Cosmetic Cupcake

HELLO!!! How have you all been? It's been a crazy few weeks and I can't believe it's nearly halfway through May already. What the heck?!! The husband and I are off to Japan in October (SQUEEEE!) so in preparation we're doing Japanese classes which is giving the old noggin' a good workout. I started yoga classes too which I'm really enjoying and I"m trying to be more active especially as we're heading into Winter and all I want to do is vege out. I also got the AMAZING opportunity to have lunch at The Fat Duck Melbourne last week and flew down just for the day so it's been a little exhausting!

I have a very simple stamped mani today that I did a little while ago. I used 3 coats of Models Own HyperGel Pink Veneer and stamped different designs from Nailz Craze plate NC 04 using China Glaze Millennium.


I love the Nailz Craze plates and I really wish Natalie would release more designs! They stamp so well and the designs are so cute. Who doesn't love a bit of bling right? Thanks for looking!

Today I have some inspired negative space daisy nails! It's a (poor) recreation of the nails created by Sophie Harris-Greenslade from the The Illustrated Nail in this tutorial for Barry M. I really enjoy her tutorials for Barry M but watching them makes me soooooooo wish the brand was more readily available in Aus as I adore their polishes! Unfortunately I don't own the polishes she used in the tutorial so I used Models Own HyperGel White Light for the petals and Catrice Team Lucky Mustards for the centre of the daisies.



Even though it didn't turn out as neat as I wanted I think the mani turned out ok especially if you don't look too closely haha. Thanks for looking!

Happy Easter everyone! I haven't been in the mood for nails or blogging lately and I finally feel like getting back in to it so I'm back today with my Easter mani. The best thing about Easter manis is the excuse to break out the pastels! Not that one really needs any excuse for them haha. I'm pretty happy with how my nails turned out so I think I've got my mojo back!


Here's what I used:


Thumbs: I used 2 coats of Orly Snowcone as my base. For the grass I applied thin stripes of China Glaze Entourage and Nail Star two way nail art pen & brush in Green and created clouds using Cult Nails Tempest and a medium dotting tool. I finished it off by adding butterfly and dragonfly fimo.


Index finger: I used 3 coats of Models Own Speckled Eggs Dove which was a birthday present from my lovely friend Aysh. It's such a great pink and speckled polishes are so darn cute! 

Middle finger: I used 2 coats of Cult Nails Tempest and freehanded the carrots using Bloom Bettina I and Kester Black Peach Melba*. For the leaves I used Revlon Parfumerie Lime Basil.


Ring finger: I used 2 coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz and Cult Nails Tempest for the polka dots.

Pinky: I used 2 coats of Barry M Gelly and made a decal using bunny design from Bundle Monster plate BM-H10 using Konad Special Polish in white and filled in the ears using Kester Black Lilac and the eye with Cult Nails Nevermore. 


I hope you're all having a lovely Easter! What are you all up to this long weekend?  I've done nothing but eat so far haha.  Thanks for looking as always!

* Product(s) provided to me for consideration but this in no way influenced my review in any way. As always, my reviews are my 100% honest opinion. My Disclosure Policy can be viewed here.

I've been lazy over the last fortnight to paint my nails so it was time for some easy nail art with these pyramid point studded nails. I used 2 coats of Kester Black Violet (swatched here) and freehanded the triangles using Kiss Nail Art Striper in black and added a small round gold stud to the top of the triangle.


Hope you've all had a great weekend!

After swatching the I Scream Nails polishes I showed you yesterday, I had to do a bit of nail art with them. I love cloud manis as it’s sooooo simple to do you just can't go wrong!


I used 2 coats of I Scream Nails Blue Heaven* and a medium dotting tool to create clouds using Kester Black French White* and topped it off with a coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast top coat. My top coat dragged the design a little but real clouds are wispy so it works!



Have you tried a cloud mani before? Thanks for looking!

* Product(s) provided to me for consideration but this in no way influenced my review in any way. As always, my reviews are my 100% honest opinion. My Disclosure Policy can be viewed here.

Some quick nail art today! This is a NOTD from last month from when I went to a friend’s wedding. As always I leave doing my nails for events until the very last minute which means I am always rushing so just went for something simple. I posted a snap of this mani on Instagram and Facebook already so you might have seen it before!


I used 2 coats of Hello Darling Cakefight (which is such an appropriately named wedding shade!) and stamped butterfly looking lace design from Moyou London Bridal collection plate 07 using Konad Special polish in black. Topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Thanks for looking!

I'm in a nail art rut at the moment so I'm going back to basics - nail art doesn't have to be complicated and I tend to over think it sometimes. I thought I'd finally try out a distressed mani using 2 favourite Kester Black shades. I used 2 coats of Kester Black Acid and then applied Black Rose by wiping most of the polish off the brush and applying uneven strokes to the nail. So easy to do and I think it looks pretty good! I think I'll be more adventurous next time and use a few more colours though.


Thanks for looking as always!

I'm a bit late showing you the latest essence collection oops but better late than never I always say! The Yes, we POP! trend edition is all about nail art which is on trend and right up my alley.


What they say:

"Unique, trendy and full of effects: with the trend edition “yes, we POP!”, essence is offering versatile products for an effect-gel manicure with a true wow-factor in November and December 2014. Nail art is totally hip right now – especially with these nail pieces inspired by the modern, colorful and catchy world of pop art. There are so many ways to decorate your popular high-shine gel-finish in a creative way now! Bright colours, nail toppers, cool effects, funny symbols or nail foils – they are all just waiting to be applied on your gel nails.

The basic products are absolutely essential for an exciting gel manicure – and for a limited time they’re available with an innovative 2in1 formula. With the 2in1 primer & cleanser and the 2in1 peel off gel base & top coat, it’s even easier to create your perfect gel manicure, which lasts up to 10 days. Of course, all of the decorations in this trend edition can also be used without a gel manicure – for endless nail styles!"

Another day another Christmas mani! This time with a little freehand nail art featuring everyone's favourite red nosed reindeer. For the snowflake nails I used 2 coats of one of my favourite blues Hello Darling Wading Pool (swatched here) and stamped full snowflake design from Moyou London Festive Collection plate 03 using Konad Special polish in white.

For the reindeers I used 2 coats of Cult Nails Tempest as my base and painted a semi circle for the reindeer head using Essie Hot Coco. I used China Glaze Ruby Pumps for the nose and Cult Nails Tempest for the eyes and Kiss nail art striper in black for the eyes, antlers and outline. Topped it all off with a coat of top coat!




Only a week and a bit left til Christmas eek! What are you wearing on your nails at the moment?

A super quick post with my first Christmas mani for the year! I hauled quite a few Moyou London plates recently and I've been wanting to try them out properly and the Festive collection plates are perfect for this time of year.


I used 2 coats of Cult Nails Tempest on all fingers except for my ring finger which I used 2 coats of China Glaze Ruby Deer. I then stamped the full candy cane design from Moyou London Festive collection plate 03 using Konad Special polish in white over the red accent nail and used my new Mundo de Unas stamping polish in red over the white nails. I didn't tape my nails off before stamping the red so it left my skin looking rather pink argh! I topped it all off with a coat of essence glitter topcoat for some very subtle shimmer.


I am loving my Moyou London plates and Mundo de Unas stamping polishes and I'm trying to resist the urge to buy more plates as a present to myself! But it is waaaaaay too tempting when the designs are so awesome.. Are you rocking Christmas nails at the moment? Are there any Christmas designs you want to see?

Thanks for looking as always!

It is swelteringly hot here in Sydney at the moment and it's not even summer yet. Our place doesn't have air conditioning so I've been hiding out with all the blinds closed when not at work haha. With that in mind I thought it was time for a summery mani to go with the weather and what better way than with a beach manicure! It was a bit of a fail though because my top coat bubbled but I guess it unintentionally adds to the beach and sea theme so let's just say I did it intentionally ok!


I started off with 2 coats of Kester Black Blueberry Tart* (you can see my swatch of it here) as my base and then sponged OPI Glitzerland to the base of each nail for the sand. I then stamped wave design from Bundle Monster BM-509 using Konad Special polish in white and added a coat of China Glaze Snow Globe. To finish it off I added a gold shell stud and some different sized pearls.




What do you think of my beach mani? Hope you're all having a fab weekend and for the Aussie girls that you stay cool! Thanks for looking as always!

* Product(s) provided to me for consideration but this in no way influenced my review in any way. As always, my reviews are my 100% honest opinion. My Disclosure Policy can be viewed here.

I picked up a CND Shellac lamp and trial pack when I was at the Spa & Beauty Expo a few weeks ago and I finally got the chance to try it out over the weekend. The trial pack included all prep products for a CND Shellac mani and also some of CND's best selling shades including Romantique which is a gorgeous soft pink shade. It's been a while since I've done a palette cleanser mani so I thought I would go back to basics! I was going to leave it as is but I didn't like the shade on it's own on me as it shows VNL (visible nail line!) so I decided to stamp over it. Last week in class my teacher put on this great CND Shellac paisley stamping tutorial by Sarah R so I thought I'd pull out my paisely plate and create a softer version of the mani.


I prepped my nails and applied a thin coat of CND Shellac base coat and cured for 10 seconds before applying 2 coats of Romantique curing for 2 mins on each coat. Then I removed the sticky inhibition layer on all nails with IPA (isopropyl alcohol) and stamped full paisley image from Bundle Monster plate BM-315 using Konad stamping polish in white.



I then added a coat of CND Shellac top coat and cured for another 2 mins before pressing CND Additives Glitter in Sizzling Sand over the inhibition layer of each nail with a nail art brush for some gorgeous and subtle holographic sparkle. I finished off with another coat of CND Shellac top coat cured for another 2 mins and then removed the inhibition layer with IPA. PHEW!


I absolutely love how this turned out and cannot wait to experiment more with CND Shellac! I'm a bit hooked now and I'm chuffed that my first Shellac mani turned out so well! I think with a lace design or something this would be perfect look for brides. I took the long way with this mani by applying the additives at the end but oh well trial and error.

Hope you're all having a fab start to the week! x

I don't think I've mentioned it on my blog yet but I'm currently doing my nail technology certificate II so I can become a fully certified nail tech!! Most days I still enjoy being a nurse but I thought it was time to take my skills and my little business (Cosmetic Cupcake Nails!) to the next level and see where it'll take me. I'm learning so much and loving the course but it's 2 nights a week and all day Saturdays leaving no time for much else including working on my blog. I wore this mani for a full day at work before I even got a chance to take photos! Only when I went to edit my pics did I realise that it was all scratched up. FAIL. To the naked eye my mani still looked fresh but my trusty macro lens doesn't miss much which is unfortunate in this situation!


I used 2 coats of Catrice Ultimate Nail Lacquer Charleston's Flame from the Feathers & Pearls collection on all nails except for my accent nails where I used Discreet from the Thrilling Me Softly collection. I added random spots of Charleston's Flame onto my accent and then outlined the spots and added random c's using Models Own nail art pen in black.



I'm off to crash x) thanks for looking!

I forgot to post this mani from a few weeks ago oops! I wanted to use some of the Barry M Gelly polishes I picked up in London on my honeymoon and thought I'd do a somewhat geometric mani. It didn't really turn out how I wanted it to because my stamping for my accent nail was a huge fail and so are my photos but oh well. Bring on Summer and the long days of beautiful sunshine!


What I used:


Pinky and thumb: I used 2 coats of Barry M Huckleberry and added black studs in a triangular design to the middle and bottom of my nails.

Ring finger: I used 1 coat of Cult Nails Tempest and stamped triangular design from Bundle Monster BM 402 using Konad special polish in black.

Middle finger: I used 3 coats of Essie Ignite the Night (thanks to my sis for this glitter!)

Index finger: I used 2 coats of Barry M Rose Hip and added black studs in a triangular design at the top of my nail.


I find I need to stamp regularly or else I lose my skills and end up with major fails! I also need to update my stamping collection too and get some Moyou plates and also indie plates. Any recommendations?? Thanks for looking as always!

It's cold and rainy in Sydney tonight which is the ideal weather for a lazy night in on the couch. It's also the weather for a sweater manicure! I haven't polished my nails in like 3 weeks and when I don't have time I like to do a tried and tested mani and the cheats way is to stamp. I did this exact same combo when I first hauled my Nailz Craze plates but I never posted it on my blog so it was time to recreate the mani!


I used 2 coats of Cult Nails Tempest as my base and stamped sweater design from Nailz Craze plate NC03 using Scratchers Iron Red stamping polish. I decided to mattify it and and covered it all in a coat of Essie Matte About You. It's by far my favourite matte topcoat but my bottle is soooooooo old I had to I had to add a few drops of Seche Restore to it haha. I think it's about time for a new bottle oops!




I hope you're all having a fab weekend so far! Thanks for looking as always and don't forget to enter my last belated 4th blogiversary giveaway here!