Darling Diva Polish: The Opera House

Today is the last day of the holidays.
Wow, two weeks goes so fast. At least the bad weather that we had yesterday seems to have passed.
Although it would have been nice not to have that awful rain! We were helping Nicks brother move house and the wind and rain didn't help.

I had planned to post all my DDP polishes this week... but I forgot to!
So today I have The Opra House for you.

The Opera House layered over Orly Au Champagne

THe Opera House is a very pretty combination of gold and pearly white glitters. Although the base is loaded with pearly white shimmer I decided to layer it rather than try and build up opacity. I really enjoyed this combination.

Four Elements Challenge: Water

The challenge for this week was water. So I stepped out of my comfort zone to do a water inspired mani.
I'm not going to ramble about it... So here it is.

This was my first attempt at a water marble mani and I hated it. I couldn't stand the process. When I paint my nails I paint them how I'm going to leave them...no clean up. I like to paint 'in the lines'. This was just so messy. I won't be trying it again

If you're wondering what I used... I used a base of CG Aquadelic then used CG Devinatly Daring, Cheers To You and Nyx Mermaid Green to marble. I topped it all off with a coat of CG Fairy Dust to add some sparkle.

Luckily my make up turned out a lot better!

I'm not really keen on wearing a lot of make up so I don't have foundation or blush or anything exciting on in these pictures, just eye shadow, liner, mascara and my favourite matte lipstick.

And introducing my new haircut. I chopped it all off to my shoulders and now have no blonde left in at all. This is my natural hair colour!

Nyx Soft Matte Lip Cream Antwerp

Darling Diva Polish: The 13th Colony

Wow, I'm over half way through my holidays and haven't achieved half of what I wanted to.
Last school holidays I was working most of the time trying to get portfolios (reports but much more work) done. So this school holidays I've kind of just wanted to do nothing.

I have managed to re-swatch my entire China Glaze collection though! That was no small feat.
I have also been working hard to get back into a good routine of exercise and healthier eating.
I still haven't manage to get into a good routine of doing the 30 day shred everyday, but I have been doing 20-30 min on the elliptical and trying to do at least a 30 min walk everyday. Unfortunately yesterday the weather turned against me.

Darling Diva Polish is one of the first indie brands I bought and not too long ago I made my second order.

Today I have The 13th Colony to show you.
I am somewhat a nerd when it comes to tv choices, but in all honesty I have never watched Battlestar Galatica, so I have no clue of the meaning behind the polish. All I knew was when I saw swatches of The 13th Colony I had to have it.

DDP The 13th Colony over Sinful Colours Athens

I love the mix of glitter, and this was only one coat of The 13th Colony. My favourite thing about the polish is white glitters, gorgeous.

I actually received my DDP order just after my Candeo order and as soon as I opened it my hear sank a little. I had been so excited about about The 13th Colony but when I opened my parcel I was immediately reminded of Candeo Dive Bomb.

But the good news is they are nothing alike!

Candeo Dive Bomb over aEngland Galahad

The similarity is that they both have blues and teals and copper. The difference is 13th Colony has white and green glitter, and the glitter is different sizes.

Totally worth owning both!

Winner

That's right recently I was a winner.
Generally I'm a highly unlucky person when it comes to giveaways and draws (although I count myself highly lucky in life in general!)

but I was a winner! I won Michaela from Nail Polish Anon NZ Giveaway.

I was lucky enough to receive Sinful Colors Cinderella, Sally Hansen Aisle Be There and a French Tip Dipping system.

Sinful Colors Cinderella

I had Cinderella already, but had de-stashed it and was feeling a bit remorseful. I mean it is named after a princess... I do need to have anything and everything princess related! I must have been having a bad hand day when I decided to part with it originally, because re-swatching it with the gorgeous bottle Michaela sent me made me love it all over again.

Aisle be There

Aisle be There is so pretty. I really should try it out over some other colours... I'm thinking a nice dark dusty blue... I love this picture in the shade it really shows the beauty of the polish.

What I was most excited to try though was the French Tip dipping system. I suck at doing free hand tips, so you've probably never seen me attempt a french manicure before.

This is my first ever attempt using the French Tip Dip kit and wow was it easy. All I needed to do was decant a little white polish into a pottle, dip the plastic guide in, swipe it on my nail...and we're done. I had a little bit of issues matching which tip I should use to my nails. I used the smallest on my ring and pinky and the 2nd smallest on my middle and pointer.

French Tipped Aisle be There

Thanks Michaela!

Four Elements Challenge: Fire

Normally I'm not one for challenges, but when I saw this one for the four elements I had to ask to join. One per week, that's something even I can manage.

I'm a few days late, but here are my interpretations of fire!

Pahlish Fire in the Taco Bell over OPI A Roll in the Hague

This was the actual mani I was wearing on the 4th of October. So when I saw the challenge I knew it was fate. Nick referred to my polish as flame nails all day. I really enjoyed wearing this combo.

NYX Round Lipstick Electra, Nyx and Metis

The challenge is also a make up challenge. I was feeling rather uninspired when it came to eye shadow, but I immediately knew I wanted to do a gradient lip. I used Nyx first then Electra in the corners and Metis in the center of my lips. Argh, this was difficult to capture. The red was actually far more intense.

ESSIE: Resort 2012

Don't you hate waking up at some unearthly hour and not being able to get back to sleep.

But catching a Dollish Polish sale and snagging GTL almost makes being awake since 4am worth while...
Yeah, I'm pretty pleased with that purchase!

I've been going through all my polishes and re-swatching this week, so I have around a trillion photos to sort. I may be exaggerating slightly... but I have so many pictures to sort and put into folders argh!

Since I haven't actually sorted any of the photos I've taken this week, I thought I'd finally get around to posting the Essie Resort collection for this year. I decided to buy three of the four polishes that were released.

She's Picture Perfect

Ooooo I love the pink shimmer in She's Picture Perfect. Not as strong as Sinful Colors Zeus but very pretty still. This was three coats. I'm going to have to fish this out to wear this spring.

Pink-a-boo

I skipped the other light pink flecky shimmers that were released around the same time, so I thought I'd add Pink-a-boo to my cart. This was four coats... but it is pretty and girly.

No More Film

No More Film is inky blurple perfection. I've used No More Film as a base for so many glitters now. I used two coats here.

Picture Polish

Wow, I'm being so lazy. It's 10:15am and I'm still lying in bed, playing on my netbook. It is my holidays after all.

I have to get up soon and start my 30 day shred for October... Argh it's been months since I did a shred. This is not going to go well! I was supposed to start yesterday with it being the 1st and all... but... I got distracted? There are 31 days in October though... So I will finish on the 31st now. Oh well gotta lose that 6kg I put on over winter. Why is winter so bad for the figure! (or at least my figure!)

Anyway today I have two amazing polishes to share. I've been leeming some Picture Polish polishes for awhile, but always thought they were too darn expensive. Until I found Gracie Lou.

I quickly snapped up Denim and Masquerade.

Denim

This was three coats of Denim... omg new favourite blue alert. I love wearing blues and Denim is an absolutely stunning blue. Everyone needs this polish in their collection. Look at the shimmer and the flecks...mmm...

Masquerade over black

I wasn't sure to expect from Masquerade. I kinda threw it in on impulse. This is two coats over a black base. Masquerade is definitely a topper. It has cool colour shifting glitter and looks particularly stunning over a dark base.

Don't forget to like my facebook page... I've been busy putting up swatches... some I haven't shown on my blog yet. I added a button to my blog so you can easily like my page :)