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?

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!

Nailene "Starry Night" Tip Fakes

So here are some recent fake nails I have been wearing. Unfortunately I had a less than stellar experience, which for me is unusual with Nailene fakes. Normally I really enjoy them, they fit very well and are simple to apply. These were still very simple to apply, but the wear was not comfortable.

The size of the nails did not fit me correctly, they were Medium Length and I typically prefer Sport Length or Short. So right away they were annoying me being too long. And since they have a design on the tip, I could not just trim them there or else I would lose the tips.

Then, they felt really wide and were hurting my nail beds to keep on. I ended up only lasting about two days and then the pain did not subside so I had to remove. Removal was torture this time around. It was very difficult to get them off and I caused more pain to my poor fingers.

Needless to say this was not my greatest experience with Nailene Fake Nails.

Now normally I have great experiences, as you can see in a few of my multiple Nailene posts here and here.

I did file them to as short as I could without losing the entire tip, but overall was not happy with wearing these fakes. They look really pretty but the wear was too painful for me to last long with these on.

Better luck next time right?

Redo Grey Day

This is such a nice polish I had to come back to it in a matter of days. Only a few short days (or was it hours...I remember this polish so clearly) ago I swatched Grey Day for you. But I loved it so much I did a full mani with it.

I wanted to keep it simple because I loved the colour on its own so much! So I used a jem sticker from Nailene on my ring fingers. The photo above is in the natural light (at night) indoors. Below is with flash. See how the jem sparkles!? So simple and still pretty. The colour of this polish still amazes me (one coat remember!) as it is a smoky grey, or steel grey in some lights, and a slate grey in others. And sometimes its light sometimes its dark. It is all I ever wanted in a grey polish, and a bonus was the one coat!

Thanks again for the swap Sammy!

My First Giveaway!!!

Hey everyone! I am off on vacation for this whole week, so I thought now is when I should put up my first giveaway. It was supposed to be when I reach 70, and I am close enough now. That way when I return I can draw a winner. Quick, easy, one week giveaway. Ending Saturday August 21st, at Midnight.

Here are the items included, it is my first giveaway so forgive me if it isn't extravagant.
All items in here are things that I have used and liked and then thought "Hey, since I liked it maybe you will too" and went out and bought for you guys. All items are brand new!

Comet Loves Cupid - OPI Holiday Wishes Mini
All A-Bordeaux The Sled - OPI Holiday Wishes Mini

Marine Scene - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear (My favourite aqua blue!)
Lime Lights - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear

White Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen - My first review/real blog post ever!

Nailene Superstar Bedazzle Nail Art Stickers

Cranberry & Pear Bath Fizz
Cranberry & Pear Bath Soak


Rules:

1) You must follow my blog (most of you probably already do)
2) Leave a comment on any post of mine (other than this one!) and tell me which one it was on
3) Follow my Twitter account (here) OR like my Facebook page (here)

I will give an extra entry to those who do both (Facebook and Twitter)

To Enter:

Fill out the form HERE, please DO NOT write your entry in a comment, I will not take it.

I will check all entries so be honest.

Nailene's Artificial Nails

These are my life savers. Anytime I can't use my own nails for a mani (either they broke, or they are too small for designs, or I just want nails that look better than my real ones) I put on a set of these. I currently have 3 packs of the 200 count nails (yes I am aware that is 600 nails..) in my room. They only cost about 9$ Canadian, which for 200 nails (a possible 20 manicures) that price is amazing!

Here they are unpainted, these are just the full cover 200 count.

They look so real its hard to tell sometimes. They look better than my "real" for sure. I cannot even count how many times people have thought they were my own nails. They are always surprised to learn that they're fakes. Even a friend who works at a nail salon and applies fakes every single day of her life, to countless people, did not honestly believe me when I told her they were not really my nails. They're that good.

I love using these nails when I get a really great idea for a design, but am already wearing something on my own nails. Instead of taking my polish off, I can just do a full set on the Nailene fakes, and have it ready for when I need to wear them. They are so good that I know exactly which ones fit my nails, and do not have to file ever. I buy the Active Square size/length and they fit my nails perfectly. Never once have I had to file any of them to fit my nail bed. Occasionally I trim them at the tips if I need really short nails (typing test for a job interview), but generally they go on with no extra work from me.

Another great thing about them is that they leave my natural nails in nearly perfect condition. These are my before and after shots (before first, after second), and other than some leftover glue which can easily be buffed off with the file/buffer that comes in the kit, they are exactly the same. I love these nails because I do not have to worry about my nails being in bad shape when I remove the fakes.

These nails look even more real when I paint over them, and they make it almost impossible to tell they are fake. I cannot believe I have gone so many years (I just was "introduced" to Nailene this year) without these. My manicures have never looked better, if I do say so myself! Wearing these Nailene full cover fakes makes me feel like I have such pretty hands.

They take hardly any effort to wear, just glue and apply. Simple! And great results. They last for over a week, I only remove because I am excited to try something new, but I am sure I could last more than the 7-8 days of normal wear.

I have also found that any of my nail art designs (Konad, stickers, etc) look a lot nicer on the Nailene nails. They have a bigger canvas (bigger than my tiny, short real nails) for me to play with designs and that is something I really like.

Here are the So Natural French Tips.

Nailene also has pre-designed fake nails, if you are not up to painting the full cover ones yourself. I use these too sometimes, when I want a design that is too intricate for me, or I just need a quick mani (like I said, glue, apply, and go). There are plain french tips (above) or couture style ones (below). Each box of these has 24 nails, in 12 sizes, so you are bound to find one that fits your nails.

Overall, there are many reasons I love Nailene artificial nails. Full Cover, French Tips, or Couture, all of these look natural and beautiful. They are affordable and easy to use, very long wear, and very chip resistant.

Personally I have great fit with them, never needing to file, and the shape matches my natural nail beds perfectly.

Right now, Nailene Girls is having a giveaway, so you could win some of these amazing products that I love so much! There are so many more too, check out their website http://www.nailene.com/.

These are the best artificial nails I have ever used, and I am sticking to them for the rest of my manicuring life. With the great price and great results, Nailene nails are my favourite!

Nailene Big Giveaway

Here is my post about my favourite Nailene Product.

These are So Natural Short Square Length Fake Nails, by Nailene. They were love at first try for me, and I will be wearing them many more times. I love them and was shocked at how pretty they made my hands look. I felt so glamorous in them.

They were long wear and very chip resistant, and looked beautiful after a quick and easy application. No hassle, no mess, and easy to remove too.

I would recommend them to anyone.

I have another post on the application and wear of these nail here.

Check out the Nailene Website to see these and other great Nailene Products at http://www.nailene.com/.

Nailene Fake Nails - Compare

Here are my other Nailene fake nails, these are from the Couture collection. Thanks to Nailene for giving me the great opportunity to try and blog about these wonderful products!

If you recall, from my previous post about Nailene So Natural fakes, I loved them. They were amazing to fit, easy to apply, and looked great.

These have two of the above, they were super easy to apply, and look great (not quite as good as the So Natural). But unfortunately I think my fingers are too fat for these nails. They were much skinnier and had more curve to them than the So Natural. Also, these ones were medium length and the others were short. Personally I prefer the short length, and I ended up trimming these ones in order to wear comfortably.

Here is the size comparison of the Couture and So Natural. This is Couture, and you can see they are thinner and more arched.

Here are the flatter and wider So Natural nails.

Basically, it depends on each individuals hands and nails, for me I would go for the So Natural any day, but once I trimmed the Couture they were much easier for me to wear. I feel that the higher arch makes them more susceptible to bubbles with the glue, since they may not reach your actual nail.

The design was so pretty and really great for a quick and easy pretty mani. SO far my first two ventures into the world have fake nails have been very successful and I am thoroughly impressed.

First Time Fake Nails

Here is the story of my very first venture into fake nails. These nails are by Nailene, thanks so much! The ones I used were So Natural, chip proof, short square shape.

This is how my nails began, excuse the slight yellowing (yuck).

Following the directions I buffed and filed, and then applied glue to both my finger (first photo) and the nail (second photo).

Here are the beautiful results! I was very pleasantly surprised, as I never thought I would wear fake nails. These changed my mind right off the bat. They were so easy to apply and look really good!

They say they will last for seven days, and I believe that thoroughly.

They also say that they are chip proof, that I disagree. This is the result I ended up with after only four days of regular wear and tear. Typing, cooking, eating, texting, etc. Nothing crazy or out of the ordinary. So they did fall through on the no chip part, but seriously I could easily fix that with bit of white polish on top.

Removal was super easy also. I did not follow the instructions though. It says to trim and file, then soak in remover until the nails comes off. I did that for one, and it took forever (well okay only about fifteen minutes).

By the end of my time wearing them, I was able to just pop them off without soaking, which saved time. That means that they were pretty loose by that time, so they do last seven days but I would bet they would fall off if you kept them on any longer. They were loos enough for me to pop them off very easily.

The horror stories I have heard involving fake nail removal had me all worried, and for nothing! Here are my nails after removal (the improper way) and look how not bad they look!

I am extremely impressed as there was very little damage to my nails. There were a few bits of glue stuck but I buffed them away and all was well. They look very similar to my naisl before I started (see top).

This really isn't bad at all. I am very impressed by these nails in all aspects.

Simple and easy to apply. Really pretty to wear. Never got in my way (they were short length so maybe its different with longer ones...). Slight chipping, but hey I can manage. Easy removal.

Overall I really love these fake nails and am excited because I never thought I could like fakes. I am very impressed and would (and already have to my neighbours) recommend these Nailene fake nails.

I would gladly use them many more times. Love It!