Out Of The Vault: Skulls and Roses

Hi lovelies! Heck, I should've typed this post out yesterday already but for those of you who don't know, I am the queen of procrastination...that and I'm very easily distracted, be it shiny things or internet meme's. But here I am! Finally!

Last week I went digging around in my vault of mani's that didn't exactly “make the cut” and found this little mishap. I wasn't to happy about how my roses came out but thought “Meh, she isn't too bad! Lets give her a second chance!”

I started by laying down a base of Tip Top Nail Chic Sun Kissed. For my roses I made random blobs with Sinful Colors Snow Me White and a dotting tool, and put in the details with Zoya Song. For the skull I used a small nail art brush and Zoya Song, and added the details using Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

I'm glad I took this mani out of my vault. Sure, it's not perfect but it's just stuff that I'm adding to my "Lessons Learned" File Of Life! Leveling up!

If you would like me to swatch any of the colors you saw in today’s post, please let me know via email or drop me a comment below. More than willing to oblige! 

Lots of mad love...

Chalky...But in a good way!

Hi lovelies! I don't really have a lot to say today but sometimes that's a good thing! Gives you a chance to put your ear down on the ground for a bit and just listen. Appreciate the things around you. Like appreciating a ramble free day from me! See, bonus!

Today's mani is a mani that I did last year when a few brands came out with the whole Chalkboard trend, which was basically matte pastel polishes over matte black polish. I actually really like the whole trend but what if you don't want to buy matte pastel polishes? Especially if the bottle only comes with a striping brush! So I went for the next best thing...matte topcoat!

I started out by laying a base coat of black using WOW Nail Polish #393. On the nails. I then made a variety of colored flowers and dots using China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le (blue), China Glaze Spontaneous (purple), OPI If You Moust, You Moust (pink), Sinful Colors Open Seas (green) and Tip Top Lemon Fuel (yellow).

To give it the whole Chalkboard look, I just added a coat of China Glaze Matte Magic Top Coat to finish it off.

Okay, so most of the colors I used aren't exactly “pastels” but I still think it came out looking pretty damn cute! All this means is I'm just going to have to buy some pastel polishes in the future. We now see it's a necessity! PRIORITIES PEOPLE!

If you would like me to swatch any of the colors you saw in today’s post, please let me know via email or drop me a comment below. More than willing to oblige! 

Lots of mad love...

Just a small acknowledgement AKA ZOYA FAIRIES ROCK!!!!

Hi lovelies! Today I don't really have a mani post but more like a “personal experience”. A Thank You, so to say! Now, I don't want people to think I'm a suck up or well, plainly said a kiss-ass but credit where credit is due right? Okay, so there are also two pics of a mani that I did in the end but that isn't what this post is about.

On Tuesday my sister and I met up with our very own Pretoria Zoya Fairies, Teresa and Isma. It wasn't anything stuffy or formal. Just a nice lunch with them and a few other clients of theirs. When we got there, we were greeted with friendly and warm hugs and told to play with the polishes, do art if we want and just have fun! And fun we had! I loved that these two ladies were so relaxed. You could joke with them, talk to them and just enjoy yourself without feeling like you had to buy stuff from them immediately. Teresa even pulled out some awesome combinations of color and finishes that made you just want to grab the Zoya polish briefcases and run out of the restaurant, laughing like a Disney villain!...okay, I'll be honest! I always want to do that when I see those briefcases!

Be still my aching heart!

Pardon the bad quality of the photo but look...sparkly holos! *dies*

Before we were done with lunch, Isma did some great mani's for the other clients while me and my sister sorted ourselves out with some awesome mani's! It felt great to walk out of the restaurant with killer colors on our nails and just a happy feeling from knowing it was an afternoon well spent with some amazing people!

Mani's done using Zoya Charisma and Zoya Roxy.

Teresa and Isma, you guys ROCK!

To follow these lovely ladies on Twitter, you can find them here:

Teresa

Isma

Lots of mad love...

Stamping Decal Method Fun! YEAH!

Hi Lovelies! It's Tuesday, the 3^rd week of 2014, pretty much everybody is back at work and things finally feel like they are sloooooowing doooown...Pshhhh, right! Where the hell did the first 2 weeks of the year go people?? I don't know and that scares me!

But enough rambling from me. Before we get to todays mani I have a teeny tiny favor to ask you guys! I am busy swatching my whole collection of polishes! Yeah, apparently I am a sucker for punishment! I'm almost finished swatching my OPI Mini Packs and then from there want to start swatching my full size bottles. What I want to do is swatch each color type, 1 brand at a time so that things wont get confusing and I'll have some sort of archive going on the blog. For example, China Glaze Blues, Nubar Reds, Tip Top Nudes etc... My problem is I don't know with which brand to start. I currently have a little poll running on my Facebook page so if you guys would be so kind to go and vote, that would seriously be awesome! Pleaaaaaaase!!!! Link to poll HERE.

Okay! Now for le fun stuff!

Quite a while ago I saw a lot of fellow bloggers experimenting with the Stamping Decal Method. Finally I decided that I need to climb aboard this pretty bandwagon so I gave it a go! Please excuse me if my pictures look a bit yellowed today. They turned out a bit foggy for some reason so I had to play around with my GIMP Color settings quite a bit!

I started out by laying down a base of China Grape Pop on my index finger, China Glaze Spontaneous on my middle finger and OPI Do You Lilac It? on my pinky. I then added the stamping decal to my ring finger that I made using Bundle Monster stamping plate BM-313, China Glaze Grape Pop, China Glaze Spontaneous, China Glaze Starboard, OPI Do You Lilac It?, Nubar Greener, Nubar Pasadena Purple, Nubar Green Tea and Tip Top Nail Chic We Have An Agreen Mint.

To finish off the look, I added some dots to my other fingers using my medium sized dotting tool, Nubar Green Tea, Tip Top Nail Chic We Have An Agreen Mint, China Glaze Starboard and WOW Nail Polish #393.

Gaaaaaah, I really like the Stamping Decal Method! It is taking stamping to a whole new level and I love it! I've already done another mani with this method so you will see that also one of theses days. Now, would anyone like to see a tutorial on this? Please say yes because I just want another reason to do this!

If you would like me to swatch any of the colors you saw in today’s post, please let me know via email or drop me a comment below. More than willing to oblige! 

Lots of mad love...

First Post for 2014...featuring Christmas 2013.

Hi lovelies! How are you guys?? I have genuinely missed everybody but for the past few weeks it has been absolute holiday chaos here at home so the blog just never got time! It sucks though because I had so many ideas and things that I wanted to post but now they're all going to have to wait for the end of this year. It's okay though. I am psyched for 2014! I have some things I want to start doing more regularly on the blog this year. There is also definitely going to be more swatching taking place because I am busy with a swatching project at the moment but we'll get more into that once I start posting my swatches.

For today's post I decided to post my mani's I did over the Christmas season. Yes, they are all festive and I am sure most of you guys are actually enjoying the break from all the Christmas mani's that we get flooded with over Decembers but just think of them as that “Marked Down” table in the entrance of Supermarkets. Sure, all the mince pie boxes look old and unwanted and the Lindt Chocolate Santa's head has been squished in from all the handling he has been through but damn it, I am going to enjoy my 50% marked down Woolworths shortbread! Even if the outside looks wonky, the inside means well and they still taste damn good!

So, now that I have finished guilting you guys into enjoying some more Christmas goodies, let's get on with it shall we!

My mom made these adorable little cards for our gifts and I thought it might make a nice idea for a mani!

For this mani I used Nubar Greener, Nubar Reclaim, Zoya Chyna, China Glaze Starboard, China Glaze Spontaneous, OPI A Oui Bit Of Red, Tip Top Nail Chic Solar Flare and Tip Top Nail Chic Grape To Meet You.

My next mani was inspired by THIS awesome post I saw in 2012 on Manicurator. After realising I SUCK at making Christmas trees on my nails though, I decided to change it up a little bit. For this mani I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Nubar Competition Red, Nubar Greener and Nicole by OPI Rainbow In The S-Kylie.

Last but not least, I saw this awesome idea to stamp over watermarbling on Facebook somewhere. For the life of me though, I can not find the original creator of the idea anywhere so if anybody can help me, that would be great! For this mani I used Bundle Monster plate BM-323, Essence White Stampy Polish, Sinful Colors Snow Me White, China Glaze Grape Pop, Nubar Competition Red and Opi Jade Is The New Black.

In general, I loved all these mani's. I was the proudest of the watermarble mani though. Even though the stamping isn't perfect, I think it is a great idea and and I am definitely going to try it again!

If you would like me to swatch any of the colors you saw in today’s post, please let me know via email or drop me a comment below. More than willing to oblige! 

Lots of mad love...