Today I have the luscious "Liquid Lawn" by Celestial Cosmetics to share with you all

Hello to anyone who might be reading this. I hope your week is progressing nicely.
For those of us living in the Southern Hemisphere it certainly looks as though we are well and truly into winter now, every day is cold and overcast, with rolling showers and strong winds that manage to find their way past any defense you might make with scarves and wooly jumpers and what not.
So it probably looks extremely strange with me crouching in the back yard in my pj's and a knitted hat, holding one hand out and contorting it whilst feverishly taking photos with my iphone in between rain showers.
But such is the price you pay when you want to blog about nail polish *sighs dramatically*

Anyway, enough about the trials and tribulations of nail polish blogging; today I have the glorious Liquid Lawn by the ever lovely Celestial Cosmetics- this is a pretty amazing looking polish and I have had a lot of positive responses to the couple of pictures I posted earlier on facebook, which is hardly surprising when you look at how well it's come up in the photo's;

Celestial Cosmetics "Liquid Lawn"

 Now, I know it's called Liquid Lawn, but this polish makes me think of slowly shifting, deep sea kelp beds, with the sunlight filtering down through the green water. I can imagine this is what a sailor would see just before a mermaid steals him down into the deep forever.
I really, really love this polish... it's truly dreamy.

 As for application, the jelly base is on the thinner side, and because the circle glitter is large I found I did have to fish for it (and as I always like to point out- this is not a flaw, this is just physics). However, I have an older bottle and Nicki has tweaked the formula to resolve those very minor points (I won't call them issues because all glitters settle and larger glitters, especially circle glitter, tend to require a little bit of fishing).

With this manicure I did use an undie, but I don't think it's necessary, so play around with what works for you. Personally, I wouldn't use this over too dark a base because I think you're likely to lose a lot of the little nuances that make this nail polish so beautiful, but again, see what you like and go with that.
That's one of the cool things about jellies- you can change the whole character of a polish simply by layering the polish over different undies or leaving it as is.... there's so much flexibility, so many ways to work with it.
For these photos I applied three thin coats of Liquid Lawn over Rimmel's 60 Seconds "Camouflage" and after that I threw on two coats of Seche Vite to seal the deal and make everything smooth and glassy and that was it. Not much work to have something that looks like it's from a Sea God's photo album sitting on the ends of my fingers...

Honestly, I don't know what else to say about this polish that isn't already obvious in the photos- it is absolutely beautiful, it is deep and dark and mysterious and I love it.
And luckily this polish is still available to buy either through Celestial Cosmetics' shop on bigcartel, or through one of the nail polish stockists for those of you living outside Australia (they are listed on her site).

I can't recommend Celestial Cosmetics enough- Nicki is a lovely woman with a fantastic eye for what looks good and I haven't encountered a polish of hers that didn't hit the mark yet, nor do I think I'm likely to. She really does work hard to provide a beautiful product, with great customer service too, so if you're in the market for a new polish and you haven't tried Celestial they are well worth a look.
 And Nicki, like many indie polish makers, is also happy to work with you if you're looking for something specific, which is just another reason to love indie nail polish. Can you imagine hitting Revlon up for a polish to match your bridesmaid's dresses?

I really don't want to take this manicure off, so I might leave it a few days before I post again, but I am also terrible at leaving well enough alone, so who knows, I could be back tonight with something new ;)

I hope you like the photos as much as I do, I'm definitely getting the hang of it all, even if my light box fails completely to do any of the things light boxes are supposed to. I guess that just means more running around out in the back yard, for now at least :)

Em xox

Today I want to show you Arcane Lacquer's oh-so-pretty "The Power, The Passion"

Hello to you all on this cold and dreary Saturday, I hope everyone is having a good weekend.
The house I'm renting is (unfortunately) currently on the market, which means my daughter, our youngest cat and I all have to nick off for 20 minutes every Saturday morning while they have an open for inspection. It is such a pain in the arse... I just want to spend a Saturday morning in my pj's, lounging around and being completely unproductive, so I really hope the house sells soon.

This Saturday in particular is a bit bleh as I'm starting to feel nervous about Monday's surgery. I'm getting my bag packed, running through my list of things to take and feeling like I'm forgetting something, like I always do. And just to add to the mood my skin has broken out, which is par for the course when I'm stressed.
Oh well, it''ll all be over by Monday evening, which will be a huge relief.

Anyway, in the meantime here's a mani I did yesterday featuring my other recent Arcane Lacquer purchase, "The Power, The Passion". I also used Nubar's "Star Sparkle" on my accent finger to add to the bling factor... and it really is blingy :D

"The Power, The Passion" is a dark, purple based glitter polish, not exactly what I'd call a jelly as it's not particularly viscous, but that's the best description I can think of. And in that base is a veritable smorgasbord of different coloured microglitter- from hot pink to green to holographic- all of it adding heaps of character to the polish and phenomenal levels of bling.

As with my other Arcane Lacquer's the formula is a delight to use, the dry time is minimal and I only needed two coats to achieve full coverage. Of course, being a glitter dense polish it dries slightly gritty, but one generous coat of Seche Vite was all it took to achieve a glassy smooth finish.

And will you look at that bling? So beautiful! The sun makes the colours jump out from that gorgeous, rich purple base. It's another "keep your eyes on the road" type polish that has me constantly distracted by the rainbow flashes as I'm driving.
I wonder if you can insure for nail polish induced accidents?

I don't know if I'll get around to doing another mani before I head off to hospital, especially as it all needs to come off for the operation, but if I do I'll try to take some nice pics before I go.

I must admit, the best part about all of this is that I'm coming home to a ridiculous amount of nail mail... I ordered far too much this week, but I justified it with the fact that I'm about to be operated on.
Plus, I'll use the polish as a recovery tool- happy minds/healthy bodies and all that.
So really, it was all for my health. Totally legitimate, right? See, I knew you'd understand. Those silly debt collectors, they just don't get it ;)

Arcane Lacquer is available through Etsy as well as through several overseas nail polish stockists- for a list of names just check the info page on Arcane's Etsy store.

If you happen to remember, please throw some good thoughts my way this Monday arvo when I go under the knife, and I'll see you all soon,
Em xox

It's Alive!!! mwuahahahahaha

Morning, how goes it on this dreary winter day? Well, winter for those of us in the Southern hemisphere anyway.
I'm feeling pretty chirpy considering I have a house inspection in a couple of hours and my daughter, Sophia, is home for the second day in a row because she's not feeling too crash hot (nothing serious, she's got a mild temperature and is just feeling tired and off colour). Soph could probably manage school, but I'd rather let her rest for a few days and have her get well quickly than send her to school and have whatever bug she's got hang around for longer.

Anyway, on to the polish. Yesterday the postie brought two polishes with him, and I really like them both, a lot. Here's China Glaze "Angel Wings" and "It's Alive!".
They're both from older collections- Angel Wings is from their 2012 "Holiday Joy" Xmas collection and "It's Alive!" is from the 2011 "Haunting Halloween" collection.

 "Angel Wings" and "It's Alive!"

Today I'm going to focus on It's Alive! because that's the one I used and it's also the one I am completely enamored with. And it is, of course, green ;)

It's Alive!

The polish is fantastic to work with- it's chock full of glitter but it doesn't clump or drag and it disperses beautifully over the nail. The glitter consists of a couple of different sizes, from quite finely milled to slightly chunkier, which adds to the depth and complexity of the polish.
The base itself is a wonderful dark, swampy green jelly and I could have easily managed opacity with only two coats, but I applied three out of habit.
Each coat was a breeze to apply and they dried fairly quickly too. After three coats the polish dried to a slightly gritty finish, but considering the amount of glitter involved it was still surprisingly smooth in comparison to other glitter heavy polishes I have used.

It's Alive!

What really made me happy was just how super sparkly the polish is on the nail, despite how easily the jelly achieves opacity. The polish also has this weird ability to look as if it is layered over a black base, even though I wore it as is, which I think is super cool. 
Can you tell that I really like this polish?

It's Alive!

It's Alive! is one of only a couple of China Glazes that I own as the brand is hard to come by here in Australia (I order all of mine on ebay). But I think I will have to expand on my collection as this polish really ticked all the boxes for me- it's super sparkly, it's an interesting shade of green, it has a lot of depth and complexity and, best of all, it applied like a dream.
Hell, it's such a nice formula I was even able to achieve a totally smooth, glassy finish with just one generous coat of Seche Vite, and we all know just how topcoat thirsty glitter polishes can be. 
I'm actually going to go back to see if my ebay seller has another bottle of this one, as I think it's going to be a real favourite.
Anyway, I'm off to make a cuppa tea and wait for my real estate agent to come and do her six monthly property inspection (such a PITA). I'm also waiting on a couple of new indie polishes later this week, so expect some more reviews soon :D
Em x

Starry, starry night... a blingy stamped mani over Celestial Cosmetics "Birth of a Star"

Howdy,
I did a nice mani the other day using Celestial Cosmetics "Birth of a Star" but, as per usual, I simply couldn't leave it alone haha

So, I decided to have a play with some of the stamping plates I bought on the Born Pretty website.
I'll be honest, I don't think the plates are that good- the image doesn't seem to have been etched in deep enough, so the stamp doesn't have a strong image to lift.
But this particular stamp was a bit better than the rest and the star image seemed like the perfect companion to the polish, what with all the star references and holographic sparkles.

I decided to throw my Color Club flakie topcoat on over the stamped stars and also applied some tiny silver studs (and a couple of rhinestones on my little finger) to complete the look.

Celestial Cosmetics "Birth of a Star"

I am really pleased with how this mani turned out :D
I'm not too good with nail stamping as I've only played with it a few times and I really need to practice, but this worked out well, if I do say so myself.

Yes, it's blingy and busy and OTT but I don't care- I like it when my nails stand out, it's one of the few really "girly" things I do and I figure if you're gonna do it at all, you might as well do it 110%

TBH I can't wait 'til my nails are long enough to do some serious OTT manicures... the blingier the better *wheeeee!*

And it just keeps going... WTF universe?!

Soooo, the surgery I was supposed to have had to promote my fractured pelvis to heal has been cancelled. The good news is there's been some bone growth, so the need fr a new bone graft with an internal electrical stimulator is no longer necessary.

However, my left leg still doesn't work properly and I am not scheduled for any further orthopedic surgery at all.

I am, however, still scheduled to have the herniated bladder fixed- an issue that is a direct result of my last surgery (the internal stitches gave way, so my bladder pushed out below the pubic mound... lovely, right?). As for when I'm having that surgery, well, only the god-like waiting list nurses know that one and I am currently completely in the dark.

Needless to say, I am preeeety pissed off right now. I feel as though I have been shoved into the "too hard" basket and have been left to simply struggle on with a dodgy hip indefinitely. Thanks a lot St Vincent's, you really fucked me over on this one... they really need to work on their public relations, because the way they operate (no pun intended) currently is fucking terrible.

In the meantime I'm keeping myself busy buying bottles of nail polish and expanding my etsy wishlist daily haha

I am getting better with my manicures and am starting to play around with using tape etc to create interesting designs, though I'm steady enough to draw the smile lines on my french manicures free-hand. I still love glitter the best though.

Ahhh glitter... I love glitter. Except for how bloody difficult it is to remove. I use the ol' aluminium and cotton balls soaked in acetone, but it's still a pain in the bum. So I've ordered some "peel off" undercoat that is supposed to work brilliantly with glitter polishes- I've ordered Innisfree, a Korean brand, as it was cheaper that the OPI version but should work just as well.

Also, did you know acetone eats through plastic? I didn't. Until I accidentally spilt nail glue all over my dining table (a beautiful antique table that needs to be re-sanded urgently lol). The glue also got on the bottom of my shiny Apple track pad and when I used acetone to try and remove it I ended up removing some of the track pad instead. Thankfully it's only cosmetic damage, and very minor at that (it's not noticeable unless you're looking at the underside of the track pad, and why would you do that?). So that was a bit of a nightmare to deal with- I swore pretty damn loud and long, that's for sure.

Speaking of polish, here's Nubar Star Sparkle and Violet Sparkle

And here's Emily De Molly's "Fashion Victim" with Nubar Star Sparkle on the accent nail;

And finally, Color Club's "Holiday Splendor" which, like the polishes above, is impossible to photograph properly because of my crappy camera phone's inability to capture the glittery goodness...