GOT Polish Challenege: Purple

My purple Golden Oldie polish without doubt would be B Collection by Bloom in Dubai (which is no longer in sale!!!). I have done a few posts praising it and showing it as a base and part of nail art. Since I got Dubai, I have gotten a few other purple shimmers by different brands that may have their own qualities but this one has a very special place in my heart. 

For today's challenge, I wanted to create a white based purple gradient with glequins but that turned out to be a terrible experiment. Then I had recalled this post from Penny Pinching Polish, where she tries a heap of polishes for stamping over black and white to see what works. I never really though of using sheer-ish polishes over black thinking that they wouldn't show up. Dubai as a stamping polish never crossed my mind so today was a good day as any to prove that this was a good all-rounder polish. 

The base was done with two coats of Union Jack Black by Butter London and once dry, I stamped it using Dubai and two patterns from the MoYou's Suki 04 plate. I topped it all off with one coat of HK Girl Top Coat. 

I was stoked with the way this turned out. The stamping gives the black a very subtle depth in the shade/artificial lighting but once it comes out to the sun this mani really lights up.

I didn't think I would be able to love this polish anymore but I just can't stop looking at the multicoloured shimmer. Isn't it pretty?

I had some trouble photographing the shiny version of this mani so I matted it to make it easier. Unfortunately, the matte top coat killed the shimmer and left some  bad brushstroke marks so I went back to shiny after taking the following photo.

Yeah, I like the shiny better.

I'm pretty sure Dubai is gonna stay on my 'favourite' pile until it runs out. 

Till next time, 

Laura

33 Day Challenge: 3 Favourite Polishes

It's the third last day of the 33 Day Challenge and I'm gonna make this super quick because I am tired but didn't want to miss another prompt from this challenge that is about to finish. Here we go...

Narrowing down the stash to bring out my three favourite polishes wasn't an easy task, they are all so pretty and each has its own qualities. I decided on the ones that were my first favourites of a certain type and that I still love. I started with a coat of Essence's Snow White (my first and only jelly), let it dry and stamped Essie's Penny Talk (my first one coater metallic that has been featured in this blog plenty of times) using the plate BM-417 and then created a french tip gradient with Snow White and B Collection by Bloom in Dubai (the first polish that lasted about 10 days on me with top coat and had an awesome formula, no longer on sale but I have three bottles of it :) ). Topped it all off with one coat of Seche Vite to smooth out the gradient. 

These nails were super hard to photograph because of how shiny they were and my camera was freaking out when I was trying to take photos in the sunlight. I brought the nails into the light box but the shine was still too much and I couldn't figure out what settings would work. 

Anyway, this is what I came up with and I'm in love with this stamped jelly sandwich. It's shiny, the colours work well and I came to realise I hadn't done something similar before.

Quick note, this is how the jelly sandwich looked like in the sun. Yep, I cropped the only half decent photo I took but it shows some of the pretty light that was reflected from my nails.

Don't forget to check out the other particpants' manis for today's prompt.

Sassy Paints Guest Post

Hello, hello! I'm gonna keep it super short today. I've written my first ever guest post for Sassy Nails as she's starting a Sassy Saturday Guest Post series and I'm a thrilled to kick it off. Yes, it's Sunday in Australia but think of time differences. :)

This is the preview but you can check out the whole post here. 

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Till next time, 

Laura

The Challenge Entry That Wasn't

I always wondered how nail bloggers got involved in 31 day challenges. Does one just find a challenge and starts doing it? Would one have to get an invitation to participate? Was there some sort of exclusive club I didn't know about that created all these challenges I saw floating around? I still don't know the answer to these questions but I was really happy when I came across the Oh Mon Dieu! It's The Rather Awesome 31 Day Challenge Giveaway!. As you may infer by the name, this is a challenge open internationally in which you can win prizes for completing each challenge and get up to 31 entries for the month, when completed. I came across it by the second day of the challenge and funnily enough, I had completed the first two entries unknowingly and figured I could jump on the 3rd day without too much trouble.

Excitedly, I thought of all the possible nail art I could create with the prompt Purple. One of my all-time favourite polishes is actually a purple by B Collection by Bloom called Dubai (no longer on sale) but a simple swatch wasn't going to do, so I created curved, black and gold french tips to spice it up.

Version 1: Two coats of B Collection by Bloom in Dubai on a base-coated nail followed by a coat of Seche Vite. Once dry, I painted Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Night Flight with the polish brush, let it dry, then applied OPI's Goldeneye for the gold and used one last coat of Seche Vite to smooth it all out.

I had a lot of BAD drag marks from using Seche Vite to dry the first two coats on all my fingers. I did it late last night and I didn't really noticed the marks until after I had taken the photos. By the time I was done editing the OK photos, I was too tired to fix them or do them again. Hence, version 2 was created this morning. Same steps as version 1 but iIapplied Dubai carefully and skipped the first coat of Seche Vite.  

I was really happy with the way it came out, even if all the tips had a different curvature/centre from each  other. Especially keen on the middle finger.

My camera was freaking out a little from all the shine on the nail and I couldn't really show a lot of crisp detail. So what would I do in these sort of situations? Bring out the matte top coat.  Doesn't that look cool?

I got some cotton fluff stuck on my ring finger, had to fish it out with tweezers, tried to smooth it out with matte top coat and hoped that it wouldn't be too noticeable.  

So we all love Goldeneye, right? When I was taking the photos for version two, I noticed there was a lot of green reflecting from this polish. I was wearing a green cardigan at the time so I took it off to make sure it wasn't that colour reflecting. In a much closer, the Goldeneye over black seemed to bring out a green tinge on what seemed to be translucent flakies. Night Flight is a green based black so that might explain the green. I wonder how Goldeneye would layer over other colours but that may be another post altogether.

I was really happy with the way this turned out and this curved french mani and colour combination are things I wouldn't have tried had it not been for the challenge. 

So why the challenge entry that wasn't? Well, when I checked out the prize pack that corresponded to Australia, I was a bit disheartened as there was nothing in it I didn't already own. This is not a critique on the prizes but it wasn't an incentive for me to enter the competition. The challenge bit was exciting but I know I won't be able to complete since I go back to uni in two-ish weeks. Maybe I'll start my own challenge... I'll like to see how that goes.

Have you been part of a challenge? Did you enjoy it? Any that you would recommend?

Till next time, 

Laura

essence Marble Mania's Silver Twister

I've had this terrible lemming for two metallic stamping polishes for quite a while. I know Essie's Metallics collection has had some good reviews on their own and as stamping polishes and they have a variety of colours that go beyond the usual gold and silver. Unfortunately, living in Australia means that they won't be available in stores for a few more months at least, if at all. I've also tried eBay, e-tailers, forwarding services from the USA. It's all either too expensive or they've sold out.

I also looked for Barry M Foil Effects and found them in stock at Ninja Polish at a fairly good price but the shipping cost was the same as the polish. So I kept looking and I've  bought  about three pharmacy gold and silver polishes but they're all too sheer for stamping properly.

In one last bout of hope, I went to Target to see if there was anything new. When I came across the essence stand, there was a display of polishes for their Marble Mania collection and saw this little beauty:

From what I see in the Essence website, this collection is mostly about nail art rather than just marbling. There's even a kit with two sponges (for gradients), orange sticks, a striper brush and a booklet with nail art ideas for sale. I didn't see the kit in Target but it doesn't really surprise me as it can be a bonus just having a few of the polishes available. 

I do this thing with bottles to see how sheer they are where I turned them a few times  while on its side and see how well they coat the glass bottle.With all the other polishes that I had bought for stamping (that didn't work out), you could see the polish in the bottle through the glass but not with this one. I had hope again and as I turned the corner I saw the essence Twilight Collection polishes. This collection has a very streaky, one-coater, gold polish that is amazing for stamping. It deserves a post of its own. There was only one bottle of each, so I snapped them up and run to pay for them.

After my little adventure, I started trying a few colour combinations and found out the best ones for the silver polish was a dark, matte base, at least for my skin anyway.

Polishes used:

Purple: B Collection by Bloom in Dubai

Silver: essence in Silver Twister

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri and Rimmel Pro Matte Finish

I did two coats of Dubai followed by Sally Hansen Insta-Dri so it would dry quicker and I could get on with the stamping. Then I applied the Matte top coat before stamping with the silver using Bundle Monster's BM-207 plate. I didn't add any top coat after that and I'm regretting it as there is already some tip wear on the stamping on my thumb.

I don't know if you've noticed but the angle of the hand is different to the way I usually do it. Turns out, I did a terrible job with my stamping and there were bumps and non-stamped edges so I had to turn my hand a little to hide the imperfections.

What do you reckon? Am I overdoing the matte top coat? Should venture into the shiny side?

Till next time, 

Laura