These were my Halloween nails

I'm posting these a little late, but these were my Halloween nails! I really love the look of the drippy blood nail art and I've done it before, so I neeeeded to do it again. Base: Elf - Nude, blood drips in - Essie Jelly Apple and accent it WnW Black creme.

I wasn't really feeling too festive for Halloween this year for some reason, but I did like seeing all the related nail art. Of course, I got my fair share of candy and the chocolate eating done and because of that, it makes a great holiday in my book.

I'm going to say this: buying Halloween candy in an organic grocery this year has been a great idea - it was seriously amazing! I know I'm going back next year.

Minnie Mouse nail art

I have seen the OPI Minnie Mouse collection and I am sad to say, but I was disappointed! The colors are typical red/pinkish and there's a sort of interesting effect topcoat, but it's just finely milled mylar flakies with hearts glitters, like in NOPI polishes. Needless to say, I am not impressed... but rather than be mad, I did my own Minnie-style nails!

I used the Konad plates to stamp the polka dots and the base colors were WnW Black Creme, SH Instadri Whirlwind White and my favourite neon this season - China Glaze - A Rose Among Thorns.

These came out a lot prettier than I expected! I might have to do more Disney inspired stuff later on, I'm planning maybe a Steamboat style Mickey...

That will have to wait though because I am finally moving! I'm going to have access to the rest of my stash again. This means I can put this and my "temporary" 6 month stash together and organize everything. That's going to feel soo good. This also means I will have a solid place to set up a lamp to photograph and a computer desk with a desktop computer and a good viewing angle. This should solve the issues I have with photographs looking too washed out/too saturated, etc.

Ooh, so excited!

Cocktail Zebra nail art

Here's a little experiment in combining techniques such as sponge gradients, Konad stamping and a little bit of drawing!

For the base, I used WnW Black Creme, for stamping and drawing, SH Instadri Whirlwind White and Illamasqua Jo'Mina for the tips. I feel that Jo'Mina was too bright, so it stands out more than I expected. The zebra stamp, however, never fails me. It's always going to be clear and never smudge. The little martini glass was freehanded, but looks nice nonetheless. This says to me that practice doodling on my nails have improved my hand stability! I'm prone to shaky hands due to caffeine and whatever else, so tiny drawings have been harder for me to do. However, once I started practicing, it became a lot easier to stabilize my hands and keep designs from looking horrible. Here's to more practice!

faux-Claws

Claws! I've been meaning to try this look for a while and I am so happy with the way it turned out! I used ELF-Nude as a base and WnW Black creme for the claws. 

Process: base color first (ELF Nude) then wait for it to try, tape off edges of your nails so only an upside-down V shape is exposed. Paint the nail whatever claw colour you want (WnW Black Creme in this case) then peel off the tape right away. Voila, you've got claws!

I also placed some glitter on the ring finger for an accent. It's a little less clean than I'd like to see (slight smudging on the lines) but looks fantastic otherwise. It felt awesome to have a manicure like this, almost as if I really had claws. I'd recommend adventurous girls  to try it because the feeling is awesome!

Dotty nail art with Illamasqua Rare

I'm usually terrified of full nail designs for Konad, especially with fine details such as gradiated dots, but I decided to take the plunge and practice. Illamasqua Rare is a wonderful neon, but it was a little too much by itself, so I added dots. For the accent finger, I immediately realized my mistake... while black is solid enough to stamp on yellow, yellow is not solid enough to stamp on black. I had to do it manually with a dotting tool, but it came out better than I expected. I had a good experience with this stamp and hope to try using it again sometime soon.

What do you think of a bright mani like this? Would you try wearing it?

No Time for Secrets - nail art

As for the nail art, this was my attempt at black outlining, as well as using glitter individually, as seen on my ring finger. 

I used OPI Heart Throb for the base, then drew the black outline using an Art Deco black nail polish (so messy! I need to practice so my hands stop shaking). After that, I picked up pieces of the gold chunky glitter from a Daiso polish with a dotting tool and placed them on the nail. Waited for 2-3 minutes for the glitter base to dry and then topcoat. I like the end result, milky pink jelly looks great with a stark black outline and gold glitters. I need to try doing more of those outlines! 

HITS Olympo Zeus holographic

HITS is a Brazilian company that produced nail polish and their contribution to the nail polish world over the last year has been TREMENDOUS. They have released a full range of holographic polishes with Spectraflair in the Olympo collection, a ton of duo/multichrome polishes from Mari Moon and the Mundo De Dancas flakie collection, which contains flakie topcoats and polishes with flakies in them. Today, I will be showing you a black holographic polish called Zeus, from the HITS Olympo; a charcoal holographic and a slayer of longtime wants. 

One of my first really-want-but-impossible-to-find polishes was OPI - My Private Jet (original holographic version) which was a black holo and it was STUNNING. I've been looking around for it in dusties but never found it... and finally, my wishes for a black holographic came true when I got my hands on Zeus.

Mmm that rainbow!

It's a little more charcoal than black, but it still lights up a rainbow. I haven't gotten sun to show you its full rainbow glory, but once I do...

It's a little thin with 4 coats to full opacity and a little jellylike. I layered this over black for maximum colour payoff and did some stamping, with Out The Door topcoat.

I can't wait to see this in the sunlight! It's so beautiful!

WARNING: Nails! - with Illamasqua Rare

I wanted to learn how to do the drippy looking nails with dotting tools and succeeded with this manicure!

I used WnW Black Creme for the tips and drippies, as well as an Art Deco Black nail art brush to smooth it out and for the lines. The base is Illamasqua Rare. I am honestly shocked and really, really happy with the way this came out. I wanted to make it look like a caution sign/tape and it worked! The neon yellow worked very well against the black, so the contrast was perfect. I might be recreating this again, so look forward to more drippy manicures!

What do you think of this one? Too goth/neon to wear everyday or would you still rock nails like these?

Art inspiration - Mondrian nails

Sooo I got inspired by Piet Mondrian and decided to try his clean and crisp style of painting on my own nails! I used a Art Deco brush in black, as well as Wet N Wild Black Creme (best black!) as well as SH Instadry Whirlwind White for the base. This came out better than  expected! I started with a white base, did the grid with the nail brush, then filled in the squares using a dotting tool, which gave me control over the colour spread. Needless to say, I am VERY pleased with the results! I also did a gradient using a sponge, but it came out less smooth then I thought... What are your thoughts on this? Perhaps any other ideas for art to recreate on nails?

Spring Sakura nail art (Cherry Blossoms)

Spring is not too far, so I've decided to pit some spring into my day with Sakura blossom nails! These are inspired by cherry trees, which blossom beautifully before the leaves come out!

I used Sally Hansen Instadry Whirlwind White, as well as Blue Away from the same brand.

The branches are made using an Art Deco black art polish (with a really skinny brush) and the blossoms are mostly OPI Pink Friday and some Elf Bubblegum Pink, using dotting tools. 

more pics!

I really like the way these came out! Just the way I wanted them to! I can't wait to do some more stuff with deco polishes!

Also, check out what I found in a Japanese candy store! It's Dragonball Z coffee!!

Frieza says sorry about the cellphone pic

Cutie Lace ♥ nail art

Today I decided to try some nail art with cellphone stickers I got at Daiso...they're so cheap! When you get a set of cellphone stickers for 2 dollars, what's left but to put them on your nails? Hehe

So I did polka dots with Konad, over SH Whirlwind White, pink base is ORLY Cotton Candy and the white lace stickers.

I felt like a princess for a while :D

Illamasqua Scarab

This is one of the Illamasqua polishes I hauled at Sephora and it's a gigantic win for me!

Let me say this first: dark red and vampy colours are not something I'll reach for first, if ever. I don't think I have any dark reds in my collection, so Scarab is a cautious venture into the unknown for me.

After seeing swatches of this I just HAD to get it. It's such a beautiful red shimmer in a dark brown base. Truly, like beetle's shell. Although it's named Scarab, it does not match the color of Scarabaeus viettei's shells, which is black. This looks more like the shell of Lucanus maculifemoratus instead, with a bit more red shimmer.

The formula impressed me the most. This polish applied unlike anything I've ever put on! The color was pretty much a one-coater, slightly thick but not chunky, flowed perfectly. The easiest way to describe it, as if I was applying liquid vinyl on my nails. It was a beautiful experience and I am still blown away by it. I neeeed more Illamasquas! I wore this for 2 days and while there was tipwear, it did not chip and stayed on like iron. 

This is a wonderful polish, colour and formula wise. It's 14$ dollars in the Canadian Sephora, but that's a lot less than Deborah Lippmann, Chanel and NARS. Scarab has been a wonderful experience and I'm hoping I can get my hands on more Illamasquas. 

Sparitual - it's raining men and black roses

Sparitual - it's raining men is a beautiful dusty blue duochrome to pale gold and light pink - very pretty! In the photos it looks more gray than blue and in real life this is also true. The yellow evens out the blue into a greyish tone and it ends up looking very interesting...It's not as bright as I would've liked but it's very subtle.
 I was disappointed with the formula...it was runny, the the worst part was the bubbles and chunks! I rolled it in my hands for a while, didn't see any bubbles in the bottle, put it on...chunky bubbletime. For 12 dollars? No thanks!

blue shows up better with a flash!

I was a little upset at that but once I put the roses on I had a very different opinion...they came out beautifully and the color grew on me. I'd give this a thumbs up, especially as a base for nail art.Maybe my bottle was old...I'm not willing to dismiss such a pretty color on its formula alone.

BTW: what do you think of my photos lately? I'm working on a laptop so the colors don't look right to me and I have to guess...do they look too pink or too dark to you? Please let me know, I really need feedback!

Thanks <3

Video game nails Kirby, Sonic, Megaman and Mario mushrooms!

hurf durf left hand

This is what I spent my Saturday doing...absolutely nothing AND video game nails! Also my left hand is looking ridiculously wonky but the nail shape fits much better. I did this with dotting tools, and some help from brush shapes (thank YOU SH- whirlwind white for your round brush). I've been meaning to do video game nails forever, but I was lacking a yellow since I'm still away from most of my stash... Had to make do with the cremes I acquired in the last month. Also had to pick and choose characters I can do based on what color I got (sorry Pacman and Pikachu ), but I think it turned out decent! I'm hoping to do some Pokemon manis once I get my stash back...hmm...what else?

New year nails! Nfu-oh 63 holographic

My new year nails! Yaaay happy 2012 <3

Messily freehanded tips brought to you by WnW Black creme.

This is...beyond words. Nfu-oh 63 is a FANTASTIC holographic polish, which looks great in pretty much any light. It's a light pink dull metallic base which lights up like a flame whenever there's any light.

It looks starkly different from nfu-oh 61's new formula, or the "dud". It's base color is duller than new 61 (new 61 is a very shiny silver) and the holographic effect is much more intense. Keep readin for rainbow nails!

OPI - no room for the blues and Konad

OPI No Room For the Blues is something I picked up in a little travel set duo along with A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find, which came with a passport holder, pictured here:

The color is a nice, toned down non-offensive blue. It's a little bit less saturated than SH XW Blue Me Away, even though they are fairly similar in the bottle. BMA also seems to be a TINY bit more green than NRFTB, even though it is a perfect sky blue. It took me 3 coats for full opacity. It's not too streaky and dries pretty shiny. I'm happy that it's more of a denim colour, I do like its slight dustiness, yes it still looks stark and bright. I'm pretty happy with this blue! What a yummy addition to my collection.

SH xtreme wear - bubble gum pink and stripes!

here is my right hand

and my left!

This was a pleasant shock to me! When I moved without anything but boring polish and turns out that I can wear awesome polish, I was stuck on a no-buy...imagine by surprise when my mom, a woman who never touches nail polish EVER showed me that she has a little pink bottle she used on her toes once! Sally Hansen xtreme wear in Bubble Gum Pink was my savior and bright pink was something I craved.

 This polish is a bit strange, it dries with an almost waxy, plasticy finish and the shimmer makes it look even stranger...but with Seche Vite over top, the shimmer just popped and the pink became ridiculous! I didn't expect to love it but SV really changed that. This polish dries fast, a bit thick but not goopy and is opaque in 2 coats!

 I also did black stripes with tape, right hand's stripes can line up to form one stripe (coool!) and my left hand's stripes actually turned out leaning the other way...but I like it a little more. But no matter what I say, this was a ray in the dark for me, an unbelievable discovery that MY mom of all women would have a hidden, forgotten bottle of hot pink polish...amazing. I love you mom!

OPI - Not Like The Movies over black

Sorry about the photo quality, it turned out a little bit red...

When I moved, I took the most office safe color with me and turns out it's a casual dresscode! I was also stuck on a no-buy (until December! Whoo hoo!) so I had to get creative with what I brought with me.

I finally tried NTLM over black and I'm not sure if I love it as much as I love NTLM by itself. 2 coats over black. I do like how the duochrome is a lot stronger, but the fine glitter in the polish no longer gives it depth. It does look very interesting though, like a really dark gunmetal shade.

Sexy Bomb s37 and Konad

This is a konad-icure from this summer with the awesomest hot pink foil ever! Sexy Bomb s37 I reviewed here,
I liked the way it came out, even though the thumb smudged a little bit. I'm a big fan of black on pink...what do you think about it?

Pink and black bows

This looked SO good when I put it on, but the stickers started coming off a day later! I am sad...

I really love the way this came out, especially the ring finger! Bows with rhinestones are the best.

Even with a topcoat, I don't seem to have much luck with stickers, they tend to start peeling after a day or two and that's not very good. Do you guys have any tips for using stickers on nails? Have you been able to make them last?