1 year IGversary Contest

I am using my much neglected blog to post some information about my IG 1 year birthday.

To celebrate a whole year of nail polish, nail art and personal growth in the skills department (not so much growth anywhere else thankfully wouldnt want to start acting too much like a grown up)

This contest is open WORLD WIDE!

To enter the contest simply recreate the first even mani I posted on IG as pictured below. Put your own personal twist on it or do it straight up the same...yes yes as you can see I have since discovered the powers of top coat and clean up brushes. We all have to start somewhere right.

now...PRIZES...who wants PRIZES???

I have decided the prizes should include all the things Ive discovered and fallen in love with over the past 12 months so lets start with the polish.... 3 awesome brands, MckFresh Nail Attire, Shades Of Phoenix and IsaDora.

Swatch shots stolen from www.lookwhatthebatsdraggedin.com and http://shadesofphoenix.bigcartel.com/

Also some nail art funsies.

A cat craft punch for making awsome decals, some fun studs and ofcourse what every girl needs for frustrating nail art, striping tape.

If Kmart ever gets their junk together and re-stocks their dwindling display shelves I will be adding my favourite clean up brush as well. 

So lets get started! Recreate my mani and tag me in the pic @briemmara and use the hashtag #briesIGversary so I can find your entry. Only rule is you must be following me on IG @briemmara . Entries will be open until 28th March and winners announced on the 29th. 

Cant wait to see everyones entries! I may even have a crack at redoing this mani myself. 

Polish Swapping Sisters Letter Of The Week.... F

As I have spoken about before I am admin to a gorgeous group of girls in a polish swapping group and each week we have a little theme for our monday mani, currently we are working our way through the alphabet (im still looking for suggestions on a polish starting with Z) and this week is the letter F.

Where possible we are trying to use untried polishes and today mine was First Light from Mckfresh Nail Attire 

First light is an in your face attitude packed neon orange that will glow under a UV light. I dont have a UV light but that doesnt take away from this gorgeous polish, as you can see you can fully apprciate it UV-lessly

For the mani I used a white base but Ive also showed a pic of my thumb where I did not use a base so you can see how it looks both ways.

With the base coat Ive used 2 coats of first light, without the white base Ive used 3 coats on my thumb. 

The best part about this is the formula, weve almost become use to the standard of neons being streaky and horrible (think half the CG Sunsational collection) but this applies like a dream. No streaks or uneven application, from the first coat it is smooth and lovely. 

I tried to do a sunrise on my ring finger with the gradient and then some purple clouds, it hasnt worked that well but its still pretty and a nice break from Christmas manis.

Mckfresh First Lighta

Mckfresh First Light

Mckfresh First Light, No base coat

#anxmas2013 Family Traditions

Yesterdays theme for the #anxmas2013 nail art challenge on IG was Family traditions...wow we have so many but picking one I could translate into nail art is a whole other story. 

First I tried to do some water marbling with red and white swirls to represent the red and white short bread swirl cookies I make every year, but all I ended up with was pink blob nails...and fingers...and knuckles and palms, so after bathing in acetone I started over and this year I actually took inspiration from one of my Mothers traditions. 

Every year the grandchildren take turns in picking the colour theme for her Christmas tree. Now she has 7 grandchildren so you have to wait a while for your turn to come around again and its quite likely that just as the cycle is about to restart one of my sisters is going to pop out another child and add an extra year on to the waiting but this year it was one of my daughters turn and she choose white. 

(its a home grown tree cut from Mums backyard)

All 7 grand kids sitting proud (well sitting) in front of the tree

So here is what I ended up with. 

The base is two coats of OPIs Thanks So Muchness and the white is White On from Sally Hansen. 

The plate used is Festive Plate Collection 01 from MoYou

MoYou Festive Collection 01 Plate.
Photo credit MoYou website.

OPI Thanks So Muchness and Sally Hansen White On

Im really happy with how it turned out, bit of an issue with clean up but red is a pain in the butt like that sometimes.

Whos got Moxie??

This girl!

Ive got Moxie!!

Whats Moxie?? Oh only the hottest freshest indie. So hot so fresh they aren't even for sale to the public yet....so good luck to the rest of you :P

My bestest sister friend Tami over at The Manicured Mermaid has been tinkering around with her own indie line for a while now and for Christmas she sent me two beautiful polishes that she had made. 

The first one is called One Year Old in honor of our swap group celebrating its first birthday. 

The second, and the one I am wearing today, is named Oceans Apart and is a gorgeous white base flecked with oceanic blue green glitters. 

As you can see from the bottle shot she hasn't skimped at all with the glitters and there's no digging or fishing required. 

As soon as I said I was going to wear one of her polishes first (she sent me a massive package full of polishes which I will post another day) she started twiddling her thumbs and bouncing in her seat giddy with nerves, worried about the base formula, would it be too thick, would it be streaky, opaque, argh...shut up I told her I'll try it and of course Id always be honest with her.

And I would always be honest with my readers...all 3 of you....She needn't have been so anxious. 

The formula works beautifully. It applied full of glitter without streaks or any issues and was opaque in two coats and is honestly up there with the other quality indies I own. 

I used the Essie all in one base as I'm taking a break from Duri at the moment and Peitas Polish Quick! Gloss Me Up! top coat to give it a shine.

Moxie, One Year Old

Moxie, One Year Old

Moxie, Oceans Apart

Moxie, Oceans Apart

Moxie, Oceans Apart

Moxie, Oceans Apart

As I said Moxie is not yet available to the public, Tami is still tinkering and perfecting but keep an eye on her blog for when these hit the market as they are sure to be a popular brand.

#anxmas2013 Festive Lights and a bit of foot stomping

I'm a day behind in the IG instagram challenge but that happens and I'm already trying to think of what to do for tomorrows theme of Santas Helpers....hmm elves...red and green stripes....Rudolph with his shiny red nose....Mrs Claus.....Any suggestions??

But yesterday was Festive Lights and I had so much fun doing the reverse stamping last week I wanted to do it again with this one. It didn't turn out as well as last weeks though, I don't know why. 

For the base I used Laser Pointers from Mckfresh Nail Attire, I hold no qualms about telling you this brand is one of my favourite Aussie Indies. 

Laser Pointers is one of those polishes that if someone describes it to you, you instantly think eww gross. Its silver foil and bar glitter, two things I really do not like when it comes to nail polish, foil glitter is like little hairy ickyness and foil polishes tend to just be a nightmare and I'm not a fan of the finish.....So why did I buy it? well you know how it goes, you're ordering a few things from the store for a friend and you've already bought everything else that seller has made that you like so on a whim you buy this silver bottle citing well it will be good for Christmas manis as your excuse....and IT IS. I'm so glad I got this, I don't know why or how (I'm fairly certain it involves some sort of magic fairy voodoo on Kates part) but this not only works its gorgeous.

The formula is smooth and easy, no digging for glitter or having to worry about placing it or moving the glitter around, this only took two coats and its beautiful.

The sun hits those holographic bars and they sparkle and shimmer and your hypnotised. 

Laser Pointers Mckfresh Nail Attire

Mckfresh Nail Attire Laser Pointers

Mckfresh Nail Attire Laser Pointers

Foot stamping you ask?

YES. Much foot stamping!

Yesterday Moyou released a new collection of stamping plates and while their order turn around time is horrendously slow and their customer service makes you want to crawl in to the computer through the usb port and bitch slap someone, their plates, well their plates are just divine.
I try to buy from them as little as possible until they get their act together but you know at the end of the day no matter how crappy the service you just need to buy what they are selling. 

They have released 10 plates based around the theme of various fairy tales and I NEED THEM ALL. I need them like the desert needs rain, I need them like a hooker needs her crack, I need them like a hug needs a kiss, I need them like a donut needs a hole....you get the idea. 

I NEED THEM

But I cant buy them because someone needs to learn self control and so Im just going to sit in a corner and eat red and green M&Ms.

Below is just a section of the plates so you can see what Im talking about.

Moyou plates retail for 4.99 Pounds (around $9AU) and can be purchased from their website

Use the code Sammy20 for a 20% discount on your order. 

You're welcome

Who wants to know about some sales??....and give aways....

Powder Perfect is having a buy 2 get your 3rd polish free sale until FRIDAY so get on that quick sticks.

Another quick spree you need to throw some money at is Shades of Phoenix who is having both a sale AND offering free shipping with the code XMAS13 until Friday

Petal Polish is also having a moving house sale with polishes reduced to $6.50

Off the indie track, Ozsale once again has Butter London polishes on their site. They may be slow but their prices are good and it is the only place I've bought Butter London. 

Or if you're more of an instant gratification kind of gal, Priceline stores currently have buy 3 for the price of 2 sale on their Triple Shine Sally Hansen range. I don't like the look of the bottles but I've been told they are good quality lovely polishes

Arcane Lacquer is having an awesome give away contest....which I wont tell you about because then you'll enter and decrease my chances of winning

Ok so its not a sale but Sayuri Nail Lacquer has introduced something which I think is a fantastic idea, a loyalty program for their most loyal customers. I'm not an indie seller so I don't know but I imagine that indies would rely heavily on repeat customers and this is a fantastic way of not only encouraging those repeat buys but saying thank you to their loyal customers who have really helped build their brand.

You can read more about it on her blog, but it basically works that with your 3rd, 5th and 10th purchase you get an increasing discount from 10 to 30% off your purchase AND orders over $50 (and we all know if you're not spending over $50 its just not worth it) you get a 10% voucher for your next purchase. 

Once Mckfresh Nail Attire hits 750 'likes' on their facebook page there's going to be a celebration sale so head over and like her page and check out the Christmas collection that is selling strong.

Oh come on ofcourse I was going to share Arcanes give away...there are 4 winners after all...... Check it out here on instagram

Indee Polish Co is holding a great giveaway on instagram

And finally Glam Polish is holding a give away to celebrate their anniversary which you can enter here on their facebook page

All of these giveaways are open internationally so go nuts people!

well not too much, help a no buy sister out and leave some prizes for me :)

oooo a sneak peek....While I was half way through writing this blog my favourite person in the world, the delivery man, knocked on the door with a MASSIVE package for me.

I am admin of a gift swap group on facebook, we have a close group of 30 friendly girls and each month we get a partner in the group and we send each other a little package of love based on their likes and wish lists.
December being Christmas we went ALL OUT, gave everyone 2 months to put together an amazing package and get it sent off on time. 

Now its sitting under the tree waiting patiently (it is waiting patiently I am not) as we've all agreed to open our package on the same day closer to Christmas. 

tick tock tick tock

Its like sex but nail polish which is so much better!

I....just....no words....this polish.....every woman needs a good red creme and this one is beyond perfection.

You put it on and its...well as the title says its like someone painted your nails with sex....but not because the reality of that would be pretty gross....

The formula is delicious, smooth and applies perfectly.....without further delay I give you..... 

Hell On Wheels from Pretty Serious

See, perfection right!

Then because its Christmas and I can I added some snowflake stickers

And just because I love you and want to share all the pretties here is another one from Pretty Serious, BSOD

A gorgeous sparkly blue