Xmas mani...Presents!!

Hi guys!
Christmas is almost here!
..which means I have an excuse to have holiday themed manis! yay!

I got these Bundle Monster plates a while ago and I haven't had a chance to use them..until now!

One of my favourite activities at Christmas is wrapping the presents! I kinda go overboard with the ribbons and everything haha. So I thought it'd be fun to stamp a whole bunch of presents on my nails haha ( it also gave me a chance to test which nail polishes were stamp-able)

I used OPI Alpine Snow as the base colour, Konad special polish in green for the tree

  and for the presents I used:
Essence "Into the Dark" (Vampire Love collection), OPI "Planks a Lot", OPI "Mermaid's Tears", Konad Special polish in purple and red, Orly "Luxe", Essence "Choose Me! (Colour & Go), Rimmel "Tangerine Queen, and OPI DS "Magic". 
Then I topped it off with a coat of Essie "Shine of the Times" which you can't see very well in the pictures.

I picked the colours at random and I like how they worked out! It's so colourful!

What's your favourite thing to do at Christmas?

Oranges are good for you!

I was eating oranges today and I suddenly remembered a mani I did a while ago...

I really like oranges, especially naval oranges, they're the best! So what better way to express my love for oranges than to put them on my nails!

I used Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish nail polishes for this mani. Although I'm not a fan of them for quality in terms of durability (their "lasting finish" is such a lie), they have good solid colours that are opaque enough to use for nail art =)
So I used: "Tangerine Queen", "Sunshine", "Green Grass" and "London Clouds"

Australis recently had a nail art competition for their Shadey Friday competitions, so i entered this mani in.. and I was one of the winners! Yay! 

I won a bottle of their limited edition nail colour called "Today's News". I haven't worn it yet but it looks pretty awesome in the bottle =)

What's your favourite fruit?

Happy Halloween!!

Sorry I haven't been posting for a while, exams are coming up so it's been pretty hectic... =/
Anyway, Halloween isn't very big in Australia (no one went trick or treat-ing on my street =(... )
but it's a great excuse to go all out on nail art right? =)

So this was the first design i did...

My camera didn't want to cooperate so i apologize if it's a bit blurry.

I did some cobweb designs and a (happy looking) ghost on my ring finger. 

I used OPI Ink as the base colour, then OPI DS Coronation for the designs, and for that extra sparkle, I added Rimmel I<3 Lasting Finish in Disco Ball (who doesn't love sparkly cobwebs??).

For the other design, I was inspired by a design by this youtuber, meliny.
Aren't these Jack-O-Lanterns super cute??

Left Hand

Right Hand

I used:

Revlon "No Shrinking Violet" for the base colour, 

Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish "Tangerine Queen" and Australis "Citrus" for the pumpkins, 

OPI "Mermaid's Tears" and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Emerald City" for the stalk + vines,

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Black Out" and Rimmel i <3 Lasting Finish "London Clouds" for the eyes and mouth

Sun

And....I also did my sister's nails...

 I used the same base colours, but i used Sally Hansen Diamond Strength "Platinum" for the ghosts and cobwebs.

I also bought BYS Glow in the Dark topcoat, which works really well, but i can't seem to capture it on my camera =(

I had a lot of fun doing these designs... hope u guys have a fun Halloween!

Fuschia Power!

Hey guys! Sorry i haven't been posting lately! I have all these new nail polishes that I want to blog about but i just haven't had the time =(.

Sun

 This is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Fuschia Power.
Pink always cheers me up, there's something about that bright warm pink-ness that makes me so happy! =)

Shade

 And...as you'd expect, i quickly got bored of wearing just one colour so i did this nail design.

Indoors

I actually got inspired by this youtuber meliny who does amazing nail art designs. So this is "drag marbling", there's no water involved!
What you do is paint a nice thick, wet layer for your base colour, and quickly paint a few stripes while it's wet. Then grab a toothpick (or something similar) and carefully drag it across the stripes and...tada! you get this!
I used Rimmel London Clouds for the white.
It took me two go's to get it the way i wanted to..but it's pretty cool right?

Sun

 In other random news, Last night was Vogue's Fashion Night Out! It was quite fun! there weren't that many events ( i was expecting a lot haha) but i managed to get some freebies (like fairy floss and mocktails haha) and i saw some celebrities so all was not lost! I think it's just starting here in Australia, so hopefully it'll get bigger and better in the years to come, and hopefully they'll add in some nail-related events!

It's spring down-under!!

Its Spring in Australia! *cheers and general celebratory happiness* ANNNNDDDD since it's a new month, go and download the latest OPI calendar from their website! www.opi.com

This month's calendar theme is based on OPI Lincoln Park After Dark- which looks fabulous in both its original version as well as the suede and matte versions! =) Scrangie has some great swatches of these, so if you're curious, go check it out!

Anyhoo, I know it's been almost exactly one month since my last post buuuttttt, it's my mid-semester break right now (thank god) so hopefully I'll have time to post more! (fingers crossed that all the pictures I've been taking of my manis will actually make it up here xD)

Now, I know this is kinda corny and very much cliche.... but spring = FLOWERS!!! :D

Here are two of my flower-power manis!

For this mani, I used OPI PLanks a lot for the base (two coats). For the flowers, I used bobby pins for dotting - OPI DS Extravagance for the outer ring 'petals' and OPI Need Sunglasses? for the center of the flowers. I used a needle to dot the inner circle with Konad white Special Polish. You can use nail dotting tools to do this but bobbypins, toothpicks and needles will work just fine =)

I really love this second flower mani! I used OPI Dim Sum Plum as a base colour, OPI Steady As She Rose for the petals, OPI Need Sunglasses? for the center and Rimmel Double Decker red for the petal detailing.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post!

xxx

Sparkly sparkly holo goodness!

I've been wearing this nail colour for the past couple of days now. The weather's been horrible so what better way to brighten the mood than wear sparkly holo nail polish!

OPI DS Sapphire

 This is OPI DS Sapphire! OPI's DS range aren't super holo which is kinda disappointing but i do like this one! The one thing I didn't like though, was that the colour was so sheer I had to put so many coats on that I lost count. I'm not sure if it's just my bottle...does anyone else have a problem with theirs??

And then I stuffed up my thumb when it was in the process of drying =(

 Oh! So I was browsing Priceline today (as any normal person would do) and discovered that Rimmel had some new nail colours! I'm not really a fan of their quality (long lasting my butt!) but I was totally attracted to this colour, it's called Disco Ball and it's sooo sparkly!! i loveeee it! I think it's a mixture of big holo glitter pieces and blue glitter pieces. The pictures don't really do it justice though...

And what is with Rimmel nail polishes having the same name as other brands? Sally Hansen also has a disco ball (which is also gorgeous btw) and i swear "Blue my mind" also belongs to another brand...hmmm

On a totally unrelated note..... Yesterday I went to see Taylor Lautner at the red carpet premiere of his new movie Abduction! He was so sweet to the fans, he actually took his time taking pictures with the fans and signing autographs. I got his signature! Yay!

hehehe

Revlon Steel Her Heart

So I was out shopping and this bottle of nail polish caught my eye. I'm not usually a fan of grey/dark silver but for some reason i got attracted to this one.

Isn't it pretty?? And the name is sooo cute! Steel Her Heart! It's definitely stolen mine!
The application was pretty good. The bottle said to use two coats but i used three for full opacity and to eliminate any streaks.
The colour itself can only be described as...steel. Which made me think of the Sydney Harbour Bridge..lol.

Fun Fact: It takes 30 000 litres of paint to paint one coat on the Sydney Harbour Bridge (equivalent to 60 football fields) to prevent the Bridge from rusting. And apparently they use a fast drying type of paint so that it doesn't drip onto unsuspecting vehicle down below.
This makes me wonder whether they use Steel Her Heart to paint it...imagine how many bottles it would take!

I added an accent nail to my mani using OPI White Shatter and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Discoball (you can't really see the sparkles in the pictures, but believe me it's there!)

Then i got bored and decided to mattify it. I used Rimmel PRO Matte Finish. While I haven't been impressed with the quality of Rimmel's nail polishes i really like this matte top coat.
I really like Steel Her Heart matte. The shimmer is still there but it is a bit more subtle.

Pikachu Needs Sunglasses: Pikachu Nails!

Its been a while! I keep meaning to post but with uni and work and laziness, it's taken me forever to get on blogger ><

But no matter, I am sure you have all been absolutely enthralled by the lovely Adeline's posts! I especially loved her Hanni Mani and Princess nails (which look even prettier in person <3)

Anyway! A week of August has already flown by and it was only today that I realized I had forgotten to download the latest OPI calendar! And so you can imagine my added delight when I see that this month's calendar theme is OPI Need Sunglasses! Download it for your desktop too at www.opi.com!

Isn't it beautiful? I was blown away by the butterfly mani by Tara, definitely will have to try that sometime! And I adore this shade of yellow - it's bright, its fun, its playful and most of all....... it's the PERFECT yellow for PIKACHU NAILS!!!!! =D (yes I have to admit, I love pokemon almost as much as I love nail polish xD)

Isn't he absolutely adorable? I remember playing the very first Pokemon game when it came out on Gameboy colour, and being called silly by my friend because I couldn't bear to evolve Pikachu into Raichu using the Thunderstone... I was just too attached haha :P

Anyhoo, look at me getting carried away with calendars and Pokemon - my apologies! <3 Here is my Pikachu mani!

For this mani I used OPI Need Sunglasses, Rimmel Double Decker Red, Australis Blackmail and White special polish from Konad. I used bobby pins for the bigger dots and a needle for the small ones, as well as for Pikachu's mouth.

Do you like like like it? =D

Let me know if you love Pokemon too or have any suggestions for more Pokemon manis! (I'm thinking Jigglypuff next :P)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - It All Ends...

Well, it's finally here! Today's the premiere of the last Harry Potter Movie! So in celebration, i decided to do a "Harry Potter"  themed mani.

It didn't really turn out as i pictured it in my head, and i guess it's hard to see the connection between this and Harry Potter unless i show you the pictures that inspired the design. These were:

So my left thumb was pretty much my attempt at recreating the landscape HP7 poster, while the rest of my nails represented the final faceoff between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort =).

Halfway through painting my right thumb, i realised i'd stuffed up the orientation (if only my thumb was as long as my fingers =/) So this is only way that i could show you how this mani works (excuse my awful photoshopping skills).

I did a lot of sponging in this mani, laying colour over colour to get that "magical" look. The base was Sally Hansen's Xtreme wear nail colour in Black out, with one layer of OPI Ink and OPI DS Magic over it. This alone would have looked very nice and Harry Potter-y. Then i mixed and sponged on all these other colours that i can't be bothered naming here to get the "colours" coming out of the wands.

OPI DS Coronation, Sally Hansen Xtreme wear -Emerald City, Orly Luxe, Sally Hansen Xtreme wear-Black Out, OPI Ink, OPI DS Magic, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - Diamonds & Rubies, Rimmel Lasting Finish - London Clouds, Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen - Silver. 

This is definitely not my best mani, but it was messy and lots of fun to do =)

My friends and i are probably going to watch it tonight or tomorrow! I'm soo excited xD xD

Are you going to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2? If so what are your thoughts?

A passionate (and perfectly healthy) 'lust-affair'.

Okay, so I was never a stereotypical I-need-retail-therapy-let's-wipe-out-my-bank-account kinda girl, and being a 'financially sensible person' , I figured I would forever be the iron-fisted master of my shopaholic urges (...most of the time xD).

This was until a few months back when we bought the O.P.I. Katy Perry Collection for Adeline on her birthday, fell instantly in love with them, and I tumbled head over heels into a 'lustlovewantneed!' affair that went down a little like this:

Savings in the bank.
Best friends who are obsessed with nail polish.
Reignited love for nail polish.
Discovery of O.P.I.
Fluttering heartbeats.
Online shopping for O.P.I. the night before my final exams.
Not so many savings in the bank.
Endorsing the bf's love for Starcraft2 so that he can't comment on my sporadic splurging on nail polish.
Spilling nail polish remover on my laptop and not even caring all too much because I'm too busy drooling over my new mani.
Facebook flaunting/spamming my nails (oh yeah baby, PDA ;D)
Painting nails at Max Brenner and flashing them at our waiter.
Nail polish party.
Everyone comes to an epiphany. WE NEED A BLOG.

PHEW. Yeah, I know, its kinda epic. You jelly? xD HAHA jks, I don't actually talk like that I'm just being random.

ANYWAY, enough words! PICTURES! =D

OPI - The One That Got Away - Part of the Katy Perry Collection, I love it! I used 3 coats for this mani.

SCANDAL - Glitter Polish, this was a fantastic find! You can buy Scandal polished for $5.95 AUD in several Asian fashion boutiques along Sydney's George St and Chinatown =) It drys quickly and is very opaque for a glitter polish.

Konad - Special Polish in white + Image Stamp, I've always known about these and seen friends wearing them but it wasn't until recently that I actually went and bought myself a set. I'm absolutely obsessed with the polkadot bowtie stamp!

PA - AA36 (black glitter) - this Japanese brand has stolen my heart! However, each bottle is very small and doesn't specify how many mLs, but I estimate it to be around 5-6mL. These retail for $7 AUD per bottle.

Rimmel - Blue My Mind - I have to say, Rimmel is not a quality polish. It stains, it chips, it dents while I wait for my polish to dry. But this was the only electric blue I had on hand at the time.

OPI - Last Friday Night - I'm surprised by how opaque this polish on my mani. It gave my nails a very obvious blue hue, but usually it is very sheer. Also, theformula on this is not fantastic, it's the thickest and gloopiest out of all my OPI's.

Kit - A bright Coral released in collaboration with Shop Til You Drop Magazine, Limited # for Shop readers only - I'm so glad I was lucky enough to get my hands on this! The consistency is a little on the thick side, but the finish is shiny, smooth and long-lasting. Plus, it looks great with shatter! As far as I'm aware, your go to place to get Kit polishes would be Sydey City Myer on Pitt St- Kit has their own area on the cosmetics level.

OPI - Black Shatter. I LOVE I LOVE I LOVE. How hot does this polish look? I applied one thick coat over dry Kit polish and it cracked just the way I wanted it too. You can experiment with different application methods- thinner/thicker coats or multiple directions during application to get your desired effect.

Okay wow, I just read this post and I think it's a little long haha, I think I might save a few pictures for later posts but here are two from aaggesss ago that I'll just pop in here at the end without comments =) Everyone likes pictures right right? *crickets chirping*

YAY MY FIRST POST DONE! =D Hope you enjoyed reading as much I enjoyed writing hehe, there are heaps more to come!

- Sheena xxx

Five friends and some bottles of nail polish

Hi guys!
Recently, my besties and I became obsessed (or re-obsessed, for some) with nail polish. We would share our latest designs with each other on Facebook, go on MMASSive nail polish shopping sprees and let's not forget our nail polish party!!

our latest haul

Unfortunately, this was not enough to satisfy our nail polish cravings. We needed an outlet, an excuse to buy more polish and change our nail colour before it started chipping.
And so, inspired by all the wonderful nail blogs we've decided to start our own. It's going to be a fun little blog, and we'll be sharing our love for nail polish, nail art and probably other random things.

Here's a quick introduction to MMASS:

Michelle

coming soon...

Marina

Marina is wearing OPI My Private Jet

Adeline

Adeline is wearing OPI Sparrow Me The Drama

Shirley

Shirley is wearing Rimmel Green With Envy and OPI black Shatter

Sheena

Sheena is wearing OPI Elephantastic Pink and PA AA16

I hope you'll enjoy our posts!! =)

-MMASS