Catch up: Nails, Kisses & KPOP

Hello Lovlies, 

Long time no chat...let me update you with my "wild" nanna tales.

You've heard the saying "drugs, sex and rock'n'roll" right? Well this is the tame nanna version : Nails, kisses and kpop.

butter london no more waity kaity, ulta 3 enchanted

In the beginning of November, I was able to meet Natalia of cats_n_nails blog. It started with a swap (above) and ended with a shopping haul. I was in fangirl mode at meeting someone else who shared the same enthusiasm for nail polish. She's like the yoda of nail polish! Padiwan nana learnt a lot! 

lush : lemon fluttery cuticle butter and solid perfume in orange blossom

Natalia is a crazy enabler but I managed to resist and at the end of the day only bought one nail polish and a couple of lush products. You can see Natalia's nail haul here. I had a lovely time and we discussed organising a Perth meet up for bloggers next year! Anyone interested, let us know. 

Michael Kors watch and diva kinda dupes (Aus)

I'm not the type that wears watches. Usually I just grab my phone to check the time through out the day. Recently, I've been loving arm candy and a watch with some hot bracelets can make a plain outfit more refined. I went into a mad search looking for an oversized watch. Michael Kors watches had a design appeal to me that out shined the other brands. The one I purchased is called the Ritz Chronograph Glitz watch (what a fancy shmancy name). What mesmerised me most is the subtle pearlescent face. 

Where to buy?

In Australia, we don't have a physical store that sells Michael Kors products but his watches are sold at Myers and David Jones. Buying it physically in one of these department stores is gonna cost you more. My watch is the MK5020 and it is being sold for $359 in Australia. The cost in the US is $225USD. You can purchase through Michael Kors official website through their online chat customer service or by phone. No online store is open yet. Shipping for a watch alone to Australia is $30USD. Still considerably cheaper than buying from a department store here. 

Kinda dupes for females

Not everyone wants to shell out that amount for a watch and when I was browsing diva I noticed the similarity of some of their watches to the Michael Kors range. Click image for link.

Not exact but the diva version (left; available in silver,rose gold and gold) is $29.99 vs Michael Kors Runway watch for  $225 USD. 

diva version is $34.99 (left) Michael Kors is the Blair in espresso (right)

What's your fav watch? 

xoxo 

Nana

Feel like a Swap ?

With the successful swap with lovely blogger cats_n_nails, I've been wanting to do more! 

• I am wanting to trade for those on my wish list .feedback here
• Check out the blog sale too. 
• From Australia. Will ship internationally.
• Most polishes swatched 1-2 times unless stated
• PS. able to get fantasy fire or any aussie polish CP ask. 

Bys colour changers : glitter purple, glitter blue, blue


essence colour to go : got a secret, movie star, where is the party?, blue addicted


ozotic 513 (2 hand mani), china glaze OMG, china glaze DV8

zoya kotori, rimmel wine hot, australis sin city




coco lacquers in mint and red, max factor diva coral and red carpet glam



the face shop polishes - all avail.


zoya miley , zoya piper (80% left), china glaze IV(70%  left)
face of australia pastels - castle on a cloud.


opi , midnight in moscow, tonymoly TR10, essie minis power clutch and very structured


ulta 3 : magnetics spellbound and seductive (both come with magnetics)
ulta 3 antique copper, tropez


ulta 3: purple pumps, mermaid green, jelly, tangelo



china glaze - luxe and lush, unnamed pearl and black holographic glitter


chi chi polishes - all avail.

Sephora now online for aussies

Aussie ladies, we have been deprived for so long. Well we could use those american shipping services but requires more effort to understand fees etc. Sephora is being brought through to us by online mall Tarazz . Prices are said to be comparable to the US or cheaper on some items. Postage on average is said to be about $17 depending on item size. Sounds like the downfall in this story but can be overcome by buying in bulk. Will be trying them out soon. Let me know how you ladies go with it.

xoxo

nana

Illamasqua Trick or Treat!

I've never been that into Halloween, all I remember is the fat kid down the road takes all the candy offerings every year. I don't understand why we partake in this event, I don't understand its relevance to today in Australia. Besides that point....Illamasqua has cleverly created a midnight shop to promote the occasion for those of you who may have more fond memories of Halloween than I. Check out their spinning trick or treat wheel! Get a 20% off deal for their midnight collection if you are lucky enough to stumble on "treat". If your going to a halloween party, Illamasqua have suggested six ghastly looks to try out including some nail art vid tutorials too. 

Tutorial of Look 3 below.

xoxo

no tricks! only treats...

nana

Using eyeshadow for gradient nails

Morning  Dearies,

Saemmol Jung is a professional make up artist for korean celebrities. Her youtube channel ranges from hair styling to make up tutorials. Here she shares a clever technique using loose eyeshadow to great a soft, flawless gradient effect on nails. Unlike some of her other videos, this one isn't subbed in english. However, the process seems quite easy to interpret. A base coat is laid out and then using a loose eyeshadow, it is dabbed onto the nail tip with a sponge to create the effect. Remove excess powder around the edges with nail polish remover. A sheer polish and then top coat is layered over. 

Gonna spend tomorrow digging for some old eyeshadows in my drawers.

xoxo

nana

Free American Apparel Lip gloss - no purchase neccessary!

I know, I know I haven't blogged for yonks but I thought I would share this great deal with ladies who have an American Apparel store  close by. Just rock up to a participating store  and get a free lip gloss. Offer ends 15 Oct 2012. Sadly, there isn't one in the state I live in.

xoxo
Freebie snatcher,

Nana

Models Own - Champagne

Champagne is a pale gold-beige foil. It's a gorgeous colour that gives an extra sparkle to a work appropriate manicure. The formula is opaque enough for a one coater and lasts for more than a week without chipping. The chemical smell is quite strong with this polish.

Chanel Black Pearl

'Ello 'ello! Well long time no chat. 

I'm actually working interstate for a bit and won't be back home for a while. Don't know how regular posts will be but if I find something cool I'll post.

Tricolour medal nails - Olympics London 2012

I spent the morning sleeping in instead of watching the opening of the games. I heard it was amazing with harry potter, james bond and exploding towers. I'm not even sure if that's true, friends are unreliable sources. This year I'm not having a care factor for it. Still that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the nail art dedicated to the games! I thought this nail video by zuneta was an appropriate way to cheer on the London games and sharing the love, i shared this video! It's a tricolour medal nail design using the butter London polishes and a make up sponge.

neon & pastels

Following this winter pastels trend going on in the fashion chain stores, I  decided to chuck in a fluro yellow triangle to mix it up. You can see I did the triangles in two different methods because the left one isn't really triangular and the right one is more opaque and crisp. 

Look at me when I'm talking to you!

Gotta love sourcefed, it's my new form of news entertainment. Quick snippets because I don't have a long enough attention span. 


The video is about a book by psychologist Sherry Turkle who discusses our emotional connection with our smart phones. Her points are we believe we have control over where we direct our attention and zone out of the real world into our electronic ones when events get boring. Second, the feeling of being in touch with "friends" and events constantly through social media. Our smart phone is now like a security blanket constantly by our sides. Like Linus from Peanuts.

Linus, why do you need the blankie when snoopy is next to you?!

She goes on to say we are more vulnerable to loneliness these days if we constantly need to feel connected online and the loss of face to face intimacy through social media. And yadda yadda about expressions of feelings - you can read it here and an analytical criticism of her theory. 


This just brings up my pet peeve, which of course I being the hypocrite do at times, I just find over the years when I am at an outing and sit at a table of 10 people with everyone on their smart phone. I find it annoying that I physically drove out here to be with someone and they are spending half their time being "connected" with their phone. Wait, is that saying I'm a boring dinner guest? 


Are you one of the "connected"? 


xoxo
electronic dinners don't taste the same,


nana

Nail chronicles.

My nail polish obsession is still going strong. Just haven't had time to post about each one but here's my fortnightly nails iphone captures over the last two months.

 

6.5.12 || special new beginnings for me this day. Celebrated with ozotic 606

17.5.12|| Keeping it cool with tonymoly TR11

These captures were for two of my good friends' engagement parties. Love is definitely in the air!

26.5.12|| Fun bird themed party so I went for essie lilacism with a top coat of opi nicole's rainbow in the s-kylie

16.6.12|| Next was a blue themed love affair and I kept to the rules with essence - hard to resist and blue addicted to top. 

till next time, 

xoxo

nana love~

Resolution check up & NO BUY JULY

It's July and I've been stuck in a rut. You can tell by me seeking fortune telling with tarot cards in the last post. For some reason I thought of my 2012 new years resolutions today. I had to dig around to find them but I had actually wrote ten based on self improvement.

Looking at all ten, I have not consistently stuck to any! Probably shouldn't have had so many...

In the cards, tarot card readings.

I had my first tarot card reading done the other day. At the Inner harmony store was a tarot reader named Hazel, she was a curvy middle aged woman with blonde curls and a bit too much turquoise eyeliner under the eyes. Still, I preferred Hazel's normal attire for a tarot reading than a gypsy costume. For fifteen minutes she ran over my current happenings in life, health, love, work, family and warnings.

My reading
I flipped three tarot cards the high priestess, strength and blindfolded woman holding two swords. Hazel's reading was in my life situation I felt frustrated and stuck. I couldn't move forward or back. However, I was using all my strength I could muster to overcome the situation and it showed I was strong enough to continue and not fall from this. The high priestress meant that I am an intuitive person.

Ulta 3 magnetics - enchanted indeed.

I was able to skip the cracked nails fad and magnetic nails were heading down the same path. I was able to resist the china glaze and layla version of magnetic nails. I caved in when I found out Ulta 3 had released their own affordable range of magnetic nail polishes at the beginning of June. At $5 a bottle including one magnet design, I was definitely enchanted. 

Nail polish - more than just coloured chemicals

If my house was on fire and I had only one thing to take.....well I'd take my car keys. Did you think I was going to say my nail polishes?! That would be insane but they are what I hug at night, other than my future cats. (I don't own any pets at the moment).

Running Man Show - A grown up hide & seek

Dearies, do you remember a time where you would play hide and seek in your home? You would wish to have a better hiding spot than behind the curtain...
Running Man, a hilarious korean variety TV show, takes this dream to the next level and takes your childhood game into museums, amusement parks, office buildings, shopping centres and even city wide. It is a highly rated show domestically and internationally. Don't worry if you don't understand a word of Korean (like me) there is english subs available. Reading subtitles?! Trust me, give this a shot.

Delicious Face of Australia Sheer Gloss Lip Crayons

I popped into my local Big W for some photo hangers and came out with a bundle of sweets, undies and lip crayons. I should never be allowed out or my wallet would continue to cry. I've never been a Face of Australia fan just on the shallow basis of boring packaging. However the Sheer Gloss lip crayons they had on their counter caught my eye. 

Popular - revlon

Late on the ball again but better than never, right?!

This was what I wore for my easter trip down south. We were staying at a resort for two days so I decided to be practical and go for lighter colours. If there was a smudge, no one would be able to tell. Revlon's popular is layered over two coats of essences's nail polish 05 sweet as candy. 

shopbop prize

I've been lucky recently in more ways than one. I won a $100 shopbop voucher giveaway from Ahleessa from Ahleessa 4 Realz blog a couple months back. 

Love from Hong Kong (swap)

 

It was another bleak Autumn day but a box on my door step from Hong Kong brought a smile to my face. 

I contacted Jacq after following her beauty blog and was jealous of the amazing products she reviewed and had access to in Hong Kong. 

My first venture into the Ulta-terestial (Ulta3 nails)

Let's go back a few years, when I was an oil-soaked working teen in the fast food industry. When I got my pay I would spend it on comics or soft toys. I never bothered with beauty products but on the rare occasion I would go buy myself a $2 nail polish from the pharmacy. They were absolutely horrid; streaky formula, needed a thousand coats and smelt like death in a bottle. I never looked back when I got my hands on my first china glaze bottle.


Yet, the beautiful ladies on the Australian vogue forum had created a 250 page thread on an Aussie brand nail polish I had never heard before. Ulta 3 is a pharmacy-bin-diving-$2-trendy-range of nail polishes. With the fear of horrible nail polish instilled in me verses the bargain brain, curious cat that I am....the cat won. 

Essence Vampire's Love nail polish auction. Any takers?

Happy mother's day lovelies,

 Remember it's a day to honour the woman who gave you life but don't forget that it shouldn't be only today that you show her your appreciation.

24/5/12 - ITEM TAKEN :)
Moving on, I found these bad boys in my closet. I had got these Essence Vampire's Love nail polish  for an online swap but the person bailed. I've swatched these once. I'm still borderline wanting to sell these because they are limited edition but with the right offer I might let them go. Postage in Australia $7 (maybe further if you are willing to pay).  No single sales.

Swatches for colours here: gold old buffy, the dawn is broken, into the dark and hunt me if you can.

Comment below for offers.

xoxo
nana