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!

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.

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!

Apologies and past NOTD - Hard Candy Beetle

First off, allow me to state that I should be renaming this blog to "Lisa's Blog of Neglect" because, if you hadn't noticed, I haven't actually posted since September. To all my followers: Thank you for sticking around, I promise I will keep up to date as much as I can from here on end.

That being said, it's not as though I haven't been photographing my nails to show you (eventually), so tonight is the night where I'm going to flood the internet with past NOTDs. Expect about five posts (including this one) to trickle through as the hours pass. I would put them all in one post but I feel that separating them will not only make cataloging them a lot easier, but also finding them again will be too.

This polish comes to me with a wonderful story. I frequent a nail polish board and a lovely lady named Tyra had posted a photo of her nails sporting Beetle by Hard Candy. I love, love, love that polish and was unable to get it in Canada (ridiculous) and it was driving me batty. She messaged me saying that she was willing to go to Walmart and buy it for me, free of charge and  no expectations of me sending her something in return! Of course I absolutely had to send her something for her generosity and kindness, but if that's not good karma I don't know what is.

What a sweet lady! I didn't get the chance to photograph it at the start of wearing it, but I managed to take some pictures a few days in. Very noticeable tipwear, but I hope you'll at least get an idea of why I wanted it so badly.

This is such a spectacular multi-chrome! You've got purple, you've got gold, you've got copper, sometimes you've got some green, sometimes you've got some pink, and sometimes you've got brown. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. 

The world never ceases to amaze me, and on occasion it's in a good way. Thank you Tyra! 

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: OPI It's My Year

I set out looking for this little lady a couple of weeks ago, only to find her sold out at my regular spots. This is the only one from the collection that I actually wanted (it's from the Miss Universe collection) but I wanted it bad. By chance I came across a salon and found the very last bottle buried in a bin at the end of the counter. What luck! I know it's not very close, and definitely not a dupe, but this polish is helping me quash my MAC Bad Fairy lemming just a bit. It has a purple base and flashes with bronzey/gold/pink shimmer.

It went on beautifully and was supremely easy to control. I do feel like it will look a little bit better on me once my tan fades a bit, at the moment the gold flashes are blending with my skin tone a bit too much for comfort.

NOTD: Accidental Camouflage Nails

What I was aiming for with this mani was something forest-y or wood nymphy, and what ended up happening was I guess I got a little over-zealous with my colours and it turned into a camo mani. That's okay! DBF really liked it, and so did a couple of my friends so the world isn't over this time around.

Mmm, tea!

I guess it's kind of cool eh? Too bad I'm not into the camo pattern, otherwise this would be heaven.

NOTD: Royal Jewels

I'm attending a gala tomorrow for an organization I volunteer for, and the event colours are red, purple and gold. Yesterday I'd applied China Glaze I Love Hue, my bottle is actually pretty old.

Black Label, ooooh.

Then I added Sally Hansen Crushed Velvet, and Orly Luxe.

They'll match perfectly!

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!