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:

~*~*~

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!

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!

Stamping over Zoya Odette

Hi everyone :)

I've been feeling a little off my nail game lately but finally, finally felt like I was just "on" with this next look.  I really love this mani :)

I started out with a base of Zoya Odette, which I got in my ipsy bag last week!

Then using Essie Nothing Else Metals and BM 422 I stamped the hexagons.   Then using Konad Special Black Polish I stamped the "Love" image from BM 412.

Stamping is so funny.  I love my squishy stamper, but it wouldn't for the life of me pick up the "love" image.. neither did my purple squishy (that I only have thanks to an amazing surprise package from Serene and am SO THANKFUL!) so I tried the hard rubber stamp and it worked beautifully.  Something to do with the etching I guess!

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

KKCenterHK stud review

Hi loves.

Here's a fun mani that I did while trying out rectangular studs from KKCenterHK.  I kept things a simple for this one but these studs are so versatile really!

I used China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle on my index and middle finger, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls on my ring finger, stamped using a Pueen plate and Konad Pink polish.  My pinky has China Glaze That's Shore Bright topped with Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coats in Tweedy.

 

Then I placed top coat where I wanted the studs to be, used a dotting tool and put them on the nail and pressed down on them a little bit.  Top coated the rest of my mani and was good to go.  I think so far these are my favourite 'oversized' studs.. they sat pretty much perfectly flat on the nail with no edge to catch anything on.  They stayed on for the duration of my mani.. so around 2 days, and probably would have held on for a bit longer had I given them the chance to!

You can find these studs here, they retail for $4.73 USD for 50 studs but using 'ofknitandnails' at check out will give you 10% off your order :)

Studs were a PR sample sent to me for review. All opinions are my own!

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!

Gradient Nails

Happy Hump Day!

Here's a mani I wore for a night out on the town this weekend - sometimes a night out dancing with a bunch the girls is just what someone needs, and this was no exception :)  This mani got tons of compliments too.

This mani started out with me choosing two polishes and not having a single clue what I wanted to do.. and then I added a third polish and really had no idea how to combine them all into one look.  And then, lightbulb moment, gradient!  So easy and so pretty!

I started with a base of Essie Mint Candy Apple, then using a makeup sponge I sponged on Mint Candy Apple, Essie Butler Please and OPI Anti-Bleak.  I finished it off with a thin coat of Nicole by OPI Make a Comet-ment to add a little sparkle.

What do you all think of gradients, yay or nay?

Black and Purple

Hey loves!

Long time no blog, huh?  I thought with Chris being deployed I'd stay busy with my nails and blogging but I've instead been staying busy with friends and I hardly find the time to just simply paint my nails!  But I have a few manis lined up so there will be a few blog posts up in the next few days :)

Here's something simple that I wore after I finally got my hands on some Zoya polishes.  And the very last liquid sand polish from the Mariah Carey collection that I found at Winner's :)

 

On my index and middle is Zoya Storm, and OPI Can't Let Go is on my ring and pinkie.  I didn't know how I felt about the textured polishes but I really loved this one!  I'll have to go around and pick up a couple more of them :)

Happy Wednesday!  Thanks for reading :)

Dark Mix 'n Match

Good morning & happy Friday!

I'm kind of on this mix 'n match manicure kick lately.. I just can't get enough of them!  I look at all of my polishes and can't seem to choose just one or two colours so I've just been going with it :)

 This manicure started out with me really wanting to use Orly Rococo a-go-go, which I put on my middle and ring fingers.  I then chose colours that I thought would complement it well, but truth be told I'm from from really knowing what shades complement what :P

Regardless, I chose OPI Suzi and the 7 Dusseldorfs and put that on my pinky and added Orly Can't Be Tamed for the glitter gradient.

 

On my index is one of my favourite polishes from the Hunger Games collection, China Glaze Stone Cold.. it's such a gorgeous matte polish!

 

And to finish it off I stamped my middle and ring finger using Essie Penny Talk and Gals GA30 image plate.

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!

Valentine Mix 'n Match

Hi all!

Here's a fun Valentine-y mix 'n match manicure that I wore over the weekend!

On my index and pinky I added two coats of the gorgeous Essie Leading Lady, then using a small dotting tool I added the hearts using Orly Glow.  My ring finger is Gosh Deep Purple and using a small dotting tool again, I placed medium sized loose glitter in the shape of a heart.  I tried to get these uniform in spacing but quickly gave up on that idea :P

 

On my middle finger I have Orly Glow and created (or at least tried to) heart shaped leopard print using Leading Lady and Wet 'n Wild Night Prowl as the outline for the spots.

What do you all think?  Too early to be thinking about Valentine's day? The tradition in this household is to NOT spend valentine's day together.  Okay, I'm partly kidding but it kind of is a tradition even though it's not by choice..  Chris has always been at sea and this year is no exception.  Doesn't mean I won't indulge in cute valentine-y things though :)

Bright Mix n' Match mani

Hi :)

I hope you've all had a great weekend, but that means we're back to Monday. Sigh.

Here's some fun nails that I did sometime last week.  I needed a little pick-me-up so I chose bright, happy shades and a "skittlette" manicure, made famous by the amazingly talented Marta from Chit Chat Nails -- go check her out if you don't follow her yet!

On my index and middle finger I have OPI Planks A Lot stamped with Gals GA12.  I have to say, these Gals stamping plates are SO much fun!  I absolutely love all of their designs.  On my ring finger I have OPI Fly with translucent purple-to-green shifting glequins that I bought on e-bay.  And my pinky has OPI Did it on 'Em and using saran wrap I 'sponged on' OPI Kiss Me on the Tulips.

 

I was so pleased with the stamping as well.  Finally!

Have a great day all, and as always, thanks for reading :)

Revlon Moon Candy and Expressionist polish Review

Not long ago Revlon Canada's Facebook page posted something about becoming a Revlon Select, where they were looking for 500 applicants to review some of their newest product.  I filled out the form not thinking much of it, and to my surprise I got chosen!

I got sent two of their new dual ended polishes (and some other goodies that I will review in another post).  I'm sure you've heard of them before, the Revlon Moon Candy polishes that have a base colour and a mylar flakie topper, and the Revlon Expressionist line, which comes with a base colour on one end, and a striping  polish on the other end.

Revlon Expressionist in Vincent Van Gold and Revlon Moon Candy in Orbit

 

Revlon Moon Candy - Orbit on my ring finger & Revlon Expressionist - Vincent Van Gold on the remainder of my fingers.

 Both polishes that were sent to me had gorgeous purple bases.  The base for Vincent Van Gold had some blue and pink shimmer to it, whereas the base for Orbit was a dark purple creme.  I've read that the Moon Candy bases are one coaters, and if they're all like this one they most definitely are!  I hardly ever paint on just one coat but this one really didn't need a second.  

I used two coats for Vincent Van Gold.

Then using the other end, I added one easy coat of the flakies.  These aren't your typical flakies though, and I had a few that didn't lie completely flat but that got remedied with a thick layer of top coat.

And because I'm not the best at doing free hand nail art using a striping brush, I just used the other end of Vincent Van Gold and just painted on simple gold stripes.

Striping brush from the Revlon Expressionist polish

I really liked the two polishes they sent me.  The striping polish was opaque enough that I didn't need to go over the stripes a second time and I only used one coat of the flakie topper.  The formula for both base colours' was good and not streaky at all.

The only thing I didn't like from these is the packaging.  It's actually really awkward to paint your nails with these since there's another polish attached to the brush which makes it super top heavy!  I had more cleanup to do than usual since the brush was a little harder to control.

What do you all think of these?  I like them, but I think I would rather them come in a set where they polishes aren't attached to each other :P

This post contains product(s) provided to me for my honest review.

Flakie Love

Hi all!

Who doesn't love flakies?  They completely transform the look of a manicure, AND removal is pain free.  The other day I was browsing one of our local drug stores and stumbled upon a full display of Layla Ceramic Effect polishes at a pretty average price, so I picked up this gorgeous purple flakie polish.  I may have to go back and get a couple more :D

  

~~~

 

To create this look I started by using Gosh Deep Purple as my base, with an accent of the gorgeous Revlon Royal.  Then I added one coat of this Layla Ceramic Effect polish (whose name I can't find?), on top of Deep Purple, and Finger Paints Motley over Royal.  I really loved this look!  My only regret was using such a dark base for the Layla flakies, it masked the pretty purple base and basically made it look like the regular orange-to-green flakies.

Here's a bonus photo showing the colour shift of the flakies.  And if you look closely you can see my kitty's reflection in the window (right above my pinky).. if it were up to him he'd photo bomb every single one of my pictures lol.

Hope you're all having a fabulous Tuesday, and don't forget to go vote for your favourite manicure over at the Nail Polish Canada nail art challenge!

Jewel Toned

Hey lovelies!

I don't know what to call these nails, but I loved them!  Actually, that red polish was bought by Christopher after I sent him into the grocery store to buy cereal.  He came back with this and was beaming.  That boy loves red polish.  But not cremes, they have to be sparkly.  lol.  I get a kick out of him getting excited over polish!

They kind of remind me of something you would see at an Indian wedding, rich jewel tones with a touch of gold highlights. 

The red polish is Joe Fresh - Ruby, it's a gorgeous glass flecked red.  My thumb and ring finger have Color Club Jewel of a Girl (I think!) a gorgeous vampy purple shade, stamped with Essie - Penny Talk.  The glitter bits are from Wet 'n Wild - Light with Caution.  I just used a tooth pick and placed them on the nail before applying top coat :)

Happy almost-Friday!  Thanks for stopping by :)

Stamped Accent

Happppy Hump Day!

I did this mani last week I think, and ended up convincing myself that I needed some actual stamping polish because I was having a hard time achieving what I was picturing in my head in terms of stamping.  Every nail that I stamped had a different stamp colour because I was trying to find one that made me happy, ha.

I started off with OPI - Dutch Ya Just Love OPI? and left it plain because I ADORE this purple polish.  I just wish the copper shimmer would better translate onto the nail.  

For the accent nails I started off with Essense Grey-t To Be Here. This polish is gorgeous, a soft grey with TONS of pink shimmer throughout.  Stunning, really.  Then I sponged Essence Oh My Glitter on the tips, which is a soft lilac with the same pink shimmer throughout as Grey-t to be Here.

 

I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri Grape Escape from the Fall 2011 Collection, to stamp the image (from the new BM set) on my ring finger.  This was the polish I was most pleased with to stamp, but I think that's true for most Insta Dri polishes.  

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?

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