Face of Australia Lemon Sorbet

Base coat Revitanail, 3 coats  FOA Lemon Sorbet,  top coat Seche Vite.

I'm not really an orange or yellow nail polish person, especially in the pastel creme's..... but love this colour mostly I use it as a base for stamping over.  Beautiful lemony pastel yellow in shade, slightly brighter yellow in the sun.

Not the best application, goes on smoothly but for some reason pastels and I aren't on the best of terms, I get streaks, nude bits, drag marks around the cuticles.  It might be more the user than the product..... but I wont make you divide your loyalties....

~  Emonej

Face of Australia Fame

Base coat Revitanail,  2 coats Face of Australia Fame, top coat Seche Vite.

This is a beautiful colour, a bright pink with purple undertones.  Reminds me of OPI's Dim Sum Plum from their 2010 Hong Kong Collection.  I may have to swatch these together to see if I'm close....

Anyways lovely application as with all FOA's polishes.  Again mobile pictures do not do this one justice.

~ Emonej

Face of Australia Call Me

Base coat Revitanail, 3 coats Face of Australia Call Me, top coat Seche Vite.

Love the name and colour on this one, inside it's a mauvie/salmony pink, in sunlight it's a pearl pink.  Until my light box is done these are all on the mobile.  Not the best pictures but they're mostly showing the true colours... mostly...

~ Emonej

Black Lace French Tips

I saw this on Chloe's nails, on her beautiful nails this looks awesome, my short ones..... not so much.  I've since done this again with a better base colour and without the black tips and it looks much better.  I didn't take a picture so when I do it again I'll post.

Base coat Seche Base 1 coat, 1 coat Ulta3 french pink, Konad black polish, Seche Vite top coat.  Konad plate m71

~ Emonej

Silver Mermaid Tears

Base coat Revitanail, 2 coats OPI's Mermaid Tears while my nubbins are still wet I added 2 coats of Silver Shatter, top coat seche vite

Thanks to Chloe's nails for this tip that while black shatter works best over completely dry nail polish, silver shatter works best over still wet nail polish.

Also please ignore the receipt, I took this at the Cafe near work whilst waiting for my coffee and we're given receipts so when your coffee is ready they call out your number.

Anyways I bought this combination as soon as Chloe posted it, seriously both Chloe and Scrangie have a lot to answer for, they make every nail swatch look awesome and you just want to go buy the colours, or is that just me.

But seriously they're my favourite two sites for their awesome nails, sense of humour and pictures.  Links to the side if you haven't already checked these ladies out. 

~ Emonej

Justin Cronin - The Passage

Have you read this book? I did in 2010 and have been waiting for the sequel "The Twelve" ever since finding out The Passage is the first in a trilogy.

In 2011 we got a teaser here, but it's difficult being patient and longer still to go as it's not released until August 28,  2012, don't fear though I do have it on pre-order so it will probably arrive in my letterbox before I remember to track the package by hitting refresh every second with my mothers voice in my head reminding me that patience is a virtue, for what she never could explain to my satisfaction but I digress  :/ .

I loved this book, then again I love most things with vampires or zombies.... well except Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake series from about book 10.

So the countdown to August begins....... In the meantime I might just re-read some of Charlene Harris's works or Robertson Davies The Cornish Trilogy I've been meaning to start.....

~ Emonej

Face of Australia Satin Sheets

Base coat SH Maximum Growth,  2 coats Face of Australia Satin Sheets,  top coat Seche Vite

I love this colour, which is odd with my skin tone.  I'm not generally a champagne beige kind of gal.  But there is just something about this metallic beigeness that I love.

Opaque in 2 coats, streaky but I think it adds texture to the look though it may not be everyone's cup of tea, brush and application are awesome.

Face of Australia (FOA) is another Australian brand, I know with the name you're shocked.  It's Cruelty free, and a bargain at $6.95.  FOA is big on pinks and reds which aren't my usual colours but they have great pinks and reds so I can't not add them too my huge collection.  Like Australis they're available at Priceline, and have a range of choices, pro enamel, Limited editions Luxe and molten metallics.  Their colours change seasonally so keep an eye out for new ones as they sell out fast.  Fashion Addict is a great site if you want to purchase them individually or as the sets. 

~ Emonej

Australis Foxy Fuschia

Base coat SH Maximum Growth, 4 coats Australis Foxy Fushia,  top coat Seche Vite

This colour is old school Australis, see the old bottle.  In fact this is one of the first Australis's I ever bought.  It's my favourite summer colour to wear on my toes.

It's a shimmer, duochrome hot pink and purple.  I love this colour, unfortunately it's a discontinued colour but I'm hoping they'll bring it back at some point.  I'm hoping the spring colour Essie Tour De Finance (Scrangie shows it beautifully here) will be close enough that I won't cry when I finish this my last bottle.

Here are some more pics (some blurry to try show you the the duochrome) to show you how great a colour this is.....

~ Emonej

Australis Limited Edition 1

Base coat SH Maximum Growth,  2 coats Australis Limited Edition 1,  top coat Seche Vite

What can I say about LE1...... I LOVE this colour.  Some lights it's a dark Mushroomy Brown, some grey purple and in other lights is a pure mauve purple.

My pictures do not do this polish justice.  Also this is NOT an Australis permanent colour which is a shame as it is awesome.  I never fail to get compliments when I wear this colour.

I'm considering sending Australis a pleading letter to add this to their permanent line.

Let's just bask in it's awesomeness........

~ Emonej

Australis Sin City

Base Coat SH Maximum Growth, 2 coats Australis Sin City,  top coat Seche Vite.

I love Sin City, it's a charcoal black with silver/opally shimmer.  Application is awesome, opaque in 2, great colour and shine.  I love extra shiny though so always add a top coat of Seche Vite.

I've added a couple of extra pictures to try and show you the shimmer but none of the pictures really do this polish justice. Thankfully this is also a permanent in the Australis nail polish line as I wear it a lot.

Again this was a sloppy application as I was multiple swatching.

~ Emonej

Is it wrong to want a Boo of your very own ????

I'm sure most of you have seen pictures of the adorable Pomeranian Boo with his awesomely cute haircut by now.  If you haven't this is boo above.  I love him...... don't judge 

I really want a Boo of my own, problem is we have two pampered kitties (and Evie the Maine Coon acts like a dog, I've never had another cat that loved belly scratches and rubs as much or as long as her), and not a lot of left over space.  Plus husband keeps reminding me (insert annoyingly) a boo is not just for Christmas.  As if I didn't already know.....

Anyways I love looking at all the pictures of Boo and "awwwing" with my friends.  But for now it seems it's 3 - 1 and I'm outvoted on getting a Boo.

But seriously how cute is that puppy..... awwwww.........

~ Emonej

Australis Blackmail

Base coat SH Maximum Growth,  2 coats Australis Blackmail,  top coat seche vite.

I love Australis Blackmail, it's my go to black.  Great brush, opaque in 2 coats and looks great on my shorty short nails.

Sorry about the application, I was swatching my favourite Australis polishes so was applying for quick removal.

Also I previously mentioned my base coat is Revitanail sensitive pink, I don't like using this every time, as it tends to make my nails hard and then they snap.  I find if I alternate SH, Revita and some other base coats I generally keep my nails from breaking.  Though Revitanail is my base coat of choice.

~Emonej

Australis Flip Flops

I couldn't help myself, 2 coats Australis Flip Flops,  2 Coats Australis Speck-tacular,  top coat Seche Vite.

From yesterday's Australis haul post.... Have a great Friday All.

New Australis summer colours:

Rabid Revenge – a grape shade
Kick The Bucket – grey-ish silver
Mates Rates – shiny dark green
Manic Panic – bright purple
Sky’s the Limit – bright blue
Foil Spoil – sparkly silver
Sinfully Sweet – baby pink

With names like that how can you resist?

Available in stores now  for $7.95

~ Emonej 

Australis Sweetpea

Base coat SH Maximum Growth, 3 coats Australis Sweetpea,  top coat Seche Vite.

This is a great colour for summer, milky pastel mint green/turquoise blue.  Opaque in 3 - 4 coats, when applying you have to be a little careful or you get the drag marks around your cuticles.

As with most Australis nail polishes no streaking and gives a smooth finish.

~ Emonej

Australis Haul - Warning Picture Heavy

I'm so excited, usually by the time I hit my local Priceline (Rite Aid / Walgreens type place for my USA friends, not the online travel site) I pretty much only get the leftover options.

Well last night on my way home I stopped in and the Australis genie had obviously just been as there was two new colours that I can't find any information about on their website nor their Facebook page but who cares, cos I love them.  Plus I grabbed three of their regular line colours that were previously out of stock, some nail polish remover and wipes and a FREE GIFT, I love free stuff.  Also I grabbed a Garnier BB cream, more on that in another post.

Here come the pics.....

Look at all that Australis, anyone would this I was a fan.... they'd be right

I've previously posted on how much I love their nail polish remover, well now there's more to love you get 25% more for the same price, I'm not sure if this is permanent or a promotion that is while stocks last.

Now on the left is their nail polish remover wipes which have been out of stock since forever.... I keep these in my take with me everywhere makeup bag, for nail emergencies or if I'm out and want to try a different colour, or have tried and really shouldn't have .. that's just how I roll.  

Anyways the remover wipes are great you get 25 in the container so no need to haul wipes and nail polish remover around with you, just keep these handy and go. Also I've never had them dry out on me.

So from left to right: 

Flip Flops (New colour), this is a beautiful rich blue with micro glitter in navy and azure colours,  can't wait to try this one and post some pictures. Mainly so I can show you how lovely it looks.

Next is Aqua (a permanent line colour), now if you saw my post earlier today you'll see there are two aqua's and no you don't need your eyes checked.  The lovely Janelle from Australis let me know that the above Aqua is the updated colour, the shimmery teal/green is the old aqua.  So new aqua is a pastel blue creme, not to be mistaken with sweetpea which is more pastel mint.  Swatch to come.

Next is Paparazzi Purple (a permanent line colour), which I have been trying to get hold of for ages, seems it so popular it's hard to find, well now it's mine (insert evil cackle) and it's gorgeous.  A purple shimmery colour.  Wait for the pics.

Next is Satin Champagne (a permanent line colour), which again I had been trying to find.  Apparently all the places I go have Australis fangirls too.  This is a lovely pinky/beige shimmer. Definitely sheer, can't wait to try this one out and post pics.

Lastly and if you're like me you almost fainted in excitement is Speck-tacular.  Can you see it, it's a top coat with holographic reflective flakes.  YES that's right..... Australis has a flakie available right here in Australia.... It's almost better than coffee, this one I had to put over my current colour and it looks amazing, green, yellow, burnt orange/coppery, opal, blue yummy goodness.  Oh and applied over colour and seche vite, and without a top coat over it, it's still super super shiny.

Ok so here's the colour I was wearing yesterday, so beautiful and so hard to capture on camera L'oreal's Femme Noir a beautiful vampy black/burgundy. Usual base coat revitanail, 2 coats Femme Noir and 1 coat Seche Vite.  Bad picture but at least it captures the colour semi decently.

And reach for your sunglasses ladies and gents (I don't judge)  here is the beautiful Australis Speck - tacular over the top.  2 Coats not top coat as it is one.

Go on have another look, you know you want too. I do.  Can't stop staring at my nails.  Now I have other flakies, Nubar 2010 and color clubs to name a few. But..... I've had to hunt for them, pay a fortune in shipping and on I could whine... But this one... this one is at my local priceline....

Anyways less coffee perhaps, moving on.....

 

As you can see for summer Australis are running a spend over $25 and get this gift free.  I spent and so received.  It's a cosmetic bag that takes me back to my youth, gold circular coverage.  Inside there is a Le Tan leg bronzer, for the night out, it washes off.  Also and Australis Blush bronzer which is awesome.  Did I mention it's free????

So I leave you there after my long winded, pic heavy Australis haul.  I'm a happy camper and will have further pics on the colours soon.

~ Emonej

Australis Aqua

Base Coat Sally Hansen Maximum Growth,  2 coats Australis Aqua and top coat seche vite.

I love this colour, it's a metallic shimmery teal green with a hint of blue.  It's a little bit streaky, but not enough that it detracts from the awesomeness of colour.

~ Emonej

Australis Satine

Australis See Ya Later nail polish remover is one of two that I use.  I have sensitive skin and I find this quick, non-irritating or drying.

Base coat Sally Hansen Maximum Growth, Australis Satine 1 coat,  Seche Bright,  top coat Seche Vite.

I wear this a lot, either when I'm giving my nails a break from constant polishing and removing, quick to do (this look takes me about 2 minutes start to finish) or as a base for french manicure or konading.

I have lots and lots of back up bottles of Australis Satine, thankfully though it's a regular colour in the Australis line.  Looks milky white in the bottle but as you can see gives you a sheer non-streaked milky pink tinged look.  

Australis - This is an Australian company that has been around for over 20 years, Cruelty Free and an awesome price of $7.95 for most polishes.  The best part........ I can buy them at any priceline/big w/target/kmart,  see the actual colours and not have to wait for shipping from USA/UK.

Seche Bright is great too, I use it everytime I know I'm going to have visible nail line.  Works brilliantly and unlike baking soda and lemon soaks doesn't dry or irritate my hands. 

~ Emonej

Red Velvet Cupcake

A picture of the red velvet cupcakes I made with cream cheese frosting as promised.

Recipe is from Tasted by Two, who posted the NY Magnolia Bakery Recipe.

Sorry for the appearance I just smeared some frosting on to try, I promise some the rest were iced semi professionally. 

~ Emonej

Tinsel Gurl

Base coat Revitanail, 2 coats of Orly Sea Gurl, top coat Seche Vite.  

Wore Sea Gurl for 2 days then when tips started wearing, added 1 coat China Glaze Tinsel Town and a top coat of Poshe.

I love the combination, very charcoal and silver sparkles.

Mind you after making 2 dozen red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting I'll be changing the colour tonight.  Mmmm cupcakes, I'll post a pick of these awesome tasting cupcakes soon.

~ Emonej

Diva Spots

Base Coat Revitanail, 4 coats of China Glaze Diva Bride, Spots and ring finger China Glaze Admire and top coat Seche Vite.  Saw this on the awesome Chloe's Nails.

This one I did a while ago, I've since repeated without the ring finger being a focus nail. When I did all 10 fingernails with the pink base with spots it looked much better.

I've also tried this with Teal.  Strangely, though darker colours look better on my short nails I actually preferred the pink version of this.  Perhaps don't look at Chloe's, her beautiful nails put mine to shame.

 Base coat Revitanail, Picture Polish Marine, China Glaze Adore spots, Konad Plate M79, top coat Seche Vite.  Sorry about picture quality these were taken with my Samsung Galaxy no flash, not the best quality.

~ Emonej

Cloudy Blue Sky

So I saw this on another site, Beautopia.

What I used: Revitanail base,  China Glaze Secret Periwinkle,  Clouds using Konad Plate m79 with Konad White Polish,  topcoat Seche Vite.

I think this was my second attempt with Konading and other than the white nail polish drying quicker than the black Konad Polish, causing the clouds to show a little transparent I thought I did a pretty good job.

~ Emonej

Kermit my Instax

Kermit is my green covered instax camera.  I love him.


I convinced myself that I bought Kermit for my Christmas gift to my husband.   This is false as I really just wanted the cute tiny Polaroid pictures he creates.

My Christmas gift to my husband this year was an idea I saw on Life in General.  12 months of dates. Now as I'm not a scrapbooker, I wont be compiling awesome pages of the dates as Shannon has done, but I figure some pictures and my witty commentaries should suffice.  

So on to the dates.

January's date is a drive to country Melbourne to a berry farm, where we picked berries (insert ate more than we took, insert bellyache's here) and bought some berry concentrate.

Then came home for husband to open his gift which was an ice cream maker.  We made berry ice cream. 

Now I know it probably doesn't sound like much but total date spend $60, and after just arriving home from Christmas with the in-laws in America I knew January's budget would be tight. Images and wittiness to come......

~ Emonej

Naked with Bling

Base Coat - Revitanail, 1 coat Australis Satine, 1 coat Color Club Starry Temptress,  Top coat Seche Vite

With the new year I've decided to start a blog so that I can stop annoying my Facebook friends with all my nail polishes swatches.  I'm treating this more as a record of colours, tried and succeeded or tried and failed, with pictures.

I was a chronic nail biter for years and I'm not sure if that's the reason or genetics but I have extremely small nail beds, even though it's been about 17 years since I last took a bite.  So when I break or rip a nail, which I do frequently I generally have to apologise to folks for the ugly visual it creates.

In the image above you can see I keep my nails short as I work with my hands in computers a lot and because they alternate between weak and brittle to weak and peeling.  I use Revitanail sensitive as a base coat and that seems to help strengthen them at least I fool myself into thinking this.

Anyways, onwards with my visual diary.

Above I've posted a picture of my almost naked nails. I love Australis Satine for a pink/white sheer base colour and I use it a lot.  Color Clubs Starry Temptress was great for subtle bling without being over the top or a pain to remove, Seche Vite is my top coat of choice, although I do get the shrinkage if I'm not careful when I apply it to finish or if I add a 2nd coat. 

So while my blog will predominantly be about nail polishes, it will also have some of the other things I love; my American husband, two naughty kitties, food and cooking, Melbourne, Australia, books, movies, hair, make up, clothes, shoes, accessories, whinges and anything that the day brings.  

~ Emonej