Silly Snowmen

Although Christmas itself may be over, there is still plenty of time for winter themed nail art! The most recent one I did was kind of goofy, meant for some extra fun with little cousins who would appreciate these nails. (Yes, I force my love of nails onto my entire family).

These little snowmen come from the Konad Christmas plate, m12. I have yet to find a sophisticated or fancy Christmas mani with this plate, but it is great for cute goofy looks like I have been doing. There is a Santa face, a funny looking reindeer, a snowman, bells, candy cane and more.

I used a new polish (new to me) from Essence, called Underwater. I got this in a package from my good friend in Germany, since she knows Canada doesn’t have Essence. I have heard that Shoppers has some but none in my area at home or at school have it so according to me it is not here. 

I love these Essence Color & Go polishes since they are really quick dry and great to apply. The small size makes it easy for people like me with tiny hands and tiny nails.

I stamped my silly snowmen in Konad Special Polish in White, and away I went. Super simple but very very cute, and the little kids got a kick out of it (okay so did I, and my mom, and Grandma…) haha.

Anyways, I am off to meet friends for a Secret Santa gift exchange (yes we are a little late) and of course do a cute winter mani before I leave! Enjoy your holidays and get ready for my giveaway!

Candy Cane Nails

This is a really cute idea for Christmas that can be done in a lot of ways. You can use all red nails to base, or add the silver like I did, you can use your candy cane nails on more than one nail, with red or green or silver or anything really. This offers a simple look with lots of options.

I chose to use Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in So Poppy on my fingers, with Celeb City (same brand) on my thumbs. Then I used a white striper by Kiss and a silver glitter striper from Wow Wow Nails. I only made my ring fingers candy canes, because mine were not super neat and I think it would have looked messy and crowded on all fingers. If you can do it thinner and neatly then feel free to cover all fingers in the stripes.

This is my Candy Cane Nail, I did have some trouble with the stripers, I am not very neat an precise so I always struggle with painting my own lines.

Overall though I like this mani and think its really cute for Christmas time!

What do you guys think?

Frosty Icicles

This is Essie Lapis of Luxury from the Resort Collection. I know, big difference right? It was meant to be a fun, soft summery blue, but I think it works just as well for a nice winter shade.  I used one of my new Konad plates from Wow Wow Nails, m73 with Konad Special Polish in White.

I really like this as a winter mani. It looks like snowy icicles a frosty windows in the cold wintertime. Very fitting to what I see when I look outside.

What do you think, is this a good use of the pale summery blue?

“Baby you’re a firework…”

  
The original idea of this mani was New Year’s Eve, like streamers, sparklers, celebration. But as soon as I finished I suddenly thought of the Katy Perry song Firework. Now I cannot stop singing it every time I look at my nails.
I used a base of two coats of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Emerald City (Wizard of Oz reference perhaps?) and it is such a great Christmassy holiday colour I knew it the minute I saw it.

The image is stamped in SH Hard as Nails in Celeb City (am I the only one who finds it a funny coincidence both my polishes in this post end in City?) Anyways, I used this colour, which is a great silver for stamping, even better than the actual Konad one I find. It screams New Year’s Eve and “party” to me, haha. So much fun, shiny silver!

So my Firework mani came from one of my newest Konad plates m72, which I got from my friend Nina at Wow Wow Nails. They are now opening a new store (today actually) in Downtown Toronto, so check it out! I love that place! My mom and I were joking about opening our own in our town because we love the store so much haha.
Along with this plate I got 3 others, which will be popping up in the next few posts… fun stuff! Thanks again to Nina and the rest of Wow Wow Nails!
I really love this mani, and it keeps reminding me of the song. The song is really good, I love it and the message in it is really good especially around now.
Are there any manis or colours so images that remind you of a certain song? Let me know!

LOVE

Hi guys,

I just wanted to say how overwhelmed I am at the wonderful love and support I get from you. After I posted my little rant about my broken nails, the loving and kind comments just poured in. It made me realize how great this nail blogging community is, everyone is so sweet and I am so glad to be a part of this worldwide family.

Thanks to you all, I appreciate your following and commenting and how sweet each one of you is.

Not So Happy Holidays…

I was so excited to start making some really fun Christmas manis… Christmas is my favourite holiday, so festive and warm even though its cold out. All about family and friends and being so happy an jolly and merry. I really love the whole feeling and atmosphere of the holiday season.

But the unfortunate point of my lovely holiday story is... I broke all my nails! Every single one! I do not know how this happened!!

Okay, maybe I do. Dry, cold, windy, bitter, brittle winter. Boo on you! Its so cold and I am travelling back and forth to school and home with a big luggage to haul around. Sure I should have taken a bit better care of my nails, but to break all of them over a weekend right at the time I was starting holiday manis! Not fair at all.

I tried to overcome my great grief (you guys must understand my pain…) but the only way I can do pretty holiday manis will be on some fakes until mien grow back. And oh boy, am I telling you, they BETTER grow back before Christmas! I cannot imagine a Christmas Eve without gorgeous holiday Konadding! I need my nails back.

Please Santa, that is my only wish..

So, as Santa reads my heartfelt blog post about what it is I really want for Christmas, I can show you what I did with my first (and fake) holiday mani.

These are Nailene fake nails, Short Square size. I filed them down a bit too. The colour is two coats of NYC Quick Dry in a New York Minute (love how fast it dries, super useful for smudgers like me!) in Chelsea. Its a great holiday maroon red, and just screamed Christmas to me when I first got it in the summer. I knew I would be doing something like this with this colour, although I always imagined it on my real nails… okay sorry I’ll stop complaining now.

I stamped one of the snowflake designs off Konad image plate m59 in Konad Special Polish White. This plate was another item where I could just feel holiday ideas pouring out of my brain when I got it. I really love the holidays, I think about them all year long waiting and planning and being so excited!

In the middle of the snowflakes, and as a line near the tip of the other nails, I used a glitter striper I got from Wow Wow Nails, my go to Konad supply store. The glitter just upped the holiday feel by a million, and got me lots of notice on my mani in the days I wore it.

I love this mani and there is only one thing I would change about it if I could, and yup its the nails I did it on. But overall, good start to my holiday ideas and I am super excited to do more!

What about you guys, how do you feel about the Christmas holidays and manis to go along with the season?

Claire’s Mood Polish Calm/Wild

Okay okay, I have to admit it. I really thought absolutely nothing of the Claire's mood polishes for the past like 10 years I have seen them in Claire's. I never had any interest in them, or maybe I was skeptical. either way i never look twice or though twice to look at them.

How wrong I was!

Now that i know their magic I am in love with these polishes. Currently I only own three, but I will change that soon. The natural gradient tips they create is genius! I love the gradient effect but never would be able to get it myself. Or if I did I would have something ridiculous like seventeen layers of polish on my tips I bet. Anyway, these make it effortless. And so pretty! The photo above was the best I could get of my tips, I think that this shows up a lot more obviously when you have longer nails.

Here is the colour (is it Calm or Wild?) when it is exposed to cold water. Purple with metallic sparkly shimmer to it. So much fun. The only thing I don’t get is the “mood” part, does anyone actually believe that when you get sad or mad or happy or something your skin will turn noticeably colder or warmer? They are really temperature changing polishes, but I suppose mood changing sounded better. 

Here is the polish under hot water. A softer pink with metallic sparkly shimmer, also really nice.

I love both colours it creates, and the gradient. The colour it is when it is not under any water probably varies between people, some are warmer than others I guess, but for me it was pretty much in the middle. A pinky-purple metallic shimmer of greatness! Love it!

These polishes are great fun to play with throughout the day, and the colours look nice too. I love how this allows you to have two completely different colours on at once. Such a great idea, I will definitely get a lot of use and fun outta these babies!

Last thought, I think that these polishes might make kids wash their hands more often because they are just so much fun to watch the colours change!

What do you all think of mood polishes?

FFF - 7

Back to my FFF this week, and its been a while so lets not hesitate, the chosen one is…

Fey, from The Nail Experiment

This blog is really cute and the title just stands out to me. There are really cute Konads on here and some polish brands that I don’t often see such as L’Oreal. I also really like seeing the “things I used” because it is a different type of picture in posts.

Some of the Konads on this blog are really unique, and combine many other elements. This mani is really fun, as it has multi-colour Konad, along with a matte tope coat. I really like it and am glad to find something so refreshing.

Other things in her “experiment” include other nail art tools, such as dotting. This one was one of my favourites and it looks super fun and bright, but easy too!

For a fairly new blog, it has some qualities that I find original and refreshing, so I definitely suggest you check it out.

100th Post – Cheeky Monkey

I know its been a whole week with no post, I was super busy planning out the next few blog weeks. And I really wanted my 100th post to be a good one, so it was finally decided it would be a review of Cheeky Monkey polishes. These polishes were sent to me for review by the company. Cheeky Monkey is proudly Big 3 Free.

 

This brand has stood out to me for a very long time as an extremely unique company. Each polish has a spicy name, a little message, and on the website there are reader’s stories to go along with the names of the polishes. It is hard to explain in one post, so go to their website, here, and check it out yourself, I promise you’ll be glad you did.

With names like Hot Slut, No Bra, and Camel Toe, I knew I was in for something exciting when I got my package. The three polishes sent to me for review, with great appreciation, from the company, are Romp, Man Chaser, and Wet Dream. The photos above show the colours in their bottle with flash (first photo) and without (second).

 

 

This first polish is Romp, a dark purple with awesome reflective-ness, if that is even a word, of different shades of that purple. Its looks really cool in real life, and I tried to show the colour in the three pictures (first = LED light on camera, second = no flash natural light, third = flash). Overall, really good deep purple, nice shine, this was two coats and it had a pretty good application too.

 

 

Next one is Man Chaser, a lighter pick shimmery colour, with the same reflectivity as Romp. This one was also two coats, but I still could see a little bit of VNL, which bothers some people but I can deal with it. The pictures are in the same order, and the most like real life is definitely the one with flash. Its so shiny that some spots can appear bald at some angles. Again, could bother some people but not me.

 

 

This one is Wet Dream, which is actually my favourite of the bunch. It looks like it has a lot more pigment in the bottle shots, but it really is pretty close to clear. Again, two coats, and the most lifelike shot is the first one (camera LED). My nails are a little yellowed still (I just switched base coats a few weeks ago) but you can see the slightest teal/green hint to the polish. This one applied like a dream (haha like the name) and I really liked it overall. Can’t wait to wear it when my nails look better.

 

   

 

These little messages come on the tags of each polish, and they make me laugh. I really enjoy the sassy feel of Cheeky Monkey and how they push the envelope with really unique names and ideas. Using real life reader sorties that relate to each polish name, and cute little messages on the bottles. Overall this company is really different and pretty high up there on my list.

FFF Postponed

Hey guys,

Its been a busy week, I had my high school graduation this weekend (on Friday) so my FFF will have to wait.

To make up for it though I have lots coming in the next few weeks!

Fimo canes, a new Konad plate, Cheeky Monkey review, Christmas designs, a huge E.L.F. haul and review, and my giveaway!

So get excited and I'll post soon!

My First Ulta

This is my first ever Ulta polish, I received it in a swap package. I have never seen a single bottle of this brand my entire life, and actually had never even heard of it until I got onto the blogging scene. So since this is new to me I want to give my personal opinion on my first time using this brand. The colour here is Ever Ever After?

Now, the only thing is the colour of the polish I got. Actually it really is the colour of my nails, stained unfortunately. I have never been a fan of sheer polishes, probably because I do not like my own nails showing through. But for purpose of this post I will pretend my nails are nice and clear, not yellow at the tips (before I got my new base coat that actually works).

 

I really liked this polish, surprisingly. I am a huge pink fan of course, but this just did not speak to me in the bottle. But on my nails (and imagining them cleaner) I really like it. It applied really smoothly, and dried pretty fast. The finish is so shimmery and sparkly it almost disguises my ugly nails underneath. I like how it is sheer but still has some coverage of the colour to it. It shows my white tips (what do you call those technically? VNL?) but I did not mind that, I liked it in fact. It looks sort of like a French mani with a lot of pink sheer shimmer instead of neutral.

 

Another thing I really liked was the bottle. I like the feel of the cap, similar to the Zoya cap. Easy to hold, easy to undo. The small square shape bottle is really cute and fits well in my small hands (reminds me of Essie). You guys probably do not know this but I really have a hard time with rounded bottles like OPI. My fingers hardly stretch around it so I struggle to hold it, which is why I always have preferred the smaller square shapes such as Essie and Zoya, and now I know Ulta is the same way.

Overall I like this bottle, formula, and colour. Key word though is “like”. I do not love it, I may or may not wear it again. I see it as more of a layering polish or perhaps fro a French mani with a but more shimmer. It really is just my personal opinion though, as I have always preferred bright bold colours to the pale sheer shades.

What about you guys? What do you think of Ulta? What about sheer polishes?

FFF - 6

Trying to get back on track this week everybody, one day late though. I went to visit my best friend at her University so Friday happened to be my travel day. But there will be a FFF (on a Saturday) and it is…

my leetle nails

This blog is really cute and I love the adorable nail designs that are posted here. Some of them are pretty intricate and have a lot of different parts to them. This one for instance is one I really like, with the gradient and Konad on top.

Also, this blog has really nice swatch photos, such as this one.

It looks really nice and professional, good photos and very nice swatch shots through out the blog.

I like this blog and I think it is very well done, keep it up!

Good Luck Midterm Mani

Yes, before you ask, I do think that bright red, zebra tips, and baby bows are good luck for my midterms. Don’t know why. But that was what I thought to give me luck so I did it the night before, and Voila! I had two midterms and I’m feeling pretty good about them!

I used three coats of Essie Lolipop, probably could have done with two though. I hate how it is spelled though, it really irritates me to type it that way. But I really love this polish – favourite red! I love how it applies. I think I generally love all Essie polishes. They are so smooth and nice to apply, although sometimes they do take quite a few coats to reach opacity but I think they are totally worth it.

Next step, I stamped some white tips with Konad Special Polish White, using image plate m19. Who else thinks they are really big? The tips would take up like an entire third of my nail if I used it all. I just roll it off the edge always to get a thinner tip line.

Third step, stamping with Wet N Wild black Creme using the full nail zebra image from plate m57. Again, only rolled part of the image on because obviously I didn't need the full image size. I had finally given this plate a break but it came back into my life. You just can’t break up such a happy couple I guess…

For a while it stayed like this, but then I figured I needed a little extra luck because it was my first ever midterms in my entire life! So baby bows from plate m3 were added to my ring fingers and thumbs. Then topcoat and BAM!

Or so i thought! I had to add one more thing, just to go over the top a little more. Glitter on top! Two coats of Wet N Wild Hallucinate.

Ahh, now its done. Love it!

Thoughts? Too Crazy? Or do you also have a specific colour or mani that you put on for a big occasion?

UPDATE!

Since I did this mani for the midterm but I posted it today it is a little late. Which means I got my midterm mark back already. I got a 92% on my first University midterm! This mani worked!!

Halloween Inspired

So I am not the kind of girl who will ever have creepy faces and zombies on my nails, definitely too intense for me haha. Halloween is actually my least favourite holiday, I hate being scared! But I am going to have some Halloween manis for you! The cuter ones, like this one, stripes, candy corn, pumpkins. They will be coming along in the next few days.

But this one is first. A base of OPI In My Back Pocket was my perfect bright orange. Then I stamped with Konad plate m54 and Wet N Wild Black Creme. This design was not at all interesting me until basically now. I have had this plate for a while, and love the other images on it, all flowers and girly. This one was just random, and I thought I would never use it. Now I love it and have a few more ideas for it.

So here is my first contribution to Halloween, pretty simple, nothing scary. I can’t believe Halloween is coming up less than a week away! You can expect some more manis soon, but sorry nothing creepy or crawly from me this year!

That’s all for now, thoughts anyone? Are you big on Halloween or more like me, take it or leave it?

Featured Follower Friday - FAIL

Sorry Guys,

Yesterday should have had another FFF to showcase but I went to a family wedding all day! It was super fun and I always love anything to do with weddings. But between flowers and rehearsals and set up and making my own bridesmaid dress, I had no time to post.

We`ll be back on track next Friday though!

And I leave you with a question,

Do you guys not like to comment on posts or are my posts just getting boring now, I haven`t seen many comments lately and I`ve been feeling kinda bummed about it...

OPI - A Grape Fit

I recently received this from a swap package with the lovely Aurora, from Aurora's Nails. The swap pack included China Glaze Ruby Pumps that I have been wanting for so long! I can’t wait for Christmas to use this one! Seriously I couldn’t actually wait, it went on my toes the day I got it! Anyways, onto the OPI..

So here’s the thing. I wanted A Grape Fit from a while back, when Aurora mentioned it to me and I loved the swatches I saw. Then, as I twittered a while back, it kept popping up all over the place. Who knew? Apparently this colour purple is the end of summer start of fall polish. I tweeted that I saw it on 4 people all in about an hour. Then I saw it through the next few days probably ten times more. I knew I had to have this polish! I love the shine, its like candy!

And then, lo and behold, when I went home for the weekend it was there! I was super excited and love it! I swatched it plain and loved it, then decided to get more girly and added some baby pink Konad stamping from plate m61.

I really liked it and think it reminds me of a little girl having a princess fairy room.

Thoughts? Is this too girly for you guys or do you like the softer swatching?