Inspired

Just finished this mani and thought I should post something, but I don't like it at all. It didn't turn out how I wanted, but oh well. I was inspired by this look by Katrina at Katrina's Nail Blog (check her out, she's great!). My beads were much much smaller than the ones she used, and they were very finicky, ugh. Nevertheless, I got them all lined up and stuck down.
The colours I used were Joe Faded Lilac for the purple base, China Glaze White on White for the tips and stripe, and OPI Parlez-Vous OPI?, China Glaze For Audrey, and Sally Hansen Black Out for the spots and outlines.
Taking this off my nails and doing them again tonight, so stay tuned!

Thanks for looking :)

I'm still here!

I know I haven't posted for a couple days, but I'm still alive! I am just about to do some hardcore nail care treatments because I've been working for the last 2 days.. Work and nails don't get along. I hope to get something else up later today, check back soon!

xo, Lauren

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Purple Gala

I have had this colour on my nails for a couple days now, but I am only just getting around to blogging about it. School has been taking over my life :( But enough about that, on to the review!

Sally Hansen's 'Purple Gala' is a dark purple jelly with gold and silver glitter (in my opinion). It is very multi-dimensional and looks different in every light. Sometimes it looks almost a taupe-y colour, and sometimes it looks very purple. Don't be deceived by my picture, the pink comes from the reflection of my camera (it's pink), so just try and ignore that, haha.

This took a good 3 coats to become opaque, and I ended up adding a little more on the tips because I could still see through them (a big pet peeve of mine). Anyways, this is a new favourite of mine, and a great colour for the fall/winter seasons. Very regal :)

On another topic, it has been raining here for 5 days straight. So many people are going crazy. It is not fun having to walk everywhere and get soaked :( This is a picture taken from my residence window - as you can see, everything is pretty soggy out there!

The weather says it is supposed to be sunny tomorrow, my fingers are crossed. How is the weather where you are??

Thanks for looking!

China Glaze - Flip Flop Fantasy

I know what you're thinking, it's November, why on Earth is she reviewing Flip Flop Fantasy? Well, maybe I'm crazy, but I hoped it would get rid of my "ugh-it's-November-and-winter-is-coming" blues. I'm not sure if it worked or not, but I sure do have some bright fingertips! :)

Flip Flop Fantasy is a bright coral neon from China Glaze's Poolside collection. As with creamy neons, it dries super quick. I also noticed that the lighting varies the colour greatly. In natural light (shown above), it looks coral-y, but can look very orange with artificial lighting.
Regardless of being a slight nightmare to apply (as most neon's are I understand), I love it. My camera doesn't quite pick up the whole effect, but does a decent job I would say. Most of my nails took 3-4 coats to become opaque and streak free (which I still didn't completely achieve). Adding a coat of Seche Vite, I find, helps this problem.
I also love the "insta-tan" you get from neons :) Just something about them makes you look a shade darker, it's nice! This is overall one of my favs in my collection and I'd definitely like to try out more China Glaze neons.

Thanks for looking!

OPI - Ski Teal We Drop

This is my most recent mani, and what is on my fingers right now. Don't judge from this picture, the lighting is off. Anyways! Let's get to it. This is Ski Teal We Drop by OPI. I bought it around a month ago, but this is the first time I actually used it - neglect much?? It is a blue/green cream polish - I used 2-3 coats to make it truly opaque (some fingers 2, some fingers 3). Although the name is not-so-original (Teal The Cows Come Home - OPI, you've already used this pun) I am really liking the colour. Even though it's a cream (no dimension) the colour looks very different in different lighting.

So, like I was saying, very different in different lighting (this is natural light). The blue/green colour is much more distinguishable here!

Thanks for looking :)

Sally's Polish Haul

On Sunday, my best friend and her boyfriend showed up at my university to surprise me! We had a great time, which included a necessary trip to Sally's Beauty Supply because of our mutual love for it. I was determined to leave with nothing (I don't need any more!) but of course, that's not how it worked out.
Anyways, I was done looking at the nail polish and decided that I didn't need any of the colours, although I was tempted by China Glaze Lemon Fizz (on my wishlist) and China Glaze Dorothy Who? which I had seen (and fallen in love with) on a nail blog the day before. This was until my friend called me over to another aisle, and there it was. The package of three China Glaze holiday colours. I was in love.

I apologize for the bad lighting, it was the best I could do - my room has terrible lighting. But here they are! I have to say Party Hearty (the red/green/gold topcoat) is my favourite. I can't wait for the holiday season to wear this! The set also comes with Phat Santa (a deep red jelly) and Jolly Holly (a dark, forest green with a tad of shimmer). Here are the colour drops (my first attempt, so bear with me):

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I do! I hope to get some swatches up as the holiday season gets closer :)
Thanks for looking!

Silver Glitter Gradient

Hi again guys :)
I'm back with another manicure and some sad news :( But first the mani! I just finished this, and I'm not overly thrilled with the results, but they're alright. I attempted to do a "Glitter Gradient" which has been pretty popular lately (as far as I can tell). The gradient didn't turn out right, partly because I don't have the right polishes and I tried to make do. What I used was:

• Base Coat - Sally Hansen Triple Strong
• Tips (First Colour) - Sally Hansen Celeb City
• Middle Colour - Silkline  silver sparkle striper (no name)
• Last Colour - China Glaze Fairy Dust
• Top Coat - Seche Vite

I also decided to add some rhinestones for some more "oomph" but even the placement of them didn't look right :( Don't be fooled by the blah-ness of the picture though, the two sparkle colours are holographic and that wasn't picked up by my camera, unfortunately.

Okay, so now for the bad (ish) news. I started working at my new job today, which is at a restaurant - I work in the kitchen cooking. This is not a good combination with having long, pretty nails! :( On the other hand though, I am only working on Wednesday nights and Saturday's, so I'll be able to do my nails in between my shifts!


Anyways! That's all for now, thanks for looking :)

Halloween Konading

This is my real first "Konadicure" because I have never really mastered the technique, but I'm pretty happy with the results! I needed to do something with my right hand nails (they have been bare), so keeping with the Halloween theme, I decided to do blood splatters. Using the M21 plate, I basically just used red "Special" Konad polish and created the spatter design :) In hindsight, I probably should have put some kind of nude base colour under it, but oh well. You still get the effect.
Hope you like it!

PS: The pictures are bad quality because I had to take them with my left hand, which was shaky and thus making the pictures blurry :(

Polished Pink for October Giveaway

This is a great giveaway bringing awareness to a very serious topic.

You can get all this stuff if you simply click the link and enter :)

Halloween Inspired Nails (v2)

I just finished these and was super excited to post them! I'm very proud (can you tell?) hehe. This was done with a toothpick (the cat, moon, and pumpkin face/leaves), stripers (black dots and web) and a paint brush (stripes on the pumpkin, pointer finger, and ring finger).

Colours used: 

Nailtini Mango Rita 

China Glaze White On White

Sally Hansen Likety-Split Lime

Sally Hansen Black Out

Sally Hansen Project Runway

Revlon Craving Coral

Silkline Black 

Silkline White

essie Cute As A Button

Now what to do with my other hand?!

Product Review: Burt's Bees - Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream

I have been using this cuticle treatment for the past 2 weeks, fairly regularly (every 2 days or so) and I figured I should do a review of it.
My first reaction to this when I opened it was, "This isn't butter?" - which I still agree with. I don't think calling this a 'Butter Cream' was the best decision because I find it more of a waxy balm, almost like a lip conditioner. However, regardless of the composition or what they call it, this product is pretty great. I like that you have to swirl your finger around in the pot a few times to get the product, which in turn warms it up and makes it easier to rub into your cuticles. It also smells great, like lemons (imagine that?!). Another perk is that it is 95% natural, as with most Burt's Bees products. The small size of the tin makes this products super portable and convenient, it can go anywhere with you. But don't be fooled by the apparent small amount of 'cream' (8.5 g); I have been using this for 2 weeks and have barely even dented the top - it's going to last you a long time.
This treatment has definitely made my cuticles much less prone to hangnails and dryness (which I am constantly battling), and I definitely recommend it!

Thanks for looking!

Product Trial: Sally Hansen Triple Strong Advanced Gel Nail Fortifier

Lately, I have been trying to get some length in my nails and today at the drugstore, I came across this product on sale. I had heard some things about it on YouTube several months ago, and from what I remembered they were good reviews, so I decided to pick it up. I paid $6.99 (CAD) for it, but I can't remember what the original price was.
The package says that you will get "beautiful, protected nails" and explains how it works: "'Breakthrough' gel nail fortifier combines 3 nail strengtheners in 1: Epoxy Polymer reinforces nails and adds flexibility, Calcium Complex helps enhance nail structure, Titanium Complex helps defend against daily wear and tear." This sounded a little "hokey" to me, but I guess we will see if it works!
Basically, they suggest that you use it under and over your nail colour, or wear 2 coats without nail colour. They also say to apply a fresh coat every 3 days, and start over after a week. It seems to me that this bottle (13 mL) is going to run out pretty quickly if I keep up the suggested regimen.
Anyways, I have this on my nails now, now just to wait for the miracle results!

Thanks for looking!

Halloween Inspired Nails

I was inspired by Halloween (next weekend!) to do this manicure. Kind of boring, but I like it :) I was tempted to add a spider web on each ring finger, but I haven't acted on that idea yet. What do you think?

This look is super easy to do, create black tips with any black polish - I drew the smile line with my black striper, and filled the rest with normal black polish because I find it more difficult to use the big brush for forming the line. For my right hand (since I am right handed), the smile lines weren't as good as I wanted, so I cleaned them up with a brush and acetone. I added a coat of Seche Vite, and also a coat of Sally Hansen's Triple Strong Advanced Gel Fortifier (more info to come).

Thanks for looking! :)

My Collection!

With use of my crappy camera and lighting, I attempted to get pictures of my (almost) whole collection. I left some unlucky ones at home.
So here they are:

First up is my small collection of essie polishes:

L-R: Hard To Get, Watermelon, Cute As A Button

L-R: Evening Seduction, For Audrey, Flip Flop Fantasy, Fairy Dust, Up All Night, White on White

L-R (top): Unripened, Ski Teal We Drop, Dating A Royal, DS Magic, OPI Ink, OPI Ink (Suede), Siberian Nights, Lincoln Park at Midnight, OPI Top Coat. L-R(bottom): Nicole Virtuous Violet, Electric Eel, Hey! Get In Lime, Parlez-Vous OPI?, Mad As A Hatter, Elephantastic Pink, Moon Over Mumbai, OPI Base Coat, Nicole Razzle Dazzler Matte

Sally Hansen polishes:

L-R(top): Mangoes Loco, Fashion Forward, Burnt Sienna, Project Runway, No Name, Likety-Split Lime. L-R(bottom): Spark, Celeb City, Strobe Light, Black Out, Wet Cement

My stripers:

L-R: Magenta, Hot Pink, Silver, next 3 have no name.

Lastly, these are all the "stragglers", random polishes that didn't really fit in with the other guys (plus a China Glaze that I forgot to put in the other picture).

L-R(top): On The Prowl, Oh My Magenta, Get Reddy, Craving Coral, Midnight Plum, No Name, Palermo Plum. L-R(bottom): Raspberry Sorbetto, Mint, Faded Violet, Gunmetal, No Name, Gasoline, Seche Vite Top Coat
 

So hopefully one day I will get around to swatching all these colours, either on my nails or possibly a nail wheel, we shall see!

Thanks for looking!
Lauren  

First (Returning) Post

So I am back in the nail-blogging world! I hope to keep this blog updated and running smoothly (this time around!). It is much easier to keep this going while I am off at school, and not home working over the summer :)What I'd like to do with this blog is show swatches, talk about collections, do some comparisons, etc. Ideally, I think it would be nice to have swatches of all the colours I have, but it's going to take some time to compile that many pictures, as I don't paint my nails that often (and I usually keep them the same colour for a couple days). So, just be patient for that, I'm going to work through it as best as I can.
I am also interested in nail art (however talented I may or may not be), so watch for some of that!

Thanks for looking!
Lauren