China Glaze: Budding Romance – swatches and layering

China Glaze Budding Romance, one of my favourite types of pretty ugly green polishes

It’s a jelly though, which I wasn’t expecting, and gives it a squishy look and super shine, which I do love!

Two coats here, they were quite thick though, and I think three thin ones would be better. It’s a flattering colour on my olive-ish skin tone.

And then I layered it with L.A. Girl Glitter Addict, Purge. Quite an appropriate name with this combination, I feel! (sorry. cough.)

Though, please note, I added the lighter green holographic hexes to this polish, without alteration Purge has mini and midi emerald green hex glitters. Very pretty. I just like it better with the holo glitters too

On my accent nail I added another thin coat of Budding Romance, and topped it all off with Misa BREAKneck top coat.

Unfortunately I had to catch some chickens and it was still squishy looking AND squishy acting 15 minutes after top coat, and it all smunched up and fell off. Ah well. Was pretty while it lasted!

Have a nice day

Ami

PANZ Week 7: Copycat Mani

Whoa, where did that week go?! I’ve been pretty slack at blogging, I must apologise: I’ve been around but my time has been taken up by listing our nail polishes on our Etsy shop. I have some ideas for how to get going on this again, which I’ll share, soon!

So, copycat mani! Weeeeelllll, I didn’t exactly copy. But, I did use one of my favourite nail bloggers as an inspiration, so that’s got to count. This was a ‘skittlette’ mani, inspired by Marta of ChitChat Nails – I wish I had a photography setup like hers .That aside, she has the most amazing stamping, colour schemes, and out and out classy, glamorous nails. *envy*

So, I went with a somewhat subdued colour theme, and really enjoyed it. I had China Glaze Light As Air as the base for all nails except for my middle fingernail, which had Revlon Popular. I stamped a feather pattern on my ring fingernails, using A-England Excalibur, and then on the rest of my nails I added two dabbed coats of a homemade glitter polish, (Star Kin) My Mind.

 

Topped it all off with a thick coat of Misa BREAKneck, and called it done! My sister V calls it the ‘light and flooffy’ mani, and I think that name will stick

Thanks for reading, I’ll be back real soon. Have a great day!

Ami

PANZ Week 6 – Jelly!

Week 6 of the weekly Polish Addicts of New Zealand challenges – these are fun.   This one is Jelly – and I thought I’d play with it, in the spirit of that fun

This is mostly based around China Glaze Creative Fantasy, which I picked up in a semi-recent group Head2Toe order. It’s the most gorgeous royal purple jelly! I had two layers of that, then one layer of Nail Pattern Boldness Bitches Brew, then a final layer of Creative Fantasy on most of my nails, and on my accent nails I played with a design of layering painted images on the jelly layers – original manicure can be found here.

And, I didn’t much feel like flowers, so I tried fish. Kinda… sort of missed that one, I feel. I blobbed the fish on with Kleancolor White, and the middle and top layer I also added Ozotic 907 for fishy shimmer and a dot of Kleancolor Black for the eyes. I still think they look a bit like rockets. Or… something else.

Anyway, this was fun! All topped off with Misa BREAKneck.

“ABCD Goldfish?”

“MNO Goldfish.”

“SAR Goldfish, ICDBD I’s!”

Have a great day

Ami

 

KKCenterHK Review – Plastic Stamping Plate

*Press sample!* In case people think I can be bought for nail polish and nail products… er… I’d love to be offended by that However, I can assure you that my opinions here will always be genuine, or so help me I’ll stop doing this.

So, the second of the two items sent to me for review by KKCenterHK (heaps of other stuff on here too, not just nail supplies, but lots of beauty goodies, wigs, some clothing etc), was this plastic stamping plate, retailing for US $8.65 – which can be found at this link here:  I found this little round soft plastic circle intriguing because it is a stamper that removes the need for a scraper. One less step? Yeah, o.k, I’m keen to try that!

This was my first attempt with playing with it, and I used the floral/swirly nail tip pattern, dropping the corner slightly to give a diagonal effect. Yeah, I totally misplaced where it was on my nail, but I did like the look, so I kept it and am now pretending that I meant to do it. *cough*

Polishes: two coats of Color Club Abyss, and I stamped using Kleancolor Metallic Fuchsia, and some small pink blingies. At this point, I’d paint the pattern, and stamp-stamp-stamp-stamp on a scrap piece of paper, and when the excess had been removed I’d roll my fingernail over it. This worked, but I made it work better later, and I’ll explain soon

I really did like this pattern, I’d do it again, for sure. And top coat it! It was quite nice and fresh, I think.

Then for my second one, I chose the scale type pattern, which is a full nail one.

Now, by full nail it’s probably o.k for short nails, it just managed to cover most of my shorter nails, and I certainly don’t have long nails.

And, again, there is some evidence of wonkiness. I am a real beginner to stamping, I’ve wanted to do it for ages, but have no skillz yet, please blame the wonkiness on me, not the plate.

The base colour was Essie Coat Azure, and I stamped with Color Club Blue Heaven, which was lots of subtle until the light hit it, when those holographic rainbows made it look like a real fish

So, tips and thoughts!

*instead of stamping the stamper onto the paper, swipe it, instead. Just wipe it back and forward on a (not already wiped on) bit of paper until all the excess has gone, it’s really quick and very effective, and the lines are clearer.

*rolling your nail over the stamp rather than the stamp over your nail means you can line it up better…. mostly

*this is such a brilliant idea. I wish they had a few more patterns, there are quite a few of them on the KKCenterHK site, but not too many different ones. Make more! I do have my eye on the one with the little bird and the dots though, that’s very cute

Thanks to the good people at KKCenterHK for giving me the chance to play with your products, so much fun.

Have a wonderful day

Ami

KKCenterHK Review: Hexagonal Silver Nail Studs

*Press sample alert! Press sample alert!* heh (if you are wondering, Press Sample is the new way bloggers are letting people know that they didn’t buy this product, but it should not affect the review given).

I was recently contacted by KKCenterHK, who asked if I would be interested in reviewing a few of their products. I went and had a look at their site and my brains kinda exploded, there is so many things to look at! Argh! And all so interesting! So, well, duh, I said yes please! And they let me choose two products. This was my first choice, these 5mm silver hexagonal nail studs, retailing for US$5 for approx 50 pieces.

For this initial manicure, I used two coats of China Glaze Haunting, then taped off a triangle and put China Glaze Liquid Leather to make an upside down V shape. I just pressed the stud into the sticky polish, and took these photos.

Even though these weren’t attached very securely, they still stayed put very nicely despite the several hand position changes, and I really liked the look! I think they would be far too large for my little finger nail, and my ring fingernail is possibly too curved, but I have plans for the rest, yes I do.

So next, to provide a fair review, is a wear test! For this one I wanted it pretty simple, I have 2 coats of Revlon Royal on all nails, and on my middle fingernails I put on two of the studs. Yep, two studs *wink*

I pressed them down pretty firmly into the polish, then completely slathered them in top coat (Misa Breakneck) to keep them in place. I could have glued them, but my glue has stuck the lid to itself, so my fall back of wet polish + heaps of top coat it will be.

You can see on this angle how the edges of the stud stick out laterally where my nail curves down; I can feel that free edge, but so far it’s not annoying, just something to be cautious of to avoid it getting caught on anything, and pulling off the decoration.

And, can I say, I LOVE this look? I love blue and silver together, and the dimensional quality of this silver and the crispness against the perfect blue of Royal is giving me jawdropitis every time I look at my nails.

I will finish this post tomorrow, with a report of how this lasted, in my day to day life of children, cleaning, cooking, crafts, chickens, and other things which hopefully don’t all start with the letter C.

Postscript! I lost the two studs from my right hand about 2 hours after I put them on, by accidentally scraping them off on a lid. The ones on my left hand stayed on all evening, and I lost one in the morning, and one just now, 24 hours after applying. So, given that I didn’t glue them on, that’s a really good effort I think. I’d definitely recommend these for an evening out look, or something fun and funky for a few hours.

Thanks to KKCenterHK for the chance to play with these pretties, and I’ll be back shortly with a review of the soft stamping plate.

Have a great day

Ami

Pumpkin Glow In The Dark Nail Polish

My good friend Megan from Two Lacquered Girls recently had a polish destash, and sent a bunch of gorgeous polishes to me. Squueeee! I had a worry that something would happen to it en route, but it was delivered fine, and what an amazing box of goodies it was! All these polishes, plus some amazingly pretty Kiss nail stickers, glitter, and a few lollies too (which didn’t last long, NOM!)

And look, little fluffy chicks! Does she know me, or what?!

Now, I have a strange thing with polishes. I don’t like just plain swatching them, (i.e. paint my nails, take a photo, remove polish). I feel I have to wear them all, properly, get to know them. Buy them flowers. Something. So it takes me quite some time to get through my new polishes, and it’s always fun seeing which one I will try first. And the one that won that dubious honour was this hilarious polish!

It looks like a pumpkin! It’s NEON orange! It glows in the dark!  This photo shows three coats on it’s own, plus a glitter top coat franken of mine to tone down some of the neon. I don’t have many neons, but I adored this. So much so that, not two days later, I put it on again (yeah, sorry, other polishes. Your turns will come).

So, more elaborate! I had Kleancolor White as a base (more NEON!), two coats of the Orange Pumpkin, and Cover Band Sticks ‘n’ Stones. I striped off the accent nail, and that made me want licorice allsorts all day! The other nail has a little nail sticker on it, which looked great until the top coat (Misa BREAKneck) made it curl up. Ah well.

And look, in the dark! Ok, hiding in the kids closet. It was dark enough.

Thank you so much, Megan, for all the pretties! I love them

Have a wonderful day

Ami

PANZ Week 5: Glitter Gradient

Week 5! And thanks to Queens Birthday here in New Zealand, plus this cold I have making me super scatty, this completely snuck up on me. I had some trepidation with glitter gradient, I’ve done several (mostly to cover up tipwear), but I’ve never been happy with them. So I went looking for internet inspiration, found some, and came up with this:

The inspiration was from this website here, and she has a black and silver theme – and much longer nails! And I loved them, they’re gorgeous. I did want to swap the black for a blue though, which I did.

The nude is Nfu Oh 08, two coats. Then I did a raggedy (I can’t draw straight lines, ok?!) french type tip with OPI Russian Navy – one coat, and then two dabbed coats of  Le Chat Hologram Diamond glitter.

I must say, this is my favourite glitter gradient so far, ever! It looks quite classy to my eye, without being in anyway boring, and glittery without being over done. Plus I love soft neutral pinks and they last on my fingers about 2 seconds before I get bored and change it, so this gives me a cool way to wear those colours

I did cheat and only do this on the four fingernails I take photos of, so now I’m going to do the rest of my nails to match. Yep. Happiness is

Have a wonderful day

Ami

Nail’d It: Fall Flowers and Candy Corn – Swatches

Nail’d It – Fall Flowers. Three coats, and fast dry top coat (Misa BREAKneck).

Polish is very sheer, but builds surprisingly well. Surprising in that after the first coat you’d swear there was no way it’d ever be opaque, but in three it very nearly is – and in real life it looks opaque thanks to the shimmer and those cute glitters.

This is a hard to describe polish – sort of a neutral toned beigey-yellow-gold, with heaps of gold shimmer. And the glitters, small green, mid size orange, yellow and red, and large yellow daisy shaped glitters.

Macro:

Shimmer with glitter is hard to do, in a polish. This polish JUST manages to get a good balance, I think because it is so sheer. It’s  not a deep polish, but it is a flattering and almost opulent one! Like a rich gold tapestry on the fingers

Nail’d It – Candy Corn. Three dabbed coats, and Misa BREAKneck topcoat.

This was such an interesting polish, but I wouldn’t try and wear it along like this again, I’d either layer it over a complimentary colour (white, yellow, brown, etc) or a matchy one. I had to dabble the glitters into place like crazy to get any kind of even coverage, but the good thing was that I could do this. I’m not an expert, though I am good at dabbling at most things

But the formula was excellent, and the glitters lay very flat, so I was able to slide the next layer over the first (which dried pretty quickly, another bonus in a dabbley polish!) and into place easily enough. Considering.

It was a gorgeous copper colour with those pops of white, yellow, red and black though. Personally I’d prefer no bar glitter, but it worked visually in the combo, and I certainly enjoyed the glitter factor of this. In the Llarowe photos (I bought this from Llarowe, yes), it looked like it had very large black circle glitters. It doesn’t (sad Panda), but it does have very large black hexes in it, which work really nicely. I just love dot glitter. Ah well, it’s lovely anyway, and I am happy I bought it

Have a great day

Ami

China Glaze I’m Not Lion (I’m A Leopard)

This polish (I’m Not Lion) has been staring at my from my untrieds rack for a looong time now, and I was really happy to get to use it.

For this manicure I used a base of China Glaze Kalahari Kiss (one coat), then two coats of I’m Not Lion. It probably would have been completely opaque in 3 coats, but I wanted to be able to remove it easier

I love the combination of old gold and holographic glitter, it’s subtle until it hits the sunlight, then it’s amazing!

My accent nail (ring finger) has the middle strip the same (one coat Kalahari Kiss, two of I’m Not Lion), and then the sides of my nails have on coat of Zoya Felicity and two coats of China Glaze Hello Gorgeous!

Then, over that I played with a leopard print accent (for the first time ever, Leopard Print and I DO NOT get along. Traditionally).

I added gold plastic blingys for the dots in the middle of the leopard spots, and topped it off with Misa BREAKneck top coat.

Which smeared my leopard prints. Just a tiny bit. I could live with it. And, I could get along with this blingy leopard!

Have a great day

Ami

PANZ week 4: Brights! (Giving Winter the Finger/s) :D

First thing, a warning: these photos are really bad, and I apologise, I do!

For this weeks challenge, we went with Brights – after an online discussion about who wears bright colours in winter (which it is here, brrrr), and ignores the seasonal ‘rules’. Which, it turns out, are most of us. Although that said most of my brights aren’t technically bright – these were the only three semi-neon bright colour creme polishes in my collection (of 580+ polishes).

So… the three I used were Mode Say Cheese (yellow), Color Club Screamin’ Fuchsia (um, very LOUD pink, brilliant name for it), and Color Club Abyss (blue). I used a white base – Kleancolor White – and used striping tape on all nails except the accent nail, so the white showed through when I took the tape off. I sponged on the three polishes in a gradient (messy!) and Abyss and Say Cheese combined nicely to make the green.

On my accent nail I used the same three polishes over the white base, but watermarbled with them. All were topped off with Misa BREAKneck top coat.

 

And my seldom photographed right hand… gak, in terrible condition, too. But shows I did have it on both hands, and the watermarble on that side Please, please excuse the mess, I had minus 10 mins to clean it up, and as I had cleverly tried to use PVA glue on my cuticles to protect them and it wouldn’t peel off, then the glue stopped the polish remover working, and it was all swears and cusses at my house that morning! sorrrry!

I had more compliments on this mani then almost any other, I guess wearing brights in winter really does help people notice! And luckily from arms length the mess wasn’t so visible.

Have a great day

Ami