Tropical Twilight - LA Girls Hustle, Orly Heartbreaker, Orly Orange Punch, China Glaze Yell-O-Neil

I'm in a gradient mood again!

[Purple: LA Girls Hustle
Red: Orly Heartbreaker
Orange: Orly Orange Punch
Yellow: China Glaze Yell-O-Neil]

I used the sponge gradient method (where you paint all the colours you want on one sponge), and I feel rather proud of this one because I did it in the semi-dark (long story). Not a bad result! I do like the bright and colourful, summer-ish feel to the mani.

Summer Glow - China Glaze Pool Party

This was one tough polish to photograph and I don't think I got the colour quite right in the end either! Anyway, one of our friends had a pool party yesterday for Australia Day (although with the sudden chill, it was less pool party and more a sit-around-the-barbie-to-eat-and-chat party...), so in honour,.. here's China Glaze Pool Party~!

[Bottle to nail: China Glaze Pool Party (2 coats over white)]

China Glaze Pool Party is a fluoro pinky-orange, closer to the bottle colour in the photo above. Super fun and eye-catching!

[2 coats: China Glaze Pool Party]

My photos are all slightly too hazard orange than in real life; there's definitely a bit more pink to it. But altogether a great shade. I used two coats over white to make it really pop but this is chockers with pigment and applies well.

[2 coats: China Glaze Pool Party]

As with most neon colours, it dries matte, so remember to pop on a layer of top coat for extra gloss!

Candied Flowers - Foil Gold Floral Meadow, China Glaze Shooting Stars

I was lazy, but I wanted something really pretty, so foils and glitter it was!

[Base: Orly Au Champagne
Foil: Gold Floral Meadow]

Here's a white base with the Gold Floral Meadow foil over it. The flowers are see-through, and you can see an example of it over a blue base here where Ev has tried it out. I really do like this foil. Easy to apply, delicate-looking, and very sweet.

After a couple days, I wanted to spice it up a little, so I added glitter to it.

[Base: Orly Au Champagne
Foil: Gold Floral Meadow
Top: China Glaze Shooting Stars]

The glitter is China Glaze Shooting Stars, which has fine holo microglitter and translucent hex holo glitter. I added more glitter to the tips.

I have to admit, adding the glitter almost makes the whole mani too sweet. Still pretty though!

Spot On - China Glaze Swing Baby, OPI Warm and Fozzie

Here's a simple dotticure I did a couple months ago using some gorgeous foily metallics from China Glaze and OPI.

[Dotmania]

I think this is one mani that would work better on longer nails as there's more space for dots!

[Bottle to nail: China Glaze Swing Baby (2 coats)]

I started out with China Glaze Swing Baby, a gorgeous pewter foil from the Vintage Vixen collection in 2010. On close examination, the particles are a combination of silver and bronzey flecks which combine to give that brushed metal look.

[2 coats: China Glaze Swing Baby]

Formula was good, no issues with it. These photos show two coats and you get pretty decent opacity.

[Bottle to nail: OPI Warm and Fozzie; Base: China Glaze Swing Baby]

As usual, I was then inspired to play around with another colour of the same finish and pulled out one of my favourites - OPI Warm and Fozzie from the Muppets collection. Look at that gorgeous duochrome in the bottle!

[Base: China Glaze Swing Baby; Dots: OPI Warm and Fozzie]

Just dot some on with a dotting tool (or whatever blunt-pointy thing you have handy), pop on some topcoat for extra shinyness, and voila! Super easy practically-insta-nail art! =)

Geometric Sunrise - Essence Here's My Number, LA Colors Spat!, Tips & Toes 07

Fun with striping tape, yay!

[Top: Essence Here's My Number
Base orange: LA Colors Spat!
Base yellow: Tips & Toes 07]

The base is a gradient mani, a neon orange to neon yellow. I used striping tape to tape off the geometric diamond shape you see above, and then I painted over the tape with Essence Here's My Number. Here's My Number is a 'Sparkle Sand Effect' polish, which I think is supposed to be similar to the OPI Liquid Sand collection. However, it's definitely not as rough or sandy as OPI's. I've added a glossy top coat so you can't really see the shiny sand effect anyway, but maybe I'll do a proper swatch another day.

As for the base...

[Orange: LA Colors Spat!
Yellow: Tips & Toes 07]

The gradient was done over a white polish, to bring out the neon better. The neon orange is LA Colors Spat! while the neon yellow is Tips & Toes 07, and I used the sponge method to create this gradient.

Overall, I loved the bright gradient and it suits the summer weather so well. Adding the geometric design over it meant I got a longer wear out of the gradient (since it was starting to chip after a couple days) and I thought it looked pretty funky!

Garden Party - Femme Fatale Noble Garden

Here's a gorgeous polish I wore a couple weeks ago during Christmas. It's one of very many awesome gifts I received from Jme for my birthday last year! =)

[Bottle to nail: Femme Fatale Noble Garden (1 coat) over China Glaze Running in Circles (1 coat)]

This is Femme Fatale Noble Garden, from the 2013 Easter Trio. What a gorgeous polish! My obsession with green polish still hasn't faded, so I was stoked to add this to my collection~

[1 coat: Femme Fatale Noble Garden over China Glaze Running in Circles]

Noble Garden is a dark green jelly base containing many sizes of green glitter, plus hexes and dots in magenta, orange and blurple. A great combination and excellent ratio of glitter colours - enough to give contrasting accents without becoming some chaotic mish-mash of shades.

[1 coat: Femme Fatale Noble Garden over China Glaze Running in Circles]

I was a bit short on time (gee, a running theme much..?) so I used a base layer of China Glaze Running In Circles, one of my favourite super-pigmented greens. This is just one layer of Noble Garden over the top of that. How awesome is that! Overall, a great polish and not too difficult to get smooth with some quick-dry either.