... 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!

... 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!

... Technique Tuesday - Dots ..

Trying my hand today at Technique Tuesday which is a fortnightly theme. I must admit I'm loving the fact that it's a fortnight. So many AN Monday manis, don't make it to the blog as I don't have time to photo/edit but having that extra week made this so easy! I really hope that this becomes a regular thing.

Anyway, I'm very happy with how these worked out. No smudges, great sized dots! Ah! Awesome!

I used Chi Chi Walkin on Sunshine (woahhhhhhhh-ohhhhhh) as the base and the dots are a combination of Chi Chi Look At Me and Pink Flamingo in the Pool and covered in the Essence Gel Look Top Coat for no dotting bumps!

As I mentioned in the top paragraph, I generally smudge dots or don't get them looking round. I've realised lately that this is simply due to my lack of patience. I just want to get in there, get it done and hope for the best. This time, I took my time and voila! I'm so pleased with how they are looking. It's like someone else painted my nails for me.

I know yellow nails aren't for everyone but I really liked how bright and vibrant they are. I'm also so glad that the pink and the magenta colours worked so well together. And I'll leave you with a shot under UV light. Mmmm Glowy! 

... 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.

... AN Monday - Hearts ...

It's been awhile since I did one of these ...

Todays theme was heart and I've been wanting to try out the hot technique of using a hole punch to make designs. Glad I did. That stuff is addictive!!

So this is 3 coats of the stunning Mellow Yellow from piCture polish with hearts made from piCture pOlish Ocean, Kryptonite and Shocked.

I was really surprised on how simple and easy this was ... and also surprised that no one came up with this sooner!!! Basically I painted 3 coats of polish onto baking paper [parchment paper] and let it dry. Then cut the heart shapes out with my heart hole punch and then stuck them on [the baking paper just falls off when you cut! YAY!]

I'm really please with how it worked out! I'll definitelly be using this one again in the future!

For more pretty Aussie Nails check us out on Instagram using the tag #anmonday or check out the following ladies!

Elissa - Ten Little Nubs

Bec - Nail Gun XS

Marie - Marie’s Manicure Madhouse

Sarah - Shatter Me Claire

Chantelle - A Polished Prance

Teneil -Shades of Phoenix

Nicole - The Epitome of Superficiality

Bec - Lacquer Dreams

Naomi - NananaisNails

Eboni - Enamoured With Enamel

Adelle - Adelle1985 (Instagram)

Kelly - Kelly's Kolors

Rebecca - Polished Peripherals

Rosemarie - Every Little Polish

Melissa - Mel My Issta

Natalie - Walk In My Eyeshadow

Jennifer - JennLojko (Instagram)

Erin - Erinzi’s Nails

Astrid - Lovessweetas (Instagram)

Jasmyn - Jas’ Blingtastic Nails

Kate - Mckfresh (Instagram)

Jessica - Maedaynails (instagram)

Elizabeth - Lili_Bete (Instagram)

Cassandra - The Reluctant Femme

Tammy - Lacquer and Leather

Julia - Messy Mansion

Ann - Nailovelogy

Ronda

Theresa It's All About The Polish

Katie - Pretty Polish Please

Melissa - polished_off (Instagram)

Jennifer - jennersx (Instagram)

Rachael - thepolishedclaw (Instagram)

Julz - Julzperrinails

Caylah

Tash

Jane - Nails In Oz

Jasmine - Nailed By Jasmine

Sylvia - lilyandjinks (Instagram)

Genna - Eternal Dreamer

Tammy - http://ohmygoshpolish.blogspot.com.au/

Stacey - @staceymeldrum (Instagram)

Jess - radjecca (Instagram)

Shannen - shannen_arrowsmith (Instagram)

Sarah - lilyloveslouise.blogspot.com

Tracy

Kate - Pimped Out Nails

Casey - Drama Queen Nails

Holly - nails_by_holly (Instagram)

... Orly - Melodious Utopia ...

Orly - Melodious Utopia

$18.95 AUD at selected stockists. Check the Orly Australia website!

Another pretty from Orly today. This is Melodious Utopia which is described as a "soft yellow creme" but it's definitely not another pale pastel. It's very pretty and I thought it worked really well with my skin tone.

There is a bonus shimmer inside which is a pain to capture but it's definitely there. It's like the hidden surprise that you weren't expecting! So pretty! It seems to appear as a yellow but in certain light it goes towards more of a coral.

I'm not sure why yellows aren't loved as much as they should but if you haven't branched into the happiness that yellow can offer, then I'd recommend trying this one! Like the other polishes in this collection it's 3 free.

If it's too much yellow for you then you can easily tone it down with some nail art. I've gone for some simple dots today and I've dotted using Orly Coachella Dweller that I reviewed in my last post.

I really enjoyed this polish. I try to love all yellows but a lot don't work with my skintone but this one looked fab. I like to wear brighter polishes through autumn before the doom and gloom appears with the cold weather and this one will definitely be on my rotation.

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

... 7 days 7 ways - Day 2 ... Watermarbling

Hi ... my name is Sarah Claire and I'm the chick who cannot watermarble to save herself!!! Or so I thought!

OMG!! Why didn't anyone tell me about using gels for a base before??? This was SO easy!! If I made a mistake then one wipe with non-acetone remover took care of that for me and I could instantly try again!


I used Essie Aruba Blue, piCture pOlish Mellow Yellow and Ulta3 Plum Violet in this mani, over the blue gels I mentioned in my last post.

So if you are someone who is unable to get the watermarble working then you seriously need to try this out. Redoing fingers was so easy! No waiting for a base coat to redry and then getting frustrated when you stuff it up for the billionth time and repeating the process. This took under 5 minutes even with redoing fingers and honestly this is the way I'll be watermarbling in the future.

If you want to be picky I had a few water bubbles but apart from that ... awesome!!

... 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!!

... Australia Day Nails - Kangaroo Sign ...

*queue appropriate YouTube clip*

So for the non Aussies ... Saturday is Australia Day down here.  What's Australia Day? Well it's basically like the 4th of July but with more of the 3 B's ... Beach, BBQs and Bogans!

A few beautiful Aussie ladies are getting into the spirit [spirits?? vodka please!] and going the week with fantastic Aussie designs. So here is my effort today which is kangaroos.

I've used Hello Yellow from Cate Ruby and stamped on top using the Konad Aussie plate A1 that is available here.

What's that skip?? Sarah Claire was too lazy to go out and take her own photo of a kangaroo sign and had to source this one from google images??

Credit ... iStockphoto

Wanna check out other blogs with Australiana nails??? Check out the below links!

... "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 **

... Little Roo - Aussie Aussie Aussie ...

... Little Roo - Aussie Aussie Aussie ...

Currently made as a one off ... but if you are desperate please email!

I didn't really want to break my Face of Australia series but I wanted to be patriotic this Anzac Day and show my pride of being an Aussie. I'm not even going to describe how poorly my attempt of drawing poppies turned out so I turned to this.

Anzac Day I've been told is the equivalent day to Veterans Day or Armistice Day ... but the Australia and New Zealand way. It's a day of remembering the sacrifices so that we can be who we are as a nation today.

I'm not a huge fan of glitter polishes but I am a sucker for anything that looks awfully pretty in the bottles. Therefore I'm definitely not a pro at applying them. The most I can make them is flat and smooth. That's it. I figure I'm not selling my wares just showing Australia on my fingers so I don't need to make it look 100% drop dead gorgeous.

For the non-Aussies ... "Aussie Aussie Aussie" is simply a chant that is used at most Australian sporting events these days. Feel free to Google if you want more info on this.

"Aussie Aussie Aussie" is applied over China Glaze GR8 and it's simply just green hexs with smaller golden holo hex pieces. I know the bottle shot looks like more colours but that's just the gold hexes doing their thing and trust me ... it's a pain to photo!

I brought the yellow holo hex pieces from a craft store that was going out of business. I'm going to try and contact the manufacture to get my hands on more though as it's rather awesome and it will great if we can get our hands on some decent glitters in the country instead of always relying on buying from overseas. I brought a packet that was 20g [which is about 0.7 oz] and have been kicking myself that I didn't buy more.

... Happy Spring Gradient ...

I decided to try something different today and try out some gradient art - now I've sucked badly at gradients in the past but practice makes perfect so I'll keep plugging at it. After failing badly at using makeup sponges to do this I received last week a cheapo sponge from Hong Kong as a freebie with an eBay order I placed. Basically it's the same shape as a Konad stamper but just has a foam base so I thought I'd give it a shot.

So I've started with yesterdays mani of Finger Paints in Art Nouv-Yellow and sponged Ulta3 in Crazy over the top.

Oooh ... actually doesn't look too bad - so to finish it off I've sponged Ulta3 in Sizzling Red on the top for a 3 way contrast.

And then I decided to get out the OPI White Shatter to see what that looked like on top. In hindsight I probably should have stamped on top but hey - next time! It still looks happy even though I should have waited longer for the red to dry as I have pink in a few places instead of white.

** Final Verdict **

I was quite pleased with myself with how it went so I'll definitely try this technique out again in the future!

... Finger Paints - Art Nouv-Yellow ...

Finger Paints - Art Nouv-Yellow

Gifted from the lovely Tamala

I've already said I've got a thing for yellow this spring! So this one was jumping at me out of my untested overflowing helmer drawer.

This is a beautiful yellow - it reminds me of bananas! Nom nom nom. I've seriously missed eating bananas and can't wait until they are back in production and cheap to buy again! [For those non-Aussies banana prices jumped to a seriously expensive $15/kg due to a cyclone that hit North Queensland last summer - they are only starting to drop in price now]

This is 3 coats and while there is some visible nail line going on it's still really beautiful. No lumps or bumps with this polish but there is a slight dent on my nail which I apologise for - that's my actual nail doing that not the polish.

** Final Verdict **
Ah yellow ... such a happy colour. I would have loved it if this particular yellow was thicker but it's still a beautiful polish. Makes me smile!

... Cate Ruby - Hello Yellow ...

Cate Ruby - Hello Yellow

Purchased from Cate Ruby - $14.95 AUD

Seriously yellow polish is under rated - I'm not sure why so many people don't like it. It's the second week of spring here and I'm seriously wanting to get out all the bright happy colours and hoping that the weather will follow suit!

This beauty is the latest colour from Cate Ruby called "Hello Yellow". It's a lovely vibrant yellow that fully covers the nail in 2 coats. I didn't have any issues with streaks or bubbles - just pure fantasticness.

Now regular readers know that my ultimate nail polish lasting test revolves around the disgusting chemical filled public pool I visit. Until now I'd only had 1 out of many many polishes last the test until this became number 2 - hoorah! So I officially give this the "Shatter me Claire longlife wear tick of approval" - I wore this for 3 days including being in the chlorine infested pool for an hour and walked away with zero chips. FANTASTIC!

Now I know yellow isn't everyones cup of tea - especially this one as it's so bright but I decided to give it a stamp to soften the colour slightly and decided to use BM-221 with Konad black polish ... and even though I smudged the black in a few places [must practice some more!] I got SO many comments on this it wasn't funny. Even one lady at a beauty/polish shop didn't believe they were real and thought I'd put stickers on. I'll be definitely wearing this design again at some point in the future - love it!!

** Final Verdict **

If you don't mind wearing a bright yellow then you might want to consider picking this one up. I had zero issues with the application and I know I'll be wearing again in the future. Now ... come on Spring!!!

... BYS - Pot of Gold ...

BYS - Pot of Gold ... part of the BYS Glam Glitter pack

Purchased from Gloss Cosmetics - $11.95 AUD for the pack or individually $4.50 AUD

I saw this as I was walking past the local Gloss and was intrigued to see how BYS are going to stand up to the hundreds of other chunky glitters that have appeared. I'll attempt to try the other 2 in the next few days.

The first thing I noticed was how the glitter in the bottle was yellowy gold but reflects back red and green - that's always a plus in the sun ... extra oomph and distraction!  The second thing I noticed was the smell - OMG this polish stinks to high heaven. I think it's won the award for the smelliest polish I own ... great for if you want to have your house smelling like one of those nail places in the shopping centres ... but not ideal for regular households.

Pot of gold is obviously a gold and contains large and small hex pieces plus tiny specs of glitter in a clear yellow base. Number of coats will really vary depending on how much "glam" you want on your nails and how lucky you are with the brush in picking up the glitter! This in turn will change the drying time. Heads up that this does not dry smooth so you will need some top coat if you need to feel the sleek smoothness of nails. Also for a glitter this was surprisingly easy to remove - no need for soaking in foils or anything.

I've swatched today over Face of Australia Molten Metallics Amethyst from yesterdays review.

It looks interesting ... This actually was really really hard to photo plain as most of my photos were a blurry mess as my camera couldn't handle the return fire of shiny colour awesomeness reflecting back at me [as this example shows] There is a rainbow of different colours blinging back in your face.

** Final Verdict **
I wasn't that impressed by just seeing the glitter plain on my nail but in light/sun - woah! Those holo particles pack a punch. The smell was the worst part though by far ... but if you can handle stinky polish then go for it!

... first dot attempt ...

When I first started on blogger I saw someones suggestion to use a pin in the end of a pencil to do dots [if this was you please let me know - I want to give you credit!!!!] - I finally got around to locating some pins and raiding the kids pencil stash and voila.

I'm quite pleased with myself [although I know I really need to buy some actual dotting tools] and I guess you have to start somewhere and that practice makes perfect.

Base is Bourjois 17 No Chips

Dots are in Rimmel I ♥ Lasting Finish 280 Sunshine

I'm quite enjoying this look to be honest. It's different for me and it's bright and happy on a cold winters day.