Skittles Mani

Happy Humpday!

I hope everyone is having a good week! 

I decided to give advanced stamping a second go after really liking the results the first time and built onto my manicure based on that.

 I started out with Cult Cosmetics Runyon on my index and pinkie fingers, and Orly You're Blushing on my middle and ring fingers.

Then I did some advanced stamping on my ring finger using Gals GA2 and filled some of the houndstooth patterns in with Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, Color Club Red-Ical Gypsy and Cult Cosmetics Runyan.  I clearly still need some practice on the advance stamping front but it turned out okay!  I then free handed the half moon to cover up some stamping imperfections :P

Using the same shades I added some dots to my index, plus some strips to my middle finger but added some blue glitter from a striper polish.

And to finish off the look I added some star shaped studs that I bought from the Born Pretty Store.  These studs are the perfect size for little finger nails and sat flat on my nail.  They're so cute!

Have a great day!

Dots & Bows (BornPretty Store Review)

Hi all!

I have another review today for cute little nail art accents from Born Pretty Store.

 

I chose these cute resin bows.  I love seeing manicures that have these adorable bows, they give nails such a girlie feel to it!

To make it even more cutesie I paired the bow with a simple dotticure:

~*~*~

 

I started with a base of China Glaze That's Shore Bright from the Sunsational collection, then alternated between China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle and Sun of a Peach for the dots.  Then using some nail glue I stuck on one of the bows.  On my other hand to test out the difference I stuck it on with top coat.

As much as I loved this look.. the bows didn't stay on for very long at all.  Maybe because my nails are too curved and the back of the bow is pretty flat?  The bow stuck on with top coat fell off maybe an hour later, but that may have been my fault as I forgot about it and ran my fingers through my hair.  And the one stuck on with the glue fell off in my sleep so it probably got caught on a sheet.

 

Not the best quality picture but you can see how much the sides of the bow stick up off of my nail.

Regardless of the bows falling off super fast I will still use them.  Maybe for a special occasion or a night out where I'm okay with my mani only lasting a short little while.  They're just too cute to pass up!

These bows retail for $0.99 and shipping from Born Pretty is free world wide!

You can also get 10% off your next purchase using coupon code UTL91:

**Product provided for my consideration and honest review.

China Glaze Fancy Pants

Hi all!

Yikes, it's been a little while since I last wrote a blog post.  While I want to be sorry, I'm not really :P  I'm in my home province, spending a whole lot of time with my very big family.  The passed weekend we had our annual family horseshoe tournament and this next weekend we celebrate my grandparents 65th wedding anniversary.  How crazy is that?

You'll notice that I have a new nail shape.  I'm not sure how much I like it yet, but in the last few months I picked up a few new hobbies, one of which is hula hooping, or hoop dancing.  And because of it I've broken SO MANY nails.  So, I'm trying this out and see if they'll stop snapping every time the hoop hits my hand.

Right now I'm at home working on my thesis so I took a bit of me time.  I had two huge nail fails yesterday, and I'm not super happy with this current mani but what can you do?

This is China Glaze Fancy Pants, a beauuutiful blurple with amazing shimmer.  On my middle and pinkie finger we have dots and stripes in Essie No Place Like Chrome.

My index and ring finger have this gorgeous glitter that I don't use nearly enough, Icing Written in the Stars.

I'm holding my hoop in the last two pictures.. how pretty is it?!  It's made out of heavy PVC piping though, which is why my nails have been snapping.. Maybe once I actually get good it won't happen so much ;)

Happy belated Canada Day to my Canadian lovelies, and Happy early 4th of July to my American loves, hope you celebrate(d) with those you love the most :)

Floral & Stripes

Hi all!

There have been some amazing floral nail art going around lately, so I decided to give it a try.  I hadn't done flowers in what seems like ages!  

When I started this look I wasn't sure just what I was going for, but I'm super happy with how they turned out!  On my pinkie I have a base of OPI Solitaire and dots are OPI Tifanny Case, both from the new Bond Girls Liquid Sand line.  My ring finger is China Glaze Electric Beat, and the purple flowers are China Glaze Gothic Lolita.  To outline and detail the flowers I used OPI Eurso..Euro.

 

On my middle and index finger I have China Glaze Gothic Lolita with flowers done using  Electric Beat and Eurso.. Euro.  A white stripping polish was used for the strips.

Thanks for having a look!

Pink Skittlette

Hi loves.

I'm not doing very well at keeping up with this blog, sorry!  I'm planning on having a nail painting and picture taking day this weekend to hopefully get ahead on here, I just haven't been home much lately :)

 This mani consisted of OPI Dim Sum Plum on my index and middle finger, and using OPI Pedal Faster Suzi and a small dotting tool I added the dots.  My ring finger is OPI Houston We Have a Purple with Color Club Backstage Pass sandwiched between.  I hadn't done a jelly sandwich in a while, I forgot how much I love them.

 

And on my pinky we have OPI Stay the Night.  I found the collection on sale at one of my drug stores so I picked up a few more liquid sands and Anti-Bleak, which I have yet to wear.  I do love the liquid sands a lot though, I cannot wait for the Bond Girl collection to be available!

Happy humpday and first of spring!  We got a huge snow storm last night and so was able to spend the morning at home until the snow got cleared from the roads :)  Thanks for reading!

Blue Valentine

Hi loves!

I saw a very similar mani to the one I'm about to show you on pinterest last week while looking for inspiration and decided to recreate it using slightly different colours.

(side note:  I can no longer find the original post, if someone knows who the original owner of a similar manicure is please let me know!)

I started out with a base of China Glaze Blue Iguana.  Using a dotting tool and three different holographic polishes I dotted the 'dot gradient' on my pinkie and index, and attempted to form a heart on my middle and ring finger with various sized dots as well.

 

The hearts look more blob-ish than I wanted though.  lol.

Have a good Tuesday everyone :)

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!

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!

Gradient Dots

Hi lovelies!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far :) Here's a quick post showing probably my favourite manicure in the last little while.. I love doticures, they give such a cool look but they're incredible easy to do.

For this look I started with a base of OPI Planks A lot with an accent of OPI Steady as She Rose.

Taking my dotting tools I added dots in OPI DS Extravagance, OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh? and then Planks A Lot on the accent finger and Steady as she Rose on all over nails.

 

I really like how this turned out, and now it kind of looks like a gradient effect.  I even rocked this mani for longer than my usual two days!

What are your thoughts on doticures?  Yay or nay?