piCture pOlish Marine in white floral

This is a polish I bought in the great Candy Girl 50% off sale going .... on still !!! (here the website). The online shop is clearing out some polishes and everything is half price - such a deal!! I have picked up some piCture pOlish colours – and some more Zoya as well!

This is two coats of Marine, a bright blue oceanic creme. Almost turquoise, but not quite. Application was easy and two coats was enough for full opacity.

Then I drew some lined petals - really nothing fancy, was a quick mani - in white acrylic paint. I added some blue and some white glitter in the petals using two more pp finds = Splash and Storm. I have had Storm for a while but just got Splash as well. Not a lot of photos, as pretty easy peasy - but fun and really pretty and summery! Cheers girls x!

Blue skies and acrylic painted waves

This post is late as I have been tiki-touring with my son who is visiting! These are blue nails as his favourite colour is blue. I really like how this mani turned out and in the end, it was not that complicated. I am still wearing it at the five day mark - they look no different than these pics taken on day one.

I started with a one coat base of white (I used China Glaze White on White) and top-coated that for a quicker dry time. Then I sponge-gradiented a two-tone blue all over the nail. Not as a typical flowing gradient, but more of a botched look. I used piCture pOlish sky and OPI Can't Find my Czechbook. I alternated between the light and dark colours being on the top and bottom of the sponge. Then I top-coated again.

I mixed light blue and white acrylic paints and using a flat brush in a one-stroke technique I painted waves on the tips of my nails. This was really just drawing stripes with the flat brush in two tones. I tried to only go over once to keep the saturation but had to top up a couple of places. Then I drew simple orange half-flowers on the side of the nail and highlighted with white dots and reflections, and blue lines. Thumbs got two flowers! One last coat of Out the Door brought it all together.

Clean-up was a bit more involved as the sponge work was messy (though I applied Vaseline around my cuticles first). But I got there in the end. I have gotten heaps of compliments on these. They have a pastel look to them as the background is a mellowed blue. The sponge work created a nice canvas that has depth but is not over-powering. Even the Mr liked it!

right hand

piCture pOlish Color Storm-ed Amethyst

Am totally in a piCture pOlish extravaganza lately. I splurged and bought some newbies and a couple of basics that have been on my list for awhile. No, I could not wait until they were here in NZ, had to have "now"!

The base is two coats of Amethyst. This is a very interesting purple. pp calls it a denim purple – yeah, makes no sense to me, either! The purple has tiny holographic flecks in it that shimmer blue. So, kind of a denim-y sheen. I can see why it is so popular. Very unique. That said.... it could use three coats. I found the colour almost too sheer for my liking. Had tip wear after a shortish while and the unevenness of some of my nails crept through. Weird that.

I topped this in a cuticle gradient with the extremely exciting and totally groovy Color Storm. This is the most fab glitter!!!! In fact, the Mr thought I had done a dotticure. The pieces are round and multi-coloured. I fished a bit for some yellow but all in all, very good glitter distribution with just stroking on. There is a fine white glitter in the clear base and the round flecks are in the primary colours.

So, this mani was a winner! Really like the purple tone (even if it could be more opaque) and the combo with the glitter.

For those who have been following, life is now on the horizon! The end of the café era was yesterday. Done, dusted and over. After cleaning, scrubbing (on all fours on the floor!), mopping and what-not, the exit inspection went fairly well with only one gripe. The landperson is overly defensive, morally unfair, an ungrateful being. Just no one you want to associate with. The Mr was very nervous going in, I tried to stay calm but in the end did unfortunately let the b*tchy out. !! The Mr brought it back on track. There is just no pleasing the person, so who knew what could be found not up to "standard" (ha! The place was a dump when we took over). But, done. Keys gone. We celebrated with bubbles, relaxing in our lounge, fire roaring, in our home, in our life.

piCture pOlish Aurora

This, without much a do, is the beautiful piCture pOlish Aurora. Really not much to say, as it speaks for itself! I will say that besides being hard to photographically capture, it eats top coat so in the meantime from taking these snaps I have added another coat, and will probably do another tonight.

I started with one coat of OPI Lincoln Park after Dark – as that was the darkest colour on my studio table and I was too lazy to go get another black! It works well. Lincoln has the slightest purple tinge and I think that works well with the whole purplesque of the polish. Then I applied two coats of Aurora.

This time I did cuticle clean up as I went along. So, once after Lincoln, then, if needed, after Aurora. Seemed to be a good idea though I was a bit too zealous on my one index finger. Oh well. The polish is an obvious duo (multi) chrome and has flecks of glitter in it. Hence the need for top coat to bring out the shine. The predominate colour is a purple to blue to green to turquoise shift. At some angles (more in artificial lighting) you will see a copper towards bronze hue. The opalescent glitter flecks pick up the blue-toned colours and give the impression of a starry night. Hence, Aurora.

trying to show the glitter aspect

It really is very, very pretty - but not omg amazing (for my taste). It is very purple toned (and I love purple), but not a deep purple. More the a-england Avalon purple, which I personally find hard to wear on its own. What I am trying to say is that the polish is cold-hued. So depending on your skin tone this can be good or bad.

artificial lighting

I am definitely very glad I have it, especially since it is a limited edition and pp has stopped with their gorgeous Ozotic duochromes. Hoping they will be making more of this type of polish going forward. It is like having a rainbow on your fingers, a definite show-stopper.

Flowers for Hussy

As planned, I added flowers to the beautiful piCture pOlish Hussy after a couple of days. I must say, tip wear was still really, really good for just one coat of polish! Really like this purple. I know I have a soft spot for Aurora, but this is a great colour for autumn-winter. Deeper purple and those sparkly bits are really sumthin'.

I drew flowers then filled them in with yellow and green. Added some turquoise bits. And some white. Also, I touched up the tips a bit on some of my nails with Hussy, but as you can see – still very good! Top coat and done!

What a couple of last days. Finishing up at the café is so draining. But my nail salon is building s-l-ow-l-y and I got accepted into the Queenstown craft market!!! That is totally cool as there is a waiting list and you have to show your items for acceptance. Starting this coming Saturday, just in time for Mum's day! And, I have a request for a custom pendant gift (featuring Winnie the Pooh - oh dear). So, someone believes in my talent! Or overestimates it!!

Cheers all - take care till next time. Polishes used:

base: piCture pOlish Hussy
yellow: China Glaze Sunshine Pop
green: Cult Nails Deal with It
turquoise: alessandro 1507

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!!!!!

GOT: dots – multi-coloured spiral dots like a Mexican pavement

Right away I want to say that I have not been lazy or forgetful, forgetting to write or anything. The watermelon mani lasted so long! And that with working at the café doing dishes and everything. I think it was the Jealousy on the tips - that mesh glitter is like armour. I did top up a bit on one or two tips but otherwise, zero problems. It would have lasted longer..... but, that mani had to go as it is GOT challenge time.

Yeah, dots! I have re-fallen in love with dots. So versatile, so many things you can do. Maybe I have more control now (meaning, practice) and can do both hands easily. This idea came from wanting to do a multi-coloured mani but still have it a bit summery (without going pastel). I do like how it turned out - thinking a coat of matte top coat could change the look as well.....

I started with a base of piCture pOlish Malt Teaser. This is a really yummy chocolate colour - it really looks like melted milk chocolate. I don't really think it looks like Malteasers (the Swiss candy). They are not as creamy looking (if I remember correctly) - I would say it looks like Milka Noisette!! This is two coats and coverage was really good.

Then I started dotting using different sized tools. I started with the yellow "mid" swirvy line and worked from there. One colour at a time; so all the yellow dots, then the green dots and so on.... Just one dot coat. I probably should have used a more vibrant blue (like blagger - edit note: would have been better for the rules sake as well) but tried the CND (it was feeling a bit underused!). I waited a good long time before top coating. Didn't want any of my dots to smear - funny the things it seems to take forever to remember to do!!!

This mani totally reminds me of a tiled walkway at EuropaPark in Germany (can't find the photo of that). It was leading to troll land and made out of different coloured glass tiles. My nails also remind me of the paved/tiled patio at pottery village in the Spanish village at Balboa Park in San Diego. Spent many an hour there.

right hand

Polishes used (in order of application):
base colour: piCture pOlish Malt Teaser
yellow: Konad stamping yellow
green: OPI Greenwich Village
red: OPI My Paprika is hotter....
pink: China Glaze Neon & On & On
blue: CND Blue Rapture
(forgot to mention: bar CND and Neon & On... all the polishes are older. I just wasn't thinking there for a minute, but so wanted to use that pink! And Blagger would have been the better option on the blue as that is old as well.)

Above a pic of Spanish village and below all the other gals and their dots!