Dainty Doilies

After more than a year of talking about it, pondering and hesitating, I finally took the leap and a bought a new camera. I've had my old Olympus E-510 for close to 5 years now and I felt it was time for a little upgrade. In the end I went for the Canon 60D. It arrived yesterday and I've spent every waking hour since trying to figure it out! This is my first post using pictures from that camera so let me know if they look any different.

Recently I was looking through all the piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013 entries and two in particular caught my eye. I just loved Lucy's Stash and XOXO Alexis Leigh's Blog Fest manicures and this creation is a sort of mash-up of the two. I took the idea of painting from the corner from Alexis and a lot of the patterns were inspired by Lucie! I like the subtle colours but I also think it would look amazing in a combination of brights.

1. For the base I used one coat of Barry M Lychee (creme nude) followed by two coats of Nails Inc Elizabeth Street (shimmery nude).
2. I freehanded on the designs with a nail art brush using NYC Mint Macaroon, Sally Hansen Himalayan Blue and Barry M Prickly Pear.
3. When everything was dry I finished it off with two coats of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.

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Unknown Barry M, blue, freehand, green, Nails Inc, nude, NYC, purple

piCture pOlish - Blogger Glitter Gradient

Today I have another piCture pOlish beauty to show you - Blogger! This one was created by piCture pOlish as a dedication to all bloggers and it's basically a glitter bomb packed with multi coloured glitter in different sizes. A glitter rainbow in a bottle!

You can wear this on it's own with 2-3 coats because the glitter is so dense or you can layer it. I created a glitter gradient over Elf Desert Haze. Next time I will try layering a whole coat of Blogger over white polish, I think that would look really pretty too.

piCture pOlish can be purchased directly from their website - picturepolish.com.au. They do international shipping. You can also purchase it at various etailers throughout the world. Check out their Network page for more info. You can keep updated on any piCture pOlish news via their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

*The product featured  in this post was sent to me for review.

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Unknown multi glitter, nude, picture polish, review

Banish the Blues: Getting Skirty

Day 2 of Banish the Blues and so far so good... not an ounce of Blue in sight! When I sat down with this idea in mind last night I had no idea where it came from but I knew it would work. As I was getting dressed today I spotted a skirt in my wardrobe which I haven't worn or even thought about for aaaaages with this same exact pattern on! I guess I had recently seen the skirt but only noticed it subconsciously until it surfaced as a nail art idea. Spooky stuff!

I used Barry M Lychee as my base colour and then painted on the spiky stripes from the cuticle upwards using a nail art brush and No7 Just Black and Born Pretty Fluorescent Polish #15. It's all topped off with a coat of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.

Here's an insta-shot of the skirt (kind of). I added an accent of black glitter this morning after the other pictures were taken!

@thesammersaurus on Instagram

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Unknown Banish the Blues, Barry M, black, freehand, No7, nude, yellow

Pink & Nude Gradient With A Sprinkle of Fairy Dust

As I'm currently testing out the durability of some polishes I've received this week, so here is something I did a couple of months ago but just left sitting in my unpublished folder.
I'm not as good at gradients as some of the other girls, I always have trouble blending the colours properly and they cause me such a headache. Not to mention that they are super messy and I spend ages cleaning up! I like the way this one turned out though! The colours I used were inspired by my Instagram friend (@cassgooner). If you have IG, check out her awesome designs!

I started off with a coat of ELF Desert Haze which I also used for the gradient along with Andreia No.109 which is actually a very vibrant pink neon but it turned into a medium pink on the nail. Probably because it's a jelly and also because it's sitting over another polish! The side positioned leopard was done with the smallest edge of a dotting tool and I topped everything off with China Glaze Fairy Dust.

I wish doing gradients wasn't so messy because they make for really pretty manicures!

Isn't Fairy Dust pretty?

Thanks for reading and commenting!

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Unknown china glaze, elf, glitter, gradient, nude, pink

Etoile Polish Mauvelous set review

Hi girls!

How about some more Etoile Polish today? I probably should have posted the Mauvelous Winter collection before my Greenwich St. Soirée Spring post yesterday but hey I'm sure you won't mind, will you?

Midnight Kiss is a warm nude with a slight pink/mauve hue and the Etoile Polish diamond dust signature shimmer. I wasn't really sure what to expect in terms of formula but apparently I have yet to be disappointed in Etoile Polish's quality as it was simply perfect after two coats.

Winter Dusk is a muted, brown based, medium mauve with diamond dust shimmer. I really love it on, I find it delicate and soothing somehow. You're also looking at two easy coats in the swatches below.

Overall :

Another beautiful set from Etoile Polish. More subdued but with an extra touch of sparkle, the Mauvelous collection is suitable on every occasion.

Etoile Polish retais for $18 each or $26 for the set and is available for purchase on etoilepolish.com

*products provided for review*

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Unknown Etoile Polish, mauve, nude, review, shimmer

I Like My Candy Mattified

Press Sample

I like it when my nails look tasty! Thanks to that super bright pink, my nails are looking sugary sweet today and the matte top coat is just a perfect addition. I got this effect using striping tape and although it would figure that it took a long time because it took a hell of a lot of tape, it was actually a lot quicker than some of my more intricate tape manis. I think because once I'd done one nail, all I had to do was repeat it on all the others and I had a good rhythm going by the end!

I used two coats of Barry M Lychee as my base colour and topped it with a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly. Once it was all dry, I placed on some striping tape where I wanted Lychee to show through (tutorial here). Next, I painted over it with Models Own Bubblegum and Barry M Mango one nail at a time and immediately removed the tape.

I topped it with another coat of Dries Instantly and finally once it was all dry, I added one coat of Rimmel's Matte top coat.

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Unknown Barry M, matte, Models Own, nude, orange, pink, striping tape

Wham Bam!

Back to the very basics today with some simple half moon nails. It looks to me like the half moons are making my nails look impossibly square. I know they are square but do they look more... angular dressed up in half moons? Let me know if it's just me!

I used Barry M Lychee as a base then painted on the half moons with W7 Black Cherry using a nail art brush. Still using the nail art brush, I used a little bit of top coat to attach the studs which are from Born Pretty Store. It's all topped off with a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

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Unknown Barry M, black, Half Moon, nude, w7

Red Red Ruffian

This weekend has completely passed me by, I really can't believe it's already over! I've had a good balance of excitement and mundaneness. Think a Saturday night drinking with old friends and watching Iron Man 3 today vs. lots of cleaning and a nail polish cull! 

I reorganised my Helmer and picked out 37 bottles for recycling, or as I like to call it.... frankening fun! It was good to go through my stash and rediscover a lot of polishes that I'd kind of forgotten about. Every two minutes I'd be like, 'Aaaah yes, I remember you!'. It made me realise I probably need to figure out a way to catalogue my ever growing collection. Call me crazy, but that job sounds like hella fun!

The two colours here are Barry M Lychee and Barry M Blood Orange. I painted on the red ruffians using a nail art brush and added some orange studs from Born Pretty Store. Finally I topped it all off with a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

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Unknown Barry M, nude, red, Ruffian, Snippet, studs