Late Valentine's Mani

Hi all.

Yep.. seems to be the theme this year, I pose 'themed' manis AFTER the holiday is over.  They were pretty though so I'm not going to stop myself from posting :)

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These nails started out with a base of Deborah Lippman Since I Fell For You, a really pretty shimmery red, perfect for Valentine's.

Then using Rickis Frosty Lavender I stamped the heart image from what I think was a Pueen plate (I need to start writing things down). 

I love stamping with holos.. such a pretty look :)

Happy Monday!

My First Ruffian - OPI This Gown Needs a Crown & Visions of Love

Happy Friday all!

I hope you all have some fun plans for the weekend :)  I'm strapping on my snowboard for the first time in 3 years tomorrow.. I'm actually a little bit nervous, ha!

I've been feeling a little uninspired lately but after seeing these two next to one another I knew they'd look really good together.  I'd also never attempted a ruffian mani before, can you believe it?  They're so cute but for some reason I never thought to do one on myself until yesterday.

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I started off with two easy coats of OPI This Gown Needs a Crown.  I finally decided it was time to purchase this last week from Nail Polish Canada (which only took 2 days to get here, whoa!) and I'm so glad I did!  It's so much prettier in person than it is in swatches :)

Then using OPI Visions of Love I created the ruffian on top.  It was actually a little tricky to get clean lines near the cuticle area but I think for my first time it turned out alright :)  I really liked wearing this.  It's so so simple but I kept catching myself staring at them.

What are your thoughts on Ruffian nails?

Have a great weekend everyone!

Red & Gold Chinese Mani

Just after the new year, the boy and I decided to go on an *actual* date and saw a performance put on by a classical Chinese dance company, which was an amazing show!

So in honour of this, I pulled out the new Bundle Monster plates that have what I believe are images for the Chinese New Year, and put them to good use :)

I started off with one of the most perfect candy apple red polishes out there, Essie She's Pampered. It's so juicy!  I almost felt the urge to just leave it be but decided to continue on with my initial plans.

Using BM-H15 and Essie Good as Gold I stamped the dragon on my middle finger and the Chinese symbol on my pointer and pinkie.

And because I had just gotten Sally Hansen Salon Manicure - Crown Jewels which fit perfectly with my red and gold theme, I happily layered it onto my ring finger (and my thumb).  It was such an eye catching mani - I just loved the red and gold combination!

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!

Alcatraz Rocks & The Impossible Liquid Sand

Hi all!

Just a quickie swatch of quite possibly my favourite textured polish yet!

Here is OPI Alcatraz Rocks, which OPI describes as a textured grey but is actually a beautiful dark blue with a multitude of different coloured glitter thrown in there.

It. is. BEAUTIFUL!  I can't get enough of this shade and constantly found myself grabbing my hands and staring at my nails.  How's that for a confession? :P 

I paired it with one of the Mariah Carey liquid sand shades, OPI The Impossible which is also a stunner.  I am absolutely LOVING the liquid sands.  Alcatraz Rocks is also stunning with top coat on but I couldn't capture the depth and dimension of it on camera so I left those pictures out.  If you haven't got your hands on this polish yet, you MUST!

What are your thoughts on textured polishes?

Born Pretty Store: Mixed Stud Review

Hi all

I'm sure you're all well aware of the amazing-ness that is the Born Pretty Store.  They carry a wide variety of nail art supplies at amazing price, and the best part is their FREE world wide shipping! 

Today's review was done using star shaped studs from an assorted stud wheel.

There are round and square studs in various sizes, elliptical, heart and hallow studs, in either silver or gold, with some medium sized black studs.  The nail art combinations from this one wheel are absolutely endless.

This manicure was done using OPI Stay the Night from the Mariah Carey collection on my pinkie and index finger.  Sticking with the red and black theme I applied Essie Head Mistress to my middle and ring finger, then sponged on OPI Black Onyx at the tips.

To apply the studs I simply dabbed on a bit of top coat where I intended for the studs to be and applied them using a dotting tool.  I finished it off with a generous layer of top coat to seal them on.

The assorted studs are so. much. FUN!  I absolutely love the fact that you can purchase one simple thing and end up with several different looks since there are a total of 300 studs.  The stars were a little big for my curvy nails and stuck up a little bit but I found that they stayed on really well for the two days that I wore this mani.  I did lose one but simply because I was taking my pants off and the corner of one star got stuck and ended up popping off.

If you would like to try out some of these fun studs or any other nail art goodies, you can take 10% off your purchase by using coupon code UTL91!!

*Products provided for honest review

Half Moon Leopards

Hi loves!

The other day I turned to pinterest for inspiration since I wasn't really feeling particularly motivated to do anything too fancy.  The mani I recreated has been seen floating around pinterest for quite some time and I love it every time I do see it :)

I started out with two thin coats of my favourite gold polish Orly Luxe.  When that was dry I applied Orly Ma Cherie to created the half moon look.  This polish is kind of a hyprid between a jelly and a creme, but it was sheer enough that the gold underneath peeked through giving it a cool metallic look!

 

Then I added leopard spots using Orly Buried Alive and outlined them with a black creme polish.  This was so flashy and so much fun to wear!

Also - yay nubbies!  The free edge on my index finger broke off completely when I was clearing snow from my car so I decided to chop them all off and start fresh.  I kind love them though :)

Hope you're all having a fab weekend, thanks for reading!

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 :)

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!

Last Fall Hurrah

Hi loves!

This was my last Autumn type mani before all of the winter and Christmas nails begin popping up.  Some trees here still have leaves and we have yet to see a snowfall in the city but there's that undeniable chill in the air that keeps reminding us that winter isn't too far back!

 

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For this I used  OPI Danke-Shiny Red and stamped the leaves using one of the Red Angel plates and Essie Good as Gold & Penny Talk (except you can't really see the difference!).

This one got lots of compliments!

Except, if you look closely you'll see that I have a TERRIBLE break on my pinky, and because of this I'm now sporting super nubs.  I think they're cute, though :)  You'll see those in my next post!

Remembrance Day

 Hi loves!

This is so late, I know.  These are the nails I sported for Remembrance Day!

 

My pointer and ring finger are China Glaze Hey Sailor, my middle finger is Revlon Aloof with poppies that I dotted on using Hey Sailor and China Glaze Loubou Heels for the centre, and my pinky is OPI Designer, de Better!

This was a super quick mani that I did right before going to a ceremony where both my father in law and my fiancé dressed up in their military dress uniforms (air force for my FIL and navy for my fiance) and both gave a little speech about being military.  It was a super nice and intimate ceremony as we were visiting our sister in law who happens to live in the middle of nowhere :P

 

Here's a crappy cell pick of my love in his uniform (with my hand, obviously, I couldn't let him steal the spotlight ;)

Fall Gradient

Hi loves!

I love me a good gradient mani, and after getting the Orly Fired Up collection I couldn't help myself but wear some of the shades into a gradient manicure.

 

 

I started out with a base of Orly Rapture, which is an amazing chocolate brown creme polish, and added Orly Smolder on my ring finger.  Using Orly Flare I created the gold gradient from the free edge down.  To make it a bit more fun I sponged on top of striping tape to create my accent nail :)

What are your thoughts on gradient manis?

Thanks for reading!

Essie Skirting the Issue

Hi loves!

If you remember a while back I had posted this mani and asked the lot of you to kindly head to the Essie Canada's facebook page and vote for me.  Out of the 50 manis with the most vote, 30 lucky ladies would win the entire Stylenomics collection from Essie. 

Well, thanks to all of you lovelies, I was chosen as one of the winners and was sent a prize of 6 bottles of polish!

 

Here's the first manicure I did with Essie's Skirting the Issue, a beautiful wine colour jelly polish.   I have to admit, I absolutely adore red nails.  They look so classic and elegant to me, and lately I've been craving red polishes.  This arrived at just the right time and I couldn't wait to use it.

 

I started with two coats of Skirting the Issue, then I added one coat of OPI Pirouette my Whistle, and topped that off with a thin but even coat of Skirting the Issue.

I had a really, really hard time taking photos of this without the glare.  If I wasn't out in natural light, the photos wouldn't reflect the gorgeous glitter so.. I settled for these.  And the pictures still don't do show just how sparkly and glossy this manicure was!

Have a great weekend guys, and thanks for reading!

xo

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 :)

Ikat Nails

Hi everyone!

As the title suggests, I have some ikat nails to show you today.  I first seen these on instagram, and one of my favourite nail girls on there (@lafemmelulu) did this amazing ikat mani, and posted a quick tutorial on how to do these.  In my opinion hers are much, much better but for my first try at these I don't think they were so bad.

I started off with a really nice neutral shade of (what I think is) Color Club Earthy Angel.  I love these shades of polish.  I just find them comforting.  I randomly added some red blobs in China Glaze - Hey Sailor, and added OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls in the centre of the red.  Then using a black striping polish I randomly added little black wisps around the red polish to complete the look.

I don't know what ikats are, but I like the print!  And so do many other bloggers because I've seen this popping up a lot this week.

What do you all think of the ikat pattern?

Have a great weekend everyone!

Fall Chevrons

Hi guys!

I'm so sad to see summer go already.  I feel like it went so fast.  Plus the weather here in Halifax has cooled down quite a lot so it also feels like summer is over.  Although I'm sad, I'm also really looking forward to sweater weather, boots, scarves and wearing darker colours.  Talk about mixed emotions ;)

I jump started on the fall manis the other day, too.

 

I love the chevron/reversed chevron looks.  They're so easy to do - all I do is cut off of a piece of scotch tape, cut the jagged edge off, then center the corner of the tape on my nail.  So easy!

 

I started off with a base of Orly Decades of Dysfunction.  I can't even put into words how much I love this shade.  So much so that I wore just the base alone for a little while before dressing it up.  It's a perfect shade of off white with beige/pink undertones. 

Then I added one layer of what I think might be Color Club Velvet Rope (the red, can anyone help me figure it out?  It's a dark red with a gold shimmer throughout), and once that was dried I taped off my nails again and added Orly Buried Alive, an amazing brown polish with beautiful gold and copper shimmer throughout.

Just a note:  I know my watermark keeps changing a bit, but I'm just playing around until I find something I'm happy with.  I hope it's not too annoying ;)

Thanks for reading!!

Nautical Nails

Happy Humpday!

These are nails I've been wanting to try out for a while now, seeing as my darling fiancé (I don't know if I'll ever get used to saying that) is a sailor for the Canadian Navy.  He's currently at sea for the week, so before his ship left the harbour I sent him a picture of my nails with a cute little note :P

 

I kept these simple enough, but a quick google search will yield amazing nautical nails that are floating around the blogosphere! 

 I started with a base of GOSH - Silver, then using small strips of tape I added a coat of Essie - Bobbing for Baubles on top of the silver to create the navy stripes.

 

For the accent I just used one coat of Bobbing for Baubles (such an amazing, opaque, navy creme polish with an equally amazing formula!), and using a striping brush I drew on the anchor using the silver polish.

 

 

And to add a little cute touch, I used a medium sized dotting tool and China Glaze's Hey Sailor and added the little red hearts on the tip of my nails! 

 

Gosh - Silver

Essie - Bobbing for Baubles

China Glaze - Hey Sailor

Have you tried nautical nails?  Leave a link in the comment so I can check them out :)

NOTD: Red, Black & Blue

Hi all!

TGIF!  The first week back at work after holidays is always the hardest, I managed, but I'm so glad to see the weekend :)

For this mani, I couldn't decide just what I wanted to do, so I used a bit of a combination of things.

I recently got a few more of the Orly Flash Glam FX glitters and I knew I wanted to use them, but I also wanted to play with the new Bundle Monster plates, and this is what I came up with.

Index and middle fingers I have Color Club - Boys Wear blue, stamped with Orly - Luxe.  Ring finger and thumb is OPI - Black Onyx layered with the gorgeous Orly - Spazmatic and Orly - Sashay My Way.  Then for the pinky I used China Glaze - Hey Sailor and Orly's Sashay My Way.

 

Ideally, I feel like I should love this, but I don't think I totally feel it at the moment.   Maybe there's just too much going on?  Regardless, it's staying put for a little while longer :)

China Glaze - Hey Sailor

OPI - Black Onyx

Color Club - Boys Wear Blue

Orly - Spazmatic

Orly - Sashay My Way

Orly - Luxe

Hope you all have a fab weekend :)