nail inspiration

I've seen some amazing nails lately, and some of them even look do-able for a shaky-handed doofus like myself!

Emily Denise at Very Emily regularly posts mind-blowing nail photos, but this is a style that looks fantastic but would be pretty easy (albeit time-consuming) to achieve. There's a tutorial at Unicorn Parade-- a good trashy TV watching project!

 

Here's another great look from Emily Denise:  glitter over dark polish, but done in a really great way.

  

I am a big fan of Bronny's blog Fat Aus, and I've been lurking and reading her archives. I love these nails! There's a tutorial at The Dainty Squid. I'm really into triangles right now, and I really love the way this looks!

And back to the impossible: Emily Denise's butterfly nails. So beautiful!

nails: disco ball

 

I was so excited when I saw that my beloved Rimmel had brought out a glitter polish, Disco Ball! I have wanted to try one for a while but Rimmel is my go-to trusted brand so I snatched it up.

nails: black cherry

This is Rimmel I ♥ Lasting Finish in Black Cherry. The name is perfect: it's a lovely dark reddy-purple. I've shied away from very dark colours before because they can look cheap and trashy. Not that that's always a bad thing: I spent much of my teenage years trying to look cheap and trashy. But I'm too old for chipped black nailpolish now, I think. Very dark colours really need to be worn carefully to look elegant.

It isn't quite as nice to apply as the other Rimmel polishes I've tried; I don't know if that's because of the dark colour or the fact that it's Rimmel's cheapest line, but the polish is very thick and you need to wait a long time between coats to make sure it doesn't go gooey. Still, I wore this colour twice in a row, which I almost never do.

Note: this was taken in the late afternoon on a winter's day in June. I guess sometimes living in Perth isn't all bad.

nails: grurple

After seeing Michelle of Eat Paint Sniff Glue rave about Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in 370: Commander in Chic in her Monday Manicure post, I had to try it! It's a really hard colour to describe: the closest I can come is a grey-mauve, which my husband dubbed "grurple."

It's kind of silly but the thing I really like about this colour is that it contains all colours and shades. It's got blue and red to make the purple; yellow to muddy it and add a little brown; and black and white for the grey. It looks a bit like a paint palette when you mix everything together before you wash it (not because you need to, just because it's fun).

The application was okay but not amazing, which was surprising; I thought that since Sally Hansen products are synonymous with nails it would be the best application ever, but it was a little more slow-drying than my beloved Rimmel polishes. Still miles better than cheapo brands, but for $16 (as opposed to Rimmel for less than $10) I was expecting a miracle.

I'll definitely be reapplying it, though. It's a lovely soft, chic colour for winter. Grurple!

nails: teal

This is one of my favourite shades, Rimmel 60 Seconds in Sky High. This isn't a great light (winter makes blog photography difficult!) but it's a perfect teal: it looks blue against green and green against blue. A beautiful and suprisingly wearable colour. I bought it because it looked so pretty on my friend Liz, who was also the person who recommended Rimmel polish.

And let me pass on the recommendation to you! Rimmel is absolutely the best nailpolish brand I have used. It goes on thick and nearly-opaque (I never need more than two coats) and wears well. (The photo above is after several days' wear). They're really cheap, too: 60 Seconds is around AUD $8 in Priceline (and there's a 2 for $10 sale on now).

Note: Rimmel didn't pay me any money to say nice things about their nailpolish, although I wish they would.

nails: light blue

This is Scene Queen from Chi Chi. I thought I'd give this cheap and cheerful brand a go when I saw it in Myer, but it's absolutely crap. The colour is cute but the application was a nightmare. It went on chalky and streaky, and although I left it to dry for nearly half an hour between coats it still ended up with a horrible finish. I would never buy anything from this brand again, and will probably never use this bottle again. I hate you, Chi Chi!



A much more successful buy was this pair of tights, also from Myer (department store sales = excellent time to buy hosiery). They're Jonathon Aston Luxury tights in Lipstick Pink. This photo doesn't even do justice to their brightness-- today was cloudy and gloomy and my legs seemed to be glowing. I heartily recommend Jonathon Aston, especially for chubby girls-- they actually make a larger size that is comfortable and come in lots of fun colours. I'm glad I bought two pairs!

nails: gold

I recently started painting my nails, and it made me really happy. So I thought I would take photos and share them here, for some reason.

This is a Revlon polish in 'Gold Get 'Em', a seriously terrible name but I guess in this stage of human history they have used up all the good names. I picked this up in the Myer sale for $3.45. It's a really lovely, subdued shade of gold, if you can imagine such a thing. I had to load on three coats to get it opaque, and it would also look pretty and soft with one or two coats. It's my first Revlon polish (as recommended by Suzanne) and I really liked it. It went on easy and dried quickly. It didn't last as long as my favourite, Rimmel, but it was about 5 days before it started to chip at the top edge. It actually made me realise how yellow my skin is, because at a certain angle it looked like a nude shade. Anyway, high marks and one of my favourite shades so far.