Festive Nubbins

I couldn't let Christmas go by without wearing this little beauty I found at a Hot Dollar store!

This is Easy Paris Cosmetics in the shade #026 and it has large hexagonal, slightly holographic green and gold glitter interspersed in small silver hex and round glitter in a sheer green base.

I was feeling rather festive while I was picking out a base colour and decided to do alternate both my Christmas favourites.

The green nails are two coats of China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, with one coat of the green hex glitter, and the red is two coats of China Glaze Ruby Pumps, with one coat of OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy with it.

It's just rolled over to Christmas morning in Sydney, so Merry Christmas from down under, i'm off to get some sleep!

Ulta3: Summer Siren Selection

Still working through my sample bags from the ABBW, I received a selection of four polishes from Ulta3's Summer Siren collection.

I was given Orchid, Mermaid Green, Sunset Pink and Blue Marlin.

Orchid is my pick of the bunch. It's a beautiful purple shimmer with a slight gold duo-chrome flash which looks way more expensive on the nail than it's $2.25 price tag. It also has a lovely formula that is opaque in two coats.

Mermaid Green is a murky blue green creme which i'm currently wearing on my nails. Seemed to fit with the nasty 'summer' weather we've been experiencing in Sydney lately :P

Sunset Pink is bright! If you're after a cheery, blue based, two coater pink that's cheaper than your morning coffee you'll want to snap this one up.

Blue Marlin was definitely the problem child. It is a lovely bright royal blue however the formula was not so good.

If you look at my swatch of Blue Marlin closely, you will see how patchy the coverage is on my index nail. Also, opening this polish gave me a bit of a shock!

I couldn't get this one back into the bottle without trimming off the bit sticking out the side...

As much as I love the colours of these polishes, I was rather disappointed with the quality. Ulta3 has been my go to brand for cheap and cheerful polish however this experience coupled with some other changes the brand has undertaken recently, have caused me to search for other polish brands.

While Ulta3 have kept the size of their bottles the same, the glass at the base has been thickened,  reducing the amount of polish in their bottles from 13.5ml to 13 ml. They have also moved the manufacture of their polish from Australia to China. Pity, I really liked the idea of buying aussie made and owned polish.

Below I have included a picture of two new style Ulta3 bottles (left) with two old style bottles (right) to show the changes made to the bottles.

*Some products included in this post were provided to me for consideration*

Orly Seagurl and Sweet Peacock

Hello readers! I thought that I would show you some of the goodies I was given at the Maxted Thomas.PR pre gala dinner event I attended as part of the ABBW.

One of the brands who were represented was Orly, who were doing free manicures to promote their Mineral FX collection and Gel FX. So I had my very first manicure not done by myself.

Clumsy Julia managed to whack her finger on the bottom of the table when she sat down for dinner, so please ignore the whoopsie on my middle finger, totally my fault.

This is Rococo A-Go-Go from the Mineral FX collection, a deep purple with a slight duo-chrome effect.

Then I got to bring home a gift pack with two polishes from the current Birds of a Feather collection.

After playing with them a bit, i've decided that the Orly brush is my favourite that i've used so far. It's a little like a China Glaze brush but less floppy.

Seagurl was the first one I tried. The formula was good, and it is definitely unique in my collection, but it looks a little too sophisticated on me in my opinion.

My favourite was Sweet Peacock! It is a lovely electrical blue metallic shades with flecks of silver throughout. This is going to get a lot of wear through summer :)

I wore this one as a full mani for a full week before it started to chip.

*These products were provided to me for consideration*

Illamasqua Propaganda w. Northern Lights

I wasn't too fussed about Propaganda with it being rather uneven and a bit boring (i.e not sparkly enough)  for my taste, but I wanted to get some idea of the wear time for Illamasqua polishes.  Then I remembered this post from a few months ago on the lovely Vita's blog and I had myself a mani!

I think the uneveness of the base makes this more like the night sky too.

This lasted 3 days before I got a few chips, and then the naughty polish picking monster reared its ugly head :P

Bad, bad blogger + IMATS haul swatches

Hello lovely readers! I am very sorry for my lack of posts lately. 

Despite having the time of my life at the ABBW, the event has left me feeling totally overwhelmed! Writing such a small and specialised blog, meeting 80+ gorgeous beauty bloggers and seeing the quality of their work makes me feel rather inadequate. Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing experience mingling with brand representatives and meeting the ladies behind some of the blogs I love to read but I think it was a little too soon for me to attend an event on that type of scale, being such a newbie to the blogosphere.

However, I am determined to get my little corner of the internet back on track so expect to see a lot more posts as I go into my summer break in about 5 weeks or so!

I didn't buy very much at IMATS but here are swatches of the two nail polishes I came home with.
First thing I did when I got into IMATS was race up the back of the hall to the Illamasqua counter. I've never tried any of their products before so I was definitely walking away with something. I was rather underwhelmed by the small selection of products until I saw the price tags. Two $35 nail polishes for $15?! Count me in!!

It took me a while to work out that the bulky square lids of these polishes actually come off revealing a smaller handle underneath. The brushes themselves are a little thinner that the OPI pro-wide which makes it easier not to make a mess of my tiny nails.

Propaganda is a very dark, almost black, blue jelly polish. I had a bit of trouble getting it even, as you can see in my swatch but it looks fantastic under a holographic top coat (see my next post).

Haha please excuse the massive difference in skintone on this one, I really am white as a vampire. I think I may have unwittingly changed the camera settings.

Victory is a cool toned gold shimmer that has a slightly frosty formula. You need to be careful the keep your brush stokes fairly straight or it will show in your finished mani, as you can see on my middle finger.

I can't really comment on the durability of these polishes just yet, only having played with them today, but I will include that info in my next post :)

The ABBW: A quick overview

So, currently I am sitting on my living room floor feeling slightly overwhelmed after taking photos of all my goodies and cataloguing business cards given to me by the lovely bloggers I met at the Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend. I feel like I now have enough material to write about for several years and I have no idea where to start!
Firstly, a huge thank you to the lovely Jacie and Kimmi from You've Got Nail and The Plastic Diaries for organising the whole weekend. It was absolutely amazing and you ladies deserve all the credit :)

Being my very first blogging event, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. However all the bloggers at the event made me feel extremely welcome and I am looking forward to meeting up with some of them again soon.

This weekend was also my very first trip to the International Make-Up Artist Trade Show! It was brilliant to have so many different brands in the one place and be able to speak with representatives about their products.

Goodness knows I never expected to have to lug this many bags home!

Also thank you to the wonderful sponsors of the ABBW who were so very generous and I just don't know where to start with all of these lovely goodies! 

But as this is a nail polish blog, here is a sneak peek of all the polishes that came home with me.

Excepting the Illamasqua polishes which I purchased from IMATS, these were all provided by the sponsors of the event.

Did anyone else make it to IMATS on the weekend? I'd love to know your thoughts!

We have a winner!!

Thank you to everyone for entering my giveaway hosted by piCture pOlish!
Unfortunately, there is only one prize so without further ado....

Congratulations Em from Nails in the Desert!

 I am looking forward to swatches on your blog :)

My MOO MiniCards

Who else is getting excited for the ABBW? I can't believe it's less than a week away!! I can't wait to meet some of Australia's wonderful beauty bloggers :)

Anyway, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I received my order of MOO MiniCards. I never thought that I would ever need to have business cards for my blog, but as they are strongly advised for next week's meet up I thought I might as well have some made up!

I placed my order for 200 cards on the 20th of August and on the 7th of September I had a small bubble mailer in my grabby little hands. I did pay for rush printing and priority mail as I was a little worried that they wouldn't arrive in time.

So after I ripped open the mailer, these cute little boxes fell out..

Each box holds 100 cards.

Seeing as I ordered a rainbow coloured pack I really couldn't help myself :P

Overall I am really happy with my weeny cards! They are very sturdy and I love the design, they're much nicer than anything I could find locally.

I can't wait to start swapping these with other bloggers!!

Also, I did receive a one off 10% voucher for a new customer, so if anyone is interested let me know!

Revlon Red

For the record, I may or may not have seen You've Got Nail's fabulous post on this lacquer and promptly erm 'borrowed' it, from dear Mum's bathroom cabinet.... I'm not sure that she's ever going to see it again!

I absolutely love this lacquer. This is a classic blue red which every lady needs in her polish arsenal It's also a handy one coater, but I would double up on the basecoat to prevent staining.

Being used to the OPI pro wide brush, I found this one to be a little too thin and a bit floppy, but not unwieldy. Also, as it's super pigmented, the red will go absolutely everywhere when you go to remove it, so try to wipe away from the cuticle. I also found it helpful, once i'd removed the lacquer from the nail, to do a quick swipe with a clean remover pad to get rid of the hot pink fingers.

I'm okay!!

Hey guys, i've got a bit of bad news today. I'm fine but my car is not.

I was driving back from uni this afternoon with one of my friends when I stopped at a traffic light. Next thing I know, there's this massive thud, and we're halfway out on the intersection! Some guy had run up the back of my Toyota Yaris hatchback with his dirty great Nissan Patrol! Wish I had my camera with me! My poor little Rosie (the car :P) now has her tush crushed halfway into the back seat by the other car's massive bull bar. It was very lucky that I didn't have my second friend in the car also that I usually drive home, if she'd been in the back seat she could have been seriously hurt!

Thankfully there was a tow truck about 5 cars back who stopped to help. First thing I did was ring Mum who told me to ring the police. Duh, I should have done that first :P Turns out the guy who ran up the back of me had been drinking -_- The police have assured me that I have nothing to worry about except not having my car for 2-3 weeks. t's the train for me until mid session break. But everyone's okay, and that's the main thing.

If you've read through all of that, sorry I just need to get all of this out of my system. I received my MOO business cards this morning and I will do a review on those. I'm also going to do a mani with Revlon Red as it's the exact shade as my little car :)

PiCture pOlish Giveaway!

*This giveaway is now closed!*

This giveaway is sponsored by the lovely ladies at piCture pOlish who have been generous enough to host giveaways for every blogger who participated in their blog fest!

One lucky winner will receive 3 shades of their choosing from the piCture pOlish line (Ozotic not included unfortunately). You can check out all the colours on the blogger swatch recently generated by the blog fest.

Just like this pretty :)

Just to let you know, the prize will be sent directly from the ladies at piCture pOlish. So I will require a shipping address from the lucky winner, which will then be provided to piCture pOlish.
This giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY and will be open for entries for two weeks, closing on Wednesday the 21st of September at 6:00 pm Sydney time. To enter please leave a comment to this post to enter, with your GFC and an email address you check regularly so I can contact you if you win! Best of luck!! xoxo

IMATS Sydney 2011 is Coming!

On the 24th & 25th of September, the Sydney Convention centre is playing host to the International Make-Up Artist Trade Show. That's less than a month away!

As my very first blogger event, I am very excited to be attending IMATS as part of the Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend (ABBW)!

The ABBW has been organised by the hardworking Kimmi behind The Plastic Diaries and Jacie from You've Got Nail, as a two day event, involving 80+ beauty bloggers from all over Australia. That takes some serious organisation!

I am looking forward to meeting some of Australia's awesome beauty bloggers and picking their brains. Oh an shopping up a storm!!

However, if you aren't attending the ABBW, IMATS is open to the public! So if you're interested in attending one or both days, you don't need any credentials from the beauty industry.

Tickets are available at the door, but to avoid disappointment, it is recommended that you purchase online.

Entry is $65 for a two day pass or $75 at the door

or $40 for a single day or $45 at the door ($20 for children aged between 5-12)

Show hours are 8:30am - 5pm on Saturday the 24th

and 10am - 5pm on Sunday the 25th

Once you're in, you also have access to several speakers well known in the beauty industry who will be presenting over the weekend.

Most notably

Napoleon Perdis

Elessa Jade of Pursebuzz

Rae Morris

Nicole Thompson

The full schedule of speakers may be found here.

If you're after shopping, IMATS won't disappoint!

M.A.C.

Napoleon Perdis

Inglot

Ben Nye

Crown Brush

just to name a few, will all have stalls at the event.

The full list of exhibitors can be found here.

I would love to know if you are planning on attending IMATS, might see you there!

Nox Twilight Sugar Plum

A month or so ago I was perusing the OPI stand in DJs when something caught my eye. After a little chuckle, I headed over to the '25% off all twilight merchandise' sign to have a quick look at the cosmetic line just to make sure I wasn't missing out on anything.

The whole nail polish line was still there along with some lip products that featured Cullen and Black staring at you creepily. Just a little heads up, i'm not Twilight's biggest fan ;). I've picked up the holographic 'Disco Darling' a few times, but just couldn't justify the $30 price tag. I wasn't planning on buying anything on this occasion either, but Mum who I was shopping with that day, took the polish up to the counter to see if they were included in the storewide stocktake sale.

Turns out they were selling for $7.50 each! A bargain in Aussie terms, so I rushed back over to the stand and picked up the other polish that had caught my eye, and left with Disco Darling and Sugar Plum.

The bottles feel rather heavy and expensive and hold 16ml.

Sugar plum is a medium pink with strong purple undertones and blue shimmer.

The formula is rather thin and dries very glossy, this is three coats.

These are older pictures as my ring finger nail on my swatch hand is still growing out. Here's hoping that  it's back to normal before the ABBW!

China Glaze OMG

Today i've got some silvery holo eye candy to share!

Although temperatures are back down to usual winter frigidness and the clouds have rolled back in, I managed to get a few holo swatches in during last week's blazing sunshine! Unfortunately i've had three breaks since then, including one on my more photogenic hand. So lots of naily envy, solar oil, old swatches and boring colours while I grow them out again boo!
These photos are over freshly (lightly) buffed nails and a ridge filler because I find that holo polishes are extremely unforgiving to any imperfections.

The first photo is sans top coat and the second is after. I really can't see any dulling of the holographic effect with top coat.

@_@

Love that rainbow effect!!

Mmmm this one's going to get a lot of wear come summer, the perfect polish for a day out in the sun!

OPI Purple with a Purpose

So I have something a little bit special to show you today.

Back in 2008 after a fair bit of window shopping I found a purple dress that I wanted to wear to my formal. As I was still a nail biter at the time, no mani, but I wanted to find the perfect purple pedi colour. I had absolutely no idea where to start looking! I had never bought nail polish before, I had no need for it, and if I wanted to give myself a quick pedi i'd just borrow one of Mum's Revlons :P

Woo! Spinning in my pretty dress :)

(Incidentally, this picture won me a free lippie in Australis' Shadey Friday competition that they run through their facebook page. Will definitely swatch once my face clears up a bit)

So this led me to my first visit to the OPI section of the local David Jones. I'd never seen so many pretty colours!! After a good half an hour of drooling, I walked away with this polish clutched in my hot little hands.

I apologize for the overly shiny/blurry pictures, but my camera freaks at the mere mention of purple and these were the only two that didn't look horribly washed out.

Purple with a Purpose would be just your average purple polish if it wasn't for the lovely red and blue shimmer that comes out to play in good lighting.

Looking at this colour now in comparison to some of the other colours in my stash, it's a little boring. Don't get me wrong I still love it as a pedi colour to go with a more complex purple mani, but I think i'm a little spolied by for choice with the more outrageous colours in my collection! It is a very nice staple to have.

piCture pOlish blog fest: Candy

If this posts on time, i'll be on my way to the first day of my second semester at uni! Only nine weeks till mid session break.... but who's counting?

You will most likely be experiencing an influx of piCture pOlish themed blog posts today. This is due to the scheduled piCture pOlish blog fest! Late in May, the ladies at piCture pOlish sent out an email to their e-newsletter subscribers asking for beauty bloggers to apply to swatch one shade from their range. The aim -  to have every piCture pOlish colour reviewed on the same day.

I was lucky enough to be chosen, and received the shade Candy to review, a bright, pastel bubblegum pink.

piCture pOlish is an Australian based company and their shades retail for AU$9.90 each, a steal compared to some other brands distributed in Australia. They come in little square bottles that hold 11ml of product with a nice, easy to hold cap and a medium length brush. If you have tiny nails like I do, you'll want to make sure that you wipe the excess polish off the brush before applying because it holds a lot of product.

This is three thin coats of piCture pOlish Candy over my usual ridge filler, topped with Out the Door fast dry top coat.

The formula was a little streaky and thicker than what i'm used to working with, but evened out nicely after the third coat and top coat. Candy lasted 4 days before I found a single tiny chip and removed the next day after finding a few more. As that's the sort of wear i've come to expect from higher end polishes I was really pleased.

I'm not a pink girl, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Even my dad who usually couldn't care less about polish though it looked really 'fresh'.

After I took the picture of the bottle with all the musk flavoured lollies, during a brief sugar high, I tried my unpracticed hand at a little dodgy nail art. Not sure if I should be sharing, but what the heck :P

Hehe have any tips for me?

If you would like to see swatches of the other 'blog fest' shades, I have been told that pictures will be posted on their facebook site and in the 'blogger swatch' section of the website. piCture pOlish is available at selected retailers and from their website which also stocks Ozotic polishes. Gotta get my hands on a few of those holographics!

Please note: This product was sent to me for the purpose of this review. This has in no way altered my opinion of the product.

Make up baby steps

Whew! After surviving 6 nerve wracking minutes of uni tutorial enrolments I decided I needed to get my butt into gear, and give my neglected blog some love :) I've had a rather rough couple of weeks with a major uni drama, horse manicure emergencies (lol aka split hooves) and packing and unpacking from the annual snow trip. The snow was awesome once we got there though! We got stuck in a blizzard and our friends had to spend the night in a lodge because their car isn't a 4 wheel drive :P Here a picture of a few of us skiing out the back on the one day it wasn't worth buying a lift ticket.

Anyway, after sending off my confirmation today to attend The Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend I decided that I need to start playing with a little make up if I want to hold my own with 84 gorgeous Aussie bloggers. Mum was ecstatic that I wanted to shop for something other that nail polish, although I did come home with two Revlons.... more on that in another post!

So with Mum in tow for a second opinion we headed to the MAC counter in our local David Jones. It was a rather memorable visit. The poor girl at the counter was run off her feet as the other artist had called in sick. The place was super crowded with people sheltering from the disgusting weather and there was glass all over the floor from a dropped foundation palette. Despite this, Casey was absolutely gorgeous and went out of her way to make sure I purchased the correct products.

I came home with a bottle of Mineralize Satinfinish SPF 15 foundation in NW20, a Powder Blush in Cubic and two Eye Shadows in Shroom and Sable.
 I was a little scared when Casey swatched the foundation on her hand. I do not fancy sporting the sparkly vampire look! However, on the face it gives a really nice dewy finish to the skin. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with oily skin because it's rather moisturising, but if you have dry/normal skin or even combination, (if you're prepared to powder you oily sections) and after sheer to medium coverage, this evens out skin tone really well and stayed put for 9 or so hours before I removed it. Costs AU$49.

I found that the two shadows I tried lasted really well with only minor creasing without primer.
Shroom is a really nice overall highlighter colour, but I think it would be rather dupable in a cheaper brand.
I really love Sable. It's a good everyday colour but could be intensified by adding more product for a night time look.
MAC shadows are AU$33 and powder blushes are AU$41.

I also tried the Opulash mascara and Cremesheen Glass in Deelight which I didn't buy. Although I really loved the colour of Deelight, I cringed a bit at the $43 price tag on my student budget. However i'm definitely going back to get the mascara at some point! It stayed put all day, didn't clump at all and didn't weigh down my long spindly lashes.

The real reason you've been experiencing somewhat of a posting drought is because i'm starting to become a little bored with posting about nail polish all the time. I still want to focus on polish, but what would you think about spicing it up a bit with the occasional post focused on a different area of beauty?  I have some gorgeous Australis and Evil Shades lip products and even some shoes that I would love to share with you! I'd love to know what sort of posts you'd like to see in the future.

Face of Australia Flaming Lava

So this is the elusive Flaming Lava from Face of Australia's current Molten Metallics collection.

After many fruitless trips to my local Priceline, K-mart and Big W, I finally decided to purchase it from online from fashion addict, and i'm so very glad I did!

This is two coats of Flaming Lava sandwiched between my new Revitanail ridge filler and Out the door fast dry top coat.

This is the second of the two reds I have in my stash, the other being China Glaze Ruby Pumps. I believe this must be remedied, this polish made me feel rather glamorous! 

This is a cracker of a polish for it's $4.95 price tag. I can see my bottle getting a lot of use!

OPI DS Signature

As i've said before, i'm not a pink girl. I have nothing against wearing pink, I just don't like the way it looks on my nails. However, shades like this one are slowly changing my mind.

DS Signature is a gorgeous rosy pink loaded with strong holographic shimmer. Although the old black label OPI formula is a little on the nose, it is hands down the best formula I have ever worked with. Like the majority of holographic polishes it is very fast drying, but this polish and the other old DS i've tried, Original, pretty much apply themselves!

It also doesn't hurt that this particular shade of pink works beautifully with my cool skin tone.

Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? Do you have that song stuck in your head now? Hehehe...

I think i'm going to have to hide this one from my sister who loves anything pink, or I won't have any left!

So if you are lucky enough to spot this beauty at a supply store or while dusty hunting, I definitely recommend picking it up!

It's such a shame that gorgeous holographic polishes like this can't be made in the new 3 free formulas.

Fashion Addict haul

EDIT: A reader has brought it to my attention that Fashion Addict will not post nail polish to certain international locations.

Last week I made my first order from Fashion Addict (Who now ship internationally!!) after stalking my local suppliers for weeks trying to pick up the very elusive Flaming Lava from Face of Australia's Molten Metallics collection. I was very impressed with the prompt shipping. I placed my order the Wednesday before, received a shipping notice on the Thursday and my package was in my hot little hands on Friday!

Originally, I was only going to purchase the one polish, until I saw that domestic orders over $40 get free shipping! So I went a little overboard...

I bought the Face of Australia polish in Flaming Lava that I was after, in addition to a massage therapy lip gloss in Torquay. I also bought 6 BYS polishes; Blue Sapphire, Fuchsia and Amethyst in a box set, and the three polishes from the Wonderland collection; Down the Rabbit Hole, Through the Looking Glass and Adventures of Alice. After all that, I was still a few cents short of $40 so I picked up a hair clip too, which i'm really liking!

Seeing as i'm sold on anything Alice in Wonderland themed after having a character role in my year six musical (hehe), here's two of the BYS glitters with their corresponding colours in OPI's Alice collection.

Adventures of Alice is a green version of Mad as a Hatter, but it is no where near as opaque as the OPI. However, Through the Looking Glass is very close to Absolutely Alice, but the blue glitter is quite big and the gold is more like a micro glitter, with the same opacity issues. So if you missed out on the OPI glitters, these BYS polishes are a rather good alternative in my opinion. Especially as Mad as a Hatter is going for absolutely ridiculous prices on ebay.

Expect to see a post dedicated to Flaming Lava very soon, as I am going to wear it when I go and see Mary Poppins the musical on the weekend.

Aussie ladies, if you'd like to get your hands on some BYS polishes, Cat from The Khromazone is holding a competition in conjunction with Fashion Addict, with the prize being 10 BYS polishes of the winners choice!! Go and check out her Big Birthday BYS Bonanza if you're interested.

What the hell is a Hufflepuff?!

'Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow!' 

'Are you sure that's a real spell? Well, it's not very good, is it?'

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone p 79

Ah, Ron, I feel your pain.

A few weeks ago, I decided that I needed a nice canary yellow polish to do a house colours mani for the upcoming Harry Potter movie and for a rainbow skittle mani i've been wanting to do for ages. I had heard that yellows are notoriously tricky to apply and that it's very difficult to find one that flatters cool toned gals like myself. So, I walked into my local Priceline a few days ago and picked up the yellow I saw sitting innocently on the Rimmel stand. Really, for $5, I wasn't too worried about the quality. I now feel like chucking this particular bottle in the bin. Rimmel Sunshine is a medium sheer streaky mess. I think it's growing on me...

This is three thin coats over my usual OPI Original Nail Envy base coat, and one extra thick coat on top due to my frustration at the streakiness, and my Revlon top coat.

I really do like the colour and the fact that it dries to a nice glossy finish, but I think that 4 coats is way too much effort for a full mani. You can still see VNL and several bald patches. This bottle won't hit the bin because want to use it for a skittle and more Harry Potter manis and I think I may still find use for it, but this is really the most temperamental polish I have ever worked with!

So here's my very first sticky tape mani in all its messy pre cleanup glory!

Yes, I did do the other hand in the same pattern, but no, i'm not posting a picture of an epic fail :P
I used Bloom Mena for the patterns, it's a perfect one coater. I think this is the closest i'll ever get to a true black holo, although I think it's more a holographic Vegemite... wouldn't that make breakfast interesting? I also used page reinforcement stickers for the half moon on my ring finger.
Oh, and I found the idea for my thumb nail design from a guest post from Do not refreeze by Emily from Emily's nail files, yay for bad-ass lightning bolts!
Anyway, does anyone really have an answer to my question?

Thank you Cedric :P
I'm getting so psyched for Deathly Hallows part 2! Anyone else have tickets to a midnight premiere? Just me? Thought so :)