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 :)

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!

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!

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?

NYE 2011 Manicure

I'm fairly certain I won't be changing this before tomorrow, or if I do I'll just be adding a TON more glitter somehow, but this is pretty much it.

I used Wet n Wild Black Creme and the Essie Matte About You top coat, followed up by China Glaze Fairy dust for the dots! I know, I know, more polka dots Lisa?  Well.. yes. Yes, more polka dots.

I like it. It's simple, elegant, and still has that bit of sparkle. That being said, this NYE I'm aiming for a LOT of sparkle so we'll see if I change it up a bit before tomorrow night.

HAPPY NEW YEAR :D

NOTD: Santa Baby Dotticure

Another Christmas mani for you! I've been even more into vintage lately than I normally am, so naturally red nails and polka dots have been very appealing to me.

The base colour was Sally Hansen Red Carpet (which I'm going to need a back up of, I'm running low) and for the dots I used Sally Hansen Green With Envy and Rimmel  110 French White Tip Pro. If you've never done a dotticure before you don't have to go out and buy a dotting tool, all I used was the tip of a bobby pin and it worked out great.

I hate posing with polish bottles

One of my mom's Christmas presents

I'm basically in love with this look. I didn't use any base coat (shhh!!) so I hope it doesn't chip soon, I want this to last until at least mid-week. That will give me time to think up something to hopefully top this one, but that might prove to be tricky. 

Hopefully you're not sick of Christmas music yet. This is my favourite, classic version of Santa Baby by Madonna.

Think of all the fun I've missed

Think of all the fellas that I haven't kissed

Past NOTD: China Glaze Fairy Dust

Right off the bat, I'm going to admit that I thought I would hate this more than anything I've ever worn. Fairy Dust is a clear polish with teeny, tiny holographic glitter. I don't really like it as a layering polish, which is what it's intended to be, so I thought I'd give it a shot on naked nails and thought to myself "who would want to wear a sheer polish like this? I mean, what's the point?"

It was stunning. The subtle hint of little sparkles frequently caught my eye and I found myself totally enamoured with this look. It was elegant but youthful and not "in-your-face" by any means.

Click me!

The only downside to this polish is the obvious fact that, being sheer, any staining or dirt under the nails is visible. Other than that I absolutely LOVED this! Thoughts?

NOTD: Rusty Pumpkin

Last night I got a little layer happy, and I'm now currently wearing probably the most coats of polish I've probably every worn. Ever.

So it started with the Joe Fresh Pumpkin that I had on in my last post, then I applied 3 coats of Sally Hansen's Pumpkin Spice (still going with the fall theme, if you didn't notice) and then I topped it off with a layer of Love & Beauty Rust. Love & Beauty is Forever 21's make up and nail polish line, and since the store opened in Ottawa these past few weeks I was really excited to get out there. Rust is acting as sort of a surrogate until I get a polish I really want. I've been lemming Sephora by OPI's Traffic Stopper Copper for some time now, but considering it's $12 and Rust was only $3.80 I went for it. My biggest problem with this one is the density of the glitter, and the amount of the small glitter vs the larger hex glitter. There's way too much little glitter, it looked messy and overrun the first time I swatched it.

So let's see - American Classics Bridge the Ridge, 2 coats of JF Pumpkin, SH Mega Shine, 3 coats of SH Pumpkin Spice, Gelous, SH Mega Shine, 1 coat of L&B Rust, Gelous, SH Mega Shine.

Did I just count 13 layers of polish?

>_>


<_<


Good luck to me taking this off. At least it was worth it, I'm in love with this. I have a really hard time capturing
glitters in all their glory so bear with me. Trust me when I say it's beautiful.

As you can obviously tell, I experienced a great deal of shrinkage due to all the layering and the thickness of the Gelous/glitter. In regular lighting (ie: not direct sunlight) the base colour looks like a darker brown giving it a more Halloween-y kind of feel, and boy is it ever shiny. I can't help but grin when I look down at my nails!

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: 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!

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.

NOTD: St-Patrick's Day!

Here is my long-awaited St-Patty's day mani. I chose to use the green from OPI's Texas Collection, Don't Mess With OPI and I layered Sephora by OPI's Only Gold For Me over top. It's supposed to be reminiscent of a leprechaun's pot of gold! I love the way this glitter shines.

My methodology for this was actually starting off simply applying the glitter polish to the tips, then once that dried I went over the full nail a second time to give it a bit of a faded look. Loving this look!  It's so blingy!