Deep Breath

Saturday is the premier for Doctor Who series 8 - Peter Capaldi is taking over as The Doctor, and they're doing a feature length episode (called "Deep Breath")

Of course I had to do themed nails to match!

I don't have my usual tools, so these aren't as great or clean as I wanted, but I still like them

Polishes Used:

essence Black is Back

essence Flame Fatale

essence nail art Tatoo pen

essence French Tip pen

Color Club Blue-topia

Orly Galaxy FX Gravity Bound

China Glaze Holographic Cosmic Dust

China Glaze Frostbite

Ardene Tigers Eye

- Thumb is a TARDIS, as usual.
- Index finger is continuing companion, Clara - based on her Christmas outfit, which I believe carries over for at least part of the new episode.
- Middle finger represents the 12th Doctor's new costume.
- Ring finger is, as usual, a Dalek, because even though I don't think they'll be in this episode, they're a huge part of Who (and I love doing Dalek nails …)
- Pinky is simply Orly's Galaxy FX polish, mainly because I couldn't think of anything else to add!

Revlon Selects and Christmas

Revlon Selects sent me some of their Revlon by Marchesa 3D Jewel Appliques, and I saved them for my company Christmas party.

I used Gilded Mosaic - a very pretty gold and silver mosaic pattern.

Last time I tried the appliques, they only lasted a day before peeling up, and I kinda got frustrated with them. I had used a basecoat, which I think was part of the problem. 

This time I followed a how-to blog post from someone else (I forgot to save the link, and now I can't find it), and didn't use a basecoat.

The how-to said to use a "feather touch" when filing off the excess sticker, and ... yeah, these are so thick that you need a little pressure. I was still being gentle though. Some of the ends were still ragged - though I think that's a product of the design on these ones and my nail length - some of the jewels popped off at the ends of my nails.

I touched up the ends and wrapped the tips with some gold polish, and because the ragged edges were still bugging me, I went over it with a topcoat (it had to last a couple of days, because I was working the day of the party).

On my ring finger, I used Avon Matte Concrete, Essence Black is Back and Bundle Monster stamping plate 323 to create a nail that matched my party dress.

Now, the nail sitckers actually lasted several days this time before the design started to wear off, revealing the white base. 

I followed the directions, and peeled them up from the cuticle edge. Every finger except my thumbs (both hands), went well.

Here is what happened on my thumbs:

It peeled off a layer of my nail in some places - this was the better of the two. My other thumb had much larger sections peel off.

So, next time - basecoat for SURE.

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After letting my nails rest for a few days, I decided that I needed to do something Christmas-y

I used Color Club Red De Rio, then applied Claire's Cranberry scented polish from last year's scented holiday collection (it didn't really smell ... I think it's faded now). It's a fine red glitter with slightly larger gold glitter strewn throughout.

On my ring finger, I used a tutorial from Nailside to make a Christmas tree. I used China Glaze Winter Holly for the tree, and applied a gem to the top.

Winter Holly is a fun colour - packed with fine dark green glitter, and I think I spotted some gold and silver in there too.

My only complaint is the base of the glitter somehow caused the red to soak through my basecoat and stain my nail.

Flakie Comic Nails

I wanted to do comic book nails again, but I thought it might be fun to add some flakies to it.

Two coats Color Club Love Links - this is a red with just a hint of orange. I picked this one up a while back on clearance from a local nail supply place. I was going to buy OPI's My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours, but spotted this bottle for $1.99. It looked pretty close in the bottle, except the OPI had a slight shimmer to it. I was mostly looking for the shade, and I love a bargain, so Color Club won.

I added a coat of Icing By Claire's Rave Royalty - I really wish this one photographed better. The flakies are an iridescent orange-gold.

I applied a black outline using It's So Easy black striping polish and the "shine" detail using Claire's white striping polish. I think I could have left out the white, but it still looks good.

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by Colour

I have really liked blue lately, so I figured, why not choose blue for this challenge?

I started with two coats of Ardene's Elektronika - a very pretty dark blue creme that I've used quite a bit. I used this as a base for the star of this manicure ...
Color Club Total Mystery - a sheer blue base with a blue-purple shimmer. I'd put this as a subtle duochrome - you can see it in the bottle, and you can sometimes see it on your fingers. I like it a lot, it's really pretty. I wish I could get better photos of it.

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by Food

I was sorting through ideas for food related manicures, and settled on watermelon.
This is another super easy and cute manicure you can do.

1 coat Wet n Wild Lavender.

1 coat Sally Hansen HD Digital - Like the other Sally Hansen HD polishes, this is a sheer shimmery polish. Digital is a hot pink.

1 coat Color Club Green Scene for the french tip - this is a very pretty bright minty green. I got a mini bottle on clearance at a beauty supply store.

Seeds were added using Essence Black is Back and the small end of the Essence dotting tool.

I know I said way at the beginning that I didn't want to spend the money on dotting tools, but at $2.50, I figured I would give this one a try. It's not bad. I still say you can get the same effect with other tools, but it does what it's supposed to (I actually used it for painting something not-nail-related before I used it on my nails.)

My friend actually did a watermelon manicure as well - we were talking about the next thing we wanted to do, and we both said watermelon! The green on hers is up the side of her nail - super cute!

Next week's theme is Yellow. I'm going to go with something pretty simple.

Reddit Challenge - Grey

This weeks's challenge was pretty open: Grey

I decided to keep it simple and subtle.

2 coats of Avon Concrete (matte polish)
French tips done in Color Club Wild Orchid
I used a top coat to make it shiny, because I didn't like the matte for this manicure.

I love how well the colours matched. Wild Orchid does have a slight purple shine to it in some light, but for the most part, this was a very, very subtle french tip.

Next week's challenge is Inspired by a Flag. I had such a hard time with this one last time I did it, but I think I have something in mind this time.

Reddit Challenge - Stripes

This week is stripes - they are probably some of the easiest nail art you can do!

I wasn't really sure what to do, so I just grabbed some colours, tried a couple of things and finally settled on this:

Two coats of Color Club Wild Orchid - a medium grey with a pink-ish shimmer. In sunlight this polish looks purple. It's really pretty! The first coat was a little patchy, but the second coat fixed it right up.

Off to one side, I did a single thick stripe of Essence Fortune Cookie from their Cherry Blossom line. It's kind of a mustard yellow with a very slight simmer to it. I had to do two coats to get good coverage over the grey.

Then I outlined the yellow stripe using my Stripe Rite black polish. I didn't think it was quite done, so I added a stripe down the middle of the yellow as well.

I keep thinking it looks like a street.

Reddit Challenge - Splatter Manicure

My last splatter manicure was a feature nail, because I really wasn't sure how I'd like the technique.
I'm still undecided. It's fast, but it's messy. This time, I wanted to go with all my fingers, and it's actually growing on me ...

I started with a base of Essence High Spirits - in the bottle this looks like some sort of gold-ish olive colour, but on the nail, it's a gorgeous sage green with a subtle shimmer
I actually did this as a straight manicure on Friday night, so what you see here is 3 and a bit days wear - almost no tip-wear and no chipping! Oh Essence - for a cheapie polish, you are amazing.

Instead of removing a perfectly good colour to do a splatter manicure that I wasn't sure I'd leave on for any length of time, I just splattered over top of it.

I hunted through my collection and found one I thought would match well and be a good consistency for splattering (my last one was too thick and came out a bit lumpy).
I went with Color Club Port-Folio. I got it in a box set from a friend. At first, I thought it was a brown / green duochrome, but it's actually purple! (the "Port" portion of the name should have given that away, I guess ...). I think this is my third purple/green duochrome? oops! I really don't like having more than one of the same colour. Granted, the other two duo-chrome in opposite directions and are different shades, but still, it's a bit much - haha! I'll have to do a side-by-side comparison to see if they are too similar and then I'll give one or two away.
Anyways, you can *just* see the duochrome effect on my index and ring fingers, and a little bit on my thumb.

I love this colour combo, and will have to try it again sometime.

Later this week, I'll have a review of BOTH nail polishes that I received from Revlon Selects.
Next week, the challenge is "Inspired by Technology"
Finally, I also want to take some photos of my collection, now that it is nicely stored away in my Melmer!

New Year's Manicure

This week's Reddit Challenge was New Years - even if I wasn't doing the challenges, I'd still want pretty nails for New Years Eve.

I knew months ago that I wanted to do a glitter gradient, and it seems that they're the 'it' thing right now - which is pretty awesome.

I tried it with the glitter at the top of my nail this time and I went with a subtle colour combo.
Please pardon the tip wear - my nails are too short for me to wrap the tips and the top coat I used seems to be causing the polish to shrink (you can see on my thumb where I didn't quite get it all the way to the edge, so the polish cracked vertically)

I used two coats Color Club Blue-topia - it looks black, but it's actually a deep inky blue. First coat is pretty sheer, but it would be hard to do this one as a single-coat polish because wherever you overlap, it gets darker.

The gradient was done using Essence Choose Me! a teal glass fleck polish. I dabbed it on near the cuticle and dragged it down my nail to create the gradient effect - I used a few layers to build it up closer to the cuticle.

This one was really hard to photograph - the contrast is much more obvious in person.

Reddit 52 - Blue Marble

This week's Reddit theme is Blue!

As previously mentioned, Sinful Colors Cinderella makes a reappearance here. I really do like this colour.

I started with my cheapie Fascino #047 pale blue creme - one coat on each finger.

Then, I taped off my ring finger and did a water marble using #47, Cinderella, Sally Hansen HD Lazer (blue/purple duochrome), Claire's Jazz (medium blue jelly with blue sparkle), Color Club Blue-Topia (deep, dark blue jelly) - I dotted the colours into the water randomly then swirled and dipped. I ended up with large waves on both hands rather than swirls, but I really like it.

On all my other fingers, I added two coats of Cinderella.

Pretty Blue!

Check out this link to see what others did with the Blue theme

52 Week Challenge - Metallic/Magnetic

I wanted to try something combining metallic and magnetic polishes - like a half moon or something.
I tried it and it really, really didn't work.

So, here is a plain old magnetic manicure - easy and pretty.

I like putting a matching colour underneath the magnetic polish. Here I used Color Club Artsy Crafty - a dark green creme.
I find that using the magnetic polishes on their own can be a bit hit and miss - Most of them tell you to do a first coat, let it dry and then do a second coat that you use the magnet on. This seems to result in dull lines. The base polish can sometimes be pretty sheer, so you can see the metallic underneath.
Whenever I've used a regular polish in a matching dark shade (or even a black polish) it has given me a lot of definition between the lines.

The magnetic polish I used for this one is Claire's Magnetix, using the magnet provided.
The Claire's Magnetix is actually a really good polish. The brush is wide and flat - I could do my fingers in one swipe and my thumb in two. The polish is smooth, and the magnet is strong. I held the magnet over the wet polish for 10 seconds and it pulled the polish into super tight lines which spread out slowly as the polish dried.

I don't use them often, but I really love magnetic polishes.
I think I'd like to pick up some more colours if I can find them at a reasonable price. I don't like spending a lot, and magnetic polishes are usually $9 or more here in Canada.

52 Week Challenge - Gradient Nails

This week is a gradient manicure - there are three main styles:
The first is the ombre, which I did about a month ago - a different shade on each nail creating a gradient across the hand. The other two are very similar - it involves creating a gradient on each nail. The syrup mani, which involves multiple layers of a sheer polish and the sponged or layered gradient like what I did for my Earth appreciation mani.

I decided to do a layered gradient - I tried sponging, but it didn't quite take with the nail polish I chose.
It was really hard to get a good photo of this one - I took about a dozen in different light.

I chose these colours, because I wanted to wear the manicure to a steampunk concert. I dressed up, and I figured why not have my nails match my look?

Started with Color Club Boho Mojo, 2 coats for the base - I've used this one before in a couple of manicures - obviously I like it!

I painted and sponged on OPI Shim-merry Chic from their Christmas '09 collection - I did this in two thin layers, one starting lower than the other to help the gradient along. I like this one - it's a sheer brown with red-green flakies and blue, green and orange iridescent glitter - fun! I grabbed the 'mini merries' set on sale after Christmas. I wish I had realized how pretty Shim-merry Chic was at the time so I could have picked up a full size bottle. Oh well! I'll just have to use my mini sparingly!

Then I finished off the tips with Color Club Nouveau Vintage, which is a nice shimmery bronze with some red-green in it as well.

Next week's is a Rock Star manicure ... not too sure what makes a manicure a "rock star" one ... hopefully google is my friend!

Filler Manicure

I'm still trying to figure out which flag to paint on my nails.
I'm thinking of just saying 'to hell with it' and doing the flag of Libya (it's solid green)

Anyways, my Ombre was chipping pretty badly, so I removed it and did another manicure before going to a family get-together yesterday.

2 coats of OPI Cuckoo for This Color (3 coats on a couple of nails, just because it didn't want to cooperate)

Then I chose Bundle Monster plate BM21 for the fancy filigree pattern and stamped it using Color Club Boho Mojo (seen in my very first post!)

It took a few tries, because the scraper wasn't getting all the polish off of the plate, so when I went to pick up the design, it was blobby.

I like how subtle the effect is - it's very delicate and pretty.

I'm providing two photos, because I chipped one of my nails while making dinner tonight (no, the nail polish didn't end up in the food - I'm more careful than that!), and because it was hard to get a photo.
Unfortunately, the tips are chipping already as well :(

52 Week Challenge - Ombre Manicure

This week's challenge is an "Ombre" manicure.

I've seen them done two ways - a different shade on each nail or a gradient on each nail.

Since there is a "gradient manicure" further down the list, I decided to go with a different shade on each nail:

Color Club Rebel Spirit on my thumb nail (3 coats)

OPI You Don't Know Jacques on my middle finger (3 coats)

OPI Skull and Glossbones on my pinkie (3 coats)

For my ring finger, I mixed You Don't Know Jacques and Skull and Glossbones in a 1:1 ratio.

For my index finger, I mixed Rebel Spirit with You Don't know Jacques in a 1:2 ratio.

The mixes were painted on with a paintbrush I had kicking around. These took 4 thin coats each - there was a bit of drag from the brush, so it was tough to get a nice coat.

I REALLY like this.
They have ombre manicure kits available at Nordstrom in the States - The Husband and I are going to Bellingham in July, so I might just stop at a Nordstrom and pick up a set or two!


This photo was actually taken with my new phone. My contract was up, so I figured I'd finally get a smartphone (Google Nexus S) - I think it takes better photos than my actual camera. Sheesh!


Next week's manicure is a "Flag Manicure"
There are lots of interesting flags - it'll be hard to choose (I'm saving Canada's flag for further down the list)

Nouveau Vintage Stripe

I did this one on Sunday night, so it's coming up on a week old - it's wearing pretty well. My other hand started to chip a bit (on my problem nail).
It was a bit hard to photograph this one - natural light was too dark, and with the flash, you get that shiny spot. I stuck with the flash photo, because it shows the colour best.

This is Color Club's Nouveau Vintage from their Back to Boho collection. 2 coats. I'm loving everything I've tried from this collection. I have to put stickers on the bottles with the names though - I keep having to look them up :p

Topped it off with Gosh Matte topcoat. This is the only matte topcoat I have tried and I would call it more of a "satin" finish than a true matte. It flattens everything out, but there is a dull shine. Not sure if other matte topcoats are like this or not, but this was the only one I could find locally.

Once that was all dry, I took Icing by Claire's nail art polish in gold, and did two stripes on each nail.

Boho Mojo, Here We Go!

Let's get started!

Alright, now, my nails have never been in great shape - the middle finger on my left hand is the worst - it peels all the time. The others occasionally peel. I use my hands a lot - I type, paint, cook and do dishes, so I usually keep my nails short and rounded (just my preference, squared suits a lot of people, but it's not for me)

I decided to start trying to take better care of my nails.
My previous routine was to file the tips when necessary, and then once every month or so, cut, file and buff. Nothing special, and it mostly worked.
I picked up Sally Hansen's Healthy Cuticles Now! cream. It's been less than a week, so nothing much to report. I also grabbed a cuticle pusher / trimmer thing.

Here is my little collection ... there isn't a huge range of colours. I tend not to follow many fashion trends, so you won't see a lot of the latest and greatest things.
For my manicures, I generally start with an idea, and if I don't have the colour I need or want, I'll see if I can find it somewhere - usually on sale - hah!
Click the photo to see notes on flickr.

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Today's routine was: Remove last week's manicure and moisturize. Shower, then trim cuticles and apply cuticle cream. Then after I ate, I swiped my nails with remover just to get rid of any excess cream and oils, then started the nail polish application ...

Natural lighting:

With Flash:

I started with a basecoat of Revlon's Post Trauma Nail Treatment - this fills ridges and supposedly strengthens and restores nails. I figured I'd give it a shot, because of my usual problem nail. It dries quickly and has a matte finish. It would be nice to wear on it's own if you don't want it to look like you're wearing nail polish, but want that protection.

I used 2 coats of OPI's Skull and Glossbones, an off-white creme (sort of a grey-taupe shade). I wanted a pale, solid base on my nail, since I was planning on using a fairly sheer frost polish. I chose this shade, because it has similar tones to the next colour.

Then I applied 2 thin coats of Color Club's Boho Mojo, from their Back to Boho collection. I found the shimmers set for crazy cheap at Winners. I wish they had the cremes as well, but alas!
As I read in several other reviews, you get visible brushstrokes. I think because I started with an opaque basecoat, and only did a couple of thin layers, the brushstrokes aren't as bad.

Once that was all dry, I used a Claire's detail polish to draw two thin diagonal stripes on each nail. I grabbed this idea from my friend who did the same thing, but with a base of iridescent glitter.

I topped the whole thing off with Color Club's topcoat from the Back to Boho set. I usually use OPI's topcoat, but I wanted to try this one out. It's got a VERY strong smell. It's been a few hours, and I can still smell it.
However, this one dried a lot faster than the OPI.