Pretty basic, and basically very pretty (yeah, it's hard coming up with post titles)

Hullo from miserable cold, "gale force winds knocked down trees all over the joint" Melbourne, where you get to experience four seasons in one day on the regular.

Today I just have a super basic mani to share- another "dotticure" as they're known. I used a gorgeous polish called "Seas the Day" by Australian polish maker Sea Siren Cosmetics as the base and then used a Skin Foods gold polish for the dots.
I love how this turned out. In fact, I still have it on 4 days later. It reminds me very much of shot silk- I used to have a sarong that had very similar colours and this really captures that sense of opulence.

Isn't this pretty? I really love the vibrancy of the colours. Application-wise Seas The Day was great, with beautiful coverage after two thin coats (I probably could have used one coat but I was using a sample sized bottle so there wasn't much on the brush).
Then I popped on a coat of Seche Vite, waited for everything to dry and then used my el-cheapo dotting tools and the Skin Food "Nail Vita" gold polish for the dots, and voila! Instant mani that looks far more complex than it really is ;)

And there you have it, my pretty basic, and basically quite pretty, dotticure.
I'm waiting on several nail mail parcels to arrive over the next week or so, so there's going to be a heap of new polishes to swatch... woohoo! Not to mention all the untrieds I currently have sitting here, making me feel guilty for neglecting them... O.K guys, I promise, you'll all get a turn eventually, swear to god. Would I lie to you?  *shifty eyes*
Haha, seriously, I have so much polish at the moment, I'm actually feeling overwhelmed when it comes to choosing what to try next but I can't stop wanting more. It's a terrible affliction, to be sure.

Anyway, lots of happy thoughts to you all and I hope you're enjoying life and all that jazz. It's school holidays as of tomorrow, so I might even be allowed to give my daughter a mani! If she lets me- she's not nail polish mad, yet, but I'm working on it.

Until next time, love and polish for all
Em xox

Another super-cute polkadot manicure, and a small detour to talk about that old foe of mine, depression

I've always thought dotty (dotti?) mani's were cute, but I also felt like I was too old to really wear them as most of the ones I saw were very light and bright, and I don't really do "light".
But I decided to have a play around with my dotting tools, as I didn't want the entire $2.00 I spent on them to be a total waste, and I thought maybe I could make them work for me.
And I did- the trick was simply toning down the pastel, girly vibe and dialing up the darker, more winter based tones I tend to gravitate towards.
My last mani featured a black based version with quite bright, vibrant colours (which I think looked freaking awesome, in my oh-so humble opinion), whereas this time around I wanted to try a really muted version and I love how it's turned out;

This is just a simple combination of a medium grey base and black, white and mauve dots, but I think it's really effective and the colours balance out against each other really nicely.

 

I changed how I approached the actual dotting part this time around and only placed one colour on my "palette" (read; plastic lid) at a time so the polish didn't dry out as I moved along.
It was definitely a lot easier dotting all my nails with one colour before moving onto the next and I also got a nicer arrangement on the nail by focusing on one colour at a time.

I seriously love how this looks and can't believe I was so leery of trying polkadots on my own nails, all because I thought I would look a little too "mutton dressed up as lamb".
Which is really pretty ridiculous when you consider just how much glitter I am prepared to wear on each nail, and the fact that I still run around wearing converse hi-tops and t-shirts and that I have tattoos and wear too many earrings and basically act like I'm 16 most of the time (much to my 10 year old daughter's embarrassment... but she needs something to tell the therapist when she's older, right?).
Maybe I just thought the colours I usually see used with these type of mani's were just a little too "soft" for me, but I am definitely trying to step out of my comfort zone and try new things, and I am really glad I did.

Anyway, as always I hope you are all well (the theoretical "you" as I don't think anyone ever reads this, but hey, why not, right?) and that life is moving along nicely.
I'll be honest, I'm struggling a little bit.
I feel like the ol' Black Dog is hounding me again, and that's a little scary as I've managed to avoid a major depressive episode for a couple of years and I had hoped that maybe, just maybe, I had finally found a medication that had finally put an end to all that bullshit.
Who knows, it could just be emotional exhaustion, which is certainly understandable after all that I have been through over the last couple of years. I don't know, but I hope that this isn't the beginning of another decent down the rabbit hole of depression... I am so tired, the thought of trying to get through another episode in my current state is more than a little daunting.

Thank god for this blog, and, as silly as it sounds, for the nail polish scene. Who knew that focusing on nail polish could give me such an effective method for distracting myself and giving myself something to look forward to.
And what a wonderful way this has been to connect with so many lovely, kind-hearted people too... it's a silver lining that was quite unexpected but very much appreciated.

Em xox

I'm going dotty in my old age ;)

Just a very quick post today. I don't normally show you my attempts at nail art because they're usually not good enough to bother with, in my opinion (although I am my own harshest critic, that's for sure).
But today I tried my first ever dot manicure and I love how it turned out- it's really freaking cute if I do say so myself :)
This is heavily inspired by the work of Debbie Crumpet who does the most adorable and clever things with dots and nail polish- seriously, if you don't follow her blog you really should.
Anyway, because it's winter here I decided to do a darker take on her mani and this is the result;

How freaking cute is this mani? I love it! And my daughter was legitimately impressed rather than doing her usual "lets just humour mum until she stops waving her fingers at me", which means I really hit the mark.
Have some more photos;

The best things about this mani was just how seriously easy it was to pull off. I used a cheapie black (Mud) and then just used a variety of dotting tools to apply various colours.
I wanted the colours to be bright and bold as they wouldn't stand out against the black otherwise, so I blended a few of the lighter colours with my Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear white to give them a boost and that was that.
Two generous coats of Seche Vite and I had this cute, bright and cheery manicure that looks great, especially when you consider both hands took around 25-30 minutes all up. And my non dominant hand looks great too! Yay!
The dotting tools cost me around $2.00 on ebay and I just used a plastic take away container lid as my palette and there you have it, one very cheap-but-cute dotty manicure, winter edition.

Hope you like it as much as I do and I'd love to see your dot manis, so hit me up on my instagram or twitter if you'd like to share.

Until next time I hope you're all having a rockin' day, and for the Aussies I hope you have a great Queen's Birthday long weekend.

Em xox