Pink & Green water marble

Hi all!

Here is my second try at water marbling.  I used a bigger container this time and managed to get a lot of rings in my 'bullseye' and I actually like the way it came out :)  Now I just have to work on getting all the nails to look same-ish!

~*~*~

For this one I again started out with a white base, then using Color Club Twiggie and Mrs. Robinson created my pattern.

Just a quickie tonight.. I'm having a lot of fun with this watermarbling business.. I wish I hadn't waited so darn long to give it a try!

I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend :)

Pastel Skittlette

Hi loves!

Happy Friday!  I'm so happy to have a long weekend.. Not that much is actually happening, I have to work on my thesis, but at least I can do that while wearing pj's ;)

 I'm starting to feel like a little bit of a one trick pony with these mix n' match manis I keep doing, but I can't stop!!  I love that it allows me to use several polishes at once and that it allows me to do more than just one nail art 'thing' at a time.

I don't normally gravitate towards pastel polish, and I don't know why, because once I actually apply them I love how girlie and delicate they look.

This mani features all Essie polishes - the base on my index and middle fingers is Navigate Her, one of my favourite green polishes ever!  I added A Crewed Interest on my ring finger, and Beyond Cozy on my pinkie.

I dotted my index and ring finger with A Crewed Interest, then using what I think is a MASH plate (it may have been Gals, my memory completely fails me right now.. sorry guys) I stamped using Konad White polish.  And I finished the whole mani by using a round stud from the BornPretty Store mixed stud wheel.

Have a great weekend everyone :)

Revlon Selects: Revlon Chroma Chameleon in Topaz Swatch & Review

Hi loves

I received a surprise package in the mail the other day - more Revlon Selects goodies!  It completely made my day, to be honest :P   This beauty was one of the three things that I got (I will have more posts up later showing the other two):

Revlon Chroma Chameleon in Topaz.  These are supposed to have colour shifting chrome polishes but this one in particular didn't have too much of a shift.  In some lights it would look a bit more golden but that's as far as it went.  That's not to say I didn't love this polish though.  Revlon's wear so well on me, I can go days without chips, and this was no exception.

 

You can see a little bit more gold in this photo.  I loved this green though.  In the sun it's so sparkly!  On my ring finger I added a bit more sparkle by using OPI When Monkey's Fly.  I know there are a lot of issues about the taco-ing glitter but I love it regardless.  This manicure even got complimented by the receipt-checking middle aged man at Costco.  He totally made my day :)

Have you purchased any of the Chroma Chameleon polishes?

My first A-Englands

Hi loves!

Not too long ago aEngland was having a sale on some polishes and I jumped at the opportunity to get my hands on some of the beautiful shades I'd been lusting over.  I bought a trio that had Tristam, Excalibur and St. George.  You can almost guarantee that as soon as these landed in my mail box I stripped my nails and threw on the two that appealed to me the most:

Tristam on all fingers except for St. George as the accent.  I couldn't really capture the holo-ness of these since both days were completely clouded over.  Bummer :(

These two shades are SO gorgeous though.  Under certain light they absolutely sparkle -- I can't wait to get my hands on other a England polishes!

Feeling Green?

Hi everyone!

Ok - I know some of you hate when bloggers apologize for their absence, but I'm really, truly sorry!  C deployed on Monday for 6-7 months so the week leading up to him leaving was a little cray cray and we spent it running around and doing last minute things so I neglected my nails and hands big time.  But, now he's gone and I'm hoping to blog more often to keep me occupied.  We'll see how that goes :P

Here's a mani I was sporting quite a few weeks ago.

The accent nail is Layla Ceramic Effect in Green Galaxy, which is an awesome, awesome dark green jelly with green glitter throughout.  I also added Revlon Celestial FX and Heart of Gold FX to it, which are both super fun glitter toppers even though I had to fish for the larger pieces.

The rest of the nails are China Glaze Running in Circles (swoooooon!), stamped with one of the new BM plates in Essie No Place Like Chrome, then I added Orly Miss-Conduct to make the heart pop :)

Have a great end of week guys, thanks for reading and not giving up on my little blog during my slow time!

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!

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!

Irish Valentine

Hi loves!

Today's title is brought to you by the middle aged man in the elevator at work that asked me what my nails said after I kindly pushed the floor button for him.  I proudly showed him my nails, and he goes "oh cool, so kind of like an Irish Valentine?!" and so.. these are now known as the Irish Valentine nails :)

 

After seeing a few blog posts lately of Revlon's Posh, I picked it up this week while running a few errands.  It's such a pretty green creme.  And the formula was perfect, this is two thin coats :)

 

To dress it up a little I added tiny silver hearts using Essie No Place like Chrome and a medium sized dotting tool. And there you have it, Irish Valentine nails ;)

Dots and Bows

Happy Sunday!

I hope those of you who have a long weekend are especially enjoying it :)  I woke up this morning thinking it was Monday and I had to go to work, imagine how happy I was when I realized I still had two days off haha.

 

 

I have been loving the dotticures lately.  They're so simple, but dots can really transform a manicure.  I stamped a cute little bow using one of the large plates from You Mix Cosmetics, except I don't think they sell them anymore.  It didn't transfer all that well but that was just user error, it looked a lot better on my other hand :)

I used OPI Mermaid's Tears for the base, Essie Trophy Wife for the dots and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On for the bow.  

Enjoy your weekends!

OPI - I Have a Herring Problem

Happy Almost-Friday!

I have a cute little dotticure to show you guys today, featuring OPI's I Have a Herring Problem.  I don't know why it took me so long to use this colour, I kind of really love it!  It's such a pretty, dusty blue with a crazy amount of cool shimmer through it.

 

I've seen these types of doticures floating around a lot, and I've always wanted to do one, but kept on forgetting.  Not wanting to spend a lot more time on my nails after a manicure fail I decided to have a go at it.  I love how it turned out :)

 

For the dots I used all OPI polishes in Ink Suede, Steady as she Rose & Gargatuan Green Grape.   I absolutely adore the mix of cremes and shimmers going on in this mani.  Dots are such a simple yet effective way to play up a manicure :)

 

 

 

OPI - I Have a Herring Problem

OPI - Steady as she Rose

OPI - Ink Suede

OPI - Gargatuan Green Grape

Stamping Fail?

Hi all!

Quick post showing you my latest stamped mani.  I got the new Bundle Monster plates and I was dying to use them.  I decided on the lightning bolt image.  My stamping wasn't terrible, but I certainly had to fill in some areas with my black striping polish.  And then, when I added top coat it smeared like crazy!  It looks good if you're not looking at it from too close ;)

 

I started with a base of Essie - A Crewed Interest and Navigate Her for the accent.  I added a coat of Essie's As Gold as it Gets on top of Navigate Her, then individually placed gold glitter bits from from Orly Sashay My Way on top.

 

For the rest of the nails I stamped the lightening bolts using WnW Black Creme.  Then my top coat smeared them so in an effort to cover that up a bit I added a coat of Essie's Pure Pearlfection :)

Not a bad stamping effort for my first time in a while, but definitely far from my best work.  Ah well, can't have them all hey?

 

Essie - A Crewed Interest

Essie - Navigate Her

Essie - As Gold as it Gets

Orly - Sashay my Way

Essie - Pure Pearlfection

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you're all enjoying your Wednesday!

 

OPI's Just Spotted the Lizard

Oh well, hello there!

Sorry for disappearing again!  I was away on vacation visiting Alberta and seeing family for 2 weeks, and things were so rushed the week before that I never got around to scheduling any posts.  But I'm back (and slightly depressed to be back at work to be honest, I had way too good of a time visiting out there), so hopefully I can get a semi-regular posting schedule while trying to finish up my thesis :)

 

Here's a sunlight photo of OPI - Just Spotted the Lizard, the stunning green duochrome from the Amazing Spiderman collection.  For the accent I taped off portions of my nails and added diagonal stripes using  Orly - Rock Solid (grey) and Orly - Rock It.

 

Artificial light, I love how much more green and duochromey it looks in this photo :)

Thanks for looking!

Bright Fishtails

Hi all!

Sorry my lack of posting - I've been spending a lot of time at work/school trying to wrap some things up before I head out to Alberta for two weeks.  I haven't even been doing anything to my nails besides straight up painting, I just don't have the time.   I had contemplated doing a bunch of manis and scheduling posts for my two weeks away but it won't happen, so there will be yet another hiatus from me.  Hope you're all okay with that ;)

Here's a quick mani I did a few weeks back using Sarah at Chalkboard Nail's tutorial.  I loved how easy this was!

 For this look I started out with a base of OPI - Kiss me on the Tulips.  I ALMOST left it bare, I was loving the pink so much, but I went for the fishtails regardless and I was pretty happy that I did.

 

I then added the first fishtails pattern using OPI - Fly, and the tips were covered up with China Glaze - I'm with the Lifeguard, and amazing shimmery neon green!

The only downside to this mani was my impatience.  I didn't wait long enough for the polishes to dry between coats, and in the end it was way too thick and I kept getting dings at tips.  And I got a little bit of shrinkage too.  I still wore this for a couple of days though, occasionally fixing it up until it decided to completely crack on me so I sadly removed it.

Hope you all have a fabulous Thursday!

Green-ish and Gold

Hi all!

Quick post for today.   I initially did this mani for Monkey See Monkey Do Monday's but now that a Summer Challenge has started over in the Purple Fairy Crumpet group, it doesn't appear to be going on anymore.  So I'm going to post it today :)  I used this mani from Nailside as my inspiration.

 

I apologize for the dry skin in these photos.  Oh, and the chip on my pinky that I hadn't noticed until now.  Boo.  The photos are not totally colour accurate, I had such a hard time taking photos of this!

 

For this mani I used Color Club Edie as the base.  I LOVED this colour, but the application was awful.  It required three thick coats to even out and get rid of the streakiness.  Such a bummer because I adore this green.  For the accents I used Orly - Luxe and striping tape.

 

I hope you're all having a great Wednesday :)

Striping tape mani

Who is excited for True Blood tonight?

I am!!  Except this is a scheduled post since I'm still at the cottage until tomorrow so we'll have to download the episode then.  I cannot wait!

Here's a mani I wore last week sometime, inspired by this post from Sarah at Chalkboard Nails (man I love her blog!).

 

The green base is Essie - Mojito Madness.  And it's SO PRETTY!  It's a bit darker and brighter IRL (if that makes any sense).  Just.. such a gorgeous colour.

 

Using striping tape for the accents, I filled in the triangles with Orly - Purple Pleather, Essie - Orange, It's Obvious! (tip of the thumb) and Wet n Wild - Dreamy Poppy (I think) on the tip of my ring finger.

 

This was super easy, and gave a really cool looking mani :)

  Essie - Mojito Maddness

Orly - Purple Pleather

Essie - Orange, It's Obvious!

Wet n' Wild - Dreamy Poppy

Bright Houndstooth

Hi lovelies!

I'm trying to plan a few posts so I can get back into the groove of things.  I have a bunch of photographed manis that I haven't posted yet!

This is one I did about a month ago, and I loved it so much!

 

Houndstooth design has got to be one of my favourite patterns, ever.  The green is CG - Gaga For Green which is MUCH brighter in real life than it appears in these photos, and the accent is OPI - Fly.  I used a pattern from one of the You Mix XXL plates, except this stamp in particular is too small for my thumb :(

 

I loved these colours together!  They definitely brighten things up :)

 

China Glaze - Gaga for Green

OPI - Fly

WnW Black Creme used to stamp.

Thanks for looking ladies :)

 

 

31 Days of Christmas: Festive Green

Hi lovelies!

Today's Christmas Challenge asks for my most festive green.

Well.  I'm a fairly new polish collector.. but I believe this green is from Orly's last year's Holiday collection.  Regardless.. I present you what I consider to be the most festive green in my polish collection:

 

Orly: Meet me Under the Mistletoe.

 

This green is so pretty!  I love the lighter green shimmer in there.  

And because that wasn't festive enough, I layered on some glitter.  Not a new combo in this blog but I loved it so much that I had to replicate it again:

 

Orly:  Meet me Under the Mistletoe

OPI: Fresh Frog of Bel Air

 

I. LOVE. IT.

The lighter green glitter over the dark green base is soo pretty!

Hope you guys like it.. this combo just screams Christmas :)  Thanks for looking!

Check out what greens other participants put on their fingers today:

Debbie ~ The Crumpet -

Claire ~ Purple Fairy Dust All Things Beautiful -
Emma ~ Manicurity -  and http://manicurity.tumblr.com/
Kerrie ~ PishPosh and Polish:
Bee ~ Bee Polished:
Zoe - Obsessive Compulsive Nail Painting Disorder:
Felicia
Lisa ~ Happy Nails ~
Maria ~ The Girl with Rainbow Hands
Alyssa ~ No Junk Nail
Arielle ~ Only Always Soccermom 
Joy ~ Okay Now Joy