31DC2014: Day 31-Recreation of Nail art by: Paulina’s Passions

Hello again 🙂

So here is the final post from the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge.

Cannot believe I made it to the end (We will just pretend I am not a few days late hehe)

I was seriously questioning my sanity the last few days.

The challenge is tough, it really tests your creativity and skill.

Ok so we were supposed to honor nails we loved. I was inspired by Paulina’s Passions, this was actually the Nail Art she did for day 12 of the challenge.

I used a few pretties:

• Essence “A Piece of Forever” from the Twilight Breaking Dawn Trend Edition.
• Catrice “Gold Leaf” Top Coat
• TOY Maaji “Maaji’s Ocean”
• TOY Maaji “Candy Bay”
• SinfulColors “Snow Me White”

I also used Studs that I bought from Maskscara (A nail Supply store in Cape Town) and my striping tape from ebay.

So I really had fun doing this.

I really like it 😀 but need to practice painting anchors.

Yipeee its over hehe, will do it all again next year for sure! Great test of skill & creativity.

31DC2014: Day 30-Inspired by “a tutorial”

Good evening lovelies,

So wow this week was crazy,it swallowed me whole.

I have the last 2 posts for the challenge tonight. I did them today.

I was inspired by a Youtube Tutorial from cutepolish (see here)

I did have exactly the same colours as her so I used the closest ones in my neon collection that I could.

 

I used the following polishes:

• TOY Maaji “Candy Bay”
• Bourjois “Cerise Noire”
• OPI “Steady As She Rose”
• Catrice “For Bright Guys”
• TOY Maaji “Maaji’s Ocean”

Its just a basic dotticure but I thought the colours looked so pretty together I just had to try it.

What do you think?

 

 

 

31DC2014: Day 26-Inspired by “a pattern”

Good Morning my lovelies <3,

Today is day 26 of the 31 day Nail Art Challenge.

Time is flying so fast!

Today we had to pull inspiration from a pattern. I didn’t have 1 source of inspiration but a whole bunch.

I am slightly obsessed with green china. I love the traditional blue & white but green is just so pretty!

So instead of copying just 1, I just did my own version.

You can check out my pinterest for more images, just go to the High Tea Party board. (link at top right)

 

I used the following polishes:

• TOY Maaji “Minty Sparrow”
• Essence Colour & Go “Roller Coaster”

I always use Seche Vite when I stamp, I use it between my base colour & my stamping. So if I make a mistake its easier to fix.

I used my MoYou London Bridal Stamping Plate for the detailing.

 

The colour Combo is just so pretty, I must try it again doing something else.

I have been using my Marshmellow stamper but it seems to smudge a bit, do you have any suggestions for a stamper that is a mix of soft & firm?

 

 

31DC2014: Day 17-Glitter

Happy Happy middle of the week 😀

 

We are almost at the end of the Styles section. I normally manage to get this far, I struggle when it comes to the “Inspired by” section. Eeek its so close.

Anyway so today is Glitter, so lets get “Sparkly”

 

 

I used:

• China Glaze “Glistening Snow”
• TOY “Lila”
• L.A. Colors Art Deco Nail Art Liner “Vibrant”
• Born Pretty Store Glitter Kit 

As with glitter, I always struggle to capture how it looks in real life on camera. So I did the usual flash and no flash

Below is with Flash

 

And without flash.

 

This challenge is starting to get tough, its difficult to be inspired every single day. But I am going to trudge on and finish this challenge!

31DC2014: Day 6-Violet Nails

Hello my Lovely readers,

Day 6 is my favorite by far! Hello purple polish! Its my fav polish colour of all!

I used:

• China Glaze “Tail Me Something”
• Tip Top “Surfer Girl”
• TOY “Lila”
• Essence Colour & Go ” Break Through”
• Essence Colour & Go ” Oh My Glitter”

I did a drip mani, but it looks like a melted purple candle.

Tail Me Something is a texture polish so it stands out above the rest. Really gives that melted wax feel.

What do you think?

 

31DC2014: Day 2-Orange Nails

Hey Lovelies,

Its day 2 😀 and today is Orange.

I sat back an looked at my limited choice of orange polishes and decided to deviate ever so slightly and go with a Neon Coral, its still kind of Orange but only a little.

I have been obsessed with neon’s and nudes lately. So I decided that’s what today’s Mani will be.

I used the following polishes for today:

• China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy
• TOY Maaji Sandy Oasis

So I did a neon french.

What do you think of Neon and Nude?

Don’t forget to share your Nail Art in the comments section.

 

TOY Mood Board Giveaway

Hello Lovelies,

Today I have a cool giveaway to show you.

Its being hosted by TOY.

 

Step 1: Show your Colour!

Option 1- Create a Mood Board

Option 2- Show your Mani

Option 3- Show an object sporting the colour of your choice.

Make sure to Tag TOY and #FavouriteFashionistas.

You can add your original image to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Make sure to tag me in it so I can see your colour inspiration too #polishedtickles.

 

Step 2: Wait and see who the lucky 3 ladies will be.

The competition closes on the 9th of August, that’s this Friday.

 

Step 3: The prizes

You could win a years subscription to the ELLE Magazine and the newest TOY Collection “Girls Night Out”

Here is my board.

 

Soft Blue is my all time favourite polish!!! I would love to see a creme blue polish with a matching glitter topper. That would make my heart sing 😀

 

 

Blogging vs. Life

Hello my Lovelies,

I hope you are all good and well 😀

I have to be honest, blogging has not been my main focus as of late. It becomes really hard when life throws unexpected situations into the mix.

For me personally my life just seems to be so filled up with things that are more important than nail polish at the moment. For example Sundays are the days I get most of my swatching and nail art done for the blog, this Sunday that just passed was meant for exactly that… Until I moved a picture frame in our bedroom and found a green forest of mold growing behind it.

Cape Town has been exceptionally wet this winter, the back of our house has been flooded for ages! Its so bad that we have water lilies growing there, I mean hello those only grow in wetlands… So that’s saying something! Due to the wet weather and the fact that our room never gets any sunlight we developed a mold problem, at first it was all fine and we would wipe down the affected areas but when I saw that picture frame I realized the problem was way bigger than I had thought. Thus we had to do a massive clean.

Emptied out the entire room and got scrubbing! It took us 5 hours to get rid of all the spores. And of course 5 hours of exposure to harsh chemicals ruined my nails. In the last 3 days I have chipped, split and broken almost all of my nails. My hands have lost all natural moisture. I am back on my nail rehab program to try and get it right again.

The worst part is I had so many plans that now need to be pushed back.

I have a review on 1 more Nail Candi Jewel to do and swatches galore. It all has to wait now :(.

I guess these things happen, we must make due…

So because I have nothing new to show you, I decided to dedicate this post to the mean greens lol… Ok Harsh! Yeah its not my green nail polishes fault that mold exists in this world, they merely share the same colour…

So here is a recap of the green polishes that have graced the blog…

SinfulColors Rise & Shine

 

Tip Top Hap-Pea

Essence Colour & Go 179 Roller Coaster

TOY Lima

China Glaze In The Lime Light

Essence Colour & Go 151 We Rock The Green

China Glaze 1163 Unpredictable

Essence Colour & Go 150 Upper Green Side

Essence Colour & Go 138 L.O.L.

Tip Top 137 Army Vibes

China Glaze In The Rough

Revlon Nail Enamel 520 Muse

SinfulColors 1009 Lagon

Saturday Seeds #6

Happy Saturday Lovelies,

You have no idea how happy I am its weekend!

I have had the busiest week at work, one night I only got home at 19:45pm… Yup but the cool part is I am travelling for work next week Monday, going to a convention. I am pretty excited lol!

So yes that explains my absence from the bloggie. I did have some time this past Monday night to get a quick bit of Nail art done for today. Its such an easy design today!

 

I found this image on Pinterest so that explains why its so small but anyhoo.

Lets see what colours I used for today’s seed.

 

I used:

• Tip Top “Sunkissed“
• Revlon ColorStay “Vintage Rose“
• TOY Maaji “Marine Fairwater“
• TOY Maaji “Minty Sparrow“
• Essence Colour & Go “Hello Marshmallow“

(PS you can now see the swatches of each colour if you click on the links)

Because I had 5 colours I decided to paint each nail a different colour and then I used the Dry Brush technique (See here for a YouTube tutorial by Cute Polish)

Its literally super easy to accomplish, and really only takes about 10 minutes from start to finish.

This is actually my first time doing dry brush nail art and I really loved it!

What do you think?

 

I got the blues… The TOY Blues

Hello Lovelies,

So I have a blue polishes to show you today.

Blue is my favorite polish colour to buy, in my storage system I store my pinks and purples in 1 box, my reds, yellows, oranges, browns, nudes and glitters in another box and my blues have a whole box to themselves.

The polishes I am going to show you today were sent by TOY for review.

First I have Blueberry Moon from the Maaji Collection.

 

Its a stunning blurple polish that has a very cool almost matte finish. Blueberry Moon is from last seasons Maaji Collection.

It only required 1 coat but I am a 2 coat kinda gal.

Next is Azul Oscuro.

 

Its what I assume to be a “Crelly” (Im not exactly up to speed on all the nail art lingo)… Ok so I have consulted with my Hobby Polish peers and have had confirmation that this is a “Crelly” Polish. For those of you (Like me) that are wondering what the heck is a crelly? Well its a polish that looks like a Jelly but is opaque like a creme. To be honest I still do not get it? But I could just be a bit doff!

Anyhoo so I personally am not a fan of Jelly or Crelly polishes. This polish required 3 coats and I still felt like it needed a 4th, but I draw the line at 3 coats! I love the colour.

Are you a “Crelly”/”Jelly” Fan?