Happy New Year's Eve everyone.  Do you have big plans?  I'm sure I'll probably be sleeping in the new year, knowing that my kiddos will be up early in the morning.  

I've had a big year on my blog. I can't believe that I went for more than a year doing a blog post every single day. I proved to myself that keeping up with blogging is just a matter of being orgnaised and a little bit of will power, but I guess I'm just like a dog with a bone with some things - I just can't let it go. Maybe that's why my stash is just getting so huge too!

Here is my new year mani created using Messy Mansion Plate MM02.  I created a warm summer sunset gradient using Picture Polish Crazy and Sunset and Ulta3 Midnight.  Don't the names of those three polishes just totally sum up this mani!  Hot Aussie New Years are so wonderful, although one day I'd like to think we could celebrate a cold one with a white Christmas too.

I stamped the fireworks on using Dance Legend holos in different colours, not that you can actually tell they are in different colours because of the holo glow.  Stamped holo fireworks are so awesome!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe new year. Chat to you next year!

Welcome to my top polishes post for 2013.  I was planning to do a commercial and an indie version, but as I was reviewing my blog for the year, I discovered that I really didn't get that many commercial polishes, and creating a top ten out of them would just be making up the numbers. On the other hand, I have tried lots of indie brands this year, and narrowing them down to my top ten just wouldn't be fair.

Plus then there is the confusion over what is an indie brand, its it a hand poured and mixed bottle, or does it include those also made in labs, but are still independently run.  Putting them all in together is just much easier, but it does mean there is quite a long list.  Also, this is obviously drawn from the polishes I got this year, and there are definitely some that I would love to try that I'm certain would have been in my top list - I'm looking at you Zoya Dream!

I've settled on a top 27 - yeah, way to narrow it down lady!  So in no particular order, here are my favourite polishes from this year.

Lacquistry - Amazeballz. Nothing more needs to be said about this one.

Too Fancy Lacquer - Midnight Sonata. Such a gorgeous cornflower blue with a perfect linear holo flame.

Dance Legend - Thermo Trio #1 - Nothing in the colour changing department compares to these amazing three way colour changes from Dance Legend

Dance Legend - Cosmic Rainbow - I could have chosen any of the amazing Dance Legend holos to be in my top polishes, the gold one, the new messiah was close, but in the end I chose this amazing rich purple holo.

Girly Bits - A stripper's been sleeping in my bed.  I only recently got this polish just a few days before Christmas, so I haven't even been able to blog about it yet, but it's such a awesome sparkly fun polish that I fell it love with it immediately, and I even wore it to my work Christmas party.

Girly Bits - Blue Eyed Beer Drinkin' Music Lovin' Lawyer. Pam nailed it with this one, the formula is perfect and the blue jelly with blue glitters is a perfect combo.

Contrary Polish - Greenhouse. Contrary Polish is one of my favourite indie brands. No other brand makes shimmer polishes like Contrary.  It was hard to pick a favourite from Contrary, gift wrap was right up there, but in the end I settled on this green stunner!

Picture Polish - Freya's Cats - One of my favorite bloggers created this stunning beauty of a polish in collaboration with Picture Polish.

Picture Polish - Majesty. I knew way back 16 January, that this polish would be in my top polishes list this year.  If I could have collaborated a second shade, this is would it would have been.

Ulta3 - Infamous. The whole Glitterati collection from Ulta3 was really excellent, certainly their best collection ever in my opinion.  This polish was a stand out for me, it's a teal jelly with fine teal glitters.

Picture Polish - Imperial. OK, I'm just going to repeat myself here - One of my favorite bloggers created this stunning beauty of a polish in collaboration with Picture Polish. Gold glitter, holo sparkles, purple base and a blue shimmer.  A totally amazing polish.

Emily de Molly - Cosmic Forces. The 'Forces' collection was a huge hit for Emily de Molly - and I still need to get my hands on Dark Forces - the black version.  This believe this purple version was the first one and it's a stunner.  There were lots of other EdM polishes I considered including too, such as Monet's Garden

Sayuri - Love Sayuri - This photo does no favours for this stunning polish.  It's full of different size and shape pastel holo glitters and it is just too beautiful.  I'll have to try get some better photos of it.

Femme Fatale - Even Tide.  One of my first every Femme Fatale polishes, and there were a bunch that I could have chosen to put into this post, such as keeper of the grove, mirror of dawn or gravity lapse, but I chose this gold glitter - just because I love gold glitter.

Crows Toes - Heartless. A mix of holographic and deep berry micro glitters. Incredible to look at, a bitch to photograph.

Crows Toes - Umm No, he went to the pawn shop. Yeah I know, it's another gold glitter. Sorry I just can't help myself. The gold and turquoise combo on this one is so pretty.

OPI - Honey Ryder. I love the cool, champagne colour of this texture polish. I loved it so much that I chose this polish to wear as part of my birthday mani.

Zoya - Solange. Sorry, I know this is the sixth gold polish already, but Solange just cant miss out on inclusion in my list.

OPI - Get your number. This was the first liquid sand polish I tried, and it really turned me around from thinking yuk to yum! The texture.glitter combo in this one is just gorgeous.

OPI - More than a glimmer. OPIs breast cancer awareness polish for this year was such a stunning one. It's a matte finish with a rainbow of pastel glitters.  Very unique and totally awesome from OPI.

JOSS - Desert Sunset. The photo of this one doesn't show how amazing it is.  Holo shimmer, with bronze to orange duochrome glass flecks.  It looks amazing in real life.

Lynnderella - Emerald Hope. So many Lynns to choose from, it was a hard pick, but interestingly my two picks come from the same collection.  Emerald Hope has a crazy mix of lots of shapes and sizes of green glitters.  Maybe because I wear it over Kryptonite that I love it so much.

Lynnderella - Opal Intuition. This is one that stuck in my memory knowing it would be in my top polishes.  It must contain every colour of iridescent glitter there is.

Ninja Polish - Mystic Glacier. One of the most unique colour combos I've seen using the red to green colour shifting pigment.

Ninja Polish - Glamorous. A pretty damn near perfect dupe of one of my all time favourite polishes. OPI DS Glamour!  It's a perfect colour match to it's original and such a pretty polish.

China Glaze - Cosmic Dust. The Hologlam collection didn't get that much love this year.  Most people poo pooed the holo effect in these.  Maybe the release timing was just off, because it was just after all the strong in-your-face holos like the Color Club holos and Layla holos. But I actually really love the whole collection.  I love that they are different holos compared to the other brands and I found most of the colors unique and very pretty with the super fine grit holo flame.

Shimmer - Wendy.  I love my collection of Shimmer polishes.  These are definitely some of the most versatile glitters around, they can be worn on their own, layered and are perfect for litter gradients too.  Again, there were many Shimmer polishes I could have chosen, but this time I went with Wendy.

So there is my top polishes for 2013.  Six golds - no surprises there!  Three with the word "Cosmic" in their name - interesting and lots of blue and purple shades! Which polishes are in your top list this year that aren't on mine.  I need to know what I should go out and buy now!

What's this? More nail art created with water decals

I'm actually really in love with this design, it just came together so beautifully.  I started with a white base and then sponged a gradient using Picture Polish Wisteria, Jade and Fairy Floss.  Once that was dry I applied some half circle water decals from the Born Pretty Store item #6211.

The key to making the design pop is to select colours from the water decals and compliment those in the gradient background.  You can completely change the look by choosing a gradient with yellow, green and pink instead.  I also cut up and mixed up the decals a bit, for example some of these designs come with the half circles separated by a gap of clear decal, I cut these to give me the flexibly to place each of the circles exactly where I wanted, rather than where the decal would have place it.

I finally discovered how to create the perfect watermarble look on my nails, and I'm going to share the secret!

It is important to start with a good canvas, so paint your nails in a pale base colour, I used white.

Next, cut out your watermarble design water decals that you got from the Born Pretty Store.  There are lots of colour combinations to choose from, reds, blues, yellows - you are sure to find a combo you like.

Choose which designs you want to place on each finger and then apply them like you would any normal water decal. EG soak in water and then slide them onto your nail. Once dry, cover with top coat.

Voila. No mess, perfect watermarble swirls.

Bah haa haa, I'm just so funny!  I had to post these nails today for a laugh, simply because of some hilarious comments on my instagram account on my previous mani.  You see, I clearly stated upfront that it was a skittlette created using OPI Nail Apps, and then I started getting comments about the fact that I 'cheated' with my nail art because I used 'stickers' and that 'stickers are for people who can't actually do nail art".   Of course there were some super lovely ladies on there who kindly responded to these ridiculous comments.

As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter how the hell you create the 'art' you put on your nails.  Some people are amazing at free hand art - good for them, many of us are not.  That is exactly why there is a huge market in nail polish strips, water decals, stickers and various other things that you can create nail designs with.  I really love using nail strips, water decals and the like to show people the sorts of designs they can create easily with these products that end up looking really neat and professional. 

So haters of instagram, be prepared to see plenty of decals, stickers and strips in various sorts of nail 'art' that I create. If you don't like, please leave, and also know that I really don't need to see your useless comments despite the giggle they give me.

Now that Christmas its over, I'm pulling out some manis that I wore earlier this month.  This one is a skittlette that I created using OPI Nail Apps.  You can see the whole swatch and review here.

After I had worn the full mani of the Nail Apps, I removed all the fingers except the middle and the thumb.  On my ring and index I did a simple two colour gradient using a base of Ulta3 Honolulu and sponged on with both honolulu and sizzling red.  My pinky is just sizzling red with a little gold stud.

I really loved this 'tequila sunrise' gradient, the two colours blended so nicely together.  I was also really happy with the colour match of the polishes I chose with the Nail App.  You could really get the same look with a stamp too.

Another Christmas Day is done an dusted. We had a fabulous day with the kids and the rest of my family.  The kids were so excited that Santa visited and had so much fun opening and playing with their gifts.

Here is the mani I wore for Chirstmas Day.  It's a skittlette featuring Lynnderella Season's Glitterings, which is such a perfect name for a Christmas nail polish.  On my ring finger and thumb is OPI Big Apple Red, which is a stunning one coat red polish.  The stripes on my pinky are OPI Jade is the new Black and Big Apple Red.  I used a couple of really sweet christmas nail stickers that I got from Beauty World.  On the ring finger is a little christmas tree and on my thumb is a wrapped present (in the matching red green and yellow stripe as my pinky) and some candles.

Merry Christmas to all my readers, I hope you enjoy a wonderful time with your families.

Just a super quick post to show what I wore on my nails yesterday.  I rarely wear a french manicure design, but for some reason this is what I ended up creating.  Miss Two was rather funny when she saw my nails.  She always checks them every morning to see what I put on the night before while she was in bed.  For these she said "oh no, all the colour is mising here", pointing to where I have the flesh colour base.  She didn't seem to understand that that was what it was suppose to look like.

My base is Bourjois Rose Lounge, tips are OPI Big Apple Red stamped with Born Pretty store white polish.  The holly was stamped in Ulta3 Lucky Bamboo and then painted over with Zoya Ivanka. The two stripes are Zoya Ivanka and OPI Push and Shove.  Red holly rhinestone are from the mixed wheel from the Born Pretty Store.

I'm off now to watch Carols by Candlelight and wrap one or two last things before ensuring that Santa makes a stop at our house.  Have a great day everyone.