Nail Art: Easter Egg polka dots

Ah Easter. There's nothing like a long weekend, and while for most of the world Easter gets everyone into the spirit of spring, down here in NZ it signals we're slowly but surely heading towards winter. For me, Easter means a lamb roast for dinner, and maybe a spot of baking.

When I was a kid, it meant chocolate. These days, chocolate doesn't play any role in my life as I'm allergic (something that luckily didn't kick in until my teens) and in particular the little caramel filled eggs with the polka dot foil wrappers. I loved them, more than any chocolate bar themed egg. There was something about them- sweet and gooey and oh-so Easter-y.

So when I sat down to think about how to paint my nails this Easter, they sprung to mind. Most people would choose pastel colours this time of year, but autumn to me is deeper, jewel toned colours, and that fit in nicely.

Yum! Easter egg nails! Almost makes me wish I could eat the caramel eggs I have clutched in my hand here.

Swatch: Butter London Dahling

One of my favourite colours in the whole world is a deep dusky rose pink. So when I came across Butter London Dahling for $15 in a bowl at Farmers a few weeks back, I snapped it up on the spot. Considering normally these polishes cost well over $30, it was a wonderful bargain anyway, and to make it even better, it filled a hole in my polish collection that really did need filling. Everyone needs a pink like this!

To give it a bit more sparkle, I added a layer of Elevation Polish Diasen to my thumb and ring fingers as accent nails. And I think the polishes compliment each other.

Swatch: piCture pOlish Tiffany and Big Ruby nail tattoos

I've had piCture pOlish Tiffany sitting in my collection for awhile, and haven't gotten around to trying it. In all honesty, I'm a bit wary of pale creme polishes like this- I always assume it's going to take a tonne of coats and can make my skin tone look a lot redder than it really is.

Then the other day my order of nail tattoos from Big Ruby showed up- including one set that has lots of little moustaches, and I knew the perfect colour to complement the tattoo would be Tiffany!

I really love how it turned out! The moustache is a bit of whimsy on a beautifully creamy polish base.

Swatch: Jindie Nails Candy Land Remix and Happy dance

It was a very happy day for me when I first discovered Jindie nails. So often I fall in love with a glitter packed polish, only to be disappointed with the formula or how it wears. But so far with the Jindie's I've tried, they've gone on easily and mostly worn for days.

Today I'm showing some swatches of Candy Land Remix and Happy Dance.

Candy Land Remix is a mix of large and small pink, yellow, purple, green and blue neon glitters in a white bas, and then a sprinkling of tiny blue glitters. This is three coats, with one layer of top coat to make it almost totally smooth, despite the large glitters.

St Paddy's Day nail art

Where has the time gone? Between actually moving and then unpacking, not knowing which box my camera ended up in, and absolutely destroying my nails and skin around them during the move, I've barely been able to paint my nails, let alone photograph and blog about them! In fact, my nails were bare for almost a whole week! This is unheard of for me!

Anyway, since it's St Paddy's Day tomorrow, I figured I'd play around with some ideas for a suitable celebratory manicure. I got some striping tape a few months back and never really got around to using it, so I decided to do a striping tape manicure!

Interrupting the regularly scheduled broadcast...

When I started this blog, I decided I would post every Tuesday and Saturday. I missed this Saturday and I'm going to miss today too, regretfully. My excuse- last week I bought a new house, and we moved in this weekend. So on Saturday I was exhausted, and today we're still not fully unpacked, so my camera, with its memory chip containing my most recent pictures, is...well. Somewhere in a box!

Plus, all of the packing and moving has played havoc with my nails! I broke them more times than I'd like to count so they're even shorter nubs than when I cut them back! Typical.

I fully expect to be settled in and my polishes all nicely unpacked by this coming Saturday though, so expect posting to resume as per usual from the 9th of March onwards!