Happy Birthday Daphne!

Hello Lovelies,
First up, today is my 50th blog post! And, what a great post I have in store for the milestone! Today Pretty Serious Cosmetics turns 1 year old. For their first birthday they have released the gorgeous glitterbomb "Daphne's Birthday Party" and asked that everyone who has a bottle posts pictures of their swatches all over the internet! The reward for doing this is an entry into a competition to win every single polish Pretty Serious produce in the next year plus a 20% off voucher for your next Pretty Serious purchase for all entrants... I know right? INSANE! So of course I've jumped on that and here are my pictures of the beautiful Daphne's Birthday Party!

This is such a cool polish! The glitter is completely opaque on the nails after 3 coats and application is fantastic! The good news is that this is not a limited edition polish so if you want to snap it up, head on over to the Pretty Serious website!

Each Pretty Serious polish comes in a box with the gorgeous Daphne on it. She's pretty impressive!

Mmmm glitter! So, Happy Birthday Daphne and Pretty Serious. Congratulations on what I hope has been a wonderful fledgling year for you. I cannot wait to see all the gorgeous polishes that you have coming out in your second year!

Arcane Lacquer

I promised this blog post on IG two days ago so I'm really sorry it took so darn long to get here. I am so busy with exams and I feel like I can't quite keep up with my blogging responsibilities. To make up for it I have an exciting post about a new indie line called Arcane Lacquer! Now if you've been around the blog scene for awhile then it would be near impossible for you not to have stumbled upon the swatches of the fabulous Bec from Nail Gun XS. Well this polish I am showing you today is made by her! Unfortunately the first release of this polish has closed but stay tuned to her blog because she has a new release of gorgeous polishes coming up!

First up lets have a look at all the pretty bottles I ordered! The first release of Arcane has ten different polishes in the collection.

Now for some polish! This is Dreary Days, a gorgeous deep blue with little black and purple hexes, black microglitter and a hint of holo sparkle. I am obsessed with this polish. This is two coats with a top coat of seche vite. I found this polish was really easy to apply but as is always the way with me, not easy to photograph! I can honestly say though that this would be up there in my top favourite polishes!

After I was done with Dreary Days, I opted for this gorgeous polish! This one is called "The Power, The Passion" and it's a deep purple base jam packed with gorgeous micro holographic sparkly glitter. This polish just glimmers in sunlight. I found that I had to use quite a thick coat to get two good coats on ( I was rushing). Three thin coats would have probably worked just as well.

Finally, I have a bit of a guest swatch appearance. This next pic is of my Mum who always gets excited when I get new polish in. Today is Mother's Day here in Australia and honestly, I couldn't be more grateful for my Mum. I love that she and I can bond over my Helmer! So here's a swatch by Mum! Wearing Arcane Lacquer " Willow".

So there are three out of ten amazing polishes that Bec has created! Finally, I have one last picture. Today I went over to the home of the wonderful Cathy who runs the blog More Nail Polish along with the awesome Hayley creator of EmilydeMolly and Sylvia IG: @lilyandjinks. We had a fantastic afternoon pawing over Cathy's incredible nail polish collection and each of these lovely ladies had brought presents for everyone! I feel really lucky that I have found some women in my hometown who share my polish obsession. So here's a picture of our nails combined!

So I think I'm going to take a brief hiatus from official blogging until my uni exams finish. I will however, be posting pics on instagram, so go check out @katersnails and I'll blog again as soon as all this stress is over!

Emily de Molly - Land of Confusion

So this weekend I was lucky enough to go to the home of the fabulous Hayley, also known as the brains behind Aussie indie line, Emily de Molly! Hayley asked me if I would help her package up some of her international orders and in return she offered me polish rewards! A smart tactic because I'm never going to refuse polish! I actually had a really great time, the work was repetitive but not painful, horrible or anything like that. Plus with Hayley's company the time flew by! So thanks so much Hayley, you're pretty awesome!

So of course today's post is an Emily de Molly, or as I've lovingly called Hayley's latest collection, Emily de Molos because it's a line of gorgeous holo shades. Today we have the green Land of Confusion.

I LOVE THIS POLISH. Seriously, it's so pretty. I didn't have anything like it in my collection. These pics show two thin coats which is all it really took for opacity. First up, a shot inside under a lamp,

Like my new watermark? I've started using an iphone app so that rather than uploading to my computer and watermarking, I can do it all on the phone which makes for faster instagram uploads. Now the outdoor shots, which I've realised is going to only get harder because here in Australia we are coming into winter. I couldn't photograph this polish properly until about 1 PM when I was in the work car about to drive somewhere (yes I brought the bottle with me purely to take the photo!)

So much holo goodness! This picture isn't the best but I was a bit time pressured! I wanted to capture the pretty green of this polish so here's one more, classy steering wheel shot! Emily de Molly is available from Hayley's esty store (linked above) and several international stockists (listed on her etsy).

Illamasqua and Emily de Molly

Hey lovelies!

I recently went on a trip to Sydney where I went a little bit crazy at the Illamasqua counter at Myer! So today I have a mani using five of Illa's rubber brights collection which I am obsessed with!

First the five colours I bought, on their own without a topcoat! Each nail is two coats. Application was lovely for all except for the orange which is Illamasqua - Optimist. For this one, I found the formula slightly 'gluggy,' I believe the reason for this may have been that the bottle doesn't close as tightly as the others do in order to fit in their display boxes. But I'm not sure. I think if I had some thinner I would have added it in there but I don't so maybe I'll invest in some and see how that goes. 

 While I loved the rubber look on their own, I had something else I wanted to do with these bright nails so I applied a top coat of Black and White Love Affair by Emily de Molly. You can buy Emily de Molly polish from her etsy store here, from Shoppe Eclectic or from Llarowe.

I love this look. I know I've got a great mani when I get in my car to drive somewhere and I can't stop looking at my nails! Here's an outdoor shot which really shows the colours much better.

Honestly, I am such a top coat addict, I think I would struggle to wear the Illamasqua's on their own without one! But I do enjoy the look and I really love these polishes!

Illamasqua - Serenity

Illamasqua - Prosperity

Illamasqua - Optimist

Illamasqua - Nurture

Illamasqua - Devotee

Emily de Molly - Black and White Love Affair

Striping blue for autism.

Hey guys!
It's almost 1:00 AM but I'm so happy with my mani, I just couldn't wait to share it!! This is my last Paint It Blue mani to raise awareness for autism. Whilst we are on the subject, if you are interested in some exclusive one of polishes from both Australian and US indie polish makers then go and check out this polish auction

http://paintitblue2013.blogspot.com.au/

All funds raised will go to ASPECT Australia, a wonderful organisation who really strive to make a difference for those who have autism and their families.

Anyway onto the nails! This is my first little foray into striping tape and I am HOOKED! I couldn't be happier with how this mani turned out. Although it definitely taught me a lesson in patience after I stuffed up my accent nails twice by not waiting for my under polish to fully dry!

Seriously, how good is China Glaze - First Mate? I only needed ONE COAT over the striping tape to get a good result. Anyway as fun as this mani was, I definitely won't be attempting it so late at night! I'd better head to sleep so that I'm not a complete zombie at university tomorrow!

China Glaze - First Mate
Sally Hansen - Celeb City

Birthday Blues

So last week was my birthday! Im not sure whether I feel older or wiser but I definitely got some nail polish and that's all that matters right? I spent the day at work and then went out for dinner. Pretty quiet but still a good day.

For my birthday mani, I wanted something that sparkled!

This is a new Emily de Molly polish that I was lucky enough to get from her at the Canberra meetup over Easter! It's a gorgeous mix of gold holographic glitter (all different shapes and sizes) in a clear base and it is GORGEOUS! I layered it over Revlon - Gold Coin. This mani was incredible in sunlight. Absolutely sparkled! This polish isn't available yet on Emily de Molly's etsy but to see the rest of her polishes and get information on international stockists then head here!

This week I'm back to blue nails for autism with another Aussie Indie.

This is Femme Fatale - Suspended Starlight layered over Layla - Ocean Rush and topped with NFU Oh 52. I can't fully capture the depth of this mani. Suspended Starlight is absolutely gorgeous, blue base packed with lots of blue holographic glitter, stars and moons. Application was super easy because this polish is PACKED with glitter! Femme Fatale polish is available here!

NFU 52 is a divine flakie top coat. Green flakes in a purple base. If you want to get your hands on this polish then move quickly because NFU are discontinuing their entire flakie line! I got mine from Crush Cosmetics. Shipping was super speedy and orders over 65 dollars get free shipping!!

Color Club - Eternal Beauty

So this week I got my hands on the gorgeous Color Club - Eternal Beauty. Oh. My. Gosh. I love this polish so much. I can't even begin to tell you! First up, Color Club have awesome bottles and the brush was awesome for application. I used my standard three coats and a top coat in these pics. First some taken out of the sunlight and then prepare to be dazzled for the sunlit pictures!

So I've been thinking a lot about my blog recently, following the sad departure of my good friend Julz Perri from the blogosphere. I feel like I'm not really a consistent blogger and that impacts where I would like to be. In addition to this, I have a crazy busy schedule with this being my last year of uni so if I want to continue, I need to find a way to work it all out. I got an iPad Mini as an early birthday present from my family on Friday and so I am hoping to use that as a way to blog quicker because my process at the moment is not efficient. So I'm going to try it out soon, expect to see new watermarks on my pics and maybe a new format for my posts. All I can do is give it a go. I hope you'll all bear with me. Thanks so much for your support so far.

Kater xx

World Autism Awareness Day

So this month I have pledged to be part of "Paint it Blue." An initiative introduced by me on a facebook nail group that I frequent. The purpose of this initiative is to raise awareness for autism by painting your nails blue over the month of April. Some people will be doing it once, weekly and even every day! I'm going to aim for once a week. So today's mani is for World Autism Awareness Day which is today, April 2nd!

I got inspiration from this mani from these two images which I found after I searched for autism awareness in google images.

You can see my art and also designs from other polish lovers on Instagram under the hashtag #bluenailsforautism

As you can see, I attempted to do the puzzle pieces and the light globe design as an accent. I am quite happy with the accent but the puzzle pieces ended up being a bit of a hot mess. Not too bad for a first attempt though.

China Glaze - First Mate

China Glaze - For Audrey

Sally Hansen - Cherry Red

Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow

OPI - My Vampire is Buff

Meetup + Alanna Renee- Fawkes

Hey Guys!

I've had so much I wanted to update but I have been house sitting with the world's slowest internet connection so I haven't been able to! Luckily I'm home now so I'm going to smash out two posts in one day for you all!

Last Saturday I was lucky enough to attend a meetup with four very lovely nail enthusiasts. I was so nervous because two of these ladies have incredible indie lines and the other two are fantastic nail artists, I'm sure you've all seen Cathy's blog before! So I was a bit starstruck! We talked polish, shared easter gifts with one another, had lunch and made the wait staff of the restaurant jealous with all our polishes strewn across the table! Here's the details for those in attendance!

• Cathy from More Nail Polish
• Alanna from Pretty Purple Polish and the creator of Indie polishes Alanna Renee
• Hayley creator of Indie polishes Emily de Molly
• Sylvia @lilyandjinks on Instagram

The obligatory hand shot to prove that we did, all in fact, meet up!  

I was incredibly privileged to come away from this meetup with some brand new, not even named yet! Emily de Molly's and some of Alanna's new Harry Potter line! So I thought I'd show you a quick swatch of one of the Alanna Renee newbies.

This is Fawkes, Alanna describes Fawkes on her site as " a mix of red and gold holo glitter in a red base." I used three coats in this picture. Application was super easy and the sparkle is absolutely incredible. This picture definitely doesn't do the polish justice! I could not stop looking at my fingers whilst I was wearing it! Alanna Renee's Magical World Collection was released yesterday and can be purchased at her site here!

I had such a wonderful time at the meetup this weekend. I definitely hope there'll be future gatherings! 

Femme Fatale Cosmetics- Keeper of the Grove

So the other night I went out on the town with my friends, and I wanted something absolutely stunning to wear on my nails. Here's a fun fact about me, I don't really dress in bright colours. I'm a little body conscious and so my wardrobe is mostly dark shades. For this reason, my nails is where I can really express myself. So lets see the polish!!

Keeper of the Grove is a lime green jelly base absolute choc a block full of glitter, There's about a million different green glitters, silver hex, pink hex, blue hex, hearts, holographic glitter. I couldn't list them all!

 First an indoor shot. This is applied over a base coat of China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle. Application was super easy and I layered on three heavy coats for optimal sparkle! You can buy Femme Fatale polish at their site here, at Llarowe and Shoppe Eclectic.

Picture number two was taken outside to try and show you how dazzling the glitter is!

Pic number three is a cute shot I took under my lamp which I thought looked kinda cool. The polish looks like treasure! Also, I want to mention that I have joined the ranks of nail bloggers on Instagram! If you like what I do here, then please give us a follow @katersnails!! Thanks guys!

Emily de Molly - Sweet As

Today I have a gorgeous new polish from Aussie Indie maker Emily de Molly!

Sweet As is the perfect pastel pink base with purple micro glitter, silver hex glitter in two different sizes and gorgeous big pink neon hex glitter! Application was super easy and I felt like a princess wearing it! The pictures are all three coats with Seche Vite on top!

Steering wheel shot! I really wanted to capture the pretty of this polish. Natural light seemed to be the best option. Emily be Molly can be purchased on Etsy, Femme Fatale Cosmetics, Llarowe and Shoppe Eclectic.

Alanna Renee - Reptar

Hey guys,

I am currently obsessed with buying indie polishes! Today I have a gorgeous Alanna Renee which you can buy right here!! It's called Reptar which you might remember as the name of the big dinosaur from the kids tv show Rugrats! I loved that show as a kid, so when I saw her polish reviewed here by Julz Perri, I knew I had to have it!

So before the picture I want to apologise for my little baby nails :( There was an unfortunate incident with a razor and so I filed them all back!

Reptar is this fantastic green base with purple and orange hex glitter and black, white and green micro glitter! It was super easy to apply and the glitter spread nice and evenly! I also added some french tips to the mani, just for a bit of fun!

I've just got a bunch of gorgeous indies in the mail so expect a few more indie posts over the next little while!

Alanna Renee - Reptar
OPI - Do You Lilac It?

Funky Floam

Hey guys! Big hello to my four new followers! I'm really excited to see you all!

Before I started blogging, I used to post my nails on the subreddit, RedditLaqueristas and it was where I really developed my love of nail polish. I don't tend to post there anymore but I always check for cool designs and when I saw the following design using the elusive Floam by Ninja Polish, I knew I wanted to give it a go! 

http://www.reddit.com/r/RedditLaqueristas/comments/16exaf/mix_match_inspired_by_my_elusive_bottle_of_floam/

So here's my attempt!

Sally Hansen - White On
Sally Hansen - Blue Me Away
China Glaze - Def Defying
Ninja Polish - Floam

Be my belated Valentine?

So this is such a late post. As my previous post stated, I've been a bit down and out lately. I did these for Valentine's Day and then had to promptly remove them when I got a job interview on February 14th! 

This was a fairly simple design. My first attempt at freehand hearts. The camera work is fairly basic and the pink didn't show up as nicely as I'd hoped. I'm planning to save up for a proper camera soon! 

OPI - Steady As She Rose
OPI - Strawberry Margarita

Where did Kater go?

Hi guys,

I just wanted to write a quick post to apologise for my absence. Honestly, I am having a really crazy semester. I am studying full time, four incredibly hard units, as it is my last year of university. On top of that I work two days a week as a mental health worker and also am studying my certificate IV in Mental Health. Basically I am just overwhelmed and overloaded. I haven't put nail polish on for nearly two weeks, you know it's dire when I get to that stage. However, I have a couple of cute designs that I am desperate to try soon! I also have a couple of backdated photos which I haven't had the time to edit and post yet. Basically, I hope you'll bear with me and I can't wait to share with you my designs and comment on all your lovely nails again soon!

Kater
xx

China Glaze - Escaping Reality

I told you I'd get around to wearing this! I finally tried the bottle of Escaping Reality which was damaged in transit! Luckily the polish was fine and applied like an absolute dream. I needed natural light to photograph this and even then, the photos are nowhere near as spectacular as the pink in reality. It's Barbie pink and absolutely stunning.

I tried to capture the colour using the natural light inside my car, but ended up with a picture that makes my middle finger look chipped (it isn't)!! I needed three coats of Escaping Reality for full opacity. All that's left to say is that I am gutted that this one is the polish which broke in transit because I love it so much. It's on the list of my favourite polishes of all time!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that without a top coat this polish is quite matte! But seriously, put a top coat on because it's absolutely divine with one!

Gloss 'n Sparkle - Pyjamarama

Today I am sharing a gorgeous polish gifted to me by my wonderful friend and fellow polish lover Julz (check her blog out here!). The polish is the amazing Pyjamarama by Gloss 'n Sparkle which is produced by Angela Clark (here is the website and she also has an etsy store!).

A quick shot of the bottle!

I love this polish so much! Lavender cream with blue and purple hexagon glitter and smaller pink and purple hexagon glitter. I don't have the words to describe how pretty this polish looks!

This is three coats and a top coat of Seche Vite. I didn't need three for full opacity but I always do three coats as a habit. The glitter spread perfectly, I honestly do not have a bad word to say about this polish! I love it so much! So a huge thanks to Julz for the wonderful gift and definitely go check out Gloss 'n Sparkle! She has a lot of amazing polishes for sale! I have a couple more that I might show off once I can bring myself to take this lovely polish off!

Australia Day!

Today is Australia Day!

This time last year I was living in Mexico and I felt really homesick on Australia Day. So it's nice to be back home even if it's really hot outside!

I couldn't pass up a chance to do some Australia Day nails, especially having just been accepted into the Gumleaf Mafia!

I've gone with green and gold! With the flag on my thumb for good measure. I used nail art stickers on the yellow nail and pretty gold flakes on the green! The flag is all hand painted.

Sally Hansen - Lite
Sally Hansen - White On
Sally Hansen - Blue It
Sally Hansen - Cherry Red
China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky
China Glaze - Starboard
OPI - The Man With The Golden Gun
Pink Fin - Nail Art Stickers


Mum wanted to have some Australia Day nails too, but with a grey theme to go with her outfit that she's wearing out tonight. So I've done grey with silver glitter, a cute koala accent and some Eucalyptus leaves on her thumb!

Sally Hansen - Wet Cement
Essence - Bashful
OPI - Crown Me Already
Pink Fin - Nail Art Stickers



I hope all my Australian friends out there are enjoying their long weekend!

A Story About A Fox

Evening Followers!

I'm proud to say that I have been accepted into the Gumleaf Mafia, hence the nifty new badge on my blog! Give it a click to go and check out some awesome Aussie bloggers! I feel proud to join them!

Today I wanted to do something that my boyfriend would like. He and I just spent three amazing weeks on holiday together and while on our trip we carried a little stuffed fox and took pictures of it with various landmarks (don't look at me like I am strange!)

Anyway today's manicure is an homage to that fox. His name is Hermes.

My boyfriend really likes foxes. When we were first dating he used to drive me home at midnight, after we finished work together, and if we spotted a fox he would always call out " There's Hermes!" It became kind of a thing with us and so for Christmas I bought him a little stuffed fox and we took him on our trip. So this manicure is done completely with nail polish and I painted the little foxes on my ring fingers with my nail art brushes. Here's a few shots of the actual Hermes with my nails!

He's a bit cute! Also can you tell that I've been lazy and put dots on almost every manicure I do? I think I need to branch out a bit!

And for good measure, I'm going to admit that I am not perfect. I'll show you my attempt at my left hand. My left hand is an homage to a second fox that I bought for me so that my boyfriend would have one and I would have the other. His name is Jerome.

I think he looks kinda cute!

OPI - A Roll in The Hague
Sally Hansen - White On
China Glaze - First Mate
KISS Nail Art Polish - Black