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!