Angel Kiss - Halo hues

I love holo nail polishes so I was super excited when Color Club introduced their range of Halo Hues. Unfortunately it's hard to find Color Club in Australia and before I knew it this range was going for more $$ than I wanted to spend on ebay. Luckily a fabulous lady from one of the nail groups I am in offered to send me some. I have been waiting patiently (and not so patiently) to try them out but December was crazy and with holiday challenges on top I didn't get around to trying them. I was looking forward to this in-between week to try out some of my stash of "to tries", fate hasn't been kind and I've been hit with some sort of bug. I wasn't giving up, so between sleeps (aka nanna naps) I removed my old mani and applied this one in stages. I can say I've learnt that if you're sick applying polish is far harder than it should be. The formula of this polish is lovely and I'm positive the errors were on my side. Enough babbling, look at the pretties, this polish is just fab!

 Of course the first one I tried had to be the green based Angel Kiss. I do love green! The holo in these shows so much better than my other holo polish. Angel kiss just needs a hint of light to show it's beauty.

I love it! and in the light I just can't stop looking at my nails :)

Have a safe Sunday and I hope (everything crossed) I am able to get the New Year's mani that's in my head done before it is actually 2013.

Christmas Day nails

It's summer in Australia so while I enjoyed the reds and greens of Christmas it was time to get into summer colours. This pink is by Lime Crime and called Parfait Day. It is a gorgeous pastel candy pink and as I've said before I love Lime Crime so so so easy to use.

Again I have to apologise for the photos, there just wasn't time to get the camera out and take better ones. I did Nailside's awesome Christmas tree on my accent fingers and added a coat of Deborah Lippmann Boom boom Pow to the other fingers. I can promise it looked better in real life. I do wish though that I could find a gold glitter with the quality of DL but without the yellow tinted clear base.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa found you with some nail goodies :) I received some of the China Glaze Christmas sets, some Cirque polishes I have been longing for and the Zoya gold topcoat. Once I've recovered from Christmas I look forward to doing some manis with them and with the Color Club halo hues collection I purchased this month but had no time to try!

Stay safe

Santa and Elves - winter holiday challenge

Apologies these are just photos from my phone :(. It's been so busy around, these are from Christmas Eve and I hope I remember what I used lol.

Elf suit - Nubar reef green and Essie First Dance

Red nails - Essie First Dance

Santa - face - nubar faded putty, nose OPI sparrow me the drama, white Essence sparkling water lily and red same as above. Santa suit same red and white, gold is Zoya Ziv. 

My cuticles look very stained but they did clean up nicely.

reindeer - Holiday Winter Challenge

The reindeer were a lot of fun to do and while technically I missed the sleigh out I just had to attempt these reindeer. I followed the tutorial by Simply Rins and made a couple of adjustments to suit me better.

The base colour is Milky Ways by Lime Crime - I still love this brand for their rich colours and ease of use. I used e.l.f Innocent for the reindeer heads, e.l.f smoky brown for their antlers, their cheeks are dots of Opi mod about you and Rudolph's nose is Sally Hansen ruby stilettos.

I think they are so very cute and am super grateful Rina did the amazing tutorial for them.

 Then... I thought they were looking lonely so decided to add an attempt at Santa and an Elf. I like how they both turned out but wish I had done the elf's face a different colour as his ears don't stand out as well as I'd hoped.

Santa used - Essie First dance for his hat, one coat of Zoya Grace over Orly white out for his face, Orly white out then Essence sparkling water lily dotted over for his hat trim and painted on his beard to add texture. Elf used - Opi - mod about you for his face, Nubar Reef green for his hat and then I used a red nail art pen for the trim but I am disappointed that that came out more brown looking.

I do love them though and love the super Christmas buzz I get from looking at my nails :)

Have a safe weekend.

Please visit the other wonderful bloggers taking part in this challenge.

Christmas ornaments - winter holiday challenge

This challenge was a lot of fun! I love everything Christmas, but am seriously addicted to baubles :). Not sure why but I love them and don't believe you can ever have too many on your tree. So in choosing ornaments for this challenge I couldn't go past baubles.

I started with a bade of Nubar faded putty with two coats, I then added one coat of Essence - Sparkling water lily. The baubles are done in fuchsia Essie - Bossa Super Nova, blue- Zoya - Robyn and Butter London Scallywag and the purple is Opi - Purple with a purpose. I used a gold nail art pen for the hooks and decoration.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Trees always look better when surrounded with gifts :)

The day you went away

14 years since our daughter gained her wings. This China Glaze is Princess Grace - such a perfect name

Happy birthday our Princess Grace

This mani is in honour of our daughter Grace who should be turning 14 on the 16th December. Happy birthday precious girl, we miss you every single day.

Even though I dislike visible nail line (VNL) I couldn't not use Zoya Grace.

Presents and gift wrap - winter holiday challenge

I didn't get around to doing this challenge until yesterday, with the news coming out of the US it was a little hard to feel merry and bright so these are more somber than what I had planned. As a side note my heart breaks for the families and loved ones of those who were tragically taken yesterday. Children! just tiny little children - I will never understand.

 I started with a base coat of Lime Crime (I'm in love with this brand) Milky Ways and stamped using Konad black. The glitter ribbon is China Glaze I'm not Lion.

My free hand bows weren't as crisp as I would like but it's all still a learning curve :)

Please visit the other wonderful bloggers taking part in this challenge.

Snowman - Christmas Challenge

 I re-found some mojo and absolutely loved doing this mani! The lil snoman is so cute! I used Lime Crime Once in a Blue Mousse and it was a dream to use. The brush is great, it covered so easily as the formula is to die for!

The snowflakes were doing with Konad white and the ddots and Snowmen were Orly white out.

The cute little nose is Illamasqua Purity.

The snowman on my right hand, he's just as cute :)

I have another challenge due today but these snowmen are too cute to take off just yet so I may have to play catch up next week.

Have a happy Friday!

Please visit the other bloggers taking part in this challenge!

XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
Iced Laquer
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Mari522 (on Instagram)
Fairytale Charm
nailzbyroro (on Instagram)

Festival of lights - winter holiday challenge

This is the third challenge for the Winter Holiday Challenge. I'm still struggling a little with lack of mojo but I'm sure it will be back soon, fingers crossed. This one was a fun concept.

I used Zoya Elisa, I love Zoya the formula is always great and the colours always vibrant. I then added a coat of China Glaze fairy dust for sparkle. I drew on the black line with a Sally Hansen nail art pen and used Zoya, Carly, Apple, Myrta and Zuza for lights.

Be sure to visit the other bloggers taking part in this challenge, there are so many talented bloggers out there!