Essie is now at Myer!

I just flipped through the little catalogue sent by Myer and something wonderful had caught my eye. Drumroll please. Myer is now stocking Essie! Joining the shelves will be 78 of Essie's core colours and its seasonal collections (released 4 times a year). How exciting!

As a promotional offer, Myer is giving every customer a free Essie Topcoat at $18.95 with every purchase of $35 or more. I sound like an advertisement. However, personally I would rather a Seche Vite. Give me a Seche Vite anyday.

The price will be ridiculously high. You'd be paying something close to $20 for one bottle of Essie. As much as I love the brand, that is way too much. I'm still waiting for my Sag Harbour to magically appear at my doorstep. Until that happens, back to Ebay for me.

Essie North Fork (a little old but still gorgeous) Greenport, Sag Harbor, Shelter Island

 On a brighter note, if anyone's interested in receiving a free A-list Stick Foundation, Eyeshadow Palette and Eyeliner of your choice from Chi Chi, then go to Myer and spend $30 or more on the Chi Chi range. It'd be fantastic if you'd share those freebies with me. Come on, I know you want to.

I have more platinum than you

Since I didn't post anything yesterday, I thought I should blog another entry today to make up for yesterday's inactivity. After slaving over Thoughtless Alice and its Red Queen counterpart, my nails had random blotches of nail polish on them. Plus the tips of my Chanel inspired mani was kind of worn. So I changed my nails.

I love greys. I want to paint my new but old house's rooms a nice neutral greige. This is where Essie Playa Del Platinum comes in. It is a creme grey that is more on the beige side with its subtle green tone, released part of Essie's Resort Collection, earlier this year. Average application, like most of Essie's polishes that I've tried. 2 coats was enough to cover the nail but the perfectionist within me demanded a 3rd coat.

I had to use Zoya Get Even Basecoat today because I couldn't find my China Glaze. Sucks not having a polish stand. I can still see my ridges. I applied 1 coat of Nubar G188 over the grey base. I absolutely love the iridescent flakies! Then I applied China Glaze's Matte Magic Topcoat over everything. To be honest, I still having touched my Essie Matte About You Finisher. I love the result though.

3 coats of Essie Playa Del Platinum, 1 coat of Nubar G188, 1 coat of China Glaze Matte Magic

It was quite difficult to capture the nails. It is matte but still sparkly. Difficult for me to explain. But you can see the flakies reflecting the light that falls upon them. Looks amazing in real life. So stalk me tomorrow at UNSW open day and I'll hold my hand in front of your face.

Due to the matte finish, the surface of my nails feel like dried, unpainted clay. Quite awesome actually. I then discovered that I can draw on them with normal pens and the pen won't come off. It doesn't even smudge. I can prove it.

However, the down side is that I'd have to be careful when writing as I've already gotten an unwanted dot. Boo.

Thoughtless Alice

Guess what? Don't answer. Its a rhetorical question.

I've finally finished the Alice-inspired nails after inhaling a life-time's worth of nail polish and acrylic fumes within a couple of hours. My head is not very forgiving about it. I want a mask like those nail technicians in those nail places. But I must soldier on! I love these acrylic moulds. They make perfect acrylic hearts. So I ended up making heaps and heaps. Anyways, stop reading and look already.

My gorgeous hearts. So perfect. I'm getting all teary now. The fumes can really mess up your sanity.

Here's a close up because I love you so much.

After staring at the blank title for a good 20 minutes at least, I came up with a name. Yep, "Thoughtless Alice", because I was thoughtless for 20 minutes. Not in the insensitive sense. But you understand. I'm planning to sell this set because I'm so poor. They do, however, fit on my nails perfectly. I do have pretty average sized nails though. So please buy it if you have $40 to waste spend on something that can be reused. I'm begging you. I'll even throw in free wrapping!

I've also decided to start on a Red Queen inspired set although technically I've already started. Guess the colour scheme. It'll be a no-brainer.

$56 poorer but 56 times happier

Yesterday's long and treacherous journey to Bankstown with Whiney had definitely paid off. I bought 7 bottles of nail polish for $56. Which isn't bad considering I would probably pay around the same, if not more on Ebay. What I'm happiest about the most is the fact that I found the extremely hard to find China Glaze Lubu Heels and saw the highly sought after OPI Mad as a Hatter (but I didn't buy it as I am still scarred by the previous glitter experience with China Glaze Doll's House).

So I bought 4 OPIs: Happy Anniversary, Glitzerland, Brand New Skates, Ski Teal We Drop. Orly Fantasea. Lubu Heels and Sun Worshipper from China Glaze. Rather than reading my waffling, you can see my mini haul.

Happy Anniversary, Brand New Skates and Lubu Heels are ridiculously prices on Ebay so I'm extremely glad that I found them yesterday. I squealed like a little girl in my head. I am rather surprised at the polishes that I bought though. I am a creme person. But I bought so many glitters. Odd. More devil children to remove. Here are some close-ups:

OPI Happy Anniversary

OPI Glitzerland

OPI Brand New Skates

Orly Fantasea

China Glaze Lubu Heels

I can't wait to try these along with 10 million other unused colours. Okay I'm exaggerating but I wish it was true because my wishlist if continuously growing. China Glaze Mummy May I is number 1 right now though. Check it out!

Channelling Chanel

As you may already know, I painted my nails last night. I've had this concept in my mind for a couple of days and finally materialised it last night. I'm quite happy with the way that they turned out.

This is inspired by Chanel's Noir et or Paris-Shanghai Collection released a couple of months back. The whole gold and black thing is absolutely gorgeous, in my opinion anyway. So I'm here to brainwash you. I bought OPI Bling Dynasty a while ago and was always dying to try it out. I got my chance last night!

It'd be a good idea to show you my inspiration first.

Image imported from www.musingsofamuse.com

See her nails? I particularly like the black tip but not the round, pointed shape. So I've revamped the design! With 2 coats of the gorgeous Bling Dynasty and its perfect application plus coverage. Bling Dynasty was released part of OPI's Hong Kong Collection. It is quite a unique gold. Reminds me of those antique gold jewellery that belongs to some ancient civilisation. Its a good thing. There's also a vintage vibe to it. I then added a black tip in Revlon Black Lingerie because it is a true black.

2 coats of OPI Bling Dynasty, Revlon Black Lingerie tips

Awesome tips, no? Ignore the smudge on my ring finger. It is definitely not a good idea to feed your cat when your nails are still wet. But because I was lazy and cut on time, I used a manicure tip guide. The guides can be found on Ebay for next to nothing. They are so simple and effective. However, I do recommend sticking the guides onto your hands a couple of times to remove most of its stickiness as it is the excess stickiness that will ruin your manicure. This is what I call beauty on a budget, pat on the back for me.

I think the design of the tips would also make awesome looking strawberries. Green tips with pink or red base and golden bullions for seeds. Now that's an idea.