Spots, Gradients & Stripes

OPI Hot & Spicy, OPI Dating A Royal, China Glaze Kinetic Candy

This manicure came about in a very random way. It was one of those ones where you grab a few colours, start painting and see where it ends up. I was watching The Good Wife (I'm super far behind, I only started season 1 last week, but oh my goodness it's a good show!) and painting my nails without really thinking what they would end up looking like. 

I started with some orange nails, and some pale blue accent nails. Since I discovered how easy it is to do gradients I've been a tad obsessed, so I added a gradient on the orange nails. Why not add spots too? Get all the colours on the nail! A vertical stripe here, and some horizontal stripes there and this mani was born. 

I'm still not sure if I love or hate the colour combination, but I'm quite liking the fact that there are three different patterns in this manicure.

Edit: So, I totally thought I'd posted a gradient mani before this one. Apparently not. This was actually the third I'd done, but the first to make it on the blog. I followed Sammy's tutorial at The Nailasaurus, which makes gradients super easy! Sometimes if I'm feeling lazy I'll just paint the different colours right on the sponge in two stripes, instead of mixing and dabbing it on the sponge, although you do get a nicer gradient if you mix them first. 

Lush Lacquer - Salt n Peppa

OPI Moon Over Mumbai, Lush Lacquer Salt n Peppa

A while ago, I succumbed to the handmade polish insanity and bought my first "indies". Etsy seemed to be the place to start, and after coming across a few nail polish stores that were closed for various reasons I happened upon Lush Lacquer. Glitter heaven! I promptly made an Etsy account and went shopping!

This is actually the third time I've worn Lush Lacquer's fabulous Salt n Peppa, but the first time I've photographed it. It always seems to be raining and dreary when I wear this polish (I put it on to cheer up my nails!) with no good photo takin' light to be seen! Today was no exception and I ended up taking the photo with the flash, which I usually try to avoid at all costs.

After a day of Moon Over Mumbai (oh, I am in light grey love), I couldn't be bothered to take the manicure off completely, but I was up for a bit of a change, so I kept with the monochromatic theme and added Salt n Peppa. It's just an all round awesome polish. The black and white glitter is fab, and on top of that there's opalescent glitter in there too (think China Glaze Snow Globe but smaller). It's the kind of polish that looks great over absolutely everything. 

When I bought Salt n Peppa, I also got Party Rockin and Birthday Cake, which are also fabulous. Now I have my eye on Lite Brite and Mr Bubble. You can buy Lush Lacquers through their Etsy store. 

Chevrons & Hearts

China Glaze Concrete Catwalk, China Glaze Aquadelic, LA Color Flamingo

Chevrons may just be my new favourite pattern! I randomly bought this LA Color striper from a dollar store on my way home from work a few weeks ago and couldn't help but do another chevron mani after my last one. The other trend that's been floating around that I wanted to try was framed nails. I actually followed a tutorial for the framed nails where you paint the frame colour first, then use tape on the tips and paint your nails again with the second colour, which makes the frame. 

I can't for the life of my find what blog it was that I saw it on! I even went through my internet history (apparently all I do on the interwebs is look at nail polish, read celebrity gossip and online shopping!) but couldn't find it. I have a feeling it was on Tumblr, so if I do track it down I'll definitely update this post (after scrolling through 103 pages of my dashboard trying to find it, I've given up) It was such a great tutorial though! Why don't I bookmark these things?

Ulta3 Enchanted Magnetic

Ulta3 Enchanted

OMG! A magnetic nail polish, a whole stand of them! In Sydney! In front of me for only $5! What's happening? Ulta3 has a magnetic nail polish collection! I need to stop using exclamation marks! 


Anyway, back to the surprise of my Saturday. I didn't know that Ulta3 was releasing a magnetic collection, but I sure am glad they did. I hadn't given into the magnetic nail polish trend yet, mainly because I thought there were other nail polishes that I'd rather have than magnetic ones. I wasn't sure if I liked the look enough to get any. And the fact that I'd never seen a bottle in real life and would have to surely order them from overseas was a bit of a put off. 


Then, miraculously on Saturday as I popped into a chemist on Pitt Street in Sydney (mainly to do my usual check of anywhere that sells Revlon for the still elusive Whimsical, a girl can check can't she?) I saw a little stand of Ulta3 polishes and lo and behold, they were magnetic. And at only $5 each, I couldn't resist! Remember US ladies, you lucky lassies, for a bit of perspective, while your OPI r.r.p may be $9, ours is $19.95, which converts at this very second according to XE, to US$20.12, so $5 is quite the bargain, even for a "drug store" brand! I bought 3, but later gave one to a friend, who has also been obsessing about magnetic polishes.


The whole magnetic thing takes a bit of getting used to. I ditched the Ulta3 magnet straight away, because on my nails I only got 1 or 2 lines and grabbed every kind of magnet off our fridge and went for it! My favourite magnet ended up being one of those thin rectangular ones (it was actually like a business card for the people who fixed our stove).

Cookies, Cream & Stripes

Kink Ink, Essie Marshmallow, LA Girl Uninhibited

While perusing the nail polish section of the interwebs this week I saw Sarah's (of Chalkboard Nails fame) cookies and cream manicure and I thought, finally a use for the mess of a polish that is Essie Marshmallow! 

Because I've been a bit slack (actually quite slack) lately in the nail art department, I thought I'd go all out with the cookies and cream theme and do some stripy nails using tape, as well as black glitter sandwich accent nails. I love how the glitter sandwich looks like cookies and cream ice cream, and the stripes look like stacks of Oreos (yes, we do have Oreos here! I was slightly obsessed with them last year, eating packets upon packets!). 

I'm in the middle of making batch of chocolate chip biscuits at the moment, so this mani is quite fitting! (Here in Australia, we call cookies biscuits, although if people say 'cookie' we know they're talking about)

Gold & Green Chevrons & Spots

Barry M Gold, BYS Striper Aqua Blue

While I was interneting the other day I came across this iPhone cover -

I really want it (may even pop into the Apple store next time I'm there and see if they have it!) and I loved the colour combination. I have a aqua-ish greeny striper that I've never used so I decided to do some serious striping and replicate the always popular chevron/zig zag pattern. 

I did get slightly lazy part of the way through so I did a couple of dotty accent nails. Next time I tackle a chevron pattern I'm going to attempt all my nails! And sorry about the tip wear, it's been hideously rainy and dark in Sydney the past few days and there was no light so these photos were taken on day 2.