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 - Green

I'm sure I could have done something fancy with this one, but I wanted to do a plain colour.

This is Rimmel Rags to Riches.

A friend gave this one to me a couple of months ago, and when I saw there was a green challenge coming up, I knew I wanted to use this one.
It is a light metallic silvery green. I used three coats to get coverage that I was satisfied with (you could probably stop at 2, but in case you hadn't noticed by now, I like my polish very opaque). each coat dried very quickly.

In other news ... I got back from two weeks in England yesterday!
No, I didn't make the last two posts from there - I did the manicures before I left and scheduled the posts.
Later this week, I'll show you my nails for the trip along with some highlights from the trip!

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.

Christmas Haul

So, of course I asked for nail polish for Christmas ... here's what I got:

My sister-in law bought me:
It's So Easy Stripe Rite polishes in turquoise, blue, black and hot pink
Nail Bliss spiderweb nail stickers
Cina nail art pen in white

I did this manicure while we were opening presents:

My mom bought me a ton of polish - I asked her for the whole Essence collection (since it's pretty inexpensive). She wasn't able to find many of the new ones - I guess her Shopper's got all the old stock - but she bought me all of the old ones she could find, plus more!

Essence new collection:
110 Modern Romance (shimmery peach)
128 Let's Get Lost (bright blue)

Essence old collection:
04 Space Queen (iridescent glitter)
05 Sweet as Candy (sheer pink)
26 Break Through (purple with a slight hint of gold shimmer)
34 Walk of Fame (purple-brown-grey)
38 Choose Me! (teal glitter)
39 Lime Up (x2)
43 Where is the Party? (purple/green duochrome)
46 Wake Up! (traffic cone orange)
59 Black is Back (x2)
68 High Spirits (olive green / gold)
70 Nude It (brownish nude)
75 Gleam in Blue (shimmery light blue)
83 Luxury Secret (pewter?)
95 Wanna Be Your Sunshine (shimmery yellow)

Sally Hansen HD polishes (just the shimmery ones, not the duochromes):
Digital (hot pink)
Blu (um ... blue)
Pixel Pretty (turquoise)
Three D (orange)
Lite (yellow)

Sinful Colors neon mini polish collection, which comes with Dream On (fuchsia) Pink (derp), Irish Green, Neon Melon (surprisingly, yellow) and Fusion Neon (a bubblegum pink)


My husband bought me the Bundle Monster stamping plates 2012 Collection.
I didn't take a photo, but he even tagged the package "To: B2" haha!
I'm just trying to figure out which image to use for my nails right now.

Reddit Challenge - Autumn Taping

For the first week of the Reddit 52 week challenge, the theme is taping - my previous tape manicure is here.

I wanted to try the alternate version of the patchwork manicure I found - it's taping off angled sections of your nail. (using this tutorial from Chloe's Nails Blog).

I knew I wanted to use NYC Pumpkin, because it's my favourite orange and it's October.
A friend gave me a lovely bottle of polish last night - Sally Hansen Chestnut. It's a deep red-brown shimmer.
I grabbed my Wet n Wild Rustic to complete the trio.

I love how well the colours go together.

Still working on my cleanup technique - I need a better brush, and I think I should change away from the acetone free remover.

52 Week Challenge - Water Marble

I actually gave my nails an entire week to breathe ... sort of.
I wore the black rock star manicure for a few days, and took it off on Monday when I posted the blog entry.
I used my Revlon Calcium Gel Nail Hardener to see if it would make any difference. My nails didn't peel any further, so I guess that's good.

Anyways, super early post!

I spent a long time looking at my collection of polishes to find which colours I wanted to use on my water marble.

Here is what I went with:
OPI Steady as She Rose - dusty pink with a hint of lavender. I used it with my needle marble manicure.
Icing by Claires KTDID - metallic purple / maroon shade.
Sally Hansen Golden-I - gold glitter polish (super dense)

I started with 2 coats of Steady as She Rose over top of my Quo by ORLY rubberized basecoat.

I used Brita filtered water brought to room temperature - I had grabbed a couple of those little paper cups they give you at takeout sushi places for your soy sauce.
I taped my fingers around my nails so cleanup would be easier.

Into the water, I added 1 drop of my Zoya white - just to get started without wasting my colours.
Then I did 1 drop each Steady as She Rose, KTDID, Golden-I, and a final drop of Steady as She Rose to create a nice "bullseye"

I dragged a toothpick through the polish to create a design.
Once I was happy with the design, I lowered my finger in, and used a toothpick to pick up all the excess polish on the surface of the water.

I smudged my pinky a bit, which sucks, but I didn't really want to take it off and do it again. Cleanup was a bit of a pain - the gold is not easy to get off (you can see it's still a little messy), but I couldn't imagine what it would be like without the tape!

Pretty and surprisingly easy! I don't think I'd do it often, but for a special occasion? Definitely.

52 Week Nail Challenge - Splatter Manicure

Splatter manicures ... another one I wasn't too sure about.
The Husband was even less enthused at the prospect of nail polish getting everywhere.

Anyways, to achieve the look, you're supposed to dip the end of a straw in the nail polish and blow on the straw to, well, splatter it on your nails.

I decided to just do a feature nail.

To start, I painted my nails with Wet n Wild Craze in Rustic - 3 coats. I probably could have gotten away with 2 coats.
I decided to use Maybelline Express Finish in Be Scene in Green - turquoise with a gold shimmer as the base for my feature nail. Turquoise and copper always look good together. 3 coats of this one as well.

Once those were dry, I went into the kitchen and cut up a plastic bag to lay out on the counter. Then I drank a juice box, so I had a straw to use. heh.

I took Rustic again and dabbed a little puddle out onto the plastic. It took a few tries to get a splatter, but I discovered it works best if you make sure to get a 'film' over the end of the straw.
It's not as pretty as others - I think the nail polish was a bit thick, but I sill like the result.
I don't know that I will do this again, but it was fun to try.

Next week's manicure challenge is an Ombre manicure.

copper newspaper mani

I had to take a bit of a break after some nail trauma, and after this manicure, I'll probably take a bit of a break again, just because so many of my nails are peeling :(

I was going to a convention, and was planning on wearing a steampunk themed outfit. I figured I should have nails that went with it.
I did the manicure on Friday, but took the photo this morning. It's held up really well.

This time, I used Revlon's quick dry basecoat.

For most of my nails, I used OPI "Skull and Glossbones" - 2 coats.
Once that was very thoroughly dry, I moved on to the newspaper - one nail at a time.
Dip the nail in rubbing alcohol, then lightly press a piece of newspaper on it. A lot of tutorials say to hold it there for 30 seconds, but I got a decent print after only a couple of seconds. To be fair, I was using the paper that was delivered that morning - maybe if it's older, you need to hold it longer. I also found the wetter the nail was (with the alcohol), the better the newsprint transferred.
I messed one nail up because I hadn't let the polish dry long enough, so I had to redo it.
Once it was all done, I topped it off with GOSH matte topcoat.

My ring finger I just did with Wet n Wild Craze in "Rustic", topped off with OPI's topcoat.

fun!