Japanese nail art. Your thoughts?

Japanese nail art.
Just the thought of it brings up visions of a giant plastic hello kitty dangling from fingertips, nails encrusted with everything shiny, shimmery, gaudy and kitschy.
So what I want to know is - do YOU like it? Is it just the soft pastel colours that put you off? The vision of nails so encrusted with... stuff, that it becomes a nightmare to think about going to the toilet?
Or do you love it?
Would you learn how to make giant acrylic frangipanis? Or do you already have the knack of sculpting a delicate rose under your belt?

Some pictures to get you thinking.

I want to know!
Gaudy or gorgeous?
Kitschy or kawaii?
Heavenly or hell-on-earth?

Me? I'm going to do what I always do. Pick away the elements of the cute and the spooky and make it mine. But maybe not so much.... stuff.

What are your thoughts ladies?

Love,

Goobie goober!!! COMMENTS NOW FIXED!

Hello my lovelies!
I just want to say a HUGE thank you to Ange-Marie from Scandalously Polished.

It's a relief to know I'm not just sitting in to corner of the Blog world talking to a pot plant!

Also- a big cuddle and huge thank you to Andrea from Black Nail Polish and Lip Gloss!

Also - my comments should be up and running so feel free to go to older posts and comment - I'd love you to!

Now for the main event... GOOBER NAILS.

This is almost nothing what it looks like. The teal-ish jelly is accurate but there seem to be a lot more sparkly bits on my nails than in the photo. Hrmph.

I'll let the pictures talk for me...

 

Arty-farty...

Bottle pics:

And in natural light:

I'd noticed a lot of blogs making mention of Australian brand BYS (or "Be Yourself") - it's super cheap here you can pick it up for a couple of dollars anywhere! If anyone has seen a colour they're dying for - let me know and maybe we can work out a trade...

This is N101- "Dazzling" from their "Glam Glitter" range.
From the bottle I was expecting it to be bright green holo glitters floating in a blackish green jelly.
But no!
It's a teal-green jelly, which makes it look more mermaid-ey than radioactive booger-ey...

I really like this one - though the giant hex glitters are a bit of a pain - you generally don't have to fish for them too much but they tend to make friends - meaning that you have to poke them a bit so you don't end up with three on top of each other.
They're also a little flat, which on my very rounded nails meant I had to do another coat when I woke up as the shiny green layer of the big glitters got caught in the sheets when I was asleep, leaving a plain silverish chunk.
Overall though - they're cheap, they're pretty, they apply pretty damn well, but if you're searching for a particular colour in this brand -  good luck, as every cheapo $5 store seems to have a completely different lot of 3 colours.

What do you think?

Love,

Totally Nude!

Hello my lovelies!

Okay take a deep breath - I'm about to show you my nails.


NAKED.


100% NUDE...


Are you ready?

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGH!

But seriously? They're not that bad. I wear nail polish EVERY DAY without fail, I don't think I even own a nail polish that IS Big 3 Free... and I use acetone nail polish remover.
I'm surprised at how yellow they aren't.
My hands are a bit dry here though...

My cuticles on the other hand... please continue to ignore them.
I've decided sometime soon I'm going to have them professionally done just so I can see what they do to my cuticles - and if it works.
I have a reference for a couple of good salons here in Melbourne.

Also - what looks like gunk under my nails?
It's not. Thats my skin!
As I have had long nails since I can even remember it's not literally impossible for me to cut my nails back all the way as the skin under my nails is growing up under the edges of my nails. Which means as you can see my nail beds are now freakishly long.
Does that make sense?
Does anyone else have this problem and can tell me why it happens and what to do about it?

Also - feel free to critique my nails - if you can see a problem and can recommend a solution - I want to know!
Love,

In love right now....

Have you seen the "Love Lace" collection from Mac? Its GORGEOUS. I'm totally planning to try a few of these looks for myself! So far I only have a couple of Mac products (my poor wallet) but I think I need to raid the counter again sometime soon! Have a look:

What do you say? Do you want to see my mug smothered in my attempts at makeup?

Here's one I did some time ago...

What do you think?

Love,

Zombie Foots

Hello my lovelies!

I bought some craft sponges from a hardware store to do some gradients!

I've seen this idea on another blog  - (unfortunately I can't seem to find it again - if its you, let me know and you will get credit where it's due!) and thought it was just too awesome not to try!

Unfortunately I've run out of nail polish remover so I still have my black and white konad on so while my boyfriend was playing Fallout 3 I painted his toenails!

I was originally going to try something different but wanted to keep it GothBoy friendly so zombie it is!

Here's some pics I took pre cleanup:

Can you see the dark green shimmer in the blackish polish? The green glows under UV - it's still dark green but it definitely has a slight glow - how strange!

And after cleanup (Well, a shower):

What do you think?  I would have LOVED to have had some Matte TC to put over the top - but OH WELL...

Please be kind - it's my first shot at using sponges and i'm still trying to work out how much polish to load them with.

How do you do it?

I just painted it on the sponge but when that wasn't enough i put it over the mouth of the nail polish bottle and gave it a shake!

That turned out to be a little too much.

Next time i might just put a blob on, say, an empty ice cream container lid, then pick some up with the sponge.

Do they make you think of zombies? Or something else? All i can say is the Boy is content with his zombie polish. :)

Love,

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!

Happy Australia Day everyone! I'm probably going to a BBQ with some mates this arvo (gosh... could I get any more Aussie?) but for now...

I just finished taking photos of EVERY polish I own. Which is a few... but not a lot... and definitely nowhere near enough!

Ready? Here we go!

My box of goodies...

Blacks, Silvers & Whites:

Pinks & Nudes:

Reds:

Yellows & Greens:

Blues:

Purples:

Other! Chameleons & Crazy Colour Flashes:

Wow! What a mixed bag! I turned all the labels right side out but some are really old so the labels have rubbed off and some are frankens so the labels are irrelevant! If you want to know what a particular shade is (or if its 3 free...) just throw me a comment!

Next on my to do list - making a wish list! All you lovely ladies are murdering my bank account with things I HAVE to have!

Love,

Kitty's First Konad!

Hello lovelies!

I know I said I would find my disc yesterday (I did - I found it three hours ago) but that means - Konad piccies! Whee!

Please excuse my amateurish photos and streaky konad - but for a first go I'm quite proud!

I used The Face Shop black with white Konad Special Polish with Stargazer Clear Top Coat. I stuck some diamantes on and then threw some gobs of clear on the top - but as you can see it bubbled a bit.
Obviously I need to get some Seche Vite Top Coat... and not put such big globs on... haha! I used plate m62 for these.

And OH GOD it looks so much worse when you can see everything close up! My cuticles are horrid and please excuse the random fluff on EVERYTHING...

Let me know what you think! :)
Love,

Sunday Bloody Sunday....

Please excuse the title. However, it IS Sunday and I meet it with not exactly open arms...

My computer and my camera are having a very firm disagreement (in which it appears my computer is giving my camera the silent treatment...) which means until I locate the software... no pictures from me! I promise I will do it tomorrow... I will!

I thought instead I would make a post in which you can still feast your pretty eyes on...
SO... Now for some lovely Aussie gothy goodies that I have been hankering for!





HOW CUTE IS THIS!? This dress is from Canberra designers "Raven." They had a cute little shop in the middle of the city that was my saving grace growing up in Canberra. They had everything a fledgling goth could need! Black nail polish and lipstick, clothes from brands like lip service - as well as their own designs, pots of Manic Panic hair dye... Lush. Unfortunately they closed up shop on the 1st of January of this year. The good part is - they're concentrating on their clothing designs! So we can expect more goodies like this! Click the pic to go to the site.

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You must have been living under a rock to not have heard of Gallery Serpentine! Simply amazing corsetry designers from Sydney! Sometimes I think we Aussie alternative kids have it easy! Click the pic to go to the site.

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There are way too many Aussie designers for me to mention in just one post! (If anyone wants to see more - let me know!) But i just HAD to mention Dolly Q.
Dolly Q is the brainchild of Danielle Carson. I first met Dani when she gave me a job working at Dracula's Cabaret Theatre Restaurant! (The two lovely models below worked at Drax too!) Soon after she left Drax to work on Dolly Q - her work is DIVINE and I would spend every paycheck on it if it meant I got to look this gorgeous! Click the pic to go to the site.

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And one last thing I simply had to mention - Wildilocks - here in gorgeous Melbourne (and Perth too!) They are an alterative hairdressing salon - as well as having some of the best clothes - with gorgeous well known brands like Phaze (UK) along home grown Aussie designers. They have a webstore too! Oh - and I have to add - if you dye your hair mad colours try Special Effects. Just try it... you'll wonder how you ever lived without it! Click the pic to go to the site.

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So what do you think of Australia now? Let me know what you think!