Just a short catch-up post for today. I used mostly frankens for this manicure, except for the black heart, for which I used a nail star nail art pen. I probably won't be posting tomorrow, so wishing all my readers and followers a very happy new year! =)

I still have Raunchy Bitch on my nails, which I wore for the X-mas party. It's so gorgeous that I don't wanna remove it just yet. But being a nail maniac, there's always the urge do do a new mani, I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about ;-) So I did my mom's nails today. She loves ruffian manis, and so do I, So that's what I did for her, with a cute flower at the corner of each nail.

I used China Glaze- Flyin' High for the base, Orly- Enchanted Forest for the ruffian and nail art pens for the flowers. Finished off with a thick coat of topcoat.

Today I have for you a beautiful polish from the Dutch Brand, Hema. This is Hema no.83, a pretty lilac shade that is soft, but bold enough to escape the pastel category. It went on smootly and was opaque in two medium coats, no streaking at all. Dries to a glossy finish, so I did not use top coat. I have had a lovely experience with Hema nail polishes and if I get the chance, I would love to try more. 

As with most purples, it was really difficult to get a colour accurate pic, but the bottle pic is pretty accurate.

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And here are some pics of our Christmas party at school today. I  missed out on the actual 'party' part of it, as I had won a prize in some competition and I had to leave for the prize distribution in the morning itself. Unfortunately, I could not get many pics as it was so early in the morning that only a few of my friends had reached school. But I did manage to get some. Our class had crappy lighting, so excuse the quality if the pics :P 

BTW, I'm the one in the black top and jeans.

'Whaaa...?! Medium teal creme in winter???' Yeah yeah, I know I shouldn't be wearing all these colours in winter. But the weather is so gloomy, and these polishes cheer me up :)  

I'm having a tough time surviving the Delhi cold. These are my first winters in Delhi, so I'm not used to such freezing temperatures. I loved Mumbai winters, pleasant weather, not that cold at all. In fact, Mumbai had the same kind of weather all year round, apart from raining like crazy in July and August. *sigh* I really miss Mumbai, Bombay Scottish(my old school), Raheja Vihar(where I lived). I miss shopping in Bandra and Hiranandani. I miss eating chaat and pani puri at Galleria. Most of all, I miss my friends, Vasundhara, Jemima, Renuka, and everyone else at Bomaby Scottish. I may not be in touch with  many of them, but they all hold a special place in my heart. We used to have our annual concert at this time of the year at Bomaby Scottish. Loads of music, dancing, bunking classes all December for rehearsals, and just going crazy! It used to be amazing, it was like one HUGE party! There are so many times when I wish I was back in Mumbai.... I still think of it as home, I can't help it....Ok, I'm babbling now, getting depressed writing this :'( .... I'll shut up.

Onto the polish, Flyin' High is a beautiful teal creme which dries to a really glossy finish. It leans more blue than green, closer to an aqua, and dries darker and greener than the bottle colour. It has sorta a dusty feel, yet it's so bright and cheerful.Flyin High is a very pigmented polish and was smooth and opaque in two thin coats. It was a dream to apply. Perfection. Swatches are without base or top coat.

(Did I mention that I miss Mumbai?)

Here is my first try at gradient nails using the layering method. This looked much better in real life than in the pics. Macro picks up all the imperfections :| The mani did not look so patchy IRL. The base is two coats of Catrice-Plum Play with Me, which I layered with BB Couture-Horened Devil. I wasn't too happy with my choice of colour combination, so I consider this a fail. But I'll give gradient nails another try later. 

I've had a polish called Iced Plum by Lakme since a long time.While it is pretty, I got bored of it after wearing it once. But I hate wasting a good polish, I mean it applies nicely, it's affordable(less than $2) and it's a one coater. Yup, what you see in the photo is one coat! Fortunately, it makes a really nice base for layering! And since it becomes opaque in one coat, there are no drying issues after layering another polish.

Here it is with one layer of BB Couture Horned Devil. I *love* the end result. It's not like any other finish I own and transforms the sort of spring-ish colour of Iced Plum into a more fall and winter appropriate shade. Horned Devil is awesome, for layering as well as by itself. I still need to try it over black. I've finished half the bottle and I feel I need a back-up. *sigh* My poor wallet. Or should I say, my Dad's poor wallet, haha :P

Today I'm showing you this dirt cheap nail polish I picked up recently.The bottle says the company is VOV, but the nail polish itself is unnamed and unnumbered. I bought it for Rs.15, that's less than $0.35! This beauty was lying in the middle of boring old pinks, mauves, nudes and other blaaah colours, so I only got this one.

It's a green creme, which changes drastically in different lightings. Check it out, in some lightings, it's almost as pale as a pastel, in others(second photo), it's as bright as a neon! The application was average. Streaky at first coat. Nice and opaque at three. It dries to a glossy enough finish, but I still suggest top coat because these cheap polishes have a tendency to chip. Another thing worth mentioning is that this polish has a horrible, strong, suffocating smell. Definitely not Big-3 Free. But considering the price, it's hell of an awesome deal.

Swatches are shown with base and top coat.

I was goofing around with the rhinestones that were sent to me by Born Pretty. Here are couple of manicures that I came up with. 

Since Christmas is coming, I used green and red colours, so that you can get a few nail art ideas for the holidays. These came out pretty neat, and I wish I could have worn them as full manis. But I've got swatching to do, so I had to remove them soon after clicking photos. Oh well, these are really easy to do, so I'll probably try them again later on.

The rhinestones are so cute, they add a little bling to the manicure, perfect for the season =)

*The rhinestones were sent to me for review by the company/ PR firm for the company*

Today I have a swatch of a beautiful polish by Essie, which is St. Lucia Lilac. This polish is very special to me as it was my first Essie =)

The application was okay, I guess. The polish was kinda thin and it took three coats to become opaque.  It's better to apply thin coats and let them dry in between to avoid bald spots. However, the end result is definitely worth it. A squishy pastel lilac; soft, subtle, but chic and trendy at the same time. People usually wear pastels for spring, but I think they are pretty awesome for winter as well!  

So what do you think about this polish? Do you wear pastels in winter too?

What do you do when you want to give your manicure a little something extra, but are feeling lazy or maybe just don't have enough time? I add accent nails! They look edgy and are eye-catching, and the best thing is that they are hardly time consuming. Just get the colour combination right, and you are sure to get poured with compliments.

These are fun to do and the possibilities are endless. I love experimenting with different colours and finishes. Here's an accent nail manicure that I did for my mum. I also added white stripes, because well, I felt like :P My nail art striper has become thick and goopy, so I needed two coats of top coat to even it all out.

I love how it turned out. These red accent nails remind me of candy canes, yummmmmm! 

There are a number of nail polish brands that have included a dark burgundy jelly in this year's fall/winter/holiday collections(Essie, OPI, China Glaze). I dug through my stash to see if I could find a similar polish, and here's what I found, Cheeky Monkey Cosmetics- Come Hither. I had almost completely forgotten about this polish, and I'm surprised, because it's beautiful. I guess it's because I only wear such colours during winters...

In my opinion, this is very similar to the vampies being released recently, so I won't be needing those. Come Hither is a gorgeous, sexy, almost-black burgundy jelly, that dries to a ridiculously glossy finish. I could do my hair looking into my nails! :P And the great thing about this one is that it never looks completely black, except in very dim lighting. 

This was two coats, without top coat, I don't think this polish needs top coat =) 

 I've got so many more polishes to swatch and show you, and some photos left to edit. So this is just a short catch up post, so that I don't lag any further behind.

For this manicure, I used Catrice- Sold Out Forever and Glitter Gal Black holo polish. I couldn't find my French tip guides, so I used scotch tape for the funky French instead. I made the dots using a toothpick, and slapped on one thick layer of topcoat in the end. Quick and easy, the manicure hardly took twenty minutes, but the end result was cute =)

This is a polish that I've been wearing a lot recently; it's Nicole by OPI-Blues in the Night. 

The name pretty much says it all. The polish has a black base packed with teal micro-glitter, and a pink/purple duochrome at the edges of the bottle. But the duochrome  shows up on the nail only when strong light hits it. I don't mind that, the polish is gorgeous even without it, and I love the depth it has. I'm not comfortable wearing plain black polishes, but this one has a nice twist to it and is hence a good substitute for me =)

  The first coat goes on sheer, and a slightly thicker second coat makes it opaque. I did not have any problems with the application. Although there is quite a lot of glitter in it, the surface dries smooth, without any gritty feel to it. The polish isn't very glossy, so I added one coat of topcoat.

Check out the duochrome! See, it's there on the nail too =)