Zoya Awaken - kind of an adult Frozen!

It was not until I looked at my mani while at the video store that I realized how Frozen my nails are!!! Too funny!! This is my selection from Zoya's Awaken Collection. I bought three, and used them all in this mani. I felt like a simplier look after all the nail art the last weeks.

Dillon

Rebel

I applied an alternating accent PITR base in Zoya Dillon and Rebel. Both are light and airy shimmer colours, very springlike. Dillon is an icy green, Rebel an icy turquoise. Coverage was great (as always with Zoya - slowly my fav brand), two coats each.

In the shade

Then I applied one coat of their Monet glitter top coat. The polish looks beautiful in the bottle but is a tricky one to apply and have an opinion on. Seems like a large pastel-ed version of Maisie, but would have to try on a dark to see how that would work (note to self). It is full of holographic hex glitter in a jelly clear-pink base. I used the dab method to apply, otherwise the specks would be few and far between. You can see in the shade pic how there is an almost mosaic look to the glitter top coat. Like the flecks are embedded in the polish. I am on the fence on that: sometimes I think it looks great, then I think it makes the nails look "dimpled". I top coated with Out the Door.

A lot of bloggers use this on pink so I may try that next time with my ladies. Seemed a bit too much of an obvious choice. I really like the coolness of this mani, without clashing with my skin tone. The colours still look light and summery and the bling factor is Wow in the sun!

I have quite of few Zoyas right now (almost 30) and just bought some more in the giant Candy Girl 50% off sale!! (CandyGirl shop). Their consistency is one of the best and I love their colour choices. I admit, a tad pricier, but the product is worth it.

piCture pOlish Hussy

This is just a quick notd and I plan on adding art on top in the next day or two. I decided to take the pp-plunge and order some colours from the girls in Oz. They have, obviously, more colours than my local and I felt like it!

As soon as I saw Hussy I knew I had to have it. This is one of their 2014 Collaboration polishes. Zoya Aurora is one of my all time fav polishes. How can you not like purple???? Hussy is a new type of holographic glitter creme called bijou holo. The polish has little specks of sparkle embedded in it. Under lights they really sparkle and shine. In normal lighting the polish has depth and is a bit darker than and not as holographic as Aurora.

Over base coat I only applied one (1) coat of Hussy (then top coated)! Totally good coverage. Similar to Jealousy on that one (that is one of their mesh shades). It doesn't help that there was zero sun when I took these photos. Still, the nails shine. I really like this colour, probably best for this time of year here (fall-winter). It is more purple with a bit a sparkle – Aurora is more holographic purple based. But if pressed, I think Zoya Aurora is better!

hussy in halogen lighting

The last days I have spent packing things up. Try to invest an hour or so a day to the café to get things ready for and up and out. Tomorrow the Sallys are coming to pick up a load of stuff. I will be so happy when things are over!!!!!

a-england Fated Prince

This is a simple mani I was wearing in the middle of preparing for garage sales. The last of my beautiful a-englands I had yet to swatch / wear. I really think it is a shame that a england no longer ships worldwide. I know you can get the elsewhere, but it is not the same!

The base is two coats of Fated Prince (Burne-Jones collection). A beautiful holographic grey. a-england always has such a smooth velvety texture. And this holo really shines! I decided to add some purple glitter (inspired by someone out there who had just worn purple glitter).

But first I applied a coat of Pretty & Polished 7 Year Lich. This is a great black and grey glitter. Of course, it would look better on a lighter base! The glitter has a slightly clear grey base with black and grey bar and round glitter pieces. Then, I topped with a nice purple hex glitter from Orly (Can't be Tamed).

Top coat sealed the deal. Pretty simple, but almost elegant looking. So far today all I have really done is clean out our kitchen and my studio. I lost a polish!!! I thought it may have dropped behind my polish shelves, so moving that started a domino effect of cleaning. And stock take:

glitters = 36; Pretty & Polished = 8; Layla = 9; Zoya = 16; Essie = 4; Nfu Oh = 4; a-england = 8; piCture Polish = 11 (really 12); butter london = 7; Ozotic = 3; Cult Nails = 2; China Glaze = 40; OPI = 58; Orly = 11; Nostalgic Lacquer = 7; CND = 4; and lots of singlettes.



But did not find my missing piCture pOlish. Perhaps George played with it and it is under a sofa somewhere....

a-england Rose Bower love-li-ness pure

This is most beautiful polish. a england's Rose Bower from the Burne-Jones Dream collection. No wonder it has won heaps of blog prizes as the best red of the year. Well worth the wait – I have been waiting for this it seems forever!

Pretty straight-forward mani: two coats of Rose Bower topped with Out the Door. The colour is absolutely fabuliscious! A deep raspberry rose red with holographic shimmer. All you can do is think of new adjectives to describe it. So great. The colour moves from deep raspberry to a bit of a pink tinged deep rose. Velvety application, no problems. a england has to be my favourite brand (just wish they weren't so hard to get a hold of).

I decided to do an accent nail (seems like forever since I have done that). Two coats of my fav nude, Butter London All Hail the Queen. Another gorgeous colour. I top coated first before drawing and painting. I was trying for Pre-Raphaelite wallpaper designs à la William Morris. Look like plain ol' leaves, ha! But the red against the nude is stunning.

And.... I couldn't resist and made a ring to match. Talk about beautiful! Simple, yet elegant and chic. And a tad medieval. (more here). My last mani lasted all these days! Why is that? When you want something to last it seems to get ruined in hours. Oh, I made a pendant to match that as well. So much inspiration.

right hand

Well, tonight is film nite and it has been chilling cold all day. Southerlies blasting through. I have had some business today. Sitting on egg shells as I have applied for a couple of jobs. The one interview was Saturday and they talked to me for almost two hours! For a super part time job. Really makes no sense unless they were trying to get all my knowledge! Would like to get it, but you just never know who they are looking for. The other one is very, very appealing - am waiting for an interview call. Hope I get a try.
Yeah!!! Today is my girls' 25th bday. xxxxx.

Kia ora koutou: Waitangi Day silver fern and koru

Today is Waitangi Day in New Zealand (read up on here). Up north there are all sorts of celebrations, marae visits, hui, political speakers, bbqs etc. Down south, where I live, it is a day off and people are upset that they can't go shopping and go to the lake! I am not 100% happy with this mani but am posting regardless as I will be wearing it through to the weekend (Ripponburn tomorrow avo!). In a nutshell, I feel the background is too dark. Maybe. My problem lately.

I started with no base coat and two coats of Layla Coffee Love. This is one of my favourite holos. A beautiful brown shimmer. With these Laylas there is no need for a base coat. The polish works best directly on the nail. It dries a tad matte so a nice top coat makes the colour really shine - especially in the sun!!! I didn't top coat before drawing, just waited a bit.

The silver fern (go the All Blacks) and the koru are two very kiwi icons, and set deep in our culture. Working slowly, I freehand drew a silver fern on both ring fingers. Very fiddly. I dot filled the fronds with Zoya Storm, a black holo. For the green dots I started with my right hand and chose too large dots. So did better on my left with a smaller tool. I am happy with the koru on my thumb. Didn't really know what to do with the rest. A koru (or fern) on every finger would have been too much.

indoor lighting

All in all I love the base Layla colour and am very happy with my fern and koru (also the fern on my right hand, legend!). But somehow, it is all very uneventful, no really "wow" effect. And I am afraid the fern is too hard to see, so no one will really notice. Maybe I am just being too hard on myself.

right hand: great fern but dots too large

Good news: I got called for a job interview early March! Disappointing news: café still not sold and time is running out. Frustrating news: I have been working on a pendant for my daughter and am afraid I messed it up. It had been going so beautifully all these days. Have let it sit by the side while I think and re-think colour choices. Now I am afraid the background is too dark. Jury still out on that one.

GOT: green – trio of greens in chevron

Now this is an easier day! Green! To say I like green is an understatement, ergo I have been buying green polish since my restart at being glam. I couldn't bring myself to just doing a simple one green mani so chose three oldies and created a chevron. All of these polishes I bought the end of 2012.

I started with a coat of OPI Thanks a Windmillion. A colour I don't wear heaps but I remember finding it at my local pharmacy in the $5 box – they were getting rid of all their OPI stock (now only sell Revlon, jerks).

Then using one colour at a time, I started my chevron. I started with OPI Jade is the New Black, a great darker green with a tinge of yellow - so not bluey cold green, but warm saturated green. Next was Zoya Logan, a fab green holo with hints of gold shimmer. I did another row of the Jade-Logan before adding one stroke of Windmillion. I only wanted a thin line of that to end things up under a last coat of Jade. Can't believe how shiny the mani is with just one coat of top coat.

So not a true chevron, but a chevron with a twist. The three colours work well together. Unfortunadamente I will not be rocking this for long as Thursday is also Waitangi Day here in NZ - a national holiday, not really an independence day (hmmm... ask the Maoris about that one) but an important day for us Kiwis. And I am thinking up a special mani for that. Cheers all!

GOT: pink – Field of Love flowers gradient skittlette

Blatant creative plug! I had this idea for nails and a pendant, and earrings and nails (not to wear together, but designing off each other). Then I saw the pink GOT (golden oldie Thursday) prompt, and knowing Valentine's Day is on the horizon thought this would be a good time to do this. I am very happy with how everything turned out. And that is why I am up on a cloud and wanting to share!

The mani is an ABBCC skittlette, though the CCs are hard to decypher from the A. A (pinkie) is one of my oldest polishes: a mini bottle of OPI Strawberry Margarita. Been around my basket since the ark. Eeck, mini bottle! I had visions of the polish being a big gloopy mess. But no. Not super "new" but definitely applicable. The polish is very similar to China Glaze Wicked Style, a tad warmer. For the CCs I used a base of Margarita and then marbled tip layers of the heart neon to bring the heart colour back into the mani. Not a total success story, but it worked.

The BBs are my pride and joy. The gradient was a four part deal and uses all piCture pOlish holos that I have had for over a year (still complying by the got-rules!). From cuticle to tip: hope, cosmos, jealousy, kryptonite, though the main components are cosmos and jealousy. Take it back, I just got jealousy. Oh well, most have been in the stash for a year. I top coated this before continuing. Then I drew the tulip hearts (ring) and balloon (middle) with thin black strokes and filled them in with China Glaze Neon & On & On. Careful top coat over that.

right hand

I did my nails and the pendant-necklace simultaneously, but backwards! What a trip! And I was so cautious (i.e. scared) to mess up my drawings that I tread quite lightly in the beginning. So below a couple of more shots of my earrings and pendant and nails - and Harvey being nice sociable to me and watching me photograph. Here is the link to the pendant in my etsy shop (shop). Oh, my hands and arms are pretty scratched up from tiny George - rude little bugger!

Check out all the other girls below!!! And, apologies if my design doesn't fit the rules. But the pink is old, as is most of the rest and the mani is 3/5ths pink!!