Thursday, June 30, 2011

NOTD: Canada Day!

I did a little patriotic manicure for Canada Day, hooray! The writing is a little bleehh but I LOVE the beaver, so it's okay *nod*

Isn't he a cutie?!

On my right hand I have some shatters and crackles.. China Glaze is the white one and OPI is the red!


Pretty "meh" in comparison wouldn't you say?

Monday, June 27, 2011

NOTD: OPI Gargantuan Green Grape

This is one of my newer polishes, which isn't saying much because I've bought/received a ton these last few weeks (thank you Trade Secret and thank you to my sister Erika). I almost always use new polishes immediately after purchasing them due to sheer excitement, but this little fella got put on the back burner. I'm not too sure why, but hey, we worked through it and now here it is!

This polish is a bright, almost pastel green creme and it's truly beautiful. My camera washes out the vibrancy a little bit and makes it pull a bit more blue, which is really annoying because it's not blue at all. I can't stop staring at my nails. At first it was to figure out whether I actually like the colour or not, but now since I've decided I do it's simply out of infatuation with the green. This is a great summer shade!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

NOTD: Freedom Foamer

At work we're doing a campaign that features a very green, glittery, limited edition bubble bar that is just stunning to look at. SO: I whipped up a Freedom Foamer mani in its honour!

Freedom Foamer Bubble Bar - $5.95


I used China Glaze Four Leaf Clover as the base, Claire's Glam micro glitter, and Sinful Colors Nail Junkie glitter on top of that. I'll try to get a pic of me holding the bar at work so you see how nicely they match because, once again, my camera isn't portraying how green the polish really is.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Tutorial: Dexter Morgan - Blood Spatter Analyst

EDIT - October 28th 2012:  I've just done a second version of this manicure, view it here.

As mentioned in my last post, I've been obsessed with Dexter lately thanks to m'darlin, so I decided to do some blood splatter nails to coincide with Dexter's job and his "hobby." I took pictures along to way so others can try it out too! It would look really cool with other colours, it doesn't have to be blood after all! 

Things you will need:

  • Base Coat
  • Top Coat (Quick dry is awfully convenient)
  • White/Off-White Polish (I used American Apparel Cotton)
  • Blood Red Polish (I used Revlon Valentine. Kind of morbid, considering.)
  • The outer part of a disassembled pen
  • Vaseline-type jelly (Ultrabalm from Lush contains NO petroleum, win!)
  • A sheet of paper to protect your surface
  • Acetone for clean up
  • Cotton swabs

Step 1:
Apply your base coat and your base colour.

Step 2:
Once dried, lay your sheet of paper down on your work space and surround the skin close to your nail with your Ultrabalm/Petroleum jelly. This will make your clean up much easier!

Step 3:
Take your hollowed out pen and your red nail polish. Brush the polish into the thin end quite thoroughly. You want to make sure there's enough in the opening to effectively splatter on your nails.

Step 4:
Aim the pen above your nail and blow really hard into the end (without the polish, obviously). Repeat on all your nails. The results should look like this:


Step 5:
Clean up! Pure acetone works best for this. You want to use a cotton swab rather than a cotton pad so you don't get fibers caught in the polish. Having used the Ultrabalm most of the polish should rub off with ease. After getting the worst off I used a thin angled paint brush to clean up around the edges close to the nail.


Step 6:
Pose with something menacing!


See how easy this was?? This was my first time doing it, it's a piece of cake (especially like me and you lack in the creative ability dept).

Hope it works out for anyone trying it!

NOTD: Dexter's Ice Truck Killer Nails

I've been watching Dexter with DBF (dear boyfriend) and I am hooked. In the first season the team finds a severed hand in a block of ice with each nail painted a different colour. Naturally I had to give it a shot! *edit* I realize now that I mixed up the middle finger with the ring finger colour. D'oh.




I love skittle manis (ie: multicoloured), they're so much fun!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

NOTD: Beach Ball!

I wanted to do some multicoloured nails again, I'm just not getting enough oomph with a single shade these days, and I don't really have time to do anything exciting, so I went with a summery beach ball theme for this mani. I was also inspired by season 1 of Dexter for this!


Is that fun or what?? On my right hand the order is reversed.

From thumb to pinky: Joe Fresh Tomato, Joe Fresh Cobalt, Sally Hansen White On, China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Sweet Potato Chips & NOTD

Wow, long time no blog! I've been pretty uninspired lately in terms of nail polish.. being broke has a really big impact on  the excitement levels I feel towards .. well, pretty much everything. However, I couldn't resist photographing the snack I made today so I took a quick shot of my fingernails too.

Anyway - Sweet potato CHIPS. That's right. They were simple enough to make, all I did was sliced the sweet potato,  lay it out on a baking sheet, sprinkled with a bit (too much) sea salt and bake for an hour or so. It turned out so-so. The trick here is to make sure to evenly slice the chips so they all cook at the same rate. Some were too chewy, some were perfectly crispy. I also ended up putting WAY too much salt without realizing, so that wasn't too nice either. Overall the experience was "meh" but I'm willing to try it out again sometime soon.

They cooked for just over an hour at 250 degrees.


And my nails!

I alternated between Rimmel's Grey Matter and China Glaze Secret Peri-Winkle.

Sorry for the long silence! <3