Still Feeling The Love

Even though Valentine’s Day is over, I still have some cute nail designs for the holiday. This one was done with Claire’s mood polish, in Awesome/Silly, which is pink in both temperatures, so I found it to be perfectly suited for Valentine’s Day theme.

I used Konad image plate m3 for the tiny hearts, done in Konad Special Polish in White. These are so cute and dainty for the pale pink colour, they remind me of heart shaped clouds in a pink sky. Very Valentine’s-ey to me..

  

I think this is a really soft and sweet girly manicure, which fits perfectly for the holiday. When I think of this day i think everything girly and pink and very lovey dovey. This mani says all of that to me.

The image above is the cooler temperature, where it is a really really light pale pink shade. The image below in in water, so it is sort of in the middle of changing. I thought this was a cool shot so I added it in the post.

 

Now below is the warm temperature colour for the polish,. This one actually was hard to show because I had to use really hot water and it was burning my hand. You can see the water drops left on my nails because it would turn right back to cold if I dried them. This shade of pink is much warmer and I think it suits my skin better than the really pale one. It also shows the hearts a bit better as the white has more contrast against this darker pink.

Other than the length of my nails (don’t you hate when one breaks and then the rest all follow…) I really like this mani. I am definitely a fan of using mood polishes and Konad together because it completely changes the stamping and look of the design with a new background colour.

What do you guys think?

Valentine’s Day Mani

I don’t know why but I just love Valentine’s Day! Maybe because my favourite colour is pink and I love heart shaped anything. So for one whole day the entire world loves what I love all year round. It makes me so happy. Even without a “valentine” I think this day is just meant for love love love! To anyone, a best friend, sister, Mommy, my cat, a bottle of nail polish, whatever you love!
Anyways, what I love right now is my manicure at the moment. I used a polish by Faces, number 139. I wish they had names, those are my favourite parts about nail polishes haha, the silly or cute name that goes with each colour.

But this colour is really pretty, even without a name. It sort of looks like a rosy pinkish purple colour, leaning more towards the pink but still that hint of mauve. It isn’t crazy bright but is bold enough that it doesn't look dull. I stamped using black to add more sharpness to the mani, but I can see it being softer and sweeter had I used a pale pink or white to stamp with too.

The stamping I did was with Wet N Wild Black Creme, my go to black stamping polish. I seriously have tried about five others but this one always wins out. Even over the Konad Special Polish, I always choose this one. The image plate I used was m73, the little heart tip pattern on the side.
  
Overall I love it, and hopefully you guys feel the love tomorrow too.
Happy Valentine’s Day!

Awesome Calm, Wild Silly.

This is a design I am actually so excited about! I used Konad plate m69 and two different Claire’s mood polishes. Using the mood polish as a base and the stamping colours makes this mani change colours together. The whole thing looks different every time the temperature of my hands change.

 

This is the mani when two fingers were one temperature (one colour option) and two were the other. This was a struggle to photograph, since I had to get only two of my fingers under the hot water and two of the fingers cold.

The base colour is two coats of Awesome/Silly and the stamp colour is Calm/Wild. In one temperature The mani is two shades of pink, while the other it is a pink and purple combo. Pretty simple post here, just so happy with this mani, or the idea of using colour changing polishes to stamp with.

Here is a quick shot of the supplies used. I would really like to know what you guys think of using mood polish to stamp with.

So guys, let me hear your thoughts, have you ever used mood polishes for stamping or the base to make your designs change colours?

Oldie But Goodie

This mani was from a long time ago, and I just stumbled across the picture. I actually meant to post it right away because I really liked it, but this just proves how busy my new University life is.

I am definitely liking the colour choice for fall (yeah it is more like winter now, but it was from way back). I used a new to me polish by OPI, Mauving to Manitoba. This polish was from the Canadian Collection, which I feel (sort of) close to. Although I do not live in Manitoba, the colour and the fact that it had something to do with Canada made me buy it a few weeks back. I have used it a couple times since, and always hover over it when choosing my next polish colour, so it stood the test of repetition.

The colour is different, its a pinky purple shimmer metallic shade and the formula is really good. It was pretty much opaque but my application sucks so I had to use 2 coats to even it out. In different lights it looks much lighter or darker, clearly this is the dark version (anyone else notice how dingy the lights in a dorm room can be? Clearly polish swatching is not a normal University dorm activity…). The lighter it gets the more pink it seems, and the darker the light it turns more to a purple maroon colour. At least in my eyes.

I don’t have any other colour like it, so I’m happy I bought it then. For this mani I used Wet N Wild Black Creme to stamp with on Konad plate m69. Originally I was drawn to this plate for the flower design, but have come to notice I use this one much more often.

Anyways, I really like the colour and the stamping pattern, so I ended up happy with the combo.

What do you guys think?

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!

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!

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?

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?

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?

Does This Make Me Look Rich?

Okay, crazy thought here, this mani makes me look so gangster! Haha I feel like one of those girls in a music video, with expensive drinks and lots of “bling” and possibly throwing money in the air. Strange huh…

This was done using Konad plate m57 (I need to take a break from this plate, my poor other ones are neglected!) and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Gilty Pleasure – does anyone get that? I would understand Glitzy Pleasure or some play on the fact that it is gold, but Gilty? I think I must be missing the reference here..

Anyways, I stamped the cheetah print tip thing (is it a tip, I don’t even know) on all fingers except the ring. I did the full cheetah pattern on that one. I used Wet N Wild in Black Creme to stamp.

It isn’t one of my best but I did feel super rich and fancy walking around with it on, funny feeling, so it stayed for a few days.

Thoughts, comments, what about what mani makes you guys feel really rich?

Random Turquoise & Grapes

So this was a really random design I did while bored at my University Residence without my laptop. I don’t love it and I wish I had left it with just the plain colour because I liked that much better.

The base colour (which I liked a lot) was China Glaze in Four Leaf Clover. The colour in these photos looks a little different than it does in real life. In real life the polish is a more pure green colour, not as minty as it looks in the pictures.

When I ruined it (I mean stamped it…) I used Sally Hansen Celeb City. I stamped the lace/fishnet pattern on plate m57. Then on top of that I used a dark purple from Claire’s (no name sticker on the bottom) to stamp from plate m55.

I used the grape image just because I really like it a lot. I had been wanting to use this image for a long time, but never found a good design. Apparently I still haven’t found a good one because I don’t like this at all.

What do you guys think?

Pink & Black Baby Bows

These are super cute and super girly, and actually really simple to do.

The base polish colour is NYC in Midtown. I used two coats and its a really great shiny hot pink.

Then I stamped the plaid pattern on m60 in Konad Special Polish in Princess Pink.

Lastly, I used Wet N Wild Black Creme and stamped bows (I used both sizes but not at the same time) on each finger.

I think that it looks nice from farther away, as just pink and black blows, but if you look closely the other pink plaid adds much more dimension to it. That was my favourite part of this design, and I kept staring at it to see the plaid underneath.

Mommy says the plaid underneath is too subtle and was a waste because nobody notices, but I liked it. What do you guys think?

My Stash

Hello!

I am back home from my first few days at University. It is pretty hectic there, especially with no laptop to keep me updated. I might go crazy if I can't catch up on my favourite blogs!

Here I am (for a few days at least) and I have something special to share with you guys.

Since I moved to my Residence, I organized all my polishes into a drawer. So here goes nothing, this is my stash...




It is not as big as some of the great bloggers out there, but slowly I am growing. People at my school now think of me as the crazy nail polish girl who has an entire drawer to fit it all!

Hope you enjoy!

Guest Nails

Over the weekend I found myself a super cute assistant! After a family baby shower we ended up back at my place, where of course the nail polish is strewn all across the house. Immediately we found an activity while our mothers chatted...

We spent easily over an hour going through which of my polishes stamped over which. I learned a lot because I am constantly struggling with now knowing what colours show up over each other. This little session helped tremendously!

My new assistant (who is currently replacing Mommy as my hand model for today) was so sweet and had tons of suggestions for colours I should try. And she kept getting what we called "button hair", where her hair got caught in the button on the back of her dress! So cute!

Of course the swatching session would not have been complete without doing my little assistant's nails after..
She chose this right away, knowing exactly what she waned (which is a pretty hard decision when you are faced with about 15 image plates to pick from, sometimes I can't even decide). The white is Sally Hansen White On and the black is Sally Hansen Black Out.

I think it looks adorable! I know it might risk looking tacky on my nails or anything longer, but since hers are still petite it looked super cute! Stamped from m61.

We also did toes, since it is still summer. We went through a lot of options for these and ended up with white dots (White On) over China Glaze Four Leaf Clover. Stamped from m60.

I think both her hands and feet look great, and my audience (her mother and sister, my mother and brother) all agreed.

Thanks for all your help with picking my colours Tini!!! Come back soon :)

What do you guys think?

Tiffany Nails

These nails were my copy of Wow Wow Nails' Tiffany Nails, seen here. For my base colour I used Essie Turquoise & Caicos, from the Resort Collection.
I stamped with Konad image plate m56, using Konad Special Polish in white. This was the "Tiffany" image.
Here are some pictures of the final product. Again, not a hard one at all, but looks really cute (and looks like I shop at Tiffany's, as if I was rich)!


Close up of my thumb, which was the only difference as Wow Wow Nails had a larger bow on the thumb but I kept mine all the same.