Nail Art - *~Canada Day~*

Happy Canada Day! Hope all my fellow Canadians are having a fun time celebrating our national holiday. I tried to be as patriotic as I could with red and white tops, red lipstick and (of course) patriotic nails~ No one at work commented on my look today, other than give me strange looks due to my red lipstick (normally I wear zero makeup and VERY casual clothes at work). Guess people in America do not know today is Canada Day. Enough jabber, onto the nails!

This is a picture heavy post since I really liked how my nails turned out!

 And the right hand, which has better dotticure maple leaves because I am left handed.

 Here is a closer look at the maple leaf dotticure:

Mani Composition:
Thumb & Index - OPI Alpine Snow, Nicole by OPI It's All About The Glam, OPI All I Want For Christmas (Is OPI)
Middle to Pinky - OPI All I Want For Christmas (Is OPI), Formula X For Sephora Wham!


The abstract dot maple leaf design just kind of sprung into my mind as I grabbed my dotting tools. I'm super happy with how it looks, it's cute and pretty. Definitely gaining better control with dotting tools; practice does make perfect! This is motivation to do more nail art~

NOTD - Halloween Nails!

Hope everyone had an awesome Halloween! Hope you guys got to have a festive and exciting way to celebrate the day. I did not get up to anything whatsoever; didn't even dress up for work. I realized, since my teens, I have only dressed up and done something festive two or three times. Perhaps next year I should force myself to do something even if Halloween falls on a weekday. Enough rambling, on to the manicure!

Short blurb on the manicure: me and my fellow polish loving co-worker went to work on Halloween with very similar nail art. We went around the office showing other girls our mani's and everyone thought we had done our nails together! Guess great minds think alike ;)

So much blood! Middle finger has blood dripping and pinky blood splatter. My Frankenstein ended up having very creepy, soul-less eyes that I thought was very fitting. Originally, the index fingers were supposed to be stamped with skulls but it was bed time (I need my sleep!). The thumb was an excuse to use one of my "fuzzy" polishes and I also ran out of nail art ideas. In case you are wondering my right hand had an identical mani.

Mani Composition:
Thumb - OPI My Vampire Is Buff (MVIB) topped with China Glaze You're A Hoot
Index - Zoya Arizona (base) topped with Zoya Rica
Middle - OPI MVIB with dripping OPI All I Want For Christmas (Is OPI)
Ring - Nicole by OPI Sweet On Pete, OPI Black Onyx, OPI MVIB
Pinky - OPI MVIB (base) spattered with OPI AIWFC

This was a fun mani to do. I got to try out a lot of nail art techniques that I have been wanting to do, such as the dripping and splatter techniques. The dripping turned out nicely, but the splatter needs more work (I think I need a thinner straw).

Did you guys do Halloween themed nails for Halloween?

Nail Art - Minion Nails!

Today is a great day! Finally my lamp arrived for my newly made lightbox. This lightbox is larger than the one I have at home and has a cool feature...changing backgrounds! My boyfriend was able to cut a slit to allow the exchange of coloured paper, so I could have different coloured backgrounds for my pictures. How exciting right?! There is no greater way to debut this new lightbox than with Minion Nails!

I am a beginner in terms of nail art, so things never turn out as perfectly as I want. But once the minions' cute mouths were drawn on I couldn't be disappointed at my nail art. They were just too adorable!

Mani Composition:
Goggles - Color Club Revvvolution
Goggle band & Mouth - OPI Black Onyx
Eyes - OPI Alphine Snow, OPI Black Onyx
Overalls - Color Club Bright Night
Minion Skin - Nicole by OPI Hit The Lights





These were super cute! Their cute little faces made me real happy and melted my heart. I hope these little minions also made you guys smile~

NOTD - Neon Leopard Holo Garbage

Any thoughts on the odd title? I just had to use the word "garbage", you will know why later if you do not already know. Recently, I got to go to one of my favorite polish supply stores! Yay~ I actaully had quite a bit of self-control in the store to my own surprise. When I got home I couldn't wait to use my new pretties! Awhile back Rebecca Likes Nails did a leopard mani using a couple of polishes from the China Glaze Sunsational collection. Needless to say I loved the combination and had to recreate the mani! My version is identical to her's except I wore Orly Sparkling Garbage on my pinky (hence the title).

The leopard print was kind of butchered, since I had to use a very awkward tool (the flat head on the back of a tiny needle). After searching all over the apartment for a "dotting tool" this was my best alternative. Should have brought my dotting tools! Anyway, I'm calling this "abstract leopard" haha.

Mani Composition:
Index & Middle - 2 coats China Glaze That's Shore Bright (with Top Coat)
Thumb & Ring - 2 coats China Glaze Highlight of My Summer and ChG TSB leopard print
Pinky - 3 coats Orly Sparkling Garbage

Gosh! I am loving everything about this mani: the colours, the combination and that holo glitter! Thanks for the inspiration Rebecca~

How do you guys like this mani? Do you own any of the polishes used in this mani?

Untried Polish Challenge - 2 Colors

Today, I have an exciting challenge to tell you guys about. You may have seen a few blogs doing this challenge already, which is how I came across it. This is the Untried Polish Challenge made by Just Add Polish. I think this challenge is a brilliant idea! As a person who tends to buy polish at a rate faster than she wears them, a group of polishes start to sit around waiting patiently to be tried. So this challenge will really help to make my untried stash smaller (maybe even non-existent!). The term "untried" I think of as polishes that have never been worn. Polishes used in pedicures, nail art, stamping, if it has been opened and put on the nail in anyway I do not consider as an untried.

The challenge is extremely flexible. It can be done in any order, over how ever many days, and not all need to be done if some do not apply. The flexibility is great, because I have a very hard time keeping up with 31 day nail challenges (I attempted once and abandoned ship). I like to enjoy my manicures for a couple of days. Let's get cracking' on this challenge!

We are starting off with "Two Colors" because I am doing this challenge in random order based on how my mood strikes me. Or stating it in a more poetic way: where ever my inspiration shall come from. The two untried colours are OPI Play The Peonies and OPI Give Me Moor!.

What made the manicure:
Two coats OPI Play The Peonies as base for all nails.
Thumb & Index - Stamp with OPI Give Me Moor! from Cheeky Jumbo C plate
Middle - OPI Give Me Moore! half moon
Ring - OPI You Glitter Be Good To Me
Pinky - OPI Play The Peonies

This is my first attempt at a half moon and it did not turn out well. Me trying to fix it also made the half moon worse. The stamping was not as successful as I had hoped either, but maybe with more practice I will get them perfect. With all that said, I really enjoyed wearing this mani because I loved the colour combination and how it looked from afar.

Do you guys have a stash of untrieds? Will be taking part in this challenge? (If yes, I would love to see what you come up with in this challenge! Provide a link in the comments below)

NOTD - Easter Dotticure Mani

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you are all having an awesome weekend with family and friends, perhaps around a turkey even. I did not realise Easter is not an extra long weekend in the USA, in Canada we get both the Friday and Monday as holidays. Easter seems like a common holiday; but different country, different holidays, I guess. Onto more important issues like this Easter mani.

 L-R: Color Club Factory Girl, OPI Rumple's Wiggin', China Glaze Lemon Fizz, Zoya Neely 

 L-R: OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Oh So Glam!, Kiss white polish

Two coats of each base colour was used before adding dots. The exception being Factory Girl, which required 3 thick coats due to its awful formula. The thumbs consisted of two coats MBSW, one coat OSG and dots (using the base colours). White dots were done with a white polish from a Kiss French Manicure set. One coat of top coat was applied to all nails.

One thing I have to shine the spotlight on is my thumbs. Love love LOVE the layering of OSG on top MBSW. The layering softened the white and added this beautiful, subtle golden glow. 

This was a fast, simple manicure that anyone can do at home without special tools. Just paint each nail a different colour; and add dots using pen, pencil, bobby pin, etc. The most time consuming nail would be the thumb, because you have to dot each colour one at a time.

I have no idea when this mani will be removed. I don't think I have the heart to take this off because I love it too much. It's so soft and cute, definitely reminds me of easter eggs!

Hope this has inspired some Easter mani's out there. Thanks for checking in!

NOTD - Neon-ish Leopard Nails

This is currently what I am wearing on my nails, and thoroughly enjoying. I do love my leopard nails. The colour combinations are endless, creating a different vibe even though the pattern never changes. The inspiration to use fun, bright colours came from Swatch and Learn's leopard nails. 

Polishes used:
Base - China Glaze Surreal Appeal (2 coats)
Spots - OPI Fly and China Glaze Sun-Kissed
Outline - OPI Give Me Moor!

Hope this look has inspired you guys to do some fun leopard nails as a big welcome to Spring. Thanks for stopping by~

NOTD - St. Patrick's Day Clover Mani

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I have never celebrated this day in full swing; meaning being decked out in green, drinking green beer and having difficulty remembering any of it the next day. The most I have ever done was last year me and a friend went to an Irish pub and each drank a "cup" of Guinness. And that is the only time I have ever gone out on this day. I think my avoidance of going out on this day (and any other major partying days of the year) is because I am afraid of the craziness. All the bars and clubs are jam packed with extremely drunk people (much more so than usual). So I avoid the madness and have a quiet night at home doing my nails~

This mani idea came from a St. Patrick's Day tutorial that China Glaze posted on their facebook page. I had to practice a few times on a piece of paper before actually drawing the clovers on my nails. They didn't turn out perfect, but I am pretty happy with it considering this is my first time. I should mention that China Glaze Running In Circles turned out to be the PERFECT St. Patty's green and it's sparkly (doesn't get any better than that)!

Polishes used: 

Base:
China Glaze Glittering Garland (index & pinky)
ChG Running In Circles (middle & ring)

Clovers:
ChG Gussied Up Green (middle & ring)
Zoya Neely (index & pinky)






How To:
Two coats of each base colour was painted. Different sized dotting tools were used to create different sizes of clovers. I put a drop of polish on paper, dip the dotting tool in and drew hearts with it. Use the heart just draw as a positioning guideline for the next heart to create either a 4 or 3 leaf clover.

Tada! Below was the final product (forgot to put top coat on middle and ring fingers > <)

Before I added the clovers, I actually just wore the base colours for a couple of days. Absolutely love the pairing of these two greens together.

The sun finally decided to make a short appearance. Naturally, I had to snatch up this opportunity to show how these two polishes shimmer and sparkle. The picture is blurred to show the sparkling better.

This last picture is where I was originally going to stop adding nail art. But then I decided to add more clovers. Which mani do you prefer?

Thanks for stopping by~ What was on your nails this St. Patrick's Day? Did you also do some nail art?

Haul - Cheeky Nail Art Tools

Hello~ I thought I would show you what I got from Cheeky during their 15% off promotion. There were some plates that I wanted along with nail art tools. There are lots of nail art out there that I still want to try, so I decided to get a brush set and dotting tools. Let the creative juices flow!

The package came in a bubble wrap envelope, then everything inside was wrapped in bubble wrap as well (no pictures posted). I do have an issue with the bubble wrap envelope, because it is not stiff enough to stop the items inside from bending/folding. As a result, my nail brush bag was bent and one of my plates was slightly bent at a corner. The bending is minor that it doesn't actually affect the outcome of the product, but still I like my products to arrive in mint condition. My thinking is they should have put a piece of cardboard in the envelope along with the items. Payment, order processing and mailing took 3 weeks total (shorter probably for those who pay by credit card).

On to the goodies! I got a set of 3 large plates that I have been wanting for a long time, been wanting to stamp my nails in a paisley pattern! Set of 5 dotting tools giving 10 dotting sizes. Lastly, a set of 25 brushes for nail art that came in a roll up bag.

I am so so excited to use these! Already started using my new dotting tools to create a flower dotticure. One thing I did not realise until I got the package was that larger stamping plates means larger stamping images. So the images on these new plates I got are way too big for my slim nails. This means I won't be able to get the whole pattern on my nails...sadness :( But this is great news for people who have large nails, since many seem to have a hard time finding images large enough. Nonetheless I'm still over the moon about my new toys to play with!

Did you order anything from Cheeky during their promotion? How do you like Cheeky products? Thanks for stopping by~

NOTD - Green Dot Flowers

Happy Saturday! I am feeling super upbeat today despite the gloomy weather outside. Perhaps it's my nails making me feel so cheery. Today I am sporting some super easy nail art. I just got my first set of dotting tools in the mail couple of days ago and I had to try them out!

For this mani I used 2 coats of OPI Did It On 'Em as a base. Next I dotted 5 dots in a circle to create the petals in China Glaze Exotic Encounters. Lastly, using the same dotting tool (clean of course) I added the white center in each flower using a white french manicure polish by Kiss. 

The mani felt like it needed a little more "umph!" to it, so I decided to add white dots between flowers using a small dotting tool. As if this wasn't enough, I added a coat of OPI I Juggle...Men to finish the mani off. Presto! This is what I had at the end:

Below is what I actually envisioned in my head as the final look. I wanted the white dots to be small and spread out. Only my thumb turned out the way I wanted exactly. Got to keep practicing with these dotting tools!

Hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial-ish post. What are some nail arts you have done lately?

NOTD - Triangle Tape Mani

Whoohoo my first tape mani! I used China Glaze Creative Fantasy as the base then taped off my nails in V's. The V parts are China Glaze Glistening Snow. I used a generous amount of glistening snow for each nail in order for the glitter to be dense enough, though the glitter is already very dense for this polish.

I used top coat on Creative Fantasy (only on index and ring fingers) before adding Glistening snow. I loved the different textures in this look: the rubber finish of Creative Fantasy, the juicy top coat and the rough glitter. It's just so visually interesting!

 Lastly, I put top coat on all nails as a final step for ultra glossy looking nails. I also love this high shine, smooth look.

Which look do you prefer (before or after final top coat)? Have you done tape mani's of your own?

Week 3 - Animal Print

Hello everyone, it has been a veerrrry long time since the last time I posted a blog. I just recently moved so I haven't had the chance to post anything. Sad part is I was forced to select a small number of polishes to bring with me on this move, since I wasn't able to bring all 80 some odd bottles of polish with me when I only had 2 luggages to pack my life into. It was very heartbreaking to leave my stash, but looking on the bright side of things this only means I get to acquire new colours while I'm away from home! Anyway, enough chit chat here is the week three animal print pattern.

The first two pictures were taken with natural light (it was sunny that day, yay~)

This picture was taken with natural and artificial light combined. So basically I had the light on in my room but took the picture close to my window.

Artificial light (warm, aka. yellow light instead of the blinding energy saving white light though being green is awesome!).

For this nail art I used OPI Deutsch you want me baby? as the base for the whole nail. Then OPI Bring on the bling for the centre of the leopard pattern. Lastly, I used OPI Royal rajah ruby to line the outsides of the leopard spots. And of course as always to finish off I used Seche vite to give this design the delectable gloss all manicures deserve. Hope you enjoyed the post!

Week 2 - Stripes

Time for some stripe action! I really wanted to use a glitter polish I had purchased recently on sale at Trade Secret, so I created this look and it kind of reminds me of a nicely wrapped present using fancy glitter wrapping paper (if that exists).

For this design I used two coats of OPI Excuse Moi! then OPI William Tell Me About OPI to make the stripes. This picture is taken with natural light.

This picture was taken with flash (sorry for the darkness, I'm still fiddling around with the flash). I wanted to show more the depth of the glitter polish, isn't it pretty?? I love the colour!

Week 1 - Polka Dots

After looking at all the many bloggers out there doing 31 day nail challenges, I decided to take on this fun task myself! Though, it's turned out to be more of a 31 week nail challenge for me.... since I usually like my nail design too much to remove it after just one day! (I'm sure you must all understand) You might also find it strange that I'm starting off with the Polka dot theme, since this is actually Day 11 on the 31 day nail challenge. The gist of it is I wanted to play around with neon colours and decided to do a polka dot design and realised "hey! I should do the 31 day nail challenge" so voila! Here we are!

The colours I used were China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise and China Glaze Sun-Kissed. Both colours dry matte, which I actually really like surprisingly. I have always been a glossy nail type of girl, but I'm really loving matte neons now!