Pink and Purple Funky French

Hi all!

I'm so behind on posts!  I actually still have a Christmas mani to post but that will have to wait a few days since photos aren't even uploaded to my computer yet!  Holidays are just so busy.

This mani was entirely inspired by one of my favourite bloggers, Heather from Peace, Love & Polish.  She always does really fun french manicures and after seeing THIS one I felt the need to also do a funky french :)

I started with a 'base' of Finger Paints Flecked, which is a green to blue shifting flakie.  When my base was dried I used OPI Suzi & The 7 Dusseldorfs and Color Club Hot Like Lava to create the funky french.

Then to clean up the lines a little bit I used a blue glitter striper polish to outline the tip.

What do you all think of funky french manis?  I rarely ever do them but I have to admit I really loved this look!

And in the case that I don't post again before the 1st, I want to wish each and everyone of you a safe and happy New Year!

Revlon Perfumerie Wintermint Swatch

Hi all!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas or great holidays if you don't celebrate Christmas.  I'm away from home visiting my parents which has left me with very little time for nail painting and blogging but I'm okay with that - family time is so important :)

Not long ago I picked up one of the Revlon Perfumerie polishes... I've become super sensitive to perfumy scents so I was a little apprehensive, but the one I picked up was Wintermint, which was actually very mildly scented, and actually smelled quite fresh!

It's such a beautiful polish.  A gorgeous shimmery mint green base that applies opaque in two coats with a sprinkling of tiny green glitter bits and larger sized blue hex glitter.  Stunning!

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The formula was perfect, and the scent was just lovely and definitely not over the top strong, which I really appreciated.

Have you picked up any of these Perfumerie polishes?  What are your thoughts?

Revlon Royal + Snowflakes

Who can believe that Christmas is just a short 5 days away (and my birthday is in 4 days, eep)?  It's totally cliché but it's crazy how fast this year has flown by! 

We're completely snow covered in my little city, and they're calling for a storm over the next oh.. 3 days, so why not do some more snow flakes?

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I used a base of the ever gorgeous Revlon Royal and did a glitter gradient starting at the base using OPI Which is Witch? then topped it off with a second coat of Royal.

Then I used BM 323  & H02 I stamped the snowflakes using a Rickis Frosty Lavender (which is basically one of the Color Club Holos).

 It took no time at all but was so eye catching when the holo caught the perfect lighting to make it all rainbowy :)  I love snow manis!

Are you all ready for Christmas?

Thanks for reading!

Color Club Holiday Splendor

Sometimes a simple glittery manicure is just as fun as any kind of nail art.  I wanted to paint my nails but I just didn't want it taking for ever so I pulled out this gem and happily painted!

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This beauty is Color Club Holiday Splendor from the 2011 Beyond the Mistletoe collection.  It's got a green jelly base and is jam packed with holo glitter bits - it's soo pretty!

 My lightbox kind of washed out the beauty of this polish which is unfortunate because in real life it's stunning :)  And thanks to Elmer's Glue removal of this was super easy!

Happy Wednesday :)

Another Holiday Mani

Hi loves

Happy Saturday!  What's everyone's plans for the weekend?  I have a family Christmas gathering tonight that I'm very much looking forward to :)

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I am loving the new Bundle Monster plates.. they came out with such cute images this year between the Holiday collection and the blogger creations - I can't stop using them!

I stamped the bells and mittens from BM-H03 with China Glaze Hey Sailor on top of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  On my ring finger is Orly Ma Cherie stamped with BM-H01, and I filled in the heart with OPI Pure 18k White Gold flakes :)

Annnd on my pinkie is something you've seen before HERE, Gosh Forest Floor with Orly Mermaid Tale and Monster Mash.

Thanks for reading! :)

Feeling Festive - Red and Gold

Hi all!

I don't normally find myself sticking to themes when it comes to my nails.. which is why I have a hard time sticking to challenges, I like my nails to reflect what I'm in the mood for or what I'm feeling, not something I'm 'told' to do, you know?

That being said, I can't get enough of Christmas nails lately!  This mani isn't totally Christmas but it's red and gold and to me that feels pretty festive.

It's also the hardest mani to photograph!

The base is OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby?, the fabulous glowy red from the German collection - absolutely perfect for the holidays!

 

 
Then I stamped with Orly Luxe and Pueen-14.

Have a great day guys!

Christmas Stamping

Good morning!

Last Friday I ended up going on a pub crawl with my old roommate - it was Christmas 'themed' in that people wore silly Christmas hats and sweaters, santa suits, garlands.. I had mini lights wrapped around me - and holiday nails :)

My index and middle finger have a base of OPI Meep Meep Meep, an older beauty that I'm happy to have re-discovered.  I stamped using Essie No Place Like Chrome and Gals 27. 

My ring finger has the beautiful OPI Designer de Better with a strip down the center of Essie Ignite the Night.

On my pinky is Gosh Forest Floor with Orly Mermaid Tale and Monster Mash.

Fun mani for a fun night but it ended up chipping the next day, boo!

Happy Thursday ladies!

Black and Gold

Happy Sunday!

Quickie post today - here's my current NOTD.  I had a family brunch to go to this morning and wanted to do something a little festive and came up with this look.

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There's just something about black and gold paired together.  It's edgy but classy all at once - I love it!

I started out with a base of Illamasqua Scorn, an awesome matte black polish that's opaque in just one coat.. it's SO pretty on it's own.

Using Essie Good as Gold and Pueen 38 I stamped on the cute bells. 

As a side note, I bought the squishy stamper from Winstonia and it's made stamping SO much easier.. I find I'm enjoying it even more so than before and all I want to do is stamp my nails every day!

Have a great day everyone!

NPC Holiday Challenge Week 2: Decorations

Hi all!

Here is my entry for the second week of the Nail Polish Canada Holiday Challenge.  This week's theme was decorations.. I ended up redo-ing these nails three times!  Ha.  I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out though :)

I created an 'abstract tree' I guess you can see, with a string of lights and 'hung' ornaments :)

I started with a base of Gosh Forest Floor then using a fan brush I created wisps with Color Club Not Just for Kelly Green, China Glaze Gaga For Green and OPI Gargatuan Green Grape.

Then using a black striping polish and various colours I painted on the lights on the tip of my nails, and finished things off by adding different sized and coloured rhinestones for the ornaments :)

If you like this manicure please click HERE and vote for me, or vote for which ever manicure you like best :)

Thanks a bunch!

NPC Nail Art Challenge Week 1: Snow

Hi loves!

Happy December 1st! 

Nail Polish Canada is having it's second Holiday Nail Art Challenge and this weeks theme was snow.

 

I chose to go with a 'night' scene.. because what's prettier than seeing snow sparkle when taking a walk after the sun has set?!  It's just so magical!

 

I started with a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff, then did a gradient with Color Club Cold Metal and OPI Yoga-ta Get this Blue then added OPI Pirouette my Whistle and NOPI Make a Comet-Ment as the sparkly snow falling from the sky.

  The two snow flake stamps were done with Essie No Place Like Chrome and plates 323 and H02 from Bundle Monster.  I stamped the tree silhouettes on my ring finger using BM-407.  On the tip I used OPI Solitaire as my 'snow banks'.  And using Solitaire I made a little snow man on my middle finger.

Click HERE to go vote for your favourite snow themed mani!

Thanks for reading :)

Mo' nails.

Happy Thursday!

Things have been busy round here - I had my mom and two of my best friends over last weekend to go wedding dress shopping annnd I found my dress!  Now I'm just bummed about having to wait 7 more months before wearing it.  haha.

So - I figured before November ends I should post my Movember nails.  How is it almost December already?!

How cute are the mustache's?! I started with a base of Essie Cute as a Button on my index and middle fingers, then stamped my index with BM-402.  On my middle finger is a water decal from Born Pretty store. 

On my ring finger is Essie Beyond Cozy, one of my favourite glittery polish.  And on my pinky is China Glaze Bump in The Night with OPI Solitaire polka dots.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers!  Hope you're all enjoying time with your loved ones :)

Thanks for reading. 

Black and White mani

Wahh I've been a bad blogger and I don't even have an excuse!  I've been knitting a lot trying to finish a pair of socks before next week so my nails are being neglected.  Boo!

I was feeling uninspired so I asked C what I should do and he said black and white.. so I did!

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I started out with a base of Orly Dayglow then created a gradient using China Glaze Elephant Walk on the tips.  I love gradients!

On my ring finger I added a coat of Lush Lacquer Salt N Peppa, then I used Bundle Monster plate 406 to stamp on the cute hart pattern.

I'm loving black and white lately!  What are your thoughts?

Nimbus Nails

Happy Friday!

Here's hoping you're all having a good weekend :) Call me crazy but I'm in a Christmas decorating mood so all of our decor is going up this weekend!  All I need now is a little bit of snow ;)

So I'm sure you're all following The Nailasaurus (if you're not, you should be) and thus have seen her Nimbus mani tutorial.  I decided to give it a try not too long ago.  It's so fun and super easy to do, too.

 

I started out with a white base or Orly Dayglow, then using way too many polishes I started dabbing away at my nails. I really need to start writing down all the polishes I use because I can't remember them now.  But the ones I do remember were Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, Sally Hansen Blue me Away, China Glaze Electric Beat, China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle, Color Club Express Yourself and OPI Steady as She Rose.

On my pinky I added Color Club Jingle Jangle since the purple and blue glitter matched the colour scheme of the mani, and on my ring finger I stamped the chevron pattern from Bundle Monster plate 423 in Konad White polish.

Have you tried the Nimbus method yet? 

Thanks for reading!

Joe Fresh Ink + Stamping

Happy Tuesday!

How was everyone's weekend?  I spent mine with my family celebrating my nephew's 11th birthday.  Hard to believe that kid is 11 already (and pretty much my height.. with bigger feet than me, how does that even happen?)

This is a mani I sported last week.  I had a hard time getting inspired but I think it turned out pretty decent!

For this look I used a base of Joe Fresh - Ink, a dark shimmery purply-blue.  I topped it off with Essie Pure Pearlfection to add a little bit more shimmer and dimension to the polish.

On my index and pinkie I also have a coat of Finger Paints Asylum, the gorgeous red/blue/purple flakie combo then I  finished them off with a medium sized silver hex glequin near the base.

For my ring and middle finger I stamped using Essie Blue Rhapsody and Pueen-49 plate.  I'm super happy with the way my stamping came out, too.  Those Essie mirror metallics are perfect for stamping!

Thanks for reading!

Remembrance Day Nails

Just a quickie today - here at my nails in honour of those who have served and those currently serving, especially my grandpa, my fiance, my brother in law and father in law :)

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Base is Orly Decades of Dysfunction, one of my all time favourite polishes.  Then using a small brush I painted on Essie Navigate Her as the light green then went over everything with Revlon Posh.

For the poppies I used Orly Ignite and OPI Black Onyx for the center.  

Hope everyone had a good day today :)

Zoya Dream & Payton

Good morning :)

I've recently cut back a lot on my polish buying - mainly because I find a lot of the new shades are a lot like some I already have or I just don't feel that strong pull of needing a certain polish lately.  Granted my wish list on Nail Polish Canada is ever growing, but I also have a big wedding to pay for (my family is huge) and I just can't justify spending too much money on polish when it could go towards something wedding related.  Sigh.  What a dilemma :P

But when I saw the new amazingly sparkly Zoya polishes in the Christmas collection I knew they were eventually going to be mine :P

 Zoya Dream is such a perfect polish.  It's a a beautiful shade of blue jam packed with sparkly bits - and it's squishy so even after a second coat you still see the holographic particles peak through.  I wish the photos better represented just how beautiful and glittery this polish is.

On my accent I have Zoya Payton, a dark purple jelly with the same scattered holo effect as Dream (and as Aurora, Blaze and Storm from last year's Holiday collection).  The base is a little bit more opaque though so the shimmer doesn't peak through as much as it does in Dream but it's still a beautiful must-have polish.

I also topped off my accent nail with OPI Pure 18k White Gold & Silver Top Coat.. I couldn't help myself.  I have the yellow gold topper so I just had to buy it's white gold twin.  What you see is two thin coats, but I find it's a bit more packed with flakes than the yellow gold one.

Unfortunately, maybe 4 days after receiving this from Nail Polish Canada, I found it at Winner's for $19.99.  I may or may not have swore a little bit under my breath, all the while my sister pointed and laughed at me, scooped it up and brought it home with her.  For $15 less than what I paid.  haha.  Serves me right for being impatient, but I still say it was worth it ;)

Have you picked up any holiday polishes yet?  Most collections are hard to resist this time of year but I'm resisting so far, save for these 3 polishes :)

Half Moon + Stamping using Sinful Leather Luxe polishes

Remember when I mentioned having a nail girl meetup in Halifax before I moved back to Ontario?  We had a secret swap, and I ended up getting two of the Sinful Color Leather Luxe polishes.  After watching them on the nail wheel I decided I had to get two more :P

I created a half moon mani using a base of Sinful Color Get it On as the base, which is a berry matte creme polish.  I topped that off with Sinful Color My Turn, a lovely elephant grey.

There was a top coat that came in the display, I ended up getting it in the swap as well so I tried it out here.  It actually looks really good - it's not super shiny but it gave the matte polish just enough shine.

Then, because I had recently gotten my Pueen stamping plates - this happened.  I don't remember the plate number as this mani was done a couple of months ago now, but it's from the Love Elements set.

I felt like there was maybe too much going on with this mani so it didn't last too long :)

Have you tried the Leather Luxe polishes?  I don't give Sinful Color enough of a chance.. the few polishes I have I actually really like.  Maybe I should buy some more ;)