Royal Wedding Themed manis!

The day is here and us Beautyholics can't wait.

We've decided to paint our nails to mark the occasion.

Yummy Mummy

I agonized over the choice. I had polishes with really obvious names like Blushingham Palace or Who Needs a Prince? but I decided to go with Aphrodite's Pink Nightie and Show it and Glow it on my bling finger (all by OPI). Why??

Well firstly it's rumoured the royal couple may honeymoon in Corfu so Aphrodite's Pink Nightie (APN) being from the Greek Isles Collection seems perfect. The similarities don't end there! Aphrodite is the Greek Goddess of love and beauty which is apt for a honeymoon as are pink nighties!

Show it and Glow it from the Burlesque Collection is also pink and if I had Diana's sapphire and diamond engagement ring it's definitely be showing and glowing!

My version of APN (and I've seen a few thanks to OPI's bad quality control!) is on the lighter side and very frosty. This made application a royal pain! It's also sheer so I needed about 4 coats which made for soft polish which shows brush marks and smudges easily. I fixed a few fingers then gave up. I'm on meds which make my hands shake worse than usual so please excuse the poor application in the photo!

Designer Diva

I chose Agent Lavender by China Glaze to honour the royal wedding. The Agent part reminds me of my favourite British spy, James Bond, and the Lavender reminds me of the lovely lavender-blue dresses that my bridesmaids wore for my wedding four and a half years ago.

Agent Lavender is my favourite mauve nail polish. It goes on opaque and lasts for at least 4 days with a top coat. Above is 2 coats. The closest in colour I have seen is Liacism from Essie, where the formula is crap, it goes on streaky and takes forever to dry. Happy wedding fever!

Shoestring Shopaholic

For the Royal Wedding, I decided to go with the very apt Dating A Royal by OPI. Its the most beautiful rich royal blue colour and it is a creme finish. I love OPI in general and love the extra wide brush. It makes it so much easier to apply. But back to the Royal Wedding.....Dating A Royal is so appropriate.




Kate Middleton was dating Prince William all through their university days and the couple finally wed this week. It just goes to show that anyone can 'date a royal'.

Easter egg inspired nails

I was inspired by a posting by Elle Fowler of elleandblair.com, who suggested OPI sweetheart with a layer of Teenage dream over the top. So pastel, so pink and so Eastery!

Nail of the week -18 April

Designer Diva

Significant Other Color by OPI from the Brights Collection 2005

I had a shortlist of colours to choose from this week and my nephew picked this one for me!

Shoestring Shopaholic

You Can by Nicole by OPI

This week I have chosen Nicole By OPI's You Can. It's a gorgeous frosted
blush peach/nude colour. I felt like I needed some more subtle this week
since I had bright red a few days ago. I needed something more
work-appropriate as well because we will be getting a visit from upper
management this week. This is the first time I have worn this nail polish
colour and I am really happy with it...super cute!

Yummy Mummy

Black Cherry Chutney by OPI from the India Collection

I wanted something dark and a little more sophisticated than what I'd been wearing lately.  I'm not super thrilled with the pic thought.  It looks like a creme but this polish does have a red shimmer and is a gorgeous dark cherry colour.

Nail of the week -11 April

Designer Diva

Parlez Vous by OPI from the France Collection

Parlez vous OPI is from the OPI France collection, and is a wonderful deep greyish purple which is very unique. I decided on this colour this week as I wanted a colour that packed a little more punch than Sweetheart, which I wore last week, but was not super obvious as I wave my arms about at work.

Shoestring Shopaholic

Thunderbird by China Glaze from the Retro Diva Collection

I chose this colour because I really love wearing 'jewel' tone nail colours in the autumn/winter months. I think the shades really suit the cold and dark changing weather. So this CG colour thunderbird seems like the perfect deep luscious ruby colour. It's got a slight shimmer but the red colour is so deep and beautiful. Loving this look!

Yummy Mummy

Electric Eel by OPI from the Brights Collection

I've had pinks with black shatter the past 2 weeks so it was time for something different.  Given SS and DD chose red and purple I felt either green or blue was in order.

I went with Electric Eel.  I've been dying to try this one!  I'm not sure whether it qualifies as HTF but it certainly isn't readily available. 

I loveLOVE the irridescent/duochrome effect.  It flashes a gold/pink/orange.  You can't really tell in the pic...also IRL the colour is more intense.  It looks kind of washed out even thought I didn't use a flash. :-(

I applied about 4 coats over natural nails but I've seen it applied over black and it looks AWESOME.  Must try that next!

OPI and Cherry Culture Haul

I'm so excited!

These arrived today:

and I wasn't expecting them so soon...or even on the same day!

I'm not going to do a full on unboxing haul because we'll have way more exciting stuff coming in the mail in the next few weeks. ;-P

So in the first package were 5 OPI polishes I got from Ebay:

From left to right we have: Venus di Violet, Upfront and Personal, What's with the Cattitude?, Black Onyx and Electric Eel.  They are yet to be added to our database.

They arrive in perfect condition and I was so relieved!  I'll be ordering more from this seller  in the next week or two.

The second package was from Cherry Culture.  They were having a sale and already cheap prices were 20% off!

First up we have some eyeliners.  I like autoliners and the two with gold caps are by Jordana and the other is LA Colors.  I haven't tried either of these brands before so we'll see how they go but they were REALLY cheap so worth a try. 

Next we have the NYX eyeshadow base and 2 of the jumbo pencils in Milk and Cottage Cheese

NYX auto lipliners in Coffee, Natural, Auburn and Plum

 

And lastly, my favourite purchase - three NYX trios!

Spring Leaf, Lime Green and Green Tea

Baby Pink, Cotton Candy and Spring Flower

 

Baby Blue, Pacific and Navy

The colours in the pics aren't as accurate as I'd like but they are fairly close.

Nail of the Week - 4 April

Designer Diva

Sweetheart by OPI from their Softshades Collection

"I'm wearing sweetheart, because I have a job interview on Tues and want to look a bit more conservative, plus I haven't worn it since I got it and I love it"

Shoestring Shopaholic

Nicole By OPI's Virtuous Violet

"I actually didn't happen to choose this gorgeous deep "Cadbury" colour
purple for my nails this week....my husband did! It was his birthday on
Thursday and to mark the special occasion I told him he could pick any
colour of nail polish I had and that I would paint my nails in that colour.
He loves purple and even though I had a few purples to choose from, he chose
this particular one. So, my nails are kind of dedicated to him this week."

Yummy Mummy

Teenage Dream and Black Shatter by OPI from the Katy Perry Collection

This week I'm trying the Back Shatter again.  I had been reading about other people's experiences with it and it had been suggested it only worked properly with the Katy Perry range of polishes.

I wanted to try this out!

I started applying it thin and streaky like last time and got a very similar result so I don't buy that theory.

I tried applying it thicker and got a much better result so I think I just applied it too thinly and it doesn't have anything to do with the polish.

I LOVE Teenage Dream so much that I couldn't bear to cover it all with the black so I only did every second finger.

OPI Black Shatter Review

This is the first time I've tried anything like this.

I have the flu so my hands are a little shaky hence all the polish on my skin.  I'll go back later and clean it off with a cotton tip once it's all hard but you get the idea.

I applied it over OPI Strawberry Margarita.  It could have done with an extra coat of pink but I was impatient!

The formula is quite different to a normal polish.  It dries very fast and I noticed it goes kind of gluggy and lumpy on the stick.  I wonder whether the bottle will become full of lumps with time??

Less is more for a better effect so a thin streaky coat is fine.

It also dries very matte so a top coat for a nice shine is essential.

I can't wait for the new shatter colours to come out!  I'll also be trying China Glaze's Crackle range and comparing them.

I also realized this effect looks best with an opaque, creme polish and most of mine are shimmery, frosted or sparkly so looks like I'll need to go shopping again!

More OPI

I went back to the nail supplies place to pick up some nail wheels to use for swatching.  We'll be doing that next week so look out for them!

I picked up a pump bottle for polish remover and a few extra OPIs at the same time.

I didn't use a flash but besides the the two left-most bottles (and maybe the third) the colours are still not very true.  This is starting to annoy me!

The colours are: The Color to Watch, Blue My Mind, Black Cherry Chutney, And This Little Piggy, Meet Me on the Star Ferry and Pearl of Wisdom

SERIOUS Nail Polish Haul

I'm kind of speechless actually.

Since the Spa Day at Ella Bache, I've had an overwhelming need to increase my OPI collection from 2 to...well as many as I could get.  My pedi is still perfect 10 days on!

Yesterday I happened to come across a kiosk selling them for just under $12/bottle.  I got 5.  They didn't have as good a range as I hoped and several colours I had on my wishlist from online googling simply didn't look the same in real life.

From left to right:  It's all Greek to Me, Louvre Me Louvre Me Not, Melon of Troy, Overexposed in South Beach and Aphrodite's Pink Nightie.

The colours in the photo don't look anything like the real deal!  They're MUCH nicer in person.

Moving along to today...We gathered at Annette's place since she found a place near her selling OPI for $10!  Just as we're about to pull into to the carpark she informs us that at least that's what the post on a forum from 2008 said!

Obviously no nail outlet anywhere so dejected we go home and cook lunch.  I investigated the matter further since I wasn't going home without nail polish!  More thorough reading showed the place had moved and was still very close by.

Success!!!!!!!  OPI for $11/bottle.  Very comparable to the USA after you take postage into account.  They also had other brands like China Glaze, Essie, Orly, Seche etc and all manner of nail art accessories.

Below is the combined result of our trip there.

Alex Got:

OPI An Affair in Red Square

OPI Blushingham Palace

OPI Cuckoo for This Colour

OPI My Private Jet

OPI Not Like the Movies

OPI Pompeii Purple

OPI Purple With a Purpose

OPI Russian Navy

OPI Significant Other Color

OPI Strawberry Margarita

OPI Teenage Dream

OPI Teal the Cows Come Home

OPI Who Needs a Prince

OPI Black Shatter

OPI Natural Base Coat

OPI Top Coat

China Glaze Lubu Heels

Nails Alive Aromatherapy Drying Drops

Annette Got:

OPI Sweetheart

OPI Glitzerland

OPI Moon Over Mumbai

China Glaze Lubu Heels

Helene Got:

OPI Sweetheart

OPI Cajun Shrimp

OPI Fiji-Weejee-Fawn

OPI Jade is the New Black

China Glaze Thistle

China Glaze Her Fabulousness

China Glaze For Audrey

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway

China Glaze Lubu Heels

Beauty confession...*I spent $250 on nail polish in less than 24 hours*

Stay tuned for swatches!!

Ella Bache

Last Saturday we all got together with Mum for a girly afternoon at a Day Spa.  We went to Ella Bache in Melbourne Central for some much needed pampering.

I had a deluxe pedicure with paraffin wax, brow shape and signature facial.  EB are a little on the pricey side but it's well worth it.

Service was great and they're very thorough and take their time.  Everything was very professional and hygienic.

I totally loved the special pedicure chair with built in sink.   I'm really happy I chose a pedi since my feet have been quite sore lately.  The hot paraffin wax felt amazing!

The pedi finished with an OPI polish.  I picked Pompeii Purple which is now on my OPI wish list.

They applied the polish after my facial even though they did the pedi first to ensure it didn't get messed up.  Little things like this contributed to the fantastic service.

The great thing about the Signature Facial is that it's tailored to your individual skin type.  I lost count of all the different products that were smeared on and off my face.  The acupressure massage was amazing!

I can't wait to go back for more!