I've bought this OPI colour called 'Teal The Cows Come Home' for a long time, but did not have the chance to try it out. I kept getting distracted by other colours and nail art ideas that I've cold storaged this colour until this weekend. This evening,  I 've got a dinner picnic at the beach and the thought of the glittering blue ocean suddenly reminded me of this colour! It took me quite a while to think of what nail art to do with this colour and finally thought to pair it up with lots of gold!



 

Before applying  any nail colour, I always put on 1 coat of Ridge Filler, followed by a base coat.

  
After  the base coat is dry, place the manicure guideline stickers near the top the of nail and apply the top half with a white glitter nail polish. I'm using The Face Shop nail polish inWH003 for the first time. The above photo is showing 1 coat. As you can see its really sheer. I eventually layered on 4 coats to get to the desired coverage I like.



Remove the guidelines and apply 2 coats of 'Teal The Cows Come Home'. Allow to dry completely and seal it with top coat. After the top coat dries. Apply the following on the nails with nail glue. This time round, I've used lots of gold leaves, gold bullions and clear rhinestones. Always work from the centre of the nails outward so as to ensure that it's even on both sides. You can apply another layer of top coat when complete but this will make the rhinestones less bling.



 

 

 

 

 



I discovered a shop in Perth City's Piccadilly Arcade called The Face Shop. It's got heaps of face, body, hair and nail care products from Korea.


I bought quite a few nail colours to try out. They are currently having a promo where you buy 3 bottles and get 1 free. The cost of 4 bottles is $12! You can't see from this photo, but some of these colours have very fine silver sparkles in them. I cannot resist any nail polish with nice sparkles in them hehehe.

I also bought these other products. They have quite a few different types of face cloth masks that address all sorts of different needs. I got a few to try out.  Not sure if they're any good. Has anyone tried these masks before?



 
 

Look what I found after going to the hardware store! I've seen people using hooks and blue tags to hold nail tips like this. It's a great way to prop them up so that you can have both hands fee. It's especially good when applying air brush artwork.





This is another way of holding the nail tip. I've improvised this holder by using a non-slip furniture cap and a plastic hook. Holding the round cap in your palm creates less stress on the fingers and it's great when you need to rotate the nail tip to face the right direction. This is also good when you need to hold the nail tip up close for all those intricate 3D art work.

 

Did this pedi for my mom this week. I really like the this silver Striping Tape against the dark purple background.


While my dad was busy baking real cookies and muffins, I was busy in my nail room 'baking' these goodies!





 

 



 

 

I've taken some photos from the side so that you can see the vanilla cream or chocolate cream filling I have in between the heart shaped cookies. I've also made coffee doughnuts with strawberry frosting and normal doughnuts with milk chocolate frosting, both topped with colourful sprinkles. I also made a couple of cherry jam tarts and 2 strawberries! As you can see I had lots of fun making them.

2 OPI nail polish were used to create this look. OPI's 'Your Royal Shyness' (3 coats used) and 'All A-Bordeaux The Sled!' (2 coats used) from the OPI Holiday Wishes Collection. This is a beautiful dark reddish brown colour that reminds me of a yummy Chocolate Raspberry Moelleux I made using a recepie found on fxcuisine.com. You'll absolutely have to see this website! The photos are gorgeous and the receipies are all very yummy. I've tried cooking a few of them and they all turned out very well. Remember not to read it if you're feeling hungry!

I would like to take this time to send a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who's signed up to follow my blog and also for leaving such nice and encouraging comments on my site! I'll also like to thank all my silent followers who's been creating lots of hits on my counter. Please do leave me a message so I can get to know you! Most importantly, I would like to thank Danielle for introducing my blog to her readers on The Diva's Polish. Thank You!
I went shopping again! Bad..... very bad, but very happy at the same time hahaha!

This time, I got more acetone, brush cleaner, nail art brushes...etc....The most exciting are the new acrylic powders (far left) which includes the Bronze and Gold acrylic powders. If you remember my post sometime back regarding Cool Silver Acrylic Powder, well these 2 are the other remaining metal acrylic powders I was talking about. I also got 2 new OPI colours from the Holiday Wishes collection. Can't wait to try them!







I don't usually do any nail art on my toe nails cos it's just too difficult to do them myself, however I've decided to give it a go with these 2 acrylic powders and a nail polish I picked up recently.













I LOVE Zooey by Bloom. It consists of very fine silver glitter suspended in a greenish gel. You can hardly see the green but if you look into the bottle, you'll notice the dark green gel. I love how bling this nail polish is how easy it is to apply (I've used 2 coats). After wearing this for more than a week, I see no signs of wear or chipping.

It's quite challanging doing 3D nail art on my toes. I think I'm just not used to it. I still love the silver acrylic more than these 2, but the bronze one was quite nice too.

Yesterday I've been busy 'baking' acrylic doughnuts, biscuits and cherry jam tarts! I'll post them up very soon!
For the past few years, my in-law's garden have a been pretty popular nesting ground for birds during spring time. My husband's dad will update us every year how many bird nest he found in his garden! It's such an amazing experience to see how each egg hatch into a tiny bird. They look extremely cute, like a ping pong size fluff ball!

Unfortunately, a tragic event happened this year. One of the bird nest with 2 tiny baby birds were eaten alive by giant ants! My in-law's said they heard the mother bird chirping quite loudly one day and went out to see what happened. They saw a bird nest being invaded by ants and 2 baby birds lying motionless in it. My father in-law managed to bury the 2 baby birds, but the poor mother bird refused to leave. Luckily the other nest was spared from being invaded by giant ants.

Once the hatchlings shed their fluff and have stronger wings, the parents start teaching them how to fly. Often times, we see a few tiny birds flying vertically up and dropping down again. It's quite cute to see them all being so clumsy. 

This week's nail art was inspired by those beautiful spring birds! This is my first attempt using 3D gels to draw birds. My husband looked at my nails and asked why were there penguins perched on the tree? Hahaha guess I still need more practice.



 

 



 



Nail colour used was 2 coats of OPI's An Affair in Red square and 1 coat of Nfu Oh's 59 (sheer berry red with gold flakes). I also tried using the Turner Acryl Gouche from my latest haul. The acrylic paint pigment was really good and blended very well!

I've recently bought more stuff again! Will post them up once I get them all sorted out.
 
Looked what my parents made the other day! They look so good I had to take a photo of them. Soba Noodles served cold on ice are the best on a hot day. They go very will with prawn and vegetables tempura. I'm so blessed to have them around!













I've bought these 3D soft cane fruit wheel for ages but can't think of any interesting way to wear them.



Since the weather is now starting to get warmer, I thought of wearing something bright and sunny. I've never tried wearing so many colours before and was a bit embaressed wearing this out! What do you guys think?



 

These are the colours I've used. They are all new colours that I've recently bought. This is such a great way to test them all in one go!





Bloom nail polish are made in Australia and they have some very interesting colours. This one dries relatively quickily, but the brush is too small. I had to redip 4 to 5 times to cover the entire nail.



Kumquat Dahlia by Creative is a total nightmare to use! The consistancy was too watery and light and it dries extremely slowly. I thought I could safely go to bed after 1 hour. The next morning, I had a huge smudge on this nail while the rest were still intact.


Say Cheese by Mode Cosmetics. This one is a regular pharmacy purchase. It only cost me $2.50 but I was quite surprised with the colour and ease of application. Only complain is that the brush itself it a little bit too long.



Another nail polish from Bloom - Cameron. This is super easy to apply and has a light shimmer effect. I really like this colour. Will definitely wear this again.



Hook Me Up by Mode Cosmetics. This is also very easy to apply. The consistancy was quite thick and I was worried that it may not dry as fast. However, it was quite the opposite. I was pleasently suprised...



I created some acrylic flowers using paper punch. All you have to do is to smudge some acrylic onto a piece of foil and punch it through a regular craft paper punch.