Adventures in Lumpy Space

Hey Girls (and guys if there's any),

So I guess its that time of the week again :) Time for nails! Well its always nail time for me but I guess its more time for you to look at my nails and criticize my lack of artistic flair.
Anyway, this post is dedicated to the current AIPAS theme which is "inspired by a movie/TV".
Unfortunately I haven't bought any polishes that are movie or TV inspired, somehow? So I decided to use my own polishes from my Adventure Time themed collection "Polish Time". I have two shades to show you today "Lump off" a delightful vibrant purple with gold and fuschia glitter and "Rainicorn Vomit" a jumbled up glitter topper with over 20 different glitters.

I decided to do a simple striping tape mani. As you may have noticed, I am a little (a lot) addicted to striping tape! So I started off with a double coat of "Lump Off" and then did one double coat stripe of "Rainicorn Vomit" on each nail. To get the clean lines I did two strips of striping tape in both purple and silver on the edge of each stripe. Now you just finish it off with a coat or two of topcoat and WALLAH! your good to go.

From now on I'm going to grade manis with a little system just so you know how easy/hard or time consuming they are.

Difficulty: Easy
Time: ½ hour + drying time

Okay so you may be a little confused how it took me sooooo long to do this seemingly simple design. To get the lengths of the striping tape exactly right requires a lot of concentration and precision cutting (of which both I have none of) but I am a perfectionist so it took along time before they were all perfect.

If you like either of the polishes and would like to purchase them, then email me now, as I only have 1 bottle left of each -  sandiiibabe@gmail.com

Don't forget to leave a comment below :)

Till next time, Polish Queens.
xx Sandi

Valentines Day - Bella's Touch

Hey,
So I'm a little late to the party but I want to share my Valentine's manicure with you all. I decided to go simple this year as I had about 25 minutes before I had the Valentine's dinner with the boyfriend. Here is my first attempt at using nail striping tape and I can say with confidence that it didn't turn out too bad :)
I used Bella's Touch Lacquer - "Don't forget, Poppy" and Indee Polish Co "Gubblebum" and some nail striping tape I bought off Ebay.

Here is "Don't Forget, Poppy" with "Gubblebum" feature nail.

The consistency of "Don't forget, Poppy" is absolutely amazing with an almost runny honeylike texture. Admittedly the colour is a little weak, taking about four coats to become opaque but this means you get awesome depth that you can achieve any other way. I ended up using a solid red of the exact shade and topping it with a single delicious coat of Don't Forget, Poppy. I used two coats of Gubblebum and then did a simple three stripe feature on each nail.




Thh-thhh-that's all folks!
Till next time my little polish queens :)
xx Sandi

Puuuuurple! - Femme Fatale Cosmetics "Wolfsbane"

Hey Polish Queens,
Long time no talk! Sorry for being MIA, I just went back to school and things have got pretty hectic. Anyway today I have an awesome mani featuring two different Aussie Indie brands, Femme Fatale and Indee Polish Co. The theme for AIPAS was "Purple" this week and I did a cutesy little glitter placement using "Wolfsbane" from Femme Fatale Cosmetics and an unreleased Indee Polish Co holographic called "Liquid Daze" :)

This is my first ever glitter placement so don't judge me. Or do. I don't know what your thinking. Do judge me in that case. Actually, no don't judge me unless your gonna leave it in the comments :)

Indee Polish Co "Liquid Daze" on all nails and FFC "Wolfsbane" on feature and placement.

The consistency of "Liquid Daze" was a dream to work with, only needing 2 coats before it was opaque and not gluggy in the slightest. I promise I'm not being biased. Much ;)

"Wolfsbane" is more of a choc-filled glitter bomb which also means its extremely chunky but nothing a good topcoat can't fix. It only took 2 coats before it was completely opaque.

Wolfsbane had to be one of my biggest FFC lemmings of all times with its gorgeous deep indigo base, blue moons and red highlights. The first time I ever saw this polish I thought to myself, wow! that reminds me of wolfsbane.

If you love "Wolfsbane" be sure to buy it here.

If you love "Liquid Daze" follow @indeepolishco for updates.

Cheers, Lads 

xx Sandi

L & J Themed Manicure - Nail Bark - Lady Lilac

Welcome Citizens of Earth,

If your reading this then I am probably dead by now. I can tell you my cause of death was caused due to extreme circumstances of impatience paired with an overdose of glittery indie goodness.
A lot of my readers are members of the Australian Indie Polish Appreciation Society and you would know that we have a weekly theme for manicures. But for those of you who don't know, the theme of our manicures this week was L&J polishes named after the lovely @lilyandjinks from IG.

I rummaged for ages looking for a bottle of polish with a L or J but I just couldn't find one until I came upon a sample I was sent by Stef of Nailbark. I was ever grateful to have an itty bitty bottle of "Lady Lilac" that I used for my base. I decided  to do an alphabet themed manicure using 4 different mainstreams and 4 different indies done with a half french tip and a Lj for each nail.

The star of the show " Lady Lilac"

Here is the finished look :)

This was the base look, using mainstreams, before I added the glitzy bits.

From left to right I have Ulta3 "Hollywood", a bronze, Sinful Colors "Kissy" and Anne & Florio "No22".

Here is with the indie glitzy bits.

From left to right I goes Gloss n' Sparkle "Mana Ruby", Femme Fatale "Dreambough", Nailbark "Gilded" and Femme Fatale "Coldwraith".

Outlining the letters was one of the most painful things I've ever done for nail art. You may notice that the blue is different in the pics, that's because the blue became lost when I did the black. So after 12 hours I finally managed to finish it, not before I ran out of my favourite JOSS topcoat. But it was worth it :)

If your interested in joining the Australian Indie Polish Appreciation Society (AIPAS) click here or email me for an invite.

That's all polish queens.

xx Sandi

Aquamarine - Bella's Touch Lacquer

hey.

Did we all have a lovely week? I did :) A week full of sun, surf and shopping and I had the perfect polish just for this. Today I present, the ever sparkly, "Aquamarine" from Bella's Touch Lacquer. Aquamarine is a gorgeous sparkly true blue polish loaded with mini holo pink, green and blue hexes. It reminds me of when I went snorkeling in Thailand, the sunlight throwing vivid colours when it passed through the water on all the multicoloured corals. I feel like I could just dive into the holoey depths of this polish and never resurface.

Bottle Shot of "Aquamarine"

Here's my sunlight swatch of "Aquamarine". This is 3 coats without topcoat.

Notice my new watermark :)

Here is a indirect sunlight shot of "Aquamarine".

This polish has an awesome consistency with only three coats needed to make it opaque and not gluggy in the slightest. There was no fishing required what so ever and that made me a happy chappy :)

(L to R) 2 coats, 3 coats and 1 coat

That's all :)

If your interested in buying this colour or any other shade from Bella's Touch you've seen on my blog click here.

Auf Wiedersehen polish queens :)

xx Sandii

Nail Bark - Baby Barkies Review

I'm back again :)
Alright, ladies (and gentlemen).

I was fortunate enough to receive a set of blogger polishes from the lovely Stef of Nailbark. Nailbark is a new Aussie indie brand situated in Melbourne. My baby barkies included (from left to right) Gilded, Lady Lilac, Kitchen Sink, Rubik's Cube & New Year's Eve all in adorable 4ml bottles. When I saw the little bottles in the mail I couldn't help but squee! They are all glitter toppers except (lilac). Now, I'm not a huge fan of glitter toppers mainly because I'm waaaayyy too impatient to wait for 4 layers of polish to dry but the Nailbark toppers were super fast drying and that made me happy :)
A purchasing link is at the bottom ! :)
Now, less gushing and more pictures!!

As you can see my camera was having a spaz because there was too much glittery awesomeness.

Here is one coat of (L to R) Rubik's Cube, Gilded, Kitchen Sink and NYE over one coat of Lady Lilac

I love how versatile Lady Lilac is! It changes shade depending what you paint over it and seems to go with everything! :)

First up I have my favourite polish of the five, "Gilded". It's a beautiful golden holo filled glitter topper that is just so pretty and sparkly I didn't take it off for a week. I can say with complete confidence that this polish is extremely durable considering I went swimming and surfing nearly every day. The consistency of this polish was a dream to work with - no gloopiness or glitter sinking - and I could get a lovely look with only 2 coats. What I love about this polish is that its a year-rounder, you can wear it in summer over a pink or yellow for a dazzling sunny glow or in winter with a black or bronze.
Gilded is from Nailbark's "Holy Holo" collection and is now available for purchase in her shop.

Here is "Gilded" over a bronze undie :)

And for my next trick...I have "Kitchen Sink". This quite an accurate representation of my kitchen sink after I've been cooking - well at least trying to - which is usually filled with non stick pans and bits of food and the occasional glass jar. Kitchen Sink is a random jumble of glitters that somehow come together perfectly in an oddly beautiful way. I couldn't even begin to count the glitters in this polish - there must be over 50! Like the previous polishes, it was a treat to work with consistency wise and I only ended up doing 1 coat because it only needed one to look great.
Kitchen Sink is yet to be released in the Nailbark store so I suggest following her on Instagram - @nailbark - so you can see its release date.

Here is 1 coat of "Kitchen Sink" over a teal (my fav colour) undie!

New Year's Eve is the next polish going under the reviewing board. It actually captures this time of the year perfectly with the warm vibrant tones in an array of colours ranging from pale blue to gold. It reminds me of confetti and fireworks and explosions. New Year's Eve is once again another polish made with an awesome consistency albeit a little gritty if I'm being pedantic but nothing a good topcoat can't fix. This is a really versatile polish that can be a winter one with its warm tones but can also be a stunning summer polish with all its holoey goodness. It's a gorgeous sparkle bomb and if your a holo lover this polish is for you!
New Year's Eve was released as a Limited Edition polish and may still ibe nstore depending when your reading this.

2 coats of "New Year's Eve" over a pale blue undie!

Next up, I have Lady Lilac. I absolutely love the shade of the polish, its a delicate off-white that is leaning more towards the purple end of the spectrum. Its got minuscule lilac glitter powder that was really hard to capture and some little white hexs that gave the polish a textured feel. Personally, I found this to be my least favourite out of the polishes I was sent. The consistency of it was a bit gluggy and it made it extremely hard to paint my nails as the polish kept dragging. That said, I am fairly certain that was due to the tiny sample brush and I will be looking to buy a full size bottle in the future. But after all the hard work I'm happy with how the polish looks and I guess that's all that really matters. One more plus for this polish is that it goes opaque completely in 2 coats which makes me happy as I am waaaaayyy too lazy to wait for multiple coats to dry.
Lady Lilac will be released in the future so make sure your following @nailbark. 

2 coats of  "Lady Lilac" by itself

Now, last but certainly not least is Rubik's Cube. A perfect way to describe this polish is all glitter errhhthhang. Would you like some polish with your glitter? This has to be my second favourite of the polishes because not only is it super fast drying, there's so much glitter I only needed to do one coat! Its jammed pack full of little squares and hexes in all the colours of the rainbow. The astounding thing about this polish is that it should be super gritty due to its high glitter content but it isn't at all! One thin coat of topcoat was all I needed to have a smooth finish. Rubik's Cube is a super fun polish perfect for summer when applied over a bright, fruity colour. 

Rubik's Cube is a future release so be sure to keep checking back to the Nailbark store or IG page.

1 coat of "Rubik's Cube" over a lemon yellow undie!

All in all I have to say I'm really happy with Nailbark. There's great customer service, lovely shades and awesome presentation. I will be buying her "Tools of the Trade" collection sometime down the track which included everything a polish queen could ever want from glue base coat to a matte topcoat and cuticle oil!

If you loved these polishes than click here to buy them

Feel free to leave any tips or questions in the comments

xx Sandi

Bella's Touch Lacquer - Far, Far Away

Hiya,
I guess if your reading this you weren't completely deterred by my introduction and decided to stick with me.
Anyway,
Today I have an awesome review of Bella's Touch Lacquer that I ordered from the lovely Ell. She like me is also a teenager trying to make it big in the big bad world of indie polish. I ordered "Far Far Away" and "Aquamarine" and I was super stoked to see that she had also included "Don't Forget, Poppy" completely free of charge!

Here is a group bottle shot :)

Onto my first polish now ;)

Here's my swatch of Far Far Away.

I really tried to capture the gorgeous purple undertones in this masterpiece.

First up I have my favourite polish of the three, "Far Far Away". This is a lovely purple-green duochrome with a black base and its so lovely and shiny and wonderful and I never want to take it off. Honestly. I could sit here for hours and just stare and the gorgeous colour shifting and I would never be able to describe it perfectly. It was a dream to apply, only taking 2 coats to be lovely and opaque and with a perfect liquidy consistency.

Soooooo, I'm kind of contemplating asking Elle to mix me a paint can full of this stuff so I can paint the ceiling of my bedroom and go to sleep looking at perfection.

 Next I have a blurry shot to show the unfocused colour shifting of the greeny-purple.

And a macro :)

Originally I was gonna do all three polishes on one post but after seeing how long I was gushing over Far, Far Away, you'd all be here for half an age reading. So, I'm gonna finish my Bella's Touch polishes next week, that way I can wear this shade the whole week :D 

Anyway, if you love this polish as much as I do then you can buy it here.

Thats all for now,

Till next week polish queens :)

xx Sandi