GOT Polish Challenge: Green

Hello, hello. I'm a bit short on words at the moment so I'm just going to show you the mani I created over the course of about 72 hours for the green prompt of the Golden Oldie Thursday Challenge. 

I started with two coats of base coat and then layered two coats of Seed Heritage in Emerald, a beauuuuuutiful emerald green with the tiniest turquoise shimmer that I bought in September 2012. Once this base was dry, I added one thin coat of OPI's Just Spotted The Lizard, also bought late 2012, and saran wrapped it while it was still wet. I finished it off by adding one coat of Seche Vite.  

I've loved Emerald ever since first got it. The colour is a wonderfully creamy, lit-from-within, hard-wearing polish with a buttery formula that dries to a semi-satin finish, however, it stains as bad as terrible quality teal polish and it takes forever to dry. I have only just found a good base coat that won't allow this type of colours to stain my nails so I was quite happy to bring it out for this challenge. I enjoyed putting this colour on this time and even though I knew that it would take some hours to dry, I didn't add any quick drying top coat. I went to bed with almost dry nails and woke up with hair marks on my then dry polish. :( I left the colour on for a day thinking that I would have to repaint my nails and went on with my day.

Well I didn't have to because after running around I remembered I had another older green, just Spotted The Lizard. We all know the hype around this polish... I got caught in that hype with no regrets. 

After creating the saran wrap mani, I added some black and green lines but I wasn't that keen on the final result so I left it simple this time. Sometimes, less is truly more.

Till next time, 

Laura

September Tri-Polish Challenge Day 1

Don't forget to enter our giveaway here!

My attempt at this challenge didn't work out quite as good as I was hoping as it was done in a rush after my first attempt got majorly smudged. I had thought of doing a saran wrap with the blue, pink and lilac colours for the first day of the September Tri-Polish Challenge so I stayed with the idea as it would be quick and easy. 

I used Essence's Absolutely Blue as a base and then added Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Sonic Bloom and China Glaze in Sweet Hook with some cling wrap. It didn't quite have the oomph! factor I was looking for so I added a coat of OPI's I Juggle... Men. Still didn't look great so as a last resort I added a coat of Ulta3's Stop The Press. 

This is what this mani looks like. The pink looks redder than it is and the lilac is too sheer to stand out against the blue. They kinda remind me of zombie nails with the wrong colours.

This is pre-Stop The Press and it looks plain as anything.

Check out the entries from the other ladies participating in the challenge.

Till next time, 

Laura

Neon Saran Wrap Mani

Or since I'm in Australia, should I call it Neon Cling Wrap mani?

Whatever name you'd like to give it, here's my first successful saran wrap manicure. I've tried it a lot of times before but it always looked lumpy or I would take off the base with the wrap. I learnt to be a gentler and it looks like it paid off.

I used American Apparel's T-Shirt as a base for American Apparel's Neon Pink. I then layered B Collection by Bloom in Miami and gently applied pressure while still wet to create the effect . 

It was actually a bit bumpy after blotting the wrap on my fingers. At the moment, all my topcoats have either yellowed so much they change the colour of the polish, or are rock solid and no thinner would save them. I'm waiting to for my first Seche Vite to arrive in the mail but it's taking forever. I was itching to post. 

Anyway, instead of topcoat, I used OPI's Natural Nail Base Coat. It seemed to even things out a bit and give it shine but it took foreeeeeever to dry and, after a couple of hours, still has a rubbery feel. It also seemed to dull the neon colour a tad. Can you tell? 

This was originally going to be the base for some tribal nails. I have been trying to get some done but every time my hands seems to get shakier/completely-uncooperative and ended up with a terrible mess. They will not elude me!!! One day, I'll draw the coolest tribal nails and everyone will be talking about them. Haha! No, not that far. I'll just have postable nail art.

Is there anything that's you love but haven't been able to recreate?

Till next time, 

Laura