New Year's Nails

We went to a friend's place for New Year's Eve - they hosted a super fun murder mystery party. It was set in a school for magic, not unlike Harry Potter.

I debated doing themed nails, but couldn't settle on something that worked, since it wasn't actually in the HP world.

Instead, I looked to Pantone, for their colour of the year for 2015.

This year's colour is marsala - a brick-wine red. I bought the perfect colour a couple of years ago on clearance - China Glaze Redstone.

It's a little dark, but it's in the same colour family, and it's really pretty.

I jazzed it up with a gold glitter gradient for the party.

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.

Catching up Part 2

I was looking up autumn nail trends, and found a couple of shades that I thought would really work well together: navy blue and chocolate brown. I also wanted to use the striping tape that I bought at a local Asian night market, so I thought diagonal two-tone would be fun.

I used China Glaze First Mate for the blue and Revlon Chocolate Truffle for the brown. The striping tape is a holographic gold.
My topcoat picked up the brown and deposited it on the blue on a couple of nails ... oops.

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Oxblood was another autumn trend, so I thought it would be a good choice.

I used two coats of Sally Hansen Burgundy Child for most of the fingers, and two coats of Nabi 3D Rainbow Effect in Tawny
The Nabi polishes aren't bad - I get them 3 for $5 at Urban Planet, and while not super strong, they do have a slight linear holo effect going on.

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I needed some orange for Thanksgiving / Halloween:

3 coats Nabi 3D Rainbow Effect in Bronze (mine is mislabeled as "Brone" - hah!) and I did a "sideways Fench" with Avon Golden Twilight - a black with gold glitter.
Fuzzy image for the slight holo effect:

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Finally, for Halloween, I decided to do something different on every finger.

- Thumb was a vampire mouth: Color Club Red de Rio for the base, Claire's black detail polish in the middle and detailing at the top, Claire's white detail polish for teeth and a "shine" on the bottom lip.
- Index finger was a jack-o-lantern: Revlon Nude Beige base, NYC Pumpkin for the pumpkin, Claire's black detail polish for the face and outline, I used a no-name green glitter detail polish for the stem.
- Middle finger was one of my favourites - a ghost. I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, added Wet n Wild glow in the dark topcoat, then created the outline with Claire's black detail polish - I used a dotting tool for the bottom and the eyes.
- Ring finger was my other favourite - a blob of slime. Revlon Nude Beige for the base, Nabi 3D Rainbow Effect in Green for the slime, Claire's black detail polish for the outline.
- Pinky was done by applying a layer of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, a layer of Sally Hansen Sun Kissed and finally a layer of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow. I outlined it all with Claire's black detail polish to create the triangular Candy Corn shape.

phew!

Reddit Challenge - Half-Moon or Border

The challenge had a choice for this one, and I chose border - half-moons can be really nice, but I had something specific in mind for Canada Day, and the border fit better.

On each finger I did two coats of OPI's Nice Color Eh? - I used this one for last year's Canada Day manicure
Over top of that, I did two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, leaving a border around the top and sides of my nails. I considered closing off the bottom with a strip of Nice Color Eh?, but thought it looked nice without it.
After that was all dry, I stamped on some maple leaves from Bundle Monster plate BM04 (also used last year). Since the design is 3 maple leaves stacked on top of each other, I used the largest one for my thumb, and the mid-sized one for the rest of my fingers.
Unfortunately, I mucked up my pinky after applying topcoat :(

Two Weeks of Reddit Challenges

I'm on a deadline for a couple of craft projects so it's difficult to fit fancy nail art in as well.

Sorry I've been a bit behind!

Also, I wanted to share that my favourite nail blogger (and fellow Canadian) Kayla Shevonne is doing a nail polish giveaway sponsored by Butter London Canada. Today is the last day - go enter!

**** Giveaway ****

This post has two weeks worth of challenges in it, just so I can focus on getting my other projects done.

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First up, this last week's challenge was "Inspired by a Flag"

I chose the Union Flag (or Union Jack), but I also wanted to show what flags were used to create the Union Flag ...

It's a little wobbly because it was all done freehand with normal sized nail polish brushes. I really need to get a striper brush.

Thumb: Union Flag

Index: Flag of England - St. George's Cross

Middle: Flag of Scotland - St. Andrew's Cross (sorry, I didn't have an appropriate blue, it's supposed to be an azure blue background)

Ring: St. Patrick's Cross. From what I understand, this one is frequently used by the government to represent Northern Ireland. Check out Wikipedia for some information on Flag disputes in Northern Ireland.

I just used the blue on my pinky to tie everything together.

Colours Used:

Blue - Ardene Elektronika

White - Zoya (colour unknown)

Red - Essence Flame Fatal

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This coming week's manicure is "Flowers"

I settled on daisies.

Two coats of Essence Wake Up!
Then I used my Claire's white detail polish to create the daisy and added a dot of  Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine for the centres.

Comic Nails and my Storage Unit

Ok, so this manicure has been sweeping across Reddit - and I love the way it looks - so I wanted to give it a shot. It's called a "Comic Book Manicure"
It's a take on the outline manicure, but the colours and a bit of detail makes it look like it's right out of a comic book or cartoon:

I started with 3 coats of Essence Flame Fatale - this is a lovely classic red. I think I like red nail polish now.
It goes on really evenly even with only one coat, but I had a pretty visible nail line. 3 coats made it opaque.

For the outline, I used my new It's So Easy Stripe Rite polish in Black. Flows nicely, opaque in one coat and dries kind of matte. Because detail brushes are so thin, I did a couple of stripes side-by-side to get the thickness that I wanted.

Then, the final detail to make it look like it's out of a comic book - add a 'shine' with white nail polish!
I used my Claire's white detail polish, and essentially did an exclamation point near the edge of the red on each nail.

Love it! I've been getting so many comments and compliments!

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And now, my new nail polish storage!

If you go wayyyy back, you'll see I kept my nail polish in a box.
Well ... after many gifts and some purchases, my collection grew - the box was mostly full and I had a second smaller box for my minis (aaand, I used the lid of that box for my topcoat/basecoat/remover/etc). Everything else was kind of strewn all over my vanity.

Since I bought the Melmer, I have all my nail junk organized and pretty. My other makeup however ...

Here is the unit - there is a bit of a smudge on the top drawer, not sure where it came from:

Top Drawer is my full-size nail polish. It is primarily organized by colour, then I have sheers, glitters and other effects. I originally had this on the bottom, but it squeaked horribly whenever I opened it, so I switched it to the top. The empty spots are polishes I've set aside for a couple of possible future manicures (you can see some of them on top):

Middle drawer is my basecoats and topcoats, smaller polishes, scented polishes, and my detail polishes - this one is mostly sorted by brand:

And bottom drawer is all my other junk - nail files, cuticle goo, lotions, jewels and fimo bits, stamping supplies, removal supplies, and nail stickers - the straw is for my splatter manicures and I use the little plastic cup for water marbling!:

I keep my stamping plates on top in baseball card holders - it's a bit of a pain, but they work for now:

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by a Book

This was another tough one - I have a lot of trouble with imagery apparently.

I was going to just do Harry Potter, but it's been done so many times, I didn't want to end up with exactly the same thing as someone else.

Granted, this design does use 3 designs from other manicures, I haven't seen them all combined into one.

I give credit for this one to a co-worker. He found out I do my nails and have this blog, and when I told him that my next manicure was supposed to be inspired by a book he said,
"can I pick the book?"
and I replied,
"sure, why not?"

Without further ado - here is my Interview With The Vampire manicure:

I haven't read the book in ages, and I haven't seen the movie in ... well, probably longer, but I figured a vampire theme would be easy.

For my thumb, I did a coat of Sally Hansen's Burgundy Child from their No Chip 10 Day line (long discontinued), which I went over with a coat of OPI Comet Loves Cupid. I (for some unknown reason) don't actually have a proper vampy red. I went over the middle of that with OPI Black Onyx and used my Quo by ORLY black detail polish to even it out. Then I went over that with my Claire's White detail polish to create the teeth.
Burgundy Child is a very deep plum colour with a bit of shimmer. I really like it, but rarely wear it.

For my index finger, I did two coats of Zoya White and stamped on some roses from Bundle Monster plate BM-323 using Comet Loves Cupid and Burgundy Child. I was hoping it would swirl together, but it didn't at all. The Comet Loves Cupid was quite sheer over the white, so it came out almost pink. Oh well.

For my middle finger, I used 2 coats of Essence Modern Romance. I created vampire bites using a q-tip first dipped in Burgundy Child, then Comet Loves Cupid. I added black dots in the middle of the splotchy marks and then did blood drips (again with the burgundy then red over top)

For my ring finger, I did 2 coats of OPI Black Onyx and stamped on the diagonal lace pattern from Bundle Monster Plate BM-323 using my Claire's White detail polish (it's more opaque than the Zoya).

And finally, for my pinky I did two coats of Zoya White, then I scraped most of the polish off the brush of the Burgundy Child and dragged that over the tip, then I did the same for Comet Loves Cupid.

This was all rather time consuming, because I did all the base colours first, then decided to change the order of them, then I kept messing it up. Since it took so long, I gave up on my left hand and just painted them all black (except my pinky, which is the white with red streaks).

I really like each nail - I think the index finger would fit better with a deeper red, but it still looks good. If I was to do it again, instead of the roses, I might go for the theatre masks from Shany Plate SH02, to represent Louis and Claudia arriving at the Théâtre des Vampires.


Next week's theme is decal / transfer - looking forward to an easy week! (I'll probably jazz it up a little, but after this week, I need something easy!)

Reddit Challenge - Red

I must have tried 3 or 4 times to get a good red manicure.

I really don't like red polish all that much.

I went with 2 coats of Avon Ruby Slippers (red jelly with tiny silver glitter in it.  It's really ugly in the bottle, but gorgeous on the nail. Only problem is, it takes a million years to dry.

I wanted to be a bit Christmassy, so I added a feature nail with Zoya Envy - a deep pine green - and finished it off with a matte topcoat.

The green is almost too dark, but I still like it.

The next challenge is New Years - I have some ideas, but we'll see what happens!
I will have a different manicure to post between now and then, provided it turns out - haha!

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 - Inspired by a Song

I had a really tough time with this one, and I asked people for help.

I asked my husband first. At the time, I was painting my nails black for my company Christmas party, and he just looked at my nails, looked back at me and raised his eyebrows. "Paint it Black" ... I really didn't want to cop-out, but I kept it in my back pocket.

I asked a co-worker. "99 Red Balloons", he suggested and gave me a link to a website with a list of songs that have colours in the title. Very crafty!

I browsed the site and thought "Yellow Submarine!" but since I'm going to be taking it off quickly to do a manicure for another Christmas party, I didn't want to put a lot of time into it.

I started typing in bands, looking for lists of songs, I finally went back to The Beatles, and figured why not just go for their costumes for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

So ... here it is!

Thumb is 3 coats Claire's Scented Banana
Index finger is 2 coats Wet n Wild Lavender
Middle finger is 3 coats Claire's Scented Lime
Ring finger is 2 coats Fascino Blue
Pinkie is 2 coats Wet n Wild Red

Details are done with Claire's and Icing detail polishes in gold and silver.

Fast and cute!

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"

Reddit Challenge - Rainbow

I've wanted to do a rainbow water marble for a while, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity.

Except, I didn't want to do it on every finger. I thought, why not do water marble tips?

A few tries and lots of nail polish remover later ...

2 coats OPI Black Onyx on each finger, except my ring finger. Then I taped off the tip and painted on a coat of Zoya White.

2 coats Zoya White on my ring finger.

Water marble: 

1 drop Zoya White, 

1 drop Wet'n'Wild Red, 

1 drop Sally Hansen Sun Kissed

1 drop Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow

1 drop Claire's Scented Lime

1 drop Ardene's Electrified

1 drop Essence Break Through

Swirl and dip!

For my ring fingers, I taped off around the edge of my nail to help cleanup and dipped the whole thing.

While my other fingers were still taped from the white, I dipped them 2 fingers at a time (to save time and polish). I did my index and middle finger, then my thumb and pinkie. 

I did not wrap the tape all the way around, so there was a LOT of clean up on those ones.

The photo shows some spots that I missed on cleanup - darn it - there was nail polish all over my hands.

I think it looks really neat! I don't think I'd do it again with that many colours, but if I was to do a water marble with 3 or 4 colours, just doing the tips would work really well.

Reddit Challenge - Earthbound

The theme this week was "Inspired by a Game"
I've been playing Earthbound lately, so I figured it might be fun to feature the four main characters.

Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo ... (I guess that's sort of backwards, Ness is on my index finger)
I didn't think I could do their whole bodies, so I went with just their faces. I think Ness came out the best (too bad there's a shine on his mouth)

Image of the gang for reference:

I did a water marble on  my thumb, because in the game all of the battle backgrounds are weird psychedelic swirly things:

(imagine that animated)

Colours used:
Claire's Scented Lime (for the background - say 'fuzzy pickles'!)
Zoya White (to block out the face shapes and for Jeff's glasses)
Essence Modern Romance (nude with shimmer - for the skin)
Claire's Scented Banana (for Paula and Jeff's hair and the water marble)
QUO by ORLY Instant Artist Black (for the outlines and black details)
Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Red (Ness's cap and the water marble)
Claire's Jazz (blue, for the bill of Ness's cap)
Wet n Wild Lavender (for Paula's bow and the water marble)
Sally Hansen Sun Kissed (for the water marble)

phew!
I only actually did my right hand ... I didn't have the patience to do a lumpy mess on my left hand, so it's just solid green.

The other challenge this week is Tribal ... but I think I can only do one fancy pants manicure in a week, so click here to see my last tribal one.

Next week is black and white for Reddit and Movember for the other challenge. hmm.

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by Reddit

I've actually only been on the nail polish board on Reddit, so this was a bit tough. I was going to go with the main colours of Reddit (blue orange white) and do something with that, maybe draw the alien.

Then, I volunteered to help someone out by taking a series of photographs of how I do my nails, step-by-step, including any sketches or inspriation.
Well, I figured this was good enough - it was a manicure I've been meaning to do, and had a sketch of (I never do that), but just never got around to it.
Reddit inspired me to go for it.

On my thumb and ring finger, 1 coat of OPI Black Onyx

Other fingers 2 coats of ORLY Rock The World - I really like this one, it's a wine colour with gold shimmer.

Then comes the detail ... using my Claire's white detail polish, I painted blocks and stripes on my thumb and ring finger, and large french tips on my other fingers.

I painted over most of the white with Clare's Scented Banana and ORLY Rock The world. Then I used QUO by ORLY Instant Artist Black and Claire's White detail polishes to clean up the design.

The design is actually inspired by something - a dress I think? I haven't been able to find it since I did the original sketch.

It was a lot of work, but it turned out well!
There are several layers in some spots, so I'm not sure how long it will be until this chips.

Vintage Manicure

I removed my magnetic polish, and was just going to leave my nails bare for a couple of days ... but well ... I got bored, so nail polish happened.

I decided to do a vintage manicure - it was on the 52 week challenge list, but it was before I jumped in.

I've kind of always wanted to try doing one. In the 1940's, one of the styles was to leave the moon and the tip unpainted. Kind of odd looking, but it was interesting to try!

I used the image from this website as my guide. Instead of following the last step, I just made sure to create an edge that ended before my nail tip. I always use a basecoat to prevent staining, so wiping off the polish wouldn't work well.

Anyways, here is the manicure -  I went with OPI Comet Loves Cupid, one of my mini polishes, because it was red and it had a smaller brush.

Not bothering to clean this one up because it's coming off probably tomorrow.
I'm going on vacation, so I'm going to be trying out Sally Hansen Nail Strips for the first time ...

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 Week Challenge - Canada Day

I really meant to post this at the end of last week, but I've been so busy lately.

So, like I said at the end of last week's post - this was supposed to be a 4th of July manicure, but being a Canadian, I'd like to be a bit patriotic and do a manicure for Canada Day.

I grabbed the one colour I knew I HAD to use ...
OPI Nice Color Eh? (hah, they could have made the effort to spell it "colour") It's from their 2004 Canada collection. I believe it was added to their regular connection, and was discontinued sometime in 2010. I found it for $4 at a sidewalk sale in a mall a couple of years ago, and this is actually the first time I've worn it! (I don't normally do that)

The polish is a pale red / dark pink with a shimmer - it really is a nice colour!
I think my dark red carpet influenced my camera to pick up the red. In most light, it was a dark pink.
I painted it on all but my ring finger using 2 coats.

On my ring finger, I used my mystery Zoya off-white.
3 coats for nice non-streaky coverage.

Once that was thoroughly dry, I stamped a maple leaf  from Bundle Monster plate BM04 over the white using the Nice Color Eh?
The plate image is actually 3 maple leaves stacked on top of each other - small, medium, large, top to bottom. I just used the largest bottom leaf.

Next week's manicure is a gradient manicure ... trying to decide on colours!
And I'm going to try to get it posted earlier this time.