Nail of the Day (NOTD)/ Konad issues

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Today I'm wearing OPI A Oui Bit of Red from the La Collection De France for Fall 2008. It's a  red with subtle pink shimmer that really makes it stand out. I've seen reports that it looks like a creme most of the time but to me up close the shimmer is visible and even when it isn't the dash of pink shows through. Here's what it looks like with and without flash respectively:

It had pretty decent staying power too, I think this might have been 3 coats because I don't like even a hint of VNL showing through (not that anyone else but me can tell) but I think 2 coats was opaque and I also have a coat of Nubar Diamont Top Coat on here as well.
When I wore this polish I couldn't stop staring at my nails and gushing about the colour to my dad and brother who I was with at the time - not that they appreciate polish but to placate me they said it was awesome.

So I'm having major Konad stresses tonight. To understand what konad is go to www.konadnailart.com, but basically it's stamping a design on top of your nail polish instead of having to use nail art pens or decals. It's super awesome but I just can't get mine to work yet.
I bought a knock off stamper though so that could be to blame and I haven't used my stamper with the Konad Special Polishes I've just been trying polishes from my own stash and I'm not sure that they're thick enough. I managed to stamp a cloud pattern from plate m79 onto my ring finger tonight but it's patchy and thin. My plan is to persevere (ok that's the first time i've ever spelt persevere right, which is sad for a 23 year old but still it put a smile on my dial!) with the normal polish and see if it's just my technique and if not I'll be saving up for some real Konad stuff.
Later gator

OPI Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides Collection

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Yay! It has finally arrived! Six cremes for Autumn (for us and I guess Spring for the US, which makes sense when you see these pastel-y colours)I have gotten my hands on OPI Stranger Tides - the green/grey color of this new collection (my amazing mum bought it for me in Australia 2 weeks ago). Sadly, I haven't swatched it yet but here are some promo pics for you:

OPI also released a new shatter -silver and glittery - to coincide with the collection. Here's what it looks like over some of the cremes

I found the black shatter pretty hard to work with. I got ok results once or twice but now its gotten too thick and either applies way too brush stroke-y or it doesn't shatter at all :( All the bloggers have been saying how much better this shatter is though, it's thinner and has a better application so if it appeals to you I say go for it.

The above colours run fairly true to the pictures (well from the swatches I've seen online and my personal experience with Stranger Tides they do). Mermaid's Tears typically is a bit of a sell out but it is apparently a dupe for Orly Ancient Jade (of the Precious Collection) that which is in stores now too. Ancient Jade is also more pigmented then Mermaid's Tears so if you can handle the thin Orly brush go for it!

I really want Planks A Lot ( a pretty dusky light/medium purple) and Sparrow Me the Drama (dusky pink creme), but I don't LOVE LOVE the formula, to be fair it's pretty good but all pastel cremes have an annoying streaky/thick application in my opinion, though I'm sure a qualified manicurist could make it work a lot better than me. And it doesn't stop me from buying them every single time. I just hope my skills get better.

Skull and Glossbones is a dirty pale grey creme which I like but I don't need right now because it's fairly similar to essie Playa del Platinum, which I already have, (plus I suit warm/neutral colours and its a bit too cold for me and my mum keeps tut-tutting at all the amaze-balls colours I wear that don't suit me...). But this is what it looks like:

Lastly, Steady As She Rose looks pretty but I'm not that into pale pink cremes so it's a bit of a snooze.

Anyway, I'll get a swatch up of Stranger tides on my nails in the exit couple of days because I'm not sure if I'm allowed to steal these images from other people's blogs... I never took i.t. or copyright law at uni so i'm in the dark there.

My First Post (squeal/scream) !

Pin It Hello everyone (that is if anyone ends up reading this!) ,

Since January this year I have been flippen crazy about nail polish. When I was a child/young teen I loved polish and had quite a collection of them along with my sisters; keep in mind this was a time when California and Revlon Streetwear were possibly the only affordable brands around in New Zealand (that I was conscious of anyway). I think all kiwis know that nail polish is crazily expensive over here, while in the States they might $8 a bottle for OPI, we pay $25 (to be technical maybe $24.90-$24.99).
Anywho, (I do like to go off on tangents) all was well and good but as I got a bit older being a terrible stress nail biter (which seemed to be an on/off thing all through childhood), I sort of switched off nail polish because it was a pain in the neck, looked terrible on my teeny weeny, ragged nails and there weren't any good cheap colours out there. But come the uni years all of a sudden bright and bold colours came back into fashion and surprise, surprise so did stumpy painted nails (not sure why because I still grieve every time a broken nail causes me to cut mine down) and I became aware of all the different AMAZING brands that had made their way over to NZ.
I'm talking at first the cheapies like BYS (available for under $10 a bottle at Glassons and Bling), Miki minis (which were 2 for $5 at my local pharmacy), and LA Girl (also at selected pharmacies and awesome stand out colours too). It was really the range of BYS colours that got me back into polish (and being a bit of a chub with fluctuating weight painting my nails became my thing instead of always looking ultra trendy clothing wise)! Then I found a few Revlons that I loved etc etc.
Then around my 21st birthday I got hooked on OPI because my sister was afflicted by an addiction to the brand and I saw the light, unfortunately poor uni student that I was I could never rationalise spending $25 a bottle more than once in a blue moon because there was soo much drinking and partying to be done. So for about 2 years I got by on my cheap polishes and 1 awesome OPI - Parlez-vous OPI? from the French Collection.
Cut to January 2011 and my love of polish gained momentum... My eldest sister was getting hitched and I was a bridesmaid determined to have decent lengthed prettily manicured nails dammit! So the biting had to stop! The most difficult 3 weeks of my life since I was on a diet (for the dress)and helping with the wedding without my stress release - nail biting. But I persevered, whacked on some Sally Hansen Miracle Grow and that was the push that helped me to overcome my oral fixation and trigger my addiction to nail polish.
My collection has grown from 20 polishes to well over 100 in 4 months. Im both proud and ashamed of that! I think I will have to stop buying them once I have more than 365 because it will take me more than a year to wear even 1 a day! But for now I adore switching from one colour to another every 1 or 2 days - which is ridiculous but seriously fun. My manicuring skills have greatly improved too and I want to share with kiwi girls out there all the amazing brands that can be ultra affordable provided you have the Internet and a credit/debit card!!!!
I will do my best to get some swatch posts up ASAP!
xxxx