Hello everyone.  First up, my Mont Blue Nail file set giveaway ended last night, and I've just drawn the winner.  I have to say that I absolutely loved all your comments, so thank you everyone for making me smile!  Congratulations to the winner Giovanna Iglesias Croccia.  I've sent you an email.

I have another very exciting giveaway planned that I will kick off this weekend, with a totally awesome and fun prize that I know a lot of you would love to win - plus it will also be open internationally.  So make sure you hang around for that!

Now onto today's nails.  I did a really simple gold and blue gradient using Priti NYC Chrysanthos and Kleancolor Metallic Sapphire.   I then stamped over it using Mundo de Unas white stamping polish.  

When I applied top coat, something rather magical happened, and it's something that is particular to the Kleancolor Metallic polishes.  The blue colour from the Kleancolor leached up through the white stamping to make it blue stamping.  The Kleancolor metallic polishes are quite notorious for doing weird things when you apply top coat.  They stamp really well because of their pigmentation, but when you top coat them they bleed and go fuzzy.  Same as when you just wear the colours on their own, they change colour slightly when you put top coat on.  The mind boggles at what sort of crazy chemical reaction is going on there to make this happen. 

Wow, what a fun couple of days with all those gorgeous Picture Polish shades plastered all over the blogosphere.  I loved reading everyone's reviews and seeing their beautiful swatch photos. 

Now onto something completely different.  Last week I did a matte gold mani with gold foil tips, and this week I tried a silver version, but this time with an accent nail.  I don't like wearing silver as much as gold, but this was still very eye-catching.

The base on the three matching finger is Priti NYC Old Man Cactus (silver foil) with Essie Matte About You top coat.  I then applied nail foil glue to the tips and put on the foil.  The tipse do have top coat, and they wrinkled a little bit, but they need the top coat or they just wash off almost the first time you wash your hands.

For the accent nail, I decided to try something different.  Instead of using a nail foil I applied one coat of Layla Metal Chrome so I had a good shiny background. I then applied a top coat and waited until it was nearly dry.  I then use a fanned brush and applied some silver leaf.  The stuff I used was Monte Marte Imitation Silver Leaf. I got a pack of ten sheets for less than $5 from a local craft shop and this only used a nail size amount off one sheet.

It was really easy to smooth it out on the nail because it is so unbelievably thin and feather like.  I just used the brush to push it down and smooth it out across the nail.  

The silver leaf nail was so unbelieveably shiny, I could actually see myself in it like a mirror.  See...  and no, my nose really isn't as bit as it appears reflected in my finger :-)

To finish off the mani, I applied the matte top coat over the tip of the silver leaf.

Before I did this mani, I tried a test finger to see how it would work.  I applied a top coat to that test finger and found that it wrinkled really badly.  Because of that I decided not to put top coat on the silver leaf nail, and by the end of a full day's wear it had pretty much worn off.  But because I put a layer of Layla Metal Chrome underneath it wasn't too noticeable. Actually, some of these photos were taken a few hours later than the others, and you can see where some of the silver leaf has worn off on the top of the nail on the side closest to the pinky nail.

Thanks for visiting everyone.

I'm so happy with the way this mani turned out.  The combination of the different toned golds together with the combination of matte and chrome like shine just matched my jewellery so perfectly.  I felt like a million bucks wearing this.

I used Priti NYC Chrysanthos as my base colour, which I then mattified using Essie Matte About You.  I then applied some foil glue to just the tips of my fingers and allowed that to dry completely. I then used some gold nail art foil on the tips.

These photos were taken before I applied top coat to the tips, because I knew the top coat would slightly wrinkle the foil, which it did, but it also meant that the tips would stay on longer that an hour!

I am so totally off to do a silver version of this right now, in fact given the number of different coloured foils I have, I'm going to have to check out what other colour combinations I can pull together.

Today I have a really awesome collection from Priti NYC. The Heavy Medal for London 2012 collection.  This is one of two Olympics themed collections released by Priti NYC. The other is Priti Red, White, & Beautiful For London 2012 - which features some patriotic themed red, white and blue polishes.  

This collection features four very shiny metallic foil polishes.  One for each medal place, gold, silver and bronze and an addition blueish grey foil (I guess for the non place getters)

The packaging for Priti NYC polishes is so pretty.

Undo the ribbon and the little package unfolds to reveal the four polishes in this collection.

I love square bottles, they pack so perfectly into my helmer, and I also love the brushed silver caps on these bottles.

Chrysanthos is the gold foil, and it's a beautiful cool toned gold foil.  It reminds me of Orly Luxe, although the formula on this was much better than Luxe. This is two coats and it was smooth to apply, shown here indoors.

In the sun, the metallic particles in these polishes really sparkle.

When applying all of these polishes you do see brush strokes, but as the polish dries, the brush strokes completely disappear.

Old Man Cactus is the bright and rich silver foil. Now I understand the name for the gold foil polish, but I'm not really sure I see where Old Man Cactus fits in with this polish.  I must be missing something, can anyone shed some light?

Old Man Cactus is a good solid silver foil.  It's not unique and there are a lot of silver foils around, but at least this one does have a fantastic formula. Also, like all Priti NYC polishes, they are 3 free (which most reputable polish lines are), but they also do not contain any petroleum ingredients or camphor, which Priti NYC says, this means they are completely safe for use on children and mums-to-be as well.  This is a good thing for me, as Miss 18 months put her hand out the other day as I was doing my nails and grunted at me, which I pretty sure meant "mummy paint my nails too so I can suck the colours off when I put my hands in my mouth"

Bill's Bronze Orchid takes third place and the bronze medal.Ok, I get the Bronze part, but what the hell it has to do with Bill's Orchid makes me really curious.  Again, can someone shed some light on this name?

Bill's Bronze Orchid is, just like the others in this collection, an amazingly shiny and metallic foil.  The colour is a light bronze, or maybe a rose gold, either way, it's a really flattering colour. Think Orly Rage.

Pewter Veil is the last polish in this collection, and for it's the biggest winner.  This is the most unique polish in the collection and I don't have anything like it in my stash.

Pewter Veil is a blue leaning gun metal grey, sparkly metallic foil. I remember trying to franken a polish like this about two years ago, where I added black polish to a silver foil.  It was nice, but nothing compared to this polish.

Aussie gals can pick up this collection online from the I am Natural Store, or you can check out the full list of Aussie and NZ stockists, where you will be able to see these beauties in real life.  That stockist page also has an interesting write up about Priti NYC if, like me, you didn't really know much about the brand.

Are you excited about the Olympics.  I am.  We have Foxtel sports channels, so I know there is going to be a lot of channel surfing going on jumping between our favorite events.  I'm glad we are not stuck on commercial TV and seeing the stupid medal tally and repeats of the same Aussie medal winning events. But,. I do think I'm going to have to get my Aussie on again and do some Aussie Olympic themed nail art.

These polishes were sent to me for review.