Radiant Orchid

I had some technical difficulties with this one - I originally tried to update from my phone, and it refused to save (the original is still sitting there "saving")

This year's Pantone colour of the year is a lovely purple called Radiant Orchid. I love the colour, so I had to check my collection to see if I had anything in the same family.

Turns out, I have two!

The one I chose for this manicure was Violet Voltage - it's on the lighter side and has a pink shimmer.

I will show the other one (Pep-Plum, also by Sally Hansen) another time.

I had a lot of people think I used stickers or stamps for this one - but it was all freehand. Nail art pens are a godsend.

Polishes used:

2 coats Sally Hansen Violet Voltage

3 coats Revlon Nude Beige

essence black nail art "tattoo" pen

Original idea found at Dressed Up Nails

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.

Revlon Selects - Revlon Parfumerie

I actually received a couple of Revlon Selects packages in the last couple of months.
First one was some more of their 3D nail strips. I got two designs. I gave one to a friend to try (I don't believe she's used strips before, so I wanted her take on them), and I kept one for myself to use for my company Christmas party - that's next weekend, so I'll have a review up hopefully next Monday.

The second box had a single polish in it - from their new Parfumerie line.

The bottles are super cute, rectangular with beveled edges, and the lid is small and round - it looks reminiscent of a simple perfume bottle. Obviously what they were going for, and it worked.
The smaller lid was actually pretty easy to work with. It's about the same height as a mini polish lid, but the shape makes it easier to hold than a traditionally shaped lid on a mini bottle.

The scent/shade I received is "Spun Sugar" - a metallic off-silver, almost pewter shade.

This is two coats - I decided to fancy it up by adding a jewel to each nail (pale blue, round; from the Claire's gem wheel). I thought it would give it a bit of a wintery feel.

First coat wasn't quite opaque, but second coat evened it out. You can just barely see some brushstrokes; and I find that's pretty typical of these frosty metallics, so no complaints there

The scent is creamy and sweet. I don't really know how else to describe it.
I just applied it, so we'll see how long the scent lasts :)
While it was drying, the smell reminded me of a new magazine with an unopened perfume sample - weird, but that's where my brain went. Once it fully dries, the sugary scent really comes out.
I did find the scent to be a little on the strong side at first, but my nose has been very sensitive to perfumes lately. I don't know if I'm just used to it now or what, but it has mellowed out to where I can only really smell it if my fingers are about two inches from my nose.

I DID use a topcoat, and the polish passed the test. Once the topcoat was dry, the scent came back, just as strong as before.

The box also contained a brochure with two scent samples
- Autumn Spice:  looks like a beautiful coppery brown shimmery bottle of goodness, and it smells like pumpkin spice, which, well, I am obsessed with.
- Surf Spray: looks like a (metallic?) teal-blue, smell is very typical of "water" scented perfumese (if that makes sense). I don't really know how else to describe it.
There were 16 shades at the time of release, and it looks like there are more now.

If I don't get any of these for Christmas, I will be buying Autumn Spice, and another one I saw in stores called Italian Leather.

The Day of The Doctor

I've already established that I am a Doctor Who fan, so I have definitely been looking forward to today - the 50th anniversary of the show.

I figured I should do a manicure that would be appropriate for today.

I think I am most proud of my ring finger - it turned out pretty much exactly how I wanted.

The TARDIS on my thumb:

• China Glaze First Mate - for the base
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Blue Metallic - for detailing
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Black - for detailing
• Claire's White striping polish - for detailing
• Sinful Colors Snow Me White - for the windows and the door sign

The 10th Doctor on my index finger:

• Revlon Chocolate Truffle - for the jacket
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Blue Metallic - for the pinstripes
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Black - for detailing
• Claire's White striping Polish - for the shirt
• Chine Glaze First Mate - for the tie

The 11th Doctor on my middle finger:

• Icing Skinny Dipping Beauty - for the jacket
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Black - for detailing and pants
• Claire's White striping Polish - for the shirt
• Sally Hansen Celeb City - for the buttons
• Ink Nail Art Dark Red - for the bowtie

A Dalek on my ring finger:

• Revlon Vincent Van Gold - for the base
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Black - for detailing
• Claire's Gem Wheel - yellow rhinestones - for the "Dalek bumps"
• Claire's Gem Wheel - silver rhinestones - for the eye stalk.

A Cyberman on my pinky:

• Claire's Celeb City - for the base
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Black - for detailing

Also ... I just finished watching the special. So. Good.

Reddit Challenge - Delicate Print

I knew this one called for stamping, so I went through all my stamp plates, and finally settled on something lacy.

I started off with three coats of Revlon Nude Beige, then stamped on the diagonal lace pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM-323 using Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Pretty, simple and delicate!

Revlon Selects 3D Jewel Appliques

Ok,
It's been a while since I did a review of a product sent to me by Revlon. I had bare nails and I didn't want to wait for nail polish to dry, so I reached for my pack of 3D Jewel Appliques. I received the Floral Fatale pattern.

This is a very cute and busy pink/white/black/silver pattern. Flowers and silver geometric shapes. It even has a bit of an iridescent shine to it.

The Review:

First up, I read the instructions - pick the right size, apply, fold over nail edge, file off excess. Just like all the other nail strips out there. Easy as pie!
Then I looked at removal. These are not real nail polish, so for removal, you simply peel them off starting at the cuticle.
My heart sank a bit at that, because I have weak nails, and peeling things off of your nails can really damage them.

I elected to apply a basecoat to help prevent damage.

Application was super easy - peel and stick, smooth down.
The only minus here were the small range of sizes. My index, middle and ring fingers are all pretty much the same size - it was tough getting ones to fit. I ended up using a couple of slightly too-small ones. Also, my thumb was in-between the largest and second largest size, so I had to trim that one down - which is pretty normal.

The excess strip filed away pretty easily, but I encountered a slight hitch ... I had stretched one of them to make it fit, but once I filed the end off, it un-stretched and I had a bare patch at the tip of my nail. It was small and the busy pattern on the applique hid it well, so I figured it was ok.

I wore it, went to bed, woke up and had my shower.
This is when it all started to fall apart. They caught in my hair, shifted and lifted. I'm not sure if this is because I used a basecoat, so your mileage may vary.

I peeled them off afterward and they came off really nicely - it looks like the adhesive is gentle enough that it shouldn't damage your nails. It only lifted the basecoat off of one nail. I'm just wondering if they elected to go for a gentle adhesive rather than staying power.

Verdict: they're cute if you want a cute complex pattern without all the work. Probably only good for a couple of days. I personally wouldn't buy them, but I think they'd be great for a lot of people - especially if they wanted a really fancy manicure for an event.

Revlon Selects - Polish Box

Alright, so I shared with you last week that I received a surprise box of nail goodies from Revlon as part of the Revlon Selects program. I'm going to be featuring the two polishes I received in today's post.

If you would like the opportunity to take part in the Revlon Selects program, they offer opportunities on their Revlon Canada Facebook page every once in a while, so check it out!
If you're not in Canada, take a look at your local Revlon page on Facebook - they may have similar product sample offers.

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First up, Revlon Colorstay in Nude Beige.
Sheer coverage with one coat, and opaque coverage in two. Easy to apply, smooth and super shiny (photo has no topcoat).
The colour? Definitely nude! I've seen other nail bloggers refer to this look as 'mannequin hands'. It's kinda neat! I think I will have to try this shade again with some black or white stamping over top.
Nude polishes seem to be in for spring, so this is perfect timing for Revlon to release this new shade.

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Next up is from the new limited Chroma Chameleon line. This is a line of duochrome or colour shifting polishes. I couldn't find anything official from Revlon (they aren't on their site yet), so here is a link to Nouveau Cheap's post with some photos of the collection.
I ended up with "Gold" which has a gold-green colour shift. I don't own Chanel's Peridot, but from what I've seen, this will be another dupe.

I was a little afraid when I started applying this one because of just how sheer it was on the first coat, however it built up pretty quickly and I only needed three coats in the end. You will end up with some brushstrokes, but they don't stand out too much.

It was a little difficult to photograph this one in my dark house in cloudy Vancouver (I really need a light box), so I took one photo with the flash and another photo in the dull afternoon sun.
The duochrome is pretty strong on this one in real life. I would recommend it if you missed out on any of the other versions of this shade. It looks like they have some other really nice duochromes in the line as well.

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And finally, (mostly) naked nails!
This one was NOT provided to me by Revlon, but it is their product ...
I quickly swatched the polishes above with no basecoat or topcoat  on Wednesday and then decided to hold off doing a full manicure for a couple of days, because I wanted to do something for a comic convention I was going to over the weekend. The first day, I had nothing on my nails at all and it actually felt weird, so when I got home, I applied my Revlon Calcium Gel Nail Hardener.
I use this once in a while, because it doesn't really work as a basecoat (I always end up with lots of bubbles), but if ever I want bare nails, it is my go-to clear coat.
I figured since my nails were in decent condition, I would share!

I get a tiny amount of discolouration toward the tips of my nails, but using a basecoat every time really helps to prevent staining or yellowing.

In a couple more days, I will share the manicure I wore to Fan Expo Vancouver, and I am going to test out the nail strips that came in my Revlon Selects package in the next few weeks.

**disclamer**

The first two products featured in this post were provided to me free of charge to test and review based on a contest I entered last year. I do not receive any additional compensation for reviewing the products, nor do I allow free product samples to influence my opinions of the product itself.

Revlon Selects News and Wild Child

First up -
As you may know, I was selected as one of 500 people to receive a box of goodies for review under the Revlon Selects program.
Now, when I entered the contest on facebook, figured it was a one time thing and thought, it would be cool if they sent more stuff later, but never really expected anything else.
Well, yesterday I got a lovely surprise in my mailbox - a square box with a Revlon Selects sticker pasted on the side. I opened it up and much to my delight were two full size bottles of nail polish and a box of nail strips. Apparently they selected a group of people at random from the first batch of 500 and sent out another box.

I got a bottle of Revlon Colorstay polish in "Nude Beige", new Revlon Chroma Chameleon polish in "Gold" (a very popular green-gold duochrome shade) and a box of Revlon 3D Jewel Appliques in "Floral Fatale" (hot pink, white and black floral design with a silver geometric pattern. - they're a bit textured, hence the "3D")

Stay tuned for some photos of the products in action!

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In other news ... A manicure!

I found this one on clearance at my local Shopper's Drug Mart and decided I wanted to get it.

It was really hard to get a photo of this one that shows all of it's elements.

The base is a black jelly polish filled with gold micro glitter.
Then, it has tiny silver holo hex glitter. In the bottle I have, this was all settled at the bottom and I had to turn the bottle upside-down and shake like mad to get it blended in at all.
Finally, it has a light scattering of small hex glitter in orange, teal, lime green, gold, purple, blue ... there might be other colours, but I'm not sure.

Since it's a jelly and I didn't want to use too many coats and muddy up the glitter, I did a base coat of Avon Licorice - a black creme - to provide a base, before adding a couple of coats of Wild Child.

The coloured glitter was a bit difficult to get out of the bottle, you'll see I only have one on my pinky and two -3 pieces on my other fingers. My thumb got 5 total. But it's enough as long as you shake the bottle before each coat. I checked out google images to see if I could find any other pictures of it, and you couldn't really see the coloured glitter in any of them.
Too bad, because this is a gorgeous polish, but since it was on clearance, I assume it has been discontinued.

Easter Nails

Inspired by my jelly sandwich from a few weeks ago, I did some Easter themed nails.
I decided to make it a ruffian manicure to incorporate some chocolate brown into it as well.

I used 2 coats of Revlon Chocolate Truffle to create the base for the ruffian. I only painted it near the cuticles, because I didn't want to create too many layers.
I went over that with a thin coat of Zoya White to create a base for the lighter colours.
From pinky to thumb, I used Zoya White, Fascino Blue, Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, Sally Hansen Pink Blink and Ardene's Stereo Love. Two coats of each.
Once those were mostly dry, I added Ardene's Paris Nights multicoloured glitter. It's in a slightly green tinted base so it did alter the pastels a little bit, but it's super pale and sheer, so you don't notice it once the manicure is done.
Once the glitter coat was mostly dry, I went over it with Sally Hansen Polar Bare to mute down the colours and matte the glitter.
Topcoat to even everything out and protect it and voila! speckled Easter eggs!

The Ardene's polish and the Sally Hansen Polar Bare both take ages to dry, but it's a super cute effect.

I wore this over to a friend's house and once they saw it they said "you have Easter eggs on your nails! Chocolate ones!"
I think the concept was a success.

Royal Blue + Heavenly + Matte

I found a bottle of Revlon Heavenly a while back and was trying to figure what to wear it over.
I saw this review on Pretty Girl Science blog and loved the way it looked, so I wanted to try and recreate it.

Without flash, so you can see the sparkles:

With flash, so you can see the blue base:

I started with 2 coats of A.Co (Ardene's) Elektronica - a lovely royal blue creme. It was a bit streaky on the first coat, and I had to be careful of creating bare patches, but the second coat solved all this and it was perfect.

Then I topped it off with Revlon's Heavenly. This is a really pretty iridescent chunky glitter polish in a slightly milky base. It is a dupe of a Deborah Lipmann's Stairway to Heaven nail polish.
You get two shapes, and they're two different iridescent colours. The hex glitter is an orange-green shift and the square glitter is a turquoise-blue shift.
Super pretty.

When that was all dry, I slapped on a matte topcoat.

I'll definitely do this one again. I don't care if glitter is a pain in the butt to remove.

I've got another post coming up on Monday - another challenge theme.

Revlon Selects Nail Polish Reviews

It's been a while, but I finally sat down and played some more with the Revlon Selects products I was sent.

The Nail Art polishes are dual-ended polishes where one side is a base coat and the other is an 'effect' of some sort. I believe the first ones were crackle sets. They also come in Neon (with a white base coat to make the neon shade pop), Moon Candy (flakies!!) and Expressionist (with a smaller detail brush)

I received an Expressionist and a Moon Candy - I'll be reviewing both!

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The Moon Candy polish I received is called Orbit.
This one was hard to get a good photo of - my camera did not like it at all (but oh, if you saw it in person, I know you'd love it!)

The base colour is a super dark purple creme. It's even and opaque in one coat - I've heard the Moon Candy polishes are like this, but I wasn't really expecting it to be THAT solid.
I love it. I honestly don't know what else I can say - it's a great polish.

The other side is a purple/blue/green flakie in a clear purple base. A lot of people complained that the flakies were hard to apply and hung off the edge of the nail. I can definitely see this - I dabbed the polish on, because that's how I'm used to applying most glitter and flakies, and the flakies were a bit on the unruly side, but I was able to place them easily enough.
The manicure was a bit lumpier than I'm used to, so I ended up having to use two coats of my topcoat.

I can't stop looking at the colour shift.

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The Expressionist polish I received is called "Vincent Van Gold"
I guess my camera doesn't like dark purples very much, because this one was hard to photograph as well.

The base colour side is dark purple with a blue shimmer - super pretty. I used it on it's own first, and it was a little too sheer for my taste.
For this manicure, I first did a coat with the base from the Moon Candy polish, then applied the Expressionist polish over top. I think this one is sheer, because it's a shimmery polish - I'm sure the ones with the creme polish base will be similar to the Moon Candy base polish.
Anyways, the colour is gorgeous and the application was nice and smooth.

The detail polish is a bright gold.
For the design, since I was doing this later at night after a busy day, I wanted something simple, so I opted for stripes - I did two vertical on one side of my nail, then two horizontal near the top of my nail.
I only had to do one coat to get solid coverage, which is essential with detail polishes.
The brush isn't as thin and long as some of the detail polishes you can find, but it's nice and flexible. I actually find the slightly shorter length to be a benefit - there is less room for wiggling if you've got shaky hands! It's easy enough to shape the brush against the mouth of the bottle to get a thinner line if you want it.
I think the thicker brush will allow you to do dots a lot easier - I'll have to give that a shot some time.

Glitter Polish and Revlon Selects

First up - my first Revlon Selects review!

I received Revlon's ColorStay Ultimate Suede Lipstick in Backstage - a burgundy shade.
I was happy to receive this colour - It's probably the one I would have bought.

Packaging: The lid is secure and the tube clicks a couple of times when twisting it. I've had a few lipsticks in the past that have popped open in my purse (yuck!) and some that have twisted up and smooshed in the lid, so I'm a fan of both of these features.
I store my lipstick upright in a box, so the clear lid is handy.

The lipstick applied very nicely - smooth and not quite sheer. I was a little worried that I would have to keep reapplying it all night.
After a few minutes, the lipstick set. Some longwear lipsticks dry out so much that you have to keep applying lip balm to prevent your lips from cracking. The Ultimate Suede was a bit dry, but I didn't feel like I had to do anything extra.

I wore it to my company Christmas party and am happy to say that it lasted through the entire night. I think I had it on for about 8 hours (through dinner, drinking, etc).
When I got home and wanted to remove it, I had some lip balm ready to soften it, but wanted to try just a tissue first. I was very surprised when it all came off with just a couple of swipes.

I think this is going to be my go-to lipstick from now on!

Unfortunately, I didn't take any after photos (I was too sleepy to think of it), but I've got another party on Friday, so I'll try to remember then.

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 Now for the nail polish!

Reddit challenge this week was "Glitter"
I decided that I was going to try the white glue basecoat to see how well it works for removal.

Some people put the glue in an old cleaned polish bottle, but I just put some onto a piece of scrap cardboard and painted it onto my nails with a brush. Once it was dry, I added my base colour - OPI Black Onyx - and my glitter - one coat of Wet n' Wild Rest in Pieces.
I really like this polish. I've seen a lot of reviewers put on multiple coats, so you end up with this sort of grey-red mess, but I think one coat over black shows how pretty this one is.

The glue removal method? I'll do it again! It worked so well - just peel the polish off from the cuticle and wash your hands well to remove any residue.

I only did my thumb, because I had to do my nails for my company Christmas party, and I didn't want to do a whole manicure just to take it off.
I'll share that manicure a little later - I've got another challenge and another party - so many manicures!

The next challenge is "Inspired by a Song"

Revlon Selects has Arrived!

I got home today, and a small box was sitting on my table with a Revlon Selects label!
My husband said that the mail man had crammed it in our mailbox - it's bigger than our mailbox, so it was a little dented, but everything made it in one piece!

Included in the box is:

Revlon PhotoReady Primer+Shadow in Metropolitan - lovely brown/taupe/gold eyeshadow shades

Revlon ColorStay Ultimate Suede Lipstick in Backstage - a shimmery wine shade

Revlon Nail Art Expressionist polish in Vincent Van Gold - shimmery purple and gold polishes

Revlon Nail Art Moon Candy in Orbit - dark purple creme and blue-green flakies in a clear purple base

Revlon Diamond Collection Nail File (I got a purple one!)

I look forward to testing these all out and posting my reviews.

I'm going to wear the eyeshadow to work tomorrow just for fun.

Revlon Selects

Last week, I entered a contest put on by Revlon Canada on Facebook - it gave 500 people the chance to win products for review.
I didn't think I'd get selected, because I've never really won anything before, but it doesn't hurt to try.

I came home from work today ready to relax after a hectic week; opened up my email and ...

Once I get the package, I will do separate reviews for each product. You're going to get to see something other than my nails for once - hah!

I'm super excited.

Oh yeah ... I created a facebook page and finally started using my twitter account - check the links on the right.

52 Week Challenge - Movember Marble

The I'm Simply Complex challenge this week is "Movember". It was originally supposed to be a Thanksgiving Manicure, but being Canadian, I chose to do that one earlier (and a little non-traditional!).

The Reddit challenge this week is Plastic Wrap.

I'm combining them again this week.

I wanted the colours to be a bit more subdued this week. Brights are fun and all, but I like greys and earth tones.

I started with two coats of Revlon Chocolate Truffle on each nail, except my ring finger. Such a pretty brown - it definitely looks like I coated my nails in chocolate.
My Ring Finger got two coats of Revlon Stormy Night - a lovely grey with purple/brown tones.

Once that was all dry, I did the plastic wrap challenge ...
I prepped by tearing off a small strip of plastic wrap and chopping it up into 8 smaller pieces, which I then scrunched up and set aside.
Working one finger at a time, I added a coat of Stormy Night over top of the Chocolate Truffle, grabbed a plastic wrap ball and dabbed it on my nail to pull off the wet polish.
It ends up looking really messy and textured, but a good topcoat smooths it right out and you're left with zero-effort marbled look!

For the Movember challenge, I used nail decals that I got ages ago. They're pink and black mustaches in various styles and sizes. I chose some black ones and stuck them on the tips of my nails. Added topcoat to seal it down and done.

I have no idea where I got that cut on my index finger - the only thing I can think of is that I've been teaching myself how to knit, and I may have given myself a friction burn or something from holding / wrapping the yarn. Also holy dry cuticles Batman! My skin always gets super dry in the winter and I've been having bad hangnails lately. My regular moisturizing routine just isn't cutting it.

Next week's challenges are Rainbow and Feather ... I have to go find some feathers!!

52 Week Challenge - Tape

This one was super easy.
I just picked two contrasting colours: Sally Hansen Mello Yellow and Revlon Stormy Skies.

I did 2 coats of the yellow, and waited for it to dry. I actually ended up waiting overnight, to do most of my nails because after I taped and painted my thumb and index finger, we had to go out - I thought I had more time! Waiting for it to dry (just touch your nails together, if they don't stick, it's dry), then waiting for another 5 minutes is pretty good advice.
Yellows are always a bit streaky, but since I was going to be mostly painting over this one, I could get away with two coats.

Then I took some plain old Scotch Tape, stuck it to the back of my hand and pulled it off (this reduces the stickyness so it's less likely to pull off your polish). Then I cut it into thin wedges and applied them to my nails.

Once that was all ready to go, I painted on a thick layer of the Revlon Stormy Skies. This is a brown-grey that I absolutely love.

I let it dry enough that it wasn't going to move anywhere, but was still wet (half a minute?) then I peeled off all the tape.

I've been getting a lot of comments on this one this week - the colours contrast really well, but don't clash.
I would definitely do this one again.

52 Week Challenge - Two Again

OK, I've been lazy again ... I did two manicures, took photos, but never bothered to upload them or post about them.

Bleh.

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Crackle Manicure:
I guess the person who made the challenge wanted to give people a bit of a break?

I had a lovely vision in mind for this one, but it REALLY didn't work.
I used Avon Golden Twilight (black with golden-bronze flecks) and topped it off with Icing by Claire's gold crackle polish ... what a mess! The Avon polish was very pretty. The crackle polish? It was thick and goopy - If you put on a thin coat, you could see brush strokes, and it didn't crackle well at all. If you put on a thick coat, it was a nice colour, but still didn't crackle well.

Here's what I did instead:

2 coats of Revlon Stormy Night

Random dark teal crackle polish that I've used once before. XOX Cosmetics colour #N72. It's a very odd polish, thick and goopy as well (I remember it being thinner before), but this one crackled pretty well. It smells like paint / permanent marker when you apply it, but afterward, it's a sweet almost floral scent.

OPI Topcoat to seal it all off and shine it up - I would have just left it matte to have that shiny / matte contrast, but when this particular crackle polish dries, it lightens as well - some of the areas where it went on thicker remained shiny and dark, so I figured the shine would help mask some of the stripes, and it did!

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Rainbow / Pride Manicure:
I moved this one to this weekend, because Vancouver's Pride Parade was on August 5th. I missed the parade, but I did wear it downtown afterward.

I was trying to figure out how to approach this one, and I saw someone with vertically striped rainbow nails somewhere (I'm pretty sure it was in one of the blogs I read, but I can't find it)

I thought it looked really cool, and it would give me the opportunity to do ROYGBV (yep, I left out the I)

I really didn't have the patience to do sponging this weekend, so I did a few thin coats, and overlapped the colours. I used cremes for the primary colours (red, yellow, blue) and shimmers for the secondary colours (orange, green, purple)

Colours are:
Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Venom
NYC Pumpkin
Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow
Wet n Wild Craze Jade
Fascino Colour #47
Icing By Claire's KTDID

phew!
I'm sure it would look better with the sponging, but I think this is pretty cute as-is.

Next week is a Galaxy Manicure - another one that I'm a bit intimidated by, but I'm sure I'll make it happen.

52 Weeks of Nails - "Earth Appreciation"

52-week challenge  - this week is "Earth Appreciation"

I was a bit stumped on this one. I didn't want to draw little recycling symbols on my fingers, so I figured "earthy" would be good enough.

 

 I used 2 coats of Revlon's Chocolate Truffle. I love this brown - it's so pretty.

 After that, I brushed on a layer of Sinful Colors' Show Me The Way. That wasn't quite doing it for me, so I tore up a cosmetic sponge, dabbed some polish on that and went over the green with another layer. Much better.

Finally, I lightly dabbing the tips with Wet n Wild Jade, just to give a slightly different shine. (it's a bright green with a gold shine to it).

Topped it off with OPI topcoat.

I like the combination of the creamy brown and the glittery / shimmery greens. The sponging added a fun texture to it - I'll definitely try it again.

Next week is "Cartoon Mani" ... I am plotting.

Holo Glitter Syrup Mani

Something fun and totally not me this week.
I'm not really a glitter person, but I saw someone with a glittery syrup manicure the other day, and I wanted to try it out.

This was a really hard photo to get - I had to use the flash, and then bring down the brightness. Every time I tried it with no flash, it was incredibly blurry. It's just a dark day today.

Started with Revlon's Post Trauma nail treatment - I'm really liking it. When I removed last week's manicure, my nails were nice and smooth, and the one nail that peels all the time looked just fine. I still love the matte finish on it. I haven't been able to find a matte topcoat, so I think I'll see how this works as a topcoat in one of my next planned manicures.

1 coat of OPI's "Moon Over Mumbai" it's a very very sheer grey with a hint of pearlyness to it.

Starting about 3/4 of the way down my nail, I added 1 coat of Claire's "Glitter Topcoat" (I swear they used to have better names for their polish when I worked there). This is a surprisingly densely packed silver and holo glitter polish. I figured i'd need multiple coats, but 1 was enough!

About halfway down the nail, I used a larger silver glitter. It's from Claire's "Precious Metals" set - it comes with 5 mini bottles of glitter polish. All of them have some holo glitter, and you get: Silver, Black, Purple, Blue/Purple and Blue/Green.
Anyways ... phew - this was a smelly polish. Almost like a permanent marker! Thankfully it faded fast. The glitter isn't very dense, so I had to kind of dab it on.
I did a second coat of this polish on the tip of my nail, to make it a bit more dense

Topped it all off with OPI's topcoat.

I'm not really sure how long this one is going to last. I'm afraid the coats at the tip might be too thick. Oh well. The fine glitter is going to be a pain in the butt to get off.

All I can really say about this one is - holy glitter Batman! It is pretty funky looking though :D I think I'm going to be distracted by all the shiny this week.

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.