Christmas Mani. Oooooh, and a GIFT!

I have the headache from hell. It pretty much sucks arse. I share this information, because I need to whinge to somebody.
Alrighty. Tonight, I painted a Christmas mani, and I am actually stoked with it. Photos are less than ideal; it's 11.30pm. If I wait to get daylight pics, I will have sheet marks.
Excuse my horrible hand-skin. Also, please excuse my very special Rudolph. Assume he has been into the eggnog.  Well, wouldn't you, if your entire family spent time hassling you for your shiny red nose (presumably from the eggnog)?

No flash, then flash.

Individual nail pics:

Base is Sinful Colors-Snow Me White. The rest are-Revlon Mon Cherry; SC Exotic Green; SC This Is It(gold); SC Nirvana(brown); LA Colors Art Deco Red; Miki Black, and the star on the Xmas tree, plus a few of the lights, is Star Kin Merry Solstice. All finished with Rimmel top coat.

You may notice there are no photos of my right hand. This is because it is naked. I'll potentially do something with it tomorrow. Maybe.

I also have a wee bit of a give away. I have one person in particular that reads all my blog posts, and lets me know she enjoyed them-either by saying so, or liking etc.
This person will get a customised Peacock Pie necklace. All she needs to do is message me.
Miss Holly S. You are my best follower. Congratu-fucking-lations.

Bowling mani.

Just a quickie post.
Tomorrow is our first work social club thing, and we are 10-pin bowling. I needed to change my nails and thought I'd attempt a bowling theme. It's reasonably shit.

Colours are: Base of Eclipse some-number-these-polishes-have-no-names; ball is Rimmel Grey Matter mixed with Miki Black; skittles (is that what they are?)-SC Snow Me White; and LA Colors Light Red. Accent(middle finger and thumb)-LA Girls Brilliant Blue, from the holo range.

Hopefully, I don't get an embarrassingly low score tomorrow.

It's my birthday!

So, I did some birthday nail art. As you have seen from previous posts, most of my nail art is very basic-dots, stripes, stickers etc. This time I tried drawing things.
I admired nail artists before, now I am in complete awe. The mani you'll see in the following photos took me 2 hours. I was half dead before I even got to my right hand, hence the very basic design on that side.

My table at the end of it all. Prior to starting, the table was tidy-all polishes in containers, brushes in the glass and so on.

Left hand. Colours-at least most of them-are: Bases first-Sinful Colors Snow Me White; Rimmel Grey Matter, Revlon Cloud, Australis Peek-a-boo, Sally Hansen Good To Grape. Colours used in the art-Kleancolor minis, LA Colors Art Deco pens, LA Girl 3D Effects, and the dots are all Kleancolor minis, with the exception of the gold dots. That is SC This Is It.

Bases on my right hand are-HD 25, Maybelline Party Blue, Revlon Minted, SC Unicorn, and SC Snow Me White. Letters were done with LA Colors Art Deco, glitter topper is an LAC mini, and the cupcake is a selection of Kleancolor minis. Nameless ones.
Thanks to Jessie at Nailed It NZ for the cupcake tutorial.

Here is my birthday badge:

I have since been given another-a lot smaller-that says "Oh no, 30!" Yes, I went shopping with this on today.
So far, my birthday has been great. My only complaint-my car decided starting was a desperately uncool thing to do, so I sat outside a dairy for almost an hour.

For anyone wondering what is happening with my heart-I have a monitor. It is part of a research trial; not only do I get a record of what is going on with a cardiologist, but the results could potentially help others, I'll be wearing it for the next 3 weeks. Thankfully, it is fully removable for showering.

You can just see the top 2 electrodes. There are 2 more under my ribcage. Hanging white thingis where the date is collected, and sent to the hospital. I need to change the electrodes each day-tonight my latex intolerance is showing. I'll need to move them around each day to prevent awful skin soreness. As it is, I have 4 very tender, red, circles.

Water marbling

A second post! Oh, you lucky bastards.
I have avoided water marbling. It seems so straightforward-well, it is straightforward, but I have an incredible talent for screwing up easy things.
I got ready.

Greasing up the surrounding skin.

My colour choices.

Hmmm. So, boe doesn't marble so well.

Restart!

I really, really wanted to use my new orange.

Hahahaha! I call SUCCESS! On my thumb, I added my new gold-the bottle I am holding. Sinful Colors-This Is It.

My first gradient attempt; and rhinestone-y things.

I have pretty much ignored the whole gradient thing. I am spazzy enough with a brush and dotting tools; what kind of mess would I make with a polished-up sponge?
I decided to give it a go. It is not great. My colour choices on my right had were a bit crap-not opaque enough. On my left hand...I discovered the coral I love in the bottle, is not so pretty on my hands. So, that will be leaving me. To photos!

Colours are LA Colors 12, and Sinful Colors Island Coral. I didn't want to push the gradient attempt (at first) so went for dots.
And the right hand. This is a mess. My clean up was terribly half-arsed, and you can see exactly what I mean when I say lack of opacity.

Bleurgh.

Over the weekend, I was at the local $2/Max Out shop, whatever this one happens to be called. I found some little nail art rhinestones and thought 'why not?' I have just done a mani with them, and I'm pretty happy with the results. You'll have to excuse the photos. I plan to get some in natural light tomorrow, but wanted evidence before I knock these flowers off. I have two thick layers of top coat on, and will probably add another before bed.

Here are a couple that show the polish colour more accurately.

Awful photos, I apologise. Base is boe Champagne-lovely colour, formula is quite good...but it stinks. I'm talking a petrol-like reek. I have a headache from the smell. I may also be mildly high.
When I bought the rhinestone doo-hickeys, I grabbed an eye/lip liner, solely so I could pick them up. It works! So quick and easy.
All going well, I should have better pics of this tomorrow.

Swatch sticks!

This is what I have been doing the last couple weeks. I finally have them all swatched, and all top-coated. Each stick has brand, colour name (or number, in some cases) and number of coats on it. I can now look at the swatch, and see how it will be on the nail. Sometimes the colour in the bottle is not the same, as we all know.
I put them into groups, for photos, today.

My toppers. Is this not the saddest collection of toppers you have ever seen? I need more.

Brown/bronze/copper.

Green/blue/turquoise/teal.

Red/orange/yellow/gold

Black/white/grey/silver.

Purples. I have an awful lot of them.

Pinks. Again-quite a lot of them.

The pics are less than ideal; not the best representation of the colours. I'm pretty stoked that they are not many dupes!

Here is what I have on my nails.

Base of LA Colors-Metallic copper, ad LA Colors Seashell is the gold.

I am really enjoying LA Colours at the moment. I think I'd enjoy them more if they would reply to my email and help me out with the NAMES of the polishes. The 18 pack of minis I got has numbers. That would be fine, if I didn't have 2-3 with the same damn number. The 7 pack of Color Craze polishes are also nameless. I sent them a message a week ago, I guess I'll try again.

A very polish weekend.

There was a big cosmetic sale on here in Christchurch this weekend-including polish. I planned well for this.
 That isn't true. I found out about it on Tues, had a tantrum about not getting paid until Friday, and bought polish before I bought anything else. My only regret was not having more money. This is what I got.

Apart from the two SC polishes; I bought those later that afternoon.
The LA Colors minis have no colours on them, and I haven't found any numbers either.  As for the others, from L-R they are: Rimmel Mermaid Green; Rimmel Mysterious Girl; LA Girl 'Rock Star' Head Banging; Revlon 'Dark Pleasures' Talk Dirty; Sally Hansen Good To Grape; Maybelline Electric Blue & Party Blue; and the Sinfuls are Nirvana and Island Coral.
Once I got home, the Mr handed me a package. My brushes/dotting tools! 

I didn't expect them to arrive for at least another week.

I have not used any brushes yet. I need to read/watch some tutorials first.
On Friday night I was overwhelmed by 27 new polishes, and new things to play with, so I got drunk and did no painting. I did a bit of polishing yesterday-the same as what I have on my left-but I am puppy-sitting. Almost dry polish does not like puppy patting.
Here is what I have today-please excuse the mess. I need a better way of cleaning up than cotton buds. I always seem to lose control of my hand and swipe the polish from my nail.

Left hand-Rimmel Mysterious Girl. It is really difficult to capture the beauty of this purple. I am so glad I bought this one. I was unsure at the time-I have a few purples-but nothing like this one. I love it. ONE COAT! Which is always a bonus, and Rimmel's wonderful flat brush just makes it perfect. Dots are, from base to top-Maybelline Party Blue, SC Snow Me White, and SC Island Coral.

Right hand. Jeebus, it is SO BUNG. Look at where the white dot is on my ring finger. I could have fixed it, but I had already had enough of the smell of remover. And honestly? The odds of it improving were slim. I wish I was ambidexterous. I wish I had a little (in my fantasies, my slaves are always little) nail-painter person that painted perfectly. I wish I was able to stop shaking.
Anyway base is Rimmel Mermaid Green (2 coats). Dots from base up are SC Nirvana, SC Snow Me White and Maybelline Electric Blue. I prefer my left hand. Not only because the purple is my current favourite, but I think the dot colours look better overall.

I am currently waiting on more swatch sticks. I got 50 a couple weeks ago, but I have another 60 polishes to do, so I have more on the way. Once they are done, I need to decide how to organise them. Fun!