Painted Talons NZ Update!

Hello lovelies,

Recently I have had a bit of a re-vamp of all my social networking pages. I was getting frustrated with my image and design layouts of my social media accounts. I have gone with a very simple yet effective design. This new look is also a new chapter of my blogging journey, in which I will try to be more present and consistent!

I also have a few ideas in the pipelines for products I will begin to sell. So watch this space over the next few weeks.

Here is a wee look at my new social media layouts I am hoping that the new designs are also more user friendly for my followers to visit and interact with.

Black and White!

So last weekend I attended my friend Leanne's 21st birthday party. The Theme was black and white, so it was only fitting to rock some themed nails.
I painted the birthday girls nails as well as our friend Sarah and my own.

Sarah chose some corset style nails with some cute tuxedo accent nails!

Peacock Pie Love

Hello lovelies,

Today I have an absolutely stunning polish to show you! I recently made a purchase from the ever so lovely and talented Serra at Peacock Pie. Today I am sharing with you Kinki-winkle (the name gives me the giggles). This polish is part of a whole winkle series that I simply must obtain! Check of Peacock Pie on Etsy to see what I am rambling about.

Anyhoo Kinki-Winkle is is a deep red jelly that leans to maroon packed full of periwinkle (including triangles), gold, silver, red and iridescent glitters. Basically it is beautiful.

I am a huge lover of jelly polishes especially vampy delicious ones such as this.

Prepare yourself for the gorgeousness that is Kinki - winkle! I used 2 coats overtop of Star Kin Vampy.

Friday the 13th Full Moonicure

Hello lovelies,

today I am showing you the nails I wore for Friday the 13th FULL MOON! *creepy music*

I decided it would be cool to do some moon nails for this special occasion. I have been wanting to do moon themed nails for a while now. This was the perfect opportunity.

I really like these nails!!

Okay sit back and enjoy my picture spam of Galaxy/moon nails!

Peel off base coat and ALL the glitter!

SQUEEEEEE!

Hello lovelies,

 Today my Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter A Peel arrived!! *happy dance*

I am so excited to trial it! I hate removing glitter polish. I have started peeling my polish off *smacks hands* naughty.

I decided the beautiful Marina by Star Kin was the perfect candidate to trial!

Prepare yourself for some picture spam!

 I used two coats of Glitter A Peel, three coats of Marina and one coat of Seche Vite.

Kitty Cat French Tips.

Hello lovelies,

Today I have done some cute kitty cat french tips. When i was a teenager I had this thing where I sort of collected cats. You see I am a collector at heart, and my parents liked to indulge me. So I had a black cat, a white cat, a ginger cat and a tabby cat! They were my wee inspirations for this manicure!

These are my pretty kitties! 

Milo was our first family cat shes currently 18 years old!

Ch - ch- ch- changes.

Hello lovelies, 

Expect to see some changes around here, I am going to try to be more present in my social media accounts and will try blog "more often". I am trying to get the hang of changing updating my blog, but that will be a bit of a work in progress seeing as I am a little bit computer illiterate! 

One of my goals is to do more nail art. Nail art is my first love with polish so I am trying to make more of an effort. I feel in order to improve my skills I need to set more challenges to myself and showcase even the stuff i don't feel is "good enough". 

Life does get in the way and I do study and work full time so finding time to blog regularly is a tad difficult sometimes. That is why I am not putting to much pressure on myself and just trying to be more active than regular :) 

I also am thinking of hosting a giveaway once my tumblr and facebook hit my follower goals! 

facebook is currently at 1,876. My goal is 2,000 then I shall host an international/nz only give-away!! 

tumblr at the moment is my main account I update as it is easy I am currently sitting at 375 followers and my giveaway goal is 500! 

I know they don't seem like much compared to many in the blogging world but I really didn't set out to even have that many so that is an accomplishment for me :) 

Anyway I am creating this wee message to motivate myself I guess to try a bit harder at my blog, because nails are my passion and I do love sharing them with like minded people within the nail art community. 

I have dipped my hand into jewelry making/nail sets. Once I have straightened out the kinks I will reopen my Etsy shop and have another go at making my love for polish into a little business. I have so many inspirational ladies in my PANZ (polish addicts NZ) group that are amazing and if I could be even a little as great and successful as them I shall be a happy little chappy. 

I have a little list of things to improve my blog such as camera, lighting and software for editing. For now it is okay - these are my long term wishes (seeing as my money tree has lost all it's leaves lately). 

Anyhoo I thought I would share these goals/aspirations with anyone whom wishes to read a little more about me! 

Oooh! one more exciting thing currently in the world of Painted Talons NZ is that my Arctic Monkeys nails got re-blogged by the official UK Arctic Monkeys blog on tumblr and is currently sitting at 498 re-blogs/likes - this is very exciting for me! 

that's all for now folks, 

Mass NZ indie post - part 2!

Here is my belated part two of my mass NZ indie polish post for last month! This one is still very picture heavy but not as bad as last time. I will get straight to it! 

Day 21 - Mermaid Lagoon by Star Kin. This is a beautiful custom Ami made me! A blue crelly filled with gold and lilac glitters.

Mass NZ Indie polish spam post!

Okay... well, firstly I only manged to post till day 5 of NZ indie polish month before I fell very ill for roughly two weeks. I then manged to break my nail extremely short and had to resort to nubbins :( Assignments have been crazy these last two weeks and I work full time. So sick + work + assignments + life - pretty swatching nails = one very shameful, slack and lazy blogger! (ME!) 

However I do own plenty of gorgeous NZ made indie polishes! Currently in my collection I have Star Kin, Nail Juice, Handmade by Kyleigh and on their way in the post Peacock Pie!! 

So I am going to do a mass post of all my backed up swatches and my ugly new swatches :) 

Prepare yourself for a very picture heavy post! I will try to keep descriptions short and sweet and let the pretties do the talking! 

Without further ado...

Day 6 - Swamp Princess by Star Kin! This is a custom polish the very talented Ami created for me. It is a deep olive green that flashes to a brighter green then shifts through to pink/purplish it also has a generous serving of gold flakies! 

NZ Indie Polish Month - Day 5

Today I have a Polished Kiwi Lacquer Polish! This one is very cool as it is part of a New Zealand themed collection! I had to buy this as I live in the beautiful Bay of Plenty in a town called Whakatane! So I was very excited to see the polish Bay of Plenty in the Polished Lacquer shop :) Have a looksie at Jade's shop here or drop by her facebook page and have a nosy. 

Bay of Plenty is a beautiful and rich blue creme with green, blue and yellow glitters. When you topcoat this polish it really looks like a shimmering sea!

NZ Indie Polish Month - Day 4

Day four of NZ Indie Polish Month is a Polish made by the talented Kyleigh! This polish is called Starry Starry Knight - Handmade By Kyleigh. This polish was one of two that I lucky enough to have won from Lani over at Lani Loves blogiversary giveaway! This is truly a beautiful polish! It looks like I am wearing the night and stars on my fingertips! This polish is a gorgeous inky blue jelly filled with glittering hexes, squares, circles and of course stars! Go check out Kyleigh out on Facebook! 

 

NZ Indie Polish Month- Day 3

I am wearing another beautiful Star Kin creation this one is Shooting Stars! A beautiful black jelly filled with iridescent glitters and bar glitter. It is like wearing a galaxy on your nails! I layered it over black. Fun fact this polish was surprisingly easy to remove considering all the glitters packed into it! Check out Star Kin on Etsy or Facebook!

NZ Indie Polish Month - Day 2

Today I am wearing Nail Juice! Nail Juice is created by the ever so talented Steph and Dan! Recently Steph was referred to as the "wizard of cremes" which is quite appropriate because her polishes are almost one coaters! I am wearing Business At The front, Party At The Back. This is a perfect pale grey speckled with small black hexes and squares and filled with a beautiful array of tiny colourful glitters. I really love this polish because I have a love affair with grey polish (especially interesting ones). You can buy Nail Juice from here or have a wee look at the Nail Juice facebook page!

Support NZ Indie Polishes! :) 

NZ Indie Polish Month!

May is finally here and PANZ (Polish Addicts NZ) have declared the month of May a time to spread a little love to the kiwi polish makers!

Some of the current NZ indie polish brands I own are;
Star Kin, Nail Juice, Handmade by Kyleigh and Polished Kiwi Lacquer!

I am hoping to add some more to my collection too! :)

So let's kick things off with a bit of Star Kin! :)
First up we have two Star Kin polishes Naked 1 and Blush! Naked 1 is a really gorgeous pale pink creme with a subtle shimmer.

Blush a pale pink creme with a hint of shimmer filled with multi-coloured matte glitters in various shapes! I though these two complimented each other beautifully.

 I thought this manicure was very soft, pretty and feminine.

                                     Indoor lighting (at night)

Nail Art Challenge - A Trip Down Nail Art Lane: Day 7

The last day is finally upon us. I am proud to say I have now completed my first ever nail art challenge! I know it was only 7 days... but that was 7 days worth of commitment! I may have been a little late a few times but I did it!! Super stoked right now!

Okay so the last and final theme of this challenge is to "recreate the one which got you a lot of compliments". One of my most popular designs was patchwork nail art! Even thought it was when I was a beginner it is still today one of my most complimented manicures. 

The catch is.. it was not an original design and I found it on weheartit and just copied it. I did some research and the original design came from Polish Art Addiction. 

Nail Art Challenge - A Trip Down Nail Art Lane: Day 6

Second to last day of the trip down nail art lane challenge! The theme for today was "a technique you are not so perfect at". My first thought was stripping tape! but then I really wanted to have a go at water marbling as this is one of my biggest "frustration" manicures and they end up getting redone 3 times then abandoned. But I realized I didn't really have "brand new" polish which would make it more painful to try! So i decided on something I have had a small dabble with... water spotting! I have always wanted to try the turquoise effect nails I see all over the internet used with this technique! 

I absolutely love this manicure I did as I love rocks and gemstones! I have a whole bunch they are my second obsession to nail polish.

My Collection! 

Nail Art Challenge - A Trip Down Nail Art Lane: Day 5

Eeeeek! running very late today :( technically it is day 6 again. The last challenge I did I never finished, so I am really stoked with how I am still sort of up to date most of the time with this one!. Day 5 of Moonshine and Sunlight's nail art challenge is "recreate your favourite nail art". I had to have a bit of a think about one. I really like the drip effect on nails and have done ombre slime and glitter paint drips before. I combined these ideas and ended up with glitter slime dripping down my nails. This is just one of my favourite designs as I really cannot pin point a specific manicure as I have many favourites. 

These are my first drip nails I did! My nails look a bit funny (shape) and the matte looks streaky.

Nail Art Challenge - A Trip Down Nail Art Lane: Day 4

Day 4! Phew going fast! the theme today is "first floral design". As any beginning nail artist my first dabble with flowers was good old daisies! Simple, pretty and cute.

Here are my first daisies as you can see my nails are VERY short. I used the back of a pin method for my dots. Since then I can paint better, I have the appropriate tools and I know what a good topcoat is!

These are the reinvented ones! 

Star Kin Polish Review

Okay so recently I was sent some Star Kin mini samples of new polishes that have been released this month in the Star Kin shop! 

Nail Art Challenge - A Trip Down Nail Art Lane: Day 3

Okay so it is day 3 of the nail art challenge that I am participating in. The theme for today is  "with a favourite colour of your best friend.". 

My best friend is Monique! We have been besties for 19 years and still counting! She is simply amazing and I don't know what I would do without her. She has always been there for me throughout my whole life and is the best friend a girl could ask for! 

Now what a good excuse to show some snaps of us.

This is when we were around 5! We always have the best times together no matter what we do!

Nail Art Challenge - A Trip Down Nail Art Lane: Day 2

Technically this is not being posted on day two... but due to technical difficulties it had to be posted today :(

Anyhoo the theme for day two of this challenge is to create nail art "with your last purchased polish of 2013 and first of 2014."   So my last purchase of 2013 was Iri by Star Kin and my first purchase of 2014 was O.P.I Houston We Have A Purple. These two polishes were perfect together :)

Okay so my design was fairly simple but effective - triangles!  :) 

for this design I used stripping tape... this is an area of development for me, as I nearly always rip off polish with it! So I was really happy with how these came out. 

Houston We Have A Purple is such a delicious jelly!! YUM and paired with the gorgeous Iri was the perfect mani. Here is a close up shot of Iri because it is so pretty ^_^

Don't forget to link your post to Moonshine and Sunlight if you are participating in this challenge or just go have a peep at whats happening! 

                                                 See you later on for Day 3 of the challenge!

Nail Art Challenge A Trip Down Nail Art Lane: Day 1

Okay so I have found the perfect nail art challenge to start 2014! "a trip down nail art lane" is a really cool week long nail art challenge created by Moonshine and Sunlight. Check out her blog to see the details and rules of  the challenge.

Here is the challenge

Custom Treasures.

Okay, so I have not blogged anything here for a wee while. I am going to do a "favourite manis of 2013" post sometime in the near future.. BUT today I am going to recap on one of my highlights of 2013. Which was discovering Star Kin polishes, and being able to have polishes custom made for me by the lovely Ami. So here is a picture dedication to my precious's. 

My two first ever custom polishes.

First up is "Slice of Life" which is a light pink/nude tone with a subtle shimmer and multi-sized red glitters. This polish was inspired by one of my favourite t.v series Dexter. 

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