New Year's Eve nails. Super fierce, glitter gradient.

Blam! I give you, a glitter bomb.

Essie Stroke of Brilliance exploded all over my nails, and I think this look would be killer for NYE.

I actually did this mani a while ago, when I still had my fierce-ass claw-tip stilettos. If I could, I would go back to that nail shape, but claw-tips and new baby don't mix well. For this glitter gradient, I used 2 coats of Sinful Colors Social Ladder as a base and dabbed Stroke of Brilliance onto the tips, waited for it to dry and then worked my way up the nail, dabbing and stroking the glitter into place. I did about 3 coats of glitter, then 2 coats of topcoat to smooth everything out and voilà!

I was actually testing out the Elmer's glue peel off base coat for the first time, so my edges are a little rough. Otherwise  I love love LOVE this mani. Stroke of Brilliance is such a perfect party glitter without being super over the top, like a can of confetti threw up on my nails. You feel me? I may just have to recreate this for my New Year's nails, albeit without the claws.

The only Christmas Tree we have this year is on my nails.

This year we had planned to get a live tree, since we're in our own house which has nice high ceilings. Unfortunately, with the craziness surrounding the birth of my newest baby boy, time totally got away from us and we didn't end up getting any Christmas tree! So to console myself, I decided to put one on my nails for tomorrow :)

These are my Christmas Nails!

3 coats of Zoya Tori on my thumb, 1 coat of Zoya Jules and 2 coats of Milani Gems on my index, 3 coats of Zoya Jules on my middle and pinky fingers, and 3 coats of Zoya Tori on my ring finger. The Christmas Tree was done with dots of Jules and Essie Good As Gold and a dab of Gems for the star on top.

Pretty easy, but pretty gorgeous and festive! I love the colour combos :) It feels like Christmas. We aren't Christian, so to us Christmas is really about family time, good food and presents for the kids. I hope you have a great day tomorrow, whether you celebrate Christmas or it's just an extra holiday you get to spend with your family :)

$OPI It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat: 3 different nail looks.

As you may know, Sephora by OPI ($OPI) jumped on the bandwagon with the whole Real Gold Leaf top coat craze. The difference with this top coat is that the gold leaf pieces are smaller and finer than a lot of the others.

 

I really like the look of this top coat and have worn it over a few different shades to see how I prefer it.  Check out the nail looks I did with the gold leaf top coat below :)

Sinful Colors Social Ladder with 1 coat $OPI It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat

Color Zone unnamed blue polish with 1 coat $OPI It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat on accent nail

Essie Stylenomics with 2 coats $OPI It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat on accent nail

The gold flakes definitely stand out most against the darker polish, but I love the subtle glow it gives the pearly lighter shade and the vibrant look it has against the bright blue. If you prefer a finer look for your gold leaf, this one is definitely the way to go. I think of all the gold leaf top coats I prefer the look of this one and Zoya Gilty, as they aren't as chunky as the others. The $OPI It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat is on sale on the Sephora website for $15 and I've heard some people picked it up at the JC Penny Sephora for only $8!

I think these are gorgeous for the holiday season, but I have a hard time using it, knowing it's actual gold!! I just want to hoard it lol. I'm glad this one came down to $15, because I felt more justified in buying it.

Have you fallen into the Gold Leaf top coat frenzy?

Polish Days - Sentimental Polka Dot Nail Art.

It's time for Polish Days again!

For this month's Polish Days the theme is sentimental. I decided to use two of the very first polishes I ever bought after becoming interested in nail blogs and blogging. Essie Turquoise & Caicos is a beautiful blue-green, almost minty colour. It is one of my favourite shades and is so soft and pretty. China Glaze Something Sweet is a lilac pink pastel, the very first pink I went out looking for. I love pink and this is just the epitome of feminine!

I decided to play on the soft, feminine theme and do a half moon mani with pretty polka dots :) The gold is a Kiss nail art polish. I hope you like it!

Check out the other Polish Days posts!

Essie Van D'Go w Zoya Chloe

Essie Van D'Go is a beautiful peach shade that I haven't worn enough. I may just be clinging stubbornly onto Summer with this shade, but it's definitely hot enough around here to warrant it! It's a perfect warm peach that suits my skintone, leaning more on the yellow side of peach than pink. I topped 2 coats of Van D'Go with one coat of Zoya Chloe, to give it a shimmery glow.

Essie is a great brand that I don't have enough of. I only own a few shades, but I absolutely love the ones I have. This is a really pretty combo, I love Zoya Chloe over almost everything! I am digging my new nail shape too :D

Hope you all had an awesome weekend!

Polish Days - Geometry themed nail art

Hurrah for my first Tape Mani!!

I've been wanting to try out a tape mani for a while now, so this Polish Days theme of Geometry gave me a perfect excuse :)

Here's a list of the polishes I used:
Essie Van D'Go
Zoya Chloe
Sinful Colors Open Seas
Spoiled by WnW Designated Driver
Kiss Nail Art Paint Gold Glitter

I had a lot of fun doing this mani and learned what NOT to do when using tape...... Mainly, don't assume after 5 minutes that the polish dry enough to put tape on top of.... it's not =_= You might have noticed I changed my nail shape. I'm REALLY loving the 'stiletto' shape right now, it's super fierce! What's your favourite nail shape?

Check out some of the other Polish Days - Polish Geometry posts!

Essie Good as Gold & Essie Stroke of Brilliance

It's Labor Day here! Happy Labor Day, to my US Beauties :)

Just a quick post to show you two Klout perks I received recently, both from the nail polish brand Essie.

Essie Good as Gold, from the Mirror Metallics collection and Stroke of Brilliance from the Luxeffects collection.

Good as Gold is a really shiny, chrome finish gold. It does show brushstrokes, so you have to be careful with application (I wasn't, very). It dries really fast, so you don't have much time to work with it. I really liked the look of Good as Gold without top coat, it was very chrome-y, almost matte and super 80s looking. It's a gorgeous colour, but a bit of a PITA to apply. This is two coats.

Stroke of Brilliance is a clear based top coat with silvery blue glitter. The glitter is a mix of small and large hex glitters and tiny round glitter. I LOVE this top coat, it's gorgeous. I am planning to use it for some jelly sandwiches soon. Application is easy, with no fishing around or placing of glitter needed. This is one coat.

I like both of these polishes and I'm so happy I got to try them out thanks to Klout!

Have a great day, if you're off work then have a fun break!

P.S. Don't forget to enter my Eclos Skincare Kit Giveaway!

Manicure Monday: Pink and Green Polka Dots!

Polka dots are the epitome of cute.

I love the colour combo of pink and mint green together, and they really stand out over a white base.

For this manicure, I used a base of Wet n Wild French White Creme, then used a dotting tool to dot Sinful Colors Star Fish on my index and ring fingers, and Essie Turquoise & Caicos on my middle and pinky fingers. Then I layered China Glaze Fairy Dust over it for a little bit of sparkle.

I'm absolutely in love with this combo!

I think I'll be using my dotting tools a lot during the summer, it's the perfect warm weather look :D

Do you like polka dots? Or are they too cutesy for you?

Manicure Monday: Essie Eternal Optimist & Spoiled by Wet n Wild Shrimp on the Barbie

Hello Beauties!

Today I want to show you two of my favourite polishes, one of which is a gorgeous shade by Wet n Wild. They have recently released the ‘Spoiled’ collection and this is my favourite, Shrimp on the Barbie. Love the polish, hate the name. As an Australian, I find it offensive (lolol). Stupid Crocodile Dundee, we don’t even call prawns ‘shrimp’! Anyway, the polish actually reminds me more of salmon, it’s a gorgeous salmon pink with a gold shimmer. The other polish is Essie Eternal Optimist, a beautiful nude rose pink I’ve had for a while, which is such a perfect Spring colour.

Two coats of Essie Eternal Optimist and one coat of Spoiled by Wet n Wild Shrimp on the Barbie on ring finger.

The colour in the bottle is exactly how it looks on the nail, with that lovely golden shimmer.

Indirect sunlight – this is probably the most colour accurate for both polishes.

It was difficult to capture the gold shimmer with my camera, but it’s so prevalent on the nail, even indoors.. It looks GORGEOUS in sunlight!

I like a few of the other shades in the Spoiled by Wet n Wild collection, but Shrimp on the Barbie is my absolute favourite and in my opinion, a must-have.

Have you picked up any of the Spoiled by Wet n Wild polishes?

Manicure Monday: Essie Turquoise & Caicos with Nubar 2010

Hey Beauties!

Summer is just around the corner and I am breaking out the brights again. Turquoise is one of my all time favourite colours so when I saw this one lonely bottle of Turquoise & Caicos sitting on the shelf at my local Walmart, I automatically grabbed for it before I even knew what I was doing. I used to be pretty conservative with my nail polish, sticking with pinks and reds and the good old french mani, but since I’ve become a reader (stalker) of nail polish blogs I have broadened my horizons A LOT. Therefore, while before I would have reserved this shade for pedicures, now I eagerly painted it on my nails as a tribute to Summer.

I layered 1 thick coat of Nubar 2010 over 3 thin coats of Essie Turquoise & Caicos and 1 coat of Rush top coat. Essie T&C is pretty sheer, so if I was wearing it by itself I probably would have gone 4 thin coats or 3 thicker coats.





Nubar 2010 is absolutely gorgeous over everything! I love the effect here so much, the sparkly flakies over the vibrant turquoise reminds me of the sparkling ocean in the islands of Malaysia. We went to Tioman Island for a holiday with my Aunt, Uncle and baby niece (can’t believe she’s a teenager now!!) when I was a kid and I’ve always remembered those beautiful turquoise waters.



I’m going to try and keep up regular nail posts, hence ‘Manicure Monday’. I have some Urban Decay polishes I’ve been meaning to try out, so look out for one next week :)

Ishah xx