The Claw: Hello Darling Carousel

Did you miss the Claw? I did.. I had really bad chipped nails but they seem to have got better recently.
For this Claw, I went with a new colour that I bought. Well not that recently but you know... chipped nails :( I'm skipping holiday haul for now - next one I promise!



And I even took the Claw out of the house. Yeappp.. not featuring my front yard this time. We went outside to 2 different places. One was Flower Temple in QV and the other was at the Country Dahlia farm at Winchelsea (out Geelong direction). I will talk more about the dahlia farm on Stalk my Weekend if I can get a chance to blog about it. So many topics, so little time! The picture above is from the dahlia farm. How pretty are dahlias! And what a romantic picture!

Flower Temple Sneaky Claw

Quick point and shoot before someone sees

I used Manicare Beginning to End as base and top coat which was gifted to me. Now I might be going blind but I cannot for the life of me find Carousel on Hello Darling's website. Someone tell me I am blind because this is a very cute colour. It is pretty fluffy pink with gold highlights. I hope you can see this in the bottle picture on the left. 

One more scrunched up Claw

The CLAW: Sneak Peek OPI Oz The Great and Powerful

I Theodora You and Which is Witch?

I was kindly sent these two colours to swatch by OPI from their new Oz The Great and the Powerful collection. The two colours featured on the Claw are "I Theodora You" and "Which is Witch". The Oz collection appears to be nudes and glitters with one colour called "What Wizardry is This" as a liquid sands polish. Nudes never go out of fashion as you would know and for upcoming Bridezillas, seriously look into considering this colour. It is a nude with pink undertones. I think Bubble Bath, an OPI best seller, does not have this pink undertone. But feel free to correct me as I do not have Bubble Bath. I have only seen it on someone else.

In artificial lighting

Once again, OPI's formula is really easy to paint on. In fact, I managed to do this while on the phone on Friday evening. As it was a nude colour, it was really forgiving.. woohoo! I realise that I have not had a Claw post in ages. Well, I had issues with weak and chipping nails and had to lay off the pretty colours! Sad face here... 

So I am compensating with lots of pictures of these two shades in various lighting. Bear with me! Once again there is also a funny story to all this! Stick with me and I will tell all at the end.

Closeup on Which is Witch in the sun

As you can see the pink is a pretty shade of pale milky pink. This colour reminds me of one of my first nail polishes. It was a milky pink like this one. I bought it from this lady who used to wear dark lined lips and nude matte dry as brown lipstick. It was the 1990s.. I think I am still mentally scarred from those days. Let's stick to the nail polish discussion as I am shaking in the corner right now rocking back and forth. Back to the glitter, it is a pretty silver based holographic glitter with different shapes of glitter specks. It does not feel rough to touch and actually I think it is up there with Hello Darling 24K as a fav.

Action shot in the car

Oh look pretty pink nude and GLITTER in the shade

Ok and onto everyone's favourite the garden CLAW pictures. I am suppose to know the name of some of these plants. Insert Mick rolling his eyes here. He tells me blah blah blah I pulled out the blah blah name of plant. I go huh? Which one? He starts describing it and I'm like oh those broccoli looking ones. Then he gets all upset like I put all these plants in so you have a nice garden and you never notice them. With that in mind, can someone also remind me what is the name of that first tree below? He has only told me a million times. I can't help it, I grew up in an apartment. We only had pots of chillis!

I erm forgot the name of this plant but look at my nails!

This is the Broccoli looking thing

This one is thankfully easy - ROSE!

This was 3 coats of the I Theodora You. I did very light coats as I knew that I was going to do 3 coats. Also if you notice there is only one coat of the glitter Which is Witch that I used like a top coat. Well ... the story is this. I was painting my nails while on the phone and I did this one nail with one coat. I was going to go back and put on another thicker layer so you can see the glitter better. Well .. this is the equivalent excuse of my Dog ate my Homework. Because I left the two bottles on the table next to the couch. Guess who got to my "paints"? Pickles must have stolen them and I can only find I Theodora You. He took that one bottle outside to the front deck to sit with it. I do not know where the other one is!!! And I cannot find my base coat either. I asked him, see this one? Holds the pink bottle up. Where is the other one like this glitter? He says Paint! Paint! Me: URGH...bends down and starts looking under the couch. So incredibly sorry guys and I have to apologise to OPI's PR as well. MY KID STOLE MY NAIL POLISH! I will find this and come back with a  glitter vengence!

The Claw: Featuring Hello Darling Verano NYE nails

Oh hello there 2013! It has been a while since the claw made an appearance. I had issues with weak nails that were chipping and breaking and had to take a break from painting them. But it was NYE and I wanted some colour. So here is a fantastic summer colour - Hello Darling Verano. I posted about receiving this colour in the mail on this post. Do happy dance here.

Oh hey there broccoli looking flower thing 

This picture says it all really.. no words. What a hot colour for the new year! This colour was incredibly easy to paint on and dried shiny. I did do a top coat but even before that it was shiny with 2 coats.

Unbelievable hibiscus bloom

Mick had thought the hibiscus would not bloom so soon but it did make it. I just had to grab this picture when it was blooming. Hello Darling needs to send this nail colour to Ita Buttrose. Do you remember when she was on Beauty and the Beast in the afternoons? I used to watch this show when I was in Uni and I had no idea who she was. But I just could not stop staring at her matching lipstick and nail colour. She almost always had a coral pink shade on. Ita Buttrose if you are googling yourself.. get yourself a bottle and email me to thank me later. kthx!

Pansies and my hands look red 

Succulent flowered

These two pictures were taken in the late afternoon and I think D and L were running around in the background eating chocolate cake. I'm not sure how our succulents flowered but it is super cool! I really love that succulent pot. I need MOREEEE. 

Sunrise with Roses

The Claw: Cloud Nail Art Lime Crime Hello Darling

Cloud Mani! 

The Claw hardly ever features nail art. It is because I am clueless about nail art. But I saw this being done heaps. TJ from A little bit of this often has this on her Instagram and I also read So Nailicious post on cloud nail art. 

For this`attempt, I used Lime Crime Milky Ways which is one of the gorgeous colours I bought and shared with Vita. I am telling you it is the exact colour of those mini coopers running around. I call that colour an almond beige cream. It's just gorgeous and if I drove one of them, I would wear this colour everyday to match. For the accent piece I used Hello Darling Wednesday which is one of my favourite pinks.

Oh hai there poppies!

So my base colour was Lime Crime Milky Way. Then I did the middle accent in Wednesday, topped off with Milky Way again. Because the pink is much brighter, it meant the top clouds looked like I used another colour - a more pale pink. 

Pale pink cloud against the brighter pink Wednesday

The thing about nail art is you have to be patient! Here is what I did for the cloud nail art.

1. Prep nails as normal with base coat 
2. 2 coats of a bottom colour, for this one I used a white based colour at the bottom. So two coats of Lime Crime Milky Way. Wait patiently while this dries.
3. Grab a contrasting colour. I love a good pink accent so I had to use Wednesday.
4. When do the clouds, you do not want your brush to grab that much paint. What I did was 'wipe' off the polish against the rim of the bottle. Then half dip the brush in and you get just enough. You're going painting half a nail so you do not want excess. 
5. You also want the 'drip' at the end of the brush, 'wipe' off one side. Turn the brush over so the side which has the paint to face the nail and paint that side on.
6. Wait patiently again for this to dry.
7. The top layer is going to need the least polish on your brush. Take care when dipping that you do not dip that much in. By this layer you only need to coat 1/4 of your nail length. 
8. The other side was hideous as I am right handed.. so if you can get someone to paint on the clouds for you on the other hand. LOL

I think that I have definitely conquered the nail art fear. Check that out.. it wasn't too bad was it! Lime Crime Milky Ways is a fantastic colour and I think I will fight Vita over this one. :) I only did 2 coats for this but I think I would do another coat next time. I'm now browsing my other colours to see what other combinations I can do.

So happy with Claw nail art? Tell me what else I should attempt! :) Bear in mind I have no tools so that might be a bit of a hinderance. 

The Claw: Hello Darling 24K

Poppies in time for Remembrance Day

If you recall in this Claw post, I also received 24K from the lovely ladies at Hello Darling. As you recall I am not great at nail art. So for Cup Day week I did lovely pastel nails with gold 24K accents. The above is my attempt at a closeup picture of 24K accents. The glitter are a mixed of small gold scatters and bigger round glitter flecks. This is different to glitters that I have encountered (admittingly not many) which usually does one size of glitters.

The poppies have bloomed in time for Remembrance Day and honestly I had no idea what they were (no surprise) and I did not realise when they started to grow into such a huge bush!

Oh look a foot photo bombed!

Oh LOOK a foot photo bombed! Woohoo.. On my toes is Lime Crime Peaches n' Cream which I purchased from Makeupnet in a share purchase with Vita from Makeup4MyAge. More to come about that purchase :)

Pansies that came back to life

On the glitter fingers was Hopelessly Devoted and the non-glitter fingers was Breakfast in Bed. I shall attempt more 24K accents and will hopefully get better closeups!

So who is a glitter fiend as I am hearing a friend of mine is starting mixing her own polishes and is about to do some wicked glitters! You also need to tell me how on earth you remove them without tearing your hair out?

The Claw: Hello Darling Spring 2012 Collection

There is nothing like coming home from work and seeing this package arrive for you.
You do a silent omgawd and then you want to start crying, jumping around and dancing going yay yay yay. It's got the ribbon trademark on it. It's pastel and pretty and all things girly. Yah it's a lovely care package from Hello Darling. I thought I could cry!

It's the Ribbon package!

As you know, I love Hello Darling shades and they have been featured many times here. Then there had been the lemmings.. lemmings for a long time for the Spring collection. Did you guys see it here?

HELLOOOO LINGGGGG!!!

I started doing a dance about when I opened each individually wrapped bottle. How gorgeous do they look? Are you also dancing along with me? It's the jump from one leg to another leg dance. Left to right: 24K, Teenage Dream, Hopelessly Devoted, Dreamboat, Breakfast in Bed (bottom).

Claw on train

I'm using Fairy Floss which I had already featured before on my little finger. It probably needs another coat, I did 3 thin coats. But the others were only 2 - and no top coat. My bad, I am on the seche vite soon. Claw also loves hanging around on trains as long as they are moving!

Pastel Pink Roses have bloomed

The pastel pink roses have bloomed and what great timing! This is my favourite colour roses. Mick had to replant them recently as the old ones had died. He thinks that he killed them by spraying a chemical incorrectly. Oopppss... But look, Claw loves pastel pink roses.

Mick had cut this rose out of the garden for me for our bedroom. Look at this gorgeous colour! It's just amazing and nothing says Spring more than these colours!

Hello Darling is on Facebook - Stalk them for latest updates https://www.facebook.com/hellodarling ooohhh coming up is a collaboration with Prinnie. PLUS a new collection called Summer Jewels. Anyone else getting as excited as me?

Current Lemmings: Bags and Nails

I have just been complaining how much money I had been spending lately. And then boom..
Shopbop you know I love you.. Thanks for the 20% off code. But really your timing is so bad. I tried to tell myself to stay away. But I had been eyeing this shoulder bag for ages. I only have totes or clutches and honestly totes are too big for the weekend but clutches too cumbersome if I have to carry a child. My DIG BFF asked if I could recommend a shoulder cross body bag for her recently and I thought of Rebecca Minkoff and Marc by MJ immediately. I had a happy customer with Rebecca Minkoff. The problem was, I also wanted one. Good thing I do not buy retail price for many things and I held off. So this is getting on a plane for me now. But that is if DHL can deliver .. lol. Let's not go there.

Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac Navy

Then there's the ever growing lemming for pastel nail polishes. I have been intrigued by this ever since I saw them on Makeupnet's Twitter and Facebook feeds. These are very claw colours don't you think? $65 for all 7 colours from www.makeupnet.com.au

Lime Crime Lemming Image via http://makeupnet.com.au

And been wanting this foreverrrrrr... I think i love all the pastels this year and I haven't got any YET!!
BTW is anyone else liking the OPI Man with the Golden Gun? How amazing does it look?

Image via http://hellodarling.com.au

The Claw: BYS Graffiti Stick it to the Man (Purple)

I was asked by Fashion Addict to review this BYS Graffiti range.. Sure, why not? The Claw needs to get the colour on.

The Graffiti range comes in 6 colours - blue, green, gold, violet, red and purple. I received the Purple and Red which are very claw colours. Fashion Addict retails them for $8.95 which includes the activator which has a really thin brush and you can free hand your design on.

I am using the purple one today and you can get it here from Fashion Addict - http://www.fashionaddict.com.au/make-up-beauty/nails/purple-bys-graffiti-nail-polish-stick-it-to-the-man.html

Claw before activator

So this is the claw before any activator was painted on. I painted on 2 coats and a base coat. Speaking of which I need a base coat now. I had been trying to work out what I would paint on. I do not usually do nail art so this was kind of fun. As the brush is very thin and long, the best thing to do was straight lines and criss cross patterns. I had read on MadeUpMaiden not to put on a Top Coat as changed the graffiti and made it all one colour - activated/deactivated something or other I am guessing LOL. So I repeat, do not use a top coat!

Activator Criss Cross

Claw on a something plant which I really don't know

So these are my finished product. Ta Da.. The index finger was the first one I did and I removed as much as I could of the activator off the brush as advised by MakeUp4MyAge and the effect is a little lighter. The middle finger - just ignore me I was trying to just do swirls or something. The ring finger I had more activator on the brush and it made darker 'highlights'.

On the thumb, I tried to do a ribbon motif and it sort of made me laugh. Nothing on the little finger just to keep that in comparison.

Happy Flowers ohhh look purple!

So nail art is not usually my thing. But this was easy to do and a fun thing to play with. I think you can have an accent nail by just applying top coat to one nail. The good ol' accent nail :)  Have fun with the graffiti!

BYS is available at discount stores and http://www.fashionaddict.com.au

The Claw: Hello Darling Lola like it

Oh hello.... Lola like it and Lingy also likes it. A lifetime (or maybe two) ago, I used to drive a red Alfa. It was the most beautiful car ever if you could ignore the bad turn base and everything else. I went on this I have to find the perfect red nail polish. I don't think that I ever did or maybe I had forgotten. But I stopped looking for reds after that car.. until I saw this colour. It's metallic, it's bright and pretty... did I say pretty?

The funny thing was, I saw the Alfa again for the second time. Just randomly on the road. Once again she was going the opposite direction. I called the car a she even though she really was a beast. So much fun in that car and I cannot say that I miss that car, I definitely don't miss the repair and fuel bills.

Oh look we revisit the lemon shoots

Oh hi lemon tree shoots!

The lemon tree is now the same height as me if not taller. I cannot believe how much it has grown!

A very annoyed D had to stand still for me

That's D having to stand still for me. He asked me what I was doing. I said nothing.. hahhah

Claw around something.. I think is called Snap Dragons?

I don't know what these are called.. but anyway they are blooming and pretty. AHAHAH Claw looks horrid in this picture.

Stalk my weekend: Claw, Popcorn, Wanton making

Ok who could resist this picture? Started my weekend off by putting a Claw on D. He kept asking me what I was doing. I said I was taking a picture and he looked annoyed.

It was one of those weekends of lots to do but nothing to do. I planned a meal of wantons this weekend - exactly when I would make it I had no idea. As usual it's all oh i don't feel like cooking now, let's go out. LOL.

Saturday breakfast Bacooonnnn

But first this was my breakfast.. picked up bacon from the Bolton street butcher. I think I will stick to this store from now on. Mushrooms and spinach from the fruit and veg store a few doors down. This is a very old school store, one where the staff take your shopping to your car for you. You also get greeted by name if you are a regular from what I saw, I am not a regular yet. I bought the best avocados from that store, given how much they cost these days, I have laid off buying anymore.

The Wang

D and I set off together and I brought this bag instead. I bought the Alexander Wang Emile bag in eggshell and my gosh.. look at the size of it! D asked why was my bag so big and started laughing and going through it asking what's all this. I said STOP IT! I wanted to say it is big because it is a wang, but didn't think he would get it. So off to Box Hill for noodles in soup and shopping for wanton ingredients. It was quite the scene at the asian grocery store. Someone felt bad for me for yelling nonstop at D who wanted to touch everything and let me go first in the queue to pay.

Scoffing popcorn

Pickles fell asleep on me while sitting up on the couch and to keep D quiet I made popcorn which I had never done before. There was utter silence for 10 minutes while we scoffed all the popcorn between us. Mick had come back hopeful that there was some left. Nope.

Soup making in progress

Has anyone noticed that I do not usually take a picture that shows my stovetop? Yeah this one I did because... the cleaner came on Friday. HAHAHAHAHHA! Those 3 saucepans were just for soup stock making. Do not ask me what I was doing!

Wantons ready to go

Wantons all wrapped and ready to go. What do you put in yours?

I usually do

Pork mince
Prawns
Dried shiitake mushrooms
Spring onions
Marination - soya sauce, chinese wine, pepper, cornflour, sugar
Ideally would include water chestnuts that are fresh but I cannot find them in Australia. Unless I am blind and they are next to the pandan leaves that I can never find in asian grocery store!

This time in my soup stock I used Pork Bones, Ikan Bilis (dried anchovies) and I had some frozen prawn heads and shells that I threw in. Probably should have skipped the prawns but I thought they were on the edge to be tossed out.

The Claw: Yellow yay or nay

It was raining this is my raincoat. Don't laugh.

So as you can recall in my online shopping post, I bought the Hello Darling Rubber Duckie nail polish after so much oh should I? Maybe I should get another one.. omg just get it. Because I was still umming and ahhinggg. I did not try it on immediately. I tested it with 3 coats on the thumb of the claw, put a 3rd one on as it wasn't quite right with the 2 I did earlier. Still undecided!

Mick assures me grass is not dead, let's focus on the nail polish

What do you think? The opinions have ranged from go a pale one, great for Summer/Spring but maybe for your toes to are you insane you have to ask it is brilliant. Hello Darling recommends that I put a top coat (arriving in 2 weeks) on as it is very pigmented and not as glossy. I don't mind the gloss factor... CAT WHERE ARE YOUUUU??

PS Yes I know.. I know, I have a yellow rain jacket... LOL