Exciting....

Did you see the exciting nail polish give-away from the fantastic Scholarly Nail!?

Check it out here!

and good-luck!

Pink checkers

Thought I'd give the masking tape checkers look a try...

It was relatively easy to do (however, as you can see, my pink smudged a little) 

If I did this again I think I would use different colours - I think the pale colour was a bit too close to skin colour so didn't look as good on checkered nails) 

Overall I like the look. 

next time - new colours

Scaly nails

The name sounds horrible...

The finished result is actually rather cool.

See for yourself!

To get this look:

you simply paint a base colour (in this case Ocean Breeze by Revlon) you then use a dotting tool and about 4 different nail polishes to put spots over-lapping onto the nail) 

End result- Scaly looking nails

Sugar spun nails

Thought I'd give sugar spun nails a try...
I think I'll use less colours next time. 

Two new franken

Excuse the mess - I was in a rush (and excited to show you the colours)

a bit of a nail polish remove and a hand wash will clean these right up.

These are two new colours. 

The purple I made for a friend's Birthday - The purple and shimmer made me think happy thoughts of her.

The blue - I was just really wanting a shiny bright(ish) blue

Purple: Franken Lisa

Blue: Franken Bluebell

A franken pink and some sticks and stones...

I was getting pretty bored! 

I decided to paint my nails both a franken pink and a new pink I hadn't tried before. 

Then I got really bored and added some sticks and stones and stripes. 

Pink index and middle: Ciate Jelly Bean

Pink ring, pinky and thumb:  Franken Jessica

Top: Cover Brands Sticks and Stones

This is the Franken colour I made.

It shall be called Jessica

a Liebster Award.

So thank you to the lovely Jessie from Nailed It has given me a Liebster Award! 

the Liebster Award is passed along to up and coming blogs with less than 200 followers to help them promote themselves and congratulate them on coming this far!" 

Here's how it works:

1) The recipient must post 11 fun facts about themselves.

2) The recipient must also answer 11 questions created by the award giver.

3) The recipient must give the award to 11 new bloggers with less than 200 followers and post 11 questions for them to answer.

4) These 11 bloggers must be told they have been given the award.

5) They will in turn pass the award on to 11 new bloggers of their choice (no tagging back the award giver)

Eleven fun facts:

1.       I have a BIG family – I’m number six out of eight.

2.       I really love Disney movies – and don’t think I will ever stop. (they’re always perfect story lines, and totally the perfect length to sit and watch a movie)

3.       Pizza and Ice-Cream are my favourite foods (not together, obviously)

4.       I enjoy eating cucumber and chocolate (actually yes, together)

5.       I have just finished re-watching ALL of Sabrina the teenage witch, and am a little bit excited for the rumoured movie!

6.       Ever After and Never Been Kissed are my all time favourite movies.

7.       My boyfriend is a horror movie buff – so now I’ve seen quite a few (of the weird un-Hollywood kind)

8.       I live in New Zealand – but I was born in England. I call myself a Kiwi now.

9.       I cannot wait to graduate!!!

10.   I don’t want to be a stay at home mum – which works perfectly, because my boyfriend has hinted he’d like to be a stay at home dad some day.

11.   Even when I’m 50 I’ll still paint my nails.

Questions for me from the lovely Jessie

1.                   When and why did you start blogging?

Gosh, I can’t even really remember – I think my first ever blog was in 2007 where I wrote about RANDOM things and did like an A-Z of my year… I remember doing one post on nail polish even back then. That blog has long ago been deleted.

I started agirlwithsomeclothes this year – mostly I think I started this because a) I had just got a new iPhone and was playing around on instagram, and wanted to show my non-instagram friends my cool photos; b) I had so many cool clothes I wanted to show off and I couldn’t be sending people pxts all day! and; c) pretty much the same but with my nails. (although I created agirlwithsomenailpolish only a few weeks ago)

2.                   How many bottles of nail polish do you own?

Well, I actually haven’t counted in a while. I suppose now is as good a time as any.

Hold on a minute….

…

91 bottles – not including top and base coats

And

16 nail strips and foils

3.       What colour do you have the most of in your collection?

I probably have the most of nudes and pale browns/pinks and lots and lots of REDS!

4.       What is your first memory of nail polish?

Well I don’t know if I have a first memory…

I do remember being quite young and me and my mum were sitting outside D.E.K.A (equivalent of Big W or K-Mart)and I’d just bought what must have been my first nail polish and she was teaching me how to paint my thumb, while waiting for dad to pick us up.

I also remember in primary school designing a box (I can’t remember for what subject) for pills you could take that would change the colour of your nail polish, literally no dry or applying time!

5.       What do your friends/family think of your hobby?

I don’t know that they think about it much.

My boyfriend definitely gets the most trouble from it, and hates it when I paint my nails just before we go out as it means he has to help pack my bag and put my shoes on (I just can’t risk smudging my nails). His sister’s also seem to think it’s pretty cool.

6.       What are your hobbies other than blogging?

SHOPPING! I mean that is a big one! Especially buying new nail polish and clothes.

I also like to read, watch TV, eat yummy food, cross-stitch and make jewellery and cards.

7.       What’s your favourite nail polish colour?

My boyfriend will attest to this – Coral Me Wild by Revlon is my favourite, and the colour I choose to be buried in. 

I also really really LOVE Navy Blue by Butter LONDON – but I have yet to add it to my collection as I can’t quite justify $30 on  a 14ml nail polish.

8.       What would be your dream polish?

I don’t know that I have a dream polish that doesn’t already exist. I know Jessie (At Nailed It) made reference to it already but I’d love to get my hands on some floam! (Ship it to NZ please!)

9.       What is something you love but everyone else hates?

Miley Cyrus. Haha.

And probably nanna floral cardigans (well my boyfriend hates especially)

10.   What nail trends do you love?

Definitely having a feature nail (or two)

I’m also really loving the new scale nails (I’m about to try some for myself right now actually) and geometric nails with different shapes and tape.

11.   What nail trends do you hate?

I hate the whole having extra bits hanging off your nails (like beads and stones and stuff), as well as painting the skin around your nails to extend the design and definitely hate Duck Feet nails! 

I’m also not a fan of shatter polish (but admit some people can totally rock it).

It just appears that all my bloggers have previously been tagged...

But I will be sharing any new bloggers I find with you as soon as I can. 

For now, I hope you enjoyed the read. 

Pretty plain navy and lavender

I was in a pretty plain mood today - and I was in a bit of a rush with nail painting time...

so I skipped the designs and kept it nice and simple...

Blue: Kleancolour Neon Saphire

Purple: Australis peek-a-boo

Ocean nails...

Having some more fun with my gradient nails...

I've decided these look a little like the ocean.

They turned out really well, I am definitely improving! 

(I used an eye-shadow applicator sponge)

Blues are:

Revlon Ocean Breeze 

Revlon Mint Fizz

Revlon Midnight Affair 

Gold.

Pretty simple,

Pretty shiny,

Supporting my team in the Olympics...

Go for Gold New Zealand!

Naturally marbled

I thought I could give marble nails another go.

This time I did two feature nails on each hand.

I definitely think my left hand is better! 

Natural Base Colour: Revlon Grey Suede 

Red Marbled: Revlon Raven Red

Y'ellow... Spot ya later

I wanted to try something bright today! 

So yellow with Orange and Pink spots it is! 

(sorry about the not quite straight/even spots - I'm still learning)

Yellow: Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow

Orange spots: OPI A Roll in the Hague

Pink spots: Kleancolour Neon Pink

Fluro and shattered

So as you remember I recently got a lot of new nail polish.
I am finally testing some of the new colours out.

Super bright Green and Orangey Fluro!

these are Miki Unnamed nail polishes.

They are actually a really nice smooth formula and quite an opaque colour and reasonably priced!

Miki Green (2 coats)

Miki Orange (3 coats)

I then decided to spice the manicure up (and try out my new shatters)

To be honest I don't really love this look on my nails (well especially not for work!)

but the black over the bright colours was rather effective and had a very punk-rocker grunge look.

OPI Black Shatter

OPI Silver Shatter

Green gradient

Today I asked MyLove what colours I should use, and he suggested two green tones.

So Gradient nails here I come.

I used my usual technique of painting a bright green base coat, and using an eye-shadow sponge to dab on dark green polish.

Bright Green: Miki neon green

Dark Green: Australis Here today gone tomorrow

Top coat: Sally Hansen Mega shine

I love my frankie polish!

So I decided to put on my Frankie nail polish again,

because I felt like something understated and different,

and I love it! 

It's so fantastic! It actually dries matte which gives it a really unique finish and I added a little bit more purple glitter so it has a cute subtle shine to it.

This is the matte look (without top-coat)

This is with two layers of top-coat

And this was my Manicure for the day

Cute or what!?

Colour: Frankie My personal Franken (2 coats)

Glitter: Kleancolour Diamond Purple (1 coat on top of Frankie)

Top-Coat: Sally Hansen Mega Shine (2 coats - the shine sunk into the frankie colour a bit)

Electric and sparkly!

So again I felt like another simple manicure.

I also bought two new glitter polishes recently which I've been wanting to try.

I decided to do a sort of Ombre glitter look (with two feature nails)

I'm not so sure I like the look - I think I'll stick with one glitter per manicure.

Index: Kleancolour Diamond Purple (2 coats)

Middle: Kleancolour Diamond Purple (2 coats)

Ring: Kleancolour Diamond Purple (1 coat) and Kleancolour Chunky Holo Poppy (1 coat)

Pinky: Kleancolour Chunky Holo Poppy (2 coats)

Base Colour: Revlon Electric Pink (3 thin coats)

A rainbow gradient manicure

I tried a new manicure today.

and it took a long time.

I did a gradient rainbow! 

do you like it?

First I painted my nails white (to make sure the colours were really vibrant!)

I then used an eye-shadow sponge to dab the colours on to my nails.

I began with yellow (because it was the lightest) and worked up and down from there

after all my dabbing efforts my nails looked like this.

I then used nail polish remove on a cotton bud to remove polish off my fingers.

I did try using a lighter and darker blue (but they didn't show up well) so ended up just using one blue.

Red: Revlon Revlon Red

Orange: OPI A Roll in the Hague

Yellow: Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow

Green: L.A. Colours Quirky Turquoise

Blue: Revlon Mint Fizz

Purple: Revlon Plum Seduction 

A re-vamped manicure..

You may remember Sunday I had a Red Sticks and Stones manicure.

well today instead of doing something completely new, and wasting a perfectly good manicure I decided to just re-vamp it a little. 

I removed my slightly chipped index and thumb polish and

created two new feature nails (which actually show up sticks and stones better than I thought) 

What do you think of my "new" manicure?

Red: Sally Hansen Red Carpet (2 coats)

Silver: Revlon Pure Pearl (3 coats)

Top: Cover Brand Lacquers Sticks and Stones (dabbed on) 

A few new...

So I actually have quite a few new nail polishes I need to use.

yay! 

I bought the bright pink of the left last week (after using a similar pink at a friends house) 

The pink next to it my mother bought back from England

The Revlon and OPI were on an epic sale at the warehouse (and who was I to say no?) 

and the MIKI on the right were gifted to me from MyLove's mother (as I've been wanting some brights for ages)

Left: OPI Silver Shatter

Right: OPI Black Shatter

Left: Revlon Powder Puff

Middle: Revlon Catty

Right: Revlon Midnight Haze

(Unnamed colours - I will name them myself)

Left: MIKI Bright Coral

Right: MIKI Bright Lime 

Left: Kleancolour Neon Pink

Right: Ciate Jelly Bean

Hopefully soon you'll be seeing some posts using these colours.

For now I'm reducing my nail painting per week as I don't have as much time 

(due to end of uni holidays - and start of real work)

Reddy sparkly sticks and stones

today I felt like doing something simple but that looked really cool.

Here we have it.

Red: Sally Hansen Red Carpet

Top Coat: Cover Brand Lacquers Sticks and Stones

Another attempt at Marble nails

Today wasn't quite a good as last time,

But I still quite like them.

I've had a few people asking how to do marble nails.

So stay tuned for a tutorial!

An icy manicure

Today I am going Ice Skating with MyLove and his sisters.

I decided to do an Icy manicure in tribute to this - however, I have no pale blue.

so being a quick thinking person I decided to whip one up! 

I mixed Mabeline Marshmallow (silvery)

Australis Sky's the Limit

and 

Revlon Colada Fizz

but this colour ended up being far too sheer

so I added 

Sally Hansen Naturel White

and more Australis Sky's the limit

and created this beautiful number.

I name her Cinderella

I didn't want a super plain manicure so decide to spice it up a little with some dots.

(this picture is without topcoat)

Pale Blue: My Franken Cinderella

Dark Blue: Australis Sky's the limit

White (dots): Sally Hansen Naturel White

Finally to finish the look off I added a sparkly top coat in the form of Revlon Colada Fizz

Black Friday!

So I'm not superstitious or anything,

but I decided since today is Friday 13th (Black Friday) I may as well embrace it!

I'm not sure if you can see, but this is a spotty manicure

Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy (2 coats because I like to have a thick base when I use dark colours)

Black: Australis Blackmail (2 coats)

Matte/Matte dots: Elf Matte top coat

Shiny/Shiny dots: Sally Hansen Mega Shine top coat

New navy blue...

So I have been envying the people who get to own and wear Butter London nail polish.

my favourite colour has always been Royal Navy

I found this image at Stuff I (s)watched

so, here in New Zealand this stuff retails at about $30 (which is quite a lot for nail polish)...

so sometimes I just go in to Farmers and stand by the Butter London counter and dream...

well today, after my Butter London Dreaming, I wandered into some other stores, one of them being a cheapo shop

and guess what I found!? 

A navy blue nail polish 

- I decided since it was only $3 I could buy it and risk it looking terrible and never being used....

when I got home I put some on and I was amazed! 

it looks so similar to the Royal Navy Butter London polish and only 1/10th the price! 

I am so happy!!! 

I was actually quite surprised at the smooth formula and opaque colour of such a cheap brand.

I will definitely be shopping here again.

I did this funky manicure...

Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy (super good!)

Blue: Kleancolour Neon Sapphire (2 coats) - but it even looked good after one coat!

Ring/Index finger: Revlon Sheer Rose (3 coats)

Let me just say I am one happy customer and in all my nail polish snobbery I think I may now be introducing a few more Kleancolour's into my collection.

Bright Pink Gradient!

 these are some more gradient (ombre) nails I did using my franken polish and a bright pink while I was at a friends house. 

I really like how these turned out, I think the neutral colour really makes the pink pop out.

 

Ombre vs. Gradient - I got it wrong!?

So apparently all this time what I (and most of the world) have been calling ombre nails have in actual fact been gradient nails.

The Swatchaholic informed me of the error of my ways. 

You may notice I have gone through a lot of my posts and changed my mistake.

 Pretty much,

Ombre nails are where one nail is painted a different solid colour - that goes gradually from lighter to darker.

for example

and gradient nails are where each nail changes gradually between two colours.

For Example

 

hopefully that clears a few things up, and I now realize I've been labeling a lot of posts wrong, however since everyone seems to get the two confused I think I will still use Ombre when labeling my gradient nail posts.

Sunset Gradient nails

So after playing around with some different Nail Polishes I decided to try some more gradient nails...

I love these sunset colours...

These were painted at a friends house and I don't remember the colours sorry.