Merry Christmas!

Hi all!

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays if you don't celebrate Christmas!  I hope you're all having a fabulous day today wherever you all are :)

Here's a cute and festive manicure I did a few days ago:

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Have a fabulous day guys!

Birthday Mani

Hey loves!

Today is my 28th birthday! 

My posts have been lacking lately, I know - but my family lives a few provinces away from where I do and I have been traveling and spending time with them, since I rarely see them.  So I think I have a good excuse :P 

Here is the mani I'm currently sporting for my birthday - I wanted to keep it separate from Christmas.  Even though having a Christmas eve birthday really doesn't bother me much, I wanted something different.  And since I found all of the Layla holos on major clearance, I figure it was a good time to put my favourite one to use.  Here is Layla Ultra Violet, and using Konad Psyche Pink and Black I stamped a cute little cupcake from the new BM plates!

Happy & safe Christmas Eve to all of you!

Revlon Moon Candy and Expressionist polish Review

Not long ago Revlon Canada's Facebook page posted something about becoming a Revlon Select, where they were looking for 500 applicants to review some of their newest product.  I filled out the form not thinking much of it, and to my surprise I got chosen!

I got sent two of their new dual ended polishes (and some other goodies that I will review in another post).  I'm sure you've heard of them before, the Revlon Moon Candy polishes that have a base colour and a mylar flakie topper, and the Revlon Expressionist line, which comes with a base colour on one end, and a striping  polish on the other end.

Revlon Expressionist in Vincent Van Gold and Revlon Moon Candy in Orbit

 

Revlon Moon Candy - Orbit on my ring finger & Revlon Expressionist - Vincent Van Gold on the remainder of my fingers.

 Both polishes that were sent to me had gorgeous purple bases.  The base for Vincent Van Gold had some blue and pink shimmer to it, whereas the base for Orbit was a dark purple creme.  I've read that the Moon Candy bases are one coaters, and if they're all like this one they most definitely are!  I hardly ever paint on just one coat but this one really didn't need a second.  

I used two coats for Vincent Van Gold.

Then using the other end, I added one easy coat of the flakies.  These aren't your typical flakies though, and I had a few that didn't lie completely flat but that got remedied with a thick layer of top coat.

And because I'm not the best at doing free hand nail art using a striping brush, I just used the other end of Vincent Van Gold and just painted on simple gold stripes.

Striping brush from the Revlon Expressionist polish

I really liked the two polishes they sent me.  The striping polish was opaque enough that I didn't need to go over the stripes a second time and I only used one coat of the flakie topper.  The formula for both base colours' was good and not streaky at all.

The only thing I didn't like from these is the packaging.  It's actually really awkward to paint your nails with these since there's another polish attached to the brush which makes it super top heavy!  I had more cleanup to do than usual since the brush was a little harder to control.

What do you all think of these?  I like them, but I think I would rather them come in a set where they polishes aren't attached to each other :P

This post contains product(s) provided to me for my honest review.

Christmas Lights

Hi loves!

One of my favourite things about Christmas is seeing decorated homes.  I remember being little and driving around everywhere with my parents just admiring homes that were completely lit up.. This hasn't happened in years, but last night C and I took a little stroll around our neighbourhood and checked out all of the nicely lit up decorations.  It was so nice :)

I mention this because we did this while I was sporting a Christmas lights mani!

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I've been wanting to do a Christmas lights mani since last year!  I'm so happy that I finally got to try this out.  The base is China Glaze Angel Wings, which is so, so beautiful on it's own.  My pictures definitely don't do the sparkly holo any justice!

 

Then using a black striper polish I drew on the strings, then using Essie Snap Happy (red), Color Club Not Just For Kelly (green), Dress for the Parade (yellow), Boys Wear Blue (blue) & Express Yourself (purple) (all from the pride collection)  and a small nail art brush I painted on the light bulbs.  

This was so fun, I really enjoyed wearing it for a few days :)

What's your favourite thing about the holidays?  Share away :D

Trimming the Tree

Hi all!

Here's my third and last installment for the Nail Polish Canada Christmas challenge :)  This week's theme was decorations:

I decided to go with a simple tree dotticure!  I love these kinds of manis, they're so simple but effective at the same time :)

 

The base of this mani is China Glaze Holly-Day and the dots are China Glaze Hey Sailor (red), Gosh Silver, Essie Beyond Cozy (champagne glitter), Color Club Holiday Splendor (green glitter) and Wet n Wild On a Trip (purple).

These aren't the best photos but a) my camera died and the charger is on C's ship for some reason (?) so the last 2 photos were taking with my HTC and b) it's gloomy and rainy as all heck in Halifax.  A true maritime winter :P

If you like this mani and feel it deserves some of your votes, please click here and vote for it :D

Thanks in advance!

Feeling Blue

Hi loves!

Happy Fridayyyy :)  Here's something I wore earlier in the week.. I loved this, and wish I could have kept it on longer but it chipped within 2 days.  Boo.

 

This was probably my best gradient yet!  All polishes used in this many are Essie.  I started off with two easy coats of Where's my Chauffeur?, then using a makeup sponge I sponged on all at the same time:  Bobbing for Baubles, Butler Please and Where's my Chauffeur?.  I then added two coats of OPI The Man With the Golden Gun, which was supposed to be a Christmas present, but C was too excited to keep it hidden until then.  Ha.  I love that my hunny enables this polish addiction ;)

 

For the accent I started with two coats of No Place like Chrome the using striping tape I created squared and painted them in using the same blue polishes used above.

What are your thoughts on gradients?

Have a great weekend everyone :)

Christmas Party Mani

Hi loves

This passed Thursday was our annual navy Christmas party, and I took full advantage and wore a LBD with my amazing pink Barbie shoes that my love bought me last year for Christmas.  I actually don't have any pictures of them, what a sin.  But Chris had a matching pink dress shirt (I love men in pink!), and of course my mani was matchy matchy as well!

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I kept it simple enough.  Chris picked out this lovely pink foil, Color Club Hot Like Lava, stamped using Konad Special Polish in Black and a BM plate (whose number I can't remember right now -- and I'm at work, sorry!). 

For my accent nail I used OPI Black Onyx and stamped a cute little bow using Essie No Place like Chrome.  Now that I think about it, I should covered the dots in the bow with little rhinestones since the bows on my shoes had some bling on them :P

And for your viewing pleasure, my two kitties (Swift & Kaiko aka Boo) posing while I was taking pictures of this mani.  They always follow the camera!

Thanks for having a looksie!

All I Want for Christmas...

Hi!

Happy December, my favourite month of the year :)   I love the snow (which we don't really get in Halifax.. but I still love it), the Christmas decor, the parties.  Plus I get to fly home and see my family :)

The second theme for Nail Polish Canada's challenge was gifts.  I kept things simple, since that's how we like to keep our Christmas'.  

So what could I possibly want?  Just family time.  I hardly get to see my family - I haven't seen my siblings or my niece since Christmas of last year, and this summer I got to spend an entire 4 days with my parents and my nephew.  I can't wait to see everyone again!

And, in the new year, my fiance is deploying for ~7 months, so I'm just trying to spend as much quality time with him as possible and so here's the awkward claw pose with an anchor in honour of him and the navy.  Cheesy, right? :P

Don't forget to vote for your favourite mani over here!

Flakie Love

Hi all!

Who doesn't love flakies?  They completely transform the look of a manicure, AND removal is pain free.  The other day I was browsing one of our local drug stores and stumbled upon a full display of Layla Ceramic Effect polishes at a pretty average price, so I picked up this gorgeous purple flakie polish.  I may have to go back and get a couple more :D

  

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To create this look I started by using Gosh Deep Purple as my base, with an accent of the gorgeous Revlon Royal.  Then I added one coat of this Layla Ceramic Effect polish (whose name I can't find?), on top of Deep Purple, and Finger Paints Motley over Royal.  I really loved this look!  My only regret was using such a dark base for the Layla flakies, it masked the pretty purple base and basically made it look like the regular orange-to-green flakies.

Here's a bonus photo showing the colour shift of the flakies.  And if you look closely you can see my kitty's reflection in the window (right above my pinky).. if it were up to him he'd photo bomb every single one of my pictures lol.

Hope you're all having a fabulous Tuesday, and don't forget to go vote for your favourite manicure over at the Nail Polish Canada nail art challenge!

Snow Day

Hey loves!

Alright, so I fibbed a bit and it's not a *real* snow day.  But it sure looks like one on my nails!  I'm sure by now you've all heard of the nail art contest that is being hosted by Nail Polish Canada.  It's a three-week challenge consisting of one mani a week, and anyone can join!  The prizes are fabulous :)

This weeks theme was snow.  It took a while for me to come up with what I wanted to do, and even as I sat down last night to do these (procrastination at it's best!), I still didn't really know what look I was going for. But I gathered several bottles of polish and went for it, and I'm super pleased with the outcome!

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I went with something you would see on a typical snow day.  A snowman, a common sight after any kind of snowfall, snow building up on a window sill (or maybe just a snow squall, I kept my middle finger simple), and beautiful snow covered trees.. one of my favourite things about a big dumping of fluffy snow!

Here's where I ask a HUGE favour and ask for you all to throw a vote my way by clicking here and voting for my mani (or any other mani you like, there are wonderful entries!)

Thanks in advance!

Nicole by OPI Holiday glitters!

Hi everyone!

Quick post today!  Over the weekend (while trying to warm up during the Christmas parade) I picked up one of the Nicole by OPI Christmas polishes and immediately put it to good use :)

Nicole by OPI - All is Glam, All is bright and on my accent is last years Nicole by OPI polish My Sleigh's in the Shop.  I love these polishes, the silver microglitter with copper flecks and the magenta with gold totally scream Christmas to me!

Happy Thanksgiving to those south of the border!  I hope your day is wonderful :)

Last Fall Hurrah

Hi loves!

This was my last Autumn type mani before all of the winter and Christmas nails begin popping up.  Some trees here still have leaves and we have yet to see a snowfall in the city but there's that undeniable chill in the air that keeps reminding us that winter isn't too far back!

 

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For this I used  OPI Danke-Shiny Red and stamped the leaves using one of the Red Angel plates and Essie Good as Gold & Penny Talk (except you can't really see the difference!).

This one got lots of compliments!

Except, if you look closely you'll see that I have a TERRIBLE break on my pinky, and because of this I'm now sporting super nubs.  I think they're cute, though :)  You'll see those in my next post!

Remembrance Day

 Hi loves!

This is so late, I know.  These are the nails I sported for Remembrance Day!

 

My pointer and ring finger are China Glaze Hey Sailor, my middle finger is Revlon Aloof with poppies that I dotted on using Hey Sailor and China Glaze Loubou Heels for the centre, and my pinky is OPI Designer, de Better!

This was a super quick mani that I did right before going to a ceremony where both my father in law and my fiancé dressed up in their military dress uniforms (air force for my FIL and navy for my fiance) and both gave a little speech about being military.  It was a super nice and intimate ceremony as we were visiting our sister in law who happens to live in the middle of nowhere :P

 

Here's a crappy cell pick of my love in his uniform (with my hand, obviously, I couldn't let him steal the spotlight ;)

Glitter and Leopard... oh my!

Hi all!

I'm sorry for neglecting my little blog!  I've been out of town and hadn't brought my computer with me.  Gasp!

I love leopard print.. Love it!  Except I'm not brave enough to wear it on anything other than my nails, so when I lack inspiration I turn to animal print manis!

 

I used OPI Fly as my base, and for the sparkly nails I added OPI Gone Gonzo & a thin coat of Divine Swine.  The leopard dots are Revlon Dreamer & OPI Black Onyx.  I know some don't like animal print at all, but I find animal print nails a bit edgy and fun :)

Fall Gradient

Hi loves!

I love me a good gradient mani, and after getting the Orly Fired Up collection I couldn't help myself but wear some of the shades into a gradient manicure.

 

 

I started out with a base of Orly Rapture, which is an amazing chocolate brown creme polish, and added Orly Smolder on my ring finger.  Using Orly Flare I created the gold gradient from the free edge down.  To make it a bit more fun I sponged on top of striping tape to create my accent nail :)

What are your thoughts on gradient manis?

Thanks for reading!

Jack Skellington - A little late

Oops.

I meant to post this a few days ago.

We watched The Nightmare Before Christmas a few days before Halloween and after seeing all of the Jack Skellington nails floating around I decided to give it a try :)

 

I used OPI Black Onyx & OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  I used cutepolish's youtube tutorial and painted on the face using black acrylic paint and a small brush :)

Sorry this is late!  I hope you're all having a great weekend :)

Happy Halloween!

Hi guys,

Happy Halloween!

I haven't been much in the Halloween mood this year, but I did manage to do two themed manis - one of which you'll see in a few days once it's no longer too dark and stormy to take photos.

 

I started with a base of Orly Ignite from the Fired Up collection, then used the cloudicure method to paint on the pumpkins using Orly Orange Punch, then added a thin coat of Nicole by OPI Traffic Cone for a bit of added shimmer.  I used Orly Buried Alive for the outline, and added Orly Right Amount of Evil for the sparkle :)  The stems were drawn on using China Glaze Mahogany Magic.  In hind sight the pumpkins would have popped a lot more had I used a neutral base colour but I still like how this turned out.

What are your plans for tonight?  Did you dress up at any point for Halloween?

Thanks for reading!

Pink Skittles

Hi loves!

I felt like skittles the other day, so I came up with this:

I guess this can also be considered pink for Breast Cancer Awareness even though there is no tiny ribbon.  What do you all think?

Index:  Colour Club I Believe in Amour, then after I placed striping tape I added a coat of Zoya Charisma (my only Zoya polish!)
Middle:  Revlon Cherries in the Snow, dots are Gosh Holographic Hero and Gosh Berry Me
Ring:  Orly Bubbly Bombshell & Orly Be Brave
Pinky:  OPI Black Onyx then I used a fan brush and applied OPI Pink Friday & OPI Kiss Me On The Tulips

Super quick post!  Hope you're all having a fantastic week :)

Fall Golf Socks

Hi loves!

Here's a fall mani I wore this weekend :)  I love red/orange/gold combos, there's something so classic feeling about it isn't there?  It just seems timeless to me.

 

I started with a base of OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby? and OPI Unfor-Greta-Bly Blue as my accent.  I then stamped using Essie - Good as Gold and a stamping image from a large stamping plate I bought over at You Mix Cosmetics (I don't think they sell them anymore though).  On my accent I added two coats of Lacquisty Golf Socks.

Golf Socks is SUCH a fun glitter polish.  It has a dark blue jelly base, small orange hex glitter, and large blue, orange and gold hexes.  This is the newer version that was sent me to unexpectedly as the first version of Golf Socks had bleeding glitter.   I have to say, I love the newer version much better ;)