Hi lovelies,

Today I'm back to red for my Christmas nail art, as well as Christmas trees. I'm feeling a little repetitive this year...

I was pretty happy with how these turned out, although I think I need to work on my glitter gradients a bit. I used just regular craft glitter for this and I have to admit I was a little stumped on how to put it in a gradient. But after a little trial and error, I discovered the best way was just to apply the red polish as normal and when it had dried to a tacky stage, just press the glitter on with my fingers. Of course, this method did mean placement and gradient was left a lot to chance and luck!

How To Survive The Family Christmas

Hi there everyone!

So, I'm sorry that this post is later than I would have liked, but I went away last weekend and my grandparents arrived from New Zealand and then last week was pretty jam-packed due to it being the last week of school and work and my sister was graduating (from primary school) and then a bunch of relatives arrived on Saturday (also from New Zealand) and it's been a little full on. And so while I'm disappointed about me falling behind a little on my schedule I think it's been justified (unlike some of my absences).

Anyway, all this talk leads me onto the subject of this post - tips to survive the mad rush of the holidays and relatives and family stuff.

While it can be great to have family around, especially over the Christmas and holiday period and especially if you don't get to see them very often but it can certainly become very stressful, very quickly. To be frank, I am really quite glad I only have to go through this every couple of years or so due to the fact that we live in a different country to the rest of the family. But here are my suggestions to help ensure the smoothest, bestest, least-stressful family occasion you can. I think most of them are pretty common sense, but I think it's good to be reminded of them every once in a while!

Avoid Controversial Topics
As boring as it may be to stick to boring, safe topics, please remember that they are safe for a reason. Talk about uni, talk about school, talk about work, talk about the weather, stick to the safe topics. Don't talk about things like whether banning women from wearing burqas in public in Australia is a good idea or not. Equally, if you have elderly or rather conservative relatives, maybe staying away from topics like tattoos and body piercings would also be a good idea. You know, just from personal experience.

Penguins and Snowflake Nail Art AKA Traditional Winter Nail Design

Hi lovelies,

After my last Christmas nail design, I am quite happy to be able to tell you that I like how these pictures turned out. It's actually quite frustrating to me how my photography and photo taking skills seem to be fluctuating so much recently... Never mind, that is a problem for another day. Although actually, today's nail's were also a truly frustrating and irritating endeavour and to be honest, if the photos had come out as bad as the holly ones, I wouldn't have bothered editing and posting them. I was so over them.

Although - how cute are these guys??

First of all, I thought my blue background was going to be too dark, so I did a test run with two different blues on paper first. All was good and I did one hand in that colour. Then I started on the penguins. Now, normally when I do my nails I do all of them at once, through different stages, rather than completing one whole nail before moving on to the next one. However, if I'm not sure how well my design is going to transfer from my head on to my nail, I'll do one whole nail first to seen how it goes. But I was totally confident in my ability to paint penguins.

So I did their little white bodies and then the little black insides and the white eyes and then I was like, hold on a minute. Something looks wrong. A quick google of penguins then proved that yes, I was wrong and they actually have black bodies with white insides (tummys? I dunno what to call it). So I had to redo that entire hand (which was my right hand, because I always do my right hand first and let me tell you that my left hand was not thanking me for that).

Holly Berries Nail Art

Hi there everyone,

Big surprise, I'm back with more Christmas nails, although this time at least they aren't overwhelming red like the other two designs I've done. They just are slightly red, which I think shows that I'm branching out a bit in terms of Christmas colours. :)

These turned out so much better than I was expecting. When I started these, I didn't really have a plan in mind so I was pleasantly surprised when these turned out as well as they did. Also, they did look a lot better in real life - I was once again very frustrated at how the photos of these came out.

Christmas Presents Nail Art

Hi there everyone!

So, I'm a little behind schedule on my Christmas nail art designs for this year, so here's my second one. I had hoped to have many more by this time but then I made the decision to completely overhaul my blog's look and layout and name and everything in December. Nice work Dani. (I probably should have thought about how busy that decision was going to make me before I started). Oh well, live and learn.

To be honest, I'm not that enamoured with these nails. I did them late at night, when I was very sleepy and wanted to go to bed but wanted to have polish on my nails more.

Powder Perfect Christmas Collection Review

Hi everyone!

So just recently I got my first polishes from Powder Perfect and am so excited about them! In case you didn't know, Powder Perfect is an Australian indie brand that's based in Queensland.

While I have known about them for a while, I'd never actually bought anything from them until now. (This was mostly due to my limited amount of disposable income and the fact that indie's are just more expensive than mainstream polishes and also, shipping costs..)

However, when I saw Cassie's review of their Christmas Collection over on the Reluctant Femme, I knew I had to buy at least some of them!

In hindsight, I possibly should have branched out of the red glitters but they were both so pretty and I don't have any red glitters and I wanted them both. So the polishes I ended up with were It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas and Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal.

First up is It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, which is a bright fire-engine red. I know it doesn't look it in these pictures, but it is actually wonderfully sparkly in real life. It's got just the right amount of holo mixed in amongst the glitters to give it an extra lift while still keeping it within the 'glitter polish' range, rather than the 'holo polish' range.

Christmas Nail Art Challenge - Day 11

Woooo! Look at me go! Two posts in one day. :)

How about we ignore the fact that the only reason I'm posting two in one day is because I was so late in posting the first one of today..... That sound good?

Anyway, day 11 was Christmas sparkle and so I, of course had to do the bling-y-est Christmas nails I could think of. :) I was also excited to do this one because I got to use one of my (many) new nail polishes that I got for Christmas. :) Yay!

Anyway, this is what I came up with.

Christmas Nail Art Challenge - Day 10

Hello lovelies,

I hope you all had an excellent Christmas and if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a lovely day anyway. :) I had a really, really nice Christmas. We visited friends in Bunbury a couple of days beforehand, which was really nice, and then Christmas Day itself was very relaxing and low key. We went to the beach and had a brunch and generally kicked back and relaxed.

Anyway, because I was away and then I was feeling very relaxed, I am totally late with Day 10 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge. It was meant to be on the 24th.... Oh well.

The prompt was 'Santa and Friends' and I think that this one is potentially my favourite out of all of the challenges. Here it is...

Christmas Nail Challenge - Day 9

Hello lovelies,

Okay, so, I think this is becoming a habit. For each day of this challenge, I've come up with some great design, only to fall short at the execution of it... (Except for the presents, I really, really, liked those).

So, for the this prompt - Christmas decorations - you will get to see my right hand. Why, because my left hand turned out so horrific that there was no way I was going to post it. Mostly because I had red candles on the left hand and when I applied the top coat, the design was ruined... I need my new top coat. I've been using Poshe's Super Fast Drying Topcoat, which I get from here, and I really like it. Mostly because of the incredible drying time and I like the fact that it is 3-free. However, it ran out and I hadn't had the foresight to order a new one before then, so I've been using whatever's lying around, which, happens to be a Manicare Clear Coat that came as part of a French Manicure I got as a present once. Now I know that it is not suitable for nail art which is another strike against the kit. (I wouldn't recommend the kit).

Anyway, this is what I did in the end.



I went for candles because in my house, we have so many candles and all of them get lit at Christmas time. Also, Christmas time for me always has memories of sitting outside in the dark with only candles lighting the night while we talk tall evening.

I'm really sorry about the less than great photos - my photography with my left hand really needs improvement! :)

Check out the other's here.

For these, I used, OPI's 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' (white), Mode's 'Blueberry' (blue), Chi Chi's 'Doris Day' (light yellow) and Ulta3's 'Honolulu' (darker yellow).

Christmas Nail Challenge - Day 8

Hi all,

Being the 18th, it is time for Day 8 of the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge.

Today's prompt was snow and this is what I came up with.

Christmas Nail Challenge - Day 7

Hello lovelies,

Well, guess what? Today means that we have reached day 7 of the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Challenge. Yay! That means we are over half way through. While this challenge has been really fun and definitely something I would do again, I do feel my enthusiasm waning a little. It's hard to have to stick to a schedule of when I need to paint my nails - I'd rather just be allowed the freedom to do them when I want to. Although, saying that, I generally paint my nails every 2-3 days anyway. It's just occasionally that I really can't be bothered doing them. Today was an example of such.

Anyway, back on track, today's prompt was 'Inspired by a Christmas Movie'. I chose 'Sleepless in Seattle' , which might not be the most Christmassy of movies, but it was Christmassy enough for me. :)

This is what I came up with.

Christmas Nail Art Challenge - Day 6

Hello there beautiful people,

It's the 12th today and it was time for me to attempt 'Santa's List/Workshop'. I was not looking forward today - I was totally stumped as to what to do.

After much deliberation and many episodes of Torchwood, this is what I came up with.

Christmas Nail Art Challenge - Day 5

Hello lovelies,

Today, it's time for day 5 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge. Today's prompt was 'Christmas Song/Carol'. My nails for today were inspired by a very non-traditional Christmas song by Owl City called The Christmas Song. You can hear it here, if you haven't heard it (I recommend it, it's a lovely song). These nails were particularly inspired by the line

'It's Christmas, and we are in love, with the way that the soft snowflakes kiss us'

Christmas Nail Art Challenge - Day 4

Hello to you all and how are you today?

Me, I am exceedingly tired as Midget, my younger sister, thought it would be an awesome idea to wake me up at 7:00 this morning so that I could watch Phineas and Ferb with her. Urgh... Okay, maybe I might have said the other week that she should wake me up so that I could watch it with her, but I didn't know it was at 7:00!

Anyway, for the 4th day of the 1 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge, the prompt was 'Christmas where you live'. I live in Australia and for me, Christmas conjures up visions of sun, heat, sand, the beach, flies, heat, heat and more heat. For me, if Christmas Day isn't over 38 degrees, something feels a little off. :)

So, in true summer fashion, these are my nails depicting Christmas where I live.

Christmas Day Art Challenge - Day 3

Hello lovelies,

Today I'm back with Day 3 of the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge. Today's theme was Christmas Candy and here is mine.

Christmas Nail Art Challenge - Day 2

Hello lovelies,

Right, it's the 3rd of December, meaning it's time for day 2 of the Christmas Nail art challenge. Today's theme was wrapping paper/presents, and this is what I came up with.

10 Random Facts About Me

Hello lovelies,

Following in the spirit of Cassie at TheReluctant Femme and Jes at TheMilitant Baker, I have decided to do a 10 Random Facts about me post. I think this is a great idea because while blogging is great and the internet is fabulous, the problem is that with blogs, you often only see the bits of people that are relevant to their particular blog (make-up, nails, photography etc.). You don’t get to have those tiny insights and those little facts that really make a person a person, rather than a personality. Also, because I’m just nosy and I’m hoping that my 10 Random Facts post might inspire others to do the same and then I can satisfy the little sneak inside of me. :)

1. I am the oldest of four girls and I love it. I wouldn’t trade my spot as the oldest for anything. Being the oldest means I can watch and see my little sisters grow up – I can see the transition from baby to child to teenager and to adult. I love that.

2. I love to change my appearance. If I could have any superpower in the world, it would be to be able to change my appearance at will – to be a metamorphmagus. As I cannot, I have to rely on wigs, contacts and make-up (or at least, I would, if I could afford to buy it all).

Source here

A little apology and Christmas Nail Art Challenge - Day 1

Hello there everyone!

Sorry about last week. I was away on holiday (yes, I had a lovely time, thank you for asking) and I thought that I would have access to internet - although, when I think about it, it seems quite obviously that I probably wouldn't.... Oh well. I'm back now and just in time for day 1 of the Christmas Nail Art challenge - Christmas tree. I'm sorry about my lack of creativity in this one - I was on a bus for about 9 hours today and so was feeling less than enthusiastic about this challenge. But I will forge ahead anyway and push forward through my exhaustion. :)

Christmas Nail Art Challenge + Giveaway!

Hello my lovelies,

This is going to be a rather short post, and maybe not particularly pretty or thought provoking, but let's get cracking anyway. :)

Jessie, over at Nailed It NZ, Anjali (From L&P To English Tea) and Hannah (AGirlWithSomeClothes), have created a 12 Days of Christmas nail art challenge that I will be participating in. You read more here and it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. Especially for me as it seems a lot more manageable than doing your nails every day like many nail art challenges. :) If you want to take part, simply put the button in your side bar and link up your post with Jessie's for each different design. :)

The second part of my post is for the massive giveaway that Jessie is holding currently on her blog for reaching 10 000 fans on facebook - an amazing milestone! She's holding two giveaways, one for everyone (New Zealanders and international people) one for just New Zealanders.

If you want to take part in this giveaway and maybe win some amazing stuff, check it out here and if you are lucky enough to win, please let me know so I can be simultaneously happy and jealous of you. :)

Until next time,