base just worked perfectly with Ariel's Tale! I would highly recommend this combo!!!

All these swatches are 3 coats of the base colour with 2-3 coats of Ariel's Tale and have been topped with a Gel Look top coat with a fast drying top coat which I highly recommend doing if you want to get a week out of these looks! All these glitters lie flat so you don't have the temptation to pick at any lumpy bits! YAY!

** Final Verdict **
The sky is the limit really with the amount of combinations you can pull from this. The green seems to match nicely with every polish I pulled out of the drawer!

Oh and it seems appropriate to leave you with the sea after all that so here ... have a shot from one of the local beaches. The weather has definitely warmed right up so I think I'll be spending a lot of time here!

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

"This is Halloween" Nail Art - FINAL DAY!!!!

Hoorah! I made it to the end! Sure I missed a few days [whoops] but for me I'm quite pleased with myself.

Kinda embarrassed to put this up as it's definitely not what I imagined but you win some, you lose some!  Todays task is to recreate a favourite from the challenge. I chose this manicure from Cathy at More Nail Polish which looked fantastic!! I thought I could pull it off but hey ... can't compete with the master!

Instead of Kleancolor Metallic Orange I used Chemistry 523 [like Ozotic 523] and lets just say I killed it with the black! The blacks I chose weren't up to the task and my stamping sucked!! While it didn't look too bad from a distance, this macro shot does it no favours. Meh!

I'll chalk it up to experience and bring you something great tomorrow for the beginning of a new month!!

Check out some more Halloween blogs here

... This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge - Jack-O-Lanterns

Whoops! It seems a missed a challenge but I'll try to catch some ghosts later this month! Todays challenge was Jack O Lanterns. I'll be honest - I've never carved a freaky jack o lantern face before ... but I did carve a decent one last year that I blogged about here.

RAWR!!!!!!!

Anyway ... here's my take. It's nothing special but it was worth trying! The base is Illamasqua Optimist, the black is Color Colours Black Sateen and the beautiful holo on the thumb and pinky is actually Layla Flash Black layered over the Illamasqua for a bit of a different look.

** Check out these other challenge blogs **

... Face of Australia Barbados - Orange You Glad You Came? ...

Face of Australia Barbados - Orange You Glad I Came

Available from Big W, Priceline, Kmart - $4.95AU

Hello BloggerLand!!
Thanks for being patient and waiting for me to return. Sadly I've been without a computer and I cannot figure out for the life of me how to make a decent blog post using a smartphone ... actually that goes the same for reading blogs. I can read you all via a RSS reader but I cannot reply using it ... and I can't reply using the webpage as it will not let me sign in with my Google Account to comment with sucks badly. [If anyone has a solution for this I'd love you forever!!!]

Anyway now I've got my laptop back I've managed to come down with a bad case of Bronchitis. So between coughing up a lung I'm hoping to get a post up!

So finally I'm getting to the last 2 polishes in the Barbados series and this is a beautiful orange. I was surprised with how much I liked it to be honest as Oranges and I are not always friendly. It has a beautiful shimmer throughout just to add some more magic. As with the other colours it was fast drying with no lumps or bumps.

** Final Verdict **
I found it to be a really happy colour. I enjoyed wearing this on the days where the weather was cold and wet as it made me smile everytime I looked at my nails as it overcame the doom and gloom of the day!

... Little Roo - Ranga ...

Little Roo - Ranga

As always - Little Roo polishes are only available if you ask nicely! ;)

My sister came to visit last week and had fun creating with me. I think I've managed to pull together a collection of metallics but I'm not quite happy with it yet as I think it needs more colours and I ran out of bottles - whoops!

I was outvoted on the name for this but I present to you "Ranga". Like all countries we seem to pick on people with red and orange hair. Why is this? Every country seems to have their own word for redheads ... interesting. Are the rest of us that jealous that we need a special name for them? Over the last few years "ranga" has become the Australian term for someone with red hair. It's like a shortened version of the word "Orangutan". I will have to wait another day to call an orange polish "bluey"

My sister is the red head in the family and she chose this name. I guess with every name it may offend some but I will say now that I definitely don't mean to be rude or offensive ... just humourous.

Now ... back to the polish. This is 3 coats of metallic browny orange which has a slight golden glow in some light. I dunno why metallics are so unloved when they are so shiny and pretty!  As with majority of metallics there is some slight streaking that is noticeable when you look closely but apart from that this one worked out surprisingly well. I never knew metallics where easy to make from scratch!

I'll be back tomorrow with another from the metallic collection and leave you with some use of the word in question care of Summer Heights High [caution for some 15+ language!]  I hope this clip works worldwide.

I think we all went to school with someone like Jonah. I know I definitely did.

... Girly Bits - Sailors Delight ...

Firstly ... my inbox is now free! Sorry to anyone who tried to email their franken entry only to have it bounce back. I'm extremely sorry that this happened and hopefully I've rectified that so please send your entries in!! Can't wait to see them.

Also I'm replying back to those entries I've received and added to the list. If you haven't heard from me in the next 24 hours please resend! Cheers.

Secondly ... I've been rather unwell as of late and sleeping a good 20 hours a day and still feeling lowsy so hopefully I'll be back on track soon. Thanks to the wonderful ladies who sent me guest posts to use during this time.  Luckily the only polish I've managed to put on my fingers lately was a custom polish made by Pam at Girly Bits.

Sailor's Delight is a beautiful orange that likes to change to a red depending on the light. It also has pretty gold micro glitter throughout. I used 3 coats in this pic but although there isn't a visible nail line in real life showing the camera seems to believe there is. It was fast drying with no unwanted surprises!

It's hard to photo when you are unwell :( 

The shimmer is there but I couldn't capture it beautifully :( Sorry

I'll be honest - something I don't like is the bottle and that's only because majority of my homemade frankens are in similar bottles and therefore the few Girly Bits I have in the 5ml range have gotten lost more than once in my own collection.  I'm super glad that the new full size bottles have the logo and name on them though! I always love to know who made what!

Apart from that I like this polish. It's vibrant and bright and I admire anyone with the guts to release a polish range and push to be successful.

Girly Bits is available from Llarowe so if it interests you then you might want to check it out. Oh and I'll leave you with some friendly advice - if you decide to search for swatches from this range do not use Google Image Search if you have kids around or are easily offended by pics of "girly bits" on celebrities.

... Essence Sun Club - 04 BBC Orange Sunset ...

Essence Sun Club - 04 BBC Orange Sunset

Purchased at Target - $3.50 AUD

Colour number 4 is Orange Sunset and well it's definitely orange. I'm generally not a huge fan of extremely bright colours and tend to use it mainly for nail art but this grew on me. Especially as it hides a lot of imperfections and just looks fantastically bright and happy.

This is 3 coats and as with Pink Heat - you need 3 or you will have a visible nail line showing. This applied like a dream and as you would expect from Essence is fast drying and awesome.

** Final Verdict **
If bright polishes don't scare you then give this a go! To me it is a happy and fun polish so give your nails some summer brightness!