Hi Goddesses
Oooof, sorry this is so late, but tired doesn't even BEGIN to cover how I feel today. I think the weekend has well and truly caught up with me, and by the time I had tried to de-dupe a spreadsheet, I was only a heartbeat away from a coma lol. So ... one loooooong nap later, here we are :)
This post has been waiting a little while, which is rare for something I really really liked when I did it. This is a gradient done with 2 Rococo Nail Apparel polishes - T-Cup and Hot Pants - with some doodling on top with Rococo Hip Hop.
Because of the nap, I'm not quite as organised tonight as I want to be, but this was the first mani I did using the Sam Biddle nail art pen (website photo rather than my own).
For me, fine lines in my nail art is my holy grail, and I received this for review with open arms. I'm still playing with it, so I am not totally offering an opinion yet, but I did feel this mani had more precision than some of my others. There will be a full review coming soon.
Overall, I just loved the combo of these 3 colours - hot and cold and summer all over :)
Hi Goddesses
If you've read this blog for quite a while, you can be forgiven for being in a state of shock right now. If you're sat, tumbled, on the floor, if you've fallen off your chair, or if your mouth is hanging open with your tongue lolling out, I apologise .... yup, I used a yellow!
The eagle-eyed amongst you may remember having seen this yellow - Midas Touch by Delush Polish - in a multi-coloured leopard mani a few weeks ago. I loved the yellow nail so much that .... gulp ... I actually wanted / chose / elected to make it into a full-blown mani.
To be fair, this yellow rocks. It's a yellow gold hybrid with perfectly placed glitters, which give it enough edge to be sunshiney, but not migraine-y.
So for those of you who are new to this blog, a recap - yellows are so rare in my nail polish collection that they all stand next to a mirror so they don't feel so outnumbered! It's my most hated polish colour by a mile, but dammit Delush, you got me :)
Hi Goddesses
Every once in a while, there is a polish so special, so gorgeous, so breath-taking, that even *I*, The Crumpet, cannot find enough ooohs and aaaahs to describe it.
I've already reviewed a few polishes this year that have gone straight into my "Top 10 of The Year" list, and here's another, the jaw-dropping Prana, by Nire's Desires.
Duochromes? I'm kind of meh about them. I don't like that most of them, at some point, bend to a colour I detest, so I feel I can't control what's on my nails lol. However, give me a purple-red duochrome and I roll over and beg for my tummy to be tickled.
I have owned HITS So Unique (very good), ILNP Undenied (kinda meh), Crows Toes Indian Summer (similar but subtly different), but Prana beats them all. Not by a little, but by a lo-o-o-ot. By a mile. A million miles. A galaxy. A wormhole black hole kind of thing. A lot.
This duochrome hugs the red to purple universe in a loving embrace, from ruby to burgundy to violet to damson to every shade in between. AND it occasionally shakes some electric blue shimmer at you.
So what makes Prana so special? Well for me, this polish is the essence of a perfect duochrome for 3 reasons -
* the formula. So so baby smooth. Nothing nasty or metallic about it. Pure cremey goodness.
* the bend. It actually bends. Not when your hand is underwater, rotated up your back and with you squinting from behind your knees - you can sit and play with this one like you would a holo. It loves to play. It's kitten happy.
* the balance. THIS is the pay-off. Usually, duochromes have a "resting" state, and then their alternate colour. The resting state is present 80% of the time, and only unusual angles or lighting bring the other - and it's usually the more interesting - colour to the fore.
Well Prana is perfectly balanced, 50/50 between red and purple. Sometimes it's red. Sometimes it's purple. It's equally both, and THAT is why it's a work of genius.
And now, perhaps a surprise - this polish was purchased by me and was not sent for review. So there, that makes it even GOODERER lol xx
Over the next few days, you can see some stamping over Prana, and also an intensive comparison with Crows Toes Indian Summer.
Hi Goddesses
Firstly, my sincere apologies that this is posting on Monday instead of Saturday. I was away with work for part of last week at the Festival of Education, and just ran out of time to get this written before I went away.
So what are we doing today? Well, we are doing super simple dots. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated, just how to pick up a dotting tool and use it on your nail. The focus is on how to get evenly spaced dots - and that's why in the video I've used a cardboard base rather than my own nails, so that you can see more of what I'm doing.
Let's take a look.
So, how do great evenly spaced dotticures look?
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Aren't they GORGEOUS. I love dotticures - seriously, one of THE simplest forms of nail art, and the happiest too!
If you Google "dotticure", you will be amazed at the variations you will see, and over the next 3 weeks, we will be tackling other styles of basic dotting.
It's still not too late to join in - if you fancy sharing your progress, you can join the SIMPLES group on Facebook by clicking HERE.
Hi Goddesses
But things are different now. Jo has opened the OPI door, and I have walked through to the amazing polish Narnia on the other side. And one day, Jo makes her biggest mistake – “have you seen the latest OPI Collection?”
What? What now? Wuh ? What? They do COLLECTIONS??!! Jo tells me OPI release collections throughout the year – 3 or 4 of them …. I am in awe and shock. This is like Cadburys releasing new chocolate bars throughout the year.
A never ending supply of NEW???? Hello Narnia!
Jo doesn’t have a picture to show me, so tells me to go on Google images, which I have never used before. Apparently, you just type in OPI and the name of the polish and WOAH HO HO holy mother of Narnia what do we have here !!!
Oh my .. all these … so many …. Polishes … wow, never knew they …. So many colours ….. OMG. And the best news is – I don’t own most of them !! oh sweet hallelujah.
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And just like that, Google images becomes my porn.
