It's not that I don't want to!

I haven't shared anything here because me nails a so bad. They aren't worth putting polish on.

I've got peeling. I got broken nails because I've been moving furniture. I've even chewed because of stress.

Hopefully now I'm in holidays I can get them back in shape.

Sad face :(

The rest of my birthday polishes came on Friday. I had ordered a heap of China Glazes.

I had thought that Sunset Sail would be perfect for me - the nude look for when I want to be more professional. Like today, I was being assessed as a collegial coach.

I was right - the colour is dead on perfect with a hint of shimmer to stop it from being boring but,,, here's the sad face. It's still soft - I can almost scrape it off let alone dint it. It's almost 24 hours later.

Maybe I did something wrong and I'll try it again but I've been wearing nail polish for a long time now so I do know what I'm doing most of the time.

Any suggestions?

Sharing my hauls!

Of course OPI is probably my favourite brand of 'expensive' nail polish, but I think Essie is creeping up there.

L-R: Smooth Sailing, Coat Azure, I Have a Herring Problem, Ski Teal We Drop 

L-R: Sea Breeze, Jumpin Junkaroo, Your Hut or Mine, Chick Flick Cherry, Diva of Geneva  

 L-R:Going Incognito, Pretty Edgy, Thanks a Windmillion, Don't Mess with OPI

L-R:Nice is Nice, Significant Other Color, A Grape Fit, Dutch Ya Just Live OPI

L-R:Licorice, Happy Anniversary, Glitzerland

 For my birthday I've ordered myself some China Glaze and a pair of new Zumba shoes. I also bought myself Emma Louis and Creature Crush from Pretty Serious! Yay!

Now I'm going to try and do a Halloween mani.

Pair of Essies

For the last fortnight I've been trying out some of my Essie haul.  The colours have been very pretty and opaque - the purple was two coats. They also lasted quite a while - they got to five days before the polish started crazing. With the pink polish, I got one chip on the first day which I just put another coat over, but after that it was fine.

Essie - Sea Breeze - (I think - I bought three colours that are similar). This colour was a little bit 'old' but actually got a few complements because it was pretty.

Essie - Nice is Nice. This one is a keeper for sure.

I'm also trying out Revlon's Quick Dry Top Coat - it's not too bad either. It is quite runny though.

I've been trying to watch Beauty and the Geek episodes from Plus7 but it kept stopping - urg! I miss watching it on TV because I do Zumba every Thursday (and Tuesday) and so forget. Go me!!! Apparently it comes on again on some other channel but it's all too complicated for me.  We got rid of our Austar about 6 months ago because we could never remember when to watch TV, and then forget when the replay was, and then you could buy a thing to record your shows on but that required more money. Luckily I'm sitting here in front of the TV relaxing after my workout and I remembered to tune into Beauty and the Geek!

One of last year's geeks works out here at the Age of Dinosaurs, so I actually saw him a few weeks ago when we went on a tour. George is a cutie so it's a pity he didn't make it all the way through. This makes me sound like I know him but I don't.

Change of topic - here's a cat photo that includes my box of Essie polishes.

Got the nail polish blues

Long time no post and I have no idea why. Lazy I would guess. I've turned into a sloth after finishing work in fact I'm meant to go to Zumba tonight but I'm so tired,,, I think I'll do my nails instead.

This is what is currently on my nails and has been there since Wednesday. I only have a few chips and normal tip wear.

This is Essie - Coat Azure, two coats!

I have actually got some haulage to share but I promise I will do it later,,, lol I hope so anyway.

Dots

I was going back through my camera roll and realised that I haven't shared my nails in ages!  As per usual, life is busy and pretty stressful.  I have to keep reminding myself to do other stuff I love and not just my job. Yesterday I traced and cut out a pattern for a top to sew, that's a good start.

My nails at the moment are just awful - the weather is too dry and too cold. Although last week it started warming up again - in fact we had to use the air con over the weekend.


Here is my current master piece - cough - I tried to use a sewing pin to do the dots but used a berry headed pin (I saw it on pinterest). Note to self - don't use berry head pins especially those that react to nail polish remover.

Base colour - three coats of Essie - Movers and Shakers
Green dots - Orly - Green Apple (my only Orly)
Blue dots - OPI - Fly
Clear - Face of Australia

Apart from some tip wear these have lasted a whole week, it's been like having a birthday party on my nails for 7 days.

Does anyone know much about gelicious?

Absolute awesome

I thought I would share with you the absolute awesomeness that is my nails right now. Please note the sarcasm.

Yesterday when shopping, while I'm on my Townsville holidays in north Queensland, I bought a couple of special (in more ways than one) bottles of nail polish. Not only were these beauties $1 each they were buy 2 get 1 free!!! How could I not?


Haha! As soon as I post this it's coming straight off - although for two bucks it's given me (and hopefully you too) some entertainment.

Craptastic

 I've had a pretty crappy month. I spent most of it getting over a really nasty cold and of course there is always some work stuff.  So for most of that time my nails were pretty much neglected although I did put on some Revlon 940 Facets of Fuchsia. The problem was that I never got around to cleaning it off,,, so look away now if you get squeamish.

Eww!

These were my nails for the last two weeks, and it only got worse after that shot.  Whenever I looked at them I winced.  Words come to mind that I haven't used since the 90s in high school; slag, slurry, pog. Sorry, but when I see chipped dark polish like this that's what I think.

In fact, last night a friend looked at my nails and said 'That's most unlike you.'

Luckily, I followed the advice of this.

Sorry if you have seen this before.

On Thursday a whole box of Adoree polishes came my way.  I'm keeping three for something special, but the rest are mine!!! It helped that they were on sale.Click away!

Three coats of Adoree 159 Neon Purple. Easy to apply, quick to dry. More a pink than a purple but still lovely and bright. Maybe I got sent the wrong one? Kind of reminds me of 90s high school where we used to use our highlighters to paint our nails - except more opaque. No clean up for you! The little bubbles are from my base coat.

Random but, today a mother of two of my students came up to me in the street and told me that I must be doing something right because lately the youngest has been talking about me and what we have been doing in class, nonstop. I didn't say it but I did think it - must be because the other teachers are crap.  I didn't say it but I did think it - that's because I'm fracking awesome. 

Who's got tickets? Me!

Oh well, at the moment I need something positive.

What, another haul?

My final splurge of Butter London arrived yesterday. No, I didn't open the box to find the bottles artfully (phhhht!) arranged like that - I took the time to do it. It is surpisingly hard to artfully arrange bottles on top of packing peanuts!

T-B, L-R

The Black Night - Henley Regatta - Rosie Lee

All Hail the Queen - Thames

Bluey - HRH - West End Wonderland 

It was good timing, because my Fly polish was starting to really show the edges, so on my left hand, I trimmed off the nails and painted away with Henley Regatta. Fly and Henley Regatta perfect matches.

I was then told that we needed to get going, going to the pub for dinner. So my right hand didn't get painted - no one noticed - infact my left right hand is still plain old Fly and untrimmed.

WARNING:
The photo you are about to see includes awful cuticles, my right hand, vastly different lengthed nails, tip wear and was extremeley difficult to take with my iphone. I balanced the camera, put my fingers in front, hoped it focused and took the shot using my earphones and my teeth.

Last week's haul

I got a nondescript box from the post office last week - it was so exciting because I knew what it was straight away.

The contents of the box;

OPI Fly, Pink Friday, Metallic for Life, DS Temptation, Save Me.

I took the box with me camping over the Easter long weekend. We went with out friends, Bec and her family and Erin and her family. So there was plenty of little kids nails to paint.

I went with Fly for my nails, and despite being put on in the twilight by the light of a lamp (that's a slight exaggeration) and having to put up with the rigors of rock climbing and packing up camp it lasted until yesterday before it chipped. So off it went today, and replaced with another two coats of Fly.  Well, 2 will do me.

The fact that I went with the same colour for two manis in a row tells you how much I love this polish - I say I love a lot of my polishes >.<   I'll probably glitter it up by the end of the week though. The only issue I have had is that it stains.

Easter Eggs

I'm on Easter holidays! Yay for me!

Since last week was the last week of school, I played with Lady Muck and made my nails into Easter eggs.  I used sticky tape,a pair of shears and a nameless foily pink polish that is pretty awesome which I picked up at one of those cheap cosmetic shops, to make a zigzag pattern.  I then dotted Revlon - 900 - Gold Get 'Em.

Note the tip wear, but that colour stayed on my nails without chipping for 7 days.

My current nail art was an experiment that I saw on The Polish Aholic, however my nails didn't turn out as nice as hers. I think my straws were too wide or something so I got big blobs of splatters. Which in turn made my polish so thick and took hours to dry.  I also got bubbles.

I started with four coats of OPI - Funny Bunny (picked purley by name for the Easter theme). I'm dissapointed with this because I could still see streaks. Then I used Face of Australia Minty Mojito, Lemon Sorbet and Cotton Candy. It's so eastery.

In other news, my husband bought me a whole bulk box of Cadbury Creme Eggs.

Mucking About

Not the most brilliant of titles.  This is three coats of Butter London - Lady Muck.  It's pretty with a little shimmer. I put on a top coat of Jessica Diamonds which I found in on of my boxes.  I don't think I have ever used it, but it's quite good actually.

C texted me this morning, reminding me about OPI on Catch of the Day - and said that I should buy some. He's the best husband in the entire world!  I also read Kelz86's note. Peer pressure. I swear I wasn't going to buy anything.

I bought a few colours from the Nicky Minaj collection that I wanted, and although I'm sure I could have gotten them cheaper somewhere else, I'm lazy. Feeling a little like I'm a Lady Muck (say that a few times quickly).

Side note: I really like Nicky Minaj. I bought her CD.

Isn't it a pity that KBSHimmer on etsy doesn't ship overseas?

Butter London haul

As we live in the middle of nowhere, C and I are members of heaps of online shops such as Buyinvite, Grocery Run and Catch of the Day etc. Often they run nail polishes, and my inabler of a husband tells me that OPI will coming up again.

Recently I caught Butter London polishes, which arrived on Friday:

• Artful Dodger 
• Keeker
• Victoriana
• Fairy Lights
• No More Waity, Katie
• Lady Muck

 I also have another batch on their way as well.

  Pretty Random posted about a site, Ozsale, which I'm also going to have to check out!

Cat's Meow

When I was on the Gold Coast, during Xmas holidays, I found and fell in love with this cute Korean make-up store – that I was only ever allowed to go into once – and whenever I tried to sneak back there I found it shut.  It had heaps of Tony Moly stuff and other cute products – I could have gone nutso in there – but I didn’t. I just bought 2 bottles of Peripera polish and a no-name glitter with hearts in it.

I have to say, that I have used both the Periperas, and I pretty much love them.  They are really great to apply, quick to dry, fairly opaque within two applications.  That being said, this mani needed 3 coats basically because I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing – I'm watching X Files at the moment – yep all of it.

But the thing I love the most is the bottle...

 I didn't realise that cats make such good backgrounds!

Base: Peripera – an orange (not named)

Glitter: LA Girls Glitter Addict – Uninhibited (most awesome polish which I rarely think to use)

Swish: OPI – Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous (what the?)

 My husband picked the colour scheme.

I have since decided to buy more Peripera polish – and more Korean make-up purely for its packaging!!!

Rearing my head!

I've been so behind in posting my paint jobs.

And apparantly GLM news!

Moving on quickly to avoid the shame of not posting:

First up is NYX Girls - Gemma. This is supposed to be a dupe for OPI - Jade in the New Black. Three coats, it lasted almost a week. I wore it to the school's swimming carnival (our team colour is green!). We lost.

Next is my valentines attempt. 

Two coats of OPI pink - I have no idea which one, the sticker has come of it!!! Maybe Mod About You?? I then used some sticky tape to tape off half of each nail diagonally and painted on Rimmel - 319 Ruby Me. One coat. To finish off I used Kiss Nail Art in a silver glitter. This looked far more awesome in person.

And finally we have what I wore last week to my cousin's wedding.  Three coats of OPI - Mad as a Hatter.  Could have done another coat but I was catching a plane. I only took this off on Wednesday - using the alfoil trick.  It was the first time I have ever used it and I have no idea why I put it off for so long!

Please excuse the crappiness of my photos. I'm still trying to get the hang of taking photos from a phone. I've only just worked out how to focus - sort of!