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.

Party Nails

I don't normally wear dresses, so I have to buy one pretty much every year for company Christmas parties.

This year, I wanted to make my nails match.

The dress I got was black with metallic black polkadots - so my plan was to go with matte black nails and shiny drops on top, but it really didn't work out the way I had hoped.

Then I tried shiny french tips, which I am still terrible at freehanding, especially when I'm in a rush.

I finally settled on matte black with a feature nail of shiny black with fine silver glitter.

1 coat Avon Licorice on every finger except my ring finger, topped off with GOSH matte topcoat.

1 coat of ORLY Goth on each ring finger finished off with a normal topcoat.

Subtle, but it went very well with the dress!

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.

---

 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.

Reddit Challenge - Winter Nails

I had a really pretty blue to white gradient in mind, and wanted to try a sponge gradient. Problem is, the colours I chose were all way too sheer, so I had to improvise.

I started with two coats of Zoya White to create a solid base.

Working one finger at a time, I dabbed on some NYC Turquoise Seas at the cuticle, then dabbed some of it off with a sponge. I bought this polish so many years ago when I had turquoise in my hair, and a lot of turquoise in my wardrobe. It's a really pretty shimmery sheer turquoise.
I added some Sinful Colors Cinderella in the middle. I am still in love with this blue. I keep looking for more, because I'd love to have a backup bottle.
Then I finished the gradient by dabbing on some Sally Hansen Polar Bare, a white jelly polish.

While the polish was still a bit sticky, I added a coat of Wet n Wild Hallucinate - iridescent glitter - to help blend it even more.

I like the icy look of this manicure.

Next week is glitter ...
I found out that some people are using white glue as a basecoat when dealing with glitter polishes - it sort of turns it into a peel off nail polish. I think I'll give it a shot!

Rainy Saturday Nails

I've wanted to try a cloud manicure for a while, and I figured that today would be a good day to do it.

Here is a tutorial - it's super easy!

I started with two coats of OPI Black Onyx. I need more of this. It's the best black I've ever had.

One coat of Mark. Trend Industrial - this is from a set of two mini polishes, the other is a faded purple. I'm not a big fan of these polishes, I've tried using them once before and they took forever to dry. I love the colour though.

One coat of Avon Matte Concrete. I used this one before for the Spun Sugar manicure. It's a bit thick, but otherwise, I really like it.

On top of the Concrete, I did a coat of Wet n Wild Hallucinate, an iridescent glitter.

I really like the way it came out.

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.

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.

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!!