31 Day Challenge 2013 – 17 Glitter (Doubles as Celestial Cosmetics Liquid Lawn Swatch)

The glitter day was the perfectly timed for me to use my lemming (as they say in the nail art world) polish, Liquid Lawn. I don't think I have been this careful with a manicure for a very long time. It's as gorgeous as it looks. I am not sure how others did it in a few coats, I needed about four.... I played with just the polish and a dark green polish as undies. The one without the base colour was perhaps a tad lighter, but not that noticeable. A generous layer or two of HK Girl to smooth out. Love it, dark without being vampy, this totally lived up to my expectations!

So sad was such an overcast day

With built-in flash

Trying to get closer to the window for light

31 Day Challenge 2013 – 16 Tribal Print

Tribal is not my thing, but decided to freehand something on my Arya Stark. The prints were loosely inspired by pictures in my Andean art book, which my friend Bronwen gifted me for no reasons whatsoever. I say loosely because they are nothing like the patterns in the book.

I absolute love Arya Stark, though it was fairly sheer. I run pretty warm as a person, so it was pink pretty much all the time, except when I ventured out to try jogging... Winter hasn't quite left Melbourne!

31 Day Challenge 2013 – 15 Delicate Print

So, I tried originally to do some nail stamping, but they were a mess. So I changed tack and went for some delicate drawings. Of feathers. I spent way too much time on this mani. It took me a while to get the technique right, but in the end I was able to draw nice soft lines. I guess that's the point of the challenge - to build my skills. So here's my rather average looking delicate print.

The white base is Essie - Blanc, and Sally Hansen - Turquoise. I have a gold liner from Europe, the other lines are with a liner brush. The glitters are my faves glitters, the Maybelline Sequins. 

31 Day Challenge 2013 – 14 Flowers (+ I Vant to be A-Lone Star swatch)

I picked up OPI - I Vant to be A-Lone Star, on sale and thought, MUST TRY IT ON NOW!! So once I had it on, I figured I may as well use it as my base. I tried to paint roses. Work with me and squint a little!

And I took a photo of it before I started with the nail art - my first swatch for the blog...

To go Graduation Day or not to go?

I am now only two exams away from finishing my JD degree! The three years have been crazy, as you can tell if you consider the fact that I put together a blog about my journey and then almost never posted!

So the question now is whether to attend the actual graduation ceremony. I am just so disinterested in the idea. I don't see how sitting through one is any better than having the piece of paper in my hand without all that. The biggest one is, for my parents, but they've not shown much interest in it and my Mum did not sound at all upset when I said I didn't want to go.

A metaphor for me: a duck looking into the big, dark lake.

When I think about it, the really proud moment isn't this day, but the one where I am admitted to practice. The day where I put on a black robe and a silly wig at the Supreme Court, that's the one when I will feel like I've achieved something and reached a goal to be proud of.

So unless my parents say something or someone else comes up with a compelling personal reason to attend, I cannot summon any desire to attend the graduation ceremony. It's not that I don't care, but it's the paper I care about. I cared enough about having my full name appear on it that I went to the student centre yesterday, just to show my passport and submit my paperwork, in order to add my middle name to my enrolment details.

Celestial Cosmetics's Arya Stark

So I dug into my haul and used my Glisten & Glow Stuck on Base. I started with the Arya Stark straight on, but it seemed a bit sheer, so I re-did it with a white base. So here I have Essie's Blanc as undies, and then about three coats of Arya Stark. It's a gorgeous polish, it went on so smoothly. Only one hiccup was the little bit of pink that didn't mix in properly, but a little brush and it was gone again.

So, here it is...!

It's purple when cold and pink when warm. I run so warm though, that once it turned pink, I can't get it to go back to purple! Topped, of course, with my new Glisten & Glow HK Girl top coat.

Oh, and here's a photo of it before, complete with terribly stained nails. The base coat was went on beautifully, a little goes a long way!

My First Indie Polishes! Celestial Cosmetics Haul!

I am very excited to have received my first order from an Indie nail polish brand! I have been lemming, as they say, for Liquid Lawn for months. When Celestial Cosmetics released a line inspired by Game of Thrones, I was totally ready to try something different. As a bonus, she sells Glisten & Glow HK Girl fast dry top coat! My sister can't seem to keep nail polish on her nails, so I got it with the base coat as a combo! I um'd and uh'd for ages, and wanted to get a thermal and a duochrome, but my student budget is strained enough as it is, so I went with the Arya Stark purple/pink thermal.

You may have noticed that there's a little blue bottle that I didn't mention: I got a sample of Cosmic Ray!

I can't wait to try them on, who cares that I only just did my names for day 15 of the challenge?? Keep your eyes peeled!

31 Day Challenge 2013 – 13 Animal Prints

Animal prints are not really my style. So I was a bit hesitant about the whole idea. I decided to start with the most basic of all animal prints for nails. I wanted to practice my gradient skills a bit more, this time using a fan brush. So I did a double accent animal print nails, and went with plain blue on the remaining... but then it looked a bit bare, so I layered some glitter on top!

The two blues are Sally Hansen and Natio, are both named Turquoise, and both which I picked up from random pharmacy sales for $2!

I didn't like my original set of photo. I took some in sunlight the next day, but with the shrinkage from the quick dry coat and a day of wear, the tips were looking a bit worn.

I am actually quite pleased with how they turned out, although everyone seems to doubt they are a colourful leopard print. Do they look like leopard prints to you?

31 Day Challenge 2013 – 12 Stripes

So I am a little behind on posting my challenge nails. It had been crazy busy with research papers and visiting cousins. It all got so much that my immune system was wrecked and I caught a cold! I have been doing my nails, but they haven't made it onto the blog until now.

I was keen use my new Essie Banc and some new nail decals. I thought the end result was super cute!

The pink and green were the two Natio polishes I picked up a short while ago that I posted. Rose and Azure, respectively. 

But I gotta be more careful with the decals next time. Look what I did to one of my bunnies when I put the top coat on :(

31 Day Challenge 2013 – 11 Polka Dots

A mint/pastel green has been on my wish list for a while. I picked this up on my recent trip to Sydney (more to come on this later). My first Sally Hansen colour polish — Mint Sorbet.

I cheated a bit and used acrylic paint to mix the paint for the pink gradient dots. The accent was with the new Maybelline sequins I also added to my collection at the same time as the green.

Here's a better view of the rose glitter topper. I just adore this line! I picked up more than one in Sydney. ;)

31 Day Challenge 2013 – 10 Gradient Nails

Due to my dislike of the rainbow nails, coupled with the fact that I am on my mid-semester break, I actually did two manicures in two days! I won't be keeping that up, since I'm off to Sydney for two days, so I am spacing the posts out a little :)

I used my Maybeline Colorshow polishes, and my Sally Hansen topcoat.

The accent nail was gross and thick, and I lost those stones almost straight away. So I decided to redo the accent nail with a glitter gradient!

31 Day Challenge 2013 – 09 Rainbow Nails

This was my attempt to do a dotted wedge look. I saw it recently on one of the blogs I follow, but for the life of me, when I went back to try have another look and link it here, I couldn't find it!

Anyway, the original was a white base. That was smart. I had a lot of issues with the dots on the darker coloured polishes. Also, I should have gone with a bigger dotting tool. I will know for next time. I have to remind myself that I am just new at nail art and I shouldn't be so hard on myself when they don't turn out as I imagined!

I used a couple of Ulta3 (yellow and purple), the red is Revlon Red Hot Tamale, and still on the Sally Hansen topcoat. I need something that dries faster and harder (wow those adjectives can sound so wrong, but wasn't intentional!)

And the green stained quite terribly! It was something I'd picked up in Europe (Germany or Austria — I don't quite remember).