The race that stops a nation - Melbourne Cup.

Today was the day of the big race. When I started work at my new location I was told that it was a must to get all dressed up for Melbourne Cup Day. It is tradition to wear clothing like you were going to the races with fascinators. They also tend to go to a luncheon.

I did frock up in a black halter neck dress with red roses. I would have liked to match my dress to my nails but I did not have time to polish my nails. The time factor was what made me choose Avon Red Velvet for the matte polish dries super fast factor. I had hoped to get some stamping in before I stuck things to my nails but I did not have time for that either.

For decoration I went with the black butterflies and the black and white roses. There were some fimo slice butterflies in red that I decided to put on too. Unfortunately my skill in handling the nail glue was dismal. I got it all over my fingers. There is a spot of it on the floor. Yes, I even spilled a large part of the bottle onto my coffee table. Lint will be seen in the pictures too as I tried to get some of the glue off with acetone. Not my luckiest of days.

I also did not win anything in the work sweeps. :P I did win a compliment from a male customer when I gave him his change. He reassured me that I did not stab him with my butterflies.

If I had done my nails after the race I could have done them in honour of the winning horse, Green Moon.

I Love Conversation Hearts

Recently I received some MJ plates from the creator of the Fun plates. I was pleased with how quickly they arrived from the Phillipines to my end of the world. The only thing I was uncomfortable about in ordering these was wondering what the postage fees would be like.

The Conversation Heart lollies image is from MJ VI. I had to rummage around in boxes for the tools to do this since I have not unpacked my nail polish properly yet. Hopefully that will happen soon. For ease, the stamping polish was Konad's special polish in mauve. I think the image stamped as well as any other image I have from Konad or Bundle Monster plates.

The base polish is Pretty Serious Emma Louise that I posted about recently.

I found out about this newest release of image plates from Spellbinding Nails. They are a great collection of plates and I will have to bring more in coming posts. You can order your own from My Online Shop. For the four large image plates I was changed 650 Phillipine Pesos which exchanges to around A$15.

Emma Louise is Pretty Serious about her sweets.

When my box of Pretty Serious polishes arrived I took some pictures. They looked very nice but I put them aside because I have not been doing much with my shabby nubbins. The second polish I have used is the limited edition Emma Louise.

I knew Emma Louise was pretty from the pictures I had seen online. I thought I was prepared for that and the fact that Emma Louise was not as stunning on the nail. No, I was not prepared at all because when I took Emma Louise out of her box I went into a state of OMG! *drool*

Emma applied to the nail well. I used two coats and Seche Vite for the top coat. The polish is still pretty as I find most purple nail polishes are. You still have some of that delicious green glitter that shows up well in the bottle but it is hidden and scattered on the nail.

I find the golden green glass fleck seems gold or silver most of the time and I love what it brings to this polish. Scattered here and there is the purple and green hex glitter that make a grown woman go weak at the knees in the bottle. Whilst you can not really see the green easily, they do help to bring the polish together so that Emma Louise is not "just" another polish with glass fleck.

Long Awaited Rainbow - Kleancolor Metallics

I was very excited when one of my work colleagues was going to the US. In my mind, America is the polish addicts idea of heaven with row after row of delights at a bargain price. I had already been spoilt by my Strumpet visiting the US and bringing me back so many goodies that would have cost hundreds of dollars to buy in Australia. That is, if all of those items had been available in Australia.

All I wanted was the Kleancolor Metallics. They are very cheap and I have read that they are good for stamping. 13 polishes for $15? There was a reputation for stinking but they would seriously bolster my stamping choices.

It took a while for me to get my hands on these beauties as my friend forgot to pack them before she headed back to Australia. Oh no! Thankfully they were posted here and I eventually got my hands on them.

After receiving them I had to take pictures. To line them up in the perfect rainbow is lovely.

We have in order: Metallic Black, Coffee Addict, Metallic Mango, Metallic Orange (Both Mango and Orange look very similar to me), Metallic Yellow, Metallic Green, Metallic Sapphire, Metallic Aqua, Metallic Fuschia, Metallic Purple, Bite Me and Metallic White.

I am very happy with them even though I have not tried them out much yet. There is a little bit of stamping that I need to take pictures of. The biggest bonus is that they do not smell as bad as I thought that they would. It may be due to the allergies I suffer from clogging up my nose but I did not notice anything different to most of the other polishes I use. It certainly was not overpowering.