NotD: Sunset Butterfly

I asked my partner what colour I should paint my nails and got a ridiculously specific nail art request instead! "Orange with a yellow stripe and red butterflies!"

Way to make it easy, babe...

Blue Tiger Butterfly: NoTD

I have a metric butt-ton of draft posts but I'm so swamped with uni work, and moving stuff (we still have a distinct lack of furniture!) so here's a quick NoTD so you know I haven't forgotten about blogging.

I bought a bunch of stuff from BornPretty.com as a celebratory "we got the house!", also using Lillian's 10% off code. Yay! It arrived just before my three-day break from work, so I pulled out a polish I bought a while ago but had yet to use. Blue Tiger from Australis. HOLY SHIT. I don't know why I never used this before! I mean, yes it's royal blue and I prefer turquoise/aqua shades but this is beautifully bright and OPAQUE IN ONE COAT.

A little snark about Australis polishes: "Intense colour with a high shine". The last polish I tried from them, Satine, was so sheer I didn't even bother trying to make it opaque. It was very shiny though. Blue Tiger is incredibly opaque, BUT it dries semi-matte. Obviously I have topcoat on in my photos, but still, I thought it was funny.

I got Konad plates, dotting tools, stamping polishes and some Fimo pieces from BornPretty and I honestly did not know what to do first, so... I decided to use a little bit of everything, minus the dotting tools. Please ignore the cuticle on my middle finger, I banged it at work and it's taking forever to heal up, despite twice-daily applications of cuticle cream!

Stamping done with China Glaze Millenium.
Layering on middle finger done with Mode Chillax.

The Fimo pieces have hard edges from being slathered in topcoat, and they do catch on things a little bit. I was SO tempted to do a French tip-esque line with the dotting tool, but LESS IS MORE. I think. Sometimes.

Another fun layering combo: Essie Demure Vixen topped with China Glaze Wireless holo topcoat. Subtle enough indoors that I didn't get in trouble at work, but SO GORGEOUS and sparkly outdoors! This does look a bit beat up, sorry.

The holo topcoat has the effect of almost merging the base colour (soft taupe-cocoa) and the shimmer (violet) into this lovely muted mauve-brown. The holo itself looks predominantly silver-green in the shade, but direct sunlight does give it more of a rainbow effect.

I think my bottle of Demure Vixen is reformulated, because it takes at least 3 coats to get opaque, and even then there's still a bit of VNL. I'm going to experiment with some of my nude/taupe polishes and see if any of them work OK as a base so I don't have to apply so darn much of Demure Vixen to get it looking good. It also develops tipwear really fast; I don't know if it's my base/topcoat or the actual polish though.

There you go, some pretty pictures! I'm off to Sydney next week for work training (boo) and a mini-holiday (yay!) so expect some posts when I get back. I should have some sporadic internet access while I'm there and I'll also be able to VISIT ILLAMASQUA! I'm so excited. I'm planning on getting an eye pencil and maybe a lipgloss as well.

Work franken and Konad!

I frankened myself a greige-taupe! It's so on-trend and bland and work-safe I should hate it, but it applies like a dream, and it means I don't have to go searching and spending more money on nail polish I don't absolutely love. I poured a bit of Messed Up from Mode (an awesome cocoa-taupe which is just too dark for my work) into Natio Brandy, a lovely nude creme I swore by until finding Oslo, which is part of the Bloom for Target collection.

I pulled out my unloved Konad set (I only own one plate at the moment) and grabbed China Glaze Millenium. I'm hoping this will be subtle enough that I won't get in trouble for it at work ;)

My nails are extremely short at the moment because they're in such horrible condition. Sorry 'bout that.

I'm trying to resist the urge to do some gold stars over the top of the silver ones... also I'm going to slather my hands in OHWTO's rose balm before bed. My fingers don't look that awful in real life, it's just the unforgiving macro lens!

I'm going to get some more plates and some white stamping polish soon.
EDIT: I broke the cardinal Konad rule, "know when to stop". My right finger looks a bit better than my left, but of course I couldn't manage to get any good photos of it.

 THIS IS WHY THEY SAY 'LESS IS MORE', KIDS.

NOTD/FOTD: Flaming Pink Sugar

Because I work in a pretty upmarket shop, I have to get dressed up and made up every time I have a shift. Doing a full-face of makeup with a conventional lip and toned-down eyes gets boring for me. Even sneaking a pop of colour onto my lashline or lid gets old, when I can't use neons or reds.

On my 'days off' I like to play around with makeup, and that often means breaking 'rules' like:
Don't wear red lipstick without a flawless base!

I painted my nails with Nubar Pink Flame, a red-orange-pink duochrome. After three coats I still had a bit of VNL, so I decided to break out my Konad supplies again. I was floored when I successfully Konaded my left thumbnail.

Twenty minutes later, I'd managed a full (if messy and occasionally lopsided) manicure. Eyeliner, matching lips and some face powder was all I wanted to complete the look.

Eyeliner: Savvy by DB Luxury Eyeliner in Shimmery Slate.
Lips: Poppy from Savvy by DB with Fyrinnae's Lickable Lip Lustre patted/blended over the middle of the lips (so it matched the polish a bit better).
Powder: Sassy Minerals Finishing Veil in Medium.

More shots of my much neater left hand. I was thinking about trimming my nails today, so glad I didn't or the Konad designs wouldn't have all fit! I'm going to have to buy some more plates now, I'd nearly given up on the whole thing.

I made a new word: konadrenaline, when you're so excited that you've successfully Konaded.