NOTD: Pride Nails with Black Shatter

Yesterday was Ottawa's Pride parade! I didn't get a chance to actually go, but I did help a local organization prep beforehand by... body painting the parade participants! How much fun is that?
I did this mani the night before (Saturday night) and I've gotta tell you, it's a lot more difficult when you're downing something stronger than your average grape juice ;)

I accomplished this look by applying a base coat of white as undies, then layering the neons into a rainbow so they just slightly overlap and blend. I'm a little disappointed that the pink turned more red/orange, but I've gotten a bazillion compliments on them so I guess it's no harm done.

I originally wanted to do an animal print on top instead of the shatter but the rainbow didn't blend as nicely as I'd hoped and the shatter covered more imperfections. Forgive the quality of the clean-up in this photo, intoxication leads to sloppiness. My lesson has been learned. :P

Kinda neat huh? Reminds me a lot of this mani I did a few months ago.

The colours I used were China Glaze Rose Among Thorns, China Glaze Sun Worshipper, China Glaze  Celtic Sun, Claire's Lime Yours, Claire's Marine Blue and OPI Black Shatter.

NOTD: Dorky Cow Print!

I'm going to start trying my hand at nail art more and more often, since apparently practice makes perfect? After this mani Lord knows I need it. I used Sally Hansen's White On, Rimmel's Black Satin and American Apparel Raccoon to make this cow print. I don't really like using polish to make my designs, I find it's really hard to work with, so from here on end I think I'm going to go back to using acrylic paint (like I used to do in high school).

..... MOOOOOO!

NOTD: China Glaze Refresh Mint & For Audrey Fade

Hooray, two posts in one day! These two colours are among my favourite to match up together. They're nice and bright without being overpowering and they're in the same relative colour family, not to mention have the same finish and very similar formula. I've been wanting to experiment more and more with nail art-esque manicures so that I won't get bored of them as quickly so to slow down my polish change rate due to time constraints I've been experiencing lately.

This effect was accomplished simply by dabbing For Audrey onto the Refresh Mint base colour with a makeup sponge. Easy peasy!

The goal is to make it last until the weekend. Think I can do it?

Recent NOTD: Chanel Le Vernis Peridot

Me oh my has August ever been a slow month for posting. I think I mentioned in my previous post that I've been spending a great deal of time with dear boyfriend, therefore have been spending more time away from my computer than normal.

Last week, after a great deal of patience and waiting and phone calls, I finally acquired the infamous Peridot. It's rather funny, because I was recently telling a friend that Chanel nail polish is ridiculous, and that paying such a premium wouldn't be worth it seeing as I change my polish so frequently. Then along came Peridot, and with that came a very pronounced foot-in-mouth sentiment. It was Scrangie's post that did it. Aren't her pictures fabulous?! The last pic is what really sold me. So off I went to Murale to place a hold on this beauty (in July) and eventually she found her way into my arms.

I couldn't help but take pictures of it in all sorts of different lighting and scenarios, even with someone else's camera! 

Photo courtesy of Ali

Photo courtesy of Ali

So what do you think? Worth it? I had it on for 6 whole days and not a single chip occurred, just a bit of tip wear.
I've gotten a slew of compliments on this one, I don't regret my decision one bit.

NOTD: Twinkly Tigress

Oh my gosh, long time no post! It's been a busy last few weeks for me, and I've been spending a lot of quality time with DBF so I haven't had the opportunity to get on the computer much.

This being the case, I've come back with something good. After all the curiosity surrounding Sally Hansen's fall shade, Pumpkin Spice, I had to give my China Glaze Ick-A-Body a shot before I made the final decision to pick it up (the SH).

I must say, it was a bit of an experience for me. The polish itself was fine, but I had my first real run-in with shrinkage. This occurs when a quick-dry top coat pulls your polish away from the tip of the nail. I was shocked! I'd encountered very minimal occasions where it's happened, but this time around it was serious business. After wearing it for a day or two it was starting to drive me a bit batty, but as I was going to remove it I decided to experiment a little bit first - I wanted to practice tiger stripes.

I always try to attempt new nail art on manis that are on their way out so that if I don't like it, I was prepared to take it off without feeling like I've wasted time or polish. Turns out, I loved the end result! I kept it on for a day longer than intended but the glitter started to peel off. Anyhow, here it is!

What do you think??

I'm still on the fence on whether I'm going to pick up the Sally Hansen. We'll see what the upcoming weeks bring!