Nautical Nina

This is a post dedicated to my friend Jenny (Nenny). Last week she asked me to do a kiwi inspired mani and (in my opinion) it failed miserably. I still wanted to do something reminiscent of her, so I decided to finally follow through with the nautical theme I'd been thinking of trying. Nautical fashion always makes me think of her, and she always calls me Nina so it made it easy to bring things full circle.

Anyway, here is my take on a nautical themed manicure, for Jenny.
 

I used Finger Paints Paper Mache  (thank you Nail Board for the rec), American Apparel Passport, China Glaze Hey Sailor and Orly Luxe.

Phone pic

This was supposed to last me until the end of the week, but one of my nails broke all the way down to the nail bed, so I cut them all down and repainted them. Oh well!

This is for you Nenny!

China Glaze Deviantly Daring

I bought this polish recently on a whim. I was at Sally's getting myself a new white and a nail buffer when I saw a promotion where I could receive a ridge filling base coat if I purchase two China Glaze polishes. I'm almost always lemming a handful of polishes that I don't NEED but have been eyeing, so I took this as an opportunity to grab a couple. I picked it up along with Swing Baby (my current pedi, ugh I'm in love) despite having plenty of variations of it, or ways of recreating it through layering.

Anyway, after that little ramble, I quite like it! It's a foily turquoise duochrome that lends greener in some light and bluer in others. I found that in natural light it seemed more blue, and in fluorescent lights at work you could see more of the green.

 The application was just lovely, the pictures below are two coats.

Fluorescent lighting

Natural light, indirect sunlight

Fluorescent lighting

Natural light, indirect sunlight

Natural light, indirect sunlight

It's quite lovely and I'm happy to have picked it up. Now the problem will be choosing which of my many shimmery blue/turquoise polishes to use.

Easter Nails - Pastel Stripes

Happy Easter! For today I did a fun pastel rainbow using some colours I rarely even look at any other time of the year. I didn't bother using tape to make these lines perfect, handmade Easter eggs rarely are! Well, mine aren't anyway.

Pink: Revlon Peach Petal
Yellow: China Glaze Lemon Fizz
Green: OPI Gargantuan Green Grape
Blue: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue-Away
Purple: OPI Planks A Lot

Because these shades are so light I needed three coats of each (except the Blue, but I did it anyway), which was simple enough but fairly time consuming. When looked at in the shade they really POP, it's fabulous! There's definitely a part of me that has a soft spot for rainbows. Don't tell anyone.

xox

Robin Eggs: A Spring Manicure

By looking through my newsfeed over the last month or so, it seems that the people around me are craving spring more than usual. I don't know if it's because we were spoiled last March with 20+ degree weather, or that we've been getting a seemingly endless supply of snow, or maybe I'm just paying closer attention because I've been ready for spring since January. Regardless, I've been succumbing to spring-like choices for my nail colour in hopes that maybe the weather will start to warm up.

This week I bring to you my rendition of robin eggs.

Lately, just like many of you out there, I've been spending a lot of my time on Pinterest. I really love finding beautiful manicures that other people have done, but even more so I love getting inspiration for my nails from non-nail related posts. Since Easter is right around the corner too there's been a lot of egg posts flying around, and I found this photo especially striking.

For this look I used an unnamed Urban Outfitters Smush (I think? It came in a collection with no names on it!) and I sponged China Glaze For Audrey on top. Then to achieve the brown specks, I dipped a straw into a tiny bit of American Apparel Raccoon and blew through it toward the nail surface. I had to make sure to keep my distance from my nails while blowing the polish through the straw, otherwise the splatters would have been too saturated.
I topped it off with some Joe Fresh Matte top coat because it's not as mattifying as Essie's Matte About You and I didn't want too flat of a finish, since the eggs in the photo above have a bit of a sheen to them.

I'm more than halfway done my bottle of For Audrey, which is practically unheard of for me. It's one of my favourite colours and I love finding different ways I can use it.

Anyway, here's hoping spring comes soon!

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.

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!

The Kleancolor Edition

There's this cheapie drug store brand of polish available in the United States (actually I saw some in Ottawa once, but it's not common) called Kleancolor that gained a sudden amount of popularity a few months back and I couldn't help but be a little curious about it. I was doing a swap with someone from Illinois and to make shipping more worthwhile we agreed to the addition of some KC for some Joe Fresh, which is only available in Canada.

First up we have Kleancolor Blue-Eyed Girl.

It's actually a dark blue jelly polish with silver hex glitters.. at least I'm fairly certain they're silver. The jelly is well pigmented but sheer, and the glitter is quite sparse so to achieve this look I had to use some undies, in this case it was American Apparel Passport Blue.

I haven't had much time to be doing my nails lately so I've often found myself layering on to whatever I'm already wearing. I decided to add Nails Inc The Wyndham overglaze top coat to it (which my friend Christine bought and I fell completely in love with) et voila!

Textured flaky goodness.

My current NOTD is Kleancolor Red-Hot. This one has given me a lot of trouble. I've worn it twice now and it just doesn't dry. The first time I wore it I went to the grocery store two hours after I'd finished polishing and an entire nail just slid off.  Then once I got home I was able to do the same to 3 more nails. This time around I had higher hopes since I didn't have any issues with Blue-Eyed girl and, alas, same thing.

The undies for this one is OPI Double Decker Red.

I'd say my biggest complaint with both of these is that it's hard to get an even looking application without globbing the polish on. The glitter is very sporadic, both of these are two coats, otherwise there wouldn't be a very good polish/glitter ratio.

I wish you could see how sparkly the polishes really are though. I'd say they're worth the trouble because the size of the glitter reflects a TON of light and it makes it really hard to look away. The fact that the polish base for both is jelly also gives the nail a really juicy appearance and a lot of depth, almost making it look 3D.

Does anyone know of good jellies that don't take forever to dry?

NOTD: Mattified Flaky Goodness

Being a pretty avid MUA NBer makes me want to change my polish rather frequently. And I mean like, all the time. I'm usually planning 3 manicures ahead, and when I land on a new polish there's usually no stopping me. Nothing about this changed when a friend brought me two OPI's yesterday. However right now I am out of acetone, which is definitely required for removing my current manicure (try taking flakies off without it ... not pleasant).

So I had to improvise. What could I do to my mani before being able to buy more acetone on Thursday? I've been seeing a lot of really nice dark matte colours lately and felt inspired. Essie's Matte About You it is! I love the effect it created. It brings out the duochrome quality of the polish quite a bit more than with a shiny top coat, which almost distracts from the colours playing within the flakies.

Green

Blue/Green duochrome

So much blue now!

Close up. Please excuse the shoddy clean up job.

The flakies almost seem more defined now that they're matte. I like it! 

NOTD: Nfu Oh 56 over WnW Black Creme

I can't believe I've waited so long to use this polish. I bought it back in July along with Nfu Oh 45 but never ended up wearing it, poor thing. As per a conversation with Ali I had this weekend, I decided to give it a go over black. Wet n Wild makes the best black creme around in my opinion. It's almost perfectly opaque in one coat without being thick or sticky, dries quickly, and is inexpensive. That right there is a huge win in my books. It can be found in almost any drug store that sells polish too, making it very accessible on top of it all.

I love this mani, it reminds me of dragon scales or something equally mystical and fun. I used one coat of the Nfu Oh over 1 coat of the WnW. The flakies in this polish make for a really pretty green duochrome that flashes blue. The base of the polish isn't clear though, it's made up of tiny little green shimmers which I wasn't actually expecting when I ordered it.

What do you think? I did something else with this mani that I've only done once before. The top coat I used is called Gelous by a brand called Amercian Classics. It's a thick top (or base) coat that doesn't get gobbled up into glitter/flakies the same way normal stuff does. It leaves a really smooth, even coat on top which is not something I often get from top coats and glitters. That being said, it takes forever to dry, so i recommend throwing a quick dry on top of it once it's started to dry a bit.

I get mine at Sally Beauty, and I'm not sure if there's anywhere else around town that sells it, I haven't looked into it at all.
Phew, long post. Hope you enjoyed! Happy back-to-school season everyone.

OPI Catch Me In Your Net over Rimmel Star Trek

So I tried taking pictures of my polish glowing in the dark last night and it didn't work. My camera didn't pick up the glow at all, it was really quite frustrating. I was bored today before work and this magnificent polish was sitting on my desk looking at me, just begging to be worn. I didn't have the time to redo my mani altogether but what goes better with turquoise than navy blue? Not much, let me tell you that. Don't believe me? Give 'er a scroll.

Ali gifted me this polish, I nearly died. Here I thought I was getting to swatch it for one mani but alas - she said I could keep it. It's from OPI's Summer Flutter collection in 2010, I *just* missed grabbing it. It's a dead center dupe for Zoya Charla, but I don't have access to the full Zoya line here so that doesn't make much difference to me. The polish itself is a turquoise glittery foil. Beautiful <3

 

 

I couldn't stop staring at my nails while I was driving today! Bad Lisa, bad.

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: 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: Agate Water Marble

I haven't posted any of my water marbles yet, as I'm pretty sure the only good one I've ever done was my first, and I haven't bothered trying to do one since February... so here goes! 

I tried a bunch of different methods with this and screwed a up a few (I actually had to start two nails over completely from scratch) but this is the end result. I really like them! It took about an hour and a half to do it all (re-dos included). I used American Apparel's Cotton for the base, then the other colours are American Apparel Raccoon, China Glaze For Audrey and OPI Greenwich Village.

NOTD: China Glaze For Audrey

What a classic. This polish is the one that sparked my renewed interest in polish when I saw it on Ali's pretty little fingers. Naturally I had to pick it up. It was among my first China Glaze purchases and I wear it every now and again, but I've never gotten a good photo of it.

Alas - the timeless beauty.

Holding my bottle of Uluru Shower Gel!

This colour reminds me of kitchen appliances in the 1950s. I just love it, end of story.