OMG I forgot!

That last post I forgot to add who I was listening to the while I was writing the post. So here is something just a little bit special.

City and Colour with P!nk - What Makes A Man

Dallas Green, the singer and guitar of Alexisonfire (RIP, but always in my life) and current singer/guitarist of City and Colour. This man is my hero, my idol. He is the person I aspire to be. Down to earth, happy, modest, talent and honest. I had the pleasure of meeting him in April this year after his Melbourne show. It was cold and 1am, and he was tired and jetlagged He stayed for an hour to sign and take photos, and actually talk to us. He spoke to us, not like we were fans but we were new acquaintances. I respect him so much.

Anyway, this is him with P!nk, who I think has one of the most unique voices in the pop industry. I've always liked P!nk, and now I respect her taste in music!

Galaxy Nails

I know, I know. Typical hipster, cliched nails that every girl with a tumblr does. But that's not to say that it's not fabulously fun and an easy manicure. I just LOVVVVVEEEDDD this manicure! Super easy. Anyone that tells you otherwise is just over complicating it. Keep it simple is my best advice. I know a lot about mixing colours because used to paint in high school, so maybe its a tad easier for me. Anyways here are the colours I used.

From left to right: Orly Goth, OPI Road House Blues, China Glaze For Audrey, China Glaze Peachy Keen, China Glaze Lemon Fizz, OPI Alpine Snow and Sally Hansen Disco Ball.

It's really simple. Start with the black, Orly Goth, dab on RHB with a bigger section of sponge, then For Audrey, Peachy Keen and Lemon Fizz. Each colour use less polish and a smaller section of sponge. There are more stars in the centre of nebula so the most colour and lightest colour goes in the middle, leaving the darker blues to the edges of the nebula. I then used the white, Alpine Snow, to lighten up the nebula in the middle. But be careful how much white you use, because it can cover up the orange and yellow. I then used AS and a pin for the stars. I think I did the starts to big and it kind of covers the nebula a bit. But different size stars are the key. Small stars compared to big stars look awesome! My favourite was my thumb.

After I have finished I cover it with Disco Ball, a clear polish with small different coloured glitter. Also I think you can skip this step, because the nebula and stars are already busy enough. Add your Seche and you're ready to go. For all those wondering Orly Goth is the most exciting black I've ever come across, a black creme with solid silver micro particles. Love love love!

NOTD

Hey, so I wasn't going to post this manicure 'cause this colour's a bit boring but it chipped so fixed it up and gave it a bit of sprucing. My base colour is OPI Tease-y Does It. This is the first time I worn Tease-y Does It and honesty, I dunno why I bought it. I feel its kind of boring and I wasn't impressed with the colour when I bought it but I needed more dark shimmers/duocromes so I can layer a Matte topcoat (which precisely what I did).

It's nice but I think 'cause summer's arund the corner, I need something brighter, something special. (Have you seen the promo shoots from OPI Nicki Minaj? That's what I need!) Hence step two; sprucing.

I added OPI I Lily Love You. I wish OPI would do more flakies. I mean look at that! Watta flakie! Looks amazing over any dark colour (especially navy blues). Now we all know what makes flakies bedazzle; mattification (did I just make that word up?).

I used Essie Matte About You. You know what I love the most about this manicure, that the flakies look suspended in the polish. I just love ILLY, I'll say it again. Watta flakie!

Currently Listening to: It's Not A Bad Little War by Bayside.

Ombre

Such a fan of this. Especially with cremes. I love cremes, more than anything else. Took me a while to get into glitters and shimmers, but creme's... my polish soul-mates. So this one is made up of my favourite blues, OPI Road House Blues and OPI Alpine Snow.

I mixed the colours myself. I got the idea from Chalkboard Nails to mix my own colours. Because RHB is so dark I started with a palette of AS (the white) and added small amount of RHB and did my pinky's first, working my way up to the pointers. A handy tip, because this method does waste more nail polish than just painting you nails from the bottle; use nail polish thinner when your palette starts to dry. Thinner re-moistens it and you don't need to pour more polish onto your colour palette. It's really easy and I think it looks better when you've only got one hue and it really step down lighter (or darker, depending on your orginal colour) in shade, rather than trying to find 5 different hues in different shades.

Please excuse my bad photos, until I get a better camera I'm stick with over-exposed, blurry or grainy photos. Also note, this is what my nails look like when they are longer and shaped nicely. At the moment they short, short, short! Boo



Currently Listening to: White Oak Doors by Defeater

Nail of the Day

Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe. Gorgeous navy jelly with all kinds of yummy glitters swimming within it. I still haven't mastered the application so my cuticles look kind of sad and messy. But I still love it. I just wished it works better with my Seche. And I wish my nail's were longer, but I'm trying to shape them properly so every time I change my nail polish, I'm perfecting the shape (I should stop or they won't get any long huh?)

Look at the sparkle (removal is a such a bitch, right?).




Currently listening to: Sons of Privilege by Alexisonfire

Nail of the Day

I have a few different manicures up my sleeve, but I think I'll start with my NOTD, and conveniently its my favourite jelly sandwich. I'm a big fan of red. Nothing classier and sexier. ;)

This is OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress with OPI Teenage Dream and China Glaze Scarlet to top it off. It sparkles something fancy in all light conditions. So hard to capture unfortunately, but if you have Teenage Dream, you'll know what I'm talking about, same sparkle.

A couple of weeks back I first tried this combination with China Glaze's Flying Dragon (you know, the beautifully bright neon purple with blue glitter that dries horribly matte) with Teenage Dreams and Scarlet on top. It makes the combination a more berry- er...

In this photo you can really see how translucent Scarlet is over Teenage Dream. I just love it!

They are horribly colour-balanced, I'm so sorry, but you get the idea right? It's about the right colour, anyway. The one thing with the Flying Dragon combination compared to the I'm Not Really a Waitress is that because Scarlet is a jelly it goes on kind of streaky. So the red of the INRAW really evens that out ('cause it's already red). The streakiness more noticeable with Flying Dragon because its a purple.

Currently listening to: Dear Father by Defeater.

Brand New

I've been doing the Tumblr thing all year and I found a recent, and possibly obsessive, need for nail polish, (minimal) nail art, tools and all things manicures. So why not blog???

Here, I'll post my humble (another word for small) nails, with my humble (poor) photography skills and equipment (the dumbest camera camera ever).

For those of you who don't know me (ie everyone), my name's Aly. I'm a 21 year old aspiring film, TV and music video director from Melbourne. I'm a bloody perfectionist, especially with my nails. I hate getting professional manicures 'cause they always shape my nails wrong and it drives me insane. Anyway, I love punk and hardcore music, going to concerts and listening to music. I watch a lot of TV. Arrested Development is the best.