Could You Guys Do Me a Favour? (FT Valentines Day Nail Art!)

Hello!!

One of my favourite (and Canadian!) online polish retails, Harlow & Co are hosting a Valentines Day nail art contest!

This is my entry!

I used Picture Polish Fairy Floss for the base (from Harlow & Co) & then the plaid was done with striping tape, a LOT of dry time, Color Club Poptastic, & OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips! I added hearts on the ring finger and thumb and topped it all in topcoat. 

If you could all do me a favourite and click HERE, find my picture, & vote for me. I would be super thrilled. I am very proud of how this mani turned out :)

Thank you for reading!

Color Club Wicked Sweet Swatch

*Sheepish wave*

Hi guys. I'm sorry I have been gone for so long. I don't really want to talk about what happened but I am ready to get back to talking about polish.

I need to do some picture uploading so here is an oldie that was hiding in the un-published vault. So I am sporting some pretty serious shorties here.

Color Club Wicked Sweet. The namesake of the collection, it smells like sugar. How fitting. It is a shimmery (almost frosty, but not brushstrokey) sky blue leaning aqua. This is two coats.

 I actually really like it against my skin. I will be wearing this one again.

So long for now & thanks for reading!

Minecraft Creeper Nail Art & Tutorial! :D

Hi everyone!

I am really excited about my post today! I have a nail art picture tutorial for the minecraft fans out there! Do I even have any minecraft fans who follow me?! Anyway these are my creeper nails and how I did them :) For those of you who aren't minecraft fans, creepers are the worst hostile mobs out there and they will explode and destroy all of your hard work. I have a passionate hate for them. Why did I put them on my nails? I do not know. Perhaps it is an obsession.

This is a picture of a creeper:

Photo source: http://blog.wirebot.com/2011/08/22/10-of-the-most-annoying-game-characters/

I started with base color of Color Club Twiggie, one of my favourite greens.

Then to do the pixels squares I used striping tape from the born pretty store and placed it on my nail in a checkerboard pattern. Then in the squares I applied Elevation Torres de Paines (Darker green) and China Glaze Tree Hugger (Shimmery light green)

This is the result.

Finally I added the creeper faces with a toothpick and a plain black creme. Added topcoat, and voila! CREEPER NAILS! Run!! Light torches!!! Hide!!!

I hope you liked this post!
Thanks for reading!

Gradient Fail!!!!!

Hello everyone!!

Today I am showing you a gradient manicure fail. Okay, so I usually pride myself in my glitter gradients. I think I am pretty good at doing them! But just colour gradients... WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS? It is difficult!! There is definitely a learning curve to this technique. But I told myself I was going to post my fails as well as my trimumphs on this nail art adventure! So here is it!

I saw a couple tutorials and I went with the Make up sponge technique. I used Color Club Poptastic and American Apparel Neon Violet and sponged away over a white base. First let me say, I got polish EVERYWHERE. Clean up was not fun. And I used chapstick around my fingers to try and make it easier but I think the chapstick got on the sponge and then the polish wouldn't stick to the nail. I ended up with this incredibly messy, translucent, grainy pink/purple thing. Lookin' a little weird, right?

I think I need some practice!!!!
Thanks for reading :)

NOTD & Swatchey SPAM

WOOOO HOOO It is a spam day! Swatch and NOTD spam for your Saturday morning viewing pleasure.

Joe Fresh Cobalt & OPI Big Apple Red

China Glaze Electrify over China Glaze Kahlari Kiss!

Color Club Poptastic and Color Club Almost Famous

Zoya Ciara

Joe Fresh Iris

Color Club Almost Famous & Color Club Chelsea Girl

Zoya Marley

OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam

Julep Pippa & Essie Theres No Place Like Chrome

Hope you enjoyed the spam!

Color Club Fly With Me! Swatch :)

Hey everyone!

Today I am showing off Color Club Fly With Me from their Summer collection of 2012. Yellow toned green small particle glass fleck goodness. This is two coats, but looking at the pictures (specifically my pinky, I think three would have been better). It is sort of an "odd" color but that is why I like it so much. The glassfleck makes this green really special to me. I wish I had pictures in the sun because it sparkles really awesome-ly. It even sort of made me look tan. 

Its the only polish I got from Color Club's Summer collection but I am thinking I might pick up the green-blue, and yellow one.

Hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by :)

NOTD Funky French! Fail Art.

Hi!

Quick break from work to post some fail art! I tried to do a "funky french" manicure and it just went from bad to worse.

I started with Zoya Cho (which I really like), and then added the tips in Color Club Perfect Molten (I really like this one too!). Then with a black striper I did those lines. However much I like those two polishes.... it does not look good. Haha This mani didn't last too long! Should have just slapped some glitter on Cho and called it a day, but of course I had to muck it up :P

I thought adding rhinestones would fix it..... just added insult to injury LOL :P

Dollish Polish Legend of Zelda Duo!! Hylian Princess and The Hero Of Time Swatches !!! :)

Finally!! It is mine!! The Legend of Zelda Duo by Dollish Polish!! I have wanted these pretties for SO LONG NOW! They were at the top of my lemming list for awhile. I got them through a pre-sale at Overall Beauty! I was one of the first 10 orders so Kim happened to have these in stock! Totally excited and am so happy with them! The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time for 64 and Links Awakening for Gameboy are definitely in my Top 10 favourite games ever so I was SO SO happy to finally have these polishes in my grubby little paws. I used to sit in my beanbag chair and play these games for hours... I still do... just not in the beanbag chair... That beanbag chair died with the 90s.

First up is Hylian Princess! Inspired obviously by Princess Zelda. Its got different sizes and shapes of purple glitter, large white and lavender holo hex glitters, and a splash of smaller yellow squares. I think the smaller yellow squares are my favourite part, they remind me of Princess Zeldas hair (as I am player of the older games!) ! Love it :) After much deliberation, I finally decided to layer this over Color Club's Shabby Drab.. the most "powerful" purple I own. I didn't want to discredit this strong princess by making her look too "girly" haha. I thought it looked really good over this smokey, muted purple! Great application, this is two coats.

Next is The Hero of Time, inspired by Link! Green, chartreuse, brown and yellow glitters in a clear base. The glitters are smaller, and more sparse than in Hylian Princess.... and it almost feels more.. manly. Yes.. I am saying that these glitters are manly, just like my Link. I layered it over China Glaze Agro, a metallic-ish deep olive green. Two coats. Next time I might layer it over more of a forrest green :)

Oh man, I loved these. Application was great for both of them. No digging, no fishing. They both spread the glitter nicely on my nails. I used two coats of each for these pictures. I will treasure these for a very long time. I got them from Kim at Overallbeauty.com and she should have more in stock in the coming months!

Have a nice day!

Color Club Hot Like Lava - Swatch & Review!

Just a quick swatch/review today of one of my all time favourite pinks. This is Color Clubs Hot Like Lava. You guys ever play the game when you were kids and you had to jump around the living room on the furniture and you couldn't touch the ground because it was made of lava? I loved that game. In fact.. the name is the only thing that bothers me about this polish..... it's pink. While lava is actually falls between orange and red n'est pas? :P Anyway, everything else about this polish is great.

It is a bright, extremely saturated, deep jewel toned pink with a somewhat shimmery foil finish. Formula was amazing and this is one coat, no topcoat, and no clean up. I couldn't be happier with the quality of this one. It dried quick and with some sparkle. I love it :)

This came out with Color Clubs Foiled Collection in 2011 just before the holidays. All the polishes in that collection were foil finishes and they all had amazing formulas!

Thats it for today! Do you have any colours from the foiled collection? Do you like them as much as I do? I am still spotting them on sale for 3.99 at Lawtons in Canada!

Coverband Sticks & Stones & Color Club Wham! Pow!

Hi polish people :)

Just a quickie today! I wore this mani a few weeks ago when I was still at home!
This is two coats of Colour Clubs Wham! Pow! over one coat of white (to ensure the neon really popped), followed up with one coat of Cover Band Sticks & Stones. I love both of these polishes. Color Club's Wham! Pow! is from the Poptastic collection from a few summers ago and it is an eye searing traffic cone neon orange! Right down my alley, and with a good formula to boot! Puts me in a very good mood :)

Sticks and stones really adds something great though, black and white glitter makes me happy and giddy. It applied really nicely, no digging for the pieces I wanted, and this is just one coat. I like the small round glitters in this. I think lately I may like it better than Lynn's CTD....

I think it is an awesome summer manicure. Thanks for stopping by :)

Quick NOTD. Four Lead Clover goes Beyond the Mistletoe

Hi there :)

Today is quick a quick post to show what I added to yesterdays swatch post! I added Color Club Beyond The Mistletoe sponged on in a mediocre gradient.  It did add some nice holo sparkle but it didn't scream summer to me.. my brain was all like "Y U WEAR HOLIDAY POLISH IN JUNE?" so I didn't keep it on too long but I will definitely be using the Color Club glitters for gradients more often. It worked super well.

I'd like to apologize for the crappy picture quality :( My internet connection will not let me upload my large macros here at work :( It is so depressing. I'd also like to apologize for rambling etc.. work is really taking its toll on me. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to be busy and making money.. but roughin' on the tundra and working 12 hours everyday in a split shift with 24 hour bright-ness can be really difficult to get accustomed to.

Anyway, have a great day :)

Neon Yellow Comparison Post!

This summer is all about neons.. and I love it. I can't wear them at work but I was rockin' em back home, and when I get out of the woods... trust me I will be rocking them some more. I can't get enough. Since neon yellows are all the rage right now, I combed through my neon yellow collection and picked four to compare!

From left to right we have:

American Apparel Neon Yellow

Orly Glowstick

China Glaze Sunkissed

Color Club Almost Famous.

From left to right on the nail:

Color Club Almost Famous (pinky)

China Glaze Sunkissed (ring)

Orly Glowstick (middle)

American Apparel Neon Yellow (index)

Sorry for this horrid picture. I was rushing :(

Colours: No dupes here. Even in the bottles, Almost Famous is the odd duckling here. It came out a couple of years ago so its not as "with the season" as the other neon yellows we are seeing this summer. Its more of a "banana" shade but don't underestimate it. It is still very bright. And it is still awesome. China Glaze Sunkissed is more of a neon lemon yellow. What sets it apart is the amazing golden yellow shimmer running through it. Stunner. Orly Glowstick.. a fantastic neon yellow that leans green. Looks exactly like the colour of a neon glowstick. Epic colour. American Apparel Neon Yellow is the standard neon yellow. It is the exact colour of a neon yellow highlighter. No muss, no fuss, no coconuts. So colour wise, they are all similar, but a little different in the details.. with Almost Famous sort of sticking out there like a sore thumb.

Formula and Application: Almost Famous has a standard Color Club two coat formula. My bottle is very old and has lost some of its self levelling ability but with some thinner I think it should be back in tip top shape soon. No need for white undies. China Glaze Sunkissed pops a LITTLE bit more with white undies but is definitely not needed. Its a thick formula. Need to watch for dragging. But two coats is enough. Orly glowstick needed three coats on its own, or two over white. Not too thin, not too goopy. Pretty good actually. And now for the problem child of the group... AA neon yellow. What a frustrating polish. Its thick & goopy AND sheer???? It needs about five coats on its own to get it smooth and opaque. Two to three over white is OKAY but probably not even. It also takes forever to dry. I practically poured half of my bottle of thinner into it. My bottles pretty old but from what I can remember it has always been a unique kind of hell to apply. I hold a special place in my heart for it though because it was my first neon yellow nail polish from quite a few summers ago and it is straight up original neon highlighter yellow.  Does anyone know if I just got a bad bottle? I'll gladly pick up a different one if thats the case because I do love the colour.

Anyway, back to work! Hope someone found this somewhat helpful :]

Color Club Nomadic in Nude Swatch!

Herrohh :)

Today I am wearing a palate cleanser. I don't really ever wear neutrals or nudes.. I'm more of a neon and glitter type of gal, but whatever.. sometimes it is nice to mix it up.

This is Color Club's Nomadic in Nude. A putty-like-almost-taupe-but-not-quite, brown toned beige. On my skin tone it felt like it had some grey undertones to it too. I got it in the lighter coloured box set of the Back to Boho collection that came out in Fall 2011. Its not too cooperative with my skin tone but I bet it would look awesome on someone with not so much red/pink colouring :P I kept it though because you never know when you need a neutral, and it has a really good formula.

Two coats & topcoat. Great formula.

I wish it looked better with my skin tone because the colour does have a lot of potential. Like I said, I don't really ever wear neutrals so I'll probably try some nail art over this later today :)

Retro Polka Dot Nail Art :)

Herroh :)

I'm really needing to get called back to work and it is kind of depressing, so today I am in need for a happy manicure.. so I set out on a mission to create one!

I think I finally mastered doing polka dots on my nails. I absolutely love the way this manicure turned out! Usually my dots are misshaped and unequal and not in straight lines but I think the practice is paying off! It's not perfect but I like it a lot.

I started with two coats of China Glaze Stone Cold, a charcoal grey matte from the Capitol Colours Collection. Then I added polka dots in diagonal lines with a medium sized dotting tool, in order from bottom to top of my nail with:
Color Club Twiggie
China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy
China Glaze Sun Worshiper
Orly Glowstick
Color Club Warhol
Color Club Pucci-licious

I went over the dots twice to make sure they popped against the grey, and were nice, shiny and opaque. I like the way the shiny dots look against the matte background. Here are some pictures!

I think it looks retro and kind of funky, which I think is awesome. I like it a lot, it has certainly cheered me up! I hope you like it too :)

Color Club Twiggie - Swatch & Nail Art

Color Club Twiggie may be my favourite green of all time. Probably because its the most unique green on the planet! (or you know, in my collection). It manages to be a light shade of "soft or almost pastel" green... while being insanely and almost neon-ly bright. How?!?! Why?!?!?! I don't know. I just know that I love it and I will continue to wear it all of the time. I need a back up. Without topcoat it dries to a semi-matte finish, which is kinda cool too.

Twiggie came out with the Summer Poptastic collection set. It was my first Color Club set ever and I still love it so so so much. I wish Color Club was more available in Canada. I can find the sets long after release at Winners for 12.99 (Which don't get me wrong, I love) but I want more Color Clubs and online the sets retail for about four times what I pay at Winners, and single polishes for almost the price of a set! Thus... I must wait and hope I snag Color Club's at Winner's. This puts me out of the loop for awesome older collections unless I want to dig deep into my wallet.

End rant, now let's look at Twiggie. This is two coats plus topcoat.

In the sun!

Artificial Light

I decided I wanted to spice it up a bit so I added some a-symetrical dots on the tips with a medium sized dotting tool using OPI Jade is the new black, Orly Green Apple, and China Glaze Jolly Holly. On my ring finger i switched it up and did the dots on the bottom. I think it makes it look sort of funky and cool. I'm not very good at doing this but I think it turned out okay!

Have a nice day :)