Today I've joined with fellow Aussie blogger and instagramer Natalie from Cats n Nails.  Natalia suggested we create a gradient nail stamp mani using full nail stamp in bright colours over a light base. The inspiration came to Natalia from @sveta_sanders and this great mani and tutorial.

I chose a base of Picture Polish Siren Song and then stamped using Kleancolor Metallic Green, Metallic Aqua and Metallic Sapphire, using the peacock plate from Emily de Molly EDM04.

Don't forget to jump over and check @Cats_n_nails instagram feed to see what she came up with for her twinsie matching nails.

Last week I received one of two packages I was expecting from Dance Legend.  I was so surprised when the box arrived, as it had only been 4 weeks since I received my tracking number from Dance Legend. For my last order I had waited more than three months, so 4 weeks postage direct from Russia was outstanding.

The package contained the entire Dance Legend Lumos collection, so I picked up the first one and created a mani with it.

The Lumos collection all have small LED lights in the cap, I'll talk about them below.

For this mani I did a two toned gradient on my thumb, index and pinky fingers using OPI No Room for the Blues and Picture Polish Wisteria.  On my middle and ring fingers I did random dots of both colours to create a mottled effect.  Next I put one coat of Dance Legend Orlando on all nails.

Dance Legend Orlando is a flakie polish with two types of flakies, orange to green ones and bright iridescent blue ones.  The base of the polish is a pale purple jelly.  The flakie payoff is excellent as you are able to get lots of flakies on your nails with just one coat.  This is one coat over my gradient and dots.

To finish the look, I applied some black studs to the gradient nails and I stamped using Messy Mansion plate MM29.

Here is a look at the little LED light in the cap.  I actually really love it.  It's very slim line and doesn't make the cap thick and hard to hold.  There is a little button on the top of the cap that clicks on and off to turn the LED light on and off.  When the lid is on the bottle, the LED light illuminates the bottle of polish and really makes it glow.  When the lid is off is shines a light down the shaft of the wand to light up where you are painting you nails. And probably the most surprising thing of all, it actually worked for me. It illuminated where I was painting my nails meaning no mess from lack of lighting (just mess from a wobbly hand).

Dance Legend polishes are available from a number of resellers worldwide, or directly through the Dance Legend Website.

Polish provided for review.

I created this mani to match my outfit earlier this week. I used OPI I can't Copa-Cabana, which is the most perfect yellow polish. I did some reverse stamping, where you paint onto the stamper, colour it in, let it dry then press it to your nail onto slightly tacky top coat. 

I was quite happy with the mani and it matched my yellow, black and white dress very nicely.  What I didn't like was the greasy shine marks that I later discovered on all my photos.

You see Miss Three likes to steal my camera, unbeknown to me.  Whenever she steals it she leaves finger prints all over the lens, which of course I never think to check before taking my photos. I only discover that she has stolen my camera when I download the photos and discover beauties such as theses!

She received a Style Me Up nail kit at Christmas, which was still unopened.  So she had opened it up herself and then proceeded to take photos of her bottles of polish!

I'm guessing this one is an attempt at photographing her nails, but she just missed the mark.

I must try to remember to check the lens every time before I take my nail photos.

I have a stunning new shade from Picture Polish to show you tonight.  If you follow Picture Polish on Facebook you would have already seen a bottle shot of this beautiful new polish in their opulence range.

Scarlett - a pink leaning red polish with complex mix of multicoloured shimmers and a soft holographic sheen.  Looking at Scarlett in it's bottle it looks much pinker that it does on the nail.  There are tiny shimmer particles in blue, pink and gold as well as a subtle holographic flame.

Application was perfect, just like I expect from my Picture Polish shades. Pigmentation is great.  You could get away with one thicker coat if you wanted to.  Actually, when I was swatching this, I forgot to put a second coat onto my thumb, so you can see in the last photo how opaque just one coat is.

Lets take a look at this beautiful polish.  This is two thin coats with Seche Vite top coat (one coat on the thumb)

Scarlett is coming soon and will be available from www.picturepolish.com.au as well as through their Network of resellers.

ETA: I was requested to show some comparison photos of Picture Polish Scarlett and Ohara. So here it is. As you can see they are completely different colours and finishes.

Here is my last Australia themed mani for this year.  One thing that Australia is quite well know for, apart from it's awesome weather, beaches and people, is it's deadly animals.  From spiders to snakes to jellyfish and octopus, we have some doosies here.

This mani is a nod to our deadly snakes.  Did you know that of the top 25 most deadly snakes in the world, that 20 of them are found in Australia (source).  Plus, they don't just live in remote unpopulated areas, they live where we live.  I know we have had a brown snake in our backyard in the past, and a brown snake is #2 on that deadly list.  Anyone want to come visit us?

I started my mani with a coat of Picture Polish Bewitch. I then layered two coats of Picture Polish Splendour, which is a yellow, orange to green flakie.  I then stamped using BM-215 with black polish.  I painted the snake on my middle finger freehand using nail polish.  I'm so happy with how it came out!

That's it for my Australian themed nails.  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed painting them.  Thanks also to all my Aussie friends that joined in with the nail art spirit and create all the below manis. 

Happy Australia Day to all my Aussie readers., I hope you have a fun filled day today and a great holiday tomorrow.

I have two Aussie themed designs today. This first one is a green and gold version of the Australian Flag.  I used Zoya Ivanka as my base.  For the union jack I used white polish and Amazeballs.  For the Southern Cross I used some star shaped rhinestones with a little Amazeballs dabbed on.  Unfortunately there was so sun in the morning before I left work to show off the shininess of this mani, and of course I forgot to take any additional photos when I got home.

This next one is another flag sticker by Billy's Australiana Collection from my local dollar shop.  It's a different design to the previous one and shows the flag with some shade and movement.  I discovered in my application of these that there are definitely two types of stickers from this brand, some that are really, really thin and difficult to apply (like the koala and kangaroo ones were) and others a bit thicker and apply perfectly. 

These were impossibly difficult to apply.  I wasted the two spare nail stickers in this package just trying to get them to apply.  In the end I had to open another packet of mixed designs to grab another flag one out, it turned out that that one was much stiffer and super easier to apply.  So either there is two types, or the quality controls isn't great and its pot luck as to whether you get the easy ones or not.

On Friday I received a box of Dance Legend polishes.  It was one of two boxes I was waiting on and I was so excited it arrived so fast from Russia. Only 4 weeks from when I got my tracking number.  Anyway, one of the polishes that was in the box is the new Sahara top coat, which is a clear textured top coat that you can apply over any polish.  I'll do a much more detailed post on it down the track, but I wanted to show you the textured version of this mani.

As you can see, the Sahara top coat has a fine silver shimmer to to, as well as the clear textured finish.  I like it alot.

I do have one last Australian themed mani for the public holiday tomorrow.  Then I'll move on to something else.