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

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

PANZ Week 3: Galaxy Nails

Galaxy nails! Oh how I love thee. One day I shall get better at thee.

Until then, though, I stick with my tried and true concept. And failed in the cleanup, because my hands are rough and yuck after this weekend, sorry. Avert eyes from cuticles. You have been warned.

I’m going to say (thanks to Sister V for the idea) that this galaxy nail is inspired by the space surrounding the Horsehead Nebula. And that, around my ring finger nail there, is part of it’s mane. It’s NOT a stray hair that I didn’t see until I was editing the macro shots, ok?!

Polishes used: Actually, I started with two coats of Kolt Lunatic over a coat of Kleancolor Black, then I sponged on a handmade polish (Denim & Sequins), more Kleancolor Black (to break up the blue and red and add some depth) and then  one and a bit coats of OPI Servin’ Up Sparkle. (a bit – basically one coat, then a few dabbed bits where I thought more ‘stars’ should be). Then a top coat, and done!

Have a great day

Ami

Playing with Ozotics – 500 series

I was going to swatch all these separately, and then I worried I’d annoy someone. You see, Ozotic have discontinued the holographic 500 series, due to supply issues with some of the components. But, I did buy them when I heard they were on the way out, and I do want to show them. So, instead of serious swatches, I played with them, and I’ll show you what I came up with!

The polishes I used were: 513 (purple), 515 (blue),  and 516 (pink)

sunshine..

Left- right, the first two nails (index and middle) have Ozotic 515 as the base, then dotted with 516 and 513 (the pink and purple holos), the next two had the same base (515), but I put on the 516 and 513 and sort of smooshed it around with lunch wrap to get a textured sort of look – and put a few dots over that.

shade…

And, because I thought this looked vaguely reminiscent of the water lilies paintings in the shade, I added blobs to represent those, using dots of Color Club Angel Kiss and Jade Mystic Gold.

Then, for a change of pace, I tried four of the Ozotic Holographic polishes in a totally different way:

This was over Jessica Cinnamon Kiss as a base, and sections were taped off for the polishes. I used Ozotic 517 (green) as well as the other Ozotic 500 series, from above (515, 513, and 516)

You can probably see the slight disadvantage to doing it all at once, by the time I was finished with the last block of colour the first was a bit too dry, and came off a bit when I removed the striping tape.

Ah well, I still like this! It was finished off with Misa Breakneck top coat, and lasted really well.

I do love these Ozotic holographics, they have a nice formula, go on easily, dry very fast, and are insanely holographic. The lighter colours are sheer enough to wear as a top coat over almost every other colour, but still build well to opaque in 2-3 coats. If you can find them anywhere, and you do like holographic polishes, I highly recommend them!

Have a great day

Ami

China Glaze Strap On Your Moonboots – Swatches & Nail Art

Strap on your Moonboots, from the Hologlam collection, purchased from Head2Toe Beauty. Sister V told me this was the right one (I had it narrowed down to this or When Stars Collide), and she was right, this is pretty!

You may have heard that these polishes are not that holographic. They are not that holographic. These photos show about as strong a holo effect as they got, but I LOVE the colour, and the slight holo rainbow does add a dimension

A lovely dusty dark denim blue with subtle linear holo. Two coats here, almost a one coater. No top coat!

The thing is… it’s almost a one coater because it is quite thick. It does pull off if you overwork it, so don’t do that. My bottle also had this cute trick: I’d wipe the brush and then go to put the first stripe of polish on, and about half way into the first line a HUGE amount of polish would come screaming down the brush from who-knows-where and go PLOBBB! all over my nails. Annoying, but workable, I just put the brush half way up my nail and used the PLOBBB! to paint with, then I didn’t get the cuticle flooding.

Then for fun, I added dots (with a dotting tool) using Ozotic 515 (almost invisible against the SOYM), and Color Club Blue Heaven, and a fast dry top coat (Misa BREAKneck).

Inside lighting, sorry about the yellow!

Later on I added a couple of large holographic circle glitters…

and a cut-to-size silver flamingo thing (large packet of them for sprinkling around to decorate events? Confetti things?) on my thumb, and lots of top coat to hold it all down. That was fun, and very easy

Have a great day

Ami