Illamasqua Speckled Gradient for Easter

So the last time I went past the Illamasqua counter at Myer, I picked up three speckled polishes for $5 each!  These are Mottle (green), Fragile (blue) and Speckle (purple). Scare (pink) was on sale too, but I didn't like the shade and passed. I also paid full retail price for red lip liner and lipstick... which was not so much of a bargain... I have always been a heavy eye makeup girl, but have been slowly developing a collection of bold lipsticks collection. So much easier to do than eyes too, tbh.

The Illamasqua lady had suggested that these would go well as a gradient. I agreed and this is the result. 

The black glitter made it a little messy. But it was the perfect Easter manicure without doing literal eggs, which I wore over the Easter weekend. I put on an off-white base to help the colours pop and to minimise the number of layers I needed to sponge on.

It just felt like it should be matte. So I made it so the next day.

Celestial Cosmetics Photo Spam + Last Day of the Sale

 Today's the your last chance to go to Celestial Cosmetics grab Birth of A Star and use BIRTHDAY to get 25% for orders over $30. If I knew I'd get a free purple holo, I'd not have picked something else a little more different. Of course, Nebula is different, much warmer, and more magenta that the photo on the website would suggest... I like the cool lavender tone of Birth of A Star, might even prefer it over the Nebula whichI actually picked to pay money for!

Also picked up a dense brown glitter jelly, Brown Dwarf, mainly because it's such an unusual colour. My sister wants me to pick up the purple, Celestial Sphere. 

Harley Dyna has been on sale for a while. It is very pretty. Not normally into black, but this one is somehow still so, so colourful.

All lined up

Birth Of A Star

Nebula

Nebula, again

Brown Dwarf

Harley Dyna

When in doubt - go for polka dots

So I had a birthday drinks to go to, with people from law school whom I haven't seen for a while. I was feeling completely uninspired, but I knew that my nails would be looked at. I had a certain reputation to uphold! After hours doing and undoing my nails, I went with the good old dotticure. I wanted a pastel-ish colour to go with my bright coral top, so went with a purple combo of OPI You're Such a Budapest base with Revlon Modern Grace dots.

Please excuse the chip - I took the photo the next morning, clearly it did not survive the evening in tact.

Retro decals with Alanna Renee Hedwig

One that's been sitting in my drafts for a while. I'm playing a never-ending game of catch up with photos, as I so rarely download the photos and then take another few weeks to write something to go with it. Maybe I should consider a switch to Instagram? The wannabe pro photog inside me can't bear the idea of not getting high quality photos to share with the world though. 

Anyway, to some nails.

I purchased these water decals from the Born Pretty Store. But to do a whole mani with them seemed a bit busy for my tastes, so I went with the double accent look with them. The decals are actually transparent, not with a white background, but in the end I decided that white was the best base for the decals. The Alanna Renee Hedwig had the little bits of glitter in the same colour family. 

I really wanted to love it, with its Harry Potter reference, clean logo and workplace friendliness. But it is actually not a very good polish. 

The next time I use it, I'd put down a white base, as it took me about 3-4 coats to make opaque and I probably should have thought to add some nail polish thinner, as it was rather thick and lumpy. 

If it all goes well, I might even get my Easter manicure up here before the EOFY! I actually rather love the nails I'm sporting right now.

Sayuri Fro Cone

I've used Sayuri Fro Cone polish as an accent nail in a previous mani, but this time I made it a star. It takes quite a bit of  building up to opacity. I didn't have much time for this, as I was doing it right before bedtime. So I thought I'd use it as more of a glitter topper. The base was one of those random Five Star polishes my Mum picked up from Aldi's (haven't seen them recently, don't know if they'll restock them). 

It worked pretty well and the the pick really popped.

Swatch sticks fun!

After a few incidents in which nail polish wasn't quite as I remembered as well finding that I have gathered a few polishes that are essentially the same, I decided it was time to keep swatches.

There is also something extremely satisfying seeing all the pretty polishes all laid out. I don't really have much to add... just "LOOK AT ALL MY PRETTIES!"

I got these from the Born Pretty Store. I ran out of sticks waaay before I finished my swatches and am ordering more as I type.

31 Day Challenge 2013 - 22 A Song

I am currently raking my brain, desperately trying to think of polishes I want to get, and other products, from the States whilst my sister is there. Specifically, things I can have delivered to her while she is there. I am especially sure there has got to be plenty of American indies that I want, as well as a nice stockpile of OPI to grow. Help me think of things to spend money on!

Anyway, on to this post. My nail art fizzled out a bit once I started back at work. But finally, I got some inspiration and time and stopped being lazy long enough to do the 22nd prompt.

Inspired by a song... I just wanted to do a fox really. But none the less, the result of being inspired by "What does the fox say?" Yes, some highbrow of musical taste here.

I was inspired... err... copying this mani I found on Pinterest originally. 

Base is my Boyfriend Scales Walls and the fox was a mixture of red and yellow acrylic paint. 

Revlon Whimsical

Whimsical looked so cute and pretty in the bottle. It looked like it'd be a perfect Easter egg shell. Alas, it was a hella a lot more sheer than I anticipated. I played with it for a while - I do love the actual glitters.

The first one I layered over a bright-ish blue of some description (sorry, I don't remember) and Whimsical made it look like a dark teal. The glitter accent is Maybelline Sea Quins. It's such a gorgeous blue!

I then tried to use Whimsical again, this time over a white base. This still isn't what i had expected out of the bottle. I think next time I will try a light shade of green as a base. The accent is actually my first attempt at fishtails. I must do a full mani one day. This was done with some of my OPI Euro Centrale minis. The small brushes worked well.

I actually picked this one up during the Boxing Day Sales. It's only taken me about three months to use and post pictures! :P