Pastel Squared

Hey guys!

I swear I'm going to run out of names for these tribal inspired posts...please comment any suggestions - all are welcome ;)

Anywho, these are the nails I wore on the first part of my summer holiday. I used a peel of base coat so I wouldn't need to lug acetone as well as other stuff in my suitcase. It lasted a surprisingly long time, considering it's made to come of easily...

These were done using my Face of Australia pastels again, and I love the way they looked. Clean and simple.

What I used:

Aside from the FoA pastels, I used

ulta3 'blue heaven', 'eighties fuchsia', 'banana split', 'lily white'

essence 'wake up!', 'viva la green', 'black is back'

Thanks for dropping in!

xNai

Black and Gold

Hey guys!

So this is how we know for certain I'm behind the times with my posts, because I'm only just showing you OPIs 'Just Spotted the Lizard'.

This is one of the polishes from the spiderman collection, released mid last year. I only got my hands on it late last year, so tried it out when I got the chance.

Pics after the jump.

That girl is on fire

Hello again!
So apparently I'm like the worst blogger known to mankind, what with all my unscheduled leaves of absence - life kind of takes over periodically, and my scheduled posts only last so long!
My apologies, dear readers.

Anywho!

Aztec Love

Hey guys.

Today I have for you another foray into the Face of Australia pastels I bought a while back. This time I wanted them to be a little bit more punchy, and so did this tribal design with them.

It's quite simple, but really a striking look. What do you think? Something you'd recreate?

What I used:

ulta3 'lily white'

essence 'black is back'

Face of Australia 'boys 'n' berries', 'after dinner mint' and 'easy peasy lemon squeezy'

Thanks for dropping in,

xNai

Set fire to the fingers

Hey guys!

Today I have for you the glory and, for some, lemming that is Max Factor's Fantasy Fire!

If you're unaware of FF, it's a multichrome purple shimmer jelly that, like all multichromes, has a glorious range of colour shift which changes depending on the undies you wear it with.

Here I decided to try it over Revlon 'Bubble' as everyone knows what it looks like over a navy or royal blue (like Revlon 'Royal').

For this mani I used one coat of 'Bubble' and 3 very thin coats of FF.

Direct, diffused (cloudy) natural light

I love the effect of FF over this hot pink, I think it makes for a nice punchy, girly mani.

Indirect, diffused, natural light

Artificial light

In these three pics, you can really see the bright fiery orange, from whence comes FF's name I would imagine.
In the next two, you can see some of the gorgeous green, almost turquoise, shift.

Indirect, diffused, natural light

Indirect, diffused, natural light

What do you think of Max Factor's Fantasy Fire? Is it a lemming of yours, or just a bit overrated?

Thanks for stopping by!
xNai

The bread of our affliction

Hey guys!

So from Monday night until next Tuesday night it's Passover, the Jewish festival celebrating our exodus from Egypt among many other significant things.

One of the main signifiers of the festival is Matzah - unleavened bread - that the Jews made in their rush to leave Egypt. Now, many millennia later, we must still suffer through this wonderful experience.

I decided, thanks to Jenny over at 10 Blank Canvases and her excellent tutorial, to do matzah nails this year, instead of the 10 plagues I did last year, and these are them!

Mine are not quite as delicate as Jenny's, as I didn't have the right colours, or enough time really - had to get cooking for the feasts!

And here is me actually holding some matzah for a comparison. I couldn't find a piece of Yehudah matzah at the time, which is more colour accurate to these nails, but hey, you get the idea!

Anywho, wishing you all a chag kasher ve sameach!
xNai

Pastel Chagall

Hello...I've been expecting you...*strokes pure white cat with creepy look on face* (yeah, alright, so I'm weird...what were you expecting?)

ANYway...

This mani was inspired by the brand new (at the time) pastel collection put out by Face of Australia. It came at a 'FINALLY' kind of moment for me, because I had been scouring shops for pastels since about August, waiting for spring/summer because thats when all the pretty bright colours are released.

Everyone was raving about this collection, and I can see why. Have a look for yourselves:

These polishes are pastels, but so bright and punchy in their colour - just perfect for summer/spring!

I only have 5 of the 7 in the range, as the others (a dusty lavender/grey and a pretty pink) didn't really appeal to me.

Application for most of the colours was just amazing, considering their pastel nature. The purple, yellow and orange applied nicely to full opacity in 2 coats. The blue took three thin coats, but was easy to apply, whereas the green took 3 as well, but was a bit more temperamental - patchy at times. I've since been using Revlon 'Jaded' instead - almost a dupe in colour, and much nicer application.

What I used:

ulta3 'lily white'

Face of Australia 'boys 'n' berries' (purple), 'once in a blue moon' (blue), 'after dinner mint' (green), 'easy peasy lemon squeezy' (yellow), 'would you like some orange sherbet?' (orange)

While the names are adorbs, espesh the yellow and orange, they're a pita* to write or even talk about!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

xNai

*pain in the ass