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.

~*~*~

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 :)

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.

~*~*~

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!

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 :)

~*~*~

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! :)

Peek-a-boo Music Notes Stamping

Hi all!

How is everyone's weekend going?  I'm getting pretty tired of winter to be honest lol.  I try not to complain about the weather since it's out of our control but come on!  The snowbanks that border my driveway are legit taller than I am.  It's time for it to all melt ;)

This is something I did pretty quickly the other week.  It was initially meant to be for a guest post but I decided the quality of the work wasn't something I wanted to send in :P

I started with OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and stamped using BM-411 on my ring finger and Pueen-47 on the rest of the nails in Konad Special Black.

~*~*~

I then freehanded the V's using Zoya Savita and outlined them with China Glaze Crush Crush Baby from the Crinkled Chrome collection.

I really liked this look but it drives me crazy that my lines aren't perfect and that I have no patience for tape mani's lol.  So it didn't last terribly long :P

Happy Sunday everyone!

Valentine's Day Stamping

This is a bit early but I figured I'd get a head start :)  There are so many awesome valentine's/love themed plates out there - I had a hard time choosing what to use.  I think my mani came out pretty cute though!

I first started with a base of Orly Ma Cherie on my middle finger and pinkie.  This is such a gorgeous squishy, juicy red.  I then stamped the hearts from plate Pueen-41 with Konad White, and added a second coat of Ma Cherie on top to created a stamping sandwich.

On my index and ring fingers I added two coats of Revlon Cherries in the Snow and stamped with Color Club I Believe in Amour and used an image from BM-H17 on my index and Winstonia-207 on my ring finger.

I then stamped the image on my pinkie using BM-H17 also and the "Love" image from BM-H16.  The holographic dots were done using Gosh Holographic Hero :)

What do you guys think of Valentine's themed nails?  Too much? :P

Have a great weekend guys!

Soft + Advanced Stamping

Hi all!  I hope everyone's Monday went well :)  I had to shovel a whole lot of snow today.. bleh.

This is a mani I did over the weekend - I was supposed to go to a birthday dinner so I started basing my mani on that. 

I started with a base of OPI Skulls and Glossbones then using the cupcake image from BM-H20 tried my hand at advanced stamping, which is basically leaving the image on your stamp, filling in where you want then while your polish on your nail is still pretty tacky, stamping it!

This was my first try.. and it turned out only OK, but ended up working awesomely on my other hand :)
 

Then I had full intention of doing some double stamping and adding more birthday themed images to my nails but after stamping an image from Pueen-26 with Color Club - Take Me to Your Chateau, I really couldn't bring myself to doing it. 

It's such a soft, pretty look! I absolutely love how this turned out.

I actually debated removing the cupcake image since the birthday dinner outing didn't end up happening.  And I find it doesn't really go with the rest of the nails but eh.. by the time I got around to change it the rest of the polish was cracking so I just removed it all :)

Grey and Pink - CG Elephant Walk and OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender

Good morning!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of watching the Olympic qualifying rounds of figure skating with some of my family - it was so good (and so, so intense)!

While these nails don't really scream figure skating competition, I made them a little sparkly, which so many figure skating costumes are, so it seemed a little fitting :)

~*~*~

I adore a good colour combo like pink and grey.  It's just the perfect amount of dainty and girly, no?

I used China Glaze Elephant Walk, which is an awesome medium shade of shimmery grey, and used OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender as my accent nail.  These two shades were pretty much meant for each other, I think :)

I then topped Elephant Walk with Orly Embrace, an amazing Pink medium hex glitter polish with smaller pink holo glitter bits.. it's SO sparkly in real life!

Using Elephant Walk and Pueen-08 I stamped the cute dots on my ring finger.  I swear the XL sticky stamper has changed my stamping life so much - I can't get enough of it!

Mix 'n Match tape mani

Happy hump day!

Last week I was in the tape mani kind of mood.. These moods don't come all too often, and after being done with this mani I realized why.  They take too. damn. long.  I was so sick of painting my nails after this haha.

I started off with Orly Reflection on my ring finger and OPI Eurso Euro on the rest.

Side note - I can't find ANY information on Reflection - if it's from a specific collection or just regular stock, I can't even find swatches of it.  It's so weird!  Does anyone have any information on it?  It's super pretty.. I don't think I have anything like it in my stash.

 

Once my base was really dry I taped it off and either added A England Excalibur (the silver polish) or OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and waited for those to dry so I could stamp the roses using Pueen-22 and Konad Black and waited for that to dry.

Then I taped off various parts of my nails again and added OPI Vesper to all but my middle finger to which I added Orly Reflection on the tip.

In the end I really did like this look, but due to the time and effort required.. I don't think it's something I will do on a regular basis :P  The tips were pretty thick that the nails on my dominant hand started chipping pretty much the next day.  Boo.

Something Bright

Happy Saturday!  

After all of the typical red/green/gold/white holiday manicures I was craving something bright and cheerful, so naturally I reached for pink.  Totally not 'holiday' nor is it dark and vampy winter shade, just what I needed!

This mani started with OPI Kiss me on the Tulips on my pinky and index finger.  On top of that, I layerd OPI Polka.com and Orly Spazmatic.

My middle and ring finger have the gorgeous OPI Fly, and using the distressed method I added Kiss me on the Tulips.

I then stamped an image from Pueen-15 using Konad black polish.

I initially just wanted the ring and middle fingers to be stamped but after accidentally stamping my index finger and liking the look I just went with it and stamped them all instead of re-doing that one nail.

I felt like this was such a refreshing mani - I kept it on for days!

Have a great weekend, and as always, 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!

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.

~*~*~

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!

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!

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 ;)

KKCenterHK Neon Purple Studs

Hi all,

Hope everyone had a good weekend :)

I was given the opportunity again to review some products from KKCenterHK.  I've really been digging studs lately - so I chose some in my favourite colour!
 

I got the 2mm neon purple round studs found HERE.  You get about 100 studs in a small plastic container with a screw on lid.  They're matte in finish which looks really cool, but I topped them off with top coat so they ended up shiny.  Either way, they're really pretty.

For this mani I started with Bonita Chrome my Nail, a lovely silver polish with an awesome formula.  I topped that off with a holo silver glitter polish from Claire's.  On my ring finger I have Essie Butler Please then using a dotting tool I added the three studs.  On my middle and index I have three coats of China Glaze That's Shore Bright and stamped using a Pueen plate and A England Tristam.

The studs are like any other of that size, super easy to use and they stayed on until I picked them off a few days later :)

You can purchase them HERE and get 10% off using code "ofknitandnails" when you check out!

*Products provided for honest review.

Fall inspired Skittlette

Hi loves

Another quickie today :)

I put this mani together after a few cold and rainy Halifax days, which put me in the mood for a Fall inspired look.

I started with OPI Honey Ryder on my pinkie, and OPI Chatters me Up on my ring and middle finger.  This was an exclusive polish to the salon Chatters in Canada.. it's such a beautifully sparkly polish!  Then using a Pueen stamp and Essie Good as Gold I added the image on both fingers.

On my pointer finger I added two coats of Essie Don't Sweater It.  Once dried I placed striping tape and one coat of Essie Recessionista. 

This was a fun look - I'm so happy to be able to sport darker shades on my tips again :)