2014

And so another year has come to an end... A lot of people has been saying they've had a lot of ups and downs, highs and lows. That's life though...

For me, I can't really think of anything that stands out. I've met some amazing new people, won some awesome competitions, been more active on my blog, hit 800 views within 10 days of hitting 700! You people are absolutely awesome. BF being in the car accident and having it being written off. But other than that though, I'm still here and still healthy, so what more do I need?

I have been thinking of doing a post with all the Christmas gifts I got, but I just decided to show the nail related items... So first on the list is... My brand new laptop from BF. I've been doing all my posting from work or from my phone, so finally I can do it from home!! Next is an Ulta3 advent calender that I got from BF's mom.

They are all minis, but still totally cool. Also, one of my colleagues got me a Clicks voucher, for me to use on nail polish. Awesome!

Anyway, I did do a mani for NYE, it's not much and I'm not too happy with it, but BF thinks it looks nice.

At the moment I'm using the treatment that I ordered from Omega as a base, trying to save the last of my MR. I also used one of the new polishes I got from Tip Top. It's called Sparkle Queen.

It's a black jelly filled with awesome big and small holo hexagons and glitter. To me it seems like Black Forest and Rocky Road had a love affair. And this is the illegitimate child they had. It is completely awesome though. I'm wearing two coats. Over that I attempted to stamp with Armourplate. I have a new stamper and I'm still getting used to it. It's very sticky... Any advice?

I got most of the image on my index finger, properly aligned too. The rest is just all wrong, although the longer I look at it, the nicer it seems. What more do you need for NYE? It's got black and glitter and silver. Seems perfectly right to me.

Well I hope everyone is safe out there tonight and you will see me in the New Year. Have a good one.

Omega Nails South Africa winner

Omega Nails South Africa, My Manicure Madness and Do My Nails hosted a competition on their FaceBook pages for glitter pots that was sponsored by Omega Nails. As I mentioned on my facebook page, I was lucky enough to be one of the winners, as there was one winner per page.

I contacted the lovely Gael from Omega to organise delivery and while I was doing that I ordered two of the Omega treatments, Omega Labs Ultimate Growth2, one for me and one for my mother with whom I would have to share the glitter pots.

Gael was kind enough to send my mom a little something something... And she was even more kind by sending me some samples. I was also very impressed with the way everything was packaged. It was made up nicely and you could really tell that effort was put in to it. And that made it even more special.

I've said this to some people and I'll say it again. The people I've met in the nail art community are some of the kindest and most generous people I know. I mean where have you seen people randomly sending you things without even knowing who the hell you are?

I had just started following Michelle and she kept mentioning using this thing called "striping tape", I was like wtf is striping tape?? So I sent her a message on Facebook and she explained to me what it is and then offered to send me some! Like huh? Send me some? Suuuure! Obviously not gonna say no to free stuff (saying that tongue in cheek, knowing she might read this).

But that's not where it ended... It is where it started though and I completely fell in love with this community and it still manages to astound me. I just hope that one day I would be able to give some things away to somebody that just starts out. And be able to show the same amount of generosity that was shown to me. The kind part I'm not too sure about.... I'm a bitch after all :p (LoL)

Anyway, I will be posting on the treatment and see if it works for me. So keep a look out for that. Also if you want to order anything from Omega you can visit the website www.glamore.co.za or you can email Gael on gael67@telkomsa.net.

BF's accident

I wasn't planning on doing a post about this, but I feel I need to get it out of my system.

Yesterday morning at work BF calls me and tells me he was in a car accident. So naturally, I take it very well. Wanting to know the details, is he okay, where it happened, is the car in bad shape, what is he going to do now.

He assures me he's okay, but the car is banged up quite a bit. It will have to be towed and there's a hole in the drivers side door, making that it doesn't close.

So I'm still taking it quite well, I send my mother a message to let her know whats happened. But by now I've had time to think about this and I've gone rather quiet and I'm checking my phone often for any messages. My colleague noticed and asked if everything is okay, so I gave her some of the details.

Some time later I'm in my manager's office as she was telling me what happened over the weekend and my dad comes in and I totally lose it. I'm bawling my eyes out and my manager has no clue what's going on as I haven't had chance yet to tell her (actually quite funny looking back at it). So I'm explaining to my dad what happened and the reason why I'm freaking out, BF might have assured me he's okay but I haven't seen him. So I can't be sure. Anyway, so my dad calls him and asks him how he's doing and if he won't come home. Being a stubborn ass he says no (he didn't even know it was my dad!).

Anyway, my dad leaves and I go back to work. I'm trying not to think about it because everytime I do, I start tearing up again. And I hate feeling this way. My colleagues are noticing by now that something's up and they asking me wrong. Obviously I start bawling again because now I'm thinking about it. Again.

Eventually I've calmed down enough to be able to function properly and get through the day.

When I got home, my parents picked me up as I had to put their Christmas tree (ours isn't even out yet). They only took me home again after 8, so BF was home already. And was I happy to see him.

We talked about everything and he still joked (ass) if he had died I would maybe have cried a little bit and moved on. I was like, a little bit? He should have been at work this morning. And the ass laughed at me because he couldn't believe or understand why I would have been upset after he told me he was okay....

Men!

Lazy gold Christmas tree

So I've been dying to try my hand at a Christmas tree... On my nails.... Obviously. But I've kinda been stuck with my colour scheme.

I've been thinking of doing a base of Tip Top (sob) As The Beat Grows On with a tree in purple using Catrice PlumDogMillionare, but then I was thinking neon green is not really a christmassy colour. And I have done that colour scheme before.... Maybe I should rather use Tip Top (sob) Lazy Lizard or (sob) Volcanic Eruption. But then I thought again "a purple tree?", maybe I should rather use Gold Mine for a tree. And then I was like, but I wanna use a textured polish for my tree and I only have two...... Aaaand I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this rant.

So I asked BF and he gave me a completely different thing to do and I was like no. Then I asked my mother and we came to a conclusion.

I started of with 2 coats of Lazy Lizard on all my nails, after my base coat obviously. I used some striping tape and nail guides that I bought ages ago on my ring finger to make a tree. For the tree I used Gold Mine...

I did some dots on my index finger also using Gold Mine. I did a bit of a glitter placement using Tip Top Rocky Road. I put some polish on a piece of plastic and fished out the pieces I wanted to place them on my nails.

I actually had some left over and as I absolutely hate wasting I stuck them on the dots on my index finger.

Don't forget to drop me a comment to let me know what you think.

Cherries in the Snow me White

Hehehe I like using the polish names for the post names, it seems oddly appropriate at times. This is my first Christmas mani for the year and hopefully not the last, but I'll try not to kill you with it.

I started off with my usual base coat and two coats of Tip Top Cherries in the Snow on all my fingers except my index finger. On my index finger I did two coats of Tip Top Toasted Nuts.

On my index finger I used Cherries in the Snow and Sinful Colours Snow me White to paint a little hat (my colleague thought it was a cookie). I also used Tip Top Galaxy over the Snow me White to give it a bit of sparkle. On my middle finger I painted two coats of Sinful Colours Call You Later over the Cherries in the Snow, it's sooo pretty. On my ring finger I attempted to do a snowflake that I saw on Instagram done by @yagala. 

 The only problem is that I watched the video two weeks ago, so I missed (more like forgot) some of the finer details. But I still think it looks nice. What do you think of my almost fail snowflake? And my little santa hat?

**This post has been waiting to be posted for about a week and in this week Michelle did santa hats.... And hers looks way better than mine. And I don't think I like Michelle anymore. I'm so divorcing her....**

Tip Top Nail brand shutting down

It's with mixed feelings that I write this post. Utter sadness and at the other side of the scale, excitement.

Today, Tip Top Nails South Africa announced on their FaceBook page that they will be closing at the end of 2014. This is very sad news, I joined their page about 2 years ago. I fell in love instantly. And then I bought some of their products.... Miraculous Results and Cuticle Oil. And for the first time in years, I had hope. Hope that I could have "talons", the ones that you only see in nail art blogs. Then it happened and all thanks to Joan and the wonderful Tip Top Team.

I even won a prize and got third place in a nail art competition. Yes, me. Who knew?

That is also the reason for the excitement. After such a long postal strike, I finally got my prize!!

As you can see, I got a brush, some rhinestones, two 3D bows and three polishes. They are from left to right, Grape Dance, Protein base coat and Cool As A Cucumber. 

The awesome part is that I don't have any of these polishes! So WooHoo!

Now the problem is, getting me the polishes I don't have. Like Meringue Surprise and Red Rendevous (although my mother said I can have hers) and Sitting Pretty.

Now I'm just sad again, when I think of how many awesome polishes I don't have yet and time is running out...

But to Joan and the Tip Top Team, You guys were the best and I hope the next venture you tackle will only go from strength to strength.

Black Forest and As The Beat Grows On dies

I give up, seriously. I suck at water marble. I just can't get clean lines. I wasn't even going to share this, but BF liked it. I was like, whhaaat? He almost never compliments me, I have to fish for compliments, but with this he said it looks nice. So just because of that, I have to share.

I started off with my normal base and one coat of Sinful Colours Snow Me White (yay, I finally got it!! Thank you Revlon) on my index and middle fingers. For the marble I used Tip Top Black Forest and As The Beat Grows On. Over that I did one coat of Tip Top Snowflake. Snowflake is a white glitter.

I only did my index and middle fingers and was going to paint the rest a solid colour, but since I didn't like it, I was planning to take it off. But then BF came home after his work function, said it looks nice, I left it on, went to work the next day with only four fingers that has polish on, got home, went to pay the bills and actually never finished. I went to work with it like that for another day!

This is a very short post, but I don't have much to share. Does anyone have tips for a perfect water marble? If you do, please share it with me. I'm truly desperate. And I'd love to know what you think of my fail.