Inspired

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.

Khalil Gibran

Used:

• Pinky Promise Just Rica
• Plastered in Pink Painted Polish
• Fiore di Ciliegio Candied Apple Polish
• Vivid Laquer plate 022

Friday Favourites

I think I'm the worst blogger ever.  I have a list of posts I want to write and tutorials to create and this is only my second post this week... what am I doing with my time?!

This week only have one favourite, but I think it's a big one.

Candied Apple Polish

I placed an order for some customs as well as some polishes for my upcoming giveaway and when the box arrived, tucked inside was a special surprise!

This is Grata, the polish of #gratitude itself and a very thoughtful birthday gift!  It's so unique and I have to admit it had me crying as I opened it!  Wait till you see it on!

I've posted about CAP before, back last year on my old blog, but it's been migrated over.  You can read all about it: here.

I really love the style of CAP polishes.  They're very well thought out and full of a myriad of different glitter shapes and sizes and even the most complex colour arrangements look beautiful.  I've placed dozens of orders and have dozens of both Mystery Apples and Custom Apples and even using the same polish over you never quite get the same thing, which makes them, IMO, a good investment!  

This isn't even all of them, this rack is now full and overflowing onto a shelf.  Am I done collecting?  No.  As long as Alison makes polishes, I'll keep supporting her and creating amazing manis!

Above is my Audrey Hepburn series, Ann (from Roman Holiday), Holly (from Breakfast at Tiffany's) and the eponymous Sabrina!  I do hope to have more created but right now she's closed to taking custom orders in preparation for a move.

I had a chat with Alison the other day and I asked her a couple of questions about some specific polishes and she gave me some great insight into her process and as always, I was impressed at her integrity!

What are you grateful for this week?

Be Present

Ganesh, a custom Candied Apple Polish.

This year, my goal is to be present.

What does it mean to 'be present'?

To me it simply means to enjoy today.  To not live in the future, to constantly be looking forward, but to look at right now.

It means wearing the fancy undies you always save for an 'occasion'.  It means wearing the red lipstick you bought for 'when you're brave enough'.  Put it on, right now, even if you're just sitting an watching Netflix.  Why?  Because you are worth it, right now.

It means not wishing you were thinner/prettier/whatever.  It means accepting who you are NOW in order to be happy and in order to facilitate the change.

It means letting go of all the things you cannot change and all the things you cannot control.  That's a big thing.  That's anxiety, and I recognize that's hard to manage.  But I also believe in Nirvana which is liberation and freedom and letting go to let be.

This year I am going to start witnessing my life, in actually living it.

Naughty or Nice?

Are you Naughty or Nice?

It's up to you to chose!

If you're Naughty, you'll want one of these collections for yourself.

If you're Nice, you'll want to give a collection away to someone you think deserves it!

The collection includes*:

• Piperita, a Custom Apple from Candied Apple Polish
• A Dream Polish mini collection in Candy Cane
• A mini balm and cuticle oil from 365 Sunny's Skin Care in Jack Frost
• 2 Peppermint and 2 Choco-Mint Mani Bombs from Forever Polished
• Teaspoon of white snowflake glitters
• A sheet of holo snowflakes from Lou It Yourself
• A Holiday Kinderegg
• Italian Peppermints

For a Naughty entry you must be following me, regram this post on IG, making sure to use the tag #00naughty (try not to tag me, it gets crazy confusing) and tag a friend.  You must be 18 years or older to enter, I am in Europe and I can't budge on that, sorry.   Open internationally. No giveaway accounts.  Only one Naughty entry per person, please.

For a Nice entry, comment the post directly, tagging the person you think should win and tell me why!  Share your best stories and spread some holiday cheer!  Again, the person you nominate must be 18 years or older, open internationally, no giveaway accounts, one Nice entry per person.

You can only win once, either entering yourself as Naughty or as nominated as Nice, but you an both enter and nominate!

For a chance to win a runner-up prize, head on over to Facebook and give my page a 'Like', it's a little lonely over there, and tell me what your favorite thing about the holidays is, no matter what you celebrate. 

That's three prizes and two chances to win!

Giveaway ends 15 December with winners to be chosen on the 16th.

This is not a sponsored giveaway.  Everything seen was purchased by me.

Just an aside, if you enter and then unfollow after the giveaway, you will be blocked so that you'll be unable to enter upcoming giveaways.  As you can see, I host one about every month, sometimes throwing in a 'flash' giveaway along the way.  If you have unfollowed in the past, you may already be blocked, sorry!

Head on over to IG and good luck!

 *Not everything is pictured!

Sheer Delight: A Tutorial

 

• On a plastic baggie, paint three stripes of coordinating sheer polish, blending the edges just into each other.  I put a white piece of cardboard inside the baggie for stability and so I can better see the colours.

• With a pin or any fine tipped something, drag a design into the sheer polishes, careful to drag only the polish on the top.  If you go all the way through to the baggie, it may leave a completely sheer streak in the design.  For these nails I pulled the red into the other colours to create flames.

• Let the polishes dry.  This takes some time.  The strip must not be tacky, but must not OVER dry to the point it's flakey.

• Once it's dry, carefully pull it off the baggie and set aside.
•  Prep your nails with base, you don't need to use white, but knowing my design would feature yellow, I used the white to ensure it was vibrant.

• Once your base is dry, apply the glitter bomb.

• Before the glitter coat is dry, while it's still a bit tacky, trim the polish strip in pieces to fit your nail and apply them just as instructed in my previous tutorial, Stained Glass Nails.

• Tidy up, if required!

If you're inspired to try any of my tutorials, please tag them with #00Inspired on Instagram!

Day, Of the Dead

I've always loved the imagery surrounding the Mexican holiday of Dia De Muertos, or The Day of the Dead.  I asked Alison of Candied Apple Polish to create two custom polishes inspired by the sights and colours of the festival.

Day is a bright aqua crelly filled with confetti and skulls and Of the Dead is it's dark and somber black counterpart.

This month I'll be giving the pair away each along with a cuticle goodie assortment from 365 Days of Color including a mini lip balm in Pumpkin Pie, a cuticle mini oil in Pumpkin Vanilla, and a mini cuticle balm in Pumpkin Patch.

To enter, create a Day of the Day mani of your own to post on Instagram.  They must include the note "00 Muertos @bondgirlstyle" and be tagged #00Muertos!

• The giveaway is open internationally.
• You must be 18 years or older to enter.
• Manis must created just for this giveaway, no sneaking!
• The giveaway runs from 11 Oct 2014  through 20 Oct 2014.
• The winners will be chosen and posted on 22 Oct 2014.

Good luck and have fun!

Indie Dossier: Candied Apple Polish

 Alison from Candied Apple Polish is one busy lady, but I managed to steal some time away from her to sit down and be the subject of m first Indie Dossier!

 How did you get into polish mixology?

When my husband was deployed last year I started painting my nails. It was so relaxing for me and was a sort of "Deployment Therapy" for me. I had never really even painted my nails before this and I only owned (gasp) 4 bottles of polish. Starting to buy more polish and having so much fun with nail art really inspired me to want to create my own!

Did you know right away you wanted to open a shop?

I started mixing and creating with the idea that I would open a shop eventually! I experimented and let my family and friends test my products for several months. When I was happy with the end result I opened up my store.

 

What was the biggest challenge?

I would say that the biggest challenge for me was probably things that weren't even about the actual polish. Just figuring out the most efficient way to ship things and wanting to make sure that I had good quality labels, bottles, brushes. There are so many little things that go into it that I hadn't thought of at the very beginning when I was just mixing.

 

How did chose your brand's name?

My brand name came from a lot of brainstorming sessions with my sister. I am originally from Western New York where apples are very prevalent. I really wanted my brand to represent the core of me so I just knew I had to include "apple" in the name. When we came up with this, it just seemed right!

 

What's your process when designing a new polish? Do you just throw stuff together or start from an idea?

This is different every time. A lot of times color combinations come to me when I am laying in bed. I am constantly making notes to myself to try things out in the morning. Sometimes I am inspired by very specific things. For example- "Warm Georgia Breeze" This is a polish that is very special to me because it embodies everything that I love about Georgia. I am an Army wife so I move quite frequently. This makes for fantastic adventures but also means that I miss a lot of places that I once called home. I wanted to make a polish that was a tribute to Georgia. The warmth, the peaches, the ocean and sand. All of the good things I left behind. Some other polishes just come from colors I love together and then the name comes later.

 

Do you have a favorite polish you've ever made?

This is always a hard question for me. I love them all so much! It is always changing as well, because I create new things and then they are my favorite :) Some of my very favorites are- "Dreams of the Tamarin" "Dreams of the Lorikeet" "Midnight Sprinkles" "Burnt Raspberry" "Brightest Light" and "Lilac Fizz." I could list things all day though lol!

 

What are some of your other favorite indie brands?

I don't think that it is any secret that my all time favorite Indie is my duo partner in crime, Jessica of Drip Drop Nailpaint. Flawless formula and so much creativity. Things I would never think to combine. That is definitely one thing that I love so much about Indies, so much of our own unique personalities goes into what we create. It's amazing to see.

My other favorite indies are Polish by Jessica Jean (always craving more beautiful "frostings"), Shop Eighty4, and Noodles Nailpolish. All of these brands are created by wonderful, kind ladies who I am so happy to support.

I just love indies though so this list could also go on and on! So many talented, creative ladies out there!

 

Where do you see CAP in a year? 3? 5?

I just want to continue to have fun! I have been overwhelmed by the amazing outpouring of kindness and support I have received since my shop has been open. This was a journey I started not really knowing if anyone would even buy anything! It has exceeded my expectations and I am just so grateful for this. As long as I can keep sharing what I love with all of you, that is what I want to focus on for the future :) You all make it worth it and I am so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life!

Congratulations and SURPRISE!

The winner of my 100+ Followers Giveaway is:

Congratulations!  It took me and Mia about two hours to go through all the entries and verify them... there were some people who didn't follow the rules.  We wrote all the names down and Mia fished one at random out of a box!  Please use the contact feature above to email me your mailing address!

And SURPRISE!

I'm hosting ANOTHER giveaway!  Actually, it's Part Two, featuring another bottle of Seva from Candied Apple Polish as well as some other amazing goodies!

To enter, please leave a comment below telling me what you'd like to see on my blog!  Maybe you want swatches, maybe tutorials, maybe brand features!  Let me know, anything goes.  If you have a nail blog of your own, please make sure you leave the link, I'd love to visit.

The rules:

• One comment (entry) per person.
• You must be 18 years or older, because I am international, I can't make exceptions.
• Giveaway runs through 22 September, the winner to be drawn at random and announced on the 23rd.

I will be hosting a giveaway EVERY month.  October's prize is another set of custom made polishes! 

Seva: A Candied Apple Custom

 

"Living creatures are nourished by food, and food is nourished by rain; rain itself is the water of life, which comes from selfless worship and service." - Bhagavad Gita, 3.14

I asked Alison from Candied Apple Polish to create a Custom Apple for me based on, of all things, my favorite pair of pajama pants, the ones I most often wear when I meditate.  They're bright and cheery and really really comfortable!  The resulting polish I named Seva, which means Selfless Service and it's the anchor in my 100+ Giveaway.  It just feels right to share this gorgeous polish!

It's a bright blue/aqua crelly base filled with bright shades in a variety of sizes, which is the thing I admire most about Alison's polishes.  They're always so thoughtful and complete.

Here I'm wearing three thin coats so that it remains airy and light.  Two 'normal' coats gives a full opacity.  See that puncture on my ring finger?  Yeah, that's from Beau, we were fighting over a green bean and he won!

While I'm still working on getting to know my camera, it was only released from Customs yesterday, I'm really exited to share these pictures with you!  If you're interested in winning a bottle, along with a mass of other goodies, don't forget to enter my #BGS100 Giveaway on Instagram!  You have until Monday, the 15th.