Sometimes I just feel like wearing something extra shiny and metallic, and this combo really satisfied that desire.  This was blindingly holo and metallic in the sun and still metallic in the shade too which was nice, because usually these ultra strong holos can look pretty dull in the shade.

This is one coat of Lacquistry Amazeballz extra fine and then one coat of Nfu Oh 61.  This is the original version of Nfu Oh 61, not the re-released one, which was much less holo.  In fact, in my swatch stick comparisons of all my holos, my friends and I have been unable to determine the difference between origianl Nfu Oh 61 and Chanel Holographic.  Which is awesome, cause now I don't feel like I need to drop $300 on the Chanel!

This weeks prompt for the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge is Films, and I was pretty stumped what to do, right up until the last minute.  But then I got some nail mail and I knew exactly what to do.

I painted my other nails white and then use sharpies to create a water colour effect similar to the water decal.  To finish it off I used my White Uniball pen to paint the tiny stars and the word 'Always'.

For those that can't draw the connection of this manicure to a film, let me explain.  The nails represent the Harry Potter films.  Specifically, the character played by the late Alan Rickman, Severus Snape.  The Doe represents the patronus he produced, which mirrored the patronus of the women he loved - who was Harry's mother. 'Always' relates the the response he gave when Professor Dumbledore said to him "After all this time?", questioning Severus' love for Lily after all that time.

You know I don't buy much nail polish these days.  I can generally convince myself that somewhere in my stash is a polish that is similar enough to not needing to buy new ones.  So it must be something pretty special when I decided to buy a whole collection. 

I'm a sucker for collections that have rainbow shades in the same finish, and the Pretty Serious Ghosts of Christmas Future collection is exactly that.  A collection of eight strongly pigmented foils with a reflective metallic sheen.

One of these colours was already in my collection - Santa's Sunburn. It was released back in 2012 as part of the Christmas without Snow collection. It also made the cut as one of my favourite polishes for that year. So when I saw a whole collection of polishes with the similar finish to Santas Sunburn, but in a rainbow of colours, I was drawn to buy them.  

These polishes are fantastic for nail art, and I used a few of them before Christmas as can be seen on my Pretty Serious tag. I love them cause they are metallic and shiny and because they are nicely pigmented. I used two coats for all these swatches, most of them were opaque in one coat and applied beautifully, but I like the thickness of two layers.

Anyway, lets look at my swatches. First photo of each polish was taken in the shade, second photo taken in the full sun.

Santa's Sunburn

As much as I love these polishes, I have to say I did have one disappointment with the collection.  I had really hoped one of the colours would be the amazing yellow gold polish that Ben and Kaz showed in their blog post titled "Midas has nothing on us!" back in March 2013 when they were selecting Seriously Random polishes. They even said then it was a gold version of Santa's Sunburn. So, whilst I love Yuletide of the machines, I kind of wish is was the bright yellow gold rather than having two bronze/orange shades.

Folks, I'm back home after our short little getaway up to Sydney for an extra long Australia Day weekend.  I don't think I've ever walked so much in three days. We spend one full day at Taronga Zoo, following all the trails and looking at the animals. The second day we went to Luna Park, and walked the length and breadth of the place going on old school amusement rides with the kids. Then yesterday we went to Wet n Wild water park. Despite the horrible online reviews of the place, we had a ball!  We got there at opening and didn't have to queue for rides until it was about 1.30pm, and even then we only queued for about 20 minutes on one ride.  I'm also clearly not fit enough for Wet n Wild cause I was so bloody exhausted from climbing the endless stairs on each of the ride towers.  It sure was a fun way for the kids to end their school holidays, with them both going back to school next week (and my little miss is starting Kindy).

Now onto the nails.  This little beauty is Winter from Picture Polish. Winter is a grey jelly with a scattered holo effect.  On my accent nail I stamped a leaf and a rose using the layered stamping technique, my clear jelly stamper and CJS02 plate.  CJS now have another layered rose plate (SJC05) that creates a more realistic looking rose that I think I will have to buy.

Is there anything worse than a rehash post?  As a reader, probably not, but as a blogger who is away from home for Australia Day, with only three polishes on hand, it's the best thing ever.

 

Tomorrow is Australia Day, our national day where we BBQ, head to the beach or have a pool party, and dress in things adorned with the Australian flag. Will I be doing these things? Most definitely. Today in Sydney we are heading to Luna Park, and tomorrow to Wet n Wild.  My kids have gawdy "Aussie Kid" t-shirts and I have my Australian Flag baseball cap. While I only took three polishes away with me, I also took a pack of Australin Flag nail wraps (the ones at #10 below), so we are totally set to rock Straya day!

 

No now lets get to some Australia Day nail art inspiration. It's been several years since I created many of these, and I'm thinking I'll have to redo some again cause they were just so awesome to wear.

 

#1 - Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House