31 Day Challenge 2013 — 21 Inspired by a... colour

So I've been a bit of a hiatus due to lack of inspiration for the inspirations themes. I managed to finally think of something for 21, inspired by a colour. Most of the bloggers went with inspired by the name of a polish, so I went the same way.

After much thought, I went with this CK polish I found in the bargain bin (I didn't realise that they did nail polishes, but guess they do), called electric blue. And did some cool lighting bolts. They are electrifying, you know?

It looks kind of cheap - you'd think a major fashion brand can at least print on their bottles. Instead they use a sticker...

Inspired by the Cake Expo

My sister and I had been talking about making cupcakes for a while, and after the Cake Expo we decided to start practising. My sister did the batter and icing and I did the decorating.

We did a variety of sizes, as we didn't have that many small reusable cups. As for the results... let's just say no cupcake stores are in any danger. I also ended up with stained fingers, despite my best efforts.

This was fun, I have a number of things I would change. After all, practice makes perfect! Alas, this may not be good for my waistline. 

Blue French Manicure with gold decal

I tried to do something elegant and understated. It turned out not as much, but cute nonetheless. I used a gold decal that I got off the Born Pretty Store. I tried to link it, but when I followed the link from my order, it was dead. Anyhow, it was a great big sheet of gold decals of Christmas-sy prints.

The light blue is Natio Turquoise and the navy is Maybelline Sapphire Siren.

Doctor Who nails for the 50th Anniversary!

So I spent way too much time painting my nails instead of going to bed. Due the the fatigue that one naturally has late at night/early in the morning, they were a bit dodgy but I was too tired to re-do. And I'd stained my thumb and index fingers a little when I was making cupcakes (colouring for the icing).

Everything was free handed. Glitter nail is OPI A Kiss at Midnight from the Mariah Carey collection. White is the Essy Blanc.

I have seen the Doctor Who special 3 times now. The first at the cinema in all its' glorious 3-D, surround sound amazingness.

Then the exact same night, I watched it on TV.. and tonight I watched it yet again!

How long till I get more new Doctor Who??

Freehand logo

Melbourne Cake Expo: A long recovery from the sugar high (Photo heavy)

The Melbourne Cake Expo is on this weekend. I went along with my sister to ooh and ahh over the pretty, intricate and delicious cakes. We had a couple of cupcakes, voted in the cake decorating competition and purchased some items to make our own goodies. We have been inspired! 

A Simple way to DIY and re-use pretty wrapping paper: Hand Made Cards

I have some hoarding tendencies and one thing that particularly brings it out is pretty wrapping paper! It seems like such a waste of good paper to just throw it out after unwrapping a present. So I have a neat little stack of paper, that I collect with then intention of re-using in some way. They're not usually in good enough condition to use as wrapping paper again (unless it's a really small present), but they are good for using with craft projects, including DIY cards!

Below I used:

• Some old wrapping paper
• Greeting stamps from Kikki-K
• Daiso origami pages
• Blank card

End of Law School Celebration Nails!

I always thought I'd be full of energy and excitement and sprint to the finish line. But what really happened was that I dragged myself to, and stumbled across the line. My last exam ever (fingers crossed) was an overnight take home exam. It was released Monday at 9am and due to next day at midday. It was for IP, with questions about Hello Kitty copyright, Kiss songs and stupid exercise equipment patents. Let's just say it was not a rock and roll all night kind of exam. 

I was determined to do something on Tuesday to mark to end of it. I had a glass of wine, and made my nails sparkly. I may feel flat, but at least my nails was bright.

Below I used my pink and gold Maybelline sequins polishes. The yellow is a new glow-in-the-dark polish from the Born Pretty Store. The insta-dry top coat caused some shrinkage. Very annoying. 

31 Day Challenge 2013 - 20 Water Marble

This was only my second attempt to experiment with wate rmarble nails. Despite the air bubbles and bumps, I am calling it a success. GO ME!

I used Ulta3 violet, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Turquoise and Mint Sorbet, topped with Sally Hansen Mega Shine top coat.

But of course, I wasn't satisfied with how messy them looked, so I had another go. I still had major trouble getting any sort of pattern, but I did get the air bubbles and smoothness under control. I also decided to protect my sanity a bit and only did two marble nails on each hand.

31 Day Challenge 2013 — 19 Galaxies

So this is the first time I've actually tried to do galaxy nails. It's been on my to-do list, but other ideas always end up taking precedence, and I say 'later' to the galaxy.

They're so much fun, and because you use such light layers, dabbing on just a bit of every colour, they were well along the way to dry before I even put on my HK girl top coat. I was happy to see that despite the many dabs, it mostly only needed one coat to smooth out.

31 Day Challenge 2013 — 18 Half Moons

I got a little swept up with the Halloween/Dia de los muertos (Day of the dead) holidays, though neither are celebrated to any great extent in Melbourne. I wanted to do a sugar skull candy mani, but I didn't want to take another break from the 31 day challenge. So I tried to incorporate both into the one mani.

I ended up wasting so much time doing and redoing everything when I should have be studying and I still didn't love the end result.

But here it is, Essie Blanc with a bunch of Ulta3 in yellow, orange and purple, and the mint green was Sally Hansen. I used a dotting tool and a small brush. In hindsight, I should have taken out more than one dotting tool to save myself the hassle of cleaning it between colours.

 

In direct sunlight

I used my new Essence Express Dry Drops to hurry things along. It worked pretty well, though it gets a bit greasy! I grabbed it when I finally saw it available in a priceline store, — they are usually all gone when I go past an Essence stand. No wonder for only $3.50!

Might be do a comparison post after exams, with the various fast dry items I have.