Happy Halloween!

Hi guys,

Happy Halloween!

I haven't been much in the Halloween mood this year, but I did manage to do two themed manis - one of which you'll see in a few days once it's no longer too dark and stormy to take photos.

 

I started with a base of Orly Ignite from the Fired Up collection, then used the cloudicure method to paint on the pumpkins using Orly Orange Punch, then added a thin coat of Nicole by OPI Traffic Cone for a bit of added shimmer.  I used Orly Buried Alive for the outline, and added Orly Right Amount of Evil for the sparkle :)  The stems were drawn on using China Glaze Mahogany Magic.  In hind sight the pumpkins would have popped a lot more had I used a neutral base colour but I still like how this turned out.

What are your plans for tonight?  Did you dress up at any point for Halloween?

Thanks for reading!

Pink Skittles

Hi loves!

I felt like skittles the other day, so I came up with this:

I guess this can also be considered pink for Breast Cancer Awareness even though there is no tiny ribbon.  What do you all think?

Index:  Colour Club I Believe in Amour, then after I placed striping tape I added a coat of Zoya Charisma (my only Zoya polish!)
Middle:  Revlon Cherries in the Snow, dots are Gosh Holographic Hero and Gosh Berry Me
Ring:  Orly Bubbly Bombshell & Orly Be Brave
Pinky:  OPI Black Onyx then I used a fan brush and applied OPI Pink Friday & OPI Kiss Me On The Tulips

Super quick post!  Hope you're all having a fantastic week :)

Fall Golf Socks

Hi loves!

Here's a fall mani I wore this weekend :)  I love red/orange/gold combos, there's something so classic feeling about it isn't there?  It just seems timeless to me.

 

I started with a base of OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby? and OPI Unfor-Greta-Bly Blue as my accent.  I then stamped using Essie - Good as Gold and a stamping image from a large stamping plate I bought over at You Mix Cosmetics (I don't think they sell them anymore though).  On my accent I added two coats of Lacquisty Golf Socks.

Golf Socks is SUCH a fun glitter polish.  It has a dark blue jelly base, small orange hex glitter, and large blue, orange and gold hexes.  This is the newer version that was sent me to unexpectedly as the first version of Golf Socks had bleeding glitter.   I have to say, I love the newer version much better ;)

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 ;)

Feelin' Peachy

Hi loves!

With fall upon us, I have been loving the darker shades on my nails.  But truth be told, I'm SO not a dark colour kind of gal.  I love colour, I wear bright coloured shirts & have purple chunks in my hair - bright colours just make me happy.  So needing a little change from the darker shades I decided to go with an 'off season' polish for this mani.

For this look I used Gosh - Peachy which is much lighter and peachier in real life.  It's a really beautiful & flattering shade on my skin tone.  On my accent nail I wore Essie Case Study and layered Orly Too Fab and Watch It Glitter on top - I felt like this made it look a little more Fall appropriate.

I added loose gold hex glitter to each nail and finished it off with top coat.  

What do you think of out of season nail colour?  I quite liked wearing this mani - change is good :)

Sparkly Puzzles

Hey lovelies!

This is the mani I immediately wore after bringing Elmer's glue home with me from the grocery store.  :)

 

I used Color Club Gingerbread and China Glaze Electrify on top of Essie Penny Talk as my accent nails.  Then using one of the new Bundle Monster plates I stamped on the puzzle pieces using Konad Black Special Polish. 

This was so sparkly!  I don't usually wear full glitter manis so this was a little treat and I loved it.  It definitely cheered me up since I did this when I was feeling pretty sick (I'm better now, though :D)

Happy Tuesday, I hope you're all having a fabulous week so far!

Essie - Stylenomics "Skittles"

Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a good weekend :)

For this mani, I started with a base of Essie Stylenomics.  This polish is a super blacked out green but really.. just looks black on the nail.  I stamped the little birds with Essie Blue Rhapsody using one of the new Bundle Monster plates.

On my ring finger I have Orly Mermaid Tail and Spazmatic (I love these glitters so much!), and on my middle finger I added a stripe of Finger Paints flakies in the middle, lined it with a So Easy glitter striper, then added loose holographic hex glitters on each side :)

This was super fun, and now that I've finally bought Elmer's Glue I'll be sporting the glitters a lot more often!  It's so much fun :D

Thanks for reading!

Stamped Chevrons

Hi Loves!

I hope you're enjoying your weekend so far!  It's getting chilly here - I'm hoping that means the leaves will change soon!

Here's a cute mani I did this week.  I started off with a base of Essie Miss Fancy Pants, then stamped an image from BM-314 and Konad Black.  For the chevrons I started off using tape, but actually found it easier to freehand them, so that's what I did!

I used Orly Rock-It (red) and Orly Fowl Play (accent) for the chevrons :)

Have a great weekend!  Thanks for reading :)

Fantasy Fire

Hi all!

Sorry for my absence again - this time I have a cold from hell to blame.  I spent my entire Thanksgiving weekend cooped up in my empty apartment trying to get better.  I slept, sat on the couch and watched movies, and slept some more.  The joys of living a few provinces away from family and having a fiance in the Canadian Navy, no one came to my rescue! :P  Such a crappy weekend, but I'm finally feeling better!  :)  I hope all my Canadian readers had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend though!

 

A few months ago, a lovely lady that I met through PAA offered to buy a bunch of us the gorgeous Max Factor Fantasy Fire.  At first I passed on it, but then I actually had a dream about it, and so the very next day I sent her payment and a few weeks later it arrived in my mailbox.  And it took me THIS long to try it out.

 

I layered it over one of my favourite polishes, Nails Inc. Baker Street.  These two polishes were seriously meant for each other.  Baker Street is stunning on it's own, but add the extra glitz of Fantasy Fire over it - WOW!  I just comes to life, and glows, and shifts colours, and just.. sparkles.  So, so stunning.

For the accent I used Orly Dayglow, then sponged on Baker Street, and stamped using BM-317 and Essie Blue Rhapsody.

(Sorry for the chipped nail!  I took these photos right before taking this mani off)

Fall Braids

Hi loves!

I know I've been neglecting my blog but I have a good reason (at least I think so!).  I'm trying to finish up my thesis, so that I can defend and be done by the end of this year.  So every time I come near this site I start to feel guilty, and so I've been avoiding it.  I really can't be spending too much time reading and writing posts when I should be reading journal articles and writing a thesis.  *sigh*  I can't wait to be done with this.

(I've also had a crap load of nail fails that weren't even worth photographing so.. there you have it)

I was really pleased with the way this mani turned out.  I had been wanting to attempt the braid mani, but was always afraid it would look awful so I put it off for a while, but when no other idea came to mind I went for it.

 

I initially used China Glaze - Trendsetter for my braids, but it wasn't opaque enough to make this work, so I settled on using it as an accent only.  It kind of doesn't match, but I really like the way it looked.  I added a reverse glitter gradient using Orly - So Go-Diva, which is a lovely brown glitter polish with small and medium sized hex glitter.  It's SO cool, and totally unique to my stash.

 

For the braids I started with a base of OPI - Pepe's Purple Passion, then added 'strands' in Gosh - Forest Green and Orly - Buried Alive and kept rotating between the three polishes until the braid was completely down my nails.

I loved this manicure and the fall vibe it had to it, and I'm really impressed that my braids turned out so well considering this was my first try!  The only important thing to remember for this method is to make sure your polish is SUPER pigmented so that you don't have to use a bunch of coats just to make the strands opaque.

Thanks for reading!