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!

Swatch - China Glaze Surreal Appeal

Another one from the China Glaze Cirque du Soleil collection to show today. I picked this baby up through a "buy one get one free" deal exclusively for this collection at Sally's. Admittedly this polish was not originally on my wishlist, I just took it as the "free" polish from that deal and bought Whirled Away. This polish fought against my low expectations and wowed me on the nail. So let's get a look at this hidden gem.

China Glaze Surreal Appeal is a bright coral pink cream. On the nail, the colour is darker yet brighter (in almost a neon way) than the bottle. I put on 2 medium coats with top coat in the pictures below.  The colour is a tad more pink/coral in real-life rather than orange as seen in pictures. I used this polish as a base for my leopard nails, which shows the real-life colour accurately.

Specifications:
Formula - easy application, pigmented
Finish - shiny
Dry time - average
Removal - easy
Wear - great, no chipping or tip wear after 5 days of wear

Collection swatches: Creative Fantasy, Running In Circles, Surreal Appeal

I became obssessed with this colour once I had it on, and didn't want to take it off (wore it for 5 days!). This colour turned out to be a lot brighter than I expected (maybe I have been wearing vampy shades for too long...go away winter!). Appearing to be another regular coral shade when in actuality this shade offers a pink tone and brightness that cannot be observed just looking at the bottle. Hope you enjoyed this review~

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~

Review - Gals Fairy Stamping Set

Awhile back I won this Gals Fairy stamping plates set from a skittlette contest held by ChitChatNails. I couldn't believe I actually won a prize and was super excited to receive these. You can see my contest entry mani here. To review these plates I decided to stamp the most intricate design I could find to test pattern carving quality.

The ring finger is stamped with the most intricate design. The pattern seems to be carved well, since I am able to make out fine details. I should have chosen a different type of polish for stamping to better show the quality and details. A foil polish (lots of particles) was used instead of a cream, which stamps better. However, I wanted to use a gold and only own a foil. Nonetheless, the quality of these plates still shined through my poor polish choice and beginner's stamping skills. The other fingers are just stamped with small designs that matched the complicated pattern on my ring finger. Everything stamped very well.

I am totally in love with this polish combo. Base polish was China Glaze Velvet Bow and stamped with OPI I Get A Kick Out Of Gold.

Below are close-ups of each nail and its corresponding plate pattern.

Here is an image showing all the designs offered from this set.

You can find these Gals plates on the Cheeky Beauty website, which sells many nail related products and great quality stamping plates. I am very pleased with the quality of these plates and love the stamping designs. A big thank you to Marta at ChitChatNails for these awesome plates!

Share - OPI Bond Girls Collection Giveaway!

The Manicurator is giving away the entire OPI Bond Girls Collection that comes out in May this year. She's not just giving away the mini set, but all 6 full sized bottles! Check out her blog and enter in the giveaway. Good luck~

Swatch - China Glaze Velvet Bow

Today, I have a polish from the China Glaze Let It Snow collection released in 2011 to show you guys. Velvet Bow is a dark (vampy) berry red. The funny thing about this polish is that in the bottle there are no brown tones whatsoever, but on the nail (depending on lighting) brown tones make an appearance sometimes. I'm not sure if this is because the polish is so dark that the colour becomes hard to distinguish. Photos below show 2 medium coats with top coat.

Specifications:

Formula - easy application, 2 coats for full coverage

Shine - dries shiny

Dry rate - faster than usual vampy shades

Staining - stains skin and nails big time! (see ring finger cuticle)

Removal - easy

*Note: colour is darker on nail than in bottle.

I love vampy colours and this one is no exception. Application was a dream and it looks so delicious with intense shine. Thanks for dropping 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?