Christmas Holly

Although I haven't been posting this holiday season, I assure you my nails have been festive. I'm growing increasingly aggravated with my camera and I find photographing my manicures quite frustrating... so I haven't been wanting to attempt it. This one coming up is actually from my phone. Sorry for the negativity but I'm trying! :)

I used Orly Luxe, American Apparel and China Glaze With Love!

Merry Christmas!!!

Essie Penny Talk

Again with the soft tones, I seem to be really loving the more delicate side of nail polish these days.
This is the polish I went looking for when I picked up No Place Like Chrome from the Mirror Metallics collection, and I thought I'd missed it but the store had restocked when I passed by this weekend.

I must say though, I'm not liking it at much as it's silver counterpart. The formula is really difficult to work with. Every bump, quiver, and hesitation is noticed by this polish. I have small dents on my nails right now and this finish really accentuates them. Maybe next time I'll use a ridge filling base coat. The colour itself is beautiful though, I can't deny that... but a crummy formula can really make or break loving a lacquer.

To be fair, I was hungover while doing this manicure so maybe that has something to do with it.

This is in direct sunlight.

Here we are with other metallic looking things. See the dents? Going back over the same spot with this polish was next to impossible. It left streaky, uneven splotches all over the place! Rose gold is quite a trendy colour right now so if you must get this I totally understand, just be wary of the questionable formula.

American Apparel Mount Royal

I must admit this nail polish is one of my staples. It's the first AA polish I ever bought and the colour hasn't gotten old. It's essentially a one-coater, other than for some touch ups, and it dries incredibly fast. The richness and diversity of the shade makes it a must-have in my opinion. American Apparel is pretty good in terms of nail polish quality.

After this photo I'm 100% certain I need a new camera. I was taking this in direct natural light this morning, and even though the sun wasn't out it was still quite bright out. This is the least noisy of the batch and I still find it unbelievably grainy.

Anyway, AA Mount Royal gets two big thumbs up from me!

OPI Stranger Tides & China Glaze For Audrey

Here we have another phone camera shot. This was taken sometime early summer (maybe late spring) and was honestly one of my favourite manis of the summer. It was just so beachy, it reminded me of sand and the sky. I was really feeling softer colours and pastels for a few months there, which I normally find incredibly boring so I assume that's part of why I didn't bother blogging any of it.

I like that they're alternating but that the difference between the two colours isn't overly dramatic. Creme finishes are by far my favourite so overall this mani was a 100% clear winner in my books.

Essie Camera

Once again the busy-ness of life is starting to grab hold of me and I haven't had a chance to photograph my nails these days. However, I have something from the spring to share. Essie Camera is a really bright reddish pink that reminds me somewhat of China Glaze Rose Among Thorns. Except I like it more (shhh).

This photo came from my phone and the clarity is actually quite impressive! Could it be my phone cam is better than my standalone one? Gosh.

It was so bright and striking, though I must admit I picked it up anticipating it to lean more pink than red. This being said, I tend to buy pinks and then hate them, whereas I LOVED this one so maybe (probably) it was for the best.

Since the daylight these days is LIMITED at best, I'll be putting some more phone pics as I go along, how does that sound?

China Glaze Champagne Kisses over Orly Powder Puff

With all the Halloween excitement I really needed a soft, gentle, palate cleansing nail polish. It's almost like I needed a bit of a breather from all the  high-octane manicure I've been doing lately. I wanted something simple and unassuming, so I reached for Orly Powder Puff. Normally this isn't a colour I would wear, but this summer I was really enjoying soft, muted tones.

I stopped in at Sally Beauty and Trade Secrets and grabbed some holiday polish. The first on my list was from the China Glaze Holiday Joy collection: Champagne Kisses. It's a clear polish with mall rose-gold glitter. I figured even though it was sparkly it wasn't too flashy and would look pretty over Powder Puff!

In direct sunlight

This is three coats of Powder Puff and one coat of Champagne Kisses.

I love this one. The shimmer is so delicate.

In the shade

This is definitely a switch from what I'd been posting lately and I really needed it! Enjoy your Saturday everyone :)

Halloween Frankensteins

In case you weren't aware, I love the holidays - especially Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas. From the 1st of January I spend my time patiently waiting until September when I can start being excited about all the things I love about this time of year. Without fail, come mid-July I start dreaming of Fall and have to suppress it because eventually there will be snow on all the things and I will regret having spent my summer wishing it was Autumn.

That being said, I didn't really contribute much in terms of Halloween manicures to my blog last year so to make amends I am bringing you yet another set before the haunting season passes.

These are my Frankies. It was my first time trying them and I don't think they turned out too horribly. I was doing them at dear boyfriend's house and I don't exactly have the ideal set-up like I would at my house. The lighting is poor, I have to sit on his bed, the table is far away, etc. That being said, I'd much rather spend time with him than achieve the perfect manicure, so this is the result. 

I do wish I had been a little more patient before putting the top coat on, it dragged the eyes around a bit but the wind from hurricane Sandy was making me nervous and I wanted to get home before any rain started.

They're pretty cute though, I must admit. They're distracting while I'm at work, with their sneaky little faces bouncing off the keys as I type. It feels like I'm wearing 10 little fingers puppets (and yes, I did give it a shot on my right hand but they're looking especially ghoulish and not very presentable). 

I used OPI Greenwich Village as the base, So Easy Stripe Rite in black for the hair, stitches and mouth, Rimmel French Tip White for the eyes and Konad Black for the pupils.  

My pinky nail is definitely the favourite of the bunch, what do you think? I like his beady little eyes. 

Dexter Morgan - Blood Spatter Analyst v2

On a complete whim yesterday I picked up Essie's No Place Like Chrome and I wanted to figure out a way to incorporate it into a Halloween manicure. Since Dexter plays tonight I decided to do another blood splatter set, but this time using silver as the base so it looks like blood on Dexter's knife!

 

You can find my original version and a tutorial here.

A rare sighting of my right hand.

Okay is it just me or are these pictures turning out kinda fuzzy? They're clear on my computer until I upload them to Blogger. Anyway - I like it so much more with silver base! It gives it more of a "wow factor."

My tools and canvas.

Look how shiny the silver is with the flash!

The process looks so gruesome, I love it!

Essie No Place Like Chrome, before the blood bath. I used Revlon Valentine for the blood. I love the new Essie polish. It was very opaque, but I did notice that if I tried going over the same spot for a touch up while it was still wet the brush left even more bald spots. Overall though this is a 1-2 coater max.

I looooove getting to theme my nails, it makes the whole process so much more enjoyable (for me anyway). I'm looking forward to the sunshine coming back, it's been a while... and because of the hurricane will still be a long wait. Nail photos always turn out nicer in sunlight.

I have at least one more blog-worthy manicure planned before Halloween, see you soon!

Hocus Pocus Series Part 3: Winifred Sanderson

This is actually the second version of this manicure, and not at all what I had originally planned. Alas, the first one was a mess so I decided to re-do it today. I am now sporting a sort of funky french. My index finger turned out the best. The sun wasn't shining so the photos are not as crisp as they could be.

Winifred's dress is purple (though in the movie it mostly looks blue), green and has gold embellishments.

I thought this was going to be my favourite of them all but it really didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I don't have a steady hand so it's hard to get straight freehand lines.

I used Rimmel Black Satin, NFU Oh 56, Kleancolor Blue Eyed Girl and So Easy Stripe Rite gold glitter.

Four years ago for Halloween my best friend and I went dressed up as Winifred and Sarah Sanderson. It was hands down the best costume I've had to-date.

Hmm. I guess we went a little sexier than the characters in the movie.

So there you have it! This was a fun way to pass some manicure time, and I have a couple more up my sleeve before Halloween.

Glamour shot. P.S. I'm actually posing with my costume!

Hocus Pocus Series Part 2: Sarah Sanderson

This is part 2 of my Hocus Pocus Halloween manicure series. Part 1 was based on Mary Sanderson, you can see it here.

Sarah is my favourite character from Hocus Pocus. Played by Sarah Jessica Parker, this sister is fun, a bit ditzy, boy crazy and wears the sexiest dress.

Once more I took the inspiration for the manicure from the outfit she wears.

To start off I layered China Glaze I Love Hue with China Glaze Below Deck (mauve and red, like her dress) and I noticed she seemed to have a shimmery overlay on the bust of the dress, so I threw on a coat of OPI It's My Year.

After that I used striping tape and made a lace-up/criss cross/ corset design, painted over it with a miscellaneous burgundy-red that I have in my stash and presto - Sarah Sanderson manicure.

I like this manicure because it can be very versatile, especially if you're being almost any sexy female version of something - witch, fairy, pirate, vampiress, etc. It was just a huge pain in the butt to cut all the little pieces of tape so I'm  glad I got this one done on a weekend, it took longer than my normal manis.

I borrowed my Mom's camera for these photos but I don't think I'm a fan, I'll try to get some different pictures with my own later on during the week when the sun comes back out.

Part 3 will obviously by Winifred Sanderson - but that won't be coming until Wednesday or Thursday. See you then!

Hocus Pocus Series Part 1: Mary Sanderson

Any child growing up in North America in the 90's knows that Hocus Pocus is the greatest Halloween movie ever made. Just in case you were living under a rock, it's about 3 witch sisters who attempt to live forever by sucking the souls out of children and can only do so once they're brought back to life on Halloween. The witches were played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy.

My darling friend Ali inspired me to to a 3-part series, one manicure based on each of the witches! I'm starting with my least favourite of the 3 and working my way up.

This one represents Mary Sanderson. Bumbling Mary always seemed to get the short end of the stick and that's not really going to change here.

Mary Sanderson, Winifred (Winnie) Sanderson, Sarah Sanderson

As you can see from the photo above Mary wears a red dress with various shades so I wanted to base my manicures on that.

I used 4 different reds here: OPI I'm Suzi & I'm A Chocoholic, Borghese Sonata Berry, OPI Double Decker Red, China Glaze Hey Sailor.

I wanted to create a fabric-y look with different shades of red, so while layering them I didn't wait until they were dry. I dragged the brushes of each colour through the wet polish to achieve this streaky look.

I wasn't too worried about the polish mixing, I definitely got some on the brush but since they're all similar shades I didn't mind that they would mix a little.

So what do you think? I wanted this to reflect how velvet looks depending on the angle you're looking.

I can't wait to do the other two!

Halloween Stripe Madness

I just got my order of striping tape in the mail today and luckily enough I was already wearing glitter polish. I wanted my first slim striped manicure to be a sparkly one so it was super easy to just throw some black on top of my current nails.

I didn't want to do anything symmetrical or the same pattern, I wanted to go wild with it.

Glitter: Sally Hansen Pumpkin Spice, Love & Beauty Rust.

Black is by Rimmel London, Black Satin.

Okay so there's a few things I didn't like about this. First of all, the striping tape is VERY thin and flimsy. That would be great if I was keeping it on the nail but it was difficult to work with. Secondly, the base of Pumpkin Spice  is a very dark brown so it makes the lines contrast less with the black coat on top. Thirdly, my black nail polish is not very opaque. I'm going to have to pick up a new bottle of WnW Black Creme, I need a one coater.

Oh, another thing, it was MESSY. I didn't cut the strips long enough so when I was removing them I got my fingers covered in polish -_-.

Sigh, what a mess.

Another thing I found tricky with this, it was super hard to photograph! I'm assuming it's because the lines weren't crisp because of the glittery base. Any feed back on that, photog people?

So all in all was the mess and effort worth it??

Wooo, striping tape! $6 for ten rolls on ebay.

Stay tuned over the next 2 weeks for a 3-part Halloween series I'm working on!

Things to Consider Before Buying a Pet Pumpkin

Here's one of those rare, un-polish related posts. My friend Ali is suddenly very into the season and was emailing me about how she bought a white pumpkin for her parents' house. I asked if she was planning on carving it and she responded: 

"I have no clue what my mom is going to do with the pumpkin.. it’s so cute! It’s all big and fat.. and it’s kind of lumpy!  I want a pet pumpkin pleeeeeeease!"

Now, a pet pumpkin is a serious commitment, I had to make sure she had all the facts before diving right in. This was my response:

"You can have a pet pumpkin as long as you accept the following points:

a)      You will not be able to walk it on a leash, you’ll have to carry it. Pumpkins don’t have legs
b)      Understand that in some cultures, pumpkins are not pets – they are food. It may be upsetting when you hear of someone eating a pumpkin but you have to be sensitive to cultural differences.
c)       Some pumpkins think they’re better than everyone else and might pick on your pumpkin for being white, just ignore them. Your pumpkin may get upset but explain to your pumpkin that whether it’s white, orange or green.. it’s what’s inside that counts.
d)      A pumpkin is not a lifelong pet. Right when you start getting attached, it’s time for it to die.
e)      Pumpkins are prone to flesh eating disease which dramatically alters the adorable appearance of their skin. It’s a painful and humiliating experience and there is no cure. Be prepared to comfort it through this difficult time.

I hope you have a broader scope of the implications and responsibilities of owning a pet pumpkin and are prepared to make an educated decision."

And there you have it, things to consider before buying a pet pumpkin. Please be responsible pet owners!

Autumn Acid Wash

Hello ladies (and the occasional gent), I'm bringing you another fall/autumn manicure inspired by (obviously) the changing leaves at this glorious time of year. I used a technique that I saw on Pinterest that was called "acid washing." It's a very fun, grungy approach to fall manicures.

Basically you layer multiple colours, using whatever your heart desires - but the more contrast the better, and it's recommended to use a dark colour either on the bottom, on the top or both. You then dip a paint brush in acetone and drag it down your nail, exposing some of the colours beneath the surface. 

This is the tutorial I used. I had a hard time the first few attempts, I ended up taking off way too much polish and exposing the bare nail underneath. It definitely took some time to get a handle on this one.

Polish used: Joe Fresh Pumpkin, China Glaze Hey Sailor, Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, American Apparel MacArthur Park  and American Apparel Raccoon.

Hm! Almost the same colours as my Autumn Water Marble!

I'm kind of on a posting roll here, excellent! A shout out to Dominique, my co-worker's sister - thanks for sharing my blog on your facebook page. She's an excellent photographer, you should check out her website - www.3stems.com.

Autumn Manicures

Hello lovelies! I have a batch of manicures to show you. I've been a little sidetracked since I started my new job (which is going fabulously, by the way), but it means that I don't have a ton of daylight to photograph my nails with, nor do I have the time to do anything exciting very often. I don't want to bore you with regular ol' nail polish so I've gathered three of my more creative numbers as of late.

Voici my "Retro Stripe" mani, inspired by striped gym shorts from the 1970s. This was after two days of camping, forgive the tip wear.

Like these.

I used American Apparel Raccoon as the base because it dries really fast so it was easy to put the tape over it. From there I used Konad White, an orange from Aldo (I'm having a brainfart on the name, I'll get it ASAP ** EDIT - It's called Juicy Gossip) and Double Decker Red from OPI.

I wanted to use OPI Heeere's Tawny but it wasn't drying fast enough and I was pulling it off with the tape! Ugh.

This is what I like to call "Harvest," lame. It's a gradient of OPI The "It" Colour, China Glaze Lemon Fizz and Sally Hansen White On. I was inspired by a photo of wheat - so sue me, I love this season!

Finally - my current manicure. The colours were chosen by my boyfriend, believe it or not. He got all excited about it so I figured I would give him the credit.

Natural light

With flash

Right hand, with flash

Water marble! This is a fabulous blend of - Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow as the base, Joe Fresh Pumpkin, China Glaze Hey Sailor, OPI Heeere's Tawny, and the elusive Aldo orange previously mentioned (** EDIT - It's called Juicy Gossip). I'm in love with this one, it reminds me of the changing leaves.

So - who's still with me? Sorry for the hiatus guys! I'll try to keep things up, I swear. Take care everyone.

China Glaze Below Deck Gradient Tutorial

Hello again my fine feathered friends! This week I've had a string of job interviews and I happen to have an "interview polish" that brings me luck, class and an air of professionalism whenever I wear it. No joke. I had mentioned in my first interview on Monday that I occasionally blog about my nails, so for the second interview (which I had this afternoon) I wanted to spice things up a little bit.

Initially I was wearing China Glaze Below Deck, a muted sort of brownish greyish purple, and I wanted to turn it into a gradient mani. This is sometimes also called fading.

To achieve this look you need:

• Any colour of your choice for the base, obviously in my case it was Below Deck
• White polish
• A shallow dish of some sort
• A toothpick/bobby pin
• A make up sponge
• Top coat
• A brush and acetone for clean up

Step 1.
Paint your nails with the base colour and allow to dry completely. I like doing this on a mani that's already a couple of days old.

Step 2.
Drop some of the coloured polish into the dish along with about 2-3 drops of white. You don't want the shade to be too far off just yet. Mix it up thoroughly. 

Step 3.
Use your make up sponge to dab some of the mixture onto your nail, starting at the tip (just in case the sponge is too saturated) and work your way to about 3/4 down. Do this to the nails on both hands so you don't have to re-mix your polish and risk not getting the same colour results.

Step 4.
Add 2-3 more drops of white to your dish and stir it up until it's well blended. Once again you're going to use your sponge  to go over every nail but you'll only be going 2/3 of the way down your nail this time around since you want to leave some of the new layer exposed.
Repeat this step two or three more times, adding more white to the mixture at the end of each round and covering less of your nail as you go along.

Step 5:
Apply your clear top coat. This is important because this sponge makes the polish look rough and bumpy, not a good look! 

Step 6:
Use your brush and acetone to clean up the edges and voila! Beautiful gradient mani.

If these instructions are in any way unclear or if you want photos of the step-by-step (or even want to see it in a different colour) please let me know. 

Later in the week I'll be trying a new formula to achieve the gradient look, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

American Apparel Sunset Blvd

You know when you're listening to music, but the genre is just all wrong for how you're feeling at that moment? It's awkward, uncomfortable and downright dissatisfying. That's how I've been feeling about most of the polish I've been wearing lately... Until now.

I picked it up along with the Mac Arthur Park from the previous post and *sigh* is it ever perfect. Before this one, since about Christmas, the polish I've been wearing has been nice but not suitable for my mood. I've been hankering for Spring (since the temperature has been abnormally warm for this time of year) so this beautiful bright coral is giving me a bit of a leg up.

In the shade to show the brightness compared to my skintone

I know it might sound crazy but this colour was like a breath of fresh air to me! I'm sure Ali knows what I'm talking about when I say it just feels good to have found the right colour.

Application was three coats, dried quite quickly. Still love American Apparel polish!