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.

Colourful Tape Mani

Happy Friday!!

To start the weekend off on a good note, here are some pretty nails ;)

This mani started off as something completely different, I wanted to use Revlon Girly and Whimsical, but didn't end up using them at all!

I had started with Essie Cocktail Bling on all fingers except for the ring finger which is Essie To Buy or Not to Buy.  These were going to be underwear for the Revlon polishes, but I sat there staring at the bottles and decided I wasn't in the mood for glitter. 

So I went back to my melmer and pulled out Color Club Pucci-Licious (purple),  Nicole by OPI Miss Independent (the rose gold) and Zoya Blaze (needs no explanation!).

These took a lot of time because I don't like to layer on a bunch of top coat, so I waited very patiently to tape my nails... twice!  I really liked how this turned out though so all that waiting was worth it :)

Have a great weekend, thanks for reading :)

EXPRessie, please vote for my mani!

Hi all!

So.. this is one of those posts where I ask my amazing readers to go vote for me in a contest on the Essie Canada facebook page.  I had to enter a mani using the new Essie chrome polishes, or a mani inspired by them, and 30 lucky winners with the most facebook votes will get 5 of the new Fall collection polishes.

This is the mani I entered:

 

I used Essie's Nothing Else Metals as the base for this polish.  The chrome polishes are BEAUTIFUL but they really are a pain to apply, and they show every single imperfection on the nails.  I'm willing to put up with that though!

 

Then using tape, Gosh - Deep Purple and OPI - Kiss me on the Tulips I sponged the gradient triangle across my nail :)

 

What do you all think, is it worthy of enough votes to win five of the new Essie polishes?  If you think so, would you kindly click here, find this manicure and vote for mine in particular?  I would really appreciate it :D 

Thanks so much for looking!

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 :)

OPI's Just Spotted the Lizard

Oh well, hello there!

Sorry for disappearing again!  I was away on vacation visiting Alberta and seeing family for 2 weeks, and things were so rushed the week before that I never got around to scheduling any posts.  But I'm back (and slightly depressed to be back at work to be honest, I had way too good of a time visiting out there), so hopefully I can get a semi-regular posting schedule while trying to finish up my thesis :)

 

Here's a sunlight photo of OPI - Just Spotted the Lizard, the stunning green duochrome from the Amazing Spiderman collection.  For the accent I taped off portions of my nails and added diagonal stripes using  Orly - Rock Solid (grey) and Orly - Rock It.

 

Artificial light, I love how much more green and duochromey it looks in this photo :)

Thanks for looking!

Green-ish and Gold

Hi all!

Quick post for today.   I initially did this mani for Monkey See Monkey Do Monday's but now that a Summer Challenge has started over in the Purple Fairy Crumpet group, it doesn't appear to be going on anymore.  So I'm going to post it today :)  I used this mani from Nailside as my inspiration.

 

I apologize for the dry skin in these photos.  Oh, and the chip on my pinky that I hadn't noticed until now.  Boo.  The photos are not totally colour accurate, I had such a hard time taking photos of this!

 

For this mani I used Color Club Edie as the base.  I LOVED this colour, but the application was awful.  It required three thick coats to even out and get rid of the streakiness.  Such a bummer because I adore this green.  For the accents I used Orly - Luxe and striping tape.

 

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

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

31 Days of Christmas: Candy Canes

Hi lovelies!

Day 7 of the 31 Days of Christmas challenge called for Candy Canes.  I really like how this mani turned out despite a few things I'll get to after the photos:

 

OPI - Pepe's Purple Passion (base)

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On (base & candy cane base)

OPI - Wocka Wocka (candy cane stripes)

OPI - Animal-istic (bow on middle finger)

China Glaze - Holly-Day (candy cane stripes)

There you have it!  I actually like how this turned out a lot.  For the white striped fingers, I did a tape mani.. my only wish would be for the lines to be flawlessly straight.. instead they're a little wobbly.  And I smeared some of the red while applying top coat.  And I wish the bow on my middle finger was a more opaque, in-your-face kind of colour.  Other than that.. I love how this turned out.

So cute and festive and.. good from a non-macro distance haha.

Check out what other participants are doing on their nails today:

Debbie ~ The Crumpet
Claire ~ Purple Fairy Dust All Things Beautiful -
Emma ~ Manicurity -  and http://manicurity.tumblr.com/
Kerrie ~ PishPosh and Polish:
Bee ~ Bee Polished:
Zoe - Obsessive Compulsive Nail Painting Disorder:
Felicia
Lisa ~ Happy Nails 
Maria ~ The Girl with Rainbow Hands
Alyssa ~ No Junk Nail
Arielle ~ Only Always Soccermom 
Joy ~ Okay Now Joy