Poptastic Watermarble

Oh Hey!

She's alive :)

After being tipped off that Winners currently had some Color Club sets in, I drove my butt over there and accidently brought a few home with me, one of which was the new Poptastic collection.

And since it's so beautiful the last few days, I figured I'd break them in and enjoy the last few days of 'summer' with matchy nails :)

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I'm so happy with how this water marble turned out.  I avoided even attempting one of these for so so long because I was so intimidated.  Glad I gave it a try though because, hello, amazing nails that I can't stop staring at!

I started with a base of China Glaze Snow and then used all 6 shades in the Poptastic collection; Belle Bottom Babe, Foxy Mama, Kapow!, Not-SO-Mellow Yellow, Peace, Love & Polish and Right On. 

As bright as they look now, they're actually much brighter IRL!

Happy Friday all!

Brazilian Florals + a mini update

Good morning!

I'm back!  Albeit briefly as I am on holidays next week but for now I'll ease back into blogging.  I've missed it :)

How bout a little update?

On June 28th, the man and I got hitched:

It was a beautiful and insanely hot day.  It went perfectly, but that's because I didn't care if things went wrong.  If they did, I wasn't aware of them because I was just focused on enjoying my day :)

Now that things are winding down, I'm trying to focus on my unfinished grad thesis.  And trying to get back into nail art.  I went months where they were either bare or just plainly painted, but lately I feel like I
got my mojo back ;)

That being said, here's a 'from the vault' mani that I did eons ago.  And because of that I can't really remember which polish I used.

For the base on my index and middle finger, I want to say I used OPI Did you Ear about Van Gogh? but I'm not 100% sure.  The leafy stamp is from the Pueen Buffet set, using OPI AmazON, AmazOFF from their Brazilian collection, which is also the base on my ring and pinki finger.

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I used OPI Which is Witch? for the reverse glitter gradient.  Such beautiful glitter, my bottle is showing some serious use!

As for the flowers on my index and ring finger.. I really can't even guess which polishes I used :/  I should really start keeping a log of each mani in a notebook, it would make life a little bit easier :)

NPC's The Great Polish Giveaway of 2014!

Hi loves!

Whoa, I'm alive!  I'll have a little bit of an update later on in the day, but for now.. I'm sure you've all heard of the amazing giveaway that Nail Polish Canada is hosting.


If you haven't, it's a give away where you can win up to 200 bottles of polishes, depending on how many bloggers participate.  So awesome!



I've decided to nominate Butter London's Wallis - this is a polish that has been on my wish list for aaaaages.

See swatches here courtesy of Vampy Varnish :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nude & Gold Stamping

Hi there!

I'm a terrible blogger!  I haven't yet found the balance between working full time, planning my wedding and painting my nails.. sometimes something just has to give, and sadly in this case it's been my favourite hobby.  Boo.

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How cute is this combo though?  Gold and nude just look so good together!

I started with OPI My Vampire is Buff and using Essie Good as Gold and an image from Pueen-33 I stamped over my base.

Then I added some small square studs to my ring finger, and used OPI Honey Ryder as a pinkie and thumb accent :)

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Grey and Yellow Skittlette

Good morning!

Here's a quickie post showing this cute mani that I wore a couple of weeks ago.

This mani started with a base of Essie Power Clutch, then using the dry brush method I added Essie Chinchilly and China Glaze Elephant Walk to create a neat marbled effect.

Then using Color Club Dressed for the Parade mixed with Konad White I stamped the zig zag pattern from BM 423 on my pointer and middle fingers.

On my ring finger is an image from Mash 37.

I mixed the white and yellow polishes on the plate itself, I covered the image with half yellow and half white and scraped a bunch of times quickly to mix the colours and make the yellow opaque so it showed up on the dark base.  I followed a tutorial but I can't find it anymore.. if anyone knows who's tutorial that was please share!

Then on my pinky I used one coat of Maybelline Color Show Street Art - Green Graffiti.  I love these matte glitters :)

Have a great Monday everyone!

Potential Wedding Nails #3

Good morning!

I hope everyone's had a good week!  I just started a new job, then got sick on my second day there, and therefore haven't had any energy to blog, let alone turn on my computer!

Here is another installment of my potential wedding day mani!  I liked this in theory but I think it might be TOO bold?  I don't know.  The nails would really match my shoes though :P

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I used the gorgeous Revlon Royal as my base, then using Essie Nothing Else Metals I stamped the feather from the EDM04 plate.

What are your thoughts on this one?  Too bold?  Just bold enough?

Have a good Friday everyone!

OPI Planks A Lot & Pure 18k Gold

Hi loves!

Here's a really simple but super pretty combination that I wore for a dinner date with one of my cousins last week:

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How pretty is this polish match?  It's so soft and dainty, perfect for the spring-like weather, no?

The base is the ever beautiful OPI Planks A Lot topped with OPI 18k Pure White Gold flakes.

Simple, yet absolutely beautiful, I think.

Happy Friday!

Potential Wedding Nails #2

Good morning!

Here's another mani I put together as my potential wedding nails.  These are a bit softer than my first attempt but still have the added touch of colour that I want!

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I started out with one of my favourite nudes - Orly Decades of Dysfunction then using my new Emily de Molly EDM04 plate I created a stamping gradient.

For the stamping, from cuticle to tip, I used: Sally Hansen Insta Dri Grape Escape, Sally Hansen Insta Dry Emerald Express and Orly Royal Navy.

I would like for the purple to be a little bit more plum, and the blue a little darker but I think this is a pretty good contender.  Not in your face but totally suits the peacock theme :)

 Any suggestions for a good opaque plum polish that I could use for stamping?

I hope you're all having a great week!

Born Pretty Snow Flakes Review

Hi all,

This post is kind of delayed seeing as we're now into Spring - however, we got a significant amount of snow on Saturday and I thought I'd pull these out foil snow flakes out before it's too late.  I got these from the Born Pretty Store before Christmas but I just never felt inspired to use them until this weekend.

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For this mani I started with Essie Cocktail Bling, which is such a pretty dusty mauve.  Maybe a bit more spring appropriate but I thought the gold snow flakes would look really good paired up with this shade :)

The snowflakes are a thick foil like material that's super pliable, so to get them to fit the curve of my nail I rounded them by pressing them into a nail art brush wand.  I never managed to get them to curve perfectly but it was pretty close! In hindsight I should have fitted them to my nail before I started to polish.  At least I now know this for next time!

These snowflakes can be purchased from the Born Pretty Store by clicking HERE, and don't forget to use coupon code UTL91 for 10% off of your purchase!

Spring Time Water Marble

Hi loves!

I can start to feel Spring creeping it's way in, finally!  It'll take eons to get all that snow to melt but as long as the sun is shinning and I don't need to wear 17 layers, I'm happy ;)

I was craving spring-ish colours, but I had no idea what kind of mani to do so I went for a water marble.  It seems to be my go-to lately when I'm feeling uninspired.  I still need practice but they're starting to look pretty awesome *pats self on back*

For this mani I used Color Club Dress for the Parade (yellow), Color Club Pucci-licious (purple) and Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet.

I then topped it off with Finger Paints Asylum to give it a little more depth.

Now I'm crossing my pretty painted fingers for the warmer weather to keep coming!  I try really really hard not to complain about the weather but I. can't. wait. for winter to be over.

Hope you're all having a great start to your week!

Blue Swirls Stamping

Hi guys!

I was recently out of town visiting my guy who is away due to work, hence my lack of posts!  But I'm back now and will get back into the swing of things :)

Here's a little something from the vault:

It took me a while to post this mani simply because I don't like that accent nail.  Accent pinky?  Just doesn't work for me, I don't know what I was thinking, lol.

The base is Sinful Color What's Your Name on all but my pinky, which is Sally Hansen Satin Glam Teal Tulle.

I stamped using W203 from the awesome Winstonia 2nd generation plates using the same colours used as my base.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Potential wedding nails?

Hi loves!

I hope you're all having a good week so far!

So most of you know I'm getting married this summer.. and we chose to base our colours around peacock feathers since I love jewel tones :)  I've been brain storming mani ideas, and after seeing a post in the Adventures in Stamping Facebook group I knew I had to recreate it and see if it could be a wedding day mani contender :)

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I first started with a base of Orly Dayglow, then using a sponge I crated a gradient with Zoya Savita, Orly Royal Navy and Zoya Veruschuka.  The purple of Savita shows up way better IRL, my camera kind of turned it blue.  Boo.

I added some sparkle on my ring finger because, why not?  I added Sally Hansen Twinkle Toes-ty, which is an awesome rose gold holo glitter that I just picked up while grocery shopping :P

I then stamped the peacock feathers using Essie Penny Talk and Pueen09.  I really like this stamp but I find the feathers a little too big for my baby sized nails so I'm hoping THIS one will be better :)

What are your thoughts on these?  I really don't want the typical nude wedding nails.  The only thing I would do differently is stamp in silver but.. I've still got 4 months to play around and figure that out :)

Another Late Valentine's Mani

Good morning!

This wasn't a mani I was really planning on posting but I'm at my parents house for the week and haven't really painted my nails and so need to rely on older manis :P

I was on my water marbling kick when I came up with this look.  My index and pinky were done using A England Excaliber, China Glaze Hey Sailor and OPI Black Onyx.

These looked so cool but I had SUCH a hard time marbling with the silver.. it dried way too fast.

For the middle and ring finger I started with a base of China Glaze Hey Sailor then stamped an image from Pueen 35 and Konad Special polish.

I actually really liked this mani, but I only realized way too late that there was cat hair on my nails when I took a picture of it, lol.  I tried to edit them out but my editing skills aren't really existent :P

I hope you're all having a good week! :)

Late Valentine's Mani

Hi all.

Yep.. seems to be the theme this year, I pose 'themed' manis AFTER the holiday is over.  They were pretty though so I'm not going to stop myself from posting :)

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These nails started out with a base of Deborah Lippman Since I Fell For You, a really pretty shimmery red, perfect for Valentine's.

Then using Rickis Frosty Lavender I stamped the heart image from what I think was a Pueen plate (I need to start writing things down). 

I love stamping with holos.. such a pretty look :)

Happy Monday!