Peach Hearts

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I did this mani for Valentine's Day, but was too lazy to post it.
I tried the  dotting tool 3 dot heart method. Someone posted a tutorial for it a couple years ago now, I can't remember exactly, sorry!

I used BYS Colour Change Salmon for the base and Essie Like to be Bad for the hearts.
I think my technique needs a little work but from a distance the hearts looked pretty cute!


xxx
NPA

BYS Black and Gold: Kiwi Olympians

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We've had a pretty decent run this week at the Olympics. While we can't match Great Britain's golden hour, we had our own on the water at Eton Dorney on Friday - with 3 very deserving men winning gold in the men's pair and single sculls!!! Mahe Drysdale and the pairing of Hamish Bond & Eric Murray are all multiple world champs and now they finally have the Olympic gold to be undisputed champs!!!
It's very sweet too because earlier in the week fellow kiwi rower and romantic partner to Drysdale, Julliette Haigh; won bronze in the Women's Pair!

I saw Anneke's post with Olympic nails and thought I'd better show you my version!

It's simple: our colours are black and silver, but no more. We're black and gold baby (and maybe a little bronze)!

Yeah, I couldn't put on the polish without this song raging in my head!!! A good one too, except that the radio stations thrashed the heck out of it!!!

BYS Black and Gold

overcast

overcast

shade

macro

Black and Gold is a stunningly opaque black with yellow gold irregular glitter. I actually just thought it was gold micro glitter until I saw the photos and realised that the glitter was flaked in random sized pieces and my heart soared!

This was pretty good at 1 thick coat but I did 2 thin ones out of habit. It's got a thick but very spreadable formula which was a breeze to apply, but holy heck did it stink!!!! I actually had to keep my hands away from my face - for ages after it had dried!!! I can deal with most chemical smells but this one made me nauseated!
So use a well ventilated space and put a top coat on asap to prevent the stink from causing you to dry wretch :)

How are your countries doing at the Olympic games? What has been the best medal yet?


xxx
NPA

Go B Y S yourself!

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Hey ladies,

Is it just me or does this post title seem a little OPI-ish? I'm not even sure what 'BYS yourself' is supposed to mean? Hmmmmmm...

Anyways, my BYS polishes started off my addiction (all but 1 of these are 3-4 years old and going strong), so I thought I would share them with you.

Hocus Pocus - 3 coats - lamp

Hocus Pocus is a light greeny blue shimmer - pretty, but sheer.It was released in the Summer Brights Collection.

Ultra Violet - 2 coats - lamp

One of my favs!  Ultra Violet is a very pink based purple shimmer - bright and bold, lives up to its name. Another Summer Bright.

Hissy Fit - 3 coats - lamp

Hissy Fit is the ultimate reddish-orange coral, also from the Summer Brights Collection. My camera made it look lighter and more orange. It's such a fun summer colour - super bright a la OPI Cajun Shrimp or Monsooner Or Later.

Cherry Bomb - 2 coats - overcast

Cherry Bomb is a dark pink with a jelly-like formula but is full coverage like a creme. I love hybrids! It is part of BYS's core collection. In some lights it almost looks red, kinda like this pic, on my monitor anyway.

La Di Da - 4 coats - lamp

La Di Da indeed. I look at it as my cheapy version of Zoya Caitlin.  Another Summer Brights release. I'm not sure what you call this shade; somewhere between periwinkle and lavender with a touch of grey? Very sheer though!!!

Urban Jungle - 2 coats - lamp

Urban Jungle is actually one I picked up recently from the core collection and I adore it! Something about these sagey/dirty greens draws me in!!! It's so pretty but not girly or too military. Perfection.

Blue Bang - 3 coats - lamp

Blue Bang is a sky blue jelly - surprise, surprise yet another Summer Bright. Applies like a dream and when you use a ridge filling base coat (I used Butter London Nail Foundation Flawless Basecoat), it's opaque in 2-3 coats :)

I got all the Summer Brights when brightly painted, stubby nails came back in to fashion! That's how they hooked me, I wasn't completely ashamed of my bitten stubs anymore!

Hope your Fridays are/were a great gateway to the weekend!!

xxx
NPA

Day 26: Inspired by a PATTERN

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Hey guys,

Not a big effort today. I decided to get 'inspired' by a wallpaper pattern on my m83 stamping plate.

Lamp

Lamp

 This is BYS Colour Change MOOD  in Salmon, stamped with Konad Special White Polish. Under the lamp it came out way peachier than it is in real life.

Here's Salmon on its on:

Overcast - Matte (natural finish)

Overcast - top coat

What do you think?

xxx
NPA

And it's PINK WEDNESDAY - for once I managed to post pink on the right day!!!!

31 Day Challenge: Day 16 - TRIBAL

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Hey guys,

I've been MIA for a few days now and this mani is the reason why! It sucked the happy out of me!

This is my all time low - blogging wise.

2 coats BYS Urban Jungle, stamped with China Glaze Street Chic in sunlight

I attempted this mani several times; the WAHnails print was a disaster (I need bigger nail beds or skinnier brushes/acrylic paint?, and freehand was way too much for me so I went to plan C, stamping. And instead of using a proper stamping polish I used a normal one, that was too thin and a design that didn't cover my entire nails so there's overlap and it's just all over nasty :(

The one positive is that I used BYS Urban Jungle as my base and I love it! I got it at bling! (regrettably) while they were having a buy 2 get 1 free sale on cosmetics - score! I don't have another green like it but I'm thinking it's in the same colour group as Essie Sew Psyched. Will have to compare them.

Sorry for the not so hot mess!

xxx Michaela

Jelly Sandwich Attempt #1

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Greetings faithful readers,

Everyone seems to be doing jelly sandwiches lately so I had to join in & try it out. BTW a few weeks before I started the blog I wanted to see what putting a glitter under OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y? would look like (without ever seeing or knowing what a jelly sandwich was) and my sister talked me out of it. I'll have to tell her it's actually all the rage. Ha! Shum-a-lum-a-lum, kiss my bum! Oh primary school, how sophisticated our comebacks were!

Here's 2 coats of OPI Last Friday Night sandwiched either side with 2 coats of BYS Blue Bang & China Glaze Broken Hearted on my thumb and ring fingers as an accent. I topped it with Seche Vite which accounts for the tip shrinkage - I always get that when there are too many layers of polish under the SV. It's not usually too bad if it's a 2 coater or a thin 3 coater.

sunlight

flash - shows the glitter more clearly

Click the photos for a better view. It's not the best first attempt, ideally I would have just put one coat of Blue Bang on top; but I had to put 2 layers over Last Friday Night because I did an extra thick coat on my of my fingers and it looked stupid, so I had to add another layer to all the rest. I love how awesome LFN is for layering, whenever blues need extra POW! I added the Broken Hearted crackle cos my I buggered up the left thumb and didn't want to start over on it!!!

Hope your weekend was full of scrummy food. I just had some heavenly tiramisu!!!!!!!!!!!!