Aussie Christmas Challenge - Gold

I'm a day late with my 'gold' post for the Aussie Christmas Challenge cause I wanted to do the apocalyptic nail art yesterday.  But there was no way I was missing the 'gold' themed day, because gold polish is definitely my most favourite polish.

For today's gold polish I have actually combined two of my most favourite recent gold polishes.  One coat of Zoya Ziv then one coat of Pretty Serious Mummy Mush.  On the ring finger is Zoya Reva.  I then added the contrasting rhinestones off set to one side of the nail, to each finger using a layer of top coat.  Then I sealed them in with top coat again.

I really love this mani, although I wish that the gold rhinestones were a cooler toned gold and not so yellow.  I think I need to get myself some of the gold studs from the Born Pretty store, they would have been a much better match.

Pretty Serious - Santa's Sunburn - Aussie Christmas Challenge - Beach

Today's theme in the Aussie Christmas Challenge is Beach. What happens when you go to the beach?  You get sunburn!  So today's polish is perfect.  Pretty Serious Santa's Sunburn. 

WOW, what an amazing red polish! I've never really liked my fingers wearing red, but I've worn this for two day's now.  This polish makes me realize why so many people love red polish. 

Santa's Sunburn is a rich red red. Not too yellow or too blue.  Holy Shit Kaz, this polish is amazing!  Oh, and guess what?  This is one coat.  That's right this is the most amazing one coat red with a gold shimmer.  This polish will be perfect for stamping!!

I remember when I got the Kleancolor Metallic polishes and I was so disappointed in the red one cause it was really burgundy.  This is what I want a metallic red to look like.  It's 100% Christmas in a bottle.

On day two I added a fine glitter gradient from my cuticle edge.  I just dabbled on a little bit of Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs.  I received heaps of compliments on this mani.

Aussie Christmas Challenge - Christmas Tree

I wore these Christmas Tree nails to work on Friday, and I felt completely blinged out! The trees were on all 10 fingers and let me tell you, did I fiddle with the little rhinestones all day or what!

The base is OPI Don't Pretzel my Buttons and the trees are painted using various different greens using a thin nail art brush.  I then just added the stars and the Christmas baubles on a layer of top coat, then sealed it all in with Seche Vite.

Aussie Christmas Challenge - BBQ and Ulta3 Citrus

Here are my ugly and sucky BBQ nails for today's Aussie Christmas Challenge.  The base is Kleancolor metallic orange with a glad wrap (saran wrap) design using Pretty Serious Santa's Sunburn, Kleancolour Metallic Yellow and Black.  I then did some black lines stamped (very crookedly!).  It's meant to be the glowing coals under the hot grill!

Yeah, lets just move on to some other swatches shall we? Nothing to see up here!

I figured I would show these swatches today given my shitty effort for the challenge.

These are the Ulta3 Citrus polishes.

Tangello - A bright neon orange creme.  This is three coats with Seche Vite.  The formula on this was pretty good.  A nice bright neon that doesn't need to be layered over white.

Here is a quick comparison with Tangelo from last years Summer collection, close but they are not identical.

Atomic OJ - this would be my favourite from this collection.  Its totally unique amongst all my Ulta3s and in my entire collection.  Imagine this colour more neon and less yello - more the colour of orange juice - atomic oj really is the perfect name.  It's like some crazy radioactive orange juice!

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Fruit Punch - a pink toned red creme.  I did three coats here just to make sure it was smooth and even.  The formula was ok on this, but not great.

There are a few Ulta3 shades that are similar to this one.  Pink Colada is the closest, but personally way better because it's a one coater.  Coral Reef from the recent Candy Cane is also quite similar at three coats.

Fresh Squeezed - I quite honestly really disliked this one.  This is four coats and it was still streaky and transparent when viewed in the sun.

Here is a comparison of my similar Ulta3 shades.  Fresh Squeezed is at four coats, the others are three coats.  Honolulu was the most opaque and the one I like best.

The citrus collection also doubles up on a previously released shade - Tahitian Lime.  Tahitian Lime wasn't much of a favourtie colour last time I wore it, so I didn't want to swatch it again.

Aussie Christmas Challenge - Elf

Today's theme in the Aussie Christmas Challenge is 'Elf'.  I really hope you can work out what I was trying to do here! In cause you need help, this is an Elf's stripy stockings and green shoes with gold bells on the toes.

The base colour is OPI Don't Pretzel my Buttons.  The stockings were done using a a white line down the centre of the nail with Ulta3 Lily White, then stamped with Ozotic 621 using stamping plate QA3 (not sure what brand it is but if you google stamping plate QA3 you'll find them).  I hand painted the shoes with a nail art bush using Picture Polish Kryptonite.  The gold bells were added with a dotting tool using Orly Luxe.

On the thumb I attempted some sort of elf outfit or hat, using Ozotic 621 and Kryptonite.

Aussie Christmas Challenge - Green

Today's theme for the Aussie Christmas Challenge is Green.  YAY for green, I love green.  I was going to wear Kryptonite, but I wanted to wear something I've not shown here yet, so I grabbed Zoya Ivanka.  Because I know Ivanka takes about four coats to get opaque, I just layered two coats of Ivanka over Kryptonite to give it a more solid base colour.

I then added glitter tips using Lynnderella Golden Rules and I created the tree using round rhinestones and a star diamante.  Ivanka is such a stunning polish, I have no idea why it took me two years to get it. Now I have Logan too, which is very similar - but I can never have enough greens! 

Aussie Christmas Challenge - Summer Sunset

This Aussie Christmas Challenge is really challenging me.  Here is my Summer Sunset, and this one isn't my best work either.  Rather than a sunset, it looks like some sort of bush fire gone wrong, which I suppose is very appropriate for an Aussie summer, but I was actually going for the orange glow of the setting sun and the approaching darkness of night at the top.  Oh well, it's called a challenge for a reason, and I'm just glad I'm keeping up so far.

I really wanted to do some stamping on this, but it was already very late and I needed to get to bed last night after a rather late and boozy work Christmas shindig the night before.  

I used a white base then did a sponge gradient using Ulta3 BlueMarlin, Picture Polish Sky, Ulta3 Coral Reed, Ulta3 Tangerine Tango and Ulta 3 Exotic Canary.  My clean up with wobbly and horrible, although I'm pretty sure I was sober by the time I did this! :)