Nail Art: Happy New Year!

First and foremost, Happy New Year! Woohoo it's 2012 and we have one year left to live. I hope the nail polish selection is worth it this year!

For my New Years manicure I decided on a glitter gradient. I started with a base of Orly Le Chateau, added a thin sparse coat of OPI Gone Gonzo, followed by OPI Crown Me Already spread just along the tips, and lastly another sparse coat of OPI Gone Gonzo along the tips and up 1/3rd of the nail.

My new camera doesn't seem to be calibrated correctly at the moment. It always sees Gonzo as being quite silvery when it definitely has more blue to it. So bear with me while I try and sort that out!

Any new year resolutions? 

Mine are to work harder and be more of a good person.

Butter London Bumster

I did it. I finally found a Butter London I wanted to spend money on. Butter Londons cost $31 or thereabouts in New Zealand. I've looked at their stand a few times but never found anything super special. Then I saw Bumster. I have been looking for a muted mustard yellow for so long!

Before committing to such a large purchase, I googled reviews on my Mums phone and found that it was a good polish formula wise, most people were just thrown off by the colour. Calling it baby poo etc. But when you are actively looking for a muted mustard, it's a different story.

Butter Londons and Chanel seem to have the same brush and formula goin' on. It was incredibly smooth and gave close to 100% coverage on the first coat. I love Bumster to pieces.

This was my manicure over Christmas, not very festive but I thoroughly enjoyed wearing it! I used OPI Samoan Sand for the moons. I also used Liquid Palisade to create the moon shapes.

Just a little bit of history to Bumster, it was released in a Alexander McQueen themed collection and was named after the place Alex wore his pants I think. Something like that.

OPI My Private Jet

Today I have the notorious My Private Jet to show you. This polish has changed many times, it wasn't so drastic at the beginning, but now the current Private Jet looks nothing like it's ancestor. I have a photo of the original at the bottom of this post. I never picked up the slightly less holo version, or the version with a teal shimmer. Kind of wish I had picked that teal one up though.

Ancestry aside, this Private Jet reminds me of black sand beaches and granite bench tops. Two things I really enjoy. Don't those little specks look like crushed shells?

One thing I noticed is the crushed shell bits are most holographic in artificial lighting. It was only at night that I started to see them sparkle and glow. I really like the crushed shell bits either way.

One thing I am missing though is that amazing golden and copper shimmer that you can see in the bottle! I've been wearing Private Jet these last couple of days and haven't seen it come out in any lighting conditions. If it weren't for that shimmer I probably wouldn't have picked it up.

The formula was really good, smooth, opaque and dried fairly quickly.

I still have the original bottle but I am too scared to wear it!


Side note: I have finally bought myself a new camera. It'll take awhile to learn the ropes! I used it for this post but I reckon it could do better :)

China Glaze Ruby Pumps

If you don't own a bottle of Ruby Pumps, why not? Seriously this polish can do no wrong.

In all my polish obsessed years (four) I am only just starting to get into reds now. Ruby Pumps up until now was the only red I would ever wear and be happy with it. Definitely an all time favourite.

Ruby just glows in sunlight or artificial light. So pretty anywhere. This is two coats here.

Oh yeah, 

Merry Christmas!

OPI Congeniality Is My Middle Name

Look how promising it looks in the bottle! A deep fuchsia with pretty purple shimmer. Sadly this polish missed the mark completely.

Congeniality Is My Middle Name was a disappointment from the start. I wish I had picked up on the red flags earlier. Firstly, the shimmer had completely settled to the bottom, in every bottle I saw. Being optimistic, I saw shaking it not an issue. So I shook it for a good few minutes. It looked really pretty.

We bought a couple of bottles, even one for a giveaway, but when we got home, the shimmer had completely settled to the bottom again. This was in the space of less than an hour. I thought maybe I hadn't shook it enough, so I shook it up again for another few minutes. Only to have it fully sink again within 30 minutes.

Maybe this polish just really doesn't work with my colourings or something. A super red fuchsia base with blue shimmer. Two polar opposite colors stuck together. To me this just didn't work, the contrast was too harsh. Maybe it just isn't my thing, I'm not too sure. I haven't been this disappointed in a nail polish for a long time.

Congeniality Is My Middle Name was also released along with Crown Me Already in the Miss Universe collection earlier this year. This collection wasn't released in New Zealand.

Every time I pick this polish up the shimmer has completely settled to the bottom. I'm sorry OPI but I'm not too keen on shaking a polish for a good five minutes each time I want to use it.

OPI Crown Me Already!

Let me introduce you to one of my new favourite polishes, Crown Me Already! Hate the name, love the glitter! Crown Me Already is built up of fine silver glitter, small round glitter, small hex silver glitter and big hex silver glitter. So you've got a really nice mix of sizes in there.

I've had a lot of fun with this polish! It looks really neat layered between jellys, on the tips, graduated into another colour, layered....the list just goes on. It even looks great just by itself. I am wearing two coats of it on my toes. Kind of regretting that decision but it does look really nice in the summer sun.

This is two coats. You can see how dense it is and how quickly it builds up.

Crown Me Already was released in the Miss Universe collection released earlier this year. The collection wasn't released in New Zealand, however.

Australis Citrus

Out of the three Australis polishes I have tried, not one has disappointed me. The formulas have always been spot on and incredibly pigmented.

I think Citrus is new to New Zealand. I checked Australis and they have Citrus described as an orange with gold shimmer... I haven't seen any other orange Australis polishes with shimmer, maybe it just isn't in NZ? Who knows.

These polishes are really cheap too! The first time I bought them they were around $8 but Citrus was $12 or $13.

I highly recommend you try Australis out if it is available in your country!

Purging: Which ones to keep?

I think we all have that time in our nail polish lives where we feel that we own just a little bit much. As I am moving out of home again for university next year, I really want to trim my stash down! Today I am only showing you a little bit of the stash.

Purging is a hard thing to do... usually I am very strict on myself with the polishes that I keep. Usually it's ones that I don't have a doppelganger of, or I wear it more than a few times a year and most importantly it has to suit my skin tone.

These are my reds. To be honest, the only red I am crazy about is Ruby Pumps. I sort of only own the others because I don't have something like them and fear I will need them at some stage to match an outfit. Now that I think about it, I don't actually wear any red outfits, only ever red lipstick. Hmmm...

Left to right: Glitter Gal Not Another Red, OPI Guy Meets Gal-Veston, China Glaze Dress to Kill, China Glaze Ruby Pumps

These are some of my favourite polishes. Quirky, pale, sweet shades. I love every one of these to pieces. I can't trim down this area any more.

Left to right: OPI It's a Girl, OPI Steady as She Rose, OPI Skull and Glossbones, OPI Time-less is More

Browns, oranges and rose golds have only started to grow in the stash this year.

Left to right: Australis Citrus, OPI Pros and Bronze, OPI Ginger Bells, OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys

I could not trim down my navys any lower than this. I think I had about eight. They are the largest colour group found in my stash. I feel safe with these ones as I have one in almost every finish if I ever did need it. That is some weak justification if I ever did hear!

Left to right: OPI Russian Navy Suede, OPI Roadhouse Blues, OPI Play Til Midnight, OPI Ink

Lucky last, the greens. I'm still not completely sold on all of these shades. I do however love wearing Uh-Oh and Trendsetter.

Left to right: China Glaze Electric Pineapple, OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, China Glaze Trendsetter, OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window

Do you have any shades you just can't get rid of?

Orly Ma Cherie

Ma Cherie is from Orly's Holiday Soiree collection for 2011. Ma Cherie is a bright cherry red jelly.

Mum purchased this one because she just can't leave a jelly polish behind. This colour seems to be very flattering on both of our skin tones. Just thinking of all the layering possibilities makes me giddy!

The application was great. Orlys really are good polishes. I didn't actually have any Orlys in my collection until this collection. Orly usually tends to do safer or not as exciting colours as other big companies. They also don't bring as many collections out or do any collaborations with celebrities.

I kinda like this one just for the name as well. Ma Cherie. An all-rounder great nail polish!

Color Club Collections On Sale for Christmas!

Especially for Kiwis, USA Nails Online has is clearing all of their 7 pack collection for a special price!

Sets available:

All About French 7 pack which includes French Tip, More Amour, Eiffel Tower Power, Femme a la Mode, Au Reviour, Little Miss Paris and Bonjour Girl for $34.50

Foiled 7 pack which has Foil Me Once, Hot Like Lava, Cold Metal, Perfect Mol-Ten, Antiquated, and Lumin-icecent for $34.50

Untamed Luxury Indulgence 7 pack which has Pretty in Platinum, Wild Orchid, Soft as Cashmere, Positively Posh, Nothing But Truffle, Jewel of a Girl and Ready to Royal for $24.50

Untamed Luxury Diamond 7 pack which includes my favourites Red Velvet and Covered in Diamonds along with De-luxe-cious, Ms. Hautie, Resort to Red, Snakeskin and Untamed Luxury for $24.50

Back Stage Pass 7 pack which has Backstage Pass, Fame and Fortune, It's a Hit, Platinum Record, Take the Stage and Wish Upon a Rock Star for $38.50

Back to Boho Shimmers 7 pack which includes Boho Mojo, Nouveau Vintage, Voodoo You Do, Artsy Crafty, Blue-Topia and Rebel Spirit for $34.50

Stock is limited so get your set while you can! There is also a $1 hidden gem on their website if you can find it!

You can find them all, and more, here!